A few years ago, Decatur was a War Zone. Bridgestone/Firestone, Caterpillar and Staley workers were on strike. The union leaders were no match for the cops, courts and scabs, and the strikes were defeated.
Now, along with Archer/Midland and State Farm, these strikebreakers and union-busters are taking more direct control of the schools. The president of the School Board president is also the head of the Council on Economic Development. To compete in the "global economy," the bosses need young workers who are well trained and obedient. They are terrorizing students to get them to accept a future of low wages, long hours, fascism and war. They don't want students striking in their parents' footsteps.
Jackson has no problem with "school reform." He hasn't lifted a finger to stop the mass expulsions and arrests of black and Latin students in Chicago. He has been noticeably absent from all the protests against racist police terror carried out by Daley's cops. That's because he is part of the Clinton/Rockefeller/Daley faction of the ruling class, while the Decatur ruling class represents opposing interests. He is using the anti-racist anger of the masses to attack his enemies, and win the allegiance of workers and youth to eventually follow the Democrats to war.
He DOES have a problem with PLP. Over 30 PLP'ers and friends boarded the busses in Chicago armed with CHALLENGE leaflets and "Smash-the-KKK" stickers (the KKK held a counter-rally on the other side of town, defending the School Board). PUSH security kept repeating, "This is Jessie Jackson's march, not yours." One PL'er approached the bus captain and suggested people introduce themselves and state why they came. This gave us the opportunity to point out that these attacks are not limited to Decatur, but exist in Chicago and all over. Capitalism must attack the youth. Some responded that is all well and good, but "This is a religious thing."
PUSH security tried to prevent us from distributing our literature and discouraged marchers from reading it. They asked us to put away our Smash-the-KKK stickers, and not carry our banner, "Capitalist Education = Racism! Fight for Communism!" They even threatened to have a high school student arrested for using the bullhorn. But at every turn, the young comrades stood firm for the Party. When they evaluate the march, PLP will be an item on their agenda.
The march went through an integrated neighborhood and ended at Eisenhower High School. When a black man starting waving his fist in the air as he heard the PL chants, "It's about time somebody started saying something that matters," we got his name and number. Many students, black and white took the Smash-the-KKK stickers. We distributed thousands of PL leaflets and over 200 CHALLENGES, despite heavy harassment from PUSH security.
There is a lot to learn from today's activity. The vast majority of the marchers and onlookers are winnable to PLP. But we must fight for, and win, the leadership of the anti-racist movement. In that regard, we have a long way to go. We must dig deeper into the churches, unions, PUSH and other mass organizations led by the bosses, to gain strength and confidence from the masses, and to help them resolve the contradictions that keep them from joining PLP. The masses will never realize their anti-racist aspirations under the system of wage slavery. But we can't win them from a distance. We can't break the hold of the rulers and misleaders unless we have the deepest, unbreakable ties among the masses. That is the challenge before us.
FLASH: As we go to press, Jackson and a dozen supporters were arrested today leading a march to have the "Decatur 7" readmitted to school. The School Board is digging in its heels, and the battle is sure to heat up. As this struggle continues, we will be mobilizing in our unions, churches and student organizations to win more people to march under PLP's leadership.
Editorial
Why did the omission of just two words send this top ruling class agent into such frenzy? Because Daley knows that the "responsible" [read: loyal] opposition, despite any tactical differences with the Clinton administration, aims to build a nationalist movement that can be used by the ruling class to prepare for the war the bosses know they will eventually be forced to fight. More than likely, that war will be ground war in the Middle East to secure oily profits. Yet, as long as capitalism reigns, no wars in any region--from the Caucuses to Latin America to Asia--can be ruled out. By focusing on Globalization and the World Trade Organization, the AFL-CIO and its allies among the environmental and other Non-Governmental Groups (NGOs) purposely direct attention away from the real cause of unemployment, child and prison labor, declining wages, the rise of fascist governments and imperialist war--the capitalist system itself.
Long before the advent of the WTO in 1995, capitalism had spread its greedy tentacles throughout the world. In this century, U.S. imperialism fought two world wars and many more "lesser" wars to protect its profits. Tens of millions have died on the altar of imperialist and inter-imperialist wars to divide up the world amongst these capitalist bloodsuckers. Tens of millions continue to die of starvation and malnutrition in those areas still at "peace." Capitalist peace is truly the peace of the graveyard.
Still, the heightened anxiety of workers, even in the "advanced" industrial countries, is not without reason. An economic crisis of overproduction has gripped capitalism, with resulting political crises. WTO is a child of that crisis. It is a forum in which competing imperialist blocs vie for the allegiance of the working class. The bosses' labor lieutenants in the AFL-CIO are more than willing to do their part to win us to march for US imperialism, albeit with the humanitarian cover of a call for workers' rights and environmental regulation. Even if the WTO disappeared, capitalism and its worldwide crisis would remain. Eliminating them requires a communist revolution.
As long as capitalism exists, the system will pit not only company against company and country against country, but especially worker against worker. Production for profit creates this dog-eat-dog world. Communism produces for the needs of the working class, not the profits of the bosses. More workers around the world will mean more helping hands to provide for those needs, not competition that lowers wages.
We have to be clear on this. We march against imperialism, not against a new global economy. We say workers of the world unite, not workers of North America unite. We march for neither "free" nor "fair" trade, but for production and distribution according to need. We march not to reform or even abolish that bastard child of capitalist crisis, the WTO; we march against capitalism ITSELF.
Capitalism exists on trade for profits. Under communism, with no bosses or profits, there will no "trade" as such. The international working class will share according to need what we produce.
That clever worker was on to something. "Capitalism Sucks!" We can't reform the global capitalist economy to work for us. Building the Progressive Labor Party to pave the long road to communist revolution is the only answer.
Excluding China from the WTO would only straight-jacket U.S. maneuverability and strengthen the hands of its rivals in Europe and Japan. Yet there is another important reason to bring China into the WTO. A new military alliance between Russia, China, and India is a developing possibility, which the U.S. bosses must try to head off.
However, for the U.S., the agreement holds less than meets the eye. Beijing will still have considerable control over how--and where--the U.S. companies invest. China is playing for short-term benefits, such as a surge in dollars. Indeed, before the ink was even dry, Beijing portrayed this as a sign of political strength versus the US, not as an important reform. Still, this agreement amounts to a death warrant for some of the anti-Rockefeller bosses within the U.S., especially the Milliken textile empire.
Although the AFL-CIA leadership appears "disloyal" to its U.S. masters when Sweeney opposes China's entry into the WTO, the union's role is a key domestic one. The leaders of the industrial unions are moving into high gear to build patriotism, anti-communism and racism among manufacturing workers, in preparation for war with China and others. They aim to develop a popular base for deadly fascism. This makes the struggle for internationalism and communism at the anti-WTO demonstrations even more crucial.
The U.S. bosses want us to fight for them. We have to fight for OUR class--the international working class.
However, "fair trade"--"fair" conditions for workers--is impossible under capitalism. And it's capitalism, not NAFTA, that's oppressing that grocery worker. As this movement attracts thousands, PLP'ers among them must win many to the idea expressed in the worker's sign that so angered Daly--"Capitalism Sucks!"
She described the importance of building a fighting base among the teachers, parents and students. She urged everyone not to make the mistake of becoming inactive because it is harder to organize without the experience of fighting side-by-side with our friends on a daily basis. This allows us to develop the confidence in each other needed to carry on the struggle. She concluded by emphasizing the importance of communist teachers training their students to fight for communism, while also opposing the Board of Education's attacks on students which prevent them from learning skills.
We divided into workshops to discuss how the move towards fascism in the schools can be fought. Students and teachers are up against fascist policing of the schools, misleading and false curricula and an increasing battery of standardized tests which fewer students are trained to pass. Several students in one workshop discussed how many black, Latin, white and Asian students are won over to nationalist ideas and therefore are not unified to fight for their common interests. They discussed how to fight back against metal detectors and cops. They talked about the kinds of actions they could take and how they could distribute more CHALLENGES. The students had sharp struggles among themselves about taking leadership and the importance of defeating passivity. The students in this workshop committed themselves to meet in a PLP study group.
On Sunday morning teachers demonstrated lessons they use in their classrooms which help the students prepare for the tests they must pass to move on in school and also point out the truth which students must learn to turn away from the system. They also pointed out the importance of getting to know students in the classroom, teaching the science of understanding and changing the world called dialectical materialism, and introducing CHALLENGE as a tool to teach fighting back.
At the end of the workshops on Saturday some teachers agreed to distribute CHALLENGE and join a PLP study group.
Several proposals were made at the end of the conference. Teachers agreed to distribute lesson plans and successful teaching methods and to increase our fighting activity in the schools.
Two PL members, teachers at Kennedy, sent letters home with their students inviting parents to a PTA meeting to discuss this restructuring. Principal Silvestri--who said at a faculty meeting "they could close us at any time"--accused these teachers of spreading false and inflammatory rumors. He then used two other teachers to interview students in an "investigation" about what these PL'ers said and did in class. One comrade received a summons to a disciplinary hearing in Silvestri's office for sending the letter home with the students. T
There was an immediate outcry of support for these two communist teachers. Students, parents and teachers have come forward, ready to confront the principal. The union's chapter leader of the union wrote two very strong articles in the UFT newsletter backing these comrades and attacking the bosses' spies as rats and scabs. This support is based on having led many struggles over the years as open communists.
We must turn this fight to keep JFK open into a school for communist ideas. This system will never truly educate our youth. We must win them, their parents and other teachers to be fighters for a communist future.
The energy and optimism of youth openly calling for a communist solution to public health problems acted as a catalyst. The transformation of pro-worker and anti-racist public health workers to becoming communists is a painstaking process. But it sped up when a 17-year old black high school student stood up in a room full of professionals, and denounced the system that causes homelessness as both racist and fascist. Power and conviction beyond her years resonated in her voice, providing a glimpse of hope that couldn't be found in mountains of data presented at a thousand scientific sessions. Her comments followed those of two Latin day laborers, whose miserable pay was not sufficient to cover the cost of an apartment. This made an impression, even among older, more conservative members of the audience. One was later heard talking about "the communist session the other night."
But even the best speeches must be tied to the patient, ongoing struggle to raise communist ideas with our friends. Scores of APHA delegates are familiar with CHALLENGE, but very few receive it regularly. Even if we follow up the convention by doubling the paper's regular readership as part of the follow-up to the convention, the circulation will seem tiny in an organization of 50,000 members. But Party-building is a process. We have made significant gains over past years. Experience shows that long-term use of CHALLENGE is absolutely essential to recruiting new members. About 175 papers were distributed at this convention. The more "up close and personal" use of the paper with friends, over time, will prove most useful.
Fighting racism is crucial to building the Party in the APHA. PLP was instrumental in first raising the issue of racist violence research in APHA six years ago. Resolutions and presentations attacking the phony science searching for a "violence gene" in young black males have been led by PL's ideas ever since. This year, the room was packed, with dozens more standing in the hall, straining to hear an excellent session on the topic. Members were so excited that there were still 30 people eagerly discussing the issue 45 minutes after the session adjourned. Sixty people gave their names to be contacted. In the struggle against racist research, against genocidal sterilization campaigns or against the racism used to justify oil wars, PLP has been out front.
Friends in the APHA Governing Council of APHA came to PLP members when the struggle against the racist Decatur School Board hit the news. "Look at this," a friend exclaimed. "We should do something!" With anti-racist friends and supporters, we passed a resolution entitled "Condemn Racist Response to School Violence."
PLP is emerging as the leader in the fight against racism in APHA. Now we need to win each other to a higher level of commitment. That may mean reading or distributing CHALLENGE every week, donating money, participating in a PLP study group or working with us in our APHA section or caucus as we start making plans for next year's meeting in Boston and joining the Progressive Labor Party.
The workers have reacted with even more unity. Several went on a hunger strike and occupied the office of the Coalition of Parties for Democracy. These workers have decided not to give up on their demands, exposing these fascist wolves dressed in democrats' clothing.
Our PLP grouping here is supporting these strikers, emphasizing to them the fact that only through unity and militancy can they fight the bosses' attacks. (We told them we believe that a hunger strike is not a good idea since the bosses couldn't care less if workers starve.) We have also pointed out that this class struggle has brought the reality of life for workers under capitalism to the make believe world of the theater. Support the striking theater workers! Fight for communism
It happened to be November 11, the date of their execution in 1887. They were hanged for the crime of organizing the working class against the vicious attacks of capital.
When we finally found the monument, we stood for a moment of reflection along with our Haitian cab driver, with whom we had discussed Waldheim Cemetery and Haymarket on the drive out. He had learned all about Haymarket and the birth of May Day as a youth growing up in Haiti. We found a gray-whiskered older worker in a red jacket at the graveside. He reached out and reverently placed his beefy right hand on each of the names on the stone monument at 11:58 AM, the exact moment, 112 years to the day that Engel, Parsons, Fischer and Spies were executed. There was something quietly powerful about the four of us standing there, reflecting a different mix of international workers from a century ago, but part of the same process.
We read the last words of August Spies on the plaque: "There will come a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today."
APHA Reader
The current-finger pointing between U.S. and Russian bosses over each other's crimes is a sickening spectacle of murderers' hypocrisy. Hardly a day goes by without one side exposing atrocities committed by the other. The U.S. media print pictures of dead bodies and refugees in Chechnya, and the Russians counter with similar tales of horrors carried out by U.S. bombing raids over Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, the Sudan, or Iraq. Well, they're both right! Inter-imperialist rivalry always leads to this kind of mayhem for the working class. And it will intensify. U.S.-Russian relations will probably become a key focus of the 2000 presidential campaign, as the liberal Bradley camp tries to mobilize workers against the "Russian threat."
In a recent article Haass he describes the most important lessons the bosses should draw from the first ten years after the so-called end of the Cold War. They are: 1) "...military intervention remains a central feature of American foreign policy." 2) "Decisiveness is almost always preferable to gradualism." [Don't talk, shoot!) 3) "Both Iraq and Kosovo suggest that short of occupation, military force is not a very good tool for changing regimes." Therefore: 4) "...only ground forces will be able to protect [U.S.] interests." "Domestic opposition to such a commitment can be reduced and overcome by concerted presidential effort" (The Use and Abuse of Military Force, November 1999).
The article mentions Iraq and Saddam Hussein many times. This piece should be read as marching orders for the presidential candidates. War between the U.S. and Russia may take many years to materialize, but another U.S. oil war in the Middle East is on the very near horizon.
The bosses may win themselves to their own marching orders, but they don't have to win us. Each of their wars is an opportunity to build our revolutionary forces and advance toward turning the guns around.
Conversely, all theories that claim that any of these functions is innate, fixed and unchangeable are used to build racism, and often sexism. Nor does it matter whether the theory claims these brain functions are genetic, developmental or in response to the environment. It is the alleged fixed nature of a person's brain functions that makes the theory false.
Such theories have been and are used by the capitalist ruling class to build a fascist consciousness among the working class and its allies. Therefore any discovery that undermines the claims of the fixed nature of human mental function is of great interest to communists and all others who look for ways to fight racism and sexism.
A recent article in the Washington Post Health Section, called "The Infinite Brain," described the work of scientists who show the many ways in which the brain is tremendously changeable. This changeability is somewhat greater in children, but--and here's the big news--it is still continues throughout our lives, whether we live to 50 or 100.
One of the experiments that most clearly reveals the extent of this changeability is a treatment for seizures, pioneered at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore over the last 15 years. Neurosurgeons there have treated some 80 children with uncontrollable seizures by removing the entire half of their brains responsible for the seizures.
One four-year-old, for example, had the left half of her brain removed over 14 years ago. In most people, that's the half containing the functions of speech and understanding of language, along with all sensation and muscular (motor) control of the body's right side.
Shortly after this operation this child regained her speech, caught up with her friends in school, and regained use of her right arm and leg. Now 18, she is essentially normal in all the functions she originally lost! Conclusion: the remaining right half of her brain took up all the functions previously performed by her left half.
Another example of brain changeability or plasticity is an observation made in right-handed children who learn to play a stringed instrument, such as violin or guitar. This requires extreme dexterity in the left hand. Through various imaging tests, researchers can observe directly which portions of the brain are being used when the person performs a particular function. They found when children learn to play violin or guitar the portion of their right brain that controls their left hand expands to fill a much larger area. The neighboring nerves that previously served another function are taken over and used to control the left hand, while the displaced functions also move to new territory.
In blind people who learn Braille (reading by touch), the unused part of the back of the brain usually reserved for sight is taken over by the sense of touch.
All this means that, unlike a computer, which is rearranged by software, the brain is actually capable of rearranging its hardware--the nerve assignments and connections. Any time you learn something, your brain is rearranging its connections and/or assignments.
In light of this adaptability, the concept of fixed brain functions, incapable of change, becomes nonsense. Permanently fixed intelligence or aggressiveness, thought to be incapable of responding to a person's interaction with his or her situation or with other people, proves to be an incorrect conclusion of many researchers, or a deliberate lie. Often these researchers, hungry for grant money from ruling class foundations and government and to please their benefactors, concoct one racist theory after another.
These false theories include the idea that criminality is either in the genes of black and Hispanic youth, or is at least a fixed quality that can only be dealt with by harmful or useless drugs or by prison or execution. This lets capitalism off the hook, along with its masters, those primarily responsible for poverty, unemployment, crime, drugs, broken schools, and dilapidated housing and streets. These theorists' undialectical view that negates constant change in everything inevitably leads to false conclusions about all reality, including science. Here it also helps to cover up their willing service to a ruling class becoming more desperate to protect its rule from an awakening and future wrath of the working class.
"Honest" scientists who fail to use a dialectical approach will often arrive at inaccurate or one-sided results. These can and will be used by the ruling class for their own purposes. These opposing theories on the brain confirm what PLP says about the necessity for the working class to master dialectical materialism as a guide to analyzing the real world and changing it to liberate our class.
"What about this letter Sweeney signed to support US interests?" shouted out one member at a local official trying to recruit marchers. "He's sold us out before we've even rallied!"
"I haven't heard of any such statement," the official answered. "I sure it's not true!"
You could feel the buzz as members wanted to hear more. The membership was not to be disappointed.
"The WTO is not some corporate monolith," began the next speaker on the WTO. "It's a forum in which the biggest corporations and the national governments that support them fight it out. In light of this battle amongst imperialists, Sweeny's statement is particularly distressing."
The speaker went on to show how Sweeney hooked up with Thomas Donohue, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a big mucky-muck at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), to issue this clarion call in support of U.S. imperialism. Our speaker then retold the sordid history of the how the CIA funneled money through the NED to the AFL-CIO so it could attack workers all around the world to fatten the wallets of the biggest US bosses.
"Now this statement [Sweeney's] has been issued in the name of fair trade," continued our speaker. Sweeney signed the CEO's letter endorsing Clinton/Rockefeller's "free trade" position in order to supposedly get "a seat at the bosses') table." He says he will use that "seat" to protect workers' rights and the environment--"convert `free' trade to `fair' trade"].
The speaker went on to show how ludicrous it was to call for fair trade in this system. Even some of the local King County Labor Council leadership have publicly stated that the National AFL-CIO must "be living on another planet" if they think the WTO will protect workers' right and prevent child labor. With the WTO or without the WTO, capitalism means imperialism. ...And imperialism means poverty, destitution and war.
Ending with a flourish, our speaker said, "Let the minutes show that here stands a machinist that plans to demonstrate on Nov. 30 against any collaboration with the bloodsuckers at the WTO. I would be ashamed to be at the same table with them!"
"Let the minutes show that here stands a worker that will demonstrate against all the attacks of capital, be they in the name of free or fare trade. "Fair or free trade," our speaker concluded as she was being called to order by the president, "it's all foul for workers!"
Afterwards a 30-year veteran union member of over 30 years, shook our speaker's hand. "That was the best speech you ever gave," he said.
This may be just a bump in the road in the hacks' plans to build support for US imperialism amongst the US working class. At the same time, it also shows the potential for greater anti-imperialist organizing among these key workers. We must never waver from political battle with the agents of the bosses within our midst. As the man said, "We have nothing to lose but our chains and a world to win! Workers of the world, unite!"
Real life? It could be; the potential is there. But no, this is the new movie Light It Up! It takes place in a New York City high school. Mr. Knowles, a white teacher, admired by his students, relocates his class to a diner after his dilapidated room's windows fall apart in winter, a rebellion is sparked.
He asked the careerist black principal for help finding a new room. The principal tells Knowles he doesn't care, and "he can take them anywhere." So, he takes them to the diner to conduct class. After having a showdown with an armed robber in the diner, the principal suspends Knowles because "he endangered the students." So much for trying to be a good teacher!
When the students find out that their favorite teacher has been fired, they protest in the principal's office. The pig of the principal calls in his newly-hired dog, the NYPD school guard, Jackson, who sees all the students as "criminals." Jackson roughs up a couple of the students. Instead of "assuming the position" the students fight back.
The struggle spills into the hallway where Jackson's gun falls out. Ziggy, a homeless student brutalized by his father, picks it up and tells the cop he won't go home. Jackson attempts to take the gun away and is accidentally shot. The principal shows up with security and they try taking Ziggy away. His friend Lester, however, gets the gun, because he doesn't want anything to happen to his friend. Someone pulls the fire alarm which evacuates the school and the take-over by six students is on. A major weakness of the film is that they didn't organize ALL THE STUDENTS to take over the school.
The movie shows how the media labels these working class students as "predators" and "criminals," especially by the time they enter high school. The six students use the Internet to counter the police and media lies about them and also set forward a set of demands: new windows, books, a career day and that Mr. Knowles be reinstated as their teacher.
The cops and bosses don't want to give in to even these simple demands. Thousands of workers and students gather outside, holding up "Stop Racism" signs and chant to support the "Lincoln Six." Ultimately, some of the demands are met, but the students are sent to prison and later strive for the "American dream" with no regrets.
The main message and strength of this movie is to fight against passivity During the siege, one student, Rivers, says to another that his parents always told him about being involved in the anti-Vietnam war movement and that their life had meaning because of it. Now that he was involved in this struggle he, too, could have some meaning to his life. At the end of the movie, Ziggy, after was shot by the cops, tells Lester to remind people about how he "stood up." And in the end monologue, Ziggy tells us how Mr. Knowles always told them, "It's not how long you live but what you do with your life."
Many workers and students will be drawn to LIGHT IT UP! because it does represent some of the real problems that exist in the schools but our solution is not to repair capitalism but to fight for communism. This movie fits into the big bosses' agenda of improving the conditions of the schools, but only to the point of having having a better-trained working class.
A communist world won't be won by the spontaneity represented in this film. Youth are crucial to making a revolution. We must organize them every day to steel themselves in class struggle and win other students to join the Progressive Labor Party.
A AUTEUR
There are two scenes that stand out. One is when an Iraqi secret service agent captures one of the "kings" and tells him how U.S. bombs killed his family. You see the bomb falling on his family. When the renegade defends his participation in the war by saying that the U.S. was trying to impose stability on the area, the Iraqi agent says, "I'll show you what the `stability' was all about," and pours oil into his mouth. The Iraqi agent explains that he was trained in torture techniques by U.S. advisors.
Another scene shows U.S. soldiers killing an Iraqi soldier as he was trying to surrender. There are also several references to the atrocities committed by U.S. troops during the Gulf War.
Most of the "kings," with the exception of the George Clooney character, are working-class brothers and sisters suckered into fighting the war. And there's a lot of multi-racial unity, and lots of embracing of even Iraqi civilians, as well as black, white and Latin characters.
All this seems to add up to being a liberal-left movie attacking the Gulf War, and sort of showing the dirty business behind it. In one scene, there's an attack on the Bush Administration for tricking the Iraqi opposition into coming out to fight against Saddam Hussein only to leave them abandoned to be wiped out.
The war is also criticized because the U.S. Army didn't go all the way and "get Saddam." The movie shows lots of scenes of U.S. soldiers rescuing Iraqi civilians from Saddam Hussein's goons. We see how deeply they come to care for the Iraqi civilians and how they learn about Iraqi culture (although in a very superficial way).
The "three kings" are powerful and invincible. There are several wildly unrealistic scenes in which they overpower dozens of well-armed Iraqi goons (shades of the "Rambo" movies!). Actually, these scenes are blatantly racist.
So, what's the message? First, the movie defends the new preparations for war from the liberal position. The idea is that the next U.S. invasion must be coordinated with the Iraqi opposition movement to put in Baghdad a pro-U.S. ruler. The movie admits that the Gulf War may have begun about oil, but that somehow the new one will be about "rescuing the people of Iraq from the evil Hussein." This continues the humanitarian BS the bosses are now using to justify their oil wars and to try to fool the hundreds of thousands of young people who will see this movie, especially black and Latin youth, who dig on the Cube. Since the movie occurs when the war had just ended, the ongoing butchery being carried out by U.S. policies in the siege of Iraq (using bombs, an embargo, malnutrition, disease and a poisoned environment) are not shown.
Yes, this is a pretty powerful, entertaining movie, able to pull its audiences into it. But remember: the liberalism in the movie is the basis for the coming war, trying to sucker us into supporting the oil profits of Exxon-Mobil
One day there will be better movies than this that'll show soldiers turning the guns around and shooting the bosses--Iraqi, U.S. and Iranian--gunning them down in the cause of a communist revolution.
Red Siskel
Today, November 11, we came back from Paris after demonstrating against the fascist Khatami group which is ruling Iran. The protest was very powerful. The police stopped us several times and detained us in the police station for a while. Afterwards, we were met by other Iranian comrades from other parts of Europe. We marched to the meeting place and sang songs of Stalingrad. The Khatami group was in shock as we Iranian communists and revolutionaries upset and disrupted their visit! It was big news in many parts of Europe.
Now we are back in our home cities again. I will translate the PLP document Road to Revolution into Farsi, the language of Iran. We will win!
Comrade from Europe
The fact is that racism is rampant in all aspects of society. Cab drivers, most of whom are immigrants from South Asia, the West Indies, Africa and Latin America, are also victims of racism. Paraphrasing my buddy, West Harlem Lou, a cabbie for many years, "We work very long hours and make very little money while the fleet owners keep most of our fares."But many of these cab drivers are also affected by the racism directed against black workers in general. This is part of the racism of this capitalist society which treats particularly black workers and youth as "potential criminals."As Glover seems to realize, to ask the biggest racists of them all (the bosses and their politicians) to do something about racism simply builds more racism. To fight racism, one must first and foremost fight the ruling class, the source of racism!
Red Rider
Your criticisms of the group's "left" politics have crossed my mind also. When I saw the group perform on the David Letterman and the Conan O'Brian Late Show, I was wondering why this group was being given so much publicity all of a sudden.
Then I thought about how capitalism has always used the "co-opt" method, which takes potential enemies of the system and slides them into the system through integration and large sums of money. This process renders the potential enemy as harmless and just another commodity to be purchased as the message becomes obliterated by the cash nexus and fadism.
In other words, listening to Rage Against the Machine may become as fashionable as wearing the correct sneakers and jeans. Nonetheless, it is refreshing-considering that mass culture is aimed primarily at instilling mind numbing nihilism or supernatural mumbo jumbo into the minds of the masses-to see a group that is actually making biting commentary on capitalist society and culture and religion.In a recent documentary, RATM's singer and lyric writer, Zach de la Rocha narrated information concerning the student strike in Mexico, the longest strike of this sort in Mexican history, and the mass media in this nation has hardly mentioned this important struggle.
Compare this to the coverage given to the students at Tienaman Square in China, who were parading around with miniature Statues of Liberty. Of course, the Chinese government's claims that the students wanted capitalism were absurd considering that it was Deng himself who opened this door. But the difference between the Chinese students and the Mexican students is primarily that the Chinese students served the cause of anti-communism and the Mexican students represent a battle against capitalism and US imperialism.
RATM played a concert in Mexico for the students and it was very well received by the struggling students. So despite some of the reformist positions of the group, it does have many positive aspects and does open the door to the discussion with young people of the evils born from the crumbling womb of capitalism on the road to fascism.RED RAGE FANArmani, Gap, Nike: Designers for Capitalism
Take five minutes and look in your closet. Do you see old familiar names? Go ahead, say "hi" to Tommy, Ralph, Donna, Versace and Armani. Are there more names in there than in your phone book? Do Nike, Fila and Reebok take up more room than your communist literature? Now that you're finished visiting with old friends here's what we teenagers think about fashion and capitalism.
As a high school teenager there's a lot of pressure to fit in, and part of it is wearing brand-name clothes. Most high school students think that as long as they wear the kind of clothes they see celebrities wear in magazines and on TV they are cool and get to choose the people they hang out with. Whenever there are movie premieres or any other celebrity-filled events, one of the first questions asked is, "What are you wearing?" Fame and fortune then become associated with a designer name. Under capitalism we are pushed to disassociate ourselves from the working class, so designer clothes become something to strive for. In social situations this leads to a feeling of superiority over others. If someone is not wearing what they're "supposed" to, they become known in the school as the "losers". How else do you explain "Zed" beating-up "Ned" because his Jordan's were "so last year"?
Well kids weren't born with the "fitting-in syndrome." No five-year-old child worries about wearing Osh Kosh instead of Gap jeans. We learn this brain-washed mentality from the capitalist society we live in. Capitalism breeds ignorance. You work hard for your paycheck just to waste it on a $80 pair of Tommy Hilfiger jeans. While we're struggling to pay for a subway fare, Mr. Hilfiger is being chauffeured around in one of his limousines
This is no accident; capitalism's media bombards us with images of what we are supposed to be. Designer clothing companies fight each other for our loyalty to one brand or another, thereby dividing the working class. As members of the working class, we are closer to the people who MAKE the clothes than we are to the people whose names are on them, though they try to make us think otherwise. The fervor over brand names is yet another way the ruling class tries ideologically to bind workers to its own interests. Nike, Fila, Versace, Armani or any other brand super-exploit workers in other countries (mainly Asia and South America).
They point to the low minimum wage in those regions to justify the wages they pay their workers. That's just the excuse these billionaire capitalists use because capitalism can never provide for the working class's needs. No matter if you're wearing a Fubu cap or if you're making it for two dollars an hour, only a communist revolution led by the PLP can end wage slavery and the capitalist sense of fashion. The Group in the Corner
World Bank:Imperialist ToolNot too long ago there was a demonstration against the World Bank and the appearance of its president at UCLA. Several student organizations united around the broad and vague theme of standing up against "globalization" and the exploitative economic policies imposed on nations throughout the world by this body of several banks, based primarily in US institutions. The students were very concerned about the exploitation of workers around the world. Some even had signs saying, "Down with Imperialism! Down with Capitalism." PLP members participated, with CHALLENGE and leaflets.
Chants demanding "fair trade," not "free trade" summed up the basic political line of these organizations. We say this is an error with huge consequences. In an age of sharpening inter-imperialist rivalry, there can be no such thing as "free trade." It is a myth created by the original capitalist thinkers like Adam Smith who were reacting against the trade restrictions of early colonialism and mercantile capitalism. People like him thought of capitalism as an economic system where trade would be controlled and regulated by an "invisible hand" so that no tariffs or trade regulations would be needed. Supply and demand--the bourgeois motto--would automatically manage markets and production.
It is even more ridiculous to ask for "fair trade." Capitalism as a system works around one thing--PROFIT! Maintaining that profit against competitors is absolutely necessary for any capitalist if he wants to survive. That's why we say capitalism is a "dog-eat-dog system." But for workers to ask the capitalist to do the impossible is an illusion that will get us killed.
The World Bank is a tool of imperialism in crisis. Imperialists are desperately trying to ensure control over markets while trying to hold up a falling rate of profit at the same time. The World Bank is only one example where groups of capitalists have forged alliances to gain strength and advantage over other international imperialist competitors. This follows directly from Marx's analysis of the nature of capitalism. He noted that there is an inevitable trend towards a concentration of capital into fewer and fewer hands, forming huge monopolies of capital and resources. But we should not be confused. This is not a move based on absolute power. This is a worldwide example of capitalism in crisis. This is essentially a move based on a position of weakness. The World Bank cannot be reformed, it can only be destroyed with the destruction of the system of capitalism.
LA Comrade
Several workers told us that at 10:00 A.M. (half way through the shift), they give out "refreshments" with a stimulant drug causing workers to work faster. The normal shift is from 7:00 A.M. to 5:30 P.M., with only a half-hour for lunch. The workers report losing about five pounds a month.
Unable to afford bus fare, workers must ask for rides to get to work. This means allowing an extra hour each way going to and coming from the job. This exposes women workers to rape and abuse. A worker in the American Park maquilla, along the new road from here to Santa Ana, said several women have been attacked when waiting for rides.
Goons walk through the factories. At the end of the day they listen for anti-boss comments to find those who want to organize. The fascist conditions in the maquillas make this almost impossible. If you try, they fire you or kill you.
The American Park worker said the bosses are always pushing the party in power. During the elections they forced the workers to guard some voting booths and vote for the fascist Arena Party. If workers refused, they were fired.
The politicians tell us if we don't put up with these job conditions, the factories will close, meaning more unemployment and hunger. Millions of workers around the world live as slaves to this capitalist system. Globalization has created a new army of the unemployed impossible to count. They will be the gravediggers of the bosses.
The bosses' politicians, whether from the right or the "left," are part of the capitalist state apparatus and therefore are assassins of workers, children and old people. Workers of the world, we only have two options: continue to put up with these exploiters, or organize against these conditions to end exploitation with communist revolution.
A comrade from El Salvador