Challenge, Vol. 35, Number 41, June 9, 1999

The NATO-backed indictment of Milosevic as a war criminal is as absurd as the idea of Hitler indicting a Mafia godfather for murder. Sure, Milosevic is a killer. But two and a half months of the Clinton-NATO air war over Yugoslavia have devastated more workers’ lives than all the years of Milosevic’s rule.

As Challenge has pointed out since the bombing began, this is an imperialist war for control of the pipelines that will determine who profits from Caspian oil and gas wealth. As a military operation, it has been a disaster for NATO and the U.S. Milosevic’s troops still control Kosovo. Dislodging them would take a massive land invasion—with victory far from certain. So the NATO bosses, led by Clinton and Britain’s Labour Party Prime Minister Blair, are reduced to the hope that carpet terror-bombing of Serbian civilians will bring Milosevic to the bargaining table.

Meanwhile, the key military goal—driving out the Serbian army—has proved unattainable from the air. The first two weeks of air raids drove over 800,000 Albanian Kosovars into exile. These were the same workers whom the bombing was supposed to protect. Now the war is openly directed against the entire Serbian population. Even the pretense of collateral damage is gone. NATO is blowing up bridges, destroying electrical grids, reducing large areas of Serbia to a Stone Age economy, and "humanely" killing elderly people, women and children who happen to get in the way. This is a terror technique developed by Hitler, perfected by U.S. imperialism in Vietnam, and now refined by Clinton-NATO with the added disgusting twist of a "human rights" hypocrisy. The difference is that both Hitler in Europe and U.S. imperialism in Vietnam were able to launch massive ground invasions.

U.S. rulers are deeply divided about ground war in Kosovo. The main, Rockefeller-led wing of the U.S. ruling class wants to cut its losses there and get a Russian-brokered deal that will minimize the damage to U.S. imperialism. The rest of NATO is also split and lining up in varying degrees against the U.S. The Germans, whose economy stands to suffer if the war goes on indefinitely, have flatly ruled out a ground assault. The Italians want a bombing pause. The French opposed the Milosevic indictment. The Greeks, who have a Russian-backed pipeline deal that conflicts with U.S. and British interests, won’t allow use of their air space for bombing raids from Turkey.

The British bosses have been pushing hardest for a ground war. The reason isn’t a mystery. Of all the major western oil companies, the newly-merged British Petroleum Amoco (BP) has the most to lose from a disruption of Caspian crude to Europe. BP Amoco holds a major share in the Azeri International Oil Consortium (AOIC), the chief Caspian exporter, which now pumps oil in ex-Soviet pipelines from Baku through Georgia and Russia to Black Sea ports. To reach Europe, this oil must transit Turkey’s Bosporos strait, which military action or an oil spill could close at any moment. BP and other Rockefeller rivals, like AIOC members Unocal and Pennzoil, are dying for Balkan pipelines that will bypass the Bosporos.

BP used to be Anglo-Persian Oil and enjoyed a monopoly in Iran until a U.S.-backed coup put the Shah and Exxon on the throne in 1953 and cut BP’s stake in half. The Shah’s downfall in 1979 sent both Exxon and BP packing. But fully 40% of BP’s supplies came from Iran, and thus it was the hardest hit by the interruption (Daniel Yergin, The Prize, 1991, p. 687).

BP turned tail to far less profitable Alaska and has been desperate for cheap sources ever since. Exxon, however, fell back on Saudi Arabia. The Rockefeller interests don’t want to lose out in the Caspian, and they are disgusted with Clinton for the way he’s bungled the air war over Yugoslavia. But they aren’t as frantic as their British rivals for immediate oil shipments through the region. In the Caspian, Exxon’s main strategy is to ally with the Azeri government to ensure long-term control over the oil, rather than pumping it now.

The Rockefellers’ primary strategic focus remains the Middle East, where oil is still cheapest. This is why they can afford, however reluctantly, to take a temporary hit in the Balkans. Exxon, Mobil and Chevron still have a deal with the Saudi rulers. Control of Middle Eastern oil remains crucial to the Rockefeller wing’s strategy for world domination. So Rockefeller & Co. seem to be casting about for ways to settle their Yugoslavia debacle, even if it means a temporary victory for their Russian rivals, whom they would dearly love to keep in a box.

Rockefeller stooge Jesse Jackson held a prayer meeting with Milosevic a few weeks ago, after which Milosevic offered an olive branch by releasing three U.S. POW’s. The Rockefeller-run Brookings Institution started pushing a Kosovo deal shortly after the bombing had begun and the U.S. defeat had already become obvious.

Now the president of the Rockefeller Foundation is going to participate in a World Conference on Religion and Peace to examine post-war reconstruction of Kosovo and the critical role of multi-religious action in building peace in the region. Other participants include leaders of the Russian-allied Serbian Orthodox Church, as well as various Bible-thumpers and Finnish diplomats currently involved in shuttle diplomacy with the Russians (PR Newswire, 5/28). In other words, the Rockefellers are pushing for a settlement with the Russians under the same religious-humanitarian cover initially used to justify the bombing. But nothing will be settled, even if the next few weeks bring a version of the deal that’s now being hinted at in the bosses’ media.

Every imperialist peace arrangement is nothing more than a shaky cease-fire until the next war. In fact, a Moscow-brokered settlement may put U.S. ground troops head-to-head with Russian forces in Kosovo. Any deal over Yugoslavia will sharpen all the current contradictions of inter-imperialist rivalry. The Russian bosses will use their political gains to fight for their own oil profits. The competition for Balkan pipelines will intensify. The Germans, French and Italians will draw their own conclusions from the mess U.S. leadership has put them in. Even the British are continuing to play a leap-frog game of merger competition with the Rockefeller oil giants. BP recently gobbled up Amoco. Then Exxon took over Mobil. BP Amoco responded by grabbing Arco. Now the latest is Chevron’s move to gobble up Texaco. This looks like a case of "friends" on the road to becoming enemies. And don’t forget the other war: Clinton’s terror bombing in Iraq, where Exxon-Mobil’s interests are far more vital than in the Balkans.

So, although we can’t predict how long NATO will continue to slaughter workers in Yugoslavia or exactly when the next major Rockefeller oil war will erupt in the Middle East, we can say for sure that the laws of class society continue to prevail. Imperialism makes war inevitable. We are living in a long period of inter-imperialist rivalry for world domination, during which armed struggle will become more the rule rather than the exception. Peace isn’t at hand. Our job as communists is to explain the underlying class reasons for these mass murders, to build our Party both patiently and boldly, and to show workers, in word and deed, that the only sane strategy remains the long, hard, violent, but ultimately winning struggle for communist revolution.

Fighting Imperialism’s Defenders In Teachers Union

Fighting Imperialism In UTLA

LOS ANGELES, June 1 — In April, PLP members and friends raised and got a motion passed against the U.S./NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, in the Area Assembly of the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA). Since then, we have been trying to get the motion passed by the union as a whole. We have learned some things in the process that we want to share with Challenge readers who are also engaged in this type of struggle.

NEA president Bob Chase and AFT president Sandra Feldman sent a letter to President Clinton, "on behalf of 3 million American teachers fully supporting" the bombing. Our resolution pointed out that the real reason for the bombing was to control Middle Eastern and Caspian Sea oil. We said it’s our students who will die in a larger ground war, and urged Feldman and Chase to refrain from such statements in the future.

On April 28, we took the resolution to the union’s Human Rights Committee, where one of our members is active. Other committee members added a number of liberal and pacifist points to the resolution, and then endorsed it. Because of our lack of experience in parliamentary maneuvers, we were unable to bring the resolution to the floor that night. However, we met people who were very grateful that we were talking about this issue, and who helped us put copies of the resolution on the chairs of everyone in the meeting, while we passed out the PLP leaflet outside the meeting.

At the May 26 meeting, we were slightly better prepared to bring the resolution to the floor. However, we weren’t bold enough in the early part of the meeting. We finally realized we would have to be at a microphone. Instead of waiting until all the other stuff the union leadership wanted done, we jumped in front of people that the union leadership wanted to talk. We finally got to the floor along with the people from the Human Rights Committee. After a very short debate, one of the reactionaries for the union leadership called for a quorum. By that time there weren’t a lot of people left at the meeting, so it was obvious that the meeting would be over. One of the Human Rights Committee members got so mad that he started a shouting match with this flunky—and the meeting was adjourned.

The plans we had to call for teach-ins in the high schools, and to strengthen the language of the resolution, didn’t get on the floor at all. This will have to wait until next month, the last meeting of the year. The other thing we’ll do is ask those teachers who are reading Challenge to buy subscriptions.

We got the support of some people (including someone who used to be around the Party in the ’60s), in bringing this resolution to the floor. We were able to raise this debate, and continue the discussion. While it’s been relatively easy so far, to get motions passed through Area Assemblies and special interest committees, it’s another thing altogether to get them passed by the House of Reps, the policy-making body of the union. Rules have recently been tightened to make it even more difficult to bring Area or committee motions to the floor. But the struggle brings out the left in people.

Maybe it’s easier in UTLA than it is in many union locals. Maybe UTLA is not as solidly consolidated behind the Rockefeller agenda as the AFT. There is uneven development of fascism. But "easy" or difficult, it is important that we become active in all these places, raise the struggle against imperialist war and fascism, get to know teachers who are open to anti-imperialist ideas, and expose the union leaders’ treachery in process. We look forward to getting to know the teachers better who are helping fight for this resolution.

Cops: All Guilty Of Terrorizing Workers

LOS ANGELES, CA, May 18 — Lee Baca, the Chief of the Sheriffs Department and County Supervisor Gloria Molina gave the results of the Sheriffs’ investigation into the murder of Ricardo Close tonight at the Church of San Alfonso in East LA. Mr. Close was murdered last February by the Sheriffs, who shot him 38 times. Mr. Close had been depressed after being laid off from his job as a bus mechanic.

This meeting had been scheduled for May 19, but the Sheriffs changed it at the last minute to try to keep people from the neighborhood from participating. But the widow of Mr. Close and others quickly made up a flyer and, on the same day, handed it out in the schools in the area, while others called the press. More than 50 people participated in the meeting, supporting the widow of Mr. Close.

The report read by one of the Sheriffs in charge of the investigation said, "The Sheriffs acted in accordance with the circumstances. When Mr. Close went out on the porch of the house, he had two knives and a scissors. He put the knife to his neck and was bleeding. The Sheriffs first shot four bags of sand, and then three others. Mr. Close fell down and then got back up. He put a knife in his hand and threw it hard at the police. That’s why they had to shoot 38 times. 17 shots went into Ricardo’s body. Then the paramedics came because he was still alive. Since he was still alive, they had to handcuff his hands behind his back."

"Liars," yelled a witness. "How could he have been alive with 17 bullets?" Then Mrs. Close said that the report was a "BIG LIE." Everyone in the meeting was very angry and yelled at the Sheriffs, calling them lying murderers.

Gloria Molina, who pretends to be the "people’s representative," asked for respect for the police. Someone yelled at Molina. "Which side are you on? Why do you defend the police so much?" Another added, "The only thing you’re missing is a blue uniform."

The Sheriffs and the politician became very tense and nervous at seeing the anger of the people, which they couldn’t control. Chief Sheriff Baca said, "these problems occur because the community doesn’t cooperate with us." Then he asked, "Which of you is willing to cooperate with us?" "NONE OF US!" yelled many of those present. Several yelled that they had no confidence in the cops.

Supposedly the investigation will continue, but the basics of their big lie is already in their report. The murder of Mr. Close is part of the growing fascist terror by the U.S. bosses against workers, especially blacks and Latins, and no report, no Special Federal Prosecutor will bring back the lives of Mr. Close, Tyisha Miller, or Margaret Mitchell, the homeless woman killed last week by the LAPD. The cops serve and protect the capitalists’ blood soaked profits—and they’re all guilty!

These racist murders go hand-in-hand with the genocidal campaign by the U.S. and NATO in Yugoslavia. To the bosses, the lives of workers aren’t worth anything. In their imperialist competition for control of oil and of profits in general, they are willing to sacrifice thousands, then millions of workers. But for us in the PLP, every worker’s life is worth very much. That’s why we’re fighting to organize the working class to make a communist revolution to put an end to the bosses and their racist assassins.

Racist NYPD Cops Strike Again

BRONX, NY, June 2 — There is nothing like reality to shatter illusions. Last week, when cop Volpe admitted he was guilty of sodomizing and torturing Abner Louima in August 1997, many saw it as a victory against racist cops. Some even believed that this would at least make other racist cops think twice before committing atrocities against black and Latin workers and youth.

The day after Volpe admitted his guilt, 16-year old Dantae Johnson was shot through the abdomen by cop Mark Conway after he grabbed the black teen while still driving his police car in pursuit of the youth. Dantae and his friend began running away from Conway and other cops after they approached the teens near the Roberto Clemente State Park in the Bronx early on Wednesday May 26.

Mayor Giuliani, and Police Commissioner Safir, in their usual racist manner, tried to give some justification to this racist shooting questioning why were the teens out in the street unsupervised late at night. They also blamed the teens for running away from the cops.

First of all, the cops even though in uniform, were in an unmarked car. Experience has shown most black youth that the cops are out to get them and so they run away when confronted. Second of all, since when it is illegal for teens to be out alone in the night.

The most important thing that workers and youth must learn is that the police department cannot be reformed, that no special federal prosecutors (like Al Sharpton and other opportunists demand) or more blacks and Latin cops can change the nature of the job of cops under capitalism. U.S. capitalism is based on the racist superexploitation of black, Latin and immigrant workers, and the racist divisions among all workers. The job of cops is enforce racism and defend the system, period!

‘Class War Here, NATO War There!’

SAN FRANCISCO — "This is war!" That’s how one union official opened the May meeting of Transport Workers Union Local 250a (MUNI transit workers). She was talking about the downtown corporations attack on the wages and working conditions of MUNI drivers.

The Committee on Jobs (made up of the 23 biggest CEO’s in SF) is funding an organization called "Rescue MUNI." Their ballot initiative for November opens the door for fare increases and service cuts. But its main attack is on the MUNI drivers. The corporations have used the press to blame the collapse of a mismanaged, under-funded transit system on transit workers. These articles play to racist stereotypes of the mostly minority workforce.

This was one of the few union meetings where there was actually a quorum, with over 150 drivers. The union leaders offered a plan to "block" the ballot initiative. But the drivers wanted much more.

PLP and other drivers spoke about turning this campaign into an offensive attack on corporations and capitalism. In the union’s Education Committee, we have struggled for a strategy of, "It’s them or us," and held a "moment of silence" for Yugoslavian transit workers killed by NATO bombs. Drivers have to unite with riders to make the downtown corporations pay. This is the battle between capital and labor at MUNI. We have discussed how crucial it is for U.S. international companies to control oil around the world, using Challenge and the NY Times.

One driver asked, "How did we get here? The press is attacking us. Riders get on the transit system with attitudes. Why are we only responding now?" A PLP member answered, "The same CEO’s that gave Rescue MUNI $27,000 to wage an all-out attack on MUNI drivers, are attacking workers all over the world. The Committee on Jobs’ Henry Derr of Chevron uses his influence on City government to make either MUNI workers or passengers pay for transit...At the same time, he influences U.S. foreign policy to protect Chevron’s oil profits around the world. The bombing of Yugoslavia is about setting up and protecting U.S. oil pipelines so Chevron can sell its oil from the Caspian Sea. Class war here, NATO war there. It’s all the same thing."

This speech got applause and enthusiastic comments. Although no regular business was carried on at this union meeting, the speaker did announce that the SF Central Labor Council had condemned the NATO bombing and that we should do even more. Many drivers are involved in the campaign to block the ballot initiative and are worried about their jobs. The changing situation facing drivers, and the imperialist wars raging around the globe, give our comMUNIst analysis real meaning to our coworkers.

Open Fascism Rampant In California Prisons

CALIFORNIA — The state of California has a $4.3 billion budget surplus. Much of this comes from slashing people off welfare, through "sanctions," and forcing others to work in public sector jobs for their welfare checks. Despite many honest people opposing this Workfare, more welfare recipients are being forced to work in welfare offices and do other jobs for LA County to get their welfare checks. The same people behind this attack are behind the war in Yugoslavia. War and fascism go hand-in-hand.. California recently elected a Democratic liberal governor. What is he planning to do with the state surplus? Reinstate more people on welfare?

Nope. According to the Wall Street Journal (5/19), "Gray Davis wants to invest $3.3 million in an innovative, high-tech system that uses water and chemicals instead of bullets to quell fights in prison yards…the governor has proposed spending the money to purchase 60 ‘water-restraint systems’ and install them throughout the state’s prison system. The devices can be accurately aimed to shoot a pressurized solution of water and chemicals like pepper spray and tear gas as far as 200 feet across an exercise yard. A prison guard fires a burst or stream of the solution over the heads of the fighting inmates. The heavier chemicals then drop from the water, creating an invisible mist that incapacitates the prisoners."

In prisons like Corchran, the guards purposely put inmates from different gangs in the same yard and then intervene to stop the fights. Before, the shot many inmates. Now Davis has this great "humane" plan—spray them with chemicals. As Challenge has stated, scratch a liberal and find a fascist! Already, California spends more money on prisons than on higher education. The capitalist system is hell-bent on racist murder, and imprisonment, slave labor and war. Workers need a mass PLP to free our class from these fascists!

‘Snowman’ Snow Job On How To Fight Fascism

The following book review was written by ‘Red Rocker’

Snow Man, Carolyn Chute, 1999, Harcourt, Brace & Company

Carolyn Chute, American author who hails from Maine, is best known for her first novel, The Beans of Egypt, Maine, the story of a poor white family that "cannot pull itself up by its bootstraps because it has no bootstraps left." Another book by her titled "Merry Men" was described by one reviewer as "the first real monument to the the people that the Reagan years destroyed".

In her newest novel, Snow Man, Chute deals with the issue of why poor white men are drawn to militias and violence, while offering the reader a story of compassion and suspense.

Robert Drummond, a member of a Militia from Maine called "The Snow Men," takes part in the assassination of a U.S. Senator, a man who we find out was a corrupt and lying chameleon. During the assassination, all but Drummond are killed. He flees the scene severely wounded and manages to escape. The news media describe him as a member of an "utltra-right-wing militia" and a nationwide manhunt begins.

Drummond makes his way to the house of liberal Senator Jerry Creighton, where Creighton’s wife, Connie, who is into the arts and has a communist for a friend; Creighton’s daughter, Kristy, who teaches Women’s Studies at a local college; and the hired hand, Art, are at home.

Art finds Drummond in a shed behind the house in a semi-conscious state and near death. He immediately recognizes him from news photos but does not call the police. Kristy walks into the shed and together they decide to take the fugitive into the house to aid him.

Eventually, Kristy and Art help Robert Drummond recover, as FBI agents cruise the neighborhood. The wife, Connie, also becomes aware of Drummond’s plight and due to her opposition to capital punishment, also does not want to turn the man over to the authorities.

From this point on, a bond develops between Drummond and the others and Drummond discusses the reasons that he was driven to violence with Kristy, who is an ardent feminist.

At one point he talks about how the state took his farm "which I put every penny of mine into for years keepin’ it up...and so now we got nothin’ but a little shit shack and three kids all in one bedroom and us on the couch and a brand-new mortgage, which is breaking us, and we’ve started to say...uh, yuh, to to go lookin’ for a fuckin’ fire hydrant to live in the shade of!"

As the story moves on, we find that Robert Drummond is not a man with a clear ideology, but a man driven by confusion and rage by his plight. He explains that some of his heroes are Nestor Cerpa, a member of the Tupac Amuru Revolutionary Movement of Peru, the group that stormed Japanese Embassy a few years ago and were brutally murdered, and Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatistas of Mexico.

Connie explains that these guys are left-wing. Drummond replies: "It ain’t left or right. It’s up and down. You’re either up or you’re down."

In another discussion, Drummond goes on a tirade about corporate socialists destroying the "American Dream" for the little guy. Kristy tells him to stop calling it socialist.

"Capitalists, Robert! They are capitalists!" shouts Kristy. Drummond begins to talk about the New World Order and how that is socialism, which is a common brainwashing device of the fascist right and of people like Pat Robertson. Kristy states: "Socialism means government by the working people, by the proletariat! Socialism is you!" Drummond does not respond and appears confused. As the bond between them continues to grow leading to a love affair, the FBI begin to move in for the kill. For those who may wish to read this hard to put down novel, I will stop here.

But the book demonstrates that poor whites, victims of capitalism and lacking a class consciousness or clear perspective on who their real enemy may be, are the ones who the fascist right prey upon and offer simplistic explanations and irrational conspiracy theories to explain their plight. Thus, the desperate need in this nation for a strong mass revolutionary communist party to reach those who are being screwed by capitalism but are easy prey to the fascist militias and other far right groups, due to the fact that these groups, financed no doubt by people in high places, have weasled their way into the mainstream and people such as Drummond hear these ideas from so-called legitimate people like Pat Robertson, who wrote a book titled "The New World Order", Trent Lott, Rush Limbaugh, and a whole host of radio and TV right wing religious nuts who espouse all sorts of irrational and insane ideas. But to a man on the bottom facing no hope these messages might sound appealing.

The main problem with Chute’s novel, though superior to most of the fiction out there today, is that she really doesn’t resolve this dilemma in her work. Instead, we are left hanging at the end of the novel and wondering.

The novel ends with a quote from Geronimo: "I think that I am a good man...But the whole world thinks that I am a bad man."

Whatever the case maybe, the novel is sure to be a controversial one and worthy of discussion and of reading.

Challenge Comments:

It sounds like an interesting book, but we disagree with some of Red Rocker’s conclusions. During this period of rotten capitalist culture, a book that is "superior to most of the fiction out there today," doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s good. We believe that when it comes to capitalist culture, "the better it is, the worse it is."

The bare facts are:

• Drummond is not a worker. He is a small farmer, a member of the petit-bourgeoisie which historically has tried to escape the working class. Historically, small business owners when attacked by big capitalism, given a choice between siding with the working class or fascist capitalists, tend to side with the fascists. Also, economic factors are not the only influence turning them towards fascism. Racism plays a big role. The best example was the people who formed the SA used by Hitler to come to power. Hitler used them, and the Roehm brothers who called themselves "anti-capitalist" and even socialist, who headed the SA (the storm troopers), to fight against communist workers and other enemies of the Nazis. After they were no longer useful, Germany big bosses and the Army High Command ordered Hitler to kill the Roehm brothers and disband the SA. Drummond has become an active shooting fascist;

• He is not influenced by any working class people or revolutionary ideas. The family of the liberal Senator, Kristy and her mother, are just plain liberals with some kind of pseudo-socialist rhetoric. Scratch a liberal and you find a fascist, like those who are behind the NATO/U.S. war against Yugoslavia. The only way to win white workers who might be influenced by bad ideas is to fight against war, racism and fascism.

• The novel’s end quote by Geronimo obviously means that the Geronimos and Drummonds are "good."

Geronimo is, Drummond ain’t.

The Following Poem Was Written By A High School Student:

UNITE

Workers of the World unite, for many, doesn’t

Sound just right.

Producing all the goods we need, no water

For a drying seed.

The bosses, with their armies, push us further down,

Look us in the eye as they turn our skies brown.

Beat down by the uniform "to protect and serve",

Liars "trying to help us," they have some nerve.

Soon the day will come when injustice must

End, and I will be united with all my

Worldly friends.

When the day arrives, know I will be there,

Together we will live, the world we

Shall share.

Congo Holocaust Matches Hitler’s Slaughter Of Jews

Africa is a clear example of what Challenge maintains: capitalism and war go hand-in-hand. There are 15 wars raging throughout the continent. The biggest is in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

After Kabila, the current ruler, overthrew dictator Mobutu two years ago in an armed rebellion, "peace" was supposedly in the air. But soon afterwards, Kabila’s former supporters, led by the rulers of Rwanda and Uganda, turned against him. "The Banyamulenge rebellion in the east, starting in August 1998, has turned into a war involving the armies of seven of the region’s states and several armed movements. Some 15 attempts to end the conflict have failed." (Le Monde Diplomatique, English edition, 4/99).

To understand the Congo, one of the largest and richest countries in Africa (with lots of valuable minerals), one must understand its colonization by Belgium.

King Leopold II’s Holocaust in the Congo

A recent book, The Ghost of King Leopold, by Adam Hochschild, has become a best seller in Belgium. It describes the Holocaust of the Congo, which made King Leopold II (1835-1909) one of the richest rulers on earth.

Leopold, along with British explorer-colonialist H.M. Stanley, established the Congo Free State and ruled it as his personal property for many years. His Congo administrators, following Leopold’s orders, used vicious brutality to plunder the country’s ivory and rubber. Millions of men, women and children were enslaved, forced to work under the threat of having their arms and legs amputated. Women were raped regularly and villages were destroyed. According to Hochschild 10 million people were executed.

Some apologists of Belgian colonialism, particularly those who served in the Congo until 1960 when it became independent, defend Leopold. Their internet web page claims only a half dozen people suffered amputations in the old Congo "Free" State!

Historian Jean Stengers, an "expert" on the Leopold period, says Hochschild exaggerates. But even this defender of Leopold admits that the Congo population decreased enormously during the first 30 years of Leopold’s rule. Interestingly enough, Leopold said he annexed the Congo for "humanitarian reasons"—just like Clinton, Blair and the rest of the imperialists today say their NATO invasion of the Balkans is for "humanitarian reasons."

Ultimately, a worldwide campaign (in which Mark Twain was deeply involved) denouncing mass terror in the Congo forced Leopold to "give" the Congo to the Belgian government. (That’s like taking from the lions and giving to the hyenas.)

The Belgian capitalists continued to plunder the Congo. In fact, when Belgium left the Congo in 1960, the country was in ruins, and soon plunged into civil war. Patrice Lumumba, a leftist Congo nationalist, became Prime Minister on an anti-imperialist platform, so the CIA and the Belgian army assassinated him. Then the CIA installed Mobutu as dictator. He ruled the country as his personal fiefdom and was a faithful servant of U.S. imperialism in the region during the Cold War against the Soviet Union. When Kabila overthrew Mobutu, the latter was one of the world’s richest bosses.

Today’s civil war in the Congo involves armies from Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Angola and Uganda, alongside a battle between U.S. and French imperialism, fighting to gain control of Central Africa and its rich natural resources. Workers and their allies in Africa needs to build a communist-led revolutionary movement to bury all these murderers—that is the goal of PLP!

Deadly Racism Against Africans Continues In Belgium

Belgian capitalism’s racism against Africans marches on. Last November, a 20-year old African woman died in a Brussels hospital where she was taken in a coma after an incident in a Sabena airplane. Semira Adamu was placed on the plane by several Belgian cops, to be deported to Lome, the capital of Togo. She rebelled inside the plane and was beaten so badly by the 11 cops that she was hospitalized. She died hours later because of damage to her brain.

This kind of racism is also promoted by Vlaams Blok (VB), a Belgian fascist party, which blames African immigrants for all the problems created by capitalism. The VB denies it is pro-Nazi, but praises the Nazi occupation of Belgium because it halted the "Frenchification" of Flanders.

VB also calls for the dissolution of Belgium and the creation of an independent and "ethnically pure" Flanders. On June 13, local, federal and state elections will be held, as well as elections to the European parliament. The VB could win up to 20% of the votes in Flanders and could win enough votes in the Brussels city legislature to paralyze the administration.

Letters

Finds In PLP What’s Missing In FMLN

Dear Challenge:

When I discovered that my personality led me to identify with the oppressed, I came to understand that there were only two classes in society: the oppressed class and the oppressor class. Since I was very small, I could see and feel certain injustices, but I couldn’t do anything about them. But when I saw I could do something about it, and I decided to join one of the organizations of the FMLN. I always thought that strength was in unity, and that’s why I joined the FPL (Popular Forces of Liberation).

The peace accords had just been signed when I first joined groups of youth. I became involved with other sectors of the community, where we discussed that taking power through armed struggle was the best, and, at the same time, to achieve real democracy, the electoral campaign was the solution to the problems that we faced in El Salvador.

I had the opportunity to attend the first demobilization of the FMLN, which took place on June 20, 1992, in the northern part of El Salvador (El Paisnal). This date is unforgettable for me because I could see how the guerillas who had taken up arms for more than 12 years of war, turned them in to be destroyed, and with them were also destroyed their dreams of liberty. These guerillas had abandoned their families and their homes. They risked their lives. Some didn’t have the opportunity to live the moments that I was living. "Was it worth the lives that were lost to attain the goals that the leaders of the FMLN pursued?" I always asked this question, without getting an answer. And I don’t think I’m the only one who has this question.

The oppressed class has continued suffering the same inhuman conditions, but until recently I didn’t understand much and I thought that what was happening with the Peace Accords was the best that could happen: the FMLN was being consolidated as an electoral party and began its electoral campaign.

For some time I was organizing for the FMLN, which consisted of winning sympathizers to vote in the next elections. Later, with the same objective, I led a youth section of the FMLN. The time passed and things happened that had nothing to do with revolutionary theory or practice. A short time after the presidential elections, I decided to leave the movement. But I wasn’t sorry that I had participated, because the time I dedicated to the FMLN helped me develop a certain class consciousness.

But I still had many questions for which I couldn’t find answers, until I had the opportunity to know a member of PLP. From this time on, I have begun to get answers to some of my questions. One of these answers is that the only way the working class can take power is though protracted, organized, revolutionary armed struggle.

I hadn’t known about the existence of PLP, but even though it has been a short time since I met the party, I’ve been able to see that the Party struggles solely for the well-being of the working class, without caring about race, language, sex, or nationality. The first activity in which I took part was the protest at the Academy Award Oscars. In this action I saw the unity which the FMLN lacked. I was impressed with the way that everyone showed solidarity when the police arrested one of us. I say "one of us" because that’s how I felt, and how the people whom I know in the Party have made me feel.

The second activity in which I participated was the May Day March in San Francisco. I had participated in other marches commemorating International Workers’ Day, but none like this, so well organized, with strong chants, and most important, united. If throughout the whole world the workers would unite in the struggle for communist revolution, under the banner and line of PLP, we would achieve the dictatorship of the proletariat.

I thank you very much for the opportunity to tell you about my first steps and impressions of the PLP.

A New Member of PLP

Reds Expose Green Imperialist Warmakers

Dear Challenge:

(The following are excerpts from several letters received from Germany)

Last week, hundreds of people in Germany went to the city of Bielefeld to protest against the Green Party and its support of the NATO attack on the Balkan working class. The Green Party started out pretending to be for the people and against the big corporations and the way the corporations destroy the environment. But now, the Green Party has lost the popularity of the people because it supports the capitalist warmaker-terrorists. More than 9 million people have taken part in protests! The War Government uses the media to spread lies and deceit, but how much longer can they succeed? There are protests in 70 German cities!

The leaders of the Greens tremble in fear at the anger of the working class of Germany which confronted them on the streets and at their convention. We are a Red "bomb" against the Green capitalists! The protesters shouted: "You are murderers!" at the Greens and pelted them with red paint and rotten eggs. The leader of the Greens, Fischer, was hit with red paint and suffered a perforated eardrum. Despite the powerful control of special groups of police, several hundred people were inside the Green convention hall taking part in the protest. While the Green leaders were able to defeat a vote denouncing NATO, they were forced to allow a vote that called for a temporary suspension of the NATO bombing. NATO will ignore the vote, but that is not the main point.

The more important point is that the so-called "Socialists" and "Greens" have been exposed as imperialist warmakers, loyal puppets of the fascist corporations. Many workers and youth will no longer be fooled by the liberals and socialists and "greens." Now we have to win them to the "reds"—to oppose imperialism and capitalism and organize for communist revolution!

Red Friend From Germany

Challenge Response Unsatisfactory

Dear Challenge:

The Challenge response to "Reader in the Energy Business" (6/2/99) was unsatisfactory. First, the third paragraph did not contradict the second. Reader said that the importance of Kosovo could not be explained by oil. To support that assertion, Reader said that the U.S. favored a pipeline across Turkey (the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline). Reader said the U.S. opposes any transportation scheme that depends on transporting oil across the Black Sea, "where Russia has too much influence." This view coincides with earlier articles in Challenge citing the U.S. support for the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline.

Second, the ending of the Challenge response makes no sense to me. Recently we have written that the U.S. favors a pipeline from Bourgas in Bulgaria to the Albanian port of Vlore, which would run right through (or near) Kosovo. This pipeline plan would link U.S. interest in the control of oil to U.S. bombing in the Balkans. This pipeline would bring Caspian Sea oil into the Mediterranean where it can be transported to the rest of Europe. But the end of the Challenge response is "Kosovo becomes a very significant chain for this land route of Caspian oil. That is why the U.S. is putting billions into the Baku-Ceyhan pipe line." But that pipeline would bring Caspian oil into the Mediterranean by bypassing the Balkans. (The back page article in that same issue of Challenge emphasizes the pipeline from Bourgas to Vlore, not the one from Baku to Ceyhan.)

Perhaps Challenge was arguing that Kosovo and the pipelines through the Balkans are important as routes to get oil to the Balkans and Eastern Europe. But aren’t these markets relatively small? And couldn’t they get oil from the Mediterranean, once it got to Ceyhan in Turkey? Do we agree with reader that the U.S. wants to avoid the Black Sea? If so, is the U.S. really supporting the Bourgas-Vlore pipeline?

Curious Reader

Challenge Responds:

We have written many articles in this paper showing the connections between the Balkan war and the oil routes, pipelines, etc. In fact, we have just printed a short pamphlet, "DON’T BELIEVE THE HUMANITARIAN HYPE—U.S./NATO BOMBING FOR CONTROL OF OIL PROFITS" containing many of these articles. Hopefully, this will answer many of the questions Curious Reader has.

Who Should Speak At May Day?

Dear Challenge:

This year, I attended for the first time the PLP’s May Day March in Washington DC, and to put it bluntly, it kicked ass! Due to its importance, however, one must look at the March in a dialectical fashion. Thus, it is necessary that I voice the criticisms I have.

In particular, these relate to the speeches given at the March. I question the idea of having members of revisionist [fake communist] parties speak. For those who are unaware, a member of the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB) spoke at the march in Washington. Supposedly, this person was speaking to support the March by showing international solidarity. For clarification, people should know that the PTB supports revisionist/terrorist guerrilla movements in Peru and the Philippines, among others. They also consider present China and Cuba to be workers’ states.

Having a representative of such a party speak at our marches raises serious political problems. The line put forward harms our credibility with workers. The PTB member, while denouncing NATO’s imperialism, didn’t mention Milosevic’s fascist ethnic cleansing. Of course Milosevic is small potatoes compared to the Nazis in Washington, but not mentioning the former leaves one open to the attack of supporting Serbian fascism. Indeed, for what it’s worth, in an editorial the NY Times (5/7) could castigate an anti-war forum at Stanford over this issue. The fact that we allowed someone with such views to be front and center at our March, could imply that we agree with these ideas, especially to someone not very familiar with the Party. They might be won away from us by such facile criticism as that of the Times. In short they know about the ethnic cleansing, and not speaking of it, only makes the rest of what we say less believable.

More importantly, having a revisionist speak goes against how we need to build our movement. It resembles the rejected strategy of building united fronts. In order to win, PLP must be a mass Party of millions of members in the working class. Presently, most workers are not won ideologically to the need for communist revolution. However, an ever-growing majority has sharp contradictions with the increasingly fascist order. We need such people to be won to communism. In this vain, it is useful to have workers who have been victimized by capitalism, such as the parents of victims of racist police terror, speak at the March. Though they don’t completely agree with us, they speak personally of the horrors of this system, and thus their stories belong at May Day, where we march to overthrow it. They don’t speak for a group which has sharp objective differences with us. Rather, they speak from the spontaneous consciousness which workers have. Even the Guinean workers didn’t seem to be putting forward a particularly formed ideology. In contrast, the revisionists peddle their harmful ideology. Such people will not be won to our line, and by having them speak, we can only help them win people away from us.

To conclude, I am not saying that revisionists should not be allowed at the march. Rather my reasoning is: should we allow revisionists to come to our March? Of course! Should we allow them to have a platform from which to put forward their poisonous ideas? Of course not! I wonder what other comrades think.

Red Student

Challenge Responds (2)

Thanks for your letter. We believe that communist ideas can become mass ideas. This is the whole point of May Day. In order to advance the process, we have to work with people who disagree with our line on many questions. This is true throughout the year and certainly on May Day, when many marchers come to us with reformist ideas. We welcome their participation as a way of helping win them to the Party. We’re sure that the comrade agrees with this principle: we want to unite with workers in struggle against the bosses and at the same time struggle with workers to help win them to communism.

You could say that the same principle shouldn’t apply to organizations that applies to individuals. And it’s true that we reject the idea of "united fronts" with forces that represent any kind of capitalist line. But what we do on May Day is different. On May Day, the basis of unity is the PLP line. True, the speaker to whom the comrade refers put forth ideas that differed from ours. But the differences were clear to anyone who listened, and our line dominated the march.

Furthermore, the March helped move the speaker closer toward our basic position. She said: "I assume that all the demonstrators are already PLP members," in other words, that all the marchers had already been won to all aspects of our line. When our leadership assured her that this wasn’t the case, she expressed amazement and admiration that so many people could be organized under openly communist banners. We think this experience shows that within limits, it’s still a good idea to invite such friends to offer May Day greetings. If we think they’re eventually winnable, we have to take a long-term approach to involvement and political struggle with them. Of course, the comrade is absolutely right: the Party’s communist politics must clearly lead every aspect of May Day.