Challenge, June 10 1998

Only communist revolution can end the imperialist wars and nuclear mass slaughters the world’s bosses are preparing. This is the main lesson workers everywhere must draw from recent nuclear tests conducted by Indian and Pakistani rulers. The vile profit system has made the threat of nuclear war greater now than at any time since the 1962 "Cuban Missile Crisis." Joining and building the Progressive Labor Party is our class’s most urgent task. It is the only act that can help lead to our liberation from capitalist instability, capitalist misery, and capitalist holocausts.

Indian and Pakistani bosses’ nuclear saber-rattling results directly from the current worldwide crisis of overproduction and also from U.S. imperialism’s severe international decline. Indian and Pakistani rulers have fought three wars since 1947 to decide control over Kashmir. The current financial meltdown in Asia—caused by the general crisis—has sharpened this and every other rivalry. Indian bosses want to dominate South Asia. Pakistani bosses don’t want to be dominated by them. Indian imperialist ambition conflicts directly with Chinese rulers’ need to become South Asia’s top imperialist. So Chinese bosses have helped Pakistan’s nuclear program. The Pakistani bomb was modeled directly after a Chinese device.

But U.S. imperialists are the biggest nuclear terrorists of all. They are the only power yet to use atomic bombs against a civilian population, murdering hundreds of thousands in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, after the Japanese defeat in World War II had been determined. U.S. bosses are also guilty of helping to encourage the current nuclear arms race. U.S. nuclear aid to the Indian nuclear program dates back to the 1950’s, during Eisenhower’s so-called "Atoms for Peace" plan. The U.S. government gave India ballistic missile technology in the 1960’s. "We gave the Indians everything," according to former Pentagon weapons’ expert Henry Sokolski. "Their scientists were trained in the United States." (Wall Street Journal, 5/29). U.S. imperialism had two reasons to encourage the Indian nuclear program. First, they wanted to prevent India from slipping irreversibly into the Soviet orbit. Second, they wanted to build up India as a major capitalist rival to the then-socialist China.

U.S. bosses were giving the Pakistanis nuclear help long before the Chinese. The U.S. "provided Pakistani nuclear scientists with technical training from the 1950’s into the 1970’s." (New York Times, 6/1). In the 1980’s, when the Reaganites were working to undermine their Soviet rivals, the U.S. "sent billions of dollars in secret military aid via Pakistan to Afghanistan guerrillas who were fighting Soviet troops in that country." (Wall Street Journal, 5/29) The price for Pakistani co-operation: large supplies of military equipment to Pakistan’s army. Reagan and later Bush knew that the Pakistanis were well on the road to building a nuclear arsenal but looked the other way to ensure Pakistani co-operation in Afghanistan.

However, capitalist alliances are based on profit, not principle, and rapidly turn into their opposites. U.S. imperialists dropped Pakistan like a hot potato once the Soviet Union had dissolved. Pakistan went ahead with its nuclear program and began an alliance with U.S. enemy, China. U.S. rulers didn’t foresee the recent election of India’s Hindu national-fascist BJP, which has significantly increased the threat of war with Pakistan and perhaps even China.

In other words, acting in their own greedy interests, U.S. bosses helped create monsters over which they no longer have the slightest control. Even without the immediate threat of nuclear war, U.S. imperialism appears in a free-fall. Look at its most recent flops:

Clinton had to accept a U.N.-brokered deal in February rather than carry out his threat to bomb Iraq;

In Indonesia, the U.S. had wanted to get rid of Suharto months ago but was forced to wait because of objections from Australia, Japan, and Germany (Los Angeles Times, 5/31);

Clinton has had to back down from threatening sanctions against France and Russia for doing business with Iran;

When Clinton asked European and Japanese rulers to apply sanctions against India for testing nukes, they "turned him down flat." (Financial Times, 5/31) On May 28^th, Clinton begged Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif not to go ahead with detonating a nuclear device. The phone call literally blew up in Clinton’s face.

So in fact, sharpened inter-imperialist rivalry and U.S. decline have made nuclear war more likely than ever. But the likelihood doesn’t stop with India and Pakistan. According to Zalmay Khalilzad, current director of strategic studies at the hawkish think-tank RAND, and a former Bush administration State Department official: "Indian and Pakistani nuclear weapons...increase the risk of the spread of nuclear weapons to other states." (Wall Street Journal, 5/29) The Iranian rulers will want to reach parity with the Pakistanis, who are their rivals in Afghanistan and Central Asia. Iran’s relations with India aren’t exactly ducky. Khalilzad adds: "An Iranian nuclear capability...affects not only vital American interests in the Persian Gulf but the nuclear calculations of a number of other states."

Chief among them is Israel, which has built an arsenal of 200 nukes. The Netanyahu government has not exactly danced to Washington’s tune in the matter of "peace" negotiations with the Palestinian nationalists. And U.S. bosses are still strategically committed to keeping Iraqi oil off the world market. This increases the likelihood of another Middle Eastern oil bloodbath, especially in the wake of Russian imperialism’s current economic crumble. Faced with dwindling prices for their own oil, Russian bosses need more than ever to gain a competitive edge on Exxon et al. And Russian bosses have as many nukes as the U.S.

So the shifting sands of inter-imperialist rivalry have made the entire world a flash point. War is a daily fact of life. Wider war with "conventional" weapons is inevitable, and sooner or later nuclear exchanges will become part of the mix.

The working class must take a sober, correct attitude toward nuclear war. We must never kid ourselves about imperialism’s ultimate need to use "weapons of mass destruction." The bosses’ ruthlessness in defense of their profits is limitless. On the other hand, we mustn’t fear nuclear war or succumb to pacifist illusions about it. The first illusion is that it can’t and won’t happen. The imperialists of all countries are furnishing daily proof that this is a deadly error. The second illusion is that nuclear war will end the world. This is a lie the bosses have spread to mobilize us behind their profit schemes. They present capitalism’s "ordinary" status quo of mass murder as an acceptable alternative to nuclear devastation.

Nuclear war will kill more people than ever before. But if communist revolution can’t prevent it, communist revolution can smash it once it starts. All imperialist war, non-nuclear and nuclear, is an opportunity to win millions to a communist perspective. Today, more than ever, this means organizing among soldiers and sailors to join PLP and turn the guns around in the bosses’ military. It means promoting revolutionary international working class solidarity for communism, rather than for the national-fascist lie that a Pakistani bomb is the only answer to an Indian bomb. It means Party-building for revolution, not reform, in the shops and factories, the unions and other mass organizations, the schools and colleges. The bosses will surely start their nuclear holocaust. And just as surely, a communist working class can finish it—and them.

EDITORIAL #2

Winning Soldiers to PLP: Struggle, Struggle and More Struggle

"Well, I guess I’ll join you guys and become a communist if there’s a war," is a statement that we would have never expected two years ago from Sandra, a soldier in our guard unit, who’s been in for 20 years. But after two years of on-and-off struggle with her, and an intensified period of struggle during and after the shake-up in Iraq, we are seeing the results of our leadership in this unit.

The small but significant growth of our movement in the Guard is important. As U.S. imperialism is being Challenged around the world, soldiers in the Guard and Reserves are being used more and more in hot spots around the world. A New York Times article says, "the number of Reservists and National Guard members who are finding themselves thrust into military life is growing sharply."

More Army Reservists have been called up for active duty on the NATO-led force in Bosnia than were called up during all of the Vietnam War. And for the first time in nearly three decades, a National Guard combat unit has been sent overseas. As soldiers are facing the reality of living in a period of war, we are struggling to win soldiers to side with the working class.

Ron was interested in PLP about a year ago but was scared off, partly because of the Party’s lack of understanding of the seriousness in doing military work. Recently we met and were self-critical about past mistakes. We explained the Party understanding of war, fascism and the super-illegality of organizing for communism inside the military. He has a lot of anger towards the capitalist system and sees war coming. Many soldiers respect and look up to him. We told him he will be leading soldiers one way or the other, that there is no neutral ground. If he leads these soldiers without telling them what he really believes about the military, he is leading them into the capitalists’ arms. He agreed and said "it would be like leading the lambs to the slaughter." He agreed to start meeting with us again.

Darnell has been coming to club meetings and other activities for several months, but hadn’t committed to coming to May Day. He has always said that the PLP is "interesting" to him. He attended several pre-May Day activities, but still didn’t commit to the march. So we waged a struggle with him to see why coming to May Day was an important part of building our movement inside the military. He responded to this struggle and came to the march.

This gives us confidence that people will respond to political struggle. They have changed us as much as we are changing them. We must rely on them more, in developing plans for the military, and recruit them and other to PLP.

Building a revolutionary communist movement in the military now is crucial for the working class. The Pentagon has already said that even without the start of a major war, they expect twice as many Reservists and Guardsmen to be called up next year. As one fed-up Guardsman said after eight months in Bosnia, "It’s only going to get worse."

‘Cold War’ at Foreman High School

CHICAGO, June 3 ¾ Teachers and students were outside Foreman High School today with leaflets and Challenges, protesting the suspension of communist teacher Bonnie Blustein. The principal suspended her for three days on charges of talking to students about communism and the Progressive Labor Party, distributing Challenge, and encouraging students to Challenge school authorities and police.

Over the last three weeks, many Foreman students and some teachers have come forward in the struggle against this fascist suspension. They have helped to write and circulate letters, leaflets, and petitions. Some have organized or attended meetings for the first time. Some have taken flak from friends for supporting Bonnie, but all have responded well. Communism has become a mass issue in the school. As a student-written leaflet put it, "There is a Civil Cold War going on at Foreman."

Challenging The Authorities Is A Good Thing

PLP comrades at Foreman have been talking a lot about what happened at Ravenswood Hospital a few weeks ago. Chris Sercye, a young black man (and cousin of a Foreman student), died of a gunshot wound because hospital policy was that only an ambulance could bring him in for treatment. He lay on the sidewalk just twelve yards from the hospital entrance, bleeding, for half an hour because no hospital worker would break the rules to save his life. PLP communists criticized those workers. We have the responsibility to Challenge the bosses’ fascist rules that put profit ahead of workers’ lives.

Students and teachers who are friends of PLP sometimes wonder whether we’re exaggerating the importance of the principal’s anti-communist attacks. Many were surprised, yesterday morning, to open the Chicago Sun-Times and find Raymond Coffey’s column quoting PLP leaflets and trying to make communism and Blustein look foolish. "He shouldn’t be allowed to make fun of your ideas like that," one student said. But it’s not bad to be attacked by fascist scribblers like Coffey. "I saw the article and I agree with most of what you said," a teacher told Bonnie.

Coffey’s piece revealed that a top aide of Chicago Public Schools boss, Paul Vallas, called the Foreman principal last weekend. Vallas himself told the Sun-Times that teachers "cannot be allowed to cross the border between instruction and indoctrination." What he really means is that teachers will be forced, increasingly, to indoctrinate students with capitalist ideas. That is what’s behind the new CASE tests (standardized final exams for each course) and even Board-issued lesson plans.

Build A Mass Base For Communism

Last Friday, two PLP teachers and three students were distributing PLP literature across the street from the school. The cops (on the principal’s orders) already prevent us from being on the school side of the street. This time, five squad cars and a couple of sergeants showed up to try to intimidate us and the other students, and looking for an excuse to chase us away altogether.

These 25^th District cops were especially nervous because the previous day’s news had reported on their racist "sweep" of a West Side neighborhood. More than 100 black and Latin youth were arrested for nothing other than being black and Latin youth, and many more were chased into their homes. The cops and school bosses seemed to be afraid that we were organizing a riot or walkout to protest this fascist attack.

That would have been a great thing to do! To make communist-led rebellion possible, our Party has to root itself much more deeply amongst the workers and youth on the West Side of Chicago. The attack on teachers is an attempt to intimidate any fighter. But as today’s rally showed, their dirty attack is a boomerang—they have only helped us build a fighting pro-communist spirit!

Indian Bosses Raise the Ante, Exposing U.S. Rulers’ Weaknesses

The decision by the Indian ruling class to explode nuclear weapons more clearly exposes the weakening position of U.S. capitalism, as India strives to become the major power in South Asia.

BJP, the ruling party, represents the section of the ruling class in India that wants to compete head-on against the Chinese and the U.S. The main capitalist that wants to take on the U.S. oil sector is the giant Reliance Industries. Its head Ambani said, "We are not afraid of Exxon, we will finish them." He went on to explain that whereas it would cost Exxon $2 billion to build an oil refinery, he could do it with $200 million. How? India has a workforce of 400 million with industrial wages less then $100/month.

Indian capitalists have increasingly relied on the Eurobond to finance their mega projects. The worlds largest oil refinery is being completed by the Reliance Industry. Another key player in the Indian capitalist class is the Mittal Group that has built a steel empire and with the recent purchase of Inland Steel of US, it is projected to be the largest steel producer in the world in ten years. In the chemical sector, Reliance is competing directly against DuPont and Monsanto.

These bosses realize that to ‘finish Exxon’ they need to Challenge the US imperialists militarily with the help of a willing army of soldiers and workers. The fascist BJP which came to power by murders, mayhem and pogroms of Muslim workers and espousing nationalism is positioning India to fight the US and Chinese capitalists. The BJP also cultivated a cozy relationship with the French, German and British bosses.

The European bosses have been very successful in Pakistan as well. Both India and Pakistan have signed exclusive trade agreements with the EU. Chirac of France was able to unite India and Pakistan in a united opposition against the US attack on Iraq.

The recent crisis may point to a conflict between India and Pakistan, but in the long range it is going to bring India supported by the European Union in direct collision with the U.S. The BJP government in India has sent a clear signal of its willingness to Challenge the U.S.

The key US military facility Diego Garcia, south of India is now within striking distance by Indian nuclear weapons. This is a facility that co-ordinates logistics and forward movement of the US forces in the Persian Gulf.

48% of world oil flows through the sea-lanes west and south of India. This includes all oil to the US from the Persian Gulf. These sea-lanes are now part of the nuclear weapons striking radius.

The Indian navy is about to commission six ultra modern ships that can survive simultaneous nuclear, chemical and biological warfare for several months.

On the issue of economic sanctions, the European bosses are in direct opposition to the US and even the key US junior partner Britain broke ranks with the US.

All these developments point to very rapid US decline. However, the US bosses remain militarily the deadliest force. Their desperation and decline will lead to war, sooner rather then later. The working class desperately needs to arm itself against these attacks. The strongest weapon the workers have is the revolutionary communist PLP that will lead the international working class to destroy capitalist tyranny.

Racist 227 Passed, Time to Fight for Communism

LOS ANGELES, June 3 — Proposition 227 has been passed in California and will effectively eliminate bilingual education in the state. It is racist and meant to divide workers. Many people were involved in fighting it. Members and friends of Progressive Labor Party have been involved, explaining that communist revolution is the only way to end racism.

Some Party members have been involved in this campaign since the beginning. But some of us have been too timid about raising the Party’s line in these groups. Last weekend, more Party members and friends walked precincts in order to talk to activists in organizations opposing Prop. 227. We said that the bosses’ press builds anti-immigrant racism, by saying that bilingual education is taking money away from the schools. They never mention that the U.S. bosses have armed many countries, including material for nuclear weapons, to fight for their world domination. The schools are failing all students, because the capitalist system has failed us. The main thing students learn in school are the bosses’ lies—in any language. There are more hungry people, more police terror, more deportations, and more high school dropouts. Now the world is again on the brink of nuclear war. Whether students are taught only in English or bilingually, the future this system has to offer the youth of the working class is fascism and war. We distributed Challenges and Party leaflets, raised that elections cannot stop fascism, and met people who liked our ideas and whom we will see again. This experience gave us confidence that we can build the Party more aggressively in the mass movement.

On both sides of the Proposition 227 campaign, many good people believe that if we can only educate immigrant children correctly they will make it in the system. It’s good to learn more than one language, but this proposition was not mainly about how children are taught in the classroom. Proposition 227 was really about what role different bosses want immigrants to play as capitalist crisis accelerates and moves toward war.

The Unz forces, the right-wing Republicans, behind Prop 227, are minor players in national politics, but they make a lot of noise in California. They see immigrants mainly as a source of low-wage labor—and anti-immigrant racism as a way of building an openly fascist movement to divide workers and blame immigrants for the bosses’ crisis.

The Eastern Establishment plans to recruit more latino men for the army because they have the highest retention rate. They think that bilingual youth, who maintain ties with Latin America, will be less patriotic and less willing to die for the U.S. bosses in their wars. But they don’t want to openly alienate latino youth either, which is why Clinton has come out against 227. This is an urgent question, as the U.S. bosses send more troops to Colombia.

The New York Times, while not coming out openly against Prop 227, has had many articles recently attacking bilingual education, including an article titled, "Bilingual Education Is Facing Its Demise in California vote." They echo the position of liberal Barbara Jordan, who headed the Congressional Commission on Immigration Reform: "Those who choose to come here must embrace the common core of American civic culture...learning American English." Jordan calls for winning legal immigrants to patriotism, and deporting illegal immigrants.

California political forces don’t have interests in the Middle East—and are not planning for war. They see a certain amount of latino nationalism as helping them to manage the ethnic politics of control; latino communities managed by latino politicians can deliver the vote and keep workers tied to deadly capitalism.

The "No on 227" forces, led by "Citizens for an Educated America" build the deadly illusion that voting can end fascism. This lie delivers workers into the arms of the biggest fascist bosses. As we went door-to-door, before the ballot, many people we talked to could see that whether Prop 227 won or lost, the youth of today will not "make it" under capitalism. It won’t change the high percentage of blacks and latinos who are imprisoned; and it won’t change the future of war and poverty that awaits these children. Only communist revolution can destroy racism and wars for profit. The fight for communism represents the only future for workers. This experience shows us that, while we have a long way to go, as when we get more involved in building the Party in the mass movement, we can win workers to read Challenge, join PLP and fight for communism.

Appearance: 277 Help Kids, Reality: Leads Kids to War and Fascism

LOS ANGELES— "Bilingual education keeps immigrant students from learning English," said Rosa, a worker in the garment factory New Fashion.

"If they cut bilingual education, its an attack on all immigrants," said Ruben. Others at the lunch table agreed with his position.

Maria said, "The problem is not bilingual education. The problem is all education. The schools teach capitalist ideas. An example is that they teach the idea that to get ahead you have to step on others."

These workers were discussing the electoral Prop 227, which will eliminate all bilingual education in the state of California. Unz, the leader of the 227 campaign, argues that it takes too much money and teachers’ time, but his main point is that ending bilingual education will help the education of all the students, immigrant and citizen.

The main point of those in favor of continuing bilingual education is that it helps the students prepare for the future. In appearance, both sides are looking for the best way to "help the students". But this is only the appearance.

The reality of Props 227 and 226 (control of union funds) are a reflection of the fight to the death among two sections of U.S. bosses to control and deliver the masses of workers to war and fascism.

‘In This Plant We Are the PLP’

"Go back to work or punch out!" screamed the plant manager, as 40 workers stood shoulder-to-shoulder, demanding to know why they had been sent home early the day before and replaced by temporary workers.

When the boss said he didn’t want to hear anything, one worker answered, "You don’t want to listen to us, then we won’t listen to you. We’re not going back to work." The boss tried to read the name tag of one of the workers and several shoved their ID cards into the his face. The company finally had to get the Shop Stewards to promise us that the union business agent would come to the plant and press the workers’ demands. Only then did the workers go back to work.

The next day workers met in small groups on the line and during break. Plans were made and politics debated. At lunch, one worker pointed over to some bosses and said, "You see them. They don’t produce a goddamn thing. Everything here comes from us. We produce it all. But we have no control over our own lives. We are like slaves."

A PLP member was at the table and began a discussion about whose factory it was—the workers or the bosses. Then two of the workers began to write an article for Challenge and several others came over and helped. This led to a further discussion about how our situation shows a general rise in fascism and how we workers need to build a revolutionary movement led by PLP.

The Stewards hovered around us, and whenever three or more workers began to talk, they would try to find out what was being planned. "You can’t stop working, it’s against the contract," they kept saying. The workers secretly planned to stop work an hour early on a particular day and go to the union hall to confront the union.

But things changed. At the end of the day, three workers were fired for instigating the work stoppage. All three were working overtime and were fired at the very end of the day when nearly the entire shift had left. We visited several workers in their homes that night to plan our response. One guy, a regular reader of Challenge, said, "Maybe you ought to contact the PLP to do something about this." We said, "In this plant, we’re the PLP." His buddy replied, "I guess you’re right about that."

The bosses weren’t through yet. They gave written warnings to all the workers who had participated in the work stoppage, stating they would be fired if they did anything else. At least for the moment, the firings and warnings intimidated many workers. Another worker, a leader of the workers in the plant, was out sick that day. When he returned he was suddenly moved from his regular spot, put into a new place and continuously harassed for not working fast enough.

When the worker got into it with the supervisor, he was sent to the office, and given the same written warning as the others. Seeing the harassment and warning as a set-up, he tore the letter in front of the boss and told him, "File this!" The union representative told him to apologize or be suspended. He refused to apologize and was suspended "indefinitely."

Tearing up the warning helped break some of the intimidation and raised the morale of most of the workers. Before he was escorted out of the plant he demanded to go to the line to get his stuff. The plant manager tried to stay with him as he went down the line speaking to other workers. One woman told him, "All they wanted to do since the stoppage is intimidate us. You did the right thing, we can’t let them humiliate us." Another worker said, "You were going to be fired, anyway. At least you’re going out of here with your head high."

We had a meeting with some workers who joined PLP at the May Day march, and we developed a plan to continue building the Party in the shop. Part of that plan was to put the workers back on the offensive. That night several workers wrote a petition demanding the immediate reinstatement of all the workers fired and that the warnings be removed from everyone’s file. The plan now is to organize workers to present the signed petitions at the May 30^th union meeting, and demand to know what the union is going to do. NEXT: Fighting fear and building an anti-fascist, revolutionary communist movement

Cabbies Confront Führer Giuliani’s Fascist Attacks

NEW YORK CITY, June 2 — I am a taxi driver who has been involved in the fight against Giuliani’s fascist-like attacks against us. As reported in Challenge (6/3), he sent a small army of cops to stop a motorcade of taxis from entering Manhattan. Giuliani used fascist force raising the old divide-and-rule trick, trying to give livery drivers the right to pick up passengers like yellow cabbies. The livery drivers rejected this and have joined our protests.

Taxi drivers are not the only ones on Giuliani’s hit list. He is complying with big downtown business’ demands and has ordered vendors off hundreds of streets. Last week cops arrested students and faculty who were protesting the new racist CUNY restrictions, which will turn the City University system into even more elite schools. Giuliani is proud of NYC’s role in the forefront of implementing Workfare, forcing tens of thousands of welfare recipients into slave labor. Last month, hundreds of Harlem and city hospital workers were laid off.

During a protest outside the Taxi and Limousine Commission hearing that attacked taxi drivers, Challenge was gladly grabbed from my hand by angry protesters who wanted to hear what we communists had to say.

Our club is now writing a leaflet that relates these attacks against taxi drivers to the overall attacks against all workers, and to the current world situation, particularly the threat of nuclear war between India and Pakistan. This is important, since many taxi drivers are immigrants from the subcontinent. We will point that the rulers of Islamabad, New Delhi and New York City are all enemies of the working class, and that when workers unite, and are led by communists, the bosses can be taken.

Many taxi drivers are beginning to hear our message. Four want to join the Party. Others want me to be their spokesperson in the struggle, but I pointed out that we all need to fight together. Better yet, PLP is saying that we need to understand that the only real solution is to build a mass communist movement to get rid of Giuliani and all the bosses.

The Bosses’ Press Lies

NEW YORK CITY—Last week, as we Taxi drivers were demonstrating against the Taxi and Limousine Commission, a TV reporter came to interview us. Almost all the drivers interviewed spoke about how angry they were and attacked the system in one way or another. That night, we were all waiting for the TV news program to see our side of the story. But only two drivers who were very passive were shown. Again, we must show workers that Challenge is the only news media that represents their interests.

Steeling Students in Class Struggle

BOSTON, MA, May 13 — Today, 50 students marched into President Brown’s office at Roxbury Community College (RCC) with demands ranging from toilet paper in the bathrooms to Student Government elections. Ten students occupied the administration building overnight after they were promised no arrests. During the night they bravely stood their ground against 64 state police, including a swat team and canine units called in by the administration. The next day, 30 faculty members marched to the building as students enthusiastically cheered. For a short time, students, faculty and campus workers stood united in solidarity. Finally, Mel King, a liberal "community activist," helped to negotiate an end to the occupation as Brown signed 15 out of the 18 demands.

Students protested the administration’s insulting, contemptuous treatment. They exposed Brown’s flagrant corruption and mismanagement. This student protest also jolted the faculty, which has been paralyzed by demoralization and fear. Last semester, the administration dissolved Student Government (SGA), and never reestablished it. SGA money has been spent on other things. There were no supplies: paper, chalk, or erasers. Faculty access to the copy room was severely restricted. A class schedule for next Fall was not printed in time for pre-registration because of a lack of paper; but money was found to install expensive surveillance devices all over campus. All this, while President Brown earns $95,000 a year and one-third of the college budget goes toward a top-heavy, inefficient administration. Suddenly, a week before final exams, the administration called for the SGA election for the next day, just to get their stooges into office. The administration is notorious for bribing and intimidating student leaders.

The Brown administration is the worst of what the black nationalist movement has produced—a power-hungry administration, filled with contempt towards the students. They use opportunist "black leaders" from "the community," like the Nation of Islam’s Don Muhammed, and other religious misleaders to cover the fact that they have no support among black workers.

It may be that Brown is too unreliable for the State Board of Higher Education. They need slicker puppets to carry out the massive attacks against the working class in the name of "restructuring" higher education. RCC is rewriting its mission statement to include training students "to meet corporate needs"—higher education (students and research) needs to be more in sync with what the big corporations require. RCC wants local corporations like Star Market and the Marriott Hotels to subsidize its operations, in exchange for a piece of the curriculum. Financial Aid rules have changed to eliminate beginning ESL students from admission, as they discuss "raising admissions standards. New state welfare laws make it impossible for recipients who have to work a minimum of 20 hours a week to attend—over 50% of them have dropped out of Massachusetts community colleges since 1996.

Due to the fierce global competition for profits, the ruling class can’t waste money on college education for the working class. They need colleges to train better wage slaves to work faster and more efficiently. They need to change their style of administration, which includes faculty and students, to a "leaner and meaner" corporate style of management. Organized opposition—faculty unions (and the tenure that protects faculty)—will have to go.

Students and faculty need to understand the origins of these fascist attacks to develop the political will to fight back. There’s no way to escape these developments, we’re all in the same boat. But, there is a way to win that is by destroying capitalism and building communism, as embodied in the PLP today. Winning each skirmish means steeling the faculty, students, and workers for the protracted revolutionary struggle ahead.

Patients Or Prisoners

NEW YORK CITY, June 1 — Cops guard the doors. Clerks work behind bulletproof glass. I’ve paid my first visit to a U.S. hospital and, as bad as I know health care is for the working class under capitalism, I didn’t expect hospitals to be quasi-jails. I am a recent immigrant from a South American country.

I’d been sent to the Emergency Room (ER) of a NYC hospital for diagnostic tests and observation. But first I wait…and wait.

Then I’m asked to sign a form, which I can’t understand. No one can translate for me but I sign because I’m desperate. Later I learn I’ve consented to whatever medical treatment I get.

At last I pass through the door guarded by cops into one large room. Sick and injured people, many of them elderly, with IV’s attached, are on stretchers everywhere. A few lucky ones have a wall space with the privacy of a curtain. Most line the aisles, head-to-toe, side-by-side, around a central island of doctors.

Three hours later I’m finally examined by a young student doctor; there is only one doctor, all the others are students who work 12-hour shifts. I’m hooked up to two IV’s by one of the three nurses in the room. But neither I nor my husband, who speaks a little English, can find out what my problem is. The "doctor" disappears never to return. Comrades come to the ER to help, but they can’t get any information either and have to wait almost two hours to see me. Finally, one comrade, a nurse, reads my chart and tells me what medication they’re giving me and maybe why.

It’s 1:00 AM I’ve had no food and just as I think I’m going to be released another doctor appears and orders a CAT scan and X-rays. When I talk to other patients I’m told to be quiet.

I don’t leave until midday the next day—24 hours in the ER and I’m still not clear what my problem is.

This is health care for profit where people are packed into an under-staffed ER rather than moved to a room. This is the same system that turned away a young mother and her infant because the mother couldn’t pay the $25 clinic visit. The child, who was being breast-fed, died of malnutrition. But it’s the mother who is being blamed and accused of manslaughter, not the hospital who refused to examine the baby.

It is the same system that recently laid off 90 workers from Harlem Hospital. But workers are not taking these conditions lying down. Since Giuliani announced the layoffs there have been almost daily protests around the hospital. Like the taxi drivers, and CUNY students, hospital workers are calling for the end of Giuliani’s and Pataki’s fascist regime.

Changing the guard at City Hall may bring in more liberal politicians, but will not stop the fascist attacks on the working class. Worldwide capitalism is suffering a crisis of overproduction. Cars are piling up and workers can’t buy them. U.S. bosses need to lower wages and squeeze the working class to compete with other imperialists. Recent nuclear testing by India and Pakistan heightens the international crisis and demonstrates the U.S.’s weakening global position. To strengthen their hand the bosses will step up their war production and will fund it with money from lowered wages, public education, welfare and health care. They will increase fascist terror to try to stop the workers from fighting back and rebelling. But, in the face of increasing fascism and the threat of nuclear war workers have only one solution—organize for revolution, communist revolution, for a society in which health care will be organized in the best interest of workers, not for the profits of "health care" bosses.

Capitalist ‘Peace’ is Deadly for Workers

EL SALVADOR, June 1 — "The peace accords ended the armed conflict, but not the spilling of blood. Today common crime kills more Salvadorans than died during the war." (AP, May 1998). That’s how the bosses’ press describes the violence that workers face in El Salvador. According to this report, the bosses murdered about 6,500 workers a year during the war using their death squads. Now because of the miserable conditions of capitalism, common crime kills about 8,500 workers a year. This doesn’t include those who die from the capitalist crimes of hunger, cold or lack of health care.

The same report claims that El Salvador, with 6 million inhabitants, has an average of 23 homicides a day. New York, with 7 million inhabitants, has an average of two homicides a day. The cost of living in El Salvador is almost as high as in New York, but the average wage is only $150 a month. The bosses in El Salvador are supposedly worried and looking for solutions to this problem.

There was a three day conference sponsored by the International Development Bank. They blame the youth, especially the gangs, the workers who were in the army and the guerillas. But this Bank, along with the Salvadoran and U.S. bosses and their capitalist system, are the major guilty parties for this crime. The competition among the big imperialists and the worldwide crisis has resulted in unimaginable poverty for the working class. Hundreds of thousands of young workers, including children, walk the streets looking for work or a piece of bread to survive. Not having a mass revolutionary movement to serve as a beacon to these desperate workers means that many workers are won to capitalist ideas and attack their fellow workers.

The solution to crime is not more police, or a beefed-up army, or a publicity campaign to tell hungry people to be moral. The solution lies in the destruction of the capitalist system run by the biggest criminals of all.

Our fight is to motivate workers to organize for real communist revolution and to build a new society where crime won’t exist because there won’t be rich or poor, only workers led by their communist Party, the PLP, fighting to meet the needs of the international working class.

Campers and PLP Members Mix Fun, Ideological Debate

The youth group of a Los Angeles church held a weekend camping trip recently. A PLP member is active in this youth group, and brought some friends to participate in this activity. Before and during the trip, the jokes and good times mixed with music and play, and also opened the doors to friendship. When they got to the campsite, some of the discussions heated up. Jose, one of the members of the church group, commented about a book he’s reading about racism and the development of fascism in Germany under Hitler. "One of the ways to fight racism is by studying and learning from the past, and preparing ourselves to solve our problems as individuals," said Jose.

"I don’t agree with you. We can’t solve these problems by ourselves. Individualism is an idea that the bosses push to keep us workers divided," answered Juan, a member of PLP. "The problems that we workers have here in the US and in the rest of the world are like the problems they had in Germany," added Martin.

Little by little the whole group began congregating at the edge of a river to watch the running water and listen to the current as the cold water came down the mountain, contrasting it to the hot sun and the red sunset. This gave the opportunity for everyone to introduce themselves. Many said, half joking, and half serious, things like "I’m from Mexico, and proud of it." The communist camper said, "What’s so special about being from Mexico or any other place? If we really belonged to a country, we wouldn’t be here. We would have a house, food, work and all that we need back there. All of us workers are really one class. We have no country. The bosses use their borders to divide us and to build racism among us. We need a communist world without borders."

In another personal discussion, Isaac said that the bosses are happy to be robbing the workers and paying them low wages. There was a discussion about how the whole system is based on competition and how this forces all bosses to mistreat the workers to be able to survive the competition, make profit and invest in modern machines.

The only way to defeat fascism is with communist revolution. Organizing these camping trips in unions and churches is a great way to get to know other workers. While we have fun, we can talk about our communist ideas, expose the bosses’ plans to resolve their crisis of overproduction with war, jailing black and latin workers, militarizing the schools, deporting workers, and moving industries to countries where they pay even less. We can exchange ideas and invite workers to participate with us.

Jose wants to be in a study group to find out more about the party. He’s willing to talk to his fellow garment workers and help out as he’s needed.

On this trip, the political struggle was sometimes sharp. Nationalism, individualism and capitalism in general were confronted as being based on exploitation and robbing the fruits of our labor. Working inside the church gives us the opportunity to have fun and to put communist ideas in the forefront.

LaSalle Steelworkers Know Who Their Friends Are: PLP

HAMMOND, IN, June 2 — One militant striker said he waits every day for the plant manager to come out so he can give him the "Heil Hitler" salute. "That really burns his ass."

The strike of 270 LaSalle steelworkers is into its third week. The company has gotten a court injunction limiting pickets to three per gate, despite the fact that the strikers were allowing scabs to enter and leave. The company is hiring scabs and is using professional strikebreakers to videotape strikers. The cops are out to protect the boss, scabs and strikebreakers, and to enforce the court injunction. The bosses don’t want the strikers’ voices to be heard! This proves what we communists have been saying: the capitalists don’t believe in free speech. When it comes to their profits, they throw their constitution out the window.

Meanwhile, strikers have warmly received PLP members and Challenge. When one of the hired goons tried to isolate a PLP member from the picket line, the strikers defended him. The strikers are up against the whole fascist apparatus of the bosses, and they know who their friends are.

U.S. Rulers’ Split Reflected in China Policy

The latest White House flap over China exposes a weakness that is crippling "the world’s sole superpower." U.S. capitalists with conflicting interests cannot unite to form a coherent foreign policy. Washington’s feeble response to the nuclear showdown between India and Pakistan stems partly from this internal disarray.

A host of forces, including Trent Lott, Newt Gingrich, the Justice Department, the Pentagon, and the media, are calling for investigation into two recent developments in the endless campaign finance circus. One involves $100,000 paid by the daughter of China’s highest ranking general to the Democratic Party. Companies owned by the Chinese army later received favors from Clinton. In the other scandal, Bernard Schwartz, the head of defense contractor Loral, got—in return for a $600,000 donation—White House approval for selling satellites to the Chinese. New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, wrote that if "the Clintonites sold out America’s national security interests to China...they should be drawn and quartered" (5/30/98). Friedman called on Clinton to cancel his upcoming trip to China.

But there’s a hitch. The Clintonite who arranged the Loral deal happens to be the President’s National Security Advisor himself, Sandy Berger. A difference in outlook deeply divides U.S. bosses on China. Ever since Rockefeller protégé Kissinger’s 1971 trip to Beijing, which led to the reopening of trade, the dominant U.S capitalists have viewed China as a vast market for U.S. goods, a bottomless pool of cheap labor, and a counterweight to Soviet/Russian ambitions. But the professors and pundits whom the big bosses pay to think for them see China as a strategic enemy which the U.S. must block at every turn, economically, politically, and, above all militarily. The split runs right through the White House. Just weeks before the Chinese payoff story broke, the Clinton administration had launched dissident Wei Jingsheng on a whirlwind tour to demonize the Chinese bosses.

In greasing the way for Loral, Berger was carrying out Rockefeller’s "make a buck off China" line, just as he had done for more than 20 years as an international lawyer in the D.C. firm Hogan & Hartson. There Berger helped boost the overseas sales of clients like Boeing and Bechtel. A Tangled Web, a new book about Nixon, by William Bundy, an Ivy League architect of the genocide in Vietnam, confirms that deal-making with China remains the Establishment’s outlook. Crediting Kissinger all the way, Bundy calls the "opening to China...the foremost achievement of Nixon’s administration. A historical judgment, at the distance of a quarter century, must confirm the importance of the change."

But building up the economy and infrastructure of places like China cuts two ways for U.S. bosses. The profits enhance U.S. firms’ quarterly balance sheets, but trade surpluses, airplanes, roads, satellites, and other improvements only serve to increase China’s threat as a rival to the U.S. Establishment intellectuals point to the dangers. The American Prospect, published by the Economic Policy Institute, which has close ties to Harvard and is backing Gephardt in 2000, identified some of the huge U.S. corporations promoting shortsighted involvement in China. "The leading organization of the new China lobby is the ad hoc Business Coalition for U.S.-China Trade. The coalition is coordinated by the Emergency Committee for American Trade, a $1 trillion bloc of 55 major U.S. companies, including General Motors, Mobil, Exxon, Caterpillar, United Technologies, Boeing, Cargill, Philip Morris, Procter and Gamble, TRW, Westinghouse, IBM, and a few dozen more" (January 1997).

The Wall Street Journal (5/27/98), points out that the open door policy is blowing up in the bosses’ faces: "The U.S. actually is buying more from China than ever before. Imports more than doubled, to $62 billion from $25 billion, between 1992 and 1997. The trade deficit with Beijing also has more than doubled, to $49 billion from $18 billion, since 1992. Technology sales continue. President Bush approved waivers allowing the export of nine American satellites for launch on Chinese rockets. President Clinton has approved waivers allowing the export of 11 American satellites. Trade has grown even though China’s human rights performance has improved only marginally."

The Brookings Institution, which represents virtually the same Rockefeller-dominated bloc of capital as the Fortune 500 firms operating in China but focuses on the long term, not the bottom line, foresees armed conflict with China: "The most significant long-term security issue facing the two powers may prove to be China’s attitude toward America’s continuing military presence in East Asia and the Pacific. The United States would strongly resent Chinese pressure on local states to weaken their ties to the United States. The United States is and will remain a Pacific power and presence, and that its regional profile includes, but is not limited to, U.S. forces in Japan and in Korea, even after unification....The United States might one day find itself in the position of having to contain an expansionist, hostile China. (Brookings, October 1997).

U.S. capitalists directly hurt by cheap Chinese imports make up yet another camp in the China policy free-for-all. Pat Buchanan, the well-paid mouthpiece of the Milliken textile interests, rails at China’s human rights abuses. Republicans in Congress cry "Treason!" at White House-sanctioned plans to turn the former Long Beach Navy Yard in California over to China’s state shipping company as an import facility. Erskine Bowles, Clinton’s chief of staff, praises Wei’s courage and pushes for import quotas on Chinese cloth; his wife is the chairman and chief owner of Springs Industries, a huge South Carolina textile producer.

Newt Gingrich has said that political gridlock due to the squabbling of many factions reminds him of Rome just before the rise of Julius Caesar. He implies that it’s time for one side to assert dictatorial discipline over the others. For now, the various U.S. capitalists can’t agree on China because they have their eyes glued to their own companies’ profit margins. But their long-term survival as a class requires leadership that can win workers to war. The Progressive Labor Party offers an alternative, the dictatorship of the working class.

30^th Anniversary of Anti-Racist Columbia U. Student Strike

The following article was written by a veteran of the 1968 student struggles and a former member of the PLP-Led Worker-Student Alliance of Student for a Democratic Society

This Spring is the 30th anniversary od the Columbia University (CU) student strike and rebellion. In April, 1968, 700 of students occupied five buildings to protest the University’s support of the Vietnam War and its racist expansion policies. The strike was not a spontaneous act but the result of years of political activity led by the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

Military and CIA recruiters had always been welcomed by the administration to the campus. A small percentage of professors at CU joined with academics from other schools to do research for the government’s war effort. Mathematical modeling could determined the best techniques for saturation bombing. Stronger chemicals could be created to defoliate Vietnam and burn and poison the Vietnamese people. In fact, a defoliant "agent orange" was so lethal that thousands of Americans who handled it were poisoned as well as their would-be victims. Today, 30 years later there is a special desk at the Bronx Veterans Administration Hospital for vets with Agent Orange-related problems!

While CU had plenty of money, they felt they didn’t have enough land. Back in the ’50s they started buying as many buildings as possible in Morningside Heights and Harlem. CU used all the nasty tricks in a landlord’s bag to force out thousands of working class residents, many of whom were black and latin, so that the university could provide more housing for its professors and grad students and build more labs.

All of these years of racist land grabbing came to a head when CU administrators planned to build a new gym for their students on public land in Morningside Park in Harlem! NYC politicians thought this was just fine, but when the first fences went up at the excavation site, students, led by SDS and community members, tore them down and blocked the bulldozers. Such were the events leading up to April ’68. When the strike started it sent shock waves across the country. CU President Grayson Kirk, who had ties to the Rockefeller banks and was a director of Mobil and Con Edison, came under pressure by business and university leaders to end the strike quickly before rebellions broke out at other schools. A small army of NYC tactical police were ordered to the campus to attack the strikers.

Under the supervision of the City Human Rights Commissioner the cops arrested the black students occupying Hamilton Hall first. Fearing an uprising in Harlem, the cops did not use violence against the black students. However, from there the cops proceeded to the other four buildings to arrest the other students beating many of them in the process. Cops on horseback rode throughout the neighborhood attacking people indiscriminately.

More demonstrations broke out in the following the arrests. Angered by the fascist police actions, students barricaded the major entrances to the campus. When police broke through the barricades they were met by a barrage of rocks and bricks. This time the students fought back!

After the strike was over the Mark Rudd leadership of Columbia SDS moved steadily to the right. PLP intensified its work at Columbia and won many students to its line that the working class is the primary force to defeat capitalism. The PLP-led Worker-Student-Alliance grew by leaps and bounds. When Rudd & Co. found they could no longer control SDS on a national level, they quit and went on to form the Weatherman, a pathetic, amateurish group of terrorists. (Ted Gold, one time vice-chair of Columbia SDS, was with a group who blew themselves up with a homemade bomb.)

Important lessons can be learned from the Columbia Strike:

• Even at "elite" universities large numbers of white students can be won to fighting against imperialist war and racism.

• However for a student movement to remain progressive the leadership of a communist party is absolutely necessary.

LETTERS

World War Is Closer Than You Think

Dear Challenge:

Going around the hospital with the last issue of Challenge, containing the "Let Them Eat Nukes" article, was an eye-opening experience. One regular Challenge reader from India just smiled and said, "What can you do? Everyone I talk to from home is very proud." Another co-worker, an Indian nurse who usually takes the paper (but rarely donates) refused to even take Challenge or discuss the atomic tests. A Pakistani sympathizer said the tests were "crazy" but in the next breath acknowledged that he had trouble finding countrymen who agreed with him. An Afro-Caribbean co-worker, who always gives us $1 for her weekly Challenge, said "What atomic tests?" I found these responses, ranging from blind patriotism to despair to deep denial, quite sobering.

An Indian comrade at our hospital has taken the lead in organizing ideological struggle against this imperialist escalation, starting with a call for a meeting which he posted all over the hospital a few hours after the first Indian blast. This afternoon, a few days after the Pakistanis blew up their atom bomb, we held a second meeting. It was attended by people from India, Pakistan and the U.S. We discussed the first draft of our comrade’s political and economic analysis, linking war preparations to the development of Asian oil resources by Indian capitalists and regional conflict over trade routes.

The communist political-economic analysis was new to most of the people who turned out for this meeting. It generated some useful discussion. Others tended to focus on cultural, religious or even psychological factors contributing to the crisis. One young doctor pointed out how the use of Muslim scapegoats by the Hindu nationalist BJP (the ruling party in India) was similar to political tactics used by the Nazis. A comrade pointed out the relationship between capitalist economic crises, the development of fascism in Nazi Germany, in BJP India and in the U.S.

We need to broaden out this good start. Our plan is to encourage the new, non-Party people to organize this formation along the lines they think would attract the largest number of Indian, Pakistani and other hospital workers. We will continue to raise communist ideas and try to involve people in discussion, analysis and struggle around our line.

CCH Hospital Club

Fascist Ideology Grows in Sick Capitalist Society – We Must Fight It!

Dear Challenge:

Clearfield County is located in the heart of the coalfields of Western Pennsylvania, and is severely economically depressed. Like most of this region, the KKK has been active and has had some success in recruitment. Clearfield County made national news recently. A group of teens and a couple of adults made a pact to run off to Florida for who knows what reason. Confused. Troubled? Desperate? Whatever! They had a meeting in a wooded area called, ironically, Gallows Hollow. One young woman, who was overweight and suffered from a learning disability and reportedly was teased frequently, grew apprehensive and supposedly said that she was going to tell on the others. The others began to torment her and threaten her. Then a few of them put a noose around her neck and began to drag her around the woods. At that point, many of those present departed. But two teens, a 14-year-old young woman and a 15-year-old young man, hanged the young overweight woman from a tree limb. When she passed out, they pulled her down and began to cover her with brush. The young woman was still alive and moved her arm. Then the 14-year-old woman picked up a rock almost as large as a basketball and dropped it on the victim’s head, killing her.

At this time, four teens have been arrested, and they are considering the death penalty. Also, local newspapers are filled with so-called experts and others giving their explanation for this hideous crime. No prayer in schools. Decline of religion in our nation. Loose morals. Irresponsible adults. Movies and television. For the most part, I think that all these reasons are scapegoats. Personally, I think that the actions of these teens are the result of the growing fascism and fascist ideas such as the survival of the fittest (or those with the most money). Didn’t the Nazis have a special dislike for handicapped people? Undoubtedly, the young woman who was killed was viewed as subhuman by those who killed her because of the fact that she was overweight and considered slow in school. Doesn’t this society have a cult around people having perfect bodies, as the Nazis did? Of course, homicide is the leading cause of death for teens in this nation of capitalist fascism. Most people know about the recent epidemic of teens shooting other teens in the U.S. But how many really care about the thousands of Iraqi children who have died due to Operation Desert Hoax and the economic sanctions against Iraq, which only hurt the poor and not Hussein? If the teen who shot other teens at an American school had without remorse shot down Iraqi soldiers trying to flee home on the road to Basra, they would have been applauded. Remember that good old Nazi Tim McVeigh was a big hero of Operation Desert Turkey Shoot and look what he did upon returning home.

So this society of capitalist fascism will never cure the sickness because it is the cause of all of this insanity. The youth who hanged that young woman and then bashed her head in would probably have made great storm troopers or death camp workers in Nazi Germany.

Red Rocker, Western Pennsylvania

Letter Protests Fascist Neglect of Wounded Youth by Hospital Employees.

(The following letter was signed by 35 people and is being sent to various Chicago-area newspapers)

To the Editor:

As members and friends of the Second Unitarian Church of Chicago, we feel compelled to speak out against the tragic, unnecessary death of Chris Sercye. This fifteen-year-old black youth lay for half an hour on the sidewalk adjoining Ravenswood Hospital, bleeding from a gunshot wound. Hospital officials refused to allow employees to carry Chris inside for treatment until it was too late.

We are appalled that health care professionals would passively abide by the hospital’s outrageous policy. Whatever consequences they might have faced by not "following orders," the cost of their acquiescence was Sercye’s life.

American society increasingly seems to devalue human lives, especially the lives of young black men. Our church calls upon us to affirm the dignity and worth of every person. Now, it seems this may mean taking the personal risks involved in challenging official policies.

The chilling example of Nazi Germany stands as a reminder that we all have a grave responsibility to take such risks.

Working in Mass Organizations Is Paying Off

Dear Challenge:

I want to share an experience that another comrade and myself had starting to organize in a mass organization. One Saturday we joined up with an anti-Prop. 226/227 political group to walk around a specific area and inform people about the upcoming election. I understand the political importance of participating in these groups so that we can raise communist politics and build ties with people in order to win them to our line, but I was very skeptical about the possibilities of being able to do any strong work for the Party here.

After the initial meeting was over we were put into groups and sent out to walk door-to-door. The other PL member and myself went with a more "experienced" organizer and from the beginning we attempted to raise with him our line on both Props 226 and 227. For example, we said that the underlying assumption about ending bilingual education from those who support the Propositions is that money for education either goes to citizens or immigrants. We said that the vast majority of the wealth created by workers goes to corporations, maintaining the military build-up in the Middle East, and sending arms around the world to protect the interests of the U.S. government. He agreed and told us that we should tell this to people we meet.

When we went door-to-door we told people about the Props. 226 and 227, trying to see how we could raise our politics. One man I met said his union told him to vote no on 226 (which attempts to limit union influence on the Democratic Party), but yes on 227, ending bilingual education. We talked about how workers are pitted against each other and told to blame immigrants, especially in times of economic crisis, while their bosses laugh all the way to the bank. He said that we need to get rid of greed and I said that we should get rid of money because these problems are products of capitalism and he generally agreed. I gave him a PL flyer.

This experience showed me the importance of being in these groups to offer the only solution to capitalist crisis and growing fascism. If we are not in these groups, people in them will continue to be won to the illusions of electoral politics and the ideology of fascism as the ruling class builds it more using these groups to support it. Our future rests with having deep ties in the working class and taking seriously our responsibility to organize for communism within these groups. For myself and many of us we need to defeat our cynicism and passivity that keeps us away from involvement in mass organizations. What we need is militant, bold, dedicated communists to raise revolutionary communist ideas everywhere.

LA Comrade

What’s Primary?

Dear Challenge:

More than once the issue has been raised on what is the better strategy to build the Party. There is probably no single strategy. Lenin advocated the need for the party to reach many segments of the population. I agree with this, but some of my life experiences have confirmed for me that we need to do more of one kind of work than the other in order to be considered a genuine working-class party.

My experience as a student teacher, as limited as it was, reaffirms what I’ve thought all along—base-building in industry should be primary. Why? The level of exploitation is clearer on the factory floor than in a classroom. Secondly, as mentioned above, we need more workers in our ranks to be considered a true working class Party. Yes, students of working-class origin are tomorrow’s workers and we do need them. But why should we shy away from reaching workers today? This is not to suggest we drop our campus work, but we should focus more on organizing in industry. This is not easy. First, we have to struggle with our comrades (and ourselves) to do it. The specter of working at a dead-end job does not appeal to many people. Then we have to worry if we get hired full-time. And then we must try to figure out how to wage and maintain the ideological struggle.

On the trip back from May Day I had a talk with a comrade. At this point, he is not ready to make this move. He confronted me on whether I’m willing to make this "sacrifice." Many a time I’ve questioned myself on this matter. Should I commit myself to go into industry when I don’t see other members embracing the idea? I know this work is happening but it’s limited. If we want to test the theory that a mass communist party can be built in the working-class, I think we would get a good idea of whether or not we could be successful if we expand it.

Jersey Red

OOPS!

A letter in last week’s Challenge "PLP Confronts ACLU" said that the ACLU expelled Helen Gurley Brown for being a communist. In fact, Helen Gurley Brown was the editor of the magazine, Cosmopolitan.

Brown was the "Cosmopolitan Girl," not the "Rebel Girl," Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, leading member of the U.S. "Communist" Party, whom the ACLU did indeed expel.