Challenge, July 22, 1998

Over 40 high school members of PLP from Chicago and New York descended on Flint, Michigan this weekend to bring revolutionary solidarity to the GM strikers! The youth learned more by participating in the strike than they had ever learned in school. Hundreds of Challenges were distributed at the picket lines, and all over town, as PLP brought our message of communist revolution and international solidarity to the strikers. The youth held two meetings to plan how to reach workers and discussing the ideas we wanted to raise at the strike. "FLINT IS HOT AS HELL," was how one student described the city. There were 10 picket lines around the Delphi East plant.

There was the sound of car horns honking all day and all night in support of the strike. There were also many picket lines around the Fabrication plant. Most people here have a relative, if not all their relatives, working for GM.

There is bitter hatred for GM’s policies of exploiting and abusing workers, especially workers in other countries. We found signs in many of the local restaurants supporting the strike. People everywhere were talking about how GM was the problem (despite an article in The Flint Journal, 7/12, "What Strike? On the road, few seem interested in GM-UAW standoff").

YOUTH ARE THE KEY TO ADVANCING CLASS STRUGGLE

GM strikers told us that they were not striking for themselves nor for higher wages. They are striking because GM is moving its plants out of Flint to locations where they are paying workers a pittance. Most of the workers we talked to were older , some were retired. They were angry at the factory closings and were inspired to see so many young people who traveled so far to support the strike. We organized one picket line at the Delphi plant where high school students addressed the strikers. One student from Chicago saluted the workers and pointed to the GM headquarters. "We don’t need these bosses! We need to get rid of them all!" Strikers congratulated him after his speech. At the rally, both strikers and youth chanted, "Asian, Latin, black and white, Workers of the World, Unite!"

WORKERS ARE OPEN TO COMMUNIST IDEAS

We planned collectively what ideas to raise with the workers and the tactics to use in case of an attack. In fact, no workers attacked us. They were open to our ideas and wanted to discuss many questions with us. Would communism work? Can there really be a revolution in this country? Can GM be stopped? Can workers run society? Many strikers were critical of the union leadership, especially since some UAW members are actually crossing the picket lines to produce parts for another company. They also thought the UAW should have fought back earlier. The ideas we brought up were the crisis of over production, the need for international unity, the U.S. drive towards war and fascism, and the need for a communist society where production will be organized fill workers’ needs, not the profits of the bosses. We found the strikers eager to read Challenge and ready to talk about our ideas. Even on one picket line where the strike captain asked us not to give out literature, everyone on the line took Challenge. We had great discussions about overproduction and imperialism. Many workers agreed that they could run the plants better than any boss or supervisor. At every picket line we attended, we were welcomed warmly by the strikers. At the Delphi plant, strikers told us, "You guys are the greatest!"

WHAT WE LEARNED

What we saw in Flint was the effect that sharpened class struggle has on workers’ consciousness. The strike situation has intensified the contradictions between the workers in the factories and the GM bosses, who pull in billions of dollars. Under these circumstances, workers are more open to a revolutionary communist analysis. This strike has created a situation where the workers see themselves as a class separate from, and antagonistic to the bosses. We found most workers were open to discussing communist ideas. In fact, at the first picket line we attended a worker told us, "What we need is a revolution in this country." Hats off to the Flint strikers!

SPREAD THE GM STRIKE!

"Our long term viability is on the line," said GM boss Donald Hackworth. The New York Times says that "record profits at cross-town rivals, combined with Chrysler’s pending merger with Daimler Benz of Germany, have put pressure on GM to eliminate a succession of factory-level agreements"...."Steady pressure from Wall Street" has made GM willing to Challenge the union. GM wants the courts to rule this strike and other such strikes illegal. These bosses want to force workers in the US to work according to the same fascist production standards and work rules that they have forced on workers in Brazil and Mexico. GM’s stand against the Flint workers is a threat to the whole working class. PLP urges workers to act in solidarity with the GM strikers. Our response to GM’s fascism should be to spread the strike.

This means acting as a class—against the class interests of the Wall Street parasites, in the interests of workers everywhere. GM wants to off load its whole parts operation. The bosses’ "solution" to their crisis of overproduction is lowering wages, eliminating jobs and fascist labor discipline. They are trying to force workers to compete against each other, and preparing for war. The workers’ solution must be to build solidarity, and internationalism, and to fight to end the system of profit-caused crisis with communist revolution.

Boeing Workers Support GM Strikers: ‘Make Revolution Front-and-Center’

SEATTLE, July 9 — "I liked the resolution," said a union steward, referring to the declaration just passed at the union meeting in support of the General Motors strikers, "but I didn’t like the word fascist. It just has so many connotations."

"Yes, it does." answered one of the 21 union members that signed the resolution so it could be brought up for a vote, "…and we meant every one of those connotations."

These two were talking about a section of the resolution that concerns the GM plant in Brazil. As stated in the resolution, GM has been willing to lose billions to pave the way for the importation of the lean and agile manufacturing techniques it has developed in the Brazilian plant.

"GM perfected this management style with the aid of a repressive, fascist government in Brazil…" said the resolution. This is no accident. We can look forward to the same political development here as huge multi-national industrial companies like GM and Boeing respond to the capitalist crisis of overproduction.

In the end, these conglomerates will be forced to defend their profits by declaring a shooting war against their international competitors. The needs of the bosses run counter to our needs. We need to reject the nationalism of the bosses and their lieutenants in the labor movement which can only serve the ruling class’ war plans. We need to seize leadership of this strike calling for workers from Mexico to Germany to hit the bricks. "This strike shows the absolute necessity of international unity," continued the resolution.

Contrast this class outlook with the narrow trade union approach of IAM General Vice President Lee Pearson. Boeing is planning to assemble some planes in Long Beach, California at a UAW plant. When some workers asked Pearson about unity with Long Beach UAW workers, he said: "Our responsibility is to protect the jobs of IAM members." Narrow trade unionism is a loser. Either we fight for the international working class or we die!

These same issues of fascism and fascist organization of production, internationalism or narrow trade union nationalism will be "front and center during our negotiations next year," so we voted to send the resolution to the Flint strikers in solidarity. Further, a committee was established to give a "report detailing the issues of this important strike, one of the most significant industrial strikes of recent years" at the next general meeting.

Perhaps, the best part of the meeting was the discussion about communism that followed. Right-wing hacks tried to discredit the resolution with anti- communist whispers. Workers are not fools. A number immediately approached the authors of the resolution to find out about the real deal of revolution. Time permitted only a few brief words, but these workers were eager to find out more from the pages of Challenge.

Reports and resolutions must lead to demonstrations at the plant gates. Mobilizing the whole of the working class against the economic and political crisis of capitalism will bring the necessity and possibility of seizure of power through communist revolution "front and center."

Workers Can Run Everything

Dear Challenge:

I went to Flint, Michigan, last weekend to visit the striking autoworkers who have shut down GM’s production. It was a very important experience in my development as a communist.

This letter is mostly about a conversation I had with a welder named Ron. We were talking about the contradiction between labor and management in the plant, which is very sharp. He believes that workers could run the plant better without the bosses. He estimates that his unit produces about $40,000 worth of value per week. He said that when management complains about workers, they’re talking about him. He has been a welder for GM for over 20 years. When a production quota is set he usually meets it in about four or five hours. For the rest of his time on the job, he cools out. He said it himself, "there’s no incentive." That really got to me. So I asked him that if he knew he was producing for his friends and his family, for his neighbors and community, instead of for GM and the auto dealers, would he then work a full eight hour day? "Hell yeah!" Was his response.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve been told that communism will dampen workers’ enthusiasm to produce. Yet here is a worker in the heart of one of capitalism’s industrial giants providing hard evidence that it is capitalism which kills the enthusiasm workers might have for production. I put forward that maybe the bosses of this country are as incapable of running it as the GM bosses are of running the plant in which he works. Without enough boldness or enthusiasm, I presented him with a copy of Challenge (which the picket captain explicitly told us not to do). When I said that workers should consider communism and real workers’ power as an option, "That might well be so" was his response. He declined, however, to be on our contact list.

Industrial workers, especially those engaged in open class struggle, are open to our analysis. Life in a plant fits in perfectly with a communist understanding of the world. Many conclusions that workers draw on their own have revolutionary potential. Others have fascist potential. We should not underestimate the power of individualist/nationalist ideology today. It is an equally grave error to overestimate the power of bourgeois ideology in society. The main lesson of our trip to Flint is that the ruling class is creating a losing situation for itself in basic industry.

There are limits to the maneuverability the ruling class presently enjoys. A worker on AC/Delco’s spark plug assembly line told me that it would take ten hours for the factory to convert to production of the M-16 rifle bullets issued by the U.S. Army. Our comrades in Boeing’s commercial aircraft division could tell similar stories. No matter what happens, the U.S. ruling class will not export all of its key industrial infrastructure to Mexico, Brazil and Asia. Key pockets of warmaking capacity will be kept on the North American continent. Key pockets of industrial workers will continue to exist in the United States. Flint, Michigan, will be one such pocket, and our Party must make further inroads in Flint.

The ruling class will continue to intensify its exploitation of the working class in its quest to reap maximum profits. There can be no other future in the matter. In its basic economic activity, the ruling class cannot help but to create an environment ever more fertile for the growth of communist ideas. We, the members and friends of PLP, must be there to plant the seeds.

Young Worker in Brooklyn

LA Summer Project: A Leap in Qualitative Understanding of the World

LOS ANGELES, July 10 — This week during the Summer Project we sold Challenges to bus drivers and mechanics, garment workers, aerospace workers, postal workers, high school students and many others. We asked them to support the GM strikers. They responded positively. They understood that fascism is growing. They see it every day at their own jobs. We sold over 400 Challenges in the last week and got over $40 in donations. The workers see the layoffs and exploitation but do not connect it to the crises in the world. That is why we have to be there to show them that fascism is growing because the bosses are in crisis, and that they need communist revolution. We also had a demonstration in front of a GM dealership to support the GM strikers.

Selling Challenge was an important part of our week-long Cadre School. Forty-five young workers and students from all over the West Coast participated in the school to learn about dialectical materialism. We want to apply dialectics to win people to the Party and to build revolution.

We analyzed the philosophy in the lyrics of Tupac, Bob Marley, and Rage Against the Machine, and came to the conclusion that everyone has a philosophy, and musicians and artists especially put forward a political message. All people have a philosophy, and these artists with their capitalist ideology contribute the most to winning workers to capitalist ideas. Capitalist ideology is based on keeping the working class from understanding the world and changing it.

Dialectical materialism is the philosophy which helps the working class to analyze the world and how things change. That way we can be more scientific about how we fight to change the world. One interesting discussion we had was about workers and bosses. They are a good example of a contradiction—the unity and struggle of opposites. You can’t have a boss without a worker—and you can’t actually have a "worker" without a boss. In that sense they’re united—when we get rid of the bosses, the workers will be the human race, like it says in The Internationale—there won’t be class society any more at all. And we have opposite interests—what’s good for the bosses is bad for the workers and vice versa.

We also had a good discussion about likeness and difference—are you as a worker more like your boss or more different from your boss? Some people said that we had more in common with our bosses, but then somebody else said, "What are you talking about? They treat us like dogs, they think that we have more in common with dogs than we do with them! Why should we think we have more in common with them!?!"

We know we have a lot more to learn about dialectical materialism, but we made a really good start in this Cadre School. We might even say that some people have made qualitative leaps in our understanding of the world!

Contradictions Between Union Leaders And Strikers In Puerto Rico

Dear Challenge:

I want to add a few things about to last week’s Challenge reports on the general strike in Puerto Rico. As in any struggle, there are strong contradictions between union leaders who always want to compromise (sell out) and militant rank-and-file workers.

Some 350 delegates from the different unions which organized the general strike met after the strike and forced Annie Cruz, head of one of the two striking phone workers unions, to retract her comments that the strike will end when governor Roselló decides not to take reprisals against the strikers. Most of the unions who supported the strike have no-strike clauses in their contracts or are affected by the anti-strike clause against public workers in the U.S.’s Taft-Hartley law. The union leadership seems to have given up on the demand against privatization of the phone company.

Striking workers are also not very happy with the union leadership deals with the cops about the scabs. The "agreement" was to allow management to enter the striking phone offices, but other scabs have gone in too.

The lesson of this struggle is that workers cannot rely reformist union leaders, no matter how militant they sound. And also, that all reformist struggles have limitations and the biggest victory workers can gain is to turn general strikes into schools for communism. Build a revolutionary communist leadership!

Red Coqui

Flash: As we go to press, José Juan Hernández, president of the Independent Union of Phone Employees—one of the two striking telephone workers’ unions in Puerto Rico—announced that its 4,200 workers will return to work on July 16th. They are going back to work even though Governor Roselló refused to accept a "no reprisals condition" for the striking workers. The other union on strike, the Independent Brotherhood of Phone Employees, will probably follow suit since its president, Annie Cruz, was the first to hint an end to the strike (See letter above for a background explanation of how the strikers were sold out).

INDIA: POSTAL WORKERS CHALLENGE THE FASCIST RULERS, LAUNCH NATIONAL STRIKE

CALCUTTA, July 9 — Some 607,000 Postal Workers all over India have joined in a united indefinite strike until their main demand is achieved—the absorption of temporary workers into the regular permanent workforce. These temporary workers constitute almost 60% of the total national postal workforce. Since they are treated as Extra-Departmental (ED) employees, they are forced to work at much lower wages (between $10-$12 per month). One kilogram of meat or fish cost around $2.50, and one kilogram of rice costs 33¢, because of the rulers’ policy of globalization. It is obvious how low workers’ standards of living is.

But, they are not alone. Millions of unorganized workers make up the main sector of the workforce. This severe exploitation of the Indian workforce dates back to British colonialism. The subsequent Nationalist Governments, of different shades, including pseudo-leftists, have only guaranteed the continuation of this super-exploitation. After an earlier struggle, the previous Congress Party government set up a committee that would solve the problems of the ED postal workers. But, nothing changed. The postal workers’ unions are demanding the implementation of the committee’s suggestions. Congress and the leftist parties are supporting this strike, but only to score political mileage over the ruling BJP party.

Postal workers in India have a long and honorable history of struggle. From this groups comes the first martyrs of the Indian working class in post-British India. However, the main weakness in this struggle has been that the strikers are taking leadership from the phony leftists who are only interested in winning elections. They have never Challenged capitalism, which needs this super-exploitation of all workers, including postal workers, to exist. Whenever these groups have won power they have acted as shields to protect the bosses from the wrath of the workers. They have even attacked workers with police military and their goons killing many workers.

Postal workers need to reassess their struggle and streamline the political objective their struggle. If it remains bogged down in reforms taking leadership from the pseudo-leftists, the struggle will go down in history as another betrayal of the working class. Nothing short of workers’ state power can solve the problems of the workers even if it is economic in nature. If we turn the pages of history we will find that all economic demands workers have won have been taken away by the ruling class within a short time.

The PLP workers in Calcutta, though in a very limited way, are interacting with the struggling postal workers. They have distributed leaflets to the postal workers highlighting the need of the hour and calling on them to join PLP to lead the movement to a positive goal. Against this backdrop the postal workers have to re-assess their struggle and streamline their political objectives. They have to come forward to lead their movement against the system to overthrow the state.

Profits: the Name of the Game for Hospital Bosses

BROOKLYN, NY — "If the head of the fish stinks, then the whole fish is rotten! This union contract is rotten for the workers." So charged one of the many workers at a Brooklyn hospital, outraged at the agreement between the hospital bosses and Local 1199, the hospital workers’ union.

Another worker felt the union leadership was telling the workers, "To get job security for all the workers, we would have to strike." This was highlighted by informational picketing demonstrations held in Midtown Manhattan at the bosses’ offices. At these rallies, one slogan was, "Workers, united, will never be defeated." However, this contract will surely divide workers—full-timers hired before September, 1992, against workers hired after that date. (See Challenge, 7/1)

After reading Challenge, one worker said, "That’s how capitalism works—use one set of workers against another." Still another declared, "I’m paying union dues for six years; now the union says I can be laid off. This union does not represent working class interests."

Another commented, "If you get laid off, you’ll get 80% of your salary for two years. But when you go on unemployment, you must show you’re looking for work, or else you’ll be terminated."

A regular Challenge reader figured, "We need communism because then workers will be running society. We wouldn’t have bosses or unions to decide what’s right for the working class. There’d be no such thing as a layoff."

At a supper discussion among a group of workers, one explained the crisis of overproduction in the world today and the fall of Asian economies. "We’re seeing millions of workers around the world being laid off. This is the nature of the worldwide capitalist profit system."

Only half the workers at this hospital turned out for the contact vote. Many were hesitant to strike because of their financial situation under capitalism. Many workers took Challenge and agreed with the article on the contract in the July 1st issue. Two workers wanted to learn more about PLP and are interested in a study group.

In the health care industry, the competition for profits among hospital bosses will surely see less patient care and the closing of several hospitals, causing huge layoffs. Right now, large hospitals are merging with each other and gobbling up smaller ones. Patient care is being shifted to clinics with lower-paid staff.

Regardless of (and even because of) this contract, the bosses will always find ways to lay off workers due to one central fact: the bosses are in this business to make profits. Workers must realize that this reform contract means greater profits for the hospital bosses. But by the sound of it, it might also lead to more workers joining PLP. This is not what the bosses and union hacks had in mind.

Build Communist Internationalism, Wring Atlantic Bell!

NEW JERSEY — "Strike" was the word around the office this week. The Bell Atlantic (BA) contract with the CWA (Communication Workers of America) expires on August 8th. Workers from Maine to West Virginia are preparing to do battle with BA bosses. BA bosses are in fierce competition for the national and global telecommunications market and they need desperately to increase the production of their workers. BA is a very profitable company. In 1996, they raked in almost $28,000 profit per employee, while paying CEO Ray Smith a $2.1 million salary and $25 million worth of potential stock options. Their global interests include companies in Mexico, New Zealand and Eastern Europe.

In the customer sales and service centers, conditions are going from bad to worse. This year the sales quota rose over 20%, while the workers got a paltry 3% cost of living raise. Stress is making workers sick, and the bosses’ absence control policy makes being sick a crime, punishable by suspension or dismissal. Many workers are being harassed and suspended because their AHT (Average Handling Time) per call is too high. Speed up is the magic word as the bosses win the prize and the workers get the shaft. And the bosses aren’t letting up. Their demands for the new contract include going from a seven to an eight hour workday for the same pay, tying wage progression to performance and attendance, establishing split job tours and revamping the pension plan. Put simply, they need more revenue to face the increasingly vicious competition for national and global markets.

Through all this, the union has offered little resistance. The main way they fight is through grievances. Not only are they seldom successful, but grievances teach workers to fight back individually and to rely on the bosses’ system of rules and pseudo-justice. The CWA is totally loyal to capitalism. At best, they want to get the workers a "better deal," while making sure BA can compete. They want us to believe we have a stake in this system by backing the fledgling US Labor Party. They are concerned about outsourcing, or what the company calls "vendoring out jobs." Customer service and other jobs are being picked away. Pieces of the jobs are being sent to non-union workers making a lot less money. The union is out the dues money and wants to be able to organize them. This may be the big reason they’re beginning to talk strike.

Downsizing, speed up, jobs exported to cheaper labor markets—all these attacks are how the bosses deal with the worldwide crisis of overproduction and the falling rate of profit. Workers at BA, the Puerto Rican Telephone Company, and General Motors are all in the same sinking boat. The good ship Capitalism is taking on water faster than the Titanic. The bosses want us to bail out this old rust bucket. But that’s a waste of time.

Workers at Bell Atlantic have a chance to heat up the class struggle by joining Puerto Rican telephone workers, and U.S. GM workers in a massive strike. Such a show of force could create the right atmosphere for thousands of workers to realize the power in our hands, and begin to consider more seriously, the seizure of political power. Communism is our life boat. We must build workers’ power, the only truly unsinkable ship. PLP members at Bell Atlantic have touched many of our co-workers and engaged them in political struggle. We debate the role of unions and how we must link our fight to workers’ struggles around the planet.

A better or bigger union isn’t the answer. What we need is more communist leadership among the workers and a strike could be the classroom where that happens. Capitalism is a sinking ship. It reeks of racism, sexism and exploitation. Our labor built capitalism, and now we must destroy it. This is the basis of our unity. Nationality, skin color, gender are minor differences. Join PLP to build a communist future.

Racist Psychiatric Article Is Full Of Holes

In recent issues of Challenge, we have written about the Coalition Against the Violence Initiative, a growing group in New York which opposes the efforts of the National Institute of Mental Health and many researchers to prove that violence is a biologic trait to be found especially in young minority men.

Specifically, we have targeted Drs. Wasserman and Pine at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, who gave fenfluramine to 34 black and Latin boys, aged 6 to 10 years, in order to measure their serotinin levels. A review of their actual publication (Archives of General Psychiatry, 9/97) shows just how shoddy their "research" is and how only the fact that the current psychiatric and political establishment wants their "results" to appear scientifically true could allow its publication.

The boys chosen for this experiment were selected only because they had older brothers known to the probation department and because they were black or Latin. None of them had any record of problems. However, each child was assessed on a child behavior checklist, and if he had one positive response in either of two interviews, he was labeled, "troubled." The only environmental factor even considered was the interaction between the mother and child. Each child in the study were not given any food for 12 hours and then had an intravenous inserted in the arm, from which samples of blood were drawn hourly for six hours after the drug was given, while they still remained without food. In this study, the boys’ serotonin levels were above the expected.

It is taken as a given that in adults and animals low serotonin (one of several substances that transmit impulses in the brain) causes impulsivity and aggression, and that chronic aggression is biologically caused and has its onset early in life. Actually, it is unknown whether changes in serotonin represent cause or effect or how many other factors influence them. Although aggression may often be traced through an individual’s life, this does not mean it is biologic. Even such easily measurable and largely genetic traits as height are modified by the environment. In this study, the results are completely meaningless, even as biologic measures, because there are no controls. What would the serotonin levels be in boys subjected to such a stressful experiment if no drug was given? What would the levels be in boys not considered to be violent? Since the results turned out different from those expected in adults, the doctors simply surmise that serotonin must have the opposite effect in children or that high levels in childhood lead to low levels in adulthood. As further evidence for their conclusions, the authors state, "These findings are consistent with those of nonhuman primates that have noted that a disruption of the parent-child relationship may produce behavior analogous to human aggression and changes in central serotonergic activity" (page 844).

The authors admit that the lack of controls or broader environmental analysis limits the validity of their results, but they are so convinced of their thesis that they belittle these concerns. The real question is how could such an uncontrolled study, so limited in measured variables, so full of unsupported hypotheses, and limited to black and Latin children so glibly compared to monkeys be published in a major psychiatric journal? The answer must be that its conclusions are already accepted as highly probable and desirable.

For the working class, this means that poor and black and Latin children are increasingly being convicted at an early age of causing the ills of society, rather than being its victims. The results will be drugging and incarcerating our children, not improving education and jobs. For those who are horrified by these experiments, it must be understood that they are promoted, like all science, because they serve the interests of the capitalist ruling class, And in this period of war and fascism, these "scientists" resembled more and more the Nazi doctors and scientists who serve the Führer. For the sake of our children, let’s fight for a system without these horrors, let’s fight for communism.

The World Cup In Europe Or Europe’s Cup In The World?

"Revolution," Lenin once said, "are festivals of the oppressed." Seen in this light, the World Cup must be called a festival of the oppressors. Watch a game, though and that, though, is by no means obvious.

Fluid yet disciplined, soccer at this level displays footwork as fancy as Michael Jackson and a drama that beats Alfred Hitchcock. On top of that the stars are from the barrios and projects of the world - as are most of the Stadiums where the games are played. This biggest of cultural events, then, places the sons of the working class on center stage. It is easy to lose sight of exactly who it serves.

The 1998 World Cup was the biggest ever with 32 teams competing in the Finals. Yet between the great saves and beautiful goals some vital political battles were unfolding: State fascism versus street fascism; the pro and anti-European forces in Britain and, finally, the rise of European imperialism itself.

With two dead and hundreds injured it was the street fascists who captured the headlines. Often given the misleading term of ‘hooligans,’ the fascist British National Party (BNP) and C-18 hate the Euro and its development of a united Europe. In their narrow nationalism they mirror the political agenda of Rupert Murdoch’s daily English tabloid paper, The Sun.

"The start of the trouble," reports the June 16th Guardian, " coincided on Sunday with the arrival of a double decker bus, sponsored by The Sun playing the national anthem and handing out (white) bowler hats." The same Guardian quotes an English fascist: "The laws here (in Marseille) are a joke...We did pretty much what we wanted on Sunday." It should be no mystery. Why would racist cops want to protect North Africans, like the Tunisians? After all, many of these cops follow Le Pen’s Fascist Front National, whose program is based on attacking North African workers and youth. This was a Fascist international working to discredit an achievement of the European Economic Community (the EEC).

Coming just months before the arrival of the Euro, the new currency that threatens to replace the U.S. Dollar in international trade, this World Cup speaks to the rise of European Imperialism. FIFA, the international organization that stages the Cup, is dominated by two major trading blocs: The European Economic Community and Mercosur, the main trading bloc of South America. As far as the tournament goes the US, the leader of NAFTA the main rival to these blocs, is playing left back—left back, as they say, in the Dressing room!

Any successes of the 1998 Cup will shine on European imperialism which will be seen as inclusive of the workers of the world. Even where the U.S. has sports like Baseball, played in Japan and the Spanish speaking Caribbean, they have failed to organize international tournaments. The 1998 World Cup, then, becomes a subtle advertisement for a European style of ‘world leadership.’

The U.S. has nothing like it. FIFA has more member states than the United Nations and with an estimated turnover of $250 billion is larger than General Motors. Headquartered in Switzerland, for the last 24 years it has been led by a Brazilian, Joao Havelange. It’s a power. And, in the end, it works for Europe.

No wonder it worked to crush or minimize all other fascist attempts after the German contingent had had their day on the streets. And crush them they did with a show of police and intelligence work the scale of which would have made Hitler’s SS commanders drool with envy. State fascism is more powerful by far than Street fascism. It used the same methods of preventing travel, selective arrests and mass intelligence that it bought into play during the Miners’ strike in Britain, the policing of Northern Ireland and so on. Except they were coordinated on a Europe wide scale. Anti-fascists can not drink from that well!

Nor can they take in the liberal arguments put forward in the Guardian. That paper argues that the hooligans in Marseille were really a minority - a mere 400 among 10,000 English fans. The vast majority, they argue, were well behaved. Well-behaved! When 10,000 remain well-behaved, neutral, hide or turn the other cheek while 400 fascists run rampant that becomes complicity or stupidity or both. English fans have a special duty - to smash the fascists in their midst. And better do it while the odds are 10,000 to 400. Taking political responsibility like that can wet our appetite for a real festival - a festival of the oppressed, a revolution. And that is a better goal than even Michael Owens scored!

Rulers Use Soccer to Prepare Working Class for War

(The following article was written by Red Maum, a love of football-soccer and revolutionary politics).

The specter of Vietnam continues to haunt US rulers as they try to prepare for future imperialist wars. That’s the main reason the entire liberal establishment has united to discredit the "Valley of Death" story broadcast June 7th by CNN.

According to the program, U.S. special forces invaded Laos in 1970, and used deadly Sarin nerve gas against U.S. soldiers who had defected to the other side. Within days, the rulers’ media were filled with denials and accusations that CNN had failed to check its sources. Defectors? No way. Sarin gas? Impossible. The program’s producer and CNN’s senior producer were fired. Henry Kissinger and Colin Powell both played big roles in getting CNN to retract the story. The fired producers are sticking by their story.

The real issue here is not "responsible" capitalist journalism. All the bosses’ media represent the interests of one profit faction or another. The press, radio, and TV lie and suppress important facts all the time to protect their masters. On the other hand, this is a major political development, and we need to understand it.

The rulers are desperate to rebuild a military capable of fighting ground wars. They will tell any lie to pretend that the so-called "Vietnam Syndrome" is dead and buried. This "syndrome" was the mass refusal of U.S. troops to fight for the bosses during the last five or six years of the war. We can’t judge the details of the "Tailwind" story. But even if it isn’t accurate, the fact is that from 1968 on the U.S. military was a hotbed of resistance and rebellion. As many as 100,000 troops deserted. According to Congressional data, Army convictions for mutiny rose from 82 in 1968 to 131 in 1970 (Michael Maclear, The Ten Thousand Day War p. 271). By 1969, "fragging" was commonplace. This was the use of fragmentation grenades by GI’s against their own officers. According to Maclear, "Between 1969 and 1971…the total number of ‘fragging incidents’…was 730.…But these figures do not include assaults on officers with other weapons—rifles or knives—and…there was sufficient evidence in only ten percent of suspected ‘fraggings’ to warrant investigation. The ratio of violence against officers in Vietnam was believed to be almost fifteen times as great as in the grim trench-warfare of World War I" (pp. 271-2).

In this climate of mass mutiny, defections would come as no surprise. Stories about them were common at the time and found their way into novels written about the war. Gustav Hasford, whose The Short-Timers was used as the basis for the movie Full Metal Jacket, wrote a sequel entitled The Phantom Blooper, which describes one such defector. At the beginning of the novel, Hasford quotes an August 12, 1968, Newsweek article in which the Marine brass admits "receiving a number of reports of Americans operating with Viet Cong units in the Phu Bai area."

Regardless of the truth about "Operation Tailwind," the main wing of U.S. bosses is desperate to bury the legacy of mutiny within their military. This not only explains the closing of ranks against CNN, but also the official myth about U.S. imperialism’s mass murder in the Gulf War of 1991. U.S. air and ground assaults killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and Rockefeller & Co.’s oil-greedy sanctions still kill thousands more every month. Less known, however, is the extent to which the military has lied about US casualties. While few died from Iraqi bullets (because the Iraqi army didn’t fight), many tens of thousands have become seriously ill with "Gulf War Syndrome" (a variety of diseases directly due to the way Bush, Powell, et al. conducted the war). A new book, Against All Enemies, by Seymour Hersh, the journalist who broke the story about the 1969 My Lai massacre in Vietnam, spells out the details:

Reagan and later Bush cynically sold Saddam Hussein a variety of deadly biological weapons, including Sarin, as late as 1990;

Most of these nerve agents were concentrated in a place called Khamisiyah, which U.S. forces blew up after the war in a way that guaranteed the gases’ spread throughout the atmosphere. The result: tens of thousands of infected GIs and a cancer epidemic in Southern Iraq;

U.S. imperialism’s weapons of choice during the Gulf War were based on "depleted uranium," which has an afterlife of 4.5 billion years and which thousands of soldiers on both sides inhaled unknowingly;

The U.S. military required all troops to take "PB" pills against biological weapons. The pills work against only one nerve gas agent, have side effects similar to a nerve gas attack and often lead to the same symptoms they’re supposed to prevent.

By the Spring of 1998, over 90,000 Gulf War veterans had entered VA clinics reporting a variety of serious symptoms.

The Pentagon’s Big Lie to "explain" the veterans’ complaints: "stress." In other words, blame the victim by implying mental disease or cowardice. The brass refuses to admit they contaminated their own troops. But, as Hersh points out, these troops are casualties of war just as surely as if they had been wounded in battle. Many thousands of them will die prematurely.

Knowing that if you fight for U.S. imperialism, you’re likely to get poisoned by your own leaders isn’t exactly a great morale booster. This is hardly a TV ad campaign to recruit young workers for future wars. And the ongoing problem of troop morale is pro-Rockefeller Hersh’s main worry: "The military’s inevitable dilemma is profound: Can it protect our soldiers and sailors in future wars if it was unable to do so in the Gulf War?" (p. 8). How far off can another fragging epidemic be once the going gets tough and the word gets out?

The major media have been quiet about the information in Hersh’s book. The reasons are obvious. As the bosses prepare for possible wars in the Middle East and the Balkans, the infantry is crucial. They can’t afford a repeat of Vietnam, when, according to Maclear, "By (1969), military indiscipline [sic] was such that a victory in the ground war.…was considered unobtainable" (p. 270).

The bosses are running scared. They’re worried about the political reliability of their armed forces. They’re right to worry! This weakness should encourage us. It means that, despite all obstacles, the military is wide open to our Party’s organizing efforts. As conditions sharpen, the legacy of "fragging" and revolt during the Vietnam war, and the low level of loyalty among today’s troops can become opportunities to turn the guns around for communist revolution. Mass GI rebellions, led by a mass PLP, can eventually kill imperialism!

If the big bosses are so anxious to bury "Vietnam Syndrome" and to lie about the Gulf War, why was the "Tailwind" story aired on CNN in the first place? The answer lies in the ongoing fight between ruling class factions, which Challenge has characterized as a struggle between Old Money and an uneasy alliance of New Money and its pals among smaller-fry domestic capitalists. Ted Turner represents the second group. The Rockefeller gang’s Time-Warner took over Turner’s TV empire in 1995—but apparently didn’t eliminate all the pro-Turner New Money flunkies from the operation. More next week.

LETTERS

Sexism in Military Makes Soldiers Miserable

Dear Challenge:

The battles between sections of the ruling class are always fought out in the misery of the soldiers. In the army, the decision of whether or not to have females in the army or not is making my whole platoon miserable. I want to use these incidents as examples of why the whole army sucks, but I’m not sure how.

They put young adults together who live in a society filled with sexism. The men don’t think women can be mechanics. They either want to have sex with the women or they resent them for running the show. I try to struggle with the men that women are not all bad and we can contribute.

Now a female soldier has charged another soldier with sexual harassment which everyone knows isn’t true. Five couples got ratted on by a soldier for having sex in the barracks. Now, the males and females are separated even more. This creates more sexism.

I don’t want women to have the right to fight and die for oil in the Middle East anymore than I want men to be able to. The Sergeant Major is doing a study on whether or not to put curtains up on the ends of the female floor. As if that will stop sexism.

The bosses of the army are caught in their own rat trap. They make billions of dollars off of paying women less than men to do the same job. They also get the free labor to bring up the next generation of workers. They use the media to portray women as nothing but tits and asses.

In the army they want the soldiers to forget about all that and be able to work side-by-side with women. The women have internalized the sexism and lose the respect of the men by sleeping with all of them.

On Monday, we are going to talk with Congress about the positives and negatives of same sex training. They can’t decide what to do. I don’t know what to do either.

I have said that women are in the army because the rulers of the army decided that we should be here. They need us to fight their wars too. Also that our whole society is sexist so of course the army is too. The main sexism is the super-exploitation of women which is justified with pornography and prostitution.

Any suggestions? The whole thing is making both male and female soldiers miserable.

Red Soldier

Inspired by PLP Teachers at Foreman HS, Chicago

Dear Challenge:

I read with great interest about the struggle taking place at Foreman High School in Chicago. Three PLP teachers are under attack by the fascist school bosses, as well as the bosses’ boot-licking newspaper, The Sun-Times. It was very inspiring to read about the comrade teacher who gave a communist speech at the commencement ceremony under fascist conditions. This comrade is an example of the courage and guts we need to lead students and workers into the revolutionary struggle. She and her comrades have picked up the Challenge and shown us the true meaning of bravery under fire. I salute them.

Chicago Reader

KKKops and KKKlan The Same

Dear Challenge:

When James Byrd was brutally killed by white supremacists in Jasper, Texas, the lie was put forth that there was no Klan in that part of country. On Sunday, July 12th, there was an article on page 4 of the local paper titled "Texas Klan Wields Power," which demonstrated that the Klan and other fascist groups are quite active in that part of the country. The article quoted a Human Relations person as saying that there were possibly 5,000 card-carrying members of white supremacist groups in Texas, most of them near Jasper, Texas and this figure does not include the wannabes. The article also gave three examples of incidents where police brutally killed three black men while they were in custody on three seperate occasions.

One black man was accused by the police of stealing a fountain pen and then beaten to death. The fountain pen was later found on a vending machine in the police station. The radical rock-rap band, Rage Against The Machine, has a song with lyrics that say "some of those who work forces are the same who burn crosses." This definitely applies to the Texas incidents. This also should demonstrate that the fascist cannot be stopped by relying on the police or holding prayer meetings or Unity rallies with Big Shot politicians and Union misleaders speaking. They must be fought by a unified multi-racial working class movement that fights against capitalism as well.

Finally, I would like to make the point that communists should defend the rights of gay people, as they are targeted by the fascist and the religious right or Jesus Nazis. This may not be a class question, but it is a question of defending a group from persecution by the fascists and their fellow Bible thumpers. Actually, the Klan uses quotes from the Bible to justify advocating killing gays. Communists should stand up against this bigotry. I would like to know what others may think about this issue.

Red Rocker

Workers’ Hell, Pennsylvania

Hospital Workers Fight Fascist Cutbacks and Build for Communism

Dear Challenge:

It’s a small world. U.S. capitalists compete against European and Asian rivals. They fight over markets to sell what workers have produced too much of, like autos. They fight over control of resources they must have, like oil. Competition drops profits. Less money is left for workers. Health care services for workers is hard hit. Workers suffer. Clinton & Co. cut Medicare. States cut Medicaid. Over 40 million have no health insurance.

Hospitals become graveyards. Patients die from inadequate care. Patients are forced to get well at home. People without insurance are sent away. Hospitals will close if they treat for free growing numbers of people without insurance, including people kicked off welfare and people with jobs that don’t provide insurance. Hospital floors become ghost towns, and then shut down because they don’t get enough money from government and insurance, even if sick people fill the floor. In Philadelphia, Allegheny Foundation, a giant system of many hospitals, can’t pay its bills, can’t afford supplies, and lays off thousands of workers.

We organized workers to fight the closing of our hospital floor. The workers rose up to the Challenge. At this large Philadelphia hospital, laid off non-union and union workers leave quietly all the time. We made some noise. A small committee of us wrote a letter, demanding a meeting with the CEO. Many workers signed it—doctors and nurses and nursing assistants, union and non-union, black and white. We overcame obstacles of getting workers who felt hopeless to join, identifying individuals who were out for themselves, and hiding plans from management spies.

We, including some who have read Challenge, met with the CEO. Although reform issues, like seniority came up, we fought against capitalism in health care, where profits come before patients. We won’t save the floor, but we came up against the class enemy face-to-face and eye-to-eye. We have told dozens of hospital workers what we did. We educated them about communism, handing out Challenge as much as possible. Many were invited to an upcoming study action group.

Red Hospital Workers

Comrade Offers Constructive Criticism of Editorial

Dear Challenge:

I am a comrade in the Party and a regular reader of Challenge. I sell Challenge twice per month in a mass sale, at my workplace, and in a local neighborhood. I want people’s first impression of our paper to be good. I want them to want to read it again. In the spirit of making Challenge more "reader-friendly" to the first time reader, I decided to write in some suggestions for improvement.

This was based on my critically reading the editorial of the June 24^th Challenge titled, "Capitalism Behind Racist Atrocities. Smash It With Communism." The headline had two very good photos of students from Manual Arts High School walking out against racist attacks, and a sign that read "Avenge the Death of James Byrd." I think this would attract the first time reader. To me, it shows that we take action against racism and against the Klan. But then I started reading the editorial article that went along with the photos. This article seemed written toward people who have been in the Party a long time and was discussing advanced communist issues that would seem better suited for one of our internal Party publications. To give some examples, the second paragraph says in part, "The rulers’ temporary ability to avoid the working class’s wrath in the midst of mounting racist atrocities can be traced directly to the old communist movement’s demise." I have been finding in talking to young people on the street, that many don’t know what communism is period. I don’t think that an analysis of why we as PLP are still suffering from the old communist movement’s collapse, belongs on the front page of Challenge. I personally found the second paragraph of that editorial encouraging because I have been in the Party for a long time and am still figuring out how to be more effective.

The third paragraph of the editorial jumped from the Klan killing of James Byrd to Clinton’s racist policies to Jesse Jackson opening up an office on Wall Street to calling Reverend Al Sharpton a paid police informant. All of these were points that could have had individual articles written about them with some additional facts behind them. The first-time reader might wonder why we called Al Sharpton a paid police informant without further explanation. The rest of the fourteen paragraph editorial discussed the Vietnam war era, the new look of fascism, the world economic crisis and the General Motors strike, the sole purpose of PLP, and the errors made by the Indonesian Communist party in 1965. This was a lot for me to digest and I have been a member of the Party for fifteen years. I think it would be overwhelming and difficult to understand for a new reader.

I realize that it is important for Challenge to have something for everyone, first time readers to seasoned communists. But Challenge is our main vehicle for bringing our ideas to those who have never heard of them. Could the front pages of Challenge be written specifically with newer readers in mind? Also, I would recommend that the articles be shorter and perhaps the front editorial in large print. I understand that writing clearly and simply is one of the most difficult things, but it is necessary for our communist movement to succeed. Also, long-term Party members like myself who rarely write articles for Challenge, must step up to the plate.

Chicago Comrade

Note: PLP Pamphlets and Articles Available on PLP Web Page.

In addition to writing to PLP to buy our pamphlets and articles (P.O. Box 808, Brooklyn NY 11202), you can get many of them on our Web Page, http://www.plp.org.

Of course, you will always find the current issue of Challenge and Desafío, as well as back issues for the past several years; a list of Topical Articles from recent issues of Challenge and Desafío; Party-wide leaflets; "Road to Revolution 4" in several languages; and a Statement of our principles.

Here is a list of materials available on the Web Page to date:

Pamphlets:

Voting - The Big Con

Jailbreak -- Dialectical Materialism: The Key To Freedom and Communism

Racism Intelligence and the Working Class

Smash Racism With Communist Revolution

Workfare -- Slave Labor U.S. Style

Special Supplements:

The Hoax of the Ukraine Famine

Review of PBS Series on Stalin

The 50th anniversary of the defeat of the fascists: Lies the bosses tell about the defeat of the fascists in WWII

Anti-Stalin Equals Anti-Communism: Using History to Fight Anti-Communism:

Pol Pot Was Not and Is Not A Communist. Who Is and Was Really Responsible for Genocide in Cambodia?

Articles reprinted from PL Magazine (1964-1982):

One, Class, One Party! (1987)

Road To Revolution Iv--A Communist Manifesto (1982)

Communists--Custodians Of The Future (1982)

On Democratic Centralism (1982)

Fighting Racism: A Key Struggle (1982)

Road To Revolution III--The Continuing Struggle Against Revisionism (1971)

Reform And Revolution (1976)

Build A Base In The Working Class (1968)

What You Do Counts (1986)

Criticism And Self Criticism (1966)

I Have Seen The Future--It Is Now! (1986)

Dialectical Materialism--An Outline for Study (1982)

Bolshevism Vs. Reformism

Re-Examining the "Purges": Cleaning House in the Bolshevik Party (Spring 1981)

U.S. Depression Opens the Door for Revolution (1975)

The Aim and the Game of the Anti-Stalinists (1976)

From The Communist (1989-1992)

Stalin's Successes, Humanity's Gains

The Struggle to End Slavery in the United States

The Struggle Against Sexism

Peru's Tarnished Path

Communist (current PL Magazine of theory, history and struggle) - the complete current issue.

Vietnam: Defeat U.S. Imperialism (1970) -- book-length pamphlet about the imperialist Vietnam War.