Challenge, June 30, 1999

CHICAGO, June 17—"The police cannot be reformed; we must destroy them and the system they serve and protect with communist revolution." Absolutely! I know. I’m from South Africa," said a young black worker. He led a chant on the bullhorn marching with the PLP contingent in a demonstration protesting the racist shooting of two unarmed black motorists by the Chicago KKKops.

Once again the working class has shown its ability to confront fascism and once again the nationalist/religious leadership here— led by Rev. Paul Jakes and the Christian Coalition on Urban Affairs—has demonstrated its ability and desire to misdirect the anger of the working class.

Robert Russ, a Northwestern University graduating senior, was shot by racist cop Van Watts IV when the he attempted to drag the 6’4" football player from his car. Latanya Haggerty, a computer analyst, was also shot on a "routine" traffic stop when racist cop Selena Daniels "mistook" Latanya’s cell phone for a gun. The cops immediately ruled Robert’s death "justifiable." However, after daily demonstrations at Mayor Daley’s office and outrage of many workers, students, neighbors and professors, Police Superintendent Terry Hillard wants to redefine the term "justifiable."

The march began at Roosevelt and Canal and headed to the Central Police Station. To protect the bosses from the working class’s wrath, 90% of the long walk was over a bridge with no buildings or spectators on either side.

Members and friends of the PLP arrived early and led a spirited rally of those workers present. As we explained on the bullhorn why there will be no justice under capitalism for our class, and chanted, "the only solution is communist revolution," the "StreetWise" contingent (homeless coalition) joined in the chants and took to the streets without the leadership of the sellouts. These workers have great anger for the cops, being constantly harassed on the streets by these animals. Joseph Gould, a StreetWise vendor, was shot and killed on the street by a Chicago cop four years ago.

The misleader lieutenants pleaded with the workers to wait for Reverend Jakes and Al Sharpton from New York (the other apologist for capitalism) to mislead them to the police station.

Once the march officially began, the high school students led "fight-back" chants, denouncing the racist police chief, mayor and cops. While most workers did not join in the communist chants, over 170 bought Challenge and carried "Racist Cops Wanted For Murder" posters.

"Excuse me but, what do those red flags mean?" asked one marcher. When we explained over the bullhorn that it represented the blood of the working class in its fight for communism, he and others took the flags and carried them proudly.

At the police station, the leadership stopped the rally to announce "that the one way to shape up the city is to put some economic pressure on them." They called on all minority workers and concerned white workers to boycott the "Taste of Chicago" (the food and entertainment fest) and other city-sponsored events. We led a small group inside the march to respond to this dead end plan by chanting "smash the system."

Our biggest weakness was our inability to win sizable numbers from our mass organizations. Robert Russ’s mother and father are postal workers. One working-class expression came from a group of six UPS workers who drove their trucks with signs against police brutally visible in back of the march.

Our party must do more in the unions and other mass organizations to show that the cops (black, white or Latin) and the courts serve and protect the racist bosses. During the summer project, we will try to do that, increasing our sales of Challenge and organizing to win workers and youth to the communist PLP.

Black Cops/White Cops: ALL Racist

The cops involved in Chicago’s racist shootings (see article) are black. PLP has always said that a cop is a cop, no matter the color of his/her skin. They must serve and protect the racist capitalist system. That’s their job. The NY Times (June 19) again confirmed this. The leader of a black cop association, based in Washington, said it very clearly: since slavery blacks have been used to keep other blacks in line. He said black cops generally behave the same as white cops in how they treat black people.

Editorial: ‘Peace’ in Kosovo: World’s Bosses Oil Wars Pick Up Steam

Oil "One more victory like this one, and we’re ruined." –Statement attributed to the ancient Greek general, Pyrrhus of Epirus, 319-272 B.C. Trying to revive the empire of his cousin Alexander the Great, he routed the Romans at the battle of Asculum in 279. But the price his army paid in casualties was so great that his triumph quickly turned into a strategic setback. Ever since, the expression "Pyrrhic victory" has been used to describe similar apparent wins that are really losses.

U.S. and NATO imperialists didn’t suffer military casualties while carrying out their recent "humanitarian" genocide for oil in the Balkans. But this war is still at best a "Pyrrhic victory," particularly for U.S. bosses. In the immediate and medium-range future, it will lead to further Balkan wars and massive ground war for oil in the Persian Gulf, with no end in sight. In the much longer run, it will become known as a critical step toward a series of eventual wars between the U.S. on one side and groupings of the world’s major imperialists on the other.

As workers, we have no interest in allying with any gang of capitalist rulers. Our interest lies in building our Party and in training our class for the long, hard march toward communist revolution. Imperialist rivalries and the profit system always lead to war. We must never tire of pointing this out. We must use the science of Marxism-Leninism and its philosophy, dialectical materialism, to learn how our forces can grow against apparently overwhelming odds. The air war over Yugoslavia is a case in point.

When the war began, Challenge demonstrated that behind the humanitarian hype, it was in many ways a contest to determine control over the pipelines that would transport Caspian oil to Western Europe. The Russians had one plan; the U.S. had another. You’d think Clinton & Co. would have won hands down on this score. But, if anything, U.S. oil interests seem to have been set back a notch. Even before the NATO bombs stopped falling, Russian oil barons began to profit from Clinton’s Balkan fiasco. Here’s how.

Greece’s Hellenic Petroleum has "pooled interests" with Russia’s giant Lukoil (Lukoil press release, Feb. 23). A month ago, while NATO was bombing Serbia back to the Stone Age, Hellenic launched a pipeline project linking Thessaloniki in Greece and Skopje in Macedonia. At the same time, Hellenic announced a "strategic investment" in the OKTA refinery at Skopje, the largest ever made in Macedonia. Skopje sits just twenty miles from the U.S. sector in Kosovo, in which Russian troops are gaining a foothold. In other words, U.S. Army forces stationed in Skopje to protect U.S. pipeline interests there have proved useless at deterring the Russian-Greek oil project. Worse yet for U.S. oil bosses, despite all the bombing, last May also saw the Russian-backed pipeline from Burgas in Bulgaria to Alexandropoulis in Greece advance from feasibility studies to the engineering phase. Strike one.

U.S. imperialism’s oily predicament doesn’t stop in Kosovo. Competition between Russia and the U.S. over Caspian oil is already quite sharp east of the Balkans, in the Caucasus Mountains. It "will undoubtedly accelerate following (the) confrontation in Kosovo" (Stratfor Global Intelligence Update, June 15). The Russians couldn’t stop the U.S. from intervening in Yugoslavia. But Ukraine, the Baltics and Central Asia, as well as the Caucasus, are a different story. Russian bosses aren’t stupid. They also have their "national (oil) interests." They, too, can play the "humanitarian" card as an excuse for reclaiming the former Soviet empire. The Russians may not yet be in shape to face U.S. forces on the battlefield (outside the former USSR boundaries), but they could conceivably move into Lithuania or Uzbekistan and thumb their noses at Washington. Strike two.

The Yugoslavia air war has made such a competition more rather than less likely, because it has "intensified the process" in which pro-U.S. Russian capitalists are "losing out" to anti-U.S. Russian bosses who view the U.S. as Russian imperialism’s main rival (Stratfor, June 21). These forces are already planning to reverse the setback caused by Yeltsin’s temporary ouster of their political leader, Primakov.

The cease-fire deal in Yugoslavia, such as it is, wouldn’t have been possible without the Russians. This has raised Russian prestige, influence and confidence. Hence their take-over of the Pristina, Kosovo airport, sticking their finger mainly at the U.S. Strike three.

As the U.S.’s "accidental" bombing of China’s Belgrade embassy underscored, U.S.-China relations are now at a 30-year low point, and the Chinese have emerged from the Yugoslavia war with a say, through their UN veto clout, over what happens on the ground in Kosovo. (Recently China—with France and Russia—called for the end of all sanctions against Iraq.) Strike four.

Then there’s NATO itself. U.S. rulers favored its eastward expansion, (trying to get as much of Eastern Europe into NATO as possible) to keep the Russians barefoot and powerless—but they have shot themselves twice in the foot. First, the Russians have won a lot more than the U.S. from the Yugoslavia air war ("strike three" above). Second, the war sharpened so many internal conflicts within NATO that the "alliance" is basically dead in the water, at least as a tool of U.S. imperialism. This is particularly clear with respect to Germany. The German bosses, who get most of their natural gas from Russia, aren’t going to risk upsetting their energy supplier again any time soon. The next time the U.S. tries to call the tune with guns or bombs, don’t expect the Germans to fall in line. Strike five.

Now, after an apparent victory that is really a string of strategic reversals, the U.S. is committed to expanding its ground forces in the Balkans, against growing opposition on all sides. Regional instability, the threat of new Balkan wars, and U.S. political isolation can only increase. Meanwhile, U.S. rulers, who are very sharply divided among themselves, must also face far more serious threats to their most important prize, Exxon & Co.’s domination of Persian Gulf oil. Clinton couldn’t or wouldn’t invade Kosovo. His successors won’t have that luxury in Saudi Arabia or Iraq. Another ground war to preserve U.S. imperialism’s Middle Eastern oil choke-hold is just a matter of time. If the current pattern holds, it will slaughter huge numbers of people and further erode U.S. strength. Strike six, (perhaps).

Well, six strikes make only two outs, and even three outs don’t make a whole ball game. U.S. imperialism is far from finished. But, as its flop in Yugoslavia proves, it is far from invincible. Its rivals are using their strengths—individually and collectively—against U.S. rulers. More importantly, so can we. As the pages of Challenge show, our comrades in the shops, factories, schools, offices and colleges—as well as in the military—have been exposing the true motives and reasons behind the current imperialist war. Here and there, we are leading militant actions around our revolutionary communist line. The coming period and its new oil wars will give our Party many opportunities to sharpen the class struggle with communist politics and to grow in the heat of battle.

March Against War, Racist Terror

Los Angeles, Ca., June 19—"US NATO, you can’t hide, We charge you with genocide", "LAPD you can’t hide…" chanted dozens of workers and students in a march against the US bombing of Yugoslavia and the racist cops here. The march was organized by a coalition for peace and against police brutality. One of the groups in the coalition was the committee for justice for Ricardo Close, who showed that the war in Yugoslavia goes hand in hand with racist terror here. They also talked about the brutal killing of Margaret Mitchell.

The march started in the Placita Olvera and marched through the Chinese community to show unity with Chinese workers who are in a struggle against the owners of the restaurants here. During the march, members of PLP passed out hundreds of leaflets and sold Challenge, showing that the only way to end racist police terror and imperialist wars is with communist revolution.�Soldiers and Workers Have Opposite Interests from NATO Generals and Imperialists!

PRISTINA, KOSOVO, June 21--Two British soldiers and two civilians were killed today when cluster bombs dropped before by US pilots exploded. This occurred as troops cleared munitions from a school in Negrovce, a village 20 miles west of Pristina, Kosovo’s capital. One soldier killed was from Nepal. Both were from the British 69^th Gurkha Field Squadron, composed mostly of Nepalese troops.

While these were the first military fatalities reported since NATO troops entered Kosovo, many civilians have died in similar explosions since the bombing ended. This tip of the iceberg will include on-going deaths from cancer caused by depleted uranium (as it has in Iraq).

It’s no accident that the commander of NATO forces in Kosovo, administering the Yugoslav occupation, is another great "humanitarian," Lt. General Michael Jackson. He is the British commander in Kosovo. He earned his credentials as a fascist lackey for the bosses when second in command at the "Bloody Sunday" massacre in Northern Ireland. On Jan 30, 1972 in Derry, 14 soldiers of the Parachute Regiment opened fire on a peaceful protest by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association opposing discrimination against Catholics. In just 30 minutes, 13 people were killed, shot by single bullets, execution style. More were injured. British troops had been sent to northern Ireland supposedly to defend the Catholic minority, but it soon became clear that they were its main oppressors.

Jackson’s troops call him "the Prince of Darkness." His role in Kosovo will be similar: in the name of stopping ethnic cleansing, he’ll further divide and attack the workers of Kosovo. He’ll support the fascist thugs who promise loyalty to imperialists in exchange for their support. "Yesterday, NATO peacekeepers seemed incapable of stopping many ethnic Albanians from taking retribution on their Serb neighbors in …Kosovo." (Boston Globe, 6/20/99).

Soldiers and airmen know from personal experience that the imperialist armies NEVER have humanitarianism as their mission! Even pilots (the elite of the capitalist armed forces) from Spain who flew with NATO stated their commanders ordered them to bomb civilian targets. Martin de la Hoz, a Spanish pilot probably reflecting the growing anti-U.S. sentiment among some European bosses, says he and his colleagues are "burnt out….I want to make it clear that the majority, if not all of my colleagues…are against this war of brutality….Our worst enemy are our own authorities, the Defense Minister and the members of the Government….Several times our Colonel protested to NATO commanders why they select targets which are not military targets. They threw him out with curses.…The order-givers are only the North American generals, and no one else." (Art�culo 20, Spanish weekly).

US bosses are bragging about their multi-racial military. But they have been building racist/nationalist divisions the world over to keep themselves in power. Workers and soldiers from Kosovo and Nepal to the US and Britain have the same interests—building workers’ international unity and fighting to destroy the bloody, racist system of capitalism and imperialism with communist revolution.

Racist Rulers Won’t Educate Youth; PLP’s Lesson Plan: ABCs, Math and Communism

NEW YORK, June 19—Forty students, teachers and parents gathered today to enthusiastically discuss the hot topic of school "reform." We met to dedicate ourselves to the important task of uniting the working class—students, parents and teachers—against the bosses’ Board of Education, which claims to be "fixing" schools when they’re really destroying our youth. As one teacher described it, "These guys sound good about helping students but they’re really wolves in sheep’s clothing."

The ruling class will never educate all of the working class, despite its assertions that it will or can. As the Party dedicated to the fight to build communism, we think learning to read is important so that workers can think, write and analyze, in order to develop as leaders of our class. That’s exactly why the ruling class is so afraid to educate all of us.

This is a significant aspect of this fascist period of US capitalism. They have an increased need for some educated workers but will continue to dump masses of youth into the streets or prisons. So they need to win the loyalty and patriotism of the very youth they exploit each day. They, and we, are engaged in an ideological struggle for the hearts and minds of the working class.

The conference examined how schools are run like prisons, training youth to do what they’re told. Several youth detailed the daily terror of the NY Police Department (NYPD) presence in the school. A parent also described her fury at watching a youth taken out in handcuffs.

We also discussed the same terror of these new standards and exams. Students are constantly worried about passing exams or being denied work. To get a high school diploma, students must learn and spit back the individualist, pro-capitalist, anti-communist politics found in the new liberal standards.

US capitalism—in its crisis of overproduction—can’t afford to train everyone. It must train students to blame themselves for being failures in the bosses’ system. Convincing youth that they—not this twisted capitalist system—are the dumb ones, is a powerful ideological weapon of the bosses, one communists must defeat.

The conference also heard reports on the successful fight-back efforts of many teachers and youth. One teacher reported on the role of a teachers group in her school. This group, in which PLP works, defends the students against the NYPD when it tries to arrest the students inside the school. They also fight racism by demanding high teaching standards from their fellow teachers. They encourage students to learn and to fight against the principal’s attempts to transfer students out of the school. She particularly emphasized that close ties among the group’s members enabled them to continue fighting, no matter what the obstacles.

Next, we discussed the tremendous literacy problem in the U.S. The speaker reported staggering rates of adults unable to read at functioning levels in the richest nation on earth. It was a striking reminder of the inequality in capitalism, and the vicious effect racism has. She said if children don’t learn to read by third grade, they’re unlikely to learn. Before third grade, children learn to read; after that they "read to learn."

Most teachers present taught high school and talked about the difficulty of teaching any subject when children are unable to read. This is where motivation and base-building with the students becomes important. Communist teachers are obliged to lead in the fight to teach our class, not get defeated or overwhelmed by the task. The Party must fight to become, and seen as, the only viable alternative capable of educating working-class students. We must use our communist ideas, and our best resource, Challenge, in the classroom.

Plans For The Future

Understanding all this, we agreed to strengthen our base-building with our students and their parents, to be fighters who help all of our students develop the skills they need to graduate. Just as importantly, we want to help them become working class leaders and thinkers. Simultaneously, we will fight the Board of Education, the teachers’ union and our local administrators to show how treacherous these bastards are. They cry, "All students can learn!"—but they don’t want that at all!

We must be committed to:

• Fighting inside and outside the classroom to teach as many of our students as possible to read, write, do math and be able to pass the tests the bosses have manufactured to "prove" that most students can’t learn—and winning others to do the same;

• Struggling against the fascist NYPD and school security presence in the schools;

• Organizing campaigns to oppose the current school scheme of sending failing students to "alternative" programs, which are really just excuses for throwing them out of school, when they cannot meet the standards;

• In all these struggles with the students and their parents and our fellow teachers, build a base for communism—the only system that can provide a real education for the working class. Distributing Challenge is crucial to this task.

Revisionism/Pacifism/Nationalism Deadly To Workers

Although the Balkans war is over, for now, under capitalism peace doesn’t last too long anywhere. So workers and students must draw lessons from this war to prepare for future battles. One important lesson is the dangerous role played by other political forces in building a movement against imperialist war.

PLP members attended the June 5 "March on the Pentagon" in Washington, D.C. This march, like one in San Francisco, was organized by the International Action Center (IAC) to protest the U.S./NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. IAC is led by the "Workers’ World Party" (WWP). The politics of WWP is a good example of what we in PLP call "revisionism"—using a left-wing cover to support one brand or another of capitalism. The Pentagon march showed how revisionist ideas play out in real life.

PLP has consistently put forward that the root of U.S./NATO actions is inter-imperialist rivalry. We have pointed out the strategic location of the Balkans in the scramble by rival imperialists to control development and delivery of oil in the Caspian Sea region to Europe. In contrast, the word "oil" was barely mentioned by any of the speakers at rally. There was no clear analysis of why the bombing was taking place. One speaker said it was an attack on the countries that used to be socialist. (What are they now?) Others claimed it was simply the U.S. need to "control the world." (Then why don’t U.S. bosses intervene everywhere?)

PLP says that workers all over the world have one common class interest: the fight for communism to destroy capitalist exploitation. The ideology of nationalism can only serve one or another group of bosses. It seemed that no amount of pandering to nationalism was too much for the WWP. The speakers included several "representatives of the Serbian community." These speakers basically took the line of the Yugoslav government: the problem in Kosovo was only the KLA, not Milosevic. The bombing must be opposed because it is an attack on Yugoslav sovereignty. The march was peppered with scores of Serbian flags. Hundreds of people wore buttons saying "Kosovo is Serbia," and chanted that slogan during the march.

There were also speakers for many other brands of nationalism and sexual identity. who, to one extent or another, supported Serbian nationalism. Ramsey Clark, the former U.S. Attorney General under President Johnson, is the IAC’s "star" speaker. Although he sharply attacked the genocidal results of the U.S./NATO bombing, he clearly legitimized the actions taken by fascist Milosevic before the bombing, just as he has previously supported Saddam Hussein.

PLP has always said pacifism just builds illusions that wars can be averted under capitalism. The only way to end imperialist wars is to organize workers, soldiers and students to smash the warmakers with revolution. Similar to the large 1960s anti-war marches, there were pacifist speeches. Unfortunately, the only large group of young people present were a group called "Kids for Peace." During the final rally, a pacifist "die-in" took place. Rally participants went to a cordoned-off area. When they heard the recorded sounds of bombs dropping, each person fell down dead. This was somehow supposed to move those carrying out the genocide to change their policies.

With the exception of Labor Notes, there were no organized groups of workers or soldiers in evidence. WWP had no rank-and-file workers or soldiers speaking, nor was any attempt made to explain why workers should be opposed to imperialist war on a class basis. Just the opposite—WWP had a featured speaker from MOVE, an anti-working class organization.

Despite the revisionist politics that led the march, PLP was able to reach many hundreds of people with Challenge-Desafio, our leaflet, and the just-released PLP pamphlet on Kosovo. We must continue organizing with our communist politics in unions, schools, churches and other mass organizations to win workers, students and soldiers to understand that capitalism makes war inevitable.

NYC Schools: Fight Nazi-like Experiments

NEW YORK CITY—For the past year, a local organization called the Coalition Against the Violence Initiative has been organizing against experiments on young black and Latin boys at the New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI) and the Columbia Presbyterian Dept. of Child Psychiatry. The researchers receive millions of dollars from the Federal Government, private foundations and the pharmaceutical companies to "prove" that aggressive conduct in 6-10 year olds stems from abnormalities in their brain chemistry. All social factors—poverty, poor schools, racism and unemployment—are ignored.

This research implies that about 20% of young children are mentally ill, vaguely diagnosed as "conduct disorder" and "attention deficit hyperactivity disorder" and need to be treated with drugs like Ritalin or Prozac. Moreover, if these "illnesses" result from biological abnormalities, then there is no need to change the environment or society, only to control the children and protect the society from them.

All the studies at NYSPI have been conducted on black and Latin children from upper Manhattan and the Bronx, whose names were obtained from the schools or the Probation Dept. Because of community forums, demonstrations and leafleting, students and teachers at a large high school heard about the studies and refused to cooperate when NYSPI tried to recruit them. Several other schools have also rebuffed their overtures. This has caused a great deal of anxiety at NYSPI, which has now set up a Community Research Board to try to placate the community and develop closer relations with the Board of Education. The popular outcry also led to an investigation of these experiments by the federal Office for Protection from Research Risk, but this week that office decided the experiments were completely ethical. They did not even consider the basic premise of the research or the exclusion of all white children.

In the wake of Littleton, the Columbia University "scientists" and others have been quoted in the media as blaming the violent behavior on "abnormal brains." No matter that two of the last three teenage gunmen were already taking the drugs that are advocated for so many. But we see a society refusing to pay for a general betterment of social conditions, which tolerates and fosters fascist ideology and groups among students, and which must prepare large numbers of working class youth for fighting in wars. Then a simplistic explanation for teen violence—blaming only on the individual—is attractive and necessary. The ‘remedies" will therefore be more control of "potentially violent" students. They will fall hardest on urban working class children. There will be ever more police in the schools, searches of students and their property, control of movement and medications given out in the schools.

Activists are planning to stay on the offensive with forums, community actions, speaking to schools and school boards, and a WEB page. This weekend they were on the street with a new petition to the State Director of Mental Health Research, protesting biologically-based research and experimentation on children without parents’ consent. There is a new booklet for parents explaining their rights if their children are approached as subjects. The movement against racist research is growing, as is awareness in the community. PLPers must insure that people understand how this bogus science justifies, and leads to, fascism.

DC Metro Transit Workers Must Steer Away from Reformist Trap

WASHINGTON, DC—Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, representing workers at the bus and rail system here, voted 891 to 334 to accept a new contract over the Memorial Day weekend. The contract, the worst in over 20 years, is a bonanza for the bosses. By limiting wage increases to 2% per year; increasing the number of part-time workers and the hours they are allowed to work; lowering the starting salary by more than $1.00 per hour (the new operator starting hourly salary of $11.09 is the 1987 rate); and allowing management to use the surplus in the pension fund to offset their contributions, the bosses will save millions over the next three years.

If the contract is so bad, why did workers vote for it? Many are cynical. The union is weak. Strikes are illegal. Workers see little choice but to accept what the bosses offer. The sharpest attack in this contract is on future workers who cannot vote.

Cynicism and Bribes Defeat Fight-Back

About 20% of the pension fund surplus was distributed to workers employed by Metro before 1983. This bonus payment led many senior workers to ratify the contract and ignore the wage- and benefit-cuts for new workers. Many other senior workers voted against the contract because they opposed the bosses' divide-and-rule plan, but it was not enough.

Under capitalism all reform struggles are never-ending. Every time workers win a wage or benefit increase, the bosses eventually take it back in another form—layoffs, speed-up, tax increases, 2-tier wage systems, etc. The only way to get off this downward treadmill is to view these class battles as part of the preparations for seizing power from the bosses and establishing communism. Winning workers to the political understanding of the bosses’ reform trap must become our primary goal in the struggle.

When workers fail to fight back, they weaken not only the reform struggle, but—more important—the preparations for revolution. In this case, giving in to the bosses' demands means also giving into racism, since almost all of the future workers hired by Metro as operators will be black or Latin.

In evaluating the contract fight, there are two aspects. Many workers saw the party leading the fight against a racist and unjust contract, which is positive. But Challenge readership and party membership did not increase; that’s the other (weaker) side. The struggle has created new opportunities for the Party to take advantage of, particularly the racist nature of the attack.

Workers Plan to Make War on Welfare ‘Reform’

BROOKLYN, NY, June 21—"If they can intimidate me, then they can scare the new workers into doing anything the bosses want them to." That’s what a senior city worker said as she and a PLP member discussed the increase in disciplinary charges brought against members of AFSCME Local 371. She had made the connection between the charges brought against her and the bosses’ larger scheme to force city workers to carry out Mayor Guiliani’s fascist welfare "reform." A plan was discussed to raise these related issues at our union’s next delegates’ assembly meeting.

Several senior workers had contacted a PLP member in this local regarding disciplinary charges. In each case the union grievance staff was presenting a legal defense based on the contract. Some of the "charges" are ridiculous.

One person who was wearing white walking shoes (on her doctor’s advice) was charged with violating her agency’s "dress code" and was sent home. She was later told she could only wear black walking shoes!

Another worker with over 30 years on the job was "charged" with making coffee in the office. He was also accused of failing to turn in all of his work on time. (When he has his hearing at the City personnel office, he can get a cup of coffee whenever his hearing is scheduled since there is always coffee brewing there.) However, he will have to wait a long time to get his hearing result because they never resolve a dispute in the time frame agreed to in the union contract.

At the June meeting of Local 371’s delegate assembly. the PLP delegate raised the issue of the increased numbers of disciplinary cases. A call was made for union-wide demonstrations against the petty local tyrants who are part of the plan to intimidate and impose discipline on city workers.

In conversations with co-workers, Challenge readers and other union delegates, it was pointed out that fascism doesn’t arrive full blown but rather develops over time. Drawing the connections between individual disciplinary cases and the growth of fascism and organizing a plan to fight them makes our communist politics come alive.

Universal: ‘Secret Word’of Dialectical Materialism

When you go to the battlefield, remember to take your gun. If you enter the boxing ring to fight oscar de la Hoya, don’t tie your left arm behind your back. So if you participate in the class struggle against the ruling class, don’t fight them with their ideas. The bosses’ world view—their philosophy—is based on the status quo. To the rulers, this is the best of all possible worlds. They use their ideas and their power to keep things as they are—in other words, no change.

The basic tool of communists is the philosophy of dialectical materialism (DM). Usually most people react to the term "philosophy" as bullshit, or they view philosophers as people sitting in a quiet room separated from the rest of the world.

What makes dialectical materialism so important? It helps us determine the real world. It’s crucial to be able to determine what is as opposed to what we think it is. Being objective is the name of the game. DM prepares us for a long-range outlook.

Many of us have heard the term dialectical materialism, some not. Many of us have asked the question, "Is it or isn’t it dialectical?" But just what is dialectical materialism?

There’s an old TV show called "You Bet Your Life" that starred Groucho (not Karl) Marx. At the start of every show a "secret word" was posted for the audience to see. If a contestant happened to mention that word, he or she won a prize.

There is a so-called secret word in defining or understanding DM. It’s not "change," it’s not "struggle," it’s not "theory" (although these are all useful terms). The "secret word" is UNIVERSAL.

What is "universal"? What’s so important about it? It’s the laws of motion that exist in EVERY process that are universal. This encompasses everything, from making a pair of shoes to baking a cake to constructing a house to building PLP.

There are three laws. Here’s one:

Within all things there are at least two opposites. Therefore they repel each other. This causes constant movement. Hence, the first law is "the unity and conflict of opposites." This is called a contradiction.

A few questions to ask yourself which may help to develop this very brief definition of this law: What types of contradictions are there? Which are more important? What is the unity between the working class and the ruling class? Between the Knicks and the Spurs? Between water and flame used in boiling water? Between the user of the Personal Computer and the Internet?

You will have to find out the other two laws for yourselves, with the help of a Party member or a friend who is familiar with the subject.

It’s important that one works at it. And it is very important that we study and learn how to use our philosophy—the philosophy of the working class. One can use an old party pamphlet, "Jailbreak," a very simplistic discussion of the subject. The book "Dialectical Materialism" by Ira Gollobin is better and a big step up. Lenin’s "Philosophical Notebook," Lenin’s "Empirio Criticism," Engels’ "Anti-Duhring" and Mao’s "On Contradiction" are all useful.

Don’t be afraid of this small list. It’s do-able and necessary. Imperialists resist the inevitable change from capitalism to communism with all the power at their disposal. They want us to believe that "you can’t fight City Hall," and that things can’t change. The demise of the old communist movement is just more "grist for their mill."

We say things constantly change. What you do or don’t do determines how much and in what direction things will change. Society has gone from primitive communism to slavery to feudalism to capitalism to socialism (which one might call a reformed capitalism) back to full-fledged capitalism. Over time, things have changed a lot. But subjectively, things haven’t changed fast enough for us.

A word of caution: after one becomes familiar with dialectical materialism, don’t get cocky. We will still make mistakes. It’s not that easy to perceive reality and to change it. Being knowledgeable about DM will not give you the "keys to the kingdom." But it will help you open the door.

Cops And Courts Defend KKK, Attack Snyder Strikers

BERLIN, PA, June 19—The nine-week strike against union-busting by the Berlin, Pa. snack-food producer Snyder of Berlin is over. The 160 workers, members of United Bakery and Confectionary Workers Local 1718, had offered to return to work under the expired contract, but the company said, "No way!"

According to local union president Mark Warner, there are 31 concessions in the pact, but workers felt they had to take it since Snyder threatened to close the plant and there are no jobs in the area. There will be no pay raise in the first year, and workers will pay more for health care. Snyder is owned by a conglomerate with plants in other states, making the same products. Big shot union leaders, like the head of the United Steel Workers, talk tough but made no attempt to organize solidarity rallies or to join workers at the picket line.

The workers were protesting changes in the plant to speed up production and cut jobs. They were fighting to maintain seniority to protect older workers, especially when the plant is not operating three shifts. There was also the issue of health and safety, especially the dangerous work done by the workers in the basement.

Scabs were brought into the plant, and the strikers fought back. According to Snyder, strikers were "firing, throwing or hurling lead shot at a window" of the plant. Strikers are also accused of throwing eggs at scabs and guards and breaking windows. According to the bosses, workers had an M-16 on the picket line and threatened to use it after a battle with the company security guards. Snyder demanded $25,000 in damages from the union, and went to the Somerset County courthouse to get a restraining order against the strikers, limiting the number of pickets and preventing them from stopping the scabs. A recent Challenge article pointed out that a group of Snyder strikers attended an anti-war rally in Johnstown, Pa. Following the rally, the company threatened to close the plant.

On June 26, the KKK and Nazis were scheduled to hold a rally at the same Somerset County courthouse that issued the injunction against the Snyder strikers. Fences were being erected to protect them. A strong anti-Klan counter-demonstration was slated for that day, with attempts to organize a brigade of Snyder strikers to join it. The fascist goons of the KKK and Nazis get to shoot off their mouths and do the bosses’ dirty work, while the brave Snyder strikers get targeted by the state for fighting for their jobs.

Last week, C. Edward Foster, one of the most viciously racist KKK leaders in the nation, was found lying in a ditch after he fell off the back porch, fleeing a tear gas grenade that was thrown through his window.

A few Snyder strikers were introduced to Challenge at the anti-war rally. Many more will be, as we organize to smash the fascists and the whole capitalist system of war and terror. Under communism workers will never have an economic club over our heads, or fear for our jobs.

LETTERS

Distributing Challenge is a 2-Way Street

Dear Challenge,

I read with interest the back page articles on increasing the distribution of Challenge (6/6/99). It’s good to see we’ve made some progress selling subscriptions. In discussing plans to increase sales, during our upcoming summer project, a comrade raised a helpful point based on his shop experience.

Distributing Challenge is a two-way street. On the one hand, we need close ties with workers to carry on the struggle to build networks of Challenge distributors in the plants. We must write and study articles that link issues on the shop floor, in our daily lives and in the world to the system and its crisis—all the while, emphasizing that building our communist movement provides the only answer. Challenge’s expos� of the Balkan’s war for oil routes and the reporting of the modest resistance we mobilized in mass organizations was like a light at the end of the tunnel for many workers.

On the other hand, the very workers we hope will distribute Challenge will take the paper more seriously if they know their shop mates and friends are also reading it. Often, our friends will discuss Challenge articles amongst themselves if we get the paper in enough hands. We should strive to gain enough readers in a particular plant or area so Challenge can compete with the bosses’ press to become the "paper of record." Our base will then take the obligation to distribute Challenge more seriously. In short, numbers do count!

As we develop mass distribution of the paper, we may not be able to follow up in detail with every reader. Yet, the very saturation of a area with Challenge readers will establish a climate helpful to building the base we need to carry out more mass ideological debate. More Challenge readers helps our base building efforts. We should think big as we set our subscription and distribution goals this summer.

Boeing worker

On Liberal Fascism: On teaching with a Working Class Approach

Dear Challenge:

My experience in community college supports the Party’s position on a pro-working class approach to education. I was taking a required science class, whose instructor regularly flunked or forced out 50% or more students from her class. She did this by not explaining the subject matter, and when asked a question, she would simply say, "read the book,"(and the book was not easy to understand). The exams did not relate to the lectures, which makes a difficult class almost impossible.

We organized a group of students to confront the president of the school. We accused this minority teacher of racism because she stood as a roadblock in the path of mostly minority, working class students. It was obvious that she was not interested in teaching us. The President told us to "study harder."

Struggles such as this won students to march on May Day (as well as helping me and others pass the course, because the teacher was forced to make changes in her grading). Instead of helping working class students achieve skills and get training, educational programs are all too often designed for failure and frustration. In my starting class of 70 students, only 13 graduated at the conclusion of this two-year program. We were told from the beginning, that certain classes were meant "to weed students out" because of a lack of teachers in the higher-level courses.

The minority director of this program was eager to take credit for such a racist program that kept minority, working class students from graduating. His attitude reflected an arrogance and disdain for the students. When it comes to helping youth "read, write, think and fight," let’s take the lead.

Former Student

Fight Opportunism in Education

Dear Challenge,

Here’s why I think the party’s revised line on education is a good one.

We must fight right opportunism on several fronts, and I see that some of us have taken an opportunist, cynical, cop-out approach to school. The recent editorial pointed out this contradiction.

In the past I’ve felt, "School isn’t important, the party teaches me everything I need to know." And, "School turns youth into soldiers or other capitalist tools; who cares if I get lousy grades?"

That line was bad. Firstly, as much as I hate school, it doesn’t feel good to do badly; it lowers your confidence and makes you feel stupid. Also, skills learned in school can help with political work. One reason I do lousy in school is because my organization skills are horrid! They are so important for ORGANIZING a base. My procrastination tactics with my homework spills over when writing leaflets and getting study groups organized. If I actually did all my essays for English, maybe I wouldn’t be having as much trouble writing this essay!

A cynical attitude towards school is messed up is because an approach of, "This stuff isn’t important, I don’t need to do it," separates you from your peers—after all, all the other kids must do it.

I used to see school as six hours a day wasted doing meaningless work, sleeping and doodling. But now I see that school can be a place where comrades can grow and become better communists. If we learn about capitalist ideology in the schools, we will be better prepared to attack it.

So students: read, write, learn and ORGANIZE!

Chi-Town Student

End-Term Mark for Fascist NYC Board of Education: ‘U’ (Unsatisfactory)

Dear Challenge,

As Chancellor Rudy Crew and his Board of Education try to convince NYC workers that education failures should be blamed on our youth and can be "solved" by closing schools and firing teachers, parents and teachers at a Brooklyn high school rallied to defend a PLP teacher.

A month ago, students took a mass approach towards organizing a post-May Day PLP picnic in Prospect Park on Memorial Day. They signed up more than 100 participants in one high school. Fifty friends and members of PLP turned out for a day of fun in the sun—baseball, football, good food and political discussion, led by youth who planned presentations on the PLP and our Summer Project. The picnic was a success.

While building for this picnic a teacher saw a PLP teacher hand a PLP student a stack of leaflets advertising the picnic. This rat followed the student, watched him distribute the leaflets and then reported it to the principal. Later that day, the principal called in the PLP comrade and told him he had carried out an "illegal" act. We responded by organizing even more vigorously the next two days, helping to lead to our successful picnic.

Soon the PLP teacher was called to a hearing before Joyce Coppin, the Superintendent and "axe" of the Brooklyn high schools. Immediately on receiving a "summons, PLP comrades moved to build support for the comrade among co-workers and Challenge readers in the building and throughout the borough. "To be attacked is a good thing," but the first day was tough. But as more and more teachers and parents showed support by speaking to the principal and preparing letters, it got easier. Support grew. The meeting at the Superintendent’s office was cancelled. The comrade’s year-end evaluation, which had been withheld, was given—"Satisfactory."

Due to staff support for the PLP teacher and our recent victory in Mary Longergan’s case, the principal/superintendent decided to scale back their attack. Disciplinary proceedings with Coppin became simply a letter for the comrade’s file (which has yet to appear). This letter, too, will be exposed and fought.

Teachers, parents and students—for reasons ranging from open support for communism to desire to keep a good teacher—sided with our comrade in this fight. One teacher from our building attended a PLP teachers’ conference. These developments are small but important victories for our Party as we continue to build a base for communist revolution here in Brooklyn.

Red Teacher

Female Genital Mutilation Affects Millions

Dear Challenge

I recently learned about the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). This involves the removal of the clitoris and labia (external sexual organs) of young girls. Most of the girls and women who have undergone genital mutilation live in Africa, although some live in Asia and the Middle East.

The number of girls and women who have been subjected to FGM is estimated to be over 130 million worldwide, and two million are at risk of the practice annually.

FGM has been described by Waris Dirie in her book, "Desert Flower." She experienced FGM as a five-year-old in her native Somalia. Dirie describes how her family paid a woman to perform this act. She uses a broken razor blade, stained with dried blood, and then sews up her vagina, making urination very painful, all without the benefit of anesthesia. Dirie survived this ordeal, but many are not as fortunate. A number of girls die from infection or bleed to death.

Girls are subjected to FGM because of sexist reasons: if they don’t have it done, they are not considered "marriageable," and therefore have a perilous future. In FGM-practising societies, mutilation is part of initiation into adulthood. It is also believed that FGM reduces a woman’s desire for sex, therefore reducing the chance of sex outside of marriage. A woman is "sewn up" and "opened" only for her husband.

FGM is not only physically traumatic, but can also cause psychological damage by promoting female docility and obedience in a sexist culture. Dirie is now a UN special ambassador whose job is to speak out against FGM and promote women’s rights.

It seems to me that FGM is another reason to commit ourselves to communist revolution. The exploitation of women and men can only be eliminated when the capitalist profit motive is eradicated. Communism means the social, political and economic equality of all humans.

A Reader

‘Killing You Softly!’

Dear Challenge:

Back in the early 1970’s Roberta Flack sang a ballad called, "Killing You Softly." Today’s fascism U.S. Style is "Killing You Softly!" "We have Fascism in the U.S. right now!" I told my friend. "You must be kidding," she replied. "I don’t see any concentration camps!"

"The U.S. bosses are building more prisons than schools! Isn’t that a sign of racism and fascism?" "I don’t see millions being murdered like during the Holocaust," she exclaimed. "Just check out the record of the U.S. Bosses’ from Vietnam to Yugoslavia," I said. "And they’re killing us softly here at home." "Are you crazy!" replied my friend (a bit incensed).

Check this out: for 20 years my co-worker at the phone company had a union job where she showed up on time, worked hard and the bosses pretty much left her alone. Now she works for a bank and no matter how much she does, the bosses keep piling it on. No matter how much she and her co-workers do, it’s never, never enough. And it’s all in the name of profit. They don’t need concentration camps when they’re killing you softly!

Keep up the good work in Challenge.

Bay Area Comrade

Likeness and Differences Between FDR’s New Deal and Nazi Germany

Dear Challenge:

The recent Challenge discussion on the issue of liberal fascism has raised important questions about the present situation. In our struggle to smash capitalism, it is crucial that we have a clear understanding of the current era. In line with this, it is necessary to realize that liberal fascism exists, and that the only way to smash it is with a struggle in which revolutionary communist politics are primary.

What is the essence of fascism? Particularly in imperialist countries, fascism is, in the final analysis, whatever strategies the ruling class uses to prepare for war. These strategies involve disciplining their own ranks, as well as winning the working class to believe in the bosses’ system enough to fight and die for it. Such a situation usually (but not always) occurs in a crisis of overproduction, such as that of the 1930’s. One example of fascism without a crisis of overproduction is the McCarthyism era in the U.S.

In any case, those who deny the existence of liberal fascism, confuse form with content. They think that all fascism must resemble—down to the finest detail—that of Nazi Germany. However, this confuses fascism’s appearance (whatever actual policies it pursues) with its essence (war mobilization strategies for the ruling class).

Useful examples of liberal fascism can be found in the U.S. of the 1930’s and today. Conventionally, the U.S. and Germany of the 1930’s are said to be diametrically opposed. In reality, they were far more alike than different, even in form. Like Germany, the U.S. had concentration camps (the WPA and CCC, and later the camps to which the Japanese were sent during World War II). More importantly, they were alike in content. Originally, like the German bosses, the newly dominant Rockefeller wing of the U.S. ruling class hoped to win workers away from the revolutionary leadership then being provided by the Communist Party (CP).

Later, as war appeared increasingly inevitable, both gangs of bosses attempted to win workers to their war plans. Journalist David Kennedy writes in a book on President Franklin Roosevelt, the latter was working hard to win U.S. workers to "the need for concern for international issues," to fight for Rocky & Co. in the coming war. This became the primary motivation of the economic reforms of the New Deal, which included the 40-hour week, the minimum wage and the right to unionize, among others.

After the success of this strategy in World War II, the Rockefeller gang has continued to use it. Today, examples of liberal fascists include Rep. Dick Gephardt and former labor secretary Robert Reich. Their program includes aspects (raising the minimum wage, single-payer health care, maintenance of social security and Medicare as government programs, etc.) which sound like good things, but in reality pave the way for state capitalism, i.e. fascism. They aim to revive unions so that they can better mis-lead workers. Sweeney’s organizing drives, as well as the National Student Labor Alliance, aim to give the union hacks the appearance of militance, so that workers won’t rebel against them. This, in turn, will make it easier to win them to war.

These liberal fascists hope that by throwing a few crumbs to workers, they can make them believe that U.S. capitalism is worth killing and dying for. They understand that politics is primary, and they are reluctantly willing to have a (very small) bite taken from their short-term bottom line in order to guarantee their existence in the long run.

Their real aims were revealed when PLP exposed Reich as a liberal fascist war-maker at a Harvard "labor" conference. He defended his connections to the Economic Policy Institute (which he founded) as "the only influential left-wing [!] institution in Washington. "Such policies, (as well as their pretense to anti-racism, aimed at increasing the ideological commitment of black and Latin workers to Rockefeller & Co.) would appear to make these liberals seem different from, and less evil than, the overt/traditional fascism of the Nazis. In reality, their liberal program’s fascist essence (that of bosses’ war mobilization strategies) remains identical. Communists in PLP must show workers that the only way to workers’ power, and an end to the horrors of capitalism, is a revolution for a communist world, a world without money or bosses, races or borders! Red Student

Challenge comments

While we agree with some of what "Red Student" writes, we would add the following: Firstly, in the early days of Roosevelt’s presidency, when unemployment had reached a third of the workforce, he sent Gen. Hugh Johnson to Italy to examine Mussolini’s fascism. Johnson returned with the NRA (National Recovery Act) idea. Roosevelt initially proposed strict controls, especially on wages, moving towards a Mussolini-type "corporate state." However, the mass class struggle led by the CP, beginning in the early and mid-thirties (which sections of the ruling class felt threatened their system) impelled Roosevelt to use both the carrot and the stick. The National Guard was called out virtually every week in the early and mid-Thirties to quell strikes and rebellions, at the same time that reforms were passed to appease the working class. While sections of the ruling class accused Roosevelt of being a "traitor to his class," he was actually saving capitalism."

It may be true that Roosevelt and the Rockefeller bosses wanted to use these reforms to win workers’ support for their international war plans, but that was not the only reason (probably not even the main one) for these reforms. Unfortunately, the CP did not have communist revolution in the forefront or even in the back of its mind. In fact, the CP defended Roosevelt as the "progressive" ruler "fighting the right-wingers," in line with the United-Front-against-fascism program put forward by the international communist movement—unite with the "good" (liberal) bosses. This allowed the liberal rulers to win the workers to whatever road the Rockefeller bosses wanted to take to save their system.

Secondly, the definition of fascism is not limited to the rulers’ need to plan for war. It is the way the ruling class deals with domestic economic crisis and the necessity to stop or crush working-class rebellion.

Thirdly, while the CCC may have been a method of preventing youth rebellion, it certainly wasn’t a Nazi concentration camp. Nor was the WPA.

Finally, the Nazis "won" the German workers through force; U.S. rulers won workers here through liberal reforms, partly as a reaction to mass working-class struggle.[For more information on liberal fascism, readers should see "Clinton vs. Gephardt, Splits within Splits," Communist, Jan. 1998, a PLP publication.]