So it appears likely that "the world's only remaining superpower" has a long life ahead of it as the dominant imperialist. Despite their many problems, U.S. rulers aren't going to be dislodged any time soon by their key rivals. And although our Party always has the potential and the duty to sharpen class struggle and grow as a political force, a long, hard road lies ahead of us.
U.S. bosses would therefore seem firmly in command for now. However, things aren't always as they seem, and everything changes. True, the last decade has seen the U.S. dominant on every front--economic, military, political, and even cultural, if you can call the crap coming out of Hollywood "culture." This dominance is one side of the recent Yugoslavia adventure. But there's another side. No imperialist can stay on top forever. No second-rate imperialist can accept that status indefinitely. U.S. imperialism may still sit on top of the pile, but conditions are slowly ripening for a series of wars that will turn this situation into its opposite and that can create the external conditions for revolutionary upsurge. Challenge has already written at length about the growing rivalry between U.S. and Russian as well as Chinese rulers. The latest Balkan war also laid the groundwork for growing conflict between the U.S. and its NATO "allies," particularly the Germans.
German bosses may have helped carry out the NATO bombing campaign, but their interests differ sharply from their U.S. pals'. Germany is one of the world's industrial giants but has no energy sources of its own. German rulers launched the holocausts of World Wars I and II, in part, to secure Caspian oil. Well, the Kaiser failed, and the Soviet Red Army made sure that Hitler failed, but German imperialism still needs that oil--more than ever.
The German-led European Union is on course to rival the U.S. as the world's dominant economy. If it doesn't get Caspian oil, it's going to be in big trouble, because North Sea oil isn't expected to last beyond 2014, and, at present rates, Europe's unmet natural gas demands will increase 30 percent by 2020. So the double game the Germans have been playing--since the end of World War II--between the U.S. and Russia is now tilting sharply eastward. The Germans get more than half their natural gas from Russia. They have tremendous Russian investments, including pipelines, which bring them into direct conflict with U.S. businesses.
Small wonder German bosses aren't anxious to antagonize the Russians for the U.S.'s benefit. It's even less surprising that the Germans are now aggressively pursuing a European military capable of acting outside the NATO command. Only last year, the German army released an information paper for officers under the title: "Oil Poker in the Caucasus--Security and Political Aspects of Oil and Gas Reserves in the Caspian Sea."
So the German ruling class has entered a new stage of militarism in order to defend its economic interests. This means more than anything declaring German independence from the U.S. The process will take time, but the general trend is clear. The new Wehrmacht (German army) and Luftwaffe (air force) won't be hitting targets chosen by the Pentagon any time soon again.
German and the rest of European bosses "are working to increase a counterbalance to the United States in order to increase control over it" (Stratfor Third Quarter Forecast, June 27). The European Union is already an economic alliance against the U.S. The European military will progressively take on the same character.
The post-Cold War "new world order" U.S. imperialism boasted about after the 1991 Gulf War is over. Another period is beginning. We are entering the transitional phase. Germany's rise as a military power is just one sign. There are many others, notably the likelihood of an anti-U.S. alliance between Russian and Chinese rulers, despite their own many internal problems and differences with each other. Events may not be moving as fast as we would like, and even the eventual defeat of U.S. imperialism by its rivals will not by itself lead to revolution. That's our job. But the seeds for much sharper class struggle are slowly ripening and will eventually bear fruit. We may need field-glasses to read it, but the handwriting is on the wall. Whatever we do to make the Party grow will ultimately bear fruit. The red flag will have its day.
The book "Trading With The Enemy" revealed that some of the biggest auto, oil and banking bosses in the U.S. collaborated openly with the Nazis during World War II (WWII). When the Nazis started retreating toward the war's end, these pro-Nazi U.S. bosses became "patriotic" and "anti-fascist." But according to the book "Unholy Trinity," U.S. bosses continued working with Nazis well after the war's end.
The U.S. ruling class had internal differences over the ratlines. Truman and those under him opposed to the efforts of Dulles and his junior partner James Angleton (later head of counter-intelligence at the CIA). But Dulles & Co.--using the excuse that they were "evacuating Soviet defectors" who would have been under surveillance (or worse) by the Soviets--continued to send major Nazis down the ratlines.
After Eisenhower's election, Dulles became CIA head. Dulles' son-in-law provided the Austrian government with a wildly erroneous background check of Kurt Waldheim. Waldheim, who later became president of Austria and UN secretary-general, had been part of a Nazi massacre team.
In 1949 the first Nazi agents, connected with an anti-communist emigré group called Intermarium, arrived in the U.S. State Department officials hired them jobs as broadcasters for Radio Liberty and Voice of America. One estimate had 10,000 Nazi war criminals entering the U.S. after WWII.
Government support for fascists wasn't just an historical curiosity. During the Nixon Administration, the State Department ignored Ustashi (Croatian fascist) fugitives because they were good "at turning out the ethnic vote." Ronald Reagan proclaimed April 10 "Croatian Independence Day"--the date Hitler established the Ustashi leader Pavelic's puppet government. George Bush's staff published a calendar celebrating April 10 as Croatian Independence Day and had known fascists working on his "ethnic outreach" program.
S&C's expertise in the Trading With the Enemy Act made them popular with major investment houses, such as Dillon, Read and Brown Brothers, Harriman. During the Depression, S&C clients poured billions into the German economy. Some estimate that 70% of the money that rebuilt the German economy after WWII came from Wall Street investors, mostly clients of S&C. Swiss bankers, along with U.S, lawyers like Allen Dulles, served as middle men for much of the U.S. bosses' investment in Germany.
John Foster Dulles served on the board of the chemical monopoly IG Farben (creator of the Auschwitz concentration camp) and became the legal counsel to the U.S. agency responsible for seizing German assets. IG Farben was never dismembered and denazified.
A note on the Argentina connection: Pavelic, the Croatian Ustashi leader, moved to Buenos Aires after the war and became an advisor to the Perons. Nazi loot transferred from Switzerland to South America via the Vatican Bank was eventually invested in a number of Argentine businesses--whose lawyer was Allen Dulles. Dulles helped establish the World Commerce Corporation to revive trade between Argentina and West Germany. During the 1950s much of this loot was laundered back to Germany for their great economic revival.
Calls for major school reform come from every section of society. Takeovers of school systems have already occurred in some places (Chicago), and appear imminent in others (Oakland, CA). NEA President Bob Chase says, "We must revitalize our public schools from within, or they will be dismantled from without." (All quotes in this article from Chase's 2/5/97 speech to The National Press Club).
Most teachers want to do the best thing for their students--help them become functioning, useful members of society. For years, they have accepted the relatively low pay and extremely stressful working conditions. As conditions in many school districts decline, teachers are looking for ways to break out of their intolerable situation. We must wage a struggle to see clearly the exact nature of our dilemma.
The function of schools is to reproduce the existing society as nearly as possible for the next generation. The present crisis exists because this is a period of increasing competition for markets and wars. Chaos threatens to overtake social order on a mass scale. At this moment, both danger and opportunity present themselves.
The system they propose, with union leaders helping to fire workers, as society degenerates into violence and chaos, has a history and a name: fascism. In the twentieth century, capitalist society has turned to fascism when democracy is no longer tenable. The U.S. fits that bill today: increasing attacks on immigrants and minorities; racist police terror; wars for control of resources and to destroy rivals' assets; attacks on civil and legal rights; etc.
It is especially important for teachers to win the youth to fascist ideas. Our students will be the foot soldiers of fascism. Teachers who don't buy into this plan must be weeded out. When NEA leader Chase and AFT chief Sandra Feldman wrote President Clinton, fully supporting the bombing of Yugoslavia "on behalf of three million teachers," they were performing a vital and necessary function for the dominant section of the U.S. ruling class. They know many teachers won't go along with this class betrayal. That's why they propose a system of snitches to get rid of the "bad" teachers. No matter how many reforms these leaders carry out, things will only get worse for teachers and students alike.
During the Cold War, the U.S. supported the Pakistani ruling class, funneling money and weapons through the drug-running Pakistani army to the Moslem fundamentalists fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan. India was then allied with Moscow. But now the big supporter of Pakistan is China, which views India as a competitor in Asia. The U.S. knows that, in the long run, China will be its main enemy in that region, and therefore has shifted towards a "neutral" (pro-India) position.
But while the imperialists and capitalists fight each other for control of cheap labor, markets and resources in Asia, workers must not side with any of them in this dogfight over Kashmir. An important step was taken by carpet workers in Pakistan and India. On June 25, over 500 workers attended the annual general meeting of the union of Pakistani carpet workers in Lahore. Union leader Farooq Tariq said that the workers of India and Pakistan would be the real losers if the war between them escalates. Only the rich would benefit, increasing their profits. He said we must build a peace movement to counter the fundamentalists.
Interestingly enough, most of the carpet workers belong to Frontier Province and are considered very conservative. They are normally accused of supporting the Mujahidin (fighters of a Muslim holy war). But here in the meeting, workers overwhelmingly opposed the war.
They also threatened to strike if their economic demands for better wages, social security for carpet workers and better safety measures were not met by the bosses. In 1997, the union led a successful strike for a 20% pay increase for the most exploited section of Pakistan's working class.
The carpet workers' position sets an example for all workers. Meanwhile, the fake leftists of the "Communist" Party of India (Marxist), who rule West Bengal and have wide influence in the trade unions, have basically supported the Indian ruling class in the war.
While workers don't want war, a "peace movement" is not the solution. There cannot be peace under capitalism (there are 100 large and small wars occurring world-wide). The best way to fight the capitalist warmakers is to build a revolutionary communist movement to unite all workers and destroy the capitalist system.
The FARC and the ELN, Colombia's two largest guerrilla movements, are negotiating an end to that country's half-century-old civil war. Both groups were supported at one time by the Soviet Union, Cuba and the European Social Democracy (mainly Germany). When Pastrana took over the presidency, one of his first visits as Colombian head of state was to Germany. The first peace negotiations between his government and the guerrillas also occurred there. This was a big coup for German imperialism.
The US response to this has been twofold: (1) increase its aid to the Colombian military and unleash mass terror in a futile effort to exterminate the guerrillas. Several weeks ago Clinton's representative to the OAS (Organization of American States) called for the formation of a regional army to intervene in regional conflicts. Clinton obviously has Colombia in mind. (2) Try to broker a US-guerrilla peace treaty. Last Saturday, Richard Grasso, President of the New York Stock Exchange, and its Vice President Alan Murban, met in the jungles of Colombia with the leader of the FARC, Raul Reyes. Reyes is also heading the peace talks with the government. Grasso invited the leaders of FARC to come New York. Three weeks prior to Grasso's visit, William Delahunt, a Democratic Senator from Massachusetts met secretly with Reyes in the same place. The US is using the carrot and the stick in reacting to the German bosses' initiatives.
The most important European bosses' attack is economic. The European Union (EU) has become the second largest investor (after the US) in the region. EU capital there soared from $26 billions in 1994 to almost $73 billion between 1995-97. Spain alone "has become the second-largest foreign investor in the region, very close to the level of the US" (LA Times, 6/28/99). The EU is the second biggest trading partner with Latin America and the biggest one with MERCOSUR (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay).
Adding insult to injury, the 15 heads of state of the European Union met (June 26-28) with their counterparts of 33 Latin American and Caribbean countries in what "Only half-jokingly....has been dubbed the farewell party to the Monroe Doctrine, the 1823 declaration that asserted US dominance in the Western Hemisphere" (LA Times, 6/28/99). The US was not invited to this summit that resolved to start negotiating a free trade agreement between the European Union and MERCOSUR. MERCOSUR is the world's third largest trading block, with a population of 200 million and a combined economy of $1 trillion. Here again the Europeans have gone on the offensive and "stolen the US thunder": at a 1994 Miami summit Clinton promised a free zone in place by 2005 but has failed to make any progress toward it. What's more, even US imperialism's NAFTA has failed to stop the EU. "Mexican negotiators say they are confident that the EU and Mexico will sign their own free trade agreement this year"(LA Times, 6/28/99).
However, all is not rosy in the European bosses' camp. The French, who originally proposed the idea, were--up to the last minute--against beginning formal negotiations because they want to exclude agriculture from the free trade pact to protect their farmers. Germany, Portugal, Spain, Britain and Italy oppose the French position. They have no such constraints and some of them already have enormous investment in the region. On the other hand, the South American bosses are looking for a better deal for themselves since they see "stronger ties to Europe as offering the only possible counterweight to the Unites States' historical hegemony" (N. Y. Times, 6/26/99).
As we can see, the local and imperialist bosses are vultures fighting over the surplus value produced by us workers. The US won't give up Latin America without a fight. More and wider regional wars are in the making. Eventually, these will lead to world war to re-divide the wealth we produce among these butchers. We should not side with any local boss or imperialist. Our interests demand that we build the PLP internationally to destroy them all with communist revolution.
With these changes, students will be forced to compete for the "right to get a university education." The capitalists and imperialists want to impose an educational system on UNAM more in tune with the current crisis of world capitalism. Capitalism can't afford to educate millions of working-class youth. It just needs some technicians and bureaucrats to serve the needs of the bosses.
The student strikes have won support from the mass of workers, who have donated food and walked the picket lines. Hundreds and even thousands of student brigades go out daily seeking workers' support off the campus. Students are realizing that the same capitalist crisis destroying the lives of millions of workers is now aiming its guns at the UNAM students.
This strike offers significant opportunities for students to learn the best education communism can offer: we must destroy capitalism to be able to get a real education, and get a job that doesn't serve the market, but instead helps meet the needs of the working class.
The strike has also exposed the liberal opposition to Mexico's ruling party. Mexico City Mayor Cardenas, the leader of the opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), says he's in favor of free, public education. But he and the PRD have refused to give complete support to this movement. Until now, they've limited themselves to not being used to repress the students, as the federal government is demanding.
PLP members have been giving leadership in this strike, have distributed several thousand leaflets as well as Challenge and have organized study groups. Several students have raised PLP's banners in the marches. But, self-critically, we can do a lot more. We can consolidate a collective and a communist caucus in the student movement, and recruit from that, if we fight hard to do it.
"Give me two more copies, so that my wife can take it to the school where she works."
"We need to build a new revolutionary movement that won't be electioneering. I like what the paper says."
So said teachers who took Challenge during the several actitives held by ANDES (the teachers' union) to celebrate its 34th anniversary.
On June 26, ANDES, the biggest union here, held a get-together among teachers. I arrived early and there were already 100 people assembled, but everyone appeared bored. Immediately, my kids and I began to distribute Challenge. Soon, three teachers offered their help. I realized that the little previous political work I had done with them was paying off.
Soon things became very lively. Everyone was reading the paper, and many asked how to get more copies. We distributed 120 that day.
I also helped distribute refreshments during the meeting, even though I am not a teacher (and belong to a different union). This despite the fact that teachers' union leaders had said, "This is for teachers only." After the meeting I spoke to several teachers after the meeting about the need for all workers to support each others' struggles. Working-class solidarity and PLP's revolutionary politics are crucial if workers are to defeat the bosses' attacks against all of us.
I also want to thank my (very young) children for their help, as well as my comrades for encouraging me overcome my fears of reaching out to workers of other unions. I left the teachers' meetings with many more contacts who want to read Challenge.
He fired off an e-mail to everyone at the company denouncing the articles as "a confused bit of nostalgia that both cannot be and should not be."
Condit was particularly incensed at the accusations that "a Wall Street-driven focus on stock prices, ...10 years of downsizing and never-ending preoccupation with cost-cutting have taken their toll on the industry."
"Treating people as commodities...is clearly a serious problem for the aerospace industry," said Will Stackhouse, retired Assistant to the US Air Force chief-of-staff for High-Leverage Technology.
Condit's answer? The world is changing and aerospace must change. (Yes, Virginia, there is a crisis of overproduction. The only way for the US ruling class to make profits now is to crush the working class and bomb our competition into submission.) The bosses focus on "earnings" (read: profit) and "stock price" because "we compete in the market for capital." Translation: We bosses got no choice, it's the system!
So now you've heard it. Straight from the horse's mouth. We couldn't agree more.
And what is the solution of this high-powered collaboration of current and former aerospace managers? "Government should make command decisions," while providing capital. Translation: a war economy!
Even so, the article admits, the crisis of overproduction in aerospace may be too deep. "The resurgence of commercial transport sales in the mid-1990s cushioned the blow somewhat, but the end may be in sight. Boeing has announced layoffs of 48,000 employees in a three-year period ending in 2001, with about 7,000 at the St. Louis, Mo., plant going out the door this summer. During 1999, Lockheed Martin is shedding 8,000 employees, and Raytheon Systems Co. is releasing about 14,000 over two years (through 1999)."
Is there anything the aerospace industry can do to counteract these trends and find solutions to these systemic problems? "I don't know what can be done," said David Urie, president of Concept Fusion Inc. and former director of the Lockheed Martin X-33 program. "I despair."
We've got our own demands. Our survival demands we get rid of Condit's system. We have to prepare now to strike--and to turn that strike into a school for revolution. We can help lay the groundwork this July with a big subscription drive for Challenge. Let the bosses despair. We're building a revolutionary communist party--the Progressive Labor Party.
"Yeah, but you can do it. Workers need to learn this stuff."
So went of the discussion between a new PLP member and a not-so-new member about the war in Kosovo. These workers plan to meet every week to discuss Challenge because the new member wants to learn how to improve the way she gets the paper to other workers.
Later that week PLP'ers participated in a march of several laid-off hospital workers to the office of a Jefferson Hospital boss. This grew out of the June layoff of six Local 1199C Nursing Assistants from one of the operating rooms. Non-union nurses were ordered to do their work. Then, a week after the layoffs, student summer workers arrived in the operating rooms (as they do every year). We knew the students would eventually be doing the work of the laid-off union members.
Twenty Nursing Assistants and several union delegates attended an emergency meeting called by the delegates and some of the laid-off Nursing Assistants. Those still working were also present. We planned a march to a big boss's office with our demands: (1) the layoffs be reversed; and (2) the nurses and summer student be taken off union work.
When we met the next day for the march, only the laid-off workers appeared. We were told that those Nursing Assistants still working (for now!) didn't come because they "weren't affected" by the layoffs. After some discussion we decided to still march to the boss's office. Surprisingly, the boss was there and agreed to meet with us.
The laid-off workers and the union delegates strongly presented our demands. Unlike union leaders' negotiations, where workers remain silent and passive, these workers joined the delegates in really letting the boss know what we wanted.
He refused to reverse the layoffs, but agreed to remove the student summer workers from the operating rooms--a first. The boss said the nurses should not be allowed to do the jobs of the laid-off union members, and "would investigate." The workers decided to file a grievance against nurses doing the union jobs of the laid-off workers.
The combination of political struggle, Challenge distribution and leading--and participating in--mass class struggle is crucial to building PLP. The recruitment of a new PLP member has widened our Challenge distribution. The new readers come from the work of our new comrades. Our base-building is focused on these workers active on the job and involved with their co-workers. This path will produce even more PLP members.
Women workers are being pushed to their limits. They're being intimidated by supervisors and threatened with being written up if they don't finish the extra work piled on them.
Many workers are being harassed for calling in sick or taking personal days off. One worker stated that the supervisors in different departments are complaining about floors not being mopped or kept clean.
The hospital bosses have expanded, opening more offices and departments, increasing the work-load without hiring more workers. Many workers have left or retired without being replaced. Bosses remove workers from their scheduled assignment and give them another to complete. When they return to work the next day, their work-load is double, since their original assigned floor was never cleaned.
Since this hospital is competing with other hospitals for profits, the bosses' aim to squeeze out maximum labor power from a minimum staff to make super profits.
One worker pointed out that "we've reached our limits and there's no way we can maintain a safe hospital for patient care." Many workers have been at this hospital for over 25 years and have never experienced this kind of work-load.
The Party's influence has been there for many of those years. We've led class struggle, brought busloads of workers to May Day and built a wide distribution of Challenge, Party clubs and study groups. We've discussed capitalist and communist health care, racism and police terror, imperialist war and how that all relates to the problems workers have on and off the job. All this has influenced what many of these workers do.
The environmental workers involved in this struggle play an important role in fighting diseases and keeping a hospital clean and infection free. Under capitalism, these workers are the lowest paid, but they're doing one of the most important jobs in the hospital. The bosses do not value these workers as much as doctors, nurses or other skilled workers, but without them, infection and disease would be rampant.
Some of these workers have been reading Challenge and have been to May Day. This has influenced their determination to enter into class struggle. The Party has sharpened the ideological fight combining mental and manual labor. This will advance by broadening Challenge distribution, and increasing the political struggle in PL study groups and with our co-workers. Combining all these factors will help workers understand their revolutionary role and become leaders of the fight for communist revolution. That in itself is the beginning of a better health care system to serve the working class.
Since April 20, we students have shut down UNAM (the National Autonomous Univ. of Mexico). Our strike is for the future children of the working class. The bosses want to privatize education and keep out workers' children. Even the families of professionals can't pay the proposed high tuition. After more than two months on strike, the General Strike Council declared, "Education is not a privilege. It's a right. They haven't met the demands and this movement has not ended."
During the strike, the students have had to confront much violence--both physical and psychological--like the misinformation campaigns financed by the university's fascist authorities. But despite all this, the strikers are united and have the support of many workers and academic personnel.
The strike has also received widespread international support. On June 3, more than 20 universities world-wide and 14 universities in Mexico demonstrated their solidarity with the strike. On June 23, more than 50,000 took part in a broad meeting against the privatization of education. Many came from workers' organizations.
PLP members have distributed Challenge, passed out many thousands of leaflets in the marches and organized study groups. Several students and their parents went beyond sympathizing, agreeing with communist ideas and expressing interest in the Party. In one study group, one of my friends asked me, "What is dialectical materialism?" The Party members answered, giving examples of the main laws of development of any process. Then my friend asked a series of questions about the Party: why we fight, our ideas, how we recruit people. Since this discussion, he's become a regular reader of Challenge.
One day another friend saw me reading Challenge. She started reading it with me and asked where she could buy it. I explained that it was the international newspaper of PLP. "But," she asked, "if it's international, why do they just put in articles from the US?" Now she is the closest to the Party of all my friends.
I have other friends who are also leftists, very militant, but are not members of any party. I've struggled with their anti-Stalin views. Most are not Trotskyites. But even with their disagreements, when I defended Stalin, their reaction was very positive. "Its great that you're a communist!" they exclaimed. "Now there are more of us who are fighting to lead a revolution." These are the ones who give the most support when I speak in the assemblies.
This strike has forged tremendous unity; that's why people have lots of confidence in us. Collectivity has been primary, not individualism. Every day we have brigades to publicize our cause and collect money and food, organizing together with students from other schools to guard the picket lines, cook, clean, organize leafleting, the press and cultural activities. Everything is decided in big assemblies, where students discuss all the problems and proposals.
Another fundamental principal in the "prepas" (junior colleges) is the unity between parents and their children who are students. This has helped solve many conflicts. The participation and leadership of women in the strike has been very important.
I know that there are other members and friends who have even better experiences to send to Challenge; I invite them to do so. For me, this has been one of the most important events in my life. This is true for many other students. We're young and this has been our first experience in the struggle.
Red Striker
On June 26, the KKK and Nazis held a rally on the steps of the Somerset County Court House in southwestern Pennsylvania. In the 1920's, this county witnessed numerous gun battles between striking coal miners and company thugs. Today it's a depressed, mostly rural area, with a Bible Belt feel. Right-wing religous fanatics and the KKK have been active here for most of the '90's, following the mine closings.
This particular bunch is headed by C. Edward Foster, a convicted felon who was imprisoned for sexually assaulting a woman, burning her car, and killing her dog with a pool cue. In a documentary on the History Channel, "The Secret History of the KKK," Foster applauds those who kill blacks, claiming, "They ain't equal to us and don't deserve to breath the free air of America."
Holding signs reading, "Hitler was right," Foster and eight fellow sheep in sheet's clothing began their rally with "Amazing Grace," and a song from Rammstein, the German group that was popular with the two killers at Columbine H.S. Mounted police patrolled the streets, a line of cops stood in front of the Klan and cops filled the Courthouse. Cops in full riot gear hid in a building across from the Courthouse, while a helicopter flew overhead.
Anti-Klan protesters were frisked, had to pass a metal detector, remove change from their pockets, take off their hats, etc. Undercover cops took pictures of everyone entering the enclosed area. Pro-fascist skinheads were placed in the same area, as if the cops wanted to see a confrontation so they could attack the 37 anti-Klan protesters. Other anti-Klan protesters refused to go through the police harassment and possible set-up.
The local press claimed the anti-Klan Coal Country Coalition "shouted obscenities continuously" at the Klan. Those who entered the enclosed space to get in Foster's face shook the bastard up a bit when we chanted, "Foster is a rapist." Foster was especially vicious toward gay people on this day, and called the anti-Klan people "N... lovers," and "commie queers."
A Unity Rally called "Christian Compassion Defeats Hate," was held at a church one mile from the Klan rally. Foster had threatened to pay this picnic a visit because he's "a Christian and loves Jesus, too." People at this prayer meeting said that if he showed up, they would not turn him away. Yet they would not allow members of the Coal Country Coalition to speak at any of their rallies or pass out a leaflet. Foster never did go to their rally, but it would have served them right if he had. Foster and his friends were driven out of town in air-conditioned busses by the police after the rally ended.
Another Klan leader from Johnstown, a half-hour north of Somerset, will hold a rally near Labor Day. This guy has a hate message on his answering machine calling for the ethnic cleansing of black people. And Foster is taking his traveling freak show to Steubenville, Ohio on July 10.
It is clear that Foster, as crazy as he is, is not the main force to fear. The Big Fascists in their nice uniforms were much more of a threat to anyone who opposes fascism and police repression and capitalism. The local people who stood up to the fascists welcomed anyone and everyone to stand by them, regardless of what group. It was not a time to be arguing with each other about the nature of the Soviet Union or whatever. It was a do-or-die type of day and this must never happen again. When the Klan and Nazis show up, people have to take a stand, a lot of people. Thank you for publishing this. And Fuck Foster and the KKKops.
Obscene Fascist Hater and Heretic
I teach science in a Bay Area high school. The student
composition of my five classes reflects the school's racial makeup: of about 135 students I teach, three are white; the majority of the others are African American, with large numbers of Latinos and southeast Asians. These proportions reflect the school as a whole.
At the year's final faculty meeting, the principal said that of approximately 360 9th grade students enrolling in September, over 170 read below the 25th percentile on standardized reading tests. Thus, 47% of these students (the vast majority children of color) are functionally illiterate. The principal said these students will be put into special classes to be taught to read.
This situation reflects the racist results of Proposition 13, which destroyed public school funding in California. Now these students and their schools are being assaulted by standards, ranking of school by the results of test scores, and by high school exit exams. These students' options? Prison or the military!
However, all is not lost. We teachers should be in the forefront of efforts to teach reading skills to students like these. Armed with these skills, students can learn communist history and ideas that will help them analyze and understand capitalism and develop into working-class leaders in the revolutionary movement.
Armed with communist knowledge, our youth do not have to end up in prison. If they go into the military, they can organize and recruit for a revolutionary army.
Bay Area comrade
Last week-end I was invited to a backyard get-together of the my union's Latino Caucus. I didn't have very high expectations but I didn't expect to come aaway so angry. This group has been together six years and could only manage to bring five Latino workers to this event. (And the chairperson is going into management!).
The Oakland chapter is sponsoring the 1999 National Conference in September and they mentioned inviting several politicians to speak--including California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer. I couldn't believe it! These two racists stood at the Mexican border practically pointing guns at Latin immigrant workers. They've supported all of Clinton's programs for more racist cops and Workfare. With friends like those, who needs enemies?
This "union" Caucus even has corporate sponsors like the murderous Kaiser-Permanente Hospital and Miller Brewing Co. As the saying goes, "He who pays the piper picks the tune." The Caucus prints a slick, glossy conference magazine full of corporate logos, business ads, and union acknowledgements--but not a sentence of controversy or struggle. Plans for the conference include renting limousines to pick up the International Union VIP's. YUCK!
In the last few months PLP has introduced a motion in the union to protest the racist killing of LA truck mechanic Ricardo Close and donate $200 to his family. We held a forum on Fascism in Chile and attempted a campaign in the union to indict Butcher Pinochet. (Not the Latino Caucus but PLP.) When asked what the Caucus was doing about the company's lack of recruitment of Latino drivers, the caucus said it had no plans. I could go on and on but I would puke.
We plan to take this anger back to our base of drivers and mechanics and struggle to build PLP. We plan a forum with MUNI drivers about the workers' struggles and revisionism (fake leftism) in Central America . It will be the opposite of the Latino Caucus's Capitalist Conference.
Oakland Red
When the year 2000 arrives, union members at Cook County Hospital (CCH) will start paying 0.5% of their salary--up to $16 per month--for health insurance, even if we pick a low-cost HMO. The union negotiated this give-away. The union leadership claims this is the best contract ever, with pay raises, upgraded job classifications and a $250 annual bonus to cover health insurance costs.
Is this really the best contract ever? Let's read between the lines. Why would the bosses be so generous all of a sudden? It could be that they are counting on laying off large numbers of workers so that health insurance will not cost that much in the end. They bosses may be trying to buy off the workers who will be remaining so they won't stand up and fight for those slated for layoffs. The fact that any employee is paying for their health insurance is a give-back. It is also just the first step. They may give cash to cover it now, but that can easily be withdrawn as the next step.
As communists and supporters of the interests of the working class, we look beyond the contract in one work site. The bosses everywhere are attacking worker's health benefits. In fact, the Chicago Tribune ran an editorial attacking AFSCME for taking a strike vote to protest the give-back. They said that private sector employers pay high health care insurance premiums, and county employees should "pitch in" and cover their expenses. The County Board wants to move public workers benefit packages to be more in line with private sector bosses. The business agents of AFSCME and other unions merely backed down (but they negotiated beautifully). But where is money coming from to pay for the health insurance of county employees, or for that matter all workers? They are taking it out of our hides.
The bosses claim there's no money for the employees' health insurance. But they have millions to give in tax breaks and incentives for large corporations. Sears is getting a nice package of several million dollars a year. This year, the gambling bosses' really won the state lottery. The bosses of the horse racing industry got a $60 million gift. Cook County Board President John Stroger lobbied for this little donation to the race tracks. Donnie Trotter, an ex-administrator at CCH, also lobbied for this sweet little package. The County wants us to kick in for our health insurance but has millions for these parasites. The business agents of AFSCME and the other unions pour thousands of our dues into the election campaigns of these politicians. This is the only way they can think of to fight.
Fellow union members and activists, how can we get out of this mess? Shall we elect better politicians? No. Shall we elect Socialists? No. Shall we join PLP? That's the answer! Elections leave the bosses in power, with the continued exploitation of the workers. JOIN PLP.
Proud of being a RED