Index:

Downsize All The Bosses With Revolution! Mass Layoffs: Clinton’s ‘Gift’ To Workers

PLP Protest Racist Killings By LAPD

Bronx Club Plans For Mass March

Cops’ Racist Terror Sparks Mini Rebellion

LA Garment : Workers Organize Others To Fight Back Against Bosses Attacks

Brooklyn PL Teacher Reinstated: The Struggle For Communism Continues

Building The PLP Among Steel Workers

In Mexico and Internationally: Capitalism is the catastrophe!

Capitalism Crisis Hit Mexico Hard

Afghanistan/Sudan Bombings: Using the Big Lie To Prepare For War

Capitalism Worse Disaster Than Hurricane Georges

LETTERS

A LaSalle Steel Striker Writes

PLP Cadre School in Dominican Republic

MYM In Atlanta: Clerical Fascism

NOI Other Side of KKK Coin

Reviews of Pop Culture Needed

Party Obligated To Bring Communist Ideas To Working Class

Scientific Analysis and Modesty

• Challenge Responds

Consilience by E.O. Wilson: Perverting the Humanities to Promote Fascism

Film Review "Saving Private Ryan": Dangerous Pro-War Propaganda

When the bosses blabber about a healthy economy, get ready for mass layoffs. Many of the profit system’s experts have been promising the U.S. can remain safe from the financial crisis that turned Asia’s tigers into pussycats and that recently exposed Russian capitalism as a sick joke. The conventional wisdom on Clinton praises his "job performance," despite his disgusting personal scandals, because the economy supposedly remains sound.

Well, facts are stubborn things, and evidence is quickly mounting that the U.S. bubble is about to burst. Remember the record number of giant mergers that took place throughout 1998? They sent the stock market soaring to new heights. The bosses’ pundits began to crow about "permanent prosperity." Now the other shoe is starting to drop. Many hundreds of thousands of workers will be thrown onto the street. Whether he goes or stays, Clinton’s real legacy will be the "bonus" of a new unemployment wave.

According to New York Post columnist John Crudele, "All those (mergers) are now starting to result in huge corporate layoffs" (9/22). The bosses use fancy nonsense terms, like "overlapping workers," "expendable," "synergies," and "downsizing," to disguise their savagery. Even Crudele, who’s an apologist for the system, recognizes the reality behind the double-talk. He calls it "job slaughter."

Merger mania and the layoff wave it generates result directly from the crisis that has hit international capitalism. The bosses compete with each other for maximum profit, and profit rates go down as production costs rise. The big fish eat the small fry. The biggest fish eat as many as they can. In the past twelve months, the ten largest mergers in history were announced. Layoffs in their wake were only a matter of time. But merged companies aren’t the only ones axing workers. All the bosses are getting into the act and trying to solve the crisis on our backs. According to figures quoted by Crudele, "job cuts by all companies this year have totaled 358,394, the highest eight-month total since 1994." The record for the decade was during the officially recognized recession of 1993. Crudele predicts: "With seven…giant mergers not yet reducing staff and with the economy slowing here and abroad, it is very likely that this year’s total will surpass…1993...And the outlook is even more bleak for the future."

The current crisis is no mystery. Communists have understood since the last century why the profit system lurches between boom periods and depressions. It’s called "overproduction." A system based on profit rather than need can never organize production sensibly. Competing bosses will always drive down wages, use the fewest possible workers to produce the greatest number of commodities, and eventually flood the world market with more junk than workers can buy. This is happening today with a vengeance, in virtually every industry. Look at auto, which is directly related to one job in six. "The world’s automakers are in an all-out price war in the U.S. market….The primary reason is intense competition in an industry with more capacity to build vehicles than worldwide demand warrants," admits the September 22nd Dow Jones newswire. Every sale is now a battleground, as the auto bosses undercut each other ruthlessly. Workers will pay a heavy price. GM, for example, will probably "have to slow production, close plants and order layoffs to adjust to a smaller market."

Or take semiconductors, the bedrock of the high-tech industry that until only recently was portrayed as the vanguard of the "21st century economy." No less a guru than Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan recently blamed "excess worldwide capacity in semiconductors" in part for the collapse of the "Asian Tigers" (September 5th speech at Haas School of Business).

The other side of the merger-layoff coin is a drastic sharpening of inter-imperialist rivalry, as competing blocs of international capital vie with each other for world domination. The record mergers haven’t all been "family affairs." Germany’s Daimler took over Chrysler, in a major defeat for U.S. imperialism. British Petroleum gobbled up Amoco. These deals reflect deepening conflict between U.S. rulers and their international competitors. This process is intensifying on a daily basis. Clinton’s latest speech to the Rockefeller-run Council on Foreign Relations is a case in point. Echoing his master’s current line, "the leader of the world’s only remaining super-power" called for an international cut in interest rates and increased government spending to increase growth. The only trouble was that the German, French, and British bosses told him to get lost. An interest rate cut would weaken the Euro (European rulers’ new currency) and make it less competitive with the dollar. European rulers have no need to do this, especially because they enjoy a huge financial surplus, as opposed to the U.S., which is the world’s biggest debtor nation.

Mass layoffs represent only the first stage of the bosses’ solution to their system’s crisis. While the big imperialists were braying only a few years ago about "world prosperity," nearly a billion workers were unemployed. Now the number is growing. But unemployment alone won’t solve the rulers’ problems. It will only worsen the overproduction crisis. Ultimately, they will have to go to war to redivide markets, eliminate excess capacity, and determine a new pecking order among them. A Third World War is in the cards. This process of boom, bust, and genocide for profit can never change under capitalism. It will go on as long as the international working class lets it. Our Party has the alternative: communist revolution. Opportunities to fight for it will abound as the profit system reveals its bloody, fascist character.

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 21 — On September 13th, the LAPD murdered Dwayne Nelson on the corner of Normandie and Imperial in South Central LA. They first arrested him and then tied his legs to his handcuffed hands, "hog tying him," and making it impossible for him to breathe. He was strangled to death. He was a 41 year old black man.

PLP members and friends organized a rally on Saturday, September 19th, on this corner to denounce this racist murder. We also denounced the murder of Danny Smith, another black worker who was in Twin Towers jail for traffic tickets when the LA sheriffs beat him to death. We sold over 120 papers and met workers who congratulated us on our action. We pointed out that the bosses are recruiting youth to join the army to fight a "war on terrorism" while the biggest terrorists in the world are the LAPD and the U.S. bosses. They are the terrorists who must be destroyed with communist revolution!

The night before the rally, there was a PLP forum about prison labor, led by young comrades. We learned that prison labor is an attack on all workers and an important part of the rulers’ fascist plans. The speakers pointed out that prisons are the fastest growing industry in the U.S. They explained that the biggest crime is capitalism and the biggest criminals are the capitalists who steal the value produced by workers, murder workers in wars for profit, and carry out racist terror. The vast majority of those in prison are not there for violent crimes. Most are there for crimes related to drugs.

There was a lively discussion. One worker talked about her son, who is in prison for a minor drug offense and who has been forced to fight some of the biggest fires in Southern California, with no training, for $1 an hour. His crew digs the fire breaks, and are not given water hoses. They are put in dangerous situations and have been sent to some of the wealthiest neighborhoods—indeed, this is slave labor protecting the homes of the rich. One worker said that she talked to a worker at United Airlines, which uses prison labor, about how the use of slave labor is a fascist attack on the prisoners, as well as an attack on the other workers at United. She agreed that workers at United should expose this fascist attack.

One of the ways the U.S. bosses have dealt with unemployment is by imprisoning the unemployed. Using slave labor, especially to make airplane parts, is part of the preparation for war. The speakers related this to the use of prison labor to prepare for war in Nazi Germany. One comrade said that we must build our Party in the mass organizations, where we can provide this solid analysis of the period we’re in and the need to fight for revolution to end slave labor. Several people plan to take this message to mass organizations. The speakers plan to give the same forum at a college campus next month involving students from several campus groups.

BRONX, NY, Sept. 19 — On September 16th the Bronx PLP Club met to evaluate our demonstration on September 12th and make further plans for another march on October 3rd to protest the brutal murder of a Mexican worker by the cops. On July 18th, NYPD cops, William Maher and David Power shot and killed José Luis Zareta in the restaurant where he worked in the Bronx.

The Party immediately responded to this racist murder by meeting with the family and friends of José Luis. At the march on September 12th, we distributed almost 1,000 leaflets and 200 Challenges. We met again to assess our work on this issue, and made new plans to build for a bigger march on October 3rd.

During this meeting the following points were agreed to:

• The Zareta family and friends would raise money for leaflets and signs.

• Friends would speak at their congregations to invite their people to the march.

• Friends of the family agreed to distribute leaflets in the neighborhood.

• We all agreed to visit in the community around the killer cops’ nest, the

43^rd Precinct.

• The family of Anthony Baez—another man killed by the cops in the Bronx—will publicize and help build for this protest through the Anthony Baez Foundation.

• One of the Zareta brothers said he will contact the Mexican consulate, so they can spread word of the killing to other Mexican immigrants.

• The party will continue to sell Challenge and distribute leaflets by the restaurant where Jose Luis was killed, and at the local high schools.

• Finally, people are being visited to get them to commit to attend the October 3^rd march and to help us build a communist movement.

BUSHWICK, NY, Sept. 23 — The NYPD record of racist attacks against black and Latin workers knows no bounds. A few weeks after the cops occupied Harlem, terrorized its residents and turned the Million Youth March into the Million Cops March, and after racist cops and firemen mocked the lynching of James Byrd in Texas with a racist float in a parade in Broad Channel, Queens, the cops attacked youth attending a funeral of a friend in Bushwick.

Last week, a young Latin man in Bushwick died as the result of a motorcycle accident. His friends came to the funeral home where the young man’s body was lying. Some of his friends were standing outside the funeral home when the cops came and started harassing them. The mother of the dead youth came out of the funeral home and begged the cops to respect the family’s pain and leave the youth alone, since they were friends of her dead son.

The cops responded in their usual racist manner, and physically attacked the mother. Youth in the neighborhood reacted, throwing objects at the cops. More cops, including anti-riot cops were sent to quell the mini-rebellion.

Mayor Giuliani has given the green light to police terror under the guise of "improving the quality of life" in the city. Now that the crisis of capitalism is beginning to hit the bosses’ economy especially hard, conditions for working class youth are worsening, with even less prospects of employment. The future the bosses have for these youth is more jails, increased slave labor, fascist police terror and use as cannon fodder in a war for oil. We in PLP are offering these youth a different future: join us to fight for a world without racist cops and fascist bosses—a communist world.

LOS ANGELES, CA, Sept. 22 — "I want to organize my co-workers now. I’m fed up with being afraid of the supervisor and the bosses. They exploit us and they still want to abuse us more and more." This is what a garment worker, who has been our friend for a long time, told us. This discussion took place after some community organizations had a meeting to support garment workers.

A few weeks later, the bosses at the factory where she works fired two workers for demanding money they had earned but wasn’t included in their paychecks. She organized a meeting of six workers, who formed a struggle committee to fight against the boss and the supervisor. The struggle committee decided to put out a leaflet denouncing the sexual harassment of the workers by the supervisor and demanding the reinstatement of the fired workers. The leaflet was well received by the majority of workers, creating a big impact, especially among the women who are planning work actions aimed at firing the supervisor and rehiring the fired workers.

This struggle committee will participate in the coalition to support garment workers. They are planning to go to the next meeting to ask for help in this struggle. The example of these workers should be used so that many other workers will organize committees in the factories where they work. These committees should not only see themselves fighting against the supervisors and bosses, but also against racist, terrorist deportations by the Migra and against imperialist war.

This situation has given us in the PLP the opportunity to struggle with these workers over the need to destroy capitalism. We are showing that the root of the problem is the crisis of over-production, not only of clothing, but in all industries. Today, there are more products being produced than people can buy, even though people need them. The bosses are moving their factories to other countries where they pay $2-$3 a day. The drive for maximum profits motivates them to fire, rob, and even to sexually abuse the workers. In this competition to the death among the bosses, to see who produces the most for the least, they sacrifice the dignity and the lives of millions of workers.

We are going to involve ourselves in the fight to fire this maniac supervisor, and in the fight against these firings. But our main goal is to expose the bosses and their plans for war and fascism, and to win many of the workers to clearly see that the only solution to this struggle is to fight for communist revolution, which will destroy the root of all these problems by destroying capitalism. Because of this struggle, new workers are reading Challenge.

"This time I don’t want to divorce myself from the organization, PLP. Even though every time we come to work, we get pains in our stomachs from nervousness and fear, I see that we have no alternative but to fight," the worker mentioned above told us. And to make the fight worth it, we should make sure that hundreds of workers come, through unity and struggle, to the conclusion that the alternative is to organize for communist revolution.

NEW YORK CITY, Sept. 22 — When Mary Lonnergan, a PLP member, was fired by the Board of Education two years ago, many thought she would never teach again. Mary was fired for organizing 65 students from her school to go to the May Day March in Washington in 1996. But, we in PLP never give up, fighting back on many fronts against this anti-Communist and fascist attack.

Last week Mary was reinstated to a new school and returned to teaching. Among the many tactics used in fighting this case, Mary filed a federal lawsuit against the Board of Education and the City of New York for violating her "constitutional rights," the Board chose to settle the case instead of going to court. They have reversed the "U" (Unsatisfactory) rating, have granted her tenure and agreed that if she is fired for any reason in this first semester the case goes back to court to complete the original trial.

On the subway recently, Mary met a teacher she knew from her old school. He was one of the many colleagues who believed Mary shouldn’t be fired, but thought there was nothing we could do. He seemed uncomfortable, not knowing how to ask her what she was doing these days. When Mary told him she was reinstated he looked stunned. "That’s amazing," he blurted out, "That’s absolutely amazing."

Its not so amazing to a communist. Our work is guided by the conviction that we can always fight back. There is always something we can do. We cannot predict the outcome of each struggle, but we can guarantee that we organize our class to fight. Mary’s case is a clear lesson of this. Hundreds of youth, parents and teachers were mobilized throughout the two years of struggle.

More than 80 teachers signed a petition to keep Mary before she was fired; there were hundreds of students who wore, and distributed, "Bring Back Ms. Lonnergan" buttons; and there were leaders of student clubs who confronted the principal demanding that Mary be rehired. There were hundreds of supporters who donated money to keep the struggle going. There were dozens who distributed Challenges in the face of daily harassment. And there were the students who joined the Party. Thousands in New York were able to see through the fog of anti-Communist publicity and made aware of the struggle, as they were introduced to a group proud to defend communism. And the struggle goes on and on. Masses of workers took up this case because they came to see it as their case, their fight. The threat of the federal court case and the mass support organized by the Party, parents, students and teachers for Mary were some of the major reasons why the Board of Education retreated for now and rehired her.

We have the potential to build many such struggles. In this period of sharpening inter-imperialist rivalry, and intensified fascism we have an obligation to our class to build such struggles. We fight and lose many of them. As long as we make them training grounds for revolution, and the seizure of power, we are on the road to fighting to win.

INDIANA, Sept. 19 — Today members of PLP carried out a "Steel Blitz," visiting steel workers in their homes, and stepping up our efforts to recruit them to the Party. Some were old friends. Others have expressed interest, and we are just getting to know them.

Tonight, an explosion at US Steel’s Gary Works injured six workers, one of them critically. Shortly after 10pm, in an area of the mill that combines iron and other materials, a vessel filled with molten materials exploded, spitting out red-hot steel and steam. The worker in critical condition is a 20-year veteran at USX. At Inland Steel in East Chicago, 400 workers will be laid off one week per month for the rest of the year. These incidents are reflections of the global capitalist crisis confronting steel workers as we prepare for next year’s contract talks, and the opportunities for the Party to inject revolutionary communist answers into the class struggle. That is why reaching out to these steel workers is so important.

A young worker with a Summer job at LTV Steel was trying to get a permanent job. The boss told her, "You don’t want to work here. We’re going to have a really nasty strike next year." The United Steel Workers (USW) union and every major steel maker, have taken out full page ads in the New York Times, telling Clinton to stop the dumping of Asian and Russian steel in the U.S. market. Last Summer’s strikes at GM and LaSalle Steel show where we’re headed. The LaSalle Steel strike in Hammond was crushed by the bosses, who are being squeezed by the glut of imported steel coming into the U.S. More layoffs and mill closings are underway.

During the crisis of the 1980’s, more than 350,000 steel jobs were eliminated as the bosses slashed capacity by 30% and invested $50 billion in new technology. As soon as they "recovered" from that crisis, producing the same amount of steel with half the workers, they are plunged into another crisis. Now they must attack us even harder in order to compete with Asian and European steel makers, who are doing the same to workers there.

The USW has already proven they will do what it takes to save the bosses. Labor/management cooperation means more fascism. It won’t do us any good for all steel workers to unite, or to merge into one union with auto and aerospace workers, with the pro-war, pro capitalist union leaders. We must unite with steel workers in Korea, Mexico, Russia, and around the world, building an international communist movement! Uniting with U.S. bosses against "foreign competition" will lead us to war for the bosses profits, the rulers’ trump card for solving their crisis.

On this day, many were not at home. But others welcomed us and asked, "Where have you been?" A lot of work is ahead to get to know these workers better, but a lot of rewards for our Party and class are out there too. The current crisis is filled with dangers and opportunities. Industrial workers around the world, will determine the outcome. All the major auto, steel, and Boeing contracts expire next year, the heart of the U.S. war machine. We can turn the economic struggle into a political battle against capitalism, build a mass base for communist revolution, and prepare for the seizure of power!

MEXICO — Capitalism has only death, fascism and war to offer the workers! Approximately 407 people have died due to the recent floods in Chiapas, according to a Mexican government memo. This is before the reports have come in from the most remote villages. Given the poverty of the workers there and the lack of serious resources devoted to the rescue efforts, the figure is probably understated. Yet other sections of the government are trying to claim the figure is exaggerated to dismiss this disaster.

These deaths were not due to a "natural" disaster but to a worse disaster for workers and their allies—neglect, racism, and capitalist crisis. The Zapatistas stated that "the incapacity of the government of Chiapas to confront natural disasters, and the corruption of those in power" have added to the destructive powers of the water. "Poor quality construction, indifference to cries for help when the rains began all contributed. The state government rubs its hands to rake in generous contributions of humanitarian aid (for the pockets of corrupt officials) while the Federal Government focuses its efforts on avoiding the ‘political use of assistance.’ "

These deaths caused by the government’s lack of aid to the people of Chiapas are part of the Mexican government’s war against them. Hundreds of workers have been killed by the army and by death squads that are trained by the Mexican and U.S. armies.

Workers all over Mexico have been inspired by the courage of the people of Chiapas who, forced to flee to the mountains, set up autonomous communities there. In the face of the army’s fascist terror, thousands of indigenous workers have marched, resisted and fought back. When attacked with grenades, bazookas, rifle fire, and even mortar shells, and kicked out of their communities, they fought back. Throughout Mexico, many see their movement as the way forward. Their leaders seek peace accords, small reforms, and "democratic" elections. The European capitalists seek to use this movement to gain influence over Mexico’s banks, oil and trade. Neither they nor any group of Mexican bosses offer a solution to Mexico’s crisis.

The crisis in Mexico is sharpening, as the peso has continued to fall on the heels of the financial crisis in Asia and Russia—part of the spreading crisis of overproduction.

Zedillo says the situation is an "economic emergency." According to him, "the extreme fragility of the financial and banking system cannot allow the bankruptcy of even a single bank without a national catastrophe." In an opinion piece in La Jornada (9/21), Hector Camin says that Mexico is nearing "ungovernability." He predicts that Mexico will become more fascist. While the U.S. and European imperialists fight over the control of Mexico’s labor, banks and oil, workers are being driven deeper into poverty and terror. The crisis is political. The bosses’ solution is to shoot workers, rob the workers’ pensions funds to pay their debts, and attack workers who try to come to the U.S. In the end, they plan to resolve their crisis through major war between the imperialists for control of Mexico, the Middle East, and the rest of the world.

This summer, over 100 people who were fleeing the crisis in Mexico to look for work in the U.S. died from heat related deaths along the Southwest border. Since Clinton’s border patrol has built walls at the major border crossings, these workers were forced to try to cross in the desert, where temperatures soared to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. As the crisis in Mexico deepens, more workers will be forced to come to the U.S. seeking work. The racist Clinton government and the bosses behind him are planning to build more walls along the border and have the U.S. military to patrol it.

All over Mexico, workers and youth face this crisis. But thousands of workers and youth who have been inspired by the bravery of the workers of Chiapas can be won to see that no "democratic" election between capitalist parties can end the greedy drive for profits that is destroying workers’ lives. No peace accord will stop the deadly attacks on the workers or the bosses’ drive to war. The only way to end these fascist attacks and the catastrophe that is capitalism is by communist revolution. The PLP has the opportunity and responsibility to turn the bosses crisis and wars into a war for communist revolution. The courage of the fighters in Chiapas should inspire workers to build a mass PLP and fight to get rid of all capitalists and imperialists.

Another bosses’ big lie bites the dust. Remember Clinton’s cruise missile attacks last month against supposed "terrorist" sites in Afghanistan and Sudan? They were billed as a retaliation against Saudi billionaire Osama bin Laden, whom Clinton accused of masterminding recent bombings at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania (bin Laden, by the way learned his terrorism from his former allies in the CIA). The Afghanistan attack was against a so-called bin Laden guerrilla training camp. The Sudan raid was justified as necessary to do away with a chemical weapons’ factory in the city of Khartoum.

Well, now even the New York Times (9/21) has to admit that at least one of these stories is a complete fraud: "Some of the Administration’s explanations for destroying the factory in the Sudan proved inaccurate…[there was] no evidence directly linking Mr. bin Laden to the factory at the time [Clinton] ordered the strike." The Times quotes a State Department official as saying: "I am not convinced of the evidence."

In other words, an increasingly desperate U.S. imperialism will fabricate the most ridiculous fables to justify its growing need for military intervention against threats to the Rockefeller oil empire. Rockefeller & Co. are the biggest terrorists the world has ever seen. In the last hundred years alone, U.S. imperialism, in "peace" as well as war, has murdered far more people than Hitler ever dreamed of eliminating. Now the bosses are fighting among themselves about how and when to launch their next slaughter for oil profits. Clinton’s major speech at the UN called for an all-out "fight against terrorism." In Rockefeller’s eyes, anyone who wants to replace Exxon as the dictator of world oil prices and supplies qualifies as a terrorist. Many "experts" and political analysts in the Rockefeller camp are demanding major military intervention soon against Exxon’s key Middle Eastern rivals.

The chief target seems to be Iraq. Don’t be surprised if Clinton launches more bombing raids there in the very near future. If and when he does, you can be sure they will be portrayed as a response to some outlandish provocation, even if none occurs. From the sinking of the Maine in the Spanish-American War to the Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam, U.S. rulers have shown themselves past masters at concocting lies to justify their aggression. The Big Lie about the Khartoum "chemical weapons factory" is just a warm-up for future mass murders. Challenge will continue to expose these lies. Most importantly, the PLP will continue to mobilize in the mass movements for militant action that can eventually lead to the revolutionary smashing of U.S. imperialism.

Hurricane Georges has raged through the Caribbean, leaving a trail of destruction in St. Kitts, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti and, as we go to press is heading towards Cuba and possibly Florida. As usual, poor preparations by the authorities, lousy housing for workers and peasants and the capitalist crisis have made these natural disasters worse. The government of Haiti only had $130,000 set aside for emergency assistance as the hurricane approached.

In cities like New York, Boston, Chicago, where many workers who have relatives in the Caribbean, already there are plans to help the victims of Georges. Donations are being asked for, and, the solidarity of workers will respond generously. Millions in aid coming directly from workers will be collected. But as in previous hurricanes and tragedies, very little of that money will go to help the victims of the hurricane. It will end up either in the pockets of some corrupt politicians or military officer and his cronies, or to pay the administrative costs of organizations like the Red Cross, etc.

Communism won’t be able to avoid natural disasters, but when workers rule we will do everything possible to minimize the damage. A communist government will use all the latest technology to help in preparing for the disasters and in building housing for workers which can withstand the forces of nature.

Dear Challenge:

The settlement was very hard to take. It allows the company to keep 100 scab replacement workers at lower wages. Ten strikers will be fired, for what the company calls "wrongdoing" on the picket line. Our bonus plan will eventually be ended for all workers. Every article that the union won a grievance on before, was changed so that none of these could be won again. The only good point was that workers with 27 years or more, can retire with a 30-year pension, though only 20 of the 60 eligible workers have retired. Right now, we still have more than 100 workers who haven’t been called back since the strike ended. They are collecting unemployment benefits, with sub-pay and full insurance benefits.

There are 89 scabs still working, and 120 union members (including 30 who crossed the line while the strike was still on). Many people will never get their jobs back because work was shipped out to other plants. Both sides lost during this strike, but both sides are regrouping for the next battle. LaSalle lost over $1 million in profit for the second quarter due to the strike. Sales dropped by 18%, and $2.1 million in tax abatements were taken away by the Hammond City Council. The strike will also have a big impact on third quarter results.

Our regrouping must be one that has a national impact in addition to a local one. We must reorganize under a national union with the promise of organizing the Buffalo and Chattanooga plants if we are to succeed. A petition is being circulated to join the United Steel Workers of America (we are currently in the Progressive Steel Workers). If this goes well our sister plant in Griffith can amalgamate with us. Their contract expires within the next 18 months.

The biggest victory now is that the PLP is here. Out of the defeated strike, we gained new members and many friends. Workers must smash the profit system and seize power to end their endless crises and wars. We are fighting to build a Party group here out of these struggles.

Dear Challenge:

PLP held an international cadre school in the Dominican Republic last August. The main topic was the discussion of the sharpening rivalry among the world’s imperialists, how it will lead to war and how their contradictions can be used to build our Party. Workers from different industries and different countries came to the school, and we all learned from each others’ experiences. We also learned how workers suffer similar exploitation in the free trade zone garment shops of Santiago, Dominican Republic, in garment shops of LA and in the factories of SF de Bogotá, Colombia and El Salvador.

When the participants were asked how the contradictions among the imperialists were reflected in their areas, there were several interesting responses. A garment worker from a free trade zone in Santiago said that it meant more exploitation—forcing 13-year olds to work up to 12 hours a day for miserable wages. Another comrade said that bosses in the Dominican Republic use racism to superexploit Haitian workers, and to use the cops to fire them and not pay them at all. A worker said that in garment shops in Puebla, Mexico, bosses discount from workers’ wages the use of drinking water and even toilet paper. And when workers protest, the bosses threaten to move their plants to other cities. A workers from El Salvador said that those lucky enough to have jobs must work very long hours and even then can’t make ends meet. Other participants have many comments. One worker said we should be in love with revolution and dedicate our lives to build our Party.

Personally I was very impressed with the development of new cadre and comrades who participated in the school, and how PLP is breaking down the barriers of nationalism, race and sexism that the bosses build to separate workers. Indeed, we are on the road to building an international revolutionary Party to fight capitalism.

An Industrial Worker, Colombia

Dear Challenge:

This is a short letter about the Atlanta Million Youth Mobilization activity. Three things: first, religion, mysticism, and something called metaphysical realism was really pushed by one of the factions. In light of the Farrakhan campaign to recruit religious black youth into his faction, they called it a "God-centered Movement"—with such rascals as Jesse Jackson and Al "Sharpey" Sharpton being featured. Secondly, there was a heavy emphasis on New Money ideology, like entrepreneurship, setting up businesses and that black capitalism is the salvation of black people. This was symbolized by the fact that peddlers were all over the place. It got so bad that one of the young people thought it looked like a "Freaknic" rather than a serious political movement.

But the third thing was the most important: there was a broad section of young people there who were seriously interested in political activity, seeking to uncover some insight into the true condition of living under fascism. I passed out some documents, called sermons, which dealt with our true condition as old and young workers—slaves of a capitalist system hell-bent of depression, fascism-racism, and World War III, including a war for Mideast oil using these same young people. Despite the religious overtones of these sermons, I tried to get out aspects of the Party’s line using religion as a symbolic framework. I hoped that wasn’t too opportunist. So, to keep myself on balance, I distributed about nine Challenges, plus a Party leaflet.

It is hard to decide how this all fits into the context of the Old Money vs. New: but in terms of the building of a liberalist fascist movement, the events in Atlanta were, as the editorial said, more dangerous. When religion and fascism are mixed together like it was in Atlanta, you get that special brand of fascism with a brother named Dutt called clerical fascism. Clearly, ideological struggle was, and is, key.

By the way, the best way to fight all this metaphysical realism crap (i.e., metaphysical forces like spirit, consciousness, inspiration and astrology) is to have a firm grasp of dialectical materialism. I think that all Party groupings should have a thorough study group on the pamphlet, Jailbreak. Merely calling this stuff BS won’t do it. We’ve got to see through it, understand it, and uncover the dialectical/historical materialist reality in it, and , under the principle of negation of the negation, turn it around to its materialist roots. Because many of the black intellectuals at this conference were not into traditional religion, which can be dealt with, but into a mish-mash of black spirituality which, because it was packaged in costumes, art, dancing, and music, seemed to have a corrupting influence on some youth.

Like has been said: facts are a terrible thing—and when the real historical forces unfold as we are indicating, economic chaos, intensified fascism, and World War III, then we will see who will come to the rescue: God or PLP.

Dear Challenge:

After having read the article "Communists Confront Nationalist Khallid"(Challenge 9/23) a few suggestions came to mind about how to struggle against nationalism. These suggestions are to stress how the concept of race was invented by the bosses, and to show how nationalist groups like the Nation of Islam (NOI) are just the other side of the same KKK racist coin. When Child confronted our comrade, he could have pointed out that he was not white, nor were the rest of the workers there black. Rather, they were all members of the international working class, who are exploited by the capitalist class. The capitalists invented the idea of race and racism to sew divisions within the working class. Going along with these divisions allows the bosses to super-exploit black workers to obtain super-profits from their labor, and allows the bosses to stay in power. At this point, the comrade could have made reference to Khallid’s style of expensive clothing and jewelry, illustrating that he had indeed been profiting from this exploitation.

Communists must also expose the fascist nature of nationalist organizations like the NOI. For this, the article "Capitalist Conflicts and The Nation of Islam," in the most recent issue of The Communist, can prove most useful. Comrades involved in and around organizations like the NOI, should always have copies of this article to give to workers. In particular, knowledge of the alliance between the Klan, the Nazis, and the NOI which the article explains, can be particularly effective in winning workers to a communist outlook and away from Hitler wannabes like Khallid and Farrakhan. Speaking personally, this has certainly been true as my political consciousness has developed and I have moved closer to PLP.

It is good to hear that the Party is getting involved in nationalist mass organizations. I would venture to say that these groups are the most dangerous misleaders of angry black workers. The unions have very little influence among black people. This stems partially from their racist nature as capitalist unions are led by fascists. Also, black workers who are not unemployed or are not in jails, generally work in service industries that have been ignored by the union bosses.

The NAACP and other civil rights and church organizations counsel reconciliation and turning the other cheek. It becomes increasingly more impossible for black workers to swallow this idea, as the police act more and more like the SS. Since these liberal groups have little effect on black workers, the only bourgeois groups left are the nationalists. Rather than calling for pacifism and voting, some of them call for revolution. They blame black workers’ problems on whites. Bosses exploit and fire them, cops beat and kill them, judges send them to jail, all by the millions. A large percentage of these bosses, cops, and judges are white. For all these reasons, nationalist groups and the bosses they are run by, and serve, can have a great ability to mislead black workers. Because of their ability to mislead workers, it is very important that PLP be involved in these organizations.

Black workers who are drawn to the NOI and such things as the Million-Man-March are not drawn by their hatred of white people, or some ideas that drive the Klan. They are drawn by the fact that nationalist groups seem to be the only groups that respond to their interests and needs. True, these groups are led by potential monsters like Khallid and Farrakhan. True, they make no effort to hide their branch of fascism. True, the only way black workers can have their needs met is by joining PLP and by fighting for communism. However, most black workers have never been exposed to communism, and all they have heard from the bosses’ propaganda machine is bad. So, for these reasons, Communists should get involved inside and outside nationalist mass organizations; it should be done just as it is done in other bosses’ organizations, not to build them, but to lead workers organized by them away from their fascist leadership and toward communist revolution.

Dear Challenge:

Just a brief note to make a suggestion: given the fact that there is a major ideological war going on in culture, we need more cultural, communist analysis of popular art forms—music, movies, TV, comedies, CD’s, theater, etc. Naturally, these kinds of articles will lead to controversies—in our own ranks and among our friends. But that’s okay: we should welcome disagreements, so long as they are not nasty. Some people, for example, thought Private Ryan was a great movie, because it celebrated the Second Front struggle against fascism. Others thought it was terrible because it was building up patriotism to get us ready for a war in the Middle East. So, what. Print a review, print the response to the review. I myself have noticed Old Money vs. New Money in such diverse movies as Absolute Power, Air Force One, LA Confidential. Not only is it good to point out the fascist, racist, sexist nature of this stuff, but also how it reflects intra-capitalist and interimperialist rivalry. Plus it is good to know that the person who controls InterScope, the Rap company that puts out all the vicious NWA type raps is a descendant of Old Money, who kicked off the Haymarket situation, back in 1885.

We have been doing pretty good with some reviews recently, but it has been sporadic. So, I propose that we have a monthly cultural supplement, announced in advance for articles on all cultural subjects, especially the stuff which is popular, as well as communist/revolutionary history. It should be like the old supplements. In addition, we should have some quick hit movie reviews, like Siskel and Ebert, with maybe stars or small rifles indicating how useful the movie is. Even a bad movie, for example, can be useful if it demonstrates some aspect of ruling class ideology.

Dear Challenge:

The September 16th Challenge responded to a letter requesting clearer analysis of ruling class splits by stating, "the most useful formulation seems to be state capitalist vs. laissez-faire, free market capitalists." I think the use of these outmoded, idealist formulations to describe the current political-economic situation would be confusing and misleading workers into accepting ruling class propaganda.

Firstly, "state capitalists" can easily be confused with the state capitalism of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which tried to use its state power to control capitalism in the interests of the working class. The "state capitalists" of the U.S., on the contrary, are a capitalist faction which currently controls state power to further its own imperialist profit interests.

Secondly, the "laissez-faire" free market economic theory has never been more than an idealist BS concept similar to the use of "Freedom" and "Democracy" to confuse and subjugate the international working class. In the past, technically advanced imperialist countries felt "free" to forcefully penetrate and wipe out the markets of less developed countries and enslave their workers for the profits of the imperialists. To prevent a similar scenario, other capitalist countries which had imperialist designs of their own, set up economic (protectionist) and military barriers to imperialism which led to World War I and II and now probably to World War III, if the current world-wide recession is any indication.

Lastly, the "free market" doesn’t exist now and probably never existed. Among dozens of current examples (and history can provide countless more examples), we need only to look at the recent Gulf War to understand what imperialists will do to prevent the loss of profits by the "free" flow of Iraqi oil to the world market.

I believe the Party and the working class would be better served if we continue to use the Old/New Money formulations that put capitalists in various camps in order to explain U.S. domestic and imperialist politics. We should also use other necessary formulations to explain the politics of international imperialism which I am sure has its own similar, particular, internal contradictions. The use of the outmoded, confusing terminology mentioned above only confuses the issue and plays into ruling class propaganda. It might also help our newer Challenge readers if we limited the use of different names for the same groups such as Old Money/Big Oil and New Money/Oil Patch unless necessary.

Dear Challenge:

The exchange in the Letters section of the last Challenge, (9/16) acknowledges some of the difficulty of figuring out the conflicts between the capitalists. As the response from the Challenge editors concludes, "We need to learn much more about the underlying economic interests that put various capitalists in one camp or another." Yet the response does not recognize that the three factions that we now acknowledge (Old Money oil imperialist, Old Money manufacturing/defense, New Money oil) may be shifting and imprecise entities.

The U.S. House Appropriations Committee has basically turned down Clinton’s plea for more money for the IMF (International Monetary Fund, a major financial agency responsible for imposing back-breaking poverty on workers around the world). What forces are at work here? Since the manufacturers benefit from the ability to relocate to cheap labor areas, it would seem they would support the IMF. But it seems also that there are conflicts within conflicts.

We analyze the current Clinton sex scandals, plausibly, as an attack by the manufacturing group against the oil imperialist group. But we have also written, plausibly, that the oil imperialists are eager to be rid of Clinton because he failed to launch an invasion of Iraq when the time for this was ripe.

Two lessons emerge. First, our knowledge not only of the economic interests behind the factions but of their exact composition is limited (and their composition is probably not fixed). Second, revolutionary commitment is enhanced by scientific modesty. If, a year-and-a-half ago, we had presented our analysis of the splits as a speculation based on incomplete knowledge, the changes in our understanding of things would be seen to emerge naturally as we gathered more information. Instead, it seems as if each new formulation of our understanding of these splits is presented dogmatically, as if we were sure we finally had gotten it right. Acknowledging our own ignorance, embracing scientific modesty, clearly differentiates us from the religious nuts and their "all-knowing" accounts of the New World Order.

Challenge Responds: Indeed, as the comrade says there are many contradictions among the different sections of the ruling class and they keep on shifting. But on the other hand, with all modesty, Challenge was first to analyze (outside the narrow Republican/Democrat context) the splits inside the U.S. ruling class a few years ago. We went on to interpret the implications for the working class and the fight against capitalism and its drive towards war and fascism. These splits are now clearly seen by all as Clinton faces impeachment for the Monicagate scandal. As the capitalist crisis of overproduction deepens, there will be many more splits, and shifting alliances inside the ruling class as each group of bosses fights for control of state power to keep its group interests afloat. We agree with the comrade about revolutionary humility. The truth is that we don't understand all the ins and outs of the fights among the big bosses. We need to deepen our knowledge in order to prepare the Party and the working class for

the rulers' attempts to mislead us with one brand or another of fascist politics. Something along those lines. The answer as it stands is too dismissive of the criticism.

Our main job is to show workers not to take sides with any bosses, that Clinton, Starr, Rockefeller, Buchanan, Gingrich, the Koch family, etc. are all enemies of the working class.

For twenty-five years Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson has peddled the idea that it is human nature to be fascist. His latest book is titled Consilience (an archaic word that means combining). In the previous article we discussed how Wilson, a professor of entomology (the study of insects), rehashes the discredited concept of sociobiology. According to this nonsense—just as the nature of ants creates colonies of queens, drones, workers and slaves—the nature of humans creates racism, sexism, patriotism, wars, religion, and class exploitation.

Wilson similarly perverts the humanities. Consider his analysis of ethics. Ethical behavior for Wilson is patriotic behavior. And religion is "a necessary device of survival," because it promotes submission to the group. Religion "is also empowered mightily by its principal ally, tribalism." Moreover, humans by nature are easily indoctrinated and manipulated (pp. 245-260). The human brain, Wilson asserts, "is a stone-age organ." It makes people "intuitive and dogmatic," emotional and unscientific. These "preliterate traits are commonplace in citizens of modern industrial societies" (p. 208). Revealing a despicable elitist contempt for most of humanity, Wilson laments that human nature creates genocidal Nazis, who are easily indoctrinated with religious and nationalistic ideologies to become mass murderers, but he urges us "to discipline the old ways of thought but never to abandon them" (p. 208).

How do communists analyze human nature? Humans create our nature through our history, our labor, and through our interaction with each other and with our environment. Although our brain is a product of evolution, there is no such thing as a fixed human nature. Before the invention of agriculture, our human ancestors lived for tens of thousands of years in small communal societies that had no state, private wealth, or contracts. There is no genetic basis for tribalism, racism, sexism, or other features of present societies. These ideologies and behaviors reflect the class interests of capitalist rulers, and millions of workers throughout the world have fought against them. Science, like all other institutions in capitalist society, is distorted to serve the interests of the capitalist class, but many scientists reject the fascist ideas peddled by E.O. Wilson. Only as communists can we develop a scientific outlook toward human nature, because we have no need to justify or perpetuate any aspect of class exploitation and social inequality.

What is a communist approach to ethics? Bourgeois ethics evades the concrete reality of workers’ subordination to capitalist rule by focusing on the relationship between the individual and society. Communist ethics recognizes that what is good for the exploiting class is bad for the working class. Egalitarianism and internationalism are the ethical precepts of the working class. Patriotism, religion, racism, and sexism benefit the exploiting class. They enrich capitalists, blur class lines, and promote divisions within the working class. That is why Wilson wants to "discipline but never abandon" them.

How do communists view the "unification of knowledge?" We oppose "consilience" not to defend the academic disciplines developed by the bourgeoisie, or to defend the postmodernist view that everything is relative. We oppose Wilson’s "consilience," because it is an attempt to unify the academic world under a fascist pseudo-science. Communists strive to unify and expand workers’ understanding of the world. In contrast to Wilson’s reductionist, mechanical materialist approach to science, dialectical materialism is the communist scientific method based on the reality that everything in the world is interconnected and in the process of changing.

In universities today, capitalist control over science has been tightened up. Biotech, pharmaceutical, and military interests control public and private research funding, and pressures to obtain grants preoccupy most scientists. In the social sciences and the humanities, however, there are more minority and women faculty and students, and there is more critical and Marxist oriented thinking about society. Wilson wants to use "consilience" to whip the rest of the academic world into line for the ruling class. His sharpest ideological attacks are directed against Marxists, but he also attacks postmodernism (the idea that there is no concrete truth but only multiple racial, gender, and class standpoints or stories) and identity politics (multiculturalism, Afrocentrism, nationalism, and feminism).

Why does Wilson attack postmodernism and identity politics? First, although postmodernism and identity politics are useful to capitalists, insofar as they divert many progressive people away from communism, they do not inspire the patriotic unity Wilson’s bosses need to prepare the U.S. population for fascism and imperialist war. Second, this allows Wilson to appeal to Eurocentrism by defending Western Science, the Enlightenment, and Reason.

Italian communist leader Antonio Gramsci, writing about the rise of fascism in Italy during the 1920’s, called those who played a major role in helping the ruling class build ideological support for fascism "organic intellectuals." E.O. Wilson is an organic intellectual, a "loyalist" who has dedicated his career to assisting the growth of fascism in the U.S. Communists led the anti-fascist struggle to smash the eugenics movement that was the "crown jewel" of fascist pseudo-science during the first half of this century. Communists today must organize to smash Wilson’s attempts to make "sociobiological consilience" the academic centerpiece of this new period of fascism.

It’s no secret that "Saving Private Ryan" (SPR), directed by Steven Spielberg, has been promoted as the "film of the Summer." The bosses’ movie critics were unanimously praising SPR even before its release, especially when it was revealed that the actors had gone to boot camp to prepare for the graphic battle scenes. The New York Times reviewer, Janet Maslin, called SPR one of the best, if not the best, movie about war ever made. What’s SPR really about? What’s behind the orgy of adulation? How should communists view this "masterpiece" as it heads toward scads of Oscars nominations.

SPR is set smack dab in the middle of the U.S. military invasion of Nazi-occupied France in June, 1944. In the wake of the invasion and the many casualties that result, it is discovered by the U.S. brass that three of four brothers who had enlisted in the Army had been killed in action (two in France and one in the Pacific). The fourth, Private Ryan, is missing, having been part of an airborne division dropped behind enemy lines in France. The "fatherly General George Marshall" feels sympathy for Ryan’s mother as the possibility exists that all four brothers will be killed in action. Nothing is said about what effect this would have on the home front or how to save Private Ryan would be public relations coup for the war. The brass dispatches a rescue patrol, commanded by Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) to find the missing Ryan and bring him back alive. Along the way, the squad runs into plenty of other soldiers and military action. These actions, and the prospect of sacrificing themselves in order to "save" Ryan, spark lots of debate within the squad about the "lessons" of war.

All of this is carefully kept within the framework of bourgeois ideology. Significantly, it is the captain, not the rank-and-file soldiers, who answers most of the questions that are posed. The essence of the line put forward by Miller is that war is a horrible, dehumanizing experience that must be carried out for the larger good of the country for whom one is fighting, in other words, a la Civil War’s General Sherman, "war is hell."

Those who believe that SPR is "anti-war" are sorely mistaken. SPR presents a gripping and realistic portrayal of battle conditions precisely because it wants to win people to the necessity of war. Nor is SPR "anti-fascist." Although it portrays the enemy as the German army, and invokes the Civil War fight against slavery, there is no discussion about the Nazis as fascists and what their victory would mean for the world’s workers, nor is there is any talk about what the Nazis stand for.

No, Spielberg has other fish to fry. His objective is nothing less than the complete rehabilitation of the U.S. military from the Vietnam syndrome that has "infected" the U.S. population for the last 30 years. SPR begins and ends with a picture of the American flag flying in the breeze. A recent column by Maureen Dowd in The New York Times puts it all in perspective: "Steven Spielberg has been giving interviews, talking about having made ‘Saving Private Ryan’ to honor the men who fought in World War II and risked so much for freedom....Seeing the long queues for the patriotic SPR, it seems like a long time from the days of the military as fascist." Spielberg serves the Rockefeller section of the ruling class well.

It is no accident, in this time of threatened war in the Mideast, that SPR portrays an invasion from the sea against a ruthless enemy. SPR’s portrayal of mass heroism and sacrifice by ordinary soldiers for the good of the collective is the most insidious attempt yet to win masses of the U.S. population to patriotism. The spreading global crisis of capitalism is leading inexorably to imperialist world war and deepening fascism. Our Party has a responsibility to expose this movie and all other ideological booby traps of the class enemy. And we must win masses of workers to communism to ensure that the nightmare of imperialist war is abolished forever from the face of the earth.