Challenge, Vol. 35, No. 37, May 12, 1999

WASHINGTON, DC, May 1 ž Communist politics led the way on May Day, 1999. From the pre-May Day organizing, to discussions on the buses to Washington, DC, to the speakers and singers, to the chants, to the response of marchers to each other and to onlookers, and to the response of onlookers to the march—it was communist ideas all the way.

The political leadership of the PLP is becoming stronger. Our members are steadily becoming more resolute. While the development of communist consciousness and practice is always uneven, the mass base of the Party is slowly digesting communist ideas and analysis. This was evident in both the heightened spirit and overall internal discipline of the march. Young people did a great job of leading security as many more youth donned red armbands to be marshals along the route.

Entering Malcolm X Park in Washington on a bright, sunny day we streamed in until we were 1,700 strong: industrial workers, factory workers, hospital workers, government and service workers, school workers, youth, soldiers, whole families, men, women and children of the working class. Workers from around the world united in a mighty thrust aimed at eliminating the horrors of capitalism with communist revolution.

The opening program was longer than in previous May Days because so many workers and youth were ready and eager to speak. We heard international greetings from the Progressive Labor Party in Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador and Mexico. Workers from Belgium and Guinea, West Africa, saluted the PLP on our May Day march in Washington, in unity with May Day marchers around the world.

Two Latin mothers from New York City spoke angrily and emotionally about their sons, one murdered viciously in Clinton-Dannemora prison in upstate New York and the other being currently beaten daily by Rikers Island prison guards in New York City. They denounced racist police terror and terror in the prisons of largely black and Latin young men. Along the route of the march they were embracedž their anguish and anger acknowledged. This was a movement where they belonged and which offered real hope through long term revolutionary struggle led by communist workers and youth, not opportunist capitalist politicians.

A bus driver from Washington, DC, spoke for those industrial workers and soldiers who didn’t have time to speak. We live in a period of war and fascism, a period in which industrial workers and soldiers must lead the entire working class. Denouncing the imperialist war for profit and oil in Yugoslavia, he called on everyone to join the PLP.

As the marchers lined up, enthusiasm mounted. Chants in English and Spanish filled the air as hundreds of red flags and many banners were unfurled: "Fight for Communism, Power to the Workers," "Workers of the World, Unite," "U.S.-NATO You Can’t Hide, We Charge You With Genocide," "Racist Police Terror Meansž Fight Back." Bullhorns passed back and forth as scores of workers and youth chanted and clapped until the very end, when we heard an inspiring rendition of The Internationale by the PLP chorus. Hundreds applauded, leaned from windows to greet us and joined the march. More than 1,000 onlookers received Challenge along the route.

"I’ve never seen anything like this," said the worker from Guinea. "This openly communist May Day march is inspiring, " added the worker from Belgium. "Thanks to you in PLP for organizing this wonderful event. I was honored to have the opportunity to speak today," one of the mothers said on the trip home. On a youth bus, six students joined the Party. On another bus two workers joined, while ten workers on yet another bus asked to be in study groups. As the full reports come in, the Party will be strengthened by scores of new members, study group participants and Challenge distributors. Then will come the challenging task of training and consolidating these new members and developing new leadership. Part of this must lead to creating future May Days that are five times as big.

Every year May Day tells us in PLP where we stand in the revolutionary process. "We’ve put ourselves in a better place," said a NYC welfare worker. We’re getting more entrenched in unions and mass organizations. We’re leading more class struggle, sometimes tentatively, sometimes boldly, while fighting to make communist analysis and communist ideas mass ideas. With practical experience we’re beginning to grasp what our line in Road to Revolution 4.5 is all about.

Political development is uneven. We have many weaknesses. But more members and friends are contributing on many levels. We are all treasures and our efforts are needed. There’s a long, difficult road ahead in the revolutionary process in this period of war and fascism. We will be equal to the task. May Day 1999 was led by communist politics. It is that communist consciousness that imbues us with confidence in the working class and the Progressive Labor Party and points the way forward.

San Francisco Salutes Spirited May Day Marchers

SAN FRANCISCO, May 1 ž This is the California capital of active liberalism, the home of marches, parades and candlelight vigils. Yet workers here stood first in awe, and then in appreciation of PLP’s May Day demonstration. A strong wind made the flags wave wildly but it was the reaction from the by-standers that fed the enthusiasm of the marchers. Led by high school youth the revolutionary chants were emphatic, clear and contagious!

"The last time I marched on May Day was 1947," an older observer told us, "but, I came here to see my daughter and granddaughter who were marching. I got to the meeting point early and was anxious because I could see no sign of the march. But when I saw the sea of red flags and heard the chants coming toward me my eyes filled with tears." She too joined the march.

"So many people joined the march!" a participant in the lead truck noted, "all along the route people came up to us to shake our hands in support and appreciation." Clenched fists saluted us from the sidewalk and as it stopped momentarily a carpenter, working on a nearby building three stories up, began beating out the rhythm. The marchers replied, chanting louder and louder.

Chanting "U.S. NATO-you can’t hide,. We charge you with genocide", and "Fight for Communism, Power to the Workers," about 500 workers and youth marched for communism today in San Francisco. The march took place in the face of fascist bombings and attacks. Most workers on the streets asked to buy Challenge bought it. There were groups of garment workers, AC transit drivers from Oakland and San Francisco, students from LA, aerospace workers from Seattle, farmworkers from Bakersfield, a group of workers who are members of the janitors’ union, and many more.

The opening speakers condemned a system that coddles fascists and showed that PLP is encouraging the leadership of youth who will not be stopped in fighting fascism. They pointed out that the will of the workers, from Yugoslavia to the U.S. is to refuse to fight for the imperialists. But we need a mass PLP fighting for revolution to impose that will.

The two sound trucks were led skillfully by young Party members who gave communist spirit and leadership to the march. As the march wound through San Francisco’s Mission district, many joined us. One observer who gave $2 for Challenge asked, "How do you get all these youth involved?" Greetings were read from Boeing workers, the Progressive Labor Party in Mexico, in El Salvador, in Colombia and in Ecuador; from soldiers, and from garment workers fighting in the bosses’ mass organizations to build the Party.

On buses returning LA, many joined the Party. Others agreed to be in study groups and to subscribe to Challenge. Even though we were exhausted from the long bus ride, the march and the excursion afterwards, one young woman worker summed things up when she got on the bus to come home. She chanted "Que viva comunismo!" Then she said "I’m joining the Party right now. Who else will join with me?" On another bus, a young man who came to his first march said he felt as if he were among family. Several youth stayed talking in the car on the way home about communism and building the Party—even though they had been up most of the night. A young worker who is active in a union campaign and brought a group of friends has plans for a study group to bring them into the Party.

Youth who sold Challenge for the first time were deeply affected by the great response they got. But, we could have been better organized to get more papers into the hands of more sellers so that more youth would have been inspired by the workers’ response to our communist paper and march. We’ll do better on this next year, as more of the workers and youth who were inspired by this march take the lead in building the next one!

Comrades In Ecuador Give Communist Leadership To May Day March

ECUADOR — On the morning of May 1st the sun was shining, as if it was smiling on workers celebrating our day and helping us remember that the future can only be bright if we use our power as workers to fight for something new, something better. May 1st was a day in which workers all over the world can see that they have the power to dump this rotten system and end the living hell of capitalism.

The job of PLP is to organize workers to realize that task. PLP comrades here gather on May Day to participate in the traditional May Day march organized by unions and other organizations. We couldn’t wait to be able to show to the tens of thousands of workers our revolutionary communist politics. Our group was very militant and willing to carry out our task as communists.

When the march began we chanted the Party’s slogans, and while the other organizations limited themselves to denouncing privatization of public enterprises, for lowering taxes, etc., PLP was the only one to call for communist revolution as the workers’ solution to the crisis of capitalism.

We handed out some 5,000 PLP leaflets and distributed Desafío-Challenges and filled the walls along the route of the march with May Day stickers and PLP graffiti calling on world’s workers to join us to organize against imperialist war and fight for communism.

The marchers who were near our contingent during the march followed our chants. It was wonderful to see how our red flags covered a good section of the march. We made some contacts with new people interested in our Party.

When the march reach its final destination, at the Santo Domingo Plaza, we held a little rally around our banners and flags. Our comrades gave great speeches, impressing many people who were a little amazed at our call for a communist society without bosses. Many asked us questions about communism, giving us a chance to expand on our vision of what we are fighting for.

After May Day, our Party work has grown and we are planning many more activities to win the many new friends we have made. The red flag of revolution is waving higher and prouder and nothing will stop us from making it the flag of all world’s workers.

Mexico City: Workers Wave PLP’s Red Flag

MEXICO CITY, May 1 ž "Advance—Advance—Communism will Triumph," "Communism and Revolution—the Best Education," "Communist Revolution Will End Imperialist War." These chants were sung out without a stop by the PLP contingent in the huge May Day march here, in which the struggle against the privatization of electrical energy and of UNAM took center stage.

The enthusiasm and slogans of our communist contingent motivated many workers to come to our area. Some of them joined our contingent. A worker who marched in another contingent asked us for one of our communist banners and then returned to march the entire length with his contingent while waving the red flag. A group of workers from another group lent us their bullhorn so that our chants could be heard better. They joined in our chants. In the contingent of UNAM student strikers, two students waved the red flags of PLP during the entire march.

In front of the U.S. embassy, we could be heard with great force, as we chanted, "Communist Revolution Will Smash Imperialist War." Thousands of students heard "Communism and Revolution—The Best Education" and "Barnes-Fascist—We Have You On The List." Many students raised their fists in support. The same thing happened with electrical workers from the union SME when they heard, "SME Listen, PLP Is With You, Struggle, Fight For Workers’ Power." They also joined in this chant.

From Chapultepec to the Zocolo capital, we chanted, "One Class, One Party, Workers of the World, Unite!" At the Zocolo we sang the communist anthem, The Internationale, ending our participation in the march.

Later, after the long day, a great meal revived us. Then we analyzed our activity. We felt we made an error in not having a banner attacking the imperialist war. We also said that our contingent was about the same size as last year. All who participated promised to work hard so that next year the Party will mobilize more people to march with us on May Day, when the working class and the Party review our forces. Ending our activities with this self-criticism helped make our work today a true communist activity.

PLP Marches In El Salvador On May Day

SAN SALVADOR ž A former member of the now defunct Communist Party of El Salvador, who is now a new friend of our Party, took a PLP leaflet at the May Day march, saying "This is for me. This is what I like. These are the real communists." Another worker said, "I saw a bus with workers who had banners with the hammer and sickle. Communism is not dead."

Thousands of workers marched this May Day through the main streets of San Salvador, 113 yeas after the heroic struggle of the workers in Chicago. The march condemned the NATO attacks on Yugoslavia and the current capitalist system in El Salvador and all over the world.

Many members of PLP participated in the march. Workers from the mountains of Morazan, in the eastern part of the country, to the cities in the western part of El Salvador, mobilized in buses and vans to go to San Salvador to celebrate this historic day for the working class. Many had to travel for 12 hours to carry out the Party’s plan to make May Day one of the most important days for the working class.

The walls of the city were painted with slogans like "Long Live Communism" "Long Live the PLP," "Communism will wipe fascism away!" Our red banners waved proudly. Four young people carried a banner with the slogan, "Youth Say, Fight for Communism. PLP." It was inspiring to see how the marchers opened up a space for these youth and the others with them to join the march, and to see youth and older people follow the Party’s lead. Our group was one of the few that marched in an orderly manner, in two columns behind our banner through the streets.

We passed out 3,000 Party leaflets and sold 650 Desafío-Challenges. The thousands of stickers caused a sensation. Workers who watched the march asked for our literature to learn the reasons behind the attacks on Yugoslavia since our leaflets and Desafío-Challenge gave a full explanation about the imperialist war in the Balkans and the crisis of capitalism in general. The stickers were put on cars, and many workers said, "I’m going to put this on the front door of my house."

In the month before the march, many unions, farm worker associations and other groups had the idea of organizing separate May Day activities in each area. Party members waged a struggle in these groups to join forces to have one march, since in unity there is the strength to fight our oppressors. It also offers communists an opportunity to build a mass revolutionary PLP to smash capitalism. Finally this suggestion was accepted and the organizations decided to concentrate the workers in a march in San Salvador.

Our presence as a Party is respected as the communist part of the march. Each year, we have advanced. We will continue to advance until we build a mass Party that takes power and installs the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Communist Politics Lead The Way

The following letters are from youth who participated in the May Day March in San Francisco

Dear Challenge:

The trip was quite pleasant as well as educational. I felt I was around people who were like my parents, who have worked and struggled throughout their lives to simply be able to eat and feed their children. Communism is part of the answer to all that this capitalist world has put us through for their own benefit. I felt this even though it was my first May Day March,

I knew exactly what message we were there to convey about the capitalist society. We are tired of working and seeing our families destroy their bodies to make this country richer. It was my first march, but I know it won’t be my last!

Revolutionary Student

Dear Challenge:

At first I was anxious when I went to San Francisco to see what communism was all about, and about Bill Clinton and Kosovo. The march was good because I think people had to recognize what we were talking about, that we as a group were making a point. I think PLP is positive and a good example to other groups. Overall, the trip was nice, enjoyable, and comfortable.

High School Student

Dear Challenge:

On May 1st I went to San Francisco to participate in the May Day March. I was very excited because it was the first PLP march I had participated in. I wanted to go to find out what it would be like to be part of the PLP. First we heard three speakers talking about the tragedies that were going on around the country and how the PLP knew it was wrong and that it could be prevented. Then we started marching. It was a learning experience for me because I would like to be a revolutionary and plan to find a group that I can dedicate myself to. We marched on the streets of San Francisco taking up seven or eight blocks filled with people marching on the streets. We chanted things like "Que Viva, Que Viva, Que Viva El Comunismo!" and "Policia, Cochina, Racista y Asesina!" These chants were foreign to my lips. At the end of the march, I understood the PLP and their purpose. It was very inspirational to see so many people marching for a good cause.

To me it seemed incredible. My conclusion was that to join PLP I would have to be very strong.

A High School Student

Challenge Comments: We find your letters indeed inspirational and are sincerely enthusiastic about your experiences at May Day. However, your conclusion that to join PLP, one must be strong, is putting the cart before the horse. It is by becoming a revolutionary in the PLP and joining the working class in the struggle for communism that make us strong.

Thrilled By May Day 1999

Dear Challenge:

Thank you President William J. Clinton. Thank you for the military fiasco in Bosnia. Thank you for America’s politics, thank you one and all. I want to offer thanks for one of the most truly enjoyable, inspirational and memorable weekends I have ever had in my life.

This past weekend my five-year-old daughter and myself were fortunate enough to join more than 1,700 comrades as participants in the annual May Day march in Washington, DC. This was the first May Day in Washington for us, and it has been a long time since I have truly enjoyed such a busy weekend.

We started by boarding the bus in Chicago Friday night, then traveled to Hammond, In., and another stop in Ohio to meet up with several other busloads of comrades. Then it was on to DC. During the night, we sang songs, practiced the chants, held discussions on the purpose of May Day, and watched the movie, "American History X." After stopping for breakfast, we spent the rest of the ride discussing the movie.

We arrived at Malcolm X Park, and waited several hours for the speakers to arrive and the march to begin. I was amazed at the swelling numbers of comrades who came from various cities to join us. After several inspirational speeches given by PLP representatives and guest speakers, we began our march on the White House.

At this stage in my life, very few things impress me anymore. But the gathering of comrades, banners and flags raised high as we prepared to march on the White House, thrilled me to my bones. It was truly a sight to see. The sun was shining brightly, the comrades waiting to begin the march, and the sea of red flags waving in the air was a scene I will not forget.

The best part of the march was the reaction from those who watched on the sidelines. It was encouraging, uplifting and downright thrilling to acknowledge the smiles, shouts and raised fists, from those who shared our enthusiasm and ideas. I was amazed at the sea of smiling and encouraging faces that surrounded us.

Once we made our statement in front of the White House, we retired to the park for a picnic with comrades from other cities. All too soon it was time to re-board our buses and head back to our respective homes to once again carry on the work of PLP. During the ride home our busload had the opportunity to give opinions and comments on the May Day march. I could not say enough about how much I enjoyed participating with my daughter.

Granted she is only five years old. But I truly believe that exposing her to the PLP, especially in this year’s May Day march, will hopefully be the start of a life-long tradition for her. She enjoyed herself so much that two days later she was singing May Day songs while taking a bath!

So, to my fellow comrades, thank you for inviting me to May Day. Thank you for making it so interesting and exciting, and thank you for your show of solidarity. I came away from this year’s May Day march with a renewed interest in PLP, a renewed determination to participate in more PLP activities, and a renewed enthusiasm in achieving our goals. Major demonstrations of solidarity such as this year’s May Day, will pull us all together in a united and solid determination to throw the yokes of capitalism off the necks of the working class and install the Progressive Labor Party as the future of this world.

Thrilled May Day Marcher

AC Workers Fight Fascist Terrorž March On May Day!

OAKLAND, CA, May 3 ž Today AC (Alameda Country) Transit workers in ATU Local 192 took a stand against fascism and racist terror when they voted overwhelmingly to send $200 to the family of Ricardo Close, the Los Angeles mechanic brutally murdered by LA County Sheriffs. This action was a surprise in one way. Ricardo’s co-workers were unable to come to Saturday’s May Day march in San Francisco and Monday’s union meetings as originally planned. So we thought it would have to wait until next month.

But in another way it wasn’t so much of a surprise that our recent efforts to struggle around communist ideas on the union floor and with co-workers around May Day would pay off. In April a PLP organizer spoke at all three membership meetings about May Day and the growth of fascismž reciting the story of Ricardo Close. We had sent posters for the union meeting to key workers at each division and letters to the union Executive Board requesting to be put on the agenda. The initial motion at the morning charter meeting was made not by our AC comrade but by a centrist union official. There is simmering anger against the racist violence of this society. Another driver had e-mailed union activists a short description of the book "An American Atrocity," which apparently uncovers a secret massacre of black soldiers in 1943 in Mississippi.

The only "opposition" to the Ricardo Close motion came at the evening meeting from a friend who said $200 was not enough! In addition to this victory five AC drivers and six other friends and family, including an activist in the bus riders union, marched on May Day.

Greek Sailors Refuse To Fight In Yugoslavia

GREECE ž Opposition to the war in Yugoslavia is growing throughout Europe. In Greece, which is considered key for any landed invasion of Kosovo, protests against the war are daily. On April 29th, 200 British trucks carrying military vehicles, were pelted with fruits and vegetables after demonstrators moved NATO road signs to redirect the convoy into an outdoor market in the port of Thessaloniki. A few hours earlier, demonstrators had blocked rail lines to stop a train carrying 72 British tanks and 31 light armored vehicles going to Macedonia from Thessaloniki. Unions have called a rail strike to stop the transportation of weapons to the war.

Sailors of the Greek destroyer Themistoklis openly refused to be sent to participate in NATO activities. The first sailor to refuse was Nikos Gardikis and he was followed by sailor Antonis Patsoulas. The mother of Patsoulas also wrote a statement calling upon her son not to participate in NATO maneuvers.

Sailor Gardikis wrote an open letter to fellow sailors, stating in part: "The oral announcement about the preparation of the ship to sail for the Adriatic sea caused great concern to the ship’s crew and me. As far as I am concerned, I think that this mission, since it is included in the command and in the framework of the various enterprises of NATO against Yugoslavia is a violation of the international agreements and the UN resolutions, but even of the so-called defense nature of NATO…Anyway, no one asked me if I want to go out of my country’s borders, if I want to be under NATO command and their orders…I oppose becoming an ally in the crime of the slaughter of the Yugoslavian people, which is being done by the terrorists of the USA, NATO and the European Union…"

The opposition of this sailor is based on legalistic and even nationalist terms, but it shows the potential of organizing soldiers and sailors in the bosses’ army to fight against imperialist war. History from World War I to the Vietnam war has shown that whenever the imperialists go to war, the workers inside the armed forces, given revolutionary leadership, can be won to turn the guns around and fight to smash the warmakers.

Making The Connections

WASHINGTON, DC, May 1 ž Our bus ride down to Washington for this year’s May Day march had one of the better political discussions in recent memory. Many of the riders, both young and old, participated. Many of us had not made been able to make sense of the flood of significant events that have just taken place, i.e. the bombing of Yugoslavia, police terror in NYC/New Jersey/LA, etc., and the junior Nazis in Littleton.

On the way down, one Party member talked about how the capitalist system itself forces workers to compete against each other because there is pressure on each individual boss to take factories and investments to the areas where labor is the cheapest. Another member pointed out that the main trend in the world today is the sharpening competition between bosses from different countries, and that this trend is leading to war, world war, and worldwide fascism.

As Party members offered this political leadership other riders on the bus started making connections of their own. One worker from a neighborhood group we are active in said he was beginning to see how the political issues that the Party raises are related to the every day problems of life. Another worker from a union put it succinctly: "If we kill all the bosses, we’ll all be connected."

The discussion on the way back was also good. We talked about the things that hinder people from joining the Party. The worker from the neighborhood group said he wasn’t a "joiner." But he agreed to distribute Challenge on a more regular basis, and said he would think about coming to meetings.

A student voiced concerns about violence, and wasn’t sure that some blacks and Latins weren’t partly responsible for their own problems. Many workers and a student, both Party and non-Party, came forward to sharply, but patiently struggle with her (and others) on these questions. Some speakers pointed out that it racism, unemployment and drugs (all caused by the capitalist system) that lead to the deterioration of living conditions in neighborhoods. Another speaker eloquently pointed out how under capitalism, each of us is trained to be racist against one particular group in society.

A weakness on the NJ buses was that we brought few people from the mass organizations that Party members work on. We have to improve our style of work to change that mistake to really become a mass revolutionary Party. Nevertheless, we are making plans now to try to increase our activity in the coming period, work with people on many different levels and bring more people next year. All in all, May Day was a positive experiencež a beginning step in this revolutionary process.

May Day In Colombia

SF DE BOGOTÁ — The crisis of capitalism has hit the working class here very hard, causing some 2 million workers unemployed. The anger at these attacks was a reason why May Day became one of the most massive in recent history, with over 100,000 marchers. PLP participated in this march, distributing over 3,000 leaflets that denounced the imperialist nature of the war in Yugoslavia. It is very important for workers in Colombia to understand the nature of this war, since the opportunist left here only talks about peace and demanding reconciliation between the guerrillas here and the bourgeoisie.

At the march PLP brought a message to striking teachers and health care workers that the best lesson they can learn from their struggles is to turn these strikes into schools for communism and to understand that workers will be attacked and exploited as wage slaves as long as there is capitalism.

Our participation in the trade union May Day march made our newer and more experienced members more determined to build PLP. Our communist banner shone in the middle of a sea of reformist signs We sold hundreds of Desafíos and could have given out more leaflets but we did not bring enough since we underestimated the amount of workers who would march. At first, we were a little passive, but as workers began welcoming our propaganda more and more, we got bolder.

May Day showed us that workers are looking for revolutionary alternatives to the hell of capitalism and that we in PLP can become a mass Party to offer that alternative.

May Day Greetings From Dominican Republic And Haiti

Comrades from the Dominican Republic and Haiti sent May Day greetings to the marchers on Washington, DC. Unfortunately, the greetings arrived too late to be read at the march. We are printing the greeting from Haiti:

Our warmest greetings and support from this small country where the working class is being called on to join the international PLP, to build the Party we all need.

Conditions to celebrate May Day in Haiti are very harsh, because the lives of workers are worth nothing to the bosses. But we are gathering with some workers to discuss articles in Desafío-Challenge in order to get to know PLP better and win some workers to communist revolution.

We are very glad to welcome the visit of a Party leader, who informed us about the PLP activities in the U.S., Mexico, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Colombia and Ecuador. We wish you all the luck in your May Day in Washington, in the belly of the beast.

Friends of PLP in the Republic of Haiti

Research On Youth Violence Exposed At Public Health Forum

CHICAGO, April 14 ž As their bombs wreak havoc in Serbia, the capitalist scientists keep telling us black kids are genetically "violent." Does this sound crazy to anybody else? The hysterical headline in the Chicago Tribune a few years back announced the idea: "Genes of aggression found." Were they studying the Air Force?

Even after years of ruling class propaganda, ranging from crude popularization like the Tribune series, to highly sophisticated papers in Science magazine and other elite scientific journals, many workers and professionals can see through the bogus line of the bosses. About 40 health workers, students and professionals attended a forum at the University of Illinois School of Public Health to hear presentations critical of racist research and to discuss the issue. Racism and poverty were cited as causes of violent behavior. Genetic theories were debunked. One speaker related the global economic crisis and escalating war to the rulers’ need for stronger methods of social controlž more police and jails. These measures, in turn, require ideological justification, like the racist theory of "genes of aggression."

A nursing instructor described how a panel of black professionals and community representatives had seen through a research proposal four years ago when their cooperation was needed. The teacher related, "The researchers had credentials from Harvard and their protocol was so polished and impressive, but we said, ‘Why are they funded by the Justice Department? Doesn’t that tell us what this is leading to?’ We knew it meant just finding justification for locking up young black men, so we refused to sign off on it. They had to stop."

At one point in the discussion a nurse from the Cook County Hospital Trauma Unit criticized the organizers of the forum for being too one-sided. "There’s only one point of view presented here. I’m afraid to disagree." Several people encouraged her to present her disagreement for discussion, and she finally did. "I’m not hearing anything about individual responsibility. Sure, some people have it tough. Well I grew up in a poor neighborhood, too. Don’t parents have a responsibility to teach their children to respect others?"

The reply came from a black high school student whose T-shirt bore a red star with the inscription, "Fight for Communism." With the poise of an experienced public speaker he proceeded to recount the disruption and humiliation caused by police "sweeps" in his high school. "They push people around and pat us down like we are all criminals. This puts people on edge and all day there is a tendency for fights to break out among the students. The cops really are causing violence in my school." The respectful way in which this young comrade described being disrespected by the cops caused the nurse to reconsider some of her assumptions. It was the high point of the afternoon.

We ran overtime but no one seemed ready to leave, despite the next class peering in from the hallway. "I know it’s time to quit but you have to answer one more question. What are we going to do about all this?"

The nursing student’s question was promptly answered by the contingent of high school comrades who took that cue to pass out May Day leaflets to all the participants.

The forum was very useful in combining the talents of several friends and sympathizers with the sharp analysis of active PLP comrades. One May Day bus ticket was purchased on the spot, a second was promised and several others agreed to attend a May Day dinner the following weekend. This was an important step forward in our organizing among health and hospital workers in Chicago.

Comrades In Ecuador Give Communist Leadership To May Day March

PLP Paints San Salvador Red

Rockefeler’s Clinton Vs Russia’s Yeltsin

Bosses’ Bloody Balkans

The Clinton-NATO air war over Yugoslavia has been a disaster. Its only "success" has been murdering and terrorizing civilians. Milosevic’s release of three prisoners after Jesse Jackson’s trip is no U.S. victory. In fact, the trip underscores how badly this military adventure has weakened U.S. imperialism.

Jackson is an agent for the dominant Rockefeller wing of U.S. bosses (see adjoining box). The billionaires he fronts for know they’re between a rock and a hard place in Yugoslavia. Their air war was defeated the moment it began. They aren’t prepared to invade on the ground, although they know that eventually, somehow, they must. So they sent Jackson to buy them some time in the hope that Russian rulers will help them broker a temporary deal.

The U.S. ruling class is deeply divided over this war. The internal struggle was clear in two House votes last week. One refused to give Clinton a blank check for ground troops. The other, a tie, denied him political support for the air war. War highlights all of capitalism’s contradictions. Once again, the bosses are exposing themselves as "paper tigers." We communists can take advantage of their weaknesses to sharpen the class struggle and build our Party. The recent successful May Day actions show that our movement can act boldly to grow in the teeth of Clinton’s war crimes.

The Brookings Institution is home to Rockefeller’s strategic liberal hawks. It has released many position papers underlying the need to build a mass base in the military and throughout the working class for imperialist war against "hostile super-powers in Europe and Asia." Jesse Jackson has ties to it. The Brookings mafia recognizes the obvious about Clinton’s air war: "The results have been catastrophic," write two of them in the LA Times. (Charles Kupchan and Ivo Daalder, 4/25). They acknowledge what Challenge has been saying since the war started: that Milosevic has already won on the ground. They demand 100,000 NATO ground troops but recognize that the political will to send them doesn’t exist. They therefore want NATO "to cut its losses." This would involve writing off Kosovo, recognizing Russian bosses as the only force capable of making a deal, and "beefing up defenses in Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Croatia." The U.S. already has major ground forces in Bosnia, with no end in sight.

In other words, the Rockefeller-Brookings liberals still want to prepare for ground war in the Balkans. The present diplomacy is merely a tactic designed to let them lick their wounds until they think they’re ready to mobilize both the armed forces and the U.S. home front.

Strategic Aim Of U.S. Ruling Class

Let’s not kid ourselves about their true intentions or about Jesse Jackson’s real role. The Rockefeller gang is out to rule the world. To achieve this, they must control the Persian Gulf and Caspian oil. They will spill as much of the working class’s blood in as many places as they think necessary to achieve their goals. Jackson’s assignment is to build a "Rainbow Coalition" (workers of all colors) for imperialist genocide under Clinton’s successors.

Bemoaning NATO’s inability to fight on the ground, Kupchan and Daalder admit that the job would entail "…considerable casualties. But the interests at stake involve such sacrifice." After all, the bosses have trillions in profits at risk. However, they aren’t yet ready for the show-down. Another liberal Brookings nazi, Richard Haass, spells out their predicament: "Rarely is it possible to attain ambitious foreign policy objectives short of great sacrifice; Kosovo is no exception. The price of an unwillingness to commit ground forces is the need to compromise on what we are prepared to accept on the ground" (Compromise in Kosovo, IntellectualCapital.com, 4/29).

U.S.Keeps Murdering; Nato Keeps Splitting; Russia Keeps Winning

Meanwhile, the bombing goes on, with new levels of anti-civilian brutality every day. Clinton is proving quite successful at murdering babies in order to gain negotiating points. Other than this "triumph," he has shot himself in the foot again and again and has made a laughing-stock of the U.S. as "the world’s only remaining super-power:"

• German and Italian bosses are close to an open break with the rest of NATO over this war;

• The Germans are likely to tilt soon toward Moscow, independently of NATO;

• French rulers are openly begging the Russians to settle the war;

• Anti-U.S. mass sentiment throughout Europe is at an all-time post-Vietnam high;

• The debacle in Yugoslavia has strengthened Rockefeller’s isolationist opponents within the U.S. ruling class;

The Russians are the biggest winners. With all their problems, they have emerged as a key force: "The most extraordinary outcome of Bill Clinton’s Kosovo adventure was that it turned Boris Yeltsin into a statesman, with his representative, Chernomyrdin, taken more seriously in Bonn and Rome than Clinton’s Strobe Talbot" (Stratfor Report, 5/3).

The bosses are drawing their conclusions from their Yugoslavia fiasco, and we must draw ours. They know that their class interests require eventual ground war for oil, and that Russian capitalism, against which they must prepare a head-on collision, remains their strategic enemy. We know that capitalism makes war inevitable, and that imperialist war provides many opportunities for the communist movement to grow by leaps and bounds. A great struggle is brewing for the loyalty of the U.S. working class. The Rockefellers and Jacksons want to lead us down the road to death and destruction. Our only choice is the long, hard, but ultimately winning road to communist revolution. In May Day’s successful wake, we can and must, advance under the gathering storm-clouds of bosses’ war.

Jesse Jackson: Yes-Man For Rockefeller Imperialist Killers

Jesse Jackson’s ties to the Rockefeller interests go way back. In 1978, Laurance and Jay Rockefeller personally handed him their "Rockefeller Public Service Award." This was in recognition of his "Operation PUSH," which was mobilizing black workers to support capitalism through academic achievement, franchises (McDonald’s, Coke, etc.), and entrepreneurship.

With Rockefeller foundation funding, Jackson led the campaign against recent church bombings by the open racists loyal to the Oil Patch (domestic oil producers) and isolationist wings of U.S. capitalism.

Using the fight against racism as a cover, he organized a boycott of Texaco. The real reason for this was to help Rockefeller regain control of that oil giant, when Texaco was threatening to buy Alaskan oil from Exxon’s competitor BP and sell it to Japanese and Korean bosses.

This could have helped Asian bosses declare independence from the Rockefeller oil empire. This past winter Jackson (helped by Al Sharpton) led pro-Clinton, anti-impeachment rallies in Washington and on Wall Street, to defend Clinton’s bombing of Iraq for Rockefeller oil interests.

Jackson has tight links to the Rockefeller imperialist Brookings think-tank. On December 1, 1998, he joined "the usual suspects," including AFL-CIA head John Sweeney, Hugh Price of the National Urban League, and Kweisi Mfume of the NAACP, at Brookings to announce the liberal rulers’ plan for a "New Century Alliance for Social Security."

Letters

Youth Motivated By May Day

Dear Challenge:

The last May Day of this century was very inspiring for the people who rode on my bus to Washington from Brooklyn. The first thing we discussed was the worldwide crisis of capitalism, how many millions have been sacrificed by the bosses to keep their profits up and how the beginning of the new millenium doesn’t offer any real hope for workers as long as capitalism is in control.

Several youth on the bus talked about the shootings in Littleton, Colorado. Some said this massacre was the result of the individualist education the system offers youth. Others blamed it on the racism pushed by the bosses, some said it was because of the capitalist criminal culture. Someone pointed out that while Clinton said youth should solve their problems through dialogue, he is leading NATO to murder workers in Yugoslavia. It was also raised that if there had been communists in Columbine HS they would have tried not hiding under desks and tables, but would have attempted to organize against being sitting ducks for the Nazi youth gunners.

What many of the youth did say is that for May Day 2000 they would try to mobilize more of their fellow students. One of the youth compared our May Day march to the White House to the peacenik protest some other people were having near the White House. Our chants of "NATO You Can’t Hide, We Charge You With Genocide," "1,2,3,4 We Won’t Your Racist War, 5,6,7,8 Smash The Bosses And Their State" were contrasted to those of the peaceniks asking for the rulers to stop bombing. Someone said that this shows the difference between PLP and the pacifists. PLP said that capitalism and imperialism makes war for profits inevitable.

A teacher on our bus said that he has seen the Party’s persistence to keep communist ideas alive. He called this the best thing PLP has done, and that contrary to others who still believe capitalism offers a future for workers and youth, we say that only communism can offer a decent bright future for us. He said that he was very glad to see the role youth played in leading the march.

The revolutionary optimism our busload of marchers showed will be shared b millions of workers all over the world as our movement grows and become an alternative to this murderous capitalist system.

A Brooklyn Comrade

LA High School Students March On May Day

Dear Challenge:

The following are comments from LA high school students who participated in our May Day march for the first time:

"I participated in the May Day March. It was really exciting. I was really feeling the energy as I was distributing Challenge and collecting donations. Even though I am not a communist, I liked the enthusiasm of the speakers were. It was a very enjoyable situation."

"I learned a lot about communism and the fight against capitalism. I had fun helping and I believe it’s a just cause. I look forward to the next one."

"If you think about heroes, you could find a lot in the march. One comrade came to our class to talk about McCarthyism and the fight for communism. In the communist fight, he’s one of the bravest warriors."

Capitalism Is Good For Lawyers

Dear Challenge:

Yesterday, my lawyer, who makes $2.75 a minute, spent three minutes looking through my file for a document that she misplaced. She made more money in those few minutes than my sister-in-law does in an hour at her minimum wage job caring for toddlers in a day care center. Who does the more important work? Who is recognized for making a valuable contribution? Who is rewarded with a more comfortable life and higher social statue? Geez, what a crazy society! I appreciate this paper and PLP for stimulating thoughts on how it could be different.

A Chicago Reader

Keep Me Informed

Dear Challenge:

Thanks for the info on Kosovo, etc. I suspected U.S. oil interests from the very first in all this slaughter. This entire "conflict" may provide anti-capitalists an opportunity for a critique of nationalism’s conceptual poverty, and the ways in which this stale ideology has served the interests of the powerful, in this epoch of the capitalist class. The tragically ironic aspect of the events in the Balkans is that the real "actors," be they KLA thugs, Serbian special police thugs, or American fighter pilot thugs, have more in common with one another than they do with the people whose orders they follow.

Even the CIA/BND thugs who orchestrate the ruin of the Balkan working classes (for of course the elite will remain untouched) are merely pathetic, albeit extraordinarily dangerous, slaves of interests with which they incorrectly identify as their own. They are like police attack dogs, the most negative aspects of their potential species being accentuated and cultivated to the detriment of any more constructive, emancipatory ones.

Keep me informed of upcoming events.

In struggle,

Kentucky Student

American X And IQ

Dear Challenge:

It is great that Challenge ran a video review of "American History X." Challenge needs more articles that critique popular culture. The "Challenge Comments" made an important political error however. It said: "Goerring, Hitler’s second in command, had a genius IQ rating." What a terrible thing to put into Challenge! PLP is totally opposed to IQ testing and comments like "genius" only build support for capitalist, racist, fascist theories of biological superiority and inferiority.

"Challenge Comments" was trying to make a very important point. The Nazi leaders and most of their key supporters were generally highly educated. The capitalists spread the lie that "uneducated workers" are the main fascists. They do this to build cynicism against the working class and get us to support the capitalist fascists! It is important that "Challenge Comments" attack that anti-working class myth and try to clarify the bourgeois core of fascism. But perhaps words like "highly educated" should be used instead. Let’s not get into this nonsense about "IQ" and "genius"!

Red Teacher

Challenge Comments: Red Teacher is correct. We made a mistake in using terms like "genius" or IQ to explain some fascists. The leading fascist ideologues in the U.S. come from the elite Ivory Tower universities and other centers of "higher learning." Professors like Charles Murray, Herrnstein, Banfield, Kelling, etc. are the theorists behind most of the fascist programs imposed by the U.S. ruling class in the last decades. But, as we saw in Germany during the Nazi regime, there are also many workers who are won to fascism, betraying their own class interests.

Fight To Educate Our Children; Beware Of Corporate ‘Reform’

Dear Challenge:

Liberal politics have run the schools for generations. Our children have learned next to nothing. Working class youth in cities, suburbs and rural areas learn at very low levels of reading, writing and math. Children of professionals may learn some basic skills in these areas-but not much more.

Enter Big Business. Because of relatively low unemployment, the aging of a major part of the current workforce, and the increasingly high-tech nature of modern industry and products, bosses need more and better-trained semi-skilled, skilled and professional workers. These include engineers, mechanics, pharmacists, teachers, accountants, computer-literate assembly workers and medical technicians.

To meet this need, Big Business is reforming education. In league with some mayors and the Federal government, major corporate bosses have taken over education in Seattle, Chicago, Detroit and Boston and other U.S. cities. The new school superintendents have backgrounds in corporate or city administration, rather than in education. They are instituting scripted lesson plans, career academies for job training and more labs and computers. Examples of these new corporation-dominated schools are Chicago’s Agricultural High School, with teacher-training by Monsanto and American Cyanimid, and Boston’s new Fenway High School, run by CVS Pharmacy.

We must expose these new corporation-dominated schools as higher-tech training grounds for the bosses. If we don’t, we lose credibility and allow Big Business to win over lots of students and their parents who see the new "academies" teaching kids more real skills than the old liberal-run schools.

What about testing? Although we should support struggles against racism fostered by standardized tests, we must be careful in our criticism. Liberals use testing to track students, to keep many workers stuck in schools and classes that don’t teach even basic skills. In contrast, the new corporate schools rely heavily on standardized tests that gauge how well students have mastered the content material and skills needed later on the job.

Testing provides some real information to students and their parents. Tests tell students whether they are learning what is needed to make it in the job market, whether they are developing skills necessary to read, write, do math effectively and learn things on their own.

Granted, standardized tests under capitalism promote passivity and individualism, among other things. Under communism we will probably evaluate education in much more collective, interactive and practical ways. But tests are a fact of life for young workers under capitalism. One needs to pass tests to get into the army—even if you’re going in to organize soldiers to turn the guns around.

Two things follow from all this. First, Challenge needs to explain tests and all other elements of education in the context of a struggle for power in the education arena between old-fashioned liberals formerly supported by Wall Street and corporate reformers backed by the biggest manufacturing, agribusiness and retailing corporations. We should support struggles of any group in the schools against bosses’ ideas or instruments, but we must explain our support in dialectical, communist terms.

Second, the Party—and Party teachers in particular—should be helping young people to learn basic skills and pass tests-as part of becoming communists. We should fight for workers to have access to calculus, physics and other necessary courses. To assume, as one Challenge article said a few months ago, that "Workers will never learn to read and write under capitalism," is terribly reactionary and a racist put-down. Working class youth can learn, and are learning, these things. In a few places the Party runs after school-classes that combine specific course work with communist politics. Let’s do more of that.

Some Veteran Comrades

Minimum Line

Dear Challenge:

The article, "Our Minimum Line ž Anti-Capitalism," represented an excellent attempt to develop our understanding on how to organize in reform organizations. We need more articles that go into detail about the political struggle, including the struggle inside of ourselves, as we work to build revolutionary consciousness inside of reform organizations. There are a few clarifications I would like to offer about the letter. The Party does not have a "Minimum Line." That is a term used by some groups to allow them to support reformism. The Party has one line: COMMUNISM! Of course the writer was not saying that the Party has a minimum line; the writer was explaining how individuals should carry out the struggle inside reform groups. But it is important to always make clear that the Party does not support reformism or any line less than communism.

Also, the article could be stronger on anti-imperialism. There actually are other groups which claim to be anti-capitalist but which have a very different line than PLP. In particular, some of the socialist groups actually support imperialist oppression and racism while they criticize capitalism. Some "socialist" groups, for example, including the British Labour Party, the French, Italian and German socialists, and some socialists in the U.S., are supporting the imperialist NATO war in Yugoslavia. So a "minimum" line ought to be anti-racist and anti-imperialist as well as anti-capitalist. Someone might assume that anti-capitalism is automatically anti-imperialist and anti-racist, but that is only true in theory. In practice, many racists and pro-imperialists critique capitalism. In general, though, the letter had many helpful, important insights and should motivate us all to think more carefully and more politically about how we carry out struggle in reform organizations.

Midwest Comrade