Challenge Volume 35, No. 33 April 14, 1999

March On May Day To Smash Imperialist Warmakers!

Editorial: Turn The Guns Aroundž March On May Day! Imperialist Slaughter Motivated By Need For Maximum Profits

Clinton’s bombing campaign against Yugoslavia has managed only to spread more mass terror than Milosevic could create in his wildest dreams. It has backfired miserably in every other way. Wider ground war in the Balkans and the Middle East will inevitably come sooner or later in the wake of U.S. imperialism’s most recent murderous fiasco. The Clinton-NATO air strikes against Balkan workers prove once again that competition among capitalists for maximum profit will always bring war. Our class has everything to lose in choosing sides among the rulers who use us as cannon fodder to decide their pecking order. Workers’ only choice is- to build a Party that can eventually turn the imperialists’ guns around against them and fight for communist revolution, however long it takes.

A ruthless battle for control over oil, the lifeblood of imperialist industry, lies at the heart of Clinton’s latest atrocities and "humanitarian" lies. This isn’t obvious from the accounts you hear on the bosses’ TV and radio or read in their press. Neither Kosovo nor the rest of the Balkans have any oil to speak of. But there’s a reason most schools don’t teach geography. It might help workers understand something about the real world and its struggles.

We already know about the deadly fight U.S. imperialism is waging to keep its hold over Middle Eastern oil. U.S. and British planes are still bombing Iraq on a daily basis to prevent large amounts of Iraqi oil from coming on the market. As Challenge has often warned, a future ground war over this issue remains very likely. But the Middle East is no longer limited to Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other well-known oil producers in and near the Persian Gulf.

The Middle East now includes the vast oil and gas reserves of the Caspian region to the North and East in Central Asia. Some of these resources are Russian; some of them lie in former Soviet republics. The oil reserves alone could amount to 200 billion barrels, with a value somewhere between $2 and $4 trillion. This is a prize for which the imperialists will fight to our death.

Oil in the ground or under the sea is one thing. Building the infrastructure to refine and transport it is something else. This is where the Balkans come in. Who will control the pipelines? Will they flow through U.S. competitors Iran and Russia, or will they flow through U.S. ally Turkey? Will they be owned by U.S. or Russian companies? How much of this oil will flow eastward under Chinese control? Who’ll get the biggest cut of the oily profit pie?

In any event, the oil that reaches Europe over land has to go through the Balkans. It turns out that Russian, Bulgarian, and Greek companies are building an oil pipeline through the Balkans that could supply one-fourth of Europe’s needs. In January 1997, these bosses agreed on a 200-mile pipeline linking the Bulgarian port of Burgas with Alexandropoulos in Greece. The structure is to carry 600-800,000 barrels a day and bypass the Bosporus straits (that is, Turkey). Meanwhile, Greek and Macedonian companies are planning a 186-mile long crude oil pipeline to hook up the Greek port of Salonika with Skopje in Macdeonia. "If completed, (it) is expected to transport 200,000 barrels a day at half the current cost" (Sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration, September 1997; May 1995 article by Nicholas Karahalios in "International Politics," a journal specializing in Balkan politics and economics).

So the U.S. is bombing Yugoslavia to prevent Russian and other oil companies from replacing Exxon-Mobil and friends as Europe’s major suppliers, since if Russian bosses succeed, they can quickly once again become a dominant imperialist force. The threat to Total and Elf, French oil companies as well as to the British-Dutch Shell, explains in part why France and other NATO bosses are going along with the bombing for now, even though they oppose U.S. policy in the rest of the Middle East. The U.S. already has troops in Skopje, which is not only a pipeline hub for Russian oil but also an oil refining center in its own right. The three captured soldiers over whom Clinton is spilling crocodile tears were stationed there.

Why Kosovo?

One pipeline is due to run from Skopje to Kosovo. Kosovo itself also has strategic military value to U.S. imperialism. Journalist Diane Johnstone writes: "Thanks to Kosovo, the U.S. can control eventual Caspian oil pipeline routes between the Black Sea and the Adriatic, and extend the European influence of favored ally Turkey" (Special (extra) "Znet Commentary," 3/24). But defining the protection of U.S. oil interests and U.S. superpower status against Russia et al. as a strategic interest, isn’t the same as getting the job done. Clinton’s bloody Kosovo failure so far is proving this. It may become one of U.S. rulers’ "worst foreign policy flops since World War II" (Walter Russell Mead, "LA Times," 4/4).

The Clinton White House’s tactic was designed to keep Albanian Kosovars in Kosovo to cripple Russian pal Milosevic, to strengthen NATO, to stabilize the Balkans and to keep U.S. ground forces out of combat. So far, the results don’t seem to be working. In barely a week, the bombings have helped Milosevic drive a half-million Albanian Kosovar workers into the worst European refugee crisis since World War II. Milosevic appears stronger. There is internal friction in NATO. Every Balkan country is now threatened by imperialism, civil war and/or occupation which could spread to Greece and Turkey. And Milosevic & Co.’s seeming ability to resist the bombing attacks may make one of two scenarios likely. Either one will be a serious defeat for U.S. imperialism.

One possibility is that the pro-"ground-war-now" faction of U.S. rulers will win out, and the U.S. will have to invade Kosovo and/or the rest of Serbia. Forty thousand Serb troops are dug in throughout Kosovo. Dislodging them will take five times that number, and victory is far from certain. Heavy U.S. casualties would surely result. Greek bosses have refused to allow their territory for use as a staging point for such an invasion. So it would have to be done from the ground, via Albania, where an advance guard of "humanitarian" Apache army attack helicopters (a ground war weapon) and 2,000 U.S. ground troops are already in place.

Another possibility is a Russian-brokered deal that would divide Kosovo between Milosevic and U.S. allies. A divided Kosovo would do nothing to settle U.S. rulers’ oil rivalry with the Russians and would ironically hand the Russian rulers a major political victory—another catastrophe the Clinton gang wanted to avoid. This scenario would only postpone U.S. involvement in a ground war.

As we have often said, U.S. working class troops’ political commitment to imperialism is shaky at best. They can quickly see that the same society whose racist cops gun down their brothers and sisters in the streets is preparing to dress large numbers of them in body bags. Once again, as they did in Vietnam, U.S. imperialists have picked up a rock only to drop it on their own feet.

They were defeated in Vietnam, but they managed to pick up the pieces because the anti-imperialist movements around the world and in the U.S. did not become revolutionary communist movements. To smash the profit system and place power in the hands of the working class we need a Party committed to organizing precisely for that goal. This must be the main lesson we draw from the gathering storms of war. Imperialism makes war inevitable. We see this every day. Such wars also give our class and our Party wide opportunities to sharpen the struggle against the warmakers. March on May Day and fight for a communist world free of imperialism and its slaughters for profit.

"Oil in the ground or under the sea is one thing. Building the infrastructure to refine and transport [it] is another….The oil that reaches Europe over land has to go through the Balkans…Russian, Bulgarian and Greek companies are building [a 200-mile] oil pipeline [to] supply one-quarter of Europe’s need. Greece and Macedonia are also planning a 186-mile crude oil pipeline."

So U.S. is bombing Yugoslavia to prevent Russian and other oil companies from replacing Exxon & Co. as Europe’s major suppliers.

Shipbuilders’ Strike Halts Repairs On Nuclear-Powered Warships

NEWPORT NEWS, VA, April 5 ž More than 9,000 members of United Steelworkers Local 8888 are striking the only producer of the U.S. Navy's nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. The walkout is over wages and pensions. The union is asking for a $3.59-per-hour raise over three years. The highest paid mechanic currently makes $14.53 an hour, and hourly workers haven’t received a raise in six years.

The international capitalist crisis of overproduction leading to dogfights for profits and markets among the world’s bosses—a primary cause of imperialist war—is a major reason for the wage lag suffered by all workers, including these striking shipbuilders. And many of them and their children can be drafted to fight and die in these wars.

The yard is presently working on the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan and is repairing the carriers USS Nimitz and the USS Harry S. Truman, which were both part of the armada used in the oil war against Iraq. With 17,400 workers, the facility is the largest private employer in Virginia. Teamsters who deliver vital parts, and the Communications Workers of America, representing Bell Atlantic and Lucent Technologies workers, are honoring the picket lines.

While this is an economic strike, it demonstrates that workers have the power to shut down the U.S. imperialist war machine. This lesson must be driven home, especially as Boeing, steel and auto union contracts are about to expire. Currently, the strikers are not conscious of the power they hold. What if they were? That’s our job, to bring into these contract battles communist politics of fighting against the profit system and its imperialist war. Strikes can become schools for communism, and prepare workers for the seizure of power. We should call for support for this strike in our unions and mass organizations, link it to the Balkan and Middle East oil wars and try to make contact with these strikers to build a mass PLP.

Make Worksites Battleground For Communist Ideas

NYC Unions Goose-Step Behind Fascist Bosses

NEW YORK CITY, April 5 — On March 30TH, unions of city workers {DC 37), hospital workers (1199) and teachers (UFT) along with the New Century Movement (NCM), made up of black and Latin politicians, sponsored a so-called Day of Action. As one veteran union member said, "The ‘action’ turned out to be little more than passing out leaflets, attacking Republican Governor Pataki, and calling for increased funding for schools, health care, in addition to a transitional jobs program, all done at 60 subway stops around NYC and at sites in several upstate cities."

We think this effort was a major attempt to win union members’ allegiance to the Democratic Party and to the fascist policies of the bosses and bankers (ruling class) who set policy for the U.S. government. What we really need to do is to make the union halls and job sites battlegrounds between the bosses’ ideas and communist ideas!

Just think about it: the NCM program doesn’t address the riveting issue of racist police terror, the main thing on the minds of NYC workers for the last two months. Workers want to fight back against such fascist acts as the Diallo murder. In one city worker union, for example, a resolution to attend an anti-police brutality demonstration was passed unanimously. Over 100 members participated in the March 3rd noon protest.

At the March 30th union "action," why was there no mention of public schools becoming increasingly like prisons, where police intimidate our children? Why nothing about slave labor Workfare which has replaced tens of thousands of unionized jobs throughout this state? Finally, as U.S. bombs drop in Iraq and Yugoslavia, there was no criticism of Clinton’s war budget from these "leaders."

The bosses want to win workers to a narrow view of their interests—if we don’t get blown away by fascist cops who claim to "own the night," then everything is "okay." They say that if we have a job, if our kids are in an okay school, then we shouldn’t worry about the next person. They want us to believe capitalism can meet our needs, with a little reform struggle on our part. They hope they can win us and our kids to fight and die to protect their system and these few crumbs.

We think these NYC unions have been disciplined. The top leaders of AFSCME’s 120,000-member DC 37 and of SEIU’s 55,000-member Local 32B-32J have been dumped. In no case did the change come from the bottom. These union big shots embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars and fixed union elections and contract votes, but it is the bosses who engineered this change.

The entrenched Old Money/Rockefeller bosses want these unions to clean up their act so they can lead workers into the ruling class’ waiting arms. We in the communist PLP will fight this scheme. We’re confronting the bosses on big and little issues every day. We’re building for May Day on our jobs and in the unions, getting May Day endorsed by one Local and setting up rank-and-file May Day shop committees elsewhere.

Our communist analysis shows the relationship between racist police murders and imperialist war and fascism on the job. The working class is searching for solutions to the problems facing us. The only one that can work is a communist revolution!

PLP Organizer Speaks To ATU Workers About May Day

OAKLAND, April 5 — In three meetings, the membership of Local 192 ATU (A/C Transit workers) voted to endorse the spirit of PLP’s May Day March in San Francisco. A PLP organizer, who is not an ATU member, addressed each meeting. He was invited to speak after a letter signed by several members requesting his appearance had been presented to the Executive Board.

The PLP’er stressed that throughout the world, workers march under red flags on May Day. This is a heartfelt expression of our need to build international (not nationalist) working class consciousness. May Day means that workers of the world want to unite!

But the demonstrations are also a "review of our forces" worldwide. Internationally the world is marked by the collapse of the old Communist movement. Before its disintegration it had become rotten to the core, recruiting people as careerists rather than on the communist principle of "serve the working class. The decline of the old Communist movement hits us in very immediate ways. Its existence would inspire and support a workers’ movement that would militantly Challenge the conditions leading to the fiery death of the four TOSCO oil refinery workers last month or the fascist police murder of a depressed and laid-off truck mechanic, Ricardo Close, in Southern California.

PLP’s May Day is building the revolutionary movement to reverse the fortunes of the working class. We asked for an endorsement, but more importantly we want workers to join the March. At two of the meetings, workers applauded our call. A group of drivers are committed to march on May Day and pledged over $200 to help pay for it.

Capitalism Contains The Seeds Of Its Downfall

Dear Challenge:

Capitalism contains the seeds of its own downfall. The U.S./NATO bombing of Yugoslavia will create tremendous contradictions inside the imperialist armies, and immediately created openings for another teacher comrade and me to engage our students and coworkers in political struggle.

The day before the bombing started, I discovered that one of my students is from a Yugoslavian immigrant family. She was in tears as she told me of the upheaval in her household and the imminent deportation of her 17 year old boyfriend, who has already received a draft notice from the Yugoslavian army. The conversation brought a war half a world away directly into my life.

All that day and the next, my classes discussed the war, why it was being fought, how it might affect them. Nearly every student was deeply interested and had questions.

We also downloaded from the internet an article about the bombing from the PLP website and distributed it along with a relevant Challenge editorial to a dozen and a half school staff members.

On the second day of the bombing, the teachers’ union had a small meeting. Two of us went to the meeting and raised the need to create a forum for discussion of the war. To our surprise, rather than telling us we were out of order, all the teachers began giving their opinions and questions. We agreed to hold a meeting during lunch the following week.

We put announcements in every staff member’s mailbox, and about 15 people, including teachers, secretaries, teacher aides and building engineers, black, white, Asian, immigrant and native-born, showed up in the staff lunchroom at the assigned table. Three were Serbians, who brought maps and historical articles with them. A lively (if not well-organized!) discussion ensued.

During the discussion we were able to explain that the Balkans occupy a strategic position between Europe and Middle Eastern oil and at the "border" between Western Europe and Russia. In this time of political and economic crisis, whoever controls the Balkans has enormous leverage in the unstable balance of power between increasingly hostile capitalist competitors. We openly advocated communism as the only solution to this situation. Most of our coworkers agreed with many of the points we made and wanted to keep talking.

We are inviting our coworkers and students to PLP’s May Day dinner, and plan to organize ongoing discussion. We will do our best to make the seeds of capitalism’s destruction grow and bloom!

Red Professor

Communist Youth Bring PLP Ideas To Boeing Workers

Strike The War Industry In 1999

Boeing Workers Want More PLP/Challenge Leaflets And Ideas

AUBURN, WA, April 6 ž Young volunteers passed out nearly 1,000 industrial editions of Challenge in two days despite difficult conditions and cop harassment. The four-page flyers, with the lead article "Strike the War Industry in 1999," sparked debates throughout the plant.

One student asked workers to read the leaflet because the union will "sell you out." An old timer answered, "Are you kidding, the union sold us out 20 years ago!" As if to prove him right, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that "union officials say the mood over this year’s contract has been lifted by unprecedented overtures from Boeing." They company has already offered an "expanded voice for the union in subcontracting." These offers have always been accompanied by union endorsement of lean manufacturing schemes to speed up Boeing workers.

Most talk, however, was about the war in the Balkans. Most workers think it’s a mess that’s spinning out of control. While sympathizing with the plight of the Albanian refugees, many commented on the hypocrisy of the U.S. imperialists and NATO ("New American Terrorist Organization"). The whole question of oil routes between Europe and the Caspian/Mideast was hotly debated. "I guess the U.S. wants a free Kosovo, as in a Kosovo that does what the U.S. wants!" concluded a clever friend.

Boeing’s connection to the war machine was not overlooked. Many commented on the cost of the airborne cruise missiles the company makes—$1.9 million apiece. Somebody calculated that every time one of the B-52 wings fires it’s missiles it costs $160 million. Killing workers for Rockefeller, Inc., ain’t cheap!

Another friend told how a fellow worker came running up to her with the leaflet in hand yelling, "Have you seen this? Have you seen this?"

"Uh oh," she thought, "this is trouble."

"We need more of these!" her friend declared.

Probably one of the most significant discussions followed the comment to still another friend from a young black worker. He thought "only whites were communists." After a 30-minute discussion with an integrated group, he had to reconsider.

So when a Boeing machinist thanked the volunteers at the Saturday May Day dinner for their help passing out the flyers, it meant more than just being polite.

Seattle May Day Dinner Unites Boeing Workers, Youth

SEATTLE, WA, April 2 ž An integrated group of 30 Boeing workers, students, soldiers and friends gathered together this evening to raise support and money for this year’s May Day March. The dinner was led by a black woman worker who started the discussion by thanking the Los Angeles and Bay Area students for coming for the long weekend. She asked everyone to raise their hands in support of the students and their effort to distribute "Strike the War Industry in 1999!" leaflets at one of the Boeing complexes. Brief talks by a Seattle student, a Boeing worker, an LA volunteer, a young comrade from the Bay area and a Seattle PLP organizer followed.

A young PLP member invited all to this year’s May Day March in San Francisco’s Mission District. Finally, a Seattle organizer talked about the two "M’s"—May Day and Money. We were happy to collect enough money for two airplane tickets and to have a Boeing worker join the Party.

Win Workers And Youth To Smash Warmakers:

Youth Don’t Want To Fight Bosses’ War

Our Party center has undertaken a modest offensive in party building among youth. This offensive has been inspired in part by the youth themselves, who have shown an enthusiastic openness to the Party and communism. Utilizing the dialectical materialist principle of interconnectedness, we have striven to show how phenomena such as racist bio-determinist research, police terror, and imperialist war are each part of the apparatus of capitalism. This is part of the process of building a class outlook among young people to train future leaders.

Our club has been discussing racist police terror recently. We talked about the ruling class’s use of the police to control and terrorize workers. The police are the armed guards of capitalism. But who protects the bosses’ interests in other countries? Not the police, but the armed forces (army, navy, air force, marines). And who actually fights these wars? The working class.

"I’ll go to Canada." "I’ll go deep into the woods; they’ll never find me." The youth at our meeting were united in their refusal to fight to protect the rich bosses’ profits in Kosovo. But we don’t want the working class to hide from the ruling class. On the contrary, we want these youth to organize and lead the working class to revolution. We want youth to JOIN the bosses’ army to organize soldiers to refuse their orders and fight for communism. Instead of fighting for the bosses, we want soldiers to fight for the working class. Armed soldiers united with workers will be in the forefront of the workers’ revolutionary seizure of power and the establishment of a communist society run exclusively in the workers’ interest.

As the bosses’ imperialist war rages in Kosovo, we need to be having serious discussions with youth about the future. The bosses will sooner or later need to bring back the draft to force youth to fight their profit wars. The youth of today have everything to say about the future of the bosses’ army. Do you want to fight for the rich racist bloody bosses, or do you want to fight for the working class, to smash capitalism and make a communist society where workers rule their own future and profits are pulverized? The youth in our club are already beginning to give their answer.

NYC Teacher

Needed: PLP Presence

Montclair State University Teach-In On Yugoslavia Crisis

NEW JERSEY, April 6 ž About 200 people, mainly students, attended an open-air Teach-In on the crisis in Yugoslavia today, organized by a concerned young professor. He actually received some harassment by the University President for planning the event, but went ahead anyway, with the support of a few other faculty members.

Student comments showed that most remain highly suspicious of the phony "humanitarian" justifications for US/NATO military action. Pacifism, and lack of a class analysis of American foreign policy aims, appear to be the main ideological weakness among American-born students, while nationalist views predominated when Serbian and Albanian students spoke.

Despite the ruling class propaganda campaign, many students expressed suspicion of the mass media and the government’s intentions. However, only one person – a teacher – put forward a clear anti-imperialist analysis, calling on students to oppose American policy as exploitative and imperialist, caused by the capitalist system. He said he would set up a web page with anti-NATO analysis on it, and gave out his email address for interested students to get it. PLP material will be included on this page.

One Trotskyist student read a leaflet that began with a class analysis, but concluded with a call for an "independent Albanian Kosovo," abandoning the Leninist and communist position, that all workers should work for the defeat of their own ruling class in an imperialist war. Even the old Communist movement limited calls for "national liberation" to colonies only – a position that appeared reasonable at the time, but one which PLP has since shown to have been a serious revisionist error.

However, in contrast to the situation here in 1990 and 1991, at the time of the Gulf War, there is today far more skepticism about US government propaganda, and a far greater openness to an anti-imperialist, anti-nationalist, and class analysis.

PLP’s absence was keenly felt – we should have a literature table and Challenge sellers in the future.

Turn The Guns Around

Seattle Teachers And Students Organize Against Fascist Bosses

SEATTLE, WA, April 5—Last week a PLP mini-project was held here at the same time that Franklin High School teachers staged a wildcat "sick-out" to protest 15 years of lousy raises which lag behind the cost of living. Last Tuesday and Thursday, teachers from all over Seattle shut down various schools, rallied and went to Olympia to talk to State legislators. PLP project youth from all over the West coast attended the teachers’ rally, but also organized another one the next day for students to support the teachers and to protest the bombings in Kosovo.

That rally reflected intensifying contradictions. Firstly, the PLP member who had organized it told friends and classmates it was a PLP-organized event. But the general student body was confused by the publicity on our school television and in our daily bulletin. In fact, the PLP rally organizer was asked to step out of her history class where a school administrator told her students were planning a walkout during 5th and 6th periods; would she "ask" these students to stay in class? The comrade said she simply couldn’t do that; it was up to the students to decide, and that if the walkout was political, she herself would stay outside with the students. Later she repeated this decision to the principal.

At the lunch-hour rally, many Challenges were distributed and read (more than 150 that day!). Nearly half the school attended the rally. Despite some confusion, many students crossed the street to sit with us. Communism was openly discussed, and people started to see the connection between the teachers’ struggles and the bombings in Kosovo. That understanding began with the leaflet distributed a few mornings before. Its headline was, "Millions for Bombs, Prisons and Killer Cops! Nothing for Teachers’ Salaries and Education! Support Teacher Walkouts! March on May Day!"

It said if the government really "cared" about students’ education, it would be spending money on teachers and books (not to mention what capitalist lies are taught in those books), not $40 million a day on bombs. It concluded that the rulers want us in their army or in prison and the only way to stop that is to march on May Day and to fight for communism. Many listened intently to what our comrades had to say.

As we prepared to leave the lunch-hour rally, over 50 students walked out of the building and came over to stand with us. These students fearlessly took our posters and held them proudly. They used our bullhorn to explain why they were walking out. They showed leadership and creativity. They asked other students to leave the building and support them. Many did. They chanted, "The students, united, will never be defeated!" They even rapped on the bullhorn!

PLP organized and led the rally, but many other students took tremendous leadership, proving that when the Party leads, it enables students and workers to lead as well. These students have great potential. The work at Franklin has advanced because of these events. I hope to bring some Franklin students to May Day and continue struggling like this. Thanks to the comrades who came to the project. You were a BIG help.

Red Franklin student

Queens College Students Expose Nazi Prof’s Experiment

NEW YORK CITY, March 24 — Some 25 students attended a forum to expose Queens College Professor Jeffrey Halperin’s involvement in the Violence Initiative. The Violence Initiative is a nationwide, federally funded program that tries to prove that blacks and Latins are prone to being violent due to their genetic makeup. Halperin gave at least 122 kidsž mostly black and Latinž the drug fenfluramine to study its effects on aggressive behavior. Fenfluramine is also found in the diet pill fen-phen was taken off the market because it causes heart damage and other side effects. The NYC Board of Ed gave Halperin and other researchers the names of special-ed students from the Bronx to use as guinea pigs in his racist research.

Queens College students learned about this unethical, racist research from a PLP member. They were outraged and many decided to take action against it. A group of about five students, who have since become Challenge readers, took the lead in organizing the forum. A leaflet was distributed denouncing Halperin’s research and accurately attributing the true sources of violence to police brutality, poverty, racism and unemployment, which Halperin completely ignored in his study.

A few days before the forum we were attacked by the administration for "falsely" accusing Halperin and being "unprofessional" in the way we went about exposing him. One student was even threatened with the possibility of being personally sued by Halperin. In their attempts to frighten us, the administration only strengthened and widened our collective. A meeting was called by the PLP member to discuss the meaning of the attacks and make plans to go on the offensive. Ten students showed up and we unanimously decided to go on with the forum and expose the administration for threatening to stop us from voicing our concerns about racist attacks on our community. Although some students admitted to being frightened at first, they said they felt stronger after our meeting because they saw that the students were one and would stick together.

We held the forum and it was a success. We invited two members from the Coalition Against The Violence Initiative who spoke about the need for the ruling class to diagnose members of the working class as being genetically or psychological inferior during periods of mass protest. They also spoke about the Coalition’s fight to expose Halperin and other racist researchers which inspired all the students to want to take action.

A PLP member spoke about violence from a class perspective: that the ruling class with their wars, police murders and constant attacks on the working class are the real violent ones. She called on everyone to end class violence with a communist revolution and to march on May Day.

Everybody there signed a sheet to become involved in building for the next forum. Our next move is to enlarge our movement and keep the struggle going. In the midst of war and increased attacks on our class it is our responsibility to lead our class in struggle and show them the only solution to this violent system is communist revolution!

Murder At The Border

U.S. Bosses Make War On Workers

LOS ANGELES, April 3 ž Seven immigrant workers who tried to cross the U.S.-Mexican border died from the cold when they ran into a snowstorm in the mountains outside San Diego. Almost 50 other workers who had been with them were "rescued and detained," including some children. At the same time, on the Mexican side, two more deaths were reported along with the rescue of 80 people who were on their way to the U.S., crossing the mountains of the Rumorosa (East of Tijuana). All of these workers were dressed only in light clothing. Capitalist borders, poverty and the cold are a fatal mixture.

The deaths of these nine workers brings to 20 the known deaths so far this year and to 376 the reported deaths since "Operation Gatekeeper" began four years ago. Claudia Smith, of the California Legal and Rural Aid Foundation, said that the U.S. Justice Department recognized internally that the implementation of this operation could "put immigrants in danger and that even knowing this, many would be willing to run these great risks to cross the border."

The INS (Migra) has forced these immigrant workers to cross the border in areas of extreme danger, deserts with temperatures of over 110°, or mountains where the temperatures are below freezing. The Migra has planned these deaths in order to stop other immigrants from trying to cross the border. The capitalist crisis is forcing more workers to search for work to survive. For many immigrant workers, the bosses give us two alternatives: die of the cold or die of hunger.

The hypocrisy of the bosses and their government has no limits. They say that the current war in Kosovo is to "help" the workers of Kosovo. But here at the border, there are thousands looking for help and what they get is death and deportations.

The bosses’ press is reporting daily about the Latin soldier from East LA arrested in Serbia, but the death of these nine workers, and the sadness of their families and friends has not even been mentioned. On the contrary, Lamar Smith, Texas, Congressman and leader of the Committee on Immigration, is launching a rabid national campaign against immigrants. He is attacking undocumented immigrants as being responsible for crime and drugs in many cities. He’s calling for stricter laws attacking immigrants and more coordination between the INS and the cops to make it easier to deport thousands of workers. These attacks go hand-in-hand with closing garment factories and moving them to Mexico, Central America and Asia where the bosses pay the lowest wages. This campaign and the deaths in the mountains, are part of the growth of fascism in the U.S. They are an attack on immigrant workers, and all workers.

In the face of these capitalist murders, we should organize demonstrations and strikes to protest the deaths of these workers. We must expose capitalism as a murderous system—from Kosovo to the U.S.-Mexican border. We have to take this fight to the unions, community groups and churches. In these actions, one way or another, we have to show the need to destroy capitalism with communist revolution, mobilizing workers to march on May Day and to help build the revolutionary movement. In order to survive, the only alternative workers have is to fight to destroy capitalism and to struggle for a new world without borders or exploitation, for a communist world.

Cops Kill And Terrorize Workers To Serve And Protect Bosses

LOS ANGELES, March 31 — "We got the autopsy report on Wednesday. According to it, Mr. Ricardo Close had fifteen bullet holes. All of them entered through his back, at about shoulder height, close to the neck, and traveled down his back. This means that when the Sheriff executed him, he was on his knees, with both hands on the ground, trying to get up after being knocked down by two bean-bag bullets fired by a Sheriff’s shotgun. The seven Sheriffs that fired 38 shots at Ricardo acted like a firing squad, cutting him down in cold blood."

This was the report of one of the people attending a community meeting called to continue the struggle to avenge the death of this working class brother murdered by the racist, fascist LA Sheriffs. Ricardo was depressed after being laid off and his wife came home from work to find him talking about suicide with a knife. She called 911 asking for medical help. About 20 Sheriffs showed up instead. Three and a half minutes later, Ricardo lay in his front yard, viciously murdered by one of the bosses’ death squads.

Plans were made by community residents and by Ricardo’s co-workers to organize a mass demonstration on Saturday, April 17 to keep public the fight against this police murder. The details were worked out to massively distribute leaflets to reach as many workers and students as possible.

A neighbor who had been a witness to the killing, had suggested before the meeting that people go from the meeting to where the media was whipping up patriotism around the case of Andy Ramirez, one of the three U.S. soldiers captured in Kosovo. The Ramirez family lives about 100 hundred yards from where Ricardo was murdered. The neighbor said, "They say they are fighting injustice in Kosovo. Let’s go tell the world that we need to fight injustices right here."

While the meeting didn’t agree to take signs about Ricardo to the Ramirez home, people talked about the current war in Yugoslavia. Many agreed that it was all over oil, since oil is the life blood of industrial society and there is war raging in almost every place on earth where it is found. We discussed the U.S.’ real reason for sending Andrew Ramirez and the others to Serbia—to fight for Exxon’s oil! Some residents still want to go with signs about Ricardo’s murder when the TV cameras return to the Ramirez home.

Plans were made to take this issue to the unions and organizations that the people at the meeting belong to. A truck driver talked about how he and his co-workers raised almost $1,500 on the job for Ricardo’s family, with workers contributing nickels, dimes and whatever money they could spare, since pay day was still a few hours away. This worker also talked about not being afraid of the cops, and that we should remember Emiliano Zapata’s words, "It is better to die on your feet, than live on your knees!"

There was a lively discussion about the role of the cops, with most agreeing that demanding more Latin and black cops won’t change the role of the cops in this system. Several said they were coming to May Day and gladly took Challenges.

Letters

Don’t Cry, Organize To Smash UAW Hacks-Auto Bosses Alliance

Dear Challenge:

I recently attended the UAW Special Contract Convention in Detroit, and 500,000 auto workers are in big trouble. More than 2,000 delegates and guests were treated to a display of patriotism and double-talk at the well-scripted convention. Each session opened with a color guard and black and white men and women singing the national anthems of the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico (there’s a big organizing drive going on for about 10,000 Puerto Rican workers).

The Balkan war was alluded to in the opening convocation, and a black UAW Veterans Committee chairman called on delegates to support for U.S. troops in Yugoslovia. In his keynote speech, UAW president Steve Yokich (whom the Ford Motor Company has called, "The best friend we ever had") touched on all the issues concerning workers. Outsourcing, plant closings, overtime, health care. But he made his point when he criticized Clinton for NAFTA. He said, "We’ve got to tell him he was wrong on NAFTA, and he’s still wrong. We’re Americans first! We’re Americans first!" You could hear the jackboots marching.

At a leadership-backed rally on Monday morning, the bulk of the picket signs had American flags in the corner and "STOP OUTSOURCING" underneath. Across the bottom in big red letters, they signs read, "AMERICA FIRST!" I asked two guys I was standing with, "What’s with these signs?" One guy said, "Oh those are left over from…ah…from..."

"The Fürher," I said. "Yea, the Fürher," they agreed as we all had a laugh.

Most noticeable was the absence of any organized opposition to the leadership. Flint workers were mad, but offered only token opposition around GM’s spin-off of the Delphi parts division and the closing of Buick City. The New Directions reform caucus was nowhere to be seen.

The most pitiful display took place when a woman worker rose from the floor to talk about her plant closing in May, and the work being moved to Mexico. She asked to read a poem written by a coworker. The poem was very sad and defeatist. "We did everything they asked, we did everything right, we did everything we could, and what did it get us? But we’ll go down fighting with the UAW." By the end, the sister was crying and everyone gave her a standing ovation. Not to be outdone, Yokich grabbed the microphone and said, "Don’t feel bad about showing those emotions sister. I’ve seen grown men cry when their factories close." I’ll bet he has!

Red UAW member

Witness To Police Terror

Dear Challenge:

I wanted to share some experiences with other Challenge readers. Recently I was in jail and witnessed several racist attacks against workers. On my way to jail, the cops in their patrol car were stopped at a light and a man was crossing the street when the light was red. The police, over their speaker, told him to get out of the street. When he did not move the cops pulled a U-turn, got out of the car, grabbed the man, slammed him against the car and put handcuffs on him. For five minutes they harassed and cussed him out, constantly making fun of him for being scared and humiliated. The cops issued him a jaywalking ticket and when this homeless man, who had his medication spilled all over the ground, slammed the pen down on the car, the Gestapo thug in blue got in his face and threatened to arrest him for vandalism.

Later in jail, a worker was brought in who was intoxicated. The police were making fun of him. They told him to take his shoes off and untie the laces. Since he couldn’t do it, they kept pushing him and yelled at him as ten cops were laughing at him. I bent down in front of the cops, took his shoe, and began unlacing it. A cop pushed me away and told me to "worry about yourself."

Just a few minutes later when me and four others in a cell were discussing racist police, workers’ struggles and communism, the cops beat down a worker in a cell across the hall. They hit him over and over with clubs and maced him-—only because he was defending himself.

Later when the police took us to our beds, several didn’t have bedding and blankets. When I told the cop about this, he said "worry about yourself." As I was leaving, the cop taking me out was asked by someone else in the cell, "Why am I still here? I was only supposed to be here for three hours." The cop responded, "Yeah, yeah, a few hours and you’ll be out." The prisoner told him that it was Sunday and he was brought in on Friday! When I asked the cop what he was going to do, he pushed me away and said, "Worry about yourself."

PLP’ers don’t just "worry about ourselves." We are committed to serve the working class and to fight to end this system that is beating and locking down an entire generation. Workers will fight back and our Party will turn this fightback into an organized revolution for communism.

Angry Red

Do All Routes Lead To Oil?

Dear Challenge,

I want to comment on one aspect of the Party’s line concerning the U.S./NATO attack on what’s left of Yugoslavia. The editorials and writings in Challenge—by attacking the bosses’ lies about why they’ve launched a direct war—have correctly pointed out that there is nothing "humanitarian" about the U.S./NATO aggression. But I think we are mistaken to assert that the real reason for the war has to do with protecting land and sea routes to the oil fields of the Middle East and the Caspian Sea region.

Firstly, the U.S. and Western European ruling classes are not "protecting" a damned thing. They’re grabbing land, labor and natural resources. They’ve already captured Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia. Now they’re going for Kosovo, with Montenegro soon to follow. Of course, key elements of the ruling class in those provinces wanted to break away from their senior partners in crime, the Serbian ruling class. The struggle between these ethnic rulers is the source of the "ethnic" conflict in Yugoslavia.

Secondly, Yugoslavia does not pose a threat to established sea routes to Mideast oil. Throughout the entire cold war period, the former Yugoslavian provinces of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro formed part of the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. Not once in my lifetime did the Yugoslavian government threaten shipping in those waters.

In actuality the US/NATO ruling class is capturing land, labor and natural resources they didn’t control before and are further securing established sea routes. Also, the conquest of Yugoslavia will position the US and NATO in a forward area, establishing a land route to the Caspian Sea oil fields along the north shore of the Black Sea. In order to get there, however, they’ll have to go through Bulgaria, Rumania and the Ukraine. They won’t be able to do that without an army of millions. I’m not sure they’re ready for all of that, especially since Turkey is so close and Azerbaijan have already invited the U.S. to establish a military base on the West Bank of the Caspian Sea.

Which brings me to this conclusion: all the instability in the world, including war, is due to capitalist competition—the only solution for which is communist revolution.

A Red Song

Challenge Responds:

There are many reason for the war in the Balkans, including the fact that Kosovo has some of the richest mines in the world. But the main reason is for control of oil profits and oil routes. See Editorial above, in this issue!

Red UAW Member

Disgusting Cardinal O’Connor Preaches "Love" For Killer Cops

Dear Challenge:

On Sunday, March 23rd, NY Archdiocese Cardinal O’Connor gave "spiritual support" to the police murderers of Diallo. He promoted an interfaith service for what he termed reconciliation. We cannot prolong our divisions, he said, to the police, "We deeply believe in you, we trust you. We are grateful to you, we love you."

If these aren’t the words of the slyest kind of evil incarnate, tell me what is worse for knowing deception? Someone once said, "The pope has no divisions or how many divisions has the Pope?" But the fact is that he does have great power both ideological and political. If the workers accept the leadership of the Church in these areas it is as good as having those crucial military divisions which determine state power.

And do the killer cops not look for their justification to wantonly murder from the Churchž the same Church that weaves its ideological poison over the workers, the homeless and all segments of the world’s population? See how they vary their generalities saying this in New York, that in Salvador, something else in Poland while themselves being a part of the world’s ruling class.

Let’s remember the horribly evil words of the Cardinal O’Connor , March 21st to the NYC police at the Holy Name Society Communion Breakfast: "We believe in you, we trust you, we love you"

Let us struggle harder to eradicate the Church’s insidious influence. Let us tell those who don’t know important history how Pope Pius XII was silent over the Nazi Holocaust in the 1930’s and 1940’s and concluded agreements with fascist Mussolini. The Catholic Church leopard does not change its spots.

The actions of Cardinal O’Connor last week proves this yet another time. Indeed, O’Connor’s deed is qualitatively if not quantitatively worse because he openly approves of the police action and proclaims his trust for these evil cops and the other countless police murders and brutalities. Whereas at least Pope Pius of that era kept quiet publicly about Hitler’s genocide strategy. It tells us that no matter what era, what generation, the Catholic leadership leopard cannot change its spots.

The O’Connor justification of the police murder of Diallo shows beyond a doubt where the Church truly stands in relation to the working class. It is one of our most dangerous enemies because its weapons are partially hidden . It rules by treacherous deception.

Beware of The Cardinal! Beware of the Church and its Reconciliations!

A Worker For No Reconciliation With Cops