It was a very exciting and awesome May Day at the State Univeristy of NY in Albany. At 1 pm, students organized by the Student Revolutionary Coalition went through class buldings with  signs, pots and pans, yelling “WALK OUT NOW.” The students who joined in went around all the buildings, and met at the small fountain in front of the campus center. Students, faculty and staff joined in, about 100 or more people taking part in this rally against  corporations such as Sodexo and Coca-Cola at our university. Other demands were about the lack of diverse faculty and staff, and underfunded Africana and Latino Studies departments. Curriculum requirements for global culture classes are being cut while U.S history is still a requirement.
During the rally students took turns talking about what we are fighting for. We are also demanding fair trade products as options in our campus centers. Many custodial workers and food services workers (who are mainly black and Latino) joined us in this rally and also spoke about their struggles. After the rally at the fountain, we walked to the University administration building, where our demands were made clear to the president of the university. “All of our demands are non-negotiable!” one student said, “we will not stop fighting for what we deserve.  The time is now — we stand as one!”
It was amazing to see so many dedicated students walk out and stand up against injustice on campus. The president said he would set up a meeting about our concerns. We made it clear we are serious, and not looking for crumbs. The money needed for the things we are demanding is going into new buildings including a fountain and a stadium, while tuition and mandatory student fees are being increased by $300 and lab fees are going up!
Albany Student
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This was my second May Day, and I am more than happy to be part of PLP’s undeniable fight for a communist revolution. After being more involved and interacting with new people since last year, I enjoyed May Day more. It was amazing to hear what others had to say, and learn from their experiences and their struggles. The more I was involved and the more I understood what PLP is trying to overcome, the more I enjoyed May Day. More than anything, it taught me the importance of this holiday.
High School Student
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I experienced my first May Day event. It was inspiring to see the skit about Mayor Bloomberg and other bosses shutting down the schools, hospitals and raising bus and train fares. I really related to that particular skit because it showed the effects of capitalism and how workers protest them. I also enjoyed the vibe, how everyone was united and happy. PLP has given me a sip of the bitterness of black coffee that is capitalism. Lots of people in the working class suffer from unemployment, racist Stop-and-Frisk, few resources for youth, prisons and closing schools. I can’t wait to be in next year’s May Day skit.
Brand New Fighter
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PLP celebrated May Day in Brooklyn, helping to fight for the rights of workers. Many workers took a stand. I really enjoyed marching down the streets and chanting with people from different ethnicities. We all stood united and defended communism, which would create a better society for young and old. I used to think the U.S. was a “free country.” It really isn’t because we, the working people, are being oppressed by the capitalist system. Why do the U.S. bosses try to hide May Day? It’s because they want us to be in chains for eternity. But on May Day we proved them wrong. Nothing can stop us from celebrating such a historic day. It will lead to revolution. “Capitalism means we got to fight back!...Bush, Clinton, Obama, koupe tet, boule kay!” These were awesome, workers’ chants to let them know we are not afraid of their terror.
Inspired Tilden student
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What I liked most about May Day was how people united to fight back. May Day was a great way to come together to fight back against the violence the cops use against black youth, killing innocent people.
Anti-racist Youth

PLP Gives Birth to A New Proletarian Internationalism
An international, revolutionary, communist working-class movement is the only alternative to the capitalist destruction of the world and the genocidal massacres of imperialist war. Capitalists created the modern working class by organizing us into collective factory production. In the process, as Marx noted, they were creating their own gravediggers. Social production led workers to grow conscious of ourselves as a class that had no need for the capitalist class that privately owned the means of production and used state power to legalize its violent expropriation of the value of our labor.
Working-class consciousness reached new heights in the communist movement to seize state power by armed revolution. This movement aims to abolish capital, capitalists, and the ideologies that underpin the social relations of capitalism: individualism, racism, sexism, nationalism, and philosophical idealism.  Two great communist revolutions, in the Soviet Union and in China, showed the power of the communist vision — and also how hard it is to realize in practice and how easily it can be reversed back into capitalism.
Today it is time to rebuild the organized communist movement, this time on an international basis — one international working class, one international communist party, a new proletarian internationalism. It is time because capitalism is again creating its own gravediggers, now on a global scale.  The imperialist powers that dominate the entire world — though bitter rivals among themselves — are creating an international, de-nationalized labor system.
More than ever, the working class is swept up in a massive tide of migrant labor from poorer to richer capitalist economies. More than ever, workers of different national origins are living in world cities as a single work force. Millions of other workers, conscripted into the bosses’ militaries, are moved around the world with no respect to borders.
In short, modern imperialism is creating a new international proletariat. The capitalist bosses are giving us the material basis to organize an international communist party, to revolt against all owning and ruling classes, and to take state power to abolish capital itself. Organized by the international Progressive Labor Party, the new international working class can unleash a revolutionary movement with the communist vision to take power.
Dialectics teaches us about the distinction between appearance and essence. Capitalism appears to be unchallenged and triumphant throughout the world. In essence, however, it is a decaying system that carries the seeds of its own destruction.
Our world cities appear to be passive assemblies of hopelessly oppressed, divided, disarmed, and alienated workers. But in essence, they are launching pads of world revolution.
With this dialectical outlook, a small party like PLP begins to look like the seed of the international party that a communist revolution requires. The apparently local class struggles we join and lead become fertile soil of a new, international, revolutionary practice.
Our political line, while in need of deeper development, begins to look like the renewed stirrings of communist thought after a long, dark night. The obstacles and problems our Party faces are pangs of rebirth. They reflect a new beginning for proletarian internationalism after its historic defeat. 
If we take note of the new possibilities of the internationalized working class, we can sustain our hope to internationalize the Progressive Labor Party. None of our work is purely local or national. Every strike and protest and organizing drive — whether in Pakistan or the U.S., Haiti or Colombia — is linked to the international profit system and its preparations for world war. This May Day presents a new opportunity for PLP to build on our advances of the last fifty years and move toward a new proletarian internationalism, a world where “the international working class shall be the human race.” 
A Comrade
 

‘White skin privilege’ — A Bosses’ Ideology
I attended a Unitarian church meeting on April 14 in Minneapolis to view a film on “white skin privilege.” There were about 30 members of my church there, mostly  working-class, antiracist and white. Afterwards we discussed how to sincerely do something about racism.
Self-critically I was not as forthcoming on attacking White Skin Privilege. I hope to attend a Unitarian Convention coming up where PLP members active in the Unitarian church will be addressing it.
I tried to explain that it’s a bad ideology because whites are oppressed as workers while blacks are super oppressed workers. I gave the example of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. Black workers made some political gains by being in struggle together with white working-class allies. Otherwise the little we got from the ruling class as “concessions” we would not have. As one of my antiracist heroes Frederick Douglass  aptly said, “Power concedes nothing without struggle.” I hope in time to learn ways of challenging it in church as a ruling-class ideology. That is why I want to be at the Unitarian Conference with my Comrades. Communist ideology will win out eventually.
Minnesota Red



How to Be Part of the Solution
I remember walking into Hunter College one day to attend a study group, not knowing really what to expect. All I knew is that I had this urgent feeling inside of me for a while that kept saying: “the world needs help. The world needs to change.” So I decided to do something about it, anything about it, and that’s when I reached out to my friend and that’s what brought me to the study group.
The first activity we did was to read and discuss some articles about hot-button issues. I noticed that the specific new articles we talked about weren’t really that talked about in the mainstream media, and didn’t get as much recognition as I thought they deserved. Reading and discussing the newspaper was really refreshing. I was surrounded by a group of open-minded people around my age, who all had their own opinions and had a common interest like me in becoming more concerned with the world and its problems instead of turning away from them.
I knew for a while how important the human connection was, but the study group just reinforced my long-held belief. There was a flow of interpretations, a flow of opinions, a way of looking at things you might not have thought of before. I felt like I was a part of something, a small community where I could see myself grow and evolve, and where maybe I could help someone else do the same thing.
I learned more about the political concept of communism and why people held onto it as much as they did. One of my friends also came along with me, and she began questioning everything that was said. At first that made me uneasy, because I knew that she is naturally very curious, and wants to hear as many sides as possible. But would the others see it that way as well? I was happy she did question many things though. Because she did that, I learned not just how, but why, communism.
I also realized that asking questions also can help bring out the situations that might cause dissent or problems for communism as a way to govern. And through bringing up the possible roadblocks, we also help discover questions other people might have and work towards solutions or answers in preparation.
What brings about changes in society is what is happening at the study group -- people coming together, and sharing. By actively thinking and collaborating we are able to come up with solutions together and then expand. Our study groups are definitely something to be proud of, because no matter what happens in the world, at least we tried to be part of the solution instead of letting life pass us by.
Challenge reader

Building May Day Brings Out Best in Workers
This year, my pre-May-Day organizing has had some modest victories and disappointments. As a young transit worker, with only a couple years on the job, my schedule fluctuates frequently, and it has been difficult to build consistent relationships with coworkers. Still, several of them bought tickets and committed to coming to the May Day dinner.
One of my coworkers lost nearly everything during Hurricane Sandy. I started getting to know her right after the storm, when she was forced to sleep at the job because her home was uninhabitable. With the current schedule, I saw her everyday, and we often talk about politics or play board games on break. She was excited to hear about our May Day build-up event a few weeks ago, as the topics included attacks on transit workers and sandy relief efforts. She even brought soda as a contribution to the potluck. After a lively discussion about communism, she agreed to march with us on May Day.
Unfortunately, I’ve also had some setbacks. One coworker, who I consider a close friend, was forced off the job and onto medical leave (despite his ability to perform many tasks). Instead of wanting to hang out more or get politically active, he got depressed and anxious about mounting bills.
Capitalism reeks havoc on workers’ lives, kicking us to the curb when it’s sucked all the profits it can from us. This coworker was politically conscious and always made people laugh in the break room. He’d backed me up during a confrontation with ConEd scabs last summer and joined me in supporting a school bus strike picket. We became close by playing board games and because I visited him in the hospital (when he first got sick). The system’s got him down and scrambling at the moment, and we haven’t been able to link up since he’s been out, so it seems unlikely he’ll come to May Day.
However, my girlfriend and I were able to visit one coworker. This was a great experience since I got to meet some of his family, I was able to hang out with him for the first time since the current schedule began, and my girlfriend got to better understand what the PLP means when we talk about building a base in the working class. We spoke about why May Day is an important day and he bought two tickets.
Finally, there are a group of health care workers who are also passengers I see regularly. When I first showed these workers articles about hospital closings and police brutality in their neighborhood they were interested. After taking CHALLENGE, a few of them gave me large donations for the newspaper. Two workers bought three tickets and gave me their addresses. While my schedule is again changing soon, I will be able to follow up with these workers and send them the newspaper in the mail.
I’m looking forward to a great May Day march and dinner, with coworkers and friends!
Transit Worker

‘Korean War History’ Exposes U.S. Rulers’ Murderous Role
The article on the Korean War (C-D 4/24/13) was both timely and informative. A recent book, “The Korean War, A History”, by Bruce Cumings, which I got from a comrade, is worth reading for its close examination of primary sources that have come to light over the past 20 years.
Cumings argues convincingly that the Korean War started as a civil war between the U.S.-installed puppet government in South Korea (ROK) and communist-led mass organizations and guerilla groups in the south. The ROK was led by a tiny elite that had supported the 35-year Japanese occupation (1910-1945) and high-ranking Korean military officers who had fought on the side of Japanese imperialists in WWII.
The 38th Parallel, the dividing line between North and South, was set up by John J. McCloy, a top Wall Street lawyer and later chairman of Chase Bank who was a leading postwar planner for U.S. imperialism. Cumings implies that which troops crossed that line first in 1950 was secondary to the civil conflict in South Korea.
After North Korean troops crossed the 38th Parallel, Dean Acheson, Truman’s Secretary of State, pushed through a U.S. strategy of rolling back the advance of post-WWII communist-led revolutions. This strategy was set out in National Security Council (NSC) Document 68, and resulted in quadrupling of the U.S. defense budget. In Cumings’ view, this shortly led to “hundreds of permanent military bases abroad, a large standing army, and a permanent national security state at home.” This projection of U.S. power abroad represented a sea change from U.S. policy before WWII.
The book also describes the massive destruction suffered by North Korean workers in the air war launched by the U.S. Long before Vietnam, U.S. raids were murdering (and dropping napalm on) tens of thousands of Koreans. According to Cumings, “at least 50% of eighteen out of the North’s twenty-two major cities were obliterated.” The book contains graphic photos of this massive destruction. As in Vietnam, disgusting racism was used to convince U.S. troops that their victims did not deserve to live.
Unfortunately, Cumings ends his book by calling for Korean reconciliation and “truth commissions,” as in South Africa. Workers should never forgive the imperialists for the crimes of war, economic crisis and racist genocide that are the inevitable result of their system of capitalism. That is the truth, and communist revolution, not capitalist reconciliation, is our goal. 

A Comrade

Workers Need Communism, Not Heroes
When I heard of Hugo Chavez’s death and the plans to entomb him in a glass mausoleum, I thought about the legacy of leaders like Mao and Stalin who had mausoleums and statues dedicated to them. They never achieved their goal of communism which would end their workers’ suffering from capitalist exploitation and inequality.
Seeing the grief of people in Venezuela on TV, I mentioned to a comrade that I heard Chavez gave free heating oil, food subsidies and housing to many poor people. My comrade reminded me that during the Great Depression Roosevelt provided similar programs for the poor to prevent the working class from taking over and running society without capitalist profits and inequality like the communists in Russia had done.
I began to wonder if people in Venezuela would lose whatever gains they had made like the Russians and Chinese people did when their leaders died. Then I recalled some words that had stuck in my mind of the Mexican revolutionary Zapata who said, “A weak people needs a strong leader, but a strong people need only themselves.” That thought put the idea of leadership into perspective.
I think the true test of leadership today is how well comrades are helping workers feel that their own power is strong and important. How well are they being prepared to understand communist ideas and the concept of production for their needs without a profit system. Once the working class grasps and can fight for those ideas, we will become a material force that capitalists can never defeat.
Then instead of shouts of “Viva Chavez!” we will hear “Viva Comunismo! Vivan los trabajadores!” and “Muerte al Capitalismo!” (Death to capitalism).
A Comrade



This letter is a product of a collective effort of our youth club that participated in a communist school and with its collective values.
In Colombia we worked in a very formative and instructive school with a group of comrades from different parts of Latin America and the United States, it was an enriching experience. In the political school, with a good number of participating workers of women and men and youth, we shared opinions and knowledge and realized that the problems of our class have a global level. The same needs and scarcity that we have are not foreign to the workers of different parts of the world.  
Good discussions in the group expanded our knowledge that this system of war and robbery is the only one to blame for the division among us, the producers of the existing wealth. Drug addiction, racism, nationalism, sexism, wage slavery are the promoters of violence and misery of the world’s proletariat.
This is why one of the biggest drug-dealing facilities in the world is found in Bogota, situated two blocks away from the center of logistics and intelligence of the national police, behind the army battalion of the Presidential Guards. This shows it as a very profitable business for the bosses. They want the youth pacified about their future. Meanwhile this murderous system promotes crime with drug trafficking and the prison industry.
We showed all of our comrades that we are firmly committed to the class struggle to destroy capitalism and build a new society. We believe in our international unity, around our communist program, in the growth of new communist leaders. We realize that the youth of the world are very important and are the future in strengthening our Party. We also want to extend an invitation to everyone to participate in our massive and revolutionary May Day so that this important day doesn’t serve bourgeois interests and their political parties, but instead is a commemoration of the battle for communist ideas.
We want to thank the Party for all the efforts and examples given and thank the comrades that participated in this school for offering us their knowledge. It makes us happy to know that this is not of just a struggle of few but it is part of a mass struggle and that the PLP is a communist international party.
Youth of the world: study, read and spread our paper, CHALLENGE.
International Comrades

Fascist, Anti-Communist Popes
Pope Francis (Jorge Bergoglio) from Argentina, the new advocate for billions of poor people ((he gave up his chauffeured limousine) comes with a long, bloody history of supporting fascist, anti-communist governments that committed genocide to support capitalist rulers.
After World War II, many Nazi backers of Hitler were given sanctuary in Argentina, disguised as priests after being processed through the Vatican in Italy. In the 1970’s “Dirty War” in Argentina, 30,000 labor activists, communists and their families simply “disappeared” and were never seen again. Communist women in concentration camps had their children taken away for adoption by wealthy families. Priests who supported impoverished workers were imprisoned and tortured but church superior Jorge Bergoglio refused to help them and years later hid priests in his home who were being investigated for supporting the military responsible for the “Dirty War.”
Pope Benedict who just resigned under a cloud of financial and sexual corruption within the Vatican also supported fascism, racism and war. When Hitler was jailing German priests who criticized fascism, he joined the Hitler Youth Movement that was attacking Jews and communists. Years later Benedict aided U.S. imperialist war in the Middle East and almost started a religious war by attacking the prophet Mohammed and Muslims.
The Catholic Church is in crisis and facing billions in lawsuits for hiding child-abusing priests. For centuries, the Church has earned protection for its vast real estate and financial holdings from European powers by providing millions of religious, obedient, non-revolutionary peasants and workers willing to fight for the rulers’ kingdoms, colonial crusades and empires. Today workers in most developed nations, including Europe, are deserting the Church because they want answers to their daily, worldly problems instead of an infallible, closed male society that bans women’s participation, gays, abortions and contraception.
With the selection of Francis from Argentina, the Church is shifting its emphasis from Europe to Latin America to embrace a more supportive base among 46 percent of the 1.2 billion Catholics. If the Church can mobilize and indoctrinate this vast pool of low-wage peasants and workers with anti-communist ideology, imperialist powers fighting over the Continent’s rich resources would gladly support a Church that would deliver a submissive labor force.
The only way workers can prevent being used as pawns in the Church-ruling-class chess game is to reject their religious, anti-communist ideology. Communism is the ideology of working-class society. We will triumph when we learn to analyze, understand and change the world to meet our needs.
Excommunicated

CHALLENGE comment: A statement by Argentine historian Federico Finchelstein (New School for Social Research in New York) supports the above letter: “The combination of action and inaction by the church was instrumental in enabling the mass atrocities permitted by the junta. Those like Francis that remained in silence during the repression also played by default a central role. It was this combination of endorsement and either strategic or willful indifference that created the proper conditions for the state killings.” (New York Times, 3/18)
The Times also reported that Francis was “the most prominent leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Argentina, an institution that remains under withering criticism for its role in failing to publicly resist — and in various instances actively supporting  — the military dictatorship  during a period when as many 30,000 people are thought to have been killed or disappeared.”

Chemistry 101 Does Not Teach This
Several issues ago, lithium (atomic number 3) was described in CHALLENGE as a “rare earth” element. This is incorrect. In fact, under “ordinary” conditions, lithium is the “first metal” in the Periodic Table in the sense that it is the metal with the lowest atomic number (as long as metallic hydrogen is excluded — metallic hydrogen exists only under extremely high pressure, if it exists at all, while lithium is “readily available on Earth).
Lithium is an alkali metal in Period 2, Group 1 of the Periodic Table. The rare earth elements are a set of 17 chemical elements, specifically the 15 lanthanides (with much higher atomic numbers) plus scandium and yttrium.
The rare elements have become a point of contention between the U.S. and China because China has the greatest amount of good quality, rare earth ores and China is announcing restrictions on how much  of its rare earth ores other countries can  acquire. These elements are used extensively in modern electronic “gadgets,” such as computers and fighter jets.
This is one more reason why the U.S. and China could go to war to “settle” the issue. The recent increase in China-bashing articles and reports in the news media is a good indication that an inter-imperialist world war might not be far off.
Of course, this is not what one usually learns in Chemistry 101.
CHALLENGE comrade

Letters from a PLP School:Microcosm of Communism

The cooperation we have experienced all weekend is seldom seen within the current capitalist world. It was refreshing to see that all are expected to contribute to the cause and no one was above responsibility. While the bosses continue to oppress the working class, building our own little community and discussing the root of our world’s corruption was inspiring. Thanks to this excursion, my life is improved by gaining more of the knowledge and experience necessary to advance the fight for communism.
New Comrade
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This weekend, I attended my second communist school, my first as a Party member and newly hired teacher. Last year as a student, I was impelled by the Party’s line to stand up and join the struggle to build a better, communist world. This year, my commitment was not only renewed, but strengthened by witnessing so many young people standing up and offering their dedication to building our Party. The eloquence and clarity of our comrades is what stood out to me the most. A sample: “I don’t want to be the bosses’ puppet anymore.” If this is just a small sample of what our youth is capable of, I am sure we will not have to be puppets much longer.
Red Teacher
*****************
Initially, I came to the communist school to go camping, play games and have fun with my friends. Camping with PLP members and student activists was indeed fun while we played board games and sports that helped us get to know each other better and make new friendships. But I’ve also realized that there is more to the world than fun and games. All throughout the world, workers are getting less recognition and fewer rights than they deserve.
Even rights we’ve already fought for and won are being taken away from us underhandedly and unfairly. I’ve come to find out that rulers take more “recognition” than they are due. Hearing all of the different opinions broadened my mind and although I like going with the flow, I believe I would most definitely stay and join PLP. Not for myself but for other people who have jobs and are being mistreated in any way or people who don’t have jobs because the bosses “don’t have room” for them. I feel I can make a difference and therefore I will, even if it is only a little bit.
My time at the communist school has been ideal. The mutual leadership practiced by everyone here has solidified my world views. We were able to visualize the future as a communist world through our practice of comradeship here at the school. By learning more about the practice and theory of communism, my decision was finalized. The choice to join PLP has been one of the few decisions I’ve made where I have felt completely confident and prepared to carry out.
Student
******************
I have been going to PL communist schools for years, first as a young student and now as a teacher. Every communist school always inspires me, as I get to participate in a collective that cooks, cleans, works and learns together. We see a true example of “to each according to need, from each according to commitment.” There’s no need to worry about commitment level though, because everyone always gives their all to the work that needs to be done, showing true commitment to the group, and to building a “micro”-communist world. This year was especially inspiring, having students from my school attend. They are new to the ideas of the Party but it was amazing to see them bring their own sharp analyses to the discussions and be so open to communist ideas.
Red Teacher

Great Train Robbery: Bankers Profit, Workers Pay
New York City’s racist bosses are ganging up on mass transit riders and workers who are mostly black, Latino and immigrant. The Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) has raised fares for the fourth time in five years, handing the bankers who own the MTA a $450 million windfall.
Twenty percent of the MTA budget goes to “debt service” which allocates billions to Wall Street banker-bondholders. Obama also handed over hundreds of billions of our taxes to these same bankers who “failed” and his administration doles out tens of billions monthly to fund imperialist wars worldwide.
Department stores, shopping centers and real estate properties, which pay nothing for, and profit the most, from transit, would make 90 percent less profit without a mass transit system to provide them their customers, tenants and workers.
Workers must pay sales taxes on most everything they buy, yet bankers and their clients ride on transit to Wall Street where they sell a trillion dollars in stocks, bonds and debt daily without paying a nickel for sales taxes or transit. Masses of workers, many subsisting on poverty wages, and those jobless because of the bosses’ crisis, must fork over still more money to get to their jobs or to try to find one.
The transit union “leaders” never utter a peep about the tie-in of the banks, the MTA and the billions spent on the bosses’ wars, nor about the bankers’ gravy train of billions to cover “deficits.”
PLP fights for a communist system without profits, bankers and phony “deficits.” Workers will put these leeches six feet under.
Transit Worker

Django Unchained:Conceals Rebellions vs. Slavery
I thought that Django: Unchained was a good movie. Despite the fact that it is set in the pre-Civil War era of the United States, the movie had a sense of humor. It is also violent and gory. This violence was not in the form of the brutal treatment of slaves received from their masters. As a matter of fact, violence of this nature was severely downplayed. The movie had a few torture scenes; a “man-dingo” fighting scene; and a scene in which a male slave was eaten by dogs while still alive. Several characters mention how some female slaves were labeled as “comfort girls,” women who were forced to have sex with their masters and the master’s guests. None of that is shown on screen. The main form of violence came from the many gun fights that occurred throughout the movie. If you watch Quentin Tarintino films, the violence will not surprise you.
The two protagonists of the movie are Dr. King Schultz, a German dentist turned bounty hunter and Django, a slave who was separated from his wife. Early in the movie, Dr. Schultz frees Django from two slaveholders. Schultz’s motive is that he needs Django to identify some men who are wanted. As the two travel together, Schultz decides to make Django his partner.
Django: Unchained carries the misconception that the Southern states were the only bad guys. Most of the white southerners in the movie are slavers or just plain racist. The only character from the North is Dr. Schultz. At the beginning, Schultz tells the slaves they have just been freed, and are free to go to a more enlightened part of the country. In truth, the “enlightened” northern states benefited from slave labor. At the time the movie takes place, the Southern states’ main cash crop was cotton. This cotton was used in the Northern textile factories. Going back even further, when slaves were shipped from Africa, the North had a booming ship industry. Many products passed through its’ ports, slaves included.
For most of the movie, Schultz is the star of the show despite Django’s name being in the title. It’s Schultz’s actions which push the plot forward. Who frees Django? Schultz. Who does most of the negotiating? Schultz. Who does most of the planning to get them out of nasty situations? Schultz again. Django is able to become his own character after he and Schultz part ways, but by then the movie is almost over. Furthermore, this development was only possible because of Schultz. Django did little, if any of it alone. Django did not empower himself. Schultz did.
It is a shame that Django’s character wasn’t given more power. There are many examples from history to draw from. There were slaves who deceived their masters; slaves who escaped on their own; and slaves who organized others and led rebellions. Even if Django was empowered by Schultz, a saving grace in Django’s character could have been his desire to tackle the institution of slavery. Unfortunately, that potential is left untapped. Django is only interested in freeing his wife and riding off into the sunset.
Red movie-goer

Slave Labor: From Lincoln to Obama
From the mind of Abraham Lincoln who advocated shipping Negroes to some colony, with Congress paying the cost:
“I will say then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races — that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which will ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality…” (Quincy, Illinois, 1858)
Union President Lincoln was a core racist who represented northern banking and textile industries. His main Civil War goal was to restore seceded southern states to Union control. Cotton produced by southern slave labor was a high-profit commodity that capitalists of that era went to war over, just as today’s imperialist war over the cheapest oil and gas resources.
But in 1863, after two years of military disasters, the Union army’s morale was devastated and faced troop shortages, draft riots and bankers’ resistance to more war loans. Lincoln offered the South a law guaranteeing 40 more years of slavery if they disarmed and rejoined the Union — to no avail. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation “freeing” southern slaves was a last desperate attempt to prevent a Union defeat by tying down Confederate troops trying to prevent slave escapees to the north and encouraging military enlistments of 200,000 brave, motivated ex-slaves (including 20 Medal of Honor winners) who turned a Union defeat into victory.
During the war, Lincoln ordered his generals to return escaped slaves to assure the South that he would not interfere with their profitable racist exploitation of blacks. After the war Union troops were withdrawn as soon as possible to prevent integration of “free” black soldiers with whites. This encouraged southern capitalists to create Jim Crow vagrancy laws that condemned former slaves to long-term chain-gang labor for the crime of being unemployed. Today a similar form of slavery continues with Obama’s approval of the mass incarceration of blacks and Latinos — 70 percent of the 2.4 million inmate population — many working in prison industries at slave wages because of notoriously racist drug laws.
The New York Times reports (1/5/13) on a 2010 book “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander who confirmed: “Today there are more African American adults under correctional control — in prison or jail, on probation or parole — than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began.”
The history outlined above shows that although the laws and forms of capitalist terror have changed, racist oppression, wars and exploitation remain. And although our class has won many brave battles, we will never end this parasitic system that lives off our misery and death without struggling to bring discussion about the fight for communism into our organizing efforts.
A Comrade

Inspired by Passion at Salvador Communist School
Three dozen of us were silent as the Salvadoran comrade spoke. He was a small man and the skin of his face was brown and deeply creased from years in the sun. He did not talk of the gun battles he had survived as a guerilla with the (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front) FMLN. He talked of the precious thing that all of us in the room shared: “Our Party, the PLP, has a line that is clear and correct. With this the working class can win.”
As the hours of reports and discussion continued, I struggled to understand every word (Spanish is not my native language) and I missed a lot. But again and again, as I heard reports from comrades in vastly different situations in cities large and small in all the different countries represented by the group gathered there, I realized that our struggles were more alike than different.
Fascism may be police murder of black youth in New York or assassination of trade union activists in Bogotá, community policing in Chicago or cops paying off unprincipled workers to spy on their neighbors in Oaxaca, but it’s the same enemy.  There are masses of workers in all these places who hate the system and respond to our politics.
In one country after another, new people are coming forward. Growth may be slow but the quality of new comrades is humbling. The energy and sharp political analysis of young workers and university students from Colombia, Mexico and the U.S. was exciting to witness.
The school for communism was exhilarating and emotional. At one point a comrade with thinning gray hair and hands that looked like they had seen their share of hard work over the decades quietly described getting up early with his bag of CHALLENGE and heading off to another demonstration. His calm, even voice communicated an unshakable determination. I noticed tears running down the cheeks of a comrade across the room and realized her’s were not the only moist eyes in the room. Our work can be daunting, but the passion that drives us is deep.
A Comrade

Need More Action vs. Criminal Jailing of Immigrants
Here in Newark, NJ February 13 marked the 17th year workers and students have demonstrated against the criminal detention of immigrants. Organizations involved included First Friends, Pax Christi, Wind of the Spirit and AFSC, as well as other immigrant rights groups. Protests continue to be needed because even after so many years, the number of workers deported has soared to over a million under Obama’s executive watch.
Last year 60 people participated. This year, when over 100 showed up, most of the increase came from high school youth, from schools as far as fifteen miles away!
We gathered at Liberty State Park, across from Ellis Island where immigrants from Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean historically entered New York City. We then rallied across from the Bergen County detention center in Hackensack. Seven of us wore the orange jump suits of detainees and showed placards with the names of the seven people who have died during incarceration in New Jersey alone. Next we marched from the Newark Hall of Records to the Federal building and then through the Ironbound district, carrying two cardboard “coffins” symbolizing the real death and destruction of undocumented workers and their families.
During the rallies we held at two other detention centers later the same day, many truckers from the busy receiving district of Port Newark honked in solidarity. We were accompanied at each of our six points of protest by musicians and vocalists who called themselves the “Dirty Rotten System.”     
At the soup dinner following a two-hour vigil in Elizabeth, we discussed fundraising for a Salvadoran woman who needed $3,000 bail for her release after nearly two years of detention. She has not seen her three-year-old son all this time.  An article in CHALLENGE concerning communist work in El Salvador was shared with each person during this dinner.
These protests are just a beginning. More than peaceful protests will be needed to end these abuses. We will need to topple the powers that support this system of capitalism, destroy the world-wide borders that separate workers and build a communist society where we all benefit from the fruits of our labor.
A N.J. Comrade

Koch: Here’s Egg in Your Racist Face
As the gaggle of ruling-class politicians and media fell all over themselves praising New York City’s former Mayor Ed Koch upon his death, I couldn’t help remembering the racist and anti-working class actions of this bosses’ flunky. I lived through all 12 years of his reign and recall his role in the 1980 transit strike which he tried to break.
Taking the bosses’ side, he would stand on the Brooklyn Bridge urging commuters to keep walking to work in the hope that this would outlast the workers’ efforts to win a decent contract, after they shut the transit system tighter than a drum.
The year before, he championed the closing of city hospitals — often the only ones workers could afford — which included Harlem’s Sydenham Hospital, the lone institution serving that black community. But Progressive Labor Party didn’t let him get off so easy in that one.
When he addressed the American Public Health Association at the New York Hilton, members and friends of PLP and the International Committee Against Racism led protestors in chanting, “Racist Koch, you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide!”
Immediately three members of PLP and InCAR stormed the stage and pelted him with eggs. He then ordered the cops to seize and arrest them.
When the working class takes power, we’ll be aiming more than just eggs at the bosses and their mayoral servants.
Old-timer who remembers French Legalize Mali Invasion
Changing “legalities” to suit bosses’ needs is a worldwide capitalist scam. The recent French imperialist invasion of Mali is the latest example.
A recent UN resolution precluded any military intervention in Mali. So in order to conform to a sort of international legality, French Socialist president François Hollande asked Mali’s president to send him a call for aid, in writing. On January 10, the latter’s letter arrived in which he called on Hollande for “help.” No sooner said than done. Five hours later — after a rapid meeting of France’s Defense Council — French troops were landing in Bamako, Mali.
All this followed Hollande’s pledge not to invade. On October 11, 2012, he said, “There will not be French troops engaged in Mali….We cannot intervene in place of the Africans.” Then Le Drian, the French Defense Minister, reiterated: “It’s up to the Africans to intervene, not the French” (La Croix newspaper, 12/24/2012).
When Hollande arrived in Mali for speechmaking, he made no mention of any UN resolutions. Obviously Mali’s uranium, gold and oil reserves were too big a bonanza for French bosses to ignore. (See CHALLENGE, 2/13)
When it comes to legality under capitalism, the overriding one is the law of maximum profits.
Brooklyn Comrade

‘If we’re breaking the law, then we’ll just change it…’
The Postal Service wants to discontinue Saturday delivery of mail AND cut health benefits for postal employees.  However,  according to the law,  the USPS is not allowed to make such a change unilaterally.
SOLUTION: Change the Law! Isn’t capitalism wonderful?  While the capitalists love to tell us that “we are a country of laws,” this only applies to the working class obeying laws that benefit the bosses.
When the bosses make a mistake and find that THEIR laws aren’t helping them, they either change the law or simply ignore it.
Here is the relevant quote from the Post Master General (PMG) as reported in the Washington Post on Feb 7, 2013:
“Reading the law . . . we think that we are on firm ground,” Donahoe [the PMG] said during an interview. Not everyone on Capitol Hill agrees. “Even if we aren’t,” he added, “I would say to Congress, ‘Hey, let’s take the opportunity in the next couple of weeks to amend [that is, unilaterally change] the law and just get this behind us and get on our way.’ ”
Red Reader

Comment on Lincoln Movie Review
The last issue of CHALLENGE (2/13) had a review of Lincoln in the letters section. It’s true; Lincoln himself was a terribly complex character, plagued by clinical depression. In recent years there has been a load of projective analysis, such as that of the late Gore Vidal, into the seamier side of Lincoln’s personal life.   But, this top-award film steers clear of extraneous or inexpert interpretation. Thank goodness for little favors.
The review refutes something we know as bourgeois individualism, saying, “The movie inspires more talk about Lincoln’s personality than the fight against slavery.” The writing, though a bit verbose, is on the mark. It is instructive to learn about the series of anti-racist events proving the theme being from a  “top-down” view.
But there are several such series, or lists, of references, some lengthy for a movie review. An insertion about corrupt politicos is in parentheses and more such humorous asides may be useful in the interest of showing a liking for the readership. Film criticism could almost be seen as having a style of its own, unburdened, even sardonic, for mass appeal. Certainly less chalkboard.
Ruby

More Attacks on Sandy Victims
The newest hardship Sandy victims face in Manhattan hotels is eviction into homeless shelters. The agency the city has contracted to case-manage victims is BRC, the group that usually picks up chronically homeless people from the streets and puts them in shelters.
They have actually offered no help to Sandy survivors; they probably don’t even know anything about low-income stable housing for stable people. They have been treating people extremely rudely and threateningly.
Now they’re systematically telling people they have to leave their hotel (before their previously given check-out dates) and go to shelters, one by one. No one knows for sure if they, the hotels or the city are initiating this tactic.
So far three families have been removed. This leaves the families in yet another borough where their children have to change schools once again; where they are treated like prisoners; and where the environment is often unsafe. Others are planning to resist removal.
A campaign to notify politicians and the press is underway, although that is probably useless given their previous unresponsiveness. We are also planning a demonstration of families and supporters this Friday, February 15, 3:30 PM, at BRC headquarters.
Red Doctor


Editor’s Note: We do need a class analysis of India’s anti-sexist struggle. Such an analysis would include that sexism cannot be defeated under capitalism. Calling on workers to join PLP is understanding that the working class needs a Party to lead such a war, and today that party is PLP. The responsibility of waging an anti-sexist struggle and writing about it in CHALLENGE is on all members. We should lead solidarity demonstrations on the job and the campuses in each city. Onwards, comrades. 

Lincoln: History Taught from the Top Down
The following review of the film Lincoln was produced by the New York City PLP Culture Committee for discussion and response within the Party:
Almost 700,000 people were killed during the Civil War, the bloodiest war in the U.S. And before 1861 the issue of slavery was debated and fought for over 250 years — not only with words — in courtrooms and state houses, the Underground Railroad, in 400 slave rebellions, Bleeding Kansas and in the attack on Harper’s Ferry led by John Brown, which sparked the Civil War.
Lincoln builds the story that the slaves were ultimately freed by a group of white politicians bribing a few lame duck Democrats in Congress. It’s a gripping movie, well acted and engrossing, but in the end it only reinforces the idea that history is really made from the top down. The movie sends a seemingly inspired but ultimately cynical and passive message. It’s the opposite of what’s needed to encourage fighting racism and the excesses of capitalism.
The movie deals with Lincoln’s efforts to pass the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, banning slavery. As the movie portrays it, Lincoln thought it essential to pass the amendment before the end of the war, since he felt the Emancipation Proclamation wouldn’t have any legal standing after the war. As a film, it’s almost like watching a thriller, hanging on each scene to see who will get on board, who will sell out, how they’ll vote. Through a lot of persuasion, arguing, back-room deals and bribes (you mean politicians can actually be bought?), he and his agents muster just enough votes to get the Amendment passed.
But what it doesn’t say is as important as what it does. The movie inspires more talk about Lincoln’s personality than the fight against slavery. There are some gripping scenes that graphically show the brutality of the war, but they punctuate a film that’s mostly dialogue. The deals and diplomacy might have taken place. But what really ended slavery was the bloody defeat of the Confederate army, due in no small measure to the almost 200,000 black soldiers who enlisted, and to the growing hatred of slavery and slave-owners during the war (not that racism didn’t persist). The movie’s back-handed racism and elitism ignores the real mass struggle.
For a film that deals with freeing black slaves the movie is dominated by white characters. There are sympathetic, articulate and principled black characters in the movie. One black corporal even argues with Lincoln about unfair treatment of black soldiers in the Union army. But they’re bit parts, and are one-dimensionally portrayed. Historians Eric Foner and Kate Masur have criticized the movie for the lack of more developed black characters, for omitting key fighters like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, and for pushing the idea that the defeat of slavery took place by white men making deals in back rooms. (Harriet Tubman participated in planning the Harper’s Ferry Raid and recruiting people for it, but illness prevented her from getting there.)
But of course this is how we’re taught history; that Lincoln freed the slaves. Missing are the decades of struggle by the abolitionists, Underground Railroad, slave revolts, and the war itself. So-called “serious” Hollywood “historical” movies like Lincoln, Amistad, Schindler’s List, The Help, Platoon, Mississippi Burning, Glory, The Patriot, Dances with Wolves, all serve a purpose — so people come out of the theater recognizing past oppression, but feeling the system isn’t as bad as it used to be, and can be reformed for the better.
This film is being pushed hard by Hollywood, playing in 1,200 theaters, grossing over $140 million, sure to win several Oscars and to be shown in schoolrooms for years to come. But the film wouldn’t have been made, much less pushed, if it didn’t have a message for what’s going on today. They want to win people to the ideas that nothing can get done without cynical compromise; that this is what it takes to reform capitalism; and that our job is just to vote for people who can get the job done, so “cut Obama some slack; this is what he has to deal with.”
It’s useful to see this movie in order to discuss it with our friends. It isn’t often a Hollywood film enables discussion about struggle, history and racism. But let’s not get sucked in. History taught from the ground up, not the top down, would have a very different portrayal of the abolition of slavery.
Cultural Committee 

As a Progressive Labor Party member, I recently came across a 1976 CHALLENGE article I had written called, “Acting in the Class Struggle.” It described some actions that took place among my fellow students in a retraining program we were in because our jobs had been closed down to prevent unionization.
I had just lost my job at a jewelry workshop in Pittsburgh where I had successfully led an organizing drive to join the jewelry workers’ union.  The boss, in order to destroy the union, closed the shop at the insistence of other, bigger bosses, whose shops in the same manufacturing building were also being organized.  I was, consequently, out of a job and went into a government-sponsored retraining program run by Airco Technical School to learn welding.  
We were to be paid a wage of $80 a week during the 13-week course. Everyone had to sign a notarized contract swearing that we were not troublemakers, criminals, or communists. During the 13-week course, I was involved in about nine sharp trade union political struggles, which eventually led to a strike in the school. Two people became friends and although they never joined the Party, remained friends for quite a while. Three of the nine struggles are useful to retell because they show that 1) you can trust the working class,  2)  you can struggle against racism among white and black workers,  and  3)  you can develop firm friendships from these struggles.  
How to Shut Up a Racist
We were learning welding on a factory floor with 40 or 50 small cubicles, each containing some welding equipment. There were only two toilets — which were filthy — and  two small rooms with tables to eat our brown-bag lunches. There were two teachers for 72 trainees.  I was in a group of 18 students. There were classrooms upstairs where we learned blueprint reading and theory.
It was difficult not to make friends and raise ideas.  I got into lots of discussions, and soon most of my 17 classmates knew about my work in the  Committee Against Racism, and a few knew I was a revolutionary.  After four weeks, during a blueprint class lull, a white young man shouted a racist joke about sickle cell anemia from the back of the room.  I wanted to finish the course, but I couldn’t listen to this kind of racism. I waited a few minutes for someone else to shout him down, and nobody did.  This was a very multi-racial class.  
I spoke up, “Stop this disgusting racist filth! You’re likely to get your head broke.”  A young man on the other side of the room told me that I’d better watch it. I told him that he’d better watch it too, “I’ll say what I like to racist scum.”  At that point a black man sitting near me told the racists that I was right, and that he had better watch out. Soon a number of people, both black and white, spoke out against the racism. The fight was over. The rats had been cornered.  Two days later, one young African-American man told me he’d name his new son after me.
Worker Against Vending Machine
During the next couple of weeks, a group of African-Americans usually congregated in one spot and a group of whites in another. I moved between the groups, bringing blacks into white conversations, and whites into black conversations. In this lunch area there were four vending machines that often stole some of our money and did not dispense the goods.
One day, a young white man put money into the soda machine, and got no drink.  He got mad and started to kick the machine. Almost all of the 72 students were watching.  Just then, the machine’s owner walked in; his new Mercedes-Benz was parked outside. He began yelling “Get away from that machine. Don’t touch it.” Then he asked for the kicker’s name. The student gave his name. The owner told him he would sue him or beat him up outside.  Most students remained silent during all this.  
Five minutes later the machine owner left and in walked the blueprint teacher who proceeded to insult everyone and told us, “Leave the machines alone or the owner will remove them.”  Nobody reminded the teacher about the machines’ thievery.
Once again I hoped somebody would say something, but nobody did.  I then explained to the teacher that he didn’t understand the way capitalism works: “The capitalist gives us services, but if the machine keeps ripping us off and the workers smash the machines, another capitalist with new machines will come in to make more money.”  Conversations around the room stopped while everyone watched the blueprint teacher and me. The teacher told me that we still shouldn’t kick the machine. I told him, “No man has any right to come in here and threaten a student.”  By this time he was getting irritated with me and told me take it easy. I said, “It probably would be best for me to shut up, but I have no intention of shutting up while a fellow student is being threatened.”
At that point a black woman student came over to me, patted me on the back, looked squarely at the teacher, and said, “If he tried to touch anybody 80 people here would beat the sh-t out of him.” The teacher stopped. Two days later, four new machines came in.  After that, they never stole money — except by their high prices.
The Power of Multi-Racial Unity
About three weeks before the end of the course, we were told that our minimum-wage pay that was due on Friday would not be paid until Monday.  We staged a successful strike to get our pay.
The following day I was welding, and, after doing the weld, I went, as we all did, to show the welding teacher and ask for constructive criticism. He told me to get the f-ck away from him as he wasn’t interested in me. “Boy, get away.”  I was 40 years old at the time.
About 10 people gathered around and told him he’d better tell me what I wanted to know because I was a student and he was a teacher. He asked me if I wanted to go outside. He was a very big fellow and could certainly have beaten the crap out of me.  So I told him that if I went outside with him, I’d also bring a slab of steel with me to smash him with. “Anything to win,” I told him.  “You’re crazy,” he said.  “Then you’d better watch out!” I said.  The students who had gathered around were very sympathetic. They wanted to end the argument and told him, “Just show him what he wants to know.”  Seeing the multi-racial group of students ended his argument.  
About ten days later, after a particularly nasty incident between a racist who was spouting filthy racist tripe about how African-Americans got “X” after their names. “They have to kill a white person,” he said, “I read it in Life magazine.”  I started to explain to the young white workers who were listening to him with interest that some African-Americans had taken the X because they did not know their original African names, since all slaves were named by their slave-master. The racist shouted obscenities at me and started to swing at me. I backed away and told him he was still a liar.
Michael, one of the white strike leaders, grabbed the racist, told him to stop his BS, dragged him to his welding booth and pushed him in. By then around 15 people had gathered.  The racist screamed that he was going to get me. He dragged out a 5-pound hammer and started to swing it around. Several people, black and white, moved towards him and he backed away.  Dwayne, one of the young black workers said, “Do you have a gun in there?”  The racist gave up.  Another of the young white workers said, “We don’t need any of that sh-t in here,” and thanked me for telling the truth. He became one of my friends.
Class struggle exists all the time because of the contradictions between capital and labor. It takes many forms.  You can either fight and become part of the solution, or you can give in and move closer and closer to fascism. It doesn’t always require fists, or hammers, or anger.  But it does require constant struggle.  You can’t make an omelet without breaking the eggshells.

One-day Wildcat Proves A Boss is A Boss is A Boss
I am a contract worker here in Tel-Aviv employed in housekeeping. I started a job under a new contractor in October. Initially, this was a better job than my last one, as it was a full-time job plus overtime, thus giving me a better salary than my old part-time housekeeping job. Now I work 50 hours a week and earn 4,600 ILS (equivalent to $1,200) a month, better than my old 3,600 ILS (equivalent to $950) monthly salary. I thought that now I could finally pay my bills and still have money for an apartment fit for a human being to live in!
But this contractor is no different from any other boss. He was late in giving me my salary, which I earned by the sweat of my brow. Of course, the bills still had to be paid on time. Twice already, in November and December, he paid me a week late and left me to deal with my bills with no wage. When he finally gave me my salary, it was in cash with no guarantee that my taxes, National Insurance (Israel’s Social Security) and benefits (mandated by law) were paid.
I was not the only worker to face this slavery of unpaid work. All four of us working at the same office met and decided to take matters into our own hands. We decided to go on a wildcat strike for one day to show the scumbag that he’d better pay us if he wants the office cleaned. As I was the only worker who speaks Hebrew well (the others were Russian immigrants), the manager directed all of her anger at me. She screamed at me in the most humiliating and inhumane way possible. She even threatened to fire me because I didn’t silently accept this form of slavery.
I will continue to fight this exploiter, and all other capitalists, whether I stay at this job or I move to another one. There are no good bosses — all of them are rotten to the core and make a fortune out of our hard labor.
Housekeeping Worker from Tel-Aviv

Capitalism Can’t Even Provide the Basics
What is wrong with a society that cannot even provide basics like food and housing? Everyone needs food to survive and housing to live in. The bosses have become so greedy that workers no longer even have the basics. People that have jobs are waiting in food pantry lines.  At an entry-level telephone-interviewing job where I worked part-time, there were lawyers, doctors and even older TV announcers working for minimum wage. I don’t know all their stories or how they got there. But there they were, not earning enough to rent apartments. Some of them live in overnight shelters.
Chicago’s Cook County Hospital is no longer free. As a patient you will get a bill and will pay for your medicine. This hospital’s mission was always to serve the poor. The poor are being forgotten by everyone.  The “American Dream” was for people to own homes. Many people struggled to own homes and worked hard at keeping the house in order. I watched three homes in one block in my working-class neighborhood go into foreclosure. These families are now homeless and in the street. Our society needs healthcare and housing for all. Join the fight!
Anti-Capitalist

‘Who needs the bosses? Nobody!’
I was on a picket line of about 60 people outside Millennium Carwash. We were demanding that a worker be rehired who management wouldn’t take back. They suspected he was involved in a union organizing campaign in Los Angeles County. There were chants about the immediate issue and the campaign.
Then someone started a call and response. It went like this. “Who washes the cars?” “The workers wash the cars.” “Who gets the money?” “The bosses get the money.” “Who needs the workers?” “The bosses need the workers.” “Who needs the bosses?” (pause.) “Nobody!”
Many people picked up on this chant and kept it going for quite a while. I think it’s adaptable to many industries and situations. It expresses people’s desire for a world without capitalist exploitation.
LA Red

At the end of our PLP college club meeting we felt that we had taken another step forward. Our club is where we plan and evaluate our battles, both ideological and material, against capitalism. Internationalism is very much present in our club body and politics. 

Not only are we from all parts of the world, but the nature of our work crosses all borders. Our involvement includes an immigrant youth group, Haitian Student Association group and a police brutality struggle.

After a bowl of chili and chips, we began with the editorial “Gaza Carnage Prelude to U.S.-Israeli War on Iran?” in the last issue of CHALLENGE. Present were our two newest PL’ers who joined at our last study group: Ann and Jack. One brought a friend “to check it out.” There wasn’t much discussion about the editorial. Instead, our newest PL’ers were primarily concerned with one thing: How do we get people to be active in the fight for communism? 

Before we could address that, we discussed the state of the working class. “Here, people accept the status quo. People aren’t rising up. Occupy is done,” said Jack. Though our new members are passionate about change, at times they lack confidence in the working class. 

Much of the cynicism stems from the defeat of the old communist movement. Restoration of capitalism in Russia and China has set back the revolutionary process. But learning from our revolutionary history gives us more reason to fight harder for communism today. 

Everywhere workers are fighting back. Just last week, Walmart and fast food workers went on strike in the U.S. “What did we get out of Occupy? We got you,” responded a veteran comrade.

Last month, three PL’ers went to join our comrades in Haiti on a teachers strike, in the battle against racist killer kkkops, and for a student conference. Our comrades in Haiti serve as a beacon of inspiration in their militancy and commitment to building for a communist revolution. 

Lessons these three comrades learned are helping the whole club become better fighters. There is a saying in PLP, “an attack on one worker is an attack on all workers.” Likewise, when fight-backs and the Party are strengthening in one area, it fuels other areas, strengthening the Party as whole. A win for workers in Haiti is a win for workers all over the world.  

Interestingly, the questions asked today at our club meeting were the same ones asked at our youth conference in Haiti — What’s the plan? What should we do to fight against imperialism? How do we mobilize masses of people for communism?

The solution and plan is the same worldwide. We have a powerful set of tools. First are our political ideas and the Party. We have a mass strategy of building serious lifelong political friendships with workers, students, and soldiers. We have CHALLENGE! We have our principles of constant criticism and self-criticism to guide our process forward. What keeps us going? Confidence in and love for our class and our understanding of the everyday disaster of capitalism.  

We understand the fight for communism is difficult and protracted. The revolution isn’t around the corner. There may well be bloody, long imperialist war that we will struggle to transform into worldwide class war and revolution. 

On that note, we discussed our upcoming plans — a vigil for the six-month anniversary of the kkkilling of Shantel Davis, a communist school, a conference against imperialism, and May Day! Our newest comrades can spread PLP struggle into two more college campuses. There is so much potential, and so much to be done!

Young Red

Marxist Prof Exposes Tea Party Red-baiters

Representatives of “conservative,” “Libertarian” and “liberal” politics aired their differing views at a debate on the campus of Montclair State University (MSU).

The debate was scheduled and paid for by Young Americans for Liberty (YAL), a right-wing, pro-capitalist student group with headquarters in Washington, DC and a big budget from conservative corporate foundations. The MSU YAL chapter wanted English Professor Grover Furr to represent the “liberal” viewpoint. They knew that Furr is a Marxist, not a “liberal,” but wanted him because he is an unofficial advisor to the MSU Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) chapter.

At the debate, a representative of the right-wing “Tea Party” asked  Furr: “Stalin killed 40-60 million people. Wasn’t that enough?” 

Furr replied: “That’s bullsh*t! That’s not true.” He said that he had done research on this topic for many years and has “yet to discover one crime that Stalin committed.” Furr concluded this remark by saying that U.S. history is certainly falsified, but that the history of the Soviet Union is the most falsified of all.

Since then Furr has received death threats and lots of harassing junk mail. Right-wing lawyers have repeatedly emailed the president of MSU and the chair of the English department, Furr’s immediate superior, to demand that he be fired.

Anti-communists have posted phony “evaluations” on Ratemyprofessor.com claiming that Furr teaches nothing but Stalin in his classes. The right-wingers then claim that Furr is misusing his classrooms to “indoctrinate” his students. 

All this is a lie. Moreover, it exposes this fact: The anti-communists have no evidence whatsoever to support their claims that Stalin killed millions, or even one person! They just don’t like anyone to tell the truth about the USSR during Stalin’s time.

The harassment and hate mail continue, but not everyone is resistant to a communist message. Furr has also received some positive emails, thanking him for daring to tell the truth. The MSU chapter of SDS has invited Furr to speak to them twice since then. PLP’ers have circulated CHALLENGE to many of them. Several have expressed interest in a study group. When communists are attacked by adherents of the bosses’ ideas, our friends have the opportunity to take a stand and take the next step in learning more of the truth about revolutionary ideas.

Red Researcher

Benghazi Debate Lies

The big media debate over whether the anti-Muslim video or a planned al Qaeda mission was responsible for the incident at the U.S. embassy in Benghazi is designed to obscure the role of U.S. imperialism.

Decades of anti-Muslim oppression in the oil-rich Mideast from invasions, occupations, military support of dictators and Israeli genocide against Palestinians in addition to slaughter from U.S. drone bombings are the real reasons why an anti-Muslim video triggered anti-U.S. demonstrations. They occurred in 30 other countries at the same time as Libya. Libya is ruled by armed militias who joined their anti-U.S. demonstrators when attacked by embassy forces.

The Benghazi incident has been reclassified as a premeditated al Qaeda terrorist attack to hide the real terrorists: U.S. imperialism.

Anti-Imperialist

U.S. Capitalism’s Violent Culture

The cause of the Newton, Connecticut massacre will not appear in the capitalist-controlled media because the rulers need to blame the mentally ill and guns for the proliferation of a violent U.S. culture. That culture was created by capitalists to make it easier to extract bloody profits from people through terror, racism, exploitation and war.

With the world’s biggest, racist prison population, fascist stop-and-frisk police terror against hundreds of thousands of black and Latino youth and the increase of violent TV, movies and video games, U.S. rulers are preparing workers and teenagers for a culture of racism and violence against people. The Newtown shooter Adam Lanza’s sixth-grade teacher said he talked about “blowing things up,” but that it was just typical talk for boys his age. (New York Times, 12/15)

Forty-six percent live in poverty in the U.S., with more homeless and hungry children than any developed country worldwide. Daily suicides from the 30 million unemployed and underemployed workers, war veterans and students attest to the violence capitalism imposes on people it can no longer exploit or use as cannon fodder in its profit wars.

Martin Luther King was condemned in the media and by his peers when he denounced the Vietnam War’s genocide and racism by saying the U.S. was the greatest purveyor of violence in the world. He was assassinated shortly after that.

The world’s largest manufacturer and distributor of weapons of war is the U.S., accounting for the largest percentage of its Gross Domestic Product. U.S. imperialism is hated worldwide because workers rising up against capitalist oppression are met by jet fighters, drone bombers, tanks, land mines and millions of gas canisters labeled “Made in USA.”

Millions of workers are being forced into poverty to pay for decades of invasions, occupations and endless wars that benefit the U.S. corporate empire. The bosses’ profit system depends on workers accepting a future of violence, austerity and dying in imperialist wars. Workers need to smash that murderous system by organizing with PLP for communist revolution and a system without profits, run for and by the working class.

A Comrade