Challenge, July 14, 1999

CHICAGO, JULY 6 — Nazi killer Benjamin Smith spent the July 4 weekend on a racist rampage, leaving two dead and eight injured in Illinois and Indiana. The dead, a black man in Evanston, Illinois, and a Korean graduate student in Indiana, were both shot in the back. The black man was walking with his two children. The Korean student was leaving church. In between, a string of Jews, blacks, and Asians were shot, or shot at.

Smith was a known racist terrorist, who had been "monitored" by the police and the "Klanwatch" for the past two years. He was forced to withdraw from Indiana University because of his racist activities, and had met twice about his racist causes with the mayor of Bloomington, Indiana. He was a member of a racist death squad known as the World Church of the Creator, which has a history of racist terrorist attacks against blacks and Jews. In the end, Smith shot himself three times while struggling with the cops. Had he been a black motorist who didn’t use his turn signal, or clutched a cell phone, the cops would have shot him, as they shot and killed Robert Russ and Latanya Haggerty here on June 4.

The same ruling class media that lied and boasted about the 80-day bombing campaign against Yugoslav civilians, is "outraged" by Smith’s actions. Even though they all acknowledge his fascist ideology and activism, they are "stunned" by his actions. "How could this happen?" they ask. "What could make someone do this?" While the rampage was under way, the Chicago police said it was "too soon" to know if this was a "hate crime."

The cops and the media want to focus on where he got his guns. They want to know his mental health and what happened in his childhood. The media has given Smith’s mentor, Matthew Hale (head of the World Church of the Creator), millions of dollars of free publicity, with interviews and quotes in virtually every paper, TV channel and radio station. Hale was recently refused a license to practice law in Illinois because of his church’s racist activity.

Staring fascist terror in the face, the ruling class refuses to place the blame on fascism. How could they? It is their profit system they would have to point to. Smith’s killing spree was a pea-shooter compared to the tons of bombs dropped on Yugoslavia and Iraq to secure the U.S. bosses’ oil profits. Smith’s murderous rage doesn’t come close to the racist terror unleashed by every police force in the U.S., leading to brutal murders, injuries and more than two million people in prison. Smith was following their lead. And there’s plenty more where he came from.

The rulers have created an army of racist terrorists. With increasing frequency they are making their presence known, from Oklahoma City to Columbine, and now to Smith’s racist rampage. There are thousands of racist incidents that go unreported. It is a daily fact of life in "good times" America. And every time these fascists hold a rally, the ruling class pulls out all the stops to protect them. The building of a mass PLP with a larger base, is a matter of life and death...Life for the working class and death to the fascists! Gun control and psychological studies won’t stop racist terror any more than "sensitivity classes" will tame the cops, or economic reforms will end imperialist wars. The only solution is communist revolution! Then the fascists and their billionaire masters won’t have to struggle to kill themselves. The international working class will do it for them.

Communist Way To Crust Bosses’ Racist Terror

PLP Youth Arm Themselves For Revolution By Studying Political Economy: Youth Lead The Way Towards Communist Revolution!

While the capitalist media was pushing patriotism and loyalty to the U.S. and its brutal imperialist wars, this July 4 weekend, PLP hosted a national cadre school on political economy.

About 70 high school students, black white and Latin, college students and teachers spent three hot, humid days in Brooklyn discussing and learning to understand political economy. Youth came from urban areas like Gary, Indiana, Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Mexico City and rural areas like Tupelo, Mississippi.

While the bosses fight over how to educate working class youth for the rulers’ political economic interests, PLP knows how we can educate our youth! And in the face of racist lies about black and Latin working class young people, PLP says we can teach them math, reading, political economy, and most importantly we will educate them on how to change the world!

The ruling class pushes the lie that working class youth from different backgrounds have little in common, and that our problems are isolated from each other. During this past weekend, we used the study of political economy to turn this lie on its head. We discussed the wage system, commodity production, surplus value, profit, imperialism, war, fascism, and racism, to name a few. We discovered that we have a lot in common: we are the working class. Racism hurts us all; and profit wars help none of us. Our interests are in organizing communist revolution and to destroy the wage slavery of capitalism.

The cadre school served to kick off the PLP Summer Projects. During these Projects students and workers will take these ideas of communism to key sectors of our class: steel, aerospace and autoworkers in Detroit, Chicago, and Seattle.

Political economy is the study of history (how did capitalism and class society arise), economics (how does capitalism work), and politics (what ideas and practices break down working class consciousness and what ideas and practices build working class consciousness leading workers to fight back). During this conference, we learned that with political economy we can understand our enemy— capitalism—and how to smash it with communist revolution.

They don’t teach Marxist political economy in capitalist schools, and there is a good reason! When the working class is united in the understanding that capitalism is a complete failure for all workers, and that our future lies in the building of a communist society, we will be unstoppable.

In one group, a young man was initially embarrassed to discuss his working class status and low pay. He quit high school and now works third shift stocking shelves at a supermarket. He had accepted the capitalist explanation that all his problems (including his low-paying job) were due to individual failure.

After a day of discussing labor power and surplus value/profits, he went to work that night with a new attitude. He realized that of the total value he produces for the supermarket to sell in his eight-hour shift, he makes his own salary in just a few hours of work. The rest of the time, he is creating profits for the boss (See PLP’s Political Economy pamphlet).

"I sell the boss my labor, and he makes profits off of me," the youth explained. The workshop showed that we could learn from each other, as a class, that his low pay was not a result of personal failure but the result of this bankrupt system of institutional greed.

The Party introduced ideas to him, but he brought his experience to us. It is that combination that makes communist ideas real.

On the second day of the school he came straight from working his night job, excited to be part of this learning. "I’m a worker", he said with new pride. He also described that during his shift he looked at his work in a different way, "Every time I put a bottle on the shelf, I was so mad at the bosses I wanted to smash the bottles to cut their surplus!" Now, he agrees, he has to bring these ideas to his co-workers so we can smash this system.

The youth demonstrated leadership throughout the cadre school with active participation and planning of the political agenda, and they continued to reveal their leadership when they struggled with each other about all aspects of the capitalist system, including culture.

All the youth, college students and teachers who attended this cadre school have an important role now: to use the ideas that they learned this weekend like a rifle in battle. They must fight to teach and struggle with other workers and youth to learn these ideas and use them in class struggle, on the streets, in their classroom, in their army barracks, and where ever they go. We want a mass Party of people who know these ideas and to use these ideas to destroy capitalism once and for all and fight for communism!

Cadre School Gets Revolutionary Inspiration From Mexico Comrade

The conference started out with an inspiring report from a PLP college student from UNAM (the National Autonomous University of Mexico). UNAM is a university of 260,000 students, in Mexico City.

For the past 75 days, thousands of students have been on strike demanding that the university remain tuition-free instead of being privatized which would slamming the door shut on working class students.

The students physically seized the entire campus. The strike has the support of professors, parents and workers at the university (such as janitors), as well as support from other universities and non-university workers.

The UNAM comrade has been immersed in the day to day struggles involved in leading this strike. This includes attending mass leadership meetings, often running for 22 hours, that plan strategies for the strike. They expect the President of Mexico, who up to now has appeared to be neutral in this strike to send in the military to take back the campus.

She reported on how this reflects the inter-imperialist struggles of US and European capitalists who are supporting different movements in Mexico to gain control of the country. She also described the process of political struggle and development that occurs during such an intense period of class struggle. For example, she explained that before the strike, she mainly had friends among the more intellectual students who sounded very political. But once the strike began, it was the working class students who surged forward. They are the most militant and the most dedicated fighters in this struggle. This has given her great confidence in the working class and our potential.

She is beginning to organize PLP study groups among these leading workers. The report sparked discussion and struggle with the comrade from UNAM over the importance of boldly putting forth PLP’s analysis on developing fascism and the need for communism, and was a great start for the national conference.

Start A Rally For Revolution...

Strike Boeing Over ‘Flexible Work Week!’

SEATTLE, JULY 5 — Boeing bosses want a "flexible work week" to boost productivity. The IAM union leadership says it has better ways to get more out of us. If we limit the argument to what is the best way to increase productivity, we lose before we start. Productivity has been increasing for many years. We’re producing more planes than ever—with a reduced workforce and another 48,000 layoffs coming. The real question is: "How come the bosses are the only ones to gain from this increased productivity?"

It’s The System!

This system produces for profit, not for need. According to the rules of capitalism, everything is a commodity for sale—even us. "The aerospace industry…treats people as commodities," admitted Will Stackhouse, assistant to the U.S. Air Force chief-of-staff.

Inevitably, bosses produce more than they can sell—having laid off millions and reduced millions more to destitution. This leads to a crisis of overproduction. More productive capacity chases shrinking markets. The bosses must turn their guns on us workers during this crisis.

The capitalist must always maximize his profit in fear that his competitor get a leg up. During a crisis, the only way to get any profit at all is to take it out of the hides of the workers. Productivity becomes the bosses’ battle cry!

Get Off The Merry Go Round!

How do we get off this merry-go-round?

The answer is a system that produces for need, not for sale and profit. In a communist society, organized around production for need, increased productivity will mean more for the working class. If we produce all we need, we can shorten the hours of work. Breaking the chains of wage slavery with communist revolution is the only way to answer the bosses’ never-ending demands for speed-up, more "flexibility" and more profits.

Start A Rally

The heart of the batting order is coming up to the plate for the working class this fall. Our contract expires on September 1; the steel industry on August 15; the auto industry September 15. We are in no mood for any "take signs." We are not going to take any "flexible work week"—or any other "productivity" gimmick. We are ready to swing away.

We may not hit a home run, but we can start a rally. A rally to beat back the company’s "flexible" productivity schemes. A rally to develop mass revolutionary consciousness in basic industry. A rally to build a mass revolutionary party—PLP.

Reject The Steel Deal

GARY, IN, JULY 5 — Bethlehem Steel and USX have reached tentative contract agreements with the United Steel Workers union, more than six weeks before the old contracts are set to expire. LTV and Inland may soon follow suit. According to the union "highlights," the contracts include:

• A $2 raise over five years;

• Increased vacation time;

• No layoffs (with more than three years seniority) for the life of the contract;

• Increased pensions and survivors benefits.

Is ‘Labor Peace’ At Hand?

What the union doesn’t talk about is how these things will be paid for. The key is increased productivity. This means more automation, work-rule changes, and probably more outsourcing to non-union, low-wage shops. Black and Latin youth are told they are "not qualified" to work in the mills because they don’t have a college education. Forced into low-wage, insecure jobs, they face constant police harassment and murder. This is behind our "decent contract."

While there may not be layoffs (there’s always an exception for economic emergencies), the steel bosses will continue to cut and combine jobs. At best, the mills will be islands of decent jobs in a sea of low-wage jobs and unemployment. The increased pensions mean that tens of thousands of high-seniority workers will retire over the next five years. At best, only two out of three will be replaced. Yet production must stay high, and actually improve for the steel bosses to compete. This means the bosses will maintain or increase current production levels with about one-third fewer workers by the end of the contract.

This settlement exposes the bosses’ campaign to Stand Up for Steel as a big hoax. The bosses are giving up raises, pensions, and vacations, without a fight. The "imports" they have cried about don’t seem to be much of a factor. With steel consumption at record levels, all mills are operating at full capacity. After decades of wiping out jobs and several years of record profits, the steel bosses have a little maneuverability. But this is a "bubble" economy. If the "bubble" bursts, the stock market dives, inflation takes off, all bets are off. Last week the Fed raised interest rates "to keep the economy from spinning out of control."

On the other hand, there is a crisis in steel. Steelworkers in Asia, Europe, and Latin America are facing massive layoffs and wage cuts due to a desperate battle for markets and profits. The collapse of the Russian and Asian economies has shrunk markets and created a glut in world steel production. Hundreds of millions of our fellow workers are unemployed and hungry. Many are engaging in strikes and sharp class struggle. A recent merger between British and Dutch steel bosses has created the third biggest steel company in the world. After this round of talks, we could see mergers here, which would further cut jobs. This is what the murderous war against workers in Kosovo was all about.

Strike or no strike, steelworkers can take a world-view, and build a mass PLP. We can unite with steelworkers around the world, support their struggles, and reject these crumbs from the bosses blood-soaked table. We can make contact with Yugoslav steelworkers who faced NATO bombs. You may ask, "Aren’t you communists ever satisfied?" The answer is, "NO!" As long as the bosses are in power, killing for profits, using racist terror to divide workers, we are not "satisfied." Only communist revolution can end the cycle of unemployment, wars and racism that the ruling class dishes out.

Join And Build The Communist PLP

El Salvador: Workers Are Fed Up With Tightening Their Belts To Help Bosses

SAN SALVADOR, JUNE 25 — "It’s time to tighten your belts," said President Francisco Flores, during the presentation of the new ARENA government’s economic plan. He spoke of massive layoffs, a hiring freeze, increased taxes on products such as beans, sugar, rice, medicines, etc.

On Saturday, June 26, FMLN deputies Oscar Ortiz and Ileana Rogel supported this plan, saying that "it was a good plan to help the Salvadoran economy move forward."

In a country where, according to government figures, 70% of the population lives in the most extreme poverty, this type of economic measure will bury the working class in misery. A worker said, "There’s no difference between the FMLN and ARENA." Statements like this by the FMLN deputies only end the illusions which some workers still have about the leadership of the former guerrillas. Although a few days later the FMLN tried to retract their statements, the damage to their credibility with the working class is already done.

Merino’s Not The Only Thief—It’s The Whole Government

While the working class debates in misery, the bosses’ class is fighting over the spoils. Vice President Francisco Merino is accused by his former cronies of increasing his capital by 2000% overnight. But he’s just the scapegoat of the local bourgeoisie; Merino has said that since they’re investigating him, they should investigate thousands of government functionaries, who have done the same thing he has.

Local capitalists are in a hole they can’t get out of and they have no other solution than to accuse the former government—people of the same ARENA party—of inflating macroeconomic statistics in order to make the economy look good. For example, the government of Calderon Sol, in January, refused to release figures revealing the gravity of the financial situation, due to the approaching elections. This decision, which benefited the capitalists, cost the working class a billion colones (more than $110 million dollars.)

The capitalists here have been saying for years that "we are in a period of economic growth," that there is "deflation" and that "our per-capita income is higher than other countries in latin America!" Somehow workers living in poverty just don’t see this improvement.

The Only Solution To Capitalist Crisis: Is Communism

Under communism there won’t be bosses who squeeze the last drop of sweat from our class and only leave us in poverty and our children hungry. Under communism there won’t be exploitation because there won’t be the wage system which creates different classes.

Fighting under the organized leadership of the Progressive Labor Party is the only way for the working class to get out of this hell called capitalism. This is a fight to the death. Communism is the only way to destroy these parasites that exploit and repress us day after day. Join PLP.

Struggle Against Racist Obstacles To Educate Youth

Dear Challenge:

Many schools are in the process of educational reform, supposedly with the goal of improving their educational levels. But these reforms only serve to inculcate in the youth an ideology (or understanding) that is loyal to the present capitalist system in order to get workers’ support for guaranteeing production for profit instead of human need.

At Washington High School in Los Angeles many students who were about to graduate have been held back by various racist tests. "My counselor had told me that I was ready to participate in the graduation ceremony several weeks earlier, but a couple of days before graduation, I realized that my name was on the list of students who hadn’t passed one of the three tests," declared a very angry student.

The fact is that many students find themselves in the same situation and many of their parents are furious. Several of these parents have complained that what is important to this school’s administration is discipline at the cost of real education. Some parents are organizing to confront the administration about these racist test results. They are angry that their students were kept from graduating at the last minute—after completing all their courses.

While parents, teachers and students fight against the racism of these tests and for the academic welfare of the students, it should be made clear that these capitalist schools are controlled by anti-working class interests. We will help students with these tests. And that our struggle has to demand that our sons and daughters be educated in the best way possible, and not be exposed to racism, repression, or school abuse. Our students can learn, but we have to struggle against the racist obstacles put in their path. PLP supports these parents and urges teachers, students and parents to stand up against racist attacks on the students.

For Red, Anti-Racist Education

Five Months Without A Contract: Transit Worker Says: ‘I Felt Like A Damn Radical’

Dear Challenge:

Last week I had a conversation with a friend, a driver for Golden Gate Transit in Marin County, north of San Francisco. The bus drivers have been working without a contract for five months.

He said, "How come you attack the bosses all the time? You got a retirement, you’re all relaxed and come in the gym everyday to work out! And here I am still driving a bus after 27 years!"

‘I got a piece of the rock, but I’m sure no Bill Gates!" I replied.

He then said, "Last week I felt like a damn radical."

"What do you mean?"

"We’ve been working without a contract for five months, so last week at the union meeting I proposed we do something—a sick-out, a slow-down—anything! Several people looked at me like I was a communist or damn leper!"

I replied, "I guess you shook them up! Have the union bosses said anything?"

"Not a damn thing! They just sit there like a bunch of puppets!"

"Well said! I guess the wokers will have to kick them in the ass!"

"You always talk that shit!" he said (in his usual bent-out-of-shape manner).

"Got any better ideas?" I said.

"Nope," he muttered.

"Well, onward!" I said.

He smiled…just a litte.

Keep up the good work.

Bay Area Comrade

Small Demands Can Lead To Big Struggles

The capitalist beast continues to attack the workers of the world. The unions are being destroyed in the only two unionized garment factories in Central America. The bosses’ goal is to destroy the workers’ militancy in the unions that are fighting for a contract, higher wages and better living conditions.

Modern Shirts, a garment factory in Guatemala, was closed, sending 500 workers to the streets. It was the only maquiladora that had a union. The workers made an average of $5 a day. With this closing, they have to take jobs for $3 a day or less. A worker who was forced to work for one of the sub-contractors reported that he was forced to take a 70% pay cut. Those directly responsible for this attack can be found in the fancy New York offices of the Phillips-Van Heusen Company. These bosses plan to use sub-contractors as a way of avoiding union contracts. That way they can put about $1 million a year more in their pockets.

The Kimi factory is found in the Continental Park in Lima, near San Pedro Sula, Honduras. After finally winning a 30-month struggle for a collective bargaining agreement, the agreement lasted less than a month. It was the first unionized factory in the Free Trade Zone industrial park in Honduras. This park has eight factories controlled by Jaime Rosenthal. This Rosenthal family has worked to keep unions out of the Free Trade Zone. The owners of Kimi were told they had to move to an area far from the Free Trade Zone. The struggle continues to keep Modern Shirts open, and to keep Kimi in the Free Trade Park.

But we live in an era of capitalist overproduction, war and fascism, where big and small capitalists, be they foreign investors like Van Heusen, or local, like Jaime Rosenthal, will fight to the end to keep wages low to maximize profits and keep their share of the market.

We can’t beat the bosses by using their laws. We have to Challenge them in the long-term fight to take away their power. To do that, workers need to organize with the PLP for communist revolution. In the struggles for these unions, we can build unity between workers in Guatemala, Honduras, Los Angeles, and New York against the greedy garment bosses. We can show that workers need to fight for the whole pie, not just the crumbs.

Several organizations in the U.S. are supporting these struggles in Central America. Students have distributed leaflets in front of stores where Phillips Van Heusen shirts are sold to demand the factory be kept open. PLP members in the garment factories in LA and New York should more forcefully raise the struggle onto the factory floors, and participate in these protests to build workers’ internationalism and show the need for a movement to smash all borders with communist revolution. Then workers won’t have to beg for the opportunity to have our labor power stolen from us.

Fight Against Fascist Operation Gatekeeper

Smash All Racist Borders!

OAXACA, Mexico, JULY 6 — Thirty bodies were found last week after two small boats collided and capsized here. The boats were smuggling workers from Guatemala to Oaxaca, where they usually continue north and try to cross the U.S. border. It is a very dangerous trip, with very fragile small boats. The smuggling of Central American workers via this route is very profitable. "Coyotes" (smugglers) charge up to $4,000 to take them from Central America to the U.S.

Of course, the coyotes and their partners in the local governments in Mexico and Central America are guilty of using such dangerous boats and charging such outrageous prices. But the real culprit is the racist system of capitalism and imperialism. Many times, the same bosses that super-exploit these workers in maquiladoras in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua are the same ones who then super-exploit them in LA, NYC, Chicago, etc.

The Clinton administration and its Border Patrol are top on the list of murderers when it comes to workers crossing the border. In the few years since Janet Reno’s Justice Department began Operation Gatekeeper at the border, (supposedly to stop immigrants from crossing the border), over 400 workers have died crossing the Mexican/California border. This Operation has not significantly stopped these workers coming into the U.S., but rather made it more dangerous and has increased the coyote’s price.

Contrary to the smugglers and the bosses from Guatemala to Oaxaca to LA and the White House, we in PLP say "Smash All Borders, Workers of the World, Unite!" PLP is building an international communist movement to unite ALL workers to smash this racist system and build a society based on production according to need. Under communism, wage slavery, borders and racist bosses will be the only illegals.

Civilian Deaths Are 90% Of All Deaths Caused By War

As we enter the new millenium, capitalism has managed to top itself in every aspect when it comes to war and fascist terror. Last week, M�decins du Monde, a French medical aid group, organized the first international conference to find ways to protect civilians from the ravages of war.

"At the beginning of the century, 5% of the deaths caused by wars were civilians. Today, it is 90%," said a spokesperson for M�decins du Monde. Although the organization admitted that at that time wars were waged with the use of infantry and armies formed by draftees. "But in any case, the number of civilian casualties has quadrupled today."

According to the conference, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the nature of war has changed even more. Iraq, Somalia, the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Burundi, Zaire, Chechnya, Angola and Kosovo are the latest examples of civilians being the main victims of war. The NATO/U.S. war against Yugoslavia is the most blatant example of the new style of war. The NATO/U.S. bombs killed more civilians than troops on purpose, to terrorize the population. The few soldiers who died were mainly in battles between the NATO-supported Kosovo Liberation Army and the Serbian army.

The conference itself, with its liberal humanitarian leadership, did not have any answers to the problems it discussed. As a matter of fact, they decided to meet again in the fall because no one wanted to criticize the role of the UN in Kosovo now that "peace" has reached the area. The feeling among most of the participants was that the UN and its head, Kofi Annan, are useless when it comes to the dealing with ravages of war.

The main point ignored by the conference, pacifists and humanitarians, is that almost all the recent wars mentioned by the conference are caused by the needs of the bosses to control oil and oil routes. Modern capitalism and their armies cannot run without oil. The real cause of modern war is imperialism and capitalism. Whether the victims are mainly "collateral" (the euphemism used by the Pentagon and NATO for killing civilians), or soldiers, or victims of "ethnic cleansing" or fascist death camps, the main cause of war is the fight among the world’s capitalists to re-divide the world and become top dog. The only meaningful solution is to organize workers and soldiers to turn the guns around and smash the warmakers. That is what PLP is organizing for. Join us!

Learning And Organizing Against Fascism Through Books

Dear Challenge:

I wanted to add to the excellent list provided by Red Rocker in the June 16 Challenge. I highly recommend In the Fog of the Season’s End by the South African writer Alex la Guma. It is the gripping story of the African National Congress (ANC) organizing in South Africa during apartheid when the ANC was illegal. It is instructive in how one organizes under fascism, how one relies on one’s base, and is quite profound and inspiring in spite of the fact that the ANC’s politics were flawed and ultimately ended in perhaps the biggest sell-out of the twentieth century. It is also plain old exciting to read! I would call this book must reading for this historical period.

NYC Teacher

Never Be Fooled By Government

Working Class Should Never Lie Down Without A Fight

Dear Challenge:

I want to direct your attention to the collusion between the New York State Department of Labor and the employers in their attempt to deny workers unemployment benefits. I was fired on April 19 and immediately applied for benefits. After waiting four weeks I received a letter telling me I was ineligible for "fighting on the job," which was a complete lie. I appealed the decision and was upheld. There wasn’t even anything against me in the folder that the boss sent and they didn’t even send anyone to testify. Usually, from what I hear, workers who are denied benefits, don’t appeal, or if they do appeal, they usually lose.

It is now July 6 and the procedure states that I have to wait a reasonable amount of time to see whether the boss asks for the case to be re-opened before I can receive any benefits. Therefore, I may get some money by August. If the boss asks for the case to be reopened I would have to wait until September and if I lost, I would get nothing.

Such is the way capitalism works. Such is the way these bastards try and often succeed in grinding workers into the dust. This is why the capitalists as a class must be ground into the dust completely and their government with them. I recommend to the youth of the Party and their friends that they study Lenin’s "The State And Revolution" over and over again so that they and the rest of us never forget that the government can never be neutral. And if I finally do get benefits, how much will I get? I don’t even want tell you. Believe me, it will be just peanuts.

Unemployed But Not A Beaten Communist

Letters

Power Outage Shows Racism And Greed Of Capitalist Bosses

Dear Challenge:

Capitalism is racist in everything it does, including bad weather. Last night, those of us who live in Upper Manhattan in New York City learned this the hard way. Con Edison, the utility company, left 400,000 people in this mainly Latin working class neighborhood in the dark. Because of the extremely hot weather affecting the Northeast, Con Edison couldn’t cope with the demand for more electricity, so our neighborhood got blacked out on the night of July 6.

It was hellish night for all of us, people came out onto the streets to get some air because they were burning in their apartments. Obviously it was not accidental blackout, since the cops began to swarm the area, even flying their helicopters as soon as the lights began to flicker. They were not so much there to try to help the people, but to keep "things under control," to avoid the rebellion and looting that took place in the 1977 blackout, when the whole city was in the dark.

Meanwhile, the Board of Education is forcing thousands of kids to go to summer school in classrooms without any air conditioning. These kids have to swelter. Some Board of Education bureaucrats had the gall to say that it is was no big deal, kids in the past used to go to summer school when there was no such thing as air conditioning. In the meantime, the all Board of Education offices, both local and central, are air conditioned.

PLP in Upper Manhattan responded to this "racist blackout" by going out on both days of the blackout and placing an additional 100 Challenge-Desaf�os in more stores. We now place 300 papers in Upper Manhattan stores. We also distributed hundreds more Challenges among our base. Last week, we went to Alexander Doll factory in West Harlem and 150 workers grabbed the issue of the paper that had an article about the rotten conditions in that shop. Our aim is to bring the light of communist politics to the workers.

An Upper Manhattan Worker

UNAM Strike Becomes School For Communism

Dear Challenge:

The population here is showing its hatred for the government and its support of the University of Mexico (UNAM) strikers. They are always supportive of the demands that we students make. They’re worried because they know that if students can’t study, they won’t be able to get jobs because of the very high unemployment that chokes all of us. Many understand that there are no real alternatives being offered. We must blame the capitalists and their system in crisis. It’s capitalist competition that increases exploitation and forces the cuts in the few services that the workers and their families had gained in the past. It’s the different bosses’ fight for power that forces us workers to live in poverty. The government exists to defend the interests of the capitalists. The students on strike are correct to identify the bourgeoisie as their enemy. This strike has also avoided being manipulated by the electoral parties. But students fail or resist accepting that only communism can end the crisis that affects us. The failure of socialism has resulted in lack of confidence and hope for many people.

We should be conscious that if this strike wins, this victory would be very temporary and partial. The bankers would still have their fascist bureaucracy in charge of the university, implementing these reforms and attacking students in many other ways. The super-exploitation of the workers and their starvation wages are what makes it harder and harder for their children to go to school. The only way to end all this injustice and poverty is with communism. Communist revolution is the only way to cut the cancer out of humanity by ending the exploitation of the workers. Under communism there won’t be bankers who must be paid first and foremost. But there WILL be schools that develop the capacity of all, for the benefit of all. That’s why we need to fight for communism.

The discussions with my fellow strikers have been centered on exposing all the fascist attacks that we, the working class, are suffering in the poorest countries. We talk about how they’re preparing the working class to be super-exploited with starvation wages, like in the maquiladoras. All this makes us indignant. I tell them that the essence of this injustice resides in the exploitation of all the worlds’ workers—to a greater or lesser degree. Many agree with me about this, but still have questions about whether communism is possible. To change this situation and win more of them more to communism, I will deepen the discussion and the understanding of the party’s line, to show that communism is possible and that we can fight for it and WIN. Any other victory will only be small and very short-lived.

A Red Striker

El Salvador Workers Can’t Live On Bread Alone

Dear Challenge:

This past week nearly 400 workers struck LIDO, a bread-producing factory in Soyapango, east of San Salvador, capital city of El Salvador.

Union Secretary Alfredo Osorio said, "The pressure on workers is caused by the excessive workload; in most cases one worker is covering two jobs. There are too few workers because those fired four years ago were never replaced."

LIDO workers suffer under unstable and unsanitary conditions. The union has failed to negotiate a safety and security committee so workers no longer go to the I.S.S.S. (Social Security Institute of El Salvador).

Before the 1990’s, LIDO was the only factory producing and distributing bread for the entire country. However, with globalization came other bread factories, including BIMBO from Mexico. This capitalist rival took the market from LIDO. This is the essence of capitalism: the bigger fish eats the smaller one.

The capitalist system only exists to have workers make profits for the bosses, forcing us workers to compete against workers from other factories. Meanwhile, their capital grows as workers’ living conditions decline. PLP urges workers to keep fighting, not only for reforms, but also for a complete change in the system. Workers from LIDO, BIMBO and all factories worldwide need a system that meets our basic needs—communism. Capitalism, which only creates hunger, misery and pain for workers, must be destroyed.

PLP members in El Salvador are organizing a base inside these factories to win workers to a broader communist outlook. Workers should not have to beg for a piece of bread when the entire loaf belongs to us.

A Comrade, El Salvador

Coalition Has ‘Ethnic Rivalries’ Also

Dear Challenge:

I was one of the participants in a march on June 19 sponsored by the "Coalition of People of Color" which organized the demonstration against the war in Kosovo. This coalition was made up of the New Raza Left, the Radical Black Congress, and the Asian Left. All these racist and nationalist groups hate white workers, although they deny being racist since they argue that racism can only exist among white people who benefit from the opportunities that capitalism offers.

The Coalition did not take the opportunity afforded by the march to vomit up their racism given the presence of white people who had come from other revisionist and pacifist groups. The ironic thing about this situation is that even though the Coalition was speaking about ethnic problems in Kosovo and oil profits, these organizations represent the same ideological garbage that divides workers in Kosovo where different groups of bosses have successfully divided workers, winning them to fight for the boss’s filthy riches.

In this same vein, some "socialist" groups put forward the line during the latest war in Kosovo of supporting the right of Kosovars to an autonomous land, furthering the dangerous division. These organizations are dangerous for workers because they claim that the problems of capitalism are defined by "race," rather than capitalism as a system (although some of them say so rhetorically). Seeing their nationalist and racist arguments one must ask, isn’t Chief of Police Parks in Los Angeles a black man? Weren’t the LAPD dogs who executed Tyisha Miller in a hail of bullets also black? What about the Mexican bosses and their Zedillo government? They are the same color and nationality as the millions of workers and indigenous people who are dying of hunger, misery, unemployment and military repression.

Bosses of all colors ally with other bosses for their own economic and political ends, but they do not want workers of all races to join together because that would be the end of their profit system. There is no doubt that these nationalist, racist and pacifist groups, dress up as leftists are economically supported, if not now then in the future, by one or another group of imperialists. Although in reality these bosses’ groups do not have a large base among the workers, we must not underestimate them because the day will come when we will have to fight against them and their imperialist owners. Long live the international working class.

LA Comrade

Racist Terror Is Daily Event Under Capitalism

Dear Challenge:

About the three deaths and the six people who were wounded in the Midwest. All were members of the working class, attacked by another member of the working class who took action to support the bosses’ racism. Racism is created by the ruling class in a capitalist society to keep workers separated and constantly attacking and killing each other. This is not a pretty picture of the world, but it is the reality of the day-to-day life for the working class. No one who is part of the working class has a choice about the basic structure of the society that exists when he/she is born. But, as communists in the working class, we have the means (communism and dialectical materialism) to observe, understand and change the world we live in.

The liberal media is showing us people on TV who are saying that this particular "hate crime" in Chicago and the Midwest is "over" because the killer murdered himself. Don’t you believe it! What they mean is that they are sorry that they could not use the murderer to further promote the bosses’ liberal, fascist illusions about capitalism. Especially in times of economic crisis, it is necessary for the bosses to blame every murder of workers worldwide on the working class, instead of on themselves. They want us to believe that workers are violent psycho-killers or selfish, greedy people who hate each other and can’t "get along." So the bosses tell us we need more fascist police to "protect" us from ourselves. Bullshit. Capitalism is really to blame for the injuries and deaths of these and all members of the working class. The police only protect the bosses and their private property.

As long as this stinking capitalist system remains the basic structure of society, the working class can expect to see many more of our brothers and sisters murdered worldwide. So this wasn’t in a high school and the killer(s) aren’t 15 years old, but it is yet another murderous event of capitalism in crisis. In general, the murders at Columbine and these murders are more the same than different. The bosses are using racism to make more brutal, fascist attacks on the working class around the world. In times of overproduction it is more necessary for the bosses to use racism to lower all wages to the lowest level possible without causing a unified revolt of the working class against the ruling class. The bosses can’t risk a fight for survival by the working class because we outnumber them worldwide. Racism is a key means the bosses’ use to super exploit and kill members of the working class to increase their profits.

Actually, a unified revolt of the working class sounds like an excellent plan to me. Turn the guns around and shoot the bosses down. Worldwide communist revolution led by PLP is the only way to end racism and fascism by demolishing the capitalist economic system that depends on racism for its survival, even in times of economic boom. Join PLP (yes, I mean you) and make an organized stand in your communities of zero tolerance for racism. Build for communist revolution with PLP now. Smash capitalism and then we can say that the murderous oppression and exploitation of all of the working class is over forever.

Midwest Reader

Mechanical Materialism

Dear Challenge:

Red Rocker’s explanation of formal logic in the June 23 issue saying that "Capitalism is capitalism and cannot be communism" and "A liberal is a liberal and cannot be a socialist or communist" is known in philosophy as mechanical materialism (MM). This is a subjective, idealist philosophy that uses a pragmatic, empirical method. This method views things as they appear on superficial examination and insists that things are separated from, and not interchangeable, with other things.

But if this "logic" is correct, how do we explain how things can change into other things that appear to be the very opposite of themselves? For example how did feudalism turn into capitalism and capitalism turn into socialism in Russia? How did Weimar Germany’s liberalism turn into fascism? And how did socialism in the U.S.S.R. and China become capitalist and imperialist? These changes are all examples of the interpenetration of opposites, one of the laws of dialectical materialism (DM), the philosophy of Marxism-Leninism. The DM philosophy is the opposite of MM philosophy. DM sees endless movement, development, transformation and the coming into being and going our being of all things.

As communists we should not view things as either black or white or as unchanging. Instead we should ascertain which aspect of a contradiction (example liberal/fascist or liberal/communist) is primary at a given moment and which has the potential to become primary. Using DM and practice our Party has developed an effective way to understand how and why things change and we should try not to use idealist philosophies like MM which deny change to explain contradictions.

A Comrade