Challenge, Sept. 22, 1999

A mass strike at UNAM, Mexico’s largest university, has entered its fourth month. Tens of thousands of students, faculty and parents have heroically stood up to fascist attacks by the police. Hundreds of thousands have marched in demonstrations. Many workers, especially in Mexico City, have shown militant solidarity with the strikers.

PLP members and friends have actively participated in this strike, putting forth our general line that only communist revolution can create a society with an educational system serving the workers’ class interests. We have called for a worker-student alliance against the Mexican bosses’ fascist attacks and urged workers and students to join our Party. Some have done so. During the sharpest moments of the mass struggle, we have found students, parents and professors open to the general idea that only communist revolution can defeat fascism.

However, while participating in the struggle and exposing the bosses and their politicians (from President Zedillo to the liberal Mayor of Mexico City, Cardenas), we’ve been weak in exposing the strike’s reformist, pro-capitalist leadership. And we haven’t adequately warned about the illusions built by uncritical support of the strike’s main demands. During this period of growing crisis and poverty in Mexico, these illusions are especially dangerous.

The main demands of the strikers are: (1) stop the rulers’ proposed $240/year tuition plan, which along with charging for everything (like for the use of computers, library, etc) .would actually privatize UNAM and exclude many working class students from UNAM; (2) Cops and government spies out of UNAM; 3) No reprisals against student strikers and let them make up lost classes; 4) a democratic university congress uniting students, faculty and administrators to run the university; 5) end UNAM deals with Ceneval, which test and evaluate students and will only let the "best" students into UNAM.

Tuition hikes, firings of faculty, cops in the schools and privatization are all attacks on working class students. We fully support the students’ aspiration for a decent education. PLP members have fought side by side with these students and their parents in the struggle to occupy and defend the schools against the Mexican government’s goons. But we wouldn’t be doing our political job as communists if we didn’t tell the truth to the masses: each of the strike’s demands hides a deadly illusion. Even if tuition hikes are rolled back, the fired professors are rehired, faculty committees are allowed to choose the curriculum and the university is not privatized, UNAM will remain a capitalist institution. The idea that capitalist education can serve workers and working class students is a pipe dream.

State-run or private, capitalist education teaches bad ideas. It teaches that bosses should rule society. A movement that makes its bottom line the fight for "good" universities under the profit system inevitably stumbles into the camp of one capitalist faction or another, even if unintentionally. For example, the current UNAM strike leadership supports the Zapatista rebels in Chiapas. The Zapatistas are fake revolutionaries. They believe in armed struggle, but their militant appearance covers up a completely pro-boss line. They want "fair elections" and the nationalization of Mexico’s important energy and oil and gas industries. The Zapatista/UNAM strike leadership is opposed to the U.S.-dominated International Monetary Fund (which has been profiting from Mexico’s huge debt), but never explains the cause of or solution for that "debt."

Mexican Workers And Students Have Everything To Lose By Falling Into Zapatista-Nationalist Trap

Merely opposing U.S. imperialism doesn’t make one a revolutionary. Mexico has plenty of bosses who hate the IMF and want to compete with U.S. banks and industries. They want a bigger share of Mexican loot. Japanese and European moneybags have been diving into Mexico to win control of oil as well as market share for their products. The Europeans, in particular, have no problem with the idea of state-run industry or education. They’re used to it at home. In fact, the Mexican government’s 34% tax on corporate profits is lower than the going rate in Europe. The Germans, French and other U.S. competitors may accept such a tax in Mexico as a price for market share and political-social stability.

Mexican workers and working class students will win nothing if the UNAM and Chiapas struggles lead mainly to elections and victory for nationalization of capitalist institutions. The Mexican working class has nothing to gain from choosing which gang of capitalists will super-exploit them. Our Party has been much too slow to see the dirty hand of the anti-U.S. "opposition" bosses in the UNAM strike. But that hand is definitely present, and we must expose it.

Even Rockefeller Is Flirting With Mexican Anti-Privatization State Capitalists

At this point, the main U.S. advocate of Mexican privatization is the Cato Institute. Cato is a think-tank run by a coalition of U.S. domestic oil barons and other Rockefeller rivals. Former Citicorp CEO Walter Wriston and former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz (who has deep ties to the Bechtel Corp., a Citibank pal) joined Cato last spring. Cato wants to dump the IMF and open Mexico to more direct foreign investment, most of which comes from Texas (see Business Week, Sept. 20).

Even groups within the main, Rockefeller wing of U.S. rulers have recognized that Mexican privatization may kill the goose that lays golden eggs for U.S. imperialism. Forces tied to West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller have tried to figure out a way to hook up with Mexico’s "reformers." In January 1998, AFL-CIO president Sweeney visited Mexico hoping to cut a deal with unions not traditionally linked with the PRI (Mexico’s ruling party). Sweeney spoke at UNAM and tried to begin an alliance between anti-PRI forces and U.S. Gephardt-style liberals. It didn’t work. But the cold shoulder he got at the time doesn’t help Mexican workers. It simply means that Mexico’s "independent" union federations (UNT, FAT) and UNAM leaders favor European bosses over U.S. bosses.

All this wheeling and dealing among Mexican and international bosses is a sign of deepening worldwide capitalist crisis. Many militant, class-conscious parents and working class students see the fight to keep UNAM open as part of the struggle against massive unemployment in Mexico. PLP supports their desire to live in a world free of unemployment, poverty and exploitation by any group of bosses. But poverty and unemployment will increase in Mexico whether or not UNAM is privatized and whether or not it charges tuition.

Give Zapatista Fake Leftists A Piece Of The Action? No! Fight For Communism!

Keeping UNAM open will not end the crisis of world capitalism. The fight among imperialists will continue to sharpen and lead to war. A few professors spouting quotes from Marx in UNAM classes won’t stop that process. Neither will giving the Zapatista leaders a cut of the Chiapas oil plunder reverse the laws of class struggle. On the contrary, in El Salvador, the FMLN also fought for reforms under capitalism, and ended up in the fascist government. Today, former FMLN commanders are helping FMLN government ministers form death squads to murder workers fighting against the capitalist crisis.

The major positive things that can come from the UNAM strike are the growth of the Progressive Labor Party and increased mass understanding of the need to fight for communist revolution. These developments can come about only if our Party vigorously and uncompromisingly exposes all illusion about reform and non-existent "lesser-evil" bosses.

We must fight as a class to destroy all capitalists. Our history is stained with the blood of workers who have struggled heroically, only to be trapped into allying with one boss or another. Let the main lesson of the UNAM strike be to fight for nothing less than communism! We have confidence that workers and students will learn to see the truth of this idea.

Open-Admissions Unam: A Rulers’ Gimmick To Stifle Class Struggle

UNAM only recently became open to working class students. The decision was a scheme by the Mexican ruling class to divert militant mass struggle from the social rebellions of the 1960’s. In 1968, the Mexican army shot and killed hundreds of striking UNAM students. The bosses decided afterwards to expand the university and admit poorer students. Their goal: "to win back students and intellectuals alienated by the 1968 massacre" (Wall Street Journal, 8/19). The capitalists viewed "open admissions" as a way to co-opt militant students away from revolutionary, anti-imperialist movements. Now there’s a fight over UNAM between two groups of capitalists. Some Mexican bosses (the "privatizers"), allied with one faction of U.S. rulers, want to squelch the university militants who view the World Bank and the IMF as the main enemy. But European "social democrats" and their pals among the Mexican rulers are happy to support a movement that calls for "humane" capitalism and points an accusing finger at the U.S. However, the enemy of my enemy isn’t necessarily my friend. There’s no such thing as humane capitalism. Only a revolutionary working class, led by a communist PLP, can win a decent society. There are no short cuts.

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 15 — In the last two weeks the Indonesian army and its death squads have murdered thousands of people in East Timor. While the US press cries crocodile tears, it was the US bosses who have armed and backed the Indonesian fascist bosses since 1965 when they helped Suharto kill over one million communists and other workers and intellectuals. On top of this, the death-squad killers in East Timor are led by Indonesian Special Forces trained by the Green Berets (US Special Forces).

Obviously, U.S. imperialism worries not one iota about the murder of thousands, but rather that Indonesia is crucial for the U.S. bosses’ ability to control the world: "Roughly 40% of the world’s trade passes through the sea lanes around Indonesia, the world’s fourth largest nation." (Thomas Freedman, NY Times 9/15/99) Not only does Indonesia produce oil, but even more important, a good deal of the world’s oil is transported through its shipping lanes. China, the US and other imperialists all want to control this important area.

Today, PLP members joined a demonstration at the Indonesian consulate here where we drew a positive response for Challenge (50 demonstrators bought the paper) and for our analysis that the Indonesian and US bosses have murdered millions for oil and control of trade around Indonesia. We declared that all the imperialists are mortal enemies of the people of East Timor and of the whole world. Some other demonstrators held a sign reading, "No more blood for oil-in Iraq, Kosovo, and East Timor."

While some demonstrators supported sending UN troops to stop the massacre, others agreed that no boss or imperialist army could be relied on to stop genocide. Many expressed support for our upcoming demonstration against the brutal police murder of Mario Paz as part of the same fight against worldwide racist terror. Only by building a new communist international to crush all imperialist butchers can the working class be free from growing fascist terror.

CHICAGO, Aug. 12 — "This is great. The union needs to deal with more issues like this. Thanks for bringing it to me. Let me know when you’ve got something else like this," exclaimed one worker. He had just signed the resolution to the APWU (American Postal Workers Union) meeting denouncing the racist murder of Filipino postal worker Joseph Ileto by Nazi Buford Furrow. In all, the resolution was signed by 11 workers and passed unanimously at the membership meeting.

Copies are to be sent to the Ileto family and his union local, as well as posted on all union bulletin boards. The resolution commits the local to oppose any racist or fascist groups should they appear in the Chicago area.

On August 27, a similar resolution was passed by United Steel Workers (USW) Local 12775, a state-wide Local of utility workers in Plymouth, Indiana. The APWU meeting comprised almost all black workers. The USW meeting was all white.

Raising these things at a union meeting—whether it’s war, racist attacks or other political issues—creates the opportunity to bring communist ideas into the mass movement. Many more people could be involved in these campaigns. Winning more workers to read Challenge, and to understand these ideas, is the main way workers can be won to participate with PLP and organize others. In this way we can lead masses of workers against the bosses and into a mass PLP.

The main reason we work in the unions is to win workers to the Party. Fighting racism and fascism in the unions leads to political discussions with many more workers about the nature of the system, and the need for a mass party to lead the working class to power.

Without a clear plan to build the Party, resolutions like these could produce the opposite effect—building illusions that passing union resolutions can stop racism and fascism. We must point out that the postal bosses, with the help of the union leaders, have done more to attack black, Latin, and Asian postal workers than Furrow ever dreamed of. They are the big fascists. Although there were only about 30 workers at the postal meeting, the local union has 4,000 members. The potential to make communist ideas mass ideas is great. We have to be in it to win it!

HARVEY, IL — A struggle between communist class politics and nationalist pro-capitalist politics erupted at the July 20 march of over 100 workers protesting the racist execution-style murder of Devon Nelson by Harvey cops. The march led to a confrontation between PLP forces and Farrakhan’s racist Nation of Islam (NOI). As a result several workers have come closer to PLP.

Throughout the day we led chants, set up picket lines, held banners and signs, gave speeches, and helped Devon’s family lead the march attacking the government and cops.

To counter our efforts, the NOI made speeches calling for the "black man" to respond to racism, blaming white people for a murder carried out by a racist cop (in this case a black cop), and proposed that "women and children" not march but ride back to the City Hall. A young worker grabbed our bullhorn and said, "We shouldn’t divide black and white. You guys [the NOI] are doing exactly what the bosses are doing." A young woman spoke up: "If the NOI is saying white people can’t come on this march, then today I’m white because I don’t want to march with them."

The "Fruit" of Islam, NOI’s security team, shut down our bullhorn by snatching the microphone and throwing it on the roof of a building. Then they threatened one of our young members who was holding the bullhorn. While we suffered a small tactical setback, we gained politically. Many to whom we had been talking for the past three weeks saw the political differences between the organizations and why black nationalism strengthens racism and plays into the bosses "divide-and-rule" strategy.

Since then we have responded with more visits to Harvey, and workers have shown more interest in PLP. One young woman said, "I know not everyone reads your stuff but I really want to read it and participate in your group." One of Devon’s aunts asked about our next meeting while another aunt expressed sincere gratitude for our efforts.

The day before the march we went with three residents of the apartment complex to eviction court. The lawyer for the slumlords and the judge conspired to evict dozens of black women from their homes. After our two friends had their "day in court," the judge said, "What is all this talking I hear?" A Party leader responded, "I guess it must be me. This is disgusting the way you treat people, throwing them out." The judge called for the bailiff to throw her out. Then another comrade spoke up, and he too was kicked out. Our two comrades were handcuffed and held for 20 minutes, then released.

Our persistence and developing friendships have helped us, but we did not do enough. When it was apparent that the march was not being carefully planned and led, we did nothing. We did not set up a collective to direct the political struggle, so everything we did was spontaneous. We were not adequately prepared politically or tactically for the NOI attack.

We cannot bring Devon back, but we can learn from his death and from the battles that have arisen in the protest against police murder. We need to carry the message that we need communism into groups such as the Mothers Against Injustice.

If anything would demonstrate the nature of U.S. labor honchos as—in Karl Marx’s description—"lieutenants of the capitalist class," it is the record of Lane Kirkland, president of the AFL-CIO from 1979 to 1995 (and Secretary of the Treasury before that). Kirkland, who died last month, was lauded by NY Post columnist Ben Wattenberg (9/6), as "a five-star general in the Cold War." During the Cold War, says Wattenberg, "the AFL-CIO was the most stalwart institutional bastion of anti-communism in America."

This translates to mean that Kirkland served as a direct arm of the ruling class, especially the dominant Rockefeller forces, in oppressing the working class worldwide. The top leadership of the AFL-CIA helped create and maintain the low-wage regions of Latin-America, Africa and Asia. Its now hypocritical tears and cries against them are used as clubs by U.S. corporations to lower wages of U.S. workers and lay them off. In the name of anti-communism, Kirkland (and George Meany before him) were part of a massive, multi-million-dollar, pro-fascist, CIA-directed offensive against the world’s workers. Kirkland himself was a member of two of the most prestigious ruling class bodies, run by the Rockefellers and which shape U.S. foreign policy to benefit the ruling class: the Council on Foreign Relations and the Atlantic Council.

This corporate-labor alliance worked up a full head of steam during World War II, directed by billionaire Nelson Rockefeller when he was head of the U.S. State Department’s Office of Inter-American Affairs. It became a full-fledged government operation in post-war Europe, a CIA-funded struggle for control of that region’s trade unions.

President John F. Kennedy created a Labor Advisory Committee, including the AFL-CIO’s top leaders and representatives from the State Department and the CIA. They organized labor’s role in the CIA-directed "destabilization" of anti-U.S. governments in Chile, Guyana and the Dominican Republic. It was felt that Kirkland’s agents could more easily penetrate foreign areas in which it was impossible for U.S. rulers to enter openly. Kirkland’s AFL-CIO became a useful front with which to fight local opposition to, say, the austerity imposed by the U.S. banker-controlled International Monetary Fund.

The AFL-CIO’s international department set up four regional "institutes," one each for Latin-America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Kirkland headed all four outfits. These institutes would create "free" trade unions backed by CIA funds to mobilize the election of U.S.-backed candidates or the overthrow of those who opposed Washington—in France and Italy in the late 1940’s, Brazil (1964), Chile (1973), El Salvador (1985-1990), Panama (1984), Nicaragua (1980’s), Grenada (1983), the Philippines (1991). From 1984 to 1990, the Reagan-Bush Administrations handed over $54.6 million directly to these four AFL-CIO institutes to promote approval of U.S. foreign policies—at the very same time that Kirkland & Co. were calling these Administrations "devils" to be defeated at all costs.

The trustees of Kirkland’s institute for Latin-America (the AIFLD) read like a Who’s Who of corporate America: Rockefeller, W. R. Grace, Kennecott and Anaconda Copper, ITT, Exxon, Shell, and IBM, among nearly 100 corporations. All of them donated money to the AIFLD. And all of them pay Latin-American workers slave wages. AIFLD chief and CIA agent William Doherty told Congress that, "Our [the AFL-CIO’s] collaboration [with business] takes the form of trying to make the investment climate more attractive."

Peter Grace, head of the W. R. Grace conglomerate and of the AIFLD’s board of trustees, said that this labor institute "teaches workers to increase their company’s business." How? When 3,000 Peruvian workers struck a Grace operation, the company called in the police, who killed three workers and wounded 16 others.

All of these operations, which continue to this day, occur without the knowledge of the rank-and-file who these traitors supposedly represent, and use their dues money to boot! No wonder the ruling class regards animals like Kirkland as a Five-Star General on their side. It’s up to us workers to bury these traitors and their bosses with a revolution for workers’ power.

Russian military forces have been bombing Islamic nationalist rebels in Dagestan, killing many civilians. In revenge, the rebels blew up a Moscow apartment building, murdering its sleeping tenants. The Kremlin’s bombing raids continued; up went another apartment house.

Two things explain the ferocity of the bloodshed: (1) Would-be local energy bosses from Dagestan, a major export route for Caspian oil, are fighting to control pipelines through their territory; and (2) a new Russian leadership, distinct from the lameduck pro-Western Yeltsin regime, is reasserting military might and hoping to revive Russian great-power status.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin now leads a faction bent on reversing Yeltsin’s failure to maintain Russia as a major imperialist. The Yeltsin camp’s original strength came largely from the loot it had stolen from the International Monetary Fund and other Western lenders. The Yeltsin gang lacked mass support among workers, who were getting poorer as quickly as Boris and his cronies were getting richer. The Yeltsinites couldn’t even muster the military effort needed to smash a 1994-97 rebellion by two-bit gangsters in oil-rich Russian republic Chechnya. The Russian army killed tens of thousands of Chechen workers in this war, but the Chechen nationalists still managed to win a cut of the Caspian pipeline bonanza.

New Prime Minister Putin represents the political hacks who, falsely using the name "communist," ruled the Soviet Union for three decades before its breakup. As Stratfor, an intelligence bureau for U.S. oil firms, put it: "Former KGB spymaster Putin does not resemble his politically short-lived predecessors. [He] is backed by a part of the Russian military, intelligence and industrial elite that has seen no great benefit come to the motherland as a result of a decade of economic reform [i.e., borrowing money from Western imperialists to promote a market economy—Ed.]. [Putin’s backers] want to see Russia with a strong political leadership that will bring order to domestic policy and reassert Russia’s prominence in foreign policy." (8/20/99)

Now a new nationalist rebellion for oil profit has broken out in the Russian republic of Dagestan. The Putin government is determined not to see a repeat of the Chechnya disaster. Putin’s Dagestan policy resembles the U.S. imperialists’ Native American policy or the Nazis’ Jewish policy: whipping up the masses into a murderous frenzy in the cause of imperialist expansion. "Putin and Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev have taken control of operations...and handed it to the Russian Army...Putin made clear that there would be no question of driving the guerrillas out of Dagestan. He warned that Russia would not hesitate to destroy them inside Chechnya as well. Putin intends to set a new precedent in the North Caucasus and create a new image for the Russian military." (Stratfor, 8/20/99)

This shift in Russian leadership emerged late last spring at the end of the Clinton/NATO bombing in Kosovo. Yeltsin’s crew, in return for an IMF loan, had sold out its Yugoslav ally Milosovic by promising NATO it would not interfere on Milosevic’s behalf. The U.S. imperialists took this as a signal that they could treat Russian bosses with contempt. But defiant Russian generals over-ruled Yeltsin, sending troops to seize the airport in Kosovo’s capital Pristina. Shortly afterwards, the reinvigorated Russian imperialists forced Yeltsin to appoint Putin as Prime Minister.

U.S. bosses have the most to lose if a new Russian empire emerges. "Strategically, U.S. foreign policy ought to proceed on the premise that while Russia may be down, it is not out. Sooner or later, Russia will again be a great power." (Former Senator Sam Nunn, Boston Globe, 9/13/99)

We should recognize, prepare for, and organize against the sharpening conflict among imperialists.

(Next: Faction-fighting among Russian bosses and the possibility of a Russia-China axis against U.S. imperialism.)

SAN SALVADOR — "We cannot allow these capitalists to keep killing us little by little in our jobs. Only the unity of the working class can resolve these problems," declared a worker here, expressing the feelings of many.

For years the union movement was inactive. The peace accords between the FMLN and the government created the illusion that the same leaders who gave orders during the armed struggle would improve the quality of life and make everything work better. But the inter-imperialist rivalry has led to a lot of foreign investment here, and to low-wage, non-union factories. A series of strikes have occurred, many led by MOLI (the Integrated Movement of Workers’ Organizations), a new group created to resist the bosses’ attacks on workers. President Francisco Flores and the ex-commanders of the FMLN are attacking the strikers in order to make El Salvador safe for this foreign investment.

In July, ANDES (the teachers’ union), organized a strike. There was a certain amount of doubt about how much the teachers would support it. But the colleges and the biggest schools in the country were paralyzed by the walkout.

During the first one-day strike, of 46 teachers in one school, only six scabbed. The strikers were very excited. Solidarity came from other workers’ organizations. During the second strike, a comrade organized a meeting of all the teachers in the school. She called for workers to unite as one class to confront capitalism. This led to greater solidarity. Only one teacher gave a class, and only to three students.

Flores’ orders barred any wage increases or new jobs. This infuriated the workers. By August 16, thousands of public workers began holding work stoppages. On August 17, the public health system was paralyzed, with 11,300 workers walking out. Many patients supported it, saying, "what you’re doing is right! It’s the only way they’ll listen!"

PLP’s goal in these strikes is to build a mass party to destroy the capitalists with communist revolution. We have never doubted the ability of the masses to fight. While we are forced to fight for economic reforms, we cannot be content with illusions and crumbs. We cannot feel secure with a growing mass movement. We must make specific plans to build the Party, and expose the role of all the imperialists and local capitalists, on all sides of the struggle. We must steer the workers clear of all traps, and into a mass PLP.

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 12 — Loss of personal freedoms (a hallmark of fascism) is being brought into Abraham Lincoln HS under the guise of fighting crime. The principal filed a police report and had the union building representative suspended. This happened after the principal had threatened teachers with insubordination for circulating a petition protesting the lunch period schedule.

The union rep felt (with some justification) that the principal was violating the contract. The rep sent a message to some faculty members saying he was so angry he couldn’t talk to the principal and felt "like tearing him another asshole" (a term used by some coaches to motivate their team), adding "metaphorically, of course." This message received wider distribution than he intended.

When the union President came to speak to us, he said the principal doesn’t have a leg to stand on and that the union looked forward to fighting this one. But then he added that of course, in today’s "climate," you could see how these things could be taken more seriously than before.

He’s talking about the climate of violence, but the facts belie the "climate." In "Culture of Fear," Barry Glasner writes that "between 1990 and 1998, when the nation’s murder rate declined by 20%, the number of murder stories on network newscasts increased by 600% (not counting stories about OJ Simpson)." Asked why crime looms so large in their lives, 76% said it’s because of news reports rather than personal experience. (SF Chronicle 8/1)

In other words the climate of fear that "justifies" a police report being filed on a union activist is being promoted by a ruling class with an interest in attacking unionists, activists, and in general making people fear each other. It also justifies huge investments in prisons and cop violence.

Teachers at the school must realize this is not a question of personalities; it’s part of a broader plan to get teachers to toe the line on issues like increased graduation requirements, state takeover of schools, teaching state-mandated standards, metal detectors in schools and other police harassment of students.

As fascism takes hold, teachers’ freedoms are being curtailed and it becomes clearer that we must take sides, either with students and the working class or with prison guards and ruling class plans to use students as cannon fodder in the next war.

"I did what I did not to make money but to help prevent the defeat of a new system which had, at great cost, given ordinary people food and fares which they could afford, a good education and a health service."

That was the reason offered by Melita Norwood, an 87-year-old great-grandmother from suburban London, as to why, as a young woman, she used her secretarial job at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association to give nuclear weapons information to the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Millions of workers throughout the world were inspired by the goals of communism and by the Soviet defeat of Hitler’s Nazi hordes. Besides sympathizing with the social gains promised by the Soviet workers state, Comrade Norwood "thought that in the post-war era, the USSR represented the only counterbalance to capitalism and that the West should not be allowed an advantage as great as sole possession of nuclear bombs." (New York Times, 9/13)

"I thought they should somehow be adequately defended because everyone was against them, against this experiment, and they had been through such hardship from the Germans," she told the BBC. "In the war the Russians were on our side, and it was unfair to them that they shouldn’t be allowed to develop their weaponry."

On a visit to Moscow in 1979 she was given an honor for her work—the Order of the Red Banner—which she accepted, and an offer for a financial reward, which she turned down.

Of course, while Melita Norwood was acting on her belief in the world’s first workers’ state, the U.S. and Britain were directing a worldwide campaign to militarily encircle and destroy the Soviet Union. They sent in spies and terrorists to "destabilize" Soviet society. This was after the invasion of the USSR from 1918 to 1925 by the armies of 17 capitalist countries to, as Churchill said, "strangle the baby in the cradle." That failed, as did the U.S.-British-French-supported Hitler invasion in 1941.

Obviously, the attempt to establish a worker-run society inspired Melita Norwood to "do her part" for Soviet workers. Asked whether she had ever been frightened of being caught, she said, "I suppose so, but I can’t remember pondering it."

As questions were shouted to her asking whether she regretted her actions, she replied, "No, no, no."

She told the Times of London that, "In the same circumstances, I would do the same thing again."

On October 11 in Los Angeles, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney will gavel to order the annual convention of top labor officials. He will hold the gavel in the same hand he used to ring the opening bell on the New York stock exchange last week. This is the same stock market that racks up record gains whenever major corporations, like Boeing, announce another round of thousands of layoffs.

On Wall Street, Sweeney stood arm in arm with Richard Grasso, president of the stock market. According to the New York Times, Sweeney’s ringing of the bell signaled "a new respect for the labor movement due to its resurgence under Sweeney." Many workers know that the union leadership and bosses have been in bed together for years. But class conscious workers must ask why Wall Street, including the biggest US bosses, would be celebrating a revitalized labor movement under Sweeney?

Sweeney and his buddies are endorsing the layoff of 53,000 Boeing workers, thousands of GM workers, racist slave labor conditions for millions of workers, prison slave labor, and growing fascist conditions for workers on and off the job. The AFL-CIO’s job is to tie workers to the bosses’ plans for war and fascism, and to tolerate no rebellion in the ranks. This means accepting a widening racist income gap for black and latin workers, and the fact that most workers in the US are sinking in debt.

After World War II, when US capitalism ruled the roost, the bosses here were content to let union workers live on the crumbs of US world dominance. That was then. What a difference a few years makes! Stuck on a roller coaster crisis of overproduction that circles the globe, the once almighty US bosses are now scrambling. Former allies in Europe and Asia have become competitors with big eyes for the US spheres of influence.

The imperialist rivals of the US bosses need to gain greater access to cheap oil and gas in order to expand their modern industrial economies. The foundation for US world dominance rests on its control of the world’s cheap oil. This rivalry among the world’s imperialist nations has led to more wars, past, present and future.

Because it has the largest immigrant population in the nation, Los Angeles is the AFL-CIO target for winning immigrants in the US, along with black and white workers, to follow Rockefeller’s line.

The labor unions under Sweeney are openly identifying themselves with US capital, in particular the section of US rulers that govern through the Democratic Party. That party is dominated by the US Old Money bosses, those with the greatest overseas investment in oil, especially in the Persian Gulf area.

With the help of its friends in the AFL-CIO, Rockefeller’s Exxon/Mobil & Co. must win influence over the US working class-at-large to build active and passive support for war and fascism among union members, and draw ground troops from the ranks of union workers and their families.

A big play is being made for the loyalty of immigrant workers. Because it has the largest immigrant population in the nation, LA is being targeted by the AFL-CIO for organizing immigrants both into unions and politically into the Democratic Party. Thousands of latin workers have been enrolled in citizenship classes and registered to vote by Democratic Party organizations like One Stop Immigration. The increasing number of Mexican-American politicians who trumpet the rise of latino political power in California are all in the Old Money Democratic Party and are backed by the unions. They have, for the time being, forced a retreat of the New Money racist Republicans and their Proposition 187. They have not, and will not, force an end to slave labor conditions for tens of thousands of workers.

A number of opposition groups within union locals are planning vigorous protests against corruption and increasing fascism within the AFL-CIO. Our Party plans to participate with these dissenting groups of workers and bring our revolutionary communist line to those workers who mistakenly think that democracy and open voting within the AFL-CIO unions will lead to a better, more secure future for the working class.

Instead of trade protectionism, or "free trade," we will fight for the slogan, "Workers of the World, Unite." Instead of cross-border unity, we will call for the smashing of capitalist borders. Instead of "economic justice for all," we will call for smashing racist slave labor and wage slavery with communist revolution. Working class justice for all workers means building a party whose goal is to take everything away from the capitalists. We will call for bringing the fight against racist police terror, slave labor and imperialist war to the workers on the shop floor and in the unions. Instead of "people before profits," we’ll put forward the solution of abolishing the wage system with communist revolution.

I am very happy to inform you that we have begun a PLP club here in Santiago, Chile. We have formulated a plan to develop and spread the line of the Party, first in Santiago, and later if we can, all over the country. I am enclosing copies of two PLP newsletters we have printed here during August.

I would like to receive some PLP videos. Also, if you have any Party musical cassettes, please send them. Our economic resources are very low now so we cannot cover the cost of that material.

We will do our best to build PLP as the international communist party of the world’s workers.

Unemployment and underemployment here in Ecuador affect 70% of the workforce. President Mahuad promised to create 900,000 new jobs. But since his election, 50,000 workers have lost their jobs. By the end of his term another 200,000 may follow. The rise in crime parallels the rise in unemployment. The pictures we used to see of starving children in Africa are now being seen here.

To make matters worse, inflation is one of the highest in South America. The sucre, the local currency, has lost a lot of its value in the last few months. So the buying power of those who have jobs is declining. The minimum wage is about $9 a MONTH. Many are predicting hyperinflation here. The suffering of workers and their families will worsen.

Hundreds of thousands have left the country for Europe and the U.S. in search of jobs. If the rate of emigration keeps growing, there will be only children and old people left. Many have illusions that the grass is greener in other countries, but the reality of the crisis of world capitalism will hit them one way or another, wherever they go.

Workers did not cause this crisis, and we shouldn’t pay for it. If the bosses’ economy is about to explode, let it explode. But workers should not stop fighting. We must learn from the many strikes and mass rebellions we have seen recently in Ecuador that the only way out of this hell is building a mass communist movement to smash the bosses’ system.

We in PLP are dedicated here in Ecuador to build the fight to forge a new revolutionary society where there will be no bosses; what workers produce won‘t benefit the IMF, oil bosses and crooked politicians, but only workers and their families, according to their needs. Communism is not just another alternative; it is the only alternative workers have.

"If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem." Join the struggle.

(The following is taken from several notes sent from Europe by an Iranian revolutionary.)

I have been very busy lately. We are working day and night planning for demonstrations on September 22 in time for the opening of high schools and universities. In Iran more than 1,300 people are imprisoned and being tortured. The government has killed members of the underground and practices open terror on the streets. The underground in Iran has sent two leaflets for us to translate for PLP.

Here is an example of how the current mullah government uses religion to keep their fascism in power: A man and a woman who were not married were arrested while walking in a park in Tehran. The military police were going to examine the woman to see if she was a virgin! If not, they would take her to a place where religious fanatics would kill her by throwing stones at her. But this time, 1,000 people gathered around and prevented the military jeep from leaving. More police and troops arrived. Even the small business owners came on the street and demanded the release of the woman! The military shot at the protesters, killing some and wounding others.

Mass protests are planned for September 22. These protests are being called by the " Reform Opposition." The mullah government is very nervous. For the past six weeks they have gathered the "civilian militia" (religious fanatic mercenaries) in barracks to intimidate the working class. They use television and radio and direct terror through torture, execution and abolition of civil laws. This shows how scared they are.

But this is a fight between different groups of fascists. Many people are being tricked into supporting the liberal fascists of the "Reform Opposition." The so-called "reform" movement in Iran is supported by some of the European capitalists and the U.S. capitalists. They are fascists just like the mullahs! See how many people U.S. imperialism and European imperialism have killed over the years! The U.S./Europe/Israel media are publicizing the "Reform Opposition." The student leaders of the "Reform Opposition"—"Mannucher Mohamady" and "Reza Moha-herany nejhaad"—visited the U.S. and Europe recently. An interview on Radio Israel was very nationalistic and anti-communist. And the petit-bourgeois, revisionist parties, the ones which pretend to be communist are also directly using the radio transmitters of the capitalists. They want an alliance with the "Reform Opposition," which means an alliance with U.S. imperialists.

Our genuine communist movement is small in Iran, but we know our task. We must involve ourselves more deeply in the mass movement in order to expose all the secret deals and "horse-trading" between the old ruling class and the new ruling class. In 1979 there was a mighty uprising against the fascist Shah, but that movement was taken over by the fascists and thousands of communists and other workers were murdered. We will not make that mistake again. We will build the PLP against all capitalists and all their puppet friends, the revisionists.

On Monday teachers at my high school in East Harlem, New York City returned to school. We began the work of piecing together school programs for students in a crowded, under-funded school building. Our school’s attendance roster has climbed from 320 students to 390 with no additional classroom space.

The first item on our agenda was a discussion of the strike of teachers in Detroit, Michigan. Their demands include smaller class sizes, adequate books, supplies and physical education equipment. They are also calling for teachers’ committees in each school empowered to decide what supplies, books, and equipment are needed. We didn’t need any more discussion to act.

We wrote a resolution in support of the strike and forwarded it to the Union leadership. We also sent a copy to a support group we trust will deliver our message to the strikers. Letters also went out to the local newspapers.

The Detroit Strike occurred after the rank-and-file overwhelmingly rejected the contract proposal endorsed by the traitorous union leadership. The media has been portraying the strike as an attack on the parents and students but parent-student support makes the bosses’ press lies evident. The misleadership of Detroit Federation of Teachers President John Elliot now appears to be working overtime trying to regain control of the strike from the rank-and-file. Detroit teachers need communist leadership.

The utter bankruptcy of capitalist society and culture was revealed recently with the attempt to have the Ten Commandments placed in public schools and to teach creationism as a legitimate view on how the world and the human race developed.

We live in a society that is highly technological, with automation and computers, which now are used to replace workers, but could be used under a communist system to improve life; however, along with this we see the most backward and ignorant notions gaining a foothold in this society.

This, of course, is all part of developing fascism. In a book entitled Nazi Culture, George Mosse pointed out that the Nazis had much in common with today’s forces of backward thinking movements in our society such as the Christian Coalition and Operation Save America, The Promise Keepers, etc. The Nazis were big on promoting "traditional" culture, such as women being in the kitchen, in church and with their children. Also, conservatives and most churches supported the Nazis in Germany.

Of course, capitalist culture works very hard at fostering ignorance, since an enlightened working class is a very dangerous thing for the filthy rich. In public schools, teachers drum it into the heads of students that communism is based upon brainwashing and terror, while the most anti-scientific and backward views of the world are imposed upon the students inside school as outside fascist terror is rampant and the police state grows.

Communists, on the other hand, must work to fight ignorance tooth-and-nail. Our very survival depends upon this. So here is the Eleventh Commandment: Fight for a workers’ revolution and smash fascist brainwashing!

I just read the article on anti-Stalinism in the new issue of The Communist and thought it was very good—well-written with perceptive and fresh commentary on such topics as collectivization of agriculture, bourgeois estimates of how many were executed during the 1930’s, and Lenin’s so-called Last Testament. I’m going to give copies to members of the progressive student club I advise.

• The statistics provided for the gains of Soviet socialism (actually cited by Brzezinki) are all about industrial production gains. While this is certainly not insignificant, I would have preferred citing facts showing how the lives of working people improved—the increase in life expectancy, the reduction in infant mortality, the increased number of college students, the improved conditions of women, and so on.

• I would have also liked an expanded discussion of the connection between the limitations of Soviet socialism (the technocratic approach to increasing production, for instance) and the mistaken over-reliance on police agencies to weed out class enemies.

In relation to the Sept. 15 article on evolution vs. creationism: To equate science and religion because capitalists use both for their own purposes misses the point as to why this controversy deeply concerns us as the Party of the working class.

In any class society, the ruling class dominates culture as well as the economic structure, finding ways to use both for its own purposes. Consequently it’s no surprise that today’s capitalists use both science and religion for their own ends. Indeed, it would be surprising if they didn’t.

But the question which really concerns us is: which—science or religion—can be useful to the working class in our battle for communism? Religion, which bases itself on blind faith in myths and is idealist, is fundamentally opposed to Marxism, which is based on materialism. Therefore, the ideology of religion is useless in this battle. Rather, it’s an obstacle since it leads millions of workers away from the science of Marxism. Not that philosophical idealism doesn’t creep into scientific discussions. But science does not invoke blind faith in any spirits, demons or gods. Science has no need for such assumptions. It studies the facts of the actual world and attempts to deduce from them how various phenomena work.

It’s true that the capitalists have used science to build their industries as well as their armies. They have also created pseudo sciences (sociobiology and capitalist economics) in an attempt to justify the false ideas they need to keep their system of exploitation running—most especially racism, sexism and anti-communism. Indeed, for this purpose, they have even created pseudo-Marxists (revisionists).

But that’s only one part of the picture. Science has also laid the basis to understand diseases which afflict humanity and has achieved a number of useful cures. The germ theory of disease was an immense step forward. Furthermore, utilizing the method developed by science—a careful and objective examination of the actual world—Marxists have achieved the most advanced understanding of the laws of social development through their creation of dialectical and historical materialism.

Physical chemists have demonstrated that chemical reactions required to initially produce living matter followed natural laws and did not require the intervention of a god.

Thus, science and the scientific method are essential to a working class party. Marx and Engels were not neutral in the battle between science and mysticism. It was not for nothing that Engels wrote Dialectics of Nature.

The capitalists have a serious problem with teaching young people the scientific approach to the world. On the one hand they need trained scientists to run their industries and their wars. But they can’t have people thinking too scientifically about socio-economic questions because that can lead them to fight for communism. This contradiction leads different groups of capitalists to deal with the question of science in different ways. It is a contradiction which they cannot resolve.

But we do not face this contradiction. Science and the scientific method are on our side; they are a part of Marxism. We reject the myths advocated by all religions as well as the pseudo-science pushed by the capitalists (Herrnstein’s "The Bell Curve"). We embrace real science and defend it as our own.