Our plan was to develop a network of Party supporters to make May Day and communism mass issues. Over $500 was raised among hospital workers through ticket sales and small contributions. This was done by three workers who had been to previous May Days and are regular readers of Challenge. These workers were given May Day ticket books and the names of interested workers in their departments. They took responsibility for seeing the interested workers, getting them Challenge, and talking to them about May Day and club social events.
During dinner breaks, workers socialize in small groups. Conversations run the gamut: religion, sports, nationalism, sexism, police brutality and life's daily activities. The comrades raised the Party's ideas in these discussions, explaining how communism represents the best interests of the working class, and how workers must join and build the PLP.
Many workers look positively at the Party, but do not yet realize that they have a responsibility to help build and lead the fight for communist revolution. One worker said, "PLP should run the union." We are struggling with these workers to see that even if we did, that wouldn't cut it. The bosses use their state power to enforce their profit system that oppresses us. We must overthrow the bosses' capitalist system completely! The progress made by our Party collective places greater responsibility on us. We have to lead struggles on and off the job, taking direct action against the fascist hospital bosses and organizing against racist police terror. Recently the gun-waving storm troopers of the DEA, "searching for drugs," smashed in the door and invaded the apartment of a black working class family. The fascist DEA terrorized the family for hours, abusing their retarded teenage daughter. No drugs were found. We raised this among our co-workers, and will involve them in showing support and solidarity with this family.
This Spring, our political work bore unexpected fruit. In April, the delegates of AFSCME Local 371 voted to endorse PLP's May Day March. Two workers came to the march based on this endorsement alone. What if we had asked for the endorsement in January? Endorsements alone won't lead to revolutionary growth. In fact, if we carry out our line, the union leadership will attack us and try to prevent or reverse such endorsements. But this one was an opportunity of which we could have taken better advantage. We could have made May Day a broad mass issue in this 16,000 member Local. We could have attempted to reach out to workers in other unions in AFSCME and throughout NYC. That is our responsibility for the coming year. PLP has marched into the enemy's camp, the mass capitalist reform movements like the unions, to win the working class to communist revolution. Too often, we have just put "our toes in the waters" of the reform movement, rather than putting our whole selves in. The rich experiences of the Brooklyn hospital and NYC welfare workers show that we can grow in the enemy's camp. Revolutionary communist solutions can be raised in the mass movement and a red army to defeat the bosses can be built.
This was no big political breakthrough but my co-worker commented, "I liked your style, there. You were really trying to get to know him a little and what he thought." I said the difference in style and approach to workers comes from political differences. The Democrats just want votes and that workers should be passive followers of union leaders and politicians. Communists in PLP want workers to be thinkers and leaders. We left the veteran and went visiting together.I passed out a PLP newsletter to about half of the people we met. Some discussions were fairly sharp. "I don't vote," said one woman. "I don't either," I said. "It doesn't matter who you vote for, the millionaires always win. Here's a flier about how to end capitalist domination of our lives." "Now that's what I want to hear!" she replied.
The unions claim that Prop. 226 backers intend to eliminate the 8-hour day. But I mentioned to a retired mechanic that the UAW at Caterpillar just gave up the 8-hour day in their last contract. He complained about how the unions get us to accept give-backs and their unwillingness to unite and strike. This hit home to my co-worker who had seen our union do just that to us in our last contract.
As we were leaving the neighborhood a bus came around the corner. Stunned, we flagged it down. The bus had four or five passengers. "I thought they canceled bus service in this neighborhood on the weekends," we said to the driver. She said, "They did, but I use my layover and make the loop on my own. These old people can't walk all this way home!" Wow! What working class spirit and dedication! That inspired both of us and I got the driver's name as we left.
Overall, it was a pretty good couple of hours. My co-worker was not yet a regular Challenge reader and sees himself as a new union activist-although a critical one. We got to know each other better personally and politically. Also, as PLP members do more we will begin to understand how to operate under growing fascist conditions. For example, I was careful at the union hall not to pass out newsletters in front of union hacks I didn't know. But I was probably too timid in the neighborhood where I was more alone on our "turf." Also, most union activists, like our "veteran" precinct-walker, are dedicated to the working class and can be won to our ideas. But they can't be won and we won't build a revolutionary movement unless we're in the mix and spending the time with workers who want to fight and lead. These union activities give us opportunities to build PLP. Both the precinct walk and the phone calling were followed by a meal that allowed more time to share ideas. Unions lead workers to cynicism and fascism. At an evening phone bank, a hospital worker agreed with the open SEIU-Kaiser collaboration. Unless we're in there challenging these ideas, the fascist bosses will win good people to their side. It's time we offer them communist revolution.
Ruling class state power was out in force today. At Queens Plaza and 21st Street, large numbers of cops-black, Latin, white, men and women in uniform-carried out the rulers' orders to block taxis from side streets and entrances to the Queensboro Bridge where cabbies had planned to begin a mass protest motorcade.According to a resident in this Queens neighborhood the massive police deployment began around midnight when cops began towing vehicles and blocking streets."Giuliani is going crazy," a driver said. Far from it. Giuliani has become a model fascist in the U.S.: for his slave labor workfare program, his backing of sanctions on children (cutting off welfare benefits to children whose mothers don't comply with workfare rules), mass layoffs of City workers, racist cop break-ins of homes and the racist attack on the largely immigrant taxi drivers.
At the same time workers should have no illusions about the motives and plans of liberal or nationalist politicians, like Sharpton, who are positioning themselves to be the next controllers of the wage slaves and will be as fascist as Giuliani under the guise of "serving the people."
Angry cabbies, held behind police barricades, protested at 21st Street and 38th Avenue. "This is not a free country." "It's a police state. Giuliani is like Hitler." "He's killing our rights. He's killing our children." "Someone has to stand up." Drivers and their families are planning a mass march to City Hall on May 27th. From squeegee car window cleaners to WEP workers to hospital workers to CUNY students to food venders, workers and students should shut this city down on May 27th in a general strike.
In spite of retreat by one cab association, these same drivers and others were later able to march over Queensboro Bridge on a four-hour trek to City Hall where they were prevented from rallying. Before they left, one cabby gave $3 for 10 Challenges to show his friends. "I know that paper," he said. He took our phone number.
"This is an attack on immigrant workers and all workers. Livery cars and vans may think they're getting a break, but this will affect them, too," explained a cabby in Upper Manhattan who is a friend of PLP. "Now we accumulate 12 points (for traffic violations) before our license is suspended. The new rules make it 6 points. You can get 6 points in two weeks." No wonder, as a special team of cops has been assigned just to ticket yellow cabs. Last year they issued 68,000 tickets to the 12,000 yellow cab drivers in the City.
"The old penalty for class violations was between $50-350," continued our friend. "The new penalty will be between $350-$1,000. This is legal robbery. We work 10-12 hours a day, or more. We pay the company $96 a day just to open the taxi door and get in. Or $160 for 24 hours. Sometimes we make only $20-$60 a day. The driver must pay a penalty of $150 if he/she or the passenger is smoking. The old penalty was $25. Insurance rates for Medallion owners are going up $3,000 per year. Giuliani should be called Rudy Mussolini."
This driver and others in his garage are regular readers of Challenge. Four drivers want to join PLP. This modest effort can be expanded in the heat of battle. Watch out Rudy and all bosses! Mussolini rose. Mussolini fell, hung by his toes by an enraged anti-fascist working class led by communists in Italy. Fascism is still alive today because capitalism has not been destroyed. It is the historical responsibility of the working class to bury capitalism now. Nothing short of communist revolution can accomplish this. PLP members: stand up. Cabbies: join PLP. Be part of the working class fight for power, for the dictatorship of the proletariat.
How could this happen? Like the recent incidents of kids shooting up school playgrounds, this isn't supposed to happen in America. Such indifference! The racist Chicago police more compassionate than hospital workers? Pretty scary. What are we being won to? Originally the hospital administrator defended their policy of not treating patients unless they are brought by ambulance. A few days after Chris' death, the hospital changed its policy. Finger-pointing racist Mayor Daley blamed Chris' teen friends for not carrying him into the hospital and fighting with the staff. The hospital staff said they were "just following orders."
This is a tragic example of what happens when we fall under the influence of the fascist bosses and refuse to take responsibility for our actions. What can these workers tell Chris' family, "There was nothing we could do?" Would you accept that if it were your child? If you want to know how it happened in Nazi Germany, this is it. And it is more proof that it is happening here. Just like Nazi Germany, the rulers here are turning to prisons and cop terror and fascism, especially against blacks. Their capitalist system does not work. The system is failing; it's falling into a crisis. The growth of capitalism over the world and growing rivalry between world capitalists has created overproduction. Many more goods are produced than can be sold at a profit. And now, we are excess, there are too many of us for capitalism.
Fascist terror is only part of the rulers' answer to their crisis, war is the other. Sooner or later, war is coming. And world war is on the horizon as competition between the biggest bosses sharpens. The crisis that took the life of Chris Sercye is taking millions more.
Ravenswood Hospital is no small operation. It is part of Advocate Health Care, which owns eight hospitals. They took in over $1.5 billion in '96 with a profit of over $80 million. They also have 200 Home Health Care Outpatient Centers in Chicago with total assets of $1.8 billion. Advocate covers over 1 million people, the largest managed care system in the area. The Ravenswood Hospital boss said that the medical staff was following correct procedures when they called for an ambulance to take the teen to another hospital, letting Chris bleed to death in their emergency room driveway. What the murderer did not say was that these procedures-avoiding certain types of trauma patients, those likely to be expensive and with hard to collect or no insurance-is one way the hospital maintains its high profits.Fascism is only going to get worse. We have to choose. Do we go along with the bosses and let people like Christopher Sercye die, or are we going to fight back for communism. The workers in Ravenswood Hospital were too scared to break the rules, and look what happened. At our rally of 20 people today, several workers voiced agreement with us as they were going into their shift. Hundreds of motorists bought Challenge and took PLP fliers. Expressing anger at the hospital and support for our rally, most workers gave a dollar or more for the paper. Dozens and dozens honked their horns to show solidarity.
If you don't want to be one of the ones the bosses get to carry out fascism, join the PLP and fight for communism. History has shown that communism is the only way to beat fascism.
"The whole idea of negotiation is bull!" Stan had argued a month earlier. "Negotiations are a lie that workers can settle our class conflict with the boss peacefully, honestly, through talk. We're just negotiating the terms of our wage slavery, but it's still slavery. The bosses' fascist plans for war can only mean more attacks."
"The revolution's not here yet!" Fred and others had argued back. "We have to do something now!"
The debates raged at the negotiation sessions and on the job. Some workers moved closer to PLP. Some came to May Day. Many others were affected by our ideas.
Now a group of negotiating team members are meeting to discuss how to fight the bosses' lies about a new contract. There is a little rise in activity on the job. More delegates are discussing organizing the workers to fight the department closing after all.
Most members of the negotiating team were motivated by a sincere sense of responsibility to the workers they represented. In fact there's a responsibility all workers have. Millions suffer from the poverty caused by capitalism. The bosses will sacrifice millions more of us to fight their imperialist wars. So it's small wonder that they will lie at negotiations. Only the working class can sweep this awful system off the face of the earth. Doesn't each of us share the responsibility to join PLP and smash capitalism once and for all with communist revolution?
This operation is actually being used to soften up the Mexican bourgeoisie to force them to open their banking system 100% to U.S. investment. For this, it's necessary to pass a bill, stagnant in the Mexican Congress, that would give the U.S. bosses this right before their European and Asian competitors ace them out. Bank Inverlat was gobbled up by a European Bank. Citibank swallowed Banca Confia. Financial sources say that U.S. banks have already tied down the Serfin Banking Group. But Casablanca's main targets are Bancomer and Banamex, Mexico's largest and most important banks.
It's no secret that the banking system is the weak link in the Mexican bosses' financial system. Their persistent speculative debacles have dragged the banks into a profound crisis from which they are unable to recover. In order to provide them with capital, Zedillo gave them the workers' pension funds. He also set up the Banking Fund for Protecting Savings (FOBAPROA), giving it $65 billion of the public treasury to try to save the banks. But FOBAPROA has become a bottomless pit that has further impoverished the workers and has been unable to pull the banks out of the hole. Given this desperate situation, money laundering is vital to the survival of these financial capitalists. The European and Mexican Parliaments passed their "fast track" law in order to negotiate the trade agreement. European and Asian imperialist banks have already begun to take over part of the Mexican financial system and plan to expand this with the trade agreement. All the imperialists are fighting over the weak Mexican bosses' banking system.
The U.S. bosses' "anti-drug" policy has pressured the Mexican rulers into taking full control of the police, the army, internal security and now the financial system.The local representative of finance capital, Zedillo, blames the legislators for not passing the bill that would have continued the funneling of public money into the sick banking system in time. The main bourgeois political parties (PRI, PAN and PRD) have responded to Casablanca with a nauseating nationalism that can only benefit the European imperialists. Workers should not be fooled by the deadly game of any imperialist.
The narco-economy, speculation, the worldwide financial system and the inter-imperialist rivalry have impoverished and murdered hundreds of millions of workers. In the future, their rivalry will become more bloody. The holocaust of another world war lurks on the horizon. Workers need to wipe out all the bosses with communist revolution. The world's working class, organized by PLP, can accomplish this. Let's accept this challenge.
From their first days in the White House, the Clinton gang has allowed the sale of nuclear technology to India's rival, China. Chinese bosses bought "everything from machine tools (for building missiles, bombers, and fighter planes) to super-computers, including special software that allows China to modernize its nuclear arsenal without setting off bombs." (WSJ, 5/15)
Indian and Chinese bosses have conflicting imperialist interests throughout Asia. The Indian rulers had to respond to the Chinese military buildup. Who was there to help them? Uncle Sam, of course. In 1995, Clinton & Co. allowed them to buy U.S. nuclear technology for use in facilities which the International Atomic Energy Agency can't monitor. This decision represented a big gamble by the Clintonites, based on an estimate that an arms race between the Chinese and Indian rulers would keep either gang from emerging as the clearly dominant force in Asia. To the extent that U.S. imperialism has a foreign policy, preventing the rise of a rival "super-power" in both Europe and Asia remains one of its cornerstones.
But things have a way of not always turning out according to plan. U.S. bosses couldn't predict the rise of the fascist BJP Party, which recently took the Indian nuclear program one step farther than Clinton had intended, by exploding five bombs. Once again, U.S. imperialism has let out of the bottle a genie it can't control. The BJP obviously won't dance to Washington's tune. Now India's rival Pakistan is threatening to test its own nuclear weapons. U.S. imperialism's puny response is economic sanctions against India and threats against Pakistan. Well, it seems that the best way for a would-be imperialist power to increase its prestige and strength is to have U.S. bosses hit it with economic sanctions. The current U.S. blockade may murder hundreds of thousands of Iraqi workers every year, but Saddam Hussein is still behind the wheel in Baghdad. Sanctions against Iranian bosses worked so well that Iran now has a strategic partnership with U.S. rival Russia. In fact, pressure from the Russians and Europeans is forcing Clinton to talk about ending sanctions against Iran, Iraq, and Cuba. North Korean rulers have just scuttled their nuclear deal with the U.S. Even U.S. vassal Israel is refusing to give Palestinian nationalists as much land as Clinton wants. No wonder the U.S. ruling class is torn by so many internal divisions.
Recent events in Indonesia are a further sign of U.S. imperialism's decline. As we pointed out in last week's Challenge, U.S. bosses had put the murderous Suharto clique in power in 1965. But when a crisis comes, bosses fall out with each other. Suharto proved an unreliable ally in the wake of the recent Asian financial collapse. He couldn't or wouldn't do the IMF's bidding, and so he had to go. His successor, Habibie, may not be a bargain for the Rockefeller interests. Habibie is an aeronautical engineer trained in Germany. The New York Times (5/22) criticizes him for "eccentric" economic ideas, like building an Indonesian aerospace industry independent of Boeing. Habibie may be entirely too friendly to Boeing competitor Airbus for U.S. imperialism's taste.
Sooner or later, contradictions like these will lead to armed struggle. The May 15th Wall Street Journal article exposing the U.S. contribution to the Indian and Chinese nuclear programs concludes: "The situation in Asia has what real wars are made of: social and economic (unrest) combined with mounting military power." Communists can say what the WSJ couldn't: that the profit system makes imperialist slaughter inevitable. Recent events in Asia prove once again that the world is becoming more unstable every day, and that many situations can change quite quickly. Only communist revolution can end capitalist instability and wars. If we keep our eye on the job of Party-building, we can prepare ourselves and the working class for anything and everything.
Microsoft has decided to cross the Justice Department's line in the sand by shipping Windows 98, the latest upgrade to the Windows operating system used on almost all personal computers. In Windows 98, Microsoft's internet browser (Internet Explorer) is so closely integrated with the operating system, that your desktop looks like just another part of the Internet. Microsoft's latest move could put competitor Netscape out of business and give Microsoft a virtual monopoly of personal computer internet software-at the expense of Eastern-controlled companies like IBM. The Justice Department and the Eastern media are indignant about the threat of monopoly. However, Microsoft's hold on the computer industry is still nothing compared to the vise-like grip that IBM maintained through the '60s and '70s. IBM produced both the hardware (mainframes) and software used in most corporations outside the old Soviet block. Within IBM's empire, technical innovation was slow. Really important new developments (UNIX, the microprocessor and the Web) came from the outside. IBM was everything the Justice Department accuses Microsoft of wanting to be. But IBM was an Eastern monopoly, controlled by Eastern financial interests, and the Justice Department never really did anything. Microsoft, on the other hand, is New Money and so is now portrayed as threatening civilization as we know it.
One of the government's expert witnesses is Franklin Fisher, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Professor Fisher is very worried that Microsoft's monopoly of personal computer software will inhibit innovation, harm consumer welfare and so on. But the same Professor Fisher was a leading defender of IBM in the '70s! On the other hand, Microsoft, in spite of its liberal image, has been hiring lawyers and lobbyists connected with the New-Money right, and is being defended by the New-Money Cato Institute.
The Eastern press has been comparing Bill Gates to John D. Rockefeller (whose Standard Oil monopoly was broken up by the government). They all know that the Rockefeller family used its oil wealth to go into banking and eventually dominate the U.S. ruling class. They are obviously afraid that Gates and friends will do the same (and overthrow the Rockefeller clique). This may seem unlikely, because the personal computer software business is nowhere near as strategic or profitable as the oil was (and still is). The real issue, however, is control of the Internet, of electronic commerce over the Internet, and, eventually, of electronic money and electronic banking.
Just last week Nicholas Negroponte, another MIT technology expert, declared that electronic commerce is a "gathering tidal wave that could totally reshape the world economy." The Eastern Establishment is worried that Gates and his developing Western establishment will surf this tidal wave to economic dominance.
At the same time, Saddam Hussein, China, France and other current or potential international rivals of the Old Money clique are never far from their minds. Old Money would like to eliminate internal enemies before the next confrontation with its international opponents. The industrialists who backed Hitler had a similar problem in the early '30s. High-tech firms like Siemens were still able to compete internationally and had no use for fascism. The dominant section of the German ruling class had to bring Siemens and the others into line.
Bill Gates is probably pretty happy now that most of his Lake Washington mansion is actually underground. He may soon need a bunker!
On Sunday, May 24th, 50 members and friends of PLP joined together to celebrate the start of Summer and begin to plan for this year's Summer Project. This turnout was the result of the hard work that comrades have been doing throughout the Bronx this past year. Students, parents and teachers of more than a dozen schools in the Bronx enjoyed the good weather and revolutionary company. Everyone there participated in the preparation and consumption of food, volleyball and baseball games, and the many discussions about life and politics.
During the picnic, one comrade spoke of the successful May Day march three weeks earlier. He spoke of the need to build a revolutionary communist movement. This is a movement whose ideas are shown by how integrated our group was. Workers and students from more than 10 different countries and whose ages ranged from 6 weeks to 68 years were present. We continued the process of building the Party in the Bronx and making this year's Summer Project in NYC successful.
We have made some good strides forward this year, but we have a lot of work to do to build a communist future.
Bronx Red Teacher
On the Friday before a scheduled KKK rally in Chicago, four members of PLP and the Racial Justice Task Force of our church had a demonstration in front of the ACLU office building in downtown Chicago. Two of us went inside and confronted their public relations agent. We accused them of giving aid and comfort to enemies of "the people"(the working class). We pointed out that they were guilty of building racism and giving support to a racist-terrorist organization. The agent tried to defend the ACLU. He said they were only doing their duty-to support the free speech rights of all organizations, no matter how racist.
But then I pointed out how the ACLU had refused to help communists in the 1950's. How they kicked Helen Gurley Brown out of the ACLU because she was communist. How the head of the ACLU worked with the FBI, supplying Hoover with anti-communist information on his clients. We ended by saying that if the ACLU was not an agent of the KKK-they certainly acted like one.
We targeted the ACLU because they represent the liberalism that leads the way to fascism; in the case of the ACLU, building the way to fascism. It was the ACLU which paved the way for the KKK to come to Cicero, Illinois, in March, 1998. The ACLU supplied them with lawyers and threatened to take the Cicero mayor to court.
Liberalism is the main enemy of revolutionary communism, not the lesser of two evils.
Red Preacher
It is good to hear that we had successful May Day marches in many places. I wrote you about our preparation and successful organization of the May Day meeting. In that connection I would like to add some more points. There's a clash of interests between two groups of capitalists concerning who will be managing the Victoria Jute Mill in Telinipara, where most PLP members in Calcutta work. One group represents the British capitalists who own the majority of shares in the mill. The other group is the local licensee, who got the responsibility of running the mill on payment of annual license fees to the company managers headed by the British capitalists by order of Calcutta High Court. The earlier license is supposed to terminate very soon, and both groups are waiting for a new court order.
Meanwhile, the state government has passed a bill which will empower the owners or managers of a mill in trouble to sell its unutilized properties including scraps, land and buildings, etc. to revive production. Victoria is another mill in trouble since it owes much money to its workers, creditors, banks and other statutory authorities. The British capitalists never invested a single farthing in the mill after they got hold of it, now they have appeared claiming that they are quite capable of managing the mill's affairs. During the past 15 years they were satisfied with assigning some licensee to manage the mill. They were only interested in extracting maximum license fees. Now, the present licensee, who failed to honor his commitment to pay all back wages, has now come up with a scheme to sell the unutilized mill properties to clear all the debts and run the mill smoothly. This group is being backed by all the trade unions of the ruling parties. Both groups are now interested in running the mill, to get the authority to sell the mill's property. Experience shows that owners, after being able to sell the property, simply disappear and ultimately the mill is closed. The workers never get their back wages or other statutory dues. This has happened with so many mills in and around Calcutta. The local trade union bosses might have sided with the licensee on a deal to get a good share of the liquid money out of the sale proceeds of the mill. It may happen that they will change sides if they get a better bargain from the British capitalists. But many workers are against a deal to sell the mill. We have an atmosphere of terror that was created by fomenting communal antagonisms leading to riot-like situations, in which four or more workers were killed. We are opposing all these deals. We say: workers are the only owners of the mill. The bosses have no right to sell them. As a result of our campaign the trade union bosses are finding it difficult to get their deal through. So in this terror-stricken situation they are threatening our comrades. Indian rulers' may have become a nuclear power, but they could not tame the struggle of the nurses of all the government-maintained hospitals in Delhi, the capital of India.
Amidst the terror and torture unleashed by the central and local governments of Delhi, led by the fundamentalist BJP, the nurses have continued their struggle for the last 10 days. No allurement or repression could break their strike. However. their demands are economic demands for better pay and working conditions. It would be good to go there and meet with them! But this strike has already established the fact that even the most powerful rulers are like paper tigers before the united action of workers.
Jute Mill Comrade
I am writing to tell about my experience of being a first year student and the lone Party member on my college campus. Although I am not outgoing, all of my friends know about my views and a few have gotten Challenge. I worked in my school's Multi-Cultural Students Association (MSA). In March I told them about the anti-Klan demonstration in Annapolis and explained that I am a communist. They were very receptive and asked if I could bring a speaker from the Party to come up and speak. I got my PLP club leader to come up and speak. Only about six people came, all from MSA, but the talk went well.
My PLP club leader talked first about some values of capitalist culture, then some values of communist culture, and finally about the Party's thoughts on impending war and May Day. After that, people asked questions and there was a brief discussion. Although there are a lot of improvements I need to make in my work, I feel that this was a good and successful year.
Maryland Comrade
A recent article in a leading medical journal (Journal of the American Medical Association, 3/11) explored the changes in the life expectancy of people in Russia from 1990 to 1994. Those five years represent the period following the collapse of the state capitalism which paraded as communism, and the beginning of the full-flowering of free market capitalism.
Let's examine the claims made by the U.S. ruling class and their wholly controlled mass media. They want us to believe that free market capitalism is the best way to achieve the most good for the most people, including the working class. Oh, they know that the rich get richer, but they also claim that the working class benefits as well, through the notion that a rising tide raises all boats, as JFK put it, forgetting to add, "unless they are anchored to the bottom." They also claim that capitalism may not be perfect, but "it's the best system in the world," and communism is the worst, as they claim that pre-1990 Soviet Union was communist.
If that is to be believed, then it would seem that with rise of free market capitalism, the Russian working class's living conditions would improve. But such is not the case. In fact, the life expectancy of Russian men fell by six years, and that of Russian women fell by more than three years. When life expectancy falls it means that the death rate has climbed. The article states that the main "causes" of the increased death rate are heart disease, suicides, homicides, and alcoholism, as well as the marked deterioration of the health care system. But, the underlying cause is free market capitalism, which articles in medical journals usually refuse to say. In fact, the entire approach of the medical profession is to seek causes of ill health within the individual, or groups of associated individuals, instead of within the society.
The Russian economy is in such bad shape that huge numbers of workers have not been paid for months. Such impoverishment of the working class is the real story behind the headlines. And the deaths of millions are the direct result of this poverty. Over three million workers died in these five years, for a 39% increase in the death rate. That's a rate of death which exceeds most shooting wars. This magnificent achievement is capitalism in peacetime!
It is reasonable to conclude that when the working class overthrows capitalism and sets up a communist society, the death rate will plummet, and workers will live much longer lives-not eventually, but immediately. And the Soviet Union wasn't even communist before the 1990's, but rather had evolved over many decades from socialism to state capitalism, so that the gain in life expectancy for workers under real communism will be all the greater.
A Comrade Health Worker
As reported in Challenge, management provoked mechanic Billy Griffith, setting him up to be fired. A leaflet was issued supporting Billy. On the day of his hearing, 40-50 workers gathered outside the hearing room. The hearing was cancelled because the distraught mechanic readmitted himself to the Psych ward at Harbor General Hospital.
Workers spoke about the need to fight against the company's abuses, including arbitrary transfers. Some said these problems are caused by the bosses' crisis. Boss Miller came out of his office, looked down from the catwalk and told us to go back to work. We were on our lunch break, and Miller was interrupting our meeting. "Keep moving asshole," was how one mechanic put it. Another mechanic urged workers to go to union meetings to force the leadership to confront the issues. Inspired by this show of unity, he wrote a leaflet attacking management's incompetence that has brought RRC to the breaking point. A week later, Miller came down to the bid board and threw a temper tantrum in front of the union. He stripped the sign-up sheets from the board and threw them in the trash. Instead of calling for a shutdown of RRC, the union execs met with management and caved in to Miller's demands.
RRC workers issued another leaflet attacking the company. While discussing the incident, one mechanic pointed out that Boss Miller "displayed anger and a defiant attitude," the same "gross misconduct" they are attempting to fire Billy Griffith for. The leaflet called for firing boss Miller, and for another show of support at Billy's hearing.Miller tried to call off the meeting. He accused the shop steward of writing the leaflet saying, "It borders on insubordination." "What about your own gross misconduct, Ken?" we answered. "We're not here to talk about me," said Miller. "Call off the meeting." "You call it off, Ken. I'll be in the hearing." As the confrontation at RRC sharpens, our goal is to steer this resistance into openly challenging capitalism. Workers need to join PLP so that the growing anger becomes a revolutionary tidal wave that will destroy fascism with communist revolution.
The usual gaggle of union hacks and preacher misleaders turned out to call for prayer, peace, and nationalism. They cooled out a more militant plan to march to the Columbia University commencement to protest Columbia's complicity in the layoffs. PLP members handed out fliers calling for an end to racist testing of black and Latin children for genetic tendencies toward violence, and distributed Challenge to the picketers and onlookers.