The war is taking place because the Balkans are strategically crucial to the transportation and military defense of oil. Oil remains the lifeblood of modern capitalist industry. Oil that reaches Europe must be shipped through the Balkans. Trillions of dollars in profits are at stake. As Challenge has repeatedly pointed out, a great race is on to build and control the pipelines through which Caspian oil will flow. How will it get beyond the western coast of the Black Sea? U.S. companies want pipelines that don't go through Russia or Russian client states. But, Russian bosses are fighting for their own control of this oil.
From the imperialists' point of view, the clock is ticking. The U.S. has a trans-Balkan pipeline project from Bourgas in Bulgaria to Vlore in Albania. It competes directly with a Russian-Greek-Bulgarian pipeline from Bourgas to Alexandropoulos in Greece. But this is just the beginning. There's also talk of pipelines from oil-rich Rumania to Trieste on the Adriatic. They would have to cross Yugoslavia. And oil and gas pipelines already exist from Russia into Croatia and Yugoslavia.
For centuries, Kosovo itself has been a critical corridor for trade, and now for the oil route between Europe and the Middle East. A pipeline there, in addition to existing truck and rail roads, would net a fancy piece of change. Military bases in Kosovo will become necessary for defending oil wealth from the air and controlling it on the ground. Remember that NATO has already turned Bosnia into a protectorate, with tens of thousands of troops (including 30,000 from the U.S.).
So the refugees Clinton's "humanitarian" bombs are forcing into exile are "pawns in a wider scheme aimed at extending NATO's influence into the Caspian Sea oilfields" (James Ridgeway, Village Voice, 5/5). That's the bosses' key motive for the present slaughter. But how come they're able to get away with it?
Since the collapse of the old communist movement, worldwide imperialism, headed by the U.S., hasn't had to face an armed, organized class enemy. NATO arose mainly as an alliance of rival bosses who could overcome their differences to unite against the menace of communist revolution embodied by the once-socialist Soviet Union and, later, Red China. NATO could never have launched this war over Yugoslavia while Stalin led the Soviet Union. But these threats to the imperialists have disappeared, because socialism's internal flaws led to the restoration of full-blown capitalism. Now Russia and China are imperialist powers themselves, with a long-range goal of replacing U.S. domination.
For the time being, revolutionary class struggle is very weak, and no rival imperialist power, including Russia and China, is strong enough to challenge the U.S. on the battlefield. Therefore, at the moment, despite their many internal divisions and weaknesses, U.S. rulers can literally get away with murder. If part of their "collateral damage" in Yugoslavia involves blowing up the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, the most the Chinese can do is threaten to hold up a Russian-brokered deal for a cease-fire in Yugoslavia. Perhaps they'll derail this deal, but they still don't have the strength to take on the U.S. military--for now.
The most the Russians can do is score political and diplomatic points. Despite Yeltsin's sabre-rattling, they too aren't yet ready for a full-blown confrontation with the U.S. And although other NATO bosses have major economic and political conflicts with U.S. rulers, NATO is still more or less united in dropping its killer bombs on the Yugoslav working class.
However, appearances aren't everything. Beneath the U.S.' seeming strength, the fires of much sharper conflict are gaining strength. This war has exposed U.S. bosses as giants with feet of clay. All their air power hasn't toppled a tinpot dictator like Milosevic. In fact, he's basically won hands down on the ground and made an eventual, much wider land war for Kosovo inevitable. The war has also sharpened the contradictions between U.S. and Russian imperialism, helping the Russians emerge as the big political winners. It has intensified the rivalries within NATO. For example, the bombing of bridges in Novi Sad has badly hit trade planned through the grand canal between the Danube and Rhine rivers.
Obviously, this doesn't appeal to German bosses, who intend to incorporate Croatia and Slovenia into their new empire--"The Fourth Reich." One of the current war's ironies is that until recently, the main NATO military spokesman was German General Klaus Naumann, who paraded in his black uniform boasting that the bombs would make Milosevic the "ruler of rubble" (AP, 5/2). Shades of the "good old days," when Hitler's Third Reich military machine set the standards for genocide.
So even if the present war is settled, new and far bigger wars are in the cards. Even if the current fighting doesn't lead to a confrontation between the U.S. and Russia or China, such a confrontation is building. Perhaps the next war will unleash it, perhaps the war after that. Such wars will eventually erupt because capitalism makes war inevitable. As Joseph Stalin wrote shortly after World War II, "To think that [rival imperialists] will not try to get on their feet again, will not try to smash U.S. domination and force their way to independent development, is to believe in miracles" (Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR, 1952).
We communists don't believe in miracles. We know that the imperialist leopard can't change its spots. We believe in the working class's potential to rule society and in the slow, hard, uphill, every-day struggle to build our Party. Again and again, the rulers will launch their mass murders for profit. Every one of these wars is an opportunity to build the movement that will one day turn the guns around and transform imperialist war into class war for communist revolution.
When PLP heard about the decision not to prosecute the four cops who killed Tyisha, we organized a demonstration in Los Angeles at the corner where the police killed 70-year-old Joe Joshua last year. The response by the people on the street and in their cars was very good. Many were angry both at the cops' brutal killing of Tyisha and the acquittal. The DA said it was "an unfortunate mistake." He admitted that Tyisha represented no threat and that the cops gunned her down. The role of cops under capitalism is precisely to serve the bosses by terrorizing workers with such executions. We said that the solution to growing fascism from Riverside to LA to Yugoslavia is communist revolution.
The following Monday, about 1,000 people--black, Latin and white--angrily demonstrated in Riverside against the decision. The action was organized by the family of Tyisha Miller along with religious leaders and Al Sharpton. Many people asked for our communist leaflet and Challenge. We distributed about 800 leaflets and over 100 Challenges. We should have been more forceful in getting the names of all the people we talked with.
"The Cops, the Courts, the Ku Klux Klan, All are Part of the Racists' Plan" and "No Justice, No Peace, No Racist Police" were the chants we led with the help of a fellow demonstrator who was attracted by our politics. Hundreds more chanted with us. We need to be bolder and have more confidence in our fellow workers and students about the need to build a mass communist movement. As we become more involved with the group organizing these marches, we will be in a better position to offer alternatives to the line of the misleaders. At one point in the march, Sharpton said that "since we supported Clinton during the impeachment, Clinton should support us now in our fight for justice." Well, the 98 bullets used to kill Tyisha Miller, Amadou Diallo and Ricardo Close came from cops put on the streets by Clinton and the profit system they serve. Workers won't get justice until this racist profit system is smashed.
Members and friends of PLP from all over this Caribbean country came to the union May Day march with red flags and communist leaflets. Garment workers from factories in the free enterprise zones came with their families to join our contingent. We distributed over 300 Desafíos, 400 flyers with our communist chants and 1,500 May Day leaflets calling on workers to join the communist PLP. Women comrades and Party youth took the lead in our efforts.
The PLP contingent with its commitment to mobilize workers around our revolutionary politics raised the spirits of the workers on the march. This was the opposite of the reformist and nationalist forces, which have seen how their politics have only led workers to many defeats around the world. They have no faith that workers will fight against capitalism and their constant wars.
For three hours we marched through the streets of Santiago, the second largest city in the country, bringing our literature and politics to workers who saw the march from the sidewalk and their homes. Later in the afternoon, a group of PLP members held a May Day rally in a working class neighborhood.
May Day has given PLP more opportunities to grow and win new members. It is now up to the Party leadership to make sure our new friends become members and make the fight for communism their life.
Mike was arrested after a confrontation with the JDL (Jewish Defense League), VCT (Voices of Citizens Together) and other fascist Kazan supporters who were protected by the cops.
Mike was first charged with "disturbing the peace by fighting in public." Now three other charges have been added: vandalism, destruction of property [the bullhorn used by the JDL] and battery against Irv Ruben, the JDL leader. This is the same Irv Ruben who supported the attack on affirmative action at Northridge University.
The charges against Mike are based on lies, but they show that the LA City Attorney is taking this case seriously and attacking the anti-fascist action at the Oscars. Before the demonstration, the police had "promised" that the fascists wouldn't be allowed in the same area as the protesters. They forced most of the latter into the same area as the fascists, who yelled their racist, anti-communist filth and were allowed to push closer to the demonstrators. PLP youth led many others in driving them off the corner. We were attacked by leaders of the demonstration for stopping the fascists. At the same time, we were applauded by many demonstrators for silencing them.
The shootings in Littleton, Colorado show that fascism cannot be ignored. If there had been students or teachers at Columbine High School who had taken on the fascist killers, many lives could have been saved. We cannot be passive in the face of growing fascism!
PLP will go on the offensive in Mike's trial. We will expose the racist and fascist history of the JDL which claims it was "vandalized" and attacked. The JDL has assaulted black workers and immigrants, including Arabs. They have defended the KKK against groups organizing to attack the fascists. VCT members were also in the fascist rally. Members of this group have attacked immigrants trying to cross the California-Mexican border. These are the scum who claim their "rights" were "violated."
We invite people to come to court with Mike on June 1st and in future court appearances and to contribute to his legal defense. While the bosses bomb Yugoslavia and their cops and fascist helpers attack black and Latin workers here, we must take the offensive to build PLP for a communist revolution. As the famous snti-fascist slogan of the Spanish Civil War said: "The fascists shall not pass." Please send contributions to PLP, 2601B M.L. King Jr. Blvd. LA, Ca. 90008.
These mass protests showed two things. First, that the "humanitarian" figleaf used by NATO/U.S. to wage war against Yugoslavia is not believed by a growing number of people worldwide.
But, the protests also showed one key weaknesses in the anti-war movement. Most of the protests in Europe demanded "Stop the Bombing" or "NATO Out of Yugoslavia." They reflect a pacifist outlook instead of a revolutionary anti-imperialist outlook.
In London, the protest was called by the Committee for Peace in the Balkans, and was supported by a variety of groups, including the Quakers, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Labour Party politicians opposed to Tony Blair, some union Locals and different parties of the opportunist left in Britain.
In Berlin, the protest carried a similar message with signs calling for "Stop the bombing--Stop the violations of international law" and "SPD and Olive-Green [the social-democratic-ecologist ruling coalition of Germany] equal war." Turkish, Iranian and Kurdish immigrant workers participated in the protest, along with Party for Democratic Socialism (the former Communist Party that used to rule East Germany).
The pacifism spread by the organizers among the tens of thousands who participated in the protests is very dangerous. It builds the illusion that imperialism is not the cause of war, but rather it is "bad politicians, policies and laws;" and therefore, we can end war by changing the politicians in office and their approach.
This century is ending just like it began, with wars all over the planet. The Leninist concept that capitalism makes war for profits inevitable is as valid today as it was during World War I. In 1918 Lenin answered the question of what made World War I inevitable: "The fact that capitalism has concentrated the world's wealth in the hands of individual states, has divided up the earth to the last bit. Any further division, any further enrichment can only take place at the expense of others, by one state gaining at the expense of another. Force alone can decide the issue--hence war among the global vultures became inevitable....That is the issue: it is a fight to divide the world between the strongest. And since both sides have capital running into hundreds of millions, the fight between them has become worldwide."
Indiana University Press, 1998
With all the publicity about Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction," it might be a little surprising to learn that the U.S. military developed an enormous secret germ warfare program during and after World War II, and that U.S. bosses carried out germ warfare attacks against communist forces during the Korean war. These are the main conclusions of this useful new book.
Eventually the military took over. Camp Detrick (now Fort Detrick) was established in Maryland to handle the expanded research. Detrick scientists studied anthrax, undulant fever (brucellosis), botulinus toxin, plague, ricin (a quick acting poison), rickettsia, tularemia (rabbit fever), and a variety of biologic agents designed to destroy crops. The U.S. military actually had plans to use germ or chemical warfare during World War II in Africa after Rommel's victories, but as things turned out, it wasn't necessary.
After the war, various U.S. bosses (including Merck) extolled the virtues of biological warfare as a substitute for, or complement to atomic weapons. They emphasized the psychological advantages, namely instilling panic and helplessness among troops and the general population. Arthur D. Little, in particular, and a host of other U.S. corporations and universities got fat contracts. By the end of 1951, bacteriological warfare was a major growth industry.
The accounts of the public health campaigns carried out by Chinese political leaders and Red Army units was quite revealing. They took the germ warfare threat seriously, moved rapidly to prevent the spread of unusual diseases, and made public their evidence of germ attacks.
U.S. bosses were worried sick about losing Asia to the communists. The authors show that this anti-communist fear, coupled with overt racism were key elements in the decision to use biological warfare during the Korean war.
Today's demonstration reveals three facts workers should know. First, our class, the working class, is ready to fight back against the bosses' attacks. Second, the leadership of the trade union movement plans to deliver us into the hands of our enemies. Third, communist leadership is needed to lead the working class.
The union coalition that called the May 12 City Hall demonstration says that a revitalized labor movement can win better schools, medical care and jobs. The New Century Coalition (NCC) says that these things can be won in budget fights against the Republican Governor Pataki in Albany and Mayor Giuliani in NYC. They point to media reports that the capitalist economy is doing very well, that corporate profits are high and that states all over the U.S. are operating with surpluses.
But what must the bosses do with this money. Think about it. The U. S.-led war in the Balkans will cost hundreds of billions of dollars. Who will pay for these costs? It will be us, the working class. U.S. bosses can't afford guns and butter. They are in a bitter fight with their capitalist rivals to re-divide the world. The cutbacks we have seen already are financing this war and other wars that will surely follow. So-called budget surpluses generated by budget cuts, wage freezes and racist slave labor Workfare are paying for the military preparations for the next world war!
Meanwhile, Rivera [hospital workers union], Sanders [city workers] and Weingarten [teachers] are building the illusion that the bosses' government can and will allocate money towards more social programs In fact, it is the other way around! Clinton recently proposed new Medicaid cutbacks which would mean a loss of $400 million health care benefits in New York. Pataki wants to cut $2 billion in healthcare and tens of millions more from the education budget. Giuliani just engineered a major cut in the Board of Education budget for school repairs. The list goes on! But this is a profit system. The bosses control the government that defends that system. What's good for bosses can't also be good for the majority of workers.
The big plan put forth by the NCC wants to direct workers' anger at the Republicans (who certainly deserve it) while building the illusion that we can rely on the Clinton/Rockefeller Democrats and the liberal bosses. In fact, it is the liberals who are building greater and greater fascism in the U.S. After all, it was Clinton's campaign pledge of ending "welfare as we know it" that opened the door to the massive use of fascist slave labor Workfare. It was the Democrats and Clinton who put 100,000 more cops on the streets and are calling for 50,000 more to control the working class. The NCC plans are smoke blown in our eyes.
Workers face greater and greater attacks from the bosses and their government. From the murder of Amadou Diallo to racist profiling on the nation's highways and city streets, police terror is on the rise. War and capitalism go hand in hand. A system that relies on war and racist/fascist terror to survive must be smashed. It is time for the working class to join the Progressive Labor Party, and take back what we have built with our hands. They must become our schools, our factories, our hospitals and our communities. This means building a mass movement for a communist revolution. Communism means a world without bosses, without racist terror and where all workers can share what we produce according to our needs.
The bus trip was filled with political discussions about communism, revolution, racism and many other topics. We discussed how Cuba is no longer a communist country, and is moving more toward the capitalist camp of the U.S. as it was prior to the revolution of 1959, or whether it will now move closer to the European capitalists.
We saw a movie called American History X, recently reviewed in Challenge. After the movie we discussed the Nazi, Skinhead racist ideas we saw and why racism can't be smashed with good intentions as the movie suggested.
During the march we boldly attacked the capitalist system and called for communist revolution with our speeches and chants on the streets of Washington DC. As usual, we were not afraid to call Clinton a racist liar, to condemn the fascist police terror in our communities and to identify the bombing in Yugoslavia as an imperialist war which should not be supported by the working class of the world. D was impressed that PLP was not afraid to take our communist politics and intentions right to the White House, the symbol of capitalism for the world. In his words "You guys are for real."
"And so, in dealing from this angle with the tasks confronting the youth, I must say that the tasks of the youth in general, and of the Young Communist Leagues and all other organizations in particular, might be summed up in a single word: learn.
"Of course, this is only a "single word". It does not reply to the principal and most essential questions: what to learn, and how to learn? And the whole point here is that, with the transformation of the old, capitalist society, the upbringing, training and education of the new generation that will create the communist society cannot be conducted on the old lines. The teaching, training and education of the youth must proceed from the material that has been left to us by the old society. We can build communism only on the basis of the totality of knowledge, organizations and institutions, only by using the stock of human forces and means that have been left to us by the old society. Only by radically remolding the teaching, organization and training of the youth shall we be able to ensure that the efforts of the younger generation will result in the creation of a society that will be unlike the old society, i.e., in the creation of a communist society. That is why we must deal in detail with the question of what we should teach the youth and how the youth should learn if it really wants to justify the name of communist youth, and how it should be trained so as to be able to complete and consummate what we have started. "I must say that the first and most natural reply would seem to be that the Youth League, and the youth in general, who want to advance to communism, should learn communism. "But this reply-`learn communism' is too general. What do we need in order to learn communism? What must be singled out from the sum of general knowledge so as to acquire knowledge of communism? Here a number of dangers arise, which very often manifest themselves whenever the task of learning communism is presented incorrectly, or when it is interpreted in too one-sided a manner.
"Naturally, the first thought that enters one's mind is that learning communism means assimilating the sum of-knowledge that is contained communist manuals, pamphlets and books. But such a definition of the study of communism would be too crude and inadequate. If the study of communism consisted solely in assimilating what is contained in communist books and pamphlets, we might all too easily obtain communist text-jugglers or braggarts, and this would very of ten do us harm, because such people, after learning by rote what is set forth in communist books and pamphlets, would prove incapable of combining the various branches of knowledge, and would be unable to act in the way communism really demands.
"One of the greatest evils and misfortunes left to us by the old, capitalist society is the complete rift between books and practical life; we have had books explaining everything in the best possible manner, yet in most cases these books contained the most pernicious and hypocritical lies, a false description of capitalist society.
"That is why it would be most mistaken merely to assimilate book knowledge about communism. No longer do our speeches and articles merely reiterate what used to be said about communism, because our speeches and articles are connected with our daily work in all fields. Without work and without struggle, book knowledge of communism obtained from communist pamphlets and works is absolutely worthless, for it would continue the old separation of theory and practice, the old rift which was the most pernicious feature of the old, bourgeois society.
"It would be still more dangerous to set about assimilating only communist slogans. Had we not realized this danger in time, and had we not directed all our efforts to averting this danger, the half million or million young men and women who would have called themselves Communists after studying communism in this way would only greatly prejudice the cause of communism.
"The question arises: how is all this to be blended for the study of communism? What must we take from the old schools, from the old kind of science? It was the declared aim of the old type of school to produce men with an all-round education to teach the sciences in general. We know that this was utterly false, since the whole of society was based and maintained on the division of people into classes, into exploiters and oppressed. Since they were thoroughly imbued with the class spirit, the old school naturally gave knowledge only to the children of the bourgeoisie. Every word was falsified in the interests of the bourgeoisie. In these schools the younger generation of workers and peasants were not so much educated as drilled in the interests of that bourgeoisie. They were trained in such a way as to be useful servants of the bourgeoisie, able to create profits for it without disturbing its peace and leisure. That is why, while rejecting the old type of schools, we have made it our task to take from it only what we require for genuine communist education."
Recently, Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew and Mayor Rudy Giuliani have been battling over the direction of the public schools. They both say they are doing what is best for our children. Adolph Giuliani calls for blowing up the school system, direct takeover by City Hall, abolishing the Board of Education and school vouchers. His right-hand man, Crew, announced that 300,000 students will be left back because he says the students do not meet the "standards." This is a hollow attempt by Crew to legitimize himself as Schools Chancellor.
Our children are clearly the victims of an inferior and racist school system that has never met our needs. They are caught in the crossfire between the two Rudy's, neither of whom have a solution for educating our youth.
The capitalist system offers very little for our youth--Workfare slave labor jobs, minimum wage employment, prison or a chance to die in Kosovo or Iraq for oil profits. It is a system that, in desperation, is turning more and more to fascism to try to keep workers in line. From the racist Nazi-inspired shootings in Colorado to the police torture of Abner Louima and the murder of Amadou Diallo, the system relies increasingly on terror in its attempt to silence all workers. By definition, it is inevitable that a system that commits such atrocities must incorporate (and justify) them in its "educational" system. [Editor's note: see article above.]
Progressive Labor Party calls on all workers to oppose the racist attacks here and the terror abroad caused by the U.S. bombing of Yugoslavia. We condemn the UFT leaders for supporting this war, which is now wreaking more misery in the region than Milosevic is. It is an imperialist war with the goal of securing the Caspian Sea oil routes for U.S. oil companies, occupying Serbia and weakening Russian bosses. NO RANK-AND-FILE MEMBER OF ANY UNION SHOULD SUPPORT THIS WAR!
Only communist revolution and workers' power will solve our problems. We say this because until the wealth is distributed according to need among workers, there will always be masses of workers who get "left back." When workers run society, we can make sure that everyone can read and lead. There will be no elitism and work for all.
I read with interest the article and the letters about the Littleton massacre in Challenge (5/5). One of the letters ends with the statement that "We can't hope to end fascist violence unless we understand its roots." Unfortunately, the letters/article don't address the root of the problem. Unless we, as communists, are able to understand and explain the process that led to this horrible event, we aren't going to be able to build our Party and the fight for communism in this arena in the aftermath.
I believe that racism is at the root of the massacre. I base this belief on my 22 years of experience teaching in a predominantly white suburban high school. "White flight" is the term coined to explain the housing patterns which developed after World War II, when white workers who could afford it moved out of the cities to the suburbs to avoid the bad conditions forced on non-white workers by the racist capitalists. Racism is the primary source of profits for the capitalists. To make it work, they push the idea that racism isn't a concern for white workers. The "natural" solution for workers who feel that racism isn't their problem is to run away to areas inhabited primarily by whites only. Thus white flight leads to the largely segregated society we live in today here in the U.S.
Segregated white islands become the breeding grounds for fascism as capitalism declines. For the past 25 years, PLP has been organizing to fight the KKK and Nazis all across the U.S. The fascists attempted, early in the '70s, to build their movement in the cities. The multi-racial workers' movement we were able to mobilize quickly defeated them. They then moved into the suburbs and tried again. We went out from our base in the cities and mobilized whatever anti-racist sentiment existed. We beat the fascists in hundreds of battles. But the material basis for fascism, a mass base of workers who believe that capitalism works for them because they are able to "escape," still remains. Using their control of the media, the entertainment industry, and the schools, the bosses are able to build upon this base.
As capitalism declines and conditions worsen for most workers, as war widens, as bosses turn the screws on us, these workers who think they've escaped are open to being won to fascism. The fact that many parents and teachers knew of the racism and openly fascist beliefs of these students and yet did nothing to oppose them confirms how deadly "white flight" is for workers.
Unless we, as communists, raise the struggle against racism with white workers, we are allowing the material basis for fascism to grow. As always, Challenge needs to lead the way. Perhaps the Party has insufficient experience in the suburbs to recognize and struggle with this aspect of racism. If so, we need to work harder to develop such work in such locales. Unless we do, we leave a whole geographical area of the class war open to the domination of the fascist movement that the bosses are building.
Former Fantasy Island Teacher
Challenge Responds:
Thanks for your thoughtful letter. Just one point, racism is not the main way the capitalist make profits. Profits come out of the exploitation of the labor of all workers which creates surplus value. However, racism does produce extra profits for bosses, by paying less to non-white workers and actually reducing the wages of all workers. A few years ago, the estimate was that this racism produced over $100 billion in extra annual profits for U.S. bosses.
Communism is dead, communism doesn't work and communism is the devil. That's the order of the day in school classrooms.
When students ask, "Why communism saved workers in the Soviet Union in the past? Why was communism the peasants' solution in China years ago?" The anti-communist teachers don't want the students to think that if communism worked then, it might work for us today also. When I went to high school, I was lucky to have a communist teacher who explained what communism means for workers.
We need a society where workers can work and share what they produce. We need to destroy money. If we have everything we need, why to use money? We also need to destroy the ideas which divide the working class, such as racism, nationalism and sexism. Though we live under capitalism my teacher cultivated a the seed of communism in me .
On May 1st, I marched in Washington DC but I wasn't alone, other workers from the garment factory came with me. I need to continue the struggle to introduce them to communism ideas.
Even though bosses are saying that communism is dead, that communism doesn't work. Communism is still here, in the year 2000 we're still here. We're sick and tired of exploitation at work. Our only solution is communism, that's why the seeds of communism are still growing in me. Now, my responsibility is that just like my teacher, I have to cultivate the seeds of communism in my co-workers and friends.
On May Day I was very happy because the marchers and the red flags they were carrying high said, "Workers of the world unite, the only solution is communist revolution."
Brooklyn Comrade
Last week's letter on education was very provocative. Here in New York City, we are seeing a major fight between the two Rudys (Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew). One aspect of this fight is over school vouchers. Giuliani wants to push school vouchers, give money to parents to take their kids out of public schools and into private schools. Rudy Crew is against vouchers.
What should be the role of PLP teachers, students and parents around this fight? I believe that while we should attack both Rudys as representatives of different capitalist factions who are not interested in the education of our children, we must fight for the rights of our children to learn the three R's. And since most working class children aren't going to private schools, vouchers or not, we must fight so that our children learn in public schools.
Why must we fight for our children to learn? Because without revolutionary theory there cannot be revolutionary practice. We need to win our youth to be able to read and understand our politics. We need them to read Challenge and write for it.
Since the bosses' educational system has been such a failure, particularly in the inner cities, and all the reforms and changes have been a total failure for our youth (as the liberal reforms have over the last decades), Party teachers and PLP youth must take the lead in helping our fellow students to read, write and to analyze the world to be able to transform it in a revolutionary way. (See article page 8)
Former High School Teacher
The capitalist news media have spent a great deal of time showing us pictures of the funerals of those students killed by two very troubled young fellow students, who apparently were fans of Adolph Hitler. Who can believe that it was a coincidence that these two fascist wannabes carried out their military-like killing spree on Hitler's birthday? Still, some of the media would like to downplay this.
But when this same media discusses NATO bombs hitting buses and trains in Serbia and Kosovo killing civilians, including 11 children in a May 1st bombing, they discuss it as if it was a football game score. Apparently, Serbian children are not close to being the human beings that American youth are!
Also, there are those who have blamed video games for this type of violence. Has anyone seen the films of the high tech bomb-dropping process being used in Serbia. Looks like a video game to me. Also, I have read that bombers are encouraged to play video games to hone their skills.
Eric Harris, the main force behind the killings in Columbine, it was reported, came from a military family, and had been denied entry into the Marines due to his mental state. What sort of upbringing do you think that this kid had? What sort of propaganda did he have shoved down his throat about evil commies and other lunatic ideas? His parents are refusing to cooperate with anyone concerning their child, and they probably have a lot to hide, if the truth were known.
Also, some have pointed out that the two killers were persecuted by other students, teased in the hall and had mashed potatoes thrown in their faces at lunch. Of course, it is certainly a fact of life in this survival of the fittest, class divided, racially divided capitalist system that people do prey upon each other and search for some group like immigrants or blacks or gays to vent their wrath upon and gain a sense of power and superiority when they have none themselves to speak of. So capitalism really set up the whole incident at Columbine from top to bottom.
Meanwhile, in England, a Nazi group calling itself The White Wolves has carried out three bombings in the past month in areas where many people were supposed to be gathering. This means that they wanted to kill many. Two of the bombings were in minority neighborhoods and another at a crowded gay bar.
At the same time, Mr. Blair is busy condoning the terrorist bombing of Serbia, and he is the leader of the show in England.
To add to this cruel theatre of the absurd, the "Nazi Rifle Association," headed by Charlton Heston, who should have stayed on the Planet of the Apes, rants and raves that the NRA is not going to allow anyone to take away their freedom. They, of course, are a gang of fascist militia types, Klan types, and other fascist gun obsessed nuts.
It's time for the working class to pull down the curtain on this deadly circus.
Red Rocker
I think the march on May Day was excellent because people need to be aware of what's going on around them in their community. This is the first time I had ever been on a march, and I think it was a great experience for me. It points out racism in the streets, and schools[[arrowhorizex]]for example the Stanford 9 Test. It is a racist test, and one of the lowest things the government is doing to the people. They test people to see who is "smart and dumb" between race and sex, and that was exactly one of the things PLP was fighting against in San Francisco.
I could hardly wait for May Day. What I really enjoyed of the trip was all the many people. Everyone was there standing up for what we believe. This is an experience I will never forget. I'm looking forward to go next year and to continue doing my job.
Everything turned out good. We caught many onlookers' attention and some even joined the march. But the most important part of everything was the coming together of everyone. Everyone came together and stuck together to the end.
First Time May Day Marcher
The Party's organizing for this May Day march was almost perfect. I say almost because the great Marxist leaders have always known that we go towards absolute truth from increasingly relative truth. PLP's May Days started in NYC in 1971. Not one year has gone by since then that we have not had a May Day March. From my vantage point, the one this year was the most disciplined and best organized. In 1975 in Boston, our discipline was great and essential for we were physically attacked by the racist organization of ROAR. We acted accordingly and wiped them out by a surprise attack so that by the end of the summer, they were on the way to becoming an obsolete political force.
This year there was no immediate threat. What I experienced was buses on time, getting to Washington early, familiar and new faces, great enthusiasm, intelligent political conversation, a march where the marchers did not march on the sidewalk, a fascist who was made helpless by our young security, a swift march past the odorous White House, no wait for the food, better, less sectarian music and getting home early.
Above all, the bus going to and returning from the march was, in political quality, the best I have ever been on. Out of 49 people on it, maybe two or three did not comment This had not been the case in my experience in the past. We heard from nine garment workers, students, teachers, postal workers, hospital workers and on and on. Comrades from the '60s ,'70s, '80s and '90s, students just starting high school were all part of this and had insight to what the Party wanted to do and that communism was the answer.
The main question two newcomers were interested in was what was the Party going to do from now until next May Day. They said they would come next year, too, but they did not know how communism grows or doesn't grow from year to year or what the PLP does from May Day to May Day. I think we have to tell them about and convince them to be part of the year's process of development. The great task now is getting to these people and others like them who also hate capitalism and know it should be destroyed.
Because of the way the PLP organized this May Day I believe that the cause of communism and the dictatorship of the workers has advanced. Whoever was there can be more confident of the Party's future. A leadership for the world's workers is ripening.
A Worker On A Brooklyn Flatbush Bus
At Chicago State University I have been involved in two activities that have made it possible to work with others and raise some of the Party's line. I wanted to share these with our readers in the hope that they may be of use to others.
I have participated with three other philosophy faculty in organizing "Philosophical Great Debates" on faith in God, abortion, violence and euthanasia. The debates were well attended, generally about 100 (helped by our bringing philosophy classes). I debated on God and violence. I argued that faith in God tended to block revolutionary activism for communism. This led to a good discussion, with many students participating and disagreeing with me but engaging with what I said. At one point a student asked me, "Aren't you just using these debates to promote communism?" I replied, "Sure am!"
In the debate on violence, I defended Lenin's argument that we needed a party and organized revolutionary violence to achieve communism.. I also cited the constructive use of violence by John Brown at Potawatamie Creek. Again the students were actively involved, this time mostly in criticism of my colleague who was defending non-violence.
I was also involved in organizing a forum on the Balkan War that was held two days before we left on the May Day march. This forum was sponsored by two academic departments and the College of Arts and Sciences. The highlight was the presentations of three students. One was an army reservist who discussed feeling vulnerable going into the field inadequately equipped and prepared. She made very real the idea of what it means to be "cannon fodder" for the bosses, although she did not oppose the war or imperialism in general. Another speaker was a ten-year Marine Corps veteran who discussed losing his buddies in the Beirut barracks explosion and in the Desert Storm war. He wanted to get across that this was not just play, but that people died in these wars. Both these speakers pointed out that the U.S. interest in the Balkans centered on control of oil.
The highlight of this forum was the presentation by a young student representing the Party. In a clear and forceful speech, she pointed out that rivalry among the capitalists inevitably leads to war. She explained how the United States and Russia were fighting for control of this region as part of a long term strategy to control oil flow. She said the only solution was a communist revolution. She called on all present to join PLP, as she had done, and to march with us on May Day. Many applauded her deeply felt speech.
These events enable us to work with others and develop the abilities of others. They force all of us to think more deeply about the world and the ideas that we hold. They hold much promise as ways of developing the Party's influence in broader groups.
Chicago State Philosopher
I used to think the red flag will cure
The killing and destruction by
Nazis,
The boss with his angry smile,
The machine that stuttered and
almost took my finger,
The children who lost or never had parents,
All
the tired and old who had the choice of heat or food,
The billions round
the globe who starve slowly,
The lack of sanitation--Children gunned down,
Racism,
Sexism,
Poor hospital care, Lousy education.
But the
red flag's faltered--greed appeared.
Greed--a huge mouth "BAAL--The Eater
of Dreams."
The red flag fell.
It lay on the ground, in the dust.
But an old woman picked it up,
Brushed off the dirt.
Then young and old, black, Asian and white Picked up
the flag.
And soon the first red flags of "spring" appeared.
I used to
think the red flag will cure it.
I still do.
Brooklyn Comrade