The KKK plays a key role for the bosses, in this age of growing capitalist crisis and social gap between workers and bosses. The KKK has stepped up its open activities this summer, trying to win white workers to blame non-white workers for the evils of the system. The bosses help the KKK by giving them tons of free publicity and massive police protection.
As we made our way along with members of the Anti-Racist Action group (ARA) into Steubenville, 300 police and the National Guard had turned the town into a police state. There were snipers on roof tops, cops in riot gear, some mounted on horses, others with killer dogs. The fire department took part by supplying high-powered hoses aimed at the protestors. Two gated pens, one for anti-Klan and one for Klan supporters were set up, with a blue tarp between them.
In order to get in we were patted down, searched with a metal detector, and had our pictures taken. Klan supporters were not searched. This overwhelming appearance of strength was intimidating at first. We entered the anti-Klan pen, and ignited mass anger towards the KKK and the cops by leading chants and talking to workers. Then local industrial workers began to arrive, filling the pen of anti-Klan fighters. Slowly at first, then rapidly as events turned our way, we felt the power of our class. We were intimidating the cops, and our fear washed away in the energy of the protest.
A block away, our Challenge team distributed newspapers and began a picket line to win workers to confront the Klan, while the pacifist NAACP led a picnic across town. We led about 30 anti-Klan workers to the main rally. Chanting, with fists in the air, everyone got energized. The potential of the working class came alive as the marchers joined the protestors at the pen.
When five puny Klan thugs finally showed up on the courthouse steps, the crowd's anger doubled. We chanted, "Death to the Klan," completely drowning out their racist filth. The boldness of our comrades at the front convinced us to take advantage of the lack of cops between the Klan and our pen.
One comrade boosted another over the fence, as we tried to lead a charge against the Klan. The comrade that got over was jumped and handcuffed by a dozen cops before reaching the Klan. As the rest of crowd attempted to shake the gate down, the crowd began to roar and cheer, and the Klan was forced to flee. After the Klan left, another comrade climbed onto the shoulders of people in the crowd, and called on them to march to the police station and demand the release of our arrested comrade. The crowd's response was incredible, showing their hatred of the cops.
As in all struggles there were traitors. Five big mouth militants, who claimed to be members of the ARA and the NAACP, were probably cops. They pulled our comrades off the fence and defeated the charge against the Klan from behind. They were the wolves in sheep's clothing and we'll be ready to deal with them next time. The liberals try to push the idea that if we ignore them, the Klan will go away. They played a deadly game today in trying to stop the workers' militancy and our communist leadership.
The cops closed us in the pen and refused to let us out. We chanted "Let us out, let us out!" We stood boldly, our noses to their riot shields, our fists in their faces. The cops finally had to let us go to the police station. Townspeople led us there. In spite of the cops' threats, we continued our march through the town, marching with construction and steelworkers from Steubenville energized all.
At the police station everyone stood united. The cops promised our comrade would be released within the hour. While waiting, we shared water and stories, exchanged names, phone numbers, and addresses. We distributed many Challenges. When our comrade was released, he met our new friends and we left with plans of keeping in touch with many people. We had seen the cops' power diminish, at least momentarily, as we controlled the streets.
We have already visited dozens of workers who signed cards to learn more about PLP. We are planning to return to Steubenville next week as our Summer Project moves to the Midwest to join in the struggle of auto and steelworkers. We are learning and growing every step of the way.
This is the road, long as it may be, to revolution. Study alone cannot teach or replace the revolutionary experience of seeing black and white workers reach out to communists for leadership in this way. We gained tremendous confidence in our Party and in our class brothers and sisters' potential to lead a communist revolution.
Other workers are showing their friends the Challenge article on turning the contract battle and possible strike into a school for revolution. Some are very bold, daring the bosses to say anything about their revolutionary paper.
One woman, who attended our midweek political economy study group, is writing a letter to Challenge about the contract. "The contract just defines the kind of chains we are bound by. The contract doesn't bust the chains of wage slavery," she tells me--and she's got the examples to prove it.
Another worker tells me how we can recruit and develop more black and Latin leadership in the Party. He's really impressed by the young people in the study group. "Start with the youth; give them assignments to accomplish; the youth will win their parents," he says. His enthusiasm is contagious.
Our Party literature just finished talking about the "Catch-22" of capitalism. The bosses can't sell more planes during this crisis of overproduction. Whatever profits they make, they use to cut "useless" productive capacity. The senior financial manager of the Oppenheimer Fund--the largest shareholder of Boeing stock--recently advised the company to use their profits to get rid of "surge production capacity." Let some subcontractor worry about the cost of idle machines, he says. Progressive Labor's line about communist production for need, not capitalism's production for profits, makes more sense everyday.
Speaking of production, it's been reduced to a snail's pace.
The boss launches into a grand lecture on the "business model"--complete with charts and graphs. No, they have no plans to pull out all those machines. "Just a few," he assures us. He ends by showing a chart of our production. "I hope this is only a one day thing because, if our production drops like this, we'll lose credibility with our customers," he warns.
Next thing you know, we're talking about how little credibility the bosses have. The big boss goes off on a tangent. Someone brings him back to the subject. "I'm having trouble reading between the lines," a quick-thinking worker tells the boss.
The boss says, "Let me quit beating around the bush. All that banging before the last contract will hurt our credibility with our customers. We can't affect negotiations, so let's concentrate on what we can control and pick up production." "Ah ha!" we all thought. "that's what he's after!"
The bosses are always trying to make us feel powerless; to think they are all-powerful. Yet, he came running down from his air-conditioned office when we slowed-down production. His system is set up to take power from us, but ultimately, we can opt for workers' power. The specter of revolution still haunts the bosses.
On the shop floor, more of us met after the meeting. We discussed the last rolling thunder--the banging every hour, on the hour, before the last contract. "Pleasant memories!" said one. "This `nontraditional, flexible' workweek has got to be fought!" said another. Plans were made.
More next issue
Last April, the Cambridge police were called to Jefferson Park to break up a domestic quarrel. After arresting a man for threatening his girlfriend, the police demanded that everyone go home. The residents said they were home, and the cops turned on them. They arrested four youth and one adult (four black, one white) who were minding their own business. They charged two with disorderly conduct, and three with assault and battery against a police officer. They later dropped the charges against the white youth.
The NAACP, the police internal investigation unit, the civilian review board, the local politicians, and the court appointed lawyers have been little or no help to the mothers of the arrested youth. Even in the ultra-liberal, multi-racial city of Cambridge, workers cannot find justice. PLP met with some of the mothers of those arrested, and we planned the demonstration.
A PLP leaflet explained that the role of the police is to protect the rulers and terrorize the workers, especially black and Latin youth. Not everyone we met supported the idea of demonstrating. PLP and the Jefferson Park mothers distributed over 1,000 leaflets in three different housing projects, in the center of Cambridge, and at a community meeting against police misconduct, where we learned that 28 middle school students were searched by security guards.
We were well received in the Jefferson Park projects. Some residents helped distribute the leaflet, and our organizing soon became the talk of the neighborhood. The local newspaper wrote an article, quoting a local politician who attacked us for having "...a clear agenda of recruiting for the Progressive Labor Party, whoever that is..." He's right! Police terror is a necessary aspect of developing fascism. It is not an exception but the rule when capitalism is in crisis. Good cops work with bad cops because the ruling class needs both to control the working class. Communist revolution is the only solution to ending police terror. Not everyone agrees with us, but working together against police terror allows us the opportunity to continue the political struggle.
The demonstration was probably the largest PLP-led protest in the Boston area in five years, and included PLP members and friends, mothers of those arrested and their friends, passersby who got our leaflet, and at least three people who read the article in the local paper. People showed up who had worked with PLP in the 1960s and 1970s. A group of white men (some homeless) who had been arrested several times, told us about being brutalized by the police and supported our rally. Two black men who marched with us said they were glad the rally was integrated, and that any movement against police terror has to be multi-racial.
The fight against police terror, and to drop the charges against the youth, is far from over. We will be getting to know our new friends, and organize in the courtroom and on the streets. We are forming a Cambridge defense committee. And we will fight like hell to prove that anti-communist politician right, by winning more workers and youth to read and distribute Challenge, and join PLP!
The Seattle Summer Project volunteers have distributed about 400 Challenges and 1,200 leaflets at the Boeing plants over the past week. We visited some Boeing workers over the weekend, and discussed the situation at Boeing with them. As a result, workers have, for the first time, pasted on their machines PLP leaflets that discussed the Party's line and the need for a communist revolution.
The leaflet offered a communist analysis of the relationship between workers and the unions. The bosses want a "flexible workweek" to increase productivity. A flexible workweek means four ten-hour days with a three-day weekend. The bosses do not want to pay overtime. Therefore, on Saturdays and Sundays they would pay only regular wages. The unions at Boeing, such as International Association of Machinists (IAM), do not represent the workers' interests. These unions are busy figuring out how to help the bosses increase productivity at the expense of the workers.
Also last week, volunteers, workers and students analyzed and studied Political Economy, a PLP pamphlet. These study sessions have related the crisis of capitalism to the situation at Boeing. We had a long discussion about the bosses seeing workers as commodities, from which they extract tremendous surplus value. Boeing is downsizing and laying off 48,000 workers in its desperate drive to increase profits. In our next Political Economy study group we hope to explain the relationship between racism and the lowering of wages at Boeing.
Along with our work among industrial workers, we have also reached out to youth. We sell at a local high school to build the Party's presence there. We also traveled to Ft. Lewis, a nearby military base, where we distributed Challenge and leaflets to soldiers, explaining the role the military plays in U.S. imperialism, and calling on soldiers to organize against U.S. massacres like the one in Kosovo.
During the first week of the Seattle Summer Project, we have had many successes, but we have also made several mistakes. We have found that we need to work around the workers' schedules in order to build a base. We are also learning what it means to build a base among workers. It requires long, persistent struggle. Our daily involvement in the class struggle shows us the importance and dialectical necessity of combining mass work with basebuilding. We will continue visiting and leafleting Boeing workers.
Normally 31 carriers move 20% of U.S. exports through Oakland's port. Electronic parts and foodstuffs from the Central Valley are the leading items. Imports are important, too. At New United Motors, a joint GM-Toyota plant, 4,700 autoworkers produce 15,000 vehicles per day. The engines and transmissions are shipped via the Port of Oakland to this "just-in-time" assembly plant.
The strike was legal, called over a safety issue, although everyone understood that it was a warning shot aimed at the stalled contract negotiations for the whole West Coast. The talks resumed on Thursday, the day after the strike ended. The 14,000 longshoremen affected by this contract play a vital role in the U.S. economy, as well as supplying strategic military bases in the Asian-Pacific region. Historically, this union has played just such a role. When class consciousness is strong among workers, they can somewhat affect U.S. foreign policy. Actions taken by this union and other working class organizations prevented weapons from being shipped to Russia during its Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. These weapons would have been used by imperialist armies against Russian workers.
The longshorman's contract is up in the same year as auto, steel and aerospace workers. All of these contract negotiations could have provided a chance for a united working class to demonstrate its decisive power. But these days, "Workers' Power" is like the word "sex" at a Victorian dinner party - it's not even whispered. The only organized effort to unite these contract struggles is being made by PLP in its Summer Projects.
On April 27, the ILWU shut the docks in a one-day strike to protest the planned execution of black radical journalist, Mumia. What if these workers led a General Strike against racist police terror against Oakland's youth, just a few blocks from the docks? Or the terror bombing of Yugoslavia and Iraq to secure U.S. oil profits? Longshoremen and other workers in the U.S. and all over the world did strike against the shipments of weapons to the imperialist armies that invaded the Soviet Union in 1918 to try to crush the newly born communist-led state. This kind of class conscious action can make workers feel our potential to overthrow the bosses and seize power.
We must develop class consciousness among workers, especially about our power. When this happens then the revolutionary options for building a world to meet our needs becomes realistic. These are the steps, however modest, that PLP's Summer Projects are taking. On the West Coast, we can expand our efforts to the vital ports in Tacoma-Washington and Long Beach-Los Angeles.
Bethlehem Steel and USX have reached tentative contract agreements with the USW (United Steel Workers.) Two other mills in the area, Inland and LTV, may not be far behind. However, by the positive response we got, the contract "highlights" which appear to give a few crumbs, have not won steel workers to the boss' side, to say the least.
The students, some for the first time, approached steelworkers in busy traffic explaining why these steelworkers are a key force for communist revolution, and why they will only get these ideas in Challenge. "Can we get your name and number so we can see what you think of the paper?"
We will learn more about workers' agreements and disagreements as we visit and get to know them. We will report more on this. We plan to expand the readership and struggle for more Challenge subscriptions with each visit, while encouraging workers to reject the steel deal and organize to strike.
As Con Ed shut down the system for 400,000 workers and their families above 155 St., they bragged that the problem was "localized." Without a second thought and with massive police preparedness (level 3 mobilization) Con Ed, whose major shareholders are NYC banks, and the City government decided to sacrifice the health and safety of the predominately black and Latin families in Upper Manhattan so that a blackout wouldn't spread to other areas.
What other areas were they worried about? Wall St., where crashed computers could have produced global financial chaos; midtown corporate offices, where the capitalists take in and invest millions in profits daily; and the lucrative tourist industry, at its summer peak now. These areas have more adequate wiring to handle demand for electricity, far exceeding that in Washington Heights. Con Ed's policy in the Heights, as in other largely black and Latin low-income neighborhoods, is "not to replace the [cable] feeders until they fail." (Daily News, 7/8) There was nothing accidental about this burnout, during a heat wave in which at least 21 people died in the City! This is how capitalism works.
When a protest erupted in Upper Manhattan where 3,000 workers were still without electricity after the lights went on at 5 PM on Wed., Con Ed officials turned on emergency generators. Con Ed warned Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center days before that there might be a problem. But there were no warnings and no emergency generators in the neighborhood as unknown numbers of the sick and elderly were trapped in high rise buildings.
Despite Giuliani's false claim and opportunistic outrage that Con Ed had not informed him about the power problem, he was prepared to send his storm trooper cops to occupy the area. Police barricaded side streets to prevent any movement or activity. Helicopters immediately swooped in flying low over buildings. Searchlights at intersections swept into the darkened windows of people's homes. It was a military occupation, an open fascist drill.
Meanwhile workers in the area cooked food so it wouldn't spoil and shared it with neighbors. Parents pitched in to watch each other's children as they slept outside on a scorching night. Talk of mobilizing a protest began. This display of class solidarity and community, though small and weak, was a glimmer of workers' potential to rule and develop a working class culture. Common interest and sharing according to need have been historically, and will be in the future, the foundation of a communist society.
The Progressive Labor Party says that a system that deliberately sacrifices workers' lives on the altar of profits for the billionaires, and enforces its rule with racist, fascist methods should be destroyed. While we workers produce everything of value, including electrical power, we remain wage slaves with no say over our lives. But not forever!
We must unite--black, Latin and white--to demand that Con Ed and the City come to Upper Manhattan and pay reparations and upgrade the system. PLP'ers are having an emergency meeting with Summer Project youth and Challenge readers. We'll plan ways to increase Challenge circulation and work with local groups to organize a protest. There can be no real guarantee that workers will have what we need until the working class mobilizes to destroy capitalism with revolution for a system without wage slavery and capitalist profiteers--communism.
For the first event of the Summer Project, PLP brought a modest contingent of workers and students to the high school with signs and chants. We were met by a steadily growing group of outraged local residents and many receptive high school students (some of whom were locked out of school for Clinton's speech).
A group came from ACORN to demand decent jobs. They joined us in chanting against Clinton. We attracted a lot of attention from the residents; many agreed with our demonstration. But one woman tried to say the Clinton administration had brought more jobs to Watts. She was quickly contradicted by a resident who retorted, "They have prisoners laboring for private companies while doing time. That's slavery!" Many residents agreed with signs about police terror and the racist prison industry. These workers are open to our line that the liberal bosses are ushering in fascist attacks.
Clinton's brief appearance at Locke High School in Los Angeles (what one observer called a "photo-op in the ghetto") was to speak about his new "empowerment zones." He claims these will bring jobs to Watts, South Central, and other nearby impoverished LA communities. What these empowerment zones are all about is giving tax-breaks and other incentives to corporations in attempts to bring them to the U.S. inner-cities. We will never see any real results or real jobs. The crisis of overproduction has shown us that as profit rates fall, industry must downsize its labor force and move into lower wage areas in order to remain competitive. Clinton's NAFTA helps this process, making it easier for more companies to move overseas. Clinton's "empowerment" plan to assuage U.S. workers will only bring temporary, low-skilled jobs that are anything but empowering for Los Angeles communities.
Meanwhile, police terror continues to be a fixture in these communities. When we arrived at the high school, we attempted to stand with a group of onlookers, but were herded across the street by the cops.
Students told many stories of increasing fascism in the schools. One student told us of being called a "bitch" by her high school dean, to which she replied "I'm not the bitch who made you." The wannabe cop/dean handcuffed her. This not an uncommon occurrence. Another student said that the security guards at Locke High School carry handcuffs. Students said that when they complained about the rundown state of their school, they were told by one authority figure to be glad that they were not in South Africa. Comparing L.A. schools to even more impoverished schools is a cheap way of masking the neglect of these prison-training-camps that they call schools.
In fact, this whole visit was about masking the truth about the bosses' inability to provide any relief for workers and students in Watts from the capitalist system that enslaves them. The photos on the front page of the bosses' newspapers and television will not include the protesters and the discontent of the people. It was just a quick photo opportunity for Bill Clinton; we know the cops will be up to their daily duty of oppressing workers as soon as the cameras are gone. But we also know that by building for a revolution we can create REAL empowerment for the working class.
There are many speculations about the FARC's reasons for launching this military offensive at this time. The most plausible one is that it is showing its power in order to negotiate a better deal for itself. Similar offensives for the same reason were launched by guerrilla groups in Central America and in Vietnam at the negotiating table.
But two things are not speculations: 1) whether these groups come to power through armed struggle or peace negotiations, the working class in Colombia will still be wage slaves, perhaps under a different capitalist master; 2) the rivalry for control of Latin America--among U.S. and European imperialists--is sharpening. No peace negotiations can stop the inevitable resolution of this conflict by war. The inter-imperialist rivalry is a complicated process. It may heat up or cool down at any given time. The participants may vary. Some compromises might be reached here or there. But its trend is inexorably towards war.
The U.S. bosses have no illusions about this. While they play the negotiations game, they prepare militarily and strike out when necessary. Wall Street President Richard Grasso's meeting with FARC leader Raul Reyes was an attempt to get a better deal for the U.S. and/or perhaps beg the rebels to keep the fragile Colombian economy from collapsing. Wall Street has enormous investments at stake. "Washington stands behind President Pastrana's peace efforts," said U.S. State Department spokesperson James Foley.
But Washington stands even firmer behind the Colombian army--with its notorious human rights violations and its ties to the narco-death squads--to the tune of $269 million last year alone. However, U.S. bosses know they can't rely on the inept Colombian military alone. In the final analysis, U.S. military force will be necessary. FARC's Jorge Briceño accuses the U.S. of preparing to invade Colombia. The U.S. denies it. Yet last month, the U.S. proposed to the OAS (Organization of American States) the creation of a "group of friendly countries....to intervene in internal conflicts threatening democracy in Latin American countries." U.S. troops are already there, providing protection for State Department contracted drug eradication "flight instructors."
European bosses continue to make inroads in Latin America. Recently, Repsol, a Spanish oil company bought YPF, Argentina's largest oil company for $23 billion. This deal, made possible because of the euro, which in spite of its problems, is enabling European companies to raise cash. It is expected that Europe will surpass the U.S. as this year's biggest investor in Latin America. Spain already owns some of the biggest banks in Colombia, Chile, Argentina and Mexico. Then, there is the U.S. nightmare of MERCOSUR and the European Union.
No wonder a U.S. Army War College advocates a joint military command for American, Mexican and Canadian military forces to "coordinate military action on terrorism, insurgency, security threats and drug trafficking." Lt. Col. Joseph Nuñez said, "If...the Free Trade Area of the Americas becomes reality, the military command would stretch from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego." The Monroe Doctrine of 1823 declared "the Americas for Americans"--read for U.S. imperialism. It will not be made null and void without a fight.
Our class must have no illusions that there are good imperialists or capitalists. We must build the PLP internationally, so we can turn the coming imperialist wars into worldwide communist revolution.
BP Amoco is a rival of the Rockefeller-controlled giant Exxon-Mobil. Unlike Halliburton and Bechtel, Exxon-Mobil has no pipelines of its own in the Balkans. However, the Rockefellers consider the region strategically vital as a stepping-stone to the Middle East. Rockefeller's Exxon-Mobil and Chevron need the Balkans to remain divided, weak, and pro-U.S. The first Rockefeller plan for the former Yugoslavia set up its provinces in the early 1990s as "autonomous" regions and put local tyrants in charge of each. Milosevic was actually considered a potential U.S. ally at the time. Rockefeller agent Cyrus Vance headed the consortium that imported Yugo cars into the U.S. But the Yugo turned out to be a lemon, and Milosevic proved as reliable to U.S. interests as the Yugo.
From day one of his "humanitarian" genocide from the air, Clinton vowed repeatedly that he would never invade Kosovo on the ground. Clinton basically represents the Rockefeller camp. The Clintonites figured that a three-day bombing campaign would bring Milosevic to his knees. They had badly miscalculated. Five weeks into the war, Milosevic was still in control. Arizona Republican Senator John McCain demanded that Clinton send the troops to defend "our interests and values" (May 4 speech on the Senate floor).
These "interests" turned out to be none other than the pipelines BP Amoco, Halliburton, and other Rockefeller rivals were building and which Milosevic's own pipeline schemes threatened. Senator Richard Lugar started singing McCain's invasion song. Lugar hails from Indiana, where BP Amoco just happens to have huge facilities at Hammond and Whiting. Both McCain and Lugar led the Senate faction fight to allow oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and to permit the export of Alaska crude. These measures would benefit BP more than any other company, because BP holds the lion's share of Alaskan oil investment. McCain was the Dole campaign's national security advisor in 1996. Much financing for this campaign came from anti-Rockefeller domestic oil money.
The growth of alternative capital sources is crucial to the weakening of Rockefeller power. Now even Wal-Mart is offering banking services. The BP Amoco marriage is another threat to the Rockefeller empire. Amoco alone used to get most of its crude from North American sources. It didn't share in the Rockefeller Saudi gold mine. But the merged BP Amoco is another story. As Exxon's second-biggest rival, access to Caspian crude would give it a bonanza of cheap sources.
BP Amoco needs the Balkan pipelines as badly as it needs mouthpieces like McCain and Lugar. Halliburton, the builder of BP Amoco's pipeline between Bulgaria and Albania, has considerable Washington clout. Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney was a Secretary of Defense. Halliburton director Lawrence Eagleburger was a Secretary of State. Halliburton co-chair Anne Armstrong heads the major anti-Rockefeller Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank.
In the policy brawl over the Kosovo war, it's hard to pinpoint who was calling the shots when. We don't know just how much collusion took place between the Rockefeller mafia and its BP Amoco-Halliburton competitors. However, it is certain that within two months of the first bombardments, two diametrically opposed outlooks had emerged. the BP gang wanted U.S. and British troops to safeguard BP's Balkan pipelines and die for them if necessary. At the same time, Rockefeller yes-men were warning that the U.S. had "an incentive to remove its troops from Kosovo. They may well be needed elsewhere--on the Korean Peninsula...or in the Persian Gulf" (Michael Mandelbaum, of the Rockefeller Council on Foreign Relations, in the New York Times, 7/7)
The stakes are very high. McCain is running for president. So is Bush. The Rockefeller interests will stop at nothing to recoup their own losses and to defend their Middle Eastern cash cow. The 2000 electoral campaign will surely see a sharpening of the power struggle that led to Clinton's impeachment. The Rockefellers may have declined, but they are still the most powerful U.S. capitalist faction. The other bosses will defend their own treasure-chests with equal ruthlessness. Regardless of who maintains or wins the upper hand, none of these billionaires can meet the interests of the working class. The capitalists' scramble for oil has led constantly to war throughout this century. We have no stake in following one murderer or another in this bloody struggle for state power and profit. Our fight is for communism--to destroy all of them and win state power for the working class.(Next week: The geopolitics of Balkan oil rivalries)
This weekend was very memorable in many ways because it was my first time seeing the members of the KKK. The moment I saw them not only did I get angry but I was scared also. I was scared because of the simple fact that there was a lot of police behind us armed with guns on horses, and there were even snipers on a roof behind us.
As I looked around and saw that I was not alone and that there were 22 of my PLP comrades with me I felt there was nothing to fear because I knew if anything happened they would have my back.
This weekend inspired me to go and tell my friends and family about what we did that weekend. It also made me proud to be a communist and be in PLP.
A New Red KKK-Fighter
A comrade once mentioned to me that it wasn't just the number of Challenges we distributed that was most important, it was HOW we used Challenge where we organize. I think this is one of the best expressions of the role of Challenge that I've heard. On my job in a hospital in Philadelphia we've modestly increased the distribution of the paper. A new comrade made the weekly distribution (and collection of money) her mission Monday through Friday.
But I would say that we are still not that successful in using Challenge as an organizing tool. This is due to our limitations, not whatever weaknesses Challenge may have.To me, Challenge obviously reflects the struggles and developments of the Party. I think these struggles have been mainly positive, including the recent struggle against "apocalyptic articles."
Maybe I'm insensitive, but Idon't think that Challenge is riddled with jargon. I do think that a problem exists in my political work and I suspect in other comrades where we don't adequately discuss Challenge with our readers, STRUGGLE with them about the communist ideas in the paper, or involve the paper and ourselves in the developmentof class struggle.
This is a reflection of our not using Challenge more fully as an organizing tool. In our work one reason for this is objective, like finding the time, but another big piece is subjective and undialectical--we don't want to hear any differences or have to strugglewith any contradictions. Personally, I'm trying to turn this around with the layoffs on my job and the swirl of anger, passivity, cynicism, and fear that I hear daily from my co-workers. I'm more conscious about referring to Challenge when the workers question the economic crisis, the role of the unions, our assertions about the Balkans war....etc. So far, I find the more I do this, the better it is for our Challenge distribution.
A Hospital Worker
I'm a seventh grader. I go to Bret Harte in Los Angeles, California. I'm the youngest member in the PLP Seattle Summer Project. My first week was just great! The volunteers and I did so many things.
The first day we came we had our first meeting. We began by introducing ourselves, and we discussed what was planned for the summer. The second day, we went to Franklin High to sell Challenge, but we got there too late to sell. The third day we went to Boeing at 5 o'clock in the morning and sold a lot of Challenges to the Boeing workers. Then at 10 o'clock in the morning we went to a class and discussed the leaflet we gave to the Boeing workers. At 2:00 we went back again to sell Challenge to the Boeing workers. We had a good sale.
On the fourth day we went to Boeing at Renton at 5:00 in the morning and again we had a good sale. Then we went to sell at Franklin at 11:30 and this time we came on time and sold some, but it could have been better. After that, at 7:00 pm we had a class. It was really good.
The fifth day we went to Fort Lewis to sell to the soldiers. It went good but some volunteers got thrown out of where they were selling. The sixth day we went to visit people and afterwards we had pizza and discussed the five days and what was good and what we could have done better. Then on Sunday we went to Lake Washington and read Section Four of the PLP pamphlet about political economy. And today, Monday, I am writing this letter to Challenge about my first experience with the Summer Project in Seattle.
A Seattle Summer Project Volunteer
We were at a union meeting to discuss the steel contract negotiations. The contract expires at midnight on July 31, but workers have been kept in the dark, and the turnout at the meeting was poor. We got into a very hot discussion with a griever, who thought that the contract at USX and Bethlehem should be accepted, and there was no way there should be a strike.
A PLP steelworker said that the crisis facing the working class here and around the world demands a strike. This guy responded, "You're always talking that bull shit. You have to look out for `NUMBER ONE!' A person's own family comes first. Isn't that right? A person's own family comes first, not the whole working class."
He was very animated and it was very hard to get in a reply. We said that what's best for the working class is what's best for our families, but he wouldn't hear of it. "A person's family comes first," he declared.
We could have done better. I thought later that I could have tried to point out that kids from caring families are harassed and killed by racists in the schools and streets. Moreover, since capitalism is in crisis, the bosses have a different future planned for us--like poverty, drugs, race war, and world war--from the one many steelworkers think they are providing for their families.
A previous strike also was brought up. The griever remembered our comrade being there on the picket line the first day of the strike, like many others. But by the fourth day, the lines had dwindled down, and he didn't remember our comrade being there then.
It made me realize again how workers are watching us. What we do is very important. A useful quote for communists goes like this: "People will listen to what you say, but remember what you do."
Onto more Challenges in the mills. Onto more visits and struggles with steelworkers. Start a rally, argue for the necessity to fight back. And fight for communism-workers' power!
USW RED
A lot of good discussions were held on my job at the Chicago Post Office about the recent killings of two young black people by the cops. We circulated a letter and collected money for one of the victims, the son of two postal workers. Among the mainly black workers here, sentiment was heavily against the cops. These killings raised especially sharp discussion because all of the killer cops were black. The similarity to the Post Office, where most of the supervisors are also black, was clear.
"I'm afraid to pull over when I see the police. They're liable to shoot me and say I was a drug dealer," said one worker. "They need to screen them better, to make sure the bad ones don't get on the force," said another. I pointed out that the bosses need these kinds of mad-dog cops to enforce their racist terror over the black and Latin communities, and keep workers in line. It's the same reason they keep supervisors like B. and M. in charge, no matter how many complaints they get. They use them to keep us in line. "Yeah, that's right. They love supervisors like that, no matter how much shit they start."
We can, and should have many more conversations like these, and use them to build a larger readership for Challenge. We also need to be much more skilled in bringing out the contrast between these aspects of capitalism and the kind of communist society we are fighting for. It all comes with practice.
Postal Red
The strike against UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico) has now entered its 84th day and the struggle is sharpening. The students' mass protests and marches in Mexico City, along with those of teachers and electrical workers, are reactions t the worldwide crisis of capitalism.
The education, health and the services that some workers and youth still receive are reforms we won through many struggles in periods when capitalism was able to give us some crumbs. The fact that there was a threat of communism back then also forced the rulers to grant those reforms. But today, as the bosses fight among themselves for shrinking markets, they are not as willing to grant workers and youth too many crumbs.
So far the political struggle to keep the strike going at UNAM is sharp, and the movement continues to get strong. Just last Friday, July 9, thousands of strikers, supported by UNAM workers, electrical workers, etc. marched to the Zocalo, where the Presidential palace is.
But, we in PLP, are struggling with fellow students to show that any victory out of this struggle is relative, benefiting just a small number of youth in the country. We explain that education today is basically anti-working class. It serves a system based on wage slavery (capitalism). Eventually, this can only change through a long struggle to transform society through a communist revolution.
What we need to change is a society in which 5% of the youth become professionals; a society where a few educational bosses earn huge salaries, and seven big capitalists are worth US$200 billion, while 30% of all children in Mexico under 15 years of age are undernourished. This is the kind of society we need to smash. That is why we in PLP at UNAM fight for the line that the best education for students and workers is to organize the fight for communism.
A UNAM Comrade
(The following is a letter from the Seattle Summer Project volunteers to the striking students at UNAM in Mexico City)
Student and worker volunteers involved with the PLP's Summer Project in Seattle, WA, join in solidarity with the students leading the more then two-month old strike at UNAM. Your struggle against tuition hikes, privatization and the imperialism of the World Bank and the IMF has international significance. In particular, students at a local High School were excited to here about your strike.
Just as your strike has drawn support from thousands of Mexican workers, we hope that workers and students from all around the world will see the need to STRIKE BACK against the worldwide growth of capitalist oppression and exploitation!
The Progressive Labor Party both in Seattle, and around the country are reaching out to thousands of workers in aerospace, steel, and auto this summer. We are mobilizing students and young workers to leaflet plants, and visit people with our revolutionary communist newspaper Challenge. These workers in basic industry are key to U.S. imperialism's war machine and the greatest center of profit for capitalism. These workers, as industrial workers in Mexico, are key for building a revolutionary movement.
Workers all across this country, across Latin America, Iraq, Yugoslavia and around the world are feeling the attacks from capitalism. We are part of the same struggle and we, as members of the international working class, again, express our solidarity with your continued efforts to fight your school and government. Keep us updated with your situation.
Seattle Summer Project
A recent article titled, "Realistic Estimates..." (6/2) criticizes the paper for saying World War III is around the corner. Well, it might not be around the corner but it is getting there. Every time "peace" breaks out in some corner of the world, more wars erupt in other areas. A simple reading of any bourgeois newspaper tends to be on the side of Challenge.
Yeltsin did say that the Balkan war could lead to WW III. Maybe he said it while overdosing in vodka, but the reality is that the Russian bosses and the population believe now as much as during the height of the Cold War that the U.S. is preparing to wage war against them. The Russians are tired of being treated like a fourth rate power by the U.S. They see the US encroaching on Russia from Serbia to the Caucasus and the oil rich Caspian Sea.
The New York Times (7/10) reported that the Russian military held huge maneuvers to test its capability in case of an attack by a Western power. Realizing that they couldn't defeat the attack using conventional weapons, because of Russia's many current weaknesses, the maneuvers were based on using nuclear weapons (and Russia has plenty of those) to repel the attack.
Two minor superpowers are now at war over some piece of mountain in Kashmir. Contrary to the several wars waged between Pakistan and India in the past, today they are both nuclear powers. The rulers of Pakistan and India have threatened to use nuclear weapons in case the war expands. The war is not just over some mountain in the Himalayas but for the control of South Asia. And although China, which supports Pakistan, and the U.S. which is "neutral," but tilting towards India, pressured the rulers of both countries to make a truce, none of the contradictions behind the Kashmir conflict have been settled. So the truce might not last too long.
We are now in a situation similar to the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39 and the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in the 1930's. These were the first wars of World War II. For the people of the Balkans and Pakistan and India, world war is not just some distant threat, but something very real.
So I believe that if Challenge is indeed the voice of the international working class, it must warn workers all over the world of the threat of World War, without being sensationalist about it. We shouldn't forget Lenin's dictum that imperialism makes war inevitable, and that means World War. And in this day and age of crisis of capitalist overproduction and growing imperialist rivalries, this is more true than ever before.
A Reader