United States Border Patrol thugs arrest over a million workers every year. President Clinton recently beefed up the Border Patrol with 350 Marine and Army troops. Then he increased it by another 50%. National Guard units from California and Arizona will help them.
"We are increasing inspections to find illegal immigrants in the workplace," Clinton announced recently. He raised the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) budget from $2.1 billion in 1995 to $2.6 billion in 1996, and more than doubled the number of investigators. Last year, the INS rounded up 30,000 workers on their jobs. In almost every case, the worker was deported. In only one case out of twenty was the employer even fined.
The latest immigration bill recently passed by the House of Representatives would:
* Kick children out of school if they don't have legal papers
* Double the size of the border patrol
* Build fourteen miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexican border near San Diego
* Set up a national phone number for employers to check work papers
* Require immigrants to speak English in order to get into the U.S.
Various U.S. rulers disagree on specific provisions of this bill. But they agree completely on the goal of their immigration policy, and that is exploitation. Capitalism welcomes workers only where and when they can produce profits.
Under capitalism, immigrants scrape by on poverty-level wages. INS workplace raids bring firings and deportations. U.S.-born workers don't get deported, but they, too, get fired or laid off. Then racist politicians try to get them to blame immigrants for the economic failures of capitalism.
The bosses' ability to superexploit immigrants enables them to keep down the wages of the working class as a whole. The profit system depends for its existence on this inequality.x
Working people cannot go on living in a society that pits us against one another like this. The alternative is to build a mass revolutionary communist party that unites workers from all countries based on our common interest in destroying the profit system. This is the goal of the Progressive Labor Party.
There are no borders within the PLP. And when and where we establish communism through armed revolution, we will wipe out the borders capitalism has created. We aim to be the one Party representing the one working class of the entire world.
Let's have no illusions about good guys and bad guys here. All the bosses want to use the border to maximize the exploitation of workers in their particular industries.
Many politicians, like Gov. Pete Wilson of California, represent both groups at once. Wilson pushed Proposition 187, which denies social services to undocumented workers. But this vicious immigrant-baiter also calls for a new "bracero" program which would admit workers from Mexico for only a few months a year, in order to fatten the farm bosses' bottom line.
New York's Mayor Giuliani is just as racist, but he avoids anti-immigrant rhetoric. The New York garment industry depends on the labor of hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers, most of them Chinese. Some work in virtual slavery paying off smuggling fees as high as $35,000. Giuliani doesn't lift a finger to stop the INS raids and deportations meant to make garment workers afraid to fight back against this slavery.
It's completely futile to look to politicians to solve our problems. Each and every one of them is loyal to the capitalists.
The Progressive Labor Party aims to destroy capitalism and the national borders that perpetuate its inequalities. We will create a society based on the unity and equality of working people throughout the world.
We have made a start. But to reach the goal of communist revolution, the Party must grow into the millions, in many more countries. We need you. And you need the PLP.
Editorial 2
A nation is a bloc of capitalists united to compete with other blocs. Nations have borders, tariffs, competing products, competing currencies, and competing armed forces. Capitalist nations constantly go to war to steal from one another or to defend what they control in markets, labor supplies, and sources of materials. When Iraqi bosses tried to grab oil-rich Kuwait in 1990-1991, the U.S. military slaughtered a half million Iraqis to protect Exxon and Mobil.
Capital has a national identity; labor has none. The interests of the U.S. ruling class differ sharply from those of Japan's rulers, of Germany's, of Russia's, and so on. But working people's needs and hopes are the same all over the world. The assembly line worker in Akron has infinitely more in common with her counterpart in Mexico than she does with Clinton or the chairman of GM. Their continuing exploitation by the profit system objectively unites workers everywhere.
Patriotism boils down to allying with one set of capitalists or another. The U.S. oil barons were able to commit genocide in Iraq in 1991 because most working class GIs were loyal to the red, white, and blue. And now U.S. rulers are squaring off for conflicts that will blow up into world war.
Workers will destroy capitalism when we take up arms to fight for our class, not for a country.
We learned that they were happy to get the leaflets and that they discussed the ideas and the May Day march in their vans and cars on the trip home. Some workers said they'd call for bus information. There are four Challenge readers in the factory and two have joined a Readers' Group.
The mostly immigrant workers do a 10 hour work day. Every chance they get \ the bosses rob the workers of extra money, aside from the profits they make off our labor every hour. If for some reason a worker forgets to punch out, the bosses don't pay the day's wages. No wonder, "Abolish wage slavery, power to the workers," hits home to workers.
In a food-packing factory a comrade and a group of her co-workers who always march on May Day are inviting new workers who have never gone. Fifty May Day stickers have been distributed inside the factory. Challenge-Desafíos get passed around in the lunchroom. It is urgent that a Readers' Group be set up so that a group of these workers can join Progressive Labor Party. This plan will go forward at a mass leafleting at the factory and on the buses to May Day.
At another building which houses five small garment shops, workers were greeted with May Day leaflets. A new friend in the factory has taken five Challenge-Desafíos inside.
Meanwhile there's been good debate in our PL Club and among friends about what is the main job of communists in the factories. A new friend who has helped leaflet said that he thinks it is hard to directly raise communist ideas with workers in the street. But workers have responded by not being timid about receiving communist ideas, with only a handful of exceptions.
However, we agreed with our friend, a potential new member, that we must get to know workers well in order to answer their many questions like, what is communism, what will it mean in the future, why socialism failed and what is the role of the working class in the revolutionary process. The future is bright as the trickle of workers now on the verge of joining the Party surely will turn into a raging river.
Eighty-five years ago, immigrants from eastern Europe toiled in NYC's garment sweatshops. Today, little has changed as Hispanic, Asian, African, and other immigrants work for piece-rate wages which range from 65cents to $4.25/hour if they are paid at all. A skirt produced under slave-like conditions will earn a worker 25cents but will bring $5.00 to a contractor, $40.00 to a manufacturer, and $80.00 to a retailer.
Members of PLP attended today's rally and sold Challenge-Desafíos, distributed Road to Revolution 4, and gave out May Day stickers. Garment workers have fought against the exploitation of murderous bosses for many years, only communist revolution can end exploitation once and for all.
Last year it was Prop 187. This year it's the California Civil Rights Initiative, which sets up a straw man--a mythical affirmative action that significantly gives more opportunities to black and latin workers and to women--and then tells white workers that it's because of this that wages are dropping, college tuition is rising, and more people are unemployed.
A PLP forum here showed that Affirmative Action at its best falls far short of the desires of young people. The speaker explained that Affirmative Action was implemented after the ghetto rebellions in the late 1960s. Angry black workers rebelled against unemployment and police terror--against the racist system. At that time unemployment for blacks averaged twice that of whites.
In response to the rebellions, the rulers implemented Affirmative Action, among other things. Before the rebellions, black workers averaged 52cents for every dollar that white workers made. After the rebellions, in the 1970s, black workers wages averaged 62cents for every dollar made by white workers. Today, they again average 52cents. Today, unemployment for blacks is again twice that of whites. As white unemployment has gone up, black unemployment continues to be double.
Affirmative Action hasn't made a dent in racist unemployment or wage differentials. It gave a chance to a few--for a while. Now with downsizing and mass layoffs, with tuition increases and cutbacks, those chances are being taken way.
Capitalist corporations are like pyramids, with one person on top, a few in the middle, and the majority on the bottom. Affirmative Action never promised to change this, only to put a few more blacks, latins, and women at the top or in the middle--for a little while.
Communism will wipe out the pyramid. We'll all be equal, with no one receiving more than another. A mass Progressive Labor Party will guarantee full and complete development of millions of communist leaders.
At the forum, youth especially, asked a lot of questions and gave their opinions. Only a few thought affirmative action held out huge promise for them and their friends. Their questions were about communism: how would it work, how will we get lazy people to work, how will we deal with ignorance, with cultural differences. How will we make sure the leaders don't sell out.
Most people stayed talking about these questions after the forum ended. They took copies of PLP's communist manifesto, Road to Revolution 4, for their friends, as well as May Day stickers and Challenge. Recently, six of these youth have joined PLP. They are inviting their friends to March on May Day.
More than a half century ago, a British communist said that the only answer to fascism is revolution, not going back to the "good old days" of "better" affirmative action. Let the bosses' tremble at the specter of a united working class with communist leadership. Youth and workers have less and less to lose, and a world to win!
Workers are angered by this five-year pact that freezes wages for two years, lowers starting salaries for newly hired workers, allows the city bosses to greatly increase the numbers of welfare recipients forced into slave labor programs, and permits the dismantling of the city hospital system.
Progressive Labor Party members are showing how the particular exploitation city workers face is part of the general systemic exploitation of capitalism. More importantly, this exploitation can only be ended by communist revolution.
Many city workers chose jobs where they felt they could "help" people. Now their beliefs that they could have secure jobs that paid living wages and that they could improve the conditions faced by their clients have been undercut. The idea that capitalism can be reformed into a humane system has been dealt a major blow, but many more illusions must be defeated.
For example, the leadership of Local 371 has brought a protest to the judicial panel of AFSCME. They argue that if we can't trust sellout Stan Hill of DC 37 (who earns $254,000/year), workers can rely on the international union leadership to overturn the contract vote. Rather than directly confronting the DC 37 leadership they want us to send petitions to AFSCME. Rather than fighting back, they say wait for Gerald McEntee to solve our problems. What nonsense! AFSCME, like the rest of the union movement, is in the pocket of the bosses.
New York City workers are facing the same problems that are plaguing workers throughout the world. The crisis of capitalist overproduction has forced bosses to intensify exploitation. How has the AFSCME leadership responded? Have they fought service cutbacks layoffs and "downsizing" or slave labor welfare programs'? No. The reformist outlook of the union leadership means that they accept and support the needs of capitalism. As war and fascism are developing, the unions disarm workers by urging them not to fight back but rather to vote for lesser evil politicians.
PLP communists have a better plan to defeat the bosses and their helpers in the labor movement. PL'ers and friends in AFSCME are calling for demonstrations at DC 37 headquarters, we are organizing communist study groups of city workers, we are increasing the sale of Challenge-Desafío, we are building for May Day, and we are recruiting new members to our Party to fight to smash capitalist exploitation and build a communist future.
Last week the school administration started playing the national anthem on the intercom every day and told students to stand up and show respect for their country. But as the saying goes, you have to give respect to get it. This capitalist system we live under "respects" working class students by offering them unemployment, jails, death in a rich man's war, and minimum wage jobs.
School officials lie and tell students "you can make it if you try," but the reality is that very few escape capitalism's miseries. Communists look at youth and see the potential for a new world, an egalitarian system. But capitalists see only dollar signs. They have no respect for youth.
When administrators told students they had to stand for the national anthem, it was the last straw. This year they've suspended more than 100 students a week for being late, cutting, or not serving detentions. They've locked the bathrooms during class periods. Last week they searched everyone at the door and arrested students with beepers. Is this a school or a concentration camp?
When a teacher openly refused to force her division (homeroom) students to stand for the anthem, the principal gave her a "pre-disciplinary hearing" notice and took away her division. This communist teacher then angered the principal even more by making copies of his letter and telling students what had happened.
Students had already been planning to protest the forced standing, the detentions, the arrests, etc. Now they told the principal that if he fired or suspended this teacher, they would walk out. The principal quickly backed down, giving the teacher her division back and saying no one would be forced to stand for the anthem. Now that's how you get respect!
Whether or not to stand is still a controversy at the school. Gym teachers had discussions in their classes to convince students that the song and flag represent democracy and freedom, and that the communist teacher was just using them. Some students and teachers recognize that the "Star Spangled Banner" represents slavery, oppression, war, and inequality. Some students don't want to stand for the U.S. flag but will stand for "their own" country's flag. Communists say dividing the world into different nations is just a way of deciding which group of rich people get to exploit the workers there. The capitalists want us to identify with a country instead of with the international working class. They want to keep the workers of the world divided so we will fight their wars for them and keep them on top.
Next week two teachers are scheduled to debate "Communism vs. Capitalism" at the school. It's an unusual departure--normally, students are not allowed to get any objective information about communism. The purpose of the schools is to train students to be good workers (wage slaves), not to give them ideas about how to change the world. If the administration does let the debate happen, they'll probably wish they hadn't.
Most working class students, given a choice, prefer communism The job of PLP is to do whatever it takes to convince students that their future depends on whether or not they fight for communism. It doesn't depend on doing well in school, or going to college. The choice is stick with capitalism and spend the rest of your life trying to survive, or fight for communism and guarantee a future worth living for. Students can stand up for the anthem of the rulers, or stand for the anthem of the workers, The Internationale, which says, "a better world's in birth...the international working class shall be the human race."
Red 'n Ed
Red: We talked about that in my PL Party club. Actually, I think we're blowing it.
Ed: What? You guys are the best fighters this place ever had. After all the speeches, leaflets, the sit-in at the bosses' office, and now the caucus, you call that, "blowing it?" You lost me.
Red: Look, PLP's been fighting the bosses and union hacks for years. You and I always talk about the wage freeze, the layoffs, the health plan What's the point?
Ed: The point is a better life. What's wrong with that?
Red: At best, we take home a few more bucks and save some jobs. Then what? The boss figures out some way to take it all back. They raise prices, taxes, close down plants, or move work out. We still come to work each day so some boss can get rich off our labor. The schools still stink, the jails are full, the cops and dope dealers still terrorize our neighborhoods. There are still millions homeless, and they still send our kids to Bosnia and the Middle East. The system just keeps on going.
Ed: So what do we do, not fight for a raise or against layoffs?
Red: No, we fight for communist revolution. We do that by making the goal of all of our work in the union, and all the fights against the bosses, recruiting workers to PLP and spreading our vision of a communist future.
Ed: You better break that down a little.
Red: Take wages. The system of wage-slavery forces us to think about money for ourselves and our families. It enforces inequality. Some get more, some get less. The boss steals what our labor produces every day. Who needs it?
Ed: You're telling me you're going to oppose a strike for higher wages?
Red: Hey, you know us! We're all for a strike. The bigger and more militant, the better. We want to stop everything from moving in or out, smash the scabs, defy the injunctions, and stand up to the cops. What we're against is fighting for a few more crumbs while the bosses keep their dictatorship.
Ed: Sounds good. Keep going.
Red: If all we do is strike for higher wages, we end up fighting to maintain the bosses' wage system, when we need to abolish wage slavery. We need a communist society, where workers run everything and people work because of their commitment to each other.
Ed: But you know most workers aren't going to go for that?
Red: Many won't, at least not at first. But if we don't have confidence that workers can fight for communism, they'll never get it. If we convince workers that we can live a better life under capitalism, we only add to their confusion, and do the boss a favor.
Ed: Won't you be accused of creating disunity.
Red: There's plenty of that already, starting with the union hacks. While they all think capitalism is as good as it gets, the "ins" and the "outs" are always too busy watching each other to fight the boss. And there's even more disunity between the union leaders and the workers. 80%-90% never go to a union meeting or vote in an election. Workers always say, "the union stinks," and the bosses, "are going to do what they want to anyway."
As for disagreements and confusion among the workers, it already exists. PLP and our supporters fight for communism. Others fight just for a bigger paycheck. So we disagree on communism vs. a "better life" under capitalism. At the same time, we unite in striking against the boss.
Ed: What do you expect to get out of the strike?
Red: Well, you can't strike for communism. That takes an armed revolution of millions of workers, soldiers, and youth. Basically, we strike to build the PLP. That's our goal. We want to expose how capitalism works, and why it must be destroyed. We also want to share our vision of an egalitarian communist future.
In the heat of battle, more workers will join PLP, and many more will change the way they look at the world. They will begin to break the chains of capitalist thinking that keep us down. If in the process we save some jobs, or win a raise, we'll take it. But building PLP into a Party of millions, preparing to seize power and build a new world, is what we are after. Nothing less.
A Nightline special interviewed the families of the man and woman killed by the racists. The show interviewed several 82nd soldiers some of whom were in the skin head group. All said that racism was widespread in the division and that the unit brass was not only aware of it but was racist themselves.
The killings in Fayetteville, along with the Oklahoma City bombing, have brought out in the open problems the military is having controlling its most openly fascist troops. On the one hand, the racist mission of the military attracts soldiers tied to the nazis and klan. The desire to kill blacks draws many of the most racist soldiers into the army's elite units, like the 82nd and Green Berets. On the other hand, while the Army needs these soldiers, many of them are not completely under the military's control.
The unit commanders all knew that soldiers were hanging nazi swastika flags in their rooms and wearing nazi medalions. The first sargeant of the killers' unit was taped using racial slurs and the company commander was caught covering up complaints against his senior NCO. Several soldiers still in the unit bragged about being in the skinheads.
The military is launching a campaign to force the white supremacists to toe the line or get out. Since cross burnings on bases in Germany led to mass rebellions of black soldiers 20 years ago, the military has been trying to combat open racism among soldiers.
Under the slogan of "We're all green in the Army" every soldier goes through racial sensitivity training. There are more black officers than ever before. Colin Powell was the most prominent head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in recent years. To maintain discipline, the military has tried to contain individual racism in the ranks.
It's not that the military is against murdering blacks. In a matter of minutes 3,000 black people were killed in the bombing of Panama City. In fact, the army has a long history of racist missions. Since the days of the Indian wars in which hundreds of thousands were killed as the U.S. rulers spread out towards the Pacific Ocean, imperialism has used racism to justify mass murder. The Mexican-American War, the Spanish American War, The Korean War, Vietnam, Iraq, all saw mass racism used to motivate troops to kill.
It's also obvious that swastikas on the barracks wall didn't bother the brass too much. The problem the military has is that the loose cannons like these skinheads have divided loyalties. Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, is a prime example. These guys are attracted by the racism of what the military does, but they are not completly loyal to the red, white and blue.The Nazis in the ranks of the army answer to their own chain of command.
When it came time to bomb Panama City, the Air Force was confident that those pilots would pull the lever. The command wants to make sure the skinheads also do what they're told. The ruling class has read the history books. They know you can't have a racist army unless you have troops who will just follow orders.
"Communism! I only hope that this is the real thing!" said another worker. Just like them, many workers asked questions and made positive comments about communism when we passed out hundreds of Road to Revolution 4 (RR4) pamphlets and sold Challenges at a busy corner in East LA last Saturday.
These rallies are part of the plan to mobilize garment and other workers to march on May Day, to win new members to the Party and to distribute 20,000 copies of the RR4 pamphlets.
Passing out thousands of these pamphlets in garment factories will give us the opportunity to have hundreds of discussions about the need to fight for communism, what communism is, and how to get it. Many of our members and friends will have the opportunity to invite their co-workers to help build May Day and PLP.
We are also visiting people to show the RR4 video and are having study groups to recruit and prepare organizers of PLP. Our campaign is based on the fact that every worker is a potential communist, and organizer for the May Day march.
At a recent meeting of 13 garment workers who are members of the Party, one of them said, "We're sowing the seeds of communism. Just by visiting our friends and talking to them about the fight for communist equality, we're winning." Several new comrades at this meeting planned to go in pairs with more experienced comrades to visit their friends and family members to invite them to come and help organize for the march.
Hundreds of these young people got the chance to hear PLP's line that communist revolution, and nothing less, will create a world that has confidence in its youth and takes our future seriously. About a hundred Challenges were sold, and we distributed all 500 of our leaflets titled, "Only Communism Will Make Us a Priority."
The main PLP contingent met at City College. We sold a few papers there while the organizers of the march tried to get students to go to Times Square. Two hundred responded. Last year more like 1,000 responded. When we got to the subway station, the marchers didn't want to pay their fares. Four cops were in the station trying to hold back the 200 angry students. PLP led the students to break the bosses' laws, by being the first to jump the turnstiles.
The main political action of the march centered around our bullhorn. We had the only portable sound device at the march. It was very educational for all in our contingent--which had expanded to about 25 members and base--to be around the bullhorn.
First of all, many different liberals wanted to come over to the bullhorn and stop us from talking about communist revolution, saying, "This is a march against the cuts." We quickly learned to dismiss them. Then there were more honest elements, who liked to lead chants, but also didn't like to see the political disagreements cause chaos near the bullhorn. We let them use the bullhorn. After one PLP member spoke, we chanted, "The only solution is communist revolution!" Of course the whole march didn't follow the chant. But it was good for them to hear it.
At first we were timid. We started by attacking the Wall Street bankers and the Democrats in our chants. This was more advanced than the anti-Pataki (New York state's Republican Governor) chants. We realized that this was not good enough. Then we started attacking the cops. Still, this was not all we had to offer. So, we finally worked up the courage to call for communism, sharing our vision of what communism will be like. People listened.
It took us a while to realize that we had the only bullhorn at the march and that we could control what was said on it. But, we never hogged it and always let people who weren't anti-communists say their piece as well. This is similar to what it will be like after we have achieved a dictatorship of the proletariat.
Last year , there were 10,000 people at a similar demonstration against the budget cuts. This year there were only 2,000. People get cynical when they see that no matter how much they protest for reforms the budget cuts keep on coming. We in PLP must defeat this cynicism by showing that only communism gives people a long-term outlook so that workers and students can continue to march and fight back against this rotten capitalist hell.
The strike's impact was still spreading beyond the auto industry when it ended, and could be a warm-up for the national contracts at GM, Ford, and Chrysler, which expire in September. This points out the central role of the auto industry to the U.S. economy, and the potential power of auto workers as a key force for communist revolution.
The strike, by a workforce whose average age is 50, was over GM's "outsourcing" of union work to non-union plants, violations of the local contract, and excessive overtime to the tune of 10-hour days, and 7-day weeks, for the past nine years. Unlike previous local strikes over the same issues, GM took a hard line on this one, taking a short term loss for long term gain. GM challenged the right of workers laid off due to the strike, to collect unemployment benefits. Even as the effects of the strike spread, GM stock went up, signaling Wall St. support for cutting jobs and wages.
When the strike ended, a GM spokesman declared, "We have the flexibility we've always had." GM will continue to increase the amount of parts it buys from non-union factories.
The UAW "won the right" to get a list of brake needs from GM, so it can "help the union and the factory bid to build them" more profitably than non-union factories! GM will pay each striker $1,700 as compensation for contract violations (covering their lost pay due to the strike), "promised" to reduce overtime (except in "emergencies"), and "promised" to hire more workers at the Dayton plants. The union claims 417 new jobs, but GM says, with workers retiring, the net increase will only be 47 jobs.
Outsourcing, jobs cuts, and overtime, are only the symptoms. The root cause of the strike is the crisis of capitalism, and the international "car wars." GM must compete with Ford and Chrysler, as well as the Japanese, Germans and Koreans. Whoever can produce the most for the least will win. Others will fall by the wayside.
GM's survival is at stake if it cannot buy cheaper parts from non-union plants. GM's 1995 net profit of over $6 billion is not enough! The law of capitalism is: capture as much of the market as possible or someone else will. Given the increased competition, especially from Japan, the pressure to maximize profits is more intense than ever.
No strike, local or national, can escape or resolve the worldwide crisis of capitalism. Whether you win 47 jobs, or 417 jobs, GM will continue to cut jobs, increase productivity, and slash wages and benefits, as the bosses fight over markets and cheap labor. These crises inevitably lead to fascism and world war. The union leaders, the rulers' "labor lieutenants" over the workers, are committed to their masters' victory.
For us, the only solution is to destroy the system of wage-slavery and production for profit. The main lesson of this strike, is that industrial workers have the power in their hands to bury the bosses and build a communist society without bosses and profits, and where the goal is not new markets and cheap labor, but meeting the needs of the international working class.
Bruce Fein, an assistant attorney general under President Reagan, and an editorial contributor to The Washington Times and The Los Angeles Times, was invited to speak by one of the colleges speakers committees.
Mr. Fein spoke against affirmative action from a right-wing point of view. He argued that affirmative action programs should not exist because racism and sexism only exist on an individual level, and not on a social level.
Mr. Fein justified his attacks on affirmative action using capitalist ideology. He believed affirmative action did not fit with notions of individual liberty and the idea that if you work hard, you'll succeed. People in the audience, some of whom were in our base, left the talk disgusted with the speaker, as they noticed how racist, sexist, and irrational Mr. Fein's arguments were.
At this point, one of the PLP members at the talk stood up and disrupted it. He verbally attacked Mr. Fein and demonstrated to the audience his moral opposition to racism and sexism. He stated that he would not stand for racist and sexist ideas to be expressed. He exposed Mr. Fein for what he really was: a fascist.
The PLP member understood that what Mr. Fein was discussing was not rational, and that it was dangerous for such ideological banter to be given a rational forum.
Most of the people in the audience were liberals who believed that everyone should be able to hear both sides of the argument, and disagreed with the Party members tactics. After the disruption, people in our base began asking the speaker questions. Fein, not surprisingly, did not listen to them, circled around their questions, and was disrespectful, sneering at the comments with which he did not agree. There is no way to reason with a fascist, who is trying to justify exploitation and maintain the capitalist system.
Another PLP member at that point disrupted the talk again. He said you can't speak to fascists like this, and the three Party members stormed out of the auditorium, as one Party member shouted, "See you in the revolution, buddy. We will win."
Because of the disruption, the Party members had many discussions with students about communism. Many of the discussions started with a critique of our tactics at the talk. They validly pointed out that the PL'ers could have better explained the reasons for the disruption, and why it was necessary. They felt the PL'ers used personal attacks and expletives in place of real analysis of Mr. Fein's arguments. The Party members took this criticism to be valid, learning that people really want to hear our ideas.
Some students also criticized the PL'ers for not trying to rationally discuss our ideas with Mr. Fein, criticizing the fact that the communists disrupted the talk. The Party members struggled with the liberal students on this point. The Party does not agree that all points of view are equally valid, and that they should all be discussed.
The most important thing that came out of the disruption was that the communists got to discuss the need for communism with a broad range of people on Haverfords campus. They made clear to them their belief that affirmative action is crumbs, and that the only solution for the betterment of the working class, is communist revolution!
New fare hikes have been ordered for many bridges, tunnels and routes. Some subway stations will be closed and others that don't produce enough profit will no longer have 24-hour service. Bus routes that carry 10 or fewer passengers will be eliminated (an extreme hardship for night workers). Eight hundred token booth clerks' jobs are to be abolished, resulting in even longer lines at the token booths. The new cuts will reduce the space allowed per passenger to less than that allowed for cattle in cattle cars!
The NYC transit system has a long history of daily foul-ups, "accidents" and train crashes resulting in hundreds of deaths caused by the elimination of transit and maintenance jobs (from 44,000 down to less than 30,000). The transit bosses say they view transit jobs like any other business: if a particular service doesn't make a profit, cut it.
Black, latin and asian riders who make-up 61% of all passengers and are the poorest section of the population will be hit the hardest. The recent fare hike will make it very expensive to get to work, look for jobs, go to college or even leave the neighborhood. This will increase apartheid in the city by keeping black and latin workers, especially youth, segregated. It now costs minimum-wage workers nearly four hours work just to get to and from a job every week, on top of the racist exploitation they face at work from their boss every day.
PL communists fight for a society without racism, unemployment, bankers, landholders and landlords. Communism will smash all the prison-like gates and turnstiles, eliminate the transit cops and the fare, which would not be needed without the capitalists. Communism will create millions of transit jobs, building new subway lines and rebuilding and cleaning the present run-down, overcrowded routes.
Why can't we, the unemployed, rebuild society? Because capitalism can only survive through the exploitation and misery of the working class. The more unemployed there are, the more work capitalists can extract from workers who still have jobs. There is no profit to be made by capitalists in providing things workers need to live.
Capitalism can never solve the contradiction mentioned above. Only the working class can and will smash the capitalist profit system with communist revolution for workers' power by joining and building the Progressive Labor Party.
Even most of those who voted yes said that they weren't happy with it. Teachers got a one-time bonus which (almost) makes up for the pay that they lost during the 23-day strike. A 3% pay raise will kick in on July 1. A 10% raise is scheduled for April 1 of 1997. These raises will be less than the increase in the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA)as calculated by the government.
The contract made some promises to reduce elementary school class size by a few students over the next four years, but only if state and federal funding increases. But state and federal funding are more likely to drop than to rise. California governor Pete Wilson is pushing a 15% decrease in state income taxes, which will cut $7 billion or more from the schools statewide.
The union leaders promise a "bright tomorrow" as the California economy "picks up steam." This is nothing but wishful thinking, as capitalism is in a worldwide crisis.
The strike was flawed from the very beginning due to the illusions spread by the Oakland Education Association leadership. They pushed three slogans: "Classrooms first," "Chop from the top," and "Erase the Board." All these slogans push is false ideas about the nature of the schools.
The first two slogans reflect teachers' frustrations with useless and highly-paid administrators. But these highly paid administrators are themselves the tiny successes of the school system, those who "made it.". As students, they did what they were supposed to: they studied hard, got college degrees, and landed high-paying jobs where they didn't have to work hard. That's the whole point of education, isn't it? So this strike pitted teachers against the very commodities they had produced--successful graduates of the school system.
The third slogan, "Erase the Board" plays on the false notion that we can solve our problems by voting. The union pushed recall efforts against some of the Board members, as if changing the faces on the Board could change the way in which the Board governs the schools. But throughout the strike, School Board members themselves complained that there was "nothing different they could do" because the budget was largely determined by state and federal revenues, which they had no control over.
Teachers understood that they needed to spread the strike to other school workers and to rely on the masses. But the union leaders refused to cooperate. Teachers worked hard to build ties with the parents and the students. Unfortunately, this growing movement was hamstrung by the pacifism and electoral illusions pushed by the leadership. For example, union leaders blocked the doors in front of School Board meetings, keeping militant youth and parents from confronting the Board members.
During this strike, PLPers met about 40 teachers, students, parents, and other community members. We will continue to deepen our ties with this group and work to recruit new members to our Party. We're going to have street agitation around May Day and the need to fight for communism. Out of each battle, we must strengthen our Party. That is the sure path to victory.
A PLP shop paper, UCH CHALLENGE, was distributed by about a dozen workers, dealing with the layoffs and elections. We pointed out the inequality of wage-slavery. While announcing the layoffs, the bosses bragged about throwing money at doctors and executives "to attract the best," while destroying our jobs.
They left out a few things. During the past year, in one department, the hospital paid over $16,000 for doctors' lunches at a Hyde Park cafe. They paid over $30,000 to redecorate a doctor's office. One doctor keeps cases of root beer on hand, paid for by the hospital. Doctors and execs get free parking, local, national, and international travel expenses, paid magazine subscriptions, and memberships in health clubs and professional organizations. They get tuition discounts for their rich kids who want to go to University of Chicago (U of C), worth $25,000 a year, while making six-figure salaries themselves. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
The bosses are creating more poverty because of the needs of their crippled system. Fascism and war are their only way out. For our class, the only solution is communist revolution.
Even on their own terms, these elections are pretty meaningless. We're being asked to vote on by-laws that were rewritten by a rubber-stamp committee, hand-picked by the Trustee. No one knows what they are, and even fewer care.
As for the delegate elections, the Teamster convention will take place this summer, the warm-up for the general election for International president next fall. There are 73 candidates running for the big show. The race boils down to "The Mob (Hoffa, Jr.)" vs. "The U.S. Justice Department (Ron Carey)"--two sides of the same coin. Heads they win, tails we lose! Both are loyal to the system of wage slavery, fighting to control the multi-million dollar business called the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
But more to the point, the class struggle has never been, nor can it ever be, resolved by voting. What difference does it make if the slaves vote for the slave master? Is it "right" if the majority voted for Adolf Hitler, or segregated schools and lunch counters? The struggle between capitalism and the international working class, is a life and death struggle, not a popularity contest. The rulers will not go peacefully. Voting only masks their brutal dictatorship. Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong said, "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." The bosses rule through the armed terror of their cops and armed forces. For workers to take power, armed struggle is necessary.
This is what we want. We want all the fears and uncertainties out in the open. We want to change the debate from "Which slate?" to "Which system?" For a few weeks, Challenge sales were double what they were before the layoffs were announced. While they didn't stay that high, they are still 50% higher. We need more workers to sell Challenge to permanently expand the readership.
We are organizing for a showdown with our $75,000-a-year Business Agent. So far, about 100 workers have signed a petition demanding emergency, on-site union meetings, to demand action against the layoffs and around our upcoming contract. We will present them to him at our union meeting on April 1.
The road to revolution starts with building a mass PLP. Only when millions of workers understand the science of how the world works, and how to change it, can we succeed in building a new society based on equality and sharing.
While the local rulers and their imperialist masters organize another electoral circus here in Dominican Republic, building illusions among workers and youth that presidential candidates, Peña Gómez, Leonel Fernández or Jacinto Peynado, represent the answer to mass unemployment and poverty, our PLP group is busy putting forward communism. We are building for May Day, telling workers that communism is the only way out of this capitalist hell.
Recently, a Party group went to a town in the region of Cibao and sold the 300 copies of C-D (the Latin America edition) we had left. We sold it in the local free zone area (where cheap labor maquiladoras operate). The paper was received very well, only three people refused it. Many of those who took it said they want to continue getting it. For the five Party comrades who participated in this activity, it was a great experience. We are preparing similar activities in two other cities in the area where there are also maquiladoras.
The other good news is that we are preparing a cadre school with comrades in another town. This school will include 13 people, some from a cement plant, the most important factory in the region.
We also held a cadre school in another city, with workers from a local maquiladora who recently joined our Party. Some 15 participated in the first session of the school. We expect four more workers in the school to be held on Sunday, March 24.
These young workers are mastering our Party's revolutionary line easier than more experienced workers. These young workers want to end reformism and are making major contributions to our discussions.
We are also preparing for May Day. We are concentrating on a workers' center in the town where we sold 300 C-Ds. Unions or reformist groups will not be included in our May Day activities. We are telling workers that our May Day activity will be a communist one, not a reformist one. So when they come they will see the difference between the fight for communism and reformism.
Comrades will give speeches on May Day about the Party's line on the need to organize workers and build a mass communist party to smash capitalism. A PLP theater group will do a skit titled "Abolish the Wage System, Goodbye Surplus Value, Bye Bye Capitalism." A woman comrade will sing working class songs.
We will also show the Party video and will hold a march through the center of the town with our flags and banners. We will march to the industrial maquiladora zone.
A Comrade, the Dominican Republic
I had the privilege of being asked to say a few words at a dialectics conference on Sat., March 23. The meeting was attended by over 50 young people. They were high school students, college students and young workers. Most were black and latin.
Contrary to the bosses' educators, these people were more than able to handle complex ideas. In addition, they were articulate and sincere. Everyone there was enthusiastic and committed to building the Party. At the end of the day, four of the participants joined the Party.
What was encouraging was how convincing the ideas of revolution were put forward. Unlike some in and out of the Party these youngsters didn't view reform as the primary outlook. In other words, the youth had confidence that other workers, like themselves, could be won to communist revolution without using political sleight of hand.
With young people like these, the future of the communist revolution is in good hands. These youth are the present and the future of communism. They will succeed
Veteran comrade
I have been reading Challenge for about a year now. I agree that major changes need to take place in the world in order for things to improve for workers and all poor people.
I have not devoted myself to the communist cause because although you show very well the things that are wrong with the present system and why it needs to be changed, I have yet to see any articles telling me what the plan is to facilitate these necessary changes. My communist friends have been able to give me little information about this either.
Obviously, more and more people need to be informed about the need for communism and this you do well; but I know I, and probably many like me, would want to fight for the cause if we knew what the plan is. Talk is cheap but telling me repeatedly how awful "the boss" is doesn't create change by itself. There has to be more to it than that or communism becomes just another bunch of disgruntled workers sitting around complaining about the system but never really doing anything to change it.
If I've missed something in my copies of the Challenge, please correct me. If there is a way I can find out the information I am seeking, please publish a reply to this letter.
A reader
Listen, it wouldn't be too bad sitting around discussing how bad capitalism is, and the need for communism with a group of angry co-workers. However, the reader might improve his/her reading skills. For example, every issue of Challenge-Desafío has articles about how PLP members are fighting side-by-side with workers, bringing them communist ideas.
In the March 20 issue, there are many articles detailing PLP activity with other workers:
Page 3 includes "Hospital workers refuse to shut up." Also on page 3 there are two articles on the role of industrial workers and revolution.
Page 4 has an article about "Oakland teachers strike exposes bosses' dictatorship." And on page 4, we also see "Only communism can make health care a human right.". This article says in part: "The union plans to resume striking after Spring break. If they do, we will be on the picket lines, bringing Challenge-Desafío to the workers and students, supporting the struggle against Barnard bosses [in NYC] and putting forward the need for violent revolution for communism. We want to direct the momentum of this struggle into organizing for a large May Day." And on page 5, from Seattle teachers: "If strikes are made illegal, then we must break the law." Also on page 5 from Los Angeles: "PLP organizes garment workers to fight Migra." These articles and others don't sound like just "sitting around and grumbling."
Article after article in Challenge-Desafío tells of the role of the PLP on the firing line. For a full treatment of our strategy, read Road to Revolution 4, if you are really interested. Maybe the next time you write you will tell us about which struggles you are involved in with other students or workers, and how you are putting forward communist ideas. Maybe we will see you on May Day marching in front of the White House, on the South Side of Chicago, or in Los Angeles, "grumbling" about capitalism and the need for communism. Wear a red rose, or something like it, so we will know you.