Worldwide capitalism is in crisis. Competition is intensifying, and this leads to war: soon a huge oil war and eventually World War III. Wars cost money. The bosses get the money to fight their wars by intensifying exploitation on the job and imposing slave labor. War requires discipline behind the bosses' banners. So the capitalists intensify racism and police terror. Imperialist Old Money bosses must crush any other bosses who resist them.
These developments are changing our lives. The Party is increasing its activity among workers. More will see the need for communist revolution. They will come to see that we can win.
The success of the May Day marches will be measured largely by the growth of the Party in the weeks ahead. If we sometimes sound like a broken record when we say join the Party, join the Party, join the Party, please forgive our lack of creativity. But it is this single mindedness that has allowed communism not only to survive, but to advance.
There is no shortage of workers and others who hate the bosses' racism and wars for profit. Who rebel against the oppression of wage slavery. Who want a decent life for all working people. Who want all to be able to eat and have a place to live, to develop their minds and contribute to the well-being of others. But these desires often seem impossible. Why? Because few of us fully understand the role of the Party in making communism a reality. This is the great secret of the day.
A Progressive Labor Party that is millions strong will turn the bosses' imperialist wars into revolutionary wars for communism. A Party of millions will organize society to produce for the needs of the working class, without bosses or money. A Party of millions will raise future generations free from the capitalist ideologies of racism, sexism, individualism, religion and superstition that keep our minds enslaved.
The PLP fights to build a mass communist Party. In this century tens of millions of workers have made communist ideas their own. They fought to make communism a reality. We are confident that tens of millions more will understand and fight for a system of contribution by commitment and distribution by need. Our Party brings dialectical materialism, the science of communist thinking, to the working class. We throw open the doors of our Party.
We owe much to the revolutionaries of the past. But we also learn from their mistakes. The pioneering Russian revolutionaries failed to open the party to the masses. The Chinese communists understood the importance of the mass line -- "from the masses, to the masses" -- but they, too, kept communist ideas the property of the few. Communism cannot prosper in the hands of a few. First the Russians and then the Chinese abandoned the red flag. Today the former communist states are led by money-grubbing capitalists.
All of us are reluctant communists. There is tremendous pressure to hide the Party and communism. Friends often tell us to "tone it down." When we join the PLP we commit ourselves to struggle collectively to keep our Party on the road to communist revolution. Through this class struggle -- against the bosses themselves and against capitalist ideas within the workers' movement -- we become more communist. We have learned to say no to socialism, no to nationalism, no to reformism, no to a limited Party. And we continue to learn.
Communism is what we need, and communism can win. Our Party in action will reveal this secret to millions. As racist cops murder our youth and terrorize immigrants, the Party mobilizes workers on the job to fight back and expose racism as a capitalist tool. As slave labor grows in the welfare system and prisons, we unite the working class against all wage slavery. As the rulers fight among themselves, we steer workers clear of the deadly trap of allying with one faction or another. As the bosses prepare for their oil wars, we organize soldiers to refuse to be their hired killers, bringing them into our red army instead.
We don't advertise our membership list, but our Party is no secret. When millions grasp the need for a communist Party, this idea will become a material force. Masses of workers, fighting for communism, will change the world.
This manual cortains some basic guidelines for Party membership. We want people just like you--workers who want to end exploitation and oppression--to join. Every member must:
1. BELONG TO AND WORK TO ESTABLISH A PARTY CLUB and regularly attend its meetings. The clubs are the Party's primary organizational unit. Clubs help develop Party policy through political practice and discussion. Party members must carry out the decisions of their clubs and higher Party bodies. A member always defends and carries out the Party line.
2. RECRUIT NEW MEMBERS. Invite coworkers, friends, family and contacts to join PLP now and make plans for their political development We must involve them in struggle against our class' enemies on the job and in our schools and neighborhoods. We help them understand the need and possibility for com-munism by studying political economy, history and dialectical materialism
3. REGULARLY READ AND SELL CHALLENGE-DESAFIO and other Party literature. As many of our fellow workers, classmates and neighbors as possible must receive this literature. Members will also help guarantee the public availability of the paper by any and all possible means.
4. FIGHT RACISM. Racism is the capitalists' main tool for dividing and exploiting the working class. We must build working class unity and fight to eliminate the myth that workers are of different races.
5. FIGHT NATIONALISM AND PATRIOTISM. These ideas are dangerous. They join the workers with bosses under one country, flag, skin color or ethnicity. Workers must only unite under the Red Flag of Communism. There are no good bosses. They are all exploiters. Workers have no nation. There is one world, one working class, one Party.
6. FIGHT ANTI- COMMUNISM. Individualism and religion are just a few of the ideas bosses use to make workers think that revolution is impossible. Communism is based on trust and confidence in the Party as the way to organze society. We must live our lives based on the needs of the Party and struggle to get others to do the same.
7. GIVE MONETARY SUPPORT TO THE PARTY according to his or her ability and collect donations to the Party from friends.
8. HELP LEAD THE PARTY. Our revolutionary communist line leads our Party. The central leadership of the Party, the Central Committee, is mainly responsible for developing and fighting for this line. Yet every member is part of this process. This requires criticizing things that need correction in the political work of ourselves and others. Good criticism begins with self-criticism. Party leaders feel a deep responsibility for the political development and welfare of the working class. All members should help their comrades change and grow.
"For example, if a corporation decides to downsize or move a job overseas, you find out it's their job to do with whatever they want, not yours. If you lose your job, you find out that its not your house but the bank's, when you can't pay the mortgage. It's not your car, but the finance company's ' if you can't pay the note. If you wind up homeless, it's not your sidewalk to live on, because if you're begging in front of someone's business, they call the cops to move you along. At best, if you have a job, you are only renting a space in this system of capitalism.
"The rich also own the government. The SF Chronicle (4/17), reported on the 400 biggest political bankrollers in the nation, and how the rich buy both the Democratic and Republican parties. The article said that people are so disgusted with this process, that one political action committee that used to raise millions, `folded it's fund-raising tent' and told its members, `We will no longer collaborate with a system that promotes the buying and selling of political office.' So this is their America, not ours. In fact, the rich don't salute that flag when they take a job and move it overseas to exploit cheaper labor."
At this point, the PL'er pulled out a dollar bill from his pocket, (something he learned from an old comrade), and said, "This is the only flag they salute. They go all over the world saluting this flag. The situation for American workers about who owns the country is the same for workers of every country in the world. So my suggestion is, for our next march, we make hats with the slogan, "Workers of the world unite, same enemy same fight." He urged workers to march under this slogan in PLP's May Day march.
After the meeting, many people expressed agreement, and one wanted more information about May Day. Some union officials apologized for the hats. One said, "I didn't wear that hat either." Another said they gave out the hats because "they were left over from Labor Day."
The process leading up to this speech started with the struggle in the Party to put forward revolution and communism to the workers. The other reason for the good response, is a changing workforce at MUNI (SF Transit system). Workers came to this meeting in a fighting mood. A group of part-timers are struggling for full-time jobs. Others came to fight for a full-time driver who was fired for a small accident, after 7 years with no accidents.
While the bosses increase their attacks on workers, PLP is building a mass communist Party,, winning workers to see that the only solution is communist revolution. We can see the beginnings of a new communist movement.
Recently, a black worker who has never seen Challenge, asked a PLP organizer what she thought about the "partnership" between some local unions they want us to vote on. She said that it's really a partnership between the bosses and the unions. "I guess they're just looking out for themselves. Nobody's looking out for us," he said. "We can't look to them for help...the whole system's no good," she said. "But it doesn't have to be like that. There is an organization that's looking out for us--PLP. We're fighting for a society where everyone gets what they need, without money or wages or privilege--communism." "You don't mean communism, you mean humanitarianism," he said. "We do mean communism," she said. "Communism means the bosses lose. We get to take back everything we produce. We're having our May Day march, do you want to know more about it?" "Sure," he said.
We are also struggling harder with the workers we know well, and our confidence is growing. A Party leaflet was distributed in response to the union telling us to vote for a contract that lowers our wages. It could have been sharper, but it raised communism and May Day. One worker who marched on May Day last year, , will march this year, and distributes Challenge, said the workers don't want to hear about communism, and we should just tell them to vote, "No." We struggled with him, saying no matter how we vote, there will still be wage cuts, fascism, and war. If we don't bring up communism, then we aren't giving workers an alternative to this situation.. He gave out the leaflet, but was afraid to struggle with the workers. Now we must win him to struggle patiently with his co-workers, without getting angry, to win them to communism.
Another worker, who we have struggled with for years, is taking the Party more seriously because we are taking his political development more seriously. When asked about May Day, he said, "Martin Luther King marched his feet off and look where it got us." We explained to him that May Day isn't a march to win some particular demand , or for a better type of wage slavery, but to build a mass movement for communist revolution. "That word, communism, people have so much trouble accepting it," he said. "That's true, but once you start really explaining it, it's not as hard as you think," we said. "And you'll really be surprised at the terrific response we get from people on the street who see the May Day march. We need help with security. What do you say?"
"May 3rd? OK, I'll let you know."
We were protesting the immigration raid the day before. The Migra raided a garment factory in the center of the downtown garment district, at 8th and Los Angeles, terrorizing, arresting, and deporting 29 workers. They were taken away with chains around their waists and their feet. Some workers ran into the alleys and others closed the doors of the factories so they wouldn't be arrested.
We do not have to take this! We can smash this fascist system and replace it with communism. We have the forces to get this process going here in Los Angeles garment. 150,000 workers paralyzing one of the most important industries in LA with strikes and demonstrations, confronting the Migra, can inspire and lead a fight of millions of workers--immigrants and citizens, workers and students of all "races" and nationalities.
The Mexican consul in LA said, "We want to guarantee that when they are deported their rights are not violated." What a joke! We don't want the bosses to deport us, or exploit us, with dignity. What we want is to destroy borders and the capitalist system that creates them! Fascism can't be stopped with votes, prayers, union militancy, or by ignoring it. It has to be destroyed with an armed struggle for communism.
The May Day march represents this alternative. Under communism, we'll produce to meet the needs of the international working class, not to make any parasitic boss richer. Together we can build a new world, without borders, deportations, wage slavery, or money.
Smash All Borders! Fight for Communism! Join the Progressive Labor Party
This May Day is the fifth anniversary of the Los Angeles Rebellion which followed the acquittal of the cops who beat Rodney King. For three days the rulers trembled to see their cops powerless in the face of working class' ' anger. The PLP communist May Day March on the fourth day defied the bosses' martial law, getting mass support from workers and GI's.
This spontaneous rebellion did not lead to any improvements for workers. After l992 the bosses built the Twin Towers Jail. Now they have prison slave labor and are expanding workfare. It showed the need for communists to join the mass movement to win the workers to the Party. The life and death fight against the rulers' racism will only be won when there is a mass communist party that has the seizure of power and the building of communism as its goal. Join us!
Dave, a black youth from Prospect Heights High School describes why he joined the Party: "Last year when Ms. Lonergan was fired, I realized that they (the administration) fired her because they wanted to keep her from telling us the truth about communism. I joined the Party because, I wanted to see what they were trying to keep from us. After I joined the Party, I realized that what the Party was speaking about was true."
The situation for all young people like Dave is getting worse. "If I go looking for a job out here, they aren't going to hire me because, I'm not trained or some other reasons, and I don't think that is right. You should be hired according to what you can do and not by your skin color."
Tasha, and Ebony, are also from Prospect Heights.
Why did you join the Party?
Tasha: Well, a while back, people would ask me to come to meetings and stuff and then they kept askin' me. I went to the first one and then I kept coming to them. Then, Ms. Lonergan got fired for taking us to May Day (1996) in Washington, DC. I didn't see what the problem was with us goin'to May Day. So I joined.
Ebony: I started comin' to study groups, too. And then I realized that what people were saying about the communist movement was wrong. My experience was different than what they were saying. I saw what communist was because it exists within the Party, and that was totally different than what they was saying..
How do you see things getting worse for the working class?
Tasha: Uhm...cause they're bringin' in Workfare and people who are working are getting fired because of the people who are on welfare are goin' to take their jobs. So that's worse for all workers.
Ray, a black youth from Clara Barton High School talks about why he joined the Party: "I believe in the ideas that nobody should have more than what they need. That everyone should be equal. The way that society is now is because of competition, you know. They separate us by class."
The following was a speech given last November in New York City at a Challenge Dinner.
Hi, my name is Alexandra I got involved in the Party about two years ago. My family is from El Salvador. We came here 16 years ago, trying to escape the civil war going on there and trying to see a "better life." My memories of El Salvador was of war, and all we knew in our migration is the we would be escaping this horrific existence. When we got here in the U.S. we were labeled "illegal aliens," just as thousands of other workers are every year. My mother has been a garment worker since then, working 50 to 60 hours a week. My father has been washing dishes, sweeping floors, working in garment factories, and now he works in a warehouse. My brother, sister and I have been working since we were 15 years old. All this work for one purpose: survival. Worrying often about whether we would have a roof over our heads, food on our table, or work the next day. This life for millions under capitalism every day of every year.
All my life I tried to escape my past in El Salvador and the daily life of capitalism. The Party, through much struggle, showed me that the working class cannot escape the oppression of capitalism, and that we cannot reform capitalism to meet the needs of the working class. We need to organize society based upon our necessities and contribute to society according to our commitment. Only communism and the ideas of the Progressive Labor Party can end exploitation, racism, sexism, and starvation for millions around the world.
I joined the Party last May Day and since then I have participated in the Summer Project in Brooklyn and the cadre school in Chicago. We distributed Challenge-Desafío to workers twice a day and used this as a tool to discuss communist ideas. This experience showed me that the working class needs and wants Challenge and it's our responsibility as members and friends of PLP to put their newspaper into their hands. We cannot expect to build a mass communist party if we do not take the distribution of Challenge seriously, whether it be on the streets of New York City or to our friends at work, school, or in our neighborhoods.
Capitalism around the world, whether in El Salvador, India or here in the U.S. must be destroyed. This system make conditions for workers like my family horrible. It places them in poverty. It places them within the genocide of war. It places them in the factories where workers lose their lives in the strive for profits. It places them in prison.
The time has come for this murderous system to be extinguished and a new communist society to be created, now.
(This is Part II in a series by a PLP organizer in the Upper Manhattan/Bronx branch. Part I in our last issue reviewed the growth of the Party in this area since May Day 1996)
In struggling to make the Party's political line lead, I have improved my leadership. We always have political discussion and struggle around the Party's ideas through reading Challenge, internal Party bulletins and pamphlets or just through spontaneous questions and exchange. Communist ideas, goals and aspirations are presented, exchanged, questioned, explained.
The ideological struggle and political disagreement in the clubs is more open and is helping our members and friends to develop their understanding of the Party and communism and how to make revolution. Generally there is agreement about the Party's line on inter-imperialist rivalry and war and splits in the U.S. ruling class. There has been some debate about whether fascism exists in the U.S. now and whether civil war in the U.S. is really likely.
Some comrades and friends think conditions in the U.S. are different from those in some other countries. Behind this thinking are illusions about U.S. "democracy" and its ability to fix itself. That reflects some anti-communist ideas like, "I believe in communism, but no one else does" -- a lack of confidence in the Party, the working class and its historic role to make revolution and take all power to lead all of society (the "can-we-win" question).
We've had a long running debate about what is a mass Party (as opposed to a purely cadre ("professional revolutionary") party) and a mass May Day, especially relative to: (1) at what "political level" workers should join the Party; and (2) how does the Party incorporate workers at such varying degrees of communist consciousness and practice.
We've also had a continuous struggle to combat sexism by concentrating on the recruitment of women workers and raising the theoretical level of women comrades, a number of whom are excellent mass organizers. Because of this there is more unity between men and women comrades. We need to raise the level of basebuilding skills of some of our comrades, especially in some men whose theoretical knowledge is excellent.
We've succeeded in developing an understanding of how capitalism works at the point of production and why communist society must abolish the wage system and produce and distribute for need. In one of our clubs there has been on-going discussion about the primacy of communist ideas in basebuilding and in the class struggle to avoid reformist errors. This debate will sharpen as more of our members get more deeply involved as communists, not just as fighters, in the class struggle on the job, in unions and other organizations. The lack of convincing, and training, more of our members to do this is a big weakness in my leadership of the Upper Manhattan/Bronx workers branch.
In organizing the club/study groups, Challenge distribution, Party activities and mass work, some of us spend a lot of time personally relating to people, helping and learning from each other. We socialize individually and as families. Personal and social skills of our members and friends vary greatly. Development is uneven. These personal relationships are important, as is the class struggle, because based on them we can present, and fight for, communist ideas and goals. Without these personal and social ties, consolidation of new members is very difficult.
In conclusion, in the club/study groups we need to deepen the understanding of our members and friends as to what is communist basebuilding. Because we have raised the political level of a number of our members and friends and many have good personal, social and organizing skills, we are in a better position to do this. (Next issue: Leadership.)
War in the Mideast is another step closer with the U.S. Senate's ratification last week of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).. Clinton hopes to maintain Big Oil's world dominance by retaking Iraq's oilfields in a deadly land war. He led the fight for the treaty because he and the Eastern Establishment bosses think it will help justify the assault on Iraq, which did not sign the pact.
Clinton faced fierce opposition from politicians like Jesse Helms who represent capitalists whose interests clash directly with those of the Clinton/Rockefeller camp. Rooted in the domestic petrochemical industry, these bosses objected to the CWC because it allows federal inspection, and thus control, of their factories. Some, like Coastal Oil of Texas, buy supertanker loads of oil from Iraq and split the profits with Saddam Hussein.
The treaty both swats down the Oil Patch and gears up the attack on Iraq. Clinton's first priority, however, is mobilizing for war. The same forces that tried to block the weapons treaty are backing Bibi Netanyahu's anti-Palestinian terror in Israel. They may be counting on Bibi to provoke another Arab oil embargo that will boost oil production in the U.S.
The Center for Security Policy was very critical of the CWC. This think tank gets most of its money from Irving Moskowitz, a Californian hospital and bingo parlor magnatewho was a major contributor to Netanyahu's election campaign. Moskowitz also funds "No-Arabs Allowed" housing projects in Jerusalem. The London Independent credits Moskowitz with Bibi's decision to open a tunnel in Jerusalem's Old City, driving Palestinians out. This act triggered waves of anti-Israeli violence and sabotaged the Rockefeller-backed Oslo "peace process."
The Cato Institute has sponsored the Center for Security Policy conferences that denounced the chemical ban and applauded Bibi's policies. Cato is run by the Koch family of Kansas, the U.S.'s biggest independent oil producers. Thomas Friedman in the New York Times (4/24/97) defined the treaty battle this way: . "The debate over this treaty really isn't about chemicals. It's about foreign policy--Republican foreign policy. Is the Republican party after the cold war going to be dominated by its fringe militia-leaning anti-U.N. faction...or by its classical Reagan-Powell-Bush tough-minded internationalist faction?"
Make no mistake. The treaty will not make the owners of Mobil and Exxon, or their agents in the White House and the Pentagon, any more humane in the coming oil war. In their last round with Hussein in 1991, these butchers resorted to barbaric weapons and tactics. U.S. fuel-air bombs incinerated Iraqi civilians. U.S. Cavalry officers had plowblades fixed to their tanks and used them to bury surrendering Iraqi soldiers alive in the desert sands. The U.S.'s uranium projectiles caused radiation sickness in those they did not kill outright.
Studies, such as "Army Not Adequately Prepared to Deal with Depleted Uranium Contamination," done by the U.S. government itself in 1993, strongly suggest that exposure to these U.S. . arms brought on the mysterious Gulf War Syndrome. But the Senate investigating panel led by Jay Rockefeller chooses to blame Iraq.
The Establishment bosses are hell-bent on a Mideast war. The Oil Patch gang are hell-bent on more power, seizing state power at some stage if all else fails. Hussein and Netanyahu are both hell-bent on grabbing more territory. Another oil war in the Middle East is virtually inevitable. Some form of civil war within the United States lies well within the realm of probability. These bosses will not hesitate to use any kind of weapon in their arsenals--chemical, biological, conventional, or nuclear--to attain their goals. But the working class possesses the one weapon that can put an end to the capitalists' destruction--the power to make communist revolution.
"I need three volunteers," says the officer in an old Army joke, "you, you, and you."But now the officer is Colin Powell, and his call for an army of volunteers is no joke. The Presidents' Summit for America's Future, held last week in Philadelphia, launched a nationwide campaign to build a mass base for a future of fascism and imperialist war. It's bad enough that the ruling class wants to slash funds for social services and pretend that volunteers will take up the slack, but free labor isn't the main, or even the worst, aspect of Powell's volunteer crusade. More dangerous by far is the ideology it's trying to build: the fascist idea that everyone should pull together, with feeling, for the sake of the nation. The biggest threat to the United States, says Powell, is "young people who don't believe in the American Dream." That's a lot of young people, and for good reason. What can Powell and his fellow capitalists offer them besides bloody oil wars, brutal exploitation, and a popular culture of decadence and desperation? And how will they get these youth to fight their wars for profit?Powell's "Alliance for Youth" showcases companies like Kmart and the Bank of Boston which promise "mentors" who will tutor children and take them to work or to the zoo. But the core of the program is to organize the youth themselves. The Chicago public schools, for example, are organizing Boy Scout troops and recruiting police officers as scoutmasters. Watch for such groups to become the new Hitler Youth."One of the best ways to save at-risk kids is to enroll them in service projects," remarks Newsweek. "Once they become part of the solution, they are less likely to go off track." All public-school students in Maryland, and many others in school districts around the country, are required to do "community service" in order to get their diplomas.How great a step would it be to require all youth to sign up for a year or two in a "National Service Corps"? And from there, how great a step to draft them into the Army when the U.S. rulers need to send hundreds of thousands of ground troops into the oil fields?The rulers take the desires of many young people to participate in social activities, especially the kinds that help other people, and distort those feelings into patriotism. PLP members should also participate in these organizations and activities, to win youth against volunteerism for the profit system and into the Party.Communists aren't against volunteering in the service of the working class. The PLP relies on thousands of workers and youth who give their time and energy to build the communist movement. After communist revolution, all production will depend on workers' voluntary commitment to meet the needs of our class. That's exactly the opposite of the volunteer movement Powell is building for the bosses. He wants workers and youth to unite with the biggest capitalists to keep society together. He cynically twists our desire to help others -- children, the homeless, the elderly -- into support for the system that starves the children, throws workers into the street, and discards the elderly once they no longer produce profits for the bosses. Don't volunteer for capitalist slavery. Volunteer for communism.
A bill proposed in the U.S. Congress would force public housing residents to work for free for eight hours a month. They call it "volunteering". Already, prison inmates are working as near-slaves. Welfare recipients have to work for their food stamps and meager checks. Now they want people to work for free for the "privilege" of living in public housing.Some "wanna-be-bigger" political hacks in Chicago like Jesse Jackson, Jr. and former Black Panther Bobby Rush are opposing this bill. They're trying to build themselves up as leaders in the fight against fascist attacks. But they oppose the only way to destroy fascism: they oppose communist revolution. They have found a way to make the capitalist system serve themselves and they support it all the way.The Congressmen who are introducing this racist bill have a different agenda. They are part of the "new money" wing of the ruling class who are organizing a racist, openly fascist movement to support their bid for power.It's no exaggeration to say capitalism equals slavery. Those in power today are billionaires because they've worked people to death while paying no wages or low wages. As their system crumbles, they need to squeeze more and more out of the working class: lower wages and slave labor are the order of the day. How much more can we take? The time for slavery is over. The time for communist revolution is now.
Some NJ Comrades worry that Challenge "may be going off the deep end" (Letter 4/23) . On the contrary, it's going off the deep end to think that what's going on these days reflects the usual "squabbles."
Every day there's a new attack on Clinton. Or Gingrich. Or the FBI. The politicians have been crooked forever--that's not what's new. What's new is the attacks. Something more than squabbling is going on.
No, it doesn't all neatly fit into "new money" vs. "old money". Some capitalists are trying to play it both ways. The alignments are loose and within each wing there are disagreements. But the main thing is that this power struggle is becoming more pronounced and more vicious. . As time goes on, the sides will become better defined.
It's true that capitalists are always at odds with each other. But in the current situation, there are two powerful groups of capitalists, one in power and the other, a serious contender for power. The majority of military bases, for example, are in the South and West, and many of the top brass are more loyal to the "new money" forces than the Rockefellers. Capitalists don't resolve their power struggles peacefully, unless one side can overwhelm the other.
The other factor is that there's no world communist movement for the capitalists to unite against. As our Party grows, that will change and could affect the speed at which the rulers move towards civil war. But it's very naive to say, as Some NJ Comrades do, that the only civil war that can possibly occur in the U.S. is revolutionary war. Look at history, and read the newspapers, because civil war is definitely the direction in which things are moving. .
Some Chicago Comrades
Some NJ comrades wrote to disagree with recent Challenge articles about a split in the ruling class and the possibility of civil war. I think these comrades fail to see the growing weakness, the isolation and desperation of U.S. imperialism. The top bosses are preparing for a Middle East war which their domestic competitors find against their interests.
Unocal just lost a "landmark" lawsuit and has been held liable for human rights abuses in Myanmar (Burma). Not only that, but the French company Total is also held liable in the same lawsuit. t. Total and Unocal were in partnership with the Myanmar government. "This pipeline will primarily supply gas to Thailand, making it a key piece of the company's Asia strategy" (LA Times) . The way I read it, the top U.S. oil companies, using their control of the state, are punishing Unocal for being in business with their French competitors. In the first U.S. civil war, the northern industrialists could not tolerate the southern slaveholders being in league with the British industrialists.
There are many signs of this sharpening fight. The fight is taking place within the FBI, the CIA, and the army. Both sides are building a base for their position. The militias are growing. Rocky and Co. are using the unions, multi-culturalism, and now the festival in Philadelphia with Colin Powell and Clinton calling for a new volunteerism among youth-- all to help build nationalism and prepare for their Middle East war. The fight in the ruling class will get sharper as war approaches. We don't know exactly how this fight will play itself out, but communists must be clear on the nature of the fight, and the nature of the period.
Oil companies on both sides of the split are fighting for market share and control. For example, many U.S. oil companies are in the Gulf of Mexico. Several are in Central Asia. But, as Marx said, one capitalist kills many. At some point, some will win and some will lose. Open civil war is very possible--well before PLP leads a revolution. The different fascist bosses are building a base for their lines. We have to be even more determined to win workers to the only alternative: communism.
California Reader
A group of communist students met to organize a new PLP club at the Central University of Ecuador as it becomes more and more chaotic. We have discussed the importance for the working class to actively participate in the May Day March.
Today, we are angry as we see how workers are being called by fake leftists to march on May Day under the banners of pacifism and electoralism. The rulers are organizing a referendum, trying to deceive workers into believing that voting is the way to change things. And the fake leftists are part of that deceit.
They all want us to turn away from communism. But let's remember that this will be the fifth national election since Ecuador became a "democracy." In a previous referendum, people voted against privatization, but now the rulers are privatizing everything. So, what good are these referedums? They only benefit the bosses.
PLP as always called on workers to celebrate May Day and turn it into a real workers' day. If, over a century ago workers raised the demand of an 8-hour workday, today we must raise the fight for a communist society. We don't want crumbs, we want everything.
Our club will continue fighting for communism. Join us!
Red Students
I am writing to correct a mistake. Several weeks ago a comrade at Metro (Transit) in Washington wrote in a letter how the English Miners' strike (1984-85) had been supported by the British Labour Party. Unfortunately our comrade is mistaken. Neither the Labour Party, nor the official Union movement--the TUC--supported the miners. The Labour Party attacked them continually because they had failed to take a secret ballot on whether or not to strike. 152,000 miners fought a militant year-long strike with no official support. Instead they had tremendous support from workers and students all over Britain and Europe. In fact Challenge pointed out how more workers had supported the miners than voted for the Labour Party in the elections that followed. Despite a militant battle--which included occupation of pits, mass battles with the police like the three day battle at Orgreave, the death of scabs, widespread use of gunpowder to attack scab vehicles etc. --the miners lost.
In many respects the strike was similar to the one Willie Gallacher {Gallagher???} led among Glasgow shipyard workers after World War I. It was militant and it too lost. "We were carrying on a strike," Willie said afterwards, "when we ought to have been making a revolution." Almost 80 years later his advice still rings in our ears.
More recently bus drivers in Ruta 100 in Mexico City put up a fight against privatization and lost. The fact is strikes, militancy or trade unionism have little significant effect on wage levels or job security. In this system it is the needs of capitalist accumulation that fundamentally decide such things.
"If we don't learn the lessons of history," Karl Marx once said, "We are doomed to repeat them."
Bay Area Comrade
On April 15th, President Clinton visited my Junior High School in Brooklyn, NY to give a talk about "No Smoking" . On that morning the school was like an armed camp. Secret Service members swarmed all about with police officers and security guards, snipers could be spotted from nearby rooftops, and radio signals were jammed from leaving and entering the building.
The president gave his speech about no smoking because he supposedly cares about America's youth. He doesn't care because he cut many health care programs so families in need do not benefit, and children starve. He also wants to influence the youth because its the youth who serve in the military during war. For Clinton, it was a strategical scam.
No opposition was allowed. The press only interviewed people who were willing to say good things about the president. No one was allowed to ask any questions, and as far as I'm concerned, on that day a dictatorship reigned the school. Several kids tried to oppose, in the form of booing, including myself. However, as Hitler did in World War II, here on a smaller scale, opposition was eliminated. Anyone who was caught booing was thrown out.
Brooklyn Youth
Last week "An Observer"" wrote to explain that the top U.S. bosses don't want to pay farmworkers high wages. We agree with that statement. The trouble is, the article (about the AFL-CIO march supporting California strawberry workers) that Observer criticizes, never said that the top bosses wanted to pay high wages to farmworkers. It said they wanted to use the unions to control workers and win workers and youth to side with the top bosses in their war plans. And to help force smaller bosses out of business. Farmworkers under union contract make $5.50 per hour. These are not high wages.
The question that "Observer" avoids is, "Why are the unions organizing the farmworkers?" Should communists applaud this, or be neutral about it? Of course, many of the participants are motivated by a desire to improve the life of the workers. Are the unions independent from the ruling class and from developing war and fascism? Are they just out to collect union dues? They're not going to get a lot of money from workers making $5.50 an hour. We think that Party members should be in the unions in order to build the Party. . It will help if we understand the nature of the unions, their role in winning workers ideologically to the lie that capitalism can be reformed to meet our needs, and their role in the fight within the ruling class. Rocky and Co. are out to win workers to war. What role does Observer think the unions and the movement to build unions play?
Some participants
The disagreement over the existence of the Old/New Money splits in the letters page is misguided but raises points that need clarification. First, "New Money" is just a way to characterize the weaker, secondary faction of big capitalism; and it may not be the best way. As the writers point out Texaco is somewhat old and is called new money. By the same token, Microsoft is new on the scene but is clearly financed by and aligned with the larger, dominant Rockefeller wing.
Second, the weaker faction has some past and present members such as Roger Millikan[MILLIKEN???] and southern textile interests that fight foreign trade and back Pat Buchanan; some of Reagan's ' kitchen cabinet members like Salvatori of Union Oil and Justin Dart of Dart Industries; Nixon's Cuban exile and mafia capitalists like Bebe Rebozo and Santo Traficante; J. Edgar Hoover's pals in Schenley Liquor; the mineral and oil interests of the Kochs, Bunker Hunts and Sid Richardsons and the Rockefeller wing turncoats like Richard Mellon Scaife who took their money and blasted their former patrons. Third, fascism is a strategy that can be used selectively or systemwide by either faction; as can a war strategy. At this moment the Rockefellers seem most bent on war and the secondary faction on building up their fascist reserves; but this could change in a heartbeat. Capitalist war is really no more than fascism writ large.
Fourth, the secondary faction could be called isolationism/Fortress America or the Upstart Faction. This is because neither the newness of their money nor their geographic region determines which faction they are in. Which capitalist belongs to which faction is determined by their political/economic stance. Just as politics ultimately determines which are the real class lines; it must also determine the factional arrangement.
Finally, just because there may be some looseness in definition, there is no reason to assume that these factions don't exist. The people and their backers that blow up federal buildings, assemble letter bombs, assassinate Rockefeller politicians and civil rights leaders, shoot it out with the FBI or DEA, or rob banks or attack the UN, NATO and the World Trade organization are not playing games. They are flexing their muscles and putting the Rockefellers on notice that they are not invulnerable.
A Comrade
Lesson number one: To fight for a society without Fujimori, Clinton, Toyota, GM and all those who make our lives a living hell. A mass communist party of workers, soldiers and youth must be built. A small group of heroic guerrilla commandos, like the MRTA group who took over the embassy, can never defeat the bosses.
Lesson number two: Never trust any capitalists or their lackeys. Cerpia, the head of the MRTA group, trusted the Japanese imperialists who favored a negotiated end to the takeover, and ended up being murdered along with his fellow MRTA guerrillas. MRTA is not a Marxist organization as the press keeps saying. Rather it is a group that split from APRA, which ruled Peru before Fujimori, MRTA trusted Bishop Cipriani to negotiate a peaceful solution, and the Bishop helped bring in hidden microphones in guitars and religious figures, that were used by the military officers taken as hostages to communicate with their fellow officers outside. MRTA treated their hostages with kid gloves, releasing dozens of CIA agents and other murderers and exploiters; the army responded by executing the entire MRTA group.
Lesson number three: The imperialist dogfight for the control of Latin America rages on. The CIA, through their agent, Vladimir Montesinos (a known friend of the Peruvian drug mafia and Fujimori's Rasputin), organized from the beginning to storm the Japanese ambassador's home. MRTA thought they could escape with their lives playing one imperialist against another. But the U.S. bosses were willing to sacrifice everyone, even the Japanese diplomats and bosses taken as hostages, to show that they won't easily let go of Latin America. There is a lot at stake in Latin America. Peru is rich in oil and other minerals. It borders on Brazil, which along with Argentina, is the center of the big car war between U.S., Japanese and European auto bosses for that growing market (it could overtake Germany as the third largest market for cars).
Lesson number four: Fujimori-Montesinos victory won't last too long. The 50% of Peruvians who live under extreme poverty and the millions more who can barely make it, will not accept this misery and exploitation forever. The fight for a communist society, in which production will serve the needs of the workers, most of the population, instead of the few like today, will put and end to these bosses' and all bosses' smiles.
We instigated a teach-in, attended by hundreds of students, documenting tortures and mass murders in Central America organized by North and the U.S. government and how these were related to events in the oil-rich Persian Gulf.
Before North's talk began, PLP members and other students formed a line with signs that read, "Become a Lt. Colonel, Kill thousands of people, and get rewarded with thousands of dollars from a Quaker College??" Another sign read, "Turn the guns around, defeat U.S. imperialism with Communist PLP."
While a few racist students backed North, our protest received support from students gathering in front of the auditorium. A bullhorn rally included speeches from PLP comrades about North's role in tortures and killings in Central America and about the need for communism. About 300 leaflets calling students to come to May Day were distributed, along with 20 copies of Challenge.
The protesters held up their signs in the auditorium. Huge banners unfurled from the balcony indicted North for U.S.-sponsored murders in Central America: "Guatemala 200,000 dead; El Salvador 70,000 dead; Nicaragua 140,000 dead."
The protest exposed North as a fascist and a murderer. His words about the U.S. Constitution did not save him from hissing and booing throughout the talk, particularly when he displayed his own racism against a black student.
After the talk many students commended our efforts. A professor, one of those who spoke at the teach-in, asked the PLP members if he could come to one of our meetings. We definitely had an impact at Haverford. The next step is to continue the struggle to take it to a new level-- recruiting new comrades to the PLP.
Capitalists are terrified by such a reality. That is why they use their power to create a history that narrows our achievements. An individual primarillooks out for himself or, at best, after "his own," they say. And for those they can't convince with this "dog eat dog" philosophy, they offer religion and a community of souls after death.
But communism surpasses the mythical "Kingdom of Heaven," by insisting on the need for the comradeship on Earth. Revolution is possible. History shows us that. Oppressors exist to be overthrown. Exploitation where masses of wage workers produce profits for a handful of capitalists is fundamentally anti-social. Liberation, or heaven, is for us to grasp here and now. The wage workers of the world need to organize a revolution for communism. Then society will be organized in such a way as to meet the primary needs of humankind -- our social ones.
We can get a glimpse at the promise this future holds by looking back at earlier revolutions. During the Great Leap Forward in China (1958 -62) "people went by the millions from quiet villages and carefully tended fields to build dams in the wilderness, dig canals that changed the course of rivers, open mines wherever ore or coal could be found, and smelt iron and steel on the spot. With...high hopes and infectious zeal, they challenged nature. Never had China's future seemed so bright. Chao T'ung-min, the first member of a Chinese village to join the iron smelting effort said, `Every time I recall those days I am filled with happiness.'" (Shenfan by William Hinton)
Millions of Chinese took part in the historic changes of that era. They did it because they had an understanding that their efforts were advancing humankind. . They did it for the same reason that people care for other people's children or [????]church members deliver meals to invalids. All share a sense of commitment and responsibility, an understanding that what they are doing is basic.
Earlier in this series, we said that communism is all about organizing society to meet human needs. But when we realize that human needs are primarily social, then we unleash enormous energy. Think about your workplace. What if the workers had a chance to produce things society definitely needed. Think about the enthusiasm and energy that would create. This has nothing to do with money and everything to do with a meaningful existence.
During the building of the first workers' state, people showed incredible energy and motivation. An example from the Soviet Union during World War II comes from a book, Russia at War by Alexander Werth, a British correspondent who was in the USSR during the war. He described the amazing feats performed by Soviet workers when the Nazi Army invaded their socialist country in 1941. The Nazis were pretty sure of themselves in those days, having conquered several capitalist counties during 1939 and 1940. They had taken Poland in 28 days, Holland in 4 days, France in 34 days. The Soviet workers and soldiers gave the German invaders a different kind of reception.
These workers had built their Soviet power with their own hands for 24 years. In order to keep the Nazis from capturing factories needed to supply the war effort, workers packed up entire plants, put them on railroad cars and moved them to safe locations thousands of miles behind the front lines. These were workers' factories and they weren't going to let them fall into capitalists hands!
"All together between July and November 1941 no fewer than 1,523 industrial enterprises, including 1,360 large war plants had been moved to the east ... a total of one and a half million railway wagon-loads.
"During the war, I had the opportunity of talking to many workers, both men and women, who had been evacuated to the Urals or Siberia during the grim autumn or early winter months of 1941. The story of how whole industries and millions of people had been moved to the east, of how industries were set up in a minimum of time, in appallingly difficult conditions, and of how these industries managed to increase production to an enormous extent during 1942, was, above all, a story of incredible endurance. ... People worked because they knew that it was absolutely necessary-they worked twelve, thirteen, sometimes fourteen or fifteen hours a day; they "lived on their nerves"; they knew that never was their work more urgently needed than now. ... while the soldiers were suffering and risking so much [fighting against the Nazis] it was not for the civilians to shirk even the most crippling, most heartbreaking work."
Werth goes on to quote a local newspaper account from Sverdlovsk, a city in the Ural mountains:
"Winter had already come when Sverdlovsk received Comrade Stalin's order to erect two buildings for the plant evacuated from the south. The trains packed with machinery and people were on the way. The war factory had to start production in its new home-and it had to do so in not more than a fortnight. Fourteen days, and not an hour more! It was then that the people of the Urals came to this spot with shovels, bars and pickaxes: students, typists, accountants, shop assistants, housewives, artists, teachers. The earth was like stone, frozen hard by our fierce Siberian frost. Axes and pickaxes could not break the stony soil. In the light of arc-lamps, people hacked at the earth all night. They blew up the stones and the frozen earth, and they laid the foundations. ... Their feet and hands were swollen with frostbite, but they did not leave work. Over the charts and blueprints laid out on packing cases, the blizzard was raging. Hundreds of trucks kept rolling up with the building materials... On the twelfth day, into the new buildings with their glass roofs, the machinery, covered with hoar-frost, began to arrive. Braziers were kept alight to unfreeze the machines. ...And two days later, the war factory began production."
Capitalists would like us to believe all their fabulous lies about workers being slaves under Stalin's leadership. But most of all they want us to believe the even more fabulous lie: that we live and work only to fill our stomachs. They think we are dogs. Let them think it. It will prove a fatal illusion.
Our revolutionary history shows us the energy and creativity unleashed when we change society to produce in a way to fulfill our social needs. But we haven't seen anything yet. Previous revolutions were too impressed by capitalist arguments and traditions. They hesitated and mistakenly kept material incentives and its wage system. Even a drastically modified wage system emphasizes an alienated, anti-social consciousness and undermines a collective one. The communist revolution PLP will lead will unleash the productive powers of masses to meet the social needs of humankind. . Political incentives will rally our cause and material incentives will be found in the museum along with other useless relics of a past age.