Challenge, March 3 1998

The UN-brokered deal that prevented Clinton from bombing Iraq this week is not a sign of peace at hand. On the contrary, with help from his pals in Moscow, Saddam Hussein may have played Clinton for a sucker, but all the basic contradictions remain in place. The competition for maximum Middle Eastern oil profits is sharpening by the minute. The eye of the storm is the rapid rise of Russian bosses’ influence and the renewed intensity of inter-imperialist rivalry between them and U.S. rulers.

All Clinton’s baloney about destroying Saddam Hussein’s "weapons of mass destruction" is a crude cover for the struggle to control Iraq’s vast oil reserves. Clinton & Co. will go back to the drawing board and find an excuse to attack Iraq very soon. A temporary alliance among Russian, French, Italian, Chinese and other imperialists want Iraqi oil as an alternative to Rockefeller-controlled oil. The Rockefeller interests want to keep Iraqi oil off the market as long as possible. These two imperialist economic needs can’t both be met at the same time.

The struggle to determine the winner can end only in war, and not just mass terror bombings. It will eventually lead to ground war, with hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops involved. The ground war will sooner rather than later spread throughout the Middle East. Clinton’s tactical defeat at the hands of Russian bosses and Saddam Hussein is significant. Workers mustn’t get lost in the maze of lies the bosses tell us from day to day. We can’t allow ourselves to be fooled by appearances. We must fight to understand the essential truth of important events so that we can train our class eventually to seize political power in the midst of the bosses’ holocausts.

Recent events have made the competition for Iraqi oil more cutthroat than ever. For a number of reasons, world oil prices are plummeting. When prices decline, control over the cheapest oil is crucial to maximizing profit. Persian Gulf oil costs between 99¢ and $1.49 a barrel to produce, compared to North Sea and other oil that costs $5 to $10. Iraqi oil is among the Persian Gulf’s cheapest. The recent collapse of Asian financial markets has lowered estimates about the amount of oil capitalists there will have to import to fuel their new industries. They’ll still need a lot, but not as much as they thought before the crash. So the fight to decide their suppliers is sharpening. Even the weather has lined up against Rockefeller & Co. The mild northern winter has sharply cut demand for heating oil. (Maybe Clinton will decide to bomb "El Niño" in retaliation). Most significantly, the world crisis of over-production, about which Challenge has written at great length, has created an oil glut driving down prices to a four-year low.

Adding to Rockefeller & Co.’s predicament is the other shoe of the Asian financial meltdown, which has yet to drop. Asian bosses’ only way out of their profit hole is to increase exports. The U.S. market remains their key target. The U.S. trade deficit is already at all-time highs and the situation could get out of control. The February 24th New York Times predicts that the deficit could increase by 50% within two years. This trend must increase U.S. imperialists’ desperate determination to resist the erosion of their oil empire by any means possible.

Middle East Oil Is Key Because It’s the Cheapest, Most Plentiful

Their chances of success are slim and none. As the Wall Street Journal whines in an article about Iraq’s "stunningly large pools of oil:" "…the U.S. is already losing the battle for Iraq." (2/23). The article goes on to portray Exxon & Co.’s dilemma in the starkest possible terms. A Russian consortium has a signed contract to exploit an Iraqi field with 7.5 billion barrels of reserves if and when sanctions are lifted. France’s Elf Aquitaine, a major U.S. competitor, has a similar deal for a field with reserves of 9 billion barrels. The article quotes a major oil expert as predicting that, with this deal "...the size of Elf as a company would double overnight." All of Rockefeller’s main international competitors are flocking to sign contracts with Saddam Hussein, as well as with U.S. enemies in Iran.

But the Russians, in spite of their many problems, are key, because only they have some military capability to threaten U.S. bosses. Yeltsin’s comment a couple of weeks ago about the possibility that U.S. bombing of Iraq could lead to the next world war was a sure sign that U.S. rulers’ "New World Order" is dead and buried. In the wake of the recent Iraq fiasco, U.S. imperialism is politically weaker and more isolated than ever. Even its British pals are going to prove unreliable allies. Shell, a joint British-Dutch company, has a pending deal for an Iraqi field worth a billion and a half barrels.

In the immediate future, we should prepare for the Clinton gang to cook up some phony provocation as an excuse to bomb Iraq and maintain the sanctions. We must also tirelessly expose the inevitable trend toward fascism and ever-widening imperialist wars. This means winning ourselves and our friends to act vigorously in the mass movements so that we can expose the true class nature of political developments and win workers and others to our Party. In recent weeks, we have helped lead a number of actions to prove that while capitalism offers a future of war and death, the future of communism is blazing with promise.

The comrades who shouted down Clinton’s trio of butchers in Columbus on February 18th point the way forward for our movement. They showed, as the PLP has many times throughout its history, that a small group with a correct, revolutionary political line and the determination to carry it out, can influence many millions of people. But a small group can’t make a revolution. Our job, today, tomorrow, and for the foreseeable future, is to do whatever we must to make our Party’s communist ideas mass ideas. The impending oil war will provide us with rich opportunities. On to a mass May Day and to a thriving, mass PLP!

Communists Confront Deadly Trio

COLUMBUS, OH, Feb. 18 — The crowd responded with cheers as the chant "Fight For Communism—Power to the Workers!" rang out in St. John’s Arena. That’s what our PLP group shouted as Clinton’s Gestapo was dragging us out of the audience. Hundreds of people had gathered to protest against Secretary of State Albright, Secretary of Defense Cohen, and NSA advisor Berger and their plans to kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqi workers to protect the oil profits of the Rockefeller & Co. The frustrated, pathetic responses by Albright, Cohen, and Berger to this anger gave workers and youth all over the world a small taste of working class power. A single spark can ignite a prairie fire against imperialist war.

A small group of us from Muncie, Indiana drove several hours to Columbus to protest Clinton’s fascist war plans and to spread the line of PLP. When we got there, our spirits were high. But in fact, we almost never went. We had things to do—school, work—and we didn’t see the importance of this event. Struggle within the Party convinced us that this was an important opportunity. We were convinced to go, but didn’t feel the significance of it until we got there. Despite the cold rain, about 250 people were there to protest the war build-up. We passed out hundreds of PLP leaflets to protesters and onlookers.

Inside, the questioning was rigged in favor of pro-war people. But people had many hostile questions. And the question that got the crowd into frenzy was, "Why does the U.S. government support countries with oppressive regimes such as Israel, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, but wants to bomb Iraq?" This prompted the crowd to start chanting "1,2,3,4—We Won’t Fight Your Racist War!" Other people wanted to know if the war was about oil, and why we were going to fight for oil.

The contradictions were very sharp. They want to win us to fight their war. Our brothers and sisters are going to protect the profits of the Rockefeller’s Eastern Establishment’s oil empire, represented as Old Money. In the name of their "democracy," they called a town meeting to make sure it was all right with us first. Bull! They send thousands of working class people to their death every day in the name of profit. Do you think they ask them?

Many liberal groups put forward the need to lift sanctions, or the idea of peace. "Food, not bombs," they say. We put forward the idea that the working class should take the bombs and drop them on the oil bosses and their lackeys all over the world. Peace is impossible under capitalim (there are over 100 wars of all kinds all over the world right now). We need to destroy this system with the guns they put in our hands. We need to replace it with communism, a system that serves our needs.

During a CNN commercial break, one comrade stood up and made a speech to the hundred or so people in the area. Here was the voice of communism in the face of fascism. The comrade took the opportunity to tell the crowd that what we needed was to build the Progressive Labor Party in order to rid ourselves of the class that creates these wars. We need to organize ourselves into a mass movement of tens of millions of people to destroy the profit system. Everybody was invited to march on May Day. The crowd responded with cheers.

When the contradiction is sharpest, we need to put forward communism with all of our might. Capitalism suffered a small defeat in Columbus, Ohio, on this day. The working class got an understanding of the weaknesses of capitalism, hundreds of people were exposed to the power of revolutionary communism, and our group is stronger and more determined to build the Party. Fight For Communism—Power To The Workers!

Pasadena College Students Protest Against War

PASADENA, CA, Feb. 23 — Students in PLP led their first demonstration against the bombing of Iraq on the campus of Pasadena City College (PCC) on February 19th. The PLP group was made up of PCC students and high school students. We began with a brief speech regarding the situation in Iraq and its connection to the inevitability of war under capitalism and announced that we were going to march over to the army recruiter across the street. We formed a picket line outside the recruiter’s office. We chanted "Hey Hey, Ho, Ho,—Imperialism Has Gotta Go," and "1,2,3,4—We Don’t Want Your Racist Oil War! 5,6,7,8—Smash The Bosses And Their State!"

We spoke about the need to build a revolutionary movement to end all wars for profit. When we were finished, we marched back onto campus to give another speech, talk with people and sell Challenge. Around 40 students joined the demonstration, though some didn’t go to the recruiter. Many people stopped to listen to what we had to say and several came over to discuss our politics. We invited people to come to a forum that will be sponsored by several campus groups, which two PLP students are helping lead, on February 24th, on campus where we will show the film, Panama Deception and connect it with the current crisis in Iraq.

A group of students from PCC came to our May Day Dinner which took place February, 21st. More than 80 people attended the dinner, including many high school students, young workers, and some not so young workers who told of their experiences. We had three speeches about the growth of fascism, the inter-imperialist rivalries and the importance of understanding the working class, revolutionary history of May Day and building for this year’s May Day March in a mass way.

There was a lively discussion and questions that were informative. They helped people understand our politics and our line on the need to build a mass Party, and they can be won to the idea that the working class can establish a society based on their own needs—communism. Three students who came to the dinner because of the demonstration now want to attend a college PLP study club. Other students and workers agreed to organize for the march. Some suggested we write a leaflet linking racist police terror in LA with the terror planned against the workers of the Middle East. We plan another May Day Dinner in March with more people. More and more we are learning how to put our line of building a mass Party into practice.

Students Rally Against U. S. Attacks on Iraq

SAN DIEGO, CA, Feb. 13 — The first rally against the coming U. S. war against Iraq was held today at San Diego State University. Organized by the student group, "Committee Against War in the Middle East," the rally was attended by several dozen students and heard by hundreds of passersby. Student speakers exposed the lies and hypocrisy in the U. S. government’s justifications for its war plans. They argued that the U. S. is actually fighting for continued domination of Middle East oil, but that domination does not serve U. S. workers, students or soldiers. Many students took literature and 10 signed up to be on a mailing list. All those who helped organize the rally were encouraged by the positive response. One weakness of this organizing effort, however, is that speeches and literature did not make clear that wars for domination of oil are not merely a terrible policy of the U. S. government, but an essential feature of U. S. capitalism, and will be fought as long as the capitalist system continues to exist.

The next planned activity for our group is to show the PBS documentary "The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, & Power." There are also plans afoot to organize a broader based teach-in imperialism and oil.

Communist Cadre School Prepares For Mass May Day

New York City, Feb. 23 — This past weekend the New York/New Jersey high school students and teachers held the annual PLP cadre school. This event is the kick-off each year for our May Day organizing and serves as an opportunity for us to evaluate our work. We ended up having quite a successful conference in New York where we were able to involve a number of new people. We began on Friday with a criticism and self-criticism of our organizing and learning from our actions in Columbus.

Have confidence in the workers

The Saturday session began with an excellent report by a young teacher and leader in Brooklyn, who explained the developments of the capitalist crisis of overproduction, how it leads to imperialist war and how it leads to fascism in the U.S. Then we had two reports from Bronx Science and Wingate high schools about our members’ work. All this was discussed in the workshops that followed.

Throughout the discussions it became clear that our classmates, and fellow teachers, do respond when we raise communist ideas. Our internal hesitations are the biggest obstacles to our growth. Everyone discussed specific plans for how they would raise the war in class, distribute more Challenges and build for a mass May Day.

In the afternoon, we held a demonstration in Times Square against the imperialist war plans. We distributed over 100 Challenges and 500 leaflets. We met a couple who had come up from Philadelphia looking for anti-war activity. "We really admire you for being out here," they told us. We ended that evening with a social that involved an even wider circle of friends. While playing the board game, "Risk," which a military strategy game, we discussed organizing for revolution as soldiers inside the military.

The weekend again showed us that workers are wide open in this period. We must seize the opportunities presented, give leadership to the workers, and recruit masses of them to the Party. We will begin by having a mass turnout for our May Day March in Washington, DC.

Bronx HS Students First to Confront Albright’s War Show

BRONX, NY, Feb. 23 — Students at Bronx Science High School were one of the first targets of the "Madeleine Albright road show." She appeared as a guest speaker last fall. At the time there was a sharp struggle within the school over her appearance led by members of the PLP. The students are also members of the club, Students For Social Justice. They pointed out that Albright’s arrival was part of the Old Money establishment’s plans to convince workers we should go to war against Iraq. Many students disagreed, since Albright, and her defenders at the school, claimed she was coming to talk about peace.

Now, as shown in her appearance at Ohio State University last week, she is openly campaigning for war. But now, our comrades, who were attacked for criticizing her then, are discovering how many opportunities open up for us when we put forward our ideas consistently. We have been distributing 150-200 Challenges every week this year at the school. Many students are now telling our comrades, "Gee, now I see what you were saying. What can we do about it?" As the U.S. imperialists expose their naked plans for war for oil profits, we are able to raise our ideas for communist revolution as the only solution. And, because we have worked patiently within this student club, we are in a position to get events moving.

The Students For Social Justice are now calling for a Teach-In about U.S. imperialism. They have been joined by another student club, Famous Speakers Forum, who invited Albright in the first place and who now want to invite someone to argue against the war. Of course there are many disagreements but a wider circle of students are following our leadership. One student has joined the Party and a Challenge study group is beginning to meet. This opens great opportunities for bringing masses of students to May Day.

Jobless March in Germany, Nazi Gangs Must Be Stopped

BERLIN, February 23 — Tens of thousands of unemployed workers and others demonstrated in more than 200 cities across Germany on February 5th demanding better unemployment benefits and jobs.

Capitalism worldwide is in the middle of a deep crisis of overproduction, causing mass unemployment, fascist terror and war. Unemployment in Germany are the highest since the end of WWII. There are 4.8 million jobless—12.6% of the workforce. This is up from 11.8% in December last year and 12.2% in January 1997.

The protests were inspired by the actions of jobless workers in France over the previous months. In Stuttgart, for instance, at least 100 protesters gathered outside the unemployment office under a banner that read: "The Government Needs A French Lesson!"

In Germany, mass unemployment has given rise to Neo-Nazi gangs which remove the blame from capitalism and instead blame "foreigners for taking jobs away from Germans." These fascist gangs are particularly bold in the former East Germany, where conditions are worse.

There are about 1,200 Locals of the organization for the unemployed, which are tied to the trade unions. They plan to continue holding protests until federal elections on September 27th. Their aim is purely electoral, to dump the coalition government headed by Chancellor Helmut Kohl of the Christian Democratic Union.

The small PLP group here is organizing saying, "We need communist revolution," that dumping one group of politicians to get social-democrats in power will just lead to more attacks against workers, and the growth of the Nazi gangs, which must be stopped. PLP calls on the unemployed, workers and youth to fight these gangs and organize against all politicians and union hacks.

Rout Racist KKK from Cicero!

CICERO, IL, Feb. 23 — This working class suburb on Chicago’s western border was once famous for speakeasies and its red light district, the area of Al Capone’s favorite hangouts. It was also known for its industry. GE, Sunbeam, Danly Steel, Western Electric and dozens of other factories employed tens of thousands of workers who made Cicero their home. But its main reputation is as a racist town. It became infamous after a 1960’s civil rights march to open housing to black workers was violently attacked and routed by a racist mob. All hell broke loose and nationwide TV and newspapers documented Cicero’s racism for the world to see. The suburb has changed since then. Gone are most of the factories and better paying jobs. The population is about 60% workers from Mexico, with a sprinkling of black families. Now, the KKK is coming to town on March 14^th. The scum of the earth was given a permit to rally to spread racism.

The crisis of the dying system has pus oozing from all of its open sores. War in Iraq, police terror, downsizing, declining wages and much more open and deadly racism. The Klan coming on the heels of the maneuvering to a new Middle East war is really two peas in a pod—war and fascism. The bosses who are directing U.S. rulers’ strategy must go to war as their only solution. They are slipping in the battle with their economic competitors. War is the only way out of their crisis. They need workers to fight in these wars. And workers need to be divided—set up to fight for the rulers.

The town council opposed the Klan’s permit application. Too expensive, too much trouble. But the Klan knows who its friends are. They went to court, found a liberal judge who ordered Cicero to protect racist speech that is "free." Free to re-live a history of racist brutality and lynching, free to support racist genocide in Iraq, free to divide workers between "citizens" and "immigrants," free to spread the bosses’ lie that black workers are basically different from latin or white workers.

The Klan says they are coming to Cicero to counter gangs and crime. But they, and the racist system they honor, are the biggest criminals. The worst racists are Clinton and other rulers who eliminated welfare, imposing slave labor workfare in its place. Millions have been locked up in the biggest prison build-up in the world’s history. The bosses’ cops roam the streets like predators terrorizing mostly black and latin youth. Schools are on lock-down and racist wars for bosses’ profits are coming into view all over the radar screen.

Workers all over Chicago are buzzing about the KKK rally. Masses of people consider this an affront. This is a great opportunity to strike a blow for anti-racism and its communist future. Thousands of workers and students can be organized to smash the Klan. Unions, churches, school groups, community groups can be mobilized to confront the racists. Last fall, in nearby Beloit, Wisconsin, hundreds came out eager to fight the KKK. Significantly, this included a large number of anti-racist white working class youth. The bosses’ hold on these young people is very weak. The Klan can be smashed with a mass turnout under our Party’s leadership. There will be a communist, anti-racist rally if thousands show up!

More importantly, this will be a step towards the bigger anti-racist action—May Day in front of the home of racism—the White House. Smashing the KKK and the racism it represents will take communist revolution. That’s the goal on March 14th in Cicero and May 2nd in Washington, DC.

PLP Confronts Hacks, Denounce Iraq War

BROOKLYN, NY, Feb. 18 — "I liked what you said. Thank you for bringing up what’s happening in the world. I voted for your resolution."

Those kinds of comments from Delegates of AFSCME Local 371 were directed to a PLP member who had urged this 15,000 Delegate Assembly to support demonstrations and other actions protesting the U.S. war against Iraq. The motion was barely defeated, 20-24 (many Delegates didn’t vote). But there was rapt attention while this long-time Delegate connected the imminent war against Iraq to the historical imperialist control of the Middle East oil-producing region, to the global crisis of overproduction, to paying for a war budget through service cutbacks, to downsizing and cuts in real wages, and to the fascist, racist slave labor Workfare system growing in NYC.

He also noted that at our Local’s last Delegates’ meeting, the union president had objected to comparing doctors at HSS clinic to the infamous Nazi "Dr." Mengele. (These HSS doctors determine the "fitness" of welfare clients for Workfare.) Fascist medical practices don’t arrive in full bloom but develop as part of a process.

We plan to continue this debate in the union, have discussions among our co-workers, issue local leaflets, and to fight at local job-site meetings for actions against the bosses’ oil war. We want to develop communist consciousness among workers.

Tonight’s meeting, like many others, began with the Local president’s boring recital of the "trade union" problems facing our members and a titillating exposé of charges against the leaders of seven other AFSCME Locals in the 120,000-member District Council 37. Aping their capitalist mentors, these swine have been caught dipping into their respective Local’s treasuries. One Local was more that $2 million in debt; another local had "bought" turkeys for $55 apiece to give to members at Thanksgiving; still another had spent tens of thousands for a holiday party exclusively for the union’s executive board. We were told that other union offices ("of course," not ours) have been robbing us for years. When our Local’s president asked the rhetorical question, "Why now?" we had an opening.

As U.S. rulers institute war and fascism, they need a disciplined working class pledging allegiance to the capitalist class. The dominant Rockefeller section of the ruling class wants union leaders to build that allegiance. They know petty thieves can’t be trusted for that job. They need "honest" trade union leaders who will march us into the death chambers.

PLP is fighting within the union movement to break workers away from the ideological chains being built by the pro-boss union leadership. We want to win millions of workers to march against imperialist war and fascist slave labor schemes; to march with us on May Day and become part of a communist-led red army that will wipe imperialist war off the face of the earth forever.

Indict Workfare as Fascist Murder!

NEW YORK CITY, Feb. 12 — Over 100 militant anti-racists picketed H.S. Systems, the clinic in midtown Manhattan that clears ill and injured welfare recipients for workfare super-exploitation after an examination of mere minutes. The demonstrators were responding in anger that workfare had killed a janitor, Marsha Montipersad, who died of a heart attack after some "Dr. Mengele" at the clinic had "overlooked" her long-standing heart condition and sent her to the work camps.

It was positive that through our work in the mass organizations that Party members were able to help mobilize a number of demonstrators. The protesters chanted loudly. Party members came prepared to interject the critically needed anti-imperialist dimension by carrying several posters, which indicted both workfare and the new Gulf War as necessary products of the same system. We encouraged marchers to wear the "No Blood for Oil" buttons that someone began to distribute. People also made the connection to racist research at Columbia University. We distributed 17 copies of Challenge.

Even more than we had expected, the whole operation was manacled by the chains of reformism and opportunism, with revisionist "leadership," from beginning to end. We were told not to bring a bullhorn. To "avoid trouble" the organizers cooperated as the cops herded us into a tight "holding pen" because they had "run out" of barricades. The political content of the action was confined to "Workfare kills poor people" and "Union busting is disgusting."

Though our Party leadership and others reacted to the cops’ repression and the opportunist response with appropriate anger and militancy, we haven’t yet prepared our base politically to struggle with reformism in the heat of battle. This can’t be done primarily with a leaflet, a chant or a speech, but with daily urgent, but patient, struggle with our friends.

In the last two years Party members have had numerous opportunities to link slave labor Workfare to the consolidation of fascism in the U.S. as the rulers prepare for war.

We are having increasingly sharp debates with our friends who agree with the reform struggle, but question communism as the solution. These same friends admire our world analysis and our efforts to pose it inside mass organizations. However, they don’t yet agree that our ability to analyze the world is tied to being communist revolutionaries. Some are uncomfortable with the Party’s role in these organizations. (We are in them but are politically critical at the same time.)

As we participate with our friends in the growing "anti-war" movement and continue to put forward our analysis and the goal of turning imperialist war into communist revolution we can expect the daily ideological struggle to sharpen more. This is our immediate task and we must not let any opportunity slip away.

It is essential to wage the struggle within us and with as many of our friends as possible to demonstrate the danger of reformist, liberal ideology. It is primarily these ideas that the rulers use to disarm the working class and its allies and cause them to walk into the ovens of fascism and war in an orderly fashion. Communists cannot allow this. Our work is truly cut out for us!

Meeting PLP ‘one of the most important events of my life’

BROOKLYN, NY, Feb. 21 — During the PLP Youth Cadre School held this weekend, one of the best lessons came from a worker, N, who met the Party through her son’s teacher just five months ago. She has not only supported her son’s participation with the Party but has attended several events herself. She described meeting the Party, "as one of the most important events in my life."

Besides raising her children, working and attending school, this busy worker is very active in her church. Last night she invited several Party members to come with her to church. She was going to lead a "platform on prayer"’ at the service. When N got up to lead the platform she started with readings from the Bible, and then discussed the importance of prayer. Then, as she talked, she began to bring in other ideas. Oil wars...the ruling class using our children to fight their wars...the need for a better society....the need for communist revolution. She concluded by asking the congregation to pray for communism!

She distributed Challenges and introduced her guests, including her son’s teacher who introduced her to our Party. An elder of the church pointed out how unusual it is to have a teacher be so involved in the life of his students. He invited all the guests to speak. They were really well received, hugged, thanked for coming and invited back.

At the Cadre School workshop today N described how she had planned her "prayer platform." She met people where they were, but full of confidence that an analysis and political line that made so much sense to her would be embraced by the members of her church. "Talk in their language, and then in your language." Her church, like many Baptist congregations, has a tradition of response—"amen" or "praise the lord"—ring out as a prayer is led. Well they didn’t respond as vigorously to "pray for communist revolution," but they did respond. N understands that this is just the beginning. She plans to invite everyone in her church to May Day. Today she joined the PLP. With members like this the future is bright.

Resist Workfare! Wear This Sticker!

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 23 — Eighty General Assistance (GA) recipients work at San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH) as housekeepers, laundry workers and food workers. SFGH couldn’t function without them, yet all they get is their pitiful welfare check. Every day, the hospital makes them wear blue-bordered paper stickers: "Hello, my name is-------." Flimsy, temporary badges of forced labor for workers forced into flimsy, temporary lives. Two weeks ago, some 70 hospital workers with regular jobs wore those same stickers, only these stickers read "Hello, my name is----- , Abolish Workfare!"

The accompanying leaflet told how the Nazis went into Denmark and made all Jews wear yellow stars, and how thousands of anti-fascist Christians wore yellow stars in solidarity. The leaflet said hospital workers could do the same sort of thing by wearing the stickers the GA workers had to wear. It showed that workfare was a plan to reduce all jobs to welfare standard of living. It said that this plan can succeed only if the bosses can split workfare workers and regular workers apart, and convince regular workers that they are superior and workfare workers are parasites. The leaflet called on hospital workers to wear their stickers on this basis.

The campaign was largely inspired by a solid friend who said that the housekeepers shouldn’t work while the hospital was forcing workfare labor into their area. "I know deep in their hearts, the housekeepers hate working side-by-side with guys scratching for food and shelter, but what can the housekeepers do? The union practically invited Workfare in!" Wearing the sticker was something housekeepers could do, and many did.

There was a tremendous feeling of solidarity when sticker wearers would meet GA workers or each other in the corridors. What made it feel so good? It showed that many workers wanted a spirit of resistance in a very political and very personal way, while the unions promote fear and surrender. It showed that many workers wanted to learn and emulate history while the schools try to bury history. It showed that many workers responded precisely because workfare was discussed in a broad political perspective, while the International Socialists, also organizing among GA workers at the hospital, hated the leaflet’s implication that workfare was fascism.

Most people who wore the sticker were won on the basis of personal conversations in the weeks before. Some were very enthusiastic and got others involved. Many others liked the idea and wore the sticker, but were more quiet about it, probably wondering what the next step would be. Some liked the idea, but felt they couldn’t wear stickers because they were temporary themselves. Three other city workers, a technician and two lab workers, came to help mass-distribute more sticker-leaflets the opening day, and were inspired by SFGH workers’ reception.

A few supported Workfare on the basis that it’s bad for people to have useless, unproductive lives. There were also a few workers closely allied to the unions who are collaborating with the city in administering Workfare and are calling for extra pay for workers who supervise GA workers. It will take more time to turn this position into its revolutionary opposite: a realization that it is capitalism that relegates lives to insignificance and communism that will allow us to really fulfill ourselves. This sticker campaign will move the sea we swim in toward communism

Confronting Anti-Communism of Ex- GI

CALIFORNIA, Feb. 23 — We were sitting together, a group of workers in this factory, which currently produces steel for airplanes and war ships. We were eating lunch and talking about different things. All of a sudden a young worker, who had just gotten out of the army, came up and, in a defiant tone, said to me, "My friend says you’re a communist."

Even though this took me by surprise, I answered that his friend had told the truth, that I am a communist.

"I hate communism," replied the young worker. "How much do you know about communism?" I asked him. His answers were based on the bosses’ anti-communist propaganda. While he was answering, I could see there were a lot of contradictions in what he was saying. The more he talked, the more I could see he shared some of my communist points of view. "This guy could become a good Party member," I thought. All the more because some of his friends and relatives read, or have read, Challenge.

I asked him to read and discuss with me some of the Party’s literature about the bosses’ wars and communist revolution. He said, "Bring it to me, and we’ll see." A few days later, he told me that he liked the literature, because it had a lot of things that he didn’t know before. Our friendship has been deepened and we have political discussions everyday.

A little while ago we started talking about war. I asked him "What will you do if they call you to fight in Iraq?" "I’d like to go fight against that tyrant Saddam Hussein," he said. I gave him some leaflets, editorials and other literature about the true reasons for the war, which is the control of oil and oil profits in the Middle East.

"We workers and soldiers, who are the children of workers, have nothing to win in this war of plunder. Our best option is to organize the PLP in the factories and the army, to fight for a communist revolution," I told him. He answered that he’s willing to participate in study groups, to see if he can help organize in the army.

Our next step is to organize a group of workers in this factory and go to the union, churches and community organizations to present ideas and plans to oppose the bosses’ war and fascism, and win workers to the solution of communist revolution. The coming May Day March is a very important step in reaching this goal, especially if we move a block of workers from this factory to come to the March. The bosses’ wars give us the opportunity to win hundreds of worke

Son of 187 Must Be Smashed: Don’t Fight Racism with Patriotism!

CALIFORNIA — "Son of 187" is on the ballot in California—another openly racist initiative campaign brought to you by the same forces that brought about Propositions 187 and 209. Its appearance is another sign of the deepening crisis of capitalism, and the intensification of the struggle between Old and New Money to win the working class to support their plans for war and fascism. This latest proposition is called the Unz initiative—a law which would make bilingual education illegal in California. It is so outrageous that it is obviously not about improving education for the children of California, with such provisions as making it a crime for a teacher to assist children in their native language, and limiting instruction in English as a Second Language to a segregated one-year-only program. It is an attack on the working class and an attempt to build anti-immigrant racism, especially among teachers.

The current state policy requires veteran teachers to be certified to teach language minority children without giving them an opportunity to get the required certification on "company time." This has pitted the needs of language minority students against the interests of veteran teachers, and created the maximum of racism and resentment on both sides.

The Unz forces are typical new money fascists—Ron Unz is a computer nerd who used his own money to Challenges Pete Wilson in the Republican Primary in 1994. He based his campaign on an attack on Workman’s Compensation, welfare, and immigrants. Tailoring his rhetoric to meet the audience, he would attack welfare clients (using thinly veiled anti-black rhetoric) to immigrant audiences and attack immigrants to citizen audiences. This is the kind of open fascist movement that characterized the Proposition 187 and 209 campaigns.

The movement against the Unz initiative is led by a coalition of organizations which has fought the other openly racist initiatives in California. It includes organizations such as the MultiCultural Collaborative, Asian Pacific American Legal Center, the National Organization for Women, United Farm Workers, and the state Teachers Unions. We are working within this movement to win the people in them to communist ideas. Many of our friends believe that capitalism can be reformed—that we can stave off these attacks without taking on the whole system. Many are won to nationalism—sometimes Mexican nationalism, but often U.S. nationalism.

A subcommittee of the union Bi-Lingual Education Committee had sent out a letter to Ron Unz, challenging him to a debate, with a big American flag on the letter. I have been active in this committee for several years, and raised in the meeting that we shouldn’t send out anything with the U.S. flag on it. This flag divides us from our brothers and sisters on the other side of the border—and is the flag that will lead our sons and daughters as they go to Iraq to kill other workers for oil. People nodded in vigorous agreement as I spoke, and voted unanimously to send out all committee correspondence on committee letterhead--no flags. This is part of the struggle to win our friends to the party. After the meeting, three out of the 11 people there took Challenge.

One of our friends stayed after the meeting to read the first draft of this article and to discuss the Jesse Jackson march for "Affirmative Action." In all these campaigns, the Old Money forces want to win black and latin workers to be Americans first. Americans first—not workers who understand their class interests to be allied with workers all over the world—but Americans first, who are willing to kill and die for "their country." In a period in which the U.S. is preparing to bomb Iraq to stop the flow of oil, this movement is part of preparing the groundwork for war, and winning the working class, whatever their first language may be, to kill and die for America.

Capitalism is in crisis and needs war. During these crises, all the fascists come out of the woodwork—the petty Unz fascists, and also the liberal-government line-fascists. Both groups of fascists are deadly for our class—but the war-makers who are in power are the most dangerous. Instead of following them in a multicultural collaborative to fight for oil, we must build a mass communist Party to fight in our own interests. We must fight, instead of for a multicultural America, for a communist society which smashes all borders and eliminates all nationalism. Instead of killing other workers for the U.S. bosses’ oil interests, we must unite with our class brothers of all nations to turn imperialist war into civil war for communism. Working within organizations like the bilingual Education Committee, we must recruit to the Progressive Labor Party, for only a mass communist Party can lead our class to fight for communism.

Win Workers and soldiers to PLP. The future is in our hands.

Spark For A Massive May Day

CHICAGO, Feb. 21 — "I was in the military for 10 years, 11 months, and 24 days. I’ve been around the world and I know I was just a pawn for them rich people. I was used and now I have to fight them so hard just for them to look at my medical problems. I can relate to this war over oil—them rich people are acting cowardly if they bomb Iraq. I came in here off the street to get a little to eat. (Pointing to a comrade) This guy sat down and was talking to me about the movement and I realized I was in the right place. I’m down for the cause."

This was a impromptu speech made by a guy who came to a May Day Dinner held by our West Side PLP club. He was inspired by the atmosphere of the Dinner. Hospital workers, college and high school students, teachers, workers and people from the neighborhood made up the 70 people who participated—singing and being entertained with poetry, skits and speeches. The main speaker focused on his experiences in the military during the 1991 Gulf War. In front of a formation led by the sergeant, lieutenant and other big guys, this comrade, with a fellow soldier by his side, delivered a speech to the soldiers explaining how the conflict in Iraq was over oil and that soldiers should refuse to go. Collective efforts at base building helped his club form study groups in the barracks.

The day he was to be called in to answer for his actions, Challenge littered the barracks. Groups of soldiers who were going to be sent to Iraq in ’91 highjacked their buses and turned them around. He continued in his speech, "War does something to people: it makes them consider the world in a way they did not before. A sharp contradiction exists right now. There is tremendous danger and great opportunity."

When speaking about his experience, he illustrated how confidence in the working class in vital. People from Cook County Hospital showed that without being able to rely on our class we cannot grow as a movement. A woman declared, "If the bosses say there’s no money for schools, buses, and hospitals now, wait till they spend a few 100 billion on a war—then there won’t a penny for those things." In the skit, a comrade read a letter written to the bosses by one of the marchers in Haymarket in 1888 (May Day is the holiday that is inspired by this working class battle for the 8-hour-day). "If you think by killing us you can stamp out the spark of the toilers and downtrodden’s struggle, you’re wrong." This Dinner was a big spark for a giant May Day March in DC this May 2nd.

Bosses’ Oil: Deadly for Workers from Iraq to Mexico

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 20 — "Why doesn’t the U.S. government tell the truth about what’s happening in Iraq? They’re telling a bunch of lies. My son is a veteran of the first Gulf War (1991). He told me that the army carried out atrocities against the civilian population, and the news never said anything about that. No mother should let her kids go fight in this war! Now my son is sick because of that war, and now that he’s no use to them, they treat him like an animal." These were the comments of a worker to a radio program that is heard by thousands of garment workers, and they gave us the opportunity to discuss the war at lunch with my fellow workers.

"Did you hear that Clinton said that he’ll attack Iraq. I think it’s Saddam’s fault for not letting them search the palaces," said Rosa.

"The problem isn’t the palaces. The problem is oil. They want to control the oil. And the same thing can happen in Mexico," answered Anna.

"I don’t think so. With Mexico the bosses do what they want, they move in Mexico as if they were in their own houses," replied Rosa.

"Out of this war against Iraq, can come a third World War. Many countries don’t agree with the U.S. and want to control the oil for their own interests. If a third World War develops, this will affect us much more here in the factories, and our children will be sent to fight for oil profits" said Anna.

Beatrice who was listening attentively to the discussion said, "I have never asked for 5¢ from the government for my child. If they want him to go into the army, I’ll send him to Mexico."

In the case of a small war, some youth can hide, but in a world war, countries like Mexico and Canada will be directly involved, whether or not they want to be. The answer isn’t to go to another country. The answer is to organize right here against the imperialist war makers like Rockefeller and against the small bosses like the owners of this factory who force us to submit to their exploitation. All these criminal bosses are the ones who have these plans of war and fascism for hundreds of millions of workers’ families. We can turn these wars into revolutionary wars for communism.

Iraq is number two worldwide in petroleum reserves. Mexico is seventh. In Mexico, there’s a sector of big bosses who want to ally with the Europeans who support Iraq against the U.S. If the U.S. bosses think that this section of Mexican bosses is winning support, they will invade Mexico and guarantee that Mexican oil doesn’t get into the hands of their competition. The U.S. imperialists already have a plan in case of war with Mexico, including trying to control Mexican workers in the U.S. This nightmare gets closer, especially if the U.S. bosses lose control of oil in Iraq or in the Caspian Sea area. The current world of capitalist crisis is a time bomb, especially where there’s oil and a lot of cheap labor.

The members of PLP in this factory will fight to make the situation of fascism and war clear to their fellow workers, aiming to win more workers and their families to read Challenge and to join the PLP to fight for communism, to eliminate wars for profit by abolishing the profit system once and for all. We’re fighting to bring a group of workers to May Day. Some have already raised it in their church that we should oppose the bosses’ oil war.

‘Challenge editorials are right on the mark’

BROOKLYN, NY—At a hospital here, the circulation of the last two issues of Challenge has increased because many workers are discussing and asking questions about why U.S. rulers are plotting against Iraq. Many workers oppose U.S. bombing.

A group of three or four workers gather during their dinner hour and begin this discussion. Other workers usually join in.

One worker, who comes from the Middle East, stated that in the last war the Iraqi working class suffered tremendously. He said that this time there will be even more suffering, but the Iraqi ruling class will remain. He strongly disagrees with the U.S. rulers’ "hunt" for biological weapons in Saddam’s palaces. After all, he feels, other nations in this region also have weapons and bacterial contaminants.

Another worker said Saddam is a dictator and should be stopped. Someone else responded that "Iraq was an ally of U.S. rulers in the Iran-Iraq war. It was only when Saddam invaded Kuwait that the U.S. and Saddam had a falling out."

Still another worker said if U.S. rulers want to go to war, there’s nothing we can do about it.

One worker commented that if we reach out to the army of workers in our union, then we’ll be able to build a mass movement to smash the warmakers.

Finally, another worker stated that the Challenge editorials are right on the mark; that this war is all about oil and that workers and soldiers should not be dying in a bosses’ oil war.

This crisis has given us great opportunities to raise our communist politics with more workers at the hospital. Also, many workers have expressed interest in marching on May Day.

Bosses Crisis Turns Hospital Into Jail

CHICAGO, Feb. 18 — Two hundred workers in Pediatrics (Peds) signed a petition protesting the conversion of the Peds building into a maximum security prison. A group of workers went to hospital director Ms. Rothstein’s office to demand a stop to these police state policies, but the Queen was not in. These workers are continuing to organize, an absentee boss won’t stop them.

Since a baby was kidnapped from Ward 36 in January, the Peds building is on lockdown. A security guard sits at the first floor entrance to make sure nobody enters without a picture ID. The elevator operators are supposed to ask to see a picture ID, as well as a visitor’s pass. Once the visitor gets to the ward to see their sick child, the ward clerk is supposed to check their picture ID and their pass for the third time. Even the bedside nurse is supposed to check for picture ID before saying anything else to the family. It’s amazing the visitors aren’t strip-searched before they are allowed in!

Not only are visitors humiliated, but visits have been severely restricted to parents, siblings over 12 years old and grandparents. It doesn’t matter that a sick child’s sister or favorite aunt or uncle or teacher could provide enormous support. The families can’t even choose who is allowed to visit, the hospital bosses have decided. Doors to the stairwells have been locked, and the only way staff can move around is to take elevators, which triples the time it takes to get from one place to another. The building is now filled with angry staff and visitors.

Is this about patient safety? Hell no! Capitalism is in a worldwide crisis of overproduction. In the Middle East, they are planning to resolve their crisis with war. In Asia they are closing factories and calling out the cops to crush food riots. In Chiapas they are murdering Indian peasants. In the U.S. they are unleashing racist police terror. We will see cops, cops, and more cops. Now they want us to be cops. They want us see our patients and their families as criminals, and the Iraqi people as our enemy. Everything the bosses touch turns to fascism, as they try to get us, and our patients, to accept cutbacks, and the destruction of hospital beds. They are cutting services for poor workers to finance their oil war.

Nurses on the ward where the baby was kidnapped are furious. The nurse who was suspended told the bosses in her disciplinary hearing, that workers should respect the patients and their families, and not treat them as suspects. The nurses told their union rep. (INA), that a button should be made saying, "Respect Not Suspect.." Many workers are now wearing this button.

The only way to make Peds safer, is for the working class to seize power and run society in our interests. Under communism, health care will be provided based on need, not on ability to pay. As the bosses’ system lurches from crisis to crisis, wars and world war, they will attack us with more cops and jails. We must get rid of this decaying profit system and replace it with communism which will provide for all workers needs. Wages and money will be abolished, and we will all contribute and share based on serving the workers and building a communist world. Resuscitation equipment will work properly and be available in every delivery room, and there will be plenty of health care workers around the clock to provide decent care. Fight fascism at Cook County Hospital. Join Progressive Labor Party. March On May Day.

Bosses Crisis Means War in Iraq-Terror at CCH

CHICAGO, Feb. 6 — On February 3rd, Labor and Delivery nurse Marianna Kahng was attacked by a mentally disturbed patient who had just given birth. She had been admitted a few times with this pregnancy and had numerous confrontations with the staff. Earlier this day, she had been wandering around the corridor, totally naked and dripping blood. Marianna was assigned to this patient, who was awaiting transport to the postpartum ward. In the patient’s room, there were tubes of blood that had to be labeled, the patient’s clothes were lying loose, and the chart was incomplete and spread out all over. The patient was mad.

Patients are supposed to be moved from Labor and Delivery by Transportation, but most nurses do it themselves, since there are not enough transporters. The patient asked to see her baby, and Marianna took her to the nursery window. The patient got more agitated and combative, and hit Marianna in the face. She threatened her some more, and hit her again. Marianna was terrified. In the meantime, a housekeeper ran for help, but found Ms. Requillman, the Labor and Delivery coordinator.

Requillman took Marianna to the break room, where Ms. Moore, the PM tour supervisor, told her she was going to be arrested! Ms. Moore took Marianna to the ER, where her blood pressure was 171/124, her pulse was 111 and her glucose was in the 60s. She has diabetes and hypertension. Two Chicago cops questioned her. By the end of the night, the patient was in leather restraints, on medication, and on one-to-one nursing. Marianna was handcuffed, taken downtown in a paddy wagon and put in a cell. She wasn’t released until 4:30 PM the next day, 16 hours later. She is still suspended.

This is what capitalist health care has become. The bosses, their racist profit system, and their staffing cuts, have led to many situations where seriously ill or mentally disturbed patients are left alone and unsupervised. Work frequently piles up, causing more delays. Patient’s wait hours on stretchers throughout the hospital for transporters. It’s no wonder patients become angry and frustrated and take it out on staff. To top it off, the bosses have destroyed the department of psychiatry. With no psychiatrists for adults it is impossible to get mental health care for our patients.

Their murderous cuts created the conditions which led to Marianna’s beating. The bosses’ response—send the worker to jail and fire her! We cannot let the bosses shift the blame for their downsizing, layoffs, and cutbacks onto us. Their system is in a worldwide crisis of overproduction, the driving force behind fascist terror at home, and the current war unfolding in the Middle East. We must answer with a mass May Day March and a growing movement for communist revolution.

Many nurses and workers are outraged. Hundreds of Marianna’s co-workers, black, Asian, and white, have signed a petition, demanding she be "exonerated and restored to her position with full compensation." We want all workers to come to her disciplinary hearing at CCH on February 20th, and her criminal court appearance on February 27th.

Why ‘Peace’ Movements Won’t End Wars: Senator Barbara ‘Bomber’ Boxer Disrupted

OAKLAND, Feb. 22 — "Follow the lead of our communist GIs and speak out against the war preparations." That was how Challenge was pitched to those attending Senator’s Barbara Boxers’ re-election event on Friday evening.

We were a small part of a large, loose anti-war group (mainly pacifists) who were protesting Boxer’s stand in favor of bombing Baghdad. Although almost all of her supporters were on the defensive a group of these supporters were determined to confront her. Meanwhile, the demonstration outside was big enough to force her to sneak into her own event by the back door.

But inside she was confronted and, by the time the demonstrators moved into the room, she was visibly thrown off her usual slick composure. It was a successful skirmish as far as it went, yet it threw light on how much work we in PLP have to do.

There is no doubt that Boxer and her capitalist cronies are drawing significant lessons from these public Challengess. In military matters, politics is primary. We can be sure that from now on there will be a fierce campaign to win the "hearts and minds" of the public.

And the "hearts and minds" of that large, mixed grouping known as liberals will be one of the key groups targeted. Even the liberal opposition has a fatal weakness. It focuses exclusively on the suffering of the Iraqi people. This so narrows the outlook that it makes "peace" in Iraq seem like a reasonable objective.

But PLP pointed out that Saddam is not the real enemy the U.S. is targeting, it is the imperialist rivals (mainly Russia, France and China) which have invested heavily in Iraq, with the world’s second largest oil reserve. And even the recent "deal" worked out by UN Secretary Kofi Annan with Iraq will not bring about any real lasting peace. The road to World War I and II was paved with Peace Treaties and Peace Movements.

That is why the demand for peace only creates a deadly illusion among the masses. The only way to confront imperialist war is to organize workers, soldiers and students to turn the bosses’ war into civil war for communist revolution. Both WW I and II opened the way for the Bolshevik and Chinese revolutions. This is the politics we must bring to the mass organizations, including the "peace" movements.

‘Fight U.S. Imperialism, Not Just Bombing’

WASHINGTON, DC, Feb. 21 — Today 2,000 anti-war demonstrators marched to the White House to protest U.S. plans to bomb Iraq. Students and workers showed their anger at the threatened escalation of U.S. sponsored genocide against Iraqi workers.

The U.S. killed hundreds of thousands in the 1991 Desert Storm. By destroying Iraq’s infrastructure (electricity, sanitation, and similar systems) and then applying crippling economic sanctions, the U.S. has murdered hundreds of thousands more. Iraqis, mainly children are dying from otherwise preventable diseases and malnutrition. The inspections deal cooked up by the UN’s Kofi Annan will mean, at most, a temporary delay in U.S. military action, since the deal doesn’t affect the desperate need of U.S. imperialism to continue its monopoly over Mideast oil. Some new pretext will be found to allow the U.S. bosses to desperately try to assert their control again. And they are driven to do this by the needs of profitability, both short term and long term. Losing control over Mideast oil supplies would mean losing a position of great leverage over their rival imperialists. So there must be no let-up in building the anti-imperialist movement.

At today’s demonstration, this line of analysis was absent from the chants and speeches, which were limited to such cries as, "Stop the Attack on Iraq" and "End Sanctions Now". Concentrating on the immediate flash point—the bombing threat—leads us into inconsistency in fighting imperialism. Even more importantly, understanding of capitalism’s nature can lead activists to understand the hard but inevitable truth—that a much bigger solution is needed than reversing the plan for bombing Iraq. That solution requires a revolution for communism, which cuts the heart out of imperialist war by destroying the profit-driven capitalist system.

PLP’ers brought this message to the demonstration by distributing 65 Challenges and 400 leaflets calling for a march for communism on May Day, May 2nd. But our efforts to turn the war needs of capitalism into revolution against capitalism itself must be stepped up in this time of crisis.

Bosses’ Dream is a nightmare for workers

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 23 — Despite pouring rain, over 2000 people marched here today to "Save the Dream," against attacks on Affirmative Action. Speech after speech was given by politicians praising the "unity of people of all races for a better America," and attacking Pete Wilson. While the crowd was multi-racial, there were many black workers and youth who came because they are angry at growing racist attacks. PLP members passed out 1,000 leaflets which said that the only way to get a level playing field is to eliminate the system of huge wealth for the few and war and poverty for the many—with communist revolution. We pointed out that 1 in 4 black youth are in the criminal justice system, and 40% of the troops in Desert Storm I were black and latin. We said that the bosses desperately need to motivate the army to fight for their oil profits, and so need workers and soldiers to believe in the American dream. The response to our leaflet and Challenge was very enthusiastic. One worker said "This is the leaflet I’ve been looking for!" Another said, "You just come right out with it. Revolution is the only answer!" We sold over 300 Challengess, and a group of youth we knew took the leaflets and Challengess and distributed them. This march showed that the bosses are serious about building a mass movement around their line, and we need to be more deeply involved in it to win these angry workers and youth to PLP.

Capitalist Medicine is Deadly for Mothers, Babies

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 20 — Two mothers and three infants died, and 46 babies suffer from cerebral palsy and mental retardation due to LA County’s policy of mandating doctors to force poor women to try to deliver their babies vaginally, rather than by Cesarean sections (C-sections) if they need them. Now the LA Times is revealing this in a series of front page articles. Do they and the politicians they represent suddenly care what happens to poor women and their babies? Or is there a political reason for this sudden exposé?

This "exposé" is part of the plan to dismantle County health facilities. Exposing these childbirth atrocities is a way of telling poor women to stay away from the County. A political move is afoot to "reform" health care by shifting Medi-Cal patients into already existing HMO’s, while at the same time eliminating care for those who have no health insurance and do not qualify for Medi-Cal—many of whom are immigrant workers.

This plan uses racism in an attempt to win U.S.-born workers to this denial of care. The LA Times said that all the dead or injured mothers and babies were on Medi-Cal. Many were "poor immigrants from Mexico...many of them here illegally." Their point was the cost: "....24 million in damage awards... [which] taxpayers will go on paying...for years to come." In other words, there are taxpayers (that’s "us") and then there are poor immigrant women (that’s "them"). The racist cuts in health care for immigrants has been followed by cutting welfare, unemployment benefits, education and other public services which are used by all workers.

While the denial of C-sections is certainly deadly, the most important news is buried in the last few paragraphs. Maternity patients at County-USC Medical Center numbered 18,000 in late 1985; in 1992 there were 14,544 babies born; and now it’s down to 4,000. While some of the patients have been shifted into HMO’s, most are getting no care, nowhere!

Horror stories like these are just the tip of the iceberg that is growing fascist all health care under capitalism. Mutilating or actually ending the lives of those considered "expendable," the very young, very old, the severely disabled or chronically ill, or undocumented immigrants. This "cost effective practice of medicine" is intensifying as the rulers’ prepare for an oil war in the Mideast. As LA County’s chief of Ob/Gyn, Dr. Richard Paul, said, "The risk had to be taken because we couldn’t do five C-sections at once...we had a huge crisis with too many patients...We were told by County Counsel [the lawyers] that we could insist on trial labor for everyone." They were just "following orders" and it was all perfectly legal!

There will always be better health care available for certain people. Reforms are designed to win those who must carry out the bosses’ imperialist war plans. Kaiser, the grandfather of the managed health care movement, was born as the health care plan for workers in a war-related industry during WWII. With war once again on the horizon, how health care is paid for—and who gets it—is an issue of much concern to the U.S. ruling class. The new plans would be paid for by the workers (possibly pension funds) and be sold as an improvement, but would actually reduce more people to minimum care. Some plans call for dismantling of "public health care" as part of preparation for war. LA County may be one of its first victims.

Challenge talked with a mother who suffered this same torture in childbirth 13 years ago at Kaiser Permanente:

"They knew I was a high risk delivery going in, being over 40. My first delivery of a girl had given me 4th degree lacerations and this baby was a boy. When the resident doctor, who was on alone, tried to deliver the baby, the cord was wrapped around his neck. They should have done a C-section right then and there. The resident couldn’t find the staff doctor, so he cut the cord, assuming that a quick delivery would follow. It didn’t. The baby’s shoulder got stuck and he was without oxygen inside the birth canal for several minutes, enough to leave him severely and permanently neurologically damaged."

When we suggested to her that the only way to really fight to end fascist health care practices, such as this one, is the fight for communist revolution she responded that, "I just can’t see revolution working. I know this [capitalism] isn’t working, but for revolution to work, so many conditions have to be present if you are going to avoid just more death and disaster." But this worker’s anger against the system can be moved toward desire for communist revolution if we do our job.

LETTERS

Challenge will besold in schools!

Dear Challenge:

"I just want to know why this newspaper Challenge is not authorized for distribution to students at this school. This paper explains that the impending war in the Middle East is about oil. It warns that such a war could lead to World War III. It’s a communist newspaper. Students need to read the ideas in this newspaper. Communism is even supposed to be a part of the high school curriculum."

This statement by a teacher at a Local School Council (LSC) meeting in Chicago touched off a debate that lasted about 15 minutes. At the previous meeting, a proposal was presented to the LSC directing the principal to halt the distribution of unauthorized literature by a teacher. Though the teacher and the literature were not named, communists decided to take the offensive.

The president of the Council tried to attack the teacher, saying he didn’t care if students read the paper, he just didn’t want any teacher encouraging them to read it—they could get it on their own if they wanted it, he said. A visitor to the meeting wanted to know why this paper was being censored. "It’s not about censorship," the LSC president exploded. "It’s just that no unauthorized literature can be distributed in the school." It’s not about authorization, it’s about capitalism. The schools are for it and Challenge is against it. Freedom of the press is just something they teach in school along with their other lies that push patriotism.

The usually talkative principal had nothing to say during the whole debate. All attempts by the president to turn the debate into an attack on the teacher failed. We accept the complement of being attacked by apologists for this rotten, racist, war-mongering system. Our answer to that attack is to guarantee that Challenge is as widely distributed as possible.

The principal and LSC president are worried. They’re afraid that if students learn the truth about communism, the truth about this miserable capitalist world, they will join the movement to overthrow the bosses and their system. And they should be afraid! Students will read Challenge, march on May Day, and join PLP, with or without approval. The "lofty" offices of principal and LSC president will cease to exist when schools are run collectively for the benefit of the students and communist society. The sooner the better.

Chicago Red

PLP confrontation on CNN makes us proud

Dear Challenge:

Yesterday I turned on the TV and it was tuned to CNN. It was about 15 minutes into the "town meeting"—an attempt by government to turn people in favor of the coming war against Iraq. It didn’t work out that way.

One of the two prostitutes dressed as "moderates," Judy Woodruff, with panic in her eyes was pleading with demonstrators in the audience to act civil and allow the government goons to spout their BS.

The mouthpieces repeated "weapons of mass destruction" so many times I began to think they were trying to get the audience to meditate with the phrase as a mantra. CNN had plenty of cameras to show soldiers and sailors, but couldn’t spare one to show cops throwing demonstrators out of the hall, though that became obvious later. When one protester managed to get to the mike to make an angry statement, noting that the U.S. bosses have no problem supporting and putting into power murderous dictators.

Anyway, when I learned today that PLP had led the protest, it all made sense.

I came to work and told two people who I sell Challenge to, that PL was behind the protest. They were proud, too. I just sent a contribution and I’m a little broke, but here’s some more.

Long live the revolution!

No Longer Waiting for Lefty

Students discuss how to confront cops in school

Dear Challenge:

The NY Post (2/5) carried an article, "HS Kids Fear Violence—and Police, Too." At the Brooklyn high school where I teach, I took time out, sometimes an entire class period, to discuss the implications of police and violence in the schools, as well as the situation in the Middle East.

The Post article implied that students are fearful and actually want cops in schools for protection. Many, if not all of my students feel relatively safe in school. They were angered by the lies in the Post, especially since the schools cited as "the most violent" have mostly black and latin students. They were very sharp to pick out the Post’s racism. They also know that cops are the enemy because of the way these students are treated in their own communities.

In one class, this led to a very spirited discussion on how divisions among students occur. A few realized that the capitalist system was at fault; many had never given it much thought or had ever had the opportunity to discuss it. Many students talked about taking on the cops single-handedly. I was quick to point out that if we could unite all students against the cops, there’d be any army of 3,000. They hadn’t realized their own strength!

In another class, one student suggested a "walkout" if cops enter the building on a regular basis. I asked what might be a better way to take over the building. Another student replied, "A sit-in, like they did in the ’60s!"

In still another class, the discussion moved to the impending Mideast war. I was asked what would I do if the government drafted me. I said they weren’t interested in me, but that the military would probably set up tables in high schools to recruit students. This class was able to understand the U.S. government’s racism, since a disproportionate number of black and latin youth would be sent to do the bosses’ dirty work. Many of them realized that civilians, jut like them, would be killed by any military action. They were also very aware that this whole U.S. scheme—looking for weapons and biological contaminants—was just a front for the U.S. wanting control of oil wells.

All this was connected to how cops in schools would be another way for bosses (in this case, principals and the Board of Education) to control students, under the pretense of looking for weapons and "keeping everyone safe."

Our students have no future under capitalism. They will either be shot down by police entering the schools or will be sent to fight the bosses’ oil war in the Middle East. My next step is to introduce Challenge to several students.

A Brooklyn Teacher

Coworkers talk about comrade, in a good way

Dear Challenge:

Several days ago I came into an area where I do much of my work, and met a new worker. He had been talking to the other workers as I walked in, and came up to me with a big smile and said "You must be Steve, we were just talking about you! Are you some kind of socialist?" "Well, not really...actually I’m a communist!" And we were off and running! He asked me the difficult questions—personal freedom, and religion and a few other things. I gave satisfactory answers, certainly not brilliant, but he seemed quite pleased and very open to what I was saying. What did I do right?

Later, I suddenly realized that the reason this conversation had gone so well was because my friends had been talking with him about me, and had predisposed him to be open and receptive to what I was saying. When we talked about cutbacks and I told him my wife was the same kind of professional as my friends, he said "Yes, they’ve been telling me all about her."

I’ve been a technical person for the past 13 years in a large public service organization where there is a mix of professional and non-professional workers, all of whom have tremendous reasons to hate what capitalism is doing to them and their clients. I’ve made friends with many of the professionals and made it clear that I appreciate the work they are trying to do and the frustrations they have. A number of them have read Challenge off and on and are sympathetic with our criticism of capitalism and our vision of a communist world, but they don’t think it can happen and don’t see themselves as committed to try to make it happen.

What really struck me was even though I haven’t recruited any of them to the Party, I think they see my politics as something which advances our friendships rather than holding it back, and that even though they are not in the Party themselves, they help build the Party.

West Coast Comrade

‘Only way to wipe out drug traffic is with revolution’

Dear Challenge:

Our nephew was murdered night before last. Sona was with us nearly every day for the last two months, cooking for the work-crew every day, camping on the building site at night, eating dinner with us and showering at our place most evenings. J. spent two solid weeks with him just now, and K. has been learning to cook from him, he’s taken her swimming, etc. He was shot to death right here in this (formerly) quiet little fishing village which has been turned into a transshipment point for Colombian cocaine. He worked as a fireman at the small airstrip here, and lost his job a year ago because he wouldn’t take payoffs to turn a blind eye to the drug operation. But his long-time friend joined up with one of the two competing drug gangs, and he didn’t cut off ties. It seems like that’s what got him murdered.

Boy, but I’ll tell you, I don’t think I’ve ever felt such deep, passionate pain and anger in my life. The whole community is angry. Taxi drivers are flying black ribbons from their antennae. People are talking about having a demonstration.

This is a community that goes back over 150 years to the days of Emancipation when slaves left the plantations and set up their own fishing and farming villages. It’s made up of poor, hardworking people, who’ve never had this kind of thing to think about. As my brother-in-law, Sona’s father, put it this morning, this is the kind of thing you see on TV—it’s not supposed to happen in real life. There have been three murders here in the last six months, but Sona’s is the first which was not actually involved in the drug trade. Everyone knew him as a good, decent, helpful person, and they are outraged. They also know which set of people is responsible for his death. I don’t think his death will go unavenged.

This experience has changed me, I know that. It has made me think a little bit about how we deal with these types of events as a Party. Actually, the only way is to wipe out drug traffic with a revolution. The drug traffic is so insidious, and it corrupts young people so easily, and gets naïve people in fatal situations, and has ripple effects everywhere. It makes people feel angry, but also helpless and fearful. We need to do something more. It will be good when we have a red army operating against the gangs in a violent context; a hell of a lot of people would be thankful to us and listen to us.

Comrade in Jamaica

Raise communist ideas in campus organizations

Dear Challenge:

In a previous issue of Challenge (12/2/97) we reported about a struggle to hold a forum in a California college about the situation in the Middle East. The forum never took place, a major mistake since the Iraqi crisis got sharper since then.

We have renewed our organizing for a forum to involve not only a student club, but also a staff organization. This organization is comprised of representatives from departments and buildings all over the campus who entertain a broad range of political viewpoints, from "apolitical" to conservative to patriotic to liberal to social democratic. These viewpoints overlap in many instances, and do not necessarily determine individual stances on U.S. military attacks on Iraq.

At a meeting the week of February, 14th, a group of us presented our idea for this staff organization to sponsor a forum on the Gulf crisis. We forcefully presented our viewpoint that an attack on Iraq would be an attack on the international working class and that we would put forth this idea at the forum.

By a close vote (40% voting yes, 20% voting no, and 40% abstaining) the group agreed to form a committee to organize a forum. They passed this motion after clarifying they were not taking a stand against U.S. bombing of Iraq. We understood that this group would not take an anti-war stand, and we felt encouraged that they voted in favor of having this forum.

Several of the workers we talked to about holding a forum were disappointed that we had asked this group for sponsorship in the first place—it has a history as a company union. But many workers in this organization are not administrative mouthpieces and there is a possibility that this forum will actually take place. We are not waiting for this committee to act, however. The chances that the U.S. will bomb Iraq increase every day. We will organize a forum which takes an anti-war position or a sharper action if possible, and participate in the other forum when (and if) it happens.

We hope we have learned something valuable about working inside capitalist organizations: Many are composed of honest working class people who are concerned and worried about capitalism’s rush toward war and fascism. PLP has a responsibility to speak to our brothers and sisters in these organizations and to raise the question of revolutionary communism—the only answer to imperialist war.

West Coast Comrade

There is only one race, the human race

Dear Challenge:

We have discussed in our clubs the "What We Fight For" box that appears on page 2 of Challenge, and we think that the Editorial Committee is making a huge mistake in one of the sections of that box, which we quote below:

"Communism means abolishing races and racism," and the correct thing to say would be "Communism means abolishing racism."

The Editorial Committee and its advisors have been very subjective in analyzing the word race, forgetting its true significance. Races involve clear and definite phenotypes and genotypes, which is very independent of intellectual capacity. If communism were to abolish races it would be the same as abolishing children, or the female and male sexes, since these too are phenotypically and genetically based. Comrades, let’s not compare apples and oranges.

El Salvador Comrade

Challenge replies:

The "What We Fight For" box in Challenge reads, "Communism means abolishing the concept of race and racism." This is clearer than the statement quoted from Desafío. We apologize for the difference between the Spanish and English, and will correct that error.

The comrade is wrong, however, to say that "race" is a clearly defined biological trait. Back in 1964, scientist Frank B. Livingston wrote an essay, "On the nonexistence of human races." He explained that dividing people into races on the basis of genetic characteristics contradicted both the findings of genetics and evolutionary theory. To understand human genetic variability, Livingston argued, we must think in terms of clines (continuous gradations over space in the form or frequency of a trait) and not distinct races. "Races do not exist," he declared.

"Yesterday’s science is today’s common sense and tomorrow’s nonsense," Livingston concluded. "For the concept of race, tomorrow is here."

According to anthropologist Leonard Lieberman, "As of the 1980’s, a majority of anthropologists rejected ‘race.’ In the 1990’s, most introductory textbooks of physical anthropology found the concept devoid of utility." Today, scientists trained in human genetics have almost all adopted Livingston’s view. This was the consensus at a symposium on "Race and Human Evolution" at last month’s meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The concept of race is still very much alive, but not for scientific reasons. Capitalists created races (and with them, the race concept) to justify the brutal enslavement of African people. These profit-hungry mass murders created racism to divide and conquer laborers from Europe, Africa, the Americas and Asia.

Races, and the race concept, continue to exist because capitalists still need racism to maximize profits and to maintain power by dividing the working class. This is especially true now, as the bosses’ crisis of overproduction drives them to fascism and war.

So capitalism today actually contradicts the development of science.

Challenge reports on how our Party fights hard against racism. Through these struggles, we show that the capitalist rulers are the biggest racists of all, and that their "multi-culturalism" and "dialogues on race" are ploys to win U.S. workers to support Rockefeller & Co.’s genocidal wars for profit. And that communism—and only communism—will abolish racism.

But destroying capitalism will, too, abolish both races and the concept of race.

Olympics tells us we’re losers

Dear Challenge:

In the past Challenge has written about the multi-billion dollar commercialism and fierce nationalism fostered by the Olympics, but having just spent the last couple of weeks watching them, it strikes me that there is another, perhaps even more deadly, message, which is only thinly veiled. While the Olympics seem to focus on winning, the main lesson they teach is about losing.

The message to the world’s working class, or at least to that portion who even have the means to view the Olympics, is that except for a handful, all of us are losers, that accepting our losses is a virtue, that most of us just don’t have what it takes to win. Worse yet, mere children win some of these events.

Consider that the very definition of "winner" is an artifact designed for the precise purpose of creating losers. Rather than saying that all of these athletes, let alone the rest of the world, are winners, a loser can be separated from a winner by as little as one hundredth of a second, or by the subjective opinion of often politically motivated judges. The main built-in idea is that there is one, and only one, winner in each event.

Of course, other underlying assumptions which are never questioned, or even raised, are that the very concepts of success and failure are measured only in terms of individuals (or at most small teams), that competition in today’s world is a given, and that the only way most of us can keep from feeling inferior, and beaten before we begin, is to hitch our wagon to one or another of the stars, i.e., identify with one or another of the winners. Another unquestioned assumption is that spending every day of your existence perfecting your own coordination and strength is a worthwhile activity.

While the skill which the athletes develop is fun and exciting to watch, that’s the sugar coating on the poison. What the working class needs is a system with no losers. This requires a system where cooperation replaces competition, where devotion to serving others replaces serving one’s self, and where the pursuit of socially useful goals replaces pursuit of mere entertainment and the building of a handful of lucrative careers, while billions live in slavery, or near slave-like conditions.

If most of us feel we are unworthy for anything better, the worship of individual sports stars prepares us to march behind military and political stars into war and fascism without resistance. I think the Olympics, like most other capitalist products, are not so good for our health.

A Comrade

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