1. A Vote for Bush or Kerry Is a Vote for War
2. Vietnam Syndrome Erupting Once Again Among GI's in Iraq?
3. The Few, The Proud, the Anti-war Marines
4. HEALTH ALERT!
   PROFIT SYSTEM KILLS
5. Media Serve Bosses' State Power
6. MONOPOLY CAPITALISM IS NO GAME
7. TOYS `R WAR
8. Boston Teachers
   Support Haitian Workers
9. PLP Exposes `Dream Act' Draft of Immigrant Youth At LA Marches
10. `Sit-at-home' Tactic No Way to Win Nigeria General Strike
11. `What's good for GM is lousy for auto workers'`
12. 50,000 March vs. Germany's Worst Social Welfare Cuts Since Nazis
13. Red-led Transit Local Conference Spreads Political Consciousness
14. PLP Brings Red Ideas To Workers' March in DC
15. PL'er Anti-Racist Political Base Answers Union Election Red-baiting
16. Worcester Bus Strikers Fought Boss/Union/Dems Gang-up; WELCOMED CHALLENGE
17. Film Review: The Motorcycle Diaries
    The Road to Political Consciousness via Motorcycle
18. LETTERS
    1. PLP Students Pump Up Teachers' Demo
    2. Bogota/New York: Dreams of a Common Freedom
    3. Putting Politics First Led To PLP
    4. Trials and Errors of A Progressive Intellectural
    5. Letter from Pakistan
    6. A Little Rebellion Goes A Long Way
    7. CHALLENGE NEEDS YOUR:
       SUGGESTIONS
19. RED EYE ON THE NEWS
    1. Kerry: smooth imperialist
    2. `Leftist' sells out Indians
    3. Colombia another Vietnam?
    4. Teens need jobs, not jail
    5. Global profits cause slums
    6. US fights to colonize Iraq

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A Vote for Bush or Kerry Is a Vote for War

Despite the bosses' boast that new voters are registering in record numbers, far more people will stay home on Election Day rather than vote for either Bush or Kerry. Once again, a U.S. president will take office with about 26% of the eligible vote.

Voting increases with age and wealth. Young workers and unemployed youth in general vote in far fewer numbers than older, affluent people.

Politically, this cynicism used to work for the rulers, who figured that although they might prefer a larger turnout at the polls, passive cynicism was better than mass militancy against the system. However, with U.S. imperialism's long-range plans for a police state and ever-widening wars, this cynicism is beginning to turn into its opposite. The bosses view a large voter turnout as an endorsement of their system and an important step toward mobilizing the working class to fight, bleed and sacrifice for U.S. imperialism.

So far, they've fallen far short of this goal. Worse yet for their class is the sign of growing rebelliousness within the U.S. military. On October 13, 19 soldiers from the 343rd Quartermaster Company failed to report for a planned fuel convoy from Tallil Air Base across central Iraq to Taji, north of Baghdad. They were protesting the roadworthiness of their trucks and the lack of overhead helicopter protection.

The military brass has portrayed this as an "isolated incident," but facts belie this. Thomas Ricks, a leading military journalist, writes (Washington Post, 10/16) that it's instead "the latest indication of troubled morale in some National Guard Reserve Units called up for Iraq duty." He refers to a September lockdown of "several hundred" National Guard soldiers in the Fort Dix, N.J. barracks, after 13 members had gone AWOL and after several instances of "brawling."

The level of political consciousness here is still low (in the first case, demanding better protection to fight the bosses' oil war and in the second, leaving camp to visit families), but that's to be expected. Communist consciousness doesn't grow on trees and the presence of the Progressive Labor Party among workers and soldiers is necessary for them to learn the need for opposing the brass and fighting to smash the profit system.

However, these signs of disobedience in the military, along with some strikes (like the recent one by San Francisco hotel workers) show that the class struggle continues even in periods of relative passivity. Regardless of the election outcome, PLP will have opportunities to grow. The Iraq war will continue. More U.S. troops will be called up. Conflict between U.S. bosses and their rivals will sharpen, as the scramble to control Persian Gulf oil intensifies. The economic screws will tighten on the working class. Growing numbers of workers will be forced into the military, either by unemployment or by the draft.

If Bush wins, he will have to address the Liberal Establishment's criticism of his "incompetence." The liberals blame him for squandering the opportunity after 9/11 to mobilize the country for war and a police state by asking workers for "any shared sacrifice." The liberals also berate Bush for not "providing enough troops to secure Iraq." (New York Times 10/17 editorial endorsing Kerry) If Kerry wins, he will try to justify the liberal bosses' faith in him by moving ruthlessly to reverse the military fiasco in Iraq and to increase the efficiency of the "homeland" police state.

Either way, the working class has no stake in this outcome. Grasping at poisonous straws (Kerry over Bush) and cynicism (not voting) won't solve workers' problems. We need communism, nothing less. To make this long-range goal a reality, we must build PLP now. Recognizing and acting upon the opportunities that exist here and now can expand those of the future. The ball is in our court!

Vietnam Syndrome Erupting Once Again Among GI's in Iraq?

The military is showing the political strains from the The recent refusal by a unit to carry out a "suicide mission,"while not yet the kind of mass rebellion that undermined the military in Vietnam, U.S. rulers are finding that overcoming the "Vietnam Syndrome" is easier said than done.

The attacks on Iraqi civilians are undercutting soldiers' morale. Internally there's a trend towards more anti-war sentiment among GI's. There are signs they're being alienated from the war's political goals. Retention and recruitment are also becoming problems.

In interviews with a growing number of anti-war soldiers, the Christian Science Monitor (9/21) described how "Fahrenheit 9-11" is becoming a must-see movie among GIs. The article details the political fallout from committing Vietnam-like atrocities:

"We shouldn't be here," said one marine infantryman bluntly. "There was no reason for invading this country in the first place. We just came and angered people and killed a lot of innocent people," said the marine, who has seen regular combat in Ramadi. `I don't enjoy killing women and children, it's not my thing."

Michael Moore is also publishing a book of letters from soldiers in Iraq. One says:

"In the few short months my unit has been in Iraq, we have already lost one man and have had many injured (including me) in combat operations. And for what?... [On] May 10,..I and 12 other men were attacked in a well executed ambush in southeast Baghdad. We were attacked with small arms fire, a rocket propelled grenade, and two well placed roadside bombs....riddl[ing] my friends with shrapnel, almost killing them....

"The government is calling up more and more troops from the reserves. For what? Man, there is a huge f-----g scam going on here! There are civilian contractors crawling all over this country (making $15,000 a month).

"We are spending money out the a-- for this s---t, and very few of the projects are going to the Iraqi people. Someone's back is getting scratched here, and it ain't the Iraqis! I just hope I come home alive."

A poem on Army latrine walls in Iraq says much about GI sentiment:

"There once was a man named Saddam,
We thought had a nuclear bomb,
We started a war, few nations were for,
And now it's our own Vietnam."

Commanders are worried that their troops will lose confidence. In several units, soldiers upon arriving in Iraq are being told to forget whatever they heard about being "liberators." The commanders are telling them, "This war is about oil," and they shouldn't trust any Iraqis.

Morale is also being hurt by retention and recruitment problems. Soldiers' unwillingness to re-enlist has produced a "stop-loss" policy in which soldiers in specialty areas are barred from leaving when their enlistments are over. There are also reports of soldiers who do not re-enlist being sent on additional tours to Iraq.

All this is shrinking enlistments of black youth. The Wall Street Journal (10/7) reported that "blacks attracted to the force numbered 12,103, or 15.6% of the total enlistment pool, in the year ended Sept. 30, down from a peak of 16,995, or 21% of recruits, in fiscal 2002....The drop in the share of black recruits roughly corresponds with the mass movement of troops to the Middle East and the outbreak of the Iraq war."

For the first time in several years the National Guard did not meet its recruitment goal. The Army had to "early-enlist" 17% of next year's recruits in order to meet this year's goal.

Morale is unlikely to improve any time soon, and will probably worsen. The U.S. is losing control of large areas of the country and is responding by increased killing of Iraqi civilians. Whatever they tell people at home, the truth is less hidden from the troops.

Now the ruling class is using the Kerry campaign as the main outlet to control the morale problems. The Democrats and the military are organizing to get soldiers to vote.

Ultimately, the draft is staring at the military like the proverbial 800-pound gorilla in the room. With morale dropping in the all-volunteer military in the face of set-backs in Iraq, with U.S., casualties approaching 1,100 dead and 28,000 wounded, one can see why the Army brass is terrified that a draft that forces youth into the military could be their only way of filling their thinning ranks.

From Wall Street Journal, 10/20
`Army's Recruiters Missed Target for Enlistees in Latest Month: Reserves Fall 45% Short of Goal, While Gap is 30% in Regular Force Sign-ups'

The Few, The Proud, the Anti-war Marines

The potential for rebellion in the U.S. military extends beyond the National Guard, proving that the "Vietnam Syndrome" and the rulers' fear of it are far from dead. During the Vietnam War, thousands of U.S. soldiers and sailors participated in a spontaneous movement called "fragging," which involved shooting or otherwise attacking their officers. Over half a million deserted or refused to fight. Coupled with mass domestic protest against the war, the "Vietnam Syndrome" led the bosses to abandon military conscription in favor of the present economic draft.

A Washington Post article (10/10), based on interviews with a dozen U.S. Marines in Iraq's southern province of Babil, exposes the low morale in the supposedly most élite and hardened branch of the military. One Marine said, "The most dangerous opinion in the world is the opinion of a U.S. serviceman." Another added, "We're basically proving out that the [Bush] government is wrong. We're catching them in a lie." A third, who had enlisted out of misguided patriotism after 9/11, said after two months in Iraq, "Sometimes I see no reason why we're here." All the Marines interviewed recognized that the Iraqi population hates the U.S. military. When asked if he feared punishment for speaking out in the press, one said sarcastically, "We don't give a crap. What are they going to do, send us to Iraq?"

Two weeks earlier, Farnaz Fassihi, a Wall Street Journal reporter stationed in Baghdad, sent an e-mail to friends lambasting Bush's Iraq policy. The e-mail is now all over the Internet. Fassihi calls Iraq a "disaster," a "foreign policy failure bound to haunt the United States for decades to come" (www.poynter.org/forum?id=misc).

If the liberal press is now quoting Marines, who are supposed to be the system's "few, proud" trained killers, and a reporter from capitalism's most unabashed print apologist, to embarrass Bush, there's a reason, and it's linked to the November 2 election.

We must draw a different conclusion. Rebelliousness in the military and Bush's bungled Iraq policy should induce us to organize for communism, not to vote for Kerry. Bush is indeed a monster, but Kerry will prove no less so. They are merely products of a monstrous society. That's the monkey we need to get off our backs.

HEALTH ALERT!
PROFIT SYSTEM KILLS

The profit system trumps workers' health once again. Tens of millions of people will be without the influenza vaccine -- especially the most vulnerable, seniors and children -- entering the winter flu season. Complains the New York Times in a lead editorial (10/20): "It is almost unbelievable...that the world's most medically advanced nation should suddenly find nearly half of its expected supply of influenza vaccine wiped out by...problems at a single plant in England."

Unbelievable? Not quite. "The main problem," says the Times, "is that influenza vaccine needs to be reformulated every year, and companies suffer huge losses if they overestimate the amount that will be needed" since they must destroy millions of doses. The key words here are "companies" and "huge losses." Of course, the Times won't conclude that production of a health necessity shouldn't depend upon the need for corporate profit, the foundation stone of capitalism.

In a communist society, where workers' health comes first, uncontaminated by bosses and their profit system, any risk of "overestimation" would simply be part of the necessity to protect the population against disease. But under capitalism, corporations have to be "protected" against "huge losses." Inadvertently proving that the profit system is at the root of the problem is the Times' discovery of a "shocking reality": "panicky patients lining up for flu shots that are not available" find "price gougers trying to profit from their misery." Is there a more perfect description of capitalism in all its glory?

As far as "the world's most medically advanced nation" is concerned, the Times says the U.S. "FDA [Food & Drug Administration] was asleep at the switch." It made "no great effort to stay on top of what the British were doing." It seems "American health officials had no clue that almost half of the nation's flu vaccine supply was about to be impounded" because British regulators were suspending the license of the California-based Chiron company for "failure to comply with good manufacturing processes" at its Liverpool plant.

If this is an example of the "world's most advanced nation," all the more reason to destroy capitalism with communist revolution.

Media Serve Bosses' State Power

The New York Times' Oct. 17 endorsement of Kerry for president was an exercise of state power. The state includes all the means by which capitalists conduct their class dictatorship, not just the formal apparatus of government. In organizing opinion for fascism and war, the media are indispensable tools for the rulers. The biggest outlets have the closest ties to the nation's leading financiers and imperialist policy makers.

The Times, the most influential of the rulers' print media, is tightly linked to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), whose sponsors include J.P. Morgan Chase, Exxon Mobil, and the Rockefeller family. The CFR clamored loud and long for "regime change" in Iraq. Times' editorials mirrored the CFR both in demanding a massive U.S. invasion aided by UN allies and in chiding Bush for the bungled occupation. Arthur Sulzberger, Times publisher, belongs to the CFR. Its last president, Leslie Gelb, edited the Times' editorial page. Bernard Gwertzman, formerly the Times' top foreign affairs writer, now runs the CFR's website. And on the eve of the Iraq war (2/11/03), the Times boasted that it had "partnered with the Council on Foreign Relations to provide content from cfr.org, the Council's Web site, as well as articles from its `Foreign Affairs' publication."

As U.S. rulers need public support for widening imperialist ventures, media giants are coming increasingly under direct control of the foreign policy establishment. William Mitchell, a former senator and Clinton Middle East envoy, is chairman of Disney, which owns ABC. Viacom recently elected to its board Joseph Califano and William Cohen. The former advised President Lyndon Johnson on repressing anti-Vietnam War protests. The latter, as Clinton's Defense Secretary, directed the murderous bombardment of Serbia. So it's no accident that three best-selling books critical of Bush's mishandling of the war, including Bob Woodward's "Plan of Attack," have come from Viacom's Simon & Schuster. Viacom also owns CBS, where Dan Rather has been clumsily trying to discredit Bush's National Guard record.

NBC belongs to General Electric, a major weapons supplier to the U.S. war machine. Sam Nunn, once head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, sits on GE's board. Exxon Mobil pumps vast amounts of cash into PBS. Its Anglophile programming helps foster the U.S. alliance with Britain. Time Warner's CEO is Richard Parsons, a Nelson Rockefeller protégé.

Movies, too, are an instrument of the capitalists' power. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), representing Hollywood studios, has a two-way dialogue with Washington. It lobbies for the industry and, at the same time, takes direction from the rulers. Shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, MPAA head Jack Valenti had a meeting with Bush administration officials. He agreed to tell his members not to make films that portray Arabs as bad guys. The rulers feared that an anti-U.S. backlash in the Arab world, especially in Saudi Arabia, might jeopardize their oil empire and planned invasion of Iraq. Dan Glickman, the current MPAA chief, is a former Clinton cabinet member who most recently worked for Akin Gump, Exxon Mobil's Washington law firm.

The mainstream media claim to be objective. But their "truth" is rooted in the imperialists' need to put the U.S. on a war footing ideologically. Capitalist state power takes many forms: the Oval Office, the halls of Congress, the urban police precincts, the foundations and universities, the pages of the New York Times, the silver screen or the boob tube. None of them is class-neutral. We must smash them all.

(Next: The Dictatorship of the Proletariat, the State and the Party.)

MONOPOLY CAPITALISM IS NO GAME

I was assigned to teach high school Economics this semester. The official curriculum refers to market forces as if they're laws of nature, like wind or rain. It never discusses the term capitalism or how this economic system really operates. I wanted my students to experience the system's harsh reality.

My solution: play Monopoly. I set up four games for the 34 students in each classroom, and changed some rules to make the game closer to the real world. First, I assigned one student to be the banker. This person began the game with all the cash. The class concluded that the only way to begin life that way would be to inherit wealth. The banker then distributed an equal amount of money and three pieces of property to each player. Since some properties are much more valuable than others, a few players began with an advantage. After a few throws of the dice, this inequality increased.

All four games were played simultaneously. Nobody was allowed to leave the game when their funds got low. Instead, when they faced bankruptcy, they had to choose between borrowing from the banker or negotiating a merger with another player, forming a larger "corporation" in order to survive.

"Miss, when is this game going to end?" asked one exasperated student.

"When you die or change the system," I replied.

As the games progressed, the students became increasingly hostile and mistrustful of one another. They had started friendly. Now they trusted nobody. They were learning that capitalism and the greed driving it are not "human nature," but are capitalist laws that propel people into conflict. The students grew louder and louder, now yelling at each other. One girl said, "I have such a headache, please let me leave the game!"

A few students began to cheat. Today one student, a wealthy capitalist, was tricked by two small players who are close to bankruptcy. He was so furious he nearly stormed out of the room. Other students kept reminding him that it was just a game!

Between rounds, I conducted class lessons. One set detailed the actual distribution of wealth in the U.S., and its extreme concentration in the hands of a few capitalists. We learned that the country's wealthiest 400 families control more wealth than one billion people in India. This really upset them. Two girls reported telling their parents, who then became as upset as their children. "You're destroying our dreams, Miss," one accused me.

We also learned about the working class, that we're all workers, and that ideas about upper, middle and "lower" class are false. Divisions within the working class are emphasized to distract and divide us. This, too, provoked heated discussions. One girl refused to talk, explaining that "all we do is talk about communism." But so far I had talked about only one economic system: CAPITALISM.

I was amazed at the response to this game. The lessons about the capitalist and working classes upset the students because, instead of the usual dry definitions teachers chalk on the board, participation in the game made it all very real for them,.

For example, when some players avoided making loans, instead merging their "capital" with other companies, they became powerful multi-player corporations that quickly drove the small property owners into debt. Meanwhile, some corporations grew so rich that there was nothing left for them to buy. With their coffers stuffed with money, they asked me if they could buy property in another game! What a breakthrough. I explained that of course they could go global, because that made them INTERNATIONAL CAPITALISTS. The rich owners were delighted with their new markets, but the players being invaded became very upset.

As we enter the game's final stage, some companies have gone bankrupt due to heavy debt and fierce competition. As the small players lose all their assets, they are still not allowed to leave the game, any more than we can leave the economy in which we live. They are left with nothing to do but sell their labor power. They are becoming the working class. I can't wait to see how they behave when most are workers and only a few remain as capitalists.

The final lesson will be the role of the government in maintaining the ruling class in power. I can't wait to see how it ends. Maybe they'll propose a revolution.

TOYS `R WAR

The worldwide toy industry is basically controlled by two mega-corporations, which have either swallowed or eliminated the competition: Mattel (Barbie, Fisher-Price, Scrabble, etc.); and the smaller Hasbro, controlled by the Hassenfeld brothers.

Hasbro took off in the 60s with the militaristic GI Joe toy. Later it took control of Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Playschool, Pictionary, Cluedo, Atari, Teletubbies, Pokemon, Star Wars and many electronic games. It also owns many candy brands.

Both corporations increased their profits by closing many of their manufacturing plants in the U.S. and Europe, and moving them to low-wages areas like China. In 2002, Mattel closed its Kentucky plant and moved it to Asia where it super-exploits some 39,000 workers. Hasbro only employs 10,000 workers directly because it uses mainly subcontrators who pay even lower wages.

But beyond merely toys and super-exploitation of workers, these toy companies are linked directly to the war machine. Paul Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld's second in command and one of the "Neo-Con" brains behind the Iraqi fiasco, was a member of Hasbro's Board of Directors before joining the Bush administration.

Another top member of Hasbro's Board is Marie-Josee Kravis, also linked to the directors of Ford, Canadian Imperial Bank, Vivendi Universal, Seagram and Hollinger (which runs newspapers in Britain and Israel and whose owner was recently accused of corruption). Kravis is on the Council on Foreign Relations -- the top policy-maker think-tank of the Eastern Establishment, the leading gang within the U.S. ruling class -- where she's listed as an "expert" on the international economy, public policy and strategy. Bush, Sr., named her as a counselor to the Dept. of Energy. She's also a director of the conservative Hudson Institute. Her husband owns KKR (which runs Safeway, Duracell, Nabisco Union Texas Petroleum, etc.). He was number 35 on Forbes' list of top U.S. billionaires.

These and other bosses controlling the toy companies are also bound to make more bucks out of the Pentagon's plan to use video games to train soldiers and future soldiers in becoming cannon fodder for the war machine.

In essence, the U.S. economy is now more than ever a military-industrial complex serving imperialist war.

(Information from an article by Michel Collon in Rebelion.org)

Boston Teachers
Support Haitian Workers

BOSTON, Oct. 15 -- On October 13, the Boston Teachers' Union passed the following "Haitian Flood Relief Resolution":

Whereas, over 3,000 people have died in the floods in Haiti in the last several weeks;
Whereas, U.S. troops have this year entered Haiti to support a new government;
Whereas, a major health disaster is in the making in Haiti due to lack of basic sanitation and fresh water in the flooded areas;
Whereas, the current Haitian government has not proved itself trustworthy to accept funds;
And, whereas, the Haitian workers organization, Bataye Ouvriye ("workers' struggle") has shown itself to be dedicated to workers' rights and interests in Haiti, recently winning a hard-fought action against clothing maker Grupo-M which manufactures portions of Levi-Strauss clothing;
Therefore, we, the Boston Teachers Union, will as soon as possible contribute...to Haitian Flood Relief, $500...and send it to Bataye Ouvriye for distribution to reputable local flood relief organizations. (http://www.batayouvriye.org ; Batay Ouvriye, BP 13326, Delmas, Haiti, W.I.)

Opposition came from the union treasurer, who said "it might be a precedent," and from a teacher who wanted "to keep the money in the country."

PLP Exposes `Dream Act' Draft of Immigrant Youth At LA Marches

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 16 -- Two marches took place today, one sponsored by the AFL-CIO and one by a coalition of immigrants' rights groups. Both were organized to demand driver's licenses and amnesty for immigrant workers. All told, about 2,000 people marched.

Because of infighting between the leaders, the marches failed to meet up. The first march included a few SEIU organizers, but mainly immigrant rights' groups. Leaders distributed American flags and pushed Kerry. At the second march, on Broadway downtown, there were mainly signs for driver's licenses and amnesty.

Thirty-five hundred workers eagerly took PLP leaflets and bought 700 CHALLENGES. Our leaflet exposed the "DREAM ACT" (sponsored by right-wing Senator Orin Hatch), which promises residency for undocumented youth, but requires two years military service or two years of college. Most undocumented immigrants, unable to get into college, will be forced into the army.

We cited the 19 soldiers in Iraq who refused suicide orders. They deserve our support. Kerry and the liberal press are using their refusal to demand more troops and equipment in Iraq. We demonstrated the opposite: the potential power of soldiers to oppose not merely unsafe missions but, more importantly, oppose attacking Iraqi civilians and imperialist war in general. We also showed that Kerry's health plan is supported by corporations like GM because it would save them billions.

We called on workers to organize in the shops to fight the bosses' attacks and for immigrants and citizens to unite with communist leadership, defy the bosses' fascist marching orders and turn their imperialist wars into a fight for revolution and workers' power -- communism.

On Broadway, many took up our contingent's lively chants, like "Arab, Asian, Black, Latin, White; Workers of the world, Unite!" and "U.S. imperialism out of Iraq!" A group of youth marched with PLP for the first time and boldly sold CHALLENGE and distributed leaflets. Marchers and onlookers responded well to our banners calling for ending racist terror from Iraq to LA with communist revolution.u

`Sit-at-home' Tactic No Way to Win Nigeria General Strike

After four days, Nigeria's trade union leadership called off the general strike begun on Oct. 11. But the unions warned they'll call an indefinite stoppage in two weeks if the government fails to lower gasoline prices. The strike shut banks, businesses, shops and public services. Nigeria's oil industry was unaffected but "analysts say further stoppages could disrupt production in Africa's biggest oil exporter." (BBC News)

Owei Lakemfa, spokesman for the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) told the BBC, "The strike is officially suspended and we will meet within the next two weeks to decide what action to take."

The working class of Nigeria, Africa's most populated country, is fed up with poverty and government corruption. Seventy percent of Nigeria's 130 million people live below the poverty level. Life expectancy is only 50 years. To top it off, fuel costs have been rising since President Olusegun Obasanjo deregulated the sector a year ago and removed government subsidies. A committee, including government officials and union representatives, has been formed to discuss ways of easing the impact of the 25% gasoline price increase.

The government reacted against the strikers with heavy hand. Union leaders were arrested. The police killed workers in the Kaduna region. In many other areas, the cops and armed gangs protected by the police brutally attacked strikers.

Nigeria is Africa's largest oil producer. This strike was one of the reasons oil prices topped $50 a barrel in the world market, even though the oil industry itself was not struck. But other problems face Nigeria's oil producers. In the Delta region, where Shell and other international oil companies operate, is one of the country's poorest areas, and sabotage against oil pipelines is common. There are at least two armed groups fighting the army and the oil companies. Last June Shell admitted that for years it paid millions in bribes to local authorities. The London Independent said Halliburton grabbed a $12 billion contract to build a gas terminal in Bonny Island after paying $132 million in "unjustified commissions." Current President Obasanjo is reputed to have millions in secret bank accounts.

Totalfina (the French-Belgian oil giant) used to control Nigerian oil, but when former dictator Sani Abacha died in 1999, it lost its top dog influence there. Many now believe that Totalfina has used its traditional dirty tricks methods to support the armed groups sabotaging Shell.

The strike's main problem was the NLC leadership. It called for a "sit-at-home" strike instead of mobilizing marches, picket lines and mass rallies. Even though the NLC leadership opposes President Obasanjo -- who is also losing support among members of his own party and sections of the bourgeoisie -- the NLC's reformist and pro-capitalist outlook makes it fear the power of the working class mobilized in the streets and at factories. Masses of workers in action can see their own power and can discuss tactics and other methods of struggle.

All this calls for the most advanced and militant workers in Nigeria to realize that only through building a revolutionary communist movement can they turn these struggles into schools for revolution. As the struggles grow and sharpen here, this is the most important victory workers can achieve in Nigeria and throughout Africa.

`What's good for GM is lousy for auto workers'`

Workers at Opel (GM's affiliate in Germany) have been staging work stoppages protesting elimination of 10,000 jobs in Germany and 2,000 in the rest of Europe. Workers' banners attacked both the bosses and the IG Metall union hacks for "selling them out." On Oct. 18, walkouts occurred in Britain, Belgium and Poland. International solidarity emerged the next day as 50,000 workers protested the cuts at 13 GM facilities throughout Europe; 10,000 marched in Bochum supporting that plant's Opel workers.

GM's motto in the U.S. used to be, "What's good for GM is good for the country." Well, the problems of GM and the auto industry in general signal crises in the capitalist economies of the USA and Europe, for which workers are being forced to pay.

Brazil's auto workers are also fighting back. In the ABC region of Sao Paulo, center of the auto industry, 40,000 metal and auto workers struck demanding higher wages and an earlier contract negotiation. Bank and oil workers have also struck there recently.

Workers are breaking with the illusion that Lula, the former auto/metal workers' union leader and now President of Brazil, is "their man in power." Lula's Labor Party recently lost votes in the Sao Paulo industrial belt and in another one of his strongholds, Porto Alegre, where the reformist World Social Forums are held each year. The Lula government's privatizations and social service cutbacks have shown workers that he's just another boss.

The world capitalist system's endless wars and crises impel its increased attacks on all workers. The best lesson workers can learn from their strikes and struggles is to turn them into a school to forge communist leaders capable of fighting for a world without any bosses. That's PLP's goal.

50,000 March vs. Germany's Worst Social Welfare Cuts Since Nazis

BERLIN, Oct. 2 -- Fifty thousands workers and their allies protested today against the Hartz IV law, which will cut social welfare programs. Their march follows a series of Monday demonstrations in 250 cities and towns, involving hundreds of thousands, to oppose the most drastic cuts since the Nazi era. On Sept. 20, the police brutally attacked 15,000 protesters. Workers also faced a vicious campaign from the bosses' media, which has called people from the former GDR (East Germany) "ingrate" for turning against their "saviors," the rulers of West Germany.

Those workers have gotten a real taste of what being "saved" by capitalism means. Fifteen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, all the benefits they had under the socialist-state capitalist GDR have been ripped away. Industries were either swallowed by West German capitalists or dismantled. Unemployment -- very low in the former GDR -- is now rampant. In fact, many now view the GDR as the "good old days."

But the workers' anger lacks real communist leadership. The former East Germany CP (now called the Party of Democratic Socialism) made some gains in recent local elections, as did some neo-Nazi parties. So open fascists and fake leftists are trying to take advantage of the workers' anger.

The Oct. 2 march itself reflected this contradiction. While the organizers expected 100,000 marchers, only 50,000 took part because Germany's leading unions openly sabotaged it. The Schröder coalition government (the Social-Democratic and Green Parties) feels the lower number of marchers allows it to make the cuts. But the anger is growing. Recent mass strikes by DaimlerBenz workers against layoffs -- affecting the entire auto industry -- indicate that workers throughout Germany are fed up with paying for the German bosses' drive to increase their profits and compete with their imperialist rivals.

The situation here again exposes capitalism as a dead-end for all workers. These workers need a real communist society based on workers' power, not a socialist/state capitalist GDR. Building the leadership to make that possible is the main lesson workers can learn from these struggles.

Red-led Transit Local Conference Spreads Political Consciousness

WASHINGTON, D.C., Oct. 16 -- Today, rank-and-file members of Local 689, Amalgamated Transit Union, attended a day-long educational conference on the theme, "What Causes Change? -- Without Struggle, There Can Be No Progress." Joining the transit union members were workers from a public sector union, the Baltimore teachers union, students from Howard University, activists in the struggle against police brutality in the local area, and public health workers from the Metropolitan Washington Public Health Association.

The Local's president, a PLP'er, initiated this conference to strengthen the political consciousness of the union's younger workers and to prepare them to become more effective grassroots organizers for the struggle against management and the ruling class as a whole. A second objective was demonstrating in practice to many other activists on campuses and in the community the primary role of the working class in the broad struggle against capitalism. The conference clearly made progress in achieving these objectives, laying the basis for expanding the circle of informed, active workers who could provide increasingly revolutionary leadership in this critical industrial union.

Four presentations included: the economy and racism; health care and racial disparities; the war in Iraq and the Patriot Act at home; and women's rights both on the job and in the home. Speakers described the severe economic crunch awaiting workers' health care and pensions amid a permanent war economy as the U.S. ruling class struggles to maintain its domination of the world's oil supplies and economies. One Metro worker reviewed women's struggles to break into better-paying, non-traditional jobs like rail mechanic. She jokingly asked, "After all, how far could a secretary go? End up with a bigger typewriter?"

Round-table discussions followed the presentations. Leaders at each table ensured that every worker could participate fully with his/her ideas. Afterwards, many Metro workers were enthusiastic about continuing the political struggle begun at the conference.

The main immediate issue for Metro's current contract negotiation is reducing racist wage progression -- the number of years required to reach top rate -- in order to unify senior and junior workers. Those at the conference will be among the key leaders of this anti-racist struggle, which in turn will lay the foundation for recruitment to PLP as workers engage in sharpening class struggle.

PLP Brings Red Ideas To Workers' March in DC

Members of Progressive Labor Party were among the few thousand workers from East Coast unions who participated in today's Million Worker March. Our goal was to bring revolutionary communist ideas to this gathering of workers, students and anti-war activists who had come to protest the war in Iraq and attacks on the living standard of U.S. workers. The enthusiasm of our young members was evident when they joked, "Is that all you're giving us?" as we divided our literature at 5:30 A.M.

Some of those who took part in the March thought more workers would attend. One reason why there weren't was the attitude of one leader of AFSCME's NYC District Council 37. Although 40 seats in the four buses rented for this 120,000-member union remained empty, she carefully screened the 160 riders to make sure only AFSCME members would get on.

We distributed thousands of CHALLENGES; "Don't Vote: Revolt!"  pamphlets; "It's not just Bush, Its Capitalism" buttons; and leaflets. It was critical that we brought revolutionary communist ideas to the activists at the march, since the speakers from the platform, while strongly anti-Bush, rarely criticized Kerry and advocated only reforms of the system. But we know that the 22 reforms they proposed can never be won under capitalism, especially as it faces a permanent war economy. Elections only allow the working class to pick their poison; they never give us a cure.

Not far from the rally site, hotel workers were on the verge of striking. After about three hours, about 250 students marched through the streets in support of these workers. Our participation in that march brought militancy and class analysis via chants. Initially the chants were exclusively about the hotel workers' struggle, not linking it to layoffs, cutbacks and the war in Iraq. Our chant, "Power to the working class! Kick the bosses in the ass!" spread like wildfire throughout this march.

We received heartfelt thanks from many people who got our leaflet calling for support of the mutineers in Iraq who had refused to carry out orders for what they called a "suicide mission." We had many good discussions and debates about elections and support for the rebellious troops. Many people said they would take our leaflets home to be reprinted and would build activities in support of these rebellious troops.

A member of a NYC AFSCME local took a stack of leaflets to distribute because she had relatives in Iraq and opposes this war, as she had the war in Vietnam. She agreed to raise a resolution of support for the soldiers in her union local. We will be in touch with her and others who shared their names and phone numbers with us. Along with generous donations for our literature, these experiences reflected the positive responses to our ideas at today's event.

People in some PL'ers campus organization helped us distribute CHALLENGES and leaflets. On one bus we had fruitful discussions about the Party's ideas and why we differ with other "communist" organizations. Most on the bus agreed with much of what we said but were skeptical about whether communism will work or if the masses can be won to the ideas. A key discussion on the bus was about sexism and way to fight it on campus.

Upon leaving we heard the cops arrested one of our bus mates for protesting in a "restricted zone," standing at the Veterans Memorial while her daughter was video-taping the loss of life it symbolized. Her arrest exposed how the police attempt to intimidate protestors. Our supposed "rights" are as limited as the ruling class wants them to be.

PL'er Anti-Racist Political Base Answers Union Election Red-baiting

One comrade has found recently that organizing an election campaign in basic industry is hard work. To pull it off it's necessary to rely on our base among the workers. For needed help he reached out to CHALLENGE readers among friends and co-workers and they came through. When asking workers for testimonials regarding his fitness for union office, their responses revealed a deep political understanding they had learned from the paper.

In an "endorsement flyer" distributed to 4,500 workers, rank-and-filers talked of "the struggle against racism," the "struggle to keep capitalist corporations from destroying a worker's ability to live a decent life," how we need to "unite all aerospace workers [whether they work for subcontractors or the final assemblers] against [the bosses'] attacks, which put the burden for the expanding wars on our backs." Retired, laid-off and active workers, black, Latin and white, men and women all contributed.

When our comrade displayed leadership to the workers and exposed the union hacks' lies, the latter spoke publicly about "unelected leaders" not following the leaders. According to these misleaders, the "unelected leaders" were the cause of our poor contracts.

This type of anti-communist attack shows the nature of bourgeois leadership where workers are seen as "not smart enough" to be leaders themselves. The potential of workers to lead themselves is the biggest threat to capitalism. We strive at every turn to nurture and develop that potential into a revolutionary force.

The particularly strong response from workers was an anti-racist one. Our comrade has led the anti-racist fight on the job for years and workers, black and white, recognize and appreciate that. A retired comrade collected $78 from African-American workers in a local "black" church based on her description of the anti-racist, anti-imperialist campaign our Party and base were running. Another Latin worker's e-mail told us the workers in his shop appreciated our exposure of the union misleaders' betrayal of farm workers during the union's campaign to bribe the company to build a plant locally. He then came to his first union meeting to shake our candidate's hand.

"It's great my white brothers and sisters are realizing that these racist attacks affect them also," said an African-American friend of the Party, when he saw that white workers, who weren't [yet!] in the Party, were writing about the need to emphasize the fight against racism in our campaign literature.

The election campaign has provided opportunities for hundreds of individual and small group discussions. We talked with workers in many buildings about the election, but many discussions quickly turned to war and racism. Although we know workers in many places, most of these political discussions involved workers we hadn't yet met.

Despite the union's attempts to separate "union business" from the real politics of the world today, the workers understand the links and are eager to discuss them, to hear a communist analysis. Compared to workers' responses in past political discussions, the difference today is inspiring. Years of hard work by comrade has yielded results -- further evidence that our confidence in the working class is justified, that what you do counts.

Worcester Bus Strikers Fought Boss/Union/Dems Gang-up; WELCOMED CHALLENGE

WORCESTER, MA, Oct. 17 -- The workers in Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 22 struck the Worcester Regional Transportation Authority (WRTA) last summer, the only strike in central Massachusetts this year. It would set the political tone for actions by other workers.

PLP members supported the strike, bringing pizza and communist ideas to the picket lines. Initially, we were somewhat nervous but the workers welcomed us to walk their line and wanted our help in publicizing their demands. Many asked how to get a copy of CHALLENGE.

The picket line was multi-racial and international, with women and men, and young and old. One woman remembered some of our comrades from the Cristino Hernandez police-terror struggle and immediately wanted to set up a meeting.

The union wanted to maintain the existing health insurance co-pay and prevent eight jobs from being "restructured" from union to non-union status. There were no wage demands.

The local media and city bosses condemned the strike as "a selfish denial of transportation." But in reality public transportation is under-funded; the city and the WRTA bosses had their own agenda: union-busting. The bosses don't care about workers suffering under capitalism. They keep raising bus fares and cutting bus routes affecting working-class neighborhoods, especially communities of color and surrounding towns.

Many workers who use bus service were angry at the striking workers because they were stranded. However, we explained that it was in the interest of workers and students to support the strike, that the main contradiction was between the WRTA bosses and the striking workers. It was these bosses who created -- and should be blamed for -- this crisis. Capitalists care only about their profit margin. This is the true nature of class society.

We pointed out that these workers were standing up for themselves and the working class as a whole. Strikes are a struggle between classes. Compared to the "lesser-of-two-evils" election farce, striking is workers' power in action.

It was inspiring to see workers intently reading CHALLENGE. Our flyers were literally snatched up. As our relationship with some workers grew, we asked them to sell CHALLENGES to their friends and invited them to PLP events. We talked about a society with workers really holding state power, about a communist society run by workers where the value produced is distributed according to need, not profits. We discussed joining PLP to make a revolution to wipe out the capitalist class. We're just at the beginning with these workers.

The class betrayal of the striking workers by the union-WRTA-politician gang-up sold out the workers. The local Democratic Congressman got the WRTA and the union to return to the table at which the union accepted all the give-backs. The workers wound up with nothing. It was a serious defeat for the entire working class.

Ultimately, winning means an end to wage slavery and this capitalist system. Right now winning means winning the hearts and minds of workers and solidifying friendships in class struggle, instilling class consciousness and stopping scabs. Class anger is still alive.

PLP continues to meet with those strikers with whom communist ideas resonated as we position ourselves for the next struggle.

Film Review: The Motorcycle Diaries
The Road to Political Consciousness via Motorcycle

The inherent contradictions of capitalism became obvious to Ernesto "Che" Guevara when he toured South America for seven months on a motorcycle with his friend Alberto Granado. This adventure is chronicled in the movie, The Motorcycle Diaries, based on Guevara's journals as well as Granado's account of the events.

Diaries takes place seven years before Ché would be radicalized and help lead the 1959 uprising that ousted the Cuban dictator Batista. Only 24 and born into a well-to-do family, Che led a privileged life in Argentina and was about to become a doctor. Before settling into this profession and into the petit-bourgeoisie, he and his good friend take off on a motorcycle to explore the continent.

The scenery is beautifully filmed throughout Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia and finally Venezuela. This movie could have been just a story of two young men's adventures of partying, meeting young women, scamming people for food and for repairs to their motorcycle and living independently. However, the injustices of class society become apparent in Peru when they see the racist treatment of the indigenous migrant workers along the roads of Cuzco, Machu Picchu and Lima. At one point, they meet two migrant coal miners who are on the run and looking for work clandestinely because they're communists. They ask Che and Alberto why they're traveling. Che answers, humbly, "We are traveling, just to travel," realizing that the two workers are traveling to survive. Later they witness the disgusting hiring practice at the coal factory, which so angers Che that he confronts the boss. The latter threatens to jail them since they're on the factory's property.

Che's political consciousness develops when they help a leper colony. Ché's refusal to wear gloves -- knowing fully that leprosy is not contagious when it is treated -- wins many of the patients and doctors to the idea that these people may have a disease but are still human and should be treated as such, not separated from "healthy" humans. They even confront strict church nuns who refuse to feed anyone in the main mess hall unless they go to church. At one point, a nun refuses to feed Che and Alberto because they haven't attended church. In solidarity, the patients later bring the two of them food.

Motorcycle Diaries illustrates several aspects of developing class-consciousness and the idea that we can change the world. On the question of violent revolution, the film takes us through the ruins of the Incas in Machu Piccu. Alberto, romanticizing the ancient city, tells Ché he would like to marry an Incan woman and then organize the indigenous people to elect an Incan President. Che tells him you cannot have a "revolution without guns" since that's how the Spaniards defeated the Incas.

Che's relationship with the people he met led them to respect him because of his honesty and humanity. He refused separation from the sick or the indigenous. By the end of the movie, Che is reconsidering his life because of all he has seen.

Che has become an iconic figure around the world for better and worse (the bosses use Che's image to sell T-shirts, hats and even beer!). Guevara's humanity and bravery were admirable but from a revolutionary perspective, he had many weaknesses. He didn't believe in the necessity of a communist party. His idea ("Foco") maintained that only a few trained and committed guerrillas were needed to make a revolution. However, to make a real revolution, communists must build a mass base in the working class for communist ideas as they engage in class struggle against the bosses.

LETTERS

PLP Students Pump Up Teachers' Demo

Recently I went to a local teachers' union demonstration that denounced the fascist murders of teachers in Colombia. It was good to attend an event openly dedicated to international workers solidarity, but the protest could have been more militant.

I was the first PLP member there, and joined the picket line, which was neatly penned outside the NYC Colombian consulate. Participants marched quietly in circles, with occasional speakers who said relatively little.

Partially from my experiences this summer at the Boston Summer Project and at other protests, I knew it was my responsibility to get things pumped up. I distributed chants sheets with the Party logo; protesters took them eagerly.

I proceeded to chant at the top of my lungs. People responded well. Especially to the bilingual ones like, "La lucha obrera/ no tienen fronteras" -- "The fight of the workers/ has no borders." Teachers were also impressed by the fact that I was one of the few students there.

When other comrades arrived, we were able to give more leadership. We had a powerful presence since even our small contingent was multi-racial, reflecting the breaking of bosses' borders. We sold CHALLENGE and "It's-not-just-Bush-it's-Capitalism" buttons. Our leadership with chants made people willing to listen to what we had to say. Some teachers on the picket line tried to have students speak on the bullhorn but the leadership denied their request. It would have boosted a worker-student alliance if one of the students had been allowed to speak.

This event revealed much about our ideas and how the rank and file teachers were glad to have us there.

College Comrade

Bogota/New York: Dreams of a Common Freedom

Up to a million people took to the streets of Colombia's major cities in a massive jornada, a one day-general strike and day of action. Called by the national unions, including the teachers in FECODE, it was a political strike against the Uribe government and the Free Trade Agreement with the U.S., and for public health and education. It was a call to end death squad killings. It was scary and tough, but El País quotes Maria Rosario Nino, a 65-year-old on a three-day march into Bogotá: "Además, un docente nunca siente cansancio." ("Oh well, a teacher never feels tired.")

The jornada is common in Colombia, but this time, as they marched in Medellín, Cali and Bogotá, a few teachers marched in solidarity with them in New York City. FECODE had asked PSC-CUNY, the faculty-staff union at the City University of New York, to come out with them October 12. PSC picketed the Colombian consulate, with signs like "La lucha obrera no tiene fronteras!" ("Workers struggles have no borders.")

The consulate closed early, probably because they did not want visitors to see the pickets. Alongside PSC members marched other unionists, activists in the Killer Coke campaign, students and members of PLP. A FECODE teacher wrote to the New York union the next day: "We appreciate your connection to this jornada through your picket in New York, and we know the significance it has for our country."

In Colombia the repression of teachers is extreme, but also in New York, to teach is to struggle. And according to a Mexican teacher slogan, to struggle is to teach. "El maestro luchanbdo también está eneñando." Brother to brother, teacher to teacher, sister to sister - what will their common struggle have taught? Many have dreamed and died for it. Will teachers learn from a struggle that knows no borders, how to set no limits to their history, their dreams of a free commons, of being-free-in-common, of communist freedom?

NYC Teacher

Putting Politics First Led To PLP

Your article (CHALLENGE, 10/20) entitled "Memories From May Day 1946" was very informative. I would add one note. The article states that, "When the Cold War onslaught hit the unions, the communists were ousted rather easily.... Having...fought it with a `free speech' defense," rather than politically, but there was one (important) exception -- the CP in Buffalo. Here the communists DID make a political fight; the party there was led by a group which became the kernel of those who eventually quit the CP to form the Progressive Labor Movement, the forerunner of the PLP.

Another example of "turning a bad thing into a good thing."

Brooklyn old-timer

Trials and Errors of A Progressive Intellectural

On Oct. 10, Gerard Pierre Charles died of lung problems while seeking medical treatment in Cuba. He was 68, and one of Haiti's and Latin America's leading intellectuals. He also reflected the contradictions of many progressives and leftists.

Charles was a founder of the Unified Party of Haitian Communists (PUCH), while being a trade union leader. He fought the Papa Doc Duvalier dictatorship, but had to flee to Mexico to escape the TonTon Macoute (Duvalier's goons). He lived in Mexico until the fall of Baby Doc, who ruled after his father died. Charles became a college professor in Mexico and wrote extensively on Haiti and Latin America. He won many literary prizes and was nominated by local and Latin American intellectuals for the Nobel Peace Prize.

When Baby Doc was run out of Haiti in 1986, Charles returned to Haiti. The opportunism of PUCH caused its demise (it never actually called for a real revolution and became just another electoral party), so he joined the Lavalas movement which helped Jean Bertrand Aristide become president in the early 1990s. But the remnants of the Duvalier regime -- which controlled the Army -- quickly overthrew Aristide.

Several years later, Aristide returned to power with the support of U.S. troops sent by the Clinton administration. But the corruption of the government and the misery of the Haitian masses didn't end. Gerard Pierre Charles finally split with Aristide and helped form the Organization of People in Struggle. But instead of breaking with all bourgeois forces and calling for a real revolution against capitalism, the anti-Aristide movement helped bring back the old TonTon Macoute death squads, this time supported by troops sent by Bush and Chirac of France.

Today, the Haitian workers and masses face the living hell of being ruled by death squads plus being occupied by UN troops (now led by the Brazilian Army). On top of that, hurricane-caused floods killed 3,000 (CHALLENGE, 10/20). The Haitian masses (like those worldwide) are paying for the failure to organize a revolutionary communist movement to fight all forms of capitalism. The longer we wait in doing this, the more we will suffer.

Toussaint Rouge

Letter from Pakistan

Communism is the truth so it cannot be defeated. International struggle for the new communist world will abolish exploitation, wage slavery, poverty, illiteracy, terrorism, sexism, racism, nationalism and poverty everywhere. It will create a world without bosses and borders, where everyone receives according to need.

Capitalism is threatening wars worldwide to satisfy its need to exploit workers for their profit. It will launch a world war so it is our first and foremost duty to convert this war into a communist revolution by recruiting the working class into PLP. This is the only party striving for a classless world, eliminating the savagery of capitalism.

In Pakistan, communists must fight terrorism, fundamentalism, sexism, racism and nationalism. The ruling class uses militant fundamentalism for the sake of capitalist exploitation and oppression. They used these terrorists to fight the Soviet Union on behalf of the United States. Now they're saying they're eliminating these terrorists from Wana (South Waziristan) and other hideouts, but they're doing it so capitalism can survive.

Pakistan's ruling class can't eliminate terrorism because these well-organized terrorists have strongholds in many places. In fact, they were originally planted by the capitalists to exploit and terrorize the people. They've been trained by the U.S. and other capitalist countries.

Pakistani and Indian rulers claim they will resolve all conflicts, including Kashmir, but they're just deceiving the working class. The ruling classes of both countries practice nationalism, preventing them from resolving disputes. The rivalries among the world's rulers provide the basis for the development of imperialism. In its drive to survive, the profit system depends upon regional wars. In Southeast Asia, capitalism maintains the Kashmir issue, impelling an arms race and the building of huge armies in order to control their exploited and poor people. We in PLP believe that such issues will help us to strengthen our Party by recruiting poor workers, peasants, soldiers and students.

LONG LIVE COMMUNISM!

Pakistani comrades

A Little Rebellion Goes A Long Way

As a group of 30 "excessed" teachers waiting to be placed in jobs, we were sitting in rows of plastic chairs seven hours a day - some of us for four weeks - in a regional headquarters of the Dept. of Education here. Three secretaries with computers were also there, some doing work relative to us. Some of us were short-term, in and out in a few hours and sent to a job or receiving needed papers.

Conditions were awful. The carpet kept coming apart because of the movement of chairs tightly pushed against each other. For a few people, it was also a "rubber room," a holding place for people "under suspicion," but not yet convicted, of some misdeed.

Relationships had developed among those of us sitting there for almost four weeks. Anger and voices were rising. In a factory, these signs would have led to a strike. The situation just needed a trigger.

The young secretary in charge of the room was talking to a new entrant. She turned to the teachers sitting in the rows of chairs and, in a nasty tone, told them to "be quiet." She was obviously irritated because the background noise made it difficult to work.

The teachers were all shocked into silence. Nobody said anything. Emboldened, the secretary commanded somebody to leave the front row because long-termers should not have been in the front rows. The elderly teacher who had been sitting in the front row said, "I'm leaving," and walked out. Still nobody said anything. The secretary became bolder. She started to discard papers left around a computer which were supposedly to be used by job-seeking teachers. Still silence.

Unable to take this disrespect any longer, I started talking in a loud and comical manner saying, "I loved to be insulted." The secretary commanded me to be quiet. I replied, "I will not be quiet. I will talk whenever and wherever I want." We had a short but sharp argument while all the teachers watched. Another secretary persuaded her to sit down, but she soon ran for a supervisor.

The supervisor told us that she knew of our terrible plight, how difficult it was. Finally, after I had been raising my hand for about seven minutes, she allowed me to talk. I said the secretaries should not be expected to work in a room with so many people forced to do nothing, confined to rows of chairs week after week. She said this was a "professional office." I responded that it was a "professional prison." Then she got very loud and nasty with me.

But then 10 other people, all "long-termers," spoke up. The supervisor was taken aback and immediately created a frenzy of activity. One person who'd been waiting four weeks for a letter received it in 10 minutes and left for her job. The woman approached me and thanked me for getting her the job, saying she would tell her family about me.

The next day, all 10 people who had spoken out were placed in jobs. One after another they thanked me for getting them the jobs. It was quite a day.

When those I had known were mostly gone and I was trying to develop some new friends among new entrants, the supervisor approached me and said very loudly, "They're thinking of removing your license line, and you'll be here as long as it takes to get you a job."

The following work day an old friend who had been working in the same building and had heard of my plight - probably from talk around the building about the "rebellion" - placed me in a job.

Without that fight-back I'd probably still be sitting on the small, confined, plastic chair, two weeks later, and so would the 10 other people. It was a small working-class rebellion that people definitely learned from.

A communist teacher

CHALLENGE NEEDS YOUR:
SUGGESTIONS

Over the years Progressive Labor Party has produced three albums of revolutionary, labor and protest songs (two records and one cassette). They were sold out years ago and are no longer available. Many younger comrades and friends of PLP have never heard those recordings. Discussion has begun on the question of the Party re-issuing some, or all, of those songs in one or two CD's. One Thousand copies of one CD would probably cost $2,000 to $3,000 to produce.

There are a few general possible approaches. First, we can copy all of the songs onto two CD's. Second, we can copy most, but not all, of the songs onto one or two CD's. Third, we can make one "best of..." CD. Fourth, it's a bad idea so don't make any CD's.

Additionally, several of the old songs, including "The Internationale," have been partially re-written to strengthen the politics. Should some or all of the re-written songs be recorded to replace the original versions? There are also some songs floating around the Party that haven't been recorded. Perhaps we could put them out on a CD as well. Studio recording time is more involved and more expensive.

We would like to include your ideas in the discussion before any decisions are made, before anything is burned in plastic. All suggestions should be sent to CHALLENGE PERIODICALS, Box 808, GPO, Brooklyn, NY 11202, the sooner the better. Also, please send any good revolutionary songs you may have. Include the words, chords, and/or printed music, and a cassette if possible.

RED EYE ON THE NEWS

BELOW ARE EXCERPTS FROM MAINSTREAM NEWSPAPERS THAT CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION:Abbreviations: NYT=New York Times, GW=Guardian Weekly (UK)

Kerry: smooth imperialist

John Kerry is committed to fundamentally the same goal as George Bush, which is a permanent U.S. strategic presence in Iraq....

The American policy community -- the people in the policy institutes, think-tanks, and university institutions accustomed to man the U.S. government...share an identical vision....

They believe...America is the world's most powerful nation; its duty (and privilege) is to order and police the world.

Sen. Kerry's own electoral Web site declares that if he is elected he will "strengthen weak states and secure and rebuild failed states around the world...."

John Kerry will rescue the failed states. The war in Iraq will go on. (International Tribune, 9/29)

`Leftist' sells out Indians

...This remote stretch of the Amazon is an Indian reservation,...Yet white settlers...have built an airstrip, a fancy technical school, a town hall and stores, all protected by a new military base....

Clandestine gold and diamond mines are flourishing.... Encroachment has been accelerating and becoming bolder....

Brazil's first elected left-wing president....Mr. da Silva visited here more than a decade ago, expressed support for their plight and promised that if he ever got into power, he would grant their demand.

"Since Lula came into office, things have only gotten worse for us," said Jacir Jose de Souza, a Macuxi Indian chief.... "He's worse than the last government because he says one thing and does another." (NYT, 10/15)

Colombia another Vietnam?

BOGOTA, Colombia, Oct. 10 -- The number of American military personnel here will double, to 800, in the coming months, based on a weekend vote in the United States Congress.

The action was welcomed by President Alvaro Uribe's government for its fight against Marxist rebels but condemned by human rights monitors, who warned a sharp escalation in Colombia's conflict....could lead to a Vietnam-like quagmire....

American involvement is being ratcheted up as the United States steadily increases training for police and military forces in Latin America.

In 2003, American soldiers trained 22,831 Latin American troops and police officers, 52 percent more than in 2002.... (NYT, 10/11)

Teens need jobs, not jail

Boot camps and other get-tough programs for adolescents do not prevent criminal behavior, as intended, and may make the problem even worse, a new study has found.

Further, laws transferring juveniles into the adult court system lead these teenagers to commit more violence, the study said...

" `Scare tactics' don't work," the panel concluded. "Programs that seek to prevent violence through fear and tough treatment do not work." (NYT, 10/17)

Global profits cause slums

...The UN commissioned a 300-page report on the growth of slums. The authors found that slum dwellers account for an average 43% of the population of developing countries. In sub-saharan Africa the proportion of urban residents in slums is highest at 71.9%....

They...suggested that the greatest underlying reason for the growth of slums was laissez-faire globalization -- the liberalisation and privatisation of national economies...imposed on indebted countries by the International Monetary Fund....

...Some developing countries, the authors suggested, would have done better to stay out of the globalisation process altogether if they had the interest of their own people in mind. (GW, 9/23)

US fights to colonize Iraq

...Rigged elections [are] designed to leave Iraq in the hands of Ayad Allawi and his CIA/Mukhabarat-trained thugs, dependent on Washington for both money and might.

This is why Sadr is being hunted -- not because he is a threat to women's rights but because his political demands represent the greatest threat to US control.... In the hands of the majority, US military bases will be in jeopardy, as will Bremer's privatisation-friendly laws. (GW, 10/01)

 

a href="#There’s No Debate: Either Bush Or Kerry Means More Wars">"here’s No Debate: Either Bush Or Kerry Means More Wars

Anti-Racists Disrupt Neo-Nazi Rally

a href="#Kerry Advisor’s ‘Grand Strategy’’ = Fourth Reich">Kerry "dvisor’s ‘Grand Strategy’’ = Fourth Reich

AFL-CIO Fights For Democrats, Not For Jobs

Teachers Back Resolution Opposing Permanent War Budget

Army Recruiters Take Aim At Grammar School Kids!

Blame Capitalism Not Mother Nature, for Devastation in Haiti

Worker-Student Unity Best Way to Honor Victims of Olympic Massacre

All Bosses Are Enemies of the Working Class

a href="#Politics Guiding Garment Workers’ Class Struggle">"olitics Guiding Garment Workers’ Class Struggle

Sharpening Shop Discussions Leading To PLP Recruits

a href="#‘All That Relying On Democrats Got Us Is More Budget Cuts . . ."">"All That Relying On Democrats Got Us Is More Budget Cuts . . ."

NY Unionists In Solidarity With Teachers In Colombia

Memories From May Day 1946

Imperialist Drive for Oil Behind Massacre in Sudan

LETTERS

Youth Experiences at Protest Against GOP Convention

• CHALLENGE comment

Excited Over Finding REAL Communist Party

a href="#Spread Red Ideas In Migrant ‘Concentration Camp’">Sp"ead Red Ideas In Migrant ‘Concentration Camp’

Fascist Attack On Poor Workers Collecting Cans

RED EYE ON THE NEWS

• Imperialism will need draft
• Afghans still in despair
• Productivity = long hours
• Dems are equal bombers
• Big Oil: More Africa plots
• Fox not the only liars
• Israel will raid Iran for US

---

a name="There’s No Debate: Either Bush Or Kerry Means More Wars">">"here’s No Debate: Either Bush Or Kerry Means More Wars

The first Bush-Kerry debate proved, as CHALLENGE has been reporting, that very little separates the two. Many well-intentioned people hate Bush. But the "ABB" (Anybody-But-Bush) movement is seriously mistaken choosing Kerry as the solution, even partially so, to all our class’s problems.

Kerry is just another huckster for the profit system that brought us these problems all along. The solution lies outside the system, in a communist revolution that can attack and destroy the causes of war, unemployment, racism, police state terror and all the other evils capitalism inflicts on us.

Even before the debate, the New York Times, which hates Bush and which speaks for the main, liberal wing of Eastern Establishment bosses, admitted (9/30): "…for all the talk about stark differences…[Bush and Kerry] differ only slightly, if at all…Even on Iraq…neither man is calling for the immediate departure of American troops…Both want to create similar conditions for an American withdrawal."

Bush and Kerry don’t differ significantly on Iraq because, as CHALLENGE has written ever since Bush, Sr.’s 1991 Desert Storm genocide, Iraqi oil remains central to U.S. rulers’ strategy for world domination, via a choke-hold on Persian Gulf supplies. Iraqi oil is more crucial than ever to that strategy.

The Times now openly admits this. A "Week In Review" article (10/3) lays out the stark facts about the rise in worldwide demand for oil, fueled in large part by the emergence of China and India as major industrial powers and rivals to the U.S.

Oil-producing countries fall into two groups: OPEC (Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries) and non-OPEC. The Persian Gulf oil producers (Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait), as well as Venezuela and Libya, belong to OPEC. The U.S. and Russia don’t.

At present production levels, Russia — which has boosted its output significantly in recent years — has enough oil to last for about 20 years. U.S. supplies may last for 15. Respective estimates for Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kuwait are 80, 115 and 110 years. The estimate for Iraq is 160 years.

Four conclusions follow. First, the U.S.’s ability to rule the world by controlling key oil sources and supply routes will continue to depend indefinitely on establishing a hammerlock throughout the Persian Gulf.

Second, right now Iraqi oil is the issue that can tip the balance. Iraqi reserves are, at the very least, a close second to Saudi reserves and potentially the world’s greatest.

Third, the very nature of imperialism requires that U.S. rulers do anything and everything to secure Iraqi oil and also to ensure a grip on Saudi and Iranian oil. The present war shows those goals are a long way from successful completion.

Fourth, all of the above explain why very little separates Bush and Kerry. They differ only on HOW to win the U.S. population to fight a war that will surely widen until it enflames the entire Persian Gulf. Eventually it will involve armed struggle pitting other imperialists against the U.S. This is a very long-term scenario understood and endorsed by every major sector of U.S. bosses.

Bush and Kerry also differ on the tactics for fighting the present war. As Bush’s detractors in the ruling class complain, he and Rumsfeld have put in "just enough troops to lose." (Thomas Friedman, NYT, 10/3). The Democrats, on the other hand, favored a scenario that differed on timing — they wanted to invade later — and on the number of ground forces: the Democrats and some liberal Republicans wanted significantly more troops than Bush has committed.

But the U.S. military is already "stretched thin." Former soldiers are beginning to resist a special wartime call-up program. The Army National Guard missed its 2004 recruiting target by 10%. Congress is making noises about expanding the army by 20,000 soldiers. Kerry wants 40,000. (NYT, 10/3) U.S. troops are already on war duty in Afghanistan, the Balkans and Korea, in addition to Iraq and U.S. bases in Europe. With the Iraqi insurgency mounting and Iran coming "right to the top of the agenda, right under Iraq" (Geoffrey Kemp of the Nixon Center, NYT, 9/30) no matter who wins the 2004 election, it’s clear U.S. troops will be fighting more wars and will need more soldiers to fight them. Kerry’s proposed numbers are just a pre-election drop in the bucket to prepare us for what lies ahead — he doesn’t want to lose votes by revealing the magnitude of the need for cannon-fodder.

"More Troops Needed In Iraq, Officials Say," trumpets a September 24 headline in a Washington Post article by Thomas Ricks, the leading military journalist for the Liberal Establishment press. We can’t predict the date, but this "need" will at some time require the restoration of a military draft. The main obstacle is political. The rulers still dread the "Vietnam Syndrome" and fear that the working class will not enthusiastically fight and die for U.S. imperialism. They are right — at the moment. But they’re also working overtime to change this scenario, to inspire a mass movement for war and for the domestic police state needed to mobilize for it.

Bush has failed dismally in this role. This failure explains the liberal press’s disdain for him. Kerry has yet to prove that he can succeed. The rulers’ political disarray gives our side an opportunity. As the casualties mount among both U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians, the war will spread in Iraq and widen throughout the Persian Gulf. Many workers and soldiers will begin looking angrily for answers to deep questions about why such atrocities occur. The rulers will offer them racist and fascist lies. Without communist leadership, large numbers of workers may be vulnerable to the lies, but this negative outcome is far from certain.

PLP can play a decisive role in the process, to provide correct answers to the question and solutions to the problem. Imperialism makes war inevitable, as its solution" to each imperialist’s fight for markets, cheap labor and especially oil. Only a communist-led working class has the power and the ideological arsenal to turn such wars into their opposite.

In the present election and beyond, the many honest people in the "ABB" movement must be won to the goal of smashing U.S. imperialism’s abominable oil war in Iraq, while winning more workers to follow the red flag and the communist ideas in CHALLENGE.

Anti-Racists Disrupt Neo-Nazi Rally

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 25 — A group of PLP members from New York and Philadelphia linked up today with hundreds of local anti-racists to disrupt a Nazi rally in nearby Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. We prevented them from spreading their white supremacist ideas while building a communist base for revolution.

When our caravan arrived at Valley Forge National Park, a group of anti-racists were already attacking the Nazis, who were punched and run out of the entrance. Our spirited multi-racial group of workers and students quickly took the lead at the counter-demonstration and organized the opposition behind pro-worker, anti-fascist chants: "Hitler rose, Hitler fell, Nazi scum go to hell!" and "Death to the fascists! Power to the workers!"

Although hundreds of local cops, state troopers and U.S. marshals covered the park on foot, horseback, cars and helicopters, a few Nazis arriving unescorted by the Klan in blue were left unprotected. They were punched and kicked, and one was hospitalized.

The anti-racists then went through a fascistic security checkpoint to a metal barricaded police holding pen from where spectators were forced to watch the rally.

As the 100 or so Neo-Nazis, mobilized from several states, assumed a militant stance and lined up single file on the hill below us, hundreds of yards away, the voice of the neo-Nazi leader bombarded us through a megaphone. Immediately we erupted in a fury of anti-racist, pro-worker chants. The Nazi’s leader was so taken aback he stopped speaking as we interrupted the rally for several minutes.

We drowned out their message, shouting, "Racist scum, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide!" and "Arab, Jewish, black and white, Workers of the world unite!" disrupting the rally several more times.

Some onlookers asked us to stop chanting so they could hear the Nazis. We explained that there must be no "free speech" for racists because it has always led to murder and terror and always will. We convinced most, but not all, of these anti-racist protesters that it’s necessary to destroy racism, not listen to it. When Hitler was able to spread his racism, it led to World War II, killing 100 million people.

In addition to confronting the fascist ideas at the rally, most importantly we spread communist ideas to help build a Party base. Several pacifist and anarchist protestors joined our group and picked up our chants to help drown out the Nazis. Eight contacts were made with local residents who were interested in the Party’s ideas. Over 150 copies of CHALLENGE and 600 leaflets were distributed, both of which linked the many brutal attacks against workers and our families here at home to genocide for oil and imperial power worldwide. We connected the cops’ protection of fascists in Pennsylvania to bombing families in Iraq.

When some of us arrived home in Philadelphia, a black worker, upon hearing about our actions, said, "Fighting terrorists ought to begin at home. They can go around the world searching for terrorists, but here at home it’s a different story. They protect terrorists here!" By saying "they," he plainly knew the U.S. government isn’t "ours" but "theirs" — very close to saying that "they" are terrorists themselves, which they certainly are.

The event itself showed clearly that even a few people can achieve positive results. But an insufficient organizing effort limited the number we brought to the protest. These racist groups are growing and that means opposing racism and building a mass communist movement is more important than ever. Next time we’ll work harder to be ready for these fascists.

a name="Kerry Advisor’s ‘Grand Strategy’’ = Fourth Reich"></a>Ke"ry Advisor’s ‘Grand Strategy’’ = Fourth Reich

(Earlier articles in this series discussed the nature of the state and ways in which capitalists use government and related tools to enforce their class dictatorship. But capitalists themselves often disagree over what the state should look like and how it should operate. The following examines conflicts between the Bush and Kerry camps concerning the role of the state.)

In the 1920s, Calvin Coolidge said, "The business of America is business," and ran a government that interfered very little in the affairs of capitalists. Ten years later, Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) undertook a vast restructuring of the government that would eventually militarize the entire nation and put virtually every business and industry under tight, wartime regulation. Today, growing challenges to U.S. imperialism have John Kerry and his backers pining for the FDR days.

Gary Hart, one of Kerry’s most influential advisers, has written a new policy-setting book called "The Fourth Power." It demands that government officials, from the president on down, adopt an imperialist "grand strategy" in which every action of the state aims at bolstering the U.S.’s worldwide "leadership." Like FDR, Hart wants to use the state to subordinate the greed of individual capitalists to the needs of the capitalist class as a whole. He makes a sharp distinction between the "profit motive" and "national interests." Referring specifically to the military, Hart calls for reversing Bush’s tax cuts, "Every revenue dollar returned to the nation’s most wealthy is a dollar not invested in our common wealth and nation." (p. 77)

Hart also hopes to use fears of terrorism to fashion a larger, more consolidated police apparatus. Bush has proved reluctant on this. Says Hart, "The Department of Homeland Security requires three critical integrations: the first is integration of this wide array of existing federal offices and bureaus; the second is the integration of the federal system — national, state, and local governments; the third is the integration of the public and private sectors." (p. 67) He then repeats the Hart-Rudman Commission’s insistence that the National Guard become a nationwide "homeland security" police force.

Hart envisions a militarized society with millions more in uniform than exists now. He finds "a surprising applicability of the principles of armed conflict to the multi-faceted human endeavor." (p. 35) To repair troop shortages stemming from Bush’s failure to mobilize for wartime, Hart urges everyone who can to become a "citizen soldier." In the short term, enlistment would be voluntary but, "World wars require conscription and massive standing armies." (p. 50) And developments in Russia and China may someday have "profound implications for the United States and the world." (p. 96)

In addition to troop strength, Hart-Kerry’s view of the state’s military arm differs from Bush & Co.’s on the need for allies. The Democrats seek a multi-national fig leaf for U.S. domination, by armed force, of the world’s trade in oil and other strategic commodities. "We should consider…creation of a NATO intervention force with several missions: keeping the sea-lanes of communication open; protecting the flow of oil supplies; and dealing with any force that might want to block international commerce or exact some tribute for the open usage of any of the world’s critical maritime straits." (p. 95)

Hart says that when it comes to the U.S. capitalist class’s most important source of profits, the U.S. military should be even more deadly than Bush’s war machine. According to the liberal ex-senator, the U.S. needs "light, swift, and lethal intervention forces to protect America’s legitimate interests." (p. 158)

"The Fourth Power" praises the "massive government action" of the FDR era. But it presents a fascistic vision of the state more closely resembling Nazi Germany. It should really be called "The Fourth Reich." The only viable alternative to rule by Bush or the equally Hitlerite Kerry is a working-class dictatorship in which the communist party is the state.

(Next: The State under Communism: The Dictatorship of the Proletariat and the Party.)

AFL-CIO Fights For Democrats, Not For Jobs

Bush and Kerry are battling to win the state of Ohio, but neither has a plan, nor can they have one, to put the state’s 237,000 workers who lost their jobs in the past four years back to work. Another 12,000 went by the wayside in August, the highest in the country. Canton, a city of 81,000, lost 3,700 since 2001. When Bush visited the Timkin bearing plant there last year, he promised a million new jobs. Now Timkin’s boss, a big Bush donor, is closing three plants and putting another 1,300 on the street.

So Kerry, the AFL-CIO’s man, would seem like a shoo-in, right? Yet, with all these mass layoffs, a Univ. of Cincinnati poll has Bush leading in Ohio by 54% to Kerry’s 43% — if you can believe their figures. How come?

Bushites say it’s the "moral" issues ("Jesus loves W"). But most of these jobless workers were laid off from unionized plants and have seen AFL-CIO honchos allow all these jobs to go down the drain without a fight. While these labor fakers can spend millions to elect Kerry, they never mobilize the strength of all these hundreds of thousands of workers to confront the bosses.

So many of them may be so fed up with the union leaders and their Democratic bosses that they may be thinking of voting for Bush as the "lesser evil"!

Of course, if Kerry wins, there’s not much he will, or can, do for the jobless. He’s as wedded to the capitalist system as Bush is, a system that intrinsically produces these layoffs. Capitalist competition, based on the drive for maximum profits in a planless society, inevitably leads to each boss trying to capture as much of the market as he thinks he can. This inevitably leads to overproduction and periodic booms and busts. This creates a reserve army of the unemployed which forces workers to accept lower wages. And while Kerry’s making a big deal over "outsourcing" jobs abroad, he’s mum about U.S. manufacturers subcontracting work out to racist low-paying outfits here that pay mainly black, Latin and immigrant workers and youth slave-labor wages. For the bosses, less money going to the working class means more money to finance imperialist wars.

Remember when Clinton took over in ’92 and came in with a Democratic-controlled Congress? The union chiefs blabbed that they now had a "friend in the White House." But in those two years prior to the Gingrich take-over, Clinton broke the American Airlines strike and his Democrats didn’t pass one piece of legislation to help workers, especially doing nothing about the legalization of scabs, supposedly the union bosses’ "top priority."

Whether Republican or Democrat, whether Bush or Kerry, workers will always get the shaft. That’s the nature of capitalism — profits first, workers last. The electoral circus sucks workers into a bottomless pit that says capitalism can be "reformed." Never happen. That’s why we say revolution, not reform.

Teachers Back Resolution Opposing Permanent War Budget

A resolution to study the effects of a permanent war budget on the schools passed overwhelmingly at our teachers’ area union meeting. Top U.S. policy-makers like Peter Peterson of the Council on Foreign Relations have called for a more serious war budget, a "war economy" for the foreseeable future. (Foreign Affairs, "Riding for a Fall") A "permanent war budget" means severe cutbacks in all social services as well as an increase in the development of a fascist police state.

The U.S. ruling class needs the Mid-East oil fields, the primary source of the world’s oil. As inter-imperialist rivalry sharpens over the control of this most precious resource, world supremacy is at stake.

In the schools, the unions and other mass organizations, it’s necessary to expose the war and war budget as the source of the racist, anti-worker attacks here. While the rulers work 24/7 to try convincing us that the war is in "our national interest," PLP must show imperialist war is only in the bosses’ interests.

When the resolution was proposed — "that the union establish an ad hoc committee to study the results of a ‘permanent war budget’ on our profession and our schools" — the leadership said there was already a committee to deal with similar issues But the answer came back, "the more the better. We need this now." The resolution passed 47 to 7.

Several teachers expressed their gratitude. "Thank you so much for bringing that up," said one. "My son just came back from Iraq, and they spend so much money on this unjust war."

The following day at our school’s lunch-hour union meeting, the resolution was reported to the membership. One of the teachers opposed it, asking, "What does that have to do with our union?" "It has everything to do with our union," responded the member who proposed it. When another teacher questioned the truth of the war economy, he was given the Foreign Affairs article and went off to read it. The discussion was cut short when the lunch period ended. But it will continue.

Now we can make this ad hoc committee a reality and show teachers and students alike exactly how the war budget and the war affect all of us.

This small but significant example points us in the right direction. Most teachers and most workers not only see but feel the contradictions of the bosses’ imperialist oil war. Proposing resolutions and job actions that reveal the effects of the bosses’ permanent war budget opens the door to struggle and resistance, exposing the racist and imperialist nature of the war and deepening the understanding that the source of these attacks lies in the nature of capitalism.

In this area, we’ll continue this struggle as well as join our co-workers and students at upcoming demonstrations. A revolution is organized through small steps that eventually lead to a qualitative transformation on the long road of building a revolutionary movement that will ultimately smash imperialism and establish the dictatorship of the working class.

Army Recruiters Take Aim At Grammar School Kids!

WORCESTER, MA, Sept. 24 — The U.S. Army, desperate to meet recruiting goals, has fraudulently recruited public school kids as young as grammar school age here and in surrounding areas. The recruiters have a traveling horror show called "Spirit of America" which supposedly shows the history of the Army, but instead it’s used to recruit high school students and propagandize all.

The local school officials rented buses and forced up to 5,000 kids to attend this event as a captive audience. The local officials would later say they thought the show had "historical value." This history showed the U.S. Army in action, killing Native Indians (racism), Vietnam (imperialism), and other apologies for capitalist crimes.

Local anti-war activists, including PLP members, helped organize a rally protesting the recruitment of children for imperialist wars. PLP members held signs condemning the imperialist oil war in Iraq. These signs were sharply different than the peace activists whose signs said only that war was "bad," with no class analysis. Many kids and teachers approached us with thanks for opposing the military and imperialist wars.

Local officials were somewhat embarrassed as the Army was clearly recruiting kids, setting up recruiting tables and getting names and addresses. In 2001 the same officials suspended scores of high school students when they left school to attend an anti-war rally opposing the war in Afghanistan.

In this struggle, PLP has advanced the view that the cycles of imperialist wars cannot be ended until capitalism, which causes war, is replaced by communism. We must spread the truth to counter the military propaganda targeting kids and organize young people to fight school systems that send them to war while denying them diplomas and a decent education.

Blame Capitalism Not Mother Nature, for Devastation in Haiti

The latest toll from Hurricane Jeanne in Haiti includes — just in the city of Gonaives (population 250,000) — over 3,000 confirmed dead, 200,000 homeless and no safe drinking water. Diarrhea and other water-borne sicknesses are killing the most vulnerable, children and the aged. In solidarity, workers have organized fund drives at their jobs and in their communities to send food and clothing to Haiti. But all this tells only one side of the story.

Almost every newspaper and TV story about Haiti paints a picture of an unfortunate people at the mercy of nature, with 98% of the country deforested. The stories evoke sympathy and pity. Some governments sent money to rebuild, though not nearly enough. (The U.S. first "offered" the grand sum of $50,000!) There’s also lots of blaming the victim. In June, the new U.S.-appointed Prime Minister Gerard Latortue said the problem was Haitian peasants cutting down the trees for charcoal.

But these stories don’t evoke anger at and hatred for what capitalism and imperialism — not Mother Nature — has rained down on the Haitian masses. And they don’t reveal that Haiti has been systematically stripped of its natural resources by the bourgeoisie, past and present, foreign and local.

When the French rulers colonized Haiti in the 17th century, the vegetation in this mountainous third of the island of Hispaniola was so thick and dense that it was as dark as night during the day. They imported African slaves to cut down the trees, which were shipped back to France, and to grow sugar in the plains and coffee in the mountains, both of which were also sent to Europe. Slavery and this deforestation of Haiti made France rich. Imperialism flourished.

When the Dio Rouj river overflowed in the rural community of Mapou in southeastern Haiti and the neighboring Dominican town of Jimaní at the end of May — even before hurricane season began — and more than 2,000 were killed and 70,000 made homeless, CHALLENGE reported that the local hardwood gaiac trees had been cut down and sent to the U.S., never to be replanted. The grinding poverty forces rural workers to cut down their own trees and burn them into charcoal, then sell them to urban workers for cooking fuel. So when the rains come, and rivers overflow, there are no trees to hold back the water. Mudslides wash away houses, crops and livestock, and thousands of people die in a single day. Hundreds of thousands were left homeless.

While hurricanes and floods devastate the Haitian working class, armed gangs freely control the streets of several Haitian cities. This includes Gonaives, the birthplace of Haiti’s historic fight against slavery and for independence 200 years ago, but also the hometown of the death squads which overran Haiti earlier this year, leading the U.S. Embassy to force former Pres. Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile. These gangs are victimizing women in particular. After waiting incredibly long hours in lines to get food and water from the international aid donors, these women are waylaid on their way home and their food and water are stolen.

All this occurs under the impotent if not approving eyes of the U.S.-installed government in Port-au-Prince, which warmly embraced death squad leader Guy Phillippe when he marched into Gonaives. In the capital, mass demonstrations calling for the return of Aristide are met by armed police, four of whom were killed last week. These workers are being misled in supporting Aristide, who capitulated to U.S. imperialism and got very rich in the bargain, while doing nothing to alleviate the conditions of daily life for workers. He was a good reformer — for himself, not for the masses.

A Haitian proverb says, "Dèyè mòn gen mòn" — Behind the mountains are more mountains. Well, behind the lackeys of imperialism are more lackeys — that is, until the working class in Haiti builds its revolutionary communist party to seize the reins and establish workers’ power. Under a workers’ state, science and technology will be used to tame nature, to make it work for us, not against us. What we can’t prevent we will protect, and what we can’t protect we will prepare for. We will nurture the environment for the benefit of all of humankind.

Worker-Student Unity Best Way to Honor Victims of Olympic Massacre

MEXICO CITY — On October 2, thousands marched — as they did over the past three decades — to honor the hundreds of students murdered by the army and cops during protests before the 1968 Olympics held here. But just as then, the main question facing workers and youth is: communist revolution or capitalist barbarism?

Liberal politicians are using these marches to push for more "democratic openings," claiming that 1968 did just that, but "more democracy" is needed. Well, capitalism today is as murderous as it was then. Thousands are being killed, from Chiapas, to the women of Ciudad Juarez’s maquiladoras, to those who crossed the border fleeing mass unemployment now victimized by racist super-exploitation as agricultural workers in the USA, or as slave-wage workers in Houston, LA, NYC, Chicago, etc.

Some politicians are just blaming former President Luis Echeverría. Indeed, he should pay for his crimes, but the main reason they’re attacking him is his current opposition to privatization of the energy industry.

The main lesson of 1968 was militant students uniting with the working class. Unfortunately, they lacked a revolutionary communist leadership to forge that unity. This is the road the student movement must take today, here and worldwide, to get out of the confusion and opportunism created by liberals and fake leftists. We in PLP must redouble our efforts to ensure this becomes a reality. Then we can avenge all the victims of capitalism.

All Bosses Are Enemies of the Working Class

General James Hill, of the U.S. Army’s Southern Command, testified recently before the Congressional Armed Forces Committee that "radical populism" is now becoming a threat in Latin America, along with terrorism and drugs. He accused some Latin American leaders — in Venezuela, Bolivia and Haiti and the anti-free market consensus created by Lula and Kichner, rulers of Brazil and Argentina — of exploiting deep popular frustrations over the even bigger social and economic inequalities stemming from the failure of free market reforms. "This radical populism feeds anti-U.S. feelings," Hill concluded.

However, these "radical populists" are defending the interests of the big bosses. But they appeal to people’s nationalism to strengthen the domestic market. Those in Mexico seek Asian and European imperialist investments in the local energy industry that are more favorable to their own local interests. They don’t want to be dragged down by an economic debacle involving the U.S. bosses’ quagmire in their war for oil in Iraq and Afghanistan. But U.S. bosses worry that investments by these rival imperialists will come at the expense of the U.S. in what the latter considers its "backyard."

While free market capitalism is discredited throughout Latin America, Mexico’s President Fox is still a fierce defender of this form of capitalist exploitation. Fox has basically led a putsch to stop Lopez Obrador, Mexico City mayor, one of the "radical populists" referred to by General Hill.

For workers, following these nationalist bosses is as much a death trap as following pro-U.S. imperialists rulers like Fox.

Carlos Slim, probably Latin America’s richest man, is one of Mexico’s nationalist bosses. He recently told El Pais, Spain’s leading newspaper, that the development model pushed by the International Monetary Fund has set Mexico back 20 years in per capita growth: "It is time to go from a model dedicated to stabilization to a model based on growth and creation of jobs." But Slim is really worried about the growth of his own fortune. He wants to keep his telephone industry monopoly growing (as it is now in Central and South America). Slim is united with Mexico City’s mayor to turn the historical center of the city into a world class tourist and financial center.

All these bosses — free marketers or nationalist populists, are causing the growing misery of the working class. Over half of the Latin America’s 400 million inhabitants live below the poverty level, including 102 million in extreme poverty, which cannot even feed their families each day. It’s the old story — the poor are getting poorer, the rich richer, while the middle class disappears.

All these bosses are getting away with murder because, as they keep on reminding us, "communism is dead, and capitalism is the only game in town." But we in PLP are making sure that the "death" of communism is premature. Worker-led societies in the former Soviet Union and China showed that communists can build a better world. We know now that socialism’s main error was retaining too many aspects of capitalism, not abolishing the wage system, among others. But these glimpses of what communism could bring to humanity will again inspire the international working class to fight to eliminate the cancer of capitalism once and for all.

a name="Politics Guiding Garment Workers’ Class Struggle">">"olitics Guiding Garment Workers’ Class Struggle

"We should have a work stoppage," said a garment worker when a foreman barred anyone eating lunch before 12 noon. When one woman worker supported the idea, another said, "This is too much; the harassment has increased and we shouldn’t allow it to continue."

Since the boss moved the factory to a new location to increase profits, attacks by his henchmen have increased. Although it’s these straw bosses giving the orders, the attacks are coming from the boss. We workers need to respond to them collectively, organizing a committee of struggle that represents the interests of all the workers. The boss’s weakness is his dependence on us, the workers, to produce his merchandise.

When the boss heard about the planned stoppage, he screamed to high heaven. He even phoned a worker at her house to ask about it and said she should collect the signatures of all the workers who were unhappy.

When we discussed the boss’s "request," the majority felt it wasn’t a good idea because it would be handing over to the boss the names of his enemies. We also posed the alternatives of a spontaneous work stoppage versus a better planned one.

This discussion revealed a struggle between individualism and collectivity. There are workers who are angry at or hate the bosses and their henchmen, but unfortunately only see the struggle from an individual point of view. They want to satisfy their anger by firing the foreman.

This position was criticized as individualistic. The position that won was: it’s better to wait, prepare and organize the workers into a committee of struggle and look for the best time, when the majority will participate and benefit from the work stoppage.

There are many political discussions in this garment factory — that our super-exploitation supplies part of the money to finance the imperialist war for oil in Iraq; about immigration, and how racist laws divide us undocumented workers from our class brothers and sisters, citizens and documented, to super-exploit all of us; about fascism, and so on.

We also discuss the strike as a useful weapon for workers, but one with limits. A strike can fight immediate problems, but it can’t end racism, fascism, imperialist wars or the miserable conditions in which hundreds of millions of workers live. But we pose the need to organize strikes and other struggles so workers can see our collective strength. We also point to the need for communist revolution as the only way to end our suffering, because it’s the only way to eliminate capitalism.

There are many debates. CHALLENGE is circulated hand to hand inside the factory, but not enough. Yet when it’s offered outside the factory, many workers buy it. Self critically, we in PLP must work harder to win more workers to accept our ideas inside the factory. This will lead to more collective action against the bosses and to the growth of PLP.

Sharpening Shop Discussions Leading To PLP Recruits

CALIFORNIA — "Listen well; I will never join your Party," said a worker after discussing CHALLENGE’S communist ideas showing the need for workers to join PLP.

"A big-mouth falls down easier than a one-legged person," explained a comrade, meaning the worker could be won to our Party.

"I don’t fall for that. I saw how the leaders of the revolutionary movement in El Salvador sold out after the end of the war and became bosses themselves," replied the worker.

Our comrade explained the Party’s view of what happened in El Salvador and how workers must educate themselves politically so they can see the difference between a working-class communist revolution and a "national liberation" struggle, which leads to one group of bosses replacing another.

This is not the first political struggle in this shop, but each time they get sharper. We have strong ties to fellow workers and friends there. Our families socialize. The reluctant worker comes from a poor peasant family in El Salvador, who were basically serfs on a big hacienda. All the value they produced was kept by the owners. Many such families were chained to the owners through debts in the local grocery store, also owned by the hacienda bosses. This worker got his family out of that horror, but still hates the bosses and such super-exploitation.

Shortly afterwards the worker approached the comrade and asked, "Do you think I can play a role in your Party?" "You’re a worker," said the PLP’er and therefore have many traits to be a leader of the working class." This led to many more questions and discussions, part of recruiting and consolidating new comrades.

A white worker in the same shop said, during a discussion about Iraq and the economic problems caused by the war, "I’m a Republican."

"Why?" asked the comrade.

"Well, Bush gave us back $500 in a tax rebate."

"But how much must we pay for the health plan? How much more are we paying for the war in Iraq?" asked the comrade.

This led to a good discussion of the real cause of the war — control of Middle Eastern oil wealth, and how "war against terror" was basically a war against workers.

"What you say makes sense," said the worker. As a matter of fact, after 9/11 I told my wife that I thought it was a plan by Bush to be accepted by the people. No matter who wins, Republicans or Democrats, things won’t get better for workers. I believe there’s going to be a revolution," the worker concluded.

Many times appearances can stop us from waging a healthy struggle. These two examples are part of our efforts to increase CHALLENGE distribution, develop class struggle and widen our political base in this shop. The political environment created by those who already read our paper and those who help distribute it makes us confident we can sharpen the struggle to build PLP.

a name="‘All That Relying On Democrats Got Us Is More Budget Cuts . . ."">">"All That Relying On Democrats Got Us Is More Budget Cuts . . ."

AUBURN, MASS, Sept. 20 — A call for job actions, for reliance on the membership’s collective strength and for a strike received growing support at the State Leadership meeting of the Massachusetts Community College Council. The Council represents over 6,000 faculty and professional staff in the State’s 15 community colleges. This annual Leadership meeting had been organized to launch a campaign to maintain Democratic Party control of the State Legislature by recruiting members for phone-banking, manning voting stations and conducting voter registration drives. However, the focus turned to job actions.

State union leaders were organizing chapter leaders against Governor Romney’s fascist union-busting tactics. Just days earlier, Romney had vetoed a bill that would fund the raises of thousands of higher education workers. He also wants right-to-work measures that would threaten the union’s existence. The union’s "answer" was to elect Democratic Party "pro-education" candidates next month.

One rank-and-file speaker declared that, "Relying on the Democrats has been our strategy, and that of the whole union movement, for years and all it’s gotten us is more budget cuts." The rank-and-filer exposed the Democratically-controlled Legislature’s 30 years of budget votes that undercut the State’s vital social services; linked Romney’s vicious cuts to ongoing wars in the Middle East; and concluded with a call for a strike. Two members rose to enthusiastically support that idea.

As discussion continued, chapter leaders became more committed to job actions and to depending on the membership’s collective strength rather than on wheeling and dealing at the State House. The next day, the Roxbury Community College union chapter voted overwhelmingly to pursue work-to-rule and to picket Governor Romney’s house.

The State government’s sharpening attacks are impelling faculty and professional staff to become more militant and to rely on ourselves. Job actions reveal who are our friends and who are our enemies.

As events progress, professionalism will impede us. It diverts our loyalty to the college and the profession, rather than to the students. This works against building unity with students or asking for their support as fellow workers with a stake in the faculty/staff struggle. The college administrators are not our allies. Their high-priced jobs depend on their being loyal servants to the Board of Higher Education and State government.

The political will to fight back on the job will increase as more faculty and staff understand the relationship between the attacks on us and the ongoing crisis of capitalism. We’re being attacked because our needs and demands are obstacles to the bosses’ plan to use community colleges as centers serving corporate and military needs. The deep skepticism among faculty and staff about the war in Iraq, the "war against terrorism" and the electoral system can be transformed into a higher level of class consciousness. Carrying out a vigorous rank-and-file-led work-to-rule campaign and winning more union members to be CHALLENGE readers will help this develop.

NY Unionists In Solidarity With Teachers In Colombia

Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe came to New York City late last month and opened a Juan Valdez coffee shop — the first of many his government and coffee growers hope to bring to the U.S. While Uribe smiled for the cameras, fascist paramilitary forces supported by Uribe and the Army were murdering workers on the coffee plantations and in all the country’s industries.

Workers were scheduling a massive strike for Oct. 12 to protest the death-squad murders of trade unionists, against privatization, etc. Three-quarters of all such killings worldwide occur in Colombia. This year alone, 23 teachers, mostly women, have been murdered.

Amnesty International says Colombia is the third largest recipient of U.S. military aid. Contrary to what many think — that the atrocities committed in Iraq have "discredited" the U.S. worldwide and are solely caused by the Bush gang — the support of fascist killers has been the foreign policy of both U.S. bosses’parties for a long time.

Education International, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association are supporting the strike by teachers and Colombia’s labor movement. NYC’s Professional Staff Congress is scheduling a picket line at the Colombian consulate backing the strikers (Oct. 12, 10 E. 46 St. near Madison Ave., 4:00 to 6:00 PM).

It’s good to show international solidarity with fellow workers fighting fascist repression in other countries. But we must also understand that the enemy is not just Uribe or Bush. It was the Clinton administration that began Plan Colombia, which increased U.S. military aid to the Colombian army and the death squads. Indeed, there is no lesser evil politician or boss; they’re all enemies of the working class.

a name="Creating Capitalism’s Gravediggers Among Lesotho’s Slave Laborers"></">Cr"ating Capitalism’s Gravediggers Among Lesotho’s Slave Laborers

As Marx said, capitalism creates its own gravediggers, referring to the rise of the working class. Lesotho, the landlocked mountainous country encircled by South Africa, is a good example. Almost a year ago, 20,000 striking textile workers marching to the offices of the Employers’ Association were attacked by mounted cops in the capital city Maseru, killing two workers and injuring over 100. The workers were delivering a petition opposing the bosses’ 5% wage-hike offer and instead demanding 15%.

Today, these workers’ misery has not improved, but textile bosses’ profits are sky-high. They’re taking advantage of the U.S. African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which gives 35 African countries zero tariff access to the U.S. market on a range of different products. AGOA, begun in 2001, will expire in 2015. AGOA led to a jump in investments from foreign bosses, mainly Taiwan capitalists, in the Lesotho textile industry. These textile maquiladoras now employ over 54,000 workers, Lesotho’s biggest industry. The country’s 2.2 million people are among the poorest of Africa.

Before the garment boom, the country relied heavily on money sent home by over 100,000 Lesotho men working in South African mines. But by the late 1990s, half of those miners lost their jobs when the worldwide crisis of overproduction forced mineral prices down, so the bosses mechanized to keep profits up by using fewer workers.

Unlike South African mines, the garment maquiladoras mainly employ women. Despite what the Toronto Globe and Mail (8/10/04) calls "unannounced monthly visits" by inspectors from U.S. clothing giants like GAP (which buy textiles from Lesotho), working conditions are deplorable. "Unions officials complain that the factories are boiling in the summer and freezing cold in the winter. The facilities are poorly ventilated, ill lit and lack proper sanitation facilities and fire extinguishers….Only 20% of the garment workers are unionized." (Globe and Mail)

BBC World News (3/15/02) quoted another unionist: "The record of exports looks good, but it’s through the sweat of people forced to work Monday to Sunday. Unemployment means people take all shifts that are available. As much as we are happy with Lesotho’s exports, it must be known it is [achieved] through a system of slavery."

Billy, a former union general secretary, said workers faced mass dismissals to avoid payment of benefits; restrictions on union activity; at least one case of beatings of workers by factory officials; and exceptionally low wages. A skilled textile worker earns just over $50 a month. When AGOA expires in 2015, these jobs will disappear. The textile bosses will move to wherever wages are still lower.

Since capitalism is a system based solely on profits, nothing is done for the major health problem facing Lesotho. One in three adults there is infected with the AIDS virus — the world’s third-highest rate. Factory owners spend "too much" money training new workers to replace those who become sick or leave to nurse dying family members, complains Ms. Chen, spokesperson for the textile companies. Her bosses’ association is asking the government for tax breaks, wage subsidies or help with utility bills, threatening otherwise to take the jobs elsewhere. (Globe and Mail)

No wonder workers struck en masse a year ago. The only "good" thing about these textile maquiladoras is that they’ve created 50,000 proletarians. These workers — mainly women — can indeed become the vanguard of capitalism’s gravediggers. But they’re missing a key ingredient: a revolutionary communist Party to help them realize their historic revolutionary task. The unity of Lesotho’s workers, along with those of South Africa — whose revolutionary anti-apartheid struggles were betrayed by the ANC’s new black bourgeoisie (with support from the treachery of the old South African Communist Party and Nelson Mandela) — can be the force to bury capitalism in a permanent grave.

Memories From May Day 1946

In 1946 I participated in arguably one of the largest communist-led marches ever in the U.S. On May 1st, over 200,000 workers and youth, men and women, black, Latin and white, marched down New York’s Eighth Avenue to 17th Street and east to Union Square. The May Day March began at 10:00 AM and ended 12 hours later. It was organized by the Communist Party (CP) through a broad "United May Day Committee" with a base in the trade union movement, as well as in other mass organizations.

At that time the CP was very influential in the CIO (the merger with the AFL was a decade away). Communists had organized and led many of the CIO unions. Some, like Ben Gold, president of the Furriers Union, were open communists. In fact, the communist-led union I was to become a member of four years later, Local 65, had won May Day as a paid holiday in its contracts.

The March was a big event in New York City. The Cold War was about to take off, but there was still a large reservoir of good will towards the Soviet Union which most workers had recognized as the main force defeating Hitler, a sentiment which the bosses’ media was trying to combat. The day before the March the NY Daily News (somewhat like the FOX NEWS/NY Post today) ran an editorial urging people "not to throw bottles and stones at the marchers, not to pelt them with rotten fruit," etc. — a virtual open invitation for fascists to attack the marchers. But the well-organized security and overwhelming number of marchers easily repelled any such attacks.

The CP had just been reconstituted the year before, after it was dissolved by its chairman Earl Browder who was then expelled. It still had tens of thousands of members, and possibly hundreds of thousands of sympathizers, in the New York area. Many thousands had fought in World War II against Hitler. These veterans would march in their army and navy uniforms, first in their union contingents, and then would circle back to march under the banners of the CP, the rear contingent. All the while they would be carrying American flags. Red flags were few and far between.

The CP had many "front" groups. One was the International Workers Order (IWO) — sort of an insurance benefit group — which had chapters representing perhaps 20 different nationalities. When the marchers were backed up on 17th Street, waiting for Union Square to be cleared, the IWO’s national groups would present their various national dances, decked out in their national dress. It was all very festive, but of course had a marked nationalistic character.

Slogans, signs and chants included stuff like, "Black and white, unite"; "Defend the Soviet Union"; "We want peace"; "Wages up, prices down, make New York a union town," and others calling for a "Socialist USA."

The March really represented two sides of the communist movement. One was a base among workers, especially in the leadership of many unions, in recognition that the working class was, as Marx said, the revolutionary class. But the other side, which had begun to overwhelm any revolutionary character, viewed the CP as the "vanguard of democracy," championing "America’s democratic principles" and the Bill of Rights (marching behind the stars and stripes, not the red flag). This was soon to lead into "the peaceful road to Socialism" nonsense which sent the CP into a real revisionist (fake leftist) tailspin, never to recover. The CP’s Marxist school, an 8-story building on the corner of 6th Avenue and 16th Street, didn’t call itself the Marx-Lenin Institute or some such name but rather the "Jefferson School," viewing this slave-owning president as a great democratic humanitarian. It reflected a real lack of class understanding.

On the one hand, those May Days — eventually abandoned by 1950 — showed what communists could do with a base in the working class. But as it turned out this was primarily a base for reform, not for revolution. When the Cold War onslaught hit the unions, the communists were ousted rather easily. Not having had a real political base, they fought it with a "free speech" defense — "all points of view should be represented in the union" — rather than on the basis that communists were the best fighters for the working class because they had the only solution for workers’ problems: the destruction of capitalism with a communist revolution.

Years later, when I joined PLP, I was to realize that huge numbers following a wrong line was no way to advance to communism. Twenty years later PLP resurrected May Day but under truly revolutionary banners.

Imperialist Drive for Oil Behind Massacre in Sudan

The U.S. government and several civil rights leaders have declared that the murders, rapes, and displacement of the population in Darfur — a region in the western part of Sudan — is genocide, requiring determined action to forestall another disaster like the one in Rwanda. In fact, Rev. Walter Fauntroy and Joe Madison, two leaders of struggles against police brutality, have even called for sending U.S. troops to stop the killing. Yet the European Union and the African Union, while agreeing there’s a crisis, have declined to label it genocide, criticizing the U.S. government for that declaration. The UN itself has refrained from that label. What’s going on? In fact, there are other bloody conflicts of a similar magnitude in Uganda and the Congo, with nary a word from the Bush crowd. Why is Darfur different? Oil!

Darfur is a traditional rural sector of Sudan. It’s organized largely on a tribal basis with little direct control from Khartoum, Sudan’s capital. Rival tribes make their living differently, some through subsistence farming and some through cattle-raising, causing a clash: agriculture is settled while cattle-raising is more nomadic and needs much more space. Despite these conflicting economic needs, historically the tribes have resolved disputes through mediation by councils of elders. But recently, this traditional setting has been disrupted.

A rebel movement based in the farming villages opposes the movement of people off their land, which the central government is pursuing to make way for oil exploration. The central government has funded irregular militias, the Janjaweed, and indoctrinated them in militant Islamic fundamentalism, and had them conduct harsh military actions against the rebels and the agricultural villages. With a green light from Khartoum, they’re wreaking havoc, seeking to permanently displace the agricultural tribes. This would leave the area populated by the cattle-raising tribes, the government-backed paramilitaries, and oil companies drilling for black gold, expanding Sudan’s relatively new petroleum industry.

In 1999, Sudan opened its first export pipeline. Chinese and Indian firms dominate Sudan’s petroleum industry. Discovered reserves are substantial. Other reserves have only been explored but the Chinese and Sudanese governments plan to co-develop them.

As U.S. imperialism’s oil plans in the Middle East become increasingly bogged down in the Iraqi quagmire, every alternative oil source increases in importance. U.S. bosses, concerned about threats in oil-producing Venezuela and Nigeria and likely behind the recent coup in Equatorial Guinea, worry about a Sudan oil industry dominated by China, the major emerging rival of U.S. imperialism. Thus, regime change in Khartoum is an increasingly important goal for U.S. imperialists. The Darfur oil fields remained completely outside U.S. influence, at least until the rebellion erupted last year. Now U.S. bosses want to use the current crisis to further weaken the Khartoum government.

The el-Bashir government in Sudan is fascist. It took power in a coup and formed a Muslim fundamentalist government similar to the Taliban in Afghanistan, with goals of implementing the Shari’a legal system (chopping off hands for theft and the like). The international working class must destroy this bourgeois government every bit as much as that of any other capitalist state. But it can’t do this by allying with U.S. imperialism, inviting in U.S. troops to be "peacekeepers."

The bosses’ press and politicians claim they’re "morally outraged" over Darfur and say they don’t want to repeat the "world community’s" "untimely response" to the Rwandan massacres. But it was precisely the imperialists that made Rwanda such a horror! The French, British and U.S. backed different sides in the Tutsi-Hutu conflict, causing it to escalate to genocide.

It’s imperative that we not become cheerleaders and activists for U.S. imperialism acting under the guise of humanitarianism. Instead, we must defeat the system that uses local nationalist and religious forces to whip up race/religion hatred, making settlement of differences virtually impossible. The U.S. has used Islamic fundamentalism (directly creating bin Laden) and local nationalists — supplying and supporting Saddam Hussein for many years during the Iran-Iraq war — to wage war for the profit interests of U.S. companies under an ideological cover. Therefore, so we must not endorse any U.S. intervention. Even involvement by the African Union and/or the UN is suspect, since they don’t represent the interests of the international working class either.

Can something be done to stop the rampage in Darfur? Yes, but the specifics may seem indirect. We must reach out to Sudan’s working class, which has shown in the past that it has a strong commitment to communist ideas. In fact, the old Communist Party came to power for a short time in 1968, but by then its opportunism led it into a coalition with the capitalists. Soon, this coalition fell to a military coup. Reaching out to any imperialists or to Sudanese government troops will make things worse. A political revolution and fundamental change is required. Our goal must be to deepen the base for communism within the international working class in the U.S., Sudan and elsewhere.

Building PLP, selling and distributing CHALLENGE, forming study groups and recruiting to PLP on an international basis is the best way to oppose mass murder in Sudan. This may seem indirect and even cold towards the plight of the dying, malnourished children of Darfur. But no other route is available. Allying with one imperialist or another is a strategy that will only prolong the struggle against capitalism and produce more casualties for the working class worldwide.

LETTERS

Youth Experiences at Protest Against GOP Convention

Here are some thoughts from young people from Seattle about their experiences while protesting the Republican National Convention in New York:

"New York was far from what I had imagined. The people in New York were nice in giving directions and so forth, and Brooklyn alone had such an interesting culture. When I ask someone for directions in Seattle they look at me funny, almost as if they were scared. At the march people asked me about my shirt, which said ‘Revolt, Don’t Vote.’ I told them that replacing the president wasn’t going to mean the war would be finished or that the troops would come home. The truth is that the system has to change and once that happens maybe we can be closer to a more peaceful world."

"The thing that stands out for me was the protest. I never saw so many people in one place at one time. I also enjoyed the BBQ because it was fun being around a big group of people all coming together to have a good time. The one thing I didn’t enjoy was selling CHALLENGE because it made me feel uncomfortable, handing out something I know nothing about. I learned a little bit about communism and I kind of agree with it, but I’m not ready for that kind of change yet."

"I had an exciting experience in New York, participating in several activities. I gave out leaflets and tried to sell some CHALLENGES. I was very surprised at how many people wanted to read the leaflets and the paper. I was kind of nervous because people would look at me funny, like ‘why are you doing this?’ I was afraid they’d ask me a question that I couldn’t answer. The hardest thing was trying to sell CHALLENGE, but it was also a fun experience. I enjoyed talking to people and also learned some things."

"My first visit to New York was hot, fun and tiring. The protest was definitely the highlight of the trip. The people I met were welcoming and nice. I really appreciated the hospitality we received from all the PLP members from New York and Boston."

The Seattle Crew

CHALLENGE comment: Thanks for your input. You all have a lot of good questions you should discuss with PLP members in your area: Everyone should be exchanging views on the best ways to sell the paper, what we do when someone asks a question we can’t answer, and so on. Keep at it!

Excited Over Finding REAL Communist Party

Thank you for the issue of CHALLENGE and "Road to Revolution 4." Finally I’ve found a Communist Party (PLP) which holds to a revolutionary communist line. I’ve been a Marxist-Leninist for a long time, and I’ve yet to find a "Communist" party (until now) which did not hold either a revisionist and/or opportunist line. Most, if not all, have retreated, especially from the Dictatorship of the Proletariat and revolution, as well as from the basic Marxist principle that class antagonisms cannot be reconciled. They submit (or openly support) the bosses’ sham "democracy" and love being able to vote for the member of the ruling class who they "choose" to exploit and oppress them, either in the White House, Congress or State Legislature.

These fakes are simply tools of the ruling class sent out to fool the masses. I want to join PLP and fight for revolution and communism. People here are quite receptive to communism and feel the capitalist system is outdated and undemocratic by any definition of "democracy" and needs to go, the sooner the better. I’m willing to work with the Party in any way the Party has use for me. I’m 29, currently unemployed; I was raised working class and have been shafted all too often by the ruling class and capitalism, and I’ll work and fight until (and after) it’s replaced by a communist revolution.

J.A. (Little Joe)

a name="Spread Red Ideas In Migrant ‘Concentration Camp’"></">Sp"ead Red Ideas In Migrant ‘Concentration Camp’

I work packing corn in what can best be described as a concentration camp. It’s a real camp in which migrant workers like me live together for several months. The positive aspect of this "jail" is we get to know each other very well, with all kinds of conversations, from politics to sports to religion.

There are two 12-hours shifts. We’re on call 24 hours a day, forced into this slavery because it’s the only kind of work many of us undocumented workers can get to feed our families on miserable paychecks every two weeks.

"This guy seems to be a communist," is how some workers refer to me. Some of my best friends are reading DESAFIO.

Year after year most of these workers travel with their families and friends from the Texas-Mexico border to work in a cold Mid-western state. I’m one of the few workers who come from another region of the world. Men and women live in collective dorms, separated by sex, married couples. We have a food hall, showers and other services like in a jail or a military barracks.

Literature in Spanish is very rare so DESAFIO and the new "Communist" magazine in Spanish are very helpful. I’ve been reading a book by the German writer Günter Wallraff about the rabid racism "guest workers" from Turkey suffer in Germany. The author passed as a Turk and experienced the racism personally. Although it’s limited in denouncing racism as an individual adventure, but when he risks his life in dangerous jobs like cleaning nuclear plants, it hits migrant workers like me as much too real.

I also read "Garabombo, the Invisible Man" by Manuel Scorza. It’s about indigenous people fighting seizure of their land, and their endless struggle for land reform which never comes to Peru, Colombia or any other Latin American country. The meager land these peasants are left with is being taken away by paramilitary death squads and international agribusiness monopolies, which control prices and distribution. In this book, people suffer and get killed but continue to organize and fight back.

One passage struck me: "We have to put an end to these abuses from town to town, and the medicine is a general rebellion….The main thing is to build a general staff….You know as former soldiers the key is having a general command, which will never die."

We know that reforms are just that; they don’t change much. Only communism will plant the seeds to feed us all, without providing huge profits for a few bosses.

Red Corn

Fascist Attack On Poor Workers Collecting Cans

Recently I was collecting cans at a place I’ve usually done so for many years when the head of security rounded up myself and other collectors and told us if we came back we’d be arrested. I openly said that this was a fascist attack on poor workers.

The next Saturday, I had an opportunity to resist and take some direct actions against these fascists. When it was time to collect cans again at the same place, I told my father I was a little scared. He said there’s no difference between resisting obvious fascists and those fascists who wear the cloak of the state. I realized that resisting fascism is not a part-time commitment.

Of course, the best way is to organize workers, soldiers and students to fight for communism, so that every job, even collecting cans, will be one with dignity!

I collected cans that day, at the same place, although I was careful.

Red worker

RED EYE ON THE NEWS

Below are excerpts from mainstream newspapers that contain important information:Abbreviations: NYT=New York Times, GW=Guardian Weekly (UK)

Imperialism will need draft

…Some military officers and political figures have long questioned whether 135,000 troops is a large enough force to prevail in Iraq.

What if another big deployment is needed? Estimates vary widely on how many additional troops might be required, but some analysts say the current overall force could easily fall short by more than 70,000….

A Pentagon-appointed panel recently concluded that the military would lack the forces to handle its current combat and stabilization operations if new crises emerged. The report, which has not been made public, apparently did not address the issue of a draft. But some policy makers have said it points to the potential need for one….

There is little political appetite in Washington for a new draft. "The one sure way to lose public support for the war in Iraq is to say we will institute a draft." (NYT, 10/3)

Afghans still in despair

Two and a half years after the establishment of President Hamid Karzai’s first government, the Afghans’ dream of seeing law and order restored seems remote. The former warlords’ militias, which have been promoted to the status of regular army units…are still very much in business — and have lost none of their bad habits….People want a central government, but the militias call the tune….

The warlords’ main aim would seem to be to hang on to power and to the money….In one village a commander collected all the inhabitants’ voting cards and promised them he would vote on their behalf….

What the Afghans most want is a government capable of providing them with security and jobs. They are beginning to despair of getting help from the international community… . (GW, 10/7)

Productivity = long hours

Politicians and CEOs like to boast about the productivity of American workers. But here’s the dirty little secret: U.S. productivity is No.1 in the world when productivity is measured as gross domestic product per worker, but our lead vanishes when productivity is measured as GDP per hour worked….

The U.S. "productivity advantage" is just another way of saying that we work more hours….

Twice as many American as European workers put in more than 48 hours per week….

Americans just need the money, given that the U.S. has the most unequal income distribution in the developed world. (L.A. Times)

Dems are equal bombers

I don’t believe a Gore administration would have been much better, nor would a Kerry one be. Doubt it?....Clinton bombed Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq and the ex-Yugoslavia. Bush is on schedule to bomb the same number of countries by 2008. (GW, 10/7)

Big Oil: More Africa plots

Links have been discovered between senior American military officials and the failed coup plot in Equatorial Guinea that has left Sir Mark Thatcher facing trial in South Africa….

Both the US and Britain have extensive oil interests in Equatorial Guinea.(GW, 10/7)

Fox not the only liars

How much would we trust the corporate TV news if we knew that many major corporate broadcast groups filed legal briefs defending Fox TV’s position…that it is not against the law to lie to the American public on TV? (MinutemanMedia.org, 9/15)

Israel will raid Iran for US

…Israel has repeatedly warned that it may take direct action to stop an Iranian nuclear bomb "going critical"….

Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, was once part of a three-man inner circle that kept even the sympathetic administration of President Ronald Reagan completely in the dark as they planned and carried out the daring 1984 airstrike on Iraq’s Osirak nuclear plant....

A repeat against Iran would be universally perceived as American in spirit, even if exclusively Israeli in execution…. (GW, 9/30)

1. IRAQ WORSE THAN VIETNAM?
   U.S. Rulers' `Answer': WIDER WAR, KILL THOUSANDS MORE
2. Insurance Co./Gov't Gang-up Soaks Hurricane Victims
3. RUSSIAN AND U.S. RULERS: RIVALS IN
   IMPERIALIST RUTHLESSNESS
4. War Economy, Racism Hits Hospital Workers, Patients
   1. THE `DEFICIT' SCAM
5. Protestors Slam Hillary Clinton on Iraq war, asthma and racist unemployment
6. PLP Union Campaign Exposes Pro-Boss Hacks
7. Imperialist War Budget Attacks LA Hotel Workers
8. `Uncovered' Film Covers Up Democrats' Role As War Party
9. Don't `Rock the Vote': ROCK CAPITALISM!
10. Chavez's `Anti-Imperialism' Hides Links to Exxon and Big Oil
11. Thailand's Youth Forced Into Sex Slavery in Trillion $ Industry
12. LETTERS
    1. Airport Workers' Unity Fires Racist
    2. Youth Thirsting For Red Ideas
    3. French CP Fair Hosted by War Merchants
    4. Salvador Sends Poor Soldiers to Iraq
    5. Mid-East Youth Head for Iraq
    6. FBI Cointelpro Had Wide Reach
    7. Can World War III Be Prevented?
    8. Cosby Always Served Bosses
    9. It's Not Bush or Kerry; It's Capitalism
13. RED EYE ON THE NEWS
    1. Abu Ghraib methods here
    2. Low pay is real stress
    3. Exec's only job is profit
    4. Big US co. poisons Asians
    5. US trains killers of workers
    6. Trying to spin Iraq
    7. Unsafe -- but profitable!
14. State Power -- Part III
    1. A CALL FOR ALL-OUT WAR
    2. THE CARTER DOCTRINE: WAR FOR OIL
    3. TRAVELING THE NAZI ROUTE
15. Auto workers strike
    American Axle this year.

---

IRAQ WORSE THAN VIETNAM?
U.S. Rulers' `Answer': WIDER WAR, KILL THOUSANDS MORE

"Most senior U.S. military officers how believe the war on Iraq has turned into a disaster on an unprecedented scale." (Sidney Blumenthal -- former Clinton advisor and Washington bureau chief of Salon.com -- in The British Guardian, 9/16)

It's now quite clear the U.S. military was unprepared for urban guerrilla warfare in Iraq. Bush himself finally admitted it in an article in the N.Y. Times in August. The "transfer of power" to U.S. lackeys has not changed the military situation. The "new" Iraqi army and police either refuse to fight the insurgents or actually joined them as in the last uprising by Sadr in Najaf. The Marines had to destroy most of Najaf, alienating the Iraqi population even more. But many Pentagon officials and war supporters still gloat about the resounding success of U.S.-led forces last year in the major combat phase of the war -- Operation "Iraqi Freedom."

In 21 days the U.S. defeated the Iraqi military, overthrew Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime, and seemingly proved the wisdom of transforming the U.S. military into one that was lighter, swifter and laden with advanced technology. But now it appears this "transformation" has enabled a guerrilla insurgency to inflict over 1,000 deaths on U.S. soldiers and wound over 27,000. It recaptured the cities of Ramadi, Samarra, Baquba, among many others, and Sadr City in the heart of Baghdad.

Bush boasted to the National Guard convention that, "Our strategy is succeeding." And Kerry promises as President he'll have the U.S. out of Iraq in four years! "But," says Blumenthal, "according to the U.S. military's leading strategists and prominent retired generals, Bush's war is already lost."

* Retired general William Odom, former head of the National Security Agency told Blumenthal, "Bush hasn't found the WMD. Al Qaeda, it's worse, he's lost on that front. That he's going to achieve a democracy there? That goal is lost, too....Right now...we're achieving bin Laden's ends.... [as CHALLENGE predicted before the war began]. This is far graver than Vietnam.... We're in a region far more volatile, and we're in much worse shape with our allies."

* Retired general Joseph Hoare, former Marine commandant and head of U.S. Central Command, told Blumenthal, "The idea this is going to go the way these guys planned is ludicrous. There are no good options. We're conducting a campaign as though it were being conducted in Iowa, no sense of realities on the ground. It's so unrealistic for anyone who knows that part of the world...." Hoare believes that "a decision has been made" to attack Fallujah "after the first Tuesday in November. That's the cynical part of it -- after the elections.... You could flatten it. US military force would prevail, casualties would be high,...their leadership would escape and civilians would be caught in the middle....And they talked about dancing in the street, a beacon for democracy."

* Jeffrey Record, professor of strategy at the Air War College, said, "I see no ray of light on the horizon at all. The worst case has become true."

* Andrew Terrill, professor at the Army War College's strategic studies institute and the top expert on Iraq there, said, "I don't think you can kill the insurgency....[It] is expanding and becoming more capable as a consequence of US policy.... We see larger and more coordinated military attacks. They are getting better and they can self-generate....There are people willing to fill the ranks of those who are killed. The political culture is more hostile to the US presence. The more we stay, the more they are confirmed in that view."

General Odom told Blumenthal the tension between the Bush administration and the senior military officers was worse than any he has ever seen with any previous government, including Vietnam....There's a significant majority [of the military] believing this is a disaster. The two parties whose interests have been advanced have been the Iranians and al-Qaeda." And these forces, as well as the leadership of the insurgency, are enemies of workers worldwide, including Muslim workers.

These former generals and military strategists don't represent the interests of Iraqi and U.S. workers and soldiers. They want a wider and more successful war which will kill many more tens of thousands. For U.S. rulers it's crucial to remain the top-dog imperialist, to control Iraqi oil and establish military bases in the heart of the Middle East. Whether Bush or Kerry is in the White House, the ruling class cannot afford to give up control of the region's oil. They might try to expand the war regionally, possibly attacking Iran, which they're already blaming for backing the Iraqi insurgency.

It is the task of communists to win workers and soldiers to oppose this murderous ruling class and the religious and nationalist leaders of the insurgency, expose their profit system as the killer it is, and fight to turn their imperialist wars into class war for communism.

Insurance Co./Gov't Gang-up Soaks Hurricane Victims

Natural disasters always expose capitalism in many ways. The island of Grenada -- the very same one Reagan invaded in 1983 to "save U.S. medical students from communism," (Cuban construction workers were helping to build an airport there) -- was devastated by hurricane Ivan "the Terrible." It destroyed over 90% of all houses there. All these hurricanes have killed hundreds in Grenada, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and throughout the Southern and Eastern U.S. Meanwhile, the people of Florida -- who suffered so much destruction from Charley, Frances and Ivan -- are now seeing even worse destroyers: the insurance companies and their government servants.

"As Floridians begin picking up the pieces...many are also discovering the full effects of a decade of maneuvering from the insurance companies and state officials that has dramatically reduced the obligations of private insurers to pay for the impact of catastrophic storms."(Wall Street Journal, 9/7)

In 1992, hurricane Andrew slammed southeastern Florida, inflicting $15.5 billion in insured damages, "wiping out every cent of profit insurance companies had ever generated on property policies in the state." (WSJ) The losses forced 11 insurers out of business.

So the insurance industry and the state authorities responded by revamping the entire insurance system.

"Big players like Allstate Corp. agreed not to abandon a combined 1.2 million policyholders in Florida only after state officials began cooperating in a legislative and regulatory effort to shift from insurance companies to consumers the burden for paying hundreds of millions of future storm-related losses." (WSJ) After all, under capitalism bosses are not really in the business of insurance; they're in the business of making profits.

Now hundreds of thousands of homeowners, many of whom thought they were paying for "full" property insurance, "now find themselves holding the bag for a much bigger portion of the estimated $10 billion to $15 billion in insured damage from Frances and Charley than they would have a decade ago." (WSJ)

Florida's government allowed insurers to raise premiums as much as 400% in some cases and to add hefty new deductibles.

While Florida is the most affected by these changes, a similar situation has occurred across the country. In California, residents who face the threat of storms or wildfires must choose between bare-bones coverage or high-priced policies offered by specialist insurers like Lloyd's of London.

Now with Ivan hitting, and with experts predicting many more years of hurricanes, capitalism will probably force policyholders to pay still more. While natural disasters occur, the profit system makes them worse. Capitalism is the biggest disaster.

RUSSIAN AND U.S. RULERS: RIVALS IN
IMPERIALIST RUTHLESSNESS

Russian President Putin recently sent the world a dire message written in the blood of children: Russia's rulers will stop at nothing to restore its imperial status. When Putin had his hit men storm the besieged Beslan school, he deliberately and needlessly wasted the lives of hundreds of students in order to wipe out a few dozen Chechen separatist murderers (see CHALLENGE, 9/22 on how the Chechen terrorists serve anti-Putin oil bosses). Putin had shown the same disregard for human life two years ago, when he ordered troops to retake a Moscow theater using poison gas, killing four times as many hostages as Chechen hostage-takers. Now, in response to the Beslan crisis, Putin has suspended the popular election of governors in Russia's 89 regions, lest any other separatists gain power. From now on the Kremlin will hand-pick governors.

Putin claims he's taking a hard line against terrorism. But he's really trying to rebuild an empire that can compete with the U.S. And oil and gas are keys to his strategy, just as they are for U.S. bosses. Russia's rulers plan to exert influence beyond its borders by becoming the dominant supplier of energy to Europe and China. But this requires constructing and controlling a network of pipelines across a vast territory. Putin will not brook interference from breakaway states like Chechnya, which sits astride an important export route for Caspian oil. The day after he ended elections, Putin announced the merger of gas giant Gazprom with oil producer Rosneft. The new firm will have nine times the reserves of Exxon Mobil. And, with the state owning a majority share, Gazprom-Rosneft will become a political weapon for the Kremlin. It will "spearhead whatever the government policy may be," said a London-based oil analyst (Bloomberg, 9/15). Putin had already forcibly wrested Yukos, which pumps as much crude as Iraq, from pro-U.S. ex-billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky. When Yukos's chief met with Exxon Mobil bosses last year to discuss selling them a big share of Yukos, Putin surrounded his house with armed soldiers. The deal fell through. Khodorkovsky now rots in a Moscow jail.

Putin's heavy-handed plan for Russian "greatness" goes beyond slaughtering schoolchildren, abolishing voting rights and seizing the energy industry. He wants to turn the clock back to the 1960s and 1970s, when the state capitalist Soviet Union supplied military equipment to virtually every nation or rebel group that claimed to oppose U.S. imperialism. Boasting in a September 17th speech that Russian arms sales had shot up 15% from 2002 to 2003, Putin said. "We must broaden the geographic scope of these sales and involve new partners in our sphere of cooperation." (Le Monde, 9/17) Currently the biggest buyers are India and China, which U.S. rulers view as potential military threats in the decades to come.

These aren't the actions of an "evil madman," as the U.S. media likes to portray Putin. They reflect the needs of the Russian capitalist class. U.S. rulers, with similar imperialist designs, are implementing their agenda of war and fascism with a ruthlessness equal to Putin's. When profits are at stake, workers' lives mean nothing to capitalists. Nationalist and religious uprisings in Iraq are preventing U.S. oil barons from realizing their six-million-barrel-a-day dream. So down comes the iron fist of indiscriminate butchery. In April, Bush sent the Marines into Fallujah, "pulverizing neighborhoods and killing at least 800 people, most of them women and children," according to an eyewitness. Journalist Nir Rosen wrote in the October issue of The Atlantic, "I saw hospitals riddled with bullets and shells; I met ambulance drivers who had been wounded by snipers; I saw children missing limbs from Marine bullets and shells." Air raids that kill noncombatants are standard operating procedure. "The U.S. Air Force has stepped up its policy of trying to assault insurgents from the air while the army avoids ground attacks that could lead to heavy U.S. casualties....The truth about who is being killed by the US air strikes is difficult to ascertain exactly....But, where the casualties can be checked, many of those who die or are injured have proved to be innocent civilians." (The Independent, 9/18) This is the course Kerry promises to "stay" if he's elected in November.

On the home front, U.S. rulers are trying to forge a unified intelligence service on the model of the notorious KGB (where Putin got his start). With the Enron, Adelphia, Martha Stewart and other trials, U.S. rulers' jailing of wayward business executives matches the Kremlin's. But for the incarceration of the working class, not even Russia comes close to U.S. prisons, which now include Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and stateside detention centers for "suspected terrorists" -- that is, people with Arabic names.

The profit system is merciless. It deserves to be terminated, mercilessly, by the working class in a communist revolution.

War Economy, Racism Hits Hospital Workers, Patients

MIAMI, Sept. 17 -- A hurricane-like blast is hitting hospital workers and patients here. Jackson Memorial Hospital, the city's main public healthcare institution, will be laying off or re-assigning at lower pay up to 500 workers in order to save $26 million. Jackson is among a growing number of U.S. public hospitals that are cutting workers and patient services. This is a direct result of a half-trillion dollar war budget paid for by shrinking federal and state reimbursements to Medicare and Medicaid and thereby increasing public hospital "deficit," all of which have a distinct racist character. (As we go to press, Miami-Dade County announced it's granting the hospital a $76 million "relief package" but the bosses are still proceeding with the job cuts, exposing their determination to lay off these workers no matter what.)

Instead of launching a fight against the cuts, the unions -- Local 1363 of the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) -- is content to help the bosses: "Hospital and union leaders will meet in coming weeks to start choosing specific jobs to be cut." (Miami Herald, 9/16) The best Local 1363 president Vivienne Dixon-Shim can say is, "I'm very disappointed." [!] And the SEIU is the very same union that's threatening to leave the AFL-CIO because the latter is "not aggressive enough." Such is the state of class collaboration in the U.S. labor movement these days.

Public hospital systems in Los Angeles, Denver, Las Vegas, New York's Westchester County and Dallas are among those who have made similar cuts in recent years, on a list that's "expected to grow." (Herald) Alameda County, Calif., plans to cut 300 jobs at Oakland's Highland Hospital and had already cut two clinics.

All these public hospitals serve poor, working-class patients, including a large proportion of black, Latin and immigrant families. These groups are doubly victimized: because of racist wage and unemployment rates they cannot obtain services at the richer private hospitals, nor the health insurance plans that would pay for them. And now, their only source of what passes for "health care" -- public hospitals -- are cutting back on workers and services. In addition, a high proportion of the laid-off hospital workers themselves are black and Latin. Thus, racism is a central feature of these cuts.

THE `DEFICIT' SCAM

The hospital bosses claim that increasing drug costs and declining federal and state reimbursements are creating a deficit and forcing these layoffs and service cuts. (Jackson expects an even larger "shortfall" next year.) However, their premise for the "deficit" is that workers must pay for the need of capitalism to make profit -- especially the pharmaceutical companies -- and for the bosses' need to finance endless imperialist wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere to protect that profit system (a system that had GI's wounded in Iraq paying for their meals in VA government hospitals!). "Deficits" are just another way for capitalism to exploit the working class. In this case, it shoves the cost of health care on the backs of the workers so that the bosses can pursue maximum profits.

If the working class, as healthcare workers and as patients, were the first priority, as they would be in a profit-free system -- communism -- there would be no "deficit." There would only be the collective desire of the working class as a whole to use the social value we produce to take care of the health of all those workers who need it. It's up to a communist-led working class to abolish all "deficits" by abolishing capitalism. That's the only way to guarantee the health of our class.

Protestors Slam Hillary Clinton on Iraq war, asthma and racist unemployment

Last month my church provided a major photo-op for one of the ruling class's most dangerous agents, Senator Hillary Clinton, a possible Democratic nominee for President in 2008. She still maintains lots of support from black working people despite pushing welfare "reform" and supporting every imperialist war since 1991. This church appearance was to focus on the asthma epidemic that's killed over 50,000 working people in the last ten years and was the sole anti-racist issue John Kerry raised in his "bigger and better imperialism" acceptance speech, a cynical effort to hang onto the Democratic inner-city base. Clinton promised to get lots of HUD money for public housing health renovation if we elect Kerry.

The event was stage-managed by the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), a leading old money financial movement to mislead church and community groups into suicidal reformism. True to form the sweltering hundreds packing the church were anaesthetized by bureaucratic report after report and then awakened by the Senator's lively, "You're-right-and-I'm-going-to-fix-it" speech. No question and answer period permitted.

As she finished I yelled out a "prayer" to "remember the 50,000 killed in the U.S. by asthma and the hundreds of thousands killed by sanctions and bombs in Iraq." But the chair drowned me out by closing the meeting with applause for the Senator.

Our club, plus four allies from a neighboring church, raised the Party's line by distributing over 300 leaflets linking imperialism and racism, along with posters lining the Senator's exit path. One comrade's poster read, "My son-in-law enlisted to study engineering, not to kill Iraqi civilians." Another decried the 48% unemployment in our ghetto community. I shouted, "How many Iraqi children did your sanctions kill?" as the Senator ducked into a police van. At least this sharp action prepared us to go to the Republican Convention on the offensive. It will lead to sharper struggle about the church's involvement in IAF illusion-building in the future.

Sick on rancid, reformist roquefort, Red Churchmouse

PLP Union Campaign Exposes Pro-Boss Hacks

The unionized industrial workforce in the U.S. has been decimated in the past 10 years. From the steel and auto industries to aerospace, relatively good-paying jobs with benefits and a pension are fast becoming extinct. At one industrial local where a comrade is running for a position on the union's governing body, tens of thousands of jobs have been lost due to layoffs and there is a transformation of the industrial working class into a non-unionized workforce composed largely of immigrant workers employed by subcontractors.

The ruling class has decided it's just too expensive to pay workers decent wages and pensions when there are wars to fight to secure oil profits and global domination. Peter Peterson, chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations -- a ruling-class policy-making group -- wrote recently that the U.S. must choose "between retirement security and national security." Essentially he was saying that "entitlement programs" (i.e., Social Security, pension plans, Medicare, etc.) must be eliminated, or at least reined in substantially, to be able to afford the "stunningly" expensive wars necessary to secure U.S. global domination. ("Riding for a Fall," Foreign Affairs, 9/1/04)

Although our comrade has little chance of winning the election itself, due to the current leadership's mafia-style hold on power, he has influenced the tone of the debates surrounding the elections. We have distributed thousands of leaflets throughout the plants linking the attacks on industrial workers to the war in Iraq, opening up hundreds of discussions. A long-term conflict like the one in Iraq essentially requires a "war economy." The incredible expenses involved with making war, upwards of $200 billion, requires a grinding down of the working class, squeezing as much value for as few dollars as possible and diverting the surplus towards the war effort.

Faced with incredible odds, what are industrial workers to do? From where can we draw strength? The unions offer coalitions with the companies and politicians, staking workers' futures with those of the company and of U.S. capitalism. We say stake our future on the strength of the working class and the fight for communism. Only a mass communist party engaged in struggle for revolution offers any hope for workers' survival. We either fall into line with the fascist grinding down of the working class and take what we can get (nothing at this rate), or we organize to build PLP, to build a communist party that fights for workers' power.

The local leadership refuses to link attacks on workers to the war in Iraq. After a speech to shop stewards outlining the problems with the Pension Guarantee Corporation -- a federal agency -- and its inability to actually cover pensions abandoned by corporations, and linking those problems to the costs of the war, a union business rep told our comrade those problems were "just economic," unrelated to the war.

Meanwhile, some shop stewards, risking their positions and even their jobs, took leaflets and volunteered to support our comrade's election bid. Not only are these workers pissed, but they're motivated enough by the politics to act despite risks to their own economic well-being.

Since the union has staked its future with the rulers, it cannot afford to attack the ruling class for its assaults on workers. The union leaders are agents of the ruling class. We are NOT. We represent workers' interests and offer the only real alternative, a long hard struggle for communist revolution, for workers' power.

Imperialist War Budget Attacks LA Hotel Workers

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 20 -- Union leaders say it's "illegal" for hotel workers to picket while union and management are in mediation, but it seems perfectly legal for the Wilshire Grand Hotel to replace 17 union laundry workers with scabs!

On September 13, thousands of hotel workers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. authorized a strike. Three days later, the laundry workers arrived at the downtown luxury hotel where some have worked for 38 years, only to discover that non-union "replacement workers" held their jobs. They were told they could return to work only by accepting the bosses' demands.

At a press conference in front of the hotel the next day, the laundry workers chanted, "The workers, united, will never be defeated." Meanwhile, HERE (Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees) president Maria Elena Durazo explained to reporters that the union was doing everything possible to avoid a strike or lockout.

The last thing Durazo wants is to unleash the power of a united working class. Instead, she's telling workers to rely on politicians, the clergy and the same federal mediator who presided over the stunning defeat of last winter's grocery workers' strike. The union is filing a lawsuit challenging the lockout of the laundry workers, but refuses to allow any picketing because "we agreed not to protest during mediation."

HERE leaders are organizing an electoral campaign among their members and supporters for a healthcare insurance initiative (Proposition 72) on the November ballot. They're building the illusion that "we can make the system work," using financial backing from the liberal capitalist Liberty Hill foundation. Corporations like GM complain that healthcare costs, especially for retirees, make them less competitive with their Japanese and German rivals. They want a minimal national health plan, with taxpayers covering the costs and saving GM's profits. Prop. 72 is a California version of that plan. In the current expanding war economy this means health rationing, an attack pushed as a "reform."

LA's liberal leaders and their ruling-class backers don't want workers to see this struggle as "a tale of two cities -- one rich, one poor." Instead, they want super-exploited latino/a workers to believe the fairy-tale that they're part of "One LA." This appeal for class collaboration never mentions racism or imperialism and has no relation to bettering workers' conditions. It aims at winning workers to fascism and war.

After the press conference, workers listened intently to two representatives of liberal church groups offering their support. "It's easy to feel isolated and discouraged when you're in a situation like this and the law seems to be stacked against you," said one who represented an inter-religious peace and justice coalition, "but workers in many churches around the city stand with you, and there is no power greater than the working class when it is organized and fighting for its class interests."

Laundry workers were nodding as she continued: "You're in this situation today because we're living in a system based on profits and war. We must struggle for a society based on justice and peace. We're fighting not only for ourselves but for our children and grandchildren. " This was the only speaker citing the growing war, the reason for the attacks on the hotel workers.

If workers strike the nine LA hotels, all workers and students should join their picket lines. We should encourage a strike against the attacks on the workers, the war budget and the war in Iraq, with the message that the latter is costly to workers' health and benefits everywhere (See Deficit Scam on Page 3). Building the alliance between all workers and students can become the basis of a fight to destroy this racist, imperialist capitalist system. We can't allow the union leaders to divorce the attack on workers here from the Iraq war.

Workers' power with communist revolution can end these deepening attacks. Capitalism means exploitation and wars for profits. Workers can run society in our own interests, based on production for the needs of our class, eliminating profits and warmongers. We will take this message to the hotel workers.

`Uncovered' Film Covers Up Democrats' Role As War Party

I'm a member of a campus anti-war group which organized a forum on the war in Iraq, screening Robert Greenwald's Moveon.org-backed film "Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War." A critique of the film was distributed afterwards and a speaker exposed it as a campaign tool for the Democratic Party. He said we must abandon the lesser-evil politics of phony leftists, that real change can never be achieved through the ballot box; it will require a strong, revolutionary, anti-imperialist movement led by communists and communist ideology.

Greenwald's film has become a favorite of liberal-leftists and the "anybody-but-Bush" crowd for its penetrating criticisms of the Bush administration's lies about Iraq's WMD stockpiles and capabilities. While it does expose many lies and deceptions used by Bush & Co. to initially justify the war, it fails to offer a broader analysis of the real reasons why the U.S. ruling class was so eager to invade Iraq: oil profits and increasing inter-imperialist rivalry.

Even more damaging, "Uncovered" -- much like Michael Moore's recent "Fahrenheit 9/11" -- never mentions the Democratic Party's similar lies about, and decade-long history of, violence against Iraqi workers. The film hides the parallel imperialist agendas of Democrats and Republicans and the U.S. ruling class's imperialist and fascist plans.

Victimized by the spontaneity and lesser-evilism of the current anti-war movement, many in the audience initially attacked the criticisms of the film and of electoral politics by myself and the speaker, labeling our position "impractical" and "unrealistic." One woman paraphrased Arianna Huffington, saying, "When the house is burning, you don't talk about rebuilding -- you talk about putting out the fire."

We made clear the inevitability of capitalist crises and imperialist wars and explained that the Democrats can only represent the interests of the ruling class. To end wars for profit and fascist attacks at home, the working class must destroy the profit system that breeds and lives off these and many more brutal injustices and organize for communist revolution.

Soon a number of people began to defend PL's line on lesser-evilism and on the need to fight imperialism and capitalism directly. Some agreed that the struggle against imperialism should not focus on one administration or one political party, but on the capitalist system as a whole. Others cited the atrocities committed by the Clinton administration.

Ultimately many in the audience realized how "impractical" and "unrealistic" it was to pin their hopes on the Democratic Party, the electoral process and lesser-evil politics, and that both parties serve the interests of monopoly capital. Both are equally hawkish in their implementing the imperialist agenda. The endless lesser-evil game of playing pin the donkey's tale on the elephant's ass was exposed as opportunist lies used to draw workers away from communism, the only practical and realistic path toward emancipating the working class.

The forum brought some of my friends in the group closer to PL and to the idea that a communist revolution led by workers, students, and soldiers under the banner of a revolutionary communist party is the only solution to capitalism's evils. A number of contacts were made. This struggle revealed a great potential for sharpening the fight against imperialist war and building PLP.

Don't `Rock the Vote': ROCK CAPITALISM!

My college campus recently had a "Rock the Vote" rally. A good friend and regular CHALLENGE reader encouraged me to attend and struggle to get on stage. Through friendships I made in an anti-war coalition, I was able to get to speak, and did so about the need for revolution.

I began by saying, "Most people who will speak today will say that the most important thing you can do to change the world is to vote on November 2. I disagree." No one booed. I explained that voting will never bring the social change necessary to end the war and create peace. History proves that such change only happens through massive social movements of organized people who have no interest in maintaining a system that is killing them.

I said whoever's elected will not only continue the war, but also the massive racist cuts to education and healthcare, because they serve the capitalist system which needs inequality and war. They will cut these services to finance ever-widening war. I said I don't believe peace and capitalism can ever co-exist. Capitalism breeds terrorism.

I reminded people that the county government recently closed another hospital in our city, and is threatening to close a trauma center, built after a black rebellion, which treats predominantly black and Latin workers. "Every one of us will know someone who dies because of that closure. Closing hospitals is an act of racist terrorism." The audience, especially black and Latin students, loudly cheered and clapped in agreement.

My friends thanked me and I made sure they all received a copy of CHALLENGE. I told them that's where I learn how the working class fights back.

Later, a man I didn't know thanked me, saying, "You actually talked about something real. Everyone else was just saying the same empty things." I gave him the paper.

PLP's line contrasts sharply with some famous "anti-war" intellectuals, who are madly trying to convince many honest people that "anybody but Bush" will be better. The Democrats' record of vicious imperialist war mirrors the Republicans. Kerry promises to manage the war better than Bush, not to end it. In 1964 some urged voting for Democrat Johnson during the Vietnam War because Republican Goldwater "would bomb Vietnam into the Stone Age." Johnson was elected and proceeded to bomb Vietnam unmercifully.

The most recent example of this mis-leadership is Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn supporting Kerry with the petition "Vote to Stop Bush": "For people seeking progressive social change in the United States, removing George W. Bush from office should be the top priority." Marxist scholars like Michael Parenti ignore their own understanding of imperialism and openly back Kerry.

Communists' main job is to serve the workers. That means being the first to speak up when the working class is being misled. Fear of isolation should not stop us. My experience at the Rock the Vote rally showed this.

PLP will not compromise our principles. Especially when there is such a vacuum, we must keep raising our anti-imperialist line and actions. Even if our friends don't agree with us now, they'll respect us, and when our analysis proves correct, will move closer to PL. My main error, which I will correct, was not to fight for action against the war and the war budget. As U.S. rulers prepare for greater attacks on workers in Iraq and in the local hospital closing, we must fight for leadership by organizing against them, presenting the alternative to capitalism. Fight for Communism; we have a world to win!

Chavez's `Anti-Imperialism' Hides Links to Exxon and Big Oil

For years, CHALLENGE has warned many who support Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez as their "savior" from the old crooked ruling class are making a big political mistake. The "anti-imperialist" rhetoric of such nationalist leaders hides their drive for a bigger profit share from their senior partners. Only organizing a mass revolutionary communist party can free workers from these exploiters.

While Chavez "denounces" U.S. bosses, he allows major U.S. companies to operate freely in Venezuela. Some are linked to the Bush gang. The country's state-owned oil company (PDVSA) has strategic relations with over 200 foreign corporations, including Exxon, Enron, Amoco, Conoco and Chevron-Texaco, among the world's richest imperialists.

Venezuela is the world's fifth largest crude oil exporter; 15% of the oil consumed in the U.S. (150,000 barrels daily) comes from Venezuela. This cozy relationship remains under the Chavez government. ExxonMobil, Enron, Amoco and Conoco are exploring for natural gas throughout the country.

In 1993, PDVSA opened up to what became $2 billion worth of foreign investments, producing an additional 260,000 barrels of crude oil daily. Conoco, Exxon-Mobil, France's Totalfinaelf, Statoil, Chevron-Texaco and Phillips divided up the Orinoco strip. Three of the four blocs in the Delta platform are already assigned for the exploration and exploitation of natural gas -- with an estimated 38 billion cubic feet of gas -- and the 4th is probably slated for Texaco-Chevron and Statoil. They already share operations with PDVSA.

PDVSA is also well-established in the U.S., controlling Oklahoma-based CITGO. Its refineries handle one million barrels daily in eight cities in six states. CITGO is the 5th largest gasoline distributor in the U.S. (10% of the market), with 13,000 gasoline stations here and in Puerto Rico. It's also the 4th largest distributor of airplane fuel and is first in other distilled products.

Chavez maintains he won't halt exports to the U.S. PDVSA made that clear in ads in the Venezuelan press just before the August 15 referendum (won by Chavez), which also highlighted PDVSA's good relations with Exxon, Chevron and Conoco-Phillips. After all, 60% of all PDVSA exports of crude goes to the U.S. Chavez admitted the U.S. has 85% of all foreign investments in Venezuela.

"The presence of Chevron-Texaco in Venezuela," says Chavez, "indicates that our relationship with the U.S. is historical and deep. We aspire to have the same dynamism in our political, social and all other relations as we have in the commercial ones."

There's a legal dispute between INTESA, a mixed company set up by PDVSA, and SAIC (Science Applications International Corp) to give support and maintenance to PDVSA. Chavez threatened to seize total control of INTESA because SAIC participated in a general strike to topple Chavez, threatening oil production. SAIC claims total control of INTESA based on U.S. laws and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. Alí Rodríguez Araque, PDVSA President, countered by saying: "The fact that there are a lot of companies investing in Venezuela's oil industry, totaling over $25 billion so far, is a clear demonstration that we are dedicated to the highest levels of legal and commercial standards."

Two journalists, Alexander Foster and Tulio Monsalve, exposed who's behind SAIC: J.R. Beyster, its President, is a member of the Security Advisory Committee on Telecommunications for the Bush administration. SAIC's Board of Directors includes Melvin Laird and William Perry, former Secretaries of Defense; John Deutch and Robert Gates, former CIA directors; retired General Max Thurman, who led the U.S. invasion of Panama; Donald Hicks, former Pentagon chief of investigation; Wayne Downing, former chief of Special Forces; Gen. Jaspers Welch, former coordinator of the National Security Agency; and Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, former CIA and NSA director.

SAIC has won important Pentagon contracts designing aerospace military security systems, as well as the Defense Department's information program. It also works with the world's key oil companies like BP-Amoco, PDVSA'S leading international competitor. (All information from Proceso magazine, Mexico City, 8/22/04.)

Not surprisingly, the world's biggest oil companies were happy Chavez won (see CHALLENGE, 9/8) because he guarantees stability for now. Losing to the old bosses would have sparked mass rebellions by the workers -- mostly dark-skinned -- who hate the old racist ruling class. Carlos Andres Perez, the Social-Democrat former Venezuelan President and current opposition leader now exiled in Miami and the Dominican Rep., sent troops in 1989 to crush a mass workers' rebellion (known as El Caracazo), murdering over 1,000 workers and youth. While U.S. bosses would prefer a more pliable pro-U.S. government in Venezuela, they must accept Chavez for now, despite his populist rhetoric and flirting with Fidel Castro. Meanwhile, the Bush gang still supports the anti-Chavez forces led by the racist old bosses to use when they need them.

Although Chavez has used the recent oil bonanza to give workers some crumbs, this won't alleviate the extreme poverty and super-exploitation suffered by most. PLP fights to win Venezuela's militant anti-racist workers to build a revolutionary communist movement and fight for control of the oil wealth, to share according to workers' needs.

Thailand's Youth Forced Into Sex Slavery in Trillion $ Industry

Chiang Mai, Thailand -- Cruel and unrelenting, the laws of supply and demand force thousands of men and women into the streets here each evening searching for work. Throughout Thailand, over 300,000 dispossessed working-class youth have been transformed into sex slaves for wealthy tourists from Europe, Australia and the U.S.

Thailand's infamous sex tourism is a trillion-dollar-a-year-industry. Although most "sex workers" say they began working to avoid a life of poverty, a host of fake intellectuals and profit-grubbing bosses routinely defend prostitution as "consensual sex." This treacherously denies the gross economic, legal and educational inequalities that exist between buyer and seller. It implies that the sale of one's body for sex is a "freely-made economic choice." The human reality is otherwise.

As one sex worker explained, "In my home I could catch fish with my hands, hunt birds in the forest, herd cows on horseback, plant rice and make my own clothes. I only needed money to buy sauce for cooking." At eleven, her mother died, and she was sent to Bangkok to clean hotel rooms. Denied citizenship, identity, education and legal employment, she found herself forced into prostitution, made to drink alcohol by her boss, displayed naked for the amusement of clients and pimped to the highest bidder. Many sex workers become addicted to alcohol after using it for years to overcome their aversion to this life.

A bizarre debate between liberal reformers and the Thai government seeks to redefine the rules for this dehumanizing sex trade. In the past, the government in the past played the role of pimp by registering prostitutes under the Venereal Disease Control Act of 1909 and the Sex Trade Control Act of 1928. Then in 1960 the former dictator, Sarit Thanarat, officially outlawed prostitution. Nevertheless the sex trade increased dramatically during the next decades, spurred by the presence of U.S. soldiers on leave from the Vietnam War and later by international tourism.

In 2003, liberal NGOs, advocating on behalf of sex workers, demanded decriminalization and the enforcement of occupational health and safety standards like those in other industries. Then the Thai government seized an opportunity to profit from the trafficking of women and children by proposing "legalization" instead, allowing authorities to tax and profit from sex work without insuring such basic securities as sick leave, maximum working hours or emergency fire exits in brothels. Neither side questions the economic and political system that drives young workers into this activity in the first place.

Illegal and unsafe abortions are common, performed by untrained personnel and sometimes by the women themselves. Many women die from complications. From a sample of 4,588 women admitted to Thailand hospitals for symptoms related to induced abortions, nearly half had serious complications such as severe bleeding or infection. In many cases there were perforations of the uterus. Five women in this group died. The World Health Organization estimates that unsafe abortions cause between 50,000 and 100,000 deaths per year worldwide.

Some sex workers buy the liberal line, resisting the idea that they're victims of a system that exploits women. Instead they view prostitution as "women setting limits, gaining in economic strength, and acquiring a detailed knowledge of male sexuality and emotional needs," comparing their work to other high-risk occupations such as psychiatric nurses, soldiers, taxi drivers or liquor store attendants.

Sex worker advocates insist that rather than view these women as passive and misguided, society should regard them as "rebelling inside a patriarchal structure, turning the situation to [their] own social and economic advantage." While this seems less oppressive than the religious ideas used to justify the super-exploitation of sex workers ("The sinners deserve their fate!"), in reality the liberals are defending a brutal, exploitative system. It's the legal and economic inequalities of capitalism that enable sex tourism to exist in the first place.

Rampant prostitution disappeared from both Russia and China in the years after communist-led revolutions when workers ran those countries. Once every young person was guaranteed education and employment in the Soviet Union of the 1920s, the sex trade disappeared. For decades after the 1949 Chinese socialist revolution, prostitution vanished. Thirty years after the revolution, venereal diseases had become so rare that routine prenatal screening for syphilis was abandoned -- the tests were never positive! Sadly, as capitalism was restored to those countries, prostitution -- along with many other ills of capitalist society, like racism -- returned to ruin lives of the new generation.

Tragically, in Thailand where Buddhism is practiced by over 95% of the population, many sex workers see their salvation in religion, spending quantities of emotional energy, time and money praying to exclusively male monks, dead ancestors and hundreds of statues encrusted with jewels and gold. Nearly as disheartening is the slavish devotion most residents show to their monarchy, even though the government is run by telecommunications multi-millionaire Thaksin Shinawatra and his Thai Rak Thai party that control an absolute two-two-thirds majority in Parliament.

The recipe for sexual exploitation, Thai style, is the same recipe followed in other capitalist dictatorships. Start with stale economic opportunities that compel young people to abandon their culture and values. Add just enough laws so you can lock up anyone, at any time, for any reason. Mix with a religion that promises perfection "in the next world" and season with plenty of alcohol to enslave their minds and make their bodies compliant. Bake until the ambitions of working-class youth are nothing but ashes.

No deaf gods or aloof monarchy can save young people in Thailand. Only a communist revolution of the heart and mind that spills into the streets will do the job.

LETTERS

Airport Workers' Unity Fires Racist

There's been lots of class struggle at my airport job. Workers are angry over racist, sexist and anti-worker mistreatment. Many are immigrant workers from Mexico, El Salvador, Laos, Ethiopia and Somalia (and are also CHALLENGE readers). The company's two-tier system divides workers even more, using two part-time workers for every full-timer. The part-timers receive no health benefits and are overworked. However, a series of racist incidents united the workers to try to get a fascist boss fired.

When this boss first took over, he called an African-American worker "boy." Then when a Mexican worker's child was accidentally injured at home, this boss initially refused to let this worker go to her child in the hospital. Shortly afterwards she was threatened with suspension and termination for attending to her child. The union shop steward (a PLP member) intervened and urged the union to stop the racist boss.

The final straws saw the boss refusing to allow a worker having an allergic reaction to a chemical at work to go to the hospital, and then yelling at an Ethiopian worker to bring her to the verge of tears.

The workers then united and demanded the union -- the SEIU -- get this racist boss fired immediately. It worked!

This is a significant victory on the shop floor, but we live in a capitalist society that's racist against workers at home and imperialist abroad, as in Iraq. The system can replace one racist boss with another, but they need to maximize profits from exploiting both immigrants and non-immigrants. Only destroying this system altogether can eliminate racism.

Airport comrade

Youth Thirsting For Red Ideas

"Dad, when is there going to be another cadre school?" "What do you think philosophy is? Tell me. Explain it to me so I can see if we agree on it." "What is your main contradiction?" Questions like these abound in my house these days.

My children, one a university student and the other in high school, attended the youth cadre school and returned very emotional about it. My wife and I are Party members and feel very proud that our children are part of the struggle to learn the Party's ideas and are willing to join.

At first I thought it was risky to send my children to this school, given the repression surrounding us, but my class consciousness won out. My children are part of the working class and need to learn how to survive in this rotten system and to fight to destroy it and create a system that meets workers' needs -- communism.

"And what about me?" protested our youngest child. "When am I going to a school like this? They got to go and I didn't."

"Your time will come," my wife replied. "It's a process and you're part of it."

Let's go forward, comrades. Sometimes the march is slow, but the march continues.

A comrade father

French CP Fair Hosted by War Merchants

The French "Communist" Party newspaper L'Humanité held its annual fair in early September. One can get a lot of material at such fairs, and usually a big plastic bag to put them in. Of course, there was lots of political stuff. But, according to journalist Michael Collon (rebellion.org), the bag was "courtesy of Dassault, the French defense industry giant, an official sponsor of the fair." Monsieur Dassault, the company's CEO, is one of the richest men in France. His latest acquisitions include the mass media, imposing an iron-like censorship on whatever he controls.

That wasn't all. L'Humanité has an ad by EADS, a European multi-national arms manufacturer, on the first page of its official program brochure. It lists all the deadly weapons the world's bosses use to kill workers: its combat helicopter Eurocopter, the Eurofighter jet, the Gladio spy satellite system, its Meteor missile and its Airbus A400M, capable of transporting hundreds of soldiers to Central Africa to enable French bosses to continue to super-exploit workers and steal the region's resources.

But this is not surprising. The French "C"P long ago abandoned any revolutionary principles. It helped General Charles DeGaulle crush the 1968 worker-student rebellion that threatened French capitalism. It now sides with French and European imperialism in their rivalry with U.S. imperialism. L'Humanité has become just another voice of Europe's imperialist war-makers.

Monsieur Rouge

Salvador Sends Poor Soldiers to Iraq

"My grandfather told me things never go well for those who put their noses in other peoples' business," joked a worker. "They only send the children of the poor to be soldiers," a young worker pointed out. "Why don't they send the children of the rich to fight on the other side of the world?"

Recently, Islamic terrorist groups have threatened three times to launch attacks in El Salvador if more Salvadoran troops were sent to Iraq. El Salvador is the only Latin American country with troops there. In August 2003, the first 360 soldiers left for Iraq. Last February, they were replaced by 380 others. Despite the current Salvadoran leadership agreeing initially to one year's duty, they bowed to their U.S. masters to continue the troop presence for at least another six months.

Salvadoran President Saca has been lying about this since he took office. Bush sabotaged his plans when he took the U.S. imperialist position about the immigration policy and the Free Trade Agreement "negotiated" between the U.S. and Central America. Bush never helped Saca with any of this in exchange for dispatching Salvadoran troops to Iraq.

The Islamic group warned that, "The sending of Salvadoran troops will be a declaration of war against the Muslims in Iraq, which will force us to launch a war against you and to take the conflict to El Salvador. No citizen," they continued, "will have security in El Salvador when the soldiers get to Iraq.... We are not responsible for spilling blood in El Salvador because we've warned you against this decision." Of course, since these are terrorists -- not class conscious anti-imperialists -- fighting for their "own" nationalist bosses, they threaten to randomly attack Salvadoran workers, not the bosses who force the troops to go to El Salvador.

The warnings started when one terrorist group (Mohammed Atta Brigade-Al Qaeda Jihad) published a threat on its web page to begin attacks inside El Salvador. Despite this, Saca is sending a third contingent. "We have a duty to fight international terrorism and to help the people of Iraq rebuild," said Saca. "Our troops will march in the middle of August."

The Salvadoran working class doesn't believe these stories about "reconstruction," since only troops for war, not engineers or construction workers, were sent. The military has trained the soldiers for patrols, capturing people and manning check-points, not for repairing houses. However, these U.S.-trained Special Forces were instructed in jungle combat, not in desert fighting.

The Salvadoran government serves the capitalist system, specifically U.S. imperialism, in its "negotiations" of the Free Trade Agreement, and its fascist plans like Puebla Panama (a free trade zone from southern Mexico to Panama). The Salvadoran capitalists don't care about right-wing al Qaeda terrorists massacring workers in El Salvador. On the contrary, they hope it will happen.

No imperialist or capitalist offers us an end to exploitation, racism or imperialism. We must fight to destroy capitalism and replace it with a communist system that smashes all borders and unites workers internationally, based on mutual respect, solidarity and class interest.

A Comrade

Mid-East Youth Head for Iraq

The ruling class is going full steam ahead to increase fascism worldwide. A recent trip to a Mid-East country showed me how the term fighting terrorism is being used to attack the working class and crack down on dissent.

Many of my friends in this country cautioned me to be careful while visiting Internet cafés there because the government's undercover agents spy on people who frequent them and check on what websites they visit. BBC News reported that a young man from that country was sentenced to 20 years for visiting an "illegal" website. When human rights groups questioned this action, the government simply claimed it was fighting terrorism and silenced all opposition.

My friends are fearful of being sent political material over the Internet. But I thought it was important to discuss how we had to organize and fight this increasing fascism worldwide. Although my friends were somewhat skeptical about opposing the rulers, they did agree with much of PLP's communist line.

They also told me some young people here have gone to Iraq and joined the fight against the U.S. It seems anyone who's willing to fight the U.S. is considered a hero in the eyes of those workers who are facing the sharpest blows of capitalism's fascism.

In fact, Osama bin Laden is achieving hero status in the Arab world. Many newborn children are named after him. One of my friend's cousins is nicknamed "bin Laden" as a show of respect. Bin Laden is perceived as a fighter against the U.S. and Israel. Similarly, the so-called insurgents in Iraq are also given this same respect. When I pointed out bin Laden's involvement with the CIA in Afghanistan and his oil interests, it was met with some reservation, but it opened the door for more dialogue. Fake "militants" like bin Laden and Muslim clerics are additional barriers to communist revolution.

Communists know that fascist attacks on workers anywhere on earth are fascist attacks on all workers. We must dispel the illusion that fascism is "in the future" and figure out how to overcome the obstacles the ruling class uses to prevent us from uniting locally and internationally. Although presently many in the U.S. think fascism doesn't exist, workers throughout the world have fewer illusions. They're living under increasing fascism and understand it's here now and spreading!

Red Teacher

FBI Cointelpro Had Wide Reach

I've periodically seen CHALLENGE make corrections and/or additions to various commentaries. In the article (9/22) listing Democratic administration attacks on the working class, there's a reference to "Cointelpro" as an operation against anti-Vietnam War activists.

It's true this program targeted those opposing that war but Cointelpro had a much wider reach, attacking any and all elements considered "a threat to the internal security of the United States." This included

the American Indian, Black Nationalist and radical women's movements.

A major goal was to prevent the rise of a so-called "Black Messiah" that could unite the Civil Rights/Black Power movement here with the struggle of independence movements in Africa, the Caribbean and elsewhere.

J. Edgar Hoover named such threats, stating that Malcolm X could have been such a messiah but had become a martyr of the movement; that Elijah Muhammad of the Nation Of Islam was "too old"; that Martin Luther King could be a potential threat if he were to abandon his reliance on so-called white liberal doctrine; and that Stokley Carmichael was a real threat to be such a messiah.

The program eventually listed the Black Panther Party as the greatest threat to U.S. internal security. It had a five-point program to stop the Panthers, one being to stop the massive recruitment of youth. Another used counter-intelligence to build distrust among the Panthers.

The point is that Cointelpro was not limited to Vietnam protesters.

It included the entire "People's Movement" at that time. It was not a program born of an individual (Hoover) or a separate entity (FBI). It was created by the capitalist state that feared the rising tide of the working class and its possible unification against the ruling class.

Onward, A Reader

Can World War III Be Prevented?

I applaud the comrades in Pakistan for building the PLP and spreading our internationalist, revolutionary communist politics there. It's encouraging to see us proving wrong the world bourgeoisie's "death of communism" wish.

Adding to the CHALLENGE response (9/22) about the point in the Pakistani comrades' letter that World War III could be "averted" if we win enough people to our ideas: unfortunately, as long as there is capitalism and imperialism, there will be wars for profits. World War III can't be averted. For instance, even though communists led the Soviet Union -- 1/6 of the world's surface -- in the 1930s and '40s, the Nazis, at first backed by U.S., British and French bosses, began WWII in great part to roll back the Bolshevik Revolution. We've learned from such history that the only way to end imperialist war is to smash capitalism throughout the world with communist revolution. World War III would present workers, soldiers and youth the opportunity to turn that imperialist war into revolution, either during or after that war.

 A communist analysis of imperialism shows that another large-scale war between opposing imperialists is not only possible, probable, and certain, but is actually necessary because of the drive for maximum profits.

Our task as communists is to prepare and organize the masses to ensure that WWIII will be the bosses' last war.

Young Red Reader

Cosby Always Served Bosses

CHALLENGE'S comment (8/4) on Uncle Bill Cosby's racist attacks on young black people wasn't the whole history. He wasn't any "typical" sellout. He peddled his ass from the start.

Cosby started as a comic in the early sixties, but his career leapt when he played a CIA type on the TV show "I Spy." There weren't a whole lot of dark-skinned CIA agents in real life in those days, and that was a good thing for black people generally.

Cosby was shoveling out the phony "pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps" crap for decades. His comedy routines and TV shows weren't done just for laughs. They portrayed black youth in very negative stereotypes. And it's not much of a stretch to charge him with having lent a major propaganda hand in the attacks on black people in general. (A good comparison might be made with Richard Pryor's early material: very pro-working class, though certainly not revolutionary.)

A daughter from outside marriage sued him for support, and Cosby ridiculed her from the witness stand. No doubt this incident reinforced his hatred for working-class youth and mothers, and even prompted the reactionary New Yorker magazine to criticize Cosby. He didn't care.

Cosby made his pile of money and that's what counts most to these pro-fascists. People like Jesse Jackson, Sharpton, Mary J. Blige, Kweisi Mfume have become a cheering squad for this racist.

North Country Red

It's Not Bush or Kerry; It's Capitalism

The article in your last issue (9/22) showed that the Republicans' claim of "job creation" is just a mirage. As reported in a recent N.Y. Post John Crudele column, "the unemployment rate is...a numbing 9.5% when you count people who are out of work and too discouraged to keep looking." As CHALLENGE has consistently reported, it's even worse when counting millions working part-time who seek but can't find full-time jobs.

So the Republicans' claim about "growing employment" is an outright lie. But the Democrats are just as bankrupt. Kerry says in the month remaining before the election "there is no chance [the Bush administration] can make up for 1.6 million private-sector jobs lost since January 2001." But what would Kerry do? Turn capitalism upside-down? The fact is the profit system has mass unemployment built into it. There has never been a time every worker had a job, and there never will be as long as capitalism exists.

Both Bush and Kerry represent a system that thrives on what Karl Marx called "the reserve army of the unemployed." Voting for either one is voting to continue a system that breeds joblessness. Only organizing for revolution that eliminates profits can end unemployment (as happened in the Soviet Union of the 1930s and '40s.

Old-time Red

RED EYE ON THE NEWS

Abu Ghraib methods here

"I do not view the sexual abuse, torture and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers as an isolated event," says Terry Kupers, a psychiatrist who has often testified about human rights abuses in U.S. prisons. "The plight of prisoners in the USA is strikingly similar to the plight of the Iraqis who were abused by American GIs. Prisoners are maced, raped, beaten, starved, left naked in freezing cold cells and otherwise abused in too many American prisons, as substantiated by findings in many courts that prisoners' constitutional rights to remain free of cruel and unusual punishment are being violated.

(Creators Syndicate, 8/8)

Low pay is real stress

It is noteworthy that in news media coverage of job stress, the emphasis is usually on educated middle-class professionals who, in fact have many choices -- including a lower-pressure job or simply working less. All this hand-wringing over the suffering of the relatively fortunate only distracts us from the plight of Americans whose work lives are really stressful: those who are paid $7 or $8 an hour don't have health insurance and lack the skills to education to better their lot.

Life for these workers is a tightrope act without a net.... (NYT, 9/19)

Exec's only job is profit

Peter F. Drucker, the preeminent student of American management: "If you find an executive who wants to take on social responsibility, fire him fast." (NYT, 9/19)

Big US co. poisons Asians

BUYAT BAY BEACH, Indonesia -- First the fish began to disappear. Then villagers began developing strange rashes and bumps. Finally in January, Masna Stirman, aided by a $1.50 wet nurse, gave birth to a tiny, shriveled girl with small lumps and wrinkled skin....

The infant's death came after years of complaints by local fishermen about waste dumped in the ocean by the owner of a nearby gold mine, the Newmont Mining Corporation, the world's biggest gold producer, based in Denver....

Environmental groups and, increasingly, government officials charge that it employs practices not tolerated at home....

About 120 villagers were waiting to be examined in June....Thirty of the villagers had tumor-like growths, said one of the doctors, Jane Pangemanan....

"I was shocked by what I saw," she said.... About 80 percent showed symptoms of poisoning by mercury and arsenic. (NYT, 9/8)

US trains killers of workers

Since 2002, American military trainers have been instructing Colombian soldiers there in counterguerrilla techniques....

The attorney general's office said late Monday that Colombian soldiers assassinated three union leaders last month, an account that contrasts sharply with the army's earlier contention that the three men were Marxist rebels killed in a firefight.

The attorney general's announcement vindicated union leaders in Colombia and Europe who said the army had killed three defenseless union activists and then tried to cover the matter up.

Colombia is by far the world's most dangerous country for union members, with 94 killed last year and 47 slain by Aug. 25 this year... (NYT, 9/8)

Trying to spin Iraq

"There are areas where difficulties remain," (the response by Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, to a question about Iraq). (NYT, 9/19)

Bring this lesson to class?

"If con is the opposite of pro,"... then isn't Congress the opposite of progress?" Be prepared to discuss this... (NYT, 9/16)

Unsafe -- but profitable!

... the Food and Drug Administration....and seven drug makers had failed for years to warn doctors and patients that most antidepressants have not proved effective in treating depression in children and that some studies suggest they may cause some children to become acutely suicidal. In 2002, nearly 11 million prescriptions for the drugs were given to children, 2.7 million of them to children under 12.

Seven top executives from drug giants like Pfizer, Wyeth and GlaxoSmithkline were sharply questioned about why the companies had collectively failed to publish or publicize results of studies showing that their drugs had not proved effective in Treating teenagers and children. (NYT, 9/10)

State Power -- Part III

(The first article in this series on state power dealt with the government as the key instrument of the bosses' dictatorship. The second described the complex relationship between official and unofficial arms of the state apparatus and the process that turns racist ideology into racist policy. This one traces the parallel trail that leads from imperialist ideology to imperialist foreign policy and the role the state plays in the process.)

The long, shameful career of Samuel P. Huntington illustrates the close link between the government, major universities and the think-tanks and foundations that define and justify U.S. bosses wars to maintain their world domination.

Huntington is the Weatherhead University Professor at Harvard, where he directs the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies and chairs the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. The Olin Foundation reflects the views of the more openly right-wing section of U.S. bosses, but it still camps under the tent of the dominant liberal establishment. Every member of the Harvard Corporation belongs to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) or the Brookings Institution, both leading liberal think-tanks.

Huntington considers himself an "old-fashioned" Democrat. He plans to vote for Kerry and was "dead-set" against Bush, Jr.'s Iraq adventure. (New York Times Magazine, 5/2/04)

Although Huntington may disapprove of the current White House tactics for securing Persian Gulf oil, nonetheless he's a leader among academics who rationalize U.S rulers' goals and the racist lies that disguise them in order to validate the wars needed to carry them out. In 1993, he published an article in the CFR's magazine Foreign Affairs, entitled "The Clash of Civilizations." The phrase caught fire. Actually, Huntington didn't invent it; he stole it from a fascist British professor named Bernard Lewis, who had coined it in 1964.

A CALL FOR ALL-OUT WAR

In Huntington's version of this pseudo-theory, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the class struggle is now dead. Ideology is dying. In the future, "the great divisions among humankind will be cultural...the United States must forge alliances with similar cultures....With alien civilizations, the West must be accommodating if possible, but confrontational if necessary." (Foreign Affairs, Summer 1993)

Huntington adds the usual academic disclaimers and pleas for tolerance, but his message is clear: get ready for all-out war between the "civilized" West and the "barbarians" in the Muslim and Arab world.

After 9/11, the "Clash of Civilizations" took on a life of its own, launching a jingoistic anti-Arab witch-hunt and paving the way for the U.S. military's wanton slaughter of Iraqi civilians, including thousands of children. Huntington's racist notion of "alien civilizations" had already helped dehumanize Arab people in the minds of U.S. workers, helping the liberal Democrat Clinton to carry out regular bombing raids over Iraq and a deadly sanctions policy that led directly to more than a million Iraqi deaths between 1992 and 2000, most of them young children.

The Hitlerite ravings of this prominent professor are used to mask inter-imperialist oil rivalry as a "conflict among cultures," first to the limited audience of think-tank and university specialists and then to the mass media. After Huntington had published his Foreign Affairs article, the process almost duplicated the popularization in the late 1960s and early '70s of Arthur Jensen's racist claims about the "genetic inferiority" of black workers. (See CHALLENGE, 9/22)

The article became a book, entitled "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order." More importantly, the networks and print media launched a mass campaign to spread Huntington's thesis. The usual "loyal opposition" debates took place, during which various liberal opponents had their chance to take issue with Huntington over details. However, in the end the deck had been stacked, and the norm had become -- and remains today -- the overwhelmingly racist characterization of Arab and Muslim peoples that fills the airwaves and the press. All this started in the pages of the Liberal Establishment's leading foreign policy journal.

THE CARTER DOCTRINE: WAR FOR OIL

Huntington has also worked directly with the official state apparatus, always for Democratic administrations. Under Jimmy Carter, he was Coordinator of Security Planning at the National Security Council, serving under Zbigniew Brzezinski, another academic (Harvard, Columbia, Johns Hopkins), whose recent "The Grand Chessboard" gave U.S. bosses their current blueprint for continuing world domination. Huntington and Brzezinski therefore played a key role in helping elaborate the "Carter Doctrine," announced in 1980, which commits the U.S. to wage war to prevent any "hostile power" from seizing Persian Gulf oil. This grand strategy continues today, as presidential policy from Bush, Sr. through Bush, Jr. demonstrates.

Huntington's contribution to U.S. imperialism's genocidal wars goes back to his 1957 book, "The Soldier and the State," complaining that U.S. society wasn't sufficiently militarized. He called for the U.S. to establish a global empire similar to the pre-Civil War Southern slavocracy. Within a few years, Huntington was tapped as a consultant to the U.S. State Department under President Lyndon Johnson. At the height of the Vietnam War, he reported that the only way to pacify Vietnam was a strong Vietnamese police force -- i.e., homegrown fascism. It didn't work, and Huntington complained later that his advice hadn't been followed. The U.S. military adventure ended in a fiasco, but Huntington hasn't stopped trying -- and the bosses haven't stopped listening. His 1968 "Political Order in Changing Societies," another rant about the need for social order, still appears on college reading lists as a "classic" theory of "nation-building." His 1975 opus, "The Crisis of Democracy," which laments the dangers of "excess" democracy, objectively paved the way for the Hart-Rudman commission's current strategy for turning the U.S. into a police state.

TRAVELING THE NAZI ROUTE

Huntington has recently broadened his "clash of civilizations" poison to include an attack on immigrants within the U.S., particularly Hispanic workers. His new book, "Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity," blames Hispanic immigrants for "undermining" the greatness of the United States.

If this sounds familiar, it should. Huntington has invented nothing new here. The notion of "outsiders" and "aliens," from hostile "foreign" cultures and civilizations who "pollute" the supposed purity of a society follows the well-worn road traveled by Hitler and his Nazi gangsters. Huntington is merely their successor wrapped in red, white and blue.

But, as we have shown, he's hardly a lone fascist working in isolation. He occupies a place of honor in the most prestigious U.S. university. He publishes in U.S. imperialism's most influential foreign policy journal. He shuttles back and forth between his Ivy League ivory tower and the halls of government. The insidious message of his racist poison is packaged for mass consumption. He could not exist in this capacity without the full support of the rulers' state apparatus, which promotes him because he serves its most essential needs.

Huntington is a valuable case in point for communists to study and explain, because he is typical of the relationship among intellectuals, ideology, policy and the state under the profit system. Many others, including his pal Brzezinski and Henry Kissinger (Brzezinski's Republican Tweedle-dum), could have served the purpose. Our task here is twofold. First, we must expose their lies and show how these lies serve the bosses' class agenda. Second, we must deepen our understanding of their relationship to the state and work to arm millions with this understanding. In the process, we will advance our ability to build a Party that can organize workers to smash this state and the ruling class that will wield it as a weapon against us until we do so.

(Next: How the rulers use the state apparatus as an instrument of internal struggle among themselves.)

Auto workers strike
American Axle this year.

DETROIT -- Black and white workers at the American Axle plant denounced what appeared to be two hangman's nooses hanging on a vehicle here, signing a mass grievance attacking the racist symbols. UAW Local president Wendy Thompson said the group protest showed the racists "did not have the support of the white workers," and partly blamed the company for "promoting a hostile work environment." She said further that the UAW, as an organization, was not doing enough to challenge racist attitudes in workplaces.

The fact is not only did the International union grant billions in give-backs to the auto companies, resulting in layoffs of hundreds of thousands of last-hired black workers, but the union itself mobilized 1,000 Klan members and sympathizers to break a sit-down strike led by PLP in 1973 at the Chrysler Mack Avenue plant. Fighting racism in the UAW will have to be organized by anti-racist rank-and-filers and led by communists, the latter having organized the UAW 70 years ago.

 

Hundreds Of Thousands Protest Bush But Democrats Are No Lesser Evil

a href="#Democrats’ War Crimes">"emocrats’ War Crimes ; ahref="#Democrats’ Domestic Crimes">"emocrats' Domestic Crimes

a href="#PLP’s Red Politics Exposes ‘Anyone but Bush’ Illusion">PLP’" Red Politics Exposes ‘Anyone but Bush’ Illusion

a href="#Racist Ideology A Bosses’ Crucial Weapon To Hold State Power">"acist Ideology A Bosses’ Crucial Weapon To Hold State Power

a href="#‘Exxon-Mobil, Texaco-we won’t fight for you no more!’">‘Exx"n-Mobil, Texaco-we won’t fight for you no more!’

a href="#AFL-CIO Can’t Censor Rank & File Sign:">"FL-CIO Can’t Censor Rank & File Sign

Turning Base For Red Prez Into Mass Base For Communism

a href="#UAW Refuses to Strike While CAT Chews Up Workers’ Contract">"AW Refuses to Strike While CAT Chews Up Workers’ Contract

Detroit City Workers Wildcat vs. Democrats Racist Cuts, Layoffs

Job Creation: A Capitalist Mirage

Chicago Democrats Protect Police Torturers

Peru: Angry Masses Show Racism is Tarnished Path

LETTERS

a href="#Politics of ‘Selling’ Challenge at Anti-Bushites Protests">Po"itics of ‘Selling’ Challenge at Anti-Bushites Protests

Fighting for Communist Politics in Pakistan

• Challenge Responds

Collective Struggle Helped Us During SEIU Convention

Felt Great in First Activity Against Racist Cross-burning

CIA-Trained Terrorists Freed in Panama

Winning Workers in Oakland Community Organization

RED EYE ON THE NEWS

• A Kerry vote helps $ystem
• Army recruiters never mention war
• TV helps drag kids down
• Leaving the child behind
• Exploiting Iraq’s economy

Caspian Oil Profits Behind Massacre of Workers and Children

Learning From Class Struggle and Communist Politics

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Hundreds Of Thousands Protest Bush But Democrats Are No Lesser Evil

On August 29, about 500,000 people marched in New York against Bush and his wars. Spirited demonstrators took on the NYPD in clashes throughout the Republican convention. They represented millions who reject Bush’s wasting of human lives for oil and his pandering to greedy corporations. While the protests are encouraging, the rulers are hoping to direct these protests into the voting booths for the equally deadly Democrat Kerry. Bush and Kerry both serve the capitalist class that requires expanding imperialist wars and tightening control over the workers. They appeal to different voting bases and have some serious tactical differences over how to maintain U.S. world domination. But their essence is the same.

Democrats and Republicans support U.S. imperialism’s strategic objectives, including an all-powerful U.S. military and control of the Middle East. In July 2003, the Senate voted 95-0 to support President Bush’s $368 billion military appropriation. In July 2004 they voted 96-0 for a $425 billion military appropriation. Like the resolution authorizing the U.S. attack on Afghanistan, not one Democratic Senator stood in opposition.

Democrats and Republicans share U.S. military policy in the Middle East, including annually voting to award Israel $3 billion to oppress Palestinian workers, threaten surrounding countries, and maintain an enormous arsenal of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons to act as U.S. imperialism’s hired gun protecting the oil-rich region’s western flank.

The Democrats supported the Iraq war from build-up to actual attack. Those who conditioned their support on multilateral approval through the United Nations dropped their reservations like a hot potato once the war began. Most Democrats unconditionally supported the war, and as with Vietnam, began to ask questions only when the mission began to falter. Now they want to capitalize on mass opposition to the war to win the election.

Imperialist war is not result of the bad policies of diabolical politicians that we can vote out of office. It is the nature of the capitalist beast. Wars for oil and other resources, for access to markets and cheap labor, and for depriving other capitalists of these things are inevitable as long as capitalism exists. Elections and mass reform movements cannot end imperialism since they just provide a band-aid solution to a deadly cancer.

Only a mass communist movement can organize workers, soldiers and students to wipe out the imperialist warmakers and replace their dictatorship with the revolutionary dictatorship of the working class, abolishing their racist profit system. The bosses won’t give up their profits peacefully, That is why the most important thing we can do is to build a mass international PLP as a way to wage the long and difficult struggle to put an end to the hell of capitalism.

Armed with communist politics, we can turn the horrors of the capitalists’ wars against them. The torture and murder of prisoners at Abu Ghraib disgusted millions. On the job, barracks and schools, in the unions and mass organizations, we could have responded with more demonstrations, forums, and literature. We have the opportunity to transform widespread outrage at these atrocities into a mass movement against the capitalist dictatorship that commits them, at home and around the world.

The enemy isn’t far to seek. On the job, we can attack war profiteering corporations and union bosses who try to sell us out to the imperialist Democrats. The schools and universities are crawling with military recruiters and ROTC programs. We can expose the universities’ role in military research and in shaping the racist, fascistic ideology that leads U.S. imperialism. In the community, we can target politicians who dismantle social programs to fund the war effort. But we can never think that an end to imperialist war will come before the working class, led by a mass international PLP, seizes power with communist revolution.

a name="Democrats’ War Crimes">">"emocrats’ War Crimes

Wilson led the U.S. into World War I, making it a full-fledged imperialist power.

Roosevelt and Truman directed the unnecessary murders of hundreds of thousands of civilians in Tokyo, Dresden, Frankfurt, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki during World War II.

In the Cold War, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, and Carter armed and funded pro-U.S. dictators and insurgencies around the world.

Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson wasted millions of workers’ lives trying to defend U.S. imperialism in Korea and Vietnam.

Kennedy invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.

Johnson invaded the Dominican Republic.

Carter, who today goes around "overseeing democratic elections," praised Somoza, the Nicaraguan dictator, for his "progress in human rights," just a year or so before he was forced to flee by a mass insurrection. It was also Carter, preaching his "Blood for Oil Profits" Doctrine, who began the U.S. military build-up in the Middle East.

Clinton dropped more bombs on Yugoslavia than his predecessors did on Vietnam.

Clinton enforced U.S. sanctions and "no-fly" zones, starving, bombing and killing over 500,000 Iraqis.

 

a name="Democrats’ Domestic Crimes">">"emocrats’ Domestic Crimes

Wilson used the Sedition Acts during WWI and imprisoned thousands for opposing the war and the draft.

After the war, Wilson launched the notorious Palmer Raids jailing and deporting thousands of leftist immigrant workers.

Wilson’s racist Immigration Act of 1917 kept out Asians.

Roosevelt herded Japanese-Americans into concentration camps.

Truman approved the anti-Communist legislation and purges of the McCarthy era.

Johnson diverted troops of the 82nd Airborne from going to Vietnam to brutally put down rebelling workers in Detroit in 1967.

In Operation Cointelpro, Johnson unleashed the FBI on anti-Vietnam War activists.

Clinton signed "anti-terrorist" legislation that sharply curtails workers’ civil liberties.

Under Clinton, the prison population doubled to over 2 million, the highest in the world, especially among black workers.

Gary Hart helped create the imperialist, fascist manifesto known as the Hart-Rudman reports.

Virtually all Democrats in Congress voted for the Patriot Act and the Department of Homeland Security.

a name="PLP’s Red Politics Exposes ‘Anyone but Bush’ Illusion"></a>"LP’s Red Politics Exposes ‘Anyone but Bush’ Illusion

NEW YORK CITY, Sept. 2—Hundreds of thousands turned out to protest against the Republican Convention in spite of the police state conditions imposed by billionaire Mayor Bloomberg and his NYPD storm troopers. PLP was there to raise our revolutionary line. While challenging Bush and all he stands for is important, the most crucial thing we could do was to criticize the equally-evil Democrats and call on our fellow demonstrators to fight for communism. No politician can solve the problems facing workers.

We began by holding a protest at a neighborhood recruiting center. We called out all politicians as servants to the ruling-class bent on imperialist domination. We especially attacked the "lesser-evil" Kerry for calling for mandatory national service from High School students and his role in preparing our class brothers and sisters to fight in more imperialist wars. We explained to many workers, as well as people who just registered to go into the military, how an "economic draft" is already being conducted. The workers in the neighborhood accepted us warmly, and the recruiters had shock on their faces as we chanted, "Solders, Turn Your Guns Around - Shoot the Profit System Down!"

Our next stop was the massive anti-Bush march that brought out over 500,000 people despite the bosses’ media attempts to discourage people from attending. Our multi-racial contingent found it discouraging at times to fight for our line "Kerry/Bush - No Solution! Fight for Communist Revolution!" At first many were upset with us for denouncing elections, but when we explained our point of view, they were open and took CHALLENGE.

Today and during the other protest we distributed over 6,400 Challenges, 14,000 leaflets and countless buttons. The overall political theme of the march was "Anybody But Bush," but as marchers passed by the PLP banner, we offered them a communist solution.

We did a good job of getting our line out to workers and students, but we should not fail to recognize our weaknesses and limits. In general, we need to give better leadership and involve more people in the Party activities. We need to grow! The rotten propaganda of the liberals and opportunist left is widespread. We must redouble our efforts to bring to the masses he antidote of communist politics.. After a very successful project at the Democratic Convention in Boston in July, it was impossible to recreate the same energy and numbers for this project. We fought hard to remain objective and carry out the necessary work of our Party. As capitalism slips into crisis we must intensify our political work and step up our efforts. Every party member and reader of the paper should consider what he or she could contribute to help the party grow.

What PLP did at the RNC had an undeniably positive effect. We pushed revolutionary politics forward and challenged people to think differently. Our actions helped to build class-consciousness and strengthen our organization. Pushing workers, students and soldiers to think about the long-term and how the working-class can get rid of capitalism is one of the most useful things to do with our lives. We need to ensure the Party grows as we and our children face fascism and imperialist wars. Fight for communism! Power to the workers!

a name="Racist Ideology A Bosses’ Crucial Weapon To Hold State Power">">"acist Ideology A Bosses’ Crucial Weapon To Hold State Power

The first article in this series discussed the state apparatus as the tool that allows the capitalists to exercise their dictatorship over the working class, regardless of the political party in power. This article will deal with the state apparatus and its relationship to capitalist ideology.

Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong wrote, "Political power flows from the barrel of a gun." He was referring to the relationship between political authority and violence in class society. But the bosses cannot rule through violence alone. They also need a system of ideas and beliefs to support their oppressive system. The exercise of naked force is a last resort, and they use it ruthlessly when they need it. But they prefer to govern through the force of persuasion, by convincing workers and others that the profit system represents the best of all possible worlds and that revolution is impossible.

The bosses’ ideology is tightly bonded to their state apparatus. The state extends far beyond the official organs of government, like the presidency, the Congress, the military, the courts, the cops, etc. It also includes major foundations, universities, media chains, etc., all linked to the rulers’ various factions. The processes involved are far too numerous and complex for us to describe in one article. They are easier to understand if we examine specific examples. Here we will offer one related to racism.

Racism is the rulers’ bread and butter. It ensures the super-profits their economic system demands. But they also need a body of ideas and beliefs to justify these super-profits. Over the last several decades, the major universities, foundations, think tanks, and the government have all collaborated to transform racist ideology into policy. Here are a few examples:

•In 1969, Harvard’s Review of Education published an article by Arthur Jensen, a professor of educational psychology. Relying on long discredited "evidence," he argued that the federal government should stop funding educational programs in school districts with large numbers of black children, because black people in general had fewer "intelligence genes" than whites, and no amount of social engineering could alter the supposedly biological nature of intelligence. Anyone could see that this racist filth was no different from Nazi eugenics. Nonetheless, every establishment publication, including the New York Times, trumpeted Jensen’s "research" as though it were a groundbreaking discovery. Republican President Nixon used it to justify drastic education budget cuts, which helped fund U.S. imperialism’s raging war of genocide in Vietnam.

•Another Harvard professor, Daniel P. Moynihan, who later became the liberal Democratic Senator from NY, commented that the "winds of Jensen [were] gusting with gale force" in Washington. Already established as a prominent racist theorist, he argued that the problems of the poorest black workers were not due to racist oppression, but to the "matriarchal" structure of the black family. Moynihan supported Nixon’s budget cuts, including a wage freeze in the early 1970s.

•Jensen inspired a host of imitators. Richard Herrnstein, who chaired the Harvard Psychology Department, weighed in with a series of articles and books claiming that "socioeconomic status" was genetically determined. These lies helped Nixon’s successors, both Democrat and Republican, slash social services and wages. Before his death, Herrnstein teamed up with still another Harvard storm trooper, Charles Murray, to publish The Bell Curve, which launched another salvo of racist genetic venom.

•From 1975 until today, a Harvard entomologist (i.e. ant specialist) named E.O. Wilson has made a fortune with his theory of "Sociobiology." He says that all of society and all human behavior, from financial success to wars of conquest, is in the genes. When Sociobiology was first published, Wilson received vast media coverage, including cover stories in all the big weeklies, TV appearances, favorable New York Times reviews and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize.

The practical consequences of the policies that flowed from Jensen-Herrnstein-Murray-Wilson & Co., is racist misery for tens of millions of workers. The most tangible are the ongoing effects of social programs wiped out by the liberal Democrat Clinton. In one stroke, Clinton erased welfare, a process begun by Reagan, and replaced it with a racist scheme of slave-labor scabbing known as "Workfare." Workfare replaced masses of laid-off, unionized municipal workers with unemployed workers on welfare. They were forced to accept their welfare checks for jobs that once paid union wages and benefits. This served to grind down even further the wages, benefits, and working conditions of the entire working class. Bush has just stepped up those attacks.

We can draw several important conclusions about the nature of the rulers’ state apparatus and the ideology that supports its dictatorship over workers:

Regardless of the party in the White House, the bosses’ social and economic policies are racist to the core.

An onslaught of racist theorizing paves the way for racist policies

The "theorists" are often linked to Harvard or other elite universities, and usually begins in the comfort of a research lab, seminar room, or the halls of a think-tank like the Brookings Institution.

The big guns of the capitalist media arsenal popularize racist theories by blasting them into newspapers and magazines and over the airwaves.

Understanding the class nature of the state requires that we also understand the class nature of all the major institutions in society and the complex relationship between them and the government.

Communists must expose this relationship and the racist, anti-working class ideas and policies the bosses need to maintain political power and maximum profits. PLP’s goal is to lead hundreds of millions of workers to smash the boss’s state and replace it with the revolutionary, communist dictatorship of the working class. Clarifying the class nature of the state can become an unbeatable weapon once it has been grasped by the working class.

Next: The bosses’ state, ideology, foreign policy, and the case of Samuel P. Huntington.

a name="‘Exxon-Mobil, Texaco-we won’t fight for you no more!’"></a>"Exxon-Mobil, Texaco-we won’t fight for you no more!’

New York City, Sept. 2 — August 31 was a busy day. Scores of different groups staged protests from Wall St. to 50th St. in Manhattan, marching towards Madison Square Garden and the RNC. PLP members were well represented in the protest organized by a social justice coalition and members from other groups we’re in. The coalition planned the protest in early summer, to focus on the issues of imperialism and oil wars, fascist repression under the Patriot Act and Homeland Security, and the need for the working class to unite and fight back against the war budget.

Sandwiched in by cops, we started our picket line in front of the Exxon building which houses a Chase-Manhattan bank branch on the ground floor. As we chanted, "Exxon-Mobil, Texaco-we won’t fight for you no more," passersby took anti-imperialist leaflets, some nodding their approval. Several young people and others joined the line.

Claiming there was a "threat" to the building, the cops arrested three youth. One was simply an observer. As young legal observers got two released and info on the third, a man from an anti-police brutality group chanted, "Stop police brutality." Others added, "Black Latin, Asian, white, to defeat fascism we must unite." The cops arrested over 1100 protestors that day, profiling youth.

As we started to march toward Madison Square Garden many young people joined in, more than doubling our numbers. We chanted, "Jobs-Yes, Occupations-No, Imperialist Oil Wars Have Got To Go," and "US Troops Out of Iraq, End the War Now," as many people stopped to watch, take pictures and show support. We ended our march at 34th St. to avoid being caught in the cops’ orange nets.

In building for this protest a number of PLP members successfully raised our ideas in several organizations and got endorsements for the action. This will help sharpen the ideological struggle inside these groups during this election period and encourage our friends to read Challenge, join PLP study groups and the Party.

a name="AFL-CIO Can’t Censor Rank & File Sign:">">"FL-CIO Can’t Censor Rank & File Sign:

‘War Budget Leaves Every Worker Behind’

NEW YORK CITY, Sept. 1—Contrary to Sunday’s mammoth march against Bush and the Republican National Convention, today’s union rally was very integrated and mainly working class. Some 10,000 workers and others rallied near Madison Square Garden, while Dick Cheney was about to speak. The rally followed a symbolic unemployment line of thousands, stretching 40 blocks from Wall Street to Madison Square Garden with signs reading, "The next pink slip might be yours." The city’s Central Labor Council organized these two activities in place of the traditional Labor Day Parade.

The main speakers were a rogue’s gallery of NYC union leaders; Dennis Rivera, head of 1199/SEIU, Lillian Roberts, chief of the city’s AFSCME union, Roger Toussaint, head of TWU Local 100, and Randi Weingarten, of the teachers’ union. All these "labor leaders" are loyal to capitalism and have sold out their membership in negotiations with the city bosses.

They talk about "regime change," but they mean electing Kerry and the Democrats. Never mind that it was Clinton-Gore that signed NAFTA, brought China into the WTO, failed to make good on striker replacement legislation, and launched racist attacks on welfare and other social services, all things the union leaders blame on the Republicans!

Jorge Rondón, an immigrant janitor said, "[The Republicans] are always talking about the cops and firefighters, but we are the true heroes. We cleaned from the beginning the asbestos in Ground Zero. We are the forgotten heroes." Many of these cleaning workers have suffered from respiratory diseases without getting any help at all.

The AFL-CIO leadership tried to exert tight control over the slogans printed on signs carried by union members. They wanted a scripted "mainstream" message that they could use in the so-called battle ground states in the Kerry campaign. But a struggle took place inside the planning meetings for this demonstration, which resulted in signs that read, "A war budget leaves every worker behind" finding their way into one union contingent. Many workers said they supported this anti-Iraqi war sentiment!

The only real answers workers and other anti-Bush demonstrators got during the many days of protest was the one brought by PLP. With many thousands of leaflets, buttons that read, "It’s not just Bush, It’s Capitalism," and some 6400 CHALLENGES distributed all week, our communist message was clear: illusions on the Democrats are deadly for workers and youth, and union hacks are in the bosses’ pockets. The only way out is to organize a mass communist-led anti-racist revolutionary movement to get rid of capitalism once and for all.

Turning Base For Red Prez Into Mass Base For Communism

WASHINGTON, DC September 1 – The election of PLP member Mike Golash as president of ATU Local 689 is a very significant political development, full of dangers and opportunities. Two thousand members of this mainly black local of 9,000 voted for a known communist, in the shadow of the White House, in the midst of the war in Iraq and growing Homeland Security fascism.

The union’s Committee on Political Education (COPE) is organizing a conference on October 16 at the union hall to begin a discussion of the issues that the union must deal with in the near future.  All of these issues (racism, cost of health insurance, women’s rights, the war in Iraq and homeland security, and cuts in spending on mass transit) are related to the ongoing crisis of modern imperialism. We hope many workers will participate, and as a result, win many new CHALLENGE readers and distributors.

Through the two election campaigns, a Party study group was pulled together and dozens of workers participated in Mike’s campaign. During the campaign, CHALLENGE sales, which are way too low, increased a little. After Mike lost the first election and went back to driving a bus, they increased a little more. But since winning office, CHALLENGE sales have slumped again. Mike has been trying to get the local union up and running, and too few workers are distributing CHALLENGE.

A contract fight is brewing, and coming off the election, workers’ expectations are high. There may be a red president, but it’s still the same union. In order to battle the bosses, we need to change the political outlook of the workers and the organizational strength of the union. We’re waging a struggle to build unity and equality in our ranks, and either suffer, or move forward together. We will not accept a contract that divides the workers or plays one group against the other. The right arguments and knowledge aren’t enough. Workers’ commitment to the class struggle is what makes the difference, and at its core must be a stronger, bigger base for PLP.

A young driver reports that the mood in his garage is changing. More workers are standing up and looking out for each other, even though many are afraid. This is a long-term struggle and things are not going to change overnight. We need to involve many more workers in giving political leadership, or many more will get cynical.

At a recent Party meeting, one veteran Metro worker said that the election fell in our lap because the old president went crazy. "If anyone else had run against Mike, they would have won...The workers voted for Mike, not PLP. And if they stop Mike, this enterprise is over."

Maybe. But luck is when opportunity meets preparation. If you haven’t done the work, and proven yourself to the workers, having won their trust and confidence and you having confidence in them, then you can’t take advantage of opportunities when they arise. Over 28 years, Mike has done the work, built the ties, engaged in the struggle and built a base for PLP. As another worker at the meeting said, "It’s more than political. We’ve been friends for over 25 years." Our challenge now is to turn a mass base for a communist into a mass base for communism.

a name="UAW Refuses to Strike While CAT Chews Up Workers’ Contract">">"AW Refuses to Strike While CAT Chews Up Workers’ Contract

PEORIA, IL August 15 — For the second time in four months, 9,200 Caterpillar workers rejected the "last, best and final offer" of the world’s largest manufacturer of heavy equipment. Seven UAW locals in four states defeated the contract proposal. Workers are currently working without a contract, and UAW bargaining chairman Bill Scott said that a strike is not even under consideration, despite overwhelming strike votes by the workers.

The latest proposal would give workers a signing bonus, cost-of-living increases and lump-sum payments instead of a raise. It would also create a two-tier wage system for new-hires that would lower top wages by $7 an hour and replace the pension with a 401(k) plan. The company also wants current and future workers and 20,000 retirees to begin paying some of their health costs.

If an agreement isn’t reached by September, retirees will have premiums taken out of their monthly pension checks, ranging from $130 for an individual not on Medicare to a high of $280 for a retiree and spouse both on Medicare. The premiums will increase on Jan. 1, 2005.

The UAW is trying to hold on to what little remains of a contract that was the result of a 6 ½-year dispute that ended in defeat in 1998. The union says the company can afford a better deal based on soaring profits over the last several years. CAT says this contract is not about affordability, but competitiveness in the global market. CAT saw record profits and sales in the last quarter, and expect a 25 percent boost in sales and revenues for 2004, along with an "80 percent increase in profits" over last year. (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 8/17)

CAT is fighting to free itself from 40 years of union contracts. In 1998, the company was able for the first time to hire temporary workers at lower wages. It also swept aside the tradition of annual pay hikes. What’s more, CAT is confident that they have taken the strike weapon out of the UAW’s hands. During the strike in 1994-95, CAT ran its factories with scabs, shipped work to its overseas facilities, and made then-record profits.

A decade later, the union is much weaker than it was then. Since 1998, the union has lost about 3,000 members at CAT, and is one-fifth of what they were 25 years ago. Also, about 70 percent of the aging workforce will be eligible to retire within the next six years.

UAW leaders, blinded by nationalism and shackled by obedience to the bosses’ laws, are no match for CAT’s attacks. In this period of sharpened inter-imperialist rivalry they will sacrifice current and future workers’ living standards to keep the bosses "competitive in the global market" and pay for their imperialist wars. Building a mass international PLP among industrial workers is the only way to eventually end these fascist attacks with communist revolution.

Detroit City Workers Wildcat vs. Democrats Racist Cuts, Layoffs

DETROIT, MI — Democratic mayor Kwame Kilpatrick laid off nearly 400 city workers this summer. Kilpatrick, the bankers and auto bosses are targeting city services to close a $333 million budget deficit.

These layoffs follow the layoffs of 3,200 custodians, engineers, bus drivers, repairmen and other school workers, including 900 teachers from the Detroit public schools. Ninety percent of Detroit’s 151,000 public school students are black, and more than 7 out of 10 come from families living below the official poverty level.

The cuts include shutting at least three schools, in addition to the 16 closed or consolidated last year, and renegotiating the contract with the Detroit Federation of Teachers to reduce or eliminate 3-4 percent annual raises. The budget for supplies and purchased services was cut by more than one-third, $50 million, and funding for playground improvements were slashed from $1 million to $250,000.

Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act removes federal funds if districts fail to achieve specific academic goals. These budget cuts, layoffs and school closings ensure future failures and even more budget cuts.

"The conditions are already unbearable," said a school bus driver. "Buildings are falling apart, there is no toilet paper or soap in the bathrooms, the classrooms are overcrowded and the teachers are spending money out of their own pockets...With the casinos downtown making millions and CEOs raking it in, how can they say there is no money for schools?"

Last June, a rank-and-file group called the DPS United Workers Coalition Committee organized wildcat strikes against the job cuts. Workers’ anger erupted when pink slips went out on June 11, eliminating whole departments and taking the jobs and benefits of older workers near retirement. On June 17, School Board President Bill Brooks cancelled the regularly scheduled meeting when more than 700 people showed up to protest the layoffs. He said there was not enough security to protect the board from the angry workers.

The wildcats were aimed at Democratic Party politicians, who control the city on behalf of the auto bosses and bankers, and the pro-capitalist union leaders who have no plan to fight back.

At the east side bus terminal, Teamsters leaders worked with the police to open the gates and told the drivers if they didn’t work they would lose their jobs. They even tried to get bus drivers to crawl through a hole in the fence. None of the drivers crossed the line. Citywide, only three out of 300 buses left the terminals.

On the second day, despite seven arrests on the east side, drivers refused to drive their buses out of the yard. On the west side, all the workers were forced to drive or lose their jobs. The drivers took their buses to the schools and parked them, rather than picking up students for summer school. Two other picketers were arrested at the west side depot.

Workers expressed outrage that city money is used for casinos and sports stadiums but it is not available for education. "They are spending $130 billion on the war in Iraq. You mean to tell me that they don’t have money for schools here at home?" said one worker. Another said, "I call it union-busting...Two years ago they laid off 210 people, now they want to lay off 3,200. Where does it stop?"

Under capitalism it never stops. The struggle between bosses and workers is constant and never ending. And in this period, imperialist wars and Homeland Security fascism are being financed by racist attacks on the international working class. Building a mass PLP for communist revolution is the only way off of this treadmill. And judging by Detroit’s school workers, the opportunities are growing.

Job Creation: A Capitalist Mirage

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unemployment rate fell slightly from 5.5 percent in July to 5.4 percent. But the unemployment rate for black workers is almost twice the national average, 10.4 percent, and for teenagers is 17 percent. The drop in the official unemployment rate comes mainly from 152,000 people leaving the workforce. While 144,000 new jobs were reported in August, 8 million people are still officially unemployed, and for the 23rd month in a row, more than 20 percent have been unemployed for more than six months. The average duration of unemployment increased to 19 weeks.

In addition to the 8 million "officially" unemployed, another 1.6 million are considered "marginally attached to the labor force," meaning they looked for work some time in the past 12 months, but not in the four weeks preceding the survey. Those who have given up looking are not counted at all.

Manufacturing jobs increased by 22,000, but "this increase mostly reflected auto workers returning to work from the larger-than-usual annual retooling shutdowns in July." Retail trade lost 11,000 jobs in August, and 25,000 over the past two months. Information service employment declined by 10,000 in August and 550,000 since March 2001.

"The relationship between economic growth and job creation has changed in important ways," reports the New York Times (8/9). "The economy is spinning its wheels," says Richard Yamarone, chief economist at Argus Research in New York. "Corporate America is reluctant to hire anyone above the bare minimum." (NYT)

The pundits had forecast 240,000 new jobs for July, but the Department of Labor (DOL) reports there were barely 32,000. In fact, the DOL revised the May and June figures downward by 61,000. There are a million fewer jobs today than there were in late 2000, when the economy was supposedly emerging from the last recession and after nearly three years of economic growth! And according to the new Census report, there were 1.3 million more people in poverty in 2003, mostly women and children.

The soaring cost of — and profits from — healthcare is another brake on job creation. Companies are "reluctant" to hire new workers and take on added health insurance costs. Paying overtime is less costly than hiring new workers, especially since Bush’s new regulations exempt six million workers from overtime pay! And now the bosses are either forcing workers to pay part or all of their health insurance or just eliminating it all together.

"Since employment peaked," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com, "we’ve lost many more higher-paying jobs than lower-paying jobs. In recovery, we’ve created more lower-paying jobs than higher-paying jobs." In fact, new jobs are averaging $9,000 less per year than the ones lost. (NYT, 8/9) And more high paying jobs will be lost.

On September 1, Ford and GM reported plans to cut production of cars and trucks by 165,000 in the last quarter of 2004 from a year ago. According to the Detroit Free Press, Ford’s market share of 19.7 percent is their lowest since the 1930s. Ford will build fewer vehicles in the fourth quarter than it has since the recession of 1991. GM will cut production to its lowest level since the attacks on September 11, 2001.

The laws of capitalism dictate that most of the value produced by workers fills the coffers of the bosses who own the means of production. Communists must turn the fight against the profit system into a struggle to abolish wage slavery with communist revolution.µ

Chicago Democrats Protect Police Torturers

CHICAGO, IL September 1 — Today former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge took the 5th Amendment scores of times when asked if he or detectives under his command tortured suspects in the Area 2 and Area 3 police stations. Burge even took the 5th when asked the color of his hair or whether he was ever a detective in Area 2, before becoming a commander in Area 3.

Burge and detectives working for him are accused of torturing 108 black and Latin suspects between August 1972 and September 1991, long before anyone here ever heard of Abu Grahib. They are accused of using electric shock, Russian roulette, attempted suffocation with typewriter covers and beatings to extract confessions.

Police torture was city policy, not the work of some "bad apples," and spanned the administrations of at least five Democratic mayors, including Chicago’s first black mayor, Harold Washington. Democratic Mayor Richard Daley was Cook County state’s attorney (chief prosecutor) from 1980–1989, and prosecuted many of the victims of Burge’s torture chamber. The city fired Burge in 1993 while a federal lawsuit alleging torture by Burge was pending in court. Yet the city continues to spend workers’ tax dollars to pay his civil legal fees and those of the police-torturers who worked under him.

Current Cook County State’s Atty. Richard Devine, another Democrat, worked under Daley when he was state’s attorney. When he was in private practice, his law firm represented Burge in a civil suit, and he worked on the case. Devine has refused to seek charges against Burge, claiming a three-year statute of limitations.

Two attorneys representing four freed death row inmates and another current inmate said they want Daley and several former police superintendents to be deposed to "…prove a widespread conspiracy, a code of silence." (Chicago Tribune 9/2)

Racist police terror and torture are the norm under capitalism, and the Democrats are as guilty as the Bush gang. From Attica to Chicago, from Vietnam to Iraq, U.S. bosses have proven over and over again that they are the most ruthless rulers on the planet. Building a mass international PLP is the only sure way to eventually smash their torture chambers, and destroy their system that thrives on them.

Peru: Angry Masses Show Racism is Tarnished Path

Racism is a universal aspect of capitalism. The bosses make super profits from the super exploitation of a group of workers, while at the same time using racism as a political weapon to divide the working class. In Peru, civil rights organizations have begun a campaign against the blatant racism suffered by indigenous, blacks and dark-skinned Peruvians in general. Their plan is to collect a symbolic 10,000 signatures in a petition against racism to be presented to the authorities on December 10, International Human Rights Day.

They say that racism has become a national disease in Peru, and that it has grown in the midst of the indifference of the politicians and rulers.

Jorge Jordán, of the National Human Rights Coordinating Group—a coalition of several human rights groups—said the purpose of the campaign is to create consciousness among the people of the never ending problem of racism. He claims that the problem can be seen from job discrimination to lack of dark faces in advertising and discrimination in admission to public places. Thousands of indigenous people were killed (mainly by the army and cops) during the recent guerrilla war waged by the Shining Path group.

This petition is a good beginning but there is a better way to fight racism. Some months ago, thousands of mainly indigenous residents of the city of Ilave rebelled against the lack of services by the government. The angry masses lynched the crooked local mayor. The government had to send the army to quell the protests. Also, just a couple of months ago, a general strike shut down the main cities protesting against President Toledo’s anti-working class policies. Interesting enough, the Mayor of Ilave was indigenous, and Toledo is a dark-skinned mestizo.

Workers and youth realize that it is not a matter of the color of the skin of the rulers, but which class they represent. Toledo was brought directly from his job at the World Bank in Washington to rule Peru after the dictator Fujimori fled to Tokyo and his security chief Montesinos, was jailed.

In the final analysis, the racism suffered by the mostly indigenous, mestizo and black population won’t be ended by petitions to the bosses, but by fighting for a communist society, where racism is abolished and anyone committing it is punished.

LETTERS

a name="Politics of ‘Selling’ Challenge at Anti-Bushites Protests"></">Po"itics of ‘Selling’ Challenge at Anti-Bushites Protests

I had an exciting experience last week participating in activities during the Republican Convention. At the main demonstration on August 29, I distributed Challenge to the enormous crowds. For almost two hours I stood at a key intersection announcing our line to the marchers. "It’s not just Bush, It’s Capitalism; Elections Won’t Solve Our Problems; The Day After the Elections, the Same People Will Be Running Our Society No Matter Who Wins: They’re the Capitalists, That’s Why It’s Called Capitalism. We Need Revolution."

I must have announced these and other lines to over 10,000 marchers during that time. And people were listening. Many would give me knowing looks even as they passed (unfortunately, it wasn’t easy for them to stop). And quite a few people actually stopped, turned around, and came back weaving through the crowd to get a paper after hearing what I was saying. They were asking for the paper. I engaged many people in conversation about the election and the necessity to build a mass movement against capitalism. I was impressed once again at how many people do not agree that we need to vote for Kerry, the idea overwhelmingly pushed by the liberal leadership of these marches.

There were obviously many who will vote, but there were many others who felt strongly that voting will not do it, and is a distraction from the real work of building a movement to confront capitalism.

Some people were suspicious that I was simply "selling" something. People are used to people "selling" ideas in the capitalist way, and many see it as opportunist. Indeed, this demonstration brought out all manner of hawkers, selling all kinds of merchandise, much of it creative but with a lousy political line. In contrast, I told people we encourage donations, but the main thing was to read the paper and become involved in the struggle. Many softened their defensiveness (and anti-communism) with this approach, and then gave money anyway! I collected a good amount of money and showed people that it’s politics that is primary, not profits.

Our party has to become better at raising money among the working class, and that is a political task. At these mass demonstrations, we want to get our ideas into the hands of as many people as possible. As we raise money to conduct our political activities, I think flexibility and approachability yield far better results than hard-line "selling."

I also participated in several cultural activities. There are great opportunities for our Party to become involved in the cultural-political renaissance taking place in many quarters, particularly among young people, and use this as a method of party recruitment. I read at a poetry reading, where I was able to criticize bourgeois elections and introduce a class analysis of society. My poems exposed how working-class soldiers from both sides of the war suffer for the profits of the bosses, and how workers’ indestructible dreams of a better world are the worst nightmares of the ruling class. The poems were hard-hitting and caused a strong reaction among the crowd. Several people came up to me afterwards, impressed by our politics.

All in all, it was an inspiring experience to spend the week spreading PLP’s ideas of communist revolution among the workers and youth of NYC. I look forward to building on that experience in the months ahead.

NYC Red Teacher

Fighting for Communist Politics in Pakistan

Congratulation on a successful, impressive and bold Boston summer project. Only PLP is doing great job for a communist revolution. Others are fake, pro- capitalists and nationalists. We believe that only communism will solve the problems of the poor working class. Through communist revolution we can get rid of exploitation, slavery and wars. The profit system is creating wars. In these wars and in the coming World War III, millions of poor people will die. So it is our first and foremost duty to fight against capitalism throughout the world to avert the World War III. Internationalism is the weapon of the working class to fight against capitalist evils. Our party— PLP— is an international Communist organization that strives for equality, justice, liberty and knowledge.

We are trying to make our party strong and capable of mobilizing masses against capitalist oppression, exploitation, layoffs, racism and nationalism. We started our work in 1990 and face many hurdles in organizing our Party. We fight some agents of capitalism within our party. We fight against selfishness and opportunism around us. With criticism and self-criticism, Democratic Centralism and internationalism, we have progressed. First we organized in study groups, then party clubs. Now we have some active members working in different parts of Pakistan.

We are very active in the unions and mass organizations. Our comrades fight for communism among textile, steel and telecommunication workers, among teachers and medical workers, among peasants and students intellectuals, in several cities. The fake leftists are very disappointing. Some have courage to fight against exploitation, so we are trying to give them real leadership.

The so-called elected Premier of Pakistan is a person of imperialism, who will try to strengthen capitalism in this region. Things will only get worse for the working class as privatization brings low wages, unemployment, no services and no security. Shoukat Aziz is a capitalist economist whose policies will strengthen the capitalist economy on the backs of the working class. He cannot eradicate terrorism, political harassment, torture, exploitation, and wage slavery.

We are doing our best to build the Party. We have to publish some articles in Urdu. Some of our friends published Road to Revolution 4 in Sindhi. Please send us more CHALLENGES, The Communist, and the "Revolt-Don’t Vote!" T – Shirt.

Pay our Communist Greetings to all the Comrades!

A Comrade from Pakistan

Challenge Responds: Thanks for your letter. We will send you more CHALLENGES and T-Shirts and The Communist magazine. Indeed, the building of an international revolutionary communist movement is key to fight a capitalist system on route to endless wars, and eventually World War 3. History has proven that as long as there is capitalism and class society there will be war. Our task is to prepare the world’s working class for the long struggle to organize workers, soldiers, youth and peasants to turn the endless wars of capitalism (and eventually another World War) into a mass revolutionary struggle to smash the warmakers and build communism, a society without capitalists-imperialists.

Collective Struggle Helped Us During SEIU Convention

Several party members brought a communist message to thousands of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) members at their International Convention held in San Francisco last June. Bay Area comrades joined with out-of-town delegates, made a plan and carried it through. Without the support of the collective, none of the plan would have happened. Working together, new and experienced comrades all grew in understanding and morale.

When the out of town delegates arrived, we met with the comrades from San Francisco and reviewed the convention schedule. We also did some sightseeing and bonding. The next day, at the big March for National Health Care across the Golden Gate Bridge, a contingent of Party youth held a banner that stated, "Capitalism never has and never will provide health care to all the workers." Thousands of good and honest people pledged to fight until the health care system is "fixed." But while we fight for decent health care, we don’t want to become burned out and frustrated trying to fix a system that can’t be fixed. That’s why the banner was good and a lot of CHALLENGES were sold.

We also bonded with our delegate group and discussed the resolutions up for a vote. We wanted to make a statement from the convention floor that supporting Kerry was not the answer.

A few of us attended a Labor Against War forum, hosted by an SEIU local. This group, led by revisionists and fake leftists, was sponsoring some anti-war resolutions, focusing on supporting Iraqi workers’ right to unionize and voting Bush out. But they shied away from attacking Kerry and the Democrats who support the war. It was interesting to hear various comments of people on the "left," and even more interesting that they refused to let a PLP member speak, going out of their way to ignore his raised hand. After that, we spent a lot of time discussing the political struggle against these fakers, and making a plan to speak from the floor the following day.

The next day, I went to the mike to speak in support of the resolution. I emphasized that the war was about oil profits, and that the unions need to organize workers to use their ultimate weapon, withholding our labor power, instead of supporting politicians. I did not directly attack Kerry, but did raise some key points that several people said they agreed with. It’s very intimidating to stand up and disagree with the union leadership and their base at these conventions. I did not say everything the Party wanted me too, but if it weren’t for the collective struggle, I probably wouldn’t have said anything at all. This was definitely some on-the-job training.

The next day, Kerry came to speak and the Party had a flyer calling him the "slicker" of the two evils, and calling for communist revolution. We had to stand in line for several hours going through the Secret Service checkpoint, and I was able to have three very in-depth conversations with three of my co-workers. I had an additional three more conversations during the trip and I did get literature out to them. I have followed up with one fairly regularly since then.

The comrades from the Bay Area did a great job, fighting to guarantee the Party both inside and outside the convention. Their help and hospitality were invaluable. We also met some other West Coast comrades, and it was a big boost to my confidence.

Struggling Delegate

Felt Great in First Activity Against Racist Cross-burning

A 12-foot cross was burned into the lawn of a black Howard County public school official, who was accused of conspiring with another black high school principal to tamper with her daughter’s grade. She was suspended, and then reinstated after an appeal to the new school superintendent. At a heated public meeting, a group of whites left feeling the school officials "got over." In response to such racist pressure, she has now resigned. And yet our movement advanced in this setting.

Howard County, in the suburbs of Washington, DC is rapidly changing from rural farmland to a suburban bedroom of the region, and is becoming racially diverse. A black co-worker and CD reader lives in Columbia, the planned city in Howard County. Her husband was a substitute teacher in Howard County this past year. She was furious about the cross burning, so we agreed to distribute a flyer talking about the need to stop these racists before they grow, emphasizing the need for multiracial unity and trust in the community. She had never done a leaflet before and was nervous about approaching her neighbors, but she and her husband agreed to pass out the flyers at the shopping center. The flyer pointed out that the KKK uses cross burnings as an organizing tool, something she and her friends had never thought of quite that way.

My neighbor, another Challenge reader, read the flyer and agreed to join us, including the couple’s kids, to leaflet in Columbia. We passed out almost 200 leaflets in 1 1/2 hours! Overwhelmingly, the black, Latin, Asian and white shoppers were friendly and appreciated us being there.

My co-worker grew bolder and initiated conversations. She saw some people she knew and talked with them. My neighbor surprised both of us. She gave out the most flyers and was very dynamic in talking about the ideas and trying to reach every person who passed by. My co-worker felt much better after this and made sure to call another co-worker to tell her how well it went.

She said, "I was nervous before we went out to leaflet. I had never done anything like it before. I was surprised at how many people didn’t know about the cross burning incident. I’d say 98% of the response was positive. There was really no difference in the level of interest between blacks, whites, male, female, younger, older. I decided to go out and do it because people have died fighting for rights, justice, equality, etc. I can spend 2 hours trying to help make people more aware about what’s going on in their community, since I’ve derived so many benefits from the those who fought in the Civil Rights movement."

What we do counts! This small action got two new people active, moved a third person to mass activity, and created an awareness among hundreds of working people that multi-racial, anti-racist boldness must become part of their daily lives. Getting CD out regularly laid the foundation for this modest advance.

DC Comrade

CIA-Trained Terrorists Freed in Panama

Bush and Kerry are calling each other champions of the war against terrorism. Everyone who opposes U.S. imperialism’s plans for global domination is a "terrorist." Well, when it comes to terrorism, the U.S. is still number one. Everyone knows that Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda were trained, armed and financed by the CIA and its allies, from the Saudi oil sheiks to the drug-dealing Pakistani army, during the war against the Soviet army in Afghanistan.

On August 26, another famous CIA-trained terrorist made the news. Mireya Moscoso, the rightwing outgoing President of Panama, ordered the release of Luis Posada Carriles, Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo, Guillermo Novo Sampoll and Pedro Remón Rodríguez.

Carriles, 76 years old, was a CIA-trained mercenary in the 60s who took part in JFK’s failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. When he was released by Cuba, he got more training to carry out sabotage against the Cuban government. In 1976 he placed a bomb in a Cubana Airlines flight, killing 73 people, including the entire Cuban fencing team returning from an international tournament. He was jailed in Venezuela but escaped. In 1997 he took part in a series of bombings against hotels in Havana, killing Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo and injuring many others.

He was arrested in Panama along with his three accomplices in Nov. 2000, after he tried to assassinate Fidel Castro by placing a bomb in the University of Panama during a Latin American Presidents summit meeting.

His accomplices are also terrorists who helped bomb embassies and hotels in Cuba. Guillermo Novo Sampoll worked for the DINA, Pinochet’s Gestapo, and was involved in the murder of Orlando Letelier, Allende’s former Foreign Minister, in Washington, DC. Pedro Ramón Rodriguez was involved in the murder of Cuban diplomat Felix Garcia Rodriguez and another Cuban in NYC on Sept. 11 1980.

As soon as these guys were freed, three of them fled to Florida. Carriles is hiding somewhere in Central America. They are all protected and financed by local death squads and the Cuban-American Foundation, well connected to the Bush administration.

Again, when it comes to terrorism, the U.S. ruling class and its goons are number one.

A Reader

Winning Workers in Oakland Community Organization

"What about Racism, fascism, war and capitalism?" I said. "What about reform and the dismantling of the system," the facilitator replied. "What about Reform and Revolution?" I said. This discussion took place at an all-day retreat of "Education not Incarceration ...a mass-based community group in Oakland, California.

The facilitator of the retreat talked about "moving people to the left." We in PLP talked to several people about joining a discussion group on "Who Rules the US?" We also distributed CHALLENGES.

We have proposed working on an "Anti-Violence Initiative" for the November election, involving PLP members in a mass campaign, helping us bring other workers and youth closer to the ideas of PLP. Figuring out how to relate reform and revolution (i.e. bringing communist politics to this reform struggle) is quite a challenge.

West Coast Comrades

RED EYE ON THE NEWS

A Kerry vote helps $ystem

Kerry’s ability to raise almost as much money as the Republicans is seen as a triumph for American democracy; but his corporate backers are funding him not because they believe in democracy, but because they believe that he will do what they want. And they are unlikely to be wrong. When Kerry gets his orders, he reports for duty.

The idea that this frightened, flinching man would oversee the necessary democratic revolution is preposterous. He has made the system work for him by working for the system. He knows that, as soon as he turns against it, it will destroy him.… A vote for Kerry is not just a vote against George Bush. It is a vote for the survival of the system that made Bush happen. (GW, 9/2)

Army recruiters never mention war

A recruiting brochure arrived at our house from the U.S. Army…. It says nothing about needing to train individuals to kill or be killed in Iraq…. Here’s what the Army offers: "The chance to qualify for 150 careers; guaranteed training in your chosen career;…up to $50,000 for college after you serve…."

Now that’s some bait [for]….a young man or woman who can’t go to college because it’s unaffordable and who can’t get a job because the economy is not producing enough jobs. There is no mention of patriotism or valor in the brochure. There is no mention of war. Instead, the brochure suggests the Army is training a force of medical specialists, chefs and journalists. (Baltimore Sun, 8/11)

TV helps drag kids down

Studies have found that children who watch 10 or more hours of TV a week have lower reading scores and perform less well academically than comparable youngsters who spend less time watching television…. The more TV watched by toddlers aged 1 to 3, the greater their risk of attention problems at age 7. For each hour watched a day, the risk of developing attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder increased by nearly 10 percent….

Many parents of children diagnosed with attention-deficit disorder found the difficulty markedly improved after they took away television viewing privileges….

[Also,] "TV reduction appears to be the most effective measure in reducing weight gain," said Dr. William H. Dietz of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (NYT, 8/3)

Leaving the child behind

[The] No Child Left Behind….law gives schools dozens of ways to fail, but does little to help them tackle the causes of low achievement among poor, minority and disabled children…. The right to transfer was not real… There aren’t enough good schools to go to….

Many states have also found ways to transform No Child Left Behind into something closer to Some Children Left Behind, particularly for disabled children and immigrants…. These students...are frequently excluded from accountability systems. (NYT, 8/18)

Exploiting Iraq’s economy

Officially, the U.S. occupation of Iraq ended on June 28, 2004. But in reality, the United States is still in charge: Not only do 138,000 troops remain to control the streets, but the "100 Orders" of L. Paul Bremer III remain to control the economy….

They lock in sweeping advantages to American firms, ensuring long-term U.S. economic advantage.

A sampling of the most important orders demonstrates the economic imprint left by the Bush administration: Order No. 39 allows for: (1) privatization of Iraq’s 200 state-owned enterprises; (2) 100 percent foreign ownership of Iraqi businesses; (3) "national treatment" — which means no preferences for local over foreign businesses; (4) unrestricted, tax-free remittance of all profits and other funds; and (5) 40-year ownership licenses.

Thus, it forbids Iraqis from receiving preference in the reconstruction while allowing foreign corporations — Halliburton and Bechtel, for example — to buy up Iraqi businesses, do all of the work and send all of their money home. (L.A. Times, 8/10)

Diamond Exploiters Enslave 5-year olds

"Diamonds are forever" say the jewelry industry ads. But for the bosses of the diamond business, children are not forever. In the run-down houses of the Idagh neighborhood of Jaipur, India, amid garbage and rats, children as young as five years old toil in darkened rooms up to 12 hours a day polishing diamonds and other precious stones that soon will be sold for small fortunes in the jewelry stores of the world.

Beginning at dawn each day, they must work at least two years as slaves before getting "paid" 12¢ for each finished diamond or ruby. They suffer deformed fingers because of constantly touching the metal of the round wheel, and respiratory problems caused by chemical fumes used to shine the stones. (Reported in Madrid’s "El Mundo," 8/15.)

Twenty thousand such children, mostly from the lower castes and other minorities, are enslaved in the Indian cities of Surat and Jaipur alone, according to the International Labor Organization, all to cut the cost of producing these stones by 5% to 10%. This is the dirty little secret of the world’s diamond business, but it’s no secret who controls this profit-making operation: the international fine stones bosses — 90% of all diamonds, 95% of emeralds, 85% of rubies and 65% of sapphires are cut and polished in India by these slave children basically working for food.

Much has been said about child soldiers in the Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone and other African countries used to fight the "diamond wars" waged by local warlords to control the diamonds which are sold to the international diamond bosses. But India’s child slaves are well hidden.

El Mundo reports that Mohamed Sussain and Javea have the two qualities making them candidates to become diamond slaves: little fingers and empty stomachs. Four other children work with them in the small shop, beginning at dawn, melting the stones in little bamboo bars before polishing them and giving them final shape using a manual wheel. "If I work two more years," says Javea without taking his eyes from the small ruby he’s shaping, "I will begin to get paid."

In Idgah, a Moslem neighborhood, almost all the houses have been turned in small clandestine shops. The owners divide the workers into small units of five to ten children to avoid detection. No one knows or says where the stones come from. They are brought in the morning and picked up polished later in the day.

The fine stones originate mostly in Africa, Russia or Australia; are classified into 14,000 categories based on their size, quality and color in labs in Antwerp, New York, Bombay and Tel Aviv; and are then shipped for polishing and shaping by India’s child slaves before ending up in the jewelry stores of the centers of world capitalism. The bosses save enough from using this child labor to make it worth the stones’ long round-trip to India.

Some local pro-children activists have given India’s government detailed locations of these shops, but nothing’s been done. "There is no such thing as child labor here," a Jaipur Labor Dept. official told El Mundo.

The precious stones business is monopolized by De Beers — the South African mining giant owns 50% of the industry, with yearly sales of $60 billion — and the Lev Leviev Group, which controls a large part of the polishing and cutting of the stones. De Beers and a few others hold 10 sale meetings a year with wholesale buyers, at non-negotiable prices, kept high by a distribution system limiting supplies. The huge demand expected in the next few years from Asia and the Near East will further enrich these bosses.

Because of worldwide pressure, the industry has slightly adjusted their purchases from warlords in Africa, just as a publicity stunt. But for the children of India, nothing has changed. And consumers will still pay high prices. The industry’s bosses are the only ones benefiting from this slave labor. And when prices for precious stones began declining because of the Iraq war and the world capitalist crisis, the bosses in India did their part to save money by hiring many more children and intensifying their exploitation. No matter how horrible capitalism gets, it can always top itself.

A system like this indeed doesn’t deserve to exist. For the love of the world’s children, it’s time to smash it forever. Then, under communism, children will be the only precious ones society will polish and nurture.

Caspian Oil Profits Behind Massacre of Workers and Children

Russian workers and their children are paying the price of the implosion of the former Soviet Union caused by its many internal contradictions and the state capitalist policies of Krushchev, Brezhnev and Gorbachev. The latest victims are hundreds of children and teachers massacred in a crossfire in a Beslan school. This followed the mid-air blowing up of two passenger planes and a bomb blast in the Moscow subway, murdering several riders.

Tens of thousands have died in the civil wars in Chechnya, Georgia, North Ossetia, Dagestan and other former Soviet regions in the North Caucasus. Chechnya once had the most important oil and gas pipelines there. Grozny had a huge oil refinery which produced 20 million barrels annually. By 1993 it had declined to three million. The refinery is now destroyed.

By the summer of 1991, former Soviet Air Force General Dudaiev took control of Chechnya, surrounding the local Soviet parliament in Grozny, and literally threw its leader out the window. Dudaiev’s blatant anti-communism combined Chechen nationalism with Islamic fundamentalism to grab the oil and gas profits away from Moscow.

Yeltsin sent the Russian army to crush the secession. After years of war, with tens of thousands dead and Grozny destroyed by the Russian Air Force, the demoralized Russian army lost the war. But the rising Russian bourgeoisie wasn’t about to lose this key region. Dudaiev was killed by a Russian guided missile. He was succeeded by Defense Minister Mas0khdov, who disillusioned Chechens expecting a change when he did nothing to oppose the growing Islamic fundamentalists, warlords and criminal gangs running the country. (London Financial Times, 9/7)

As soon as Putin replaced the drunken Yeltsin, the war erupted again. Russian generals and the FSB (the ex-KGB) used Russian soldiers as the private army of corrupt generals and officers. These were young workers who couldn’t afford a bribe to avoid military service, along with orphans (to avoid the protest of angry parents). Neo-Nazi mercenaries were hired to become death squads and kill "blacks" (dark-skinned people from the Caucasus). Workers from Chechnya and Russia were paying in blood for what had become a turf war between local warlords and crooked Russian generals.

It’s probably no accident that the latest rash of terrorist attacks occurs while Putin is trying to wrest control of Russia’s oil giants from billionaires whose interests run contrary to those of the overall Russian ruling class. Oil mogul Mikhail Khodorskosvky has been jailed. Another oil billionaire, Boris Berzosky is now exiled in London. Both are suspected of financing Shamil Basayev, head of the Chechen terrorists. (Pravda, 3/6/04). Basayev forces operate from Georgia, where many of his Chechen fighters are in exile. Last year international speculator George Soros (a friend of Berezovsky and Kissinger), helped Mikhail Saakashvili take power in Georgia after a "peaceful democratic coup" overthrew Shevernadze. Amid the terrorist wave across Russia, Georgia threatened to recapture the province of Abkhazia by force. The Russian Army protects its ruler. U.S. and UK oil companies have plans for a huge Baku-Ceyhan pipeline to transport Caspian oil through Georgia, by-passing Russian territory. "From the American point of view, Russian failure in Chechnya is welcome, as long as it does not get to the point that Chechnya becomes a base for Islamic revolution worldwide." (www.pinr.com, 9/8 report)

Again, as big and little terrorist capitalists fight for control of the oil profits and re-divide the world, workers, soldiers and their children are being massacred. The only escape from this hell is to build a revolutionary movement to fight for a communist world. That’s PLP’s goal.

Learning From Class Struggle and Communist Politics

More than 20 youth participated in a communist school recently in a Latin American country. It was a red dawn, a new hope for the working class, among the youth who will guarantee the continuity and advance of red ideas. We began with an international report and then analyzed the situation in the country, including the effect of the war.

Then the discussion about reform and revolution got very exciting. "We’ve participated in struggles for reforms," said some students, who days before had marched through the streets demanding a rollback in a bus fare increase. Youth had thrown eggs and rocks at drivers. "Now that I think about it," one said, "with everything we’ve talked about here, the driver is a worker. The guilty ones are the bosses, not the workers. Now I’m clearer on how to take advantage of these struggles to fight for the PLP’s line."

This was said after some students were beaten, arrested and jailed by the fascist cops. But these attacks only raised their spirits and their openness to communist ideas. After their analysis about this, you could feel their enthusiasm and hope, working and learning to give revolutionary leadership.

Another youth said, "I’ve read and distributed CHALLENGE for about five years and even spoken at the local radio station about articles in the paper. But I knew that something like this school was missing, to be able to share experiences with other youth and learn from each other, and it’s made me very happy. Youth here are beginning to fight back. The doubts about the system are becoming clearer. Now communism makes sense to me. I’m here in this meeting because it’s what I want. These cadre schools are necessary so we can build a mass party for communism, the PLP."

In one group a youth said that living under capitalism is necessary to continue to explain communism. This pushed us as a Party to continue motivating and teaching the youth, to maintain their enthusiasm.

In the evening, we held workshops in which everyone participated. At a plenary session afterwards, everyone evaluated the school and gave very useful suggestions about how to deepen and broaden PLP’s work among youth. "We need to have these schools more frequently. This is where I want to be, learning more, to recruit more youths into PLP."

The work among youth is bearing fruit. They’re the guarantee we’ll achieve a communist society. Long live the working class! Long live communism!