As the marchers meet in Philadelphia, the U.S. aircraft carrier Nimitz is cruising off the coast of Iraq, signaling another oil war. In the last one hundreds of thousands of Iraqi workers died. The economic sanctions after the war continue to cause the deaths of thousands of women and children who can't get adequate food and medicine (human rights -- one of the March platforms -- has never been a U.S. ruling class strong suit.)
Surely black women who've felt the pain of having a child suffer due to racist poverty or of being jailed or killed by the racist U.S. cops can identify with the Iraqi mother whose children die because Rockefeller & Co. want to protect their oil profits? When Exxon and the other Old Money bosses send in ground troops to seize the Iraqi oil fields, the children of black women -- and white and latin and Asian--will be coming home in body bags! The fact is that racism and sexism are necessary cornerstones of capitalism.
The bankers and money men who make superprofits from racism and sexism don't want black women to understand that their oppression is tied to the oppression of a latin woman garment worker in Los Angeles, a white woman factory worker in Indiana, an Indian women rug maker, or an Asian woman forced into prostitution in Thailand. Such a view would help build the class solidarity that understands only communist revolution can liberate working class women and men.
Furthermore, this March comes two weeks after the Allegheny Hospital chain laid off 1200 workers in Philadelphia, many of them black women workers. Many belong to the Hospital Workers Union 1199C -- a union with many black women officers and organizers -- but neither the union nor all the black women officials were able to stop the layoffs.
Will the March's demands for "Black independent schools" or "the development of Black women professionals, entrepreneurs, and politicians" help these laid-off women, or the other laid-off workers, feed their families, and keep a roof over their heads? Will the call for more programs to assist women in transition from welfare and prison help? The answer to all of these questions is a resounding NO!
The truth is that capitalism, the very profit system that laid off Allegheny Hospital workers, will force more women into slave labor workfare, or to join the unprecedented number of women as well as men now in the prison system.
Millions of black women workers have given leadership to the whole working class, from the U.S. to South Africa. The purpose of this March is to win them to think they can carve a niche in this racist society if they follow the reactionary leadership of politicians like keynote speaker Winnie Mandela. As president of the Women's League of the African National Congress (ANC), she is considered a leading candidate for the deputy's post at both the party and national levels. This is despite her firing from the ANC for stealing funds, and a lavish lifestyle, which most South Africans will never come close to. Winnie -- like her ex-husband Nelson Mandela -- helped divert revolutionary black youth into fighting for pro-capitalist "democracy" instead of communism.
Today, with Nelson Mandela in power, millions of black workers and youth, men and women, still live in extreme poverty there. Meanwhile, Mandela tells militant workers not to strike for higher wages so South Africa can "attract" imperialist investments (to exploit South African workers). Racism was born with capitalism, and will never be destroyed as long as the profit system exists in any form, from Soweto to Philadelphia.
Members and friends of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) will be championing communist revolution as the one and only "R" that makes sense as the solution to the world-wide crises of capitalism. If the attacks by racist killer cops, welfare "reform," racist health care and the very imminent possibility of our children fighting an oil war for rich bosses has brought you to Philadelphia, your place is with PLP.
The battle was really for the control of Pointe Noire, the oil port of the Congo-Brazzaville. Oil production in this country, is under the control of Elf Aquitaine, a French oil company. Since the fall of Mobutu in neighboring Congo-Kinshasa by what France calls pro-U.S. forces, French bosses have made changes in their policies towards Africa. They are now relying more on their economic power in Africa, where many French companies have operated for many decades, and supporting those who support the interests of French bosses.
Nguesso is a close friend of French President Chirac. (Lissuba was friendly to Prime Minister Jospin, whose socialist party rules together with conservative Chirac, showing the splits among French bosses). Deposed President Lissuba's main mistake was to negotiate a $150 million deal with U.S. Occidental Petroleum, threatening Elf's oil monopoly in Congo-Brazzaville.
"Sassu Nguesso's victory not only preserves Elf interests, but can also put a brake to the destabilization of the French-controlled area in Africa, which began three years ago with the fall of the Rwanda regime and continued in 1997 with the defeat of Marshall Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire....The Congo Brazzaville territorial waters are like an oil sponge, which goes from the northern water of Gabon, whose President Omar Bongo, is Nguesso's father-in-law, to the south in Angola. Troops from Angola helped Nguesso." (Agence France Presse 10/18/97). (Elf, by the way, also controls oil production in Gabon, and has recently increased its share of offshore drilling in Angola, which until not too long ago, was controlled by U.S. oil companies.)
Another U.S. enemy, Iraq, may soon award oil concessions to Elf Aquitaine and Total S.A., which "would make them the first Western companies to sign oil exploration and drilling deals with Baghdad since the Gulf War."(Associated Press, 10/19/97).
Oil is the lifeline of modern capitalism. Their industries, ships, tanks, missiles, etc. run with oil. And the capitalists who control oil, particularly the plentiful and cheap oil of the Middle East, have the upper hand over the other capitalists. Exxon, Mobil and other Rockefeller-controlled oil companies control Middle East oil, with support of the Pentagon. They will use their military power to stop Elf, Total, Gazprom and others from taking away that monopoly. A new U.S. ground war in the Middle East, probably against Iraq, is in the cards. But it will be different than Desert Storm, because the U.S. will basically go it alone.
Workers and soldiers from Paris to Baghdad to New York City have nothing to gain from the imperialists fight for oil. We shouldn't die or kill for any oil boss. We must turn the guns around and make their imperialist wars into revolutionary storms to crush all bosses. That is the goal of the communist PLP.
October 13, 1997: "Since hitting rock bottom in 1992, Russian arms sales have doubled or tripled, depending who's counting. [T]he Russians are increasingly competitive on the open market. Sukoi and MiG jets, for instance, perform on par with their American-made rivals but sell for one-fourth the cost."
October 14, 1997: "France's decision to link state-controlled Thomson-CSF with Alcatel Alstom could lead to further alliance with European groups... The new company will be number one worldwide in military communications; number one in Europe and number three worldwide in radar and countermeasures; and number one in Europe and number four worldwide in telecommunications satellites."
October 15, 1997: "International arms sales grew for the second year in a row after seven years decline, with Britain and France increasing their market shares as the second and third biggest exporters after the U.S. For the first time, arms imports by east and southeast Asian countries exceeded the total international arms purchases of NATO and other west European countries. [A]rms sales grew 8% in real terms in 1996 to $39.9 billion."
The bosses prepare for war in secret, but they do prepare! None of this has been widely advertised. For instance, the U.S. military is no longer budgeting the operations in the Persian Gulf as a `contingency.' "Thus, the Gulf becomes another U.S. long-term commitment ... akin to the Korean conflict," reports the Gannett News Service. "The budget changes also mean the Gulf costs will be harder to discern in the future. That's because they will be folded in with the overall U.S. defense commitment."
We must bring these facts to our fellow workers, not to prove what great detectives we are, but to prepare the working class for the looming danger of war--world war. The bourgeoisie's overriding need to prepare for war forces the rulers to consolidate fascism. Boeing uses prison labor because a capitalist system careening towards war demands it. Police terror intensifies because the logic of imperialist war requires it. Workers and their children, whom the bosses will use to kill and die in these wars, must understand that the only alternative is to turn the guns around against Boeing, CSF-Thomson and all the warmakers. Communist revolution is the solution.. There's no way to soft-pedal this one!
The union has been "negotiating" a new contract for the past three years. (What's another week?) A Presidential Emergency Board said the workers deserve the same pay as those employed by freight railroads. Amtrak claims there's no money, citing an $83 million deficit for its last fiscal year, and anticipating another $100 million deficit this year, without pay raises.
Amtrak relies heavily on Federal subsidies, due to be phased out by 2002. The contract mediation board's Sept. 22 report said Congress should "make an honest judgment as to whether it wishes to continue Amtrak's operation." Congressional Republicans are attempting to change labor laws that would make it easier for Amtrak to lay off workers and sub-contract work to outside companies.
U.S. capitalism is in crisis, facing intense competition from its allies and enemies. The inter-imperialist rivalry for cheap labor, markets and resources is leading to more regional wars and world war. It could lead to the bombing of Iran or Iraq at any moment. The bosses must squeeze every dime out of our labor, forcing us to produce more for less. The addition of prison labor and slave-labor/workfare has created a still lower minimum wage, forcing down wages of all workers. These sharpening attacks are creating the basis for more strikes and sharper class struggle.
A direct result of this intense rivalry is a deepening split among U.S. billionaires. One aspect of this split is the relationship between the rulers and the AFL-CIO. The dominant wing of the ruling class wants to use the union leaders -- in auto, steel, aerospace, etc. -- to guarantee labor discipline while wages are cut and productivity increases. In the UPS strike, Wall St. used the government-controlled Teamsters union to maintain control of the $60 billion pension fund, and punish UPS for its attempt to become more independent of the Rockefeller banks. The AFL-CIO has long served the rulers, and is being mobilized to defeat the competition at home and abroad.
Those billionaires in conflict with Wall St. have targeted the unions, using scabbing and strike-breaking with impunity. U.S. competitors building auto plants and steel mini-mills in the U.S. have successfully fought off union organizing. These bosses need even cheaper labor and higher productivity to compete, and aren't willing to tolerate unions.
In this period of economic crisis and rising fascism, the union leaders are walking a tightrope between maintaining a base among the workers to stay in business, and keeping the workers in line. Often the unions beat the bosses to the punch and scab on themselves. In the auto industry, scab parts from struck supplier plants are commonly installed in UAW assembly plants, even though the UAW is the striking union at the supplier plant. In the current Amtrak talks, the union is promising to allow all commuter trains to run on struck tracks. In the recent Bay Area Rapid Transit strike, leadership from our Party forced the transit union to stop a scab line.
Maybe the most significant factor contributing to the rise of scabbing and strike-breaking is the demise of the old communist movement. The pro-capitalist unions are their legacy. For decades, their strategy was to concentrate on winning reforms rather than winning a mass base for communist revolution. This current situation is the result. The defeat of the old communist movement almost destroyed class consciousness. The triumph of capitalist ideas led to a "look-out-for-yourself" mentality. This is a far cry from the last Depression, where mass communist organizing was taking place among the unemployed and in basic industry. Then solidarity was the watchword; the bosses couldn't get workers to scab on each other.
In the event of an Amtrak strike, or any other strike, we must follow the lead of Bay Area transit workers and stop all scabs. This will not always be achieved without casualties. But a sharpening situation demands sharper action. Inaction means even more casualties. Confidence in the workers can only grow through more collective activity and offensive action. The solidarity we build won't be for a "kinder, gentler" fascism. We will stop scabs and strike-breakers to build a mass communist movement, recruit more workers to PLP, and advance the fight for communist revolution.
While it is true that a battle is going on, it is not a battle over safety. It's a battle over how best to implement fascist discipline and control in the public schools. In the week that our party members have responded to the gang/cops issue (see last week's Challenge), we have gained a clearer understanding of how serious this battle is and how critical it is for communists to be in the middle of it.
Our members in several schools called for emergency meetings of students, teachers and parents to address the questions of gangs and cops. At one school in the Bronx this led a teacher to ask her comrades to organize the first Challenge distribution at her school. It had become clear to her, through her discussions with her students, that there was a crying need for our message attacking all forms of fascist terror by uniting under communist leadership. The need for this was greater than her personal fears about consequences.
Over 100 Challenges and 200 flyers calling for our Nov. 15th March Against Police Terror were distributed. "Do you want cops in your school?," asked the Challenge seller.
"Hell, no," was the almost universal response as students grabbed the paper and asked for extras for their friends. "I don't like the cops. They gotta go. They're always bothering my friends and shit like that."
Mayor Giuliani has to "do some compromising" because of the deep hatred of the cops felt by these youth. The essence of his compromise, however, is not to back off. Fascist terror is the order of the day and it will grow. The compromise is to mislead and confuse workers into trusting some other form of terror. So in the conversations outside this high school some students defended the gangs! One student said, "The gangs are for us," as her friend said gangs are "messed up." A group gathered to listen. "How are they for you?". "They want to look out for us...even though they do some bad things like the slashings. They do other things that are good, like they keep people together, they fight for their friends."
As Giuliani and Crew compromise on the form fascist terror will take, and on who will control it, communists must fight to organize our class against all its enemies. The student's defense of gangs is an expression of her hatred of the cops and yearning for some formation that will organize and protect her and her world. The bosses have been faster than we have to recognize such yearnings and twist them into loyalty for their brutal system.
In every school, on the other hand, where party members have raised the need to organize forums and take action, we have met with a positive response. Many workers, youth and adults are confused by these developments and looking for leadership. At a high school in Brooklyn, the first emergency meeting led to plans for a second larger meeting uniting teachers and students. The group discussed calling a press conference to declare their opposition to gangs and cops.
We have a great deal to learn about how to give more than superficial leadership to these campaigns. But we know for a fact that the potential is there. The bosses control over our class is weak. It is up to us to smash it entirely.
The bosses' press published their own conclusion: if you help anyone in the fight against the migra or the police, you face arrest and deportation yourself--it's best to do nothing. But the families and friends of these women followed their class consciousness, not the bosses' line. They organized child care for the children and collected money in the streets among black and latin neighbors or those who drove by, to bail the two women out of jail. While some passed collection cans for money and explained what happened, others cooked and brought water to the group. A week later, the two women are temporarily free, until they return to court.
These two women, and the other workers who supported them, have given us a great opportunity to build more working class unity in the face of fascism. This case helps show that workers don't take fascism lightly. In factories, churches and neighborhoods we should support this struggle!
Migra attacks have become common in the neighborhoods, factories and cities where we immigrants produce part of the wealth that makes this bloody profit system function. And even though Clinton has projected that this year 97,000 workers will be deported, the action of these women and their supporters shows that there are hundreds of thousands of workers who have the need and will to fight against these bosses' injustices.
Raids and police terror are not isolated. They are part of a plan to try to prepare us to accept each attack passively, from police terror, to wage-cuts, to hospital closings. The biggest bosses are using money stolen from us, from prisoners working for nothing, and from those in welfare-to-work jobs; to prepare for their bloody profit war in the MiddleEast.
The need to build action committees in the factories and to join mass organizations is more urgent. We need to participate in direct actions against fascist attacks every day, and at the same time give workers the arms we need to win--communist ideas and the necessity to build a mass PLP to end, once and for all, these rotten deportations and the capitalist system that causes them. The bosses see these two women as "deportable criminals," not as anti-fascist fighters who are a proud example for our class.
In these struggles, we fight for a society without borders. As long as borders and wage slavery exist, the bosses will continue to need the migra, courts, cops and jails to terrorize the workers. The alternative to fascism is to build the PLP.
Because of these changes, other sections have more work, and have been forced to work even on Sundays. Workers who refused to work on Sundays were fired. One Saturday, the owner of the company gave a speech in the lunchroom, promising to pay double the hourly wage to those who worked more than 55 hours. Many workers applauded when he said this. Since the wages are so low, the only alternative these workers saw was to work more than 55 hours in a week, including working Saturdays and Sundays.
The next week, on Saturday, when we were eating lunch, I asked a group of friends, "who worked more than 55 hours?" One friend, very happily, told me "I worked 56 hours." This worker, like many others, thought that she would be paid double for all the hours she worked. I explained to them that the boss was only going to pay double the one hour over 55. This created a certain amount of confusion as the workers went to investigate. They found out the sad truth that the boss had tricked them. One of them said, "so much sacrifice, leaving our kids and families on Saturdays and Sundays, with the hope of making more money." Others said that they were very sorry that had applauded the greedy boss!
Even though some have continued working long hours, many have not. This forced the company to open a night shift and rehire the 50 workers who had been laid off.
"We are subject to the most vicious exploitation. The bosses do with the workers whatever they want," said one worker. Another answered, "All of this that we workers suffer is because we live in a capitalist system in worldwide crisis."
Capitalism is the cause of poverty, unemployment, racist attacks, fascist deportations, cuts in public services, etc. All this is part of the bosses' fierce competition and war for control of the world.
In this company we have to build more unity among the different sections of the factory. We should build committees of struggle, not only to organize struggles inside the factory, but to help increase the circulation of Challenge, and to organize workers to take on the bosses' fascist attacks outside the factory. That's how we can show the workers that the goal shouldn't be to work more hours to make the bosses richer, but to end wage slavery and all capitalist exploitation. More workers will see that our fight should be to build a communist society where the hours of work will to meet the needs of our families and our class, and not fill the pockets of the racist millionaires.
The "foreign terrorist" designation lasts for two years, but it can be extended and new groups can be added. Rockefeller/Albright and Co. have made pro-Iranian groups like Hezbollah (Lebanon), Hamas, the Islamic Jihad (Palestine), Al-Jihad (Egypt), and the Armed Islamic Group (Algeria), the focus of their attack. They put an Iraqi, anti-Iranian group on the list as a bone they tossed to Iran to see if they can make a deal.
This law is not only aimed at Middle East groups and their backers. It is also aimed at attacking workers and youth here in the U.S., to try to make them accept the bosses' plans for war and fascism. Under these new laws, any non-citizen members of a group labeled "foreign terrorist organization" trying to enter the U.S. will be kept out. Any non-citizen member who's living in the U.S. and who helps build the organization through fund-raising can be deported. The deportation "hearing" is conducted under the section of the law entitled "Alien Terrorist Removal Procedures." If the immigrant is considered a risk to "national security" he/she will not be given bail. Any evidence against the immigrant which is considered "classified" will be kept secret from everyone except the government and the judge. Any citizen of the U.S. who gives money or other "material support" to a "foreign terrorist organization" or specific "terrorist activity" can be jailed for up to 10 years.
Albright, and her fascist masters, are the biggest terrorists of all. They are provoking war with Iraq and Iran over control of Mid-East oil. Meanwhile, they are trying to intimidate their supposed allies in Western Europe and Russia to back up these war plans. Their efforts are doomed to fail. Since the other imperialist countries have their own class needs to control the Middle East oil, the fight over this oil from Iraq to the Congo is sharpening (see article in this issue).
This law is a sign of the bosses' weakness, that they cannot rule in the old fashioned way (covering their dictatorship over the working class with the mask of democracy). Workers should not be intimidated by it. It's one more reason to increase our commitment to build PLP. The only solution to the bosses' headlong drive to war and fascism is a mass communist PLP to dump all the bosses and their fascism. This has been the history of the struggle led by communists against fascism and for workers revolution. When Mussolini and the fascists took power in Italy in the 1920's there was a very small communist party. As the fascists outlawed and terrorized workers, "they killed and killed the communists until there were millions of them." Masses of workers, students and soldiers hate the fascist cops, Migra, the generals, and their bosses. Its up to PLP to give them revolutionary leadership. Building a mass party under developing fascist conditions is the only solution for the working class.
The changes taking place in the health care industry are pushed by capitalist crisis and the fight in the ruling class. In the past, workers viewed the differences in health care as union vs. nonunion. The mostly non-profit, union hospitals paid better, had better benefits and less layoffs. All of that is changing rapidly. The differences between union and nonunion hospitals are fast disappearing. The bosses are turning the screws.
Kaiser always has been backed by Old Money. Born as the wartime industrial health program during WWII, it provided health care for industrial workers at the shipyards in Oregon and California and at the steel and other factories owned by Henry J. Kaiser. Kaiser Hospital was union from the beginning. The government looked to the unions to help make this low cost health care for workers successful. It gave them the gift of nonprofit status. (Nonprofit just means that a business doesn't have to pay taxes.) They do make a profit-that's why they're in business!
For decades Kaiser was the only non-profit HMO, and could afford to maintain a relatively stable work force. But the competitive nature of capitalism meant that such good fortune was temporary. As cutting costs in health care became the burning desire of Old Money, newer, cheaper players came on the scene. Rather than building their own hospitals, they contracted with already existing ones, the contract going to the lowest bidder. They figured out that if patients could be kept out of the hospital altogether, costs would go down and profits up. Same day "outpatient" surgeries became more common, as well as Hospice programs that let chronically ill patients die at home rather than being admitted at all. This change left a huge number of hospitals with empty beds. Some were able to downsize successfully, but by the late 80's many were on the verge of closing.
In stepped Columbia/HCA , the creation of health care attorney, Richard Scott in El Paso, Texas, with ties to New Money. After a series of mergers, Columbia now controls nearly half of the for-profit hospital beds in the country, 200 home health care agencies, 340 hospitals, and 135 outpatient-surgery offices. It is the nation's 10th largest employer, with 240,000 employees. Columbia acquired in-trouble hospitals at the lowest possible cost, closed or consolidated facilities which duplicate services, and cut staff. They have grown to become Kaiser's main competitor. Even though medical malpractice suits against Kaiser have become commonplace, the only place where Kaiser's business has ever been seriously challenged as a result is in Texas, where New Money backers of Columbia/HCA are dominant.
Old Money was losing in the market place to Columbia/HCA. So they used their control of the big media and the state to go after Columbia. This led to the recent government crack down and criminal investigation of Columbia/HCA. One article in the New York Times included the story of a homeless man found dead on the lawn of a Columbia hospital--Sunrise in Las Vegas--an hour after he was discharged from the Emergency Room. But the real issue in the investigation is not patient care, but fraudulent Medicare reimbursements. It's one thing to defraud the public with inadequate medical care, but quite another to defraud the federal government of its taxes. The evidence in the case was obtained via an undercover FBI investigation. So the Old Money White House went after Columbia. They have already had to agree to an audit protocol at some of their hospitals in Florida, which is the first step in negotiating a settlement with the government to try to prevent further charges. There's been a shakeup of Columbia's Board of Directors. SEIU is organizing a union at Sunrise Hospital, another prong of attack by Old Money.
Old Money Kaiser is learning from New Money Columbia. Kaiser workers have been shocked by the harassment and termination of many workers. The increased computerization of everything from medical records to the establishment of massive "data bases"(one of Columbia's strong points) will mean the loss of more jobs. Workers are angered by the failure of the union (SEIU Local 399 in Southern California) to do anything about these attacks. This is part of the new partnership between Kaiser and the (Old Money) AFL-CIO that has the unions promoting Kaiser as the health care provider of choice, while ending attacks on Kaiser that could undermine their profitability and competitiveness in the industry.
The bosses' fight and weakness is our opportunity. Workers choices are fascist old money, fascist new money, or communist PLP. We intend to give more leadership and earn the workers' confidence in our Party.
Our UIC club has struggled collectively to come to a communist analysis of affirmative action and the meaning of the recent UIC cuts. This understanding is essential in guiding us into action within the reform/protest movement that has begun to grow this semester around the issue of affirmative action. We changed our attitudes where we now can comfortably attack both the right wing which wishes to say affirmative action is reverse racism, as well as the liberal point of view that defends affirmative action as effective and helpful to counteract racism in society. We have strengthened the notion that only communism can provide for the needs of the working class, not any consession or reform granted us by the bosses. This is how we became sure.
First we had to understand that the dismantling of Affirmative Action at UIC is part of the larger picture of crisis that the US rulers are facing. The crisis of overproduction is driving US rulers into a desperate frenzy, since they are finding themselves in tough competition with other capitalist rulers,. Particularly over the control of the profitable Middle East Oil. U.S. bosses must make workers and youth for their plans for a new oil war.They must cut welfare, lower wages, cut benefits and depend more and more on prison labor.
Then we had to understand where Affirmative action came from. In the `60's, masses of people were in the streets pissed as hell. From riots in Harlem, Watts and Detroit to massive college campus demonstrations against Vietnam, people were militantly fighting back against racism and capitalism. The movement made it very expensive and difficult for the ruling class to run things as usual. Essentially, the massive social unrest forced the ruling class to throw workers a bone to prevent a revolution. They introduced the Civil Rights Act, which set up the basis for the affirmative action that is disappearing today. Capitalists will never reform capitalism to make it work for workers. That is not in their interest. That is why gains made though affirmative action are little and insignificant compared to how much worse capitalism's crisis has made society. To defend and crusade for affirmative action is to misdirect our anger and energy into something that mostly benefits the bosses. We should not do that!
We need to show that when Clinton and crew, or other liberal bosses push for the preservation of affirmative action, they DO NOT WANT TO GET RID OF RACISM! Instead, they wish to rally public support for their side in the struggle with the capitalist forces (generally known as New Money) who oppose the Clinton/Rockefeller/Eastern establishment. Their multicultural sentiments benefit them in two ways. This idea, that people should be treated equally and have equal opportunties, appeals to many "good" people who fall into the liberal camp. They can tap the votes and money of this group when they need to be elected into power. Plus, Their push for multi-culturalism makes sense when you consider their economic interests. These old Money/ Eastern Establishment/ Liberal/ bosses have a great interest in Middle East oil. Sooner than later they will need to mobilize millions of Americans to get ready for a war of control over the oil in the Middle East. With deep racial divisions amongst soldiers, their war marchine might have a few kinks in it. They like multiculturalism for these reasons. It does not threaten capitalism, and in fact helps their efforts.
On the other hand, there is the side trying their hardest to strip away affirmative action and other reforms won in the past. They argue that Affirmative action is "reverse racism" and unfair to whites. A recent example of such right wing ideas raising thier head is in the case of Austin's Texas University "white freedom" group that is organized by a white professor claiming to fight for denied white students, while claiming that Black culture is "inferior". These developments delight what Challenge has called New Money. New Money have domestic oil interests. They do not wish to see an international war over oil, and want to take power over the old money through internal oil resources. They need an openly racist climate in order to organize people for their side. Keeping whites and blacks and latinos divided makes thier job much easier in the face of the kind of war they want.
Both sides -liberal and right wing- have surfaced on the UIC campus around the stopping of Priority registration. The administration has done its best to construe the dismantling as what white students angrily demanded. They pretended a lawsuit filed against the university by a white student claiming reverse discrimination AFTER they had already done in the priority registration was the reason they had to do it. Through the Chicago Tribune and the campus paper Chicago Flame, they attempted to pit black students against white. Meanwhile, a student trustee has organized a Minority Student Coalition to protest the cuts. We are trying to work with this group and put RR 4.5 into practice there.
We are talking to our base in that orgaization and around us about OUR alternative undertanding of the world. We see that both proponents and opponents of affirmative action are short sighted if they fail to see the need for a worker's revolution.
For three days, Oct. 14-16, construction workers, teachers, healthcare workers, and dockworkers led a national protest movement for higher wages, jobs, trade union rights, free public education, etc. It was really a workers' march for democracy and some reform demands.
Members of PLP here went to the march, distributed C-Ds, and talked to some workers. We pointed out that democracy and reform demands will not end the exploitation workers suffer.
The drug trafficking, military-civilian government ruling Peru today is a lackey of U.S. imperialists, and to a lesser extent, the Japanese imperialists. Its neo-liberal (free market) policies have made it into one of the more servile regimes to foreign imperialists in the history of Peru. Since its free market policies have bankrupted many local bosses, the contradictions among capitalists have sharpened. Some of the anti-Fujimori bosses are using union hacks to organize protests against the government. That is why these marches never mention the fight for workers' power (communism), and limit themselves to fight for "democracy."
We in PLP must become an alternative to workers here, to show them that the only solution is communist revolution.
In another point, just like in the U.S., there is much talk about "educational reforms," here in Peru. A lot of people are talking about improving and modernizing the quality of education. But, how will there be educational modernization while teachers earn starvation wages and lack the most basic tools to teach? How can one talk about improving education when workers cannot even afford to send their children to schools because the horrible conditions imposed by capitalism? How can education be modernized when racism, sexism elitism, nationalism, alienation and fascism are part and parcel of society?
Under capitalism, there cannot be decent education for working class youth.
A Comrade, Lima
The article "Cops, Gangs Out of School" tells an important story about how important it is to win students, teachers, and parents to a communist understanding of cops and gangs. The excellent leading quote emphasized that workers and students respond well to our line and that "we have to educate everyone." But, I think, the accompanying picture and caption undermined this message. It showed parents who were misled into protesting the transfer of a ten-year-old into PS 40. Pictures convey a strong message, and this one emphasized to our readers, "look at these foolish people." The article didn't expose and attack the bosses or their agents who did the misleading. Thus, it appeared that the parents themselves are the enemy, even though that's obviously not what we meant to say.
Three other pictures in the same issue showed workers and youth in a positive light, fighting against capitalism and for communism. We need more images like these. The front-page pictures dramatically depicted our class enemies. That's useful, too. In my opinion, though, the PS 40 picture should not have been printed.
Chicago teacher
Here are some thoughts about how to evaluate and describe the potential for civil war due to growing splits among the economic interests of different capitalist groupings in the US. The recent Challenge article discussing "The Widening Gap Between the Military and Society" article in the Atlantic Monthly missed a revealing quote: "As a coda, retired Colonel Michael Wyly wrote a few months later in another Gazette article, 'We must be willing to realize that our real enemy is as likely to appear within our own borders as without.' He then took swipes at the two fundamental principles of U.S. military professionalism: unwavering subordination to civilian control and non participation in politics. `If our laws and self-image of our role as military professionals do not allow for [the recognition that the real enemy may be within] we need to change them.' Wyly raised the possibility that the Marines would refuse to enforce certain laws. (my emphasis) Specifically, if Congress were to restrict gun ownership, then Marines would need to understand that `enforcing such a restriction could quickly make us the enemy of constitutional freedom.'"
Fighting gun control is a major plank of the right-wing social agenda, especially for militia groups. Linking gun ownership to "constitutional rights" is another telltale piece of rhetoric. Another aspect of the right-wing social agenda is anti-government rhetoric and the article is full of it. If certain conditions develop, these folks are talking treason.
If we know of examples of new money capitalists actually funding militia groups or military Junior Officer Corps organizations, or Promise Keepers, then we should state names and numbers. For example, six Marine Gunny Sergeants were just arrested for selling military guns and explosives. The New York Times said it was "greed" and they had no ties to "white-supremacists extremist" but that these "extremist" groups had been trying to recruit on the marine base, Camp Lejeune NC, for more than a decade. This tells us that the open fascists have a strategy of "turn the guns around" and that there is a potential for these ideas to mobilize some officers within the military.
I think we should emphasize how ideology connects these forces without them necessarily even being directly tied to each other. Ideology about family values, moral deterioration due to drugs and teen-age pregnancy, and individual rights is a very powerful motivation and connector, especially when it reinforces a class position. Ideological agreements sets up a potential for a powerful, united force of new money capitalists, smaller domestic capitalists or petty bosses, and dissatisfied Officer Corps in the military as economic problems get worse.
For example, listen to this quote about welfare reform. The comptroller of a plant in Arkansas that processes 100,000 catfish a day and has a turnover of 300% a year, pays minimum wage supports withholding welfare benefits from those who quit their welfare-to-work jobs. " You work in the cold, you work in the wet- and of course you're around guts.... if they can go back to Uncle Sam, you can't keep them in the plant."(New York Times 10\16\97)
He hires welfare recipients from Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi and only pays $1.00\hr for the first six months with government subsidy bringing pay to minimum wage.
Ideology and class position reinforce each other. This southern capitalist does not have international holdings or finance capital investment. He needs overt racism to deliver low-paid labor here in the U.S. so Latin American or international food companies wont be able to undercut him. He would oppose NAFTA or other free trade legislation that might interfere with his fish market in the US. The food processing industry in this area has a lot of undocumented workers, so he would favor anything that kept this part of his work-force terrorized and lower paid. He is opposed to hand-outs- "welfare"- from Uncle Sam to workers because that would allow his labor force an alternative to the subsistence wage slave and misery of the job he offers, yet he is happy to get government subsidy so he only has to pay $1.00\ hour.
We can be sure that government is O.K. as long as his business gets the subsidy, not workers or large, east-coast capitalists. He certainly would oppose any rhetoric or programs that implied that his black Mississippi Delta work force should be unionized, or honor "multi-cultural" diversity. He does not have the profit margin to be a "capitalist with a conscience" talked about by Sweeney or ex- Secretary of Labor Reich. The social rhetoric and economic agenda of East Coast Big Capital has no appeal. I would assume he would be in the Buchannan or Jessie Helms camp.
I think we can see that ideology and class position create a potential for unity, but we can also see that there are many contradictory tendencies within the military. We too can organize for "turn the guns around" in the military. The life experience of many rank and file soldiers inside and outside the military creates a potential for rebellion against both wings of the capitalists- especially during a "hot" war.
West Coast Comrade
A group of us (mainly non-party members) attended the Anti-Racist Action national conference in Columbus, Ohio. The ARA is an organization that calls for a "united front" in the fight against fascism. This fight is based on four points of unity, the main one being a "we go where they go" tactic. In other words, confronting fascist forces wherever they are.
The different ARA chapters focus on the local fascists, be it the Christian Right, Aryan Nation, Klan, and even White Power music scenes. The flexible structure of ARA, combined with the united front plan, allows for the different chapters to concentrate on what they consider the different problems in their community. During the conference, there was a march against police brutality, different workshops on fascism, self defense, and various propaganda tactics. Challenge was taken openly and there seemed to be much revolutionary potential there. This potential will stagnate unless they make a more correct analysis of the world situation. There also was an almost fear-like attitude for providing strong leadership. Many in the group saw fascism as a fringe phenomenon. Very little connection was made between the capitalist system in crisis and the need for the ruling class to use fascism and war to save their hides. Inter-imperialist rivalry? Maybe a couple of people mentioned it, but overall there was no relation acknowledged between growing police brutality and the possibility of a Mid-East war for oil. Also, the united front tactic is a proven failed one. You only need to look to the Spanish Civil war, where the anarchists wanted one thing, the Trotskyites wanted another, and the Soviet Union another. There was no clear leadership, and many like it that way, even today in the ARA.
The correct analysis to these problems and the correct response, communist revolution, is only provided by the Progressive Labor Party. Some in our group wondered why PL didn't send a larger contingent. Maybe next time we should.
reds
This month is the 30th anniversary of the death of Ernesto Che Guevara, probably the most charismatic and romantic (Latin American) revolutionary of the century.
Cuba gave his remains, brought from Bolivia, the burial of a national hero. At this posthumous homage, Fidel made the shortest speech of his life, 15 minutes. Maybe because he has a great deal to keep secret. According to Colonel Benigno, one of the three survivors of Che's revolutionary adventures in Bolivia, "The order (that the Bolivian Communist Party should abandon them) came from Moscow, but Havana undertook to carry it out, made it hers. Che was too naive."
This treacherous act did not prevent Fidel from using Che for his own interests. In the years following the revolution, Che became famous in Cuba for using political incentives, instead of material ones, to motivate the workers to increase their productivity. Since then and up to this day, Fidel has used Che's revolutionary example to get Cuban workers to work for free.
Fidel has also always used Che's revolutionary reputation to enhance his own and that of the Cuban revolution. Now that he calls himself the last stronghold of communism, Fidel is using Che's mythical fame and the hype about his burial to hide the fact that Cuba is a capitalist haven where its workers are not allowed in the shops, hotels and night clubs for tourists. Neither can they swim at their beaches. All this in the name of hard foreign currency. Cuba also sells tourists cigarette lighters with Che's signature, and three peso bills with his picture go for five dollars.
But perhaps the thing that Fidel wants to exploit the most about Che is his fame as an anti-imperialist fighter. For the National Liberation Movements that developed after WWII - of which Ho Chi Minh, Fidel and Che were perhaps its most famous spokespersons - anti-imperialism meant being exclusively anti-U.S. imperialism.
Now that the European imperialists - especially the French, Germans, and Spanish - are challenging the U.S. for control of the Latin American markets, primarily with their participation in Mercosur, the anti-imperialist symbolism of Che can be used very effectively to develop a mass anti-USA movement. Fidel can be very useful to his European partners who have also invested heavily in the island, especially in tourism.
Could this also be the reason why European bosses' press is also remembering Che's tragic death with sympathy? Brazil and Argentina did the same. The government in Brazil - where death squads daily murder homeless children - has honored Che's memory by giving one of his sons the highest decoration it offers anyone. The Menen administration - that pardoned the murderers responsible for the death of 70,000 Argentineans in the 1970s - wants to take out a postage stamp in Che's honor. Brazil and Argentina are the main members of Mercosur, the regional trading block which also includes Uruguay and Paraguay. Bolivia and Chile are being considered for membership. Mercosur is challenging the U.S.'s hegemony in the hemisphere. These bosses want to push mass anti-U.S. imperialist sentiment.
When alive, these bosses hated him. Today they honor him. But alive or dead, Che was never a real threat to capitalism anywhere in the world. His strategy for revolution - a few brave armed men, based in the mountains, arousing and leading the masses to power through their spectacular deeds - has been a complete failure. Thousands - including Che himself - have died and continue to die uselessly because of this line.
Che's magnetism to many, especially the youth, is his romantic view of revolution: It is the opposite of patient and persistent basebuilding and politicizing of the working class. In his theory there was no need for a mass Communist Party to lead the working class to power and in the building of a communist society. The best tribute we can offer Che is to learn from his good points and from his mistakes. We should emulate his dedication and heroism by building a mass PLP to bury all the world's bosses with communist revolution.