a href="#Editorial: From the Middle East to Afghanistan, Workers Must Organize Against Rulers’ Oil Wars">"ditorial: From the Middle East to Afghanistan, Workers Must Organize Against Rulers’ Oil Wars

• People, Not Technology, Determine the Outcome of Warfare

Pentagon Targets the Whole World with Nuclear Weapons

All Not Going Well for U.S. Hi Tech War

• With Afghan "allies" retreating, 1,000 U.S. troops were deployed,

Machinists Strike Lockheed War Plant

Queens NY Bus Drivers Must Rely on Workers, Not on Politicians

a href="#Colombia: Don’t Let Union Hacks Do Bavaria Bosses’ Dirty Work">Co"ombia: Don’t Let Union Hacks Do Bavaria Bosses’ Dirty Work

a href="#The Gestapo Would Have Been Jealous…">"he Gestapo Would Have Been Jealous…

a href="#Bush Expands Clinton’s Slave Labor Workfare Program">"ush Expands Clinton’s Slave Labor Workfare Program

a href="#Judge O.K. Cops’ Torture of Black Workers">"udge O.K. Cops’ Torture of Black Workers

Billions for War, Nothing for Steelworkers

Labor Hacks’ Role in Developing Fascism

Anti-War Conference Avoids Real Cause of War

In Memoriam: Comrade Philip Williams

LETTERS
Workers of the World, Write!

Night School Students Lead the Way for Struggle

Money for Cover-ups, Not For Schools

What Next: Sainthood for Hitler?

Hare Hell for Krishna Kids

a href="#Guess Who’s Using Bio-Tech Warfare? The U.S.">"uess Who’s Using Bio-Tech Warfare? The U.S.

Lessons Learned Trying to Build the Party

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a name="Editorial: From the Middle East to Afghanistan, Workers Must Organize Against Rulers’ Oil Wars">">"ditorial: From the Middle East to Afghanistan, Workers Must Organize Against Rulers’ Oil Wars

GENERAL, YOUR TANK IS A POWERFUL VEHICLE
It smashes down forests and crushes a hundred men.
But it has one defect:
It needs a driver.

General, your bomber is powerful.
It flies faster than a storm and carries more than an
elephant.
But it has one defect:
It needs a mechanic.

General, man is very useful.
He can fly and he can kill.
But he has one defect:
He can think.

—Bertolt Brecht, German Communist Poet

U.S. rulers’ failure so far to stop the escalating violence in the Middle East has become a serious threat to their plans for a broadened oil war in the Persian Gulf. The imperialists took a big gamble by launching their Afghanistan adventure amid sharpened Israeli-Palestinian fighting. The Bush White House bet that young Arab workers’ hatred of Israeli fascism wouldn’t turn into mass uprisings throughout the Arab world directly confronting U.S. interests. With each passing day, that bet is beginning to look like a loser.

When the rulers used 9/11 as an excuse to launch the first round of their new oil war in Afghanistan, they figured their main military problems would be the Taliban and, eventually, the potential willingness of the Iraqi army to put up a better fight than it had in Bush Sr.’s 1991 Desert Storm. They miscalculated the potentially explosive political effect of combining the U.S. military’s slaughter of Muslim civilians in Afghanistan with Israeli military butchery of Palestinian workers, men, women, and children.

Thomas Friedman, the liberal New York Times’ main foreign policy analyst, understands this threat to the big bosses’ most vital interests: "…the most heated anti-Israeli and anti-American sentiments that I’ve ever felt [are] dangerous. The notion is taking hold that with a combination of…a baby boom and terrorism, the Arabs can actually destroy Israel. Some…even fantasize that they can undermine America." (Times, 3/10)

This was precisely the bin Laden-al Qaeda strategy: organize acts of terrorist provocation that would force the U.S. and Israeli bosses into retaliating with military atrocities that would in turn stimulate anti-U.S. rebellion throughout Arab countries, particularly Saudi Arabia.

Such rebellion is far from unthinkable. It could help precipitate the fall of the present pro-U.S. Saudi regime and its replacement by a gang of rulers who would try to kick out U.S. oil companies. This is bin Laden & Co.’s primary goal.

The forces loyal to bin Laden represent a significant wing of Saudi capitalists, who want to capture the lion’s share of oil wealth for themselves. These bosses use religion and nationalism to fan the anti-U.S., anti-Israel hatred of millions of oppressed Arab and Muslim workers. They are allied with local capitalists with comparable aspirations in every country where the U.S. has extended its "war against terrorism" — Indonesia, the Philippines, Georgia, etc. But the eye of the storm remains the Middle East and Persian Gulf.

One nightmare scenario for U.S. imperialists would be a mass-based alliance against them among the bin Laden-supported Saudi bosses, the Egyptian ruling class and Iraqi rulers. Other combinations are possible. The Syrians and/or Iranians could get into the act as well, together or separately. We can’t predict whether or how such events might materialize. But the longer the fighting continues in the Middle East and the more widespread it becomes, the more such liabilities increase for U.S. imperialism.

Furthermore, U.S. rulers are playing a very dangerous game in Iraq. They all agree that the Saddam Hussein regime must be replaced with a pro-U.S. puppet government. But getting the job done won’t be a pushover. Some "experts" in the Bush camp (led by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz) push for immediate action, believing that any show of force by a small U.S. contingent would "immediately trigger a revolt against Saddam within Iraq, and that it would quickly expand." (Seymour Hersh, "The Debate Within," New Yorker, 3/11) Liberals in the State Department and the military, led by Colin Powell, know this is a pipe-dream. Hersh quotes a top retired officer who contemptuously dismisses the Perle-Wolfowitz scenario and warns of the potential for mass revolt: "We’ve got a bunch of people who think it’s going to be easy. We’re set up for a big surprise." Another former U.S. ambassador to the Middle East told Hersh: "If we have to have three months of bombing, with civilian casualties, we’ll have real problems with the Arab world."

The liberals know that any serious effort to dislodge Saddam Hussein would need between 200,000 and 300,000 troops, plus supporting units and 700 to 1,000 aircraft, as well as one to five carrier battle groups (Hersh). And that’s just for Iraq alone. The military intervention required to stem uprisings in, say, Saudi Arabia — particularly if they were supported materially by al Qaeda-type troops from other countries — could rapidly produce a scenario that might dwarf even the immense, long, and bloody U.S. intervention in Vietnam.

People, Not Technology, Determine the Outcome of Warfare

Perhaps this scenario won’t unfold at all. Perhaps it will, but not for a long time. Yet it cannot be excluded as a possibility. That alone should give workers reason to think about what our class should fight for during these bosses’ oil wars. We can draw three important lessons from these rapidly sharpening contradictions:

First, imperialism always leads to war, because it is a system based on the ruthless scramble for maximum profit. Competition among bosses inevitably ends with armed struggle. They cannot resolve such major differences by any other method.

Second, despite appearances, the best-equipped, most technologically advanced army doesn’t necessarily always win. People, not technology, decide the outcome of warfare. As the Vietnam War glaringly proved, armies win or lose based on the political and ideological commitment of their troops and the populations involved. The present battles in Afghanistan and the Middle East confirm this. The religiously and nationalistically motivated forces opposing U.S. and Israeli imperialism are putting up an impressive fight despite the enormous disparity in hardware. And the fight has just begun.

Bad ideas can inspire people to act heroically. This is the case in the Middle East and on the other fronts of the present war. The German fascist army fought to the bitter end against the Soviet Red Army. Workers and youth armed with little more than rifles and stones are giving the U.S. and Israeli military machines a run for their money. But religion and nationalism are deadly, self-defeating traps. Even if al Qaeda’s forces win, Arab and Muslim workers would continue to suffer the horrors of life under capitalism. Changing from one capitalist oppressor to another won’t help. Military heroism isn’t sufficient by itself. It must be wedded to the goal of communist revolution. No other political ideology will serve the needs of the international working class.

In the past, workers have fought gallantly for aspects of communism, against terrible odds. They will do so again and can avoid the mistakes that finished off the old communist movement. The job is hard and long — but the goal can be achieved. Learning to achieve it is our Party’s mission and commitment. A successful May Day 2002 will serve as an important positive step in this vital process.

Pentagon Targets the Whole World with Nuclear Weapons

The Bush Administration’s "new" nuclear proposals would nuke anyone who they decide is their enemy. Previously they alleged they would use nuclear bombs only against a country that used them against the U.S. (Of course, that didn’t include Japan, where they slaughtered 250,000 civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki — equal to the deaths of 80 World Trade Centers — when Japan was about to surrender.) They allegedly opposed proliferation of atomic weapons, as long as they could maintain their own stockpile.

Initially "only" Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Syria and Libya are targeted. Then it was extended to include "potential adversaries," Russia and China. But it doesn’t end there. They finally say that the U.S. must be prepared for any contingency. "Contingencies can be categorized as immediate, potential or unexpected." "Unexpected" covers the whole world!

This latest pronouncement has liberals and their leading mouthpiece, The New York Times, furious. The Times (editorial, 3/12) said such a policy would make the U.S. "a rogue state," breaking nuclear treaties (non-proliferation and test-bans), excluding "allies," and ignoring the uproar such a policy would provoke internationally, especially in the Muslim world. These liberals, and the main wing of the ruling class they represent, see the Wolfowitz/Perle group putting this forward as blowing the U.S.’s cover in its drive for world domination. These are the same forces who think they can go it alone in seizing Iraq using hi-tech weapons and very few U.S. troops. (See adjoining editorial.) The liberals don’t oppose U.S. nuclear supremacy or nuclear blackmail but maintain it must be employed without, if possible, provoking more problems than U.S. rulers can handle.

The proposed policy coincides with the intention to conduct a "war on terrorism" in 40 countries for 50 years or as long as it takes. The USA Patriot Law is the fascist corollary of this imperialist policy — to squash any rising domestic resistance to this mass murder of the international working class.

This intention to prepare to pulverize any opponent of U.S. imperialism demonstrates the futility of "persuading" the rulers to agree not to use nuclear bombs. For years groups like SANE campaigned for a ban on testing atomic weapons. The "test-ban" treaty was hailed as the answer to nuclear war. Now the desperate U.S. ruling class has shown how much such treaties among imperialists are worth. Imperialism means war. It always has and always will.

The rulers would have us believe that atomic war means "the end of the world." They figure that threat can scare anyone opposed to them to knuckle under to their demands. But remember, World War I produced the Russian Revolution. World War II brought the Chinese Revolution. Nuclear blackmail is just as likely to lead to the beginning of the end for world imperialism.

Yes, the world’s bosses can very well kill millions, even hundreds of millions of workers (nearly 200 million in 20th century wars alone). U.S. bosses have been the vanguard killer for two centuries, from Native Americans to enslavement of black people to Hiroshima to Vietnam to Afghanistan. But they cannot kill the international working class, nor the ideas of communism that will lead our class to turn their imperialist atomic blackmail into class war for workers power, no matter how long it takes or what the obstacles. All the more reason to build for May Day and build a communist movement to lead the working class to crush these mass murders and their capitalist system.

All Not Going Well for U.S. Hi Tech War

The U.S. military is touting its latest battle with Taliban forces in Afghanistan’s Paktia province as a huge victory and has announced withdrawal of its attacking soldiers. However, as is true with much of the Pentagon’s "disinformation" campaign, there is appearance and essence.

A March 8 analysis from the Stratfor.com intelligence newsletter summarizes Operation Anaconda as "a new phase" of the U.S. intervention, showing that, "The U.S. has yet to find an effective response on the ground to guerrilla warfare. Dominant air power…might not be enough to win the war." Its analysis reveals that "only a few dozen militants have been killed…and U.S. losses have been significantly higher than the eight dead and 40 wounded officials have acknowledged."

"Stratfor says this battle "signals the beginning of a protracted guerrilla war that will allow Afghanistan to continue to serve as sanctuary for al Qaeda."

The U.S. found that, "Enemy forces in the area were actually much larger" than they estimated….Most…were Taliban forces….fighters… with several years of guerrilla experience and intimate familiarity with the region, [that] launched surprise attacks….The first [was an] ambush of about 100 U.S. troops" and another one that killed six U.S. soldiers.

With Afghan "allies" retreating, 1,000 U.S. troops were deployed,

"But this option has not worked well:…ground forces have come under heavy fire and suffered losses and helicopters also proved vulnerable." That’s when they began using high-altitude B-52 bombers to escape the Taliban’s small arms fire.

The Taliban is using "a classic guerrilla tactic: Dozens of militants draw the attention of U.S. units while guerrilla groups in the rear of the attackers stage hit-and-run operations….Taliban forces have…outwitt[ed] allied forces [before]," abandoning Afghanistan’s cities with almost no losses only to regroup in the countryside and prepare for future battles. These weathered warriors are too skillful to simply lie still and wait for U.S. air power to destroy their main forces."

Last year the U.S. claimed "hundreds of enemies were killed during the bombing of Tora Bora…but fewer than 10 prisoners were taken and few corpses were found."

In their quest to control the oil routes from Central Asia, U.S. imperialism has allied itself with dope-smuggling warlords and massacred thousands of innocent civilians. This has turned the masses against the U.S. and its puppets, the same masses they claimed to have come to save from the Taliban. Again, this proves the old adage that "it’s easy to start an imperialist war but not so easy to know how it will end." (See front-editorial for analysis of how U.S. oil wars aren’t going according to plan).

Machinists Strike Lockheed War Plant

MARIETTA, GA, March 12 — "I can stay out the rest of the year if I have to," said Sid Parker, 57, an F-22 jet technician who began working at Lockheed in 1963. "Four weeks or four months don’t matter to me."

Lockheed Martin workers, members of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) Local 709, rejected the company’s contract offer by nearly 4-1 March 10, sparking the first strike at the plant in 25 years. Lockheed is the world’s largest war contractor, building the F-22 fighter jet and the C-130 transport plane. They recently won the largest war contract in history, $200 billion to build F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. Workers at two California Lockheed plants ratified new contracts.

Lockheed said it would "implement contingency plans to support our business commitments," and called the rejected contract their "best and final offer." The strike involves about 2,700 of the plant’s 7,000 workers, the rest being white-collar workers.

Objectively, a strike against a major war-maker, in time of war, in a period of rising unemployment, after decades of consolidations and concessions, has immense potential for showing international solidarity and building class-consciousness. But the cynical, patriotic union leaders are fighting for the outlook that war is good business for aerospace workers. They have led workers to give concessions in the past, to save Lockheed. Now they want to share some of the billion-dollar contracts being signed.

Lockheed’s Marietta IAM workforce is 53.5 years old on average, with 21 years at the plant. They have valuable skills, and many jobs require special security clearances. Most workers are near the top of their pay scales, making the plant’s operating costs relatively high.

The main strike issues are job security, pensions and retirement benefits. "Each year, they want to take away, take away and take away," said Mike Turner, an aircraft mechanic on the C-130J, F-10 and F-22 fighter jets. "It’s all about take-aways." He has kids and aging parents to look after, and his wife was recently diagnosed with cancer.

Sharon and her husband Bob have 37 years at Lockheed Martin between them. Sharon has been laid off nine times in her 16 years there. Every time, she’s had to dip into her savings to meet family expenses."I’m sitting up on a bubble right now," she said."Bob planned to retire this year, but can’t afford to now."

This strike shows the hypocrisy of the bosses’ war cry, "United We Stand." Between bosses and workers, there is no "we." The fact is, without these workers, U.S. imperialism would not have the weapons to make war. With all the touting of high-tech, the support — or at least the passivity — of industrial workers is crucial to the existence of capitalism. All the more reason to win these workers to rebel on behalf of their international class interests.

The strikers must reject the union leaders’ outlook of "sharing" in the billion dollar war contracts. We have a larger obligation to strike against the bosses’ wars and to build international solidarity. Communist leadership among the workers is needed to make this a reality.

Queens NY Bus Drivers Must Rely on Workers, Not on Politicians

QUEENS, NEW YORK, March 1 — Here in the land of "ground zero," the class struggle is raging. About 1,400 drivers and mechanics struck three privately owned commuter bus lines here as part of a series of two-day walkouts for a new contract. The bosses’ war hype of "United We Stand," doesn’t include these drivers and mechanics.

The "reform" leadership of Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 is trying to "force local politicians to take a stand." (NY Daily News, 2/28). The newly elected "militant" president Toussaint told the 1,400 workers that a "long strike" would turn the "public" against them.

The latest action followed a one-day strike on January 7. One driver challenged Toussaint by saying, "Now that we’re out [this time], we should stay out till we get what we want." (News)

He was told to "have patience," but the driver shot back, "Patient? I’ve been working for this company for 15 months and we haven’t got a contract since I got here."

The city and state subsidize these private bus lines with workers’ tax money. Former-mayor Giuliani proposed competitive bidding for current and future private bus routes (rubber-stamped by current mayor Bloomberg), as a direct attack on the 32,000 Local 100 members who work for the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). This gives private bus operators the incentive to offer low bids with the expectation of hiring non-union, low-wage drivers (they pay $2.50 an hour less in wages than MTA, not counting benefits). The word is out that the workers’ main concern is job security, and all TWU jobs are at stake.

But the "militant reform" New Directions leadership is not organizing support among the MTA transit workers. In Dec. 1999, Giuliani threatened MTA workers with jail and fines, while his cops chased them off street corners to prevent them from even talking about a strike. As long as the "public" and "private" transit workers fight separately, they will drag each other down, forced to accept cuts to keep their respective bosses "competitive."

The rulers are spending over $400 billion at home and abroad for the "War on Terrorism," a war supported by most union hacks, including the TWU International leadership. The bosses want the working class to pay for their wars, plus carry them through this latest recession, a permanent feature of capitalism. All this helps create budget "deficits" running into the billions. So "everyone" must tighten their belts — except the profiteering bosses.

The first payoff made from the city treasury (out of workers’ taxes) is the $4 billion given to the Wall Street bankers as their profit from interest on loans to the city (no wonder there’s a "deficit"). Mass transit is a vital social service, bringing millions of workers to their jobs daily and to shop in the big department stores. Furthermore, the buses and subways raise the value of real estate because of its access to mass transit. This enables the bosses and the landlords to reap huge profits. Why shouldn’t they pay for a decent contract? Why should profits be made on the backs of transit workers, without whose labor the city, business and the banks couldn’t function?

The millions of workers who use mass transit can be won to support the drivers in an all-out strike against the bankers and bosses. The question is, will the union rely on these millions of workers or on bosses’ politicians? Will they take aim at all mass transit or play by the bosses’ rules of "public" and "private?"

This struggle can show how capitalism functions solely to make profits for bosses. As the struggle sharpens, more and more workers will see that the pro-war patriotic and "united-we-stand" propaganda pushed by the bosses and their media don’t apply to workers fighting for their class interests. The ideas of PLP will then be grasped by blocs of workers who will see that a new society is possible where transit workers and those they serve function together for the greater good of the entire working class. That’s communism.

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COLOMBIA, March 4 — Last year, the 72-day strike by Bavarian brewery workers shook the powerful Santodomingo capitalist group, Colombia’s leading monopoly and its first real multi-national corporation. The striking workers were united, militant and class conscious, and supported by many other workers and their families. They not only confronted the company but also the state repression by the bosses’ henchmen, the cops. This was particularly heroic in a country where paramilitary death squads kill militant trade unionists by the thousands. So why do these same workers feel so demoralized a year later?

Besides the company’s post-strike attacks lies the role of the Bavarian workers’ union leadership. They’ve done little to fight the many bosses’ attacks, which include disciplining workers for "infractions" like talking on the job. Aiming to slash the workforce and avoid another strike, the bosses want to divide workers and attack us group by group.

Instead of building on the militancy, unity and consciousness developed during the strike, the union hacks spread passivity, relying on the bosses’ laws to "answer" these attacks (as if these laws didn’t serve the company). They are also pushing the upcoming national elections as another "solution." But the recent attacks by the Colombian army against the guerrilla-controlled region of Caguán, backed by U.S. military aid, advisers and intelligence, expose these elections as a dead-end for workers.

The union has demoralized workers. Some have accepted the company’s "early retirement" plan and joined the ranks of Colombia’s 10 million unemployed. Others have left the union altogether. But abandoning the struggle is not the answer.

The solution is to intensify the ideological struggle with our fellow workers, and confront the bosses and the treacherous union hacks. We must trace these attacks back to the capitalist system’s drive for maximum profits. The strike’s most militant workers must be reactivated to re-join the fight. These militant workers can provide leadership for the rest of the Bavarian workers.

PLP calls on these workers to learn from both the victories and setbacks of this struggle. Capitalism will never satisfy the needs of the working class. The only answer is to build a Party that fights for communism, where production satisfies the needs of our class, not the bosses’ profits.

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In Nazi Germany, the Gestapo relied on a vast network of informers whose job was to rat on suspected enemies of the Reich. The U.S. Patriot Act — a joint Republican-Democrat effort — has given birth to a Gestapo clone called TIPS (Terrorism Information Prevention System). Under TIPS, run by the Justice Department, people in jobs that allow them easy access to homes, businesses and mass transit, will be recruited to spy on terrorists. Mail and package deliverers will be among the potential spies.

A pilot program is planned for August in ten cities with a population of 24 million. In its first phase, the goal is to recruit one million stoolpigeons, or 4% of that 24 million.

Reports from this nest of spies will be entered into a police database. The spied-on person might never know he/she is being watched. Already the Patriot Act allows for installing listening and other devices in someone’s house without much evidence of the person being a "terrorist." This is a more vast and fascistic version of the FBI’s old Cointelpro program, which spied on, and kept secret files of, millions involved in the anti-war and anti-racist civil rights movement of the 1960s-’70s.

TIPS will be coordinated by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), created under Reagan to carry out a mass invasion of Nicaragua in the 1980s when the Sandinistas ran that country. FEMA had the cover of coordinating actions taken during natural disasters, but it also has the same responsibilities during rebellions and "terrorist acts." It now has an additional job of confining in concentration camps anyone considered to be a "danger to national security."

Just like FEMA, Bush’s recently announced Shadow Government was a creature of the Reagan administration. It will have powers to suspend the Constitution, declare martial law and give the President and FEMA control of the country, by-passing Congress.

These fascist spy programs are aimed at the entire working class. If workers in any industry, for instance auto or steel, struck "against the national interest," these fascist measures could be used to stop, jail and even kill them.

But Hitler’s Nazi regime and its murderous concentration camps, spy agencies, torture chambers and invasions ended 988 years short of its planned 1,000-year reign, mainly by the Red Army and the communist-led resistance movement. Our job today is to learn from the heroic feats of these ant-fascist fighters, as well as their mistakes, and build a massive communist-led movement to make sure the U.S. bosses’ plan for a new fascist Reich will meet a similar fate.

Workers and youth should well remember the famous statement by the German pastor, Rev. Martin Niemoller in 1945: "First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak."

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NEWARK, NJ, March 8 — More slave labor. That’s the sum total of the Bush administration’s recent welfare "reform" proposals that build on the 1996 Clinton law which Bush lauded as "a good start."

Clinton’s fascist law forced all adult recipients who were not disabled and could not find jobs to "work off" their welfare benefits and food stamps in the dead-end of Workfare. This worked out to a "wage" that could go as low as $1.66 an hour (CHALLENGE, 1/16/02), with no right to join a union. This is truly slave labor. At its peak in New York City under former mayor Giuliani, Workfare slave laborers in transit, sanitation and other city agencies reached 40,000.

Now Bush and his bosses want to force all people on Workfare to work 40 hours per week instead of the previous 30, for the same benefits pushing the hourly "wage" even lower. It would also require all states to force 70% of all recipients into jobs or "work activities" by 2007. (Previously states could reduce the number of Workfare equal to the number of recipients dropped from the rolls.) And any recession at that time would make life even more repressive for the jobless.

Rep. Cardin of Maryland told the New York Times (2/27) that this would force states "to put people in unpaid Workfare positions…rather than providing the skills necessary for a person to be successful in a wage-earning job." Still more slave labor.

Workfare, like prison labor, is part of the ruling classes’ worldwide drive to lower wages and bust unions. Capitalism’s iron law drives each boss to strive for maximum profits or lose out to the competition. New Jersey has contrived the latest twist to this low-wage drive. When welfare recipients call a toll-free number to report problems with their benefit cards, the phone is answered not by workers in Green Bay, Wisconsin who formerly performed this work for $12/hr. but by workers in Bombay, India, earning $3 an hour!

So far, Workfare can only be used by non-profit or government agencies. But as U.S. wars for oil expand beyond Afghanistan, don’t be surprised if bosses here begin using slave laborers in war production (a la Nazi Germany), or in "homeland defense" jobs.

The law keeps the racist, anti-immigrant restrictions on benefits. Bush also attacked unemployed fathers, implying they’re all irresponsible and don’t care about their kids. In reality it’s the bosses and their White House servants who are attacking children. The vast majority of those affected by these new laws are children. And they follow a 60% cut of those receiving welfare benefits, with additional cuts coming when recipients reach their cut-off dates, attacking still more children. Whether it’s sanctions and bombings killing working people in Iraq and Afghanistan or welfare cutbacks here, U.S. bosses are responsible for genocide.

Under communism, there would be no unemployment, and therefore no need for welfare. Decent lives for working people, especially children, would be the number one priority.

We must fight these attacks started by Clinton and expanded by Bush. Welfare Repeal is all part of the rulers’ fascist drive, which includes mass round-ups of Muslim and Arab immigrants and the legalization of police torture and terror, all to control any working-class resistance to the expanding imperialist oil wars.

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BROOKLYN, NY March 9 — PLP members rallied today against the February 23 Federal court decision to throw out the convictions of three cops involved in the torture of Abner Louima. The workers and youth in the mostly black working-class neighborhood of Flatbush are very angry with the bosses freeing these racist, sadistic torturers. We distributed over 2,500 communist leaflets and sold many CHALLENGES.

The rulers are throwing another bone to the racist cops, telling them it’s O.K. to be Nazi storm troopers. For those workers and youth who believe the bosses and their media propaganda that "United We Stand," this should remind us once again: cops are not our "heroes."

Meanwhile opportunists like Democratic Party hack Al Sharpton can only "demand" that the freed cops are not reinstated into the NYPD and that they should be tried again. Sharpton, who supports Bush’s "war on terrorism," doesn’t want to rock the boat with the mass demonstrations of the Giuliani era. Such actions like those protesting the NYPD torture of Louima and murders of Amadou Diallo and Patrick Dorismond, shot in cold blood, are not now on the agenda of black politicians. One way or another, they’re all helping the bosses’ war plans.

Workers and students should never forget that the cops are the front-line killers for the ruling class. The cops’ main role during this period of war and fascism is to quell dissention and instill fear in the working class such as their refusal to tolerate any kind of militant demonstrations at the World Economic Forum. Given all this, we must organize our fellow students and workers to continue to fight for our class against these cops.

Billions for War, Nothing for Steelworkers

EAST CHICAGO, IN — "That’s right! They come up with billions of dollars for their wars," declared an LTV worker, "but they don’t want to give up anything for us!" He was among 30,000 steelworkers who traveled from Minnesota, Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C., February 28, to fight for their jobs, pensions and health care.

But union leaders had no intention of fighting for these displaced workers. Instead they organized a pro-war rally and demanded 40% tariffs on imported steel. The depths to which the union bosses have sunk were revealed in their ban on signs attacking Bush. It was to be all USA, all red-white-and-blue.

Steel War

The rally opened with chants of "USA! USA!" Tom Usher, U.S. Steel’s CEO, gave the opening speech and called himself an American steelworker. Nobody mentioned that this flag-waving hypocrite bought a plant in Slovakia where the workers are paid $2 an hour. USWA President Leo Gerard called on the government to save the steel bosses so U.S. rulers can wage war on workers around the world. Gerard and all his "personal friends" from Congress rattled on about 40% tariffs. All this patriotic hogwash left no room for organizing workers to fight back.

On March 6, Bush imposed tariffs as high as 30% on most steel imports from Asia and Europe. The Wall Street Journal (3/7) called this, "perhaps the most dramatically protectionist step of any president in decades." The WSJ didn’t mention that the U.S. ruling class needs a minimum steel industry to guarantee steel for war production.

The European Union could retaliate by imposing sanctions on U.S. exports. It’s early yet, but a steel war could be the start of the slippery slope towards a full-scale trade war and ultimately a shooting war. In 1930, the notorious U.S. Smoot-Hawley tariff Act spawned a round of retaliations from other nations that collapsed the level of world trade to a fraction of what it had been in the late 1920s. This contributed to the Great Depression and the start of World War II.

Protesting steelworkers were told to unite with the steel bosses against foreign steel and support the U.S. bosses’ "war on terror." In short, unite with anybody BUT other workers. This nationalist poison will only isolate U.S. steelworkers and lead to support for imperialist wars against workers everywhere.

Workers want more. Many are open to the PLP. Hundreds took our leaflet that said, "Billions for War—Nothing for Steelworkers." With better planning we could have distributed thousands, and many CHALLENGES. Also, we should have made a banner with the leaflet’s slogan, as we had planned. One Party friend saw the leaflet and said, "Damn, that would have made a great banner!"

New bosses are going to reopen the shattered hulk of what was LTV. They are just front men for the bankers who ran LTV, and who collected their "secured debts" while we lost pensions and health care. They will cut jobs and benefits, and may try to keep out older workers, "troublemakers" or those with health problems.

We are fed up with the bosses walking away with million-dollar bonuses, while retired steelworkers die because they can’t get health insurance. We are tired of fighting to keep the crumbs we had already won.

The oil war in Afghanistan is spreading, along with more fascist attacks against the working class. The steel bosses and politicians cannot wage war without the support of industrial workers. Steel production to serve the international working class will be at the center of a communist world. Participating on May Day, and building an international PLP, is the order of the day.

Same Enemy-Same Fight!

World steel production has taken a dramatic nose-dive. World steel capacity is around one billion tons per year, but final steel production for 2001 was around 830 million tons. On Dec. 19, officials from the world’s biggest steel producers met in Paris to discuss how to cut capacity and raise prices.

US steel production is down and about 30 steel companies have declared bankruptcy since 1998. U.S. Steel is considering buying several ailing competitors, including Bethlehem, Wheeling-Pittsburgh and National Steel, but wants a government bailout of $13 billion to cover legacy costs for pensions and health care.

The merger of NKK and Kawasaki Steel, Japan’s second and third biggest producers, will form the world’s second biggest steel company. In February, a merger of Arbed, Usinor of France and Aceralia of Spain formed Luxembourg-based Arcelor, with capacity exceeding 45 million tons.

Corus (the merger of the British Steel Corporation and Dutch steel maker Hoogovens) recently announced a year-long pay freeze for steelworkers because the company is losing $1.6 million a day. This follows the announcement of plant closings and 6,000 job cuts by next year.

Steelworkers around the world have the same enemy, and the same fight! Nationalism can only serve the bosses. International solidarity and strikes are what steelworkers need. A measure of our success will be winning steelworkers to join us on May Day!

Labor Hacks’ Role in Developing Fascism

The development of fascism in the U.S. did not start with the fascistic Patriot Act imposed after 9/11. The FBI’s mass spying on individuals began during the Democratic Roosevelt Administration under J. Edgar Hoover who invigorated it with the Cointelpro program during the Vietnam War and civil rights struggle. Since the U.S. defeat in Vietnam, preparations for fascism accelerated. Then came the total collapse of the labor movement in every major struggle by workers against the bosses’ attacks. These included:

• In August 1973, the UAW organized 1,000 union goons, including Klansmen, to crush the Mack Avenue sit-down strike, the first in auto since the 1930s. Led by Workers’ Action Movement and PLP, the workers occupied the Chrysler plant to protest unsafe conditions. The hacks not only attacked the demands of the workers, but like low-life scabs, attacked the workers with baseball bats. The UAW leadership smashed the strike after Chrysler and the Detroit police had failed. In 1979, UAW president Fraser (who organized the assault to take back Mack Ave. for the bosses), was added to Chrysler’s Board of Directors in exchange for massive concessions in wages and benefits, and over 500,000 jobs to Chrysler, Ford, and GM.

• When Reagan smashed the 1981 air controllers’ strike and busted the PATCO union with 10,000 scabs, the AFL-CIO and their Democratic friends did nothing. This set the stage for sellouts of militant strikes at Eastern Airlines, Greyhound, Hormel meatpackers, Caterpillar, among coal miners — the list goes on and on.

• Just as the AFL-CIO leadership, staunch backers of the Democratic Party, supported the U.S. invasion of Vietnam, it has supported every major imperialist adventure since, from Desert Storm, to the 1999 Balkan air war to the current "war against terrorism."

The fascist measures now suffered by many workers and youth under the Patriot Act have long been in the planning stage, as outlined in Clinton’s Hart-Rudman Commission report (exposed in CHALLENGE over the last year). The bosses needed a pretext to impose such draconian domestic measures. They got it on Sept. 11.

Anti-War Conference Avoids Real Cause of War

NEW YORK CITY, Feb. 24 — College students, professors and workers convened at Columbia University for the first national anti-war conference since Bush & Co. began its imperialist invasion last fall. Over 25 colleges and universities as well as various political organizations were represented, including PLP.

Workshops dealt with imperialism, the role of oil and the function of workers in the bosses’ war. At the "New York City Labor Against the War" workshop, a union leader explained how he had been working with other union heads to organize workers against the war.

During the Q&A period one PL member suggested clarifying to the workers that this is an imperialist war about oil. The union leader categorized this as unusable "leftist jargon." Such excuses are part of the reason why workers in general are so passive against the war, mass layoffs, fascist terror, etc. It is clear that this message must by-pass these bosses’ lieutenants and brought directly to the rank and file.

At another workshop, "The Politics of Oil," the group discussed the role of oil in the Middle East. PL members pointed out that the working class will not benefit from the war and that the capitalist group bin Laden represents is mainly fighting to control Saudi Arabia’s oil, something workshop leaders ignored. One member said Clinton’s Hart-Rudman Report had predicted the 9/11 events and outlined the government’s fascist response. Workshop participants asked for further resources on these issues and took CHALLENGES.

In a larger gathering, two proposals on "points of unity" were to be debated (so we thought). A Peace group from Columbia Univ. (heavily influenced by the ISO — International Socialist Organization) put forward one while students from SUNY-Binghamton — including PL’ers — advanced the other. The latter linked the role of U.S. imperialism to the cause of the war; exposed the universities as institutions that support and promote war and fascism; and put forth the crucial idea that control of oil is behind the conflicts in the Middle East.

The ISO and other liberal reformers revealed their true opportunist colors when they said that, although they agreed with the SUNY points, those proposals were "setting the bar too high" for other students and workers to become involved in the anti-war movement. (!) They then railroaded the discussion, using the tactics of structural and procedural questions to monopolize the discussion. Some rank-and-file students who came for the discussion left because it became so convoluted. The liberal points were adopted, sidestepping the views about war, capitalism and exploitation.

The opportunists leading the conference think they’re fighting against the war but by ignoring the relationship of capitalism and imperialism to the war are allying themselves with the Democratic Party liberals who support it.

PLP students and friends will continue to work, and build the Party, in these anti-war conferences. We need to overcome the opportunists like the ISO and their liberal friends who have no confidence that workers can understand that capitalism is the cause of war and fascism. Students need to realize that the only solution is communist revolution.

In Memoriam

CHICAGO, March 11 — Tonight members and friends of PL here bid farewell to one of our best. A memorial service was held for Philip Williams who recently passed away at 52 after a brave and courageous battle with cancer.

Phillip, a Jamaican immigrant, had been a member of our Party for almost 20 years. The many stories told at this service revealed his reputation as a fighter for the working class. PLP says racism must be smashed. Philip put that idea into practice, helping to organize against the Nazis and KKK throughout Chicago and Illinois. As a Chicago Housing Authority painter, he was a leader in fighting for his co-workers. But he also demanded that his fellow workers do a good job painting the apartments for the working-class tenants. Anger at the boss was no excuse for a bad paint job. He loved painting, and brought to it an artistic flair and love of color.

Philip’s comrades and friends related how he always said what was on his mind. If he agreed or disagreed with a political point, you knew it. Many of us can learn from this quality. For communism to work we must have everyone’s open and honest insights and opinions, not gossip behind closed doors.

Testimonies made it clear Philip had genuine love and commitment for his friends family. He went the extra mile to help friends with painting and construction projects. He protected, encouraged and defended his and other children, while helping them meet the challenges of life head on and strive for excellence and independence. And he loved to cook for the many social gatherings given by himself and his wife Kathy.

At home and at work, Philip defended the equality of women, taking the lead in standing up to sexism on the job and participating equally in housework at home. He was a hard worker and deeply thoughtful man, who put the needs of his family and friends before his own.

Philip remained optimistic and positive throughout his illness, never succumbing to fear or despondency. This enabled him to live a full year longer than expected, living fully and happily until the end. Throughout, his great love for his wife deepened. He became an even more affectionate and thoughtful father.

Philip would want us, and especially the youth among us, to live honestly and respectfully, in a way to deserve and command respect; to stand up for our rights; to love and honor people, not money; to be one’s self and do what’s right. And, as he said in his last message to his daughter Kaya, "Have fun."

As a human being and a communist, Philip Williams will continue in our hearts. We shall miss him dearly. He leaves behind a loving family, friends who are honored to have known him and a legacy of multi-racial and international unity.

LETTERS

Workers of the World, Write!

Night School Students Lead the Way for Struggle

I’ve been taking an English class in an adult school for six months and have made some friendships. Among the five closest friends, we’ve had many discussions about how the ruling class uses nationalism to manipulate workers in their wars for control of the wealth. We used the events of September 11 and those following it as an example. I gave them newspaper articles and some liberal magazines that reviewed the problem more profoundly. Later I showed them CHALLENGE. They now read it regularly.

I’ve also made friends with the teacher. She is very open. When she frequently questions the attitude of the police and the kind of people they protect, I then present aspects of communist ideas to the class. Privately, using what English I’ve learned, I have more political discussions with her, from a working-class point of view. She has also started reading CHALLENGE.

One night she said that we need to unite the teachers and the students because the Governor wants to end night English classes in the high schools, transferring them to college campuses, making them inaccessible to most students. This provoked a lively discussion. I proposed formation of a school-wide student committee to fight this. The teacher said, "That’s a very good idea, but the other teachers aren’t discussing this problem." "O.K.," another student said, "but we can talk about it." Everyone got very excited. My closest friends and I spoke in two other classes and then wrote a leaflet informing the students about the problem.

Later the teacher attended a meeting with all the night school English teachers in the County. They discussed the leaflet. It was criticized because no one had taken responsibility for writing it. But now we plan to have our first formal meeting to plan a student committee.

Many of these students work in the garment and other basic industries. We’re linking the problems in the factories to the budget cuts in social services all due to the U.S. bosses’ war economy. These struggles are creating the opportunity to build a base for CHALLENGE, for May Day and for communist revolution.

A worker learning about English and the class struggle

Money for Cover-ups, Not For Schools

Here’s an addition to the excellent articles on the pedophile priests (CHALLENGE, 3/13) and the role of religion. It’s since been revealed that the Catholic Church has paid even more millions to settle suits against pedophile priests, and that the bishop of Palm Beach, Florida who himself replaced another pedophile priest, resigned because he’s a pedophile. Now, this same church that has spent untold millions to cover up the sins of its priests and bishops refused to grant a decent contract to Catholic High School teachers in New York when they struck three months ago. More evidence of the anti-working class nature of the church hierarchy.

A Reader

What Next: Sainthood for Hitler?

What Do Billy Graham and Queen Isabella have in common?

The Nixon tapes keep on exposing this rotten capitalist system. They recently revealed Reverend Billy Graham talking anti-Semitic trash with Nixon. Graham’s attacks on what he labels "the Jew-controlled media" were so blatant that even Tricky Dick himself had to tell him "you can’t say that in public." This is the same Graham who publicly was palsy walsy with Jewish religious leaders.

This also shows that all these religious holly rollers are essentially the same. Supposedly Graham was more ecumenical and respectable than gutter fascists like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson or Jimmy (I love prostitutes) Swaggart. Well, what else can you expect from a man who blessed U.S. imperialism’s war against Vietnam.

Another famous racist and anti-Semite now in the news is Queen Isabella "the Catholic" from 16th century Spain. It was under the reign of Isabella and her husband Ferdinand that Jews and Arabs were expelled from Spain and under whom the Inquisition began. Isabella sent Columbus to the New World to begin the colonization and genocide of the Native population, as well as to expand the holocaust-slave trade of Africans begun by the Portuguese colonialists.

But now the push to make Queen Isabella a saint of the Catholic Church has taken a big step forward. This idea started under fascist Franco, but has been dormant since his death in the 1970s. The defenders of sainthood for Isabella claim she expelled the Jews and the Arabs not because of anti-Semitism (since "some members of her court were Jews"), but because they were "foreigners," not citizens of Spain. Her big "achievement"? She united Spain as a Catholic country.

What next, Torquemada the Inquisitor, Hitler, Chester the Molester for sainthood?

Former Catholic, Current Red

Hare Hell for Krishna Kids

The articles in CHALLENGE (3/17) about the pedophile scandal in the Catholic Church were very useful. As one said, abusing children is not unique to the Catholic Church. It’s now well-known that it occurred in the group Beatle George Harrison made famous, the Hare Krishna.

NY Newsday reports (3/3) that, "Thirty-six years after the religious group’s first U.S. temple opened in lower Manhattan, Melody Gedeon and 90 other former Krishna children, including seven in New York State, are suing the organization for what they say were years of physical and mental abuse in the schools known as gurukulas. The suit…seeks $400 million in damages from the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, or Iskcon, as the movement is known.…In the heyday of the Krishna movement, from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, thousands of followers put their children in gurukulas to indoctrinate them into the faith."

The complaint outlines gruesome acts said to have been carried out by adult devotees, allegedly with the encouragement of movement leaders seeking to crush resistance to their beliefs. The lawsuit originated when ex-pupils began commiserating about their experiences. It charges that children were regularly raped and sexually molested, deprived of food and sleep, forced to eat moldy or insect-ridden food, and made to eat their vomit when they threw up. They were locked in dark, rodent-infested rooms, denied adequate medical care, barred from parental contact and beaten until their bones broke.

"The kids were always being abused. It was hellish," said Uddhava Samanich, a college student in Utopia, Queens. As a child, he spent several months at the upstate Lake Huntington gurukula, where he said brutal beatings — including some with hot carrots — were common for infractions such as talking to children of the opposite sex, missing the pre-dawn wake up calls, or simply skipping stones in a lake.

For Ms. Gedeon, who entered a boarding school at 7, problems began when she was 8 and was molested by a male devotee. "I went to a teacher and told her this guy had put his hand up my sari and into my underwear. She told me it was my fault, that something inside me must have incited him," Gedeon said. When she was 9, Gedeon said church elders said she should prepare for marriage because she was growing breasts. She was never married off, but she said she was raped for the first time at 13 by a 27-year-old married devotee.

"When everyone found out this married man was taking me, they immediately came to me and said ‘How dare you! You broke up their marriage!’" said Gedeon, who now lives in Miami Beach, Fla. "Nobody asked me if I was OK, not even my mother. The brainwashing was so deep, you just didn’t question anything."

Even the pupils who were spared sexual abuse say they lived with day-to-day physical and mental battery that included wake-up calls as early as 2:30 a.m. to recite hours of prayers, rules that banned most music, books, television, newspapers, socializing with other children and brutal beatings for those who violated the codes. Lessons consisted primarily of memorizing Krishna’s teachings. History and geography were virtually ignored, they said.

If there were a hell, these religious child abusers will surely go directly there. As for the parents of the abused children, many of whom sought to escape the anti-war and anti-racist struggles of the ’60s and ’70s with mysticism crap, you shouldn’t have listened to guru Harrison.

A Teo

a name="Guess Who’s Using Bio-Tech Warfare? The U.S.">">"uess Who’s Using Bio-Tech Warfare? The U.S.

When U.S. rulers decided to go to war in Afghanistan, the New York Times carried a front-page interview with a Russian general who had experienced such a war. He said the U.S. could not defeat troops who retreated to caves, unless it used poison gas inside these caves.

Now the U.S. has proudly announced the use of "hyperbaric bombs." This bomb converts the atmosphere of the cave into a mixture of gases which, when breathed, cannot sustain life. In effect, those inside are suffocated.

There is no difference between this weapon and poison gas, except that the U.S. can piously claim it doesn’t use poison gas.

Ancient Red

Lessons Learned Trying to Build the Party

For seven years I’ve tried to advance PLP’s ideas in an old-line right-led organization with several million members here and scores of millions worldwide. With the Party’s help, I’ve learned some lessons and firmed up some views I’d like to share. Criticism, of course, is welcome.

Join or create a sub-structure that can lead and expand class struggle indefinitely. Of course, no bosses’ organization is designed to conduct real class struggle. Our local chapter has long entertained anti-racist, anti-sexist and anti-war causes, but has never had a standing "social action" committee. Because of this, the few comrades we’ve recruited there lurch along from issue to issue without me providing an effectively coherent focus. So the chapter leader (who’s aware of my Party activity) and I planned to approach the Board with a proposal to collectively concentrate long-term on our own Congressperson and her staff.

We’re developing "advocates" and "annoyers" who will visit her office regularly on issues that we slowly shape into demands, then follow up when the old Pol fails to "deliver." Of course, meanwhile we’re working to explain to our larger base why she both won’t and can’t deliver quality results for the whole working class. This will much sharply define our theoretical work within the Party club and provide a better way to introduce and evaluate possible new comrades. We can also begin to expose and somewhat limit the maneuverability of one of the rulers’ main agents in the community. (Our chapter leader does not now understand this goal, but I think — with struggle — she will be increasingly open to it.)

Always tie local anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-fascist issues to other somewhat comparable issues that expose U.S. imperialism. Over the thirty years I’ve worked with, and in, the Party we’ve usually tried to sharply link the particular object of struggle to the general picture of developing U.S. imperialism. However, in practice most comrades and myself have usually focused on one primary struggle at a time, while also guaranteeing CHALLENGE distribution for a fuller presentation of our ideas. This will likely continue. But the post 9/11 consciousness of the U.S. as the world power makes it clearer that a link-up of the local-global is essential wherever possible. At every opportunity we’ve related "the dying children of Baghdad, the frightened children of Bethlehem, and the homeless children of our own city."

The Party club will highlight these points in our work with the congressional staff. The chief federal official in our community surely has responsibility to defend or oppose U.S. foreign policy oppression as well as to scrutinize how much federal money the city gets for homeless relief and how it’s used. Hence, it’s easy to link the global with the local in every meeting, and eventually to expose this representative as the bosses’ lackey she is.

If we’re expanding the writing for, and reading of, CHALLENGE within the organization during the "struggle with/struggle against" the politician, recruiting to PLP at higher and higher levels of practice and understanding should become more routine, not just in our local chapter, but more broadly. This process means survival and then victory for our class!

A Comrade

1. `Victory' in Afghanistan Leads to Continuous Oil Wars
2. Laws Favoring Big Oil Sharpen In-fighting Among Saudi Bosses
3. U.S. Afghan Victory Sinking Into Civil War
4. Israeli Rulers Ponder Nazi
   `Final Solution' For Palestine
5. Mexico: Industrial Workers Lead Fight Against Plant Closings, for Jobs
6. Arrogant Bosses' Profit Schemes Are No Accident
   1. The Bosses' Arrogance Knows No Bounds
7. Opposing U.S. Government Attacks on Arab, Moslem Immigrants
8. Garment Bosses Can't Sew Up Capitalist Crisis
9. Remedial Education Cuts
   Attack All Workers
10. Rulers to Pedophile Priests: Make War, Not Sex
11. Memoirs of an Altar Boy
    1. THE ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT
12. Challenge Goes to the Movies
    John Q Arouses Anger But Covers For the Real Bad Guys
13. 1946 Revolt in Philippines:
    GIs Wanted to Go Home, Not Fight Red-Led Guerrillas
14. U.S. Bosses Want Peace--a Piece of Colombia, a Piece of Venezuela
15. LETTERS
    Workers of the World, Write!
    1. Building PLP
       Step By Step
    2. Africa's AIDS Orphans Is Real Terror
    3. Beware Liberal Reformers Jailing Anti-War Protesters
    4. Salvador Layoffs Expose Wage Slavery

---

`Victory' in Afghanistan Leads to Continuous Oil Wars

If appearances were everything, U.S. rulers would seem to be winning their oil war against Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda hands down. The U.S. military suffered very few casualties in routing the Taliban from Afghanistan. U.S. might is virtually unchallenged. U.S. maneuverability outstrips all rivals. The U.S. empire and war machine are the most extensive and strongest in world history. U.S. "defense" spending accounts for 40% of all military expenditures globally. U.S. imperialism enjoys a vast network of military bases, from which it can intervene virtually anywhere at will.

But appearances never tell the whole story. In fact, although the situation remains very complicated, certain developments suggest that U.S. imperialism may not be winning at all strategically in this war against the al Qaeda oil upstarts:

* Despite Bush's arrogant promises to "smoke out the evildoers," bin Laden has managed to stay alive. This is a major embarrassment for the bosses. Even if they succeed in killing him, "[al Qaeda]...can carry on. The head might be cut off, but the body is already too extensive to die with it." (London Financial Times, 2/20) The defeated Taliban may have the potential to regroup and conduct guerrilla war in an Afghanistan that the U.S. hasn't come close to pacifying.

* The al Qaeda strategy depends on provoking the U.S. into a bloody war of retaliation that would lead to massive anti-U.S. uprisings throughout the Muslim world. Al Qaeda's key goal remains driving the U.S. out of Saudi Arabia and ending Exxon Mobil's chokehold on Saudi oil profits. This strategy hasn't succeeded so far. However, it can't yet be called a failure either. Bush & Co.'s murderous actions since September 11 have intensified anti-U.S. hatred throughout Muslim countries. From Indonesia and the Philippines to Saudi Arabia, religious and nationalist resentment against U.S. imperialism is building, particularly among youth.

* The rulers of Saudi Arabia are tilting towards a demand that the U.S. end its military occupation of their country and hand over the key Prince Sultan air base there. Bin Laden represents a faction of Saudi bosses that wants to end U.S. control over Saudi oil wealth. The presence of 5,000 U.S. troops in the nation that has Islam's holiest sites -- helping to keep alive anti-U.S. sentiment -- is a tremendous political liability for the Saudi royal family and an organizing tool for the bin Laden upstarts. U.S. rulers are damned if they do and damned if they don't. They remember how nationalism and religion drove them from Iran in 1979 and understand that a similar uprising in the Saudi oilfields could lead to a defeat of even greater magnitude. Yet U.S. supremacy throughout the Persian Gulf may well depend on keeping its military in Saudi Arabia. According to Anthony Cordesman, a veteran U.S. imperialist policy-maker: ""We need [Prince Sultan Air Base] if we go to war with Iran or Iraq. You don't deter from `over the horizon' the way you can from the ground." (Washington Post, 1/18)

* Saddam Hussein remains a terrible problem for the imperialists, who haven't yet figured out how to get rid of him, much less how to replace him and with whom.

* Every major imperialist power, including a goodly section of British bosses, opposes a U.S. invasion of Iraq. Most of these rulers also have widening differences with the U.S.'s unilateral conduct of the "war against terrorism."

* The Middle East remains a key strategic weak spot for U.S. rulers. Every U.S.-backed "peace" plan since the Carter Administration has boomeranged into a bloody fiasco. For all of its military might, U.S. imperialism can neither quell the latest uprising by Palestinian nationalists nor tone down the brutality of its Israeli junior partners. Continuing U.S. support for Israel "is breeding greater resentment" throughout the Arab world (Financial Times). This resentment can only intensify if the U.S. attacks a major oil-producing country in the Persian Gulf. Here again, the al Qaeda strategy could still triumph. Sustained anti-U.S. uprisings in several major Muslim countries -- for example, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq -- would dwarf the military and political problems U.S. imperialism failed to solve in its Vietnam debacle.

U.S. rulers' technological and military superiority are undeniable, for the time being. But technology and military hardware don't determine the ultimate course of history. History is made by human beings and by their participation in class struggle. Massive battles between U.S. imperialism and its many oil rivals are brewing constantly. This is the long-term political reality behind today's seeming U.S. cakewalks in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Imperialism and the struggle for world supremacy and maximum profit always lead to war. At the moment, events are being determined primarily by inter-imperialist rivalry, rather than class struggle between bosses and communist-led workers.

We're still paying a heavy price for collapse of the old communist movement. The road ahead will be uphill for a long time to come. But our side can win. Keeping the spark of communism alive is the most important job in the world today. Progressive Labor Party has taken on this responsibility. We believe workers everywhere can learn to reject nationalism and religion and to replace them with a revolutionary communist outlook.

Laws Favoring Big Oil Sharpen In-fighting Among Saudi Bosses

Recently-discovered facts confirm that internal squabbles among Saudi rulers over oil are at the core of the 9/11 attacks.

To prop up their sagging economy, the main wing of Saudi bosses decided in 1998 to "globalize" their oil industry by giving non-Saudi companies access to the exploration and development of both existing and new gas and oil. Since 1975, the Saudi oil industry has been nationalized; foreign investors have been allowed to participate only in so-called "downstream" operations, such as refining.

Under a new law, which includes a major tax break, foreign corporations will now have the right to own land, sponsor their own employees and benefit from sweetheart loans previously available only to Saudi companies.

Last May, Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch/Shell and eight other non-Saudi companies took on a $25 billion natural gas project in Saudi Arabia. The money involved is relatively small, but this deal "is part of a long-term ploy of the oil companies, [which] ultimately want to get access to Saudi crude" (L.A. Times, 5/19/01).

Granting these concessions to foreign oil bosses represents a big gamble for Saudi rulers. The House of Saud had based its security on the ability to create cushy jobs and incomes for the majority of Saudi citizens while relying on very cheap imported slave labor to run the country and its energy industry. However, the declining Saudi economy has upset all this. Unemployment is growing. Gross National Product is plummeting. Disaffection from the ruling clique is spreading, both among the bosses themselves and among the population at large. The bin Laden/al Qaeda phenomenon reflects these developments.

The Saudi rulers are betting that a new dose of foreign investment will prop up their economy and enable them to buy off the growing anger of the population once again. But granting property rights to foreigners and importing a large number of European and U.S. expatriates to live in Saudi Arabia will also create conditions that the bin Laden gang can exploit.

In view of the new Saudi legislation, the 9/11 attacks appear more closely connected than ever to the dogfight over control of Saudi oil riches. The working class should always bear in mind that it has nothing to gain by supporting any faction of capitalists. Our class interest remains in destroying them all.

U.S. Afghan Victory Sinking Into Civil War

Talk about fleeting "victories" -- Afghanistan is again on the verge of a civil war; bin Laden and Mullah Omar have not been found; and the U.S.-imposed government of Hamid Karzai has little support. The recent murder of Civil Aviation-Tourism Minister Abdul Rahman in the Kabul airport, first blamed on Muslim pilgrims headed for Mecca, was actually carried out by other Karzai government ministers. Rahman, linked to the former King (a Nazi supporter) exiled in Rome, was beaten to death when he refused to sign a resignation. He is a Pashtun. His murderers are all from the Tadjik ethnic group. They included, the head of the secret service, a vice-minister of Defense and national security chief General Pankhsiri.

Meanwhile, in the northern cities of Mazar-e-Sharif and Kunduz, forces of Rashid Dostum, the Uzbekian warlord, have had many armed confrontations with those of Atta Mohammed, a Tadjik warlord. U.S. aircraft bombed the outskirts of Khost, in the South, to squash a conflict among different tribal groups.

Several provinces have governors who are not recognized by President Karzai. Other provinces have self-imposed governors hated by the local population.

Simultaneously, banditry, drug-dealing and warlords seizing young boys as lovers are rampant. Selling Arab prisoners -- not wanted by the U.S. because they're not linked to Al Qaeda -- is becoming a booming business. Ransoms vary, asking up to $50,000 for an imprisoned Saudi Arabian.

"Bordering countries, in spite of their official line," reports the Mexican newspaper La Jorneda (2/22) "have their own plans for the future of Afghanistan, a country crucial to future oil pipelines across the region. These countries are doing everything possible to promote their interests, or at least, to counter arrangements advanced by the U.S. They say they support Karzai, but in deeds...these countries finance and arm their protégés....All this has turned Karzai into a hostage of foreign troops. They are his only supporters. This is a dangerous trap since the bigger the foreign military presence, the bigger the discontent among the local population, who, influenced by the local mullahs, have never accepted domination by `infidels'....

"Meanwhile, what about the Taliban? It's still an enigma why they abandoned the main cities in November. Very few Afghans have surrendered their weapons. Several days ago, former Taliban Interior Minister, mullah Abdul Razzak, spoke from his refuge in the mountains of Spin Boldak: `Soon the people will ask for our return to power. For now, we are following the situation very closely.'"

Israeli Rulers Ponder Nazi
`Final Solution' For Palestine

It seems that none other than Hitler's Nazi Germany is becoming THE model for the ruling class's worldwide "war on terror." First it was Bush's Secy. of War Donald Rumsfeld telling Public Television's Jim Lehrer (Feb. 4) that U.S. could change its military the way "The Germans transformed their armed forces into the Blitzkrieg." (CHALLENGE, 2/27)

Now along come the Israelis using the Nazis as models in dealing with the Palestinian Intifada uprising. Columnist Robert Fisk reports the following in the British Independent (2/24): "An Israeli officer tells his colleagues, according to the Israeli daily newspaper Ha'aretz, that they must `study how the German Army operated in the Warsaw Ghetto.' Needless to say, the latter report is not published in the U.S." [Until now -- Ed.]

And how did the Nazis "operate" in the left-led Warsaw Ghetto insurrection? By slaughtering the 20,000 to 30,000 still there -- every man, woman and child.

In World War II, the Nazis created their "final solution" for six million Jews -- extermination. Fascism is a product of capitalism. It is a ruling class attack on the working class. While hiding behind religion or nationality, as always class is the determining factor.

Ironically, Israeli rulers may very well be adopting the Nazis' "final solution" for the Palestinians. Another case of Nazis "studying" Nazis....

Mexico: Industrial Workers Lead Fight Against Plant Closings, for Jobs

MEXICO, Feb. 25 -- Ford was wrong. They thought the firing of militant workers would ensure "labor peace." With the support of those still working and of other unions, the Ford workers are fighting for their rehiring. Since early this year, they've continued protests at the plant. Workers circulate leaflets on the assembly lines.

Early this month the Ford workers united with hundreds of tire workers who lost their jobs when the German-owned Continental Tire Co. closed its Euskadi plant, demonstrating along with machete-wielding residents of the town of Atenco. For three months, the latter have resisted eviction from their homes which Mexico's President wants to replace with a new airport. These residents have seized and maintained control of the City Hall and dug ditches and erected barricades throughout the town to fight the evictions.

During the rally, a fired Ford worker explained that Euskadi, Ford and all Mexican bosses, including those behind the evictions, represent the essence of capitalism and imperialism, which bleed the whole working class through poverty, unemployment and wars for profits. Other speakers called for unity of all workers.

The next day community residents carrying their machetes joined the protest of the fired Ford workers at the company offices. The building was painted with slogans demanding the fired workers' rehiring. The terrorized bosses called their cops. Speakers condemned the firings and the factory closings by the profit-hungry bosses.

This was followed on Feb. 6 by a march of over 3,000 protesters through downtown Mexico City to the main plaza in the center of the city, including workers from a dozen unions either on strike or resisting factory closings. "Ford, fascist, imperialist criminal," shouted the workers, with the same chant against Fox and Euskadi. "Luchar, vencer, obreros al poder" ("Fight, win, workers to power") rang throughout the massive rally.

The Euzkadi workers were concluding a five-day, cross-country march from Jalisco, joining together with the Ford, DINA truck manufacturing and National Casting foundry workers. TheNewsMexico.com reported that workers "spoke bitterly of a government that allowed factories to close `without regard for workers.'"

"Today is just the match that lights the fuse," exclaimed a Euskadi trade unionist to the news agency.

Ford is continuing its attacks. They've limited use of water fountains, affecting the workers' health; cut the workers' transportation and are trying to impose 10-hour shifts. Their announcement barring new projects for the factory marks an uncertain future for Ford's workers. "We won't allow the bosses to continue to decide for us," declared a leaflet circulated hand-to-hand along every assembly line. "We'll defend our future and that of our families!"

Ford is submerged in a crisis of overproduction, losing market share and profits. To avoid a debacle, they're closing four plants in the U.S. and one in Canada, laying off 35,000 workers in the next three years, in addition to the thousands let go this year. The war for auto markets is sharpening, causing unemployment for millions. Eventually this war for markets will be transformed into another imperialist war for control of the world. "Workers of the World, Unite!" is a powerful slogan that can put the working class on the offensive. Join the communist PLP to organize an end to this capitalist nightmare.

Arrogant Bosses' Profit Schemes Are No Accident

"How could he be so arrogant?" asked a fellow machinist at a West Coast industrial plant, referring to the speech given by the divisional boss at the funeral of our co-worker killed in a preventable accident last week. "They [the family] asked for close friends and family. He [the boss] didn't even know the guy!"

The big boss was forced to quote from a line boss and regular workers who actually knew the deceased. Sandwiched between company propaganda about customer satisfaction and other lean/team jargon offered by the line boss, was a revealing, heart-felt testimonial from a fellow worker. This co-worker simply remembered our friend as the "salt of the earth."

"Salt Of The Earth" was the title of a famous movie made during the 1950's McCarthy anti-communist witch-hunts. In one scene, after a miner is killed in a preventable accident, the boss tells the rest to get back to work. "Yes," says the union leader, confronting his oppressor, "the job of the company is to get the ore out of the ground. The job of the union is get the miner out of the ground!" The workers struck.

We all agreed the divisional boss would never have relayed these simple words of respect had he been aware of their significance.

The Bosses' Arrogance Knows No Bounds

Our friend was barely laid to rest before the company held mass meetings to harass us about taking too much time on workers' compensation. Quickly following these mandatory meetings, the bosses published their accident investigation, a disgusting cover-up.

At one of these meetings, involving hundreds of workers, a third were shouting back at the boss, another third were snoring and the rest walked out -- not something you see every day at mandatory meetings. The floodgates were opened when one worker asked a seemingly ridiculous question: "Do we have to report leaving work after an accident even if we're unconscious?" You see, the last person any of us had seen unconscious was our recently killed co-worker.

The company's accident report said our friend was a skilled worker. It then dished out some mumbo-jumbo about making sure we're familiar with safety procedures. The bosses say their only responsibility is to certify we know what we're doing.

"It's a whitewash," screamed a Lead worker at the union meeting. "The company says [our friend's] death was his own fault!"

He knew the real story. For three years he had been pressing the company to adequately train us in new job combinations, the company's latest scheme to increase profits. When they combine jobs, we're forced to handle unfamiliar machinery. For years, nothing was done even though the Lead had filed safety incident reports and protests to management and union Business Representatives. Three workers had already died since this latest scheme to increase profits was introduced. Our friend was working on just such a combined task when he was killed.

"Some of these machines can take out a whole building," the Lead warned.

The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Fall

"I have to wonder why these bosses are so arrogant. They even have the nerve to spout their company propaganda at the funeral. What is going through their minds? Are they just stupid?" asked a friend of the Party.

These bosses are big and powerful. They've been able to get away with this kind of industrial murder for years. Big and powerful leads to arrogance. You can even confuse power with intelligence and righteousness.

"Just look at what the bosses are doing around the world." continued our comrade. "They are prosecuting their imperialist oil war to the far corners of the globe, spreading chaos and death, all the while shouting to the skies how righteous they are."

Yet the fact remains, the bosses kill us by the thousands to secure their profits -- be it in imperialist wars or industrial "accidents." We can and should use their own arrogance to further expose their system.

A few of us met after the funeral. We knew we were facing an uphill battle against an increasingly fascistic system. One worker said it all when he pledged us to the struggle, "We're going to have to be in this for the long haul. No matter what it takes we can no longer let them get away with this -- and we're the ones that have the experience to organize to end it."

Opposing U.S. Government Attacks on Arab, Moslem Immigrants

On the very evening of Sept. 11, many of us in community- and church-based groups began organizing against the racist attacks that were sure to follow against Arabs and Muslims. Forums brought communities together, countering the suspicion and fear long-time neighbors had of each other. Arab, South Asian and Muslim workers lost their jobs because of their national origins. They stayed home, fearing physical attacks on the streets. They were picked up by the FBI and INS (Immigration Service) on the flimsiest of evidence -- or, it seemed, no evidence at all, then held for weeks without their families being informed of their whereabouts or without access to lawyers.

As the magnitude of the government sweeps emerged, demonstrations were held outside detention centers and INS offices. Initially our numbers were small but grew gradually. On Feb. 20, around 800 people participated in a National Day of Solidarity with Arabs, Muslims and South Asians, initiating a multi-racial fight-back. Groups previously separated by religious, language and nationality "differences" are uniting, recognizing our common enemy. Students facing increased tuition fees -- higher for resident immigrants than citizens -- are getting involved.

Right now the focus is on the detainees, probably exceeding 1,200. The demands are mild: to know who and where they are, not to free them. So far, the movement hasn't linked the attacks to the racist nature of capitalism, nor to the growing war and fascism. But it is a beginning and many in the movement are open to our ideas. It's up to us to find them.

Garment Bosses Can't Sew Up Capitalist Crisis

"If next week, your tickets don't add up to the minimum wage, you're fired," shouted a California garment boss to one worker. On returning to her sewing machine, she fainted. Several co-workers ran to help her.

When the boss ran to see about the commotion, another worker lashed out at her: "It's your fault; your greediness has no limit. In 20 years you haven't raised the piecework prices. When the minimum wage goes up we have to work faster for our tickets to add up to the new minimum wage."

"You don't understand," replied the boss, "We're in a crisis. I have no money."

"With the profits from our labor you bought this building," the worker shot back. "It's worth millions. You can sell it and you'll be rich. But what can we sell?"

This attack on workers is a small example of the havoc the worldwide capitalist crisis is wreaking on the working class. Last year a million U.S. workers lost their jobs. This year's forecast is for another 1.6 million layoffs. Thousands of working families, many being evicted in the dead of winter, are joining the ranks of millions of homeless nationally.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government is planning huge cuts in education, health and welfare to pay for the bosses' imperialist oil war in Afghanistan and its expansion elsewhere. In preparation, they're proposing mandatory 6-month military training for all men 18 to 22.

The rulers blame the 9/11 events instead of their capitalist system for the present economic downturn. Eventually, who controls the market is decided on the battlefield. While 9/11 contributed to the economic decline, such events are inevitable products of bosses fighting each other. The profit system has always produced these boom-bust cycles in which millions of workers lose their livelihoods. Only a system without profits, run by workers, can end these cycles and free the working class from the ravages of capitalist exploitation.

Remedial Education Cuts
Attack All Workers

The debate over the future of California's remedial education has heated up. Four years ago, conservatives pressured the State University (CSU) system to eliminate remdial education because "it lowers the status of the university and it costs too much". Chancellor Charles Reed issued Executive Order (EO) 665 requiring all incoming freshmen who fail English or Math proficiency exams to complete several within one year or be kicked out. These courses don't count towards graduation. This leaves struggling students with absolutely no room for error. Last year, 2,200 students (mostly black and Latin) were kicked out of the CSU system because they couldn't pass their remedial courses during the one-year time limit.

It is clear EO 665 is a racist attack on the working class. Even with the dedicated effort of many good teachers, black, Latino and many white students don't receive even a basic education in high school. Now the ruling class will deny it to them in college. Currently, over 50% of incoming CSU freshman fail the Math and English proficiency exams. In urban areas, it jumps to 86%. High schools in urban areas are predominantly black and Latino. Such schools suffer from racist mismanagement, under-funding and apartheid segregation; 81% of Latino freshmen and 69% of black freshmen entering Cal State Los Angeles require reading and math remediation (http://www.asd.calstate.edu/).

These students have the potential to learn everything, contrary to what the bosses want us to believe. Urban students suffer from an apartheid educational system created by the bosses to eliminate any chance of a decent education. The bosses use racism to split the class solidarity among exploited workers. Only the bosses benefit from racism. Similarly, only the bosses gain from cutting remedial education. A poor education hurts the working class's ability to read, especially communist ideas in CHALLENGE, write articles, make speeches and discuss politics with their fellow workers. It also robs the working class of the scientific knowledge of dialectical materialism and the history of class struggle. This hurts (but obviously doesn't destroy) the working class's ability to lead such struggle.

The bosses use and exploit part-time and graduate student labor who teach remedial courses, paying them a fraction of a full-time professor's salary, denying them benefits, pensions, job security and an office to meet their students and offer extra help. This forces many part timers to teach at several campuses. Many say they're so busy just trying to earn enough money to live on, they feel they can't give their students the attention needed to overcome a racist high school education. The bosses pit part-time exploited workers against full-time exploited workers to divide and frustrate class struggle.

It's important for all workers to view the current attack on remedial education as an attack on the entire working class. Many high school and college PLP members are fighting to not only save but to improve remedial education. We have attended forums and distributed CHALLENGE, joined mass organizations and raised revolutionary ideas while struggling with students in our classrooms and in PLP study groups. We're also exposing the capitalist lies used to defend this racist, murderous profit system.

The bosses' attack on remedial education resembles their other attacks on the working class -- Welfare "Reform," the fascist Patriot Act, mass layoffs, the racist round-up of Middle Eastern and Muslim workers and the racist bombing of Afghanistan. During imperialist war, under-funding urban high schools and cutting college remedial education helps the bosses build their imperialist army. They give urban students two choices: take a miserable super-exploitative job or join the army and become cannon fodder to secure the bosses' oil profits.

This will end only with a communist society where we cut the bosses out. Join PLP and fight for workers' needs, not for profit.

Rulers to Pedophile Priests: Make War, Not Sex

Revelations that Catholic priests, protected by church leaders, molested hundreds of boys in New England over decades should shock no one. Decadence, corruption and hypocrisy have been the church's hallmarks for most of its existence. Now suddenly there's a big push from the liberal Eastern Establishment to clean up the church. With its war efforts expanding, the main wing of U.S. rulers needs to bring the nation's 60 million Catholics more closely into line ideologically and politically.

It was the liberal Boston Globe's continuing "Spotlight" exposé that spurred the unprecedented conviction of Father John Geoghan. The Globe also showed that Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law routinely reassigned Geoghan and other predators without punishment. Along with demands for Law's resignation, the Globe and, its parent, the New York Times, have called on the church to reform its all-male power structure and to ease up on abortion. The church's abortion stance can seriously undermine the main wing's war making. In 1995, the Christian Coalition, led by anti-Rockefeller forces in the domestic oil industry, set up the Catholic Alliance. Focusing on Boston, it organized millions of Catholics to vote for "pro-life" politicians, who also opposed U.S. military action in the Middle East.

Without mentioning war, a Globe editorial (2/21) stated that the main issue was winning hearts and minds to the liberal cause: "...the widening scandal of child sex abuse is a concern not only for Boston-area Catholics but also for the civic and political leaders who work closely with Law to advance important matters of public policy." The church must show an "activist commitment to social justice," the Globe demanded. So, it's no surprise that Boston's ruling elite have dispatched a team of prominent Catholics to advise Law on handling the fiasco. Its leaders serve the heavyweights of U.S. imperialism. Banker John Hamill is a director of the Fletcher School at Tufts, which, since 1991, has been demanding the U.S. invade Iraq. Tom O'Neill, son of JFK lackey Tip, lobbies for Raytheon and Bechtel. Jack Connors owns a big slice of Interpublic Group, Exxon Mobil's top PR firm.

The main wing's drive to consolidate public opinion is progressing quickly. Before the New York Times bought it from the aristocratic but provincial Taylor family in 1993, the Globe never uttered an unkind word about Boston's Holy Trinity: the church, Harvard University, and the Kennedy family. Today, the main wing needs to win workers to its war aims, so if any one of these three tarnishes the "knight-in-shining-armor" image, the Globe rakes it over hot coals. Rapes and murders committed by the Kennedy clan no longer get swept under the Globe's rug, nor does the president of Harvard's openly racist treatment of some professors. Now the church faces the "get-with-the-program" treatment. All this liberal muckraking serves the U.S. military's genocide.

Unconcerned about the children it damages, the Vatican currently enforces celibacy for priests, which contributes to pedophilia, as a loyalty test. But when Christianity began as an egalitarian rebellion against the slave system of ancient Rome, celibacy was not an issue.

Christianity soon turned into its opposite, however, as self-serving bishops, literally "overseers," arose and sided with Roman emperors, class enemies of the poor. Then the church formally forbade priests from marrying in the 12th century in order to protect its vast and growing wealth. Celibacy ensured that there would be no children of clergy around to inherit church property. The greed of popes almost a millennium ago has led to centuries of perversity.

In criticizing the church, liberals like the Globe must walk a fine line. They don't want an exodus from organized religions. "The Catholic Church is central to many lives and should remain so" (Globe editorial, 2/21). One of the rulers' worst fears is that workers will seek a more rational way of viewing the world, one that can some day change it.

Memoirs of an Altar Boy

In the 1950s, as an altar boy at Catholic schools, I heard a running joke from the older boys: if you want to make a few dollars, have a "private confession" with Father X. I was too young to understand this "joke." I was also lucky that may parents transferred me to public school since they couldn't afford Catholic school tuition. Unfortunately, for many other young boys this was no joke.

Cardinal Bernard Law, the maximum leader of the Catholic Church in the U.S., chief of the 300 U.S. bishops and the person responsible for recommending candidates to bishops and canonization to the Pope, is now the center of probably the biggest scandal facing the church in this country. Even though he's accused of tolerating and covering up the sexual abuse of many children by 80 priests, Cardinal Law refuses to quit his post.

Most of the child-molestor priests are retired or no longer active in the church. One, John Geogham, is accused of having sexually molested 130 children in 30 years. Another priest is suspected of molesting 100 children. Cardinal Law tried to cover up these cases, even when some of the victims sued and were indemnified. Worst of all, Law let some of these accused priests remain in their posts.

Recently the New Hampshire diocese published the names of 14 priests accused of molesting children. One is still active, Six are either sick or retired but still provide religious services.

This is not isolated behavior. It's believed the church has spent over a billion dollars settling sexual abuse cases in the last few years. In 1997, a Dallas court ordered the church to pay $119 million to 10 men who accused a priest of molesting them for 15 years when they were altar boys. In 1996, the Florida church had to pay $13 million to settle a similar case. Cardinal Law and the Boston diocese face a similar legal suit.

There are already several support groups and organizations to help victims of such abuses. One group, Suvivors of Abuses by the Clergy, believe 3% to 10% of all clergy are involved in different kind of abuses, including sexual ones.

Many trace the causes of such abuses to the church celibacy rule which bans marriage and sexual intercourse for priests and nuns. Maybe so, but the fact is there's rampant sexual abuse in all branches of organized religion. Churches, mosques, temples, etc., are powerful forces in society, and they don't escape the sins of capitalism which treats sex and all forms of personal relations like commodities. This facilitates such behavior among the clergy. How can one preach equality among men and women and the brotherhood of humanity when capitalism's rulers do the opposite: wars, class exploitation, racist and sexist discrimination, etc.

That's a contradiction inducing many religious people who see their centers of prayer as contrary to the outside world join the fight for a better world. That's the route I've chosen.

Former (Not Sexually Abused) Altar Boy

THE ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT

P.S. It was just reported that a cantor at the biggest synagogue in New York, Temple Emanu-El, was arrested for molesting his nephew. Others have now said he abused them as well. Also, the NY Times (2/21) reported how many "holy warriors" warlords in Afghanistan are pedophiles. I guess the 11th Commandment, "Thou shalt molest," cuts across all religions.

Challenge Goes to the Movies
John Q Arouses Anger But Covers For the Real Bad Guys

John Q is a hard movie to attack -- though the capitalist media almost uniformly called it preachy, sanctimonious and "politically correct." (The term "politically correct" starts from a racist premise and expands in vicious circles to attack anything questioning the day-to-day horrors of capitalism -- which, ironically, are the politically correct and acceptable rules prescribed by the government, big business and the media. As the movie ends, the host of ABC-TV's "Politically Incorrect," Bill Maher, fraudulently attacks "us [the people], for not voting funds for health care.")

The premise of John Q (the hero's name and middle initial, suggesting the term "John Q. Public," meaning the average person) is that a black factory worker--whose work-week has been cut from 40 to 20 hours -- has a pre-teen son who needs a heart transplant right away or he will die. A hospital medical worker says the boy's problem had been missed because of the very casual exams demanded by HMOs. A hospital administrator coldly advises the family to take the boy home and make his few remaining days comfortable. But the head cardiologist acknowledges that if it were his child, he would go for the heart transplant. As John, Denzel Washington says that's what he and his wife choose to do.

But without John's knowledge, his employer has switched to a cheaper HMO, which will approve only a fraction of the $250,000 needed for the procedure.

One of the movie's strengths is that the desperate family has an integrated group of friends, and their church is multi-racial too. (This implicit anti-racism infuriates the "politically incorrect" crowd, who don't give a damn about the troubles of the poor.) Friends and neighbors donate money while John sells the family's meager possessions: a color TV for a few bucks; his truck, which leaves the couple without transportation to and from work. (His wife's car had earlier been repossessed.) Even though he pays the hospital tens of thousands, they inform the family they must take the boy home, to die a certain death.

The wife angrily -- and reasonably -- demands that John "do something." Desperate, he promises to pay every cent if the cardiologist will operate. Refused, he pulls a gun, shuts the emergency ward with locks and chains and demands his son be "put on the list" for a transplant.

The police immediately label his acts "terrorist." Certainly this is no revolutionary action. It's an individualistic reaction, though certainly understandable. But it's hardly a "solution" for the countless problems inflicted upon the working class, which can only be resolved with unified, revolutionary, mass action.

Still, the people in the integrated working class audience were yelling at the screen, deeply involved in the story, angered by the family's horrible problem. The crowds that surround the hospital in the movie clearly support and identify with John's anger. But one relatively positive review I read still called the movie "rabble-rousing," a nasty term which, as here, can refer to people who understand that their class interests are being discussed. Almost all movies want us to identify with the rich, or the military, the cops and the courts -- all protectors and reflections of the bosses' interests, not ours.

John Q's act reflects the anger and desperation of a nation where almost half the people have no health insurance whatsoever, and those who have any are frequently and routinely denied benefits by HMOs. Millions of workers now are denied many heart and cancer procedures which used to be regular and mandatory, not just for the wealthy.

The movie's focus on the HMOs is a lie. The "bad guys" of the movie (including the cops who try to kill John) come to recognize they are wrong. When John's wife attacks the hospital administrator for her decision to throw the boy out of the hospital, thus forcing John's rebellion, the administrator suddenly becomes a good guy. In fact she was previously "only following orders," as do the cops, the courts, foremen and others who control so much of our lives...though of course they choose to.

Focussing on the letters "HMO" as the force to fight, is misleading, especially here, where many people see the legitimacy of John's anger.

Being Hollywood, don't expect John Q to indict the whole rotten capitalist system which keeps most of the world impoverished, underfed, unhealthy, uneducated, homeless. Paraphrasing President Eisenhower's attack on socialism: The essence of capitalism is to keep us in a state of "cradle to the grave insecurity."

Terrorism, joining gangs, individual acts of rebellion, by definition can never change the system. Only when industrial workers like John join hospital, service and millions of other workers to build a mass revolutionary communist Party, can we then build a world without Enrons, HMOs or imperialist wars. That's the goal of PLP. Join us!

1946 Revolt in Philippines:
GIs Wanted to Go Home, Not Fight Red-Led Guerrillas

For U.S. imperialism to rule the world, it must have a loyal army. There have been several major examples of soldiers -- especially those who were drafted -- rebelling against their orders. In Vietnam, mass desertions, rebellions, sabotage and shootings of officers helped force an end to U.S. aggression. Another example occurred during the U.S. Siberian invasion of the fledgling Soviet Union in 1918 (the subject of a future article). Still another occurred following the end of World War II.

The war in the Pacific ended on August 14, 1945. The GI's who helped defeat Japanese fascism had done their job and were ready to return to their families and resume normal lives. But the rulers had other plans.

In 1942, a ruling-class strategy meeting sponsored by the National Industrial Conference Board began mapping plans for the post-war world. U.S. rulers wanted to establish themselves as the dominant force in Asia and exploit the colonies of the former Dutch and French imperialists, from Indonesia to Indo-China, with all their cheap labor, oil, rubber and other valuable resources.

China, led by Mao Tse-Tung's Chinese Communist Party, was the major challenge to U.S. hegemony and inspired billions of oppressed workers and peasants throughout Asia. The bosses plotted to encircle China by controlling Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines (a U.S. colony since 1898) down to Vietnam. Many of these areas contained potential nationalist and/or communist challenges.

In the Philippines, the People's Anti-Japanese Army (a communist-led peasant guerrilla army known as the "Huks"), had cleared central Luzon (the largest of the Philippine islands) of the Japanese invaders and threatened to become the dominant force in the country. U.S. GI's were grateful to the Huks. Their defeat of the Japanese occupiers saved thousands of GIs' lives, leaving U.S. soldiers very little to do militarily.

With the war over and U.S. soldiers ready to go home, they were told there "weren't enough boats" to transport them, as if boats could only sail in one direction. Pressured by the GI's about being forced to remain after the defeat of the enemy, an Army Colonel blurted out that they were staying to put down the Huks!

A GI on the U.S. Armed Forces newspaper managed to get this story past the censors and into the paper. In early January 1946, United Press International (UPI) published the story worldwide. At that very time, Truman's Secy. of War Porter, holding an unrelated press conference, was asked if the story was true. Unprepared for such a question, Porter spilled the beans -- the troops would stay according to the point system established for them during the war. (Only by acquiring enough points could soldiers be sent home.)

When that news reached the Philippine capital of Manila, "democracy's army" filled the bars, dejected at being forced to stay long after the war's end. The following morning thousands entered Manila carrying their weapons. Their mood was ugly. The MPs disappeared and the brass vanished. The GI's formed two huge columns and snaked their way through the city. That evening some soldiers met and published a leaflet, exposing the government and sending friendly greetings to the Huks. The next morning, 15,000 met in a big field in the city and selected a leadership committee. They then called up General Stier, the Commanding Officer in the Western Pacific, who quickly agreed to meet with a committee of five.

The 15,000 GI's formed a column led by the five-soldier committee, and crossed the Pasay River, moving towards military headquarters. The committee was ushered into a room full of generals, who urged them to call off the scheduled evening meeting. The committee made it clear that could not happen.

That evening 35,000 GI's showed up for a mass "go home" demonstration. The soldiers applauded when an enlisted lieutenant read greetings to the Huk guerrilla force.

By the end of the week, GI delegates came from all over the Philippines to an abandoned theatre on the outskirts of Manila and formed a committee of about 100. They represented tens of thousands of GI's whose backgrounds cut across all lines, from cities all over the U.S., with but one goal in mind: to go home.

The next day the brass flew the five-man committee back to the U.S. and gave them immediate honorable discharges. Soon the needed transport ships were "found" and the troops were sent home.

The "go-home" movement spread throughout Asia and Europe. The GIs' refusal to obey orders was a major blow and set-back to U.S. imperialism's timetable. It demonstrated once again that if the rulers cannot maintain the loyalty of the troops, they can't wage their imperialist wars.

U.S. Bosses Want Peace--a Piece of Colombia, a Piece of Venezuela

COLOMBIA, Feb. 27 -- When President Pastrana came to power here in 1998, he promised "peace," an end to the half-century of civil war which began with "La Violencia" (1948 peasant rebellion) and continued with the rise of guerrillas, drug gangs and paramilitary death squads. Pastrana initiated negotiations with the two major guerrilla forces, the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a "peace process" forced on Colombia's rulers by the growing guerrilla movement and the mass discontent of the rural population. This was particularly true in the countryside, racked with poverty, death squads, unemployment, etc. Pastrana was forced to grant the FARC 16,000 square miles in the Caguan region (an area the size of Switzerland).

But while Pastrana was talking peace, his government and U.S. imperialism were preparing for more war. Clinton's Plan Colombia granted $1.6 billion to the Pastrana government, mainly for military purposes. Hundreds of U.S. military "advisers" were sent to Colombia to train the Army and strengthen its paramilitary death squads, which were committing most of the mass murders.

Then came Bush and his "war against world terrorism." He asked for another $100 million for training Colombian soldiers to protect an Occidental Petroleum pipeline, bombed 170 times and out of commission for 266 days last year. Now instead of Occidental paying $1 per barrel of oil produced here to the Colombian army to protect its pipeline, the U.S. government will start to pay for it.

Right after Bush asked for this money, President Pastrana ordered the Colombian army to attack the FARC-controlled area, using Black Hawk helicopters and other U.S. weapons, intelligence satellites, planes and U.S. "advisers." Soon after the invasion began, and the FARC guerrillas' retreat from a town they'd held for several years, Pastrana was flown there in a U.S. embassy plane accompanied by uniformed U.S. military personnel.

The escalated war in Colombia is occurring alongside a stepped-up campaign to overthrow President Chavez of neighboring Venezuela. The corrupt, old-line bourgeoisie of Venezuela had shared power until Chavez became President in the late 1990s. They had stolen billions from the oil bonanza while the masses of people sank deeper into poverty. Chavez, like the FARC, represents the nationalist bosses of South America, who are tired of allowing U.S. imperialism to dominate the wealth and exploitation of the working class. These nationalist forces are allying with European imperialism against U.S. bosses.

The working class is caught in the middle of this intensifying inter-capitalist war. Some workers believe one group is better than another. Some believe Chavez or the FARC are the solution. Others actually believe a return to the old corrupt bosses and their U.S. masters (in Venezuela) or U.S. intervention (in Colombia) will end their misery and/or the civil war. All these ideas are deadly mistakes, basically due to the lack of a mass revolutionary communist movement pointing to the only solution: a fight against all bosses and establishment of a society without any exploiters: communism.

LETTERS
Workers of the World, Write!

Building PLP
Step By Step

I'm a college student with friends and classmates from many parts of the world. In the last year, we've had lots of discussions about racism, the war in Afghanistan and about May Day and communism.

I've given CHALLENGE and discussed communist ideas with several of them. When I first showed the paper to a classmate from Russia, he told me his father was a Bolshevik, and that despite the break-up of the old Soviet Union, his father felt proud to still be a communist. Another friend, from China, said she wasn't born yet when Mao Tze-Tung was alive, but that if there were more people like him, the world would be a much better place. Other classmates from El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico have also welcomed CHALLENGE.

Some of us have formed close friendships. With that has come more profound political discussions. Recently we had a party at a friend's home. It looked like an international meeting -- students from Colombia, Mexico, Japan, El Salvador, Turkey and Armenia. A discussion started about communism. Everyone generally agreed that communism sounds good, that it would be great to live in such a society, but at the same time many said it was an impossible dream. The discussion also revealed passivity and fear among many of the students. The bosses' fascism, their laws attacking immigrants and the rabidly patriotic atmosphere has been having an effect.

In this area, there is much potential to build PLP and a broad base among the students. It's not easy since many take classes for a short time and then leave. But others stay much longer. I will concentrate on some and together participate in community organizations and study groups to build long-term ties with them. I feel very happy to be building the Party step by step, and to see positive responses from my friends. These experiences have made me confident that we're on the right road, that in the long run the working class will destroy this capitalist profit system and its imperialist wars.

Young Communist

Africa's AIDS Orphans Is Real Terror

On an HBO TV special (Feb. 23), comedian Jamie Foxx referred to his trip to Africa during the filming of the movie Ali (in which he acted), and noted the masses of people with AIDS on that continent. Well, the AIDS crisis in Africa is no joke; it is killing millions. Of 36 milllion with AIDS worldwide, 25 million are in Africa. Recently, Ethiopia's Ministry of Health reported that AIDS has orphaned one million children. Hundreds of thousands of them are homeless because there are no funds to care for them.

According to the World Health Organization, 18 million people have died worldwide because of the AIDS virus. Four million are children. There are 16 countries where 10% of the adult population 15-49 years of age are infected by the HIV virus. In five of those countries, in the southern part of Africa, one of five adults has the virus. In Botswana, 35% of all adults are infected. The 4,000,000 with HIV in South Africa comprise the largest group of any nation in the world.

Before the AIDS epidemic, 2% of all children in the world's poorest countries were orphans. At the 12th World Aids Congress, in Durban, South Africa, two years ago, the U.S. Agency for International Development estimated that in 10 years Africa would have 28 million children orphaned by AIDS. According to UNICEF (the UN's children's organization), these AIDS orphans are exposed to higher risks of malnutrition, sexual and other forms of exploitation and all types of diseases.

What can be done about this AIDS epidemic? To handle its most urgent aspects, Africa will need $3 billion (a fraction -- 1/16th -- of the military budget hike Bush is demanding "to fight terrorism"). The multi-national drug companies could be pressed to lower their extremely expensive prices for the AIDS treatment drugs. Cultural aspects can be fought: the sexual abuse of children, the belief among men in Africa that intercourse with a virgin can cure AIDS, or that the use of detergents, herbs or cotton before intercourse can prevent the virus. Then there's the Catholic Church's opposition to the use of condoms.

But the main problem is rooted in a society based on the exploitation of human beings as commodities, a society where a few imperialist companies super-exploit the entire world. A society where wars for profits are murdering millions worldwide. The solution is to fight for a world free of the most deadly disease humanity has ever known: capitalism and its many derivatives -- like nationalism, racism, sexism, etc.

A Reader

Beware Liberal Reformers Jailing Anti-War Protesters

Have you noticed the excitement over changing the drug laws and the "three-strikes-and-you're-out" laws (three convictions equals a life sentence)? For almost thirty years, possession of even a small amount of marijuana has meant enormously long jail terms. People convicted several times even for victimless crimes (including stealing food) get life.

In many cases, a tiny amount of marijuana found in a car or a home has "justified" taking away the house or car--to be sold for the benefit of the local police!--a practice that feeds on itself and constantly grows. The "impartial" Supreme Court has approved these fascistic tactics.

But now, with possibly the most openly fascistic presidency in history, we're suddenly hearing sanctimonious weeping about "reforming" these awful laws and releasing prisoners who were so harshly treated. A lot of liberals are ecstatic over this talk. The Nation magazine, for one, welcomes this "thawing" of icy, inflexible laws.

But politics doesn't happen in a vacuum, and liberals tend not to dig too deep for answers.

These critics have described the U.S. as nation of new and expanding prisons to house all these people who committed trivial crimes.

Why this sudden apparently "lenient" tone for people who even a year ago were called the source of most of the crime problems in the country? (This is an honor that more justly should be given to police departments, who protect the flow of all illegal drugs.)

It seems obvious that a by-product of any change in the marijuana and three-strikes laws will be empty cells, useless jails.

With all the anti-terrorist, "homeland-security" bullshit, is it unreasonable to wonder what politician will ask, "Gee, what will we do with all these empty cells? Wouldn't it be terrible to lay off all those guards and prison personnel?"

This great idea of releasing minor league potheads will leave plenty of room to imprison protesters. Especially since, as Bush, Cheney, Ashcroft and gang insist -- who needs proof? The odds are that behind any such change there will be a coalition of liberals and conservatives, if there is still any real distinction to be found among them.

Lefty

Salvador Layoffs Expose Wage Slavery

Workers in the Sanitation Workers Union in Santa Ana are angry because their union leader, José Santos A., is collaborating with the bosses to privatize their jobs.

Four private trucks have already been hired from ACAPSA, in which the mayor and some council members have investments. These politician/bosses rely on our union leader to win us to this privatization scheme. Full privatization will kill all our jobs.

This is a political lesson for those who voted for these politicians to "serve the people." The case of the union leader is even worse. During the civil war when he was a mid-level leader in the FMLN (the former guerrilla organization, now the second major electoral party here), he used to say he was "fighting for the poor."

We workers must understand we don't need these "leaders." We must take control of our unions while fighting for our immediate interests. But above all, we must use participation in this immediate struggle to win workers to the idea that abolition of the wage slavery system of capitalism is the only solution to our problems.

Comrade in El Salvador

 

a href="#War, Patriotism Cut Workers’ Throat">"ditorial: Salt Lake City Snow Job: War, Patriotism Cut Workers’ Throat

• From One Nazi to Another

a href="#It’s No Accident that Oil Drives Afghan Slaughter">"ditorial 2: It’s No Accident that Oil Drives Afghan Slaughter

a href="#U.S. Rulers’ War FOR Terror in The Philippines">".S. Rulers’ War FOR Terror in The Philippines

a href="#D.C. Transit Workers Reject Reform Leaders’ Contract">".C. Transit Workers Reject Reform Leaders’ Contract

Red GI Swaying Soldiers Not to Side with Bosses

Chicago Teachers Open To Anti-War, Anti-Racist Ideas

Building PLP Within Anti-War Movement

Students Take Offensive vs. Racism, Anti-Semitism

WEF Protestors Told Humane Capitalism Impossible

Practice Makes Progress

Patriotism Is the Last Refuge of a Scoundrel

a href="#Workers See Need of International Unity to Fight Bosses’ Wars">"orkers See Need of International Unity to Fight Bosses’ Wars

LETTERS
Workers of the World, Write!

a href="#NYC’s Finest Kill Again">"YC’s Finest Kill Again

Distinguishing Friends from Enemies

a href="#‘DEE-FENSE!’">‘D"E-FENSE!’

Need More Concrete Analysis

C-D Needs Special Delivery

Anti-Arab Terror Recalls WW 2 Internment Camps

---

Editorial: Salt Lake City Snow Job

a name="War, Patriotism Cut Workers’ Throat">">"ar, Patriotism Cut Workers’ Throat

The Hitler…oops…the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics are underway. This is one of the most segregated cities in the country, an armed camp, with more U.S. troops than in Afghanistan. The orgy of nationalism, patriotism and money-grabbing would make the Fuhrer (Hitler) envious.

The 1936 Olympics in Nazi Berlin was a showcase for the racism, nationalism and growing power of Hitler’s Germany. Within three years, Hitler had invaded Poland, and the Soviet Union two years later. World War II was underway. With these Olympics, the world is already at war.

Bush’s "War on Terrorism" is widening. With no serious military challenge, and no worldwide revolutionary communist movement, U.S. rulers are trying to run the table against any potential threat to their control of oil and oil pipelines, and their position as "the world’s only superpower." Under Bush I, the rulers called for a "new world order." Bush II is trying to ram it home. The Olympic mascot should be a 20,000-pound "Daisy Cutter" bomb.

The Hitler games celebrated the racism and anti-Semitism that would end in death camps and genocide. But the Nazis had nothing on Herr Ashcroft. These Olympics are being held in the country with the largest prison population in the world, two million, most of it black and Latin. In the "Land of the Free," racist police terror rules and 25% of young black men are in the criminal "justice" system. More black men are in prison than in college. Under "Homeland Defense," thousands of Arab and Muslim men are being rounded up and held without charges. The Justice Department and Immigration Service are treating over 600,000 immigrants on student visas as suspects. And the general population can’t travel without being asked to show their ID, or "assume the position" at hundreds of airports.

All the flag-waving and chants of "USA, USA" will not provide jobs for the 14 million unemployed. It will not provide healthcare for the 43 million without health insurance, and the hundreds of thousands who will join them, from LTV Steel to Enron. Bush is seeking $48 billion more for war, and $38 billion more to build a fascist police state.

U.S. imperialism rules a world that grows more unstable every day. Wars, mass disease and economic crisis comprise the "victory" of U.S. imperialism and the free market. The Middle East "peace process" has unraveled. In Africa, tens of millions are dieing in a holocaust of wars, civil wars, famines and HIV infections. Asia and Latin America are wracked by economic crises and more than two billion workers around the world live on less than $2 a day.

Less than a decade after the Nazi Olympics, and over 100 million lost lives, the Soviet Red Army rolled into Berlin and the Fuhrer killed himself in his rat hole. The destruction of the "invincible" Nazis was due to the then-socialist Soviet Union, led by Josef Stalin. The ultimate and inevitable defeat of Socialism and the old communist movement — which thought Socialism was the path to communism but did not build the latter — has been a devastating setback for the international working class.

We cannot yet fill the shoes of those revolutionary communists who preceded us. But we stand on the shoulders of these giants. By meeting the challenges of today, we will steel our Party and pave the long road to communist revolution. Given U.S. imperialism’s current launching of global war, there must be an urgency to our immediate task, but patience over the long run. Confidence in the working class will come from persistent fighting for the political leadership of the mass movement. As our confidence in the workers grows, such persistence will bear fruit, enabling us to overcome the dangers of the rulers’ superior weapons and the terror of their brutal dictatorship. Building mass May Day activities this year will keep workers, soldiers, and youth from being blinded by the Salt Lake City snow job.

From One Nazi to Another

Who do the U.S. bosses’ look to for enlightenment on how to conduct imperialist war? None other than Hitler’s Nazis. Witness this February 4 exchange between Public Television commentator Jim Lehrer and Bush’s Secretary of War, Donald Rumsfeld, about the proposed $48 billion increase in the military budget:

"LEHRER: But if somebody were to look at this budget…does it buy anything that different than what we already have?

"RUMSFELD: When the Germans transformed their armed forces into the Blitzkreig, they transformed only about 5 or 10 percent of their force….But they transformed the way they used it, the connectivity between aircraft and forces on the ground, the concentration of it in a specific portion of the line….You only need to transform a portion."

Wonderful! How come they lost? Rumsfeld should remember how the communist Soviet Union "transformed" the Nazis when the Red Army, led by Stalin, pushed Hitler and his 3rd Reich down the toilet .

Editorial 2:

a name="It’s No Accident that Oil Drives Afghan Slaughter">">"t’s No Accident that Oil Drives Afghan Slaughter

Lately the liberal media, led by the New York Times, has begun to analyze "possible" civilian casualties in the U.S. war on Afghanistan. They quote "humanitarian" organizations as saying there "might" be as many as 1,000 civilian deaths, but "it’s hard to prove" since they "lack independent evidence." Their latest editorial (Feb. 13) reduces even that figure: "No reliable overall casualty numbers exist, although some estimates say that hundreds of Afghan civilians have perished in misdirected strikes." It’s all an "accident" says this leading liberal mouthpiece. They give short shrift to the most detailed reports compiled by Professor Marc Herold of the University of New Hampshire, drawn and cross-checked from dozens of newspaper reporters from Britain, France, India, Canada, Pakistan, Australia and even the U.S. (although the latter are few and far between). Herold proved a minimum of 3,767 deaths just from Oct. 7 to Dec. 6, but this warranted merely a half sentence in the Times "analysis," the latter preferring to fall back on the "hard-to-prove" defense.

Herold declares that, "The absolute need to avoid U.S. military casualties means flying high up in the sky, increasing the probability of killing civilians…."

"….Better stand clear and fire away," reports the Toronto Globe & Mail (10/31/01) "Given this implicit decision, the slaughter of innocent people, as a statistical eventuality is not an accident but a priority — in which Afghan casualties are substituted for American military casualties."

Thus, in the U.S. imperialists’ war, where "The sacrificed Afghan civilians are not ‘white’ [and] the overwhelming number of U.S. pilots and elite ground troops are white….the scale of violence used by the U.S government…knows no limits." (Herold) For U.S. rulers, racism knows no bounds.

The bombing has "progressed from medium-sized missiles to Tomahawk and cruise missiles, to bunker-busting 2,000 lb. bombs to [B-52] carpet-bombing using cluster bombs and now the devastating daisy cutter bombs that annihilate everything in a 600-meter radius." ("The Evils of Bombing," London Guardian, 11/08/01)

"A U.S. officer aboard the U.S. aircraft carrier Carl Vinson described the use of 2,000 lb. cluster bombs dropped by B-52 bombers: ‘A 2,000 lb. bomb, no matter where you drop it, is a significant emotional [!] event for anyone within a square mile.’" (London Guardian, 11/2/01)

The liberals go as far as justifying the bombing saying "in the long run" without the Taliban "more lives will be saved." They ignore the fact that the U.S. under the liberal Democrat Carter organized the fundamentalists’ attack on Afghanistan 23 years ago — before the Soviet invasion —which continued under Reagan/Bush, using $3 billion of CIA-directed funds. It was out of this terrorist movement that the Taliban was born.

But the thousands of deaths from carpet bombing are only a small part of the story. "In the long run," tens of thousands will die from the disease-creating depleted uranium (DU) used in all U.S. bombs which makes them more deadly; from the starvation caused by the destruction of Afghan society and the withdrawal of previous emergency aid missions fearing these bombings; from the unexploded bombs remaining throughout the country (virtual land mines); and the looting, banditry, warlord fighting and drug trafficking resurrected by his war.

Finally, since the 26 million population of Afghanistan is one-tenth that of the U.S., Herold says the proven minimum figure of 3,767 Afghan civilian deaths (up until Dec 6) would become "roughly equivalent to about 38,000 U.S. deaths or . . . eleven World Trade Center attacks." The current civilian death total is well over 5,000..

All this slaughter stems from the U.S. bosses’ drive to control the world’s oil supplies, shipping routes and pipelines. Afghanistan stands between the massive oil and gas reserves of Central Asia and the Arabian Sea, a gateway to the energy needs of India, China and Southeast Asia. It is only a small taste of what the mass murderers in Wall Street and the White House have planned for the world’s working class, with Iraq next on the war agenda. The absence of a world communist movement permits these butchers to run rampant in their pursuit of profit. It is our task to re-build such a movement and turn these imperialist wars into class war for communism. Building red May Day marches is a crucial step in this direction, part of the working class’s answer to the ravages of world capitalism.

"They bomb anything that moves…"

"When U.S. warplanes strafed [with AC-130 gunships] the farming village of Chowkar-Karez, 25 miles north of Kandahar on Oct. 22-23, killing at least 93 civilians, a Pentagon official said, ‘The people are dead because we wanted them dead’ The reason? They sympathized with the Taliban." (BBC, 11/1/01) "When asked about the Chowkar incident, [Secy. of War] Rumsfeld replied, ‘I cannot deal with that particular village.’" (Toronto Globe & Mail, 11/3/01)

On Oct. 10, 2001, the Sultanpur Mosque in Jalalabad was hit by a bomb during prayers, killing 17 people. As neighbors rushed into the rubble to pull out the injured, a second bomb was dropped reportedly killing another 120 people. (BBC News Online, 10/11/01)

In an article entitled, "Living With War: Dying a Way of Life for Civilians in Afghanistan," the Los Angeles Times reported (11/19/01) that bomb strikes on Nov. 17 killed two entire families — one of 16 members and the other of 14 — together in the same house. On the same day, massive carpet bombing of Khanabad near Kundez killed over 150 civilians. (the London Independent, 11/19/01) A refugee, Mohammed Rasul, recounts himself burying 11 people, pulled out of the ruins.

On Oct. 19, U.S. planes circled over Tarin Kot in Uruzgan early in the evening, then returned after everyone went to bed and dropped their bombs on the residential area, instead of on the Taliban base two miles away. Mud houses were flattened and families destroyed. An initial bombing killed 20 and as some of the villagers were pulling their neighbors out of the rubble, more bombs fell and ten more people died. ("Families Blown Apart, Infants Dying. The Terrible Truth of this ‘Just’ War," the London Independent, 10/25/01)

A villager explained, "We pulled the baby out, the others were buried in the rubble. Children were decapitated. There were bodies with no legs. We could do nothing. We just fled." (John Nicol in the London Guardian, "The Myth of Precision," 10/20/01)

"A US bomb flattened a flimsy mud-brick home in Kabul…blowing apart seven children as they ate breakfast with their father. The blast shattered a neighbor’s house, killing another two children." (Times of India, citing Reuters, 10/29/01)

Fleeing refugees have become the Pentagon’s "new targets of opportunity." U.S. aircraft have fired missiles and dropped bombs on fleeing taxis, trucks and buses. (Sydney Morning Herald, 12/8/01) A 39-year-old refugee, Rukia, who lost her five children on Dec. 3 when a U.S. bomb hit her neighborhood in Kandahar, fled before she could bury her children, her left arm shattered and wounded in the stomach, and just escaped another bombing while being driven to a Quetta hospital. She told the Herald: "They’re bombing anything that moves. It’s not true that they bomb civilians by accident. They’re targeting the innocent people instead of Osama bin Laden."

a name="U.S. Rulers’ War FOR Terror in The Philippines">">".S. Rulers’ War FOR Terror in The Philippines

U.S. bosses have sent 600 troops to the Philippines to open up their "second front" in their "war on terror." They claim bin Laden’s Al Qaeda has training camps there. But who are the terrorists? The following is from a report (Feb. 12) by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof datelined Isabela, Philippines:

"Elnie Angulo, a…25-year-old peasant was walking along a jungle path [‘to market to buy burlap sacks’] when he was accosted by three terrorists here on the island of Basilan….

"What happened can be deduced from the…autopsy. The body had several broken ribs, three broken vertebrae, slice marks on both hands and cuts on the neck….Mr. Angulo’s tongue had been cut off and genitals severed.

"The men who tortured Mr. Angulo to death were….Philippine troops, our new partners in the war on terrorism.…

"[The U.S. is] about to join a ‘dirty war’ in Basilan, siding with murderers and torturers….

"Local people whisper about the white ambulance….Each time it stops at a house at night…someone from that house will turn up shot to death in the morning."

Using the bin Laden pretext, this first wave of U.S. troops are re-establishing U.S. bases in the Philippines, to replace Clark Air Force Base and Subic Bay from which U.S. rulers were ousted some years ago, particularly in an area crucial to Pacific maritime oil routes. U.S. bosses maintain their position as the world’s number one terrorists.

In Colombia Too, When It Comes to Terror, U.S. Bosses Are Number 1

Again, the Bush administration has shown in deeds that its "war against terrorism," means supporting mass terror against workers and youth. Bush is expanding Clinton’s Plan Colombia (billions for mainly enhancing the Colombian Army’s military capability) to pursue its real aim: protect the oil interests of the U.S. Occidental Petroleum company and support the paramilitary death squads. The latter are responsible for thousands of murders occurring there annually.

The White House wants $98 million more for training and arming Colombian troops to protect the EI Limon pipeline, which runs for hundreds of miles from the Arauca oil fields in northeast Colombia to a port on the Caribbean coast. This Occidental pipeline was closed for 266 days last year because of guerrilla attacks. Although Colombia provides only 2% of the total crude consumed in the U.S., the new measures "will mean a qualitative change...crossing the fine line between a war against drugs to fighting the insurgency. Washington seems to want to extend its war against terrorism to Latin America." (El País, Feb. 7). Colombia also borders on oil-rich Venezuela.

The same week the White House was demanding these billions, Amnesty International reported that the massacres of civilians and human rights abuses have doubled in Colombia and blamed the Colombian army for "organizing, coordinating and sharing information with the paramilitary groups which it tolerates." (El País).

As CHALLENGE has repeatedly said, when it comes to mass terror, U.S. bosses and their lackeys worldwide are number one.

a name="D.C. Transit Workers Reject Reform Leaders’ Contract">">".C. Transit Workers Reject Reform Leaders’ Contract

WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 9 — To the dismay of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1089 president and the ATU international rep, transit workers recently rejected a tentative contract by a vote of 1288 to 543. They failed to realize that union members are unwilling to accept the crumbs offered by management and are ready to fight for a decent contract.

The president, in office for only one year, let down many of his supporters. He was elected on a platform of moving the union forward and fighting wage progression. Having now been "educated" to the bosses’ ways, he is pushing the sellout as "the best that we can do." Many workers want to know what happened.

This local president is not much different from many other reform-minded union officers. They get elected on a program of making the job better for the workers and then discover the bosses aren’t awed by their arguments. Initially they put up some resistance, but most soon surrender. A few continue on and win some concessions, but the workers never receive what they deserve. In fact, the workers create all value, but the bosses keep most of it — the source of profits.

How do workers get off this treadmill? Only communists can provide the leadership to break this cycle. Communists understand that as long as the bosses hold power, they will continue to exploit the working class. Communists are constantly figuring out how to fight the bosses.

The bosses have many avenues of attack: they use September 11 to build patriotism and plan for war; they push racism and nationalism to divide workers; they talk about downturns in the economy; they push lower wages and a longer progression—multi-tier wage system—as a strategy to "fight" privatization. All these are excuses for not meeting the needs of the workers, who are the backbone of the Metro system.

Out of each battle, whether workers win or lose, comes a better understanding of the enemy and a few more communists to lead the next battle. This process, which is not always straightforward, will eventually become a communist-led workers’ movement powerful enough to overthrow the bosses and establish a workers’ society where workers get what we need.

Red GI Swaying Soldiers Not to Side with Bosses

Every day on my way to work I pass a billboard the bosses have posted around town, showing a military tank in the background and a sign reading, "Without employees like you, it might not move an inch."

My first reaction was to laugh, since it’s displayed for workers. Soldiers in my unit have also seen it and we’ve discussed how the effort to gain support for the war in Afghanistan has increased. Many soldiers are unclear about the role of oil interests in that region. So we’re circulating a leaflet to inform soldiers not to take sides with the bosses in that war.

I gave the leaflet to a trusted friend and it sparked some discussion, showing how we can put our politics into practice. Later another interested soldier joined in.

Others are planning to use the leaflet. We’re gaining experience. The above example shows how even with a small base, political discussions can spread to others. We must make it clear to soldiers that we can criticize the actions in Afghanistan, that what society needs now is workers’ power, not imperialist war.

The bosses’ billboard is a sure sign there’s more war ahead. They have unleashed a massive effort to gain support for imperialist war and to attract soldiers nationwide to fight and die for Exxon Mobil profits. As far as I’m concerned, the billboard should read, "With soldiers like me, this tank will be used for workers’ power."

Red Soldier

Chicago Teachers Open To Anti-War, Anti-Racist Ideas

CHICAGO, Feb. 11 — Members of the Chicago Teachers’ Union (CTU) House of Delegates passed a resolution calling on the union to "encourage all its members to engage in educational activities…involving union members, students, and parents…on topics such as racial profiling and racist attacks, the war in Afghanistan, the potential for war around the world, options for peaceful solutions, and the changes in attitude toward civil liberties. The CTU Quest Center will gather resources, lesson ideas, names of potential speakers and other relevant materials."

A communist teacher spoke in favor of the motion. She said, "we should not be so quick to jump unthinkingly on the patriotic bandwagon. It is very likely the U.S. will become involved in a war not only in Afghanistan but in Iraq or Iran as well. I for one, do not want to see my students sent off to fight and die for the oil companies." Several people applauded.

Many union members were involved in organizing for the resolution. It originated from a discussion among activist teachers at a September anti-war rally. It was debated at a meeting of the union caucus PACT, as well as at the union’s Education Committee, which added the paragraph about the Quest Center. It was also discussed, and changed, at the union’s Executive Board meeting and then brought up again in the House of Delegates. Three of the originators of the motion spoke for it and a fourth woman moved to amend it to include gender apartheid and discrimination in Afghanistan.

The passage of this motion shows openness on the part of teachers and staff to the idea that the bosses’ war is not in our interests. It will be up to us to guarantee that we continue this struggle.

Building PLP Within Anti-War Movement

I am a member of a large institution. Generally people have supported the war in Afghanistan as a "just war." Some have tried to stifle discussions and dissent here. Others have been uneasy. A minority is openly against the war.

At the urging of myself and others, the committee I’m on initiated a petition to the leading council. We demanded an "open discussion," expressed our concern about the "loss of civil liberties" and reminded people of the institution’s "tradition" of being "anti-war, for peace." Eighty people signed the petition and demanded it be read and discussed at the next leadership council meeting.

Meanwhile, our committee established a planning group — which I’m leading — to organize a series of forums about the war, the Patriot Act, anti-Arab profiling and detentions, war and the economy.

Sixty people came to the first forum. The first speaker reviewed the history of geopolitics and oil during the Cold War and post-Cold War. He especially drew lessons linking oil and the current and expanding war. When he finished, hands went up: "Why is Mid East oil so important?" "What’s happening with Saudi Arabia?" "What’s the relation of oil to the India/Pakistan conflict?" "To the Israeli/Palestinian conflict?" "What about Enron?"

After the forum a participant told me, "I’ve heard a lot about oil, but not an analysis like that. There’s information on the Internet, but when you get it you feel alone and frustrated." The second speaker said the first one had been very "convincing."

During the question period a man challenged us, "It’s good to get information, but aren’t we angry about the war. I’m a veteran, but I want to know if anyone here is in that 83% they say supports the war? If we’re in the 17%, what are we going to do?"

After the discussion we concluded that we need an "anti-war movement" built by "rank-and-file" people that is "international" in scope and organization. An anti-war movement that can "link the struggle around international and domestic issues" and that can challenge the U.S. as the "world’s superpower." We made some specific plans in this direction to suggest at our group’s next meeting.

The forum ended with an invitation to everyone to sign our petition and return to the next forum about the Hart-Rudman Commission, the Patriot Act and anti-Arab, anti-Muslim profiling and detentions.

The day after the forum the leadership council read and discussed our petition. After expressing anger that they had been "attacked," they grudgingly accepted the petition (felt pressured) and the leadership of our committee.

It is important to note that a few of my close friends who know the Party and our literature have been very instrumental in our efforts. I am also making a few new friends in the process. All of them have political questions about the Party: Is imperialism the same as globalization? It’s still a capitalist class society, but hasn’t communism failed? Can’t we have a new "paradigm" [model]? But what would that be, I ask them.

I’ll invite these friends to May Day, to study Lenin’s "Imperialism" and the Party’s "Political Economy." Meanwhile I’ll continue to encourage them to help propel the ideological struggle and "anti-war" activism forward in this institution, and beyond.

A Comrade

Students Take Offensive vs. Racism, Anti-Semitism

CANTON, NY — Students at St. Lawrence University (SLU) have taken the offensive against anti-Semitism and racism. The December 14, 2001 issue of the school newspaper, The Hill News, printed a viciously anti-Semitic letter, referring to Jews as a "cancer…corrupting the genetic heritage" of Americans who "created such a superior civilization." This was a call to action against Jews. Recently, a member of the fascist National Alliance was expelled for spreading racist, hate propaganda. These incidents have upset many students.

The St. Lawrence University Anti-Capitalist Collective (SLUACC), led by an SLU student member of PLP, organized a response to this fascist filth. We first removed all copies of The Hill News from their distribution points, stamped swastikas over the university seals on the heading and stuffed leaflets into the newspapers. One side was an open letter to the newspaper staff. The other side explained "How to Fight Racism," describing how capitalism breeds and maintains racism. SLUACC then organized a student/faculty sit-in at Vilas hall, which houses the office of university president Dan Sullivan. We demanded the administration denounce anti-Semitism, investigate whether The Hill News staff violated the discriminatory harassment policy by publishing the letter and that the university act to prevent other racist incidents here.

The next day, during exam week, we had a rally attended by 30 students and 8-10 faculty. We invited the president and other administration figures, but only the Head of Multicultural affairs and one dean came. The president apparently had a "meeting" — a tennis match. At the rally, two professors detailed racism at SLU and the university’s complicity by not opposing or condemning such racist incidents. A PLP student explained how racists become bolder when not confronted and how Hitler and the Nazis came to power. The professors and the administration apologists argued afterwards.

Before leaving, we presented our demands to the president’s secretary. Then, students removed all the flower pots from Vilas hall and formed a large Star of David on the building’s steps as a statement against anti-Semitism and racism.

The president sent out a rude, condescending e-mail, referring to the hate speech in the newspaper as merely "silly" and offensive. He ignored our demands and absolved The Hill News for their actions. His trivializing this incident only encourages racism and anti-Semitism at SLU. Students wrote back, saying his response was unacceptable.

Universities are capitalism’s ideological factories which justify and spread racism, sexism, anti-communism, imperialism and identity politics, and help the ruling class divide and maintain control over and exploit, students and workers. SLU, like many universities, tolerates (and thus supports) racism. All students must fight their university administrations’ racism. SLUACC’s newspaper, Sabot will be publishing articles on anti-Semitism, the university and the connection between racism and capitalism in its newspaper as well as CHALLENGE articles. An SLUACC study group on PLP’s analysis of racism and fascism is planned. The fight against racism will continue.

WEF Protestors Told Humane Capitalism Impossible

NEW YORK CITY, Feb. 2 — The World Economic Forum (WEF) was hastily moved from the posh ski-resort in Davos, Switzerland to the luxurious Waldorf-Astoria Hotel here, supposedly as support for the U.S. bosses after 9/11. The WEF is a routine meeting of the world’s top CEO’s and politicians to discuss the fate of their global economy. Fearing mass violent protests like those at previous international ruling class gatherings, the NYPD turned the area around the meeting into an armed camp. The bosses relied not only on open terror but also used pro-war patriotism as a weapon to make sure many people stayed away from the protests. For example, contrary to Seattle, the AFL-CIO made sure not to mobilize en masse, sticking to a relatively small picket line in front of a GAP store to protest "sweatshops."

PLP did bring its anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist war and communist politics to all the protests throughout the WEF, distributing over 4,000 communist flyers and CHALLENGES.

The rulers erected metal barricades to herd those who did protest into carefully-designed block-length pens, surrounded by 4,000 cops. More cops were strategically placed citywide, defending corporate property. The ruling class spares no expense to protect its own through fascist measures. They even resurrected an 1845 law making it illegal for a group of three or more people to conceal their faces.

The anti-globalization movement is based on the popular idea of coalitions, where "movement" groups join together in common cause. These coalitions tend to align themselves around the lowest common denominator, in this case "corporate greed." But singling out "corporate greed" doesn’t reveal the nature of capitalist exploitation and the need to destroy capitalism and build communism. Protesting "corporate greed" is a call to reform capitalism.

In fact, the spirit of the WEF protest wanted a return to a non-existent "Golden Age" of democracy and capitalism. On Sat. Feb. 2, when the biggest protest took place, many marchers wore Statue of Liberty headdresses chanting, "This is what democracy looks like!" Slogans included, "Jobs with Justice," "Global Economic Justice," and "People Before Profits." Such ideas would support capitalism so long as it acts "humanely." But capitalism can never be just or put people before profits because capitalism is fundamentally exploitative.

"Capitalist democracy" is a dictatorship of the bosses designed to exploit the working class. Bosses who act "humanely" go out of business. The absence of class-consciousness among the many anti-globalization activists prevents them from getting to the source of exploitation — production for private profit.

Only destroying capitalism and building communism can eliminate poverty, racism, sexism, war and eco-disasters. WEF protesters show a willingness to fight the destructive effects of capitalism. PLP must harness this energy and channel it into class struggle. Millions of angry protestors need communist leadership in these desperate times of super-exploitation and imperialist war.

Practice Makes Progress

I’ve been in PLP for over five years and sometimes it seems like I have nothing to show for it. This frustration is the major reason I don’t write to CHALLENGE more often. But lately some experiences have given me more hope.

Several weeks ago, I sat down with a friend to just chat because I don’t see her very much anymore. The subject turned towards the war and eventually to communism. I was surprised she wanted to know more and agreed we need a communist society. We decided to organize a forum in our dorm to discuss the war, which might educate people a little more about it. I wasn’t sure about speaking as a member of PLP or not, but my friend had no doubts — she wanted me to speak as a communist.

The forum went exceptionally well. Afterwards I spoke with a Hawaiian woman about how the war was affecting her home. The constant allusions to Pearl Harbor and the need for patriotism and vengeance in the air over there disgusted her.

This was a good conversation, but the real victory was organizing this forum with my friend. Mostly I’ve been doing this work by myself so having this helping hand was great. This whole experience reminded me how bases are built. They don’t come out of the blue, but rather out of years of struggle and friendships. Having just one more person join the Party enables the work to grow many-fold. I’m confident now that just one person joining with me will help others join more quickly. This is the way communists base-build.

Recently, the bosses’ newspaper reporter asked to interview me. I had written a resolution to the Student Senate opposing the war and he wanted to write a story about it. I was tempted, but previous experiences with the press weren’t very good, so I refused. The bosses’ media always uses what you say to advance their own agenda.

Sure enough, the article praised the college Republicans and their resolution supporting the war. They were a joke on campus and in the Senate, but the article made them seem like defenseless do-gooders being picked on by hateful leftists and minorities. (These same college Republicans sponsored the notorious racist Horowitz’s campus talk last year.) When the t.v. show The O’Reilly Factor interviewed the president of the college republicans, it was obvious the bosses’ media was campaigning to push these guys to the forefront on college campuses.

This shows (1): we won’t be able to get on TV and say we need a communist revolution so we shouldn’t try (that’s not the way communists base-build); and (2) we can’t rely on the bosses’ media. We must rely on our own. This kind of maneuvering by the media demonstrates why CHALLENGE is so important.

Red Student

[We invite our readers to comment on the questions raised by this comrade. — Editor]

Patriotism Is the Last Refuge of a Scoundrel

How long the bosses can milk 9/11 to screw workers depends on how long workers are willing to take it, and how much our Party can influence masses of workers.

Early in February, several dozen cleaning workers at Rockefeller Center were told they no longer had jobs; they were being "replaced" by cleaning workers who lost their jobs at the World Trade Center (WTC). The angry workers protested and denounced their union leaders (Local 32B-J/SEIU) for siding with ABM — the new cleaning contractor at Rockefeller Center— instead of backing the union members. Workers weren’t even notified until the day they were told they no longer had a job.

A Latin women, having worked three years at Rockefeller Center, told El Diario-La Prensa (Feb.6): "All I want is my job back…They threw us out like dogs without caring that we have families to support and responsibilities."

ABM and the union leaders are trying to cover this back-stabbing with "patriotism," saying they’re "helping" the victims of 9/11. The union hacks also say they are "bound by the seniority rules", and workers with more years on the job can bump workers with less time. But the fired workers report that ABM is paying the WTC workers $6 an hour less than they were making.

After the workers protested in front of the union offices and got front page coverage in El Diario, the union leaders said they will "soon find jobs" for the displaced workers. But this empty promise comes during a very weak job situation. Even if they get hired, it will be at a much lower hourly wage.

As Samuel Johnson said, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." This is something these workers, and many others, are realizing fast.

Not a Patriot

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The bosses at our company push patriotism in their "Team Concepts — "we are all one big family" — distributing American flag lapel pins and putting flag stickers on our equipment.

At the union convention our union officials outdid management, demanding total support for Bush and the "war on terrorism," hoping for government help.

A younger worker told friends not to wear the flag pin, saying it means, "You support the war. Don’t be fooled into thinking it shows you’re supporting the victims of 9/11," he continued. "This country never did anything for you." Although he was supposed to distribute the pins, he convinced some not to wear them, right under the nose of the supervisors.

Various contradictions arose in discussing Muhammad Ali being part of a film to justify the war. Someone thought he was showing that all Muslims are not the same. Another younger worker said, "Ali knows better….That would be like me wearing an American flag. I won’t and he shouldn’t, because racism means that this is not my country."

A group of us at work were watching CNN. It showed the yellow food packets and then pinpointed the daily bombings on a map. An older worker said, "Listen to this BS. First we bomb them. Then, if they survive, lunch is on us!" Although wearing an American flag, he had nothing good to say about the war.

We outlined why international capitalist competition impels U.S. rulers into military action to control oil and gas. U.S. oil companies must ensure they dominate both Saudi oil and Caspian Sea region energy sources. This gives the U.S. major influence in setting prices and determining who gets how much oil, a distinct competitive advantage over Europe, Japan and China, whose economies depend on Middle East oil.

We concluded that the burden of this U.S. bosses’ Empire is paid by the international working class, including U.S. workers, particularly those in the public sector as budget deficits replace surpluses. Some interesting debates ensued:

"I don’t like this war. I wouldn’t fight in it. But I need cheap gas to get to work. Isn’t it better that U.S. oil companies control the oil than some other capitalists? I could be paying $5 a gallon like in other countries." This from the same worker who commented about Ali.

But you are paying $5 a gallon, or more," responded a young woman. "You just don’t see it at the pump. Think of all the money spent on Desert Storm, or on keeping U.S. bases in the Middle East and now in Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan — who knows what’s next? Our tax dollars are really subsidizing Exxon Mobil and Chevron-Texaco by providing them with their own private army."

But at what price do we get this gas," asked another co-worker. "It’s our kids and grandkids who fight this war. Even some of our co-workers are mobilized in the National Guard. People come back with all kinds of diseases and the government denies everything. Another guy told me he served in the Gulf War and thought it was laughable that the military was doing extra health check-ups before soldiers go to Afghanistan and when they return to look for any health problems from being over there. The military just wants to cover its ass, so if people do get sick they can say it was caused by something else."

A worker from South America broke in: "We always should think about what’s happening in other countries. They’re our brothers and sisters. The U.S. is killing people in Afghanistan. This is just wrong. Don’t think the companies will treat you any better just because you live here."

This last comment made us realize that, to counter the barrage of patriotism, we often stress how the war is not in the self-interest of workers here but don’t talk enough about international unity. The experiences and views of workers around the world remind us of the potential of international workers’ unity.

We discovered that many of our co-workers are against the war. We need to plan increasing this opposition in our local.

LETTERS

Workers of the World, Write!

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On Feb. 2, my spouse and I participated in the mass funeral for Georgy Louisgene, a 23-year-old Haitian man murdered in cold blood by two of New York City’s "finest" racist cops. Georgy lived with his family in Brooklyn’s Vandeveer housing project. He apparently had a history of mental illness and had emerged from his building calling for help, having been beaten by some thugs. Although carrying a knife, eyewitnesses agree he was not threatening, just hurt and scared. The two cops showed up and pumped eight bullets into Georgy’s skinny body. The bullets’ impact must have spun him around because he was hit front, back and sideways.

Those racist killer cops thought they could dehumanize Georgy — and the many other young black and Latin workers and youth they’ve murdered in the past — by gunning him down like a dog. But the hundreds of family, friends, neighbors and supporters who packed the church, and the 200 who marched militantly alongside the hearse winding its way to the spot where Georgy had lay dead would not let him pass unmourned and forgotten. Many of the marchers carried photos and names of other young men mowed down by the racist cops. The family especially showed its courage by allowing this to be a political funeral. They led the chants, "No justice, No peace!"; "Whose streets? Our streets!"; and "Nou wè" ("We see," a Creole phrase meaning we bear witness and remember).

This single (though often repeated) act of racist violence reminds us of our brothers and sisters in the Occupied Palestinian territories who also face horrific acts of attempted dehumanization at the hands of the Israeli army: assassination, collective punishment, destruction of homes, armed checkpoints, etc.

We offer our condolences to the Louisgene family and promise we won’t forget a single act of exploitation and violence committed against our class! The working class will never see justice under this stinking, rotting capitalist system, and the streets will not be ours until the working class unites as one single force to smash this system.

"Nou wè!" as we fight to build a multi-racial, revolutionary communist movement in the U.S. and around the world to seize power for our class and rid the world of the parasites once and for all.

Brooklyn Red

Distinguishing Friends from Enemies

I recently attended a church-sponsored conference about the "war on terrorism." In my workshop, in an exchange about pacifism, one guy said he wasn’t a pacifist. His example was armed struggle to end slavery. He thought we needed to talk more about what the "war on terrorism" is really about, and why it’s wrong. We could bring in more people that way than just by preaching pacifism.

Then a woman said pacifism was very important to her. The group leader asked both of them if they thought they had any common ground. The first guy mentioned that a long-time pacifist friend had told him a story about someone in Nazi Germany who had shot and killed a Nazi officer in order to protect Jews hiding in her house. This friend said she didn’t know what she’d do in such a situation. The first guy added that he couldn’t imagine any war fought by any government in the world today that he would support.

The pacifist woman then said she really wasn’t sure she could adhere to her pacifist principles in all situations. She was okay with trying to broaden the appeal of the anti-war movement the way the first guy had suggested.

I was impressed by this. I am not a pacifist either, and sometimes I’m very uncomfortable around these people who use very "churchy" language to express their anti-war sentiments. There are so many "leaders" in the "peace movement" who seem more concerned with keeping the masses of people peaceful than they are with stopping the bosses’ wars. To me, those misleaders are part of the problem, not part of the solution. But these church friends are clearly not like them.

This experience has shown me people can change. It has made me less timid about raising left ideas amongst my church friends.

Learning to struggle

a name="‘DEE-FENSE!’"></">‘D"E-FENSE!’

Forget all the stomach-turning patriotism and the commercial feeding frenzy. The Super Bowl (which is getting impossible to watch) was won by the defense. The much talked about "high-powered" Rams offense, with "too many weapons." favored by two touchdowns, couldn’t outscore New England’s well-planned and perfectly executed defense. Last year’s game was won by the Ravens’ defense. There’s a lesson here.

"Offense and defense" should not be confused with "advance and retreat." On defense, you can keep the other side from scoring. In fact, on defense you can score. The Nazis were on the "offense" as they "advanced" on Stalingrad, Moscow and Leningrad. The Red Army was on defense, and we know how that turned out.

Millions of workers around the world are engaged in all types of class struggle, defending their jobs and livelihoods from the bosses’ offensive. Even though the fighting is often fierce, it is defensive in nature, aimed at stopping the billionaires’ attacks. As long as the bosses’ dictatorship is not challenged, every struggle is defensive.

From the widening "War on Terrorism" to "Homeland Defense," U.S. imperialism is on offense. This may be the case for some time to come. This means we must get much better at playing defense. We have to learn how to stop them from scoring, attack their weak spots and occasionally score. Their weak spots are their inability to serve the needs of the masses, and the superficial allegiance of the working class. Building the PLP, deepening our ties to the masses and earning their confidence, and increasing our influence in the mass movement is how we score.

When a mass PLP emerges, leading millions of workers, soldiers and youth, we will get the ball. When we challenge the rulers for power, we will be on the offense, and even then, we will have to defend every advance we make.

Knows the Score

Need More Concrete Analysis

The article entitled "Mexico: Workers Take Offensive, Seize Steel Mills" in the Jan. 30 CHALLENGE does an exciting and inspiring job of summarizing the details of this struggle; including the repeated failures of the company, the union leaders and the Labor Department to recognize the steelworkers’ elected leaders.

It explains that the attacks on the workers are related to capitalism’s crisis of overproduction, that "the profit system cannot satisfy our needs," that Mexican President Vicente Fox’s promises of jobs were lies and that "the only leadership capable of defeating capitalism will come when workers join the PLP."

These conclusions are true, but are generalities that could be attached to any article. These general truths need to be stated, but not to the exclusion of particular truths related to particular evens.

We must teach communism through the "constant concrete analysis of the concrete situation," to use Lenin’s phrase. This story is rich in such lessons. The illegal action of 2,000 workers seizing the means of production can pave the way to revolution, not just legal recognition by the capitalist government. We should explain in detail that unions were originally illegal and that Labor Departments and their "Arbitration and Conciliation Boards" exist to trap workers into peaceful, legal, reformist dead-ends. Workers should operate in many ways, without always having to go through the union and government bureaucracies (while utilizing these forms when tactically appropriate). No matter how massive and militant the seizure of property, the bosses will use their state apparatus to retake it. Therefore, workers must use these lessons to learn how to smash the rulers’ state apparatus and erect a working-class dictatorship.

Mass struggles such as this can be "schools of communism," another of Lenin phrases, but only if communists use them for that purpose. Based just on the lessons offered by the article, one could conclude that you should drop out of reformist organizations and join PLP. But our strategy calls for participating in the mass movement to win blocs of workers to join our Party and fight for communism.

CHALLENGE articles should consistently provide "constant concrete analysis" based on PLP’s overall line. Many articles do; many don’t. One reason workers need a centralized communist party is to fight for such analyses.

A Comrade

C-D Needs Special Delivery

This is in response to the letter about postal workers from "A Comrade" in the Jan. 16 CHALLENGE.

I’m a member of PLP and you should become more active. Then we can work together to change the world for the better. Look at page 2 of this newspaper for a hint of what communism is about. I’ve talked to a number of postal workers (not enough) about communism. One person said, "You have to get this paper into more people’s hands. You can’t just leave it around the building. That’s only a start."

Another worker said, "Thanks for the papers. I know you need a donation. Here’s five bucks. Somebody’s got to get the word out. The system is taking us down."

These workers are right. The financial support and distribution of CHALLENGE are key to building the PLP. Let’s make a deal. I’ll get out more papers and you help me. There’s a great many things going on with the USPS [U.S. Postal Service] that require communist leadership and analysis. Keep looking to this paper. Write for it. Discuss it with a friend.

Later, USPS (Unknown Seditious Postal Survivor)

Anti-Arab Terror Recalls WW 2 Internment Camps

The Art’s Council of a small town sponsored a "book reading" and discussion. Participants were to read Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston and sign up for discussion groups all over the town. it’s about the Japanese-American internment camps during World War II and details circumstances of the Japanese-Americans being terrorized, yanked from their homes and given hours to prepare for shipment to the camps. At my meeting there were about five or six elderly workers who had experienced the camps.

One recalled stories in the press about "Japanese cells" throughout California that "could supply information and material to the enemy" in submarines off shore. There was no evidence of this ever happening. He said it reminded him of stories in the press today about the Al-Qaeda "sleepers" everywhere, and the attacks against Arabs and Muslims.

When a moderator asked if we thought it could happen again, he was reminded of the Dec. 11 arrest of 69 undocumented airport workers at the Salt Lake City airport. Mayor Anderson pledged to make it the safest airport in the country for the Olympic Games, unless you happened to work there. Mothers were put in jail without regard for the care of their children. None of those arrested had any ties to terrorism.

There were comparisons between WWII and the war in Afghanistan and the homeland security.

I said I didn’t think the war there had anything to do with fighting terrorism, but had everything to do with the oil and pipeline profits of Exxon-Mobil or other capitalist enterprises. I said the tragic events of 9/11 provided the warmakers with the excuse they wanted to wage this war for oil profits.

More events are scheduled and more opportunities to be bolder in the fight for communism.

Red Reviewer

1. The Enron Swindle
   Bosses Fight Each Other Workers Lose
   1. Liberal Line Up Rock(y) Solid
   2. Cheney's Halliburton Being Whipped into Line
2. Bosses' Oil Wars: Opportunities and Dangers
3. U.S. BOSSES SPREAD THEIR IMPERIALISTA TENTACLES
4. A STRIP SEARCH AND A FUNERAL
5. 15,000 Striking Teachers Battle Cops, Iran Rulers
6. Mass Strikes Hit Capitalist China
7. Mexico Tire Workers Say Don't Thread on Us
8. Ford Workers Need Global Unity to Fight Layoffs
9. Fascist Decrees Make Homeland Secure from Strikes
   1. Trade Union Leaders Have No Answer To Fascism
10. Janitors, Students Against Racist Harvard Bosses
11. Liberal 1188 Honcho Riding Republican Horse to Sell Out Members
12. CLASS WAR IS THE CURE FOR BIO-TERRORISM
13. Rulers'Attacks on Students Is the Real Violence in Schools
14. Racism Is the Pilot in Black Hawk Down
15. Israeli Soldiers Disobey Bosses' Orders to Make War Against Palestinians
16. WORKERS OF THE WORLD, Write!
    1. Argentina
    2. Welcome to New Comrades
    3. HS Forum Helps Expose Anti-Arab Lies
    4. Fight FBI Terror Against Pakistanis
    5. Special Education: Racist to the Core

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The Enron Swindle
Bosses Fight Each Other Workers Lose

Workers shouldn't be misled by the liberal spin the media and politicians are putting on the Enron swindle. Punishing a few "bad" capitalists can't make the profit system serve our needs. If anything, the Enron debacle shows that the whole system is rotten and must be smashed.

Enron executives falsely inflated the company's stock price, used accounting gimmicks to show phantom profits, and stole $1.1 billion at the expense of Enron workers' pensions -- and hundreds of thousands of others' -- when the whole scheme unraveled. By helping Bush steal the 2000 presidential election, they expected to wield partisan influence over the government's energy policy.

Still, most companies cook their books, particularly in a period of intense speculation like the 1990s. Most also juggle their tax rates to "produce the kind of earnings they desire" (John Crudele, New York Post, 1/22). And many cheat on their earnings per share (EPS) figures. If the numbers aren't right, then a big corporation can simply buy back its shares to reduce the outstanding amount of stock in private investors' portfolios and artificially drive up the EPS. IBM "has been buying back so many shares in recent years that some people joke that the company will soon have no shares in public hands" (Post article).

But IBM isn't being slammed in the press and the halls of Congress. IBM is an Eastern Establishment company in sync with the big bosses' strategy for oil wars abroad and a police state at home. Enron had a program that put its own corporate interest ahead of the capitalist class as a whole. They earned the Establishment's wrath when it overstepped its bounds by moving from the energy supply business into speculative commodities trading. It further embedded itself on the liberals' hit list with its attempt to corner the California electricity market. This behavior is typical of a newer capitalist trying to catch up to the big boys. Enron's problem was that the big boys didn't want a new domestic competitor. And the big boys happen to hold state power.

The Enron collapse proves the ruthlessness and resourcefulness with which the main wing is moving to rein in companies that diverge from its agenda. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) started the panic on Enron shares by alerting big investors to the stock price and accounting shenanigans. But this was just the start. The head of the U.S. Senate's Enron panel is Joe Lieberman, the cheerleader for the "whack Iraq soon" faction of the Eastern Establishment. Lieberman is also one of the loudest critics of Bush's tax cuts. Beneath a self-righteous smokescreen of complaints about "corporate greed," he reveals his true oil war motive: if the tax cuts aren't reduced, "...in no way will we have the money we need to invest in strengthening our military to keep our nation secure over the next decade." (Lieberman press release, 2/8/01)

The general character of this process is the consolidation of capital and political power in the hands of the most ruthless murderers the world has ever seen. But hatred for the greedy profiteers of Enron and Halliburton shouldn't drive us into the even more dangerous clutches of the Exxon Mobil liberals and generations of oil wars and home-front terror. Our agenda, as always, must be to build the PLP and organize for communist revolution.

Liberal Line Up Rock(y) Solid

The liberal "A" team has lined up behind Lieberman to indict Enron. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have gotten into the act. Jackson last confronted a big energy firm in 1996, when he condemned racism in Texaco's front office. At the time, Texaco had plans to link up with British Petroleum (BP) to market Alaskan oil in Asia, a gross violation of the Exxon-led practice of ruling the world by addicting it to much cheaper Persian Gulf crude, as well as Exxon's determination to keep Alaskan oil for reserve military use. Since then, Texaco has been fully brought into the fold, having been merged with Rockefeller's Chevron.

Cheney's Halliburton Being Whipped into Line

The disciplining of disobedient capitalists didn't start with Enron (think Microsoft) and won't stop there. A number of companies are ripe for swatting down. Chief among them is the giant oil-driller Halliburton. [Vice-President Cheney, up to his neck in the Enron swindle, came to his present post directly from his job as Halliburton's CEO.] Halliburton doesn't always make deals to the taste of the Exxon gang. Here the main rulers are using a different tactic. Enron got a taste of the SEC's and courts' ability to deflate share prices. Halliburton is undergoing a carrot-and-stick asbestos trial. In early January, its shares dropped to a 15-year low after being slapped with four jury verdicts for asbestos-related damages totaling $150 million. But the main rulers don't want to wipe out Halliburton as they did Enron. Halliburton has too much valuable oil-related hardware and experience. The big bosses' strategy here involves using the asbestos issue to club Halliburton into line. This is no idle threat. Since January, 2000, nine major U.S. companies have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy because of asbestos suits.

Bosses' Oil Wars: Opportunities and Dangers

Bush's "State of the Union" is a declaration of war on the world. He's demanding the biggest increase in military spending in 20 years, nearly $90 billion -- $48 billion for war abroad and $38 billion for fascism at home.

The rulers' "war on terrorism" is actually one for control of world oil supplies, one in which U.S. bosses seem to enjoy a free hand. No other imperialist power can yet challenge them militarily. They prevented Pakistani rulers from opposing the move into Afghanistan, where the U.S. military is now the dominant force. They have succeeded in opening several new fronts, with no significant opposition. U.S. imperialism would appear to have a long, vigorous life ahead of it.

Workers must never underestimate the class enemy's strength. Just as dangerous, however, would be a one-sided refusal to see the rulers' weaknesses and our side's potential to take advantage of them. The bosses are very powerful, but they're not all-powerful

* The war in Afghanistan may not be over yet. Defeating the Taliban and routing Al Qaeda's standing army are one thing. Pacifying the country and guaranteeing the unchallenged flow of oil through a new pipeline between Afghanistan and Pakistan is quite another. Al Qaeda may well have the capability of waging a long guerrilla war in Afghanistan, tying up a large number of U.S. troops acting as a pipeline police force likely to suffer significant casualties. The latter may also face the instability caused by warlords fighting each other.

* As Eastern Establishment loyalist and former Iraq weapons inspector Richard Butler points out: "...the war has led many Americans to believe that Saudi Arabia is not the best of allies" (New York Times, 1/18). The forces that back bin Laden and Al Qaeda represent a significant element of the Saudi capitalist class. They want to end their junior partnership with Exxon & Co. and gain primary control of the oil. Their cynical but clever strategy calls for sucking U.S. imperialism into a multiple-front war that would involve the mass murder of workers in many Muslim countries. This could provoke an outburst of nationalist-religious outrage, to be used to drive the U.S. out of the oil-producing countries. It's far too early to predict that this strategy is doomed to fail.

* Among other things, the sharp tactical debate over Iraq among Eastern Establishment billionaires reflects their fear of the potential for an alliance between Iraqi and Saudi and/or other Mid-East rulers. Such alliances might become possible with the victory of Saudi bosses favorable to Al Qaeda. This could force a U.S. military response throughout the Persian Gulf. One way or another, the U.S. oil war is headed towards Iraq, with many unintended consequences, not all of which will favor the U.S.

* The sharpening armed struggle between Israeli rulers and Palestinian nationalists further exposes the limits of U.S. power. Drafting and signing a "peace" agreement isn't the same as enforcing it. U.S. imperialism can neither control its own Israeli vassals nor impose its will on Arafat's political base or his chief Palestinian rivals. The Camp David and Oslo "peace" accords between Israel and Arafat are dead. Every new suicide bombing and murderous response by the Israeli military further jeopardizes U.S. oil interests throughout the region.

* Other imperialists cannot yet threaten U.S. supremacy, but they are developing long-range strategic plans to do so. Despite temporary appearances, the Putin gang in Russia is no friend of Exxon, leader of the main U.S. rulers. The temporary tactical alliance will not last. Russia is a major oil producer. Its rulers have no intention of playing second-fiddle to the U.S. China's rulers have a long-range need to replace the U.S. as the world's chief imperialist power. An important aspect of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan ("Phase I") and "Phase II" is Exxon & Co.'s drive to dominate East Asia's anticipated petroleum supply boom over the next couple of decades. This is unacceptable to Chinese rulers, and hardly a scenario for harmony and stability.

* On the home front, the war still appears popular. But oil can't be pumped, shipped or defended from the air. U.S. rulers' plans, as well as the contingencies described above, will necessitate growing numbers of ground troops spread all over the world -- and growing numbers of casualties. Today, the U.S. military depends for its front-line troops on a racist economic draft of the most oppressed workers. Despite all their patriotic flag-waving, recruitment of fresh "volunteers" is nowhere near meeting the rulers' coming war needs. A military draft will eventually become the order of the day. Already a conscription bill to draft all 18-22-year-old males has been submitted to Congress by two highly-placed Republicans. Placing guns in the hands of the most oppressed black, Latin, and white workers is a dangerous game. Even the most ruthless police state can't forever contain the growing class hatred of a working class that doesn't want to be policed nor content fighting a long war.

* Finally, the bosses' polls show that the economy has passed the "war on terrorism" as the number one concern of the population. With at least 14 million workers jobless or underemployed, with hundreds of thousands being screwed out of pension benefits by the Enron swindle, capitalism's contradictions are asserting themselves on the backs of the working class. Increasingly workers will ask how the government has tens of billions for war and "homeland defense," and nothing for the unemployed.

The unfolding situation is complicated. The rulers are strong but not without weaknesses. Our side is small and tactically weak, but we have the potential to skillfully fight for our ideas in the mass movement, and earn the trust and confidence of workers, students and soldiers. Conflicts will sharpen. Larger opportunities will arise. We are in this for the long haul. Communism's day will come. The slow, hard, patient work we do now to prepare for it is vital.

U.S. BOSSES SPREAD THEIR IMPERIALISTA TENTACLES

The United States has sent 600 troops to the Philippines in "the first major international expansion of the United States' anti-terror campaign" (Boston Globe, 1/17). But geography and geology indicate that Phase II of the U.S. rulers' warmaking has much more to do with controlling world oil supplies than with keeping U.S. citizens out of harm's way. "Other potential new fronts include countries as diverse as Indonesia, Malaysia, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Iraq, Iran, and Syria" (Globe article). They aren't so diverse after all. Each has tremendous strategic importance either as a source of oil or as a site commanding oil tanker routes. Bush & Co. want to make the world safer all right, but only for the profits of Exxon Mobil and its allies.

Every day almost all of the world's exported oil, 30 million barrels of it, must go through one or more of seven passages identified as "chokepoints" by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Even relatively minor military action could shut off the flow of oil at these points. Four just happen to border countries targeted by the planned deployments.

* First is the Strait of Hormuz, at the head of the Persian Gulf between Iran and Iraq.

* Next comes the Strait of Malacca, separating Malaysia and Indonesia. This narrow body of water carries Japan's vast crude imports from the Middle East, as well as China's rapidly growing purchases of Persian Gulf oil. For a century, U.S. bosses kept huge naval and air bases in the Philippines in order to control shipping in this region.

* The third chokepoint, the narrows between Somalia and Yemen, funnels oil traffic into the Red Sea, past Sudan's shores and through the Suez Canal.

* The fourth hotspot is the Suez Canal itself, which funnels Middle Eastern crude towards Western European markets.

Terrorists murdering workers on behalf of one capitalist faction or another operate from Northern Ireland to southern Africa. But, when it comes to singling out enemies, petroleum dictates Washington's priorities. The Pentagon's hit list includes Iraq and Iran, two of the world's three greatest oil producers that are not currently under U.S. domination. The third, Russia, is playing ball with the U.S. on oil policy, for now, but will eventually turn hostile. Syria, lying between Iraq and the Mediterranean, could play a key role when U.S. rulers decide it's time to move to what now seems to be Phase III, ousting Saddam Hussein.

A STRIP SEARCH AND A FUNERAL

CHICAGO, IL January 26 -- Ohio State University student Samar Kaukab was forcibly detained, strip searched and harassed, all because of Bush's racist "War on Terror." Born in the U.S. of Pakistani origin, the Muslim student passed through the metal detectors at O'Hare airport without incident. But an Illinois National Guardsman felt she fit the "racial profile," and insisted she remove her hijab (head scarf). Security escorted her to a private room where two guards removed her hijab, opened her shirt and unzipped her pants.

Over the past several weeks, the government shut down a Mosque, and an Arab community center was burned down. The University of Illinois-Chicago campus is cooperating with the Justice Department and the immigration service (INS) to keep tabs on Arabs and Muslims on student visas.

Today, black Marine Sergeant Jeannette Winters was buried in Gary, Indiana. Her body was returned after her military refueling plane crashed into a mountain in Pakistan. Her coffin was wrapped in the bosses' flag.

Several miles away, LTV Steel has closed its doors, putting 3,000 black, Latin and white steel workers on the street and threatening the pensions and health care of 70,000 more. American Steel closed last year and Bethlehem is in intensive care. Last year black men accounted for 42% of Indiana's prisoners while only 7.9% of the state's population is black.

The stench of war, fascism, racist terror and economic crisis surround us. The strip search and funeral, the closing of the Mosque and the steel mill, are not isolated incidents; and they are only the tip of the iceberg. The racist terror being unleashed against Arabs and Muslims is an attack on all workers. Black and Latin workers especially will find themselves even more terrorized as a result. Of 5.7 million Muslims in the U.S., 2.3 million are black. And every Latin worker, student and youth will find him- or herself under the INS magnifying glass as the government begins mass round-ups of "illegal" immigrants in the name of "security."

A terrible storm is coming. Only the deepest ties between the PLP and the masses of workers, soldiers, students and youth will see us through to the other side.

15,000 Striking Teachers Battle Cops, Iran Rulers

TEHRAN, IRAN, Jan. 28 -- Two days ago the police attacked thousands of teachers, mostly women, with truncheons and tear gas when they rallied to demand better wages. The teachers' march, coinciding with the visit of UN chief Annan, was declared "illegal" by the cops. The demonstrators then marched to Tehran University, their ranks swelling to 20,000 strong. Again the Pasdaran (cops) attacked them. Clashes continued for several hours. Ninety people were arrested.

On Jan. 22, a one-day teachers' strike shut 80% of all schools here. Despite the bosses' and their media lies and attacks (even announcing "cancellation" of the march), that day 15,000 teachers, chanting "Enough promises, teachers of the country, unite," marched to the Islamic Majlis (Assembly) to present their demands for higher wages, housing subsidies, national insurance and the right to form an independent teachers' association. When some Majlis politicians addressed the teachers, the angry crowd shouted them down. Teachers knew these politicians were not their allies. (A politician's monthly salary equals a teacher's yearly wage.) Similar marches occurred throughout Iran.

This teachers' fight again shows that class struggle will continue under all circumstances. Many workers and youth now see that despite the mantle of religion, Iranian rulers are just another bunch of capitalist exploiters. Indeed, these teachers are teaching their students, and fellow teachers all worldwide, that the best education is to fight the bosses. An even better education is to learn from these struggles that the only way out of the hellish existence created by all bosses (under the name of any god) is to fight for a society without bosses -- communism.

Mass Strikes Hit Capitalist China

It has been over two decades since Deng Xiaoping's "reforms" put China on the road to capitalism. "To get rich is glorious" was Deng's maxim. He did it "the old fashioned way," pulling off the biggest heist of the century: privatizing China's 26,000 rural communes, changing life drastically country-wide. Under Mao, the "rice bowl" practice guaranteed food for everyone. Under Deng, capitalism bloomed and hundreds of millions paid for their "glorious" riches, first the rural workers, then the urban ones. Now many are fighting back.

Recently 2,000 workers occupied the Shuangfeng Textile factory

"On the fourth night of the strike, management cut off the heat," reported the International Herald Tribune (1/22). But the workers stuck it out, huddling together and wrapping themselves in thick blankets and surplus military coats. Even as the temperature went down, they refused to leave.

"Not too long ago, banners on the factory walls reminded workers that they were `masters' pf the communist state....Mostly women and mostly old, they quickly spoke of pay cuts and worthless stock shares, of corrupt officials and missing pension funds [shades of Enron!], of being cheated in China's rough-and-tumble transition from socialism to capitalism. They also spoke of the risks they were taking by fighting back."

Beginning on Dec. 16, the police attacked three times to try to oust workers from the factory, dragging women out by the hair, jabbing others with electric riots sticks. But the workers held on.

They returned to work with the promise that the company eventually would return their $14 million lost savings and pensions. The company then declared "bankruptcy" and emerged with the managers as the "new owners"(fake bankruptcy as it is called), The pay cuts remain.

This is just one of many battles occurring throughout China. "As thousands of factories are closed or sold, workers who once [had] lifetime job security now face mass layoffs and, sometimes, the loss of their savings to corrupt managers. "(IHT).

Although there are no official figures, a recent government report acknowledged that China a "high tide" of labor unrest exists. The number of workers involved in strikes more than doubled in the first half of the 1990s alone. Another report said than in the year 2000 there were 30,000 protests of significant size, more than 80 a day.

So while many see Deng's capitalist reforms as the road to modernization, the future is bleak for hundreds of millions. Cities in China resemble their capitalist counterparts in the U.S., Japan or Europe, with McDonald's, Pizza Huts and youth with red-tinted hair. Only a few million have benefited from Deng's "to-get-rich-is-glorious" capitalist maxim. For over a billion Chinese life has worsened. Over 100 million peasants roam China's main cities, dressed in rags and carrying their belongings on their backs, looking for work each day.

China's "market socialism" is becoming increasingly capitalistic. Workers' and peasants' dreams of a land where they ruled and built a society to satisfy their needs have been transformed into a yuppie haven for a small minority.

But as the world crisis of capitalism deepens, even the good life for most of these new yuppies will begin to disappear. China's main export markets -- in the U.S. and Europe -- are experiencing economic crisis. The conflicts within China are sharpening, as well as its rulers' competition with the U.S., Japan and India (its main competitors in Asia). Deng's reforms are leading to a future of war and more economic deprivation. The dreams of Chinese workers and peasant to become "masters of their lives" can only be accomplished by learning from the mistakes of the old communist movement and fighting for a society where production is not for the profit of a few bosses but is to produce for the needs of the masses of workers.

Mexico Tire Workers Say Don't Thread on Us

EL SALTO, JALISCO, MEXICO, Jan. 24 -- Today 5,000 workers, relatives and area residents marched to the nearby Euzkadi tire plant to begin a strike "that could mean the survival of the town." (THENEWSMexico.com) The plant closed last December after repeated attempts to negotiate a contract between Euzkadi and the National Revolutionary Union of Euzkadi Workers (SNRTE -- initials in Spanish). Under Mexican labor law, owners cannot recover equipment from a factory that's being picketed. The union struck to force the company back to the bargaining table.

In 1998 German-based Continental Tire bought Euzkadi and proposed a "flexible" contract to boost productivity and destroy the gains won by the workers over the past 67 years. These include the five-day workweek and wages well above the national average.

Many see this strike as a test of the "new culture of labor" promised by Labor Secretary Carlos Abascal. (THENEWSMexico.com) The corrupt union confederations were allied with the PRI, which ruled Mexico for 60 years. Vicente Fox and his National Action Party won the presidency two years ago. Under the guise of curbing corrupt unions, the government is attacking all workers.

The Mexican economy, especially the auto industry, is being hit hard by the U.S. recession and the global crisis of overcapacity. Last year 382,000 jobs were lost in all kinds of industries in Mexico (Notimex, Jan. 24). The 3,000 GM assembly workers at the Guanajuato plant, plus the 2,000 working in auto subcontractors in the area, also fear for their jobs. The profit system can only solve the current crisis by cutting workers' jobs, wages and benefits. Even if workers win a few struggles, the bosses will eventually return with more attacks. The meager wage hikes workers have won this year have already been eroded by inflation.

The Euzkadi tire workers, as well as Ford and steel workers, are fighting back. Basic industrial workers fighting the bosses and their government can lead the whole working class. In these struggles, we can learn valuable lessons in how to challenge the ruling class for power. But this can only happen to the degree that we build a mass, international PLP in basic industry. This can raise the specter of, and advance the fight for, communist revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat. This vision can light the way through the dense fog of economic recession and imperialist wars.

Ford Workers Need Global Unity to Fight Layoffs

HERMOSILLO, SONORA, MEXICO, Jan.26 -- Ford's announcement to close its plant here for two weeks due to low demand has caused much fear among workers. Another plant in Chicago will also close for the same period from Jan. 28 to Feb. 8.

The 2,700 Ford workers here will get 75% of their pay for the two weeks but "there is a lot of uncertainty even though these technical stoppages" are not unusual, according to one local union official. He said the "world economic situation makes this closing different than others, plus...production is being ended for a model built here [the 4-door Ford Escort]." (El Universal, 1/26).

These cuts are part of Ford's worldwide plans to eliminate 35,000 workers and shut five plants in North America. In 2001, Ford plants in Mexico produced 14.6% less units (239,690) than in 2000. Eighty percent of all local production is exported to the U.S.

A system that cannot provide jobs for workers must be smashed and replaced with one in which production serves the needs of all workers -- communism. The unity of autoworkers, from Hermosillo to Detroit, from Sao Paulo to Chicago, to wage a unified struggle against these job cuts is a good step towards that goal. Joining the PLP is the way to carry on this fight.

Fascist Decrees Make Homeland Secure from Strikes

International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) president Thomas Buffenbarger recently sent out a highly unusual "call to action" to all IAM members because Bush had "appointed a Presidential Emergency Board to block a lawful strike at United Airlines."
What's Buffenbarger "action"? Write or call "our" Senators and Congressional Representatives. Apparently the thought of striking, law or no law, never crossed his mind.

CHALLENGE readers will remember Buffenbarger was the "patriot" who called for support for Bush after 9/11. He even added his own jingoistic pearl, "We don't want justice; we want revenge." Well, he has no worries about getting any justice -- especially for aerospace workers! "The chickens have come home to roost," observed a shop floor mechanic.

These questions of legality are a continent-wide issue. Strikes are becoming increasingly illegal, either formally or de facto. Hundreds of striking Middletown, N.J. teachers were jailed last month. Railroad and airline workers' strikes have recently been declared illegal. Reinforcing these strike-busting edicts, all emergency loan guarantees to the airlines in the wake of 9/11 stipulate "that the carriers must keep labor costs in line." (USA Today, 1/15)

In one of the more bizarre efforts to outlaw strikes, a provincial board in British Columbia, Canada must now certify that a teacher does not constitute an essential service before he or she can strike! Teachers have been waiting weeks to hear who's considered essential and who isn't. Questions like, "Are seventh-grade math teachers more essential than eighth-grade language teachers?" now have great legal bearing. What next? How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

Trade Union Leaders Have No Answer To Fascism

Buffenbarger's "call to action" reveals that he really isn't concerned about strikes. He's most concerned with maintaining the traditional legal status of the union, and only talks about the right to vote on a contract. Striking would jeopardize the union's legal standing so, for him, sharp class struggle is out.

In contrast, our Party puts the interests of the working class first. We know class struggle will teach our class how to win. We know better than to put our faith in the bosses' laws or government. When the bosses talk about "democracy," they really mean the dictatorship of their class. We fight for the dictatorship of the working class.
"Homeland Security" means fascism. A trade union philosophy is helpless before this fascist onslaught. A solely legal strategy insures co-operation or co-option by the "legal" fascist forces. As contract struggles intensify this fall, one of our key objectives is to win many more workers to understand the current period and the strategies we need to follow. We must learn to preserve our revolutionary forces and persevere in class struggle. We can then look forward to the day when we issue our own "call to action" -- a call to revolution.

Janitors, Students Against Racist Harvard Bosses

CAMBRIDGE, MA, Jan. 21 -- Today over 500 Harvard workers and students rallied in support of the janitors' upcoming contract fight. Last year's sit-in led to the re-opening the of the janitors' contract a year and a half ahead of schedule. Negotiations were scheduled to begin on Jan. 22. If the militant workers and students prevail, Harvard could be in for trouble!

The rally, held on the Martin Luther King holiday, had an explicitly anti-racist theme. Speakers included students from the Black Students Association, La Raza (Latin student group) and the Living Wage campaign. The La Raza speaker exposed Harvard's institutional racism, saying most of the workers paid below the "Living Wage" figure of $10.68/hr are black and Latin (as are 90% of the janitors). A rank-and-file leader from the janitors' local, SEIU 254, led the rally. A custodian and a dining worker also spoke.

Unfortunately politicians dominated the event, as they do the living wage movement. This reflects the sponsoring groups' lack the confidence that workers can confront Harvard without the help of union misleaders and politicians. Two of the latter, Boston city councilman Chuck Turner and former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich (running for governor of Massachusetts) spoke for over an hour and a half. The workers spoke for five minutes combined.

The politicians pushed nationalism, saying it would be a "patriotic act" for Harvard to pay a living wage. The priest who spoke wants us to pray for Harvard's bosses! No one explicitly endorsed the war in Afghanistan, but patriotism inevitably builds support for U.S. imperialism.

We distributed 40 CHALLENGES and 350 leaflets. We explained how Harvard serves the main wing of the ruling class and is behind racist policies such as Workfare and mass incarceration.

Harvard's new president Lawrence Summers served in the Clinton administration that implemented slave labor workfare. As head of the World Bank, he called for dumping toxic waste in Africa because it is "economically efficient." Harvard professor Richard Herrnstein has written many racist tracts including The Bell Curve, which argue that black people are "genetically less intelligent" than whites. This provided ideological justification for abolishing welfare. We also exposed Summers' recent racism towards Harvard black professors such as Cornel West, but pointed out that the latter say nothing about Harvard's role in promoting racist and pro-U.S. imperialist policies.

PLP members in the Living Wage campaign will continue to advance the idea that workers and students have the power to confront Harvard and build support for a janitors' strike. We will condemn Harvard as a warmaker and strike-breaker, win workers and students to build the movement for communist revolution.

Liberal 1188 Honcho Riding Republican Horse to Sell Out Members

NEW YORK CITY, Jan. 28 --"This latest agreement has little to do with the deteriorating working conditions, short-staffing or needs of the patients," exclaimed one hospital worker about the recent Local 1199/SEIU contract negotiations. Absolutely right. The contract doesn't deal with the effect of short staffing and subcontracting on patient care. During the winter, emergency rooms are filled to capacity. Patients wait long hours before being treated. In every department, workers are overwhelmed with the high volume of work and supply shortages.

This contract is all about politics. Republican Governor George Pataki and State Senate leader Joseph Bruno backed state funding for the healthcare workers' contract in return for having their re-elections endorsed by union boss Dennis Rivera. Local 1199 has more than 200,000 members in New York State, mostly black and Latin, and until last week, Rivera served on the Democratic National Committee. Several years ago, 1199 launched a campaign against Pataki to stop Medicaid cuts. Now he's their man.

This is a page from the SEIU book in California, where Governor Gray Davis supported the "unionization" of 75,000 home healthcare workers, in return for union money and foot soldiers in his election campaign. The healthcare workers make minimum wage and don't qualify for unemployment compensation. Few if any have health insurance. And Davis is a Democrat!

In the last contract, the hospital bosses saved at least a quarter of a billion dollars. They will save millions more during the 42-month life of this agreement. Thanks to their politicians, they will contribute barely 20% towards the contract, while the state and union contribute the rest. A $1 billion payment from Blue Cross/Blue Shield and a 6% tax on nursing home bills will help finance the contract, while workers pay higher insurance rates across the board.

The union says it won the best wages in a decade. But the average 3.2 % over the 42 months is similar to the past several contracts, and won't cover the rise in union dues or the cost of living. The union claims it won the right for laid-off workers to fill the first job openings they qualify for in other institutions covered under this contract. But if the bosses lay off 25% of the workforce during this period, there will be no job openings. There's no increase in the bosses' payments to the pension fund because the union tells us any addition would be taxed. Of course, they didn't demand such potential pension contributions become part of the workers' paychecks instead.

The bosses are in the health care industry to make a profit. Their profits come at the patients' expense. As bosses here compete fiercely with bosses abroad, they must attack healthcare workers at home. Reduced patient care and squeezed workers are built-in features of a profit system.

Rivera wants workers to rely on the bosses' politicians to solve our problems. But union contracts, as important as they are under capitalism, only spell out the terms of our exploitation. We negotiate with the bosses over the price they will pay us to sell our labor power (wages). In return, contracts discipline the workers, banning work stoppages that interfere with the bosses' profits.

Only when wages are abolished and workers receive the total value we create, can health care be delivered in a humane fashion. In a communist society, workers -- not bosses, bankers or HMO's -- will make the decisions. The health of the working class will get top priority.

CLASS WAR IS THE CURE FOR BIO-TERRORISM

The sending of anthrax through the U.S. postal system killed two workers and sickened others. The bosses responded by conscientiously closing, testing and fumigating Congressional offices, while postal workers were ordered to keep working amid haphazard tests of postal facilities. Nobody really knows if dormant anthrax spores remain a threat to postal workers.

While two workers died from anthrax, many more have died from occupational and job-related injury and illness. For example, 169 postal workers died between 1980-89 (the latest figures we could find), an average of 17 annually. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health says this is an under-count due to reporting limitations in occupational death statistics. Also, these figures don't include the early deaths caused by cardiovascular disease, cancer and other conditions caused by capitalism nor deaths and illness to postal workers and their children caused by imperialist wars. Bosses, not bugs, are the main danger to postal workers.

Bio-terrorism is another horrific creation of imperialism, a real threat to the working class. The U.S. government engaged in offensive biological warfare research for many years. There is evidence that the U.S. military used biological warfare during the Korean War (1950-1953). It seems increasingly likely that the anthrax used in these recent attacks was developed in U.S. labs, the source of many other countries' bio-warfare programs.

If the bosses are the main danger to the health and safety of postal workers, then eliminating the bosses is the best medicine. The union leaders blew a lot of hot air about the unacceptable double standard between Congressional offices and postal facilities. But postal workers have the ability to shut these facilities and force the bosses to thoroughly test them immediately. However, the union leaders did not and would not go that far to protect the workers. For them, the profits of the companies using the post office come first.

There are still many unknowns about anthrax and bio-terrorism. An even bigger problem is how the government and public health agencies handle these unknowns. Many public officials were more concerned with protecting their turf than devising effective, coordinated responses. They kept the workers in the dark.

Communist public health workers would not be stepping all over each other trying to protect their professional turf. We would fully inform all workers and enlist them in the fight to eliminate the biological threat. There would be no rich, privileged parasites hoarding antibiotics for themselves and their pets.

The medical understanding of anthrax infections is incomplete. Anthrax has rarely been observed as a mass disease resulting from laboratory-designed spores. It's unclear if spores remaining in the body are still dangerous after treatment with antibiotics.

The safety and effectiveness of the anthrax vaccine is not entirely understood, so the bosses came up with alternative treatment strategies for those potentially exposed: take more antibiotics or take vaccine or take both. Then the "experts" told the workers to decide for themselves, shifting responsibility from the provider to the victim!

Communists would research and decide the best proven treatment and the whole society would be mobilized to take responsibility. The workers would be fully informed. Building PLP, providing communist leadership at every turn and overthrowing the racist warmakers and strike-breakers, is the way to end bio-terrorism.

Rulers'Attacks on Students Is the Real Violence in Schools

NEW YORK CITY -- On January 15, a student at Martin Luther King, Jr. H.S. in Manhattan shot two students. This shooting has led to finger-pointing by NYC Board of Education officials and school administrators. There have been calls for cameras in the hallways, more guards and electronic doors -- the alleged shooter entered through an unsecured side door. The mother of one of the victims has now sued the Board for millions of dollars. The bosses' media talk only about more security, ignoring the crucial point -- what's happening in the schools and why.

Most working people know their children's schools are not working. Despite all the hype about school "reform," most working-class students, especially black and Latin students, go to schools which are falling apart, dangerous and under-funded. All schools teach ruling class ideology which tells even the most committed teachers that "only some kids can learn," and the rest aren't worth the struggle.

Teachers must choose. We can either be part of the solution by respecting our students and knowing and expecting every student can and wants to learn. Or, which happens too often, we can buy into capitalist ideology and believe that students are "not worth our respect." This is a ticket to anti-social behavior that contributes to the problem.

The schools tell students they're stupid if they can't pass tests, that they're proto-criminals who must pass through a metal detector to enter school. Outside school these students are presented with endless images of glorified violence and no other options. Not only is their school experience prison-like but capitalism offers a future of joblessness, prison or military service to those students who do not "make it."

All workers want safe schools for their children. We all expect our children to learn to read, to do math, and to become productive members of our class, whether they go to college or not. However, in our schools students are treated like the criminals -- handcuffs, arrests for petty incidents, being hustled through hallways -- that racist educational ideology says many of them will become. Their educational problems are usually ignored. The students become angrier and increasingly alienated.

Violence and guns are promoted through the culture and politics of capitalist society. What does it teach you when the bosses are so proud of their "accurate bombings" in Afghanistan and consider the killing of innocent Afghan men, women and children as "collateral damage." Given all this, it's no surprise when students lash out violently, whether gang-related or not. We're saddened to see our brothers and sisters attacking each other rather than the ruling class. Teachers often hear students threatening to "snuff" another student. Some students flock to gangs to find unity and support.

The activity of PLP members and friends is crucial to building pro-student struggles in the schools. Young people are vital to building a revolutionary, anti-fascist anti-imperialist war movement. Unlike the ruling class, we know that all students can learn. Without respect for students, fascism can triumph.

Racism Is the Pilot in Black Hawk Down

As the ruling class prepares to expand its "war on terrorism," and Somalia is mentioned as one of its next possible imperialist targets, it is hardly a coincidence that at precisely this time the film Black Hawk Down has been released in a promotional deluge that has zoomed it to the top of the charts, making $27 million in ticket sales on the the weekend ending Jan. 20. It is saturated with more lies than can be counted in a single movie.

Black Hawk Down is designed to incite viewers to support U.S. imperialist invasions and murder in general -- and in Somalia in particular -- and to want to "Kill Arabs," especially black Arabs," who are "damned ungrateful foreigners." It is jingoism of the highest order, and all based on lies. What else is new?

The Somalia invasion, begun by Bush, Sr., approved by his Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell and continued by Clinton, was billed as a "humanitarian" operation to "feed the poor people" of that country. They were fed, all right; fed a steady diet of bullets. According to Noam Chomsky's book, The New Military Humanism:

"The official estimate was 6-10,000 Somalia casualties in the summer of 1993 alone, two-thirds women and children. Marine Lt. Gen. Anthony Zinni [the current `peacemaker' in the Middle East -- Ed.], who commanded the operation, informed the press that `I'm not counting bodies.... I'm not interested.' Specific war crimes of US forces included direct military attacks on a hospital and on civilian gatherings....Serious crimes...were revealed at an official Canadian inquiry..."

The invasion had nothing to do with Bush/Clinton "humanitarianism." It had everything to do with the fact that several U.S. oil companies, including Conoco, Amoco, Chevron and Phillips, had secured billion-dollar concessions to explore and exploit Somalia's rich oil reserves during the reign of pro-U.S. President Mohamed Siad Barre. (In fact, Conoco's Mogadishu office housed the U.S. embassy and military headquarters.) A "secure" Somalia also provided the U.S. with a strategic base on the coast of the Arabian Sea. U.S. military intervention became necessary when Barre was overthrown by warlord Mohammed Farrah Aidid. Suddenly Somalia was "insecure" for U.S. oil companies.

Although the Bush/Clinton pretext was to "safeguard food shipments" and stop the "evil Aidid" from stealing the food, the actual goal was to destroy Aidid's forces and form a pro-U.S. government to make Somalia secure for the oil companies. However, the invasion was met with "surprisingly fierce resistance," surprising to U.S. officials who underestimated Somalian resolve, and even more surprising to U.S. troops who were victims and pawns of the U.S. bosses.

The movie is based on a series (and a later book) written by Mark Bowden of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Bowden says: "Task Force Ranger was not in Mogadishu to feed the hungry....It conducted six missions, raiding locations where either Aidid or his lieutenants were believed to be meeting. The mission that resulted in the Battle of Mogadishu came less than three months after a surprise missile attack by U.S. helicopters...on a meeting of Aidid clansmen....The...attack killed 50 to 70 clan elders and intellectuals, many of them moderates seeking to reach a peaceful settlement with the United Nations. After that July 12 helicopter attack, Aidid's clan was officially at war with America--a fact many Americans never realized."

The attack on Mogadishu was particularly vicious. Says Bowden: "The Task Force Ranger commander, Maj. Gen. William F. Garrison, testifying before the Senate, said that if his men had put any more ammunition into the city `we would have sunk it.' Most soldiers interviewed said that through most of the fight they fired on crowds and eventually at anyone and anything they saw."

After 18 U.S. Special Forces soldiers were killed in the final Mogadishu firefight, which included the downing of a U.S. helicopter ("Black Hawk Down"), television screens were filled with scenes of a dead U.S. soldier being dragged through the streets by jubilant Somalians. No wonder they were jubilant. These invaders had slaughtered or wounded thousands of their fellow Somalians. Clinton immediately called off the operation and U.S. forces left Somalia in disgrace.

Now along comes Jerry Bruckheimer and Ridley Scott to turn the truth upside down. Even CNN's film reviewer labels them as "two of the most pandering, tactless filmmakers in Hollywood history," describing the movie as "pound for pound, one of the most violent films ever released by a major studio." It portrays "brave and innocent young American boys" getting shot at and killed "for no reason" by "crazy black Islamists" that the soldiers are "just trying to help." Racism and lies of the highest order.

If and when the U.S. invades Somalia -- on the pretext of attacking Al Qaida "training camps" -- it will be for the same strategic reasons the rulers invaded Afghanistan: OIL and military bases. These are the "guiding lights" of U.S. imperialism for which they are ready to kill any workers in their way. When GI's begin to understand that they are being used against their own class interests and decide to rebel -- as so many thousands did in Vietnam -- then U.S. rulers will lose their main tool to carry out their plans for world domination.

Israeli Soldiers Disobey Bosses' Orders to Make War Against Palestinians

On Jan. 26, a group more than 60 Israeli reserve soldiers and officers, all combat veterans, publicly refused to serve in missions in the Gaza Strip and West Bank because they have nothing to do with the security of Israeli citizens. Their petition, published in Israeli's largest newspaper, declared, "We will no longer fight beyond the Green Line [the imaginary line dividing Israel from the Occupied Territories] for the purpose of occupying, deporting, destroying, blockading, killing, starving and humiliating an entire people." The government claims this is "needed to stop the suicide attacks."

The two men who drafted the petition said they were "asked...to shoot people, to stop ambulances, to destroy houses...and open fire on Palestinian children." (Washington Post, 1/29)

Since the current Intifada began in September 2000, "more than 500 Israelis have refused to serve in the Israeli occupied territories....Forty have been sentenced to prison terms." (Post)

Thus, despite the Israeli state terror against Palestinians and the fundamentalists' suicide terror, there is still grounds for unity among workers and soldiers on both sides. This kind of unity -- accompanied by communist politics attacking all bosses and imperialists -- is the only ray of hope for the exploited masses of the Middle East.

WORKERS OF THE WORLD, Write!

Argentina

A few of us here in Argentina have decided to form a Progressive Labor Movement, part of building a mass, international communist party. Based on Marxism-Leninism and learning from the achievements and mistakes of the old communist movement, our organization here will follow the steps of PLP and fight directly for the abolition of the wage and money system and against all the concepts of bourgeois democracy: racism, sexism and nationalism. We aim to establish workers' power through the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Along with other comrades, we dedicate ourselves to founding this communist movement here on Argentine soil. We will begin by spreading PLP's ideas, articles and documents and carrying out several activities as well as setting up an internet page. Eventually we will also develop our own writings.

When our movement grows sufficiently and gets the needed support, we will found a Progressive Labor Party in Argentina. We can then turn the dream of a mass communist party into a reality, one that can sweep away the bosses, no matter what their nationality. (We would like the opinion of others about our plans.)

We hope that workers and youth worldwide will follow our example and that of other PLP comrades in other regions. Let's build the fight for communism.

A comrade from Argentina

P.S. -- We just carried out one of our first activities. When the government and the media were saying the protests were dying down, on Jan. 25 a group of friends and comrades led a "cacerolazo" (empty pots protest). Ten of us began it and soon there were 200. We marched through the streets chanting, "All of them [politicians] should go, none of them should stay"; and, "Whoever doesn't jump is bourgeois." (Of course, we were half-joking but many people took it seriously, showing how much people hate the bosses and their system. It's reached a point where the press has reported that all politicians are afraid to appear in public). Our's was the most important protest in our city which is next to the capital, Buenos Aires.

There were similar protests nationwide. But the biggest was in Buenos Aires, where tens of thousands gathered. The cops viciously attacked them, with many arrests.

Then on Jan. 28, 20,000 unemployed workers marched to the Presidential palace demanding the million jobs promised by the first Peronist President who ran the country for a few days after the Dec. 19 ousted President de la Rua.

The struggle goes on, and so does the need to build a mass revolutionary communist leadership to smash the bosses once and for all.

Welcome to New Comrades

What more can we add to our Argentine comrades than fraternal greetings, a strong welcome and a lot of strength so that your plans be carried out successfully.

There is no doubt that PLP's political line is the only answer to this anti-life world we live in, caused by many years of capitalist domination and the deadly and inept reformist outlook of the old communist movement.

Those of us who are part of the PLP feel deeply moved to know that our struggle is not in vain. Your decision to build PLP shows that our line of action is the correct one.

Argentina and Chile (in this southern cone of the world) have suffered a common "rope" which tries to suffocate our cries for justice and equality. Our conscious work will generate a new system which includes refuting any idea that capitalism can be reformed; there must be a total change from what we have now.

The only solution is communist revolution. For a world without borders and for one unified struggle: one world, one class and one Party, the PLP.

Greetings from the other side of the Andes,

PLP, Chile

HS Forum Helps Expose Anti-Arab Lies

Last month, 150 students and three teachers from my high school participated in a forum about September 11. Ten students planned the forum with me. The forum induced students to think about why the U.S. is in Afghanistan. It challenged stereotypes about Arabs and Muslims and raised questions about patriotism.

One speaker asked the students, "Who is willing to go fight for the government in Afghanistan?" No one raised a hand. One student said the war is about oil. Another wondered why "they" hate "us" so much, leading to a discussion about class-consciousness as opposed to nationalism. One teacher reminded the students that the U.S. flag is the flag of the KKK.

A Palestinian Muslim woman generated the most controversy. Students in my 99% African-American school have had little contact with Arabs, other than storeowners. The speaker asked them to write down questions and exposed many racist lies, such as "Muslims are all terrorists."

Twelve students who helped organize the forum had attended a previous forum with me at Chicago State University in November. We met several times to discuss our plans and the politics of September 11 and read some of the PLP Oil Pamphlet. I wasn't able to convince any of the students to prepare a presentation, however. Maybe next time.

Afterwards, some students said they had changed their minds about how they thought about Arabs, patriotism and the war in Afghanistan. We would like to do this again, and involve more students in debating these ideas.

Red Teacher

Fight FBI Terror Against Pakistanis

At a forum held by a neighborhood group created after 9/11, a Pakistani immigrant reported that the FBI had arrested her husband shortly after the attack. For several weeks she could not even locate him and wasn't allowed to visit him for over three months. He was confused and emotionally frightened, his body bruised and bleeding from wrist and ankle shackles. He had committed no crimes and had no connection to "terrorist organizations" but had been detained, without charges nor access to a lawyer for several weeks.

This story is familiar to many Arabs, Muslims and South Asians. The Pakistani community has been especially targeted. It comprises at least half of those detained since 9/11.

Are these South Asians being singled out because of Pakistan's critical role in the U.S. government's plan to transport Central Asia's gas and oil deposits in proposed pipelines to Asian markets through Afghanistan and western Pakistan? The U. S. military is already planning an expanded permanent base in Pakistan.

Pakistan's rulers have long been allied to the U.S. ruling class, training Pakistanis at U.S.- sponsored institutions and running governments on behalf of U.S. bosses' interests. A succession of mostly military dictatorships have bowed to International Monetary Fund and World Bank policies, enriching Pakistani and U.S. bosses while impoverishing an already desperate working class. Pakistani rulers helped the U.S. fight the USSR, promoting religious fundamentalism and supporting the war against it in Afghanistan, while suspending workers' rights in Pakistan.

The Pakistani working class is the wild card in the U.S.'s grand design to dominate Central Asian oil and gas. Many workers have been won to the fascism of the fundamentalist movement, some joining the Taliban and fighting the U.S. But little attention has been paid to Pakistani workers opposed to both U.S. imperialism and the fundamentalists. Their struggles for decent conditions have been brutally repressed, with the fundamentalists acting as an arm of the state -- in much the same way as death squads in Latin America -- breaking up demonstrations and targeting and silencing leaders.

Many Pakistanis came to the U.S. to escape poverty and repression, seeking economic prosperity. But like the rest of the working class here they see their incomes shrinking and now, since 9/11 they're suffering the same persecution they experienced in Pakistan.

It's a bitter lesson but workers can't escape capitalism's oppression. We can only organize to smash it.

A Pakistani Reader

Special Education: Racist to the Core

I've been a special education (SE) teacher for 30 years. SE is a good example of how education "works" to drive students out of the educational system. SE's original safeguards have become hateful tools that fail millions of students and blame them for it.

In the 1950s and '60s, New York City had dumping grounds called "600 schools," designed to eliminate largely black and Latin students who could not fit into a system designed for an elite few. They were called "behavior problems" and dumped. From this grew the system of special education.

In 1981, I was working in an elementary school where an inexperienced teacher, without help to improve her classroom skills, followed SE guidelines and had half her "unruly" class placed in SE classes.

The teacher, the administration and the school-based support team that placed the students were all white. All the students were black and Latin. Some of the students had better reading and math skills when the school year began than after they were placed in special classes. Money was pouring into the SE bureaucracy to provide places for millions of students, but just 3% of SE students gained high school diplomas.

The system plays the blame game. Teachers blame the home environment; parents blame the teachers; and both blame students who are attacked with racist stereotypes -- "lazy, unmotivated, stupid, and worthless." The profit system created these stereotypes. The bosses need a reserve of unemployed to hold down wages. They jail millions, making prisons the largest growth industry in the U.S. Such a system, with a huge investment in the military, needs massive educational failure to supply it, and they've got it.

All students can learn, and teachers, given the right education and tools, want to teach all students. But a true community of teachers, students and parents to guide education, cannot occur under capitalism.

Thousands of hours of paperwork are heaped on overworked teachers to make their life miserable and stifle any desire to improve their students' abilities. Meanwhile, supervisors are mastering the massive technicalities of this paperwork, on their way to higher-paying administrative positions.

If Karl Marx were to walk into an SE classroom today, he would exclaim, "Students and workers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your paperwork and the shame that has been heaped upon you as members of the working class."

A Special Ed Teacher Ready for Change