Challenge, July 16

Workers in New York City are outraged that there will be no murder indictment against cop Pellegrini for the cold-blooded killing of 16-year old Kevin Cedeno three months ago. Pellegrini shot Cedeno in the back, later claiming the youth was holding a machete — though no machete was ever found. A grand jury let this killer cop off, as grand juries do 99 per cent of the time.

Pellegrini’s racist 33^rd precinct buddies named him "cop of the month" after he’d killed Cedeno. They have no shame, no remorse, no regrets at what he did because attacking black and latin youth is the biggest part of their daily work.

One hundred fifty demonstrators picketed the precinct on July 5th. They plan to return every Saturday until "justice be done." It’s good that workers want to take action against police brutality. But justice can’t be done under capitalism. Cops harass, beat, and frame young workers, especially black and latin young men, every day of the year. This is their job: to terrorize the working class so that it will passively accept the bosses’ body blows as the crisis of capitalism sharpens. Even if Pellegrini were indicted, even if he were convicted, even if he did time — and those are three big "ifs" — there would still be no "justice" for workers under the racist bosses’ system.

Because of the system’s crisis, the bosses have built a fascist police state to attack workers and keep the lid on boiling militancy. Workers are angry at a system that cannot provide jobs or a satisfactory life for tens of millions. So the system must increase police brutality to keep the masses in check. Almost two million workers are in U.S. prisons, the highest imprisonment rate in the world. Fascism can’t be stopped by praying over it, voting against it, or even by marching against it. Only workers organized into a mass communist party can smash this deadly system.

The racism of the cops and the courts is an attack on the whole working class. Nationalists who present it as a "black versus white" thing try to hide the role of black cops, black lawyers, black judges and black prosecutors in locking up black youth. The nationalists and white liberals want us to believe that "justice" is possible in a "multi-cultural" capitalism.

The response to the first OJ trial showed the mass distrust that black workers have of the bosses’ criminal "justice." Because of their own experience with cops and courts, millions rightly saw nazi policeman Furman as a symbol of the system . Even if OJ was guilty, they preferred a verdict of innocence to a victory for the cops. The masses are right about the criminal justice system but many still cling to the idea that capitalism can be reformed, that there can be justice.

Justice is a class question. How can it exist in a system whose very existence depends on mass exploitation? Whose very survival depends on dividing the exploited on so-called "racial" lines and thus conquering them? Capitalism is in dire straits. International competition is driving its rulers to ever more intense levels of racist exploitation as it inevitably sinks towards deeper fascism and war.

There can’t be any justice here. That’s why we need to organize for revolution. That’s why we need to fight for communism. That’s why everyone who’s angry about the murder of Kevin Cedeno, and the failure to indict cop Pellegrini, should join the PLP.

Al Sharpton, who is running in the Democratic Party mayoral primary, is organizing demonstrations against Pellegrini. After the grand jury verdict, he took a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno in Washington, demanding a federal investigation.

Sharpton ought to know about federal investigations. He himself was exposed, years ago, as an informer for the FBI. For his loyalty, the bosses have made him one of their main political agents in the mass movement. His job: to create the appearance of anti-racist militancy and then deflect workers’ class hatred into the dead-ends of reformism and electoral politics. Sharpton’s appeal to Reno for "justice" in the Cedeno-Pellegrini case serves only to misguide workers’ anger into reliance on the very racist system responsible for countless murders. Sharpton is the pawn of the fascist bosses, doing their bidding by building a "protest" movement that chains workers to capitalism .

Sharpton, the racist cops, and the courts are all part of a state machinery the capitalist bosses use to terrorize the working class. The leading fascists are in the federal government.. Janet Reno is known for butchering the wacko cultists at Waco. Before that, she built her reputation on pushing the death penalty — always brutally racist — in Florida. Her current position makes her the lord-high executioner for the biggest bosses in the country.

Reno plays it both ways. She poses as a champion of "democracy" as the Federal justice department hunts down the fascist militias, enemies of the eastern establishment. On the other hand her main role is to unleash killer cops, to maintain a system that forces millions to live in sub-human conditions.

As the Wall Street capitalists intensify their fascism, they will throw more and more workers in jail. They will murder more and more workers, especially when they send our youth to become killers and cannon fodder in another Mid-East oil war to protect Exxon’s profits.

Every time the cops murder a young worker we must make them pay ten times over by winning new recruits to the revolutionary struggle that will bury them forever. We will destroy their racist system with communist revolution. Join the PLP summer project, and make that day come sooner.

Oakland, CA, July 8— Last week AC Transit workers ratified a new three-year contract that is an exercise in social fascism. On several issues, from part-timing to workfare to wages and pensions, the union tried to put a happy face on a rotten system. We have part-timing, but we have the best part-timing. We’ll allow workfare if it means funding for the bosses, but it’ll be union wage workfare. We’ll promise you a good pension [if the stock market doesn’t crash], but you’ll have to sacrifice your wages to get it.Largely on the strength of the pension promises, the contract passed by a 67%-33% margin. However, at the Emeryville Division, the center of PLP’s communist organizing, the margin was reduced to 55%-45%. This fact was not lost on several union activists who credited PLP’s long-term, consistent organizing (we were the only organized opposition) for the difference. One driver said, "You’re the only ones who consistently oppose the union leaders, and it really shows."Communist agitation and mass Challenge readership have inspired workers. This inspiration lays the foundation for political change. Our communist political agitation has more appeal than narrow trade unionism. Our friends’ visions of the future of the world don’t include fascism or a union which collaborates with it. As the economic crisis sharpens, our choices are narrowing. Workers are more open to a communist vision of the future. "That’s what we need to be talking about," said a new member of a PLP study group. More workers are now interested in these study groups. We hope to win them to help distribute Challenge and build communist influence among others.The primary aspect of the contract is FASCISM (not its social cover). The capitalists demand lower wages and workfare is a key weapon. ATU 192 leaders, under pressure from PLP, said there would be "no workfare language in the contract." Yet the contract reads, "The District (AC Transit) will not participate in any ‘workfare’ program wherein welfare recipients work in ATU classifications for their welfare payment. If ordered by outside forces, under the risk of losing funding, the District may screen and hire such recipients into ATU classifications at the regular rates of pay." (Our emphasis, Ed.)At Monday’s post-contract union meeting, a PLP member explained that workfare is a fascist program designed to force millions of new workers into the labor market without creating more jobs. More desperate workers chasing fewer jobs means lower wages. Employers like it because workfare subsidizes wages of new workers (raising profits) and creates another incentive to get rid of older workers. That relatively few workfare workers may receive union wages (unions are only 10% of the workforce) doesn’t undermine the fascist nature of the program. Communists oppose workfare because it is a political attack on the working class; our opposition is not based on a narrow trade unionist view that it will hurt workers in our shop, company, or industry.Further, PLP reminded workers that government funding was the same bait used to start part-timing in 1980 and the union had taken the bait, hook, line and sinker. The rationale here is that we must not risk the loss of government funding because AC bosses depend on that funding for AC’s operation. Accepting workfare because it’s good for AC bosses is just another step on the unrelenting march to fascism.Underlying these developments are two false assumptions. One is that capitalism, corporations and CEO’s will be around forever. The unions say we must be partners with them(no matter how fascist they become). The second is that workers are too weak to fight back and cannot govern ourselves. Challenge and our PLP study groups are taking dead aim at these assumptions. We know that capitalism’s days are numbered and we are on the unrelenting march toward communism.

Los Angeles — "They’re like the death squads. They come when you’re sleeping and they come armed to the teeth," said José, a garment worker. He was talking about a new form of deportation being used by the Migra (Immigration and Naturalization Service, or INS). Smiling Bill Clinton plans to deport 93,000 workers during this year, mainly immigrants from Mexico and Central America. Thirty-five percent of them live in Southern California. The majority are workers who are under order of deportation. The INS "Special Deportation Force" comes to apartments or factories at 6am or before, looking for these individual workers. Then they investigate everyone else there and deport anyone who can’t produce legal documents. If the person they’re looking for no longer happens to live there, the undocumented immigrants present are the ones taken. Leonard Kovensky, chief of the INS Department of Deportations, said, "It can be very painful, but it’s our responsibility to carry out the law." That’s what the Nazis said when they began deporting Jewish people and then sending them to gas chambers!The INS budget has doubled to $3.1 billion in the last three years, for more INS agents and for new prisons. But the crisis of U.S. capitalism means there’s no money for hospitals or welfare. LA County Hospital is currently threatened with being closed. Prison slave labor and workfare are being implemented on a greater scale. Workers’ wages are being slashed.Central American rulers, who constantly attack the workers, and latin politicians here have asked Clinton to carry out the deportations in a "humanitarian" manner. An immigrants’ rights group in Florida won a temporary stay of the search-and-deport operation there while the court decides whether the raids are legal. The reformists push passivity and build dangerous illusions about the bosses’ courts. The deportations are part of how capitalism in crisis terrorizes and divides the working class, lowering wages for all.Communist revolution will smash all bordersFascist deportations are a key part of the big bosses’ plan to amass $billions for the next oil war and to win U.S. workers and youth to fight for the U.S. bosses’ profits. Even as Clinton says, "we have to talk about racism," he and other liberals base their plans on racist terror. Capitalism in crisis offers workers only poverty, racism and war. Workers from every country need a mass communist Party, the PLP, to destroy the bosses’ fascism. Every deportation should lead to more angry workers joining PLP in order to stand up to the bosses’ terror and to build a mass revolutionary movement to destroy all borders and capitalist state power.José, would you like to live in a world without borders, deportations, death squads, a world where you can work according to your commitment and receive according to your needs? If your answer is "Yes," then join PLP and together we’ll fight for a communist society.

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO HOSPITALS, July 8— Since the end of May, five workers have been fired, or suspended pending investigation, for stealing. Four were arrested, and some are said to have drug problems. Who did what is not the point here. But these events raise three important questions: Why is this happening now? Who are the real thieves? What do we do about the drug plague affecting every worker’s life? Why Now? These are the first fruits of the new contract between the Hospitals and Teamster Local 743. But they are not the only ones. At least two more have been fired for making personal phone calls. Workers are being pushed more, harassment is up, morale is down, dozens of new hires are coming in at lower wages and benefits, and the bosses are throwing parties.This is a far cry from what was happening during the contract fight. The workers were on the offensive and the bosses were scared. They were afraid of a strike. They were afraid of a major disruption of the new SCAM outpatient center. And they were afraid of the growing influence of communist ideas and the PLP. But on April 8th, the union signed the contract even though 75% of the members voted to reject. We weren’t strong enough to overcome this. Passivity and cynicism affected some workers, fueling their self-destructive behavior. The lesson is: giving in to the fascist bosses is deadly. Fighting back, especially with communist ideas pointing the way to armed revolution and a world without wage slavery, brings out the best in people. Who Are The Real Thieves? Being fired for stealing is a joke. Capitalism is based on stealing, and the bosses are the biggest thieves of all. The working class produces everything of value, but we own nothing. The bosses produce nothing, but own everything we produce! They steal our labor power, they steal our jobs, they steal our futures. In this period of worldwide capitalist crisis, these thieves have fallen out. In the name of "competition," bosses around the world are fighting for cheap labor, markets, and resources, especially oil. They have also fallen out within their own borders. Wars and civil wars are killing millions of workers and children in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. The U.S. is not immune. The chickens will come home to roost. It’s inevitable that such a system will produce millions of small time imitators. "If they steal, why can’t I?" The problem is, it’s not our system. When workers steal, it’s firings and jail. When the bosses steal, they get bonuses and buildings named after them.

Drugs are a plague on the working class. Countless lives have been snuffed out by the rulers’ drug trade. It comes in by the plane load, protected by the government and cops. Any worker who uses drugs is committing suicide. Any worker who sells them is doing the bosses’ dirty work. The "War on Drugs" is just an excuse to fill the jails with young black men and throw away the key. Drug testing is just a way to harass workers while cutting insurance and health care costs.Just like the cops know every dope house, the bosses know who uses drugs. They use us up, then toss us out like garbage. Capitalism can never solve the drug problem it has created. To put an end to the drug trade, we must take on the gangs, Mafia, police, and government. In a word: Revolution! For that to happen, we need a PLP of millions, with guns in our hands and a clear vision of a communist future. As long as we remain wage slaves, our lives aren’t worth a damn.

The racist cop of the week is Yasir Arafat and his elite Palestinian security group, "Force 17."Thousands of angry Palestinians demonstrated in Gaza City on July 1st, protesting the death of Nasser Radwan. Nasser, a 28-year-old father of three, was the 14th Palestinian to die in the custody of "Fascist 17." Cops picked him up on June 23rd after he confronted the wife of a "Fascist 17" member and demanded that she dress more modestly (a sexist religious belief). Several hours later, Nasser was admitted to a hospital with a fractured skull, along with bruises on his arms and legs and other signs of beatings.Arafat recently met with a senior Israeli general and agreed to resume security cooperation between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli fascists after a three-month freeze. This meeting reportedly took place after several contacts with—lo and behold, the people who know fascist police terror best—American security forces.The fruits of Arafat’s meeting with the Israelis were soon evident. Dozens of Palestinian youth broke away from a demonstration organized by the Hamas fundamentalist group which opposes Arafat. The youth started throwing rocks and gasoline bombs at Israeli soldiers. The soldiers responded with rubber-coated bullets.The increasing rage of Palestinian workers at Arafat and his fascist pack of dogs will only intensify. Many once looked to the nationalist Arafat to defend them from the Israeli fascists. Now their growing frustration has led them to follow the Hamas fundamentalist fascists, and its terrorist wing, Qassam.These fascist outfits will only lead them into the arms of another, equally vicious, set of bosses. A cop is a cop is a cop. Nationalism isn’t the answer. Religion isn’t the answer. Only communism can free workers from the increasingly brutal dictatorship of the capitalist class.

BOSTON, June 25 — The "Concerned Parents of the Boston Renaissance Charter School" have been confronting the school administration in meeting after meeting. Parents’ complaints included them and their children being treated disrespectfully, poor quality of education, favoritism in discipline, and high teacher turnover. They’re angry about the lack of services for children with learning problems. These children have been ignored, warehoused in an isolated room, or harassed out of the school.Parents sent their children here to escape the racism and the rotten education of the Public Schools, only to find the same, or worse at this Charter School. PLP has been involved with parents who are fighting the conditions at the Renaissance School, but our main role is to expose the capitalist crisis as the reason these conditions exist.Public schools fail us because they are capitalist institutions. The public schools promise to be the "great equalizer that will guarantee all hardworking children a chance to rise out of the working class." Their real purpose is to reproduce class inequality in the next generation, feeding the economic, political and military needs of capitalism. All our disappointment and anger as parents flow from this contradiction.The ruling class pushes reforms like the Charter Schools to maintain our illusions. Charter Schools are publicly funded but freed from the rules and policies of the Board of Education and the teachers’ unions. They are supposed to be a competitive model for public schools. The money to fund each Charter School student comes from the local school district. If many students leave a public school district, it loses money and could shut down.On the surface, this looks like a reasonable solution to rotten public schools. But it’s wrong! The Charter Schools blame teachers and their unions for the failure of the public schools. Some teachers do fall in step with the bosses’ low expectations for working class children. But taking away their job security only gives the administration more power, making matters worse for students and teachers.The 1993 Education Reform Act aimed to cut government spending for education. As with transportation, health care, and housing, the government is privatizing public schools. Governor Weld has been pushing privatization hard in Massachusetts. The Renaissance School, the country’s largest charter school, is his baby. The Edison Project, which runs the school, was founded by Chris Whittle, who wowed investors, teachers and parents alike with his "vision." He compares his project to Thomas Edison’s invention of the light bulb. New York investment bankers Goldman, Sachs and Dillon, Read have invested millions in Whittle, and are waiting for the dividends to start rolling in. So profit drives Whittle’s educational decisions.Last year, when the Renaissance School needed money, they increased class size from the 20 that had been promised to the present level of 28. They hired mostly young, unseasoned teachers and didn’t provide the support staff they needed. They have ignored the Individual Education Plans of many special needs children. Like all good salesmen, Whittle packaged his product well, with an impressive curriculum guide. But profit interfered with its delivery.Renaissance School parents have targeted headmistress Barbara Wager for her cold-blooded management style and boot camp mentality toward discipline. But even if parents got her removed, Whittle would hire another Wager to protect his profits. We need to build a movement that will destroy the system that keeps people like Wager and Whittle in the driver’s seat. Progressive Labor Party members involved in this struggle are helping some parents and teachers to understand how capitalism ruins education, whether schools are run by a school committee or a for-profit company.Under capitalism, "you get what you pay for," and working class families suffer because they can’t pay for much. Under communism, society will be organized by the principle, "from each according to commitment, to each according to need." By abolishing profit and money, a communist society can begin to meet the needs of all human beings.

BRUSSELS, July 4— "Happy Independence Day," European Union (EU) representatives told the U.S. bosses. A key EU competition panel recommended unanimously today that the Boeing-McDonnell Douglas merger should be blocked unless the deal is substantially changed. "The threat of a trade war between the U.S. and Europe looms," reports The Financial Times.The European bosses are demanding, among other things, that Boeing cancel exclusive contracts with Delta, American, and Continental Airlines. The European Commission expects to make a final decision on July 23rd . If Boeing doesn’t "offer adequate remedies," the EU could fine Boeing up to $5 billion/year—equivalent to 10% of the enlarged Boeing’s turnover. Washington hoped to preempt European action by rushing through a favorable anti-trust ruling by the FTC Wednesday, but the EU commission refused to go along.Trade war between the U.S. and the EU is already under way, and the U.S. bosses are rapidly losing ground. U.S. aerospace exports to western Europe fell over seven and a half billion dollars between 1991 and 1995 (while aerospace imports from the EU dropped by only half a billion dollars over the same period).Overall, U.S. imports from western Europe increased over 40% during that period, while exports to western Europe only grew about 14%. In 1991, the U.S. was a net exporter to the EU, but in 1995 it was a net importer. By 1995, too, EU capitalists had $325 billion invested in the U.S., while U.S. direct investment in the EU that year was only $315 billion. That is, the U.S. had become a net importer of capital, relative to the EU The U.S. and EU bosses are also competing fiercely for the world’s big emerging markets. The EU is Argentina’s largest overseas trading partner, and is edging out the U.S. to become the leading exporter to Brazil. European trade with Turkey got a boost from the recent European customs union.France and Germany are moving aggressively into China and are challenging U.S. capitalism even in Taiwan. EU capitalists are maintaining their lead over the U.S. in Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, and Vietnam, and they are pushing into Thailand. In India, says the Commerce Department, the EU poses "the main threat to U.S. trade," especially "in sectors of key importance to U.S. firms: aerospace, power, telecommunications." In sum, the U.S. trade position worldwide is declining with respect to the EUThe EU commission’s July 4th threats against Boeing-McDonnell Douglas are the latest in an escalating war of words—fighting words. The twenty-year exclusionary contract between Boeing and Delta, American, and Continental and the potential cancellation of this contract are both unprecedented in this industry. The source of these events, however, is anything but unprecedented in the history of capitalism. We are living through a crisis of overproduction—endemic to this system—which will lead to more trade wars. Trade wars lead to shooting wars and eventually to world war. We workers have nothing to gain by taking sides in this bosses’ battle. Our battle is to build a communist movement and the Progressive Labor Party to end capitalism, its crises and wars. In a related development, NATO meetings open on July 7th in Madrid. NATO will likely expand, adding Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary as new members. This expansion will be a boon for military contractors as these countries must now supply their armed forces with new weaponry that coordinates with NATO’s. The prospect of new weaponry sales pleases those U.S. capitalists concentrated in military production. But the NATO expansion worries strategic thinkers for the big capitalists: an expanded NATO may box Russia into a corner, endangering a U.S.-Russian strategic alliance. There are contradictions within contradictions. U.S. capitalists wish to maintain their strategic alliance with Europe at the same time as trade wars with Europe are growing. The Europeans, particularly Germany, would like to dominate Russia as a source of profits for European capital. U.S. capitalists see themselves in the same role. This is another conflict that can lead to further instability and war.

LOS ANGELES, CA, July 8 — Last minute negotiations put off a transit strike scheduled for midnight, as UTU(Transit Union) leaders and MTA managers continued to wheel and deal with the workers’ future. The crisis of capitalism leads these bosses to cut services, to cut jobs, and to cut wages.The MTA now contracts out 3% of bus lines. They want to go to 15% in three years. Unions would get the "right of first refusal," meaning that they would "bid on the contracts using mostly new hires paid $10 an hour, less than the $19 an hour paid to veteran drivers." (LA Times, 7/8/97). The union would become a sub-contractor, enforcing lower wages for new drivers. The logic of a pro-capitalist union is to become a small-time capitalist boss.The bosses pretend that bus-driving jobs, and all jobs, belong to the workers who occupy them. This is a lie. Workers don’t own "our" jobs. We don’t own anything, even though workers produce everything! The crisis facing transit workers here and all over the country is forcing thousands of workers to realize that they don’t own the job and they certainly won’t be able to pass it on to their kids. As long as the bosses own the jobs and the state, we’re under attack.That’s why workers need a mass Progressive Labor Party to fight for real communism, where value created by the workers will no longer be stolen by a small class of billionaire bosses and bankers but will become social value. Mass transit under communism will need no money or tokens, no fares. Workers will operate an efficient system, organized by them, serving the rest of the working class by transporting them where and when they are needed.

In Kampuchea (Cambodia), the two Prime Ministers have started a civil war.The ambitions of local capitalists and their overseas allies, plus the worldwide crisis of capitalism have produced one hundred armed conflicts around the world.

The colliery (coal mine) brass band came to the Albert Hall in London, played its heart out and won the All England Brass Band Championship. That’s how the film "Brassed Off" finishes. In 1984-85 the British mine workers went on strike fighting against buyouts and closures of pits. The strike was certainly one of the most heroic Britain had ever seen. Mass pitched battles with the cops such as at Orgrave in Yorkshire where miners had a running battle for three days and almost brought down the Thatcher government. There was wide strike support in Britain and many of the miners were jailed. In 1984 there were 150,000 coal miners working in Britain. By 1991 when this story takes place, there were 35,000 miners in Britain.

The film deals with a Yorkshire mining town in 1991 where the coal mine is being closed and the men being made redundant (laid off). One terrible aspect of the film is that the men are voting to make themselves redundant by accepting a bosses’ buyout offer. They are told by the union that this is the last and best offer. The union weakly calls upon the men to vote it down. The main militants in the colliery are also the members of the band. They will not sell their jobs. The movie is a joy to watch in that each of the miners’ lives is painted beautifully. I laughed and cried. The miners’ comradeship and support on the job, life’s frustrations and loves, home happiness and deep sadness all the internal struggles over what to do for the best. Workers Dug The Mines, Workers Should Own The Wealth.

However what it raises is the sale of a job rather than raising that the whole mine should belong to the working class. Our grandfathers and great grandfathers dug it, and all the great wealth that came from it was made by us — the workers. Because it doesn’t deal with this one question the film has to come out, even with the victory of the brass band, as being defeatist. It never says the capitalist system has to die in order for us to have life.

The brass band in the film is presented almost as if it were divided away from the mine. Yet in reality it was not separate but part of the working class. It was born with the mine in 1884 and looks to die with the mine’s death in 1991. It played through "two world wars, seven strikes and a depression". The interconnection between the miners’ lives at home and at work is helped by their tie with the band.

Near the end of the film, after the band’s victory, the band leader is dying from black lung. In a moving speech, he points out in his rugged working class language how his brothers and sisters are more important than the band. Although he is resigned to the pit closure, he rejects the prize and he is one with his comrades in the fight. Should we point out that the individual miners’ struggles show strength? Of course they do. Should we cry tears over the actions of the bosses and their lackeys against these hardworking people and their families? Of course we should. But if we don’t recognize the real nature of the defeat — and what it will take for the workers to win — then the cycle continues.

NEW YORK CITY, June 27— Churches and other non-profit organizations here are being asked to become WEP (workfare slave labor) sites for 10,000 welfare recipients. In opposition, some are signing a pledge to "resist becoming WEP sites." Meanwhile, the New York State Department of Labor figures that there are over half a million more job-seekers in New York City than there are job openings. The door is opening wider for PLP members involved in this struggle to introduce communist ideas and build a base for communism.After months of discussions, a few friends and I issued a statement in the "racial justice" group of my church. We challenged the group to decide whether we were "going to expose, protest, denounce the welfare law and workfare—the social policy—and ask why it is being done." Or whether we were "going to facilitate the law and make it work, for whom and for what reasons.""Workfare, like prison labor and the super-exploitation of immigrant labor, is becoming a permanent feature of work in the U.S.," we reported. "Slave labor, based on racist myths and scapegoating, is a feature of fascism." Why is fascism developing in the U.S.? Our racial justice group discussed global competition, downsizing, trade wars and shooting wars. Some agreed with PLP’s analysis. Others were confused or anti-Communist. One said, "Some people would walk over starving bodies to put forward their ideological point of view." Then church authorities began a campaign supposedly to serve the poor. They honored Willie James, the Transport Workers Union leader who gave up 586 transit jobs and allowed thousands of WEP workers to clean the trains, for his "service to welfare recipients." Clinton visited the church and held it up as an institution that would promote the welfare law.However, rank and file churchgoers had other ideas. Denouncing workfare became part of the program of the church’s racial justice and anti-poverty groups. "The joblessness figures speak for themselves," I said, "the system doesn’t work. Workfare today is like forced labor in Nazi concentration camps." A woman responded, "We have to try harder to make people aware and angry. I know I am." The church anti-poverty group endorsed the pledge against WEP.Meanwhile the press release for the church anti-poverty group’s picnic proclaimed it was keeping its "promise to Clinton" and that the picnic would be "flag day." It said, "many American patriots came from the ranks of the poor." "But that’s not what we want." "This is infuriating." "We’ve got to oppose this position," said many church members.Over numerous cups of coffee a group of close friends meets."There are no jobs and we’re talking about racist genocide," a friend said. "We have to present some kind of program or people will rebel." Workers are right to rebel against this racist system! "We’re talking about the limits of capitalism," I said. "But what kind of system are we talking about then?" she asked. "Communism, getting rid of the wage system completely, organizing work and production for need." "But communism hasn’t helped people," she replied. "What actually existed was socialism," explained another friend. "Under socialism, in spite of its limitations, there have been tremendous achievements in work, medical care, and education." "Certainly in early societies in Africa people lived by egalitarian principles," a man added. "Wait a minute," said the first friend. "Capitalism is not so bad. I think it can be fixed."I raise another issue: "There is an intense struggle within the U.S. ruling class between the powerful entrenched ‘old money’ section which is preparing for war with its competitors world-wide and newer economic forces who want political power. This church advocates Old Money’s ideas and goals," I said. "I guess I don’t see it that way," responded a friend. "But I want to know where you’re coming from. I’ll read Challenge and show it to some friends." I continued, "They’re all building fascism in the U.S. In studying history we learn that it was communism that defeated fascism." "I like your analysis," replied another friend, "I don’t like your solution, but let’s keep talking."

Dear Challenge:On June 27th through June 29th, the Progressive Labor Party sponsored a youth camping trip. Altogether, thirty-two people from Baltimore and PG County (near Washington DC), including some friends from New Jersey, came together for three days of excitement. Working hard together, we managed to have a lot of fun and thoroughly discuss three topics: Capitalism, War, and Welfare. All of these discussions were led by young people. On Friday we set up tents, played card games, and went to the lake. After dinner we had our first discussion. After an hour of vigorous debate, we went on the infamous night hike.The next day, we hiked again, and— seated near beautiful scenery— discussed the possibility of war. We talked about the reasons that are leading to another world war between the capitalists. And we discussed revolutionary war to defeat capitalism. Then, after another adventurous day of swimming, we all settled down by the campfire for skits, raps, songs, poems, drumming, and dancing. After eating s’mores (graham cracker sandwiches with chocolate and roasted marshmallows) late into the night, we returned to our tents.On Sunday, we all sadly packed up, and then went to the lake for one last discussion—on workfare and communism.Although the trip was lots of fun, the politics added an extreme amount of seriousness and learning. We mainly focused on how capitalism is corrupting our world and demolishing our future. Through the help of our youth leaders, we learned how communism is the solution to our major problems. And during this year’s trip, for the first time, we took an important step forward by having a leadership meeting on our own, without any adults at all.To continue our efforts to learn the basic principles of communism, we have set up several activities. These activities include trips to New York to participate in the PLP summer project, meetings at people’s houses for discussions, and a trip to the cadre school in Chicago.Despite cold showers and pit toilets, we all learned the benefits of communism and the effects of capitalism. And we had fun too!Happy Camper

Dear Challenge:In a club meeting, a university worker scolded his coworkers for lacking militancy and dedication. Talking isn’t enough, he said. We must also participate in PLP’s activities, since this determines the influence we have with other workers.What is most important in our daily lives? One comrade said that because of the hardships that workers go through just to get a little money to survive, they think only about work and their immediate problems. We discussed how capitalism makes workers think only about their immediate problems. If we have some time, they offer us garbage to distract us from capitalist reality: TV, soccer, liquor, drugs, etc.We realized what was most important: working to make the Party grow, to destroy the cruel reality of capitalism. We must be more creative and take advantage of our time to talk about communism, not only with coworkers, but also with family members.Comrade R said that wherever he went he talked about the Party. Many people were interested, others thought it was crazy; still others were skeptical. Most important, everyone observed and listened. Once he was talking with someone in a public place. Another worker asked him what he was talking about and then asked R to say more. This worker told R that if the Party is the way he described it, he would have no doubts about joining and bringing more workers into it. He said that the FUT (Workers’ United Front) was selling out the workers. He knew that others who say they are communist have proven in their practice that they are accomplices of the bourgeoisie.It was near midnight, but no one wanted to leave. We gave everyone Party documents to study during breaks at work and agreed to analyze them at our next meeting. We talked about other communist tasks: writing leaflets, writing slogans on the walls, discussing Challenge, etc.We are fighting for a communist society without bosses, where the wealth that we produce will be distributed according to need. Some people think that this struggle is something mystical, unnatural or even religious. But fighting for communism is no sacrifice. It is the best life for every worker. Only by being communists can we help to end this damn capitalist system. It is beautiful to fight collectively for a future without capitalist leeches. By fighting for communism we are making history.PLP Club in Quito, Ecuador

Dear Challenge:A group of Cuban and Argentinean scientists have been working hard in Bolivia to find and identify the bones of Ernesto Ché Guevara. One reason for this is that the Cuban government has turned Ché into some kind of saint, and wants to use his remains to boost the morale of workers and working class youth, for whom Ché continues to be a hero. Cuba will use Ché to convince people to accept the growing inequalities brought on by the growth of capitalism there.Another reason is purely commercial. October 30th marks the 30th anniversary of his murder by the CIA in Bolivia. Chemania has become a hot merchandising item. Watches with the picture of Ché are hot sellers. The Cuban government recently bought 10,000 of these watches to resell to tourists in Cuba. Skis have been made using Ché’s image and even a beer in Britain called Che Fruta was sold until recently when the Cuban government protested (it was apparently too much).One reason Ché is so popular among capitalist merchandisers, besides his good looks and charisma, was that Ché’s guerrilla theories weren’t really based on the need to build a mass revolutionary communist party. Rather, Ché believed that a few heroic guerrillas fighting in the mountains, El Foco, would incite the nation’s masses to rebel—he failed miserably applying this in Bolivia.Jose RojoWhat are we after?

Dear Challenge:In the latest articles by the "veteran PLer," especially the last one, "What we are after," I found a totally nonsensical argument. The author stated that "In this period, reform struggle is inevitable. We should participate in reform struggle with critical support. We should point out that reform struggle is useless and diversionary." In other words, reform struggle is useless and diversionary but we must be in it!? The statements make no sense.At this point in time when U.S. workers are being brutalized more than ever, class struggle (the fightback from workers) is low, and our Party is small in membership and influence, reform struggle is crucial in starting a process where we recruit new cadre to expand our influence. After our clubs grow to the extent some New York, LA, and Chicago clubs have grown, we then enter into the problem of how we influence the struggle with more than words (criticism) and lead struggle. Our Party will not win masses of workers until we prove our political efficacy, and only leading class struggle will make this happen. The trick is how to lead such struggle and recruit to the Party. In this sense reform struggle is not diversionary but essential. Reformists use reform struggle to dope workers into believing in capitalism ( but that’s not our goal). Our goal is to use such struggles to grow and, as we grow, build the potential of changing reform struggles into an all out class war.We cannot make the revisionist mistake of leaving class struggle on the back burner. It’s a life or death issue.A Young Comrade

Dear Challenge:With summer here, many of us look for enjoyable books to read. For those interested in progressive novels, here are some recommendations.All of these are currently in print.(1) Blood On The Forge, by William Attaway (Monthly Review). This is the powerful story of three brothers who are forced to leave rural Kentucky and come to the steel mills of Pittsburgh in 1919. Attaway grippingly depicts the conditions that awaited blacks who migrated north to industrial jobs, and demonstrates why class unity is necessary to fight the owners.(2) God’s Bits of Wood, Ousmane Sembene (Heinemann). Sembene is a best-known as one of Africa’s premiere film directors. Written from a Marxist perspective, this novel is his account of the militant strike of thousands of railway workers against the Dakar-Niger railroad, run by the French colonialists. Among the many good aspects of this book is the description of how women break out of their traditional role and actively participate in and give leadership to the strike.(3) Iron City, by Lloyd Brown (Northeastern University). Based on a real case, this is the story of the fight to stop the execution of Lonnie James, a black youth falsely convicted of murder. This courageous struggle is led by three communist black prisoners inside a state penitentiary.(4) Jews Without Money, Michael Gold (Carroll & Graf). The classic autobiographical story of growing up Jewish and poor on the Lower East Side at the turn of the century. Filled with humor, love for his family and friends, and class anger at the rich exploiters, this is an unforgettable book.(5) Moscow Yankee, Myra Page (University of Illinois). The fascinating story of an unemployed auto worker who travels to Moscow to find work and experience Soviet socialism. Only familiar with capitalist relations and traditional roles for women, Andy, the main character, is surprised when he finds the Soviets are in the process of creating a much different society, including independent-minded women.(6) Mother, Maxim Gorky (Citadel) Gorky’s classic story of the 1905 Russian revolution, in which the peasant mother of a revolutionary gradually frees herself from her fear and ignorance and becomes an active participant in the struggle.(7) The Seventh Cross, Anna Seghers (Monthly Review) One of my personal favorites, this is the thrilling story of the escape of George Heisler and six comrades from a German concentration camp in the 1930’s, at a time before the mass imprisonment of Jews. Heisler is a communist and he must rely on his former comrades and working-class friends to make his escape or face certain death. (8) To Make My Bread, Grace Lumpkin (University of Illinois) The powerful and well-written story of the Gastonia textile strike of 1929, depicting the role of Communist organizers and the growing, though tentative, alliance between black and white workers.(9) Yonnondio: From The Thirties, Tillie Olsen (Dell) Beautifully written, this is the story of the Holbrook family and their struggle to survive in first a mining community, then as tenant farmers, and finally in a meatpacking town. Olsen pulls no punches in showing the mother to be a victim of both class oppression and physical attacks from her husband.If other readers have suggestions of books, send them in.Red ReaderHow did May Day begin?

Dear Challenge:"How did May Day begin?" asked a teacher to a group of university students in El Salvador. This motivated the students to investigate the importance of the International Day of the Workers. Some answered that it was a "day of rest," others said that "On this day there are a lot of marches in a lot of countries." We talked and discussed how May Day began, that although there have been reform struggles, afterwards the conditions of workers here and all over the world continue getting worse and worse, and May Day is still celebrated all over the world. We explained to some students that in several countries of the world, PLP marches under the red flag of communist revolution, with the goal of keeping alive the goal of fighting for communism. "I had no idea about that part of history," said a student. As a member of the Progressive Labor Party, this discussion helped me to see that students are very receptive to a communist perspective and helped me to struggle harder against anti-communism, and to distribute more Challenges to more students. At the end, some students told me that the class is better when we talk about these things that concern the working class.Red TeacherCorruption and capitalism go hand-in-hand

Dear Challenge:Fraternal greetings and congratulations. Challenge is very important for all workers. Here in El Salvador, corruption is running wild among the rulers. Just last week, President Sol fired one of his leading Cabinet members—the financial Czar Rafael Rodriguez. A fraud in two top finance companies bilked 500 investors out of $23 million.Before that, the so-called elected representatives of the people exposed themselves as just another bunch of crooks. The peace imposed by U.S. imperialism and their lackeys has been hell for workers, who still go hungry, while the politicians and bosses live like kings.These crooked politicians have again shown that the bosses’ democracy is nothing but a tool to keep workers down.. The legislators, taking advantage of the power of the law, gave themselves huge salaries without any shame in spite of how the people they supposedly represent have no jobs and no food. Capitalism, whether in peacetime or war, is hell for workers here in El Salvador.This is why the unity of all the workers of the world and the struggle of the working class is the only way to fight the bosses and defeat their class dictatorship with a true communist society.Greetings from the west of El Salvador

"We can never stop on the road of revolution. The struggle to transform our world outlook is unending. Looking back, we have taken a step forward, and looking forward, our achievements are always only the starting point for continuing the revolution." (Dazhai, 1968)

Political Struggle: the Main Weapon

The workers of Dazhai changed their village from a poverty-stricken, rocky mountainside to the leading agricultural commune in China. They did this through a fierce struggle between socialist and capitalist ideas. Their main weapon was their political understanding and commitment, not their hoes and tractors. This struggle was led by impoverished workers. The local Communist Party (CP) branch leader, Comrade Chen, had worked as a farm laborer for 20 years before the 1949 revolution. After the revolution he started a ‘mutual aid team’ made up of the village’s poorest people: four elderly peasants and five orphans. In the U.S. today, the capitalists (and many workers) look at poor people as the dregs of society–like they brought it on themselves! By contrast, the Dazhai Communist Party relied on these most exploited workers to provide leadership for the rest of the community. This small group expanded in a few years to include 49 households. Following the socialist leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, the team decided to set up an ‘agricultural co-operative’ in which the land would belong to the co-op. It took over a year to do this. But, as the quote says, this victory wasn’t the end of the struggle: it was a step forward, but only the beginning of more struggle. By 1958, Dazhai joined a commune, in which most aspects of life were taken care of collectively, not just the agricultural work. Dazhai launched a mass campaign to terrace the mountain slopes. "A battle against nature began the very winter the co-operative was set up. Though working in piercing cold weather, the peasants were all wet with sweat. They quarried stones with hammers and chisels and in one and a half months succeeded in throwing up 20 stone embankments across a gully." (Fan, From the Other Side of the River) This work continued for a year; in the next years the terraces had to be rebuilt several times.In 1963, floods washed away large fields, a part of the crop, and 80% of the houses. The Party branch organized its members to discuss the question of how to respond to this situation in a way that would be most beneficial to building the revolution. They met for several days before beginning a new and better rebuilding, which survived the severe storms of 1968. They had decided to rely on themselves, and not divert state resources, which may have been more needed elsewhere.

There were many positive accomplishments at Dazhai. The working class, particularly the most dispossessed workers, took the lead. Workers learned to work co-operatively under communist leadership and formed collectives. The collectives began to replace the jealous counting of who did what and who received what with more free contribution of labor according to commitment and ability, and more free distribution of the needs of life according to the needs of the collective. Problems were addressed collectively; everyone participated in the discussion and in the labor that implemented the solutions. In these discussions workers took account of the needs of other workers throughout China. These are aspects of the collective centralism practiced today in PLP.But there were limits to the collectivism at Dazhai. Understanding these limits helps us to understand the eventual restoration of capitalism in China. In last week’s article about Dazhai we pointed out how surplus hay produced at Dazhai was, after collective discussion, sold to neighboring villages at the lower state price rather than the higher market price. But it was sold. It became a commodity. As a result, the collective at Dazhai, even at its best, included only the Dazhai villagers, not the working class of the entire world. That is, at best, when workers rebuilt the terracing walls, they contributed their labor to the village, not to the working class.As a result, workers at Dazhai did not develop a communist understanding. Even if their relations with one another were communist, their relations with other workers outside the village were capitalist, mediated by markets and money. This is easy to see if we consider that families in capitalist societies are small collectives: at their best, family members contribute labor to the family according to their ability and take from the family collective what they need. But commitment to one’s family, no matter how unselfish a person is inside that collective, does not make someone a communist. To become a communist is to come to understand the need to devote one’s labor and life to the world’s workers and to the struggle for communist revolution.The struggle for communism is largely a struggle for us to understand how our interests are linked to the interests of workers everywhere. Only from that understanding will we develop the commitment to contribute our labor and political energies to building a communist world. When communists abolish money and commodity production, workers participate in the building of communist society because they see how their lives are bound up with the interests of all workers.In socialist China after the revolution, the war between capitalist and communist social relations continued. The Chinese Communist Party’s socialism seemed to be saying that workers could be won to communist practices. Much can be learned from the Dazhai workers’ reliance on workers’ initiative. However, socialism retained commodity production. In the end. the Chinese Communist Party’s position was counter-revolutionary. China today is a full-fledged capitalist country. PLP has learned a great lesson from the struggle between the two lines in Dazhai and all of China. We’ve learned that the working class can and will put communist politics first.

Even though workers in China did not succeed in winning communism, we can still take inspiration from them. Even more important, we can learn not to repeat their errors. As Dazhai workers said correctly, with each step forward we are "only at the starting point for continuing the revolution." Even though China has temporarily fallen back into the hands of the capitalists, if we move forward on the road of revolution, the struggles of Comrade Chen and the Dazhai workers will not have been in vain!