Challenge, April 1 1998

When the Berlin Wall came down, and subsequently the Soviet Union collapsed, and the Chinese "Communists" and other "communist" parties fully embraced capitalism, the international capitalists shrieked that "communism was dead." Yes, it was true that the prevailing international communist movement was dead—but communism is alive!

In its death throes the old communist movement gave birth to a new, more profound communist movement. The fledgling Progressive Labor Party stepped into the breach, picked up the Red Flag of communist revolution and held it higher, and still higher.

We were told by many friends and foes that "you can’t pull it off. You are too weak and the bosses are too strong." And so, from 37 years ago, when PL was organized, until this moment, that’s how it appeared. But, as we know from our experiences, "things aren’t always what they seem."

During these 37 years at least two important developments occurred. We involved ourselves in militant, anti-capitalist activities on many crucial fronts. Hundreds of thousands of workers, students and others have joined us in scores of anti-racist actions and in many, many anti-imperialist actions against capitalist wars.

Out of these and other fights we raised high the banner of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. We advanced the primacy of the working class in the revolutionary process, the necessity of a mass vanguard communist party and other fundamental Marxist-Leninist concepts. One of our more important accomplishments was to re-establish May Day as the holiday of the international working class and the communist movement.

By critically and self-critically examining our experiences and the practice of the old communist movement, we improved the strategy of our Party. Trying to apply the principles of dialectical materialism, the bedrock of communist thought, we came to the conclusion that the goal of socialism—a system retaining many capitalist practices and relations—had to go. Maintaining wage slavery and making ability instead of need the basis for production and distribution were two of the deadly errors of the old movement. We replaced the goal of socialism—which was supposed to be a transitionary period from capitalism to communism—with communism. We put the abolition of the wage system in the forefront of our banners. We championed need instead of ability as the basis of insuring a more communist distribution of the fruits of workers’ labor. So we combined practice with theory, which, in fact, guaranteed our continuation.

And continuing to grow is what we are doing! Over the years thousands have passed through our ranks. Many are still involved. Many more thousands are in our base. Tens of thousands have participated in our openly communist May Day marches. Our movement, though small and modest, has spread to several other countries. Despite our size, hundreds of thousands have been touched by our Party. Our political influence has always been greater than our size. Communism is still the central idea of our time.

In some ways our situation today is more complex than the period of the Russian Revolution. The biggest lesson of the Chinese Revolution (1949) and Russian Revolution (1917) was that the working class and others, with the leadership of communists, can beat the capitalists. The other lesson was that holding power is more difficult than winning power. The defeat of the old communist movement has given rise to cynicism and some defeatism. The cry of "it can’t work," and "it didn’t work" is used endlessly by the rulers in their anti-communist crusade.

But the fact is that it was, and is, capitalism that can’t and will never work. Capitalism can never fulfill the aspirations of the working class. The class struggle exists independent of our will. Class struggle must inevitably give rise to communist yearning and revolutionary organizing. Our Party, presently small, still here and slowly growing, underlines the inevitability of the triumph of communism. But capitalism will not fall by itself. Capitalism must be defeated in practice by the working class and its allies.

Communists have a proud history of struggle against capitalism. The first communist movement was organized and joined by giants. We have the advantage of learning from their strengths and weaknesses. In the early 1950’s William Z. Foster, then leader of the Communist Party USA, wrote Mao Zedong, then leader of the Chinese Communist Party. Foster’s letter covered several pages in the U.S. Communist Party paper, The Worker. In it, Foster outlined the many attacks against the Communist Party, the weakness of the workers and various other complaints. The Worker, on its front page, heralded Foster’s long letter of difficulties.

Some weeks later, The Worker hailed Mao’s response to Foster. On its front page it headlined, "Comrade Mao Answers Comrade Foster." Inside The Worker, there was a one-paragraph letter from Mao to Foster: "Dear Comrade Foster, In your letter I can see the heart and soul of the U.S. working class. Comrade Foster, ‘Dark night must have its end.’ Comradely, Comrade Mao Zedong."

Presently chaos and instability dominate a worldwide capitalist crisis. The doors for revolutionary development are opening. Victory can be ours if we practice consistently and correctly, and improve our ideas. This is a process. Despite all the naysayers, we are still here and growing. This can accelerate if we fight hard and apply the lessons of our line. No one can stop the working class! No capitalist or grouping of capitalists can halt the wheel of history. The Red Flag of Communism will cover the green flag of capitalism.

Join PLP—March on May Day!

Bosses’ Dilemma: Oil War in Middle East, Class War in Seattle

SEATTLE, March 25 — "The bosses are planning a oil war in the near future," said a Boeing machinist, "but, what we have to understand is, that the war is on every time we enter that plant gate!" The company attacked us workers in three major ways last week. CEO Condit spelled out his plans to eliminate 8,200 jobs through realignment, while cutting benefits for the remaining workers. Jim Dagnon, senior vice president of People (formerly Human Resources), began the company’s public relations campaign to counter a discrimination suit brought by 41 employees against the company. Capitalism in crisis causes inter-imperialist war and prepares for that war by attacking the working class.

The only viable answer to this war on the working class—in the plant today and the Middle East tomorrow—is communist revolution. The best way to build that revolution is to help send a Boeing contingent to the May Day March on May 2nd in Los Angeles.

Condit promised there would be no job cuts when the merger of McDonnell Douglas and Boeing went through. This week he announced 8,200 workers, mostly in Southern California, would lose their jobs as the company consolidates duplicate operations in the wake of the multi-billion acquisition. So much for bosses’ promises!

"You noticed how the company emphasized that there would be no cuts here," observed a Seattle-area worker, "like we’re not supposed to care if workers from some other area lose their jobs!" Such class consciousness is admirable, but Puget Sound workers will not escape the knife. Condit previously declared a surplus of 12,000 workers in the commercial divisions located in Washington state. In fact, Condit told senior managers he wants to eliminate 35,000 jobs in the next four years—even if orders continue at last year’s rapid pace. Orders have slowed in the first three months of 1998, so these cuts are low estimates.

Benefits will be cut for those lucky enough to still have a job. Non-union new hires will not get any medical benefits when they retire, while the company reserves the right to change the medical package of present employees and retirees. Present employees and retirees will have medical benefits; they’ll just amount to zero! Overtime pay, sick leave and vacation pay will also be scaled back. Guaranteed company pensions will become a thing of the past as all retirement funds will be directed toward stock market speculation in personal 401(k) funds.

The company publicly declared that it intends to push for these same provisions when union contracts, covering nearly 100,000 workers, expire next year.

Anti-Racist Public Relations; Racist Essence

Dagnon’s response to the suit charging Boeing with racism was printed on the front page of this week’s Boeing News—just below the announced job cuts. In the past, Boeing answered discrimination suits with stony silence. Not this time! Instead, the company has launched a full-fledged PR campaign—trying to appear sympathetic.

Dagnon expressed "regret that the internal process broke down." Harassment "won’t be tolerated" he continued, implying that the company was willing to sacrifice some low-level flunkies if necessary.

A managers’ meeting showed, however, the racist essence remains the same. A line supervisor complained that he couldn’t even tell workers to get back to work anymore. The general supervisor answered with the non sequitur: "Yea, I know the African-Americans have this suit going." When the black supervisors at this meeting were asked if they spoke up against this obvious racist attack, they replied they didn’t say a word. A boss is a boss is a boss!

Putting A Face On A Feeling

"When you go into the plant," continued our machinist friend, "you can feel the war. Many people can feel it, they just can’t put a face on it!" Boeing serves the Old Money ruling class in more ways than one. Boeing sucks profits from our exploitation to fill the coffers of the Rockefeller & Co. banks, but, even more importantly, the company is a strategic military asset. Why else would Herr Kissinger, aka "Dr. Strangelove," be a special consultant to Boeing?!

Rocky’s competitors are busy building their industrial military strength. Russian Highlights, Boeing’s internal newsletter, reports that the still-huge Russian aviation industry has allied itself with the Europeans on all three major military aviation projects of the new millennium. The partners of the European Future Large Aircraft, a military cargo plane, met in Moscow to explore Russian participation. Avastor, a Russian "civilian" aviation firm, could provide 15-20% of the cost of the Airbus super-jumbo—a plane that can easily be used as a troop transport. Sukhoi is Russia’s leading manufacturer of jet fighters. Germany’s DASA is the lead contractor on the Eurofighter project—the European next generation combat fighter. Sukhoi and DASA had "positive talks" at a meeting in the first week of March.

Faced with the growing military and economic might of its competitors, Rockefeller & Co. must win the allegiance of key military industrial workers like ourselves. At the same time, there is a worldwide capitalist crisis of overproduction forcing the bosses to attack us even harder. Hence, we see seemingly anti-racist PR, along with racist attacks; assurances of job security followed by job cutbacks; big, expensive studies on how best to merge the benefits packages of McDonnell Douglas and Boeing that end up with the simple solution of cut, cut, cut!

Of Strikes and Revolution

Many workers are predicting a long strike because of these attacks. The big question is will that strike take aim at the cause—not just the symptoms. Reform activity, even militant strikes, can’t answer the crisis by destroying imperialism—only communist revolution can do that. Failing to make the goal of revolution primary is like putting a band aid on a cancer.

That is why May Day is the most important organizing effort for us during the next five weeks. May Day aims at the heart of capitalism—to route out the cancer. May Day is the only march organized to answer imperialism, war and its manifestations on the job. May Day is the only march that builds a revolutionary party—the Progressive Labor Party—to lead the working class to communist revolution. The war is on! Let’s turn it into revolution—March on May Day.

Recipe for Building a Mass May Day March

(This is the second of three articles about our comrades’ experiences in New York City in organizing for a mass May Day. The previous article in Challenge (3/25) said that building the revolutionary communist PLP to lead the international working class to seize power is our immediate urgent task. May Day is a measure of our efforts. Building for May Day is a little like making a cake. You need a good recipe and the all the ingredients.)

Ingredients and Preparation Needed to Make a
Mass May Day March.

• Doing mass mailings.

• Identifying mass organizers.

• Identifying key organizers at job sites, in schools and mass organizations.

• Finding other organizers, with the idea of turning all into organizers.

• Planning club activities.

• Bringing May Day into the class struggle and mass organizations.

• Intensifying communist basebuilding. Combining personal friendship and social activities with class struggle and sharp ideological struggle.

• Giving leadership and developing new leadership.

• Organizing new clubs and study groups.

• Mass leafleting at key job sites, schools and neighborhood locations.

• Distributing and putting up May Day stickers.

Comrades in the Upper Manhattan/Bronx section of the Party did our first mass mailing to 800 households in February, which included a May Day letter, a book of five May Day tickets and a leaflet about Iraq. We will do the second mailing in early April with an urgent reminder for bus figures and money and two May Day stickers to post.

We have identified eight mass organizers, both in and not yet in the Party, who can mobilize 30-50 marchers each through their networks. Seven of these are women. Seven have multiple ticket books and we are discussing with another how to raise the march in a more political way with her base.

We have identified 12 key organizers (four of whom are also in the group of mass organizers), both in and not yet in the Party, at job sites, in schools and in apartment buildings. Four are immigrant women factory workers. Three workers from one factory attended a May Day dinner at the home of one of the organizers. Another woman organizer is attempting to approach a number of her co-workers within the next two weeks. Yet another organizer called us to ask for leaflets and tickets for her co-workers. Angered by the bosses’ harassment of the workers, she plans to lead the effort inside the factory to mobilize co-workers to fight back by marching on May Day, a first for us in this shop.

Four more women who live in a huge apartment building are organizing for a bus. A college student and a high school teacher are being closely worked with and have made plans to bring large numbers of students to May Day. Two veteran PLP’ers can bring significant numbers, one from his block and the other from her ESL classes.

We have identified seven more workers who usually bring 20 friends each to May Day. Although all have one ticket book, only two have multiple ticket books. It’s time to start running to make sure the other five receive theirs this week.

Writing this article has clarified the importance of focusing on the above 23 organizers to make sure that they have a plan and are prepared to mobilize before we go too far afield. But to follow our recipe we must go out to another 65 members and friends who are ready to organize smaller numbers for May Day. What everyone does counts! Beyond that there are 20 more people that a team is visiting. Then there is a telephone tree that will attempt to reach scores more. We never know what we will turn up in this process.

Some of the Party clubs have already had May Day activities. Others haven’t. Self critically we should sharpen the struggle for more activity. These constant events allow us to bring in new workers and students, to show them how the Party works and to bring them into the Party.

We have only taken baby steps in our involvement in the mass organizations and the class struggle. But a year ago, our section had very few comrades won to do this. Now more comrades are involved and gaining experience, especially in the movement against Workfare. As this work develops over time we will be able to bring larger numbers to May Day.

Next week: Basebuilding and Developing New Leaders Builds For May Day

U.S. Rulers Goosestepping Past the Nazis
(This is the first of a four part series on fascism)

When we think of fascism we think of the holocaust and World War II. We forget that these were developments of fascism. We forget that Hitler’s Nazi Thousand Year Third Reich lasted for barely a dozen years—cut short by the Soviet Red Army—and for half that time (1933-39) Germany was at "peace." Peacetime Nazi Germany was as fascist as wartime Nazi Germany, although in those first six years it was only laying the brutal foundations for its later vicious, racist policies.

By looking at this "peacetime" Nazi Germany we can learn something about "peacetime" USA. (Is this a subhead? If not, it should be included in previous paragraph).

In last week’s Challenge Quiz we pointed out some of the similarities between Nazi Germany and the U.S. today. In 1934 Hitler began a slave labor program with 400,000 unemployed workers; in 1996 Clinton and Congress signed Workfare into law. The U.S. is number one in jail population, with over 5.5 million adults in jail, on parole or on probation; from 1933 till 1939, the Nazis built ten concentration camps, with 200,000 inmates in the five years from 1934-39.

In 1941, after the war began, Hitler began using prison labor at Daimler Aerospace to build aircraft; in 1996, activist workers discovered that Boeing Aircraft is using prison labor to do skilled jobs in Seattle, WA. The machinists’ union, the IAM, babbles about it being a "community service."

(where and when is this sentence referring to??)"Under Fascism, net real wage rates have declined by 13% during a period of rapidly increasing business activity—a unique departure from conditions and trends as observed throughout the whole history of capitalism!" (Germany, Economic and Labor Conditions Under Fascism; Jurgen Kuyczynski)

(where and when is these sentence referring to? It looks like someone is quoting from books. These sentences need ties ins to the article.)"One can argue about the exact percentages, but something of the order of 80% of the workforce is now experiencing falling real wages. This is failure on a monumental scale. At the same time, real per capita gross domestic product has risen by a third. All of this extra income has gone to the top 20% of the population, and most of it to the top 1%. Probably no country has ever had as large a shift in the distribution of earnings without having gone through a revolution or losing a major war." (Reclaiming Prosperity; Lester Thurow)

In 1933, the Reichstag [Germany’s Parliament] was burnt to the ground. The Nazis immediately abolished all Constitutional rights and declared a state of emergency;

in 1996, the Oklahoma City Government Building was bombed. Clinton and the Congress passed the "Anti-terrorist" Bill, removing personal liberties and allowing for custody and deportations of dissenters.

In 1931-33, the German capitalist class split into two broad factions. On one side, the Bruning Camp included companies like IG Farben, Siemens, Weiss, textiles and high tech companies. On the other side, the Harzburg Front operated out of its think-tank, the MWT, and represented steel, heavy industry, coal and big landowners (the Junkers). Hitler and the Nazis formed their political party, and firms such as Krupp(which group was Krupp a part of ?? these sentence has to relate to previous sentence. -- How does split relate to rise in fascism?) were its mainstay. In 1998, the U.S. ruling class is split, with Koch Industries and domestic oil leading one faction whose politics reflect isolationism, the religious right, and gutter racism; while Rockefeller and international oil companies like Exxon lead the dominant faction, which, in turn, has its own divisions, but are using the politics of multi-culturalism and reform to win the working class to support their plans for war.

The picture is clear. Peacetime Fascist Germany is like today’s USA

FASCISM = WEAKNESS

Fascism is capitalism’s response to economic crisis, a crisis brought about by the contradictions within capitalism itself. Increased competition and a falling rate of profit forces capitalism to turn on the working class with renewed vengeance. More surplus value (roughly, profits) must be extracted from the workers. More production is squeezed out of workers by automation and layoffs. More value is stolen by making workers work harder and for longer hours. Wages are cut, in many cases below poverty levels. All this creates a shrinking market and a still deeper crisis. Despite the naked use of power, fascism is really an expression of the extreme weakness of capitalism.

That doesn’t mean that communist revolution will automatically replace it. Workers need to be won to defeating fascism with communism. Given correct leadership, a phenomenal growth in the communist movement, including revolution, is possible. They say of the Italian fascist, Mussolini, that he "killed and killed the communists until they were two million strong." And it was the Italian Communist Party that captured, tried and sentenced Il Duce. They left him dead, hanging by his ankles from a lamppost.

During the early 1930’s the German Communist Party was the world’s largest outside of the Soviet Union, but it was crushed by the Nazis. It had adopted an alarmingly casual slogan : "After Hitler, Thaelmann!" After the electoral defeat of Hitler, they thought, the communist Thaelmann would become Chancellor of Germany! Three decades later, in 1965, the Indonesian Communist Party, the largest outside China and the USSR, was also crushed by a fascist coup led by Suharto and the CIA. Over one million communists and others were murdered.

It is not the size, then, but the line and leadership of the communist party that is crucial to the defeat of fascism and the growth of communist revolution. PLP enters this fight confident we can learn from both the errors and triumphs of the old communist-led movement.

Class Struggle in the Army: GIs ‘Hotsauce’ NCOs’ Tent

When the new platoon sergeant took over, things started changing. All of a sudden the platoon was getting all the worst details. Trash duty, extra police call, KP, whatever. The new sergeant was trying to make rank by volunteering his platoon for everything.

When the unit got sent to Egypt things got even worse. When there wasn’t anything left to do, they were out in the desert picking up trash. The sun was so hot that people were drinking as much as nine bottles of water an hour to keep from dehydrating. The final straw was when the whole platoon was out in the sun building benches and tables and the NCO’s spent the day sitting in the shade watching the platoon work.

That night as the NCO’s slept in their tent, the water in their vaporizer was replaced with Tabasco sauce. Within a few minutes the tent was filled with choking, eye burning fumes and the NCO’s were sent scrambling for air. A definite message was sent. This wasn’t during the Vietnam war, but an engineering unit on rotation through Egypt this year.

These soldiers set a good example for many others to follow. It is also to the credit of these soldiers that even though virtually all the lower-ranked enlisted people were in on the Tabasco sauce plan, nobody gave any names to the brass.

The rebellion in this unit is a positive sign. The majority of soldiers at this point have not jumped in line to follow the bosses. The military is up for grabs. We must put the working class on the offensive. Aggressively building a communist movement inside the bosses military is no easy task, but there is opportunity now to make headway against the bosses.

This situation is partly a reflection of the class hatred many soldiers feel and partly a reflection of the disarray of the ruling class. But this will not last forever. Fascist movements reflecting different trends among the rulers are being built in the military rapidly. What they all have in common is that they are trying to lead soldiers to attack workers instead of the brass.

Many of these fascist movements are playing on the anti-racist sentiments among soldiers and turning these good instincts on their head in order to lead soldiers to become mass murderers of workers in the name of imperialism.

Last week’s Challenge (3/25) showed how the McKinney acquittal is being used to win soldiers to support a ground war in the Middle East. The Army announced this week it was launching an investigation of the officers who brought the charges against McKinney. This further confirms that the military is trying to win soldiers to fight in the next oil war by posing as anti-racist.

Another growing trend in the military are the Muslims. Both those, like Farrakhan, backed by the New Money bosses, and those backed by Iran are reported to have recruited 10,000 soldiers over the last several years. The Pentagon estimates that there are at least this many currently on active duty. A large number of these new Muslims are black GI’s. This movement is playing on the hatred many soldiers, particularly black and immigrant soldiers, feel for the racism of U.S. capitalism. Muslim chaplains, are giving anti-U.S. sermons as recruiting speeches at their on-post services.

The top brass is fighting to gain control of this growing trend. This year the Pentagon celebrated Ramadan, with prayer services and a banquet. They are also rushing to commission Muslim chaplains. They are trying to use the movement in the same way as they used the McKinney trial to build loyalty to the bosses’ plans for war. At the Pentagon Ramadan celebration the Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre explained why the Pentagon loves religion, "I think that as Muslims and as Christians, we understand what it means to live under a world of authority—the authority that’s been revealed to us by God. I believe that as military people you understand that even more. Your days revolve around authority and a chain of command." So the bosses see religion as way to get soldiers to follow orders. They need to do this to get the soldiers who today put hot sauce in the NCO’s vaporizer to become killers for imperialism tomorrow.

A third deadly trend in the military has been the growth of the militias. Soldiers organized by these racists murdered two black workers in North Carolina a couple of years ago, and it was this movement that recruited Timothy McVeigh to carry out the Oklahoma City bombing. While we don’t have figures for this movement in the military, the bosses press reports a 20% growth in these groups nationwide over the last year.

Now is a crucial time for the working class. The bosses don’t yet have their house in order. Masses of soldiers won to any of the above deadly trends will not make our task easier. Communist ideas can gain a foothold in the military, but we must act today. In order to crush fascism and to smash the warmakers we must build a revolutionary communist movement in the military today. This will lay the basis for turning the bosses’ world war into communist revolution and bringing the working class to power tomorrow.

Fighting for Communist Line Among Workers Means We’re Winning

LOS ANGELES—A group of Party members and leaders met to evaluate our line and activity around the crisis and build up for war by the U.S. against Iraq and our plans for May Day.

Hector said "My friends at work were pumped up. I told them the U.S. would bomb Iraq. They kept asking me when, and then why it didn’t happen. This meeting has helped me understand what happened so I can go back and talk to them about it." There was a two hour discussion about the nature of the period we live in.

Robert said that just as the U.S. and Soviet Union had been able to pull back from the brink during the Cuban missile crisis, and prevent a nuclear holocaust, the U.S. had been able to pull back from bombing Iraq and negotiate a peace deal through Kofi Annan.

Others said that the U.S. pulled back temporarily for two main reasons: the bosses and their political mouthpieces who supported the bombing saw it as a way to prepare for ground war to topple Saddam’s government and take over the oil fields. But they also saw that the Clinton government had not prepared the population for this. Second, the U.S. bosses had to take stock and see that they can no longer have "small" wars and attacks against areas like Iraq without facing the strong, and organized opposition of their rivals—in this case the French, Chinese and Russians. This means the situation in the world is much more serious. The U.S. bosses can longer act without severe consequences; they must prepare for a longer war using bombs and ground troops. They must use force and deception to get an army that will fight for their bloody profits in the Middle East as well as much closer to home in Mexico and the rest of Latin America. The U.S. bosses won’t allow their European rivals to make more inroads in the economy of Latin America without a fight, like the one being waged in Chiapas. It also means they must whip their domestic enemies into shape and solve their disarray.

Robert replied that perhaps imperialist war was no longer inevitable, noting that it has been a very long time since World War II.

Maria explained that the worldwide crisis of production makes imperialist war inevitable, because the bosses each produce more goods than the workers can buy and they must end up fighting each other for those markets. She said this is true whether we’re talking about cars, oil, or food. She explained that we’re living in a dangerous time of deepening fascism and war and that we must explain these things to more workers. She said that so far she had organized 20 people to come to the May Day March.

Lester told Hector and all the others who had talked to their co-workers about the war that they did the right thing; that all these workers should be struggled with now to come to May Day to march for communist revolution. He said that it was good that we are preparing the workers for imperialist war. This is the opposite of what the pacifists and liberals are doing. They are building peace movements and a fear of war. Our Party is developing the line that the Chinese "Communists" had when U.S. imperialists were threatening to drop nuclear bombs in China to attack the Chinese revolution. One of them said, "Let them come soon. My hair is getting white. I want them to come so we can bury them right here."

Workers at the meeting told of visiting workers from their jobs to invite them to the May Day March. One comrade said that the main problems workers face are fascism and war, caused by the bosses’ crisis of overproduction. Even though the workers may not yet perceive it that way, our job is to show them that all the problems workers face—threatened mass deportations, wage cuts, problems with the schools—are part of growing fascism. Patricia said that the workers on her job fight the bosses a lot, and she’s the leader. She said that when we talk to the workers about communism, we shouldn’t talk about it in an abstract, far off way, but link the fight for revolution to the daily oppression that workers face. Communist revolution will be a mass fight and will take place during imperialist war. Workers in the factories are in a low intensity war every day. The May Day March and the fight for communism show how workers will finally and decisively win that war.

A comrade proposed that every worker raise in his union the threatened deportation raids in garment and that citizen and immigrant workers should oppose them as part of building for the May Day March. He explained that many workers have tremendous anger about the anti-immigrant and racist attacks (like "3 strikes") and are open to communism.

Sam wasn’t sure that the workers on his job would respond to the call to come to May Day, so he had decided to concentrate on winning them to other things, social activities and study groups. Lester told Sam that he was wrong, that he needed to struggle with the workers and give them the chance to come to the March and told how to help build the Party. Sam said, "I thought I was doing everything I could do, but this meeting has convinced me that I must go out and struggle with workers to come to May Day. There’s still time to turn things around." Sam spoke for many. Fighting for our line among a lot of workers, and learning to be communist leaders means we’re winning.

Communism, Fun and Sun for the Summer!

What are you doing this summer? Going to the Beach? Barbecues? Relaxing? How about organizing for a Communist Revolution!

This summer Progressive Labor Party is having a Summer Project to organize workers and distribute Challenge, The Revolutionary Communist Newspaper. As the world’s bosses prepare for an oil war and fascism, workers and students need to be informed about what’s happening in the world today and how to change it. Challenge not only details the struggles of the international working class, but it is also an instrumental tool in teaching our class about communist ideas and how to fight for them.

Lenin, in What is To Be Done, wrote about the importance of the communist press as a collective organizer: "If we had a newspaper, however, such communication [communist organizing] would become the rule and would secure, not only the distribution of the newspaper, of course, but also (and what is more important) an interchange of experience, of material, of forces and of resources. The scope of organizational work would immediately become ever so much wider and the success of a single locality would serve as a standing encouragement to further perfection a desire to utilize the experience gained by comrades working in other parts of the country."

The Project will concentrate on how to bring Challenge into our shops, factories, classrooms, and mass organizations. We also want to win ourselves to writing for the paper as a way of examining our practice. The newspaper has to be at the center of our organizing.

You’ll meet others who are dedicated to fighting for a communist world. Everyday will be a mixture of theory and practice and lots of fun.

There will be Summer Projects in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Join us for the summer that changes your life!

80,000 march in Naples: The Mafia, Bosses and Politicians Are Part of the Problem

On Saturday March 22nd, tens of thousands of workers and others marched all over Italy against unemployment and for a shorter workweek (35 hours) to help create more jobs. In the Mezzogiorno (Southern Italy), which is more affected by unemployment, the marches took on another aspect: against the Camorra (Mafia).

More than 80,000 marched in Naples. Thousands more marched in other southern cities, including Palermo, Sicily, demanding lavoro (jobs) and denouncing the Camorra. A rather rare thing also took place as unemployed workers and trade unionists were joined by bosses like Sergio Billé, head of Italy’s businessmen association, and Naples bishop Cardinal Michele Giordano, to demand that the central government create jobs and fight the Camorra. In many poor working class neighborhoods in Naples and other southern cities, there are few jobs and few schools. The only jobs for these youth are being provided by the different crime groups.

But it is a dangerous mistake for workers and youth to believe that the bosses and local politicians are part of the solution, they are part of the problem. For decades, the capitalist class has used the crime families to keep themselves in power. After World War II, the U.S. government and the Vatican-backed Christian Democratic Party, which ruled until a few years ago, actively used the Camorra to keep the Communist Party out of power.

In this age of worldwide capitalist overproduction, and growing imperialist rivalry, there is no solution to the many problems facing workers, short of communist revolution. Alliance with "anti-crime" bosses is a dangerous error, which only helps to tie workers to their enemies. Workers need to break with all these politicians and fight for communism.

Yeltsin’s Firing of Cabinet Reflects Growing Inter-imperialist Rivalry

When Yeltsin dismissed his entire cabinet—getting rid of his Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and Anatoly Chubais, the architect of Russia’s free market capitalist changes—it was more than one of his usual power shifts to keep himself in power. It wasn’t just a reaction to the bad economic situation for the capitalist rulers of Russia, since the ruble has stabilized and the economy in general is recovering from its recent disastrous position (although conditions for workers continue to be awful).

The main reason for this change must be seen in light of the recent shift of Russia to again become a top player in the inter-imperialist rivalry. There has been a very sharp power struggle among different capitalist factions in Russia. "The bankers’ war," as the Russia’s internal bosses’ dogfight is called, has been getting sharper recently. Anatoly Chubais accused some of his old capitalist friends of "ordering contract killings and seeking to dictate to the government."

Apparently, Mr. Chubais lost out in this war. It seems that the most pro-U.S. forces in the Russian elite are on the way out. As the NY Times (3/24) says, the removal of Mr. Chernomyrdin leaves the U.S. without "its most direct pipeline to the Russian leadership."

In the last few months, Russia has opposed the U.S. position on every major crisis, from Iraq to the expansion of NATO to Kosovo (it was announced that Russia is selling heavy weapons to Yugoslavia, while the U.S. is arming the Bosnian Army). The Russian bosses have realized that their capitalist interests cannot be served by being second banana to the U.S. Foreign Minister Prymakov, who was in the forefront of all these changes, managed to keep his job.

What all of this means is that the contradictions among different capitalist factions from the U.S. to Russia are getting sharper as the world’s bosses prepare for more wars to divide the world and try to solve the crisis of overproduction at the cost of their enemies.

As far as workers are concerned, this bosses’ dogfight means more misery and repression. The working class of Russia was the first to turn an imperialist war into a workers’ revolution in 1917. This time, they must learn from the errors and achievements of the Bolsheviks and complete the revolution, getting rid of all the bosses and fighting for a real communist society.

Bosses Use Pro Immigrant Rights March To Further Plans of War-Fascism

LOS ANGELES, March 21 — About three thousand Central American workers marched through the Pico-Union area here, carrying U.S. flags and those of their countries of origin, demanding permanent documents as refugees of war-torn Central America. The march ended with a rally where one Democratic politician told the crowd, "You are the future! We want you to become legal residents, to become citizens and to register to vote. You and your children are the future, together we are going to elect California’s first Latino governor."

This politician was playing on the immigrant workers’ aspirations for a better life Unfortunately, many workers believe that legal residency and citizenship is the solution to their problems. This is wishful thinking. Trapped in an ever deepening crisis of overproduction, U.S. bosses are desperately preparing for war and fascism. For this they need a mass base among all workers. Behind the scenes, the big U.S. bosses—the Rockefeller gang—used their media to build this march to win immigrants to the electoral process and to actively support their genocidal plans. The Democratic politician mentioned above was doing his master’s bidding, that of the main wing of the U.S. ruling class—Old Money.

These bosses are preparing to go to war against Iraq in order to keep control of Middle Eastern oil. This time around they are going to have to invade and occupy Iraq’s oil fields. Hundred of thousands of Iraqi soldiers and civilians will be massacred, and thousands of U.S. soldiers will die. But this bloodbath is but a skirmish on the road towards World War III that the U.S. will inevitably have to fight. These bosses will need millions of soldiers, and they have their eyes on the more than 13 million children, immigrants or born here of immigrant parents, that are under 18 years old and the millions of immigrants between the ages of 18 and 32. To further underscore the importance of this sector of the working class, "immigrant children—now account for almost 1 in 5 American children" (New York Times, 3/21). What better way to try to win them over than granting legal residency to some of their parents and "speaking" out against the overtly racist anti-immigrant politics and propaganda?

Old Money just spent a million dollars to conduct a study among immigrant children that interviewed 5,200 children in 1992, and found that "more than half labeled themselves as hyphenated Americans or as plain Americans." Three years later, interviewed just months after the passage of Proposition 187, "Only one-third...picked an American identity...while almost half identified themselves by their national identity.." (NYT, 3/21). This study shows that immigrant bashing undermines patriotism in immigrant children. The Rockefeller gang prefers more subtle racism, calling it "multiculturalism and integration." Their strategy is to build mass movements that champion "progressive causes" to snare, not only immigrants, but black and white workers into their deadly trap.

On the other side, we have Governor Wilson and some Californian politicians representing another sector of U.S. capitalists that have serious disagreements with the Rockefeller gang. These bosses—New Money—include domestic oil producers, and some agriculture and manufacturing bosses. This sector does not have great investments overseas and therefore doesn’t need an integrated imperialist army. They want to superexploit immigrant workers to the hilt and use immigrant bashing to build their fascism. They launched 187 and the campaign against bilingual education.

As we can see, both gangs of bosses are dangerous. But the Rockefeller’s more subtle poison is more dangerous. We have to smash the heads of both vipers. To march with the bosses’ flags is to accept and propagate their venom. Make no mistake, we are in a life and death struggle over the allegiance of the working class. The bosses do not and will never have all the workers solidly in their camp. Workers are open to our revolutionary communist ideas. Over 200 Challenges were eagerly bought by these workers and over 1,200 leaflets were warmly received. It is imperative that we be in the bosses run organizations to win the masses to our side!

The bosses’ flags are the flags of death and destruction. Our flag is the Red Flag that represents the fight for communism! This is the flag we will be carrying on our May Day March, the only march that will help build the revolutionary communist movement that workers so desperately need. Every day it becomes more and more clear that it is either the bosses or us! There is no neutral ground! Let’s smash the bosses, their war and fascism with communist revolution. Join PLP and help us organize a massive May Day March!

LETTERS

CUNY open admissions way for bosses to train black and latin bosses

Dear Challenge:

A letter by "CUNY Teacher" in Challenge (3/18) asks for the revolutionary response to the following:

"With much struggle, we can stop and even reverse the dismantling of CUNY, the eroding of open admissions, and the worsening conditions of the staff. We can create a wonderful university for students with no tuition".

Our response should be: The capitalist class has always made decisions about educating workers based on its own economic and political needs. In 1957, when the USSR launched the first space satellite, the U.S. government improved scientific and technological training, gave grants and scholarships and developed new curricula in math and science.

In the 1960’s when the country was in turmoil, CUNY was an example of apartheid. The student body of City College, in the middle of Harlem, was 92% white and 2% black! In NYC public schools less than 10% of the teachers were black and latin. In 1969, faced with a growing anti-Vietnam war movement, a large civil rights movement, violent ghetto rebellions and a student strike at City College, the ruling class granted the demand of open admissions. They realized that it was in their interests to integrate certain aspects of society—making certain reforms would enable them to control the working class.

In the ’70s the ruling class devoted their attention to developing black and latin principals, superintendents, police chiefs, and politicians. The bosses’ were not fighting racism; they were planning to tighten their grip on power. Herman Badillo came from a poor working class family, graduated CUNY, and became the first elected latin borough president. Badillo, now a trustee of CUNY, is leading the fight to exclude more working class students. As the enrollment of black and latin students grew in the ’80s, CUNY’s budget was cut and its tuition was raised.

U.S. bosses are now in a period of intense inter-imperialist rivalry and developing war and fascism. The bosses plan to force students out of college and into their army. They need only a small group of highly trained workers. In a time when the government is forcing welfare recipients to work for their benefits and denying others food stamps causing starvation, it is dishonest for reformers to create impression that we can somehow force the bosses to provide free college education for all working class youth.

We must fight shoulder-to-shoulder with the working class against every attack from the bosses us while pointing out that we need to dump capitalism and build communism.

Aronowitz, the "socialist," failed to mention racism in his speech at a New Caucus Meeting of the Professional Staff Congress; the Student Liberation Action Movement (SLAM) and wrote, "the demise of open admissions would be nothing less than a tragedy for people of color and their communities;" continuing to build the illusion that a college degree will solve the poverty and oppression suffered in these communities.

While explaining how the capitalist class superexploits and oppresses black and latin workers, PLP has always argued that white workers and students are hurt by racism and can be won to fighting racism.

PLP must bring to the student movement the strategy of relying on the working class and not on politicians. As we participate more and more in the mass movement we will learn how to better explain and implement the Party’s correct analysis.

Bronx Instructor

Building for May Day in college classes

Dear Challenge:

I am a freshman at Rutgers University. I am taking a Spanish class, where I have made some political points as well as some friends. There is one young woman who I can talk with about issues like the political situation in Cuba, and she has gotten Challenge. There is another woman who I go with to a soup kitchen and spend time afterwards discussing the question of why people are hungry and jobless in the first place, and what the limits are to such volunteer actions.

Not everyone I do talk with can I have intense political discussions on a high level, but I do know that that is the nature of the basebuilding process. The key thing is finding the particular contradictions in a person, which are not always obvious if they choose to talk about parties and clothes instead of the war in Iraq. I need to see how I can bring to them the opportunity to question those things in their lives which seem harmless or unchangeable. I cannot have an elitist approach to my class with the concept that some people are more "ripe" than others to be "selected," for communist ideas.

Above all, the main thing I am learning is that it will be my own anti communism which prevents me from doing any kind of serious work in this class. For example, just this week, when addressing the question of domestic violence, I was discussing how it is because of the emergence of a class society that needs sexism as a tool for increased exploitation, that such phenomena occur. And my professor, who has moved to the left over the course of the semester, asked me what the solution to this larger problem in society was. Instead saying we need communism, and explaining why, I said we need a better society. To tell people this means nothing. This is actually no different from something that someone in the "fake leftist" RCP or ISO would say. And I saw that neither she nor any of the students knew what I meant by "better society." So once again, my osmosis approach to people somehow knowing and understanding the need for communism, without me discussing it and breaking it down, failed.

But the one thing my club and I are doing is organizing for May Day. This is one event that I can bring my base to that truly distinguishes us from all other groups, and allows us to build the Party in a mass way. On this day, while other parties might be off in some rally petitioning Clinton not to be so cruel, we will be in DC with thousand of angry and interested workers who not only know that capitalism needs mass murder and war, but who want to see our class turn this war into revolution. And for this event, I plan to bring as many people as I can not only from this Spanish class but the from my other classes as well.

Rutgers Comrade

PLP only way to defeat Nazis

Dear Challenge:

I’m sick to death of hearing rants and ravings at the far right in the States. The Nazis are the most evil scum on this planet at this very moment. Nothing is said in the media about the atrocities committed by the Nazis, especially in the North African campaign. Thousands of British soldiers died and innocent conscripted German soldiers died there, too.

The Nazis perpetuate nearly all evil crimes here in Europe, across America and the Middle East. In the guise of nationalism, these idiots maintain racism, sexism and totalitarianism as part of their natural order. Only communism can appropriately deal with such evil acts of violence and aggression.

This is why the organization of communism by the Progressive Labor Party and the newspaper, Challenge, in America is so important. With those foundations, the building of a communist state in America will arise out of the inconsistency of capitalism.

Reader in Britain

Understanding capitalist overproduction -- key to understanding war and fascism

Dear Challenge:

Just a small contribution to the current discussion in Challenge about the crisis of overproduction. Marx wrote numerous works about business cycles, but not much that was explicitly about economic crisis. In Theories of Surplus Value, Marx wrote a more developed explanation, entitled "Crisis Theory." In it, Marx attacks various bourgeois economists (Ricardo, Say, and Mill), who claimed that a general crisis of overproduction was impossible.

In "Crisis Theory," Marx demolishes these bourgeois apologists by showing that crisis is part and parcel of the contradictions inherent in commodity exchange and money. He shows that crises, far from being impossible, become inevitable at certain key points. These crises, according to Marx, bring out all the fundamental contradictions of the capitalist economy:

"In world market crises, all the contradictions of bourgeois production erupt collectively;....Over-production is specifically conditioned by the general law of the production of capital: to produce to the limit set by the productive forces, that is to say, to exploit the maximum amount of labor with the given amount of capital, without any consideration for the actual limits of the market or the needs backed by the ability to pay; and this is carried out through continuous expansion of reproduction and accumulation, and therefore constant reconversion of revenue into capital, while on the other hand, the mass of the producers remain tied to the average level of needs, and must remain tied to it according to the nature of capitalist production."

In other words, capitalism produces too much food while millions starve. Capitalism produces too much material to build houses, while millions are homeless. Capitalism produces too much clothing, while millions are unclothed. Books like The Grapes of Wrath moved millions about this fundamental contradiction of the capitalist economy.

And how does capitalism solve this contradiction? Through war and fascism. Listen to R. Palme Dutt, an Indian communist, writing in 1934, in Fascism and Social Revolution: "Today they are burning wheat and grain, the means of human life. Tomorrow they will be burning living human bodies." Understanding that we are in a crisis of overproduction today is key to comprehending the Party’s line on war and fascism.

New Jersey Comrades

Jamaica flood casualties result of capitalist speculation

Dear Challenge:

At lunchtime, Marcia’s husband drove home from work and left her the car. "Watch the water level," he told her before he walked out into the driving rain to go back to his job. "If you see it start to rise, take Renee and just get out of here." Marcia nodded, mentally noting which small things she would grab if it came to that.

She went back to braiding Renee’s hair. Maybe she was daydreaming, but it seemed like only a few minutes later that she looked out the window at the rain. When Donovan had left, her yard was muddy, but no water was sitting on it. Now suddenly there was water up to the car window. Marcia’s heart leaped. Just as she registered the fact that she couldn’t get away in the car, Renee’s small voice raised in a wail. The door broke open, and Marcia grabbed Renee’s waist just in time and ran up the stairs onto the roof. The creek had become a river, and the river was flowing right through Marcia’s house. She watched, speechless, as the water dragged her furniture through the windows, ripped the TV from the wall and sent it tumbling down the hill.

A few hours later, a helicopter rescued a drenched woman and small girl from a roof in Boundbrook. They had their lives, but everything Marcia and Donovan had worked for was gone, and no retrieving it. And they were the lucky ones. A few miles away, a hillside gave way and slid down, crushing a small, wooden shop where four people were sheltering from the rain. All four were crushed to death before the eyes of people in similar structures a few feet away on either side.

A natural disaster? Yes. But even more, a disaster caused by capitalism. What was it that made the owner of the floodplain sell it off for building houses? Profit. What was it that drove young families to buy this vulnerable land to build their small and rickety homes? Poverty. A society controlled by the working class will not build on floodplains, because the needs of the people will be the first priority, and the profit motive won’t exist.

New Jersey Comrades