Challenge, Nov. 3, 1999, Vol. 36, No. 6

NEW YORK CITY, Oct. 23 — "Death to the Klan, Power to the Workers! The Cops, the Courts, the Ku Klux Klan, All A Part of the Bosses’ Plan! No Free Speech for Racists!"

These chants resounded loud and clear in Lower Manhattan today. Thousands of black, Asian, Latin, and white workers came out to protest the first-ever KKKlan rally in NYC. Despite a week of deceitful news coverage—the KKK "had a permit," then no permit; they were coming, they weren’t coming—workers and youth were not fooled. They demonstrated in massive numbers to guarantee that any racist rally would be opposed.

PLP is proud to have played a role among these workers and youth. The combination of mass working-class hatred and communist leadership shows in practice the potential of revolutionary communist ideas when taken up by workers.

The enemy in our midst was the liberal politicians from the Democratic Party and the phony "leftist" groups. They set up two counter-demonstrations, both held behind police barricades. The fake leftists of the Spartacist/Partisan Defense Committee (PDC) urged people to listen to speeches until it was the "right time" to go towards the courthouse steps where the Klan was going to be. They even declared their rally a "victory celebration" saying that apparently the Klan was a "no-show," just a few minutes before the Klan really did show up two blocks away. All of this led many to stay inside the barricaded areas penned in by the cops. As this betrayal became clear many people got angry and frustrated.

We in PLP, however, knew not to trust these phonies. With the fierce commitment to make the day a class battle against fascism, we had organized many teams, spread throughout the area. Hours before the KKK scum appeared, one set of our troops with red flags flying and waving CHALLENGES, marched into the PDC rally. Hundreds of workers grabbed our leaflets and copies of CHALLENGE to read.

Meanwhile, another team was working its way as close as possible to the Klan. Three anti-racists organized by PLP boldly approached the cops, insisted that they were supporters of the racists and needed to be there. The befuddled cops let them stand at the exact spot where the KKK was to rally. The cops hustled the rattled racists to their spot and then the three struck. For several stunned moments the power of the cops and courts were paralyzed as these dedicated anti-racists pounded on the faces of the Klan slimeballs. They were finally overwhelmed by swarms of cops, but not before drawing the racists’ blood. The crowds roared their approval as these attacks occurred.

By now, our scouts had raced back to the phony leftist rally to alert a PLP team that the Klan was out. The time for talk was over. A PLP member shouted into our bullhorn, "The Klan is here! The Klan is here! Let’s go smash them!" We boldly marched off in the direction of the KKK, hundreds of workers following us.

The battle then became one between the anger of the masses and the power of the NYPD. At barricade after barricade, up side streets and down main streets, the cops threw up more obstacles and the anti-racists, led by our Party, would fight to trample them down. We finally pushed through one cop barricade to get closer to the KKK. Instead of being drawn into the barricaded pen where thousands were gathered, we pushed through the cops and began jogging alongside the pen to bring our message to those inside the pen and to get even nearer to the Klan.

Eventually, we could see through a chain link fence that the racist filth were only a block away. We cheered people on to follow our red flags and jump over the barricades. At first people were reluctant but then once they saw the cops couldn’t stop us all, they jumped over! When we saw that the Klan was only 50 or so yards away, we tried with all our might to get through the last of the barricades. We could feel the anger percolating in our fellow workers and students. They wanted those racist scumbags in their hands.

Finally, the cops, in riot gear, turned themselves into human shields, plastic cuffs ready to make mass arrests. Now it became a pushing battle as the surging anti-racists threw their force against the lines of cops. The anger grew against the cops. The politicians lost control of the demonstration as the workers yelled at them to open the barricades so they could get at the Klan. The chant of "Sellouts!" filled the air.

Line after line of cops had to be added to hold off our forces. Back and forth we went, fighting the cops, trying to get more people into our group so we could lead an all-out attack on the Klan. A few times the cops felt they had to show more fascist force, and took out their clubs and pushed us back, kicking demonstrators. Several of our members went down, but got right back up to continue to push forward. In the midst of the shoving, pushing and chanting, many people burst through the lines of police. Workers cheered as they broke through the other side and rushed to protect them from being grabbed by the cops—even rescuing some from the cops’ grasp. "Until you guys in PLP showed up, nothing was happening," said many, thanking our comrades for their militant leadership.

Finally, after an hour of showing their fascist faces, the Klan in blue led the Klan in hoods away. Debris flew from all over the crowd toward the Klan and the cops who protected them, reaching them as they hid their faces. The fascists were quickly escorted off.

The most important lesson to draw from this day’s experiences is that thousands of black, Latin, Asian and white workers and youth feel tremendous anger and hatred towards all racists and the KKK. Despite the daily passivity we often encounter among our co-workers and comrades, class hatred is alive. The bold, indomitable leadership given by our Party turned that suppressed anger into mass unified action. We now have to turn this into a fighting force against racism and the bosses’ attacks on our jobs, schools and communities. Joining the communist PLP and helping us to build a mass fighting revolutionary organization is the road to liberation from the racist/fascist KKK in hoods, in blue and their masters in Wall Street, City Hall and the White House.

‘We Already Got A Larger And Deadlier Racist Terrorist Group Here, The NYPD...’

The KKK Is Small Potatoes Compared To Racist Rulers

The massive angry protest against the KKK scum in NYC was overwhelmingly positive. Our Party is proud of having led the most militant actions that day, showing that PLP is in fighting trim shape and that communists can lead the struggle against fascism by example. These actions proved that large numbers of people are prepared to follow revolutionary communists against the KKK. It unmasked the hypocrisy of NYC Mayor Giuliani, whose racist cops have murdered and assaulted more black workers than the Klan could dream of lynching here. It exposed liberal Democrats like ex-FBI stoolpigeon Al Sharpton and Senator Charles Schumer as the Klan’s most reliable allies. So all in all, it was a very good day.

However, the struggle to destroy the system that spawns lynch mobs like the Klan is going to be a long war. Vile as it is, the Klan isn’t even the main enemy. As one anti-KKK protester said on October 23, "We already got a deadlier and larger racist terrorist group serving the rulers here, the NYPD."

The thousands of people who came to protest against the Klan were absolutely correct in venting their rage. But this anger must be channeled against the big bosses and their state apparatus. The Klan is small potatoes compared to the rulers, who are the primary racist terrorists.

Worst of all are the liberals and their sweet-talking murder. The Republican Giuliani’s cops have brazenly killed dozens of black workers and youth over the last several years, but they had plenty of examples to imitate under the Democrats Dinkins and Koch. In his seven years, the Democrat president Clinton has enforced fascism over millions in the work-place. He’s launched slave labor "Workfare," helped "downsizing" corporations lay off hundreds of thousands of workers, presided over spreading sweatshops and initiated brutally racist cutbacks in education, health care and welfare. After hiring 100,000 more cops to terrorize workers, Clinton now wants 50,000 more.

From Iraq to Yugoslavia to Colombia, U.S. imperialism under this liberal Democratic president is slaughtering workers wholesale for the profits of giant corporations like Exxon Mobil, BP Amoco, and Halliburton. Despite their tactical differences, all the biggest rulers and their politicians support these mass murders to one extent or another.

The Klan is useful to the bosses. Klan atrocities, like the horrible killing of Mr. James Byrd in Texas, is a sign of fascist mass terror to come, as the big bosses get ready for future wars against their rivals. At the same time, the Klan gives these same bosses an excuse to disguise themselves as the "lesser evil."

But under capitalism, there is no "lesser evil." Beneath their skin Clinton, Gore, Bradley, Bush, McCain and Buchanan are all just Klansmen in business suits rather than robes and hoods. It’s good to keep organizing to smash the open Klan! Let’s also harness the same political energy and class hatred against our main enemy. The KKK is just a pale imitation of the profit system and its liberal billionaire rulers. A communist working class under the leadership of a mass Progressive Labor Party will destroy all of them! Joining PLP will speed the victory against racist terror and its cause, capitalism!

Bosses’ World Trade Org: Free Trade, ‘Fair’ Trade—All Foul For Workers

(In our previous issue we pointed out how the World Trade Organization [WTO] has become another arena where the world’s capitalist powers fight over larger market share, cheap labor and natural resources. With mass demonstrations looming at the WTO November meeting in Seattle, we demonstrated that these forces support one or another section of the bosses and their different plans for war. We discussed three myths: that "The WTO Stands Above the Inter-Imperialist Fray; that "It’s Corporate Rule vs. Democracy; and that "A Place At the Table Is Better Than Being Left Out In the Cold."

Myth #4: Our Only Choice Is Between Free Trade And Fair Trade

Some national unions, most notably the United Steel Workers (USW) and the Teamsters, are taking a more aggressive stand against the WTO’s "free trade" and in favor of their own bosses’ "fair trade"—meaning backing their own bosses’ competitive position vs. other bosses abroad. The Teamsters are uniting with national trucking firms against Mexican competition, while the USW pushes the bosses’ "Stand Up For Steel" campaign. These unions wave the flag and build nationalism to push the "Big Lie" that US workers’ interests are tied to their bosses.

This nationalism kills two birds with one stone: (1) it sucks workers into believing increased profits for their bosses because of protectionist fair trade will somehow "automatically" trickle down to them (if this happens, and it’s rare, it’s worse than a "trickle," it’s more like a spit in the ocean); and (2) it sets workers up to support the big bosses’ wars for oil.

Ironically, the bigger global bosses benefit the most from this jingoism. Eventually, Rockefeller & Co. will escalate their Mid-East war to defend their key source of oil. They are counting on patriotism/nationalism to win millions to fight and die for Exxon-Mobil’s slimy oil profits. Fair trade or free trade: it’s all a set-up for war!

Myth #5: ‘There’s Never Been Anything Like This Before’

"There’s never been anything like this before," bragged Jeremy Madsen of the Seattle-based People for Fair Trade (meaning people are "rising up" for free trade, which has hardly happened previously). Quite the contrary, the battle being fought on the streets and in board rooms has been raging since the dawn of imperialism. We are doomed to fight this battle over and over again until we destroy imperialism with communist revolution.

As the world raced towards the carnage of World War I, an English sign painter named Robert Tressel, wrote his first and only novel, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. Troussel chronicled the political debates between him and his fellow workers. Here is what he had to say on the subject of trade:

We’ve had Free Trade for the last fifty years and today most people are living in a condition of more or less abject poverty, and thousands are literally starving. When we have Protection things were worse still. Other countries have Protection and yet many of their people are glad to come here and work for starvation wages. The only difference between Free Trade and Protection [fair trade—Ed.] is that under certain circumstance one might be a little worse than the other, but as remedies for Poverty, neither of them are of any real use whatever, for the simple reason that they do not deal with the real causes of Poverty.

Tressel died before the beginning of World War I. Had he lived, given his understanding above, it’s not illogical to believe he would have noted that both free and fair trade set the stage for war.

Struggle With, Struggle Against

Some of our members and friends are already active in unions and other mass organizations building for the anti-WTO protests. More should follow this lead, and we should spread the struggle to the shop floor.

An important weakness we have in these anti-WTO mass organizations is "going with the flow." Either we go all out to win the masses from the pro-capitalist leadership, or we abandon tens of thousands of honest workers, leaving them with no alternative but to support the bosses’ armies of destruction. Let’s fight the enemy within these mass organizations. Let’s struggle to win our co-workers to our ideas. These CHALLENGE articles can help if we circulate them far and wide.

Capitalism continues to spread poverty, disease and war to every corner of the world. More than a century of this carnage is enough. The time to end it is now. Building the revolutionary communist movement is the only answer to the bosses’ trade wars and shooting wars. Communism will end production for profit. A communist society will meet the needs of the international working class. The battle for communism is a long-term struggle. Joining PLP is the best first step.

The Road To War Is Lined With Steel Bosses And Union Hacks

GARY, IN, Oct. 25 — After signing contracts with the Big Steel bosses that will cut jobs and increase productivity, the United Steel Workers (USW) union is taking its nationalist "Stand Up for Steel" campaign on the road to the World Trade Organization (WTO) conference in Seattle. There they will protest the "illegal dumping" of foreign steel. According to the latest issue of Steelabor, they will be protesting on behalf of "our union and steel industry allies." [Editor’s emphasis]

The worldwide crisis of overproduction in the steel industry has forced hundreds of thousands of steelworkers in Russia, Korea, Mexico and Brazil (among others), into poverty and homelessness. Many still working go unpaid. Tens of thousands more have struck to try to save their jobs.

The collapse of the Russian and Asian markets forced these bosses to sell steel in the U.S. at reduced prices. Rather than uniting U.S. steelworkers with our brothers and sisters around the world, USW leaders fight for their billionaire bosses. They mobilize us for trade wars today. They will lead us to shooting wars tomorrow.

The union claims that 10,000 jobs have been lost to "illegal dumping." USW President George Becker says that foreign steel makers must not be allowed to destroy "American jobs." This is a throwback to the "German Jobs for German Workers" slogan that brought Hitler to power, and led German workers to their crushing defeat in World War II. And like Hitler before them, it is based on the "Big Lie."

First of all, the union gave up 350,000 jobs to the steel bosses and Wall St. bankers during the crisis and restructuring of the 1980’s. Second, the U.S. steel industry has rebounded and is making record profits. U.S. mills are operating at 95% capacity and can’t keep up with demand. Most mills here are hiring for the first time in 20 years. The jobs lost through mill closings would have been gone anyway, as the union and their "industry allies" shut the oldest, least productive plants. Also, the older mills are facing stiffer competition from non-union mini-mills, mostly part-owned by the same Big Steel bosses.

The fight around trade and the WTO reflects the deepening splits in the ruling class. While 100 members of Congress are backing the USW demands, more than 400 are not. Indiana Senator Richard Lugar has been labeled a "tool of Wall Street" for opposing restrictive trade barriers. Wall Street and the auto industry also oppose the campaign. The increase in imported steel is aimed at keeping the Russian and Asian economies afloat, to bail out U.S. banks with heavy investments there, and who stand to lose the most if there is a total collapse.

The fight over "Stand Up for Steel" and "illegal dumping" is mainly a family feud inside the main wing of the ruling class. But they all agree on the need for a "lean and mean" domestic steel industry, with a loyal working class, to provide the rulers with the tools of war. Sometimes the narrow views of the steel bosses and union leaders put them on the side of the Buchanans and Perots, rather than the Rockefeller masters who own them. But in capitalist crisis, all roads lead to war

PLP is organizing steelworkers to take on the steel bosses and union hacks, build international ties with steel workers around the world and take the long hard road to communist revolution. Then the working class will own all that we produce, and we will use it to meet our needs, not the billionaires’ profits.

On October 11, 1999, the Chicago Sun-Times reprinted a highlight from 1919: "Federal Troops Take Control of Gary, Indiana to Quell Riots by Striking Steel Workers. Troops went in after 2,000 strikers, led by former soldiers in uniform, rallied in defiance of city officials’ orders."

The Great Steel Strike of 1919 is famous for uniting 360,000 workers from 17 nationalities and languages. Strikers were killed, beaten, fired and deported for trying to organize the union. The strike was led by William Z. Foster (who later became chairman of the fledgling Communist Party). The strikers were inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. It showed how the phony divisions created by the bosses, like place of birth, language or color, are completely unimportant when it comes to meeting the needs of the working class.

The heroes and martyrs of 1919 must be spinning in their graves watching Becker and his gang wrap themselves in the bosses’ flag and turn their backs on the workers of the world.

10,000 Kosovar Albanians Killed By Milosevic?

U.S. Rulers Lie Again....And Again....And Again...

Every imperialist war has its own set of rulers’ lies justifying it. When President Lyndon Johnson drastically escalated the war in Vietnam, he concocted a fable about an "unprovoked" North Vietnamese "attack on a U.S. warship" in the Gulf of Tonkin. Congress rubber-stamped this lie. Years later, with three million Vietnamese and 50,000 U.S. soldiers dead, the lie was revealed, and millions still suffer.

Now Clinton and the other NATO warlords have told their big lie to justify their three-month aerial bombardment of Serbian workers. They claimed they were preventing genocide against Kosovar Albanians. The real motive for this war, as CHALLENGE exposed consistently, was for extending their control of oil.

But the lie about the reason for war was just for openers. Another lie followed hot on its heels. The real genocide was committed not by Serbian boss Milosevic but by Clinton and other NATO rulers. Bad as Milosevic is, he’s a novice at mass murder compared to U.S., German, French and British imperialists. The truth about the war’s casualties is now coming out.

On June 25, after the war had ended, Clinton told a White House press conference that tens of thousands of people had been killed in Kosovo on Slobodan Milosevic's orders. British officials set the death toll at 10,000. NATO mouthpieces said the slaughter was worse than anything in Europe since the Nazi holocaust.

But so far, little evidence of mass killings has turned up, according to Stratfor, a Texas-based intelligence bureau. "Four months into an international investigation, bodies numbering only in the hundreds have been exhumed. The FBI has found fewer than 200....On Oct. 11, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Republic of Yugoslavia reported that the Trepca mines in Kosovo, where 700 murdered ethnic Albanians were reportedly hidden, in fact contained no bodies whatsoever." (Stratfor, 10/17/99) A Spanish team was told to prepare for over 2000 autopsies. It found no mass graves and only 187 bodies, all buried in individual graves. Now the U.S. media has begun picking up this story. Lars-Erik Nelson, of the New York Daily News (Oct. 24), worries that lies like Clinton’s will make it more difficult for U.S. rulers to launch their next war.

During the war, however, a U.S.-led air armada flew more than 35,000 sorties over Serbia, killing 5,000 Serbian troops and over 2,000 civilians. Many thousands more will eventually die from illnesses directly related to the bombing. NATO literally poisoned the Serbian water supply and other vital parts of the environment by bombing oil refineries and petrochemical plants. Compared to Clinton and NATO, Milosevic was a minor league butcher.

These revelations blow away the "humanitarian" smokescreen for the war and underscore its real cause, the rivalry among the world's imperialists for oil. Milosevic was fighting with Kosovar Albanians over control of oil export routes from the Caspian region through the Balkans to Western Europe. He had his own plans to pipe Russian-owned Caspian oil through Kosovo to the Danube and then ship it to Germany. Ethnic Albanians were defending a BP Amoco-Halliburton project that would bring crude oil from the Black Sea to Albania, passing within miles of Kosovo's border. To permanently destroy Milosevic’s plan, NATO's bombardment targeted Serbia’s pipelines and refineries as well as bridges on the Danube. The war settled nothing. Both the BP Amoco project and the eastern leg of the Russian-backed Balkan pipeline are moving forward and are sure to conflict.

Now U.S. rulers are desperately trying to create another humanitarian cover for their coming grab at oil’s grand prize, the Middle East. Washington pushes the line that "we" must save the Iraqi people from a genocidal Saddam Hussein. Don't fall for it. The bosses always disguise their bloody profit motives behind a noble purpose. A Big Lie launched every one of U.S. imperialism’s major wars, as well as the "minor" ones in Panama, Grenada, Haiti and Somalia. The mass murderer Clinton pointing a finger of guilt at the two-bit thug Milosevic is just the latest example. From Johnson to Clinton, only the form of the Big Lie changes. For the last fifty years, Hitler’s true heirs have resided in the White House.

French Rulers Protect Butcher Papon For Fifty Years, Now Try To Clean Up Act

The name of 89 year-old Maurice Papon may ring a bell in the minds of CHALLENGE readers familiar with the national bosses’ press. The French government recently convicted him of supervising the deportation and murder of Jews from the city of Bordeaux during the Nazi occupation of France in World War II.

Last week, when his sentence was about to begin, Papon tried to escape to Switzerland. Since the Swiss rulers didn’t want the embarrassment of protecting him, they returned him to French authorities, who jailed him.

Papon is a fascist mass murderer. He should have been executed long ago for his crimes. The reasons for which his trial and conviction took so long provide a valuable history lesson for workers everywhere.

The French Communist Party was unquestionably the main leader in the armed struggle in France against the Nazis. Hitler occupied France easily in 1940, because the main wing of French bosses had opted for German fascism over the danger of French socialism. After World War II, French rulers still feared losing power to the working class. The Communist Party leadership had no intention of fighting for a workers’ dictatorship, but the French bosses didn’t understand this yet. So the specter of communism still haunted them enough for some of them to ally with and protect many who had openly collaborated with the Nazis. Many were part of the Vichy regime in Southern France, Hitler’s puppet government.

Papon was one of these scoundrels. The bosses rewarded him well for his loyalty. After his quiet "denazification," he easily changed his Vichy uniform for the uniform of a Gaullist police official. He became Prefect [Chief] of the Paris police under De Gaulle who had become president in 1958 after spending the war years in London (while having somewhat of a base in France).

In 1961, the French colonial war in Algeria was drawing to an end. It had been one of the bloodiest of all the 20^th century’s colonial wars. The French military routinely tortured Algerian civilians, just as Hitler’s Gestapo [secret police] had tortured French workers during the Nazi Occupation of France. On October 17, the Algerian National Liberation Front called a mass demonstration in Paris to protest a racist curfew imposed by Papon against "Frenchmen of Islamic descent." Thirty thousand turned out for the march.

Papon and the Paris police had laid a vicious trap. The cops were stationed at strategic locations. They had planned so many mass detentions that in addition to the police vans at their disposal, they needed to commandeer public buses to hold prisoners. They arrested 11,538 Algerian demonstrators that day.

But Papon and his masters didn’t stop at mere arrests. They also committed wholesale murder. Many died from clubbings. Others were shot in the woods on the Paris outskirts or strangled in jail. Still others were simply thrown into the river Seine and left to drown. Papon’s police report at first admitted only two deaths. Then the cops grudgingly conceded 140. In a book about French opposition to the war, Herv� Hamon and Patrick Rotman estimate "two hundred dead and four hundred disappeared." The disappeared were never found. It was probably the biggest one-day massacre in Paris since the "Bloody Week" of the 1871 Paris Commune, when French bosses slaughtered over 30,000 Communard revolutionaries and other working people and their families.

Supervising it all was Maurice Papon, the Hitler-loving tormentor of Jews, who boasted ten days later, "The Paris police did what they had to do."

France’s rulers knew all along of Papon’s Nazi past when they made him the head Paris cop. In fact, his credentials as a fascist killer were just what these bosses needed during their war of colonialist terror. But Papon has outlived his usefulness. France’s rulers are now trying to carve a niche for themselves as a force in the new Europe, which is basically an attempt to compete with U.S. imperialism. A serious plan to create a military force that can act independently of NATO is under way. This will mean a formal military pact between France and Germany. So Papon, who had been allowed to retire comfortably in his old age, is finally getting the shaft from his masters, who need to push the Big Lie that the German-French capitalist alliance of today is fundamentally different from French rulers’ embrace of fascist Germany under Hitler in 1940.

One week after liberal Al Sharpton helped the fascist KKK hold a public rally in New York, the Papon case provides yet another valuable object lesson in capitalist politics. Scratch a fascist, and you find a liberal. Scratch a liberal, and you find a fascist.

[Note: The book from which the above information was taken is called La gangr�ne et l’oubli, by Benjamin Stora. For a first-rate film about the Occupation, the collaboration, and the Resistance in France, rent The Sorrow and the Pity (earlier uncut version). It’s one of the best documentaries ever made].

Marchers Angry At Police Terror Are Open To PLP

LOS ANGELES — "Kick the cops in the ass, Power to the Working Class"; "The cops, the courts, the Ku Klux Klan—all a part of the bosses’ plan"; "No racist police." These chants, led by PLP, were echoed by marchers in the October 22 march here against police brutality. Nearly 700 people, mainly youth, participated.

PLP youth marched as a contingent behind our red flags and a banner "Smash Police Terror with Communist Revolution." Our signs were held aloft by many marchers who chose them because they attacked the racist cops, the whole system and called for revolution. People on the march seemed hungry for revolutionary politics.

At the demonstration, many spoke whose relatives were murdered by the cops. They are very angry. The mother of Julio Castillo, shot repeatedly by LA Sheriffs and the LAPD SWAT in Lynwood, said she wouldn’t rest until her son’s murder was avenged. The family of Tyisha Miller called on the crowd to continue the fight against racist police terror in Riverside, as did the family of a man murdered by the police in Claremont. The sister of a white man shot by the police 106 times spoke. The racist terror the police have unleashed against black and latin workers affects white workers as well.

The only alternative heard, besides PLP’s, came from Romona Ripson of the ACLU, saying it was fighting for a civilian review board and police reform. We should have shouted her down and exposed her organization as the one guaranteeing the KKK’s right to march in NYC the next day.

Around 500 CHALLENGES and 1,000 leaflets were distributed. We had lots of discussions about the role of cops as racist thugs protecting the capitalist system. We explained that community policing was a way to win people to support fascist cops. Some people gave us their names, to be contacted. Others offered to distribute our leaflets. Some workers whose children have been killed by the cops said they’d be happy to speak in the schools. High school and college students donned our red PLP shirts and marched with us for the first time. Other marchers took pictures of our banner and congratulated us.

One older black woman held a sign saying "Its not just Ramparts—Watts Residents KNOW." She was referring to the fact that the latest LAPD scandal and publicity about the Ramparts Division is just the tip of the iceberg. The LAPD has been acting like a gang of murdering thugs in Watts and other parts of LA for a long, long time. When offered CHALLENGE, she said, "I’m a revolutionary too!"

These marches and our daily work on campuses and in neighborhoods create the opportunity to seize upon the anti-cop and anti-racist hatred many people have to win them away from the liberals and fake leftists They only serve to turn our anger away from fighting the big racists, the bosses. It’s up to PLP to build the long-term fight to smash fascism with workers’ power.

Thousands Protest Nazi Gangs Infesting Europe

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Oct. 24 — New York City was not the only place where thousands protested against racist violence on October 23. Throughout Sweden, thousands took to the streets here in the largest protest against racist violence in recent memory. Eight thousand marched in Stockholm and thousands more in Malm�, Gaevle, Gottemburg and Luleea. They were sparked by a rash of Nazi terrorist attacks, which last week cost the life of Bjorn S�derberg.

S�derberg was a leader of a small anarchist trade union which exposed a union member as an active Nazi. Because of this, three Nazi killers came to S�derber’s house and shot him dead. A few days later, a union hall was burned down.

These incidents awakened people to the rise of Nazi groups and to the fact that Sweden is not exempt from the social turmoil of a capitalist world wracked by crisis, wars and racism. Sweden is now like many other Western European countries, a multi-racial multi-national society; 12% of the population are immigrants.

In the last few years, Nazis have carried out many anti-working class and racist attacks but the cops, the media and the big bosses have tried to either cover up their acts or ignore them. On May 28, three masked men robbed a bank in a small town and killed two cops who chased them. The thieves were Nazis. This kind of Dillinger-type heist is very rare in Sweden. One of the robbers was injured and captured but another escaped to Germany and then flew on a commercial airliner to Costa Rica. The third robber was a mercenary in the Croatian Army (a nest of Nazis). He had been sentenced to 13 years by an international court, and sent to Sweden to serve it. But once here he was freed by a District Attorney.

Then in June, a journalist and his wife had their car blown up. They were researching Nazi activities, and had printed expos�s in S�derberg’s union paper. The husband was badly hurt and their child injured.

There have been other bank robberies and thefts of military weapons, but there was no major official reaction, even though it was obvious the thieves were Nazis. Anders Erickson, head of SAPO (the state security agency) said that the Nazis were not a problem, that Russian industrial spies, ecologists and vegetarians were the big threat.

There has been a sharp rise of Nazi movements in European countries ruled by Social Democrats. A few weeks ago in Austria an openly pro-Nazi party became the second electoral party after the Social Democrats who have dominated Austrian politics since World War II. "Christopher Blocher, a billionaire businessman and right-wing Swiss nationalist, has delivered one of the biggest upsets in the country’s recent history by achieving a large surge of support for his People’s Party at the general elections. The party, traditionally the smallest of Switzerland’s four main political parties, has overtaken the Social Democrats to become the biggest, according to forecasts by the state-owned TV network." (London Financial Times, Oct. 26)

Anti-racist protests like those held in Sweden are good, but not enough. Workers and students must understand that capitalism and fascism go hand-in-hand. The Nazis represent one group of capitalists who want a bigger share of the pie, and use open racism to win some backward workers to their side. But the Nazis are not the only enemies; they are just one side of the bosses’ fascist coin. The current world capitalist crisis and its drive towards war has changed everything, including the relative social peace countries like Sweden, Austria and Switzerland have enjoyed in the last decades. The best way workers and youth can organize to fight for their interests is by building a revolutionary communist movement and joining the Progressive Labor Party.

Workers Build Class Consciousness In Transit Union Elections

OAKLAND, CA, Oct. 23 — Union election time is on tap at ATU (Amalgamated Transit Union) Local 192 (AC Transit) and workers’ anger is raging over management-union collaboration. As in many unions, Local 192 leaders have sacrificed the needs of newer workers by agreeing to part-timing, lower wages, stressful schedules and cuts in workers’ compensation. They put this across by offering much easier shifts and positions on labor-management committees to older workers and better pension and other benefits to retirees. To consolidate their power, the leaders changed union voting from at-the-workplace to a mail ballot benefiting retirees. These divisions in the working class help the capitalists expand fascist policies like Workfare and prison labor.

Up to 100 workers attended recent union meetings to overturn these policies only to be met with slick maneuvering by the leadership and silence from the ATU International. In response about 15 workers have met twice to form a rank-and-file caucus for union accountability and to organize class struggle. A PLP member and several friends are involved in this group.

Two main forces are active in this caucus. One mainly wants to limit the struggle to elections, union democracy or "accountability" and "simple" things like wages. They think current union leaders are just "dictators" and personally corrupt. They also argue that AC Transit’s attacks on workers and riders are merely a result of "bad decisions" by management, not part of an overall capitalist response to economic crisis.

The PLP grouping has urged focusing the election struggles on fights that promote class consciousness, like eliminating part-timing. We also are leading a battle against changes in AC’s transfer policy which attacks the lowest-income riders and stresses out drivers. Several friends have stepped forward to support these positions and lead class struggle. In these discussions we have argued that the unions are in fact capitalist institutions "accountable" only to AFL-CIO president John "Swine" Sweeney and his pals on Wall Street.

Communist leadership is needed to unleash this working-class anger. We encourage our friends to join and build the PLP. The capitalists have many parties and organizations that discourage workers and undermine our revolutionary potential. The PLP will encourage us and develop our potential. One friend has correctly Challenged us to recruit more younger workers to give more energy to our party. With his help, we will.

While Teamsters Strike, Hoffa In Bed With ‘Fair Trade’ Bosses

On October 24, the Teamsters struck the country’s largest non-union trucking firm, Overland Transportation Co., attempting to gain union recognition for its 8,200 drivers and dock workers at 166 terminals. The union says it represents 3,600 workers at 22 locations. Overland has been systematically firing union activists.

While we support the Teamster rank-and-file’s fight for better wages and conditions, we question what Hoffa will do for them, given the fact that his Teamsters have joined forces with the very bosses they claim to oppose, when backing the "fair trade" demands of national trucking firms.

New York City Postal Workers Oppose Racism And KKK

NEW YORK CITY, Oct. 24 — At the October 20th meeting of the NY Metro Area Postal Union (MAPWU) the following resolution was unanimously adopted:

Whereas, the Ku Klux Klan plans to hold a rally in NYC on Saturday, October 23rd, to promote their racist ideas and actions; and,

Whereas, racism is a vicious, often violent cancer which is widespread and deeply rooted in our society, causing harm to so many people; and,

Whereas, racism serves the interests of a relatively small group of wealthy individuals, while dividing and weakening the labor movement by creating barriers between different groups of workers; and,

Whereas, the KKK’s claim of the right of free speech is just a smokescreen to hide the reality of the KKK’s long history (right up to the present) of racist actions from lynchings and other murders, to acts of violence, vandalism, etc.; therefore,

Be it resolved that: NY Metro-Area Postal Union goes on record in strong opposition to racism in general and against the racist acts and ideas of the Ku Klux Klan in particular; and that,

NY-MAPU calls on postal workers, and others, to join protests against the KKK...

Anarchism Can’t Cut It

Communist Organization Necessary To Smash Racism

CHICAGO, Oct. 17 — The Anti-Racist Action (ARA) held its annual conference here to discuss the strategies and politics of fighting racism. ARA has had some success in building a direct action organization dedicated to fighting racism. They protest at Klan rallies and confront known racists by "outing" them at their homes, as they’ve done to Chicago World Church of the Creator (WCOTC) members. Racist killer Benjamin Smith belonged to the WCOTC.

They also have a program called "Copwatch," where members observe the police, usually with video cameras. ARA has attracted many youth who are fed up with racism and want a society based on equality.

The conference passed a resolution to fight racism as a class question. In the past, there was very little discussion about how racism is used by the ruling class to separate workers, and how it is necessary for the rich to increase their profits off the backs of mainly black and Latin workers.

For the ARA to officially acknowledge that racism is a tool of the ruling class, shows the potential to make communist ideas mass ideas and to win large numbers of anti-racist fighters to PLP. It shows that many ARA members can be won to see that in order to destroy racism, capitalism must be destroyed with communist revolution.

While this is a step in the right direction, where does the road go from here? The ARA is dominated by anarchists, but is also a united front of anti-racists. There are people from different groups with different political goals.

The anarchist influence is widespread. One example is the organization’s overall structure. Each chapter is autonomous and can engage in independent activities, as long as it doesn’t violate the broad four points of unity. Instead of struggling with each other to figure out the best plan to advance the organization, chapters choose activities without necessarily considering the needs of the movement as a whole.

In contrast, PLP members discuss and struggle with each other in order to decide the best strategy, and then the entire organization implements the plan. This is called democratic centralism.

Another anarchist influence is the absence of one unifying political line for the organization. The ARA will say there’s no political line because it’s not a political organization. But in fact they have many political lines.

However, for racism to be smashed once and for all, capitalism must be smashed. Only a communist revolution led by PLP can accomplish this.

PLP has been a consistent and dedicated army fighting against the Klan, the Kops, and the Kourts for the last 35 years. But there is also an end game. We want to destroy capitalism and create a society based on the commitment and needs of workers: communism. This is our goal, and we invite the masses (including ARA members) to become its political leaders.

Letters

Smashing The Klan

"KKK! Go Away! KKK! Go Away!" is just one of the remarks welcoming the Ku Klux Klan to New York City. I’ve never seen anything like this before, it’s an experience I’ll never forget. New Yorkers were not about to let the hate group spread their racist ideas here. The rude welcoming was just the beginning. Everybody was amped up for their arrival, people were set and ready to give them a piece of their minds.

When a signal was given to let us know that the KKK had arrived everyone rushed around the corner, stopping traffic. We rolled down to City Hall. Never have I seen the faces of such cold-blooded murderers. I could only build up hate inside as I watched them. The crowd was wild. Nobody was about to let the KKK demonstrate here.

The police pushed and shoved as we demanded to come face to face with the group. There were only a few of them, but they did not receive any gratitude for their presence. PLP members especially showed a great example, not just to me but to a lot of others at the rally. We showed people that this was our city and not the Klan in blue. Several barricades were broken by us, showing that it was not holding us back.

PLP Comrade

When I first heard that the KKK was going to rally on October 23, the first thing I felt was anger. I said to a friend of mine, "How could the people of New York let this happen?" Then I heard that the people of this city were not going to let this go on. Many people were going to an anti-Klan rally to voice their anger and so was I.

Then the Klan decided to come even after they knew people like me were going to be there. I felt anger once again. When I got to the rally, there were many other people just like me. It was great and a lot was accomplished. But I wish I could have gotten near them. I wanted to tell them how stupid their views were and show them by beating some sense into them.

Off Da Heezy

This past rally against the KKK seemed to be very successful. As myself and three other comrades scouted out the area where the Klan would be holding their rally, we realized it would be difficult to get at them. We knew we would have to get all of the protesters to join in with the Party to attack the Klan. The majority of the crowd had probably been told to just have the Klan go away, but that definitely wasn’t the solution. The Party and its base had to make them see the only way the KKK will go away and not grow stronger is if we attack them, and eventually turn this capitalist society into a communist one through communist revolution.

This obviously wouldn’t be an easy task because so many people had been brainwashed into thinking if you ignore the Klan they’ll go away; but it is the exact opposite—they grow stronger. The Party members and their base led a small march to where the counter-demonstrators were. We all stood and listened to a lot of speeches mainly talking about how the KKK isn’t wanted in NYC.

Finally, one of our members made a speech about how we need to kill the Klan and get rid of this system. Not surprisingly, when the comrade mentioned communism they quickly cut off the microphone. At that point, members listening to the speech chanted, "Let’s march, let’s march." That wasn’t really taken seriously by the crowd.

Later on, someone announced that the Klan had not shown up. Luckily, one of our comrades went over to where the KKK was supposed to rally, and sure enough, they were there. One member quickly got hold of a bullhorn and announced, "The Klan is here." At that point, we directed enraged people towards where the Klan was. A couple hundred people got through to the closest point you could get to the Klan. The rest were barricaded by cops in riot gear. Being in two separate areas made it harder to get to the KKK.

Fortunately, three anti-racists organized by PLP managed to get to the Klan by pretending they were Klan supporters. One of them punched a KKK’er person in the left eye. The two others jumped on another getting attacked by the police. One of the comrades, down on the ground and being arrested by a few cops, chanted, "Death to the Klan, Death to the Klan!" By doing this, he let the Klan and the working class know that the Klan will be stopped and the working class will soon take over the rest of this capitalist society.

The working class all over the world needs to know that ignoring the KKK will not make them go away. As for the liberals, they cannot be trusted to lead the working class in attacking the Klan or this capitalist society. As the chant says, "The only solution, is a communist revolution."

Red New Jersey High School Student

The fight against the KKK in New York City on October 23 and the struggle to win people to that fight was really exciting. I had many discussions at work, mostly with co-workers, some with students. We had many struggles around the First Amendment and the reasons why we oppose racism. We were able to point out that we, in the Party, could march in virtually any area of New York City without police protection—and in fact NEVER WANTING police protection. On the other hand, it’s become really clear that the Klan can’t march in much of the city and that if they hadn’t gotten city protection would have been forced to abandon their plans.

I couldn’t get to the Klan rally because of family commitments—but we found that the discussions and the story of the fights at the rally continued, even away from home. It was really exciting to hear the reports of our leadership and success—in the airport in Washington, DC, on CNN. When my daughter started cheering the comrade on the videotape, we had a great conversation with one of the airline workers. I think this rally, and our leadership, have given us great opportunities.

I’m really sorry I missed it and so is the rest of my family, but I just wanted to tell our comrades how proud we are of all of them. Thank you.

Brooklyn Teacher.

I am a teen who attended both the October 22 anti police brutality rally and the October 23 anti-Ku Klux Klan rally in NYC. Seeing many faces that hated those bastard Klansmen made my commitment to the Party stronger.

Although some of the protesters only had a small view of the problem, I was pleased when our comrades tried to show them the broader view using anti-capitalist chants. It was obvious that the hundreds of cops were protecting the Klan and not the protesters—showing again that "the kops, the kourts the Ku Klux Klan, all are part of the fascist plan."

Red Teen Tig

Earning The Respect And Activism Of Our Class

A recent evening, on my way to a vigil against the recent Baltimore police murder of Larry Hubbard, I stopped to speak with two neighbors. One had received copies of CHALLENGE several times. This evening each neighbor took a copy of PLP’s flyer, 100 of which were then given out at the vigil. (Last week, in the more immediate aftermath of Larry Hubbard’s slaying, 200 flyers had been distributed at a citywide rally against the shooting.)

In the latest version—headlined "WE’RE SEEING THE DEVELOPMENT OF FASCISM"—the flyer contrasted the development of fascism in Nazi Germany with current events in the U.S.: the murder of Amadou Diallo in New York City; the hail of 14 shots from Salisbury, Maryland cops that wounded a black driver and passenger this past June; and the most recent murder of 21-year-old Larry Hubbard, shot to death in the back of the head by Baltimore police. All these have been based on the policy of "zero tolerance" of "crime," an excuse for government-sponsored racist violence.

One witness, Ms. Kellie Brown, said she saw the incident from less than ten yards away. The "entire block heard [Larry Hubbard] shouting, ‘Please don’t shoot me, please don’t shoot me.’" Another witness, Dana Rhone, said, "An officer grabbed him, took him to the ground, and another officer put a gun to his head and said he would kill him. He was pleading, ‘Don’t kill me!’ and then you heard a pop."

The flyer put forward communism as the only way to end racism, and called on people to speak out—loud and clear—against racism, against fascism, and in support of Larry Hubbard’s family!

Upon returning home, I found a note from one of the two neighbors who had received the flyer hours earlier, saying (in part):

"I have read your [flyer] to a few people, my mom and dad, my girlfriend’s mom, and my aunt. They all think it’s great…. Keep up the good work in "Keeping our city AWARE.

"Much respect, Your neighbor and friend….P.S. Any time you need some help in your endeavors, I have a few enlistees along with myself."

The lesson? We must be confident and bold in the fight against racism and fascism. We must reach out to many potential friends, supporters and future leaders of the working class. We must not hide the most important goal of all, the struggle to defeat capitalism and to build a much better, communist world. Otherwise there will forever be more and more Larry Hubbards. Such tragic deaths are unacceptable! We deserve better! We must fight for better! And, though there will be setbacks and defeats along the way, we will win!

Social Production Vs. Private Ownership

The problem of "steel dumping" is a classic case of the unsolvable conflict of capitalist production that was discovered by Karl Marx. It is the contradiction between social production and private appropriation.

Thousands of workers are needed to take raw materials and turn them into steel. But under this system, the private owners of the mills use the steel for their profits. They also control the workforce.

The result is the madness of poverty in the midst of plenty, terrific need in the midst of products that can’t be sold. The only way to resolve this contradiction is through violence. Workers must smash the violently racist capitalist system that is destroying the lives of young and old, around the world. Take this message to Seattle.

Red Steel Worker

Putting Communist Ideas Into Practice Helps Win Family

I want to share with CHALLENGE readers a few somewhat difficult experiences that I had when I became active with PLP. I emphasize that these situations become more difficult in a very traditional family like mine, where religion encourages people to believe exploitation and poverty are caused by "destiny" and nothing can be done about them.

Firstly, I didn’t know anything about politics. I was also somewhat influenced by the customs and traditions of the capitalist system. At the same time I started to analyze and come to see the world as it really is. This caused great contradictions for me. I began learning about dialectical materialism and political economy and, having constant ideological struggle with my comrades, little by little I was gaining a certain political understanding about how to look at the world scientifically.

This sparked many problems with my family, especially about religion. They distanced themselves from me. Everyone criticized me. I was frustrated and wanted to retreat. I even went to the extreme of thinking about stopping party work. But my conscience told me I had to struggle with my convictions, especially when I realized what communism proposes and what the church proclaims to be its goal are very similar in one sense: fighting to build a society that appears to be a paradise. The only difference is: it’s better to do it in this life.

Soon I started putting my understanding into practice. My conduct changed. Mainly I stopped being sexist—I was full of "machismo." This change amazed my family and helped me win their confidence. Now my wife and one of my sisters are doing party work. At socials and in meetings, we discuss everything. We’ve converted something bad into something good.

Now my parents support our work in the Party. They’ve erased the false idea that we’ll die for being against the system. We’ve talked to them about the hundreds of thousands who die every day in wars for profit, from hunger, etc., without being communists. We hope these experiences help and motivate other comrades who find themselves in a similar situation to mine.

A Comrade

China Changes Have Material Basis

In a recent major article, CHALLENGE described how the Red Guards in China were defeated by the capitalist roaders.

Marxism teaches us that major developments in history cannot be understood without looking at their economic roots. But this article spoke only of mistakes in strategy and tactics used by the leaders of the Red Guards.

Unless a lot of people in China were benefiting economically from the introduction of capitalist methods, it would be impossible for the Chinese rulers to implement these policies without much more use of direct violence than has been the case. The fact is that, in addition to the upper leadership which has shamelessly enriched itself under a new system, a substantial portion of the working class has seen a rise in living standards.

Of course, this "progress" has come at the expense of the lower half of the working class, which has not shared in the economy’s growth and has lost even more in quality of life. But we should not close our eyes to the fact that at least half of China’s workers would tell you that—materially—things are better for them today.

In fact, in general it is true that any country fighting its way to communism today would see vast improvement in quality of life for the lower part of the working class, but less luxuries for the higher-paid workers. There would have to be a strong ideological campaign to mobilize a "serve-the-people" outlook and let people experience how much more meaningful life can be when all are playing a responsible part in promoting the well-being of the entire working class.

We should not close our eyes to the fact that communism does not mean immediate wealth for all. And we must realize that China’s "Great Leap Backward" was able to win support from many workers lured by material goods, closing their eyes to lower-class poverty.

Ancient Red