Challenge, Vol. 35, No. 35, April 28, 1999

So far the U.S-led NATO imperialists can claim just one "victory." They have succeeded in spreading mass misery throughout the Balkans. Their bombing has killed many civilians and destroyed thousands of industrial facilities in Yugoslavia. It has made 500,000 workers jobless, left two million with no source of income, and caused $100 billion in damage. All this havoc is an achievement matched only by the agony inflicted on hundreds of thousands of Albanian Kosovars driven into exile by terror from the air. Milosevic is a killer, but he’s a petty gangster compared to the U.S.-NATO masters of genocide.

On every other front, the air war has rapidly produced the opposite of its stated goals. It was supposed to make Milosevic beg for a deal. He has fought back. It was supposed to drive Serbian bosses’ troops from Kosovo. These troops are more firmly dug in than ever, and their numbers are growing. "Milosevic has already achieved victory on the ground," admits Business Week (BW Editorial, 4/26). It was supposed to prevent a ground war. It has shown that ground war is the only way to dislodge entrenched forces. It was supposed to isolate Milosevic within Serbia. Even his political enemies are rallying around him. It was supposed to isolate him from Russian bosses. It has driven him further into bed with them.

Most significant of all, it was supposed to weaken Russian bosses and prevent their resurgence as a major imperialist force. It has done just the reverse: "Perhaps most threatening of all, the attack on Serbia has bolstered [reactionary], nationalistic forces in Russia, damaging America’s relations with the one country that seriously threatens its safety" (BW). In other words, the bloody adventure in Yugoslavia for oil and profit has made ground and nuclear war more likely, not less.

U.S. imperialists now appear to have a choice between two bad alternatives. The first is to launch a ground war. Various news sources indicate that an invasion is being planned for late May. It would involve hundreds of thousands of troops, because an invading force needs five-to-one superiority to have a chance of dislodging the 40,000 Serbian troops already dug in. There would be many casualties. U.S. rulers are very nervous about this, are divided among themselves and unsure about the political loyalty of working class soldiers in their own military.

Many divisions are also obvious within the NATO camp. Splits within the German ruling class have begun to develop over how long and with how many forces—and even against whom—they should fight. German and U.S. bosses are basically enemies in an unstable tactical alliance. French rulers have nixed the U.S. plan for a naval blockade of oil deliveries to Serbia. Escalation into a ground war would surely sharpen many contradictions and rivalries among the imperialists and lay the seeds for much bigger conflicts.

On the other hand, the imperialists may decide to bite the bullet and try to get a diplomatic deal. They would call their defeat a victory, beg the Russians to broker a settlement (Clinton is already starting to do so as a feeble "Plan B" option), and leave Milosevic in power. The Russians would gain strength rapidly from the political role they would play.

Any such U.S. arrangement would only buy some time until U.S. bosses feel they’re ready for their next conflict. Meanwhile, they are still bombing Iraq on a daily basis, so this is already a two-front war. Ground war will eventually break out in both the Balkans and the Persian Gulf, because oil rivalries and imperialist competition for super profits won’t evaporate by themselves. Oil comes from the ground and must be transported, seized, or defended on the ground.

The 21st century is clearly entering the stage of history as a period of fascism and world war. We should have no illusions about that. But it can end very differently. Imperialist war still provides the soil for communist revolution, and the communists of today and tomorrow are not doomed to repeat the errors of our predecessors. Our Party’s modest but positive efforts to fight for our revolutionary line against imperialist war among industrial workers, soldiers, teachers and students show clearly that workers will respond to communist leadership. We need to do much more, and we will! The road ahead will be long, difficult, and violent. But our side will ultimately win. The world’s future will be communist!

Editorial #2

Fight Between The Us And Russia Over Caspian Oil Heating Up

A major showdown is developing between U.S. and Russian imperialism over the vast oil reserves in the Caspian Sea, and for control of the pipelines to take it to the West. There are three basic pipeline routes: the northern route, through Russia; the southern route, through Iran; and the center (or Caucasus) route, through Azerbaijan to Turkey.

The U.S. is fighting for the "center" route, so that Exxon-Mobil can keep a stranglehold on the world’s main oil supplies. But this means dealing with the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. "The on-going conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan…makes this an unstable option…The U.S. has its eye on Azerbaijan’s billion barrels of proven and probable oil reserves that are roughly equal to those of Kuwait." (Kathy Lazarian, Caspian Oil Case Study).

The U.S. is arming Azerbaijan. Clinton invited Azeri leader Aliyev to NATO’s 50th birthday bash. Why? "Contracts worth $2 billion between Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR, Exxon and Mobil for Caspian oil field development are scheduled to be signed during Aliyev’s visit to the U.S. Additionally, Turkey and the Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC), the international consortium developing Azerbaijan’s Caspian oil resources, are reportedly nearing agreement on the construction of a pipeline from Baku (in Azerbaijan) to Ceyhan, Turkey." (Stratfor System’s Global Intelligence Update 4/15)

The Russians see the oil and gas in the countries of the former USSR, as their own. They are building their own pipelines and making a major deal with Bulgaria and Greece. They are arming the Armenians, including the rebels in Nogorno-Karabakh. "While Russia has denied supplying arms directly to Armenia, it has deployed advanced S-300 surface-to-air missiles and MiG-29 fighters to Russian units in Armenia." (Stratfor) They have warned that "Azerbaijan’s cooperation with NATO, especially in light of events in Yugoslavia, negatively affects Russian-Azeri relations." While building up forces in Armenia, Russia has launched naval exercises in the Caspian and sent a spy ship to the Adriatic.

The U.S. is upping-the-ante. "Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Uzbekistan opted out of the Russian-sponsored CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) security treaty earlier this month." U.S. Air Force Major General Charles Wax toured the air force base in Azerbaijan, which Azeri rulers have offered for use by the U.S., Turkey, and NATO. On April 16, Azerbaijan, Georgia and the Ukraine reportedly held joint military exercises under the auspices of NATO’s "Partnership for Peace." Meanwhile, Georgia is accusing Russia of siding with the Abkhaz separatists within Georgia.

Within all these clashes of imperialist interests are additional contradictions. Russia has tens of thousands of nuclear warheads but their army has problems. They were whipped in Chechnya, and many soldiers haven’t been paid in months. They are demoralized and ill-trained. U.S. rulers see an opportunity to squash Russia’s ability to Challenge them militarily, especially for control of Caspian/Mideast oil. But Russian bosses will be pushed only so far. A strong anti-U.S., nationalist/fascist fervor is building there, centered on the U.S. war on Yugoslavia. Even given Russia’s weaknesses, war is always the final solution for competing capitalist rulers.

The U.S. imperialists are making war to strengthen their grip on the world’s oil supplies and profits. Russia and Iran are cooperating with each other in the exploitation of oil and gas resources in the region. The fight in the Balkans is for military bases, control of pipeline routes, and "fly over rights," so U.S. bosses can control the flow of oil form the Caspian and Middle East. The only way to stop these mass murderers, is to build a mass movement for communist revolution.

Fascist Chickens Come Home To Roost In Littleton, Colorado

Hitler’s birthday was celebrated on April 20 in Littleton, Colorado. Two young Nazis went about the systematic slaughter and wounding of about 60 fellow students and staff members. Following the actions of the racist Führer (Nazi leader), of thousands of murdering racist cops around the country and of the imperialist warmaker in the White House, the Nazi killers focused on murdering black students.

At some point after this racist carnage, warmaker Clinton went on TV to offer his hypocritical remarks on the massacre. As Clinton’s Luftwaffe (Nazi air force) continues its genocidal bombing in Yugoslavia, he said something like, "There should be negotiations and peaceful solutions to problems, not violence." [!]

The Littleton killings raise the question of what kind of system spawns racist killers, young and old. Crocodile tears are now being poured out about the mass murders. One reason for these phony tears is the fact that the young killers and their friends give the capitalist game away too soon. These "premature fascists" truly represent the outlook and actions of a greedy, ruthless ruling class only concerned with their profits. They were guided by the culture and aspirations of capitalism.

To Really Oppose Cop Terror, Fight Imperialist Warmakers

NEW YORK CITY, April 21 — PLP joined several thousand workers and youth in a march against police terror across the Brooklyn Bridge from Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn to Federal Plaza in Manhattan.

The "March for Justice" was organized by liberal groups and several local unions, including AFSCME’s District Council 37, the United Federation of Teachers, and Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union. The NYPD’s ruthless February murder of Amadou Diallo in a hail of 41 bullets sparked this demonstration, as well as others around the city in the past two months.

The leaders of these bosses’ organizations are trying to win workers to believe that the police system can be reformed. This is the aim of the 10-point program delivered by The Coalition for Justice, led by self-admitted FBI-informer Al Sharpton and past NYC Mayor David Dinkins. At the same time that these bosses’ puppets cry crocodile tears about police terror, they tacitly support imperialist war. Last December, the day after Clinton ordered the mass bombing of Iraq, Sharpton participated in a mass rally against the impeachment of Clinton. This pro-Clinton rally was organized by Jesse Jackson, mentor of Sharpton, and open supporter of the bombing of Yugoslavia.

Contrary to these pro-war liberals, PLP members participated in the march to point out that the cops’ job description is to protect and serve the interests of the Wall Street warmakers, they cannot be "reformed."

Chanting, "NYPD—KKK! Giuliani—KKK!" many marchers joined the PLP contingent yelling loudly and defiantly throughout the center of the demonstration. Some workers came over to speak on our bullhorn against the racist terror of the cops. We carried signs that read, "There is No Justice for Workers Under Capitalism," and "March On May Day to Smash Racist Police Terror."

We pointed out that Kosovo isn’t the only site of "ethnic cleansing," "it’s occurring right now in this country against working class black and Latin youth on our streets!" one PLP member shouted. "And many are being forced into a slave labor prison system….This capitalist system which promotes police terror and war must be destroyed!"

Throughout the march, we led our contingent in anti-capitalist as well as communist chants. We distributed over 5,000 leaflets and several hundred Challenges.

PLP Needs To Step Up As Cops Increase Fascist Terror

NEWARK, NJ, April 18 ¾ Police terror here has reached a new high in the wake of the death of Orange, NJ cop Joyce Carnegie. Carnegie was supposedly shot during a struggle with a lone gunman, after she responded to reported street robberies. The next several days, the Newark Star Ledger, the voice of the local ruling class, was filled with stories about what a great human being Carnegie was. She was portrayed as loving and helpful. In fact, Carnegie was known on the street as "aggressive" toward civilians.

After the Ledger published a composite sketch of the alleged killer, the Orange, East Orange, and Newark cops went on a rampage. Before the terror began, one co-worker of a PLP member said her son had decided to stay off the streets for a week. How right he was! The cops broke down doors, pulled scores of young black males in for questioning, and terrorized working class communities in all three cities. Essex County Prosecutor Patricia Hurt assured the Ledger that "the murderer" was in custody. But, a funny thing happened on the way to the prosecution.

The cops admitted that two, and then three people were arrested, all supposedly fitting the sketch, and all under suspicion for the murder. The first to be charged, Terrance Everett, who showed up in court with bruises all over his face, was later released when he proved he had been in a local Wendy’s restaurant at the exact time the cop was killed. The second, James Coker, was never charged, but is still in jail. The third, Earl Faison, died after one hour in police custody, and was either beaten to death, or died as a result of an asthma attack after being pepper-sprayed by the cops. Now a fourth person, Condell Woodson, fitting the same sketch, has been arrested and supposedly linked to a gun recovered at the scene of the shooting.

What can workers learn from this series of atrocities? First, never believe a word the cops (and prosecutors) say. Second, both black and white, men and women cops were part and parcel of the terror. A cop is a cop is a cop. Third, fascism is staring us dead in the face here in New Jersey (just like elsewhere). Fourth, the role of the police in capitalist society is to preserve the ruling class and protect their property. When a cop is killed, the rulers go all out to use that killing to win the population to more fascist measures.

Late last year, the Ledger published a series of articles in which they endorsed "community policing" in Newark, East Orange, Orange and other places. The result: massive street presence of cops, barricaded streets, and an atmosphere of intimidation and harassment. This set the stage for the murder of Faison and the mass roundup of young black males. And who is the ideological guru behind "community policing," none other than Rutgers-University at Newark’s criminal justice professor George Kelling.

Kelling in a recent article in the NY Daily News defended the cops who executed Amadou Diallo. Significantly, Kelling said in that article that "preventive" policing must result in "tragedies." PLP in New Jersey must go on the offensive against Kelling, the cops, the Ledger, and the capitalists behind all of them. Our previous efforts have not been sufficient. We are making plans to raise these issues in the mass organizations in which we are members. Communist ideas and leadership can win the working class. Let’s get to it!

Motorcade Announces May Day March

WASHINGTON, DC, April 17 — Today, friends and members of PLP staged their first pre-May Day Motorcade along part of the route of the May Day March coming up on May 1st. We blanketed the Adams-Morgan neighborhood (the first few blocks of the march) with 600 leaflets and 100 Challenges calling upon workers to reject imperialist wars, the Belgrade bombings and join with workers in international unity to build a communist movement and to march on May Day.

War always sharpens the political struggle. Today we met people who enthusiastically supported our position, as well as other vocal opponents. One 50-year-old man ran up to one of the drivers and took a bunch of leaflets saying, "What you are doing is very important, very important," as he ran to the sidewalk to distribute the flyers. A man doing his laundry stopped to show us on the map that he was from Athens, and to passionately explain that the bombing was all about oil routes to the Caspian Sea, and other points mentioned in Challenge. A doctor friend from Iran said, "They know you are very smart, the U.S. capitalists never care about refugees or civilians unless oil is involved!" Two opponents yelled at us and tried to tear our flags and posters from the cars. They quickly left when we came over to defend the motorcade. Since we all kept up the pace and stayed with the cars we were easily able to discourage the opposition.

Our rally also emphasized the struggle against racist police brutality—some of us had been at the march in DC on April 3rd and one wore an Amadou Diallo T-shirt. Our motorcade ended in Mount Pleasant shortly after the end of another neighborhood gathering against police brutality in the Latin community. Many workers stayed to get the last of our leaflets, Challenges, and stickers. On to May Day!

March Against Racist Cleansing By LA Sheriffs

LOS ANGELES, CA, April 17 ¾ More than 100 workers and students, including garment workers, truck drivers, Latin, black and white demonstrated today, marching and chanting militantly on the streets of East LA against the racist Sheriffs who murdered Ricardo Close last February 23 with 38 bullets.

A Neighborhood Committee organized the demonstration, with the participation of a group of truck drivers who worked with Ricardo Close, a group from the Brown Berets (a Chicano nationalist group) and members of PLP.

The march stopped at the home of Ricardo Close, where several speeches were given. A truck driver¾ wearing a shirt with a drawing of the murder by the cop of his friend Ricardo¾ stood in the yard so everyone could see the drawing of what happened. The truckers showed people the bullet holes still evident on the walls and asked for a moment of silence for their murdered friend.

Then a member of PLP spoke about the need for workers of all races to unite against the murderous cops and the capitalist system, which uses racist terror to increase the oppression of all workers. He said that we should remember Amadou Diallo, Tyisha Miller, Ricardo Close and all the workers—black, Latin, Asian and white, who have been the victims of the bosses’ racist police terror. We must fight for communism, to destroy racist divisions, borders and wars for profits.

Near the end of PLP speech, the leader of the Brown Berets accused him of being an "outsider," not from the neighborhood. He also said that white workers are never victims of the police and that the struggle was for Mexicans to reclaim "Aztlan." He said that the struggle was a nationalist one, against the army of occupation, and compared the Sheriffs to Milosevic, and the Brown Berets to the KLA of Albania, fighting to reclaim their land.

A garment worker from the Neighborhood Committee said that the fight was against this racist system and that it was good that workers of all skin colors were united to fight it. A trucker who had been a friend of Ricardo’s supported her and said that it was bad to try to divide us by color, that we need unity of all workers against the murdering Sheriffs. A bus mechanic gave examples of white workers who had been victims of police terror. He showed that the big bosses and politicians, white, Latin or black are never the victims of the police because the police serve the interests of the bosses. He said that of course, black and Latin workers were victimized more than whites, but the police are used to terrorize the workers as a class.

The ideologies of nationalism vs. working class consciousness went head-to-head in the middle of this neighborhood where racism and police terror are attacking the workers. The U.S. government is bombing the Serbs to protect Exxon’s oil and oil routes. The U.S. bosses have used nationalism as a weapon to divide the workers of eastern Europe and make them easier prey for the imperialists. Nationalism is the mortal enemy of the workers and the opposite of the workers’ internationalism that we need to defeat police terror and imperialist war.

After stopping at the Close home, the march continued to busy Whittier Boulevard. The police were all over the place. Every time they drove close to the demonstration, youth yelled "Murderers!" and "LA Sheriffs you can’t hide—we charge you with genocide." At the end of the rally a garment worker said that we should fight against the system that murdered Ricardo; the same system that has recently killed 350 immigrant workers trying to cross the border; the same system which killed workers at the Tosco oil refinery; and which is now killing workers in Yugoslavia. Ricardo’s widow thanked everyone for continuing the fight.

PLP passed out hundreds of leaflets and sold many Challenges. The PLP leaflet linked police terror with the mass terror bombing in Yugoslavia for oil profits. It also talked about Andrew Ramirez, who was captured by the Serbs and whose family lives in the same neighborhood. He was sent to Macedonia with other soldiers to defend Exxon’s oil routes, not to help the workers in the area. During the march, we invited everyone to march on May Day and to build the revolutionary movement that will destroy once and for all the murderous profit system and its racist cops.

Put An End To Capitalist ‘Goodness’

Dear Challenge:

Last Thursday, the New York Times ran a grisly, front-page picture of bodies strewn across the road; the result of US bombardment in Kosovo. I immediately started showing this picture to my co-workers introducing it as "Your tax dollars at work!" I was mad, but, more importantly, a number of Boeing workers shared my anger or, at least, saw class hatred expressed by a trusted fellow worker.

Now, we’re not in the Balkan trenches, but there is a kind of "trench warfare" going on for the hearts and minds of the working class. (It will, however, be the sons and daughters of these workers that will spill their blood on the hills of Yugoslavia if Clinton’s gang decides to send in ground troops.)

Sharp, biting art and commentary even sarcastic humor are necessary in this daily battle. Sarcasm and biting one-liners are no substitute for communist analysis, Challenge sales, struggle in our union and class struggle on the shop floor, but they are part of building class hatred.

At Boeing, it is not only our tax dollars, but the very fruits of our labor that butcher our fellow workers. Last week, the company directed line managers to talk about the "goodness" of Boeing’s rising share price and profits. More than one worker asked how many workers have been laid off while all this "goodness" was going on. Nearly, 20,000! Twenty thousand fired and corpses on the road are "goodness" to these capitalist bloodsuckers.

We march this May Day to put an end to all this capitalist "goodness" once and for all!

Boeing Worker: Red With Anger

Doing What They Know Best: Navy Bombs Its Own Security Guards In Vieques

PUERTO RICO ¾ On Monday April 19, F-18 Navy planes bombed a non-military target by "mistake." Is this Kosovo? No, it’s Vieques, Puerto Rico. David Sanet, a security guard was killed and several other civilians were injured.

This latest act of military murder has again made the people of Vieques, mainly fishermen, demand that the Navy get off the island. Hundreds protested against the murder of Sanet, demanding the end of the Navy occupation of Vieques. Since the 1940’s, the Navy has occupied two-thirds of this small island. According to a study by Dr. Rafael Rivera Castaño, 20% of the 6,000 people living in Vieques suffer from cancer caused by the constant testing of different kinds of military weapons.

Painting The Crimson Red

PLP Leads Discussion On Imperialist War

CAMBRIDGE, MA, April 10 — As part of the efforts by the PLP Boston Student Collective to build our Party, this afternoon, members of PLP led a discussion with Harvard students on the imperialist war in Kosovo. A PLP member who is a Harvard student began explaining our Party’s analysis of the U.S./NATO war against Yugoslavia as part of the growing fight between the western imperialists and Russia over control of the land and sea routes which connect central Europe to the $4 trillion oil fields of the Caspian Sea. He pointed out that this fight will lead to more and more wars, and that eventually the U.S. rulers will re-institute the draft, affecting working class and college students. He explained that the way to fight imperialist war is build the communist PLP. Marching on May Day is a good way to begin to build that movement for a world without racism, fascism and exploiting capitalists.

The students raised many interesting points and important questions. In discussing the attitudes of the typical Harvard student towards the NATO war, the students pointed out that at a recent forum on Kosovo held by the Harvard Institute of Politics, nearly all of the panelists strongly supported the war and even called for an invasion with ground troops. They noted that one of the most ardent supporters of a ground war in Kosovo was a representative of a "human rights" organization. However, they said most of their friends did not believe the U.S. was bombing Yugoslavia for "humanitarian" reasons.

Everyone at the discussion agreed that war was inevitable under imperialism, and the discussion turned to the questions of war and revolution. Some asked if war would continue after a communist revolution, and whether or not communism could eventually end war. PLP members explained the difference between revolutionary war and imperialist war and that as long as there capitalism anywhere on earth both types of wars will continue.

We finished with a discussion of communism (dictatorship of the proletariat, communist relations, etc.). One self-criticism was that we did not discuss what concrete actions we could take at Harvard to oppose the war. However, when we asked the students who came to the discussion if they would pass out a PLP leaflet against the bombing of Yugoslavia. One student agreed and did pass out the leaflet with us that week at Harvard Yard.

We built for this PLP sponsored discussion by announcing it in class and at meetings of several Harvard student groups. It helped us build for May Day at Harvard. Two students may come to the May Day March in D.C. We are currently working on getting a resolution against the NATO war in Yugoslavia endorsed by several different Harvard student groups.

Seize The Opportunity To Fight Against Imperialist War

Give Soldiers Communist Leadership!

Dear Challenge:

I am a soldier in the Reserves. This weekend when I went to drill I knew the bombing of Kosovo would give me an opportunity to raise the Party’s ideas. I hoped to use it to discuss the real nature of U.S. imperialism. The combination of the army’s disarray and the world situation made for an interesting weekend.

Most of the soldiers I talked to do not want to go to Kosovo. As of now my unit is not going but we still spent the weekend writing wills. So who knows? Many soldiers distrust the army so much they think we’re going even though the company commander insists that we’re not.

My fellow soldiers asked me how I felt about going to Kosovo. I told them that I knew war would break out within the time that I enlisted because this system inevitably leads to war. I said I would fight and die for something I believed in but this war was not mine. One soldier said, "But don’t you think that what Milosevic is doing is wrong?" I said the same thing is going on in Turkey where they are expelling all the Kurds and the U.S. government could care less. It is about oil and profits¾ two things I am not willing to fight and die for.

Although none of us completely understands all the ins and outs of the sharpening imperialist rivalries exemplified by the shifting alliances of the countries within NATO, we do see that this war is not in our interests. I spoke with one soldier for the entire bus ride home. He made clear the horrors he faces every day as a young black worker. He sees no future for himself. As he described it, "The success rate of young black men is next to nothing."

When he goes to look for a job he already has two strikes against him. But at the job he has now his boss’s constant racial epithets got so bad he eventually had to quit. He is afraid he will end up in jail or dead. His frankness about capitalism renewed my courage to fight for communism within the army.

I agreed that yes it is definitely worse to grow up black in this country. But whites live in the same constant terror that they will lose their jobs. They may have a little more, but ultimately they are beholden to their boss and must sell their labor power in order to survive. White people cannot tell their boss to go fuck themselves, either. He agreed.

Then he asked, "Don’t you think it is harder if you know the truth?" I responded, "No, because then you do not blame yourself if you don’t ‘make it’ ." Also you can fight to change things. He said, "I am not Martin Luther King. I don’t have the energy to change the whole world by myself" I said, "Martin Luther King did not change the whole world by himself That is just how they make it seem." He would not be alone in this fight but would rely on other soldiers to help him.

Then my friend said, "I think that having a car, food and apartment is a necessity. I think I deserve the essentials of life. I should not have to work myself to death in order to get them." I agreed. I said, "Everyone should get what they need. That’s communism. People would be satisfied with that." He responded, "I think people would still kill each other over sneakers and cars." I said, "I did not think black workers would. Their self-esteem would no longer ride on how fancy their clothes or their car was." Black workers would get the respect they deserve under communism. The conversation ended with my friend saying, "I don’t not want to go to Kosovo because I could go over there and get wounded and come back with only a bleak future to look forward to." He explained the main contradiction of the U.S. Army.

As the two top officers in my company battled it out this weekend it showed me that the army is having problems providing leadership to the troops. On the other hand, they are successfully bombing the hell out of Serbian workers. Still it is an opportunity for us to step up our efforts to give some political leadership to the soldiers. I have developed close ties with about four soldiers who I hope will grow into a discussion group. They all have strengths and weaknesses and I try to be objective and not get discouraged. All of them are anti-racist Army haters who face the oppression of this system. I won’t let them die for this rotten system without a fight. So if I must go to Kosovo, I will seize the opportunity.

Red Soldier

Raising The War In The United Steel Workers Union

Dear Challenge:

I had time to jot down a rough draft of what I wanted to say. I tried to prepare myself to be the first on the floor when the union meeting opened up. But it didn’t work out that way. There was a report and some discussion about forced overtime, with the Local president actually trying to show us that by meeting the company’s demands, we could "teach them a lesson."

When the time came I said, "I’d like to say something about the war in the Balkans." The vice president of the Local said, "I’m out of here," and rose to leave, but didn’t. I continued. "Anybody else got an opinion? I got a boy in the army and it looks to me like it is the Middle East war getting bigger. They are bombing oil refineries and pipelines, and saying these are attacks on the Yugoslavian army. But this is directed against the Russians and other U.S. competitors for Middle East oil."

"Also, there is a USWA strike at the Newport News shipyard, Local 8888. I haven’t seen anything in the local press about it." I asked the Local president if he knew about it. "NO," he said, but he knew that they had a big fight there two-three years ago. I said, "Top pay for a mechanic is $14 an hour, and pensions are only $500 a month. Maybe by the next meeting we can learn more about it, because it is pretty powerful that workers are on strike at a nuclear aircraft carrier shipyard when a war is going on."

The vice president was the only one to respond. She said, "I have all my family there (Yugoslavia), and we shouldn’t be there. I’m sorry your son is there." I said that my son was stationed in the U.S. Nobody else spoke, since she spoke with such authority.

A little later, the guy next to me leaned over and said, "So you think this is about oil?" I said that all the pipelines that bring oil to Europe, about 25% of all they get, has got to come across the Balkans. The people on the ground may be fighting because they are Albanians or Serbs, but the U.S. is there for oil.

After the meeting, I spoke to the president briefly about getting more info on the Newport News strike. He showed little interest. I wanted to try to speak to the vice president, but she was in several other conversations. I didn’t want to interrupt, and I didn’t wait very long. But as I left she called out, "Good Bye, John." I should find out more about the strike, and go to next Friday’s union meeting.

GI Dad

PLP Teachers Fight Pro-War UFT Hacks

NEW YORK CITY, April 16 — "I demonstrated against apartheid in South Africa for 25 years, and no matter how many were killed there, the U.S. never bombed South Africa. This war isn’t about human rights, it’s about oil pipelines through the Balkans; it’s for Exxon-Mobil, the largest company in the world."

That was one delegate’s response to the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) leadership’s resolution supporting the bosses’ war at the union’s citywide Delegate Assembly (DA) on April 14th. This delegate warned UFT boss Randi Weingarten she would be held responsible for sending our kids, "our students to fight and die in this war."

The Weingarten leadership is following the national teacher unions¾ the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association¾ in supporting Clinton’s bombing. A delegate who is in PLP presented an anti-imperialist resolution prior to the leadership’s, which read, in part, "We oppose any ethnic cleansing or atrocities against workers anywhere in the world"; this war is "about U.S. geopolitical concerns including control of Mid-Eastern and Caspian Sea oil...and could easily lead to a larger ground war which would pit worker against worker...fighting for the imperialists’ oil. We resolve that the UFT condemn the bombing and a larger ground war and condemn President Feldman [national AFT boss] for...giving our support to an imperialist war. Our class should never take sides in struggles among imperialists."

Of course, after the leadership signaled its opposition to this resolution, it was overwhelmingly defeated, but many delegates did not vote at all.

Then, six minutes before the meeting was adjourned and many delegates had already left the hall, the leadership’s pro-war resolution was trotted out. They allowed only one speaker for and one against. Weingarten brushed off a delegate asking for postponement of such an important issue until the next meeting, especially since there was no quorum. She answered this Challenge by declaring her "visual estimate" indicated there was a quorum—but it was clear to everyone else that there was nowhere near the required 580 delegates present.

Although the motion passed overwhelmingly, a significant number of delegates voted against it and another significant amount did not vote at all. Many delegates were really furious about the leadership ramming their resolution to support the war down our throats. This anger opens the way for the Party’s members and friends to build a bigger movement against the leadership, against the war and for communism.

Union Leaders Teaching Method ¾ Illusion And Lies

Aside from a discussion about charter schools, it was business as usual at the DA. But business as usual for the UFT leadership means trying to win us to fascism by supporting racist standards, more cops in the schools and more cops on the streets—in fact, trying to help build a new alternative school aimed at turning some of our kids into cops!

Many members—both delegates and teachers in our schools—have the illusion that the UFT is leading the way for all that is good. In fact, many of the delegates who voted for the resolution were convinced by the lies of Weingarten and the other bosses that "the war is to prevent a new holocaust from happening," and that workers need to do something about it. The ruling class uses the "do-the-right-thing" line to convince workers to support and fight in their wars.

Meanwhile, the leadership is building for the May 12 New Century Movement Labor Rally. This rally for health care, "livable" wages while public education ignores the sharpest attacks on the working class—imperialist war and police terror. The UFT union leadership, wolves in sheep’s clothing, is actively supporting the racist police and imperialist war. This contradiction between what they say and what they do points out just which side they’re on—the bosses’ side.

We’ve just begun to meet regularly in a UFT collective to build this work on a local level. We need to bring our friends from our schools to these citywide meetings in far greater numbers than we have before. Our collective is planning a petition campaign in local schools against the UFT pro-war endorsement and will organize union members to attend the next DA with those petitions to Challenge it. We are also organizing to bring collective members to the May 12 New Century demonstration around the Party’s ideas and to come to May Day. How many come will be one barometer of our progress.

Our Minimum Line: Anti-Capitalism

Sometimes those of us who are involved in mass work in reform organizations, and who aren’t all that open about our Party membership—except to our base—wonder what the "bottom line" should be when we speak up. A recent experience suggests that the very minimum we should put forward is anti-capitalism; anything less than this is "tailing the masses" and indeed will make it harder to win our base to our politics.

For several years I’ve been doing political work in a mass organization that takes welfare "repeal" and Workfare as central issues. Recently I attended a public speak-out on these questions; I was in the company of a good friend, a helluva fighter, but somewhat skeptical about the openness of rank-and-file people to communist ideas.

At the hearing, a local hack, African-American politician wept all sorts of crocodile tears about the stiff Challenges facing unemployed people "trying to make the transition from welfare to work" (glorifying the bosses’ scheme to drive millions into what is essentially slave labor).

When he finished speaking, he went to the back of the room, preened himself in front of TV cameras and grinned with the town mayor for a few photo-ops, and left—never to return. Then speaker after speaker spoke; they were mostly mothers and grandmothers who have been brutally sanctioned under the new welfare rules, and who face homelessness and hunger. My friend spoke out eloquently and angrily against the racism, sexism, and callousness of those administering the welfare "reform," pointing out that there is big money to be made by some from the poverty of others.

When I spoke, I jettisoned some of the more reform-oriented things I was going to say and instead introduced myself as an "unreconstructed sixties radical" who, out of three decades of struggle against inequalityand injustice (liberal terms, I know), was convinced that situations such as those described by the other speakers spring from the very nature of the capitalist system. I talked about the falsity of the bosses’ claims about the "thriving economy." I remarked upon the changing nature of the welfare system, which supplied a reserve army of unemployed to the capitalists but is now a source of slave labor. I mentioned the link between Workfare and the escalation of prisons, noting the ominous parallel between current bosses’ talk about "personal responsibility"’ and the slogan "Work Makes You Free" emblazoned over the Nazi death camps like Auschwitz. I asked whether the capitalist system that breeds these evils deserves to exist and got a standing ovation!

I also blasted the hypocrisy of the hack politician who had expressed such contempt for the audience by walking out before even one person had begun to speak. As it turns out, the mass activity that will flow from this event will focus on the politician. With members of other local and neighborhood organizations, we’ll be picketing his headquarters in what will be the first step in a campaign to expose the brutality of the welfare sanctions. No doubt liberal rather than communist politics will supply the motivation, at least initially for most people’s participation: they’ll be calling for "honest" "accountable" representation in the State capital. But the fact that anti-capitalist politics have been raised from the outset makes it possible—indeed necessary¾ to continue this systemic critique. And since the logical conclusion of this critique is that capitalism has to be replaced with something else—communism—the way is open for discussing the Party with lots of people.

What lessons have I learned from this incident? First, that people are ready and eager to view the current barbarities as part of a system antagonistic to their most basic needs—indeed, that many of them already possess such a view. Second, that NOT raising anti-capitalism would have been to lag behind where in fact lots of people already’ are. Third, that many people nonetheless do not connect the critique of capitalism as a "economic" system with the analysis that it is a "class" system ruling through the bosses’ state—hence the ease with which many people condemn capitalist exploitation at one moment and call for electing more responsible officials at the next moment. Fourth, that the base of people with whom we are working, will themselves get an expanded view of revolutionary possibility when our anti-capitalist analyses meets with an enthusiastic reception. My skeptical friend is going to march with us on May Day.

As we unreconstructed radicals used to say in the sixties, dare to struggle, dare to win.

Movie Review

Hitler Youth In America Revisited

Dear Challenge:

A recently released video, "American History X," starring Edward Norton, nominated for an Oscar as best actor for his portrayal of a neo-Nazi skinhead in this film, gives a rather disturbing portrayal of this phenomenon in capitalist America. But is it an accurate portrayal?

Norton’s character is an intelligent white youth from a working class family in which the father delivers sermons on the evils of Affirmative Action. Norton’s character, it seems, was taking a literature course from a black teacher who had him reading Richard Wright’s famous American classic, Native Son. After telling his father about this, the father goes into a tirade about the lies that his teacher might be telling him.

The father is killed by a black man while putting out a fire. This sends Norton’s character off the edge and he hooks up with an older white supremacist and Nazi (someone like Ted Metzger of the White Aryan Resistance) who fills his head with ideas about how blacks, immigrants, Jews, the INS, and others are "destroying America for hard working white people."

Norton’s character is sent out to win others to the cause, and with his well-rehearsed diatribe, convinces many to join and then to ransack a store owned by Asians. Later, he kills some black youth while they robbing his car. His younger brother sees the hideous brutality of his brother’s actions, but still follows in his footsteps.

Norton character is sent to jail for manslaughter and becomes friends with a black inmate. After his release from prison, he is a changed man who tries to win his brother from the Nazi philosophy. He also confronts the man behind the movement, a manipulative loser preying on youth, and ends up beating him up and threatening his life.

He immediately becomes the target of the skinhead movement which attempts to kill him while screaming "Race Traitor." Later he tells his brother of his prison experiences and why he has changed.

Then the real tragedy occurs. His younger brother is shot to death by a young black male while in the school bathroom. The movie ends with him clutching his dead brother’s bloody corpse crying, "What have I done?"

The movie depicts practically every black youth as criminals or gang members and prone to violence. Even when Norton’s character kills the black youth, he does so in the middle of a robbery.

Norton’s rantings about what is going wrong with America is far too intelligent for a neo-Nazi skinhead. The guy cites statistics on how many convicted felons the INS allowed into the country, defends the police and claims Rodney King was a felon on drugs who threatened the police and that the camera missed this. He rants and raves that poverty has nothing to do with ghetto rebellions or with the problems of blacks and Latins and that they just want to loot. He says that white Europeans came here and were able to make it.

Now I have been in many confrontations with Nazi skinheads and they just ain’t all that smart. Their views expressed on the Internet are extremely shallow and pure racist trash.

Also, the fact that this guy can change so rapidly from such an ideological fascist to a liberal is not that impressive and leaves you wondering what he plans to do about the problem of Nazism and fascism in the U.S.

Also, his rantings are left unanswered. His ideas are never confronted while he is a Nazi, therefore some people may identify with his views, especially those who lack class consciousness and are looking for answers. Actually, most of his views could have been heard at Republican or Democratic Party debates minus the racial epithets.

Also, the film turns reality on its head when it has a black youth killing a white skinhead. In reality there have been many killings of blacks and others by neo-Nazi skinheads in recent years. None were done because the black person was committing a robbery. I know of no instance where a young black has shot a white skinhead in school. And why end the film with that? What lesson are people supposed to learn from this?

In essence, the film has some positive aspects but could also be viewed as dangerous. But a communist view of fascism exposes to people that these groups are bred by the class-divided capitalist system in crisis and can only be defeated by smashing capitalism. But the film is quite popular and many people are renting it. So I think that it deserves some discussion.

Red Rocker

Challenge Comments:

"Intelligence" has little to do with being a fascist. Goering, Hitler’s second in command, had a genius IQ rating. Hundreds of thousands of German intellectuals¾ designers, mathematicians, physicists, etc.) were fascists. They helped build the crematoriums, tanks, planes, etc. Teachers can be fascists too. Here in the U.S. professors are pushing theories "proving how inferior" working class black and Latins are.

One of the strengths of the film is actually how Norton’s character changes from being a neo-nazi. Through the course of his prison term he learns from practical life¾ working alongside his black inmate¾ that the racist ideas he learned are contradicted. He finds in the hostile environment of prison his only friend and comrade is a young black inmate and the white supremacists are hypocrites.

Lastly, the movie is dangerous because it says that you should work with the police to get rid of these racist nazis whose ideas are based on the abstract notions of "hate" and "ignorance." The ideas come from the fascist system of capitalism that helps to divide and conquer the working class.

Bus Captains Meeting Inspires Building For May Day

NEW YORK CITY, April 21 — Recently PLP’s northern Manhattan section committee held an expanded meeting to complete our May Day plans. It was the BEST bus captain’s meeting I’ve ever been to! We let ourselves celebrate because, despite weaknesses, we have been able to forge ties with many workers and students; we have participated actively in class struggle; and our May Day numbers will surely reflect this committed activity in important ways.

Particularly inspiring is the work of a high school teacher. He has won many of his relatively young students to Challenge police brutality and racist psychiatric testing, as well as to blanket the neighborhoods with May Day stickers and raise the event with their family and friends. And work in a church and its soup kitchen is going well. All this makes the future—as well as the present—bright.

Our May Day planning meeting was disrupted by a racist police sweep that jailed two friends of the party for 28 hours. We are channeling our fury at this outrage toward asking still more people to march with us.

The chief weakness emerging is that we have not yet guaranteed that the party itself function regularly (separate from the mass organizations we work in) in a way that answers questions of newer friends and involves them direct1y with members. This will make joining and building the party the central effort we are all engaged in. The sharpening reality of imperialist war has been confronted well in the section, in some mass organizations and with some agitational work. Only PLP has convincing answers posed by this historical stage of imperial decline and conflict! We must use this May Day success to move ahead toward a much more developed plan for expanded party organization and consolidation.

Comradely,

Red Churchmouse

Letters

Worker/Student Alliance Must Fight Against Imperialist War

Dear Challenge:

Over the weekend, members of PLP attended a Student Labor Relations Conference held at Stanford University (with similar ones at Harvard, Yale, and Kent State). I went to the Stanford Conference from UCLA, and met up with Bay Area students from PLP. Our goal was to politicize and hopefully radicalize the students attending the conference about the labor movement and its revolutionary implications. We planned to basebuild and organize for the May Day March in San Francisco

While the conference itself was unsurprising, the weekend was beneficial in terms of organizing. Several times PLP students were able raise communist perspective in addressing panels and the audiences responded well, especially in the anti-sweatshop discussion. I met people from the Bay Area who told me they respected my emphasis on revolution as opposed to reform. I was able to get contacts with other progressive students with whom I will work at UCLA against sweatshop labor.

Since I was leaving Stanford the next morning, student organizers asked me talk about the conference. At a late night discussion, they asked people to introduce themselves and say what their vision was. I responded with my vision of social revolution, and some people who had heard me speak about communism during the day applauded. I collected names and numbers of people who I invited to May Day, and with whom I plan to keep in touch. In particular, one student organizer from Madison arranged to meet me at UC Berkeley the weekend after May Day for a three day grassroots organizing conference, which will hopefully be less controlled by the AFL-CIO.

The idea at the conference was to launch a nationwide network, which will respond to injustices on any campus. For example, if the janitors’ struck at UCLA there would be nationwide protests on all the participating campuses in solidarity.

This network should organize nationwide actions against the war. I raised the war in conversations with people, showing that it was about control of oil and oil pipelines. When a reporter asked some of us why there wasn’t a response to the war at this conference, I told him that it’s being intentionally muted by the AFL-CIO. Over the weekend, we were able to leaflet, sell Challenge, and struggle with students. Most importantly, we expanded a student base who both want to work in solidarity with labor and who respect advanced left, communist politics.

UCLA Revolutionary

Milosevic: Little Fascist; Nato: Big Fascists

Dear Challenge:

The U.S.-led NATO war against Yugoslavia is being justified by a "humanitarian" action because it is aimed at stopping "a new Hitler," Milosevic. Some people are confused by this, and actually believe that Milosevic could become as dangerous as Hitler was. So I want to explain a few things about Milosevic, endorsing the idea put forward by Challenge that he is a little fascist compared to the big fascists in NATO and the Pentagon.

First of all, Milosevic rules over a very small and poor country, with some 10 million people, the size of New York City or London’s metropolitan area. Even if he wanted to, he could never play ball with the big fascists like Hitler, Clinton, Tony Blair, etc.

Another point made by the U.S./NATO and the major media is that Milosevic was a communist and somehow remains one. Well, let’s first say that when Yugoslavia was ruled by Tito and called itself a socialist federation, it was very anti-Soviet. The U.S. and West Germany built Tito as a bulwark against the Soviet Union beginning with the Cold War. First they helped Tito break with Stalin and later invested heavily in Yugoslavia.

Milosevic had very little to do with communism. From 1978-82, Milosevic was director of a major bank in Belgrade. He was also head of the "Milosevic Commission," which in May 1988 endorsed all the IMF proposals to impose heavy austerity measures against workers to pay the billions Yugoslavia owed to imperialist banks. Milosevic was then loved by those who bomb Yugoslavia today, those who considered him a follower of the Pinochet fascist model imposed on the working class of Chile.

Finally, "ethnic cleansing" is not something unique to Milosevic in the Balkans. When Germany, the Vatican and the U.S. decided that Milosevic was no longer useful to them, they promoted the break-up of Yugoslavia, endorsing in 1991 the secession of Croatia and Slovenia. The wars that followed saw "ethnic cleansing" on all sides, and 700,000 Serbians were kicked out of their homes in Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia, etc.

The biggest case of "ethnic cleansing" before the present took place in 1995, with the full support of the U.S. On March 21, 1999, a few days before the bombing began, the NY Times reported: "The August 1995 Croatian offensive, which drove some 100,000 Serbs from a large swath [a section] of Croatia over four days, was carried out with the tacit blessing of the U.S. by a Croatian army that had been schooled in part by a group of retired American military officers."

The article also said that an international war crimes tribunal in The Hague "concluded that the Croatian Army carried out summary executions, indiscriminate shelling of civilian populations and ‘ethnic cleansing’ during a 1995 assault that was a turning point in the Balkan wars."

The tribunal was recommending the indictment of three Croatian generals. But as the Times said: "Any indictment of the Croatian Army generals could prove politically troublesome for the Clinton Administration, which has a delicate relationship with Croatia, an American ally in preserving the peace in Bosnia with a poor human rights record."

Again, when the imperialists talk about humanitarianism, workers better look some place else for answers. Challenge is that some place else.

An Aspiring Red Historian

Hopes Baseball Will Continue Under Communism

Dear Challenge:

My hope is that when the workers’ dictatorship exists, baseball as played in the major leagues now, will also exist. Money won’t be an issue but this kind of excitement will be. There is a comrade who kids me about my continuing interest in the game especially after I sort of renounced the professional game over 20 years ago. But I notice that he, too, analyzes the players with intensity and rates which teams are good and which are not even as he disdains my interest.

Certainly the workers love this game. Someone once said, "Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America, he had better learn baseball, its rules and realities both at the top and at high school and small town levels".

Within this concept lay the elements of competition and excellence. Here I feel like I’m in dangerous political territory. But I stand my ground. Competition has not been shown to be bad in itself. Lenin and Stalin both called for it in building the first workers’ dictatorship, though not in sports. They both also wanted excellence in the area of productivity.

Sports is a virgin field for me when I say I don’t just want players joyfully holding hands during or after the games under the dictatorship of the workers. I don’t think I know how baseball will be when that time comes. I also don’t think that the Party will be able to decide by decree how the game should be played nor how competitive or excellently the players will develop.

We know that sports has greatly changed as the modes of production have changed. No longer do they throw the Christians to the lions. But for me it would be a great loss if there will be no umpire calling out, "Play ball" to start off the new season and I am sure that millions of workers and many communists agree with me.

A New Yorker After The Season Has Begun

Art And Revolution

Dear Challenge:

Like two sentinels Picasso’s Guernica and The Charnel House mark the beginning and the end of "1937-1945, Picasso and the War Years," a current exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum.

Guernica, Picasso’s most famous work, painted in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War, expresses his horror at the bombing and annihilation of the Basque town of that name by German bombers¾ an act that in retrospect announced the carnage that was to come. The atrocities of Nazi concentration camps, which came to light at the end of World War II in 1945, inspired The Charnel House, a painting depicting the death of a family.

Picasso’s personalized symbolism makes it hard to interpret the imagery of these and the other paintings included in the exhibition without the help of the provided captions. The museum describes the work as revolutionary and Picasso as the most politically revolutionary painter of the 20th century. But the message of many of the 75 pictures in the show, which contain elements of misery—weeping women, tortured horses, deformed children and devastation—is of despair rather than fight back.

I came away from this exhibition with two questions; why is this considered revolutionary art and, since Picasso became a member of the French Communist Party in 1944, what is the role of a communist artist?

The first has an easy answer. The bourgeois art world has no interest in changing the status quo. Calling this group of Picasso’s paintings revolutionary poses no threat to their privileged position and helps their liberal image as supporters of the underdog. In addition, and maybe most importantly, finding a fresh aspect of a major artist’s work generates new interest and raises the price of this already high priced commodity.

Many well-known artists like Picasso, concerned with the fight against fascism, flocked to the Communist Party during the 1930’s, but the party demanded little of them. Hard to read imagery and desperation does not inspire the working class to fight for power. These paintings show how revolutionary artists need to be involved with the masses, be led by and be part of their most militant aspirations. As brilliant as Picasso’s work is, it serves no purpose other than to fill the pockets of the bosses.

As if to prepare us for another world war, we’re being bombarded with nostaligia for World War II; from movies like "Saving Private Ryan" and "The Thin Red Line" to TV news anchor man, Tom Brokaw’s book "The Greatest Generation." In "Picasso, The War Years" the chronological placing of pictures with the advance of the war is, at a time of rapidly escalating events in the Balkans, a sober reminder of how fast war spreads once set in motion; Germany bombed Spain in 1937, three years later it had spread across Europe and by 1942 had engulfed Asia and Africa.

Red Head