Challenge, August 4, 1999

CHICAGO, July 18—On July 12 at 1:30 AM, unarmed 19-year-old Devon Nelson was murdered in a "drug sweep" at the apartment complex where he lived, in nearby Harvey. Devon was laid off from a restaurant job. The racist Harvey cops shot him in the back of the head, execution-style, planted a gun by his body, and let him lie there for six hours.

These "drug sweeps" are really racist terror directed at black youth. The cop who killed Devon was black. Another Harvey cop has a swastika tattooed on his neck. After Devon was killed, one cop complained, "I miss all the action." Another said, "That’s one less we have to worry about." The fascist cops are waging war on working class youth.

By 7:00 PM, 100 workers, including PLP members, were demanding admission to the city council chambers. When the city bosses would not let them speak, they gathered outside. Some speakers blamed "the white man," even though the killer cop was black. Nationalism, like racism, divides the working class based on skin color and leads us into the arms of fascism. But the most important thing about this gathering was the anger at the racist cops and city bosses.

At first, there was some reluctance by young comrades to go to Harvey. But after some struggle, our comrades responded well. We went back to the complex on Wednesday and Thursday, distributing many Challenges, and a leaflet about Devon’s murder. On Thursday we met the family. On Friday, a young member of PLP spoke at the funeral, and another comrade was welcomed into the family home afterwards. On Saturday, Devon’s sister and two cousins joined us in a police brutality protest march in Chicago. One cousin spoke at the end.

In response to the protests, Harvey Mayor Nick Graves (elected with support from drug dealers) and his cops have launched a new wave of fascist attacks. One resident was beaten in the police station the night of the murder. The cops staged a second raid at the housing complex, ransacking a resident’s apartment. The cops threatened another resident, saying he "was next." A resident whose daughter had seen the cops drop a gun by Devon’s body was served with an eviction notice. Devon’s mother was arrested for "missing a court appearance," and was released just in time to attend her son’s funeral. We must boldly answer Graves and his cops, and block any evictions.

Overcome Obstacles; Seize Opportunities!

One of the protest leaders is a politician who was defeated by Graves in the last election. He wants to use this to advance his career. Another important weakness is nationalism, which grows out of the racial segregation in Harvey. Also, in the apartment complex where Devon lived, there is high unemployment and many drug dealers. Selling drugs is selling poison to our class. We must build a movement of workers, not petty drug dealers.

Getting involved in mass organizations, such as Mothers for Blind Justice in Chicago, gives us the opportunity to fight for communist solutions to racist police terror with many more people who are not in the Party.

The crisis of capitalism is creating many millionaires and fascist terror for millions of black and Latin youth. The bosses are driving down the working class by eliminating steel and auto jobs, and creating low-wage, part-time jobs with no benefits. They get away with these attacks with terror, terror and more terror, especially when there’s no resistance.

That resistance must aim to build a united working class with the dual goal of destroying capitalism and building communism. Only then will money and inequality be eliminated. Then the interests of the world’s working class will determine what to produce and distribute, according to need.

The only answer is to destroy capitalism with communist revolution. In a communist society, we will eliminate money, inequality, and distribute all that we produce according to need. This revolution takes armed revolutionary violence and a united working class. PLP fights to destroy racism and unite the working class, so we can build a communist world.

Editorial: Kennedy ‘Mystique’: Nazis, Gangsters, And Warmakers

The only sad thing about John F. Kennedy Jr.’s death is that so many people, including workers, admire the Kennedys and are getting sucked into the media mourning hype for him.

"America’s royal family" is really just a loyal agent of the nation’s biggest bosses. Falling for the Camelot myth means following the rulers’ agenda of fascism and war.

The plane crash was not a tragedy but an avoidable accident brought about by a rich man’s dopey arrogance. It ended the lives of three people who had taken far more from society than they would ever contribute to it. JFK Jr. had no business flying an expensive toy he hadn’t been trained to use. On the face of it, he deserves contempt, not sorrow. His carelessness killed his wife and sister-in-law. But personal negligence is the least of his family’s crimes.

Some say that his family "has done so much" for the country. For the ruling class perhaps, but not for workers. Let’s look at the record.

The Kennedy Klan rose to national political prominence during the Depression of the 1930s. While millions of workers were starving, JFK Jr.’s grandfather Joe became super-rich, thanks to a series of Wall Street scams. The Rockefeller wing of U.S. capital was coming into power and planning World War II to establish U.S. imperialist domination. The Rockefellers needed a built-up Democratic Party under President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) to win workers away from the old communist movement, which was then at the height of its mass militancy.

Joe Kennedy helped by putting his control of Boston’s important political machine at Roosevelt’s disposal. Despite Joe’s well-known bootlegging and stock-swindling activities, FDR rewarded him with a series of high government posts, including an ambassadorship to England.

Throughout the 1930s, the Kennedy patriarch supported Hitler. This was fine with FDR, as long as Hitler was preparing to attack the then-revolutionary Soviet Union. But Papa Joe didn’t change his tune when Hitler double-crossed his capitalist pals by invading Western Europe. FDR had to recall Kennedy from London.

Kennedy prestige picked up again in the 1960s with sons Jack and Bobby, who managed to stay more closely in sync with the Rockefeller program. (JFK’s defeat of Nixon was helped decisively by the support he sought from the Mafia and its control of the political machinery—especially in Illinois. The Kennedy alliance with the Mafia goes back to Papa Joe’s bootlegging days in Prohibition.)

The media’s ceaseless promotion of JFK’s "mystique" helped build mass support for U.S. imperialism. Guided by his Eastern Establishment chieftains, JFK escalated a genocidal war that killed millions of Vietnamese, as well as tens of thousands of mostly working class and largely black U.S. GIs. Every single Cabinet member who planned and carried out mass murder in Vietnam after Kennedy’s death was a JFK appointee. A recent article in the Los Angeles Times reported that the arming of the Guatemalan death squads began under Kennedy’s leadership.JFK’s brother Bobby posed as a valiant crusader for the civil rights and labor movements, but his chief aim was to keep them from attacking the profit system. (This is the very reason for the existence of the Democratic/liberal-type parties and movements.) Baby brother Teddy has followed in his siblings’ footsteps. He tries to fool workers with his calls for better health care and ending poverty, but masses of people keep getting sicker and poorer, conditions which he helps continue. He backs the liberal Clinton, whose racist welfare "reform" has ushered in formal slave labor and whose policing strategies have built up a reign of racist cop terror against the most oppressed workers. Meanwhile, Teddy pushes measures and policies that will lead to another Mideast oil war and millions of workers’ deaths. JFK, Jr. chose to be part of the same ruling class that was, and is, committed to all these policies.

The working class lost nothing when that plane fell into the sea. But if we accept the idea that people like the Kennedys can better our lives in any way, we have a great deal to lose. JFK, Jr. was the spoiled brat parasite son of big-time gangsters. We shouldn’t mourn him. Instead we should remember how many of us they have killed to enrich his class and should use our anger as a weapon for learning to build our revolutionary Party to wipe them all out.

Strike Inland Steel; Build A Mass PLP

EAST CHICAGO, IN., July 19—Today workers voted overwhelmingly to strike Inland/ISPAT Steel. The contract expires August 1. On their way in and out of the United Steel Workers (USW) Local 1010 union hall, more than 250 workers bought Challenge, and 60 gave their names and phone numbers to the PLP Summer Project volunteers. Workers talked about the steel deal, and the "real deal," communist revolution and workers’ power!

A strike is likely. The main issues are job security and pensions. Inland bosses want to close the #5 & #6 furnaces, and import steel slabs from their mills in Mexico, where steelworkers are paid about one-fifth of what US steelworkers make. This could cut the Inland work force in half. They also want to reduce pensions. The bosses are planning to keep the mill working during a strike.

The Inland strike could occur as tentative agreements have been announced at Bethlehem and USX. These 5 year contracts call for a 3% raise, increased pensions, and a no-layoff clause for workers with more than three years seniority. The leaders of Big Steel have no facilities outside the US, and their plan is to induce tens of thousands of steel workers to retire, and replace only two-thirds of them, increasing production while slashing jobs. Inland bosses have another idea. Recently bought by ISPAT, with mills in Mexico and Europe, they can move work outside the US and drive down wages even more. Clearly, the "boom" economy has done nothing to provide job security or improve the lives of steel workers here or around the world.

The USW leadership, fresh from their nationalist "Stand Up for Steel" campaign, are siding with Big Steel. They are all for cutting jobs and increasing production, as long as the profits go to US bosses, and they keep their dues coming in. If there is a strike at Inland, they will wrap themselves in red, white and blue, and push an "anti-foreigner" line.

Underneath the "boom" economy is intensified competition for markets, resources and cheap labor. The collapse of the Asian and Russian economies has destroyed markets and created a crisis of overproduction in steel. Non-union mini-mills, using scrap to make steel, are grabbing a bigger share of the market. These same contradictions led to the oil war in Iraq, and the war for oil and gas routes in Yugoslavia. "Stand Up for Steel," and an "anti-foreigner" strike at Inland, could push steel workers in the same direction. And steel, along with auto and aerospace, are the heart of the US war industry.

We should strike at Inland, reject the steel deal at USX and Bethlehem and launch an industry-wide strike. We can unite with steel workers around the world, who are striking, working for no pay, or being tossed on the scrap heap. With auto and Boeing workers, we can build a mass base for communist revolution in the war industry, and prepare millions of workers for the seizure of power.

Notes From The Los Angeles Summer Project

LOS ANGELES, July 20—It’s good to hear from comrades elsewhere. It allows us to share different methods and information, and gives us confidence to know we act with one voice…their struggle is our struggle. When we understand that New York, El Salvador and L.A. are all connected, it intensifies our commitment. So here’s a report about what we’ve accomplished this last week.

We’ve had two study-group meetings, each with about 20 people, discussing political economy. The first was an example of political economy in practice. We studied the historical significance of capitalism in relation to other modes of production throughout history, noting the transformation from hunting and gathering societies to the present system. We concluded that capitalism has not always been the dominant system. As it was once created, it can also be destroyed. In fact, in the context of world history, it’s relatively recent that a majority of the world’s population has been stripped of everything but an ability to sell one’s own labor power.

The second study group demonstrated how capitalism works, how labor creates all value and that the value of commodities contains both use- and exchange-values. We saw that in the process, workers’ wages are not payment for all we create, but instead represent a system of theft that only gives us just enough to subsist to return to work the next day. In many cases it’s even less. Some workers get more than subsistence, but subsistence is the base line.

In one study-group, there were lively discussions about people like Michael Jordan, who are used to hide the reality of low wages for the many and huge profits for the few. Many youth got mad when they saw that those who are least productive get the most and those most productive get the least.

But this summer project is not like the capitalists’ schools. We are not

learning for the bosses’ benefit. Instead we use this knowledge to organize throughout LA.

At a Boeing factory we distributed over 120 Challenges in two days and passed out over 1,200 leaflets. We have also distributed papers at several local garment factories to receptive workers, at a hospital, in high schools and on street corners. In the first week alone, over 300 people took Challenge.

Hopefully, through practice and criticism we will get out even more the second week. In addition, students and workers are collectively writing leaflets for the first time and organizing study groups. This is important; we are educating ourselves, using those tools to help smash the system from within. Our strengths are your strengths, so while we can, before we give our blood, we must give our strength!

A woman whose son was murdered by the LAPD last year has invited us to a public meeting of the Police Commission. We’ll take Challenge there to denounce this racist system and unite with parents whose children have been victims of police terror.

Revolutionary Ideas On The Factory Floor

Dear Challenge,

Last week, due to the mass distribution of Challenges and PLP leaflets in the Boeing factory where I work, some interesting dialogue and struggle took place on the shop floor with a fellow worker.

As one of the bosses was passing out our paychecks, a worker next to me asked in a joking manner if I had been paid enough. I quickly responded that in no way had I been paid my fair share. "I’m paid for only two of the eight hours that I work."

"How so"? asked my friend. I stated the reality that "the bosses here make more than half of our daily wages."

"Oh, you must have read the leaflet that was passed outside today," he said, remembering the PLP leaflet that was all over the factory floor. It explained the surplus value that Boeing workers create that does not come to us but is stolen through the process of exploitation.

The conversation went on for several more minutes and I concluded that the way we can stop this system and end our position as wage slaves is with revolution. "You know, I’d have to agree with you," he replied.

All in all, with workers discussing exploitation, wage slavery and revolution and spreading these ideas, Progressive Labor Party is in a good setting to build our base and recruit to our communist movement.

The Summer Project will continue to heat things up inside Boeing as we prepare to fight for workers power and strike Boeing in 1999!

A New Comrade

Raising The Red Flag Inside The NEA

ORLANDO, FL., July 21—"NEA [National Education Association] President Chase and AFT [American Federation of Teachers] President Feldman sent a letter to President Clinton supporting the bombing of Yugoslavia, ‘on behalf of three million teachers….’ I object to his sending a letter in my name because I don’t the support the bombing of Yugoslavia," declared a PLP member speaking from the NEA convention floor.

"I know too much about U.S. foreign policy to believe the ‘humanitarian’ cover story.…I know that the US-dominated IMF [International Monetary Fund] imposed harsh restrictions on loans to Yugoslavia in the 1980’s, which...forced tens of thousands of workers into the streets and set the stage...for the ethnic violence....Where is the ‘humanity’ in that?

"No, the only explanation...is that this is a war for control of oil and the oil pipelines needed to bring it to market...pipelines that go through Greece, through Macedonia, and through Kosovo....Of all the fascists and tyrants who run the countries in that part of the world, the US has attacked only two: Hussein in Iraq and Milosevic in Yugoslavia. And they are the only two who have opposed US plans to dominate the oil resources of that area."

‘Two Minutes Vs. Five Days…’

"I learned more from your two-minute speech than I learned in the first five days of the convention," said a delegate. The speech was given to the 1,000-member California delegation, and the 9,000-member general meeting.

Two PLP members were elected convention delegates. We distributed 500 leaflets and spoke at a conference on school violence. We put school violence in the context of the competition for jobs, the pressure of increased graduation requirements and the increase in racism. The real anti-working class violence is perpetrated by capitalism worldwide, slaughtering children in Iraq, bombing workers and starving 14 million kids to death every year! Talk about the violent plans the bosses have for these very students, we declared that, "They are building prisons for 6- and 7-year-old kids in California because they know that in ten years, when those prisons are finished, those kids will be teenagers and will be put in them." Some delegates told us they liked the speeches.

We joined the Peace and Justice Caucus and participated in their meetings, but concentrated on the California delegation. Many delegates applauded our speech supporting a march for school integration. "The NEA is very good at supporting politicians. We send them millions of dollars in the hopes they’ll be our ‘friend.’ We should be organizing real people to support our demands."

We distributed a leaflet attacking Chase’s "new unionism." We pointed out that his emphasis on peer review (teachers firing teachers), his desire for "non-confrontational" relations with the school board and his emphasis on raising money for the Democratic Party, helps deliver us into the hands of the ruling class as the US heads toward fascism.

At a PLP discussion, two teachers stayed for four hours to talk about schools, violence, teachers and PLP. The highlight was hearing one of them struggling with the other about the need for communism!

We distributed 150 Challenges both hand to hand and by placing them in strategic places. The response shows that teachers are open to our ideas. It’s up to us to introduce them to class politics and communism. Next year, the convention will be in Chicago. We’re already planning to do much better. There will be more communists then!

NAACP Convention: Beware Of ‘Anti-Racists’ Funded By The Rulers

NEW YORK CITY, July 15—Over 4,000 people participated in the 90th annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The rulers’ oldest and largest civil rights organization attracts thousands of people, organized, aware, and highly motivated, who want to fight racism. Many are active in the movement year-round. Here lies the potential for our Party to build a mass base for communist revolution.

Speaker after speaker condemned police brutality, wide-scale arrests for Driving While Black, racist rates of imprisonment, poverty and sexism. Even the upcoming fall TV season was attacked because not a single leading character, counting 26 shows on all four networks, is black, Latin, Asian, or Native American! At "Youth Night," one of the convention’s two public meetings, participants from PLP’s summer project distributed about 150 Challenges in half an hour.

In the future, this process may not be quite so easy. The capitalists who depend upon racism’s low wages to reap billions in profit are bankrolling the NAACP. United Airlines donated $100,000; DaimlerChrysler pledged $400,000; GM gave a check for $90,000; Shell Oil pledged $185,000; AT&T pledged $300,000. Coca Cola underwrote costs of hosting the convention. The CEO of Bell South will lead the NAACP’s corporate campaign to raise four million dollars this year! The bosses will not be pleased when we bring communist ideas into their mass organizations. They will create obstacles and launch attacks.

Aside from maintaining corporate lifestyles, the convention’s top priority is to register four million new voters by Super Tuesday (Presidential primaries). Detroit Congressman John Conyers said, "I am so pleased that we are bringing more and more of our black men [not women?] into the electoral process." At the very end of the convention, Board Chairperson Julian Bond said, "There is nothing more important than registering voters."

But we live under a dictatorship of the capitalist class. Elections reflect the struggles going on within that class. Workers and our allies have no stake in the outcome. Elections can never end racism, or liberate the working class from the profit system of wage slavery.

‘I Believe In Communism…’

NAACP founder W.E.B. Dubois (right) was eventually thrown out of the organization for being a communist. In his autobiography, he explained it this way:

"I believe in communism...a planned way of life in the production of wealth, and work designed for building a state whose object is the highest welfare of its people and not merely the profit of a part. I believe that all men should be employed according to their ability and that wealth and services should be distributed according to need. Once I thought that these ends could be attained under capitalism.…I now believe that private ownership of capital and free enterprise are leading the world to disaster....I know that the triumph of communism will be a slow and difficult task, involving mistakes of every sort.…I believe this possible, or otherwise we will continue to lie, steal, and kill as we are doing today."

Unam Strike Enters Crucial Stage: Turn It Into School For Communism

MEXICO CITY, July 20—The student strike at Mexico’s National Autonomous University (UNAM) has entered a critical period. Even though two weeks ago over 100,000 students marched against the government, the movement has stopped bringing other students and other forces into this struggle. The entire bosses’ state apparatus, from the Presidency on down, and their media, have furiously attacked the strikers, taking advantage of a decrease in student mobilizations because of vacation time.

The strikers are being threatened with use of the army and/or paramilitary groups against them. The liberals’ timid answer to this attack, starting with the PRD (Revolutionary Democratic Party), has emboldened the right-wing. The latter is organizing demonstrations to dismantle UNAM as a public institution, and keep only its elite and fascist programs, meaning expulsion of tens of thousands of students. They call for imposing their fascist concept of "a university only for the most capable." They really mean only for those who can afford exorbitant tuition, and are willing to toe the bosses’ line.

The fact that other schools, universities and unions have not joined the strike, not feeling directly affected, shows they do not understand that a totally fascist project of the bosses is behind this policy, disguised as "academic excellence." They plan to adjust higher education to their interests in competing for shrinking markets. The bosses want to force the student population to defend their capitalist competition and fascism, using the pretext that the university "is only for the most able."

Many strikers understand they are facing fascism. Strike leaders have been threatened with long jail sentences if they don’t end the strike. But many think the problem is caused by a few bad capitalists and their politicians like Barnes. Actually this fascism stems from the deep capitalist crisis of overproduction. The bosses need fascism and war to survive.

The UNAM strike has exposed the rulers’ true fascist intentions. We must spread this understanding to masses of students and to the whole working class. Fascism will not be stopped by elections, strikes or petitions. Only communist revolution that destroys capitalism will destroy fascism. To carry on this long-term fight, we must build the PLP today.

In this strike, it’s very good that thousands of students are learning to confront the fascists. But unless they understand the need to ally with the vast working class to fight for communism, these thousands of activists will draw the one-sided conclusion that the fascists are too strong and that the working class is too weak and passive. This could lead to political desperation and isolated acts against the bosses. After the massacre of thousands of students in Mexico City in 1968, many took this road.

It’s crucial that students be offered the alternative of a protracted working class struggle for communist revolution. They need to see that the working class has the potential to take power and run society in our own interests! Developing the PLP is crucial for this strike to become a victory for our class!

Veteran PLP Farmworker Exposes Cesar Chavez As Frontman For Bosses

LOS ANGELES—Why did the strategies of Cesar Chavez’s struggle fail the workers and farmers? Is it true that Cesar Chavez helped immigration deport undocumented workers?

A veteran PLP member and one of the original fighters and organizers in the farm workers’ struggle during the 60’s and 70’s was on hand to answer these and other questions last week. He spoke at an expanded workers’ club meeting here. This veteran explained how Chavez sold out the farm workers’ movement. "Since the beginning of the struggle," he said, "Cesar Chavez enlisted the support of the church and Democratic Party politicians. The church had many paid organizers who, throughout the strike, pushed pacifism, flooding the movement with religious rites, masses and vigils. Once Chavez waved a check from the Catholic Church and said, "There are more checks where this came from, but we will only get them if we don’t commit any acts of violence."

Chavez may have been pacifist with the bosses, but he was violent against the workers! "The union will only employ workers with residency or work permits," said the poster on the door of the union office. Chavez once established a "wet line" from California to Arizona, ultimately helping immigration detain undocumented workers under the pretext they would be used as scabs by the ranchers. This angered many strikers who had relatives working in non-companies but had been deported with Chavez’s help. The Kennedys, former mayor Tom Bradley and others supported Chavez. They were seeking votes and the United Farm Workers (UFW), with 150,000 members at that time, was a fountain of political support for whichever politician could win them.

While the sellouts following the "pacifist" line were attacking undocumented workers, the workers who were under this veteran comrade’s leadership kicked out scabs and police at the picket line with their fists. These attacks happened often enough for Chavez to expel our comrade from the strike leadership, saying "his violence made him an enemy." Later, he was expelled from the union altogether. Any worker associating with him was threatened with expulsion also.

Chavez’s politics were dependent on the bosses’ laws, courts, police and pacifism. He did not want the workers fighting because he knew if they rejected pacifism, they would eventually reject their pacifist leader as a sellout. This was the biggest danger for him, because he would lose the checks he received under the table, the hugs and applause of the politicians and priests. The bosses feared that workers would realize their own power.

With the UFW down to about 20,000 members, the rulers have elevated Chavez to the level of hero, writing books, renaming streets, and staging pompous ceremonies where they call him the great pacifist fighter. All this is his reward for selling out the farm workers’ movement, for deporting undocumented workers and for maintaining the workers’ miserable conditions. Today farm workers are dying of insecticide poisoning, laboring under inhumane conditions for low wages, under a contract that does nothing more than enrich the owners and a few bloodsuckers of the UFW.

Near the end of the discussion, the veteran comrade invited those present to join the Progressive Labor Party and to reject false leaders and sellouts. Uniting the workers under PLP is the first step to smashing the laws, the police and the traitors like Cesar Chavez, he said. The people at the meeting were inspired to continue with more meetings. They saw how the farm workers’ conditions were like the conditions of their own lives under the capitalist system. Finally, we realized how it is our obligation as communists to unmask the traitors of the working class. To sweep away all the sellouts, we are building a party of leaders, not followers. We need thinking workers to fight for working class leadership which will lead to communist revolution. Let’s learn from these farm workers to fight militantly in the fields and factories against the bosses, building a mass PLP to fight for the immediate and long-term interests of the workers!

Developing A Communist Base To Overthrow Capitalism

El Salvador—Smashing capitalism is the highest aspiration of the working class. That was the feeling of workers at a PLP cadre school here, demonstrated in discussing the communist politics of our Party. These workers also understood that the fight for a communist society, where workers’ power rules, is a protracted struggle, and that politics must be primary in this process. Many workers here feel betrayed by the nationalist-bourgeois FMLN, which for years led an armed struggle just to get a piece of the capitalist pie for their top leaders.

Many workers took off work to attend this cadre school. One said that during the 12 years of war in El Salvador, he never learned about the fight for communism from the so-called Communist Party of El Salvador (PCS). He participated in the armed struggle as a combatant in the FAL, the armed wing of the PCS (one of the groups that composed the FMLN). This worker said that although the FAL was skilled militarily, it knew little about communist politics.

In the cadre school we attempted to deal with these problems. The PCS, as an opportunist organization, not believing that workers were capable of leading and transforming the world, did nothing during the guerrilla war to prepare the workers and youth fighting it with any kind of revolutionary politics. The entire top leadership of the FMLN, including the PCS-FAL, basically aimed to work out a deal for themselves with the rulers and U.S. imperialism. Workers were simply cannon fodder in this scheme.

PLP believes the opposite: that politics is primary in everything, including armed struggle. Our job now is to rebuild an international communist movement to win workers and youth to smash capitalism and imperialism.

The workers responded to that idea, one saying: "That way it’s worth it to do it again, because I know what the goals of the true communists are, and it’s to destroy capitalism to build communism. I didn’t know what communism was, and now I understand that it’s what the working class needs. I was so far from the true struggle for the working class! Today I understand the FMLN and ARENA (the ruling party). They only fooled me and the people with their peace treaty. Today I want to continue preparing myself in these cadre schools and to fight for what the PLP wants."

With workers like this, PLP is on the right road in El Salvador and all over the world.

Garment Workers Say No More Pay Cuts! Organize And Fight Together With PLP

LOS ANGELES, July 19—"Starting next Monday, your piece-rate is being cut by three cents; let the others know," shouted the "RK" boss. This downtown factory produces clothes sold under the Jnco label. According to the RK bosses, Jnco is demanding better work, while cutting payments to RK by 25 cents per garment. The RK bosses are passing the cut on to the workers.

The current worldwide crisis of overproduction sharpens the competition to produce more commodities at lower prices. This fierce competition forces Jnco, Guess?, Koos, Calvin Klein, Polo and others to constantly seek cheaper labor, to slash wages. One worker declared, "The boss had sworn to God that he wouldn’t lower wages again." Another answered, "And you believed him? When have the bosses respected the deals they make with the workers?"

The bosses had reduced wages elsewhere in the factory. But one section balked and fought back. The next day at lunch, all the workers met together to discuss this common problem. Some proposed a work stoppage. "If we don’t work all day Monday, we can get the boss to leave the piece-rate the way it was." The workers agreed, and stopped work for a couple of hours.

Seeing this, the supervisor called one of the workers to the office. But the rest of the workers went with him. The boss tried to divide them saying that one worker in particular was "the problem." This worker understood the Challenge, and shot back that "the problem" was the entire group of workers. The rest of the workers supported him.

After arguing with the boss, half the 3� cut was restored, meaning the piece-rate would be only 1� cents lower. They let the boss know they were united, and that if he tried to lower the piece-rate again, production would stop again.

This struggle showed the other workers that a well-planned and organized struggle is the way to fight the bosses and their lousy working conditions. Organizing Struggle Committees inside, and seeking support of workers outside—in community organizations and churches—will help.

The bosses will continue their racist assaults. Capitalism is thirsty for profits, attacking workers all over the world. We need international unity among all workers to fight back. Not just for a few cents more (or less) but to end wage slavery and imperialist wars. Small struggles can lead to bigger ones, and win more workers to spread communist ideas. We need to organize under the leadership of one international Party, that fights to destroy all the oppressors and exploiters.

To Build A Mass PLP—Serve The People!

Dear Challenge,

Summer Project volunteers, students, teachers and parents held a forum on education. There has been much Party discussion about our line on education and standardized testing. We talked about how Party members in the schools should deal with the new standards. Though the forum started by discussing the decaying conditions and privatization of schools under capitalism, it quickly changed.

There was much disagreement. Some said the most effective way to recruit parents and students is to help the youth pass their tests while continuing to fight standardized testing. Others believe it’s most important for students to think critically but there’s not enough time to teach this and still teach for the test. A third view is that teachers should organize parents and students to demand that the administration provide tutoring.

In some places, students and teachers meet twice a week to tutor students. Both teachers and other Party members do it. Neighborhood people come into the Party office saying how great it is. They have students to bring to be tutored. They even want to put Challenges in their stores. Serving the working class in this manner is helping to enlarge our base.

Other groups do this for their own purposes. MECHA, an organization in LA, is tutoring 20-25 students, and spreading their nationalist philosophy. Through this they’re recruiting to their anti-working class ideas.

We got so into the discussion at the forum that we burnt the lasagna! Through these discussions and disagreements, the Party’s line has been strengthened. Base-building is the key to creating a mass party for communist revolution. Tutoring is one way to do this. We must continue to fight for the Party’s line as we wage ideological struggle with the working class.

Serve the People

Wish: His Daughter Also Becomes A Red

Dear Challenge,

I am a Midwest teacher who recently joined the Party. When I told my father I had joined, he was worried. Although he was sympathetic to some of the Party’s ideas, he was concerned about me "getting into trouble." The next day, he went to a good friend and former coworker and told him what I had decided. To my father’s surprise, his friend said he wished his daughter would join the communist party! Here’s to an unexpected blow against anti-communism.

Red Daughter

Observations On Anti-KKK Struggle

Dear Challenge,

I was one of the friends and comrades who participated in the anti-KKK action in Steubenville, Ohio on July 10. Here’s some observations:

(1) Overall, the discipline of the group was very good, especially, during the action.

(2) Despite the leaders having little experience with this type of action, the leadership was good. Decisions were made collectively. Many discussions took place to decide the next course of action.

(3) There was a strong anti-KKK presence. Over 400 people attended. This estimate includes PLP, the ARA, other anti-racists and anti-KKK people. Only a handful of Klan supporters showed up. We could not attack these racist scum because of police barriers and our limited numbers.

(4) Almost every person was given a leaflet and given or sold a Challenge. Most people eagerly wanted and read our literature.

(5) Our comrades essentially led throughout the action and were bold in many ways—for example, starting a picket line among anti-KKK supporters outside holding pens, leading chants throughout the action, going into the pen, going over the fence of the pen to attack the KKK and leading a march of about 100 people to the County Jail to demand the immediate release of our comrade who was arrested for attacking the Klan.

Here are some criticisms: we were unable to actually strike the Klan, primarily because we did not have enough people. We, including myself, must bring more of our base and comrades to future anti-fascist actions. Also, should we evaluate if or when or how many of our people should go into the "pens"? The cops were eager to have people enter that cage! They took advantage by photographing every person entering.

I’ve been in PL over 20 years. I have seen many people come and go, but I must say I’m very proud of our young comrades and the leadership they provided during this action. In recent years, my political work has declined for several reasons. This anti-fascist action will help me maintain my commitment to the Party.

A brief story from the July 10 action. While a comrade and I were distributing literature to a group of young people, a leader of the ARA walked by and said, "Take that stuff! It’s from the Progressive Labor Party; they are good, serious people!" This person, as it turns out, was in PLP and INCAR in the 1970’s in Chicago. He said he was in the 1975 Boston Summer Project and marched against the Nazis in Marquette Park.

We must remember and remind that PLP has a long, great and glorious anti-racist and anti-fascist history. And contrary to what the ruling class and its lackeys say, the working class has a long and good memory about positive working-class actions. The PLP has made many pro-communist impressions on tens of thousands of people over the years. We must continue to struggle, build and enlarge our base and recruit to the Party. Our goal has been and will continue to be: A communist world for the working class.

DEATH TO THE KKK! POWER TO THE WORKERS! FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!

Westchester Red

Why Exxon Opposes Legal Suit Against Pemex For Dumping Oil

Dear Challenge:

The contradictions among U.S. oil bosses are not only reflected in their different interests in the Balkans, Caspian Sea and Middle East, but also closer to home.

Some independent oil companies are suing Pemex (Mexico’s state oil company) and three Persian Gulf countries for dumping oil (selling below the market price) in the U.S. The Rockefeller-owned Exxon, has openly attacked this court action. Antonio Gershenson, a columnist for La Jornada (a Mexico City daily), explains why:

"At first sight it might look strange that Exxon…has publicly opposed this law suit. Even though Exxon and other U.S. oil companies have relations with Pemex, for Exxon the Persian Gulf is much more important than Mexico. Exxon will be very much affected if sanctions are imposed on the oil imported [dumped] from Saudi Arabia."

Gershenson explains that after World War II, the big U.S. oil companies, mainly Standard Oil of NJ (later renamed Esso and now Exxon) took control of Persian Gulf oil deposits, the largest in the world and the cheapest to extract. Even after the creation of OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), when the Persian Gulf nations shared control of the extraction of oil, Exxon and its allies still held onto the marketing, refining and selling of the oil—and to whom—reaping huge profits.

Gerhenson then hits the nail on the head on what’s behind the conflict between Exxon and the independent oil producers: "Other U.S. oil companies, known as the independents, in reality depended on the oil produced in the U.S., which is much costlier to extract. There lies their disadvantage. Some of these independents have gained access to oil in other regions where it is less costly, but never in the Persian Gulf"…Therefore, if the oil coming from the Persian Gulf is sanctioned, Exxon et al will be affected, and those who produce oil in the U.S. will benefit…"

It is clear that the dogfight between Exxon and the independent domestic oil bosses over the control of the U.S. foreign policy is spreading worldwide. Workers shouldn’t side with any of these oil moguls. We should instead build our own forces to take advantage of their dogfight and drown them all and their deadly oil profits.

Red Rig

No ‘Free Speech’ On Pacifica Radio

Dear Challenge,

Its subscribers call it "Free Speech" radio. Actually, mired in pacifism, it is more like "Victim Speech" radio. Nevertheless, the attack on KPFA radio in Berkeley, Ca. by its governing Board, Pacifica, is a significant step in the development of fascism.

Led by the Civil Rights Commission Chair, Marion Frances Berry, the Pacifica board has fired key personnel and suspended the remainder of the staff (both paid and voluntary) in a dispute over the direction of the Station. (For "direction" read politics.)

As far back as February 1998 a memo circulated at KPFK, a sister station in Los Angeles, forbid staff to promote demonstrations that attacked the war on, and embargo of, Iraq. And Pacifica was the only radio where you could hear (on "Democracy Now") about the significance of oil pipelines in this latest US attack on Yugoslavia.

Yet the Board has been deliberately provocative. It yanked pacifist activist Dennis Bernstein off the air right in the middle of his program. They could have, of course, quietly fired him later but instead they opted for this dramatic show of power.

Not that there was anything revolutionary about Bernstein or the other journalists. The current lead story in Challenge—about the successful attack on a Klan rally in Ohio—would have only made the news on KPFA from the point of view of the arrest of the anti-Klan demonstrator!

The attack on KPFA, however, is significant. First, it shows us that the Rockefeller wing of the ruling class is disciplining its propaganda machine. Secondly, it tells us that since not even the mildest criticism is being tolerated, Challenge is becoming more important than ever.

Berkeley reader

Racism And Health Care

Dear Challenge:

Recently I attended a conference on "Eliminating Socioeconomic Disparities in Health" sponsored by the National Institute of Health (NIH), the US government’s main research institution. This conference and other similar federal government initiatives are part of the Rockefeller capitalists’ liberal "anti-racism," just like Clinton’s trip to Africa, or his "Dialogues on Race." The liberal sections of the ruling class are building a mass base to support their most brutal policies, like war, police terror and abolition of welfare. Many good people are being taken in. We have to be in there, fighting to expose the aims of the ruling class, and building a mass base for PLP.

A white doctor gave a particularly sharp anti-racist presentation. He pointed out that racism, not "race," causes black babies to die at twice the rate of whites. He showed a slide of abducted Africans in the slave ship and another with a dying premature black baby in intensive care. He demonstrated that the bigger the black-white gap in infant mortality, the worse US whites are doing, compared to other countries where racism is less intense. This, he said, was related to the "divide-and-rule" system that keeps labor weak. "You don’t have to be black to be exploited, oppressed and stressed out in America…but it helps!"

The speaker who followed, a white Harvard professor, talked only about class effects on health. He never mentioned race or racism. He had slides showing the stark contrast between haves and have-nots, and how the bigger the class gap in income in a state, the worse the health of the people living there.

During the question session, a black woman attacked this second speaker. "I strongly disagree with everything you said! What makes you think that we don’t care about our children just because our communities can’t afford fancy schools?" Another man said, "I grew up in the black ghetto and I got a Ph.D. from Harvard when I was 21. No white man is going to stand up there and tell me what I can accomplish!"

Then the first speaker (the one with the slavery slide) spoke from the floor. "Even though I didn’t hear you say what the last two people heard, I believe your examples of poverty were, in fact, all-white communities. In America today we must be aggressively anti-racist if we don’t want to come across as part of the racist system ourselves."

During the breaks I got into several good conversations. The way the above discussions electrified the atmosphere made it much easier to talk real politics with other conference participants. I exchanged numbers with several people and three (one black, one Puerto Rican and one Laotian) agreed to attend a study group on racism being organized by a nurse at my hospital.

The Old Money Rockefeller rulers are constantly organizing such conferences to stifle the development of a lot of potential communists. I hate to think how many opportunities I have passed up in the last few years!

A Reader

Communist Light Will Lead Us Out Of Capitalist Blackout

Dear Challenge:

Recently I set out with a few comrades to Washington Heights (in New York City) to distribute leaflets about the Con Edison racist blackout. At first I was a little shy, fearing the response I might get from the workers. A very few leaflets were crumpled, a few people declined but once I got the hang of what to say-"Help fight Con Edison's racist blackouts!"-many people took them.

Two workers said, "Yes, we agree; it was a racist blackout," as did a couple of latin youths who talked about the blackout on their way down the train station stairs.

We passed out around 500 leaflets and sold 32 Challenges. Then, over lunch we discussed how things went and the response we got. On the train home, we sat quietly and read the new Challenge, which we hadn't read before because they were fresh from the printer. I felt suddenly empowered from the story about a fellow comrade who had been arrested, but was released with the support of the townspeople and his PLP comrades.

When I left the train, a 22-year-old security guard approached me and asked me for a newspaper. I gave it to him and asked him if he knew what communism is. He said yes, "But explain it to me anyway." I gave him a brief overview of the party's ideas. He then became very animated, saying how thrilled he was that I was a teenager interested in bettering the world. He said that he knows the world needs a change, and he was certain it couldn't be done without the help of all "races."

This man told me he wanted to be a cop, and better his community. He also seemed very religious and thought praying would make things better. "Well," I said to myself, "I knew there had to be a catch to this guy," but I knew he was headed in the right direction; he just needed a little help. I gave him a number where he could get more information, and he said he definitely wants to come to a meeting. I felt very proud.

I walked home quickly and called my comrade, telling him of my small victory. My pride increased upon hearing his excitement over my victory.

I'm young, but I know that without communist revolution, we better just light candles and wait for the next blackout. Viva Communismo!

Red teen tig

Bosses Ready To Kill To The Last Worker For Oil

Clinton’s "humanitarian" Big Lie about Kosovo was a vile gimmick to disguise the war’s true motive. The U.S-led NATO force and Milosevic were fighting over profits from Caspian oil. Both sides slaughtered workers by the thousands and made hundreds of thousands homeless and jobless. Many thousands more will die from diseases due to pollution caused by the bombing.

The air war over Kosovo shows how much violence the rulers will use to secure even a secondary oil source. But this horror is mild compared to the mayhem the bosses are preparing in the future as they gear up to fight for the grand prize in the Middle East. A system that constantly forces oil wars on the world’s workers can only be stopped if it is destroyed once and for all. Only communist revolution can do this and our Party has this as its goal, however long it takes.

The Race For Caspian Oil Loot

The biggest U.S. oil firms are Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, and Texaco. These descendants of the Rockefeller Standard Oil empire depend largely on the cheaper Middle Eastern oil, which makes up two-thirds of the world’s trillion barrels of known reserves. Control of this oil gives U.S. rulers tremendous power against their capitalist rivals, so when the Soviet Union disintegrated in the early 1990s, Rockfeller competitors began a stampede for alternate oil sources near and beneath the Caspian Sea. Leading the charge were British Petroleum (BP), Amoco and Russia’s giant Lukoil.

The Caspian Sea is landlocked, and therefore oil companies and governments have woven a tangled web of competing pipelines to bring the oil to market (see box). While certainly concerned about the Caspian oil, the Rockefeller companies see it as a secondary source. They still favor reliance on Middle Eastern oil (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc.) and a foreign policy that protects their interests at gunpoint—the U.S. military.

BP Amoco, the Russians and Milosevic had other ideas. In early 1997, BP and the Texas Halliburton Company had proposed a pipeline to go from Burgas in Bulgaria through Skopje in Macedonia (15 miles from Kosovo) to Vlore, a port in Albania. It was to carry 750,000 barrels of BP Amoco’s crude to Western Europe.

Milosevic Plans To Elbow In On the Big Boys . . .

Milosevic decided to grab a piece of the action for himself. In September 1997, Serbia’s state-run oil company began talks with Macedonian oil bosses about a pipeline running north from Skopje through Kosovo to Belgrade and the Yugoslav refinery at Pancevo (Athens News Agency, 9/7/97). The plan called for shipping oil along the Rhine-Main-Danube waterway to Hungary, Austria, Germany and beyond. Milosevic clearly intended to become an oil exporter. The 200,000 barrels a day his line would siphon off could supply Serbia’s needs five times over.

But his oily ambitions went even further. According to a June 1999 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Milosevic was also scheming to get oil directly from Russia’s Druzhba pipeline to central Europe. He wanted to rearrange the proposed South-East European line so Caspian oil would go from Romania through Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia to Italy.

Milosevic’s challenge to the gangsters of Big Oil momentarily united all of them against him. BP Amoco, Shell, France’s Total and Elf, Italy’s ENI and Agip, as well as their Rockefeller rivals (Exxon and Mobil) decided that he had to be punished. The companies with Balkan pipeline plans didn’t want him horning in on their profits. Although Exxon-Mobil may not need Balkan pipelines, they still require access to the Balkans as a stepping stone to and from their Middle Eastern oil treasure.

…And They Punish Him For Trying To Become An Oil Baron

For all concerned, Milosevic was getting too big for his britches. On March 24, Clinton (who generally follows the Rockefeller line) led NATO into a bombing campaign. As the EIA report shows, the NATO raids directly targetted Milosevic’s ability to refine and transport oil. Air strikes destroyed most of Serbia’s oil refineries and many oil storage sites, as well as the infrastructure of ports and bridges along the Danube River.

Milosevic was supposed to cave in after three days. He didn’t. As the war dragged on, sharp divisions developed within NATO camp and among U.S. rulers. Greece refused to go along with the bombing from the start—Greek oil companies stand to cash in on Serbian pipeline deals. The Germans, who depend on Serbia’s pal Russia for energy, wanted the war over fast. Britain’s Prime Minister Blair, fronting for BP Amoco, wanted troops sent in to secure the pipelines. U.S. Senators in BP Amoco’s pocket (McCain and Lugar) echoed Blair. On the other hand, Rockefeller mouthpiece Jesse Jackson flew to Belgrade and called for a negotiated settlement allowing the U.S. to get out without sending ground troops.

Oil Wars Won’t End Until Communist Revolution Smashes The Profit System

The current "peace" in Kosovo is a staring match between rival imperialist armies who eye each other warily amid mass graves and ruined homes. The death count of Yugoslav workers from the pollutants unleashed by the bombing has only begun. Millions will get cancer and other diseases due to the release of toxic chemicals.

But Kosovo was only a warm-up for sharper conflict. An oil glut is fueling competition for the Middle East’s cheap sources. The owners of Exxon & Co. are steadily preparing a showdown with Iraq that promises to be bloodier than Desert Storm and Kosovo together. This is the future imperialism has in store for us. We choose a future of fighting for communism—a permanent end for these mass murderers.

The Pipelines

IRAN—The shortest path from the Caspian wells to the open sea runs south through Iran to the Persian Gulf. But the U.S government opposes an Iranian route because it would strengthen Islamic fundamentalism and boost the profits of Elf and Total, French firms that dominate Iran’s oil trade. Mobil favors an Iranian route but only if the Islamic regime can be ousted—as the U.S. media hopes. No pipeline construction has begun.

CHINA—Beijing’s call for a 4,000-mile link to the Caspian falls short of practicality. But it underscores China’s growing rivalry with the U.S. for access to the world’s oil.

TURKEY—The long route that Clinton supports, one from Baku in Azerbaijan to Ceyhan on Turkey’s Mediterranean shore, would avoid Iran and Russia, but BP Amoco, the majority owner of the Azeri oil consortium, has rejected this route as too costly.

RUSSIA and GEORGIA—Most of the export pipelines operating or under construction from Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan bordering Russia terminate at the Black Sea. Some, like the Russian line through warring Chechnya, end at Novorossiisk in Russia, others at Supsa in Georgia. From these ports tankers must carry Caspian oil through Turkey’s Bosporous strait, which military action could close at any time. "Export routes which bypass the Bosporus will eventually have to carry most of the Caspian oil exports" (EIA report, December 1998).

BALKANS—With the Turkish route economically undoable (but still pushed by Clinton), oil barons cast their gaze on the Balkans. In the mid-1990s, discussions began on a line between Burgas in Bulgaria to Alexandroupolis in Greece. This project will be constructed by the U.S.’s Bechtel and owned by Hellenic Petroleum, which last year "pooled interests" with Russia’s giant Lukoil. These, plus other strong competitors of Exxon-Mobil, (BP Amoco, Conoco, Enron, Texaco, Unocal and Pennzoil) support the Burgas-Alexandroupolis route (Athens News Agency, 1/28/99).

Because the ground invasion BP Amoco demanded never happened, Russian troops and pro-Russian elements in Serbia threaten BP Amoco’s route from Bulgaria to Albania.

Serbia’s pipeline dreams may have gone up in smoke, but Russian rulers’ interest still lie in developing oil sources and outlets with allies who oppose the U.S.