To Our Readers: This issue of CHALLENGE skips a week. Our next issue will go to press Sept. 5

Editorial: Capitalism + Layoffs: Two Sides of the Same Coin

• Unemployment Outpaces Government Figures
• a href="#A ‘Flexible’ Capitalism Means Profits Galore">A "Flexible’ Capitalism Means Profits Galore

a href="#Workers Drown in Bosses’ Profits Bloodbath">"orkers Drown in Bosses’ Profits Bloodbath

a href="#Clinton Moves to Harlem…There Goes the Neighborhood">"linton Moves to Harlem…There Goes the Neighborhood

• The Clinton Years
• a href="#Billionaire’s Dogfight">"illionaire’s Dogfight

Building PLP Crucial in D.C. Metro Contract Fight

a href="#Drunken Killer Cop Wields Car As Assassin’s Bullet">"runken Killer Cop Wields Car As Assassin’s Bullet

When it comes to death squads, Coke Is the Real Thing

a href="#PLP’ers Are Anti-Racist Force At ‘No-Sweats’ Conference">PLP’"rs Are Anti-Racist Force At ‘No-Sweats’ Conference

a href="#The ‘Amnesty’ of the Cemetery">Th" ‘Amnesty’ of the Cemetery

a href="#Bush’s Bracero Plan">"ush’s Bracero Plan

a href="#Communist Teachers Challenge ‘Culture Of Poverty’ Racism">Co"munist Teachers Challenge ‘Culture Of Poverty’ Racism

a href="#Newark ‘Zero Tolerance’ Fraud Is Violent Attack on Students">Ne"ark ‘Zero Tolerance’ Fraud Is Violent Attack on Students

a href="#U.S. Iraqi Policy Flops, So It’s Bomb, Bomb Bomb . . .">".S. Iraqi Policy Flops, So It’s Bomb, Bomb Bomb . . .

New World (Dis)Order Hits Israel-Palestine

a href="#‘Peace’ in Ireland Tied to U.S. War Plans">‘P"ace’ in Ireland Tied to U.S. War Plans

a href="#Hospital Workers Nix Bosses’ Patient (No)Care Policy">"ospital Workers Nix Bosses’ Patient (No)Care Policy

Serve The People To Break The Chains

LETTERS

Garment Workers Figure it Out

a href="#Capitalism ‘Steels’ Jobs">Ca"italism ‘Steels’ Jobs

Circuses Without Bread . . .

a href="#Thoughts on PLP’s Racism Pamphlet">"houghts on PLP’s Racism Pamphlet

OOPS! – Editorial correction

---

Capitalism + Layoffs: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Is this the best or worst of times? There appears to be a contradiction. On the one hand, millions of workers are living from paycheck to paycheck. Millions more are jobless, with dim prospects of getting another job. Over 43 million are without any health insurance.

At the same time, amid mass layoffs 442,000 new jobs were created in July. Many of these new jobs pay far less than the old ones. Job reduction and job creation are taking place side by side.

The ruling class uses the "up" side of this contradiction to push the illusion that "anyone can make it," especially in the high-tech sector. The existence of a relatively small but highly skilled, higher paid (but still exploited) labor aristocracy helps them maintain this fiction. This small higher-paid section also serves as a buffer between the rulers and the rest of the working class.

In a world of economic crises, U.S. bosses dominate their imperialist rivals. This gives them maneuverability and maintains the illusion of the "American Dream." The reality is poverty, mass unemployment, racism and imperialist wars. By patiently spreading communist ideas and action among workers and youth, in the shops, communities, military and schools, we can begin to tear down the illusions spread by the bosses. Red leadership can build workers’ unity and class-consciousness. Patient work and a long-term outlook must be linked to a sense of urgency.

Unemployment Outpaces Government Figures

Over 1.1 million workers were laid off by mid-July, double the job cuts for ALL of last year. These layoffs include the service sector, which accounts for four of every five jobs. Temporary jobholders, formerly the fastest growing section of the labor force, are now the fastest growing section of the unemployed. Job placement agencies report the biggest decline in ten years, with "the worst yet to come." (Reuters, 7/29) Many are accepting jobs at lower wages with little or no benefits. The burden of this downturn falls most heavily on black and Latin workers, victims of centuries of racism and capitalist oppression.

However, the government’s statistics lie about the extent of this job downturn. With a 42% increase in workers collecting jobless benefits, "unemployment is rising much more rapidly than…shown in…federal surveys and estimates." (N.Y. Post, 7/31) One economist told the Post that the unemployment figure of 4.5% should really be 5.2%. And if "discouraged" workers who have given up looking for jobs were counted, unemployment would more than double to nearly 10%.

These figures don’t include those working part-time, who want full-time jobs but can’t find them (According to the government, those who work one hour a week are counted as "employed"). They also don’t include those in the military because they can’t find jobs, those in prison for non-violent offenses who in virtually any other country would not be jailed, and those on welfare who would seek jobs if they had daycare for their children. That’s at least 16 million unemployed, not the six million reported by the government.

a name="A ‘Flexible’ Capitalism Means Profits Galore"></">A "Flexible’ Capitalism Means Profits Galore

"Wall Street loves layoffs that promise to raise profits by reducing labor costs." (NY Times, 8/5) Through the increased use of temporary and contract workers, and the cooperation of the AFL-CIO union leaders, the bosses developed a "just-in-time" workforce. Hire when needed, fire when not. This accounts for between 12% and 20% of the manpower needs of corporate America and allows the bosses to lay off in one area while hiring in another. This has given U.S. bosses a temporary edge on their competitors.

The ability of the working class to organize against rising unemployment is hampered by the new labor aristocracy. Flush with company stocks and filled with illusions of becoming millionaires, these high-tech workers "understand" the bosses’ need to lay them off because of declining profits (which also makes their stocks worthless). Blinded by extreme individualism, they do not look to a collective organization at the workplace.

These new features in the U.S. economy, the demise of the Soviet Union and U.S. imperialism’s dominant position in the world, give the rulers a cushion. So do the nationalist union leaders. Devoted to US imperialism and the Democratic Party (see Clinton editorial), they put the brakes on any serious fight back.

But every capitalist "solution" brings them more problems. Capitalism cannot provide a decent life for billions of workers. Inevitably, imperialist crises will lead to sending working class youth to kill and die in wars to make Iraq, Colombia, the Balkans, etc. safe for U.S. bosses.

We are on a long march to take power away from our exploiters. Objective conditions will change. Capitalism will not fall by itself. The experiences reported in CHALLENGE prove that we can win workers to fight to overthrow the inequality and exploitation of wage slavery. What we do now will lay the basis for the communist future so desperately needed by the workers of the world.

a name="Workers Drown in Bosses’ Profits Bloodbath">">"orkers Drown in Bosses’ Profits Bloodbath

Today, the bosses moan about "overcapacity" in virtually every industry. The auto bosses, already facing declining profits and market share, are worried about a flood of returned leased cars adding their unsold inventory.

Overcapacity comes alongside lower profit rates. Business Week (BW) called 2nd quarter U.S. corporate earnings a "bloodbath," as 900 companies on their corporate scorecard suffered a 52% drop in profits compared to a year ago. Profit margins fell from 7.2% last year to 3.2%, the largest quarterly decline ever.

The bosses try to "solve" their problems by attacking workers even more. They wiped out 350,000 jobs in the 2nd quarter, and increased the productivity of those still working, producing more with fewer workers.

By exposing such contradictions we can win workers to understand why capitalism inevitably must enrich the bosses at the expense of the world’s workers.

a name="Clinton Moves to Harlem…There Goes the Neighborhood">">"linton Moves to Harlem…There Goes the Neighborhood

Bill Clinton opened his Harlem offices and received a warm welcome from the media, bosses, preachers and politicians. He got an especially warm welcome from local real estate moguls who want to usher in gentrification and run working-class families out of Harlem. Unfortunately, he was also welcomed by thousands of black and Latin workers and youth. Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson and Harlem communist leader Ben Davis must be spinning in their graves.

This is a reflection of the deadly illusions that characterize this difficult period and undermine the fight to smash racism with communist revolution. These illusions were fostered in part by the "booming" economy. The rise of a highly-paid layer of telecom and computer tech workers fed the illusion that the profit system can work for everyone. With the collapse of the old communist movement and no current mortal threat to the rulers, millions are at the mercy of the snake oil salesmen like Clinton, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and AFL-CIO honcho John Sweeney.

The Clinton Years

Clinton arrived in NYC after he and Senator Hillary tried to stuff everything that wasn’t nailed down into the White House moving van. Then he tried to move high above Carnegie Hall for about $800,000 a month. He figured he deserved it after "ending welfare as we know it" and saving the government billions off the backs of black, Latin and white working class women and children. But the Clinton-bashers would have none of it. So the ultimate politician made the ultimate political move.

Remarkably, Clinton has maintained a very high level of popularity despite one of the most racist, murderous reigns of terror. On his watch, U.S. sanctions on Iraq, and hundreds of bombing missions killed hundreds of thousands of civilians, mainly the elderly and the young. He added 100,000 racist killer cops while Abner Louima was being tortured in a Brooklyn station house and Bronx undercover cops fired 41 shots at Amadou Diallo. Scores of black and Latin workers and youth were killed by racist cops, thousands were victimized by racial profiling and the prison population doubled to over two million (two-thirds black and Latin), the highest prison population in the world!

He ended welfare, forcing millions into low-paying jobs with no health insurance, and thousands more into slave labor "Workfare" jobs. Operation Gatekeeper at the U.S./Mexico border more than doubled the racist border patrol. More than 1,500 died and more than one million were arrested trying to cross the border on Clinton’s watch. So how does he maintain his popularity?

a name="Billionaire’s Dogfight">">"illionaire’s Dogfight

During the Clinton regime, the ruling class was locked in a fierce internal struggle. More openly racist upstart billionaires, centered on the domestic oil industry, launched a struggle for control of the Republican Party and the Congress. Openly racist and pro-fascist politicians like Pat Buchanan and Newt Gingrich led them. The battle flag of the 1994 "Republican Revolution" was the "Contract On America."

They unleashed a ruthless attack on Clinton (who was an easy target) that ultimately led to his impeachment. When Hillary announced "a vast rightwing conspiracy," the union and civil rights leaders fell in line. Sweeney, Jackson and others rallied to his defense and used their influence to line up workers and youth behind him. He became the most popular "lesser evil" since mass murderer Lyndon Johnson beat Barry Goldwater in 1964 (a forerunner of the current dogfight).

Black columnist Les Payne wrote in New York Newsday (8/5), "What separates Clinton from his predecessor presidents and the one who has followed is that…he connects with African Americans…Despite his resulting inability to do them much good, African Americans appreciate him all the more for his willingness to try."

That is the deadly illusion. And because workers were suckered into believing he was "willing to try," he was able to get away with murder. This makes him more dangerous than Nixon, Reagan and both Bushes. The liberals are the most dangerous. Clinton implemented the most right-wing social policies of anyone in recent history. Just beneath his charm and grin are bulging pockets and bloody hands.

To defeat these illusions and expose the liberals will take a combination of sharper class struggle, fighting for PLP’s outlook, deeper involvement in the mass movement and stronger personal/political ties. There are no shortcuts. Using CHALLENGE, and making it the property of many more, is vital to this process.

Building PLP Crucial in D.C. Metro Contract Fight

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 10 — Anger is growing among members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 as DC Metro management continues to drag its feet on contract negotiations. At the August union meeting several workers spoke about the need for greater militancy, and for striking, to win the union’s demands.

Ridership had increased dramatically over the last year, generating more than $28 million in additional revenue. This windfall comes from drivers carrying more people per trip. The union is insisting this money be used to end the wage progression system, which has created a large inequality in wages resulting in divisions within the union.

Management’s response is to warn workers strikes are illegal and to probe the leadership for weakness. Despite all their posturing, management fears a walkout. Defeating a strike of 6,500 workers is no easy task.

Preparing for a strike means: (1) Struggling by all Metro CHALLENGE readers with our co-workers about the need for a strike. No one should take it for granted that workers have a clear understanding of this; (2) Turning out thousands for the next union meeting, so the whole union can express opinions on the issue and unite around a plan of action; (3) Increasing the CHALLENGE readership, the only way for Metro workers to understand the racist nature of the bosses’ attack and the need for communist revolution to solve the long term needs of the working class.

If we don’t fight back the bosses will attack us even harder. But we must also understand that any short-term advance that might be achieved will eventually be taken back. This is the reality of living under the bosses’ class dictatorship and will be true as long as they hold political power. The 1978 strike achieved full escalation of wages in the face of brutal inflation. But the rank-and-file strike leaders were unable to consolidate their position. The old leadership, working with management, soon regained control of the union and the concessions began. The one victory they can’t take back is workers joining the PLP and the long march for communist revolution.

The growth of PLP is the key, not just for the long haul, but also for fighting for what we need today. We should see these struggles as a school where we learn to fight united and learn from our mistakes and achievements to fight for a society where workers’ needs are the only ones which matter: that is communism.

a name="Drunken Killer Cop Wields Car As Assassin’s Bullet">">"runken Killer Cop Wields Car As Assassin’s Bullet

BROOKLYN, NY, August 7—An angry crowd of over 2,000 people marched last night to the 72nd precinct here demanding jail for cop Joseph Gray, who ran over and killed an entire family of four. Gray had left work the night before but never went home, spending most of the next 12 hours drinking, starting in the precinct’s parking lot with other cops. He ended up in the Wild, Wild West strip joint (supposedly "off-limits" for cops). Sleepless and in a virtual drunken stupor, Gray then used his car as a weapon, driving through a red light and running over a 24-year old pregnant Dominican woman, her sister and her 4-year-old son, killing them all, including the unborn baby.

Instead of keeping him in jail, a judge set the killer cop free without any bail. According to the judge, being a cop is a "guarantee" he won’t run away — a privilege workers don’t have.

The demonstrators gathered at the scene of the crash at 46th St. and 3rd Ave. and then marched to Gray’s 72nd precinct chanting, "We Want justice." The march became a vigil but there were some scuffles. A cop and a photographer were hit by bottles.

"This community is fed up with the culture of the NYPD," declared one demonstrator. "Is it fair that he killed four Dominicans like garbage and they let him go the next day like he did nothing?" said a cousin of Maria Herrera, the dead pregnant woman.

Recently the cops and the pro-police daily newspapers have been complaining that they’re quitting the NYPD in droves because of "low pay" and because they’re disliked, particularly by black and Latin workers. The cops want more money to protect and serve the bosses. Yet even though they’re as brutal and racist as the bosses want them to be, the rulers need some kind of "community support" for their fascist goons, and drunken killers like Gray don’t help that cause. Even racist Mayor Giuliani, one of the most pro-cop mayors in recent history, said the judge shouldn’t have freed the murdering cop without bail. To appease popular anger, another judge set bail at $250,000.

PLP members participating in the march sold 110 CHALLENGES. We now must bring the family’s demand that cop Gray be tried for murder to unions, churches and other mass organizations, while organizing around the idea that no amount of reform or trials for the cops will change their role as goons of a racist system.

When it comes to death squads,

Coke Is the Real Thing

Clinton is not the only rotten boss to come to Harlem to try to clean his image. Recently Coca Cola became one of the biggest commercial sponsors of the Apollo Theater, a cultural icon in Harlem. Since Coca Cola just settled a multi-million dollar suit, growing out of blatant discrimination against black employees, its bosses need to clean up their racist act.

Coke is more than racist; it murders union organizers. Last month, Coke and its Colombian subsidiary, Pan American Beverages, Inc. (its main bottler in Latin America), were cited in Miami for supporting death squads to murder trade union organizers. In the last 10 years, 4,500 trade unionists have been killed by fascist paramilitary groups in Colombia.

The government always says these groups are independent. Just the opposite — they work hand-in-glove with the bosses and their government.

In Carepa, Antioquia, Coca Cola boss Richard Kirby threatened to murder workers trying to organize a union in the local bottling plant. A few days later, union organizer Isidoro S. Gil was murdered, followed by three more organizers.

Coca Cola bosses did the same in Guatemala. In 1996, Coca Cola workers there organized work stoppages against company attacks. Coke sued to collect $214,000 from the union for production losses. The union countersued. A judge ordered both parties to settle out of court and warned them to behave. Coke "behaved" in typical boss fashion: firing and suspending pro-union workers, while pushing a right-wing company union ("Solidarity"). Finally, in 1999 Coke was forced to sign a contract with the real union.

Before the ink dried, Coke was attacking again. It fired 10 unionized workers and stopped pro-union workers from entering the plant, while favoring those who joined "Solidarity."

Coke is indeed the "real thing" when it comes to murdering workers and busting unions.

a name="PLP’ers Are Anti-Racist Force At ‘No-Sweats’ Conference"></a>"LP’ers Are Anti-Racist Force At ‘No-Sweats’ Conference

CHICAGO, IL, AUGUST 9 — Over 300 students attended the USAS (United Students Against Sweatshops) National Convention at Loyola University this past weekend. A dozen PLP members, black, Latin and white, participated. Most are already involved in "no-sweats," living-wage and anti-globalization groups at their colleges. Our goal was to fight racism within USAS, develop class-consciousness among students and build a base for communist revolution.

USAS gets money from the AFL-CIO and has strong links to the steelworker (USWA) and garment worker (UNITE!) unions.

USAS members campaign for better conditions in sweatshops and link anti-prison labor, living-wage and no-sweats groups. They help union organizing campaigns and struggle to get their universities to cancel contracts with garment sweatshops. For example, they sent students to Mexico to help an "independent" union (SITEKIM) organize workers at the Kukdong factory (the "independent" unions in Mexico are also funded by the pro-imperialist AFL-CIA).

The convention opened with a "Challenging White Supremacy" workshop. It set the tone for the rest of the conference. USAS pushes the "White Skin Privilege" theory, which says white workers benefit from racism, capitalism is a system of white supremacy and that white people must sacrifice their privilege to "support" people of color in "their" struggle. This racist theory led to having segregated workshops at the mainly white conference, and USAS has virtually no base at black and Latin working-class schools.

We attacked this theory, pointing out that racism is an attack on all workers, created and perpetuated by capitalism, and that fighting racism is everyone’s responsibility. As Karl Marx said, "The workers in the white skin will never be free as long as the ones in the black skin are in chains." For the next three days, we carried the fight against racism to workshops, meals and social activities and made many friends.

For example, at the "Setting Priorities for USAS" workshop, a PLP member noticed that not only was fighting racism not a priority, it wasn’t even mentioned. This sparked a discussion between him and several USAS members that continued and grew over dinner. The group found this discussion more important than the scheduled panel of speakers and moved to the lobby, where more than 30 students talked about fighting racism.

Consequently, an Anti-Racist Caucus was formed and made a 3-point proposal to the USAS Coordinating Committee: (1) Make anti-racism a central struggle in USAS; (2) Recognize the fundamental relationship between racism and capitalism; and (3) Eliminate segregated "identity caucuses."

The next day we planned to finalize the proposal and go to the segregated caucuses as an integrated group. However, the USAS leadership was set on silencing us and changed the agenda. They used anti-communism to keep the proposal off the floor.

We struggled in our collective for the best way to get the proposal heard. We decided to break into two integrated groups and go to each caucus. The leadership of the "people of color" caucus didn’t welcome our integrated group. We were asked to leave because white people had entered their "safe space." One PL member stayed while the rest left, along with two black students who hadn’t come with us.

Despite mixed results in the "people of color" caucus, and despite some students being unsure we’d done the right thing, many responded well to our bold leadership on fighting racism. The USAS leadership was forced to concede and have an integrated "unity" caucus for all students after the segregated race caucuses. This was not in their original plan. Finally, at the conference’s closing session, we were allowed to read our anti-racist proposal.

We distributed nearly 100 CHALLENGES and made 50 contacts. We passed out several hundred leaflets on fighting racism, imperialism and the USWA’s nationalist "Stand Up for Steel" campaign. When the conference leaders changed the agenda, we were unable to have our scheduled steelworkers forum. We could have done better at linking the fight against racism with the fight against imperialism, and exposing the role of the universities.

This was a very valuable experience. Since then, we’ve been attacked constantly on the USAS web site. Even the fake-leftist Nation magazine saw a need to attack PLP. We take their racist lies and anti-communist attacks as a compliment. The fight for the political leadership of the emerging student movement is on.

a name="The ‘Amnesty’ of the Cemetery"></">Th" ‘Amnesty’ of the Cemetery

LOS ANGELES, CA. — "Who agrees to give up his children in exchange for amnesty?" asked a comrade in a garment workers’ study group. Though seemingly an unreal question, it sparked a very real discussion about the relation between the bosses’ plans for war and fascism and the amnesty debate. The bosses would allow some undocumented workers to gain amnesty (see box on Bush’s plan) to be able to draft their children into U.S. imperialist oil wars abroad.

U.S. bosses face a dilemma: what to do with the millions of undocumented workers who work here, the majority Mexican. These workers are a huge source of cheap labor and of cannon fodder for oil wars. The bosses want their loyalty. Meanwhile, they also need political stability in Mexico to safeguard their enormous investments there and to better answer the challenge from the European Union (EU) and other imperialist rivals to U.S. interests in Latin America. Being seen as openly racist toward Mexican workers allows their rivals to become "lesser evil" imperialists and gain "sympathy" among some workers there. This program might also serve as a safety valve for the powder keg created by the declining Mexican economy.

That’s why liberal U.S. bosses, represented by the Democratic Party, some Republicans, the AFL-CIO and the churches, are advocating amnesty for some immigrant workers. They also want the AFL-CIO to win Latin American workers to view the U.S. as "humanitarian." The AFL-CIO, which for decades accused immigrant workers of "stealing jobs" and lowering wages of citizens, now unites with the Mexican government to pressure Bush for an amnesty plan. That’s why Bush’s Attorney-General John Ashcroft and Secretary of State Colin Powell met with Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Canstañeda.

"Immigrant workers are in every kind of job in the U.S. and they won’t leave," declared John Wilhelm, President of the Hotel Workers’ Union. (New York Times, 7/18) "We have to make immigrants see that we’re on their side." He said, "The AFL-CIO’s new position on immigration…[can] mak[e] workers think that fundamental reforms can be possible." Ironically last month, 550 janitors here in SEIU Local 1877 were fired for not having legal documentation. The leadership of this "militant" union refused to organize protests or denounce this as an attack on these and all workers.

When Jorge Castañeda told the Hotel and Restaurant Workers international convention that immigrant workers’ "lack of legal status makes them vulnerable to the exploitation by employers who damage healthy competition," 400 union delegates gave him a standing ovation.

In January, Mexican President Fox met with AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, Teamster Union President James Hoffa and auto union President Stephen Yokich to discuss their support for the legalization plan. Fox and Castañeda both represent an exploiting, murderous ruling class sending Mexican workers into deepening poverty. This forces them to leave Mexico to find a way to survive. Now the rulers portray themselves as "defenders" of immigrants! Neither these capitalists nor the liberals in the AFL-CIO are the workers’ friends.

But other bosses, who see immigrants exclusively as cheap labor, advocate only a "bracero" program, not amnesty. They’re not concerned with filling the army with immigrants’ children to defend U.S. interests overseas, nor with competing with the EU for the loyalty of Latin-American workers. But the Mexican government has insisted on a bracero/amnesty package deal.

While such plans may aggravate rising U.S. unemployment, the top bosses’ main interest is loyalty to U.S. imperialism by workers and soldiers and the illusion that the U.S. is "humanitarian." Communists must oppose these bosses’ "solutions" and show that immigrants and citizens are all workers with the same class interests fighting capitalist exploitation.

The bosses’ liberal lackeys will use this amnesty campaign to win the workers to nationalism and U.S. patriotism. But PLP can expose the real plan — the "amnesty of the cemetery" — the bosses are preparing. This lays the basis for winning workers to see the need to destroy capitalism and build a world without borders or exploitation and bosses’ wars.

As one garment workers told a comrade during a PLP Summer Project visit, "Even though I haven’t seen you for a while, and I don’t live in the same place, every week I go back there to collect the CHALLENGE you send me." This kind of loyalty to the Party and its ideas must be multiplied a thousand-fold.

a name="Bush’s Bracero Plan">">"ush’s Bracero Plan

Enlarge the current small "bracero program" which provides temporary visas to farmworkers, to include "an expanded pool of new immigrants employed in service jobs like hotels and restaurants [who] could apply for temporary work permits with the possibility of earning permanent residency over time. [Secy. of State Powell] made it clear that some Mexicans living in this country illegally — those who have jobs, pay taxes and rear children who are American-born US citizens — would be included in an expanded temporary worker program." (New York Times, 8/10) These latter could also possibly qualify for legal residency over time.

a name="Communist Teachers Challenge ‘Culture Of Poverty’ Racism"></">Co"munist Teachers Challenge ‘Culture Of Poverty’ Racism

LOS ANGELES, August 14 — Ever since our struggle against racist ideology at the NEA convention, teachers in PLP have sharpened the fight against racism, taking it inside the anti-testing movement. Many in this movement see working-class students merely as victims. We see them as a potential revolutionary force. At the NEA convention here, we fought for a resolution opposing racist theories such as biologically-determined IQ and "culture of poverty" that justify the mis-education of the working-class. It says ALL working-class students can learn at a high level. This resolution was part of the fight against portraying students as victims, actually a form of liberal racism.

Many people in the anti-testing movement see themselves as advocates for black, Latino and working-class students. They would agree with Gary Orfield, co-director of Harvard’s Civil Rights Project, who found that U.S. schools grew more segregated in the 1990s: "These poorer schools…have more transient student bodies, fewer teachers qualified in their subject areas, parents lacking political power, more frequent health problems among students and lower test scores.…[E]fforts by the White House and Congress to toughen school accountability through annual testing [will] probably backfire, driving minority children in failing schools to repeat grades and eventually drop out." (NY Times, 7/20)

The movement we’re involved in fights for "Tests NO! Money for improved schools, Yes!" A dangerous, prevalent trend within this movement says that until the schools are improved, it isn’t possible to teach working-class students at a high level. This ideology not only infects the relatively few racist teachers who’ve given up on teaching altogether, but also liberal and militant reformers. But many working-class parents aren’t buying it. They expect their children to learn, and are unwilling to take excuses. Neither should we.

The following e-mail debate reflects the struggle within the anti-testing movement. One teacher, for example, said "None who consider themselves progressive would argue that African-American or Latino or Asian students are incapable of learning at a high level, given schools that meet the needs of kids coming from impoverished families. We do not have those schools… The tests are racist in intent because they do not take into account the inequality of the schools, or the fact that many kids speak English as a second language…We need the money to repair our schools, not tests to tell us what we already know, that our public school system has failed our kids. "

A PLP teacher responded, saying, "too many of us have allowed… institutional inequities to allow our expectations of student achievement to drift downward as we concentrate on fighting for (or despair of ever getting) the resources available to more affluent schools and students. That’s why the resolution on opposing racist theories was so important: because of the way a ‘culture of impoverished schools’ outlook leads us to think of our students as ‘victims’ instead of as achievers and fighters. I… believe that unequal education is a fundamental part of unequal (racist, exploitative) society and that a fully equal educational system will require …social revolution. A crucial part of making that revolution is to educate students as well, and on as high a level, as we possibly can, right now."

Another comrade added, "We can’t wait until we have proper conditions in the school because many working class students will never get them. Instead, we should learn the lessons of the literacy campaigns in Cuba, Russia, and China after their revolutions. They sent people out to teach reading to millions of others and they were successful." The young people there saw that what they were learning was crucial to building a new society. Ideology and motivation are more important than the material conditions of the schools.

We’re struggling within the anti-testing movement and the union to demand that racist ideology be fought. We must also teach the true history of racism, imperialism and class oppression. Racism is a deliberate mechanism to keep working people down and divided. Differences in achievement reflect systematic and deliberate racism and not innate biological inferiority, a "culture of poverty," or other racist lies invented to justify racist oppression and class rule.

When teachers, parents and students unite to fight against racism, imperialism and class oppression, students see their education as part of the fight to transform society. CHALLENGE is crucial in this process. As we use it to expose the racist lies claiming working-class students "can’t learn," then working-class youth — no longer victims — can become capitalism’s gravediggers.

a name="Newark ‘Zero Tolerance’ Fraud Is Violent Attack on Students"></">Ne"ark ‘Zero Tolerance’ Fraud Is Violent Attack on Students

NEWARK, NJ — "You’re criminalizing our students. Carrying a Swiss army knife is not a crime, but you’ve made it a crime," declared an angry parent to Newark’s school administrators at a June 19 meeting of the Newark School District Advisory Board. Parents from University High School (UHS) were challenging the effects of the Board’s "zero tolerance for violence" policy on students.

Several years ago Newark’s state-operated school district installed metal detectors in all high schools. Then Newark’s Board implemented a "zero tolerance" policy for drugs, weapons and violence. The policy sounded great to many parents, teachers and students who believed the media-created myth that our schools have become dangerous places to be. Who would argue that we should "tolerate" drugs, weapons and violence? But its implications are dangerous for the working class.

This past spring a UHS student came to school with a Swiss army knife in her pocket. She had put it there the night before when out with some friends after her father told her to carry something with her in case of trouble. The next day when she went through the metal detector, it went off. She immediately handed the knife to the security guard, explaining that she had simply forgotten to take it out of her pocket before coming to school. The security guard said she’d keep the knife until the end of the day and sent the student to class.

Later the student was called to the principal’s office. Knowing the student had accidentally brought the knife to school, the principal still called the cops. They handcuffed her and charged her with "possession of a dangerous weapon." The student was taken to juvenile detention and given a pregnancy/drug/STD test without her guardian’s permission. When her family called to bring her home, they were told she’d have to stay overnight because all the judges were away at a conference. She was then suspended from school for two weeks!

Shortly before this incident the Newark School District announced plans to install surveillance cameras in every Newark high school, claiming they would "prevent violence." There was lots of support for the idea, especially among teachers. But some UHS parents saw these cameras as part of a larger plan to criminalize the student population and get them to accept a more fascist atmosphere in their schools. They discussed it with other parents, students and teachers. A position paper opposing the cameras was distributed in the UHS Parent Teacher Student Organization.

Earlier in the spring, two eight-year old black students in Irvington, NJ, had been arrested and charged with "making terrorist threats" because they folded pieces of paper into the shape of guns and pointed them at each other in their classroom. Then one was arrested. Some parents who had been on the fence on the issue decided to voice their concerns at the Newark Board meeting. Now the struggle against "zero tolerance" will continue this fall.

The liberal section of the ruling class is pushing "zero tolerance" big time. They have lots of school psychologists, administrators, teachers and others convinced it’s needed.

Although "zero tolerance" exists in school districts throughout the country, its enforcement is racist to the core. With metal detectors, cameras and cops in the schools, working-class students are learning how it feels to be in prison.

Under capitalism, violence is a class question. Workers must never fall for the lie that the bosses, their police and their courts will "protect" us. The bottom line is that the rulers hold power at the point of a gun. Their system does violence to workers constantly through racism, sexism, mass layoffs, drug addiction, etc.

"Zero tolerance" and other liberal-backed policies are thinly-veiled building blocks for fascism in the schools. Communists must organize parents, teachers and students to resist this fascist menace, to see who’s really behind violence in this society and to fight for a system that does not turn its children into criminals.

a name="U.S. Iraqi Policy Flops, So It’s Bomb, Bomb Bomb . . .">">".S. Iraqi Policy Flops, So It’s Bomb, Bomb Bomb . . .

The week of August 6, U.S. and British warplanes conducted their heaviest bombing raids in six months over Iraq. The lame excuse for this stepped-up terror was Iraqi anti-aircraft’s near success in shooting down a U.S. spy plane. The real reason lies in an attempt by the Bush White House to continue its sabre-rattling against Saddam Hussein while at the same time scrambling to change its failed sanctions policy.

As CHALLENGE has reported, the sanctions have been a dismal flop. Iraqi oil is back on the market, with Exxon Mobil its biggest customer. Saddam Hussein still wields power. Exxon Mobil’s Russian and French energy rivals have managed to isolate the U.S. politically over Iraq policy.

The current fighting between Israelis and Palestinians further limits U.S. rulers’ maneuverability against Iraq because any increase in U.S. terror against an Arab country risks provoking mass outrage against U.S. imperialism throughout the Arab world. So the Bush White House is falling back on a tactic tried many times during the Clinton years: when in doubt, bomb. When in bigger doubt, bomb more.

Not really knowing what they can get away with, the Bush gang seems to be keeping open the two options the big bosses have been debating for some time. Forces around Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz appear to be arguing for a combination of heavier bombing and expanded support for a U.S. puppet government in Iraq that would somehow overthrow Saddam. Liberals in the Brookings Institution recognize the futility of trying to settle strategic issues from the air and also know that the so-called Iraqi "opposition" has no political or mass base and therefore no chance of success. The liberals, whose lead spokesman is the former chief of the UN weapons inspection team, Scott Ritter, want to build support for a ground invasion using "human rights" as a pretext. The liberals know this requires time to prepare. If the Arab-Israeli fighting ties the U.S.’s hands too much, both factions of the imperialists may be forced to back off temporarily. The recent bombing buys time, but it also tests the firmness of the U.S.’s Gulf allies.

Thomas Ricks, a military journalist with high-level Pentagon ties, sees the latest bombing as part of a plan to launch a series of deadlier bombing raids: "Some Pentagon officials contend that relatively limited strikes such as [those on August 7, —Ed.] are necessary … to make it easier to conduct larger bombing campaigns…. They contend that it is necessary every two years or so to bomb factories at which Hussein is suspected of building long-range missiles and developing chemical and biological weapons. The periodic raids against Iraqi air defenses keep the door open so the larger raids can attack weapons facilities directly, rather than first going after antiaircraft sites, which could give the Iraqi military time to move key gear from the weapons factories, the officials say." (Washington Post, 8/8)

Regardless of who wins in the present tactical squabble among U.S. rulers, the result will be a widening of the oil wars U.S. imperialism must continue to fight in order to stay on top. Workers must be organized to oppose everything the bosses do in this regard. It is particularly important to expose and smash the liberals’ plans to commit mass murder for Exxon Mobil et al., under a "humanitarian" cover.

New World (Dis)Order Hits Israel-Palestine

It was the beginning of the 1990s, the old Soviet Union was imploding and the U.S.-led imperialist alliance was "defeating" Saddam Hussein’s army in Desert Storm. Bush Sr. proclaimed his New World Order, based on "Pax Americana," to guarantee the U.S. control of Middle East oil wealth. Arafat, who sided with Saddam Hussein, was forced to sign the Oslo "peace" deal with Israel. Well, as the old saying goes, when the bosses talk peace, better get your helmet.

The Oslo accord led to the assassination of Israel’s leader Rabin, just as the Camp David accord many years before led to the assassination of Egypt’s ruler Anwar Sadat by Islamic fundamentalists.

Today, Israel’s Sharon has basically declared war on Arafat’s Palestinian Authority because Arafat cannot control the Hamas fundamentalist forces. If the Israeli army invades Palestinian territory, thousands more will be killed and all the contradictions will sharpen, with no end in sight to the conflict.

This doesn’t bode well for U.S. bosses’ interests in the region. Apparently Bush Jr.’s government cannot impose its political will on its most important client in the region, Israel. The latter could conceivably launch a pre-emptive attack against Iraq to force the U.S. to back the Israeli side even more forcefully in its fight with the Palestinians. But this would in the long run just further isolate the U.S. and could lead to the overthrow of its main ally in the Arab world, the Saudi ruling family.

All this fighting reveals capitalism’s basic nature: competition and the rivalry for maximum profit always leading to war.

a name="‘Peace’ in Ireland Tied to U.S. War Plans"></">‘P"ace’ in Ireland Tied to U.S. War Plans

Thirty-six hundred people, mostly working-class, have died in three decades of fighting between Irish nationalists and their pro-British foes. Now troubled "peace" talks, stemming from a U.S.-brokered accord, are taking place in Belfast. Both sides hesitate to fulfill their promises: the Irish Republican Army to lay down its arms, the unionists to give Catholics greater representation in Northern Ireland’s government. But the conflict has global dimensions, rooted in the U.S. rulers’ strategic requirements, going far beyond the local turf war between Catholics and Protestants. No matter how negotiations turn out, Ireland’s conflict will remain.

Geography makes Ireland crucial to the U.S. rulers’ long-term survival as imperialists. The island flanks Britain, which Washington needs to project military force onto the European continent. The Pentagon’s governing strategy, outlined in the early 1990’s by Paul Wolfowitz, now deputy defense secretary, gives highest priority to countering the rise of a rival superpower in Europe or Asia. The potential threat in Europe would come from a coalition of Russia with Germany or France or both. The U.S. cannot afford to have Britain hemmed in by a pro-European Ireland to the west and a hostile France to the south. U.S. policy, therefore, calls for continued British control of Northern Ireland. A Boston Globe editorial (8/4) proclaimed, "The IRA cannot...force the British Army or the Unionist people out of Northern Ireland."

Gerry Adams leads Sinn Fein, the IRA’s political arm. After a series of meetings with Clinton and Ted Kennedy throughout the 1990s, Adams announced that his party no longer sought an immediate end to British rule in Ulster. Clinton sent George Mitchell to Belfast to help hammer out the Good Friday agreement, which guarantees British rule of the North. Under it the British will leave only by a vote of the majority, highly unlikely in the heavily Protestant province. The Associated Press reported that Leslie Gelb, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, the leading U.S. imperialist think-tank, credited Mitchell for "using the power of the United States" to broker the deal.

But a paramilitary faction called the "Real IRA" hopes to force the British out with terrorism. Washington’s tactic here is to manipulate the terrorists, covertly supporting their atrocities, which are then used against them. A recent bombing in London by the IRA sparked calls for more British police and soldiers in Northern Ireland. Last May, David Rupert, a top Real IRA leader in charge of acquiring arms, was exposed as an FBI informant from Chicago. In the 1980s, Whitey Bulger, a Massachusetts gangster collaborating with the FBI, arranged a gun shipment from Boston to Ireland that was seized by Irish authorities. The U.S. is not alone. The Real IRA is becoming the pawn of both imperialist camps. The Guardian (4/5) reports the family of Radovan Karadzic, Bosnian Serb leader and Russian ally, has been shipping arms to the Real IRA through Croatia and Germany.

The U.S. also wields tremendous influence in the independent Republic of Ireland, where it accounts for 70% of foreign investment. And Washington has made great efforts lately to improve its strategic position there. In 1999, under U.S. pressure, Ireland became a "Partner for Peace" with NATO, virtually a junior member. Ireland now provides troops to the U.S.-led NATO mission in the Balkans and will conduct joint war games. Another victory for U.S. grand strategy came in June when Irish voters rejected the Treaty of Nice, which provided for enlarging the European Union and building a European "Rapid Reaction Force" entirely free of NATO control.

In Dublin, U.S. rulers claim to be enhancing the nation’s "security." In Belfast, they’re fostering "peace." But to capitalists, these words mean consolidating one’s position and preparing for the next war.

a name="Hospital Workers Nix Bosses’ Patient (No)Care Policy">">"ospital Workers Nix Bosses’ Patient (No)Care Policy

SEATTLE—"I don’t care if they keep that letter in my file forever: I will never agree to that!" retorted a University of Washington (UW) worker with 19 years seniority. Human Resources had offered to remove a letter of discipline from her file if she would agree never again to strike, support a work stoppage or slowdown, etc.

As CHALLENGE reported previously, the UW administration gave letters of discipline to about 70 workers in the Medical Center who participated in a one-day strike. Although the Strike Committee was ready to respond quickly, the union leadership dragged its feet, finally agreeing to ask rank-and-filers to distribute petitions of support.

In little more than two weeks, over 1,000 staff, faculty and students signed them.

About 35 of us surprised the Medical Center CEO at her office with the petitions. She was frightened, totally taken aback, responding to us by saying not to take it "personally," that it’s only about a job. One union member asked, "Who does she think fills that position? Platonian essence [not a flesh and blood person]?" While most of us had to wait outside her office, four grievants went in with their stories.

At the grievance hearing later that week, workers described how carefully they had planned coverage for emergencies involving patient care. It was clear these rank-and-filers had their patients uppermost in their minds. "We [struck] for our patients and our fellow workers. We need enough staff and for staff to stay and be well-trained," said one grievant.

The UW reps said the Human Resource sleazes made it clear they wanted "uninterrupted work flow" and were unconcerned about patient care. In fact, the workers had arranged for patient care coverage for the one-day strike. The University wouldn’t discuss that, saying it’s not something the union should have input on.

The bosses’ drive for "uninterrupted work flow" runs counter to patient care and adequate staffing and doesn’t address the generally poor and racist nature of medicine under capitalism.

Serve The People To Break The Chains

These workers’ concern for patients is actually fundamental to the communist idea of "serving the people." Our job is to build on this "kernel of class-consciousness," to draw out the communist lessons.

Yet, the grievance process dramatized the limits of trade union struggle — we are wage slaves, negotiating the length of our chains.

To help break those chains, we’ve started selling CHALLENGE weekly on the UW campus. These mass sales will help increase hand-to-hand sales. Struggling over Challenge with our co-workers every issue will help draw out the revolutionary implications of "serving the people."

These CHALLENGE networks, along with our increased union activity and the forging of tight personal friendships, will help recruit to the Party. Then we’ll be moving towards breaking those chains once and for all so we can provide truly excellent heath care for our class under communism. µOne in Ten Black Men 20-29 In State Prison

Racism’s running rampant in the U.S. prison system, largest on earth. With 50% of the prisoners black (and another 20% Latino), the "Justice" Department reports that one of every ten black men between the ages of 20 and 29 are in state prisons, compared to only one of 100 white men in that age group. While the states’ prison population supposedly declined in 2000 for the first time in 30 years, the overall total — federal, state, local jails, juvenile and immigration facilities — continued to rise, reaching 2,071,686 by the end of 2000. U.S. "human rights" marches on!

For more information on prison labor as a source of superprofits see the PLP pamphlet Prison Labor: Fascism U.S. Style

Workers of the World, Write!

LETTERS

Garment Workers Figure it Out

After four hours of hard work, several of us garment workers on lunch break were discussing the hunger and drought whipping across Central America.

"The poor workers and their families. Some weeks they’ve only eaten bananas and roots. And others not even that," said one worker.

"The problem is that sometimes they don’t think and don’t save," said another.

"If we make $5.75 an hour, and we can’t save a penny," remarked a comrade from PLP, "how can these mostly farm workers, when there is work, only make an average of $2 a day? The problem isn’t lack of saving. It’s capitalism with its wage slavery. The bosses grow or produce what makes them profits, not what the workers need to survive. If we lived under communism, growing basic products in the San Joaquin Valley in California would be sufficient to feed a huge part of the population."

The bosses’ press talks daily about the poverty and hunger in Central America. They blame the low price of coffee — due to overproduction of coffee worldwide — on droughts, earthquakes and hurricanes. They blame all of nature, but not capitalism and imperialism, based on the profit system.

Though hunger and poverty are nothing new for the international working class, this avalanche of unemployment and poverty from the coffee plantations of Managua, Nicaragua to the garment factories of Los Angeles is much more serious than it looks. U.S. workers, especially garment workers, aren’t excluded from this famine. In the last few months, unemployment has grown in the garment industry to a point where many workers don’t have money to pay the rent, let alone for a healthy diet.

These kinds of discussions among workers are very important because they can become a beacon to show the need to destroy the capitalist system and build a communist one where workers’ lives will be society’s main concern.

Garment Worker Comrade

a name="Capitalism ‘Steels’ Jobs"></">Ca"italism ‘Steels’ Jobs

In a recent matter-of-fact article, London’s Sunday Independent reported that, "Corus, Britain’s largest steel company, is to warn that five steelworks and up to 18,000 jobs are under threat from tough new proposals being drawn up by the US President, George W. Bush."

The article projected world steel production at 828 million tons and consumption at 763 million. It used these statistics to show that U.S. steel bosses — acting irresponsibly — had increased their production (by 19 million tons) in the last seven years while Europe, acting like a "model world citizen," had reduced theirs (by 3 million). Corus itself had laid off 12,000 workers in the last two years.

Such well timed news releases (issued the same week as the anti-G8 demonstrations in Italy) influence the demonstrators in Genoa to feel a greater European consciousness. It’s not capitalism, the article says, with its inevitable crises of overproduction that’s threatening British steel jobs, but George Bush and U.S. imperialism.

The U.S. Steelworkers Union plays a similar role on this side of the Atlantic. It’s not capitalism and its crisis, they say, but "foreign" workers and foreign steel companies that are causing the lay-offs.

It’s easy to see how a fight for steel jobs in Gary, Indiana, or in Llanwern, Wales, can develop into a nationalist crusade, pitting worker against worker. On the other hand, it’s not hard to see what a vital role communist internationalism — the call for workers of the world to unite — can play in these struggles. Applying those insights is one of the great challenges we face.

Bay Area Comrade

Circuses Without Bread . . .

Before the Pan American soccer championship (Copa America) in Colombia, a friend told me the rulers would guarantee that the host team would win the cup. He said the situation there was very hot and the bosses needed to distract the workers’ anger. They hoped Copa America and "national pride" would make workers forget the death squads, high unemployment and the local war.

He was right. On July 29, Colombia beat Mexico "and won the championship. As a matter of fact, Copa America almost did not take place. When a guerrilla group kidnapped a local soccer official, the international soccer federation cancelled the games saying Colombia was not safe. But pressure from Coca Cola and other local and international companies sponsoring the games, and begging by Colombia President Pastrana led to the release of the soccer official and the games continued.

This was not just a question of soccer and money. The bosses know well the old Roman emperors’ practice: circuses to distract the masses. For a few weeks, the mass media (including Univision TV which transmitted the games to the U.S.) pushed the "games-of-peace" theme. Supposedly Colombia would change because of soccer. Well, I don’t know whether the games were fixed as my friend implied. They were exciting, but things are now "normal." The death squads are back at work, and workers and others are again protesting. Just a week later taxi and bus drivers shut down Bogota, a city of five million, protesting the mayor’s restrictions on mass transportation. Also masses of peasants protested the U.S.-financed Plan Colombia’s use of poisonous pesticides to allegedly eradicate the source of cocaine and heroine.

So circuses without bread did not work too well for the bosses this time.

A comrade, NYC

a name="Thoughts on PLP’s Racism Pamphlet">">"houghts on PLP’s Racism Pamphlet

I recently read the PLP pamphlet Smash Racism with Communist Revolution for the first time. While it is well written and of excellent quality, it contains two serious scientific errors and an important political one. They should be corrected.

Firstly, on page 19, the pamphlet states, "If even something as simple as skin pigment cannot be genetically determined..." But skin pigment establishing skin color is mainly genetically determined. There is also, of course, some environmental influence such as exposure to the sun’s rays, but differences in skin color between large groups of people are inherited, dependent on gene make-up.

Secondly, on page 20, the pamphlet says, "There is no such thing as a race of humans." Try telling this to a black or even a Jewish person denied a job because of ethnicity or "race." True, there is no such biological category as separate races of human beings. Research has demonstrated much bigger proteinaceous and genetic differences between individuals within the same so-called races than exist between the averages for different "races." It’s impossible to even define a race on biological grounds.

Furthermore, "There is no gene known that is 100% of one form in one race and 100% of a different form in some other race. Reciprocally, some genes that are very variable from individual to individual show no average difference at all between major races." (Lewontin, Rose and Kamin: Not in Our Genes, p.122). But despite the absence of a legitimate category in biology that one could call race, there is a very real social construct called race which is specifically designed to divide the working class. So race does exist as a social concept with very real, material effects, despite it being only a concept.

Finally, PLP published a pamphlet on racism without even mentioning the Committee Against Racism (CAR) and its successor, the International Committee Against Racism (InCAR), and its contributions to the construction and day-to-day work of these organizations. This discards an important aspect of almost 20 years of our Party’s work. PLP played a crucial role in the fight against racism through its work in CAR and InCAR. CAR first identified the organized racist attack by Shockley, Herrnstein, Jensen and their various cronies within academia. It was through CAR that thousands of academics, students and workers were mobilized to mount a counterattack thoroughly exposing the racist and unscientific content of the ideology being advanced by these pigs. CAR made it impossible for the racists to speak unchallenged on any campus in the country.

InCAR involved masses of students, faculty and workers in a huge national struggle that led tens of thousands in militant battles to block the ruling class’s attempt to reconstitute the KKK as a mass open organization. It’s no accident that the KKK in Connecticut complained bitterly to the Hartford Courant that, "It’s because of those Commies in InCar and PLP that Klansmen are afraid to come out in public, wearing their hoods."

Furthermore, it was through InCAR that we fought and won the battle of the Boston Summer project against that city’s racists organized in ROAR ("Restore Our Alienated Rights"). Our impact was brought home to me when a prospective new faculty member from the Boston area was being interviewed for a position at the University of Connecticut, at that time. Someone asked her, "What’s new in Boston?" She replied, "InCAR is what’s new in Boston."

CAR/InCAR was — both in its leadership and membership — a coalition of communist and non-communist anti-racists committed to a joint struggle against racism in all its forms, organized on PLP’s initiative. Many InCAR members were won to join PLP.

An old-time InCAR organizer

OOPS!

The word "not" was inadvertently missing from the letter in our last issue entitled "Crisis of Overproduction." The omission tended to contradict the writer’s main point. In the part that said, "Crises are caused by overproduction which leads to decreased profits," the next sentence should have read, "They [crises] are NOT caused by underconsumption." We apologize!

1. Fight Mass Layoffs
   A System That Breeds Mass Poverty Must Be Buried
   1. MASS TELECOM LAYOFFS SPREADING
   2. OPPORTUNITIES GROWING
   3. WINNING INDUSTRIAL WORKERS CRUCIAL
2. Break Illusions on Lesser Evil Politicians
3. Ford Declares War on Workers
4. PLP health Workers and Professionals Meet
   `Serve the People'
5. Communism: The Best Medicine
6. Rulers' Agent Spills the Beans on Continuous Bombing of Iraq
7. Don't Stand Up for LTV--Nationalism Will Cut
   More Jobs Worldwide
8. Bosses' 24/7 Multiplies Profits, Subtracts Workers' Lives
9. Argentina: Workers Refuse to Starve to Pay Bosses' Debt to Vulture Bankers
10. SEIU Union Leaders Undermine Workers'Struggle
11. DC Protest Against Nazi Rally
12. Hit SF Racist Cop-Murderers
    Who Serve Bosses' System
13. Boeing Workers Read Between the Lies
14. G-8 Bosses Drive for Maximum Profits Breeds Mass Poverty Worldwide
15. Jamaica: Class Warfare Must Replace Gang Warfare
16. CIA Saved and Hired Thousands of Nazi War Criminals
17. Battle of Stalingrad: Turning Point of World War 2
    1. `Not one step back...'
    2. AFTERMATH
18. LETTERS
    WORKERS OF THE WORLD, WRITE!
    1. Hitler Danced to Wagner Racist Tune
    2. Stop KKK in Lancaster, Pa.
    3. `Churchmice' Multiply!
    4. Empire Is Apology for Imperialism
    5. Crisis of Overproduction
    6. Kids Book Doesn't Duck Revolution

---

Editorial:

Fight Mass Layoffs
A System That Breeds Mass Poverty Must Be Buried

U.S. imperialism remains the dominant force in the world. The Democrats and their labor lieutenants play their role of spreading illusions among the workers and fostering a relatively low level of class struggle. The rise of a new, highly-paid "labor aristocracy," mainly in telecommunications and information technology, has contributed to this. The communist movement is small and with hard work by revolutionaries still yields modest results.

At the same time, two billion workers worldwide live in dire poverty. About 830 million live on less than 1,800 calories a day. In Sub-Saharan Africa, over 17 million have died in a racist AIDS holocaust created by the rulers. In Colombia thousands of workers have been kidnapped and murdered by fascist death squads trained by U.S. imperialism. In the Middle East, a growing Israeli-Palestinian war increases the threat of a broader conflict. Racism and sexism are rampant throughout the world. Beyond the billions who are superexploited, many millions, including children, are enslaved.

U.S. bosses are riding high but capitalism still stinks. In the heartland of liberal "democracy," slave-labor/Workfare is spreading. More than two million prisoners comprise the largest prison population in the world. Two-thirds are black and Latin. Hundreds of thousands of them are forced into prison labor. Racist police terror has murdered thousands of black and Latin workers and youth.

MASS TELECOM LAYOFFS SPREADING

Even among the new labor "aristocrats," telecom service bosses and equipment makers have slashed 225,000 jobs since the beginning of the year, one-fifth of all U.S. job cuts. The worldwide economic slowdown has hit the high-tech sector hard with a sharp drop in capital spending. The telecom slump has become a major force undermining the global economy.

Only two years ago, Lucent Technologies, the largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, was considered a shining example of the vast profits to be made in that area. But one way or another, Lucent will have cut more than half of its 123,000 workers between January and December of this year.

Just a month ago Nortel, the world's largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer, reported a $19.2 billion loss and the layoff of 10,000 workers, a total job-cut of 30,000 since January. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of layoffs were announced throughout the slumping international telecom industry, including France's Alcatel, which eliminated 10,000 jobs on top of the 5,800 cuts earlier this year.

OPPORTUNITIES GROWING

With all the setbacks caused by the collapse of the old communist movement, plus all the difficulties of facing a dominant ruling class, the Progressive Labor Party has its work cut out for it. But the opportunities for growth are enormous. Billions of workers around the world can be won to communist revolution, which remains their only way out.

The present economic downturn presents ever-increasing possibilities to promote communist ideas and build a bigger and tougher Party.

Despite serious indictments brought by local authorities, PLP -- while undergoing a court battle -- returned to Morristown, New Jersey on July 4, having organized to lead hundreds of anti-racists to fight the fascists there. New young comrades stepped forward and took leadership. Old and new members were bold and spirited. We made some progress in building for this action in our mass organizations. This was the result of a sharp internal struggle against fear and cynicism.

In New York City teachers have been without a contract for a year. State politicians are planning a racist budget that will rip off education. This is an opportunity for the Party to expose capitalist schooling and to organize parents, teachers and students around aspects of our line. Slowly but surely, we are becoming a more serious force in the schools and colleges.

WINNING INDUSTRIAL WORKERS CRUCIAL

Building a base and organizing class struggle through mass organizations is crucial. We are making slow, modest advances, from aerospace workers in Seattle (page 4) to steel workers in Indiana to auto workers in Mexico (page 3). We are slowly emerging as mass leaders among health care (page 5), and transit workers. Very hard work made these moderate gains. But these gains today, especially among industrial workers, will lead to mass revolutionary activity when objective conditions are more favorable. In fact, making these gains today will help change the objective conditions.

In every campaign and struggle a major goal must be to increase the number of workers, soldiers and youth reading, writing for, and distributing CHALLENGE. This struggle is pivotal in winning large numbers of workers and youth to act on and advance communist ideas. It is from these dozens and hundreds who become CHALLENGE distributors that we will reap the next wave of new recruits.

Every struggle teaches us over and over again to have confidence in the working class to take communist leadership. During the anti-racist rebellion against police terror in Cincinnati last April, the rebels warmly embraced our Party. Rebuilding the communist movement is a monumental task. PLP is the light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. The road ahead will be difficult. Now more than ever, we are focused on a bright communist future.

Break Illusions on Lesser Evil Politicians

HARLEM, NY, July 30--Former President Bill Clinton got a hero welcome today during the official opening of his office at the State Building. The last "elected Presiden" or "our President" many called him. Most black workers hate President Bush so much that they now look back to the Clinton administration as the
"the good old days." This illusion that Clinton was "the only black President" is fomented by the union leaders and black politicians like Rep. Charles Rangel, former Mayor Dinkins, etc. This "lesser evil" idea is a deadly illusion. The record speaks for itself: Under Clinton the number of black workers and youth soared to record numbers under his crime "reform" bill which paid for over 100,000 more racist cops in cities all over the country. In a future article we will deal with this deadly illusion on lesser evil politics.

Ford Declares War on Workers

MEXICO CITY, July 31 -- "War Room" reads the sign on the door to the new office of the Ford Cuautitlan plant manager. Every day the bosses meet here to make plans to super-exploit the workers in order to compete in the global auto market. Of the world's top automakers, Toyota is rated #1 in quality and productivity. Ford is last. In order to win the war against Toyota, VW, GM and DaimlerChrysler, they must wage war against Ford workers. This includes lean production, sub-contracting and enforcing iron discipline in the factory.

More than 700 workers will be permanently laid off August 3. By the end of the year, Ford plans to toss 75% of the current workforce onto the street, more than 2,000 workers in all. They are not planning to close the factory. In fact, there is talk of building a luxury car here (imagine the rate of profit when workers making $4.00 an hour build a Lincoln!). They want to replace the workers. This is an older, high-seniority workforce that is more political and battle-tested. There have been many fights here, including the one over the company's inability to impose the "Ford Plan" for lean production.

Ford figures workers who are politically active must go -- four months ago the local Union Committee was fired. Workers who are 55 and older must go -- workers are being fired 10 years before retirement. The company will keep temporary workers who will be super-exploited and discarded when they are no longer needed. After the new year, Ford will try to hire a younger, less combative workforce.

This is a clear violation of the labor laws. The Secretary of Labor supported Ford's firing of the Union Committee and applauded the re-election of a committee loyal to the company. President Fox's government is trying to crush the class struggle to make Mexico a more productive industrial country at workers' expense, attractive to more imperialist investment.

The company is trying to provoke job actions that can be used to attack the workers. A few weeks ago, some reformers tried to stop production for a day. The company did nothing to stop them. But no one followed the job action; the reformers were fired. Some were charged with "sabotage" and face criminal charges. Many workers are intimidated.

The reformers are trying to legally challenge the CTM union leaders in the next election. This is more than six months away and won't bring back one fired worker. Others want a Defense Committee to fight the firings and save jobs through mass action and a legal challenge. Ford workers need to reach out to VW workers in Puebla, to the UNAM students who shut the university down in a ten-month strike and autoworkers throughout the region and the world.

More workers are realizing that what is good for the boss is bad for them. In a very difficult situation, PLP is spreading our revolutionary communist politics among the workers. Let's turn Ford's war against the workers into a war to put the working class on the road to communist revolution.

PLP health Workers and Professionals Meet
`Serve the People'

CHICAGO, July 23 -- Doctors and patients, nurses and hospital workers, all sat together. Before them were the Chinese characters for "Serve the People." This was not a scene from "Away With All Pests," Joshua Horn's wonderful book about the amazing accomplishments of the Chinese Communists bringing health care to the masses. It was a PLP meeting of healthcare workers and professionals.

Many more people should hear the reports from this meeting. One focused on some episodes from "Away With All Pests," and how capitalist medicine emphasizes technology and technique as the main way to fight illness and disease. But the experiences of the Chinese communists demonstrated that politics and relying on the masses are primary. One way to "Serve the People" is to bring communist politics into the mass organizations and the class struggle.

In Chicago, the old Cook County Hospital had 1,400 beds and was supposed to guarantee health care for all. PLP members organized many fights against the bosses' failure to do that. The shiny, new Cook County has only 400 beds, and no intention of providing health care for all. We discussed organizing a mass campaign against this attack on the working class. Doctors proposed bringing this issue to their professional organizations like the American Public Health Association. Cook County workers vowed to make this a mass issue in the upcoming SEIU contract negotiations.

Contracts will also expire for 100,000 members of the Local 1199 Hospital Workers Union in New York City. PLP members are involved in this fight. We discussed how we could "Serve the People" in this contract struggle. The union leaders serve the bosses by imprisoning workers in a narrow, selfish, trade union outlook. A few pennies more and phony no-layoff clauses don't meet the needs of the working class. We must use these negotiations to fight racist attacks in health care which can help develop a mass base for PLP.

PLP is also fighting the bosses' "Anti-Violence Initiative." Our members described how the rulers use racist ideas to experiment on and drug working-class children, especially black and Latin children, and then take them from their parents. This "campaign against violence" is a cover for the real source of violence: capitalism's failure to meet the needs of the working class.

Some comrades are leaders with great organizing potential. Fighting for political leadership in the class struggle and in mass organizations means making CHALLENGE more of a mass organizer. We can involve many more healthcare workers and professionals in producing, distributing and reading our paper, including writing more articles about health care as well as about struggles we're waging worldwide. A mass base for CHALLENGE will produce the next wave of new recruits to the Party. The enthusiastic and determined comrades expressed confidence that we can "Serve the People."

Communism: The Best Medicine

Capitalism is killing people by the millions with its poor sanitation, inadequate housing, lousy nutrition and polluted air and water. It produces unimaginable wealth alongside grinding poverty, illiteracy and inadequate health care and is the cause of diseases plaguing the world. Except for war, nowhere is the murderous nature of capitalism laid bare more than in health care.

Communism offers the working class the promise of life. Experiences of the last 150 years show that the promise is real. The Russian and Chinese revolutions ushered in the most dramatic improvements in health ever documented in human history. Even though these revolutions were later reversed, the fact remains that working-class power, under communist leadership, led to a great leap forward in the quality of workers' lives. Rapid and dramatic progress in nutrition, housing and education developed alongside sharp attacks on racism, sexism and other capitalist ideas and practices. Universal medical care was free for all.

Workers on every continent have benefited from "the specter of communism" Marx and Engels talked about in the Communist Manifesto. In Europe and the U.S., over 80% of the decrease in deaths from pneumonia and infectious diarrhea occurred before the discovery of penicillin in the mid-20th century. This happened through bitter struggle, which forced the bosses to concede reforms that lengthened workers' lives while reducing the threat of revolution.

But socialism -- which the Soviet and Chinese communists felt had to be built first -- did not lead to communism. Wages and money were never eliminated by these early revolutions. The effect of that not only maintained features of capitalist relations but insured the growth of capitalist class divisions inside the Soviet Union and China. Eventually workers lost power.

Leaving "a little bit of capitalism" after the revolution is like leaving a little piece of the cancer after surgery. It completely changes the long-term outcome. A recent headline in the New York Times read, "China's Leader Urges Acceptance Of Capitalists in Communist Party." (PL Magazine ran this story in 1971.)

Today's world is all about the market, buying and selling; it's not a pretty picture. Life expectancy in Africa has fallen to 42 years. Africa has 10% of the world's population and 75% of the people that are infected with HIV and AIDS. According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, 224 million workers live in poverty in that part of the world. In the streets of Brazil, orphaned and homeless children are hunted down and killed by the police. In the U.S., over 50 million lack health insurance and two million languish in prison, 70% of whom are black and Latin workers. For the working class life remains poor, nasty, brutish and short.

People all around us have their own stories of how the system is killing them and their loved ones. As workers fight against their increasingly brutal exploitation, liberals will blame the conservatives, and vice versa. Communists must reveal the truth. Communist revolution is the medicine to cure the disease of capitalism.

The Chinese communists advanced the slogan "Serve the People." We must serve the working class by dressing the wounds inflicted by the system. At the same time we must be active in the class struggle to strengthen the revolutionary movement and build a mass PLP. We must give the penicillin, change the sheets and recruit to the Party.

Rulers' Agent Spills the Beans on Continuous Bombing of Iraq

A BBC News report on July 19 confirmed much of what CHALLENGE has said about U.S. policy towards Iraq:

"A former United Nations weapons inspector has accused the U.S. of deliberately provoking confrontations with Iraq, which, he says, was fully disarmed by 1995. Scott Ritter says the U.S. undermined the work of UNSCOM, the United Nations weapons inspection team in Iraq, and used the issue to push Iraq towards conflict with the West....

"Ritter says his team was satisfied Iraq had destroyed 98% of its weapons by 1995. But, he says, the U.S. government deliberately set new standards of disarmament criteria to maintain UN sanctions against Baghdad and justify bombing raids....Ritter said UNSCOM chief Richard Butler told his inspectors: `You have to provoke a confrontation...so the U.S. can start bombing' before March `15, a Muslim holy period....

"Ritter, an ex-U.S. marine intelligence officer, said Iraq `did cooperate to a very significant degree with the UN inspection process' and he blamed the United States for the breakdown. `The U.S. orchestrated the events that led to the demise of inspections,' he said. Ritter called for an end to sanctions...saying he did not feel the country posed a danger any longer....

"During his time with UNSCOM, Iraq accused Ritter of carrying out espionage for America and Israel....Ritter claimed Washington used UNSCOM to spy on Iraq almost from the time inspections began."

CHALLENGE comment:

Ritter and Butler play for the same team, despite their war of words. Their difference is tactical. Butler calls for a U.S.-British strike against Iraq now, on somewhat flimsy grounds. Ritter has a longer view that involves rounding up far more allies in a "humanitarian" cause under UN cover. In 1999, Ritter spoke at the Council on Foreign Relations (a Rockefeller think-tank), which employs Butler as "resident diplomat." With Plan A failing, the main, Rockefeller wing of the ruling class must come up with an alternative.

Ritter is closely allied with Ramsey Clark, the Attorney-General-turned-peacenik who forms a "blue ribbon commission of inquiry" whenever the rulers commit a particularly heinous atrocity. On April 27, 1999, PBS devoted its "Frontline" program to Ritter and his criticisms of the U.S. inspection/sanctions/bombing policy against Iraq. PBS now features this segment in its "PBS for Teachers" series, which it provides to schools at low cost. Colin Campbell, president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, is chairman of PBS. Sharon Percy Rockefeller serves as a PBS director. PBS lists Exxon Mobil and J.P. Morgan Chase in its highest category of supporters. Ritter serves a two-fold purpose: 1) help formulate a broader, more viable war plan for the main wing that embraces "humanitarianism" and more allies under the UN banner; and 2) help the Ramsey Clarks divert popular anger into an ineffective anti-war movement that relies on the rulers' courts and commissions.

Ritter also aids the main wing's campaign to discipline the FBI. He claims the Bureau got him fired from the inspections team on false suspicion of "spying for Israel." The bosses are attacking the FBI because it put its view of law enforcement ahead of the rulers' broader needs.

Don't Stand Up for LTV--Nationalism Will Cut
More Jobs Worldwide

GARY, IN, July 31 -- In 1999, LTV workers accepted a wage-freeze contract (2% a year) and continued job-cuts with the idea of improving pensions, even though nothing was done for current retirees. PLP warned of the growing crisis threatening steelworkers, saying the bosses would cut wages, jobs and benefits. Some said we were wrong. But here we are, two years later, facing job-cuts, speed-up, a wage freeze and job combinations.

LTV filed for bankruptcy in December and must cut $800 million a year for five years. After months of haggling, LTV and the USWA union reached a tentative settlement. The union agreed to defer the August 1st pay increase until Jan. 1, 2003. The settlement also "gives" union members 20% "ownership" of LTV, two seats on the Board of Directors and a profit-sharing plan! Want to buy a bridge in Brooklyn?

The USWA leadership is cooperating with the bosses so as not to scare off potential buyers. France's Usinor, Japan's Nippon and Britain's Ispat all toured the mill during last week's "Open House." Union negotiators told LTV to cut 1,300 jobs, instead of the 500 they proposed. They want workers to participate in joint productivity committees to cut even more jobs. The logical conclusion of "Stand Up for Steel," is "Save LTV's Ass." There's a good chance that whoever buys the mill will shut down steel-making and buy slabs from Brazil, where a slab mill is being built just for export to the U.S.

Many workers feel our only choice is to accept a plan that will make the bosses richer, cost jobs and probably won't work anyway. We totally reject "Stand up for Steel." Foreign steel and "foreign steelworkers" are not our problem. The steel bosses and union leaders wrap themselves in red, white and blue to get us to support a trade war today, and a shooting war down the road. Meanwhile, US Steel buys a steel mill in Slovakia for $250 million and the steel bosses are the biggest importers of semi-finished steel.

Bethlehem Steel will cut 300 white-collar jobs by Aug. 31, more than double the 140 they announced in May. They will also cut 340 jobs by closing a coke plant in New York.

Last year they slashed 500 salaried jobs, and eliminated another 100 jobs by closing the Burns Harbor slab mill in November. All together, Bethlehem has slashed more than 1,400 jobs since the beginning of the year. National Steel Corp.'s second-quarter earnings fell $110 million, despite $54 million in layoffs, overtime reductions and other cuts.

Bethlehem Steel and USX have already asked for "wage deferrals," and a line of steel bosses is forming to the right. We're in a race to the bottom. An international, industry-wide general strike would be a giant step in the right direction. For us, the fight is here and now. VOTE NO ON THE CONTRACT!

PLP'ers have been trying to organize visits with and meetings of LTV workers around rejection of the sellout contract. We've distributed "Vote No!" leaflets, as we did to oppose the 1999 contract. We joined a Committee on the Steel Crisis to advocate our ideas. We also organized a committee to fight a racist firing of a black worker and won his job back, as well as winning some steelworkers to join an anti-KKK rally here.

We need the unity of steelworkers around the world to fight for communist revolution. As long as the capitalists maintain their class dictatorship, the only guarantees are booms and busts, racist terror, poverty and speed-up, wars and famine, and a constant fight for survival. Production for profit must be replaced by production for the needs of the international working class.

Bosses' 24/7 Multiplies Profits, Subtracts Workers' Lives

According to The Wall Street Journal (7/24), manufacturing is increasingly structured around machines rather than the people who run them. In this period of sharpening competition, overcapacity and sagging profits, the bosses' can't afford to have a costly plant sit idle, even for an hour.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., the world's biggest tire maker, is running most of its factories around the clock, seven days a week. The whole tire industry is on this schedule. Goodyear, like an estimated 90% of the companies adopting nonstop schedules, is moving to 12-hour shifts. Industries such as steel and chemicals always run continuously since it is costly and hazardous to stop and restart them. But over the last ten years, there has been a massive conversion to "24/7," from plastics to toothpaste to paper mills.

Many workers have resisted continuous operations. Some have struck. Eventually, most have given in. The longer workday is far more grueling, Workers lose premium and overtime pay when Saturday and Sunday become regular workdays. The company holds out the "carrot" of more days off and more weekends. The "stick" is the real threat of plant closings and shipping the work elsewhere.

New, more automated plants are often designed to run nonstop. They are air-conditioned and climate-controlled. In the 1970's, when auto workers demanded air conditioning to counter the stifling heat, the bosses and union leaders said they were nuts. But when machines are involved, it's a different story. The new Delphi Automotive parts plant in Cortland, Ohio, maintains a temperature and humidity level that allows plastic injection-molding machines to work more smoothly, produce better parts and last longer between repairs.

However, longer shifts undermine workers' safety. In stating the obvious, Alertness Solutions, a consulting firm in Cupertino, Calif., found that, "Fatigue undermines every aspect of human capability -- from decision-making abilities to alertness," with the most dangerous period from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. They estimate that 15% to 20% of all accidents in transportation operations are related to fatigue. Any safety expert or physician worth a dime has found a link between worker fatigue and accidents. A 1998 German study found that accidents rise rapidly after nine hours on a job.

Production for profit -- wage slavery -- will never meet the needs of the workers. To the bosses we're an extension of the machines we operate. Under capitalism, new developments to increase productivity or quality never serve the working class They will only increase the bosses' profits. It's only when the working class runs society that everyone can share the increased production. And then, workers' safety and health will still come before production.

Argentina: Workers Refuse to Starve to Pay Bosses' Debt to Vulture Bankers

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA, July 31--Thousands of unemployed workers blocked roads in over 50 places across the country protesting the government's economic austerity program. This followed a huge general strike in mid-July. Argentina has been hit hard by the international crisis of capitalism. As usual, the bosses are making workers pay for the $130 billion debt to the international banking vultures.For the first time in recent memory hunger stalks the working class.

The rulers are now threatening the "piqueteros" (the name given to unemployed workers who block roads) with massive repression if they continue their militant actions. A few weeks ago the jobless had a shootout with the cops in the Salta province.

The situation here shows how capitalism in all its forms (free market is the latest one) is incapable of meeting workers needs. The latest round of attacks against workers began under the populist Peronista President Menem (now under house arrest for some crooked arms deals). It is continuing under President de la Rua. The best lesson workers can draw from their struggles is to turn them into battles for communism, for workers' power.

SEIU Union Leaders Undermine Workers'Struggle

SEATTLE, WA., July 31-- Fifty workers at the University of Washington Medical Center received disciplinary letters after hundreds of workers walked out on a one-day strike. They were reprimanded for "being away from their desks without supervisory approval," and "endangering patients." This is a lie since each department had a plan for coverage. In addition, these charges are ludicrous, coming from the people who profit off the capitalist "health care" system. Due to recent benefit cutbacks, most Medical Center workers can't even afford to go there for their own health care!

The Strike Committee of SEIU Local 925 decided to fight the disciplinary letters and build on the enthusiasm generated by the job action. The Committee planned to file a mass grievance, e-mail the entire membership, circulate a petition and have a large group of workers present them to the personnel boss.

The union leaders barred this mass action. They decided we shouldn't e-mail the members because the information might scare them! Weeks later, after much arguing, they agreed to a plan similar to the Committee's initial proposal, but the momentum was lost; many workers were demoralized by the lack of a rapid response.

One worker's e-mail said, "Several hundred members took...action almost three weeks ago and paid for it with a day's salary. Now we'll pay again with these letters of reprimand. Justice isn't free, I know. What isn't clear is how CSA/SEIU is leveraging the investment members made in the state budget battle...I haven't heard a word...from my union since..."

Another wrote, "The University is counting on the inability or unwillingness of the union leadership to act decisively...But WITHOUT MEMBERSHIP ACTION THE UNION IS A PAPER TIGER. The administration knows this. They have assessed our weaknesses and decided they may be able to...take some ground."

The union leaders are not just holding us back. By supporting the Democratic Party and accepting Workfare, prison labor and wars around the world, they are a force for fascism. We need to serve the people. In hospitals and clinics, our demands must center not only on wages and working conditions, but put in the forefront the fight for better medical care for patients.

We're boosting CHALLENGE distribution to help workers learn that decent healthcare will never be ours as long as it's based on profit. Communism is the only answer to the bosses, union hacks and the lousy system they support.

DC Protest Against Nazi Rally

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 29 --Over 100 angry protesters attacked a row of 50 Nazis who were walking from their bus to assemble outside the German Embassy here. They bloodied the head of Billy Roper, the propaganda chief of the National Alliance. He was hospitalized but returned later to preach his racist filth. Two demonstrators were arrested and charged with assault on the word of this Nazi scum.

The Nazis included members of the National Alliance, a long-standing West Virginia-based Nazi organization which has tried to popularize the fascist Turner Diaries; Matthew Hale's World Church of the Creator, one of whose members conducted a racist murder rampage in Chicago a year ago; and the British National Front, which has recently provoked racist confrontations in several English cities.

Protesters chanted loudly, "Immigrants yes, Nazis no"; and "Death to the Nazis," drowning out the fascists. The Nazis had chosen a posh neighborhood far removed from the city's working class to hold their rally. In the past, when the fascists appeared near working-class communities, PLP has led thousands to smash them.

Their alleged purpose was to call for the release of Hendrik Möbus, a Nazi recently deported to Germany to serve a prison term for Nazi activity. But by creating a beachhead for their activity in a major city, the Nazis have made a significant advance. They will use it to strengthen their public movement, attacking immigrant and black and Latin workers as the "cause"of the current economic downturn.

Today's experience demonstrates that PLP's militant and revolutionary approach is needed to crush such emerging fascist movements. All the more reason to convince family, friends and co-workers to join our Party.

Meanwhile, two actions against police brutality were taken here in the last few days. Members of the Prince George's People's Coalition for Police Accountability and Amnesty International joined with PLP members in a protest rally against the murder by cop Stacey Davis of Tomas Flamenco. We also rallied at the federal courthouse on the opening day of the trial of cop Stephanie Mohr, who used her police dog to maim a homeless Latino man in Prince George's County. More on these struggles in coming issues.

Hit SF Racist Cop-Murderers
Who Serve Bosses' System

SAN FRANCISCO, July 30 -- On July 11th, 150 workers and students protested at the Hall of Justice here against the racist murder on June 13th of Idriss Stelley, a young black man. He was shot more than 20 times by four SF cops at the Metreon Theater. Stelley, who had been diagnosed as manic-depressive, was suffering through a mental breakdown at the theater. He had no history of violence. His family had expected the police to help him, not murder him.

PLP members active in Bay Area unions and PUEBLO (People United for a Better Oakland), a community-based organization, brought people to the demonstration and distributed CHALLENGE and a leaflet. The latter urged joint protest actions by SF unions as a step in the development of class consciousness needed to get this vicious capitalist system that murders workers like Stelley off our backs.

Following the July 11th protest, participants entered the Hall of Justice to speak at a SF Police Commission meeting. They demanded that a police report about the shooting be given to the Stelley family and an independent criminal investigation be conducted. Another protest around these demands and for mandatory crisis intervention training for SFPD officers has been called for the August 8th SF Police Commission meeting.

Workers should have no illusion about police commissions and civilian review boards. They're composed of political appointees, have no subpoena power, can only make "recommendations" about firing, suspension or removal of officers involved in police brutality cases, and have no means of disciplining the cops.

There should be no illusions about the cops. They're the special body of armed enforcers of the rule of the capitalist class. Their job is to smash any working-class struggles against that rule. The ruling class always uses violence against workers in order to maintain its power; the police and the entire capitalist state apparatus are their agents. The necessity for revolutionary violence is glaringly apparent and absolutely necessary to get rid of that system.

Bay Area PLP members are active in mass organizations to build revolutionary class consciousness. We engage in discussions and struggles around these ideas while participating in the ongoing protests like this one about the Stelley murder. We are continuing to call for joint union protests against this racist killing.

Boeing Workers Read Between the Lies

I know I shouldn't be, but I am always amazed at what CHALLENGE readers come up with. Reading the Party's newspaper issue after issue teaches us to look for the "big" questions behind events. Two recent discussions with co-workers illustrate my point. They quickly turned our normal workday conversations into ones about the "big" two: imperialism and racism.

A friend was visibly upset over the crackdown at the Genoa G8 meeting. (We both had been Union Marshals at a World Trade Organization meeting.) "This can't go on," he predicted. "Something big has to happen if this continues."

"It can go on for quite a while," I cautioned. "After all, the bosses have already murdered dozens of demonstrators against `globalization' in India, Africa and Latin America." Without being too arrogant I tried to make the point that what really matters is what kind of ideology the demonstrators -- and, by extension, the whole working class -- come away with.

This led to a longer discussion about obfuscation (smokescreens) by the bosses. (CHALLENGE also inspires us to broaden our vocabulary!) We talked about the new book Empire, which the New York Times wants to make the bible of the anti-globalization movement. Empire says there is no more imperialism, just global corporations that need to be taught about democracy by the demonstrators.

I contrasted that with the line coming out of Europe, which is much more likely to talk about imperialism, but only U.S. imperialism. So we saw that despite the best of intentions of the rank-and-file, the imperialists are working overtime to win us to support one or another side of the sharpening imperialist rivalry. My friend didn't consider any of this to be "out of left field"; by reading our paper he was already skilled in looking beneath the surface. We ran out of time so I invited him to our next Party club meeting to help us work out how our union figures in all this.

I thought I had done my political work for the day, but no such luck. Soon afterwards, another worker approached me, saying He was reviewing some of our literature during the last union election campaign -- particularly the part about fighting racism at Boeing.

"Racism really isn't a big issue at Boeing," he goaded me. Then a big grin broke across this white worker's face. "Like hell it isn't. It's more an issue now than ever!"

I agreed, but then he got to his real question. "How much does this racism really affect the big picture though?" he mused.

"It affects everything," I assured him. "You were in the army during the Vietnam War, right? When the bosses decide they are going to fight it out for markets and profits, don't they turn to us to do their killing and dying? How do they get us to kill and die for their imperialism? They use racism. Didn't they teach you to think of the Vietnamese as g--ks, as subhuman? They always use racism to get us to do the bosses' dirty work."

"I know exactly what you're getting at!" he reassured me.

I know these two discussions don't make a revolution. Nevertheless, I do think we sometimes underestimate the value of a network of CHALLENGE readers. Linking the fight against racism to the fight against imperialism is nothing to sneer at.

An industrial comrade

G-8 Bosses Drive for Maximum Profits Breeds Mass Poverty Worldwide

At the recent G-8 meeting of Western, Russian and Japanese imperialists in Genoa, Italy, police murdered Carlo Giuliani. He is not the first to die fighting imperialism. Tens of thousands have been murdered in Africa, Asia, and Latin America fighting the ravages of "globalization." The imperialist bosses are a murderous gang. Never in history have the workers of the world been so impoverished and exploited as they are today. More than one billion people subsist on less than $2 a day.

Japan, North America and the European Union make up 81% of world trade. Add coastal China, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia and it's 94%. Far from "globalizing," this trend has intensified the competition between the U.S., Europe and Japan. These imperialists will spill the blood of millions to control markets, resources and cheap labor! It was just across the Adriatic Sea that NATO planes bombed Yugoslav factories, bridges, schools and the Chinese embassy to control oil pipelines going through Yugoslavia to the markets of Europe.

Last April in Cincinnati, black, Latin and white workers and youth erupted in mass rebellion after Timothy Thomas was murdered by a racist cop. Cops rioted against demonstrators in Barcelona just a month ago. When it comes to deadly violence and mayhem, capitalism is number one. Capitalist production for profit creates mass poverty. Imperialism makes war inevitable. The only solution is communist revolution.

When we reject the anarchists' anctics (infiltrated by the cops in Genoa and Barcelona), we also state that they, the union leaders and the liberal politicians are incapable of smashing imperialism. Demands for "democracy" and "sovereignty" build nationalism, which only serves the imperialists. But 60 years ago in cities like Genoa, the working class built a mass Communist Party that was decisive in helping to defeat the Hitler and Mussolini forces in Italy, eventually hanging the latter. The world communist movement, led by the Soviet Red Army, crushed the Nazi war machine.

However, the old communist movement failed because it maintained powerful capitalist conditions like wages, money and production for profit. Seeing this, we can overcome those errors and build on the strengths of a movement that, even with its weaknesses then, changed the course of human history. But PLP organizing and winning the working class is crucial to rebuilding the international communist movement. This is a long-term fight. In Russia, in China and in Vietnam, the communist movement proved that the imperialists could be defeated. Now it is our responsibility to finish the job and build a communist world, where we will plan and produce for the needs and health of the working class, not the profits and wars of the imperialists.

Jamaica: Class Warfare Must Replace Gang Warfare

KINGSTON, JAMAICA, July 30--This Caribbean island has a long history of fierce class struggle, from the maroons who led slave revolts to the trade union movement in the 1930's to the struggle for socialism in the 1970's. It is not surprising that the very political Bob Marley came out of Jamaica, writing and singing about oppression and standing up for people's rights.

During a short visit there recently, forms of class struggle were evident. The local news broadcast demonstrations against the closing of a neighborhood women's clinic and one against the sentencing of some residents for possession of miniscule amounts of marijuana. Just a few days before gun battle erupted between police and residents of Tivoli Gardens in West Kingston.

Heavily armed police backed by helicopters moved in on July 7 to search for guns in the Tivoli Gardens neighborhood, a stronghold of the opposition right-wing Jamaica Labor Party (JLP). The JLP, with ties to the wealthiest "old money" in Jamaica, financed the construction of housing in that area in exchange for political loyalty. In fact, it seemed clear that the JLP had provoked the street fighting and then sent former Prime Minister Edward Seaga (Ronald Reagan buddy) to the area to appear to "quell the violence." The police action set off days of street fighting involving civilians. Four more people were killed last week in the Kingston neighborhood of Denham Town, bringing total casualties to 69 since May.

Political violence is not new to Jamaica, More than 500 people were killed before the 1980 elections and dozens more died before national votes in 1993 and 1997. The change in recent years appears to be increased involvement in the drug trade. Some speculate Jamaica may even become another Colombia.

Along with drug trafficking, tourism is one of the major industries, mainly on the North Coast. As in the rest of the Caribbean, it has brought with it revenue and jobs while putting the country "up for sale." Jamaicans are treated as second class citizens when entering hotels and tourist sites. Although law states that all beaches are public property, many Jamaicans are waited on last or totally ignored while others are being served. In fact, some have used the term "apartheid Jamaica" to describe the disparities between the tourist world and the rest of Jamaica.

More than ever, Jamaica needs a revolutionary movement that will expropriate all the wealth that belongs to the people and replace gang violence with class struggle to end exploitation.

(Future issue: A review of Jamaica: Life & Debt, a film about the tourist industry)

CIA Saved and Hired Thousands of Nazi War Criminals

Recently-uncovered archives confirm even more so what has been known for decades: the CIA (and its predecessor, the OSS) recruited thousands of Nazis for its spy apparatus, helping them escape punishment, in order to wage Cold War against the once-Socialist USSR. Their actions violated the Yalta Treaty signed by Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin stipulating that all captured German officers involved in the Eastern Front during the war would be turned over to the Soviets to be tried for war crimes.

Emil Augsburg, who planned the Final Solution to exterminate all Jews and was wanted in Poland as a war criminal, was employed by the CIA in the late 1940s as an expert on Soviet affairs. Reinhard Gehlen, who oversaw Hitler's military intelligence in Eastern Europe and the USSR during World War II, was quickly spirited away by the CIA to Fort Hunt, Virginia, to organize sabotage in Eastern Europe and the USSR with his nest of spies.

Based near Munich, Gehlen enlisted thousands of former members of the Gestapo and the SS to work in the CIA operation, linking up with all the fascist scum that went underground in Eastern Europe after WW II. This included the above-mentioned Augsburg as well as the senior "administrators" of the Holocaust -- Adolf Eichmann's chief deputy Alois Brunner and Gestapo captain Klaus Barbie, the "Butcher of Lyon." Barbie was among many who the CIA helped to later escape to Latin America where, as "security advisors," became some of the architects of the death squads. Barbie assisted a succession of military dictatorships in Bolivia, teaching soldiers Nazi torture techniques and helping to protect the flourishing cocaine trade in the late 1970s and early '80s.

This CIA wholesale recruiting of Nazi war criminals was a continuation of the U.S. and Western anti-Soviet campaign to crush the Bolshevik revolution begun in 1917. The Soviet working class defeated an initial 8-year invasion of the USSR by the U.S. and 16 other capitalist countries. Then the U.S., Britain and France helped build up Hitler and his ruling-class backers, expecting he would move East to destroy the world's first Socialist state.

This anti-Soviet campaign endured in various forms right through WW II, when the U.S. and the USSR were allies, and intensified in the post-war era when U.S. rulers launched the Cold War, using these thousands of Nazi war criminals. One of its architects was Allen Dulles who headed the CIA after WW II. Dulles had been an enthusiastic supporter of the Nazis before the war and had been identified as "an economic booster of the Axis" (the Germany-Italy-Japan alliance) by Time magazine in 1939.

"Never again"? Only by destroying capitalism,

Battle of Stalingrad: Turning Point of World War 2

Some months ago the movie "Enemy At the Gates" opened, continuing the anti-communist attempt to wipe out the monumental communist victory at Stalingrad. In the movie this most decisive battle of World War II degenerates into meaningless nonsense: the sniper who kills the most opponents wins the war! U.S. rulers, fearing the truth about the role of the Stalin leadership, the Soviet Communist Party and the Soviet working class, ridicules this fantastic Soviet achievement.

Why the titanic fight at Stalingrad?

Hitler needed Stalingrad because it barred the fascists from seizing: (1) Soviet Black Sea naval bases to transport their military beyond the reach of Soviet attack; (2) the entire Caucuses region with its food, labor and resources; (3) most important of all, the Baku oil fields; and (4) Iranian oil. The Caucuses, bordering on Iran (with Iraq close by) had enough oil to fuel Germany's war machine for as long as needed. One reason the U.S. and Britain were able to defeat Hitler in the West was the Germans' lack of fuel for their tanks and new rocket planes. (But primarily, the Red Army tied up 80% of the entire German military.)

`Not one step back...'

The Soviets defended Stalingrad not only to thwart the above Hitler strategy, but also to be a massive pit of quicksand that would suck in and destroy the German armies. Thus Stalin's slogan, "Not one step back."

Incessant German bombing of Stalingrad destroyed virtually every building. The Soviets made what was left the war front itself, fighting for every floor, stairway, room and corner. Hand-to-hand fighting became the "normal" method of living or dying. Town hills and houses changed hands up to five times a day, yet 20 Soviet soldiers held one building for almost two months. The whole city was defended this way. Whatever factories existed continued to produce and repair all weapons. If one was attacked, the workers would fight alongside the soldiers to hold it. The women workers were full partners in this and in practically all phases of the war.

Such close-in fighting seriously weakened the power of Nazi tank superiority and provided much less protection for German troops. German aircraft became useless since they would kill their own soldiers. Such fighting killed, crippled or injured up to tens of thousands of soldiers, on both sides, every week!

General Von Paulus, commander of the 6th German Army, concentrated on providing all the reinforcements needed to capture Stalingrad; this was just what the Soviets intended (see below). The Soviets sent minimum reinforcements and only under the most desperate conditions. Ironically, this tactic eventually contributed greatly to the Soviet victory.

By the end of November 1942, the Germans had captured most of Stalingrad but could not dislodge even the minimum amount of Russian troops still holding a small area. During these battles, Stalin rejected advice to retreat, saying in part, "The most important thing is not to panic...have faith in our victory."

Then came the incredible turning point, the reason for fighting to the death for over five months for every yard, cellar, hallway and house, using dangerously meager Soviet reinforcements. From north and south of Stalingrad came the massive hidden Soviet armies, almost one million strong, hundreds of tanks and over 1,000 planes. Cannons, 15,000 stromg, opened fire, starting the trap.

The Germans were so concentrated into Stalingrad itself that they never thought the Soviets would or could mount such an attack. The Soviets surrounded the entire Germany army -- over 300,000 soldiers and seven armored divisions. For two months, the Germans could not break out. In January 1943, they surrendered. The five-month battle for Stalingrad became the acknowledged turning point of WW II.

AFTERMATH

Gen. Douglas MacArthur, one of the U.S. ruling class's best generals, most pro-capitalist defender and fiercest anti-communist, declared, "...The scale and grandeur of the Soviet effort mark it as the greatest military achievement in all history."

But military might is not necessarily the most crucial factor for victory. Nikita Khrushchev was the political commissar at Stalingrad and second-in-command of one of the three major Soviet armies fighting the fascists. He contributed toward victory and Stalin thought highly of him. Yet in 1953, ten years after Stalingrad, only eight years after WW II ended and less than a year after Stalin's death, Khrushchev became prime minister and denounced Stalin -- the man he often praised -- rejecting communist revolution as the way for communists to win power. He consciously steered the world communist movement towards revisionism, but remember, this trend started earlier under the incorrect goal of "Socialism first, then communism."

Politics, then, is always primary, no matter what the battle of the moment, in insuring communist victory. The enemy -- capitalism -- is still breaking through the gates and remains to be defeated.

LETTERS
WORKERS OF THE WORLD, WRITE!

Hitler Danced to Wagner Racist Tune

In Chicago, like elsewhere, people are debating what neo-racist Daniel Bernboim did. He recently played the music of Richard Wagner in Israel. The reason for the controversey? Wagner was Hitler's favorite composer. Those defending Bernboim say there's no connection between Wagner and Auschwitz. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

One of the major founders of modern racism was Arthur de Gobineau who wrote The Inequality of the Races. He proclaimed a white Aryan superior race, entitled to rule over blacks, Asians and Semites, with blacks at the bottom. His ideology was the basis of the De Gobineau Society, founded by Richard Wagner to promulgate racism in 19th century Germany.

Wagner expanded on the Semitic references, helping to change the question of Judaism from a religious one to a racial one. Prior to the rise of anti-Jewish racism, a Jew could convert to Christianity or simply declare him or herself an atheist and cease to be a Jew. But Wagner's De Gobineau society argued that Jews constituted a "race," one worse than black or yellow people because they looked white. Indeed, the most "dangerous" were the children of Christian converts like Mendelssohn.

In his viciously racist book, The Jew in Music (available at all of his Bayreuth performances), Wagner blames the Jew, and "his control of gold," for all the evils of society. In all his major operas, the evil characters are aspects of the "Jewish Menace," especially Albrecht the Dwarf in the Ring cycle.

The ideology of the De Gobineau Society directly influenced Nazis like Houston Stewart Chamberlain (Wagner's son-in-law and most devoted disciple), Alfred Rosenberg (a disciple of Chamberlain), and Adolf Hitler (a disciple of Rosenberg). Wagner's racist ideas were a major influence on SS leaders like Himmler, Heydrich and Karltenbrunner; they created the Nuremberg laws, which defined anyone with Jewish ancestry as worthy of persecution and extermination. Wagner was Hitler's favorite composer, for his corrupt music but mainly for his evil ideology, which German rulers would make the basis not only of the Holocaust but also of World War II, killing tens of millions, Jew and non-Jew alike. Had it not been for the courage, commitment and heroism of the Soviet Red Army, we now might be suffering under Wagner's ideology and music.

Fight for communist art! Down with fascist art, no matter how "beyootiful!"

Chicago comrade

Stop KKK in Lancaster, Pa.

The KKK is planning a September 8 rally at the Lancaster County Court House, 50 Duke Street, in Lancaster, PA. While not knowing anyone in that area, three of us went to Lancaster with leaflets and CHALLENGES that, (1) explained why PLP organizes against the Klan whenever and wherever they appear; and (2) encouraged people to turn out to oppose their racism and prevent them from having the rally altogether.

The reception we received was nothing short of terrific! Just about everyone we spoke with said they hated the Klan and wanted to do something to stop them. About 30 people gave us their names and telephone numbers and asked us to call them back. Only a few people were put off by our call for communism as the only way to get rid of groups like the KKK. No one objected to the leaflet's headlines: "Smash the Klan" and "Death to the Klan." We intend to follow up with the people we met and return to Lancaster weekly.

This was the first time one of our comrades had done anything like this. She sells a great many CHALLENGES on her job but is often hesitant to do new things. But she's changing. At the May Day march, she overcame her fear and spoke from the sound truck. Now she learned that talking to people you don't even know about so-called "controversial issues" is something she can do and do well.

However, we had no Spanish-speaking comrade, no Spanish version of the leaflet and no DESAFIOS. Also, we didn't ask enough questions by listening to the people we met, spending too much time telling them our ideas. We will correct these errors when we return.

Pennsylvania comrade

`Churchmice' Multiply!

Our PLP club studied this letter from "Two, Three, Many Red Churchmice" in the July 18 issue. It's an inspiring and instructive story of what six years of consistent communist work in a mass organization can accomplish. I suggest the Party study this letter in every club, with emphasis on how to apply it to work in other mass organizations. It started with one comrade participating in a soup kitchen in an inner-city church. Six years later that comrade and two new members brought almost 30 people to May Day. The church board unanimously passed a resolution supporting our comrades and friends who face felony charges for militantly opposing a racist organization and the church's 300-person mailing list was made available to enlist support.

The letter suggests that attack from church leaders and city politicians is likely, and that they intend to grow in the face of attack. When attacked they will have an opportunity to make communism the question throughout the city and their religious denomination. They'd be smart to take the offensive and spread their ideas and actions now.

Inspired by the Churchmice

Empire Is Apology for Imperialism

The Red Eye column quotes sources from mainstream capitalist media to expose how even the capitalist media sees problems with how capitalism functions. On occasion, however, it is sometimes confusing because it is unclear how closely PLP agrees with an item. In a recent Red Eye there is a review of the anti-communist, anti-Marxist book Empire, by Hardt and Negri. The "PLP comment" as reflected in the heading simply implies this is yet another piece of evidence capitalism is in trouble. In the absence of further comments, it implies major PLP agreement with the analysis in that review.

In fact, PLP's analysis is very different from Hardt and Negri. All kinds of bad political groups, from anarchists to liberals to conservatives to fascists, sometimes say the system's in trouble. If PLP quotes them, we should be very clear we don't agree with their analysis. Empire basically asserts the old capitalist line that "globalization" will bring modernization to the world and while increasing the power of the super-rich across nations, it will actually make the world more democratic. It pretends to be pro-Marxist by appearing to be based on a one-sided aspect of Marx's theory -- that capitalism has contradictions, and that it does modernize parts of the world in ways that create new problems for the capitalists.

We in PLP do believe the increasing internationalization of investments will create new problems for the capitalists and that the flow of workers across borders will open up new possibilities for international unity of workers. But we believe that the primary outcome of this internationalization will be increased competition and eventually major war. While there are certain "laws" (really processes) of capitalist development, specific capitalists will utilize politics, including war, when those processes put them at a disadvantage! They are not going to say: "Gee, I guess I lost out fair and square to the other capitalists."

Capitalists still need armies, and the nation-state with its political unity, is the main basis for those armies. PLP does support internationalism and does not give political support to the ideology of so-called "revolutionary nationalism," but PLP very strongly supports and participates in movements against imperialist exploitation. Unlike Hardt and Negri, we do not see "democracy" as the result of a so-called multi-national capitalist class. We see war, including increased nationalism as the backlash. We see it as a revolutionary responsibility to participate in and turn so-called national liberation struggles into, struggles for communist revolution.We also want to engage in other reform struggles for the same purpose.

Serious radical anti-capitalists worldwide are attacking Empire for its anti-revolutionary, pro-capitalist develop- ment theory. We don't want anyone to conclude that PLP agrees with its basic reactionary analysis.

Red Teacher

Crisis of Overproduction

The front-page article in the May Day issue contains political and economic errors. Firstly, in discussing the origin of capitalist crises in capitalist production, the article refers to the capitalists' "drive to obtain larger shares of the market at each other's expense" which "leads to tremendous overproduction in both the means of production and in the finished products." There is some unclarity here because "finished products" actually include means of production and military equipment, as well as consumer goods.

Secondly, and more important, the article then leaves a misimpression:

"Since workers are not paid the full value of what they produce, they cannot buy all the goods flooding the market. This insatiable and anarchic drive to reap maximum profits causes periodic crises -- depressions."

But since many "finished products" are not produced for individual workers to buy back, the cause of crises cannot be that workers are not paid enough; this leads to the revisionist argument that if workers were given higher wages, crises of overproduction could be avoided. Crises are caused by overproduction, which leads to decreased profits. They are caused by under- consumption. The source of overproduction lies in the inevitable planlessness -- anarchy -- of production which is based on a race for higher profits and not on producing what people and society need.

As capitalism matures, a larger and larger proportion of investment capital is poured into machinery and less is apportioned to workers' wages, since production becomes less and less labor intensive. But only workers' labor can produce the surplus value from which profits are taken, so this change of where each portion of capital goes tends to force the rate of profit down. Additional investment brings in less, not more profits and new investment slows and then ceases. Stocks and bonds are then dumped for sale. This ushers in a crisis.

A Reader

Kids Book Doesn't Duck Revolution

As an elementary school teacher, I am very interested in the political content of literature written for young and upper primary school children. In class, my students and I discuss many of these read-aloud stories, all of which carry the same political messages as adult literature. Most young children have made major decisions about race and gender relations by age 4, (sometimes earlier) and are influenced by the potent political messages in the books they read and hear.

While authors of children's literature have become very skillful in making sophisticated political ideas accessible to children, they do not often write about revolution. Not often is a children's book passed eagerly from hand to hand by marchers going to May Day. However, Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury is such a book.

Written for children of pre-school age and up, it tells the story of a fat, lazy farmer who lounges in bed all day eating chocolates while his exhausted duck does all the work. He not only serves the farmer, but also cares for all the animals and maintains the farm. The cows, sheep and hens, who love the duck, become enraged at the farmer's oppression of their friend and care-giver. They organize to throw the farmer out of his bed and off the farm. The book ends with everyone happily working together to run the farm.

While picture books are written for young children, they can serve a wider audience. Young primary school students can read the books independently

and to their parents.

Certainly teachers of young children can read it aloud and discuss it in class. The illustrations in Farmer Duck are hilarious, making it interesting to older students. A book that introduces young children to revolution is rare but essential -- a must read.

Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell, Candlewick Press, 1996, 1-56402-569=9, $4.99, is available in bookstores in children's sections/picture books. It can be ordered as well.

Red Teacher

 

a href="#U.S. Imperialism’s New World Disorder">".S. Imperialism’s New World Disorder

Anti-Racists Silence Fascists

• Scratch a Liberal, Find a Fascist

a href="#PLP Leads Fight at NEA Convention For Students’ Right to Learn">"LP Leads Fight at NEA Convention For Students’ Right to Learn

Capitalism Only Guarantees Profits, Not Jobs

Fight Racist Frame Up of Black Dockworkers

Janitors Fight Gang Up of Bosses, Sellouts

a href="#Fox Doesn’t Fool Workers">"ox Doesn’t Fool Workers

Build Red power to Fight Union Hacks

Racist Mayor Schell Cracked

a href="#Déjà Vu? U.S., German Bosses Fight Over Europe">"éjà Vu? U.S., German Bosses Fight Over Europe

• Germany vs. the U.S.
• Imperialism Makes War Inevitable

Appearance and Essence: Two Sides of a Strike

Music, Food, Comic Kick Off Summer Project

LETTERS

a href="#South Africa—Apartheid ANC Style">"outh Africa—Apartheid ANC Style

Communism is the Best

Dairy Workers Sour on Sellouts

Liberals Invade Vieques

Did U.S. Navy Missile Down TWA 800?

---

a name="U.S. Imperialism’s New World Disorder">">".S. Imperialism’s New World Disorder

Editorial

After the 1991 Persian Gulf oil war, U.S. rulers boasted about a "new world order." They portrayed themselves as the chieftains of the "only remaining super-power" and predicted a long future for unchallenged U.S. global domination.

In a one-sided way, they had a point. U.S. imperialism remains in command. None of its potential key rivals can yet challenge it directly. Chinese bosses, who are developing a long-range strategy for a face-off with the U.S., can’t yet contemplate military action even to take back Taiwan, which is in their own back yard. Russian capitalists are making progress toward restoring themselves as a major force, but they have their hands full for the time being with a bunch of upstart gangsters in Chechnya, whom they can’t manage to pacify. The German-led European Union wants to raise its political and military might to the level of its economic strength, but is still years away from that goal.

So U.S. bosses, while sitting on top of the heap, are far from sitting pretty. They face many contradictions, both external and internal, which will sharpen over time.

Two Sides To U.S. Power

We communists must see both aspects of this process. We must not fool ourselves either into underestimating U.S. imperialism’s current power or interpreting every hint of bad news for U.S. rulers as a sign of their impending collapse. On the other hand, we must also see that every one of the imperialists’ solutions leads to bigger problems for them, problems which will eventually mature into crisis and war. Recognizing this duality clarifies the hard work we must do today, tomorrow and even long after working class seizure of power, to help our Party grow under all conditions.

The U.S. rulers’ major dilemmas include the following:

• A decade after the Gulf War, the bosses’ main foreign policy think tank, their Council on Foreign Relations (June 2001), admits that all the killing solved nothing: "Saddam Hussein and his regime pose a growing danger to the Middle East and the United States. The regime cannot be rehabilitated." At the moment, U.S. Iraq policy is in disarray. The bosses can’t mobilize Arab support for a war to invade Iraq and overthrow Hussein. Russian rulers, who have big energy deals pending with Iraq, have a strong reason to oppose a revised U.S. sanctions policy: They need to use Iraq also as a bargaining chip against the U.S. plan to expand NATO up to their borders.

• The breakdown of the peace deal the U.S. had wanted to broker between Israeli and Palestinian bosses is largely and ironically due to the U.S. "victory" in the Gulf War. The war produced millions of refugees, including more than a million Palestinian, Jordanian and Yemeni oil workers expelled from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia as politically unreliable. U.S. and Saudi oil barons feared that these workers would side with Arab nationalists against them. Now the dirty work in the oil fields is done by super-exploited workers from the Indian subcontinent and the Philippines. The 500,000 impoverished Palestinian refugees forced to return to the West Bank and the Gaza strip add significantly to Israel’s inability to pacify those areas and to Arafat’s failure to impose his political will on his base. The continued violence between Israel and the Palestinians is a direct consequence of the "new world order."

• The U.S. ruling class really doesn’t have a coherent foreign policy. As influential New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman (7/10) complains about U.S. failure to deal with enemies like Iraq’s Hussein, Libya’s Khadaffi, Arafat, and North Korea’s, Kim Jong Il, "[Washington] has run out of ideas for how to deal with a certain foreign leader, so your whole approach is waiting for that leader to die. Biology!" The rulers aren’t stupid. The Bush White House’s inability to produce a unified foreign policy reflects ongoing conflicts and rivalries among different factions of U.S. imperialism. Its sharpest present form is the debate now raging over military policy between forces around Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, who view technological superiority as primary, and generals and admirals who know that wars are won on the ground and the sea by politically committed soldiers and sailors (see Nicholas Lemann, "Dreaming About War,"The New Yorker, 7/16).

• The rulers are indeed "dreaming about war." The Eastern Establishment knows that its continuing world domination depends on ruling the international oil supply. The Russians and Chinese have long-range plans for replacing the U.S. Therefore, a third world war is inevitable, and the U.S. ruling class needs to prepare for it now, even if it may lie decades in the future. Such a war requires millions of young workers prepared to kill and die for imperialism. The rulers don’t have this ingredient in their arsenal, and its absence is their Achilles’ Heel. Nobody in the imperialist think-tanks, not even in the Hart-Rudman Commission (a coalition of Republicans and Democrats calling for militarizing society and gearing for war) dares utter the words "military draft" aloud. Yet carrying out the big bosses’ agenda will eventually require a restored draft.

As conditions continue to sharpen, this key weakness will present our Party with expanding opportunities for growth. Even today, despite our small size and therefore relative tactical weakness, due to the rulers’ Achilles’ Heel we have good potential to advance. Our recent successful anti-fascist action in Morristown and our vigorous work at the National Education Association Convention provide good examples. The future will hold many such opportunities, both small and large.

Our Side Will Win

The real "new world order" is the road to communist revolution. It is long, uphill and hard, but as the great Russian revolutionary author Maxim Gorky wrote: "Our children are going into the world, our children are going, our blood is going for the truth; with honesty in their hearts they open the gates of the new road—a straight, wide road…" (The Mother). Later Gorki’s heroine shouts: "We will cleanse the whole of life."

We communists must never forget that this remains our mission. However long the process, our side will win.

Anti-Racists Silence Fascists

MORRISTOWN, NJ, July 4 — Hundreds of militant workers and students prevented Richard Barrett and his fascist Nationalist Movement from being heard here today. With shouts, chants, banging on signs and the action of two brave anti-racists who wrecked Barrett’s sound equipment, the multi-racial crowd followed the lead of communists in PLP to silence the fascists. Today’s action was a victory for the working class and for PLP. Many comrades, particularly younger ones, took leadership.

There was a sharper struggle about fascism and the current period within the Party and among our friends this past year. Many agree fascism is increasing. But many still ask: what can the Party do about it?

Our first planning meeting revealed many disagreements. Some felt the Party should retreat because our numbers were "too small" to accomplish much; we should not risk more arrests.

But others thought that staying away and not vigorously organizing against the fascists would be a big mistake. Many recalled the Party’s history in fighting fascism. The 1975 Boston Summer Project was a militant struggle led by young comrades, showing it’s possible to mobilize thousands to fight the bosses’ attacks. We ended the organizing meeting with a collective decision to participate on the 4th and guarantee certain plans.

We corrected last year’s mistake by going every weekend, along with our friends, to different parts of the community with leaflets and CHALLENGE. Many people there had no idea Barrett was returning. Some said they wouldn’t come on the Fourth but would be attending the candlelight vigil called by politicians and church misleaders. We struggled with them about the importance of being militant and vocal the day of the demonstration.

Other workers from the community agreed immediately that the only way to stop Barrett from spreading his racist lies was to fight back. They promised to join us and said they were happy we were there. This made many of our comrades confident about what we could do, that our strength and power does come from the working class. The more time we spent in the community, the less fearful we became. They were impressed with the youth and with the active roles they took. They led many chants and speeches on the bullhorn.

On the morning of July 4, we held a march and rally with about 30 people at a local housing complex. We marched through the complex leafleting and chanting, "The workers, united, will never be defeated," and "Las luchas obreras no tienen fronteras" ("Workers’ struggles have no borders"). We were very well received. Many residents took leaflets and supported us. Some came and joined us at the front of the demonstration across from the fascists.

Despite massive police protection, the open fascists were unable to bring out anyone. Steve Ucci, the "Grand Marshal" for their rally, who had promised to bring out hundreds only three weeks before, didn’t even show up. PLP’s activities before July 4, including leafleting and postering his neighborhood, certainly helped to "discourage" him.

When we reached the police barricades, we led chants. Another group of anti-racists nearby led chants and gave speeches on their bullhorns. It was then that two young anti-racists, who had appeared to be with Barrett, began throwing down his flags, kicking over and disabling his sound system, before being arrested by the cops. These and all the previous actions invigorated the crowd, who began shouting, "Death, death, death to the fascists!" and then tore up the Confederate flag.

Scores of immigrant workers from Morristown joined us in chanting loudly and preventing Barrett from being heard. When Barrett and the one lone fascist with him brought out their pro-cop "Profiling Saves Lives" banner, the crowd began chanting, "Killing fascists saves lives!"

Many of our goals were achieved. The 350 cops ordered out to protect a grand total of two fascists didn’t stop us. We prevented Barrett from being heard. Our confidence that the working class, if given the chance, would join us proved to be correct.

Scratch a Liberal, Find a Fascist

The battle against fascism in Morristown is rich with lessons for our comrades, friends and the working class.

Many people do not yet see that the liberal rulers who pose as anti-racist are the main forces behind fascism, U.S. style. It was Clinton who signed the "welfare reform" bill into law that has greatly expanded slave labor Workfare and forced millions off the rolls. It was under Clinton that the prison population soared to two million, 70% black and Latin. And yes, it is the liberals who are building the apparatus of the U.S. police state, including community policing, metal detectors and cameras in most public buildings and a national police/military/ intelligence force, under the guise of fighting "terrorism."

Fascism is a product of the capitalist system in crisis. It is not a sign of strength of the rulers or their system. Rather, it exposes capitalism for what it really is — a bosses’ dictatorship. Under fascism, the capitalists attack the working class, including communists, harder. But the more we inflict defeats on fascism, the weaker the ruling class becomes when it exposes itself as openly fascist. Despite all obstacles, the bosses and their system can be taken. We can further rebuild the communist movement in the heat of these battles.

Fighting the open Nazis is only one part of the struggle against fascism. The same black and immigrant workers who Barrett came to Morristown to attack are part of a super-exploited workforce that fascism generates. The rise of fascism is intense at the point of production.

Right now, the mass organizations we work in are the main battlefront in the fight against fascism. In part because of our efforts against the Nazis/KKK, there is not yet a mass base for open fascism. But it is mainly in the unions, the PTAs, the churches, the communities and the military that the liberal rulers are trying to win large numbers of workers to support their version of fascism and their war plans. This is where communists must recruit anti-fascist workers and others. This is the harder battle, day in and day out. But it is the only way that capitalism will be defeated and communism will triumph.

Historically communists are the leading force in the fight against fascism. This struggle has always required a disciplined party, not the individualism of the anarchists. Only the destruction of capitalism through a communist-led revolution can put fascism in the garbage bin of history where it belongs.

a name="PLP Leads Fight at NEA Convention For Students’ Right to Learn">">"LP Leads Fight at NEA Convention For Students’ Right to Learn

LOS ANGELES, July 6 — "Let me give you a hug. I’m so proud of you and what you said up there yesterday," a black woman delegate told a PLP member at the National Education Association (NEA) Representative Assembly here. She was reacting to a proposal brought by PLP members and friends and adopted by this annual national NEA convention calling on the nearly 10,000 delegates to condemn the racist theories of "biologically-determined IQ," culture of poverty and related ideas, and to base their pre-professional and professional development programs on the idea that everyone can reach high levels of learning. The woman delegate said she, too, had attended staff development workshops where a NEA consultant taught the same racist "culture-of-poverty" analysis.

The resolution struck a nerve, and helped us show that communists take the lead in fighting racism. In the struggle we met dozens of people who helped us fight for it in caucuses, state delegations and on the floor. Hundreds took CHALLENGE and our pamphlet, Racism, Intelligence, and the Working Class.

When we raised the motion in the Hispanic caucus, someone objected, saying this proposal would undercut the inservice training currently given on working with poor children. A delegate answered, "I’ve been in NEA-sponsored workshops, where the speaker said that poor people’s homes were chaotic, and that poor people have no respect for education. These training sessions are based on the idea of a ‘culture of poverty’ and must change. As a teacher and a child of poverty, I support this New Business Item [NBI — the above resolution]." She also spoke for it from the convention floor. Another speaker said that the Nebraska caucus had supported our proposal because they were concerned the press was labeling the children of Mexican immigrants in the meat-packing industry there as "hard to educate."

Another delegate spoke from the convention floor supporting the resolution with tears in her eyes as she recalled being taught in teacher education classes that black and Latino people have "smaller brains" and are "thus less able to learn." All these friends were undeterred by the red-baiting of an anti-communist speaker who attacked the resolution as "communist-inspired" by the PLP.

The speech moving this resolution stressed that racist ideas underpin the racist and blatantly unequal outcome of our educational system, justify the income gaps between rich and poor and lower expectations of students’ abilities to learn. These racist ideas also flood the public schools and justify class society. In fighting these ideas, we encourage our students to fight to learn and learn to fight for a world without racism and inequality. It emphasized that teachers must be defenders of the working class.

We also presented NBI 47 which called on the NEA to support Joan Heymont, a New York PLP member and veteran science teacher, attacked for inviting students to our May Day march in Washington, D.C. This resolution had been endorsed in principle by United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA). Our supporters in UTLA willingly backed it in the California caucus and helped get it to the floor. After it was moved and we spoke for it, someone objected to it being considered. That required a 2/3 vote, which they barely achieved. At least 2,000 teachers rose to vote in favor of considering the resolution supporting our comrade. When over 2,000 teachers are ready to stand up openly to defend a communist, you know anti-communism has taken a beating.

A PLP dinner meeting emphasized that, as Marx said, it is the historical destiny of the working class to eliminate class society and rule the earth. Racist ideas saying not all students can learn at a high level are part of the ruling classes’ justification of the growing inequality and attacks of capitalism. Students and workers can and must learn to read, write, do math, think and analyze the world. We can’t wait for the capitalists to do it because it is not in their class interest.

This struggle cannot take a back seat to reform struggles for smaller class size or more supplies. Instead, we should learn the lessons of the literacy campaigns in Russia, China and Cuba that sent people to teach reading to millions of others and were successful because much of their motivation was to create working-class leaders. Contrast this with the failure of United Nations progams to reproduce these literacy campaigns in countries with fascist/imperialist rulers.

As teachers and students join together to fight against racism, imperialist war and capitalist exploitation, education takes on new importance. The relationship between teacher and student becomes one of comrades, where each learns from the other. Capitalist schools have been failing to teach what most students need to know. Either we blame the students and their parents, or we ally with them to fight to teach and learn how to understand the world and change it.

NEA teachers are open to these ideas. We can and must win them to join us in teaching our students to understand the world, fight racism, to make a revolution and build a communist society. Part of this is a struggle against racist ideology in classrooms, lunchrooms and union halls. Another part is the fight over the content of what we teach.

The work at this convention strengthened our understanding of what it means to "Fight to Teach/Teach to Fight." Our collective met daily to discuss the day’s events, plan strategy and struggle over the content of the resolutions, leaflets and the CHALLENGE article. Participants in the LA Summer Project passed out literature outside the convention as well. Altogether we distributed 3,000 leaflets and 350 CHALLENGES. Many of our friends actively supported the fights for these resolutions. We’re in a better position to struggle at a higher level in the future, including at next year’s convention in Dallas.

Capitalism Only Guarantees Profits, Not Jobs

One feature that’s built into capitalism says that any concession workers wrest from their bosses will drive those bosses to invest in new technology that will wipe away those workers’ gains and lead to even worse conditions. Under capitalism, bosses are impelled to seek maximum profits or be driven out of business by their competitors. In every case, it’s the working class that suffers the brunt of this cutthroat system.

A clear example of this axiom can be seen in the problem facing U.S. longshore workers. In the 1960s, containerization was introduced to ports on the East and West coasts. By packing individual products into a single large container perhaps one story high that are placed aboard ships and unloaded that way, the individual manual handling and checking of thousands of these items is avoided. This time-saving process reaps much greater profits for the companies.

The bosses, however, faced temporary opposition to this from the two longshore unions, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) on the West Coast and the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) on the East and Gulf coasts. Containerization threatened thousands of jobs. Soon the two unions agreed to it if the bosses would guarantee the jobs of the then current workforce. This also guaranteed that the bosses would have a free hand in using containers that would cut down on the number of future jobs required to handle a growing volume of cargo. So the unions, in "looking out for themselves" (and the ILWU was a left-led union), screwed the job potential for other unemployed workers and for the children of the working class in general. This clamping down on the number of higher-paying jobs lowered the overall wage standards of the entire working class.

Now the inevitable "worm has turned." Asian and European shipping bosses are using still newer technologies to speed cargo faster and cheaper than in the U.S. Hong Kong’s port can handle up to four times the amount of containers per acre than Los Angeles. In Singapore, a "crane driver" operates a joystick and video monitors and shuffles huge cargo containers by remote control as if they were children’s building blocks. In Los Angeles, the same operation requires two drivers, a clerk to coordinate and a signalman who acts as the drivers’ eyes and ears; some work still performed manually. Meanwhile, in Rotterdam, Holland, unmanned robotic cranes controlled by sensors have cut the workforce in half. Asian ports can load and unload ships in 40 hours. In Southern California it takes 76 hours.

Thus U.S. bosses are losing the battle to keep up with the growth in world trade, costing them an estimated $1 billion annually. With the volume of cargo expected to double in the next decade, if U.S. shipping bosses don’t improve productivity once again, the congestion of waiting truck traffic and ships will produce gridlock at U.S. ports. Still further, U.S. bound cargo could be shifted to ports in Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean and transported the rest of the way by truck, rail and feeder ships.

U.S. shipping bosses blame the union work-rules they negotiated in the ’60s in exchange for the efficiencies of that era. The unions took those efficiencies on the theory they’d be saving those workers’ jobs. But now the laws of capitalism have driven the bosses to new technologies and/or shifting cargo work to lower-paying, non-union sites. The West Coast shipping bosses say they will "guarantee" the ILWU’s current 10,000-worker force if they get a free hand to use the new technology. That "guarantee" will last only as long as the introduction of some new technology, to make still greater maximum profit.

Therefore, winning some temporary reform concession can never cut it. The more the trade-offs by any workers, the more other and future workers are screwed into lower-paying jobs or unemployment.

Only with the elimination of the profit system will new technologies be sued to produce a better life for ALL workers. That will only happen when workers get off the treadmill of reform crumbs and take the high road of communist revolution.`

Fight Racist Frame Up of Black Dockworkers

CHARLESTON, SC — Black dock workers in this port, in leading a fight to stop scab labor, are facing the full wrath of the bosses’ state apparatus. In January 2000, hundreds of mostly black members of the International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA) Local 1422 massed at the waterfront to stop the unloading of a freighter by scabs. They were attacked by hundreds of city cops and state troopers and fought back with whatever weapons they could lay their hands on. Eight workers were arrested and five of them (the Charleston Five) have been held under house arrest awaiting trial on felony charges, facing five-year prison terms.

These militant workers’ answer to the bosses’ drive to lower wages and conditions on Charleston’s docks sharply contrasts with the union leadership’s policies on both coasts to "negotiate" job-cutting productivity increases. (See adjoining article.)

On June 9, over 4,000 workers and their allies from near and far rallied in the State Capitol at Columbia demanding freedom for the arrested longshoremen. Speakers included representatives of South Korean Daewoo autoworkers who face mass layoffs under a GM take-over. But the rally was organized and led by AFL-CIO hacks who are using it to divert the workers’ anger into supporting the Democratic Party as their "savior." This is the same party that has maintained the anti-union, racist "right-to-work" laws in the state and throughout the South for decades. Charleston mayor Joseph Riley, who had his police chief order the anti-worker onslaught, is himself a Democrat. Trusting these capitalist politicians and their labor lieutenants is like cutting your own throats.

All workers should raise the cry in their own unions to stop these pro-boss trials immediately and release the Charleston Five. Masses of workers could be organized to descend on Charleston and surround the courthouse. Charleston’s working class, with rank-and-file leadership, could map a general strike to shut down the city unless the dockers were freed.

The battle of these militant workers proves once again that the government — local, state or national — is not "neutral" but represents the class rule of the bosses. The only permanent answer to such attacks is smashing the capitalist state apparatus with communist revolution which installs the working class in power.

Janitors Fight Gang Up of Bosses, Sellouts

LOS ANGELES, July 17 — "With anger and sadness, hundreds of cleaning workers left their jobs and part of their lives in these luxurious buildings," said a janitor here. "Some had 15 years seniority. Now, once more and under worse conditions, they must confront looking for another job in order to survive," said another. The DMS cleaning company fired 550 men and women janitors after a racist Congressman sparked an INS (Immigration Department) investigation by complaining that undocumented workers were cleaning his offices.

Both the owner of DMS and SEIU Local 1877 union leader Mike Garcia kept this attack secret from the majority of janitors and the working class in general. The union never called a general meeting or mass protest to expose this racist attack.

With the help of the PLP youth Summer Project, the Party distributed a leaflet calling on workers to fight back. Capitalism uses borders and the Migra to terrorize all workers. In the long run, workers need to destroy capitalism with communist revolution.

The workers were glad to see us. Many bought CHALLENGE and some gave their names to plan action against this attack. Summer Project volunteers leafleted as workers angrily confronted SEIU reps visiting the area.

There is a lot of anger towards the union leaders, who only a few months ago called on the janitors to support and give money to Democratic Party politicians. Now that the workers are being attacked, these leaders try to blame the workers for not having "legal" documents.

Some workers believe the bosses are attacking because they don’t want other workers to follow the militant lead of the janitors. Others believe that the Republicans are attacking union members for having supported the Democrats during past elections. The union organized many of these workers to actively support Antonio Villaraigosa, who recently lost the mayoral election.

In work locations around the U.S., thousands of workers are being harassed and fired for not having "legal documents." Meanwhile, four million people, mainly single mothers of nine million children, will soon be barred from welfare. They could also be sent to work in the few jobs still left in the garment industry (and the worst-paying).

The essence of this racist attack is to terrorize all workers in order to increase profits. Recently, different cleaning companies have begun using "work teams" to eliminate jobs. "The work that ten of us have done will now be done by six," said a janitor.

Rank-and-file janitors aim to fight these firings and those that are sure to follow. They plan to fight for these jobs and for the union to pay a monthly stipend to the fired workers so they can survive until they find other work. PLP will fully support this janitors’ fight.

This struggle gives us the opportunity to build the PLP and CHALLENGE among the janitors. This will help build the long-term fight to destroy this rotten capitalist system, which thinks nothing of sending 550 workers and their families into the streets. Liberal union leaders, who defend capitalist laws, cannot meet workers’ needs. The solution is to build the PLP and develop leaders who rely on the workers to fight for our interests. We must unite as a class and build a communist world without borders, documents or exploitation.

a name="Fox Doesn’t Fool Workers">">"ox Doesn’t Fool Workers

CHICAGO, July 15 — The visit of Mexico’s President Vicente Fox did not turn out as well as planned. A "verbena" (Mexican style fiesta) was planned in the mostly Mexican working-class Pilsen neighborhood. About 50,000 people were expected to welcome Fox but only 4,000 showed up.

Many expected Fox to discuss a general amnesty for undocumented immigrants. Others, like the V&V Supremo strikers (see CHALLENGE, 7/18), said they wanted to talk to Fox about intervening on their behalf with their Mexican-owned company. The strikers marched to the park to present Fox with their grievances. Fox ignored them and did not talk about amnesty. He supports Bush’s proposal for a slave-labor bracero-style temporary visa program.

Community leaders from 100 organizations came to voice their concerns. But Fox paid very little attention during the meeting, his eyes often wandering to the ceiling. Some of the participants yelled several times, "Let’s talk about amnesty, about political rights for undocumented immigrants."

Finally Fox said his government had no money for protecting those forced to come to the U.S. Someone yelled, "Return the towels!" (recently "Los Pinos," Mexico’s White House, bought $1,400 luxury towels and bed sheets worth thousands). Others said if the Mexico-U.S. border is open to free trade among bosses, it should also be open for free transit of workers. Fox basically said forget about amnesty, the bracero program is what’s coming.

Workers knew Fox wouldn’t respond to their demands. They know they have no friends in high places. PLP received a warm welcome from workers in the park. We distributed thousands of PLP leaflets and strengthened our ties with the V&V Supremo strikers. Over 1,400 signatures have been collected on petitions demanding unconditional amnesty for all undocumented workers. We must work to win many of these workers to PLP and fight for communism from Mexico City to Chicago.

Build Red power to Fight Union Hacks

NEW YORK CITY, July 14 — On June 20, the SSEU-Local 371 Delegate Assembly approved a second $1,000 union contribution to the Morristown Legal Fund to help defray the legal expenses of those anti-racist fighters arrested at the July 4, 2000 demonstration against Richard Barrett and his fascist, pro-racial profiling Nationalists. A PLP member made the motion, which was seconded by several delegates. Local president Charles Ensley promised to recommend it strongly to the appropriate union financial committee, which meant the check would be forthcoming. The motion was then passed unanimously.

Our next PLP club meeting discussed why Ensley did not oppose this motion. The member making the motion felt that because the Party has not been attacking him for his hypocritical do-nothingism, Ensley decided it was politic to throw us a bone. This fit right in with his policy of "inclusion" — everyone from conservative to communist can work together under the union umbrella.

The club leader said this was too one-sided. He pointed out that 30 to 40 CHALLENGES are sold every month at the Delegate Assembly. Another 60 to 70 are sold every issue at work locations. We have collected over $160 from rank-and-file members of our local for the Morristown Legal Fund in the last two months. At almost every DA, a Party member will speak from the floor, advancing some Party idea. These efforts have influenced a significant number of Delegates to accept our positions on such issues as Workfare and the need to fight racism. This, in turn, has forced Ensley and the Local’s leadership to at least mouth opposition to Workfare and other anti-worker policies.

The club leader granted that Ensley accepted the motion because of his policy of inclusion. He added that building a massive movement against the scheduled ruling class plan for ending benefits for welfare recipients reaching their five-year limit and turning welfare centers into Jobs First Centers would be the fight that revealed the difference between our communist strategy and the tacit support Ensley and other union leaders give to the Rockefeller/liberal wing of the ruling class. It’s important to have secured this $1,000, but the Party’s main task in Local 371 remains to expand our CHALLENGE sales and our base to build a real political force pointing workers towards communism as the solution to the ravages of capitalism.

Racist Mayor Schell Cracked

SEATTLE,WA., July 17 — The big hit everybody’s talking about has nothing to do with the recent baseball All-Star game here. Rather, it’s about Mayor Paul Schell being smacked across the face with a megaphone at the Unity Festival in the Central District (C.D.). Standing only a few feet from a memorial erected by neighborhood residents to Aaron Roberts — a 35-year old black father of three gunned down by Seattle cops last month — Schell was decked by a nationalist as he spoke of "unity" to promote redevelopment of the area.

Schell originally ran for mayor years ago on his record as city economic development director and Dean of the University of Washington’s School of Architecture and Urban Development. He lost because he was pegged as a tool of downtown developers.

Immediately upon losing, he proved his critics correct. He became head of Weyerhauser development and proceeded to destroy all the low-income housing on Seattle’s waterfront, making room for high-priced condos and Microsoft millionaires.

Now, that he has finally been elected mayor, he has the same plan for the Central District. For the past forty years it has been a predominately black working-class area with modest homes. It is also near downtown, making it a prime target for Schell’s gentrification.

"I’m mad because my kids will never be able to afford a house in this neighborhood where they grew up." said one long-time resident.

Apparently, making black workers the target of cop bullets is also part of Schell’s plan.

"What do they expect with these cop murders?" said another neighbor when informed by a reporter of the hit, "Everybody to go around happy?!"

The vast majority of the thousands that have fought and demonstrated against cop murders and gentrification justly hate what the racist bosses have done to themselves and their children. Unfortunately, the established opposition to Schell—and even Schell’s attacker—still believes in capitalist redevelopment. Schell and the established opposition are only fighting over who gets the spoils.

As our Party members and friends continue and broaden the fight against racist cop murders and gentrification, it is imperative that we struggle against the notion of black capitalism, as well as against having faith in liberal reforms. Defeating racism requires smashing capitalism—in any and all forms. There can be no justice under capitalism, even with one or a million civilian review boards. Make no mistake about it recruiting more fighters for communist revolution is — the true victory for our class in this struggle. The thousands that are fighting racism deserve no less!

a name="Déjà Vu? U.S., German Bosses Fight Over Europe">">"éjà Vu? U.S., German Bosses Fight Over Europe

First, former Yugoslavian leader Slobodan Milosevic is deported to The Hague to face the international war crimes tribunal. Then the same court indicts two Croatian generals for war crimes during that country’s war with Serbia ten years ago. But the biggest war criminals are the imperialist rulers in Washington, London, Berlin, Brussels and Paris. They were behind the break-up of the former Yugoslavia and armed their own factions to wage war. They won’t be facing any war crimes tribunal.

The trials of Milosevic and the Croatian generals reflect the imperialist dogfight over control of the Balkans and Europe. Despite apparent collaboration in the Balkans, particularly during the 1999 air war against the former Yugoslavia over control of Caspian oil pipelines to Western Europe, contradictions abound.

Milosevic was overthrown last year and is now on trial because of U.S. and German pressure and aid to the opposition. The indictment of the Croatian generals has more negative implications for the U.S. Heavy U.S. aid enabled the Croatian army to wage war. London’s OBSERVER (7/8) proceeded "to lift the lid on one of the murkiest episodes of the Balkan wars: the secret arming of the Croats by the U.S. The history of U.S. assistance to the nationalist regime of former President Franjo Tudjman [a Nazi collaborator during World War II, Ed.] dated back to March 1994." The U.S. government has refused to collaborate with The Hague tribunals on the Croatian situation.

The Croatian army was trained by Military Professional Resource Inc. (MPRI), based in Virginia, a private Pentagon contractor run by former U.S. generals. In 1995, the Croatian army attacked the Krajina region, home of Serbs in Croatia. With MPRI advising, an "ethnic cleansing" expelled 150,000 Serbs, destroyed 22,000 homes and murdered hundreds, many of them elderly or sick.

Since 1994, MPRI has flourished like many other contractors that make up what is known as "Mercenary Inc." Founded by Ret. General Vernon Lewis, in 1988 it had three full time employees. Today it has 850. It is so profitable that it has been acquired by L-3 Communications (an offshoot of Lockheed) and is traded on the stock market.

Germany vs. the U.S.

While the U.S. and German imperialists’ imposed a Nazi-like ethnic-cleansing division of the former Yugoslavia, their overall differences widened. Bush’s recent visit to Europe failed to resolve any of the major disagreements between the European Union and Washington, from Bush’s missile shield to the Kyoto environmental protocols to the death penalty.

The main dispute revolves around the kind of Europe being forged. Berlin wants to take political control of Europe as the next step to being the economic engine of the "old" continent. Germany is proposing a political structure for Europe similar to the federal (lander) set-up of Germany’s state system.

U.S. rulers fought two World Wars to keep Germany from controlling Europe, and aren’t eager for a third. A Europe unified around Germany could forge an alliance with Russia, with its military power and access to Caspian oil and eventually Iraqi oil. This could mean the end of U.S. domination here, especially over Britain. The U.S. ruling class will surely do everything possible — including using London and Paris — to sabotage German plans for a 4th Reich. They will try to maintain a U.S.-controlled NATO, especially as a check on the "independent" European Rapid Deployment Force.

Imperialism Makes War Inevitable

The 1990 collapse of the former Soviet Union left the U.S. as the "world’s only superpower." Now the old imperialist contradictions that sparked two world wars in the 20th century are sharpening. Lenin’s study of World War I proved that "imperialism inevitably leads to war." The Hague trials may eventually bring more instability. According to Stratfor.com (7/9), "When the realization sinks in that little of substance will actually occur, the pro-Western politicians in the Balkans will likely be swept aside in an anti-Western and nationalist rage. Apart from the opportunity of Russia to take advantage of [this], the fact is it will create a situation that will make the 1990s pale."

The international working class must be prepared for another round of imperialist wars. World War III may not be around the corner, but there won’t be "peace on earth." Building a mass PLP now will eventually allow us to turn the next imperialist war into communist revolution.

Appearance and Essence: Two Sides of a Strike

NEW YORK CITY, July 16 — A funny thing happened on the way to our study group about dialectical materialism. We went to a support rally for striking workers. The class was to discuss appearance and essence. We decided to apply this philosophical category to the rally we had just attended.

What was the appearance? Thirty-two young Mexican men were striking because one had been fired for distributing a "know-your-rights" flyer at the Tuv Taam kosher food processing plant in Brooklyn. He was the second worker fired for union organizing. About 25 older Polish women who feared loss of income were still working. The bosses had also recruited about seven Latin workers to continue working there. The strike was nine days old.

Many in the study group detailed the conditions described by the strikers: Wages of $4 an hour or less with no time and a half for overtime (they’re demanding $6.50); 12-hour shifts, often reaching 70 hours a week; few breaks, no water, filthy bathrooms, no vacations, no health insurance, etc. No wonder the workers are striking. They want a union and are organizing in the United Electrical Workers.

The rally drew many supporters. Everyone was very spirited and determined to win. Speakers included a rabbi who said plant conditions violated kosher laws. A Party member received a loud cheer when advancing the need for revolution. Everyone followed his lead in chanting in Spanish that workers should not recognize any borders.

In our study group we disagreed about whether the various groups at the rally were just trying to put forward their agenda or if it was a real show of strength and solidarity. We then tried to figure out the essence of the situation. This was more complicated.

Several said this was a very heroic struggle. They could find other jobs that were equally lousy and maybe better, but they chose to stay and fight. One comrade said these workers could lose. A male striker had said they operated some of the more complicated machines and the women workers did not, which would force the bosses to rehire them. But several youth felt the bosses could train others to operate these machines.

One comrade noted the bosses’ preparedness for workers unity: "It’s no coincidence they only hired young Mexican men and older Polish women." One of the strike’s main weaknesses is nationalism. The language barrier makes it difficult for the strikers to organize the Polish workers. They must win the inside workers to see that striking is in their class interest and that they have a better chance to win better wages and conditions if united. Another difficulty is coinciding the hours of the picket line to the times workers enter and leave the plant. But we all agreed that the strikers showed amazing class solidarity in standing up for their fellow workers.

Then came the questions. Was it wrong for the workers to fight only for a union and better conditions? Should they also fight for communism? After all, $6.50 an hour is still lousy pay. The workers would still be exploited. Does defiance alone equal revolution?

Several comrades thought that fighting back means the strikers are already winning. Someone said a strike is a step to communism. Another said only communists can bring communist ideas to a strike: "Workers can’t learn about communism from their strike. Communist ideas have developed over 150 years of both study and struggle. No one can figure all this out by themselves. That’s why we have a communist Progressive Labor Party, to lead the working class to overthrow the capitalists with revolution."

Our disagreements remained unsettled. Understanding the essence of the strike comes not only through investigation in a study group but also through the practice of the workers and the Party. This understanding will deepen with the outcome of the strike and what the workers and the Party take from it.

The strikers are facing tremendous obstacles in a militant wildcat strike at a time when even union-led strikes are rare. The strikers’ efforts should not be underestimated. We will return to support them and continue bringing them our idea of revolutionary communism.

Music, Food, Comic Kick Off Summer Project

NEW YORK CITY, July 14 — A Saturday, July 7th dinner kicked off PLP’s annual summer project. Since joining the Party, I’ve been to three and co-hosted two with a young comrade.

Usually there’s food, entertainment and politics but this year was a little different — the appearance of two accomplished "professors."

The PLP Singers opened the evening and gave their usual sterling performance throughout.Next came Professor Irwin Corey, "The world’s foremost authority on everything," who entertained the crowd with political jokes of yesteryear and today. ("A committee investigating if Gorbachev was a communist found no evidence to that effect.") Then "Professor Louie" performed political rap/poems about drugs, romance and Mayor Giuliani, among other subjects. He was accompanied by "Fast Eddie" on the drums. Two comrades performed a punk song about the Morristown case, "A bullet named Barrett."

Another two comrades related their experiences at last year’s July 4th demonstration. Still another comrade was justly greeted with a hero’s welcome for his actions in this year’s event. He was one of two comrades who disabled the sound equipment at the Nationalist Movement’s fascist rally. Money was collected towards their legal defense.

This kick-off dinner promoted the importance of a worker/student alliance and got everyone psyched up for the upcoming summer projects. A great time was had by all.

LETTERS

Workers of the World, Write!

a name="South Africa—Apartheid ANC Style">">"outh Africa—Apartheid ANC Style

Well, it’s been seven years since South Africa got its black president, which supposedly brought liberty for black people because apartheid is over, but the present situation shows otherwise. South Africa’s government, complying with the court, last week evicted more than 2,000 squatters from Bredel, outside Johannesburg. They were settled in a ragged stretch of land which government agencies and a private farmer claimed to own. This is part of a policy to make investment more profitable and win Western capitalist support.

When the ruling African National Congress came to power in 1994, the masses of black South Africans believed they finally had tasted the fruits of black liberation. But appearances are deceiving; the color of the rulers does not change the logic of capitalism. The oppression and exploitation of workers remain the same regardless of white or black rulers.

The South African black government claimed "since coming to power it had built 1.1 million low-cost houses providing five million people with shelter, water and sanitation." (L.A. Times, 7/14). But government statistics show that about 7.5 million South Africans lack proper housing.

Instead of building shelters for the squatters, the government sent more than 300 cops equipped with water cannons and emergency crews to Bredel to destroy flimsy shacks built by the squatters. This clearly exposes on what side the government stands and the illusion that black rulers mean a better South Africa for blacks.

The major South African press never mentioned this action. Unemployment and racism, the twin evils of capitalism, are rampant. That’s what created this volatile situation.

Many people are angry and feel the government has betrayed them. The only liberation for black or white workers is to destroy capitalism and build a communist society based on the interests of the whole working class. For this to happen we need to build Progressive Labor Party all over the globe.

An LA Reader

Communism is the Best

I am a student at UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico). I’m very interested to learn more about PLP. I am totally convinced that communism is the best socio-economic and political system, but my practice has been limited. In 1999 I participated in the UNAM strike. We carried out a fierce struggle against the pro-capitalist school authorities. Although the Strike Committee made some errors, I gained lots of experience. It demonstrated that to achieve communism we’ll have to wage a violent bloody revolution to destroy the savagery of capitalism.

I met PLP through some close friends at the university. PLP attracted my attention because since its birth it’s understood the necessity for violent revolution. I’m also impressed with PLP’s fight against racism, nationalism and sexism.

I haven’t met any organizations calling themselves communist that carried on that kind of struggle on these three issues. PLP also develops a form of struggle that unites its members. Such unity is crucial in building a strong force against capitalism/imperialism.I want to keep in touch by all possible means.

A UNAM Student

Dairy Workers Sour on Sellouts

I work in a Chicago dairy company. We went on strike May 29, after the company refused to bargain with the Teamsters as our union. This dairy has been in business 36 years and is one of the market’s strongest because of the quality of its products, which can be traced to the quality of the workforce. But we receive inhuman treatment. The bosses exploit us to the maximum, refuse us wage hikes and force us to pay for our health insurance.

Fed up with all this we struck. The bosses thought we couldn’t do it. We’ve been out for a month, but since most of us don’t speak English we don’t know what’s going on. After the first week the union told us the company had accepted our demands and we would soon have contract. But now we’re told there is no contract.

I ask, who’s winning with this strike? On the one hand, the lawyers on both sides seem to be raking in lots of money. But we workers have no money to pay our debts. Why doesn’t the union tell us what’s going on in the negotiations if we are the most interested party?

A striker

Liberals Invade Vieques

Ask an activist in Puerto Rico about Vieques and you'll get a speech and an attempt to recruit you. Vieques is still a hot topic amongst workers here, but not as intense as in the past two years.

One reason for this decline is the leadership offered - it's plagued with reformist views that don’t deliver the goods for the working class. This leadership is a coalition of civic organizations like the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, a great number of churches and, since the past elections, the power and logistics of Puerto Rico's Governor and her political party (PPD).

Governor Sila Maria Calderon has used this issue first to advance her cause during the elections and second to take command of this movement. By making it an official cause she has essentially pacified it. Throughout the island's history, revolutionaries and independence-seekers (though different in nature) have been marginalized, persecuted, attacked, incarcerated and killed by the Federal government and by its main collaborator, the PPD, the party in power! So now this party has officially taken command of the struggle, thereby weakening it and promoting disinterest amongst the workers.

The local government can also always count on the "usual suspects" for help. Recently more professional advocates of human causes like Robert Kennedy, Jr. and Dennis Rivera have visited the islands of Puerto Rico and Vieques and have gotten themselves arrested in solidarity with the leaders of the reformist movement. The latest was Jesse Jackson's wife. She was viewed by all as she trespassed through a hole in the fence and waited to be arrested, proclaiming that her "actions were justified because they were inspired by humanitarian righteousness." She didn't specify when or how, but added that the people of Vieques had the right to live in peace and that this struggle would be won.

Most Puerto Ricans view her intervention (as well as others like Edward J. Olmos, Al Sharpton, etc.) as comical. The island's workers didn't identify with her presence or actions. We were upset that once again we were invaded, even in our own struggles. Many Puerto Ricans told me they were witnessing an attempt to revitalize a Kennedy-type liberal movement with the visits of these professional activists.

There is dissatisfaction everywhere. The daily news reports yet another government official attempting to steal public funds. Outsiders would think that these politicians are persecuted because it happens so often. Meanwhile, the workers face murders, robberies, mass firings, mental health issues, fathers sexually attacking their natural or stepdaughters. Another phenomena are the recurrent births of Siamese twins and the struggle to gather enough money to operate for a successful disconnection. The powers-that-be lack the courage to state that these births are not "blessings from God" but really the result of contamination of our food and the environment.

Communism is the real and only solution to these dramas here. The workers are ready to hear and see something different. It will not be as easy as it sounds. Repression here is very real. The island of Puerto Rico is their "jewel," as the armed forces have stated on many occasions. The bosses with their mercenaries will not tolerate an attack on their training site and base of Operations for the Americas. But it shall be done and subsequent reports will verify our progress.

A Comrade in Puerto Rico

Did U.S. Navy Missile Down TWA 800?

On the fifth anniversary of the crash of TWA flight 800, Long Island Newsday (7/15) has reawakened claims that a missile, not a mechanical problem, was responsible for killing all 230 people aboard. Scores of eyewitnesses, who testified to seeing "a streak of light" shooting towards the plane moments before it exploded, were ignored or dismissed by the FBI and other government agencies.

According to The Downing of TWA Flight 800 (James Sanders, 1997), just as Flight 800 was in its final boarding process at 8:00 P.M. on July 17, 1996, the U.S. Navy activated military zone W-105 for the final testing of a new tracking system. This zone covers thousands of square miles south and southeast of Long Island.

Since the end of the Persian Gulf War, the military had been developing a multi-billion dollar radar tracking system to distinguish "friend" and "foe," among commercial aircraft and hostile missiles. They chose this area off Long Island to test the new targeting software because it was as close to the Persian Gulf environment as they could get without leaving U.S. coastal waters.

The Navy launched a pilot-less drone "hostile" target near Shinnecock Bay, at about the same time Flight 800 was leaving Kennedy airport. A Navy Standard anti-missile missile was then launched from the east to "attack" the drone missile. Its on-board computer was supposed to lock in on the drone target.

As TWA 800 headed east it unknowingly crossed into the military exercise zone. The missile's on-board electronic receiver waited for commands from the Navy task force below, but heavy electronic jamming caused the tracking system to go blind (as it had in two earlier tests). The anti-missile missile, no longer under Navy control, continued westward at 3,000 feet per second "searching" for a target. Its radar locked in on TWA 800, painting an electronic bull's-eye just in front of the right wing. Then it slammed into the fuselage at full speed, just below the passenger cabin, slicing through and exiting the plane's left side.

A Federal Aviation radar technician filed a report saying he saw "conflicting radar tracks that indicated a missile" approaching Flight 800 just before it disappeared from radar. Two officers of the New York Air National Guard piloting an HH-106 helicopter saw "something" traveling from east to west slam into Flight 800 and saw it break up and crash into the ocean. They were close enough to see bodies falling into the water.

With Clinton's re-nomination only weeks away, a massive cover-up began to hide the fact that a mis-directed Navy missile had killed 230 U.S. and French citizens. Gradually, the few clues discovered by a few reporters were neutralized. A ruling class that killed half a million Iraqi civilians in the 1991 Gulf War could easily dismiss 230 civilian guinea pigs to develop a weapons system to kill millions more to protect their profits.

A Brooklyn Old-timer

1. New Labor Aristocracy Undercuts Working Class
   1. TENS OF MILLIONS STILL
      SUFFERING
   2. Labor Force Changes, Exploitation Remains
   3. 16 million Unemployed and Counting....
2. Fighting fascists in Morristown, NJ
3. Workers and Youth Salute PLP Marchers
4. FLASH: MORRISTOWN
5. BACK V&V SUPREMO STRIKE
   `Take what is ours!
6. Trust a Capitalist Politician and Lose Your Job
7. Haitian and Dominican Workers Unite to Fight Free Trade Zones Bosses
8. PLP Organizes Political School Uniting Workers from Both Sides of the Island
9. Union Hacks Betray Mass Workers' Protests
10. Garment Workers Show the Source of Bosses' Profits
11. What We Must Teach Our Youth: Change the World!
12. The Profit System Spawns Racism
13. A Trip to Havana
    Workers in Cuba and All Over the World Need Communist Political Consciousness
14. The Myth of a Magic Gene
15. Book Review: No Limits to U.S Rulers' Horrors
    1. UNDUE RISK: SECRET STATE EXPERIMENTS ON HUMANS
       by Jonathan D. Moreno
16. LETTERS
    Workers of the World. Write!
    1. Grad Exposes Harvard's Racism
    2. Chief French Imperialist A Trot Mole
    3. Cooking Communism in A Soup Kitchen
    4. Communism for the Soul
    5. Dr. Bethune's Rx: Serve the People
    6. PLP'ers Take on Racist Wage Schemes

---

Editorial

New Labor Aristocracy Undercuts Working Class

The fight for communism requires a long-range outlook. A crucial part of this process involves the ability to evaluate our efforts and their results. For example, many Party members, especially young comrades and teachers, worked very hard to organize for May Day. Yet the results were modest. Basically, we held our ground. How can we explain this contradiction between improved effort and relatively unchanged results?

In the first place, holding one's own in the present period is no small accomplishment for our Party. We live in a time when every major process that would favor revolutionary growth has been significantly retarded. These are the lingering negative effects of the collapse of the old communist movement. We're fighting a long uphill battle.

The old movement's demise generated new contradictions and continued the relative supremacy of U.S. imperialism. At present, U.S. imperialists remain in the driver's seat. While they face serious internal problems and challenges on every front, we must understand their present strength, in order to evaluate our efforts and make proper estimates.

The U.S. economy remains dominant despite the "business cycle" and the ongoing problems of overproduction. Even though the long boom has ended and a recession may well be under way, this doesn't necessarily mean imminent economic crisis for U.S. capitalists. The bosses have the potential to recover from a recession, even a severe one. As long as they hold state power, their system will continue, no matter how severe their economic downturns. Only communist revolution can topple capitalism.

TENS OF MILLIONS STILL
SUFFERING

Racist poverty, fascist slave labor and the destruction of social services, have become permanent features for tens of millions of U.S. workers. The end of the boom has brought layoffs in every industry, including high tech. All these developments offer opportunities to raise our political line and to lead workers in class struggle.

The supremacy of U.S. information technology has brought about a number of significant changes in the economy, which for the time being, are not in our favor. One is the rise of a new "aristocracy of labor," to use a term coined by the great revolutionary communist, Vladimir Lenin.

As Lenin pointed out, "Certain strata of the working class (the bureaucracy of the labor movement and the labor aristocracy)" get "a fraction of the profits from the exploitation of the colonies and from the privileged position of their `fatherlands' in the world market." The imperialists' ability to throw some crumbs to these workers spreads tremendous illusions, not only among those who get the crumbs but among the rest of the working class as well.

In the period following World War II, the U.S. "labor aristocracy" consisted, among others, of building trades and aerospace workers, tool and dye makers, printers, railroad operating crafts, etc. Their position of relative privilege made them a convenient buffer protecting the big bosses from the more viciously exploited sections of workers. Many bought into racism and backed the war of genocide in Vietnam.

The face of this "labor aristocracy" is now changing, as an economic result of the boom in information technology (see box). The rulers enjoy a free hand to create this new division in the working class largely thanks to the complete capitulation of the union leaders who, over the past 25 years, have dropped all pretense of leading class struggle and now openly back a capitalist/fascist agenda.

Business spending for information technology now accounts for 7% of the entire U.S. economy (New York Times, 4/28). This translates into hundreds of billions of dollars. To cushion themselves against the potential militancy of other workers, the rulers bribe this new "aristocracy." For example, in greater New York City, which leads the U.S. in the creation of these jobs, the average salary for new media positions is $80,010, more than double the citywide average for all industries excluding the securities sector.

An economy that can continue to create hundreds of thousands of jobs such as these isn't likely to collapse any time soon. U.S. world domination may continue for a good number of years. However, an economy heavily influenced by war production and by the need to protect U.S. imperialism's worldwide supremacy confronts the rulers with additional contradictions, which will sharpen over time.

Our job remains the same regardless of the difficult objective conditions we face. Even under the toughest of circumstances, we can grow. We can steel ourselves both ideologically and in practice. Our recent experiences in Washington, D.C. Metro, in the fight against fascism and state terror in Morristown, N.J., in the Cincinnati anti-racist rebellion, the Harvard sit-in, and elsewhere prove that we can play an important role under any and all conditions. Workers, soldiers, students and others will seriously consider a communist analysis and respect the efforts of dedicated communists.

The current relative privilege of the new "labor aristocracy" will not last forever. The low level of class struggle will turn into its opposite. The work we do now will enable us to grow more dramatically when the system inevitably enters a crisis. Even some of the "labor aristocracy" will eventually become open to our ideas.

If, for the foreseeable future, hard work yields modest results, so be it. We have a crucial role to play, on every front and among every section of the workers. A lifetime commitment to serve the working class and fighting for communist revolution remains the best choice anyone can make.

Labor Force Changes, Exploitation Remains

According to the current Statistical Abstract of the United States, between 1983 and 1999 the number of employed grew from 100,834,000 to 133,488,000. In that time, those employed in managerial or professional specialties rose from 23,592,000 to 40,467,000. Within this category, systems analysts went from 276,000 to 1,549,000, and medicine and health managers from 91,000 to 716,000.

Machine operators, on the other hand, fell from 7,744,000 to 7,386,000.

From 1980 to 1999, jobs in manufacturing as a whole dropped from 21,942,000 to 20,070,000, while employment in services jumped from 28,752,000 to 48,687,000.

Most of these service jobs pay poorly. And production workers are suffering both pay cuts through tiered wage systems and elimination. But among an important sector of skilled workers, the rulers are fostering a false identity of "professional" or "manager." Now everybody's a manager or professional. The glorified clerk who denies people services at an HMO is now a "health services manager.

The Abstract foresees the largest job growth in computer systems analysts, which it predicts will double by 2008. Systems analysts today earn more than $100,000 a year.

Naturally there's a racist aspect to the transformation of the labor aristocracy. Black workers hold 15.5% of the jobs in the declining machine operator sector but only 7.4% in the growing systems analyst category. Black workers constitute 11.3% of the workforce.

16 million Unemployed and Counting....

The government has been reporting unemployment figures as the lowest in decades, 4.4% in May. That represents 6.2 million people out of work. But they've been conveniently omitting or playing down several other categories to avoid revealing the real number of jobless:

* Out of work but not looking in previous four weeks -- 5.2 million.

* Holding part-time jobs because cannot find full-time work -- 3.4 million (the government counts workers "employed" if they work one hour a week)

* Officially unemployed -- 6.2 million

* Total -- 14.8 million (or 10%, more than double the "official" rate).

However, that's not the whole story. There are 2 million in federal, state or local jails. Of those approximately two-thirds are non-violent offenders (mostly drug possession) who in most countries would not be in prison at all (rehab, community service, fines). At least another 1.2 million of those in prison would most likely be jobless or, if hired, replace someone else who's working. (The French media says the U.S. "jails its unemployment problem.") Add that 1.2 million to the above 14.8 million, and the total jobless figure rises to 16 million. or 11.3%.

And how does one figure in the jobless who've joined the military because they can't find work (but are no longer counted as unemployed)? And what about the millions still on welfare who would be working if decent jobs and daycare were available (also not counted as unemployed)?

So the real unemployment total is nearly triple the 6.2 million reported. Figures don't lie but liars do figure....

At the same time, we should understand that unemployment is an integral part of the capitalist system. The bosses need a "reserve army of unemployed" to drive wages down. They try to hide this by not publicizing the true extent of joblessness. Meanwhile, they force hundreds of thousands of prisoners to work as slave laborers at a few cents an hour, creating another thriving profitable business from building more prisons to "house" them. Many sections of the capitalist cash in from this racket.

But so far U.S. capitalism has been able to handle the current number of unemployed, even creating new, still-lower-wage jobs. Their ability to continue to handle it depends partly on how much worse their crisis gets and partly on how fiercely the working class fights back. Communists in PLP can give leadership to that struggle, and more importantly, turn it into a "school for communism."

Fighting fascists in Morristown, NJ

MORRISTOWN, NJ, July 2 -- When asked why he hadn't stood up to the Nazis when they first came to power, a famous German pastor said he thought the fascists were going after people who he thought were "different" from him. When the Nazis finally came for him, he said, there was no one else left to fight back.

Politicians and church leaders were urging the anti-racist population of Morristown to stay home during a fascist rally July 4 honoring four racist killer cops. It's up to the working class of this whole area to not repeat the mistake made in Germany. PLP has confidence that workers, if not betrayed again, will make the right decision.

Hogan, Kenna, Roach, and Robertson are all guilty of shooting unarmed black people. If there were any justice in this racist system, these cops would have been executed or jailed long ago. The "Grand Marshal" for the Nationalists' Nazi rally is Steve Ucci. Ucci puts out flyers congratulating the cops for their murderous racism. Ucci used to work security at the Morris County Courthouse. This is the same courthouse where six anti-racists will be standing trial for fighting back against racism at last year's fascist rally.

Racism is rearing its ugly head here. There is frequent police harassment of immigrant day laborers. The same politicians telling people to stay away from the fascist rally were considering passing an ordinance to prevent day laborers from standing on the street! If the fascists' base of support grows in this city, we can expect stepped-up anti-immigrant, anti-black and anti-Latin racism.

Liberal politicians and clergy deplore the Nationalists' racism, but tell us that: (1) if we ignore the racists, they'll go away; and (2) the racists must be allowed to "speak their mind." Bot are deadly errors. Racism has a bloody 350-year history in the U.S.. It is deeply entrenched and has caused millions of deaths. These gutter racists are part of capitalism. The capitalist system needs racism to divide the working class, which helps bosses more easily make super-profits off the labor of immigrant, black and other more exploited workers.

Racism is on the rise nationally. It is the cutting edge of a developing U.S. police state. Rampant police terror is rarely, if ever, punished by the legal system. The U.S. has jailed 2,000,000, the largest prison population in the world, 70% black and Latin. Workfare, sanctions and time limits for welfare are ravaging countless households. A score of racist immigration laws is on the books and is being used to terrorize the immigrant population. In this political climate, open fascist scum like Ucci and Richard Barrett -- head of the fascist Nationalist scum -- feel safe to crawl out from under their rocks.

The majority of Morristown residents are against racism. But staying at home or going to the "other side of town" on the 4th will not make the fascists disappear. History's lesson is clear: whether it be the struggle against slavery, or the fight against fascism, racism must be confronted, fought and ultimately defeated. PLP will be in Morristown on July 4 again this year. The communist movement, and PLP in particular, has a long and proud history of anti-fascist struggle. Communist revolution will put an end to the bosses' racist system. Join us on July 4!

Workers and Youth Salute PLP Marchers

MORRISTOWN, NJ, July 1 -- Fresh from attending a 4-day cadre school filled with ideological struggle, over 50 enthusiastic members and friends of PLP put their theory into practice, militantly marching through an apartment complex and onto a main street here to rally support for a counter-demonstration against the fascist Nationalist movement on July 4.

Black and Latin workers proudly raised clenched fists as we passed by chanting in English and Spanish, "The workers, united, will never be defeated!" Local politicians and clergy are attempting to intimidate and divert many residents into staying home on the Fourth.

We were asking all to demonstrate against these fascists. During the march many came out and said they would join the counter-demonstration against Richard Barrett's racist Nationalist Movement.

After we strode through the working-class Manahan Apartment Complex, we stepped out onto Speedwell Avenue to be greeted by many workers and honking car horns. Just as it began raining, our bus arrived to pick us up. The cops, who we had caught by surprise and hadn't arrived till the very end, were confused. They threatened to ticket our bus driver if he didn't leave and then threatened to arrest us because we had no permit. We chanted even louder. Workers and youth came to their windows and stepped out of nearby convenience stores to grab our leaflets.

We were scheduling many activities in the days before and on the Fourth to insure that our working-class brothers and sisters demonstrate against this racist filth. ALL OUT AGAINST THE FASCIST NATIONALIST MOVEMENT!

FLASH: MORRISTOWN

MORRISTOWN, New Jersey, July 4--"Die fascist, die" chanted hundreds of anti-racist black, Latin and white demonstrators as Richard Barrett held his "independence from crime" rally here, "honoring" the cops guilty of shooting at black and Latin youth riding in a van. He also honored the cop guilty of shooting an unarmed young black man in Cincinnati, sparking a mass rebellion in that city in April.

While he read a 3-hour speech, the anti-racists shouted him down. Nobody heard his racist filth. Earlier, two young anti-racists infiltrated the heavy police protection that Barrett received (350 cops from 36 municipalities) and tore down the flag of the racists and threw the flags into the street. They cut off the switches of his sound system, which never worked again, and kicked the speakers onto the floor, before they were arrested by the cops.

Barrett's rally was a total flop. Last year, he drew six racists, this year there was only him and two other fascists. The "march" around Morris County courthouse was just Barrett alone after his two supporters chickened out.

PLP is proud of playing a leading role in mobilizing workers and youth to show fascist scum like Barrett and his cop friends that it is not safe to be a gutter racist. More next time in CHALLENGE!

BACK V&V SUPREMO STRIKE
`Take what is ours!

CHICAGO, IL', July 1 -- "We are conscious of what we are doing. We are not taking their crumbs. We will take what is ours!" declared one worker at a rally as the strike against V&V Supremo entered its second month. Workers voted to be represented by Teamsters Local 703 and are striking to get their first contract. They've given a very warm welcome to PLP and CHALLENGE.

V&V Supremo makes cheese and sour cream for restaurants and supermarkets. They netted $71 million last year, stolen from the workers who earn as little as $5.65/hour. One worker with over 20 years seniority is making $8.00/hour. Workers pay for their own health insurance which doesn't cover their families. Many put in 50-70 hour weeks, and aren't paid the overtime.

The Villasenor brothers have hired professional strikebreakers to videotape every move the strikers make. But these cowards always remain safely out of reach. For what they're spending on strike-breaking, they could have signed a contract.

This strike exposes nationalism as a false allegiance. The Villasenor family (from Mexico) has grown rich off the super-exploitation of Mexican immigrant workers. A boss is a boss. PLP says that working people have no nation, that we should smash all borders! "Workers of the World, Unite!"

The Teamsters have not contributed one dollar to help sustain the striking workers. With tens of thousands of members in the Chicago area, and hundreds of millions of dollars, the Teamster leadership has left the strikers high and dry. In contrast, we are organizing strike support among postal and Cook County Hospital workers and will participate in a fund-raising dinner.

All workers should support the Supremo strike! Walk the picket lines. Donate money and food. But even a successful strike will not solve our problems. Just ask 1.5 million other Teamsters, steel workers and others threatened with plant closings.

As long as the bosses hold power, we will always be wage slaves fighting for p[ennies, facing racist police terror, anti-immigrant attacks, unemployment and endless wars. Whatever we win will always be taken back. That's why hundreds of electrical workers are on strike against ComEd and thousands of bus drivers are threatening to walk out. Capitalism is an endless struggle just to survive.

Only communist revolution will put our class in power and abolish wage slavery. We will produce what we need, not what makes the Supremo bosses rich. The striker is right; we must "take what is ours." This strike can help us learn how.

Trust a Capitalist Politician and Lose Your Job

NEW YORK CITY, July 1 -- You can't trust a capitalist politician as far as you can spit. When the Swingline stapler manufacturer told its workers four years ago it was moving to Mexico, Mayor Giuliani made what he called an "ironclad promise": "Any person that wants a job...we will be able to find a job for." The workers were headed "to a better career and a better future," he declared.

Here's the situation four years later (as reported in the NY Daily News, 7/1):

* The News tracked down nearly two dozen former Swingline workers and found no one who obtained a job through the city's assistance or knew of anyone who did;

* Those lucky enough to find jobs work for a lot less pay and get fewer benefit (no "better career and future" for them);

* Betty Garham, 55, at Swingline for 20 years at $13.50 an hour, survives on disability benefits from ailments contracted at Swingline;

* Laurine Gibbons, 61, got her G.E.D. but hasn't found work since;

* Julie Edge, 55, earned $14 an hour after 33 years at Swingline, saw her unemployment checks end in April and is still hunting for work ("I'm trying to find a job before I spend all my savings");

* Many Swingline workers "called their two years of federally-funded classes or job training [remember NAFTA's big promise?] a waste, saying it did little to help them compete for new jobs."

When the bosses, under Clinton, instituted NAFTA, Swingline was the first outfit here to shut down under that pact. Its purpose was to make it "easier for companies to move even further away in their quest to cut costs." In Nogales, Mexico, Swingline pays workers a dollar an hour.

Republican Giuliani, Democrat Clinton & Co. all serve capitalism. Capitalists will grind down workers as low as they can in their drive for maximum profits. Contrary to most union leaders who blame workers in other countries for exploitation here, communists fight for the slogan "Workers of the World, Unite" to abolish wage slavery with communist revolution.

Haitian and Dominican Workers Unite to Fight Free Trade Zones Bosses

SANTIAGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, June 18-- Unions and community groups organized nationwide protests, shutting down most of the country. Thousands of workers and youth participated in marches against the government, the utility bosses and jacked-up food prices. PLP has called on these angry workers to join in building a movement to end this hell of capitalism.

While there is a building boom of dozens of luxury high rises in the capital city of Santo Domingo, for most of the people capitalism's economic crisis is making life even more miserable. The rulers are incapable of providing electricity and other basic services to most of the population. This is leading workers and their allies to mass protests, which can be turned into a school for communism. The system doesn't serve the working class. It must be smashed. Production must be organized for the needs of workers instead of the profits of local and imperialist bosses.

The rulers are privatizing public enterprises. The previous government of President Leonel Fernández and the Liberation Party (PLD) gave the electric company to Union Fenosa of Spain, saying the government could no longer afford to "subsidize" public utilities due to rising oil prices.

Last year, social-democratic landlord Hipolito Mejia (PRD party) became the new President. He promised to "revise" the deal with Union Fenosa. He increased its subsidy while they blacked out working-class neighborhoods up to 14 hours a day.

We must convert the growing anger and militancy into winning many workers and others to our Party. We must participate in all the struggles to show that the system cannot be reformed and must be smashed with communist revolution.

PLP Organizes Political School Uniting Workers from Both Sides of the Island

In early June, PLP organized a political school of three dozen comrades and friends working in the free trade zones. In some shops, the bosses wanted workers to work for free on Saturday. PLP comrades struggled with co-workers to refuse work on those days. With production based on the modular system, if some workers are absent, nothing can be produced.

We discussed factory conditions, how to build the Party and how to use CHALLENGE as an organizer against the bosses. A group of Haitian comrades also participated. Local bosses are planning to set up free trade shops in Haiti and at the border (Haiti and Dominican Rep. share the same island). Plans were made to coordinate our organizing efforts,

and create a Workers' Forum to unite free trade zone workers and win them to PLP. We're planning a PLP meeting in Haiti with workers from both sides of the border. Since May Day, several workers have joined the Party. This is the best way to take the offensive against our exploiters.

Union Hacks Betray Mass Workers' Protests

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- Thousands of health workers, teachers, students and parents protested in all the major cities here against growing unemployment, state-sponsored terrorism, continuing increases in the cost of public services and against the so-called labor reform laws. The latter make it easier for bosses to attack the few rights workers still have left. Workers also protested the recently-enacted Law 012, which will cut $1.3 billion in government services under the austerity measures demanded by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. These cutbacks will eliminate 2.3 million from state-subsidized health services and 1.2 million seats in public schools. Consequently masses of teachers and public health workers will be laid off and workers will have to pay more to educate their children.

Mass anger was fueled by these cuts occurring simultaneously with billions being spent on Plan Colombia (the U.S. scheme to finance the government's war against the guerrillas). The cops brutally attacked protestors, armed with sticks, trying to storm the Parliament building, injuring many, including school children. The protestors fought back against the rulers' fascist goons.

Unfortunately, these militant workers and youth were misled by hacks from the unions of teachers and of health care workers. These traitors try to channel the anger of the masses into the dead-end electoral circus, pushing their respective candidates.

The PLP group here participated in all these protests, distributing our literature and agitating with our revolutionary chants and speeches. A comrade gave several talks in schools, exposing to parents, teachers and students the capitalist essence of the little learning they do receive. This education emphasizes the system's class divisions needed to keep reaping profits from workers' labor and building illusions in their system. The comrade said that under communism, education will serve workers' needs and the understanding of society will be based on dialectical and historical materialism. Communism will use the experiences of the history of humanity to build a new society without wage slavery, imperialist war or death squads.

Garment Workers Show the Source of Bosses' Profits

LOS ANGELES, June 30 -- "We demand a guaranteed minimum wage every week! We don't come to play on the machines," declared one of more than ten garment workers, including a Chinese worker, who stopped work to confront the boss. "We work very hard but the prices for each piece are too low to make minimum wage," she charged.

"I can't guarantee the minimum," said the boss. "If in a week you make $100, even though you work 40 hours, I can't just give you $150 to make the minimum wage."

"Well, you'll have to or we're all leaving because the prices are too low to make even the pitiful minimum wage," declared another worker.

Finally the boss reluctantly agreed to guarantee the minimum wage every week.

Since this new factory opened, the bosses said they wouldn't guarantee the minimum. No matter how many hours we worked, they'd only pay us what we made by the piece. They gave one operator $50 for 2_ days. The boss is robbing virtually everything we workers produce -- that's his profit.

The competition among garment bosses for maximum profits drives them to pay the lowest possible wage, lowering the prices paid per piece. It's so low that even workers with 15 or 20 years experience who put in 40 hours don't make the minimum wage. Workers feel pressure to speed up, and even feel guilty for not producing enough to feed their families. Then the bosses say they're "victimized" by these workers, as if they're "giving away" money!

Three partners own this factory, one white, one Arab and a Latino, all focused on reaping maximum profits. We exposed their lie of "not making enough to pay the minimum wage." We declared that our labor produces the value the boss gets from selling the clothes. That's why many workers were ready to strike.

This small victory excited many of our fellow workers. But some workers are worried. This factory is expanding and some workers fear that as more workers are hired, we'll lose the unity we gained in this struggle. But we've said we can take advantage of this, making friends with the new workers and winning them to unite and fight the bosses.

One striker said she's ready to help organize a union. We're fighting to organize a factory struggle committee. We'll combine plans to fight back with plans to expose the bosses' drive for maximum profits as being the source of our problems. We will also increase CHALLENGE circulation.

This is a good beginning on a long road of struggles, getting to know each other better and distributing CHALLENGE, our crucial weapon against the profit-driven bosses.

What We Must Teach Our Youth: Change the World!

LOS ANGELES, July 2 -- "These people don't think our kids can learn!" whispered a teacher in the Bilingual Education Committee of the LA teachers union as she sat in the California Caucus of the National Education Association Representative Assembly here. A state NEA official was rattling off statistics about the large numbers of poor, non-white and non-English speaking California school children. His point was that despite the state's wealth, it doesn't spend enough on education. And more money is needed because these students are supposedly "harder to educate." Of course we fight for more money, particularly in the overcrowded, rundown, understaffed schools which working-class students are forced to attend, but that's not the main battle we must win in order for all students to learn.

Conditions in capitalist schools and neighborhoods teach working-class students that society doesn't value them or their parents. It tells them the only way to have a decent life is to escape the working class. The curriculum justifies the capitalist system. ROTC openly recruits students to be cannon fodder in imperialist wars. No wonder students don't trust the schools that claim to be helping them.

When the working class holds state power, students will be liberated to learn without the alienation so prevalent in capitalism's schools. Students and their families will know that there are no bosses to exploit their labor, that the fruits of their labor go to the working class and that the more they learn the better they can help the whole society. Evidence? Successful literacy campaigns in the Soviet Union and China when they had workers' rule contrasted with the failure of UNESCO campaigns to replicate these results in poor countries which suffer capitalist oppression.

This implies that the politics of education are crucial. When teachers join with their students to change society while educating them, students see their education differently. They see that they can and must learn everything they need to understand the world and how to change it. In this struggle, the relationship between teacher and student becomes one of comrades, each learning from the other.

PLP teachers at the NEA convention have fought for a resolution declaring that all students can learn. The resolution emphasizes the role of racist ideology in justifying class oppression and winning teachers to the racist and anti-working class notion that our students "can't learn." We're also fighting for a resolution defending Joan Heymont, a NYC PLP member given an unsatisfactory rating for putting this into practice.

Our kids -- the children of wage slaves and the wage slaves of the future -- can and must learn all they need to know to liberate our class. Communist teachers are allying with our friends, like the ones in the Bilingual Education committee, to fight to teach, and to teach our children to fight for a communist future.

The Profit System Spawns Racism

The day-to-day struggles at this large East Coast hospital allow PLP members to bring up many of our Party's ideas.

For example, in a recent ugly racial incident, a black transportation aide (escort) said a white nurse had called her a "black b----." The aide, a temporary worker, has no rights under the union contract, cannot be represented by the union and can be fired at any time. But our Party has been active here for many years, especially in anti-racist fights. The hospital bosses, well aware of what would happen if they denied the aide representation, gave in and allowed union representation for the aide.

However, the bosses refused to allow one of the more "political" union delegates to represent the aide because he's considered a "rabble-rouser." This "rabble-rouser" is the designated union delegate for the Transportation workers, but the hospital bosses demanded a union delegate from a completely different branch of the hospital.

Secret meetings were arranged with the aide to avoid involving the "political" delegate. No matter. The Party's years of activity and-building relationships with workers guaranteed we'd know everything that happened.

The nurse then claimed she didn't use the epithet towards the aide. Yet the nurse admitted she "might have said something," she just "couldn't remember" what. Had the nurse then told the aide, "If I said anything to offend you, I apologize," it would have cooled things and satisfied the aide who only wanted an apology. But no. The nurse refused to apologize. And to her credit, the aide -- who could have been fired at any time with no legal recourse -- refused to accept the situation. She, the escort workers and the "political rabble-rouser" continued a campaign for an apology, simply demanding that the bosses let the nurse and the aide meet themselves and talk it out. Plans were made with the escorts to respond if the aide was fired. Hospital bosses at the highest levels took over the case to cover it up. They even issued their own "apology" for the nurse!

"Why won't the nurse just apologize?" asked two transportation workers, one a regular CHALLENGE reader. "Why are the Nursing and Human Resources (HRD) bosses trying to keep this thing going?"

"To me it comes from the class system we live under," said the "rabble-rouser." "The capitalist class wants workers to accept the class system as some kind of "natural law" so we don't overthrow them. They impose their class system and racism on everything, even among the workers. We're supposed to believe that nurses are `better' than transportation aides, that white workers are `better' than black workers," he continued. "Fights between workers of different colors only benefit the bosses because it keeps us divided. The only hope I know of for a classless society without racism is communism."

So far there's still no apology. Last week an anonymous newsletter appeared in the locker rooms, with one article about the racial incident. Someone had written:

"Apparently the Nursing and HRD bosses are determined to keep these racial divisions going. Problems like this keep nurses and other workers divided when we need to unite to fight for more workers to provide for better patient care.

"We encourage the nurse and the transportation aide to sit down together and put this matter behind them. Keep the Nursing and HRD bosses out of it. Obviously they're only interested in making things worse.

But if the nurse is so racist that she won't apologize, we don't need her taking care of patients of any color or `race'!"

A Trip to Havana
Workers in Cuba and All Over the World Need Communist Political Consciousness

I recently went on a church-sponsored trip to Cuba. Our delegation visited a school, a clinic, a church-run neighborhood organization, an English-speaking church, a seminary, as well as tourist places -- restaurants, beaches, museums and Old Havana. We talked to top officials at the Cuban Council of Churches, the Yoruba museum, a member of Parliament and an official of the Ministry of Religions of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party.

Our visit and many others helps both the Cuban government and U.S. imperialists. Recently David Rockefeller met with Fidel Castro in Havana, indicating the desire by the Eastern Establishment to invest in Cuba and exploit its workers and markets. This section of the U.S. bosses wants to compete with its European imperialist rivals who are far ahead of them, especially in the tourism industry. At our licensed bed and breakfast my hostess said her husband works for a joint oil-drilling venture between the Cuban government and the France's Total. "Esso is there, too," she added.

For some time the Cuban government has courted U.S. groups, and European groups, as one community leader said, "... to relate to black churches and civil rights groups, particularly in the southern U.S., and to attract solidarity [money and materials] from abroad." Trips like ours, and those sponsored by the "Pastors for Peace" movement -- to "know Cuba and show solidarity with the Cuban people" (thereby politically isolating the Miami exile Cubans) -- have been increasing since the Elián case.

Despite the managed, staged aspects of the trip, we learned a lot. The U.S. travelers had various anti-communist concepts, but also sincerely wanted to learn about socialism. In touring, light conversation -- tropical scenery, weather, the warmth of the Cuban people and the lure of the sun and salsa -- turned to deep political discussion.

"How do your teams work in developing young people with Downs syndrome?" asked a visitor to the Cuban director of the school. "Our teams include doctors, psychologists, social and physical therapists, teachers," he replied, "but also the families and the young people themselves. We nourish each other." "What's the relationship between the number of staff to Downs young people?" "Each team works with about 10. Here they're testing organic fertilizers and pest control."

I asked some taxi drivers about wages. "We are simple workers and receive 160 pesos a month," one replied. The top work category of professionals, engineers, doctors, etc., receive 800 pesos a month."

"What about factory workers?" "They work eight hours with a morning, afternoon and lunch break. They work hard, are simple workers, like us." (But with no dollar tips.)

"What do you think about a society without a money and wage system in which one can be both a factory worker and a doctor?" I asked. "Do you mean like in the U.S. where workers can work two jobs to earn more money? Here we can work only one job." "No," I said, "I mean a communist society where work would not be measured by wages and workers can do different kinds of work." "We never heard about that, but we'll think about it," one driver answered. "Are workers here politically conscious?" I continued. "Have you studied dialectical materialism?" "Well, we use to, but not now. We have a class society. It's gotten worse since the `special period' [the collapse of the Soviet Union] because the government is accommodating the imperialists." "So, you're politically conscious, " I replied.

"What's the difference between socialism and communism?" a U.S. traveler asked a Central Committee member. "Well, socialism is what we're after. It's real. Marxism-Leninism is a theory, a guide, how we study history." "Why are there only 500,000 members of the Communist Party in a country of 11 million?" asked another traveler. "We're a vanguard party..." Not very satisfying answers, leading to interesting discussion later.

"This experience is changing me deeply," a friend told me as we drank beer at a tourist marina in Havana, a marina illegally frequented by travelers in fancy yachts with both Cuban and U.S. flags (just 90 miles from Florida). Abundant contradictions, open and hidden.

The collapse of the socialist bloc has led to cynicism and discouraged workers and their allies. But far from being dead, the "socialist experience" is also leading to questions that can help rebuild a communist international movement: What will a communist system without wages look like? How will production and distribution for need work? How will the working class hold power under the dictatorship of the proletariat? How will a mass communist party function? How and why is politics primary over production? How will internationalist working-class solidarity function? How can the communist Party fight for political education of masses of workers?

The world's working class must face these questions. Now PLP's young workers and students in must take leadership in this ideological struggle.

The Myth of a Magic Gene

Hardly a week goes by without front-page pronouncements about a gene for this or a gene for that. Their purpose is to convince us there is an entity controlling our very nature. The rulers want us to believe that genes limit human potential. They tell us there's a gene for everything from math skills to a propensity for violence. The bosses have mystified "the gene." They want us to believe our brain is not in control of our behavior. The false idea of "genetically limited" portions of the population enables the bosses to justify the inequality of capitalism.

Biologists have long known that all life resides in the cell. Each cell has the potential to react to changes in the environment and to reproduce. In fact they must change their functioning to survive ever-changing environments. The trillion cells that make up the human body rely on the contribution of each cell to maintain the life process in the face of changing environments.

In the human body, liver cells process foodstuffs, the cardiac cells pump blood, the red blood cells take oxygen to the other tissues. Each cell type contributes to the well being of the organism. So what do genes do?

In each cell there is a repository of information to make chains of amino acids, which are later processed into proteins by the cellular machinery. A good analogy of the gene is the cookbook. Say you want to make sweet potato pie. First you take the cookbook off the shelf and open it. Then you read off the ingredients. Then you measure out (process) the ingredients, mix the ingredients and then bake your pie. The cookbook would be the genes. The baker is the cell. Did the cookbook make the pie? Did it even know that you wanted a sweet potato pie? Does it know what happens to the pie once the ingredients are read off? No, and neither do genes.

In order for the code of the gene to be read, certain molecules must act on the DNA. Transcription factors (protein) must first bind to the DNA so that another molecule, RNA polymerase, can read off the code. Does the gene decide to make a certain protein? No, the cellular machinery sensing a changing environment needed a molecule to help the life process adjust to the changing environment. The cell produced or imported transcription factors that go to a specific portion of the DNA and read off the ingredients for making the protein the cell needs. The code is locked up until the cellular machinery decides to "look something up." Then and only then is the DNA molecule unwrapped (opened) to read off the code.

The bosses' scientists want to convince us that genes have a mind of their own. They tell us that genes determine the ultimate outcome of our lives. But the cell is the functional unit of life, using all of its components to maintain the life process. DNA is just one component necessary to carry out the life process.

Genes do not control the events of the cell. Cellular machinery positioned between the DNA and the environment controls the genes' output. When a certain gene needs to be expressed, the cellular machinery activates that portion of the DNA containing the gene. The genes themselves don't decide to express themselves. "Nature vs. nurture," is a false argument. The environment, inside and outside the organism interacts with the environment of the cell. The life process adjusts itself by adjusting the production of cellular components. Sometimes these adjustments require the readout of the genes and sometimes not. The collective activities of trillions of cells in our body determine which strategies allow survival. Much of this is recorded in the genes and replayed when the cells require it.

But what about "I look just like my Dad?" The result of processing the genetic information results in similar organisms. If you follow the recipe for sweet potato pie, you get a similar, but not exactly the same pie every time. If you bake the pie at different temperatures, the results will vary. The cookbook has no control over what happens after you read off the ingredients. The cookbook doesn't decide whether to make sweet potato pie or chop suey.

Even if human cloning was successful, the outcome could not be the exact copy. "Cellular noise" causes the gene readout to vary each time. Each individual has its own microenvironment that influences every aspect of our existence. Even identical twins have noticeable physical differences when their genetic material is identical. No two fingerprints are the same.

The human collective can move mountains and drain seas. Genes control none of these behaviors, whether basketball or math skills. The environment created by humans can produce wars or plenty. Under capitalism wars are inevitable. Under worldwide communism the potential of humankind can be realized.

Book Review: No Limits to U.S Rulers' Horrors

UNDUE RISK: SECRET STATE EXPERIMENTS ON HUMANS
by Jonathan D. Moreno

1. Human beings dropped out of airplanes to test survival from high altitude falls.

2. Men frozen in ice and then allowed to thaw among naked warm bodies of women to discover the best way to re-warm frozen pilots.

3. Human beings, without their knowledge, inoculated with anthrax, plague, cholera and scores of other diseases, and then killed by injections of poison.

4. Hundreds of thousands of human beings vaporized by nuclear weapons.

5. Hundreds of thousands of human beings incinerated by fire bombs.

6. Thousands of human beings set afire by jellied gasoline.

7. Hundreds of thousands of children's legs blown off by hidden explosives.

8. Human beings subjected to radioactive gases released into the atmosphere to determine how well they survive and how far away the radiation will drift.

9. Human beings injected with radioactive substances to observe body responses.

10. Miners secretly exposed to radioactive radon to test their survival.

11. Bacteria released into subway vents to discover how many people get sick.

12. LSD secretly given to people, causing mental illness to see if it's possible to control people's minds.

13. Hundreds of black men deliberately untreated for syphilis to identify the effects on them.

All this occurred within the last 75 years. Which were acts of war against soldiers and which against civilians? Which were experiments? Which countries committed which acts of war, and in which countries were each of the experiments performed?

None were acts of war against soldiers. Numbers 4, 5, 6 and 7 were acts of war against civilians. All the others were experiments.

The first two were committed by Nazi Germany, the third by Imperial Japan during World War II. The U.S. government committed numbers 4 through 13. Only the last, the so-called Tuskegee experiment, is common knowledge; the rest have been closely guarded military secrets until recently.

Jonathan Moreno, the author of Undue Risk, published last year, was a member of former President Clinton's Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, organized in 1995. He had official access to tremendous amounts of recently declassified information about experiments performed over the last 75 years on human subjects. He views the U.S. Government's need to protect its military troops and citizens from foreign attack as overriding the need to protect human subjects. Such "reasoning" justifies virtually any experimentation.

Moreno completely ignores why the U.S. enters these wars. Using circular reasoning, based on the U.S. government's supposed superior morality, he presents all U.S. wars as "defensive." But, U.S. capitalism's imperialist needs drive the U.S. into all its wars. Working-class soldiers re used as the battering ram. There is no "informed consent" by working-class U.S. soldiers for being used in imperialist war to secure the profits of U.S. corporations.

The same U.S. Atomic Energy Commission responsible for the secret radiation experiments on U.S. citizens listed above sponsored the genocidal experiments against the Yanomami Indians of Brazil and Venezuela. (See CHALLENGE, April 11.)

Despite Moreno's unquestioning defense of the U.S. government and military, this book is still useful as an antidote to a common and dangerous illusion: many think there are limits to the horrors the U.S. government and military will inflict on workers in the U.S., let alone on workers abroad. This book demonstrates there is no experiment too horrendous for U.S. rulers to carry out -- as long as they can keep it secret.

These experiments show that capitalism is itself a weapon of mass destruction and murder, constantly warring on the working class. This list of horrors once again confirms why the working class desperately needs communism, under which these war criminals will be executed.

LETTERS
Workers of the World. Write!

Grad Exposes Harvard's Racism

I wore a sign at my graduation saying Harvard University Supports Racism and Imperialism. The sign also had Progressive Labor Party on it, as well as the PLP fist and star symbol. I wore it outside my graduation gown for most of the ceremony inside Harvard yard and raised it when I stood. When they gave an honorary degree to Arthur Schlesinger Jr., I turned to the audience and raised the sign over my head.

I also wore the sign when I received my degree at my dorm. None of the administrative types said anything, except for the Housemaster who congratulated me. After the ceremony, a Harvard graduate (who was there to see his sister graduate) thanked me for what I did.

The Red Graduate

Chief French Imperialist A Trot Mole

The infighting between French President Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin is getting downright dirty. It was just revealed that Chirac had misused millions in secret state funds, including over $300,000 in free travel for himself and his entourage. That followed the disclosure that Jospin was a member of OCI, a Trotskyite (Trot) organization (now called Parti des Travailleurs-Workers Party). Crooked politicians using state funds for freebies are really nothing new, but a member of a so-called left-wing group being a leader of an imperialist government is quite amusing.

Trotskyite groups are always portraying themselves as "the real left." They attack groups like PLP as "Stalinist," implying they're not really revolutionary. Well, the worldwide history of Trotskyism has always reflected anti-communism and a willingness to serve a particular group of capitalists. The Jospin situation just confirms this.

Apparently Pierre Lambert (the top OCI leader) trained young Jospin to be a "mole" (secreting one's self in a mass reformist party like the Socialist Party of France - PSF). Jospin was a student in an elite French college and had leftist ideas. Lambert prepared him for his job in the Socialist Party. PSF's deceased leader, Francois Mitterrand, took Jospin under his wing (along with some other Trotskyite moles) and trained them to lead the PSF and the French government.

Mitterrand, in his youth, collaborated for a while with the Nazis occupying France. Then as Interior Minister of France - controlling all police and internal security forces - he oversaw French Army terrorism during Algeria's war of independence and helped prepare the way for the massacre of hundreds of North African immigrants during a Paris protest in October 1961. This is the same Mitterrand who believed Trotskyites could become worthy cadres for French imperialism, the same Mitterand who, as a presidential candidate, offered a full pardon to the fascist Secret Army Organization general Salan in exchange for Salan's political support. Now most of the leadership of the Socialist Party and the French government are probably moles. But political observers have often noted the obvious, stating, "What's the difference; they're all right-wing social-democrats."

The lesson for workers and students fighting for revolutionary politics: groups who serve imperialism cannot, by definition, be revolutionaries.

Monsieur Rouge

Cooking Communism in A Soup Kitchen

There are exciting developments emerging from my 6-year participation in the life of a small, inner-city parish. On May Day our soup kitchen organized almost 30 marchers. Two friends who had consistently distributed CHALLENGE the previous year took more leadership, including serving as bus co-captains. They each made a firm commitment to join the Party as well. We've now had one club meeting and one study group meeting.

Hopefully, this qualitative step will shortly lead to a quantitative and qualitative step. Because my comrades have energized Party activity in the soup kitchen so well, other church members, including the pastor, are more open to participating in Party-led mass work -- particularly in organizing for one of our more significant anti-fascist activities in years.

The comrades, two black working-class women, fully understand the danger posed every day by inner-city police and the fascist forces. Based on the support these comrades have built within the church, I was able to get the church board to unanimously pass a resolution supporting the comrades and friends facing felony charges. They also voted to fund a bus to take protestors to this summer's militant event. The church's 300-person mailing list was made available to build the struggle.

The new quality that may well develop now is, of course, more Party recruits and more struggle. The church leaders and the City's politicians are becoming aware of all this activity. Attacks on us will follow, sooner or later. But with tighter ties of political friendship and sharper ideological struggle (and teaching dialectics) the Party will continue to grow!

Two, Three, Many Red Churchmice

Communism for the Soul

I'm a volunteer worker at a church soup kitchen in New York City. I'm also in a PLP study group.

What I liked most about May Day: Well, when I first heard about the bus rides I really wasn't interested. I was just going for the ride. But continuing to go, I started paying attention to what was going on. I liked how every one joined together to try to put an end to violence, police brutality, poisoning kids and this really must stop. But we need more people to get together as one.

I also liked the chants. My favorite one was, "Bush, Bush you dirty liar; we'll set your ass on fire!" I also liked how a lot of young ones attended the last May Day. I'm looking forward to many more May Day marches. Communists, PLP, keep up the good work. Continue going to the march!

A new PLP member

Dr. Bethune's Rx: Serve the People

On a recent Sunday, ten NYC high school and college students and five teachers watched a film about a communist doctor and discussed politics. This was an opportunity for students who have been politically active at their own schools to get to know each other as well as learn about the PLP summer project and other up-coming events.

The film, Dr. Bethune, is a dramatized biography of Norman Bethune, the Canadian doctor who became famous during the late 1930's for serving as a surgeon for the 8th Route Army of the Chinese Communist Party, which was then fighting the Japanese fascist occupiers. His story is fascinating and has many lessons for students and others.

Bethune came from a wealthy family and became a prominent surgeon during the 1920's. He could have made lots of money treating rich patients. Instead, he chose to work in clinics for the poor and advocate socialized medicine. Although concerned for working people, Bethune was then a liberal reformer, unwilling to challenge the capitalist society that created rich and poor in the first place.

In the 1930's Bethune was radicalized by the Great Depression, rising fascism, the growth of the communist movement and a 1935 trip to the Soviet Union, whose health care system greatly impressed him. He was very interested in curing tuberculosis caused by the government-perpetrated foul environment in poor working-class areas. The Soviets had reduced the incidence of TB more than 50%. All these factors convinced Bethune to become a communist and use his medical knowledge in the battle against fascism. He went to Spain and treated soldiers wounded in the battles against Franco's fascist troops. His innovation of bringing blood transfusions to the fighting area saved thousands then and eventually millions.

Though he had advanced politically, Bethune continued to display serious personal weaknesses. He was a womanizer, often drank heavily and was sometimes arrogant and impatient. His experiences in China would change him. After his service in Spain, Bethune went to China where he revolutionized combat surgery by developing a mobile, battlefield hospital for treating wounded Red Army soldiers at the front, greatly improving their survival rate. While Chinese doctors learned from Bethune, he in turn began to learn from the Chinese communists' commitment to serving the people. He became less arrogant, less moody and more supportive of those he worked with. Even after contracting a disease that would kill him, he described his time in China as the happiest moments of his life.

Afterwards, students and teachers discussed whether it's possible for people to change, to become committed to fighting for communism and to become less selfish. Some agreed; others were doubtful. We hope to have more such discussions and to work together in the future.

Manhattan teacher

PLP'ers Take on Racist Wage Schemes

One of the main issues in the mass transit industry is the fight against the racism in wage progression (lower wages for the same job). This battle has exposed the institutional racism we see here in the Bay Area towards both drivers and riders. Jim Crow racism (segregation by law) has been replaced by the destruction of living-wage jobs through wage progression, part-timing, downsizing (particularly in basic industry), and the criminalization of our youth. The police just gunned down a young black man with 20 bullets in front of the Metreon.

Transit service that allows urban minority communities to go about their daily lives is under attack as commute and rush-hour services take up scarce resources. This compounds the economic attack on entry-level jobs available to younger workers. Capitalism constantly pushes down the standard of living of minority workers in order to lower the living standards of all workers.

We fought against wage progression in our contract last year, reducing the progression to 18 months by June, 2003. Of far greater significance, transit workers in Washington, D.C. Metro read about our struggle in CHALLENGE. PLP members at Metro then organized to make this demand real. One union negotiator told management that workers would not accept anything less than the 18-month wage progression won in San Francisco.

Our contract gave the youngest workers approximately a 10.6% raise and offered full-time jobs to those who wanted it. Other drivers received 5.6%. Young and old at MUNI saw this contract as a fight for the future, for new workers and for the children of the working class. Fighting for equality is a powerful force. CHALLENGE is full of examples of how workers worldwide are motivated by this ideology of fighting for the future and for equality of their class. Even with all of this, we recognize the limits of unions under capitalism. Contract improvements do little more than spell out the terms of our exploitation or modify the constant use of racist wage differentials. CHALLENGE and PLP put us on the offensive. We fight the problems of capitalism and its institutional racism. But we understand the need for a mass communist party to lead the revolutionary movement to remove capitalism if working people are to have real equality.

Bay Area MUNI Transit Workers