1. Haitian workers need to dump all oppressors
   1. Why Impoverished Haiti Is Important
2. Trillions Stolen From
   Baby Boomers' Social Security
   To Pay For Bosses' War
   1. How the Rich Get Richer and the Poor Poorer
3. How to `Save' U.S. Jobs?
   Put `em in Jail!
4. TEACHING ABOUT EXPLOITATION
5. Sold-out Grocery Strikers Call
   for Class Solidarity
   1. Strike Unity Used to Spread Red Ideas
6. `Quality Work' Leads to Mass Layoff At Delphi Mexico Plant
7. Transit Workers Fight War Budget Service Cuts
8. Profits Behind `Concern' For Some Workers' Health
9. Health Care `Reforms' Aid Big Business
10. Home Attendants `Zoned for Slavery'; Need to `Zone' Bosses for Extinction
11. Finally, NY Times Admits Soviets Won World War 2
12. Parmalat Milks Brooklyn Workers Right Out of Their Jobs
13. Nurses `Win' Overtime Reform,
    Bosses Close Hospital
14. `The Passion of The Christ'
    Gibson's Anti-Semitism--Bosses' Lethal Weapon
    1. A Two-Hour Torture
    2. DID JESUS EXIST?
15. LETTERS
    1. Kerry Liberal
       Warmonger
    2. Army Uses High
       College Costs to
       Trap Enlistees
    3. O'Casey:`Communism is the Way'
    4. Urges Better Editing
    5. Fighting Hospital's Racism
    6. WHY ARE UNIONS
       FAILING?
16. RED EYE ON THE NEWS
    1. Gates' son probes charity
    2. GI quits US aggression
    3. On US TV, he finds WMDs!
    4. Profits before kids' health
    5. CIA protected Mexico nazi
    6. Imperialists bled Haiti
    7. Did 9/11 suit US war plan?

Haitian workers need to dump all oppressors

The capitalist hypocrisy of the Bush gang knows no bounds. The same bunch that invaded Iraq to "bring democracy" there now has stormed into Haiti to support a coup d'etat by the former death squads which terrorized the Haitian masses over a decade ago. Even before the UN gave its support to a "peacekeeping force," U.S. Marines invaded Haiti again, just like in 1888, 1891, 1914, 1915,1994.

Aristide, who BIll Clinton installed in power with 20,000 U.S. troops in 1994, was now given the "choice" by the U.S. ambassador to leave the presidency either on a Lear Jet or in a body bag. Now the drug-dealing death-squad "rebels" (CIA-armed via the government of the neighboring Dominican Republic) are in Port-au-Prince. The workers and youth who "welcomed" these murderers are cutting their own throats.

The White House disliked Aristide for many reasons -- maybe for being too close to one of the Bushites' many worst enemies, the liberal Clinton gang; or for bringing hundreds of Cuban doctors to work among the poor (Miami's Cuban exiles, crucial to Bush winning Florida in November, helped finance the armed "rebels"). All this despite everything Aristide did to serve imperialism and capitalism: signing a sweetheart deal with the U.S.-dominated International Monetary Fund; allowing construction of free trade zones that super-exploit workers; and even profiting off the drug trade. But the White House responded by cutting aid packages, enforcing embargoes and rumor-mongering.

U.S. imperialism funded all sectors of Aristide's opponents. The bosses never quite trusted him to serve their interests, even when Clinton restored him to power in 1994. They gave money to the whole spectrum of political opposition: from Hubert DeRonceray's right-wing, pro-Duvalier party, all the way to Gerald Charles-Pierre's "left" OPL (which split from Aristide's own Lavalas party), as well as to the "civil society" represented by industrialist-sweatshop millionaire Andy Apaid. According to an OPL member in the U.S., in the last few weeks the State Department told the political and civil opposition in the "Democratic Platform" not to negotiate power-sharing with Aristide. Thus, his last-ditch attempts to save his skin were constantly rebuffed by the political opposition.

The so-called rebels directed by Guy Philippe (a former Aristide police officer) and Louis-Jodel Chamblain -- a former army officer and death-squad leader responsible for the murder of over 1,000 Haitians during the 1991 coup ousting Aristide -- practically walked in and took over cities and towns throughout northern, northeastern and eastern Haiti, meeting little if any resistance.

What happens next remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: this is a dogfight between different groups of capitalists and their puppets. The French bosses hated Aristide because he demanded repayment of money Haiti had given France as reparations after the anti-slave rebellion that defeated Napoleon's army. France took advantage of a weakened Haiti to force compensation for losing its richest possession. Now France, which clamored for Aristide's ouster before Bush did, has a foothold in its old colony. Racism also unites Chirac and Bush; both want to bar "an influx of Haitian refugees -- the Bush administration to Florida...and France to its Caribbean provinces."(NY Times, 3/3)

At the same time, France will be better able to compete with the U.S. in part of the latter's Latin-American turf. Contradictions will sharpen among the imperialists.

For the impoverished working masses, it hardly matters who comes next: whether it's the "U.S. candidate," Marc Bazin (former World Bank official and Finance Minister under Baby Doc Duvalier); or Leslie Manigat ("elected" president by the military junta that ruled after the fall of Duvalier); or some other clown who will be allowed to serve only at the discretion of the U.S. and other imperialists. It also doesn't matter what comes next: the expected re-constitution of the Haitian Army (a tool to repress real workers' rebellion) led by the old TonTon Macoute officer corps; or an extended foreign occupation.

The Haitian urban and rural workers and youth have a long history of rebelling against their oppressors. Two centuries ago they kicked out the French slaveowners. Then they defeated Napoleon's powerful army. More recently they sent "Baby Doc" Duvalier packing to Paris. They forced Clinton to bring back "reformer" Aristide in 1994 when U.S. bosses feared a more radical mass uprising against the Gen. Cedras death-squad regime. Now that the death squads are back in power, Haiti's exploited masses must carry the struggle even further: uniting with their brothers and sisters in the Caribbean-Latin America region and elsewhere to crush the endless cycle of misery capitalism creates. Pick up the red flag and join the Progressive Labor Party in building a mass international communist movement.

Why Impoverished Haiti Is Important

Haiti, the Hemisphere's poorest country, has been devastated by corrupt repressive regimes and the austerity measures of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, which have destroyed its agriculture. Haiti is important because, (1) it's located near Cuba and can serve as a back-up U.S. military base for Guantanamo to protect the oil tankers coming from Venezuela (whose President Chavez is also on the Bushites' hit list) and the oil refineries in Trinidad-Tobago; and (2) Haiti is now a trans-shipment point for 14% of all cocaine headed to the U.S. from South American drug cartels.

This drug money provides billions not only for the cartels, but also for the banks (many in Florida) which launder the money; and for the drug gangs (including the CIA-backed armed "rebels" now occupying Port-au-Prince). The drug money is also used to re-pay Haiti's huge debt to international lenders stemming from IMF-World Bank policies.

Trillions Stolen From
Baby Boomers' Social Security
To Pay For Bosses' War

Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan is calling for an increase in the Social Security retirement age to 67 while cutting benefits, all to cover the soaring federal deficit created by the war budget and the $1.7 trillion tax cuts for billionaires scheduled between 2001 and 2010. He says that's the only way to pay for the "Baby Boomers" retirement that will start coming due in eight years. But Social Security taxes generate a huge surplus over benefits paid out.

Each generation of workers pays Social Security taxes to support the previous generation's retirement. According to the bosses' law, those taxes are supposed to go into the Social Security Trust Fund to pay for current and future retirees' pensions.

But in 1968, faced with a skyrocketing deficit caused by the billons spent on the Vietnam War, the Johnson administration started transferring the Social Security surplus into the general budget (labeled the "Unified Federal Budget"). Allen Schick of the Brookings Institution says, "This is illegal. By law, Social Security is excluded" from the general budget. But, "in practice, it is included." (N.Y. Times, 1/31/95)

Between 1968 through the year 2012, U.S. imperialism will have been paying for its war machine by stealing over FIVE TRILLION of these surplus dollars from the Social Security Trust Fund.

Every Democratic and Republican administration has taken the surplus generated by Social Security to "lower" that year's deficit, mainly caused by the multi-billion dollar war budget. Clinton's Federal budget "surplus" was "a mirage," according to a N.Y. Times editorial (11/9/98), "due to a big surplus in Social Security...which was spent on other things."

According to South Carolina Senator Ernest Hollings, if these annual Social Security surpluses had remained in the Trust Fund, just starting from 1999 it would have created "a $3.2 TRILLION reserve in 2012 when payments to retiring baby boomers will start to exceed revenue." (N.Y. Times, 11/9/98)

A ruling class bent on endless imperialist wars to preserve capitalism and maintain world domination is sacrificing the retirement of current and future workers. The trillions in oil and war profits come from the value produced by our class. If the workers who create that value controlled it, retired workers could live healthy lives, confident that their needs would be met. But that will only happen when capitalism's thieving system is destroyed by communist revolution.

How the Rich Get Richer and the Poor Poorer

During the Reagan years, Greenspan headed a commission that established the Social Security Trust Fund to "guarantee" the revenue for the future baby boomers' retirement. But the "guarantee" was a scam. The Social Security surpluses were still siphoned into the "Unified Federal Budget."

Based on his recommendations, huge increases in Social Security taxes were pushed through. While Reagan was reducing income taxes for millionaires, workers' payroll taxes were climbing. In fact, 75% of U.S. taxpayers pay more in Social Security taxes than in income taxes.

Since 1983, U.S. workers have paid $1.8 trillion more into Social Security than the Fund has paid out. "This year Americans will pay about 50 percent more in Social Security taxes than the government will pay out in benefits." (NY Times, 2/29/04) This was supposedly Greenspan's way of the baby boomers paying for their retirement in advance. But this "$1.8 trillion....[in] advance payments have all been spent....running the federal government." (NYT, 1/29/04) Essentially this was a way of increasing taxes on workers' income to be used to pay for the ever-expanding war machine, a thievery that continues to this day.

Another rip-off of Social Security is the wage cap. As of 1995, the Social Security tax of 7.65% was taken out of all earnings up to an annual maximum of $61,200. A married couple earning $60,000 a year, pays an annual Social Security tax of about $4,600 (7.65% on $60,000). But a boss earning a million bucks a year pays the same $4,600, because he is only being taxed on the first $61,200 of his income. That means the boss's Social Security tax rate is really only one-half of 1% of his million-dollar salary ($1,000,000 divided by $4,600). That's how the rich get richer and the rest of us get screwed.

How to `Save' U.S. Jobs?
Put `em in Jail!

"It's like bringing little islands of the Third World right here in the heartland of America," said Oregon Univ. professor Gordon Lafer, author of a study on prison labor. "You get the same total control of the workforce, the same low wages and it does nothing for the inmates." He was talking about capitalism's most "cost-effective" way to keep jobs here in the U.S. -- by shifting them into prisons.

And he added, the "convicts don't benefit much from the training for jobs that no longer exist in America because they have all gone overseas or into prisons."

As part of a national trend, Oregon is recruiting companies that would otherwise move offshore, like Michigan-based Perry Johnson, Inc., to create a "niche where the prison industry could really help the U.S. economy." So said the state's director of the agency that recruits for-profit businesses to prisons.

Perry Johnson chose the Snake River penitentiary near Ontario, Oregon, because it's half the cost of moving to India. Here it pays workers $30 a week for 40 hours -- 75cents an hour -- without fear of strikes, demands for wage increases or health care or worries about workers making it to work on time. Oregon and many other states are now making garments and furniture, two industries that have largely moved offshore, for as little as 12cents-an-hour!

But use of prison labor is not merely a cheap labor device to reap racist super-profits. Under fascist laws like the Patriot Act, the growing use of prison labor borrows a page from Hitler's slave labor book, to win the general population to accept a future of fascism and war -- and concentration camps for all those who oppose the bosses' system.

TEACHING ABOUT EXPLOITATION

The CHALLENGE article (2/18) on the exploitation of manufacturing baseballs will be used and re-used in my classroom. I still remember the excitement I felt when I first grasped Marx's theory of exploitation. At the time, like this article's writer, I remember thinking how complicated it was.

Here was an idea that could sustain revolutionary activity for a lifetime, but how to present it? Another teacher solved my problem by sharing this lesson plan with me.

We begin by making a bar-graph comparing the average gap between a CEO's salary and a manufacturing worker's wages. A U.S. CEO's pay is 34 times larger. ("Towers Perrin, Worldwire Total Remuneration," November 1999, quoted in "Teaching Economics as if People Mattered"). If a bar-graph representing the factory worker's wage is 1/2-inch tall, the CEO's bar would be 17 inches tall. We need two sheets of paper stuck together to accommodate it.

Then we turn to our role modeling. We are a small auto parts factory making seats for GM cars. Ten students are recruited to "work" in the factory. Most agree that at $20/hour they're earning "good money." To be hired, however, they must agree to work 8 hours a day and make 8 car seats in those 8 hours, as well as do quality work since these seats sell for $250 each. They sign on the dotted line. (I deliberately use a "good-paying" job because liberals continually equate the idea of exploitation only with the lowest-paying sweatshops).

We fast forward to the end of the day. Using play money I go down the line of production workers. Did they work 8 hours? Did they make 8 seats? Did they do quality work? "Yes, yes, yes," they reply and I give each one $2,000 (8 x $250).

Then I produce the contract they signed. They all agreed to work for 8 hours at $20 an hour, or $160. I go down the line again. They can keep "their" $160 but must return to me "my" $1,840. As you can imagine, even though its "play" money there's always some students who don't want to give it all back!

After much cajoling I end up with "my" $18,400 (10 workers times $1,840 each). Of course, it's not all "mine." I must give the banker thousands in interest, the landlord thousands in rent and pay the suppliers thousands for the raw materials and energy. I'm "lucky" if I end up with "only" $5,440 for the day (34 times the factory worker's pay)!

Is that fair? What would be fair? Can any wage be fair? I point out how some of the student-workers didn't want to give any of their money back to me, the owner. Were they right? We break into groups to discuss this and then (groan) write up our conclusions. (They will be the subject of a future article.)

[Editor's Note: A Business Week on-line story, 4/21/03, presents 2003 figures. The average CEO makes $7,400,000 a year. If the average worker is paid, say, $30,000 a year, that would mean the CEO's now make 247 times the average worker.]

Sold-out Grocery Strikers Call
for Class Solidarity

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, March 1 -- "They're all thieves, the companies and the union [leaders]," Ralph's store cashier Carlos Beltran told the LA Times (3/1) "They're just sticking it to us." He was reacting to the five-month grocery strike of 70,000 workers that just ended here, part of a growing fascist attack on all workers, as U.S. imperialism tries to make workers pay for its endless wars to dominate the world's markets and oil supplies. The workers approved a new three year contract but many boycotted the vote. "It was take it, or there's the door," said Beltran.

The main strike issues were health benefits, pensions and a two-tier wage system. Current workers will pay higher co-payments for health benefits. Wages and benefits for new hires will be cut. Creation of a low-wage force becomes an incentive for the bosses to eliminate the higher-paid workers. No strikers were happy with this settlement. Some said it was worse than the bosses' original offer. But because workers saw no other alternative, the pro-capitalist union leadership was able to jam it through. The union leaders accept capitalism, war and fascism as being as "natural" as rain. But that's definitely not the whole story.

There were modest but important political developments. Many PLP members and friends went to picket lines with their unions and with water, food and literature, but not consistently enough. We underestimated the importance of winning our friends by supporting this strike while exposing the bosses' attacks as part of a broader political one.

The potential was evident at one store, where strikers were especially open and enthusiastic to our several visits. One worker had organized fellow strikers to go to the union hall demanding that the union resume picketing at Ralph's and at the food distribution centers so that Teamsters wouldn't drive the food to the struck markets. The union told Ralph's customers to shop, even though the bosses had locked out the workers. The union leaders claimed they had to pull the pickets because Ralph's was the only nearby store where customers could buy food. They were doing the bosses' work for them.

At this store, we interviewed the picket captain, a black woman with 28 years on the job. During the strike, she learned that no job is secure in this society. She said the union leaders had not prepared them for a long strike and that it was a bad idea to pull pickets from Ralph's. She said Ralph's shared its profits with the struck stores. This did not surprise her. "They're united," she said. "We have to be united."

Seventy percent of the customers supported the strike (the companies claimed they lost $1.5 billion), but "many people are living in a fantasy world," the picket captain said. "They think this could never happen to them, but it will. The scabs think of `me, me, me.' They need to learn class solidarity," she declared.

Another woman striker with 14 years at the store said that, while the strike had been very hard on her family, she and her husband used it to teach their children about the nature of the system. "We could only buy them food, nothing extra. They've learned that the things they need don't fall from the sky. We have to work very hard for them."

This Mexican worker explained that the strikers had become "family" -- black, Latin and white; that neither the bosses nor the union leaders would be able to destroy this unity. She said the "middle class" is disappearing; there will only be rich and poor. "The poor grow the corn, make the clothes, do everything. We don't need them [the rich bosses]. They need us." When asked if the poor could live without the rich, including eliminating the rich, she replied, "Yes, we can do that too," agreeing that only a revolution could make that happen.

Another 17-year veteran striker got $14,000 behind during the walkout. He called the scabs cowards, explaining that the strikers weren't fighting only for themselves but for all workers whose health benefits are endangered. He said workers should have organized to stop the scabs, even though "its against the law." When workers first organized against the scabs, the company videoed the strikers, to arrest them. This worker said from now on the rank and file would be more active in the union. The bosses' laws and cops are there to guarantee their profits.

Several strikers condemned the union's big rallies where politicians posed as the workers' saviors. That money should have been used to maintain strike benefits. The Democrats offer no solution, just empty promises. Strikers stressed the importance of teaching class consciousness to all youth and workers, that we're all part of one working class.

PLP intends to deepen our friendship with these workers, bring them CHALLENGE regularly, and invite them to join PLP. They must help teach the rest of the working class the need for class consciousness, unity and to fight for a communist society in which those who create all value use it to meet the needs of the working class, not the profits of the rich.

Strike Unity Used to Spread Red Ideas

Here's my telephone number, call me"; "We did it!"; "I'm ready for the next struggle," emotional workers told a comrade after more than 100 workers stopped production and confronted the boss. They were demanding reinstatement of a worker fired that morning for protesting the lowering of the piece-rate. Several women took key leadership, including pulling the electricity on several machines, forcing those working on them to support the work stoppage. Facing this pressure from angry workers, the boss gave in, rehired the worker and even asked "forgiveness" for pushing and firing the worker.

A few days later, a 40 year old co-worker unfortunately died of a heart attack after work. When the boss refused to permit the workers to attend the funeral and say their final farewell to their co-worker, more than 80% of the workers stopped working, left the factory and went to the funeral. For the boss, making profits is everything.

Stopping production twice in a week wasn't easy for the workers. They had to overcome the fear of being fired and any lack of confidence that their co-workers wouldn't support them. But class solidarity and class hatred of injustice and exploitation overcame these obstacles.

Our PLP garment industry collective has discussed how to draw out and put into practice the revolutionary communist lessons of this struggle. The first strike over the piece-rate protest and firing creates the opportunity to expose capitalism and its murderous wage system enslaving us our whole lives. We can advance the goal of eliminating wage slavery and its wage system, in a communist society where we all produce and receive according to our needs.

The second strike fostered solidarity with our late co-worker. This tragedy exposed capitalism as a killer of thousands of workers on the altar of its bloody profits. Garment workers have no health insurance or decent working conditions. This friend and co-worker leaves a family at the mercy of poverty, without life insurance or a pension. Under communism, workers' health and well-being will be primary.

These struggles show a small but important advance in the revolutionary ideas of a group of co-workers with whom we've had hundreds of lunch-time political discussions over the last three years. Building on small changes will lead to bigger ones. We can now make a qualitative leap with some of the CHALLENGE readers and a group of friends who discuss the ideas in the paper. This can lead to an expanded readership and recruitment of new comrades to the long-term struggle for workers' power. The push of fascist repression in the factories opens the door to building the Party and spreading its ideas.
West Coast Red Worker

`Quality Work' Leads to Mass Layoff At Delphi Mexico Plant

MEXICO CITY, March 2 -- Being one of the most productive workforces in Mexico got 1,463 workers fired at the U.S-owned Delphi plant in Delicias, a small city in Chihuahua state. The factory manufactures electric wires and cables for cars. They're productive -- "The work at the plant is of good quality," boss Xochitl Diaz told La Jornada (2/29) -- but not "competitive" says Delphi, the area's largest employer. They are among the "best paid" in the region: 70 pesos (about $6) a DAY.

Delicias, a city in a semi-desert area, was built 70 years ago. Delphi has been operating there for almost 20 years. Now, as part of the bosses' worldwide drive to " compete" for maximum profits, the Delphi workers -- and the thousands more who depend on them and on doing business with the company -- are out on the street.

Many workers think the plant is being moved to China, where labor is cheaper. But actually Delphi's setting up shop in another area of Chihuahua state, where workers earn even less.

The Delicias workers' contract provided for an 800-peso monthly bonus (some $73) if they didn't have more than one unjustified absence.

When the union presented the workers with the bosses' demand to eliminate the bonus or there'd be no new contract, the workers rejected it, knowing the contract wouldn't guarantee anything, including their jobs. For the first time in its 25-year existence in Mexico, the world's biggest auto parts company didn't sign a union contract.

Delphi is the second largest private employer in Mexico, with 35,000 workers in 24 plants (second only to Wal-Mart). Delphi employs 192,000 workers in 171 plants worldwide.

Since the U.S. economy fell into recession in the second half of 2000, hundreds of thousands of maquiladora jobs have been lost in Mexico's border states. Delphi plans to eliminate jobs in Mexico and worldwide, mostly in the U.S.

Capitalism is a system only interested in maximum profits, not in the lives of workers. They want us to blame workers in China, Detroit or in nearby Sinaloa or Sonora. But this is just a bosses' weapon to provoke us to fight each other instead of their system. Workers need international unity to fight a capitalist system hell-bent on endless wars and "job-cutting competitiveness." The communist slogan of "Workers of the World, Unite!" is now more important than ever.

Transit Workers Fight War Budget Service Cuts

Transit workers and riders in a West Coast city are locked in a state of constant war with both the local transit bosses and capitalism. Management plans a third round of service cuts, just in the last fiscal year. From last June to December, service was cut 16% and 118 workers were sacked. Fares rose and transfer use was reduced in September.

Only a mass union petition campaign (initiated by a PLP member and led by the rank and file) that tied the December cutbacks to the Iraq war budget prevented even worse cuts. The union leadership pulled the plug on that campaign when the transit bosses agreed to "defer" 40% of the cuts until 2004. Well, 2004 is here and the bosses have become tongue-tied. "Defer" is no longer in their vocabulary.

While the working class will fight the cuts and layoffs -- as we always have -- more of us should be promoting communist revolution as the ultimate solution to this never-ending series of attacks. A war economy takes $400 billion of workers' taxes for the U.S. military and $357 billion for interest on the federal debt. Nearly $150 billion has been spent on the invasion and occupation of Iraq, so far, to make it "safe" to steal oil profits. And $38 billion for Homeland Security threatens workers who fight back. Recently, two county sheriffs' officers, identifying themselves as agents of Homeland Security, visited a union hall where workers were involved in supporting grocery strikers. This is fascism. Since when does a grocery strike threaten "national security"? When it threatens the security of capitalist profits!

To fund this brutality, no working-class service will be spared. It now takes a student from a downtown high school three buses and two hours to get to her East side home. The bus line that ran by her house was eliminated and another was cut in half. She often gets home too late to help her mother, who's recovering from surgery. This is an added stress to the recent public health cuts. Her school district is under state trusteeship and has planned closing five elementary schools. For workers and students, capitalism is a nightmare!

In the months ahead, transit workers will have many opportunities to develop communist leadership in the class struggle. We must unite riders and workers to battle the transit bosses on March 2 when they vote on their war cuts. During this struggle we will invite many to come to May Day. On May 1 workers can join transit and other workers and youth in Los Angeles to build PLP and the revival of the world communist movement.

Also, this July 1 three contracts in this metropolitan area expire. All districts threaten workers with cuts in medical coverage and jobs. We will organize to unite transit and other workers and urge them to join PLP for the long-term fight to destroy the system that needs fascism and war.

Profits Behind `Concern' For Some Workers' Health

Capitalists invest in medical care and public health programs for many reasons: (1) To keep workers healthy enough so profits continue rolling in; (2) So workers are physically able to serve in the military; (3) To preserve the health of the bosses; (4) To avoid infectious epidemics that would undermine workers' health and threaten the bosses; (5) To generate profits from certain medical care sectors (drugs, equipment, some services); (6) To show that the system "works"; and (7) Provide concessions to workers' rebellions. This article will deal with point #1.

In the mid-19th Century, Edwin Chadwick and other members of the English ruling class passed the Sanitary and Factory Acts to improve conditions in the factories and working-class districts. These acts dramatically improved life expectancy in England.

Chadwick and the British rulers enacted these measures to keep the lid on epidemics that could threaten the rich and as a reaction to rising labor militancy reflected in the Chartist movement. But the primary reason was their concern that the English working class was being worked to death, and productivity and capital accumulation were threatened. Chadwick explained this in his "Inquiry into the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain":

"The depressing effect of adverse sanitary circumstances on the labouring strength of the population, and on its duration, is to be viewed with the greatest concern, as it is a depressing effect on that which most distinguishes the British people, and which...constitutes the chief strength of the nation -- the bodily strength of the individuals of the labouring class."

Decades later this public health "urge" came to John D. Rockefeller and U.S. bosses. (See "Rockefeller Medicine Men" by E. Richard Brown.) In the early 20th century, Rockefeller and his agents discovered that the inefficiency and "proverbial laziness" of workers in the southern U.S. were caused by anemia due to the hookworm, a parasite that enters the body through the soles of the feet. They established programs to eliminate it in the south and in many tropical countries targeted for investment. Although the Rockefeller programs did not completely eradicate the disease, they did control it in many areas.

They said the hookworm program was important "on account of the direct physical and economic benefits resulting from the eradication of the disease and also on account of the usefulness of this work as a means of creating and promoting influences."

Frederick Gates, a principal Rockefeller advisor, wrote that the stocks of cotton mills located in the parasite-infected counties of North Carolina were worth less than mills in other counties "...due to the inefficiency of labor in these cotton mills, and the inefficiency of labor is due to the infection by the hookworm which weakens the operatives. It takes by actual count about 25% more laborers to secure the same results in the counties where the infection is heavier." It also meant 25% more housing, machinery, more capital and higher operating costs, and "this is why the stocks of such mills are lower and profits lighter." Many internal Rockefeller documents described the extent of hookworm infection and the loss in labor productivity. Increased productivity generally followed treatment programs in each area.

So the Rockefeller parasites declared war on the hookworm parasites to protect their profits. It was just good business. Under communism, medical care and public health programs will truly meet the physical and psychological needs of the international working class.

Health Care `Reforms' Aid Big Business

A New York Times article (2/8) supports CHALLENGE's claim that big U.S. bosses support some sort of government-sponsored health care plan in order to reduce their own health care expenses. It's based on a study released in December by the Manufacturers Alliance and the National Association of Manufacturers.

In terms of wages compared to total value added in manufacturing, the study found the U.S. "more competitive" than Canada, Germany, Britain and South Korea. But if "structural costs" are included, the cost of doing business in the U.S. rises 22.4%, exceeding costs in these other countries. One of the main "structural costs" is health care. "And the solution," reports the Times, "may be something that has traditionally been anathema to corporate chieftains: bigger government."

In all these other countries, both public and private money pays for health care. But U.S. businesses pay a larger chunk than their European and Asian counterparts. In Canada, the private sector spends 2.8% of gross domestic product on health care. In the U.S., the private-sector figure is 7.7%, and this falls mainly on big employers like GM, which covers the health care of 1.2 million people, costing $4.5 billion.

One way U.S. bosses deal with this is eliminating retiree health care. In 2003, only 36% of large companies (500+ workers) provided a retiree medical plan to at least some retirees not eligible for Medicare, down from 50% in 1993. But now a major strategy is to support government-sponsored health care, like the prescription drug benefit enacted last summer, and have taxpayers foot the bill.

It's not clear what type of government-sponsored health plans will evolve. Some advocate a single-payer system, as in Canada. The majority of businesses seem to favor some sort of tax credits -- rather than employers providing benefits, consumers would buy health care. But no matter what type of system emerges, the effect would be "to transfer the financial burden from companies to American taxpayers." (NYT) It won't be surprising to see major sections of the ruling class opt for increasing taxes. This is another reason why many of them disagree with Bush's tax cuts -- they run counter to the ability to deal with the exorbitant healthcare costs (not to mention the money needed to maintain the bosses' war machine).

So all the new health care "reforms" are designed to take some of the burden off business, not to help workers. There's good reason to expect that the overall level of health care will continue to drop. After all, the bosses will likely need those taxes for other things, like prisons, Homeland Security fascism and wars. Communism is the real antidote to a health care system that fails to meet workers' needs.

Home Attendants `Zoned for Slavery'; Need to `Zone' Bosses for Extinction

World imperialism has essentially contracted out and "outsourced" much of the labor in the world -- the working class has been "zoned for slavery." That's the title of a video I've often shown to ESL classes I teach in NYC, a film about workers in a free trade zone in Honduras.

While not exactly the same, my students have also been "zoned for slavery." They're home attendants, part of the 80,000-member Homecare Division of Local 1199-SEIU. Other thousands of attendants and home health aids here aren't unionized. Almost all are immigrant women workers.

Said one of my ESL students:

"I don't understand why an agency...in the union pays $6.65 an hour. In special cases (persons [for whom]... everything has to be done in bed, who don't use pampers, defecate on the sheets which must be cleaned, in addition to the usual cleaning, cooking and washing) home attendants are paid $7.65 a hour. Extra hours in these cases pay $7.73 an hour. Extra hours (overtime) are after 45 hours...[not] after 40 hours. They don't pay sick days and personal days and we have to work a certain number of hours to get medical insurance. I know of persons who work 72 hours a week, 6 days, 12 hours a day, with 2 or 3 children. They can't dedicate themselves to their children and they kill themselves working, destroying their health and neglecting their children.

"To me it is necessary to get more knowledge about this kind of work....but it is bad what I see.... I would appreciate it if these irregularities (among which you have spoken are persons who work 24 hours and are only paid for 12 hours) come to light and...that we do something to better the situation."

The union has an apartheid system. Home attendants work 12 hours for straight pay and 24 hours for 12 hours pay with a small night differential. Workers in the Hospital Division work 8-hour shifts with an hour paid lunch and time and one-half after 8 hours, supposedly the "law" in the U.S.

There are plans to expose and fight these conditions for home attendants. In my classes workers have written letters and testimonies, like the one quoted above. I and some of these home attendants will attend a "Freedom Ride" conference sponsored by union, community and immigrant groups to present our case and expose 1199's duplicity and hypocrisy.

One student is a union delegate; we'll try to persuade others to become delegates so we can better organize home attendants on a grassroots, struggle level. I'm in a social justice group of churches and community organizations that's organizing a forum for International Workers Day about globalization and free trade, at which several home attendants will speak. From this we'll propose some local actions.

We plan to consolidate two PLP study groups into one, combining social justice activists and home attendants. Hopefully this will strengthen both groups and EXPAND the network distribution of CHALLENGE from its current level of 30. As more workers join PLP, we can further develop them into politically conscious communist organizers in the unions, churches and groups to which they belong.

One of the "debate" issues in the Democratic Party primaries is free trade agreements. This "debate" is phony, manufactured to obscure the fact that "globalization" -- imperialism, which Lenin called the highest stage of capitalism -- has already consolidated power into the hands of a few capitalists who dominate all production: banking, industry, service, the media and military contracts. Loss of jobs in the U.S. while the U.S. occupation of Iraq is grinding down, terrorizing and killing Iraqi workers into submission to become yet another free trade zone, are permanent features of imperialism, as are endless wars. PLP members in the anti-globalization movement should concentrate on uniting workers internationally and fighting against "zones for slavery."

Ultimately imperialism cannot turn the clock back. Workers must "zone" it for extinction. A politically conscious, organized and internationally united working class can fight back constantly while re-building the international communist movement. Learning the lessons of the past movement and preparing the working class for the revolutionary seizure of power to build a new communist world that will abolish wage slavery and the imperialist profit system remains our road to liberation.

Finally, NY Times Admits Soviets Won World War 2

For 40 years, CHALLENGE and PLP have championed the heroism and achievements of the Soviet Union, its Red Army and its leader Joseph Stalin in saving the world from Nazi fascism in World War II. During that entire period, the Western imperialists, especially U.S. rulers, have degraded or even ignored the Soviet role, emphasizing and glorifying the U.S. and Britain as the heroes of North Africa and the Western Front, making movies about D-Day and Patton and Eisenhower which didn't even mention the titanic battles in the East.

Now suddenly the leading spokesman of the U.S. ruling class, the New York Times, has "discovered" the Soviet role in previously "unpublished archives" -- as if they were heretofore unknown. In an article (2/21) entitled, "A Job for Rewrite: Stalin's War and Hitler's Downfall," the Times begins with the picture of World War II that the paper itself has painted for decades: "A plucky Britain refusing to bow to the Luftwaffe's blitz, Patton and Rommel dueling in the North African desert, the D-Day invasion and the Battle of the Bulge -- these tend to dominate American's conception of the Allied defeat of Germany.... The decisive impact of America's erstwhile ally was often deliberately underplayed in the West for political reasons."

Then it admits that, "Military historians have always known that the main scene of the Nazis' downfall was the Eastern Front, which claimed 80% of all German military casualties in the war.

"The four-year conflict between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army remains the largest and possibly the most ferocious ever fought....The front extended 1,900 miles (greater than the distance from the northern border of Maine to the southern tip of Florida) and German troops advanced over 1,000 miles into Soviet territory (equivalent to the distance from the East Coast to Topeka, Kansas). And they clashed in a seemingly unrelenting series of military operations of unparalleled scale; the battle of Kursk alone...involved 3.5 million men.

"In short, the war fought on the Eastern Front is arguably the single most important chapter in modern military history."

It repeats "the conventional view" (without mentioning the Times' role in spreading that view) that "Soviet tactics and performance were leaden and unimaginative." Now, citing the "latest findings," it says "the Soviets' brilliant use of encirclement and what they called `deep battle' -- extremely rapid, far-reaching advances behind the enemy's front lines -- constituted the most innovative and devastating display of "operational art" in World War II. Soviet operations...were far superior to those of the German Army at its best."

Did this have anything to do with the nature of the first communist state, with the leadership of Stalin and the Communist Party? One couldn't conclude that from reading the Times' article. Although the headline refers to "Stalin's War," he's not even mentioned in relation to the defeat of the most powerful army the world had seen up until that time. In issue after issue, in nearly every section of the "paper of record," year after year, Stalin is depicted as "worse than Hitler." But in tracing the gigantic development of the Soviet Union, even that arch imperialist, Winston Churchill, was forced to admit that, "Stalin came to Russia with a wooden plough and left it in possession of atomic weapons." All in less than 20 years!

The Times and the bosses' media generally do not want workers to relate communist ideas and leadership to this monumental achievement that almost single-handedly saved the world from fascism. Had Hitler been able to conquer the Soviet Union, millions of people in Britain and the U.S. would have been killed. There probably would never have been a "baby boomer" generation.

Yes, in this first attempt to establish a communist state, amid all the achievements, serious errors occurred, many of which CHALLENGE has pointed out in our attempt to build on the positive aspects of the USSR while trying to avoid its weaknesses and develop a more successful road to communism. We must rely on the international working class to advance to that goal, even as we applaud the contribution of the Soviet Union, its Red Army and its leader Stalin that brought us as far as they could go. (For a full analysis of WW2 see the CHALLENGE Supplement of May 17. 1995)

Parmalat Milks Brooklyn Workers Right Out of Their Jobs

BROOKLYN, NY, March 1 -- The international crisis of capitalism has many facets. Milan-based milk giant Parmalat is the latest billion-dollar company to be affected, fueled by the corruption of its bosses. The tentacles of Parmalat's Enron-type fraud have reached 450 Brooklyn workers who, along with thousands worldwide, may lose their jobs.

The NY Daily News (Feb. 25) reported: "The bankruptcy filing of Parmalat USA, a division of scandal-tainted Italian dairy company Pamalat Finanziaria, raised doubts yesterday about the future of its Sunnydale Farms plant on Stanley Avenue in Brooklyn.'This company will be sold and the new owners might close Brooklyn and operate in New Jersey,' said a local dairy industry source. `Brooklyn has a high cost of doing business.'"

The source said a number of suitors are interested in buying Parmalat and its two subsidiaries, Farmland Dairies, which distributes milk in the New York area, and Milk Products of Alabama. A deal could be announced in a few weeks.

While workers could lose their jobs, Parmalat bosses won't lose much. A federal judge approved a $17.5 million loan from GE Capital to allow the company to continue operating during the bankruptcy period. Parmalat expects to double that loan next month.

Company founder and former chairman Calisto Tanzi has been jailed, along with six other former executives after Parmalat failed to document $11 billion missing from its accounts. The Milan-based parent company filed for bankruptcy in Italy in December.

Nurses `Win' Overtime Reform,
Bosses Close Hospital

Capitalism's drive for profits and reformist leaders' attempt to cover it up are central to the struggle of workers and patients at Philadelphia's Medical College of Pennsylvania (MCP) hospital. Last December, MCP nurses struck the Tenet Healthcare Corporation, mainly over mandatory overtime. For many years the nurses' contract had allowed this practice. An MCP nurse could be forced to work up to 16 hours a day to fill staffing shortages, with double time for the extra hours. This provision frequently discouraged the bosses from ordering it.

When Tenet moved to lower mandated overtime pay to time and one-half, the nurses balked. Citing studies proving mandatory overtime increased errors, the nurses insisted on eliminating the practice altogether. Tenet tried to smear the nurses as "disrupting patient care" but the latter won the public to realize that the strike was over patient safety.

The strike was as ineffective as are all strikes run by AFL-CIO sellouts. They made no serious effort to stop scab agency nurses from crossing the picket lines. Philadelphia labor leaders and some Democratic Party politicians gave little meaningful support, merely lip service. Union workers from Local 1199 crossed the lines.

Tenet then laid off many of these workers just before Christmas and blamed the nurses, winning these workers to do the same. Meanwhile, the 1199 leadership remained silent. Michael Nutter, the district's Democratic councilman, took Tenet's side. He attempted to paint the strikers as "overpaid and greedy," ignoring the real issue -- patient safety.

Despite this mis-leadership, the nurses eventually won concessions. Mandatory overtime would end by June. Then, while the nurses were celebrating, Tenet announced the hospital would be closed in March. These backstabbing bosses had repeatedly lied to the nurses' negotiating committee, assuring them there was no plan to close the hospital.

The MCP hospital has a rich history in Philadelphia. It was founded by Quaker abolitionists over 150 years ago as a medical school for women. This hospital serves a black and Latin working-class community of 70,000. It's an important trauma center, but Tenet's bosses couldn't care less. They claim MCP is draining $5,000,000 a month from their profits. And under capitalism, profits -- not workers' health or jobs -- is the bottom line.

Hospital workers and community residents are fighting to keep this important hospital open, a movement in which our PLP collective is participating. The struggle relies heavily on legal tactics and is controlled by Democratic Party politicians, including Nutter, who sold out the nurses. These misleaders, of course, don't expose capitalism as the cause of the healthcare crisis. However, angry workers do understand that this hospital closing is a racist attack on them on behalf of Tenet's profits.

By advancing our Party's line in this battle, we aim to win these workers to realize that only the destruction of capitalism can end such racist attacks. Building a communist world is the only way to fulfill all their needs!u

An MCP worker

`The Passion of The Christ'
Gibson's Anti-Semitism--Bosses' Lethal Weapon

Culture wars can lead straight into shooting wars. The furor over Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic new movie, for instance, hinges on the politics of U.S. imperialism. "The Passion of the Christ" squarely blames Jews for the crucifixion rather than the Romans who were the only ones who could carry out such punishment. So the liberal U.S. media are in a front-page, prime-time frenzy, worrying that "Passion" will "whip up intolerance," "harm Christian-Jewish relations," or -- and this is the real concern -- "incite anger or violence toward Jewish individuals or the State of Israel." (Orange County Register, 2/18) Presently, the main U.S. rulers, whom the liberal media serve, rely on Israel to police the western flank of their Mideast oil empire, while they themselves are at war at its heart, Iraq, and its northern fringe, Afghanistan. The liberals fear that Gibson's film could turn public sentiment against the Israeli stormtroopers who help guard Exxon Mobil's profits.

"Passion's" backers have some interests that conflict with U.S. imperialism. Newmarket Films, the outfit distributing the movie in North America, is controlled be Helkon Media of Germany. European capitalists have long chafed at U.S. support for Israel and U.S. domination of Mideast oil. The U.S.-Europe rivalry also explains why Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls declared that the Pope had given "Passion" a pontifical thumbs-up. "It is as it was," Navarro-Valls quoted the Pope as saying after a private screening. Navarro-Valls is a leader of Opus Dei, a secretive, right-wing Catholic sect funded by anti-U.S. European capitalists.

But don't think for a minute that the main, liberal wing of U.S. capitalism is fundamentally opposed to anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism remains a powerful weapon in the rulers' arsenal. They dust it off when they need it. Anti-Semitism has been particularly helpful to the main wing in bringing fascistic discipline to the business world. The rulers set the stage for the current prosecution of Enron, Worldcom, and the rest over a decade ago by demonizing and jailing financiers Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken, Dennis Levine and Martin Siegel, who happened to be jewish. Books from mainstream publishers bore ominous titles like "Den of Thieves," "Predators' Ball" and "Barbarians at the Gate" and decried the "greed" of Wall Street investors. Gibson's movie would prove useful, should the rulers require a similar purge in the future. And there's no guarantee that Israel's pro-U.S. rulers will stay in power forever. If Israel were to cease being Washington's lackey, any tempering of anti-Semitism in the U.S. would vanish. That's why the liberal media have chosen to publicize rather than suppress "Passion," even as they criticize it.

A Two-Hour Torture

Esthetically, "the Passion of the Christ" is a two-hour torture of the audience. It alternates between stereotypical Jew-baiting and an agonizing, graphic focus on pain and death. A viewer who can recall reading a Catholic geography book saying that "the Jews are the most sorrowful people on Earth because they abandoned Jesus" -- in a classroom adorned with only a crucifix, will know just where Gibson's repulsive ideas and images come from. His Catholicism goes back to the days before Vatican II, when declining membership forced the church to liberalize briefly. Some opportunist church leaders then went so far as to say that aspects of Marxism, short of workers' holding state power, of course, were compatible with Catholicism. They called the mix "liberation theology."

But now, under John Paul II, the pendulum has swung back. The pre-Vatican II church's condemnation of Jews -- which it only recently retracted -- and its mystical, medieval symbols glorifying suffering, are what Gibson projects onto the screen. (By the way, the earliest symbol of Christianity was not the torturing cross but a fish, representing the weekly meal that members used to share.)

Not a single Jewish character gets a sympathetic portrayal. Jews are either pompous high priests, conspiring to safeguard their own privileged position, or mindless rabble. Christians, however, from the Marys to the disciples, are beatific. Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, comes across as a philosophical man, deeply conflicted. In reality, Pilate was a relentless hard-liner who so antagonized the masses of Jerusalem by forcing Roman state religion on them that he was recalled by the Emperor. Gibson ignores this opposition to the Roman empire as well as the early Christians' egalitarianism.

Gibson preaches filth; that's for sure. But the liberals are no better. Their pleas for tolerance mask an agenda of intensifying fascism and war.

DID JESUS EXIST?

If Mel Gibson's film "The Passion of the Christ," was about Allah, the Taliban could have made it. What's more, these two hours of torture are based on myth. What's real is the $117 million it made for Gibson in the first week.

These profits were spurred by mass free publicity from the media, the controversy it caused, and organized religion's purchase of millions of tickets. Besides being gory ("The Passion according to Marquis de Sade" says Newsweek), it revives the old anti-Semitic lie that the "Jews killed Christ." It could become the next Protocols of Zion, the forgery created by the Tsar's secret police a century ago and distributed worldwide by Henry Ford, used to carry out pogroms against the Jews in Russia, Eastern Europe and finally the Holocaust (denied by Gibson's father).

It's graphic depiction of the torture and crucifixion of Jesus could translate into, "it is good to suffer to save U.S. imperialism from anti-Christian forces like the Islamic fundamentalists."

Unfortunately many people treat all this as "historical fact." It's assumed that Jesus' crucifixion is an historical event, the truth of which needs to be uncovered (and then depicted). But history is not on the side of this myth.

When the Roman Empire ruled the Middle East there were at least several "Jesuses," a Greek name corresponding to "Joshua." The New Testament is written in Greek.

In the Old Testament, Joshua was the great general of the Jews who wiped out the Canaanites, so many rebels assumed the name of "Joshua," or "Jesus" in Greek.

There are a number of these known to history, but NONE at the time of the Biblical story of Jesus. Not one. There is historical evidence for King Herod, Pontius Pilate, even John the Baptist, even James "the brother of the Lord," called Jesus' brother in the Book of Acts, but NOT for Jesus.

Modern scholarship suggests there was some kind of historical figure behind the "Jesus" figure -- probably a rebel of some kind, or several of them. But the "Jesus" stories in the New Testament are mythical.

Some helpful information is available at these webpages: The Jesus Puzzle -- this writer, Earl Doherty, is a respected non-religious scholar of the period.

Jesus and the Jewish Resistance, Hyam Maccoby, is a Zionist, but knows his stuff. He takes the "Rebel" viewpoint. The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man -- this is about the best short thing around. Price is brilliant, and a former Fundamentalist who was led by the evidence first to skepticism, later to atheism.

Price's latest book, also called "The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man" (Prometheus Press), is terrific, scholarly, full of humor, well-written, and the best thing in print. To listen to a lecture by Price, go to this page. (You'll need "RealPlayer") The Quest for the Historical Jesus

Price also has a very scholarly book, "Deconstructing Jesus."

Finally, see the articles in the current Communist Magazine on religion and in the old PL Magazine, Vol. 14, No. 2, Summer-Fall 1981, pp. 59. It's a review of Maccoby (see above), with lots of historical information, though it's over 20 years old now.

A final note: Christianity began making a big deal about who killed Jesus when Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of Rome. This changed the ideology of the early Christians, the one Engels compared to young communards. Constantine turning Christianity into the official religion meant that the ordinary Christian was to be fatalistically in the hands of their priest who was ordained by the state. This is not irrational; it's class ideology to serve Rome's rulers.

LETTERS

Kerry Liberal
Warmonger

Our paper has long and consistently warned of the greater danger of the Democrats, partly because of the illusions they sow among the working class.

Democratic Party front-runner John Kerry spoke recently at a nearby university campus. A friend dragged me along. I must say it was an eye-opener for the mostly anti-Bush, anti-war crowd in the auditorium.

Kerry began by criticizing the war effort, calling Bush and his administration amateurs and "armchair hawks." He promised a "stronger, more comprehensive strategy for winning the war....than the Bush Administration has ever envisioned."

Kerry, faulting Bush repeatedly, declared, "I believe he has done too little," and called for adding 40,000 more active-duty army troops in Iraq. Because the U.S. is already in Iraq, it must finish its work there, he said. (This sounds exactly like Nixon's policy on Vietnam that Kerry supposedly opposed in 1971.)

On Homeland Security (aka the police state), this liberal proposed that domestic police and intelligence agencies be consolidated under the CIA in order to "break down barriers between national intelligence and local law enforcement." In this vein, he criticized Bush's tax cuts to the rich for endangering Homeland Security--"we can't afford not to fund Homeland Security."

My friend was a little shell-shocked, like many in the audience, when they heard this liberal warmonger speak.

I made sure my co-worker had several CHALLENGES in his hand when we left. Now that he has heard war and fascism advocated from the horse's mouth, CHALLENGE's communist analysis shines through the fog of illusions.

A West Coast comrade

Army Uses High
College Costs to
Trap Enlistees

I was recently leaving school when I noticed a large recreational vehicle parked just off campus. It was loaded with video equipment and flashing displays. I thought it was just another expensive advertisement for a car company or a soft drink, but then I noticed two Army recruiters standing next to it. One of their brochures, printed in Spanish and in English, showed a serious-looking young man repairing a helicopter engine. It promoted the idea that the Army provides an invaluable education for army recruits to get a technical job after leaving the military. It also stated that then one could get up to $25,000 towards a college education.

This slick display designed to recruit working-class urban youth from my campus made me ponder why the Army needs to pay for its soldiers' college education once they get out? Why isn't it free?

Many of my students come from public high schools which haven't prepared them for college. They struggle through their classes while holding down one or even two jobs. One had to take a job over an hour away in order to pay for school. Tuition costs are skyrocketing, way up this year and rising again next year. Meanwhile, federal and state programs are now forcing students on financial aid to severely limit the number and variety of courses they can take. No more liberal arts classes for students on financial aid. Free college education died when the ruling class discovered it could get away with charging people for such public services. To most of my students free college education is as exotic an idea as free health care. They've never seen it, so it's hard for them to imagine it.

When I talk to my students about having a free education, it's a concept that, like free health care, resonates with them. I tell them we must organize and fight for this right. But when the ruling class forces us to work harder and harder to survive, it's difficult to become organized. PLP members must help to educate and organize workers and students to see the patterns of capitalism and become communist organizers themselves. Communism means free education, free health care, a secure retirement. Communism means everyone shares in the wealth our class produces.

A College Teacher in Brooklyn

O'Casey:`Communism is the Way'

Readers might be interested in some parts of a letter from the great Irish playwright Sean O'Casey to a good-spirited (socialist) religious friend (in March 1942):

"While I believe that Socialism (I'd rather say communism) will inevitably come, I don't think it will come trotting up to us as readily as you seem to think. Wasn't it Lenin who said `Communism won't come to us as a scheduled train comes, puffing up to time, into a first-class [train] station.' There will be a big fight for it....

"Communism, so far from being the end, is but the beginning. I look for it, not that we must rest from our labors, but that we may begin them. They have begun in the USSR; we haven't been able to start yet. No one can determine now how we can prevent things from being mismanaged or abused under Socialism; that must be evolved during the transition period, out of actual experience....

"But be assured, the struggle when Communism comes will not be less, but greater; but achievement will be certain....The big thing now is the terrible economic immorality under which we live and suffer and die. That controlled, all other things will reach a healthy and vigorous level....And, to me, Communism is the gateway."

Urges Better Editing

One of the most important organizing tools we have as a Party is our newspaper, and an important aspect of CHALLENGE is how it's edited. Editing is very difficult and the CHALLENGE editors do a great job, such as for the review of "What Is To Be Done?" submitted a few weeks ago. The opening sentence was changed to: "The struggle against reformism is a life-and-death question for the world's workers." Not only did this draw out the essence of what the author was saying, it also sharpened the line. This type of editing is both helpful and necessary.

Unfortunately, sometimes editing can distort the message an author is attempting to transmit. For example, in an article from Challenge (2/18/04), entitled "Internationalism Trumps Nationalism at MEChA Conference," the original article didn't say that internationalist politics overcame deep-rooted nationalist ideologies. In fact, an extremely nationalist rap group performed at this conference the same night as the woman who spoke. This confusion was not completely the fault of the editor, since the article didn't include enough of these signs of the continuing presence of nationalist politics.

It's imperative that the dialectical nature of base-building be taken into account when writing to CHALLENGE. There are two mistakes we can make when analyzing our struggle. One is to trivialize the obstacles that we must overcome. The other is pessimism about the potential for growth within our base. Both these mistakes are dangerous to our Party's development.

Before submitting this article, the city committee discussed whether or not to say that what happened "showed the potential to win many of these young people." This became a sharp political struggle over whether or not it was truly possible to win large numbers of these young people to the Party over time. We decided it was possible and to put "many." Our experience over the last year showed we should not become pessimistic about the potential towards winning these young people.

In fact, we've already gone a long way towards developing a solid base in MEChA within a relatively short period of time. One example: a resolution proposed by a PL member against the war in Iraq was passed unanimously in the region. One young woman (who is now closer to the Party) stood up for use of the word "Fascism" within the resolution.

Yet we know that to win these people will take a lot of hard work and intense struggle. When CHALLENGE decided to print this headline and to change the first sentence to state that "working-class internationalism won out over nationalism and liberalism," it seemed to say we had already overcome nationalism. This trivialization of obstacles can be dangerous. We want our base to know that CHALLENGE prints the whole dialectical truth. I'm confident that our team of editors will continue to do just that.

Comradely, Editing the Editor

Fighting Hospital's Racism

A group of friends were discussing the situation of the respiratory therapists in the John Stroger Hospital (formerly known as Cook County Hospital). A group of respiratory therapists, mostly Indians, were certified in their field but were never promoted. They had less salary so they filed a grievance. The higher grade (16) respiratory therapists, mostly black, are being made to pass a certification test by March 31 or lose their jobs.

This mess was done by a right-wing leadership of SEIU Local 73 HC which was ousted after highly contested elections. The new more "progressive" leadership has done little about the situation.

There was an article in the past CHALLENGE. and also a flyer put out by the friends and members of PLP. Both were excellent.

The main thing we have to do it to break down the barriers of racism which help the capitalists. In the now gone House Committee of Un-American Activities a man was accused of being a member of the communist party. The Committee asked the accuser how he knew the man was a communist. The accuser answered that the man invited his black and Hispanic friends to his apartment.

Reading and writing about anti-racism is certainly important. We must put it into practice. It is important and it is fun to learn about other cultures.

The bosses give the impression that they favor one ethnic group above the other. In most cases, they do not favor all the members of each ethnic group.

We must talk to those that are not bought off. In some countries there are strong leftist movements and talk about communism is not out of this world. The ethnic barriers must be broken. If a situation is hot, the chance of success is great. Under normal situations, it is a long but rewarding process.

If we get even a paragraph in the native language of another language of the ethnic groups, that is a success.

In the early days of PLP in the hospital, we made some multi-ethnic dinners with each person bringing a dish from their respective country.

Theory and practice in fighting racism and capitalism are inseparable. Read CHALLENGE. Go beyond the labor union limits.

A red pharmacist

WHY ARE UNIONS
FAILING?

The NY Daily News is running articles exposing some corrupt union leaders and making that the reason why union membership is nose-diving, with almost 90% of the workforce non-union. But the cause of this decline is not a few "bad apples." Rather it's the majority of "good leaders" who also collect six-figure salaries and CEO-style pensions and expense accounts while their members are losing millions of jobs, pensions and health benefits.

Unions were born in labor's struggle against capitalist bosses who enslaved them. Unions grew to the extent they forced the bosses to back off on some of the oppression and give workers a little more of the vast wealth that was stolen from them. At a crucial point in that struggle, the labor movement split between communist workers who wanted to continue the militant fight against the bosses, and business unionists who wanted to ban communists from the unions, discourage strikes, become the bosses' lieutenants and accept the system that exploits us all, in exchange for a slice of the capitalists' pie. These class collaborationists won that battle and turned unions into businesses profiting "leaders" who negotiated sellout contracts, raised dues and made members pay for their lavish life-styles so they could mingle as "equals" with the corporate bosses.

Today workers are back to square one because corporate and union capitalists can only be successful by accelerating the oppression of the working class. The challenge for the working class is to build the class struggle against the ruling class and capitalist wage slavery while fighting for a communist world based on workers' needs. And the challenge for the Party is the nurturing and development of communists who can rise to that task.

Union Activist

RED EYE ON THE NEWS

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

Gates' son probes charity

Capitalist....philanthropist...[Bill] Gates...tells a story about his four-year-old son Rory. "We were putting together these kits for homeless people -- you know, where you put in the toothbrush and toothpaste -- and Rory says: `This is really nice, Dad, but if these people are homeless, why don't we give them homes?'
"It's kind of a good question...." (GW, 2/18)

GI quits US aggression

When his unit was ordered to Iraq, he refused to go....
Private first class Hinzman left the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, taking his wife and son to Canada....He is battling the US military in the Canadian courts....
On the telephone from Toronto, PFC Hinzman said: "I signed up to defend my country, not to carry out an act of aggression." (GW, 3/3)

On US TV, he finds WMDs!

The Israeli...nuclear weapon...figure now is estimated to be between 100 and 400....
There was a funny bit on American television during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq and frenzy over possible "Weapons of Mass Destruction." A Syrian diplomat was being questioned by Tim Russert on "Meet the Press about whether Iraq had shipped WMDs to his country for hiding. No, the Syrian said. But Russert pressed on and his guest said: "Yes, there are such weapons in the Middle East, and I can lead you to them."
"Where, where are they?" said Russert, who was getting excited.
"They're in Israel!" said the Syrian.
Russert changed the subject. (Universal Press Syndicate, 2/13)

Profits before kids' health

The W.H.O [World Health Organization] has drafted a "global strategy on diet, physical activity and health...."
The plan has provoked an outcry from the American food industry -- especially the Sugar Association....
The administration and sugar industry...seem particularly disturbed at W.H.O.'s proposals that countries be urged to limit advertising, especially ads directed at children, encouraging unhealthy diets.... (NYT editorial, 1/2)

CIA protected Mexico nazi

MEXICO CITY, Feb. 19 -- The former chief of Mexico's secret police, Miguel Nazar Haro, was arrested here on charges of kidnapping a leftist leader 29 years ago,....during Mexico's "dirty war" against the left, which lasted from the 1960's to the 1980's. Hundreds...were arrested, tortured and killed by state agents....
[Nazar Haro]...was an important liaison for the CIA during the 1970's and early 1980's, providing the United States with information on leftists throughout Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, American officials say.
The CIA blocked his indictment by federal grand jury in San Diego in 1982....
The CIA argued successfully that the importance of the information gleaned from Mexico's secret police overrode the interests of United States law enforcement. (NYT, 2/20)

Imperialists bled Haiti

One of the things all Haitians can agree on is their pride in Toussant L'Ouverture, who led the slave rebellion....
From the outset Haiti inherited the wrath of the colonial powers, which knew what disastrous example a Haitian success story would be....
Haiti is a reminder of how Western `democracies' have willfully amassed their wealth on the backs of impoverished dictatorships.

So Haiti lurched from coup to coup....
France, backed by the US, later ordered Haiti to pay 150 m[illion] francs in gold as reparations to compensate former plantation and slave owners as well as for the costs of the war in return for international recognition. At today's prices that would amount to 18 b[illion]. By the end of the 19th century, 80% of Haiti's national budget was going to pay off the loan and its interest, and the country was locked into the role of debtor nation -- where it remains today. (GW, 3/3)

Did 9/11 suit US war plan?

American investigators were given the first name and telephone number of one of the Sept. 11 hijackers two and a half years before the attacks on New York and Washington, but the United States appears to have failed to pursue the lead aggressively, American and German officials say....
The earlier information about Mr. Shehhi could have taken investigators to the core of the Qaeda cell at a time when the plot was probably in its formative stages, according to testimony in Germany.... (NYT, 2/24)

Whether Bush or Dems: Big Bosses Still Win in November

Two of the greatest tasks currently facing a U.S. president are winning popular support for imperialist wars and putting the economy on a wartime footing. The major U.S. capitalists continue to fault Bush as a military leader but give him mixed marks on the economy, even as they boost John Kerry as a possible replacement.

First the main rulers’ liberal media complained that Bush’s weapons of mass destruction lies were turning public opinion against the war in Iraq. Now it’s Bush’s dogged avoidance of combat in the Vietnam era that, in contrast to the decorated Kerry, undermines his status as commander in chief. A recent New York Times editorial (2/9) emphasizes that the rulers’ first and foremost goal is finding a leader who can rally the masses for war: "When Americans choose a president, their most profound consideration is whether a candidate can make the wisest possible decisions when it comes to war." But these rulers feel Bush squandered a golden opportunity to militarize the nation after 9/11. He sent far too few troops into Afghanistan and Iraq, having failed either to spur recruitment at home or create a UN-backed international alliance.

On the home front, the major capitalists who watch out for their class as a whole, not just for their own firms, require an economy geared toward war, more tightly controlled from the top. This means increased military spending and more consolidation and government policing of business and industry. They also need a loyal working class won to patriotism and electoral politics.

The rulers fear that Bush’s tax cuts will severely hinder any future mobilization of the U.S. war machine. But they praise his efforts in promoting mergers that benefit the major capitalists and cracking down on bosses whose individual greed interferes with the general needs of the ruling class. (See box on page 2.) The liberal media shed crocodile tears for workers in Bush’s "jobless recovery." Growing unemployment is actually pushing wages down and profits up. The media’s focus on unemployment aims cynically at luring workers to the Democratic Party.

The media are portraying Kerry as a more attractive military leader than Bush, as a "warrior president with a conscience." He fought "gallantly" in Vietnam but returned his medals to protest the war. He voted for the latest Iraq war but "agonized" over the decision. Kerry is also getting coached in the new economic realities. Time Magazine reports (2/8) that Kerry has repeatedly assailed "special interests and greedy corporations" on his primary tour. But now Harold Ickes, Jr., who steered Clinton’s 1996 re-election bid, "is criticizing a central theme of Senator John Kerry’s campaign for President: populist attacks on ‘special interests.’" (New York Observer, 2/15) Ickes’ point is that the interests of Exxon Mobil and JP Morgan Chase are, and should be, what drives U.S. policy. Ickes knows a thing or two about reorganizing society to benefit the bigger capitalists. His father was a top advisor to Franklin Roosevelt during the last full U.S. wartime mobilization.

Kerry may well unseat Bush. Bush may well keep the White House. A dark horse might emerge. We don’t have a crystal ball. But one thing is certain: the capitalist class, which is the real party of war, will win at the polls in November. Capitalism cannot be voted out. Getting rid of the system that brings wars without end and constant mass unemployment will take a communist revolution.

Liberal Bosses Laud Bush On Mega-Mergers

Business Week (2/23) extols Bush’s Justice Department for its ongoing criminal prosecutions of Adelphia, Martha Stewart, Worldcom, Credit Suisse First Boston, Healthsouth, and Enron. It also gave a glowing first-year evaluation of William Donaldson, the Securities and Exchange Commission chief who has hired 1,000 "securities enforcers" to see that Wall Street does the rulers’ bidding.

The liberal media have blessed mega-mergers in finance, such as Bank of America’s takeover of Fleet and JP Morgan Chase’s impending buyout of Bank One. But they call on Bush to exercise greater scrutiny of the proposed Comcast-Disney deal. The rulers worry that Microsoft, Comcast’s largest shareholder, will gain too much influence from it. Microsoft has run afoul of the big boys before and been swatted down for it in a huge anti-trust case. One of Microsoft’s sins was selling advanced technologies indiscriminately to potential U.S. enemies like China.

Dead, Wounded GI’s Sacrificed on Altar of Halliburton’s Profits

The Bush gang’s imperialist war has slaughtered tens of thousands of Iraqis, mostly civilians, all to grab Iraqi oil and make huge profits for such as Halliburton (VP Cheney was its CEO), Bechtel, MCI WorldCom, KBR, Dyncorp, etc. Many pundits now claim they were "duped" by the administration’s lies about Saddam’s Weapons of Mass Destruction.

They weren’t duped. They knew the Iraqi exile crew led by Chalabi, the crooked banker wanted for fraud in Jordan, manufactured these lies. Ever since the Clinton administration, the Chalabi-led Iraqi National Congress was getting millions through the State Department to push its tales as the reason to attack Iraq.

But the Bush gang did a lousy job, going it alone without UN cover. Latest Pentagon reports reveal that the invaders’ supply system and preparations were so bad that, had they confronted a real army, not the collapsing Iraqi forces, the results would have been disastrous.

Because of all these miscalculations, the war continues for almost a year. Bush’s May victory claims atop the Lincoln aircraft carrier made him look like the idiot he may very well be. And still, even after Saddam was captured (more likely by Kurdish forces, handed over to the U.S. Army), more U.S. soldiers and Iraqis are dying daily.

The Bush administration has displayed absolutely no sympathy towards the dead or wounded GI’s in Iraq. Besides the 500-plus already killed, "9,000 servicemen and women have been wounded, sickened or injured….[and] 6,891 troops medically evacuated for non-combat conditions between March 19 and Oct. 30, 2003" (Charlotte Post-Gazette, 2/9).

"There are about 2,500 combat casualties," said Dave Autry of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV). "The rest are attempted suicides, vehicle accidents, other accidents, illness. Something that’s becoming a big concern is lesions caused by exposure to sand fleas that carry a particularly virulent bacteria."

The Post-Gazette adds: "…the scandal is what is happening to these survivors once their government brings them home. Tom Keller, the immediate past commander of the DAV in Ohio, wrote to me [Autry] last month about the secretive nature of the process…. ‘Tom…[feels] the Bush administration is bringing the casualties back to the States in the middle of the night…to keep organizations like the DAV away from them…. to keep the American people in the dark about the number of troops being wounded, the severity of the injuries they are receiving and the types of illnesses that may be surfacing.’"

Besides these obvious political reasons to hide the human cost of this imperialist war, there’s also the classic capitalist reason: money. "It appears the government does not want these veterans even to be aware of, let alone receive, the benefits due them for donating their limbs and their souls and their innocence…" (Post-Gazette)

The DAV’s executive director, David Gorman, who left both his legs in Vietnam over 30 years ago, wrote Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld: "For more than six decades the DAV has always been granted access to military hospitals so our professionally-trained and fully-accredited representatives could provide such crucial information and counseling to service members to help smooth their transition from military to civilian life. Sadly, that is no longer the case. The current policies of the Department of Defense citing the Privacy Act and security are preventing our skilled representatives from carrying out our congressionally-chartered mission.

"At one facility in particular — Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. — our efforts to visit with wounded patients have been severely restricted…. Headquarters…selects the patients we may visit and strictly limits information about the patients. Even the patient’s name and the nature of the injury are withheld without express permission."

Soldiers in the bosses’ army are used like workers in civilian life: as cannon fodder in the bosses’ endless war for profits, and then discarded when they’re no longer needed. During the Vietnam war, soldiers and sailors rebelled en masse. Instead of fighting the Vietnamese rebels, they fragged (threw grenades at) their officers. How long before this begins happening in Iraq or in other imperialist wars hatched by U.S. bosses?

Haitian Workers Must Unite Vs. Pro-Duvalier Thugs, Aristide

The endless wars and economic downturns that mark the failure of capitalism to provide the most basic necessities to billions worldwide has spawned another rebellion in Latin America. This time it’s in Haiti, against the regime of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, whose own corruption and fall from grace with the Bush administration has made life even more hellish for the masses.

The rebellion — which has turned mainly into a right-wing uprising — erupted in the Artibonite Valley, where small rice growers have been particularly hard-hit by importation of cheap, subsidized foreign rice. Perhaps here, even more than elsewhere in Haiti, people are starving and have nothing to lose.

For several months, both the cops and Aristide’s gangs have viciously attacked mass demonstrations of students and workers. Recently, cities and towns in the Artibonite region, including population centers Gonaïves and St. Marc, have been seized by armed rebels. They have stormed police stations — key targets because they’re seen as a political arm of Aristide’s repression — and freed prisoners. Aristide’s cops were trained by Raymond Kelly — currently NYC police commissioner — as part of the last U.S. occupation that returned Aristide to power during the Clinton administration.

CIA-Trained Duvalier Thugs Return

The opposition is composed of several groups, one supported by elements in the Bush administration and by former CIA-trained Duvalier thugs, like the para-miltary FRAPH group. When 20,000 U.S. troops. invaded Haiti in 1994 to return Aristide to power, the FRAPH files were seized and hidden from the public since they exposed the CIA connection.

The other opposition side is composed of former Aristide supporters. It includes paramilitary groups previously armed by Aristide, who they had supported until a falling out among these thieves last fall.

There is another group formed by the Democratic Platform, a coalition of the Group of 184 and the Democratic Convergence. The Group of 184 (named for the original number of member civil organizations — businessmen, professionals, peasants, unions, students, women) is headed by industrialist Andy Arpaid, who has extensive holdings in Haiti and Miami. Democratic Convergence comprises small, historically anti-Duvalier political parties now opposed to Aristide. One key member is OPL (Organization of People in Struggle), which split from Aristide’s Lavalas Party several years ago. It’s led by Gerard Pierre-Charles, a "leftist" with ties to Cuba. The so-called left-wing opposition, however, has scarcely tried to distance itself from the right-wing opposition.

The Democratic Platform was forced to cancel a Feb. 12 march in Port-au-Prince because of threats by pro-Aristide forces, who erected burning barricades in the Canapé Vert section before dawn and prevented medical staff from working at a neighborhood hospital.

Like François "Papa Doc" Duvalier before him, Aristide came into power as a democrat with the support of workers, peasants and students. He quickly went from savior to devil with the aid of armed, organized thugs: today’s armed chimeres ("bandits" in Creole), increasingly 12- to 14-year-olds recruited in the slums of Port-au-Prince, are yesterday’s Tonton Macoute.

Recently Aristide signed several agreements impoverishing the masses even more, including concessions to the International Monetary Fund. Cuts in food and transportation subsidies have added to Aristide’s growing unpopularity with the working class. The government has promised 13 free-trade zones which normally grant corporations freedom from taxes and any kind of labor standards. Two are already functioning on the border with the Dominican Republic.

Meanwhile, the imperialists are licking their chops. France is threatening to intervene, perhaps wanting to crush Aristide for having demanded that France repay the billions of dollars (in today’s terms) that it extorted from the newly-independent Haiti 200 years ago. Washington is also moving towards intervention if Aristide doesn’t step down, either through its puppets in Caricom (Caribbean governments’ association) or through calling on Canada and the U.N., and is preparing to repel any refugees that may flee to Florida. U.S. initiatives have blocked at least $145 million in badly-needed foreign aid packages.

Like in all recent mass uprisings in neighboring Dominican Republic and in Bolivia, workers, youths and their allies in Haiti need a revolutionary red leadership so that their fight-back isn’t wasted supporting the Aristide regime or the bourgeois opposition. History teaches us that the only way to take on the class enemy is by "rache manyòk," that is, pulling it out by the roots and creating a new system based on workers’ power. International working-class solidarity and communist leadership is the road out of this hell. That’s PLP’s goal. Join us!

Haitian Refugees Will Be Sent to Guantanamo Concentration Camp

Last April, U.S. Attorney-General Ashcroft said Haitians posed a "threat" to U.S. national security because Haiti was a transit point for Islamic terrorists, making it virtually impossible for Haitians to get refugee status in the U.S. It allows the U.S. to detain undocumented Haitians indefinitely. Now, the racist-inspired fear that tens of thousands of Haitian workers and peasants will land on the shores of Florida — fleeing both the violence and poverty imposed upon them by the world’s capitalists — has led to pre-emptive plans by Bush & Co. to intercept the refugees on the high seas and return them to Haiti.

According to one Miami observer, the State Department has even contacted relief organizations for help in opening the doors to the concentration camp in Guantanamo Bay for 50,000 refugees. Guantanamo is where 70,000 Haitian refugees were incarcerated from 1991-1994. Then U.S. bosses sent 20,000 U.S. troops to restore Aristide to power following his deposal in a military coup.

Workers Reject School Bosses-Union Gang-up

BALTIMORE, Feb. 13 — During any reform struggle against the abuses of capitalism, the most important measure of success is the degree of growth among workers and youth in real understanding of communism and the growth of Progressive Labor Party. Both of these were in evidence as teachers here resoundingly rejected major pay cuts in two successive union votes, six days apart. Amid a flurry of CHALLENGE sales, distribution of over 1,600 PLP leaflets and a PLP teacher’s speech to a rally at a School Board meeting, several teachers – for the very first time – have begun to attend PLP club meetings.

On Feb. 6, thousands of teachers braved an ice storm, waiting for hours in snarled traffic and freezing outdoor lines, to get into a high school auditorium for the first of two union votes. Teachers and paraprofessionals eagerly took about 700 PL flyers. When one comrade distributing the flyers would say, "Vote no to furloughs, no to layoffs, and no to capitalism!" some who didn’t stop at first said, "Yeah, let me have one of those," after hearing the part about "No to capitalism!"

Teachers rejected furloughs and a 7% pay cut for the remainder of this school year, the majority voting for "None of the above."

Three days later in Annapolis, thousands of people from Baltimore City and from counties throughout Maryland participated in the largest state-wide rally in recent memory, demanding more state funding for public education. Marchers took about 800 PL flyers and bought 50 CHALLENGES at that event where PLP high school students joined their parents and teachers.

Then in Baltimore on the next day, teachers jammed the School Board meeting, the adjoining lobby and the steps outside, angrily opposing any cuts in pay or staff. When a PLP’er spoke to the rally, condemning racism, teachers eagerly asked for PLP flyers.

After the first "No" vote, Mayor O’Malley suddenly "found" $8 million. Then the Mayor and Bonnie Copeland, school system CEO, "offered" a new deal, a 3.5% pay cut. If rejected, they threatened again to lay off up to 1,200 teachers and/or invoke involuntary wage-cuts that would brazenly violate the union contract.

When O’Malley announced this new "offer," Baltimore Teachers’ Union president Marietta English thanked him and then treacherously explained her hope, on live television, that teachers should vote for the wage cut! But when it soon became clear this position would isolate her from masses of teachers, she backtracked, saying teachers should vote as they see fit. Like most of today’s U.S. union leaders, she’s loyal to capitalism. Her co-president, Loretta Johnson – head of the union’s paraprofessional chapter and a national union VP – told one teacher that the leadership wouldn’t help him if he were jailed or fired for organizing a sick-out against layoffs.

In Maryland, a state law bans teachers’ strikes. Rather than breaking that bosses’ rule, union leaders have consistently told teachers a strike is unwinnable. Actually, many workers won the right to strike by striking illegally! While workers can’t win every battle in the war with capitalism, rolling over and playing dead is a sure loser. Playing by the bosses’ rules is self-defeating.

Angry teachers and paraprofessionals answered the 3.5% pay-cut "offer" with a resounding "No!" vote of 3,824 to 1,402, delivering a stinging rebuke to the Mayor, the School Board and the CEO. Custodians, cafeteria workers and secretaries in two other unions did likewise.

Within this militancy, PLP’s revolutionary communist ideas have played a modest but growing role. The teachers who attended the PLP club meeting had lots of questions and friendly disagreements. They all enjoyed participating in an exciting discussion about communism, one based on a series of inspiring essays about the Soviet Union by the poet Langston Hughes, expressing his personal observations after living in the Soviet Union for a year. These teachers plan to return to the next club meeting, which will discuss Lenin’s "What Is To Be Done."

These developments are precisely what’s needed to do better in upcoming struggles, especially in the decisive struggle to finally put an end to the dictatorship of the capitalist class!

Racism Rules the Roost for Baltimore's Students

The Baltimore School Board claims there’s a $58 million deficit, a burden they’ve tried to thrust onto the backs of school workers (see CHALLENGE, 2/18). But the bigger issue is racism. Baltimore’s public schools — in which 90% of the students are African American — need $250 million more each year for per-pupil funding to equal Maryland’s richer, mostly white counties. During the approximate four years of deficit growth, City schools — if funded equally — would have received an additional billion dollars, far more than this $58 million. Thus, the threatened pay and job cuts mainly stem from racist inequality. The Greater Baltimore Committee (CEO Copeland used to be its Executive V-P) comprises the area’s most powerful businesses, and has contempt for the City’s working-class students. The schools are preparing most of them either to compete for unskilled and semi-skilled, low-wage jobs, or for unemployment-induced military service, or jail. The rulers’ attack on teachers reflects a more fundamental, racist attack upon Baltimore’s mostly African American students.

Braceros Battle 60-yr-old U.S. Billion $windle

MEXICO CITY, Feb. 9 — Some 4,000 of the previous braceros and supporters marched today to the Presidential Palace, stopping to picket the U.S. embassy, demanding return of the money stolen from them during the U.S. "guest workers" program, 1942 to 1966. Ten percent was deducted from their U.S. wages — $1 BILLION — and allegedly placed in a pension fund in the Wells Fargo Bank, which sent the money to the now defunct National Rural Credit Bank of Mexico (Banrural). The money was probably stolen. So far these two million workers (totaling five million bracero contracts) involved in the previous bracero program (or their relatives) have seen zilch of that money. With interest it would probably be triple the original billion.

Earlier, 2,000 angry former braceros and supporters stormed President Fox’s family ranch in the state of Guanajuato and reached his mother’s house. Supposedly, she fainted when she saw the protestors, but the latter said they never saw Mrs. Fox. They said they acted because they’re tired of waiting for what belongs to them.

Fox reacted angrily, saying he won’t allow this "violation of private property." But that stolen $1 billion is these farmworkers’ property. Capitalism only respects the bosses’ property — the profits workers produce for the bosses’ system (surplus value). To steal from workers through the horrible racist exploitation of these braceros (see letter page 6) or through the 10% scheme is fair game and very much legal under capitalism. This racist robbery will be part and parcel of Bush’s new bracero "immigration reform" plan.

Under communism, private property won’t exist. All property will belong to the working class, the class that produces all value. There’ll be no braceros or "immigration problem" because there’ll be no borders.

Racist Police Murder in Georgia

I write to make you aware of the fact that the so-called "law enforcement" in Columbus, Georgia, brutally murdered another innocent, unarmed African American male, a senseless tragedy that is all too familiar in this country. Kenneth "Kenny" Walker was an extremely close friend.

On Jan. 28, a local sheriff’s special unit targeted four black men, riding in an expensive SUV, as possible "drug suspects." Actually all four were college graduates, never "in trouble" with the law. These four innocent men were dragged from their vehicle at gunpoint, and forced to lie on the side of a major Interstate like animals. Simultaneously, one of the "John Wayne" sheriffs made a conscious decision to shoot Kenny twice in the forehead with an assault rifle.

This coward claimed that he made a "judgment call" because he "couldn’t see" Kenny’s right hand. While Kenny lay dying on the roadside, the bastards — knowing full well that they had targeted the wrong vehicle — placed the other three in three separate cars and held them in three separate cells. Kenny had been shot at 9:00 p.m. but his family was not notified until 1:30 a.m., never getting a chance to say their farewells because he died before they arrived.

Of course, they found no guns or contraband in the vehicle. Six hours later they released the other men. They gave the driver his keys and said, "You’re free to go; by the way your friend is dead."

Kenny Walker was a loving husband, devoted father and a responsible civic-oriented individual, involved in his local community. Kenny had never been in trouble with the law; when they pulled his record, they couldn’t even find a speeding ticket! If you’re a black male in this country, no matter how righteous, your life comes down to a "judgment call."

To add insult to injustice, this tragedy is being stonewalled and quietly swept under the rug by local government officials. The entire incident was caught on tape, but the Sheriff’s Department is refusing to release it, although it’s a matter of public record under the "Freedom of Information" Act.

Columbus is a small town. The "Good Old Boy" network is very much alive here and the longer they hold the tape, the more likely it will be altered or disappear altogether. If this had happened in a major city it would have gained national attention by now.

A Friend

Capitalist (In)Justice

Once again the capitalist courts have proven to be on the side of the bosses. New York City Housing cop Richard Neri was cleared of all criminal charges after murdering Timothy Stansbury on the roof top of a housing complex. Despite the lies put foward by liberal ‘misleaders’ who sided with Mayor Bloomberg and Police Chief Kelley when they sympathized with the Stansbury family, the courts or politicians can’t be trusted to fight racist police terror.

PLP Youth Conference Highlights Fight vs. Fascism

For two months some PLP youth organized for what turned out to be a successful day-long forum on imperialism and fascism, and the need for communist revolution. Our efforts brought some 50 campus friends and others from our mass organizations and that strengthened the PLP youths’ revolutionary politics. Overall it led to formation of a PLP club and to various people joining the Party; others agreed to join study groups.

We presented imperialism as a modern stage of capitalism and that imperialism and fascism cannot be separated from capitalism. It was also discussed how imperialism sharpens capitalism’s contradictions, and historically has led to more misery for the international working class and to world war. We highlighted the need for communist revolution and the importance of base-building in both the working class and the military. This culminated in the final presentation on the need to organize now for the long-term fight to turn the current imperialist dogfight into a massive revolutionary struggle led by communists.

We also studied fascism, how it’s an extreme attack on the working class so the murderous profit system can try to get out of their crisis and keep on exploiting and murdering workers. After presenting its historical context, we then noted the signs of fascism developing in the U.S. The ruling class has been implementing fascism as inter-imperialist rivalries and the instabilities of capitalism shake their position. This emphasized the importance to learn from both the achievements of past revolutionaries — particularly during World War II, when the world communist movement led by the Soviet Red Army defeated the bulk of the German-Italian-Japanese fascist axis — as well as the movement’s mistakes.

The latter had forged a United Front with "anti-fascist forces" like "lesser evil" capitalists, union misleaders and liberals (social democrats), thinking their help was needed in fighting fascism. This flawed theory and practice hid the fact that capitalism — not just certain capitalists — was the true source of fascism. In Italy communists led hundreds of thousands of armed partisans, defeated six Nazi divisions and liberated most of the north, while hanging Mussolini and his mistress. But the Italian Communist Party abandoned the dictatorship of the proletariat. This allowed the Christian Democrat/Vatican/Mafia axis — backed by the U.S. — to take power after the war.

The discussions were among the most important parts of the forum. Each presentation was followed by a general discussion and then a breakout session with many smaller groups which later reported back to each other. Each group had a question guide dealing with nationalism, racism and the military in relation to imperialism.

Even more productive discussions dealt with practice, with the use of CHALLENGE, with spreading communist ideas while working in mass groups and winning people to the Party when the ruling class is trying to mislead the masses into anti-Bush politicians. The latter’s only disagreement with the Bushites is over the tactics of how to make war and impose fascism. The breakout groups gave everyone, especially people new to these ideas, the chance to ask questions and deal with any of their concerns.

By the end, most feedback was positive; CHALLENGES were quickly gobbled up. The PLP youth felt empowered and many others felt inspired to fight for communism. Capitalism — imperialism and fascism — watch out!

Anti-Racist Students Flush Mr. Pipes

BERKELEY, CA, Feb. 10 — "Racist! Racist! Racist!" chanted at least 50 students against the racist Daniel Pipes here tonight. We interrupted his speech several times, booing and ranking him out as a fascist and racist. Our bold attack startled Pipes; he fumbled to get back on track.

Pipes heads the Middle East Forum, a neo-conservative group pushing for racial profiling against Arabs and Muslims. He labeled the Muslim students’ organization "terrorist" and called for war against "militant Islam." He listed how many Israelis had died in Palestinian bombings, but ignored the much larger number of Palestinians killed by Israeli "Defense" Forces. His racism was clear. The racial profiling he calls for is part of a fascist police state.

The anti-racist students showed courage to disrupt Pipes, despite the tons of cops filming everything. But most people don’t think of racists like Pipes being part of a bigger movement toward fascism. However, CHALLENGE’S communist analysis reveals that larger picture: the Patriot Act/Homeland Security police state; a massive, racist prison build-up, complete with prison slave labor; "disappeared" prisoners held indefinitely in Guantanamo Bay; genocidal sanctions and war for oil against Iraq; and cutbacks in vital social services, among other things.

Some students who understand the implications of the fascist "security" developments unfortunately then fear protesting militantly. But our willingness to fight fascism is our best protection. That’s the lesson of the PLP-led attack against the Nazis on the latter’s turf in Chicago’s Marquette Park (see page 8) .

Young people here in the Bay Area are learning how to fight fascism and build a revolutionary communist party to flush the Daniel Pipes and all other racists and fascists into the sewage of history.

300,000 Workers, Youth and Elderly Left in the Cold

CHICAGO, IL — A trial of fire and ice is the racist winter ritual for workers and the unemployed under capitalism.

On February 3, 56-year old Sterling Coleman was found frozen to death in his South Side basement apartment. The previous week an unidentified homeless man was found frozen to death under a bridge overlooking the Chicago River.

On February 10, a 46-year old woman and her 2-year old grandson were killed in a deadly apartment blaze. Almost every day fires injure, kill or make poor people homeless who are just trying to stay warm in their fire-trap apartments. Two disabled women died in house fires last December. Both were wheelchair-bound, and their gas had been shut off. In one case, a toaster oven was being used to heat the home. The other fire was caused by a space heater.

April and Alvin use two kerosene heaters, three electric space heaters and layers of sweaters and coats to try to keep themselves and their four grandchildren warm. The gas was shut off in their South Side flat in October. April receives disability payments and Alvin has been unable to find steady work since he lost his job in 2001. Even though he just started a new job, they will continue to live with towels stuffed under the doors to keep the cold air out.

Utilities are prohibited from turning off gas service from November through March. But 10,000 households whose gas was shut off before November have not been reconnected. Millions of dollars in federal assistance ran out in late December. April and Alvin owe $5,207, but received only $600 in federal assistance. Peoples Gas is demanding full payment.

While there are more workers needing of assistance, with over three million jobs destroyed since January 2001, less aid is available. The money is being used to finance the occupation of Iraqi oil fields, pay for the fascist Homeland Security police state, and line the pockets of the billionaires who profit from all of this — on top of their huge tax cuts. Capitalism will never meet our needs. Build a mass PLP and fight for communist revolution to destroy the fascist warmakers, who would have us freeze or burn to maintain their profits.

County Hospital Workers Fight Racist Attacks

CHICAGO, IL, Feb. 16 — After 18 years here, Martha often looks out on the snow-clogged streets and wishes she could see the warm green countryside in south India and see her children grow up with their grandparents. But then she remembers the impossible poverty. Brenda grew up here and some days she would like to just walk out of this damned County job where they try to work you to death and treat you like you’re stupid. They swipe in at the time clock, glance at each other, but don’t speak. Their boss thinks he’s got them where he wants them.

But for the last two weeks, PLP has been fighting racism in the Respiratory Care Department of Stroger Cook County Hospital. The bosses are threatening to fire all the higher seniority, mostly black licensed therapists if they do not pass the certification exam by March 31. They act like these experienced workers, licensed by the State and assigned to the most complex patients, are suddenly unable to do their jobs. They plan to replace them with a few of the most senior, certified Indian therapists, while maintaining a two-tier wage system.

We distributed more than 150 CHALLENGES and hundreds of PLP fliers, relying on our network of regular CHALLENGE readers and distributors. This has created quite a buzz, with many discussions about racism as the cutting edge of fascism, the role of the union (SEIU), nationalism, and about the PLP. Also, a group of black, white and immigrant workers and professionals, including some therapists, have collected over 100 signatures on a petition demanding that none of the black workers be fired and that all of the Indian workers be upgraded.

The response has been mixed. Some of the Indian therapists felt they were unfairly accused of being racist toward their co-workers. One said he understood the racist attack against the Indian technicians, but didn’t understand why it was racist to require the black therapists to take the test, especially when the department’s Director is black and certified. Others asked how this could be racism when there are no white managers or workers in the department.

All this made us realize we need to do a better job of explaining a communist understanding of racism, how it is the fiber that holds the profit system together and the cutting edge of developing fascism and imperialist war, and how communist revolution offers the only path to destroying racism.

There seems to be increasing unity in the Respiratory Department. Even if some don’t agree with us most techs and therapists don’t want anyone fired. We have personal ties with most of them. Those we’re closest to are helping circulate Party literature and the petition. Two therapists, one black and the other Indian, criticized SEIU for not leading this fight.

We will get more practice fighting for the Party’s line by inviting people to May Day, winning new readers and distributors of CHALLENGE (about 20 more this past issue), and recruiting more workers to PLP. The boss’s job is to squeeze the most possible work out of three dozen therapists and save money for the big bosses. The job of the dozens of techs and therapists is to keep people alive. Our patients need oxygen, and workers who know how to hook it up for them. The job of communists is to build a mass, international PLP and lead the working class to power.

Limiting Malpractice Awards:

Another Right-Wing Movement?

ANNAPOLIS, MD. Jan. 21, -— Over 2,000 doctors rallied at the Maryland Statehouse, calling for limits to monetary damage awards for medical malpractice. A PLP’er and a group of medical residents and students from Prince George’s County Hospital Center (which mainly serves poor patients) went with 30 of the hospital’s attending physicians to assess the growing movement around this issue.

The ruling class views health care for the working class as a needless expense. As long as there are enough workers able to make profits for the capitalists each day, the rest can be left untreated. That’s why over 44 million people in the U.S. have no health insurance and millions more are locked into abusive, limited HMOs. We workers care greatly, though, about the health of our class, so the rulers are constantly proposing various plans to distract us from the basic truth about capitalist health care — profits must be increased by cutting health care. Physicians and other health care professionals are caught in this fundamental contradiction.

The malpractice limitation movement — encouraged by Bush in his State of the Union message and reinforced by Maryland’s Republican Governor Ehrlich at the rally — targets the working class, as do most other health reform measures currently being debated. Here’s how:

OB-GYN physicians told the Annapolis rally how they could no longer practice obstetrics because the cost of malpractice insurance for delivering babies is too high while health insurers pay less than ever for delivering babies. Caught between rising insurance costs and lower payments, many are quitting entirely, while others are limiting their practice to the safer office practice of gynecology alone. The Bush/Ehrlich solution: put a limit on settlements for injured or killed patients. This policy, they argue, would lower rates for malpractice insurance and thus allow doctors’ bills to stay under HMO/health insurance limits, keeping the health insurance companies happy.

Why not go after the multi-billion-dollar insurance companies instead of injured workers? Because the ruling class makes money from robust profit margins in insurance companies, and none from injured workers. When physicians organize a movement led by capitalists, they’re attacking workers, accepting the norms of capitalism, and objectively joining the forces of fascism. Instead they should join with workers in fighting the insurance companies and their ruling-class cohorts.

The Plight of Worker/Patients

Malpractice payment is no solution for a societal problem, but it may be the only way for a worker to cover rehabilitation costs or for a family to survive in dire medical circumstances. This creates distrust between patient and physician. Science may not even enter the equation. If a baby is not normal at birth, damages from a malpractice claim may be needed for future expenses, whether or not the physician or hospital were negligent. Juries may agree and settlements arranged in order to solve the family’s problem. Demands on physicians for documentation to cover themselves have escalated, detracting from time to talk with patients and families or read the latest journals. So capitalism works against a decent health care delivery system.

Malpractice payments for a few cannot substitute for a system that serves all workers. But this cannot happen unless the workers themselves run society and make decisions about handling health issues. Without a system that provides safer care and supports workers when they’re sick due to natural illness or malpractice, fighting among lawyers, insurers, politicians and professionals will continue to destroy the ability to treat worker/patients. But that’s the name of the capitalist game: profits come first. (For a useful article on this subject, see the New England Journal of Medicine, 1/15,03.)

The History of Malpractice Insurance in the U.S.

In the 1960s and 1970s, barriers to suing doctors for malpractice were reduced. Patients at charity hospitals were able to sue physicians and national standards of care were increasingly developed. Lawsuits rose sharply in some states, and malpractice insurance carriers left as total pay-outs increased. From the 1970s to the 1980s, states had to develop special boards, arbitrators and other ways of keeping the system in balance. Higher insurance rates charged to doctors lured insurers back into the market, but once again more cases and higher settlements have driven them out. Reforms never consistently decreased the number of claims, claim payouts or doctors’ malpractice costs. Patients suffering injury often don’t sue so current methods don’t compensate injured parties.

Today, the issue is more complex, as medical science is also more complex. Doctors’ ability to raise fees to cover malpractice is limited by HMOs and Medicare cost restrictions. The patient safety movement realizes that many errors and injuries arise from systemic problems and are not necessarily due to physician negligence. Physicians are encouraged to disclose their mistakes to fit in with a concept of "blameless" problem-solving but still fear litigation if error is admitted.

Forum Traces Spread of

HIV-AIDS to U.S. Racism

WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 21 — An animated hour of discussion among public health activists and 25 parents of pre-schoolers at the Northwest Settlement House here about the causes of HIV/AIDS ignited a political discussion about capitalism and the strategies for defeating it, including a revolutionary one.

To spark the conversation, the Racial Disparities Committee of the Metropolitan Washington Public Health Association had written a short fictional account about "Bernard," a 27-year-old neighborhood African-American man from the neighborhood whose family had been systematically harmed by racist U.S. policies, beginning with housing discrimination after World War II. "Bernard" suffered poor educational and job opportunities, became involved in a relationship with a woman in the drug trade, did a stint in prison followed by efforts at rehabilitation and finally stable employment in landscaping. In the story, this outcome came too late to prevent his developing renal failure due to the HIV virus and requiring dialysis. We asked the audience, "Why Did Bernard Get HIV/AIDS?"

Initially, the pre-schooler parents blamed it on "Bernard’s" parents and teachers. But the discussion moved quickly to blaming the government for not providing better education and jobs over past decades, and for pushing drugs in the community. The parents advanced many strategies for fighting this. Several volunteered to get involved in more political and educational programs around HIV/AIDS.

"Bernard’s story" became an excellent starting point to expose capitalism as the cause of these problems and reveal a revolutionary strategy to defeat it. For others involved in public health education work, or for other interested parties, the script is available at www.plp.org, or from the PLP office.

25 Years Ago, PLP Led Anti-Racist Struggle that Crushed the Nazi Hold on Marquette Park

(This begins a three-part series on events leading up to the May Day March that integrated Chicago’s Marquette Park in 1979.)

Marquette Park is an area of the city as well as a major park. In 1977, it was strictly off limits to black people. It was the home of racist cops, firemen and city workers. The primarily Baltic and Lithuanian neighborhood has a long history of segregated housing imposed by Chicago’s industrial bosses and bankers. Segregation has always been one of the bosses’ main weapons in dividing workers and maintaining state power. The U.S. State Department made it a relocation point for Nazi war criminals after World War II. So when the Nazis established headquarters at Rockwell and 71st St., quite a few people supported them. Part of their purpose was to terrorize any anti-racist white people.

In 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr. was violently attacked when he tried to march there for open housing, and bring his campaign of non-violence to the north. Hundreds of marchers were pelted with rocks, bottles, bricks and cherry bombs. As racist Mayor Daley’s police looked on, King was hit in the head by a rock and the march retreated in disarray. After that, no other attempt was made to integrate Marquette Park for more than a decade.

In 1977, the Nazis planned to march in Skokie, a community with a large Jewish population of Holocaust survivors. The Democratic Party, with the support of then-president Jimmy Carter, offered up Marquette Park as an alternative. The Nazis took it and thousands turned out under the protective eyes of the Chicago Nazis in blue. It was the biggest pro-Nazi rally since before WWII. Hundreds of racist white youth wore T-shirts reading, "6 Million More." A few brave Holocaust survivors went into the rally to shout at the Nazis. Several anti-racists were beaten while the KKKops looked on.

But some anti-racists sent a few Nazis to the hospital. PLP and the International Committee Against Racism (INCAR), along with hundreds of other anti-racists, were held at bay at police barricades inside the black community. Sellout community leaders told their members to either stay home or to attend a prayer vigil far from the barricades. Thousands of INCAR and PLP leaflets and CHALLENGES were distributed at street corner rallies. This event triggered the plan to stage a communist/anti-racist rally in Marquette Park in the spring of 1978.

Spurred on by black industrial workers from Ford, U.S. Steel and Stewart-Warner, more black teachers, county, state and city workers were moving west toward Marquette Park like a great internal migration. They fueled the movement west of the Dan Ryan expressway, a canyon between black and white Chicago on the south side. One by one barriers began to fall, Halsted, Ashland, Damen, and finally Western Avenue, the eastern border of Marquette Park.

The Nazis would make raids across Western. A black worker had his hand blown off by a bomb in his mailbox. The Nazis would smash cars and paint racist graffiti. Any black or dark skinned person caught at the White Castle at Western and 67th St., when Nazis were around, were attacked and beaten, along with their white friends. Blacks who worked at the hospital there were often harassed waiting for the bus. Often their white co-workers would defend them. Meanwhile, black and white leaders of the Chicago Democratic Party did nothing. The Nazis seemed invincible. They were interviewed by radio and TV talk shows and newspapers, which ran pictures of Nazis in full uniform.

In June 1978, the Nazis began a series of rallies in suburban areas undergoing desegregation: South Holland, Lansing, Blue Island, Berwyn, Oak Park, and Evanston. The Nazi assaults were continuing, rallying in shopping centers and recruiting high school students. If we were to prepare for a successful march in Marquette Park, we had to take the fight to them.

The offensive began with picketing Nazi Headquarters during their Midwest Conference. We used leaflets and CHALLENGE sales around the area. We met with friends in the black community and in Marquette Park itself. We held forums on the role of Nazi racism. INCAR spread a petition to kick the Nazis out of Marquette Park.

On the day of the Nazi meeting, we put out a fake leaflet calling for a demonstration at an incorrect time, to throw off the police protecting the Nazi HQ. Carloads of INCAR and PLP members met at a park. A security team, armed with clubs and baseball bats, would protect the pickets. Their job was to secure the area in front of the Nazi office.

Three cars led the way. We crossed Western, into the all-white area, to Nazi HQ with its Nazi flag and the hateful racist sign on the side of the building. We jumped out and started shouting "Death, Death, Death to the Nazis; Power, Power, Power to the Workers!" The Nazi security team emerged from the HQ and a battle erupted.

Communists and anti-racists fought the Nazis in the street. Storm troopers tasted our bats, picket signs and fists. The Nazis fought back with sticks and mace. We suffered some injuries and a few comrades were arrested. After our attack, people shared their exhilaration of having participated in the action.

Pictures and stories about the fight appeared in the local papers and CHALLENGE, and many people around the city applauded our action. One picture of a group of comrades attacking a Nazi appeared on thousands of leaflets and was printed in the Chicago Defender, a major black newspaper, as a part of an ad announcing our May Day march. We had raised the red flag outside the Nazi office. Next we would raise it inside.

(Part. II: The PLP Raid on the Nazi Office)

Non-Violence Can’t Beat Fascists

CHICAGO — "I was a young man in Alabama when Dr. King was organizing there. He said that if you didn’t believe in non-violence, you couldn’t march with him. I didn’t believe in non-violence."

So declared a black worker at a forum on the history of "Marquette Park — Then and Now," the neighborhood where he currently resides. The forum was sponsored by the International Human Relations Commission, a coalition of neighborhood organizations formed by the city in response to the post-9/11 attacks against Arab and Muslim residents.

Historically, Marquette Park was the most racist neighborhood in Chicago, all white, with its own Nazi party office, as well as many resettled World War II Nazis, cops and city workers. No black workers had ever lived there. Black workers who ventured into the area were regularly attacked. Today Marquette Park is a mix of black, Latin, white and Arab workers, due in part to the fight waged by Progressive Labor Party.

PLP broke the back of this racism when we organized an anti-racist campaign to smash the Nazis and integrate Marquette Park. A PLP speaker told how in 1978, amid massive publicity about the Nazis’ planned march in Skokie (a largely Jewish town), dozens of PLP members and friends invaded the Nazi office and physically smashed them. This raid ended the Nazi’s "myth of invincibility" and led to their demise. In 1979, PLP organized a May Day march of 700 black, Latin and white workers and youth to integrate Marquette Park and finish off that particular Nazi group.

The PL’er’s speech sparked a spirited discussion about the need for violence as against non-violence. One speaker, Rev. John Porter, had brought Martin Luther King to Marquette Park in the mid-1960’s, and racists violently attacked their march. A PLP member pointed out that it was the non-violence of people like King that emboldened the racists, who were definitely not non-violent.

Several other speakers talked about their experiences fighting racism in this area. One explained that the real estate agents and their bankers made millions out of block-busting and red-lining, and kept up a barrage of racist lies to keep white workers fearful of blacks moving into "their" neighborhood.

Most accounts of fighting racism and segregation lacked a real class analysis. The real cause of racism is the capitalist profit system. The only solution is communist revolution.

On the 25th anniversary of the integration of Marquette Park, official government policy far surpasses the level of racism and fascist terror those Nazis ever dreamed of. This May Day we continue the struggle to build a mass international PLP that can grow under fascism and prepare for the workers’ seizure of power.

How A Young Communist Honored Stalin At His Death

(Note: This version is abbreviated for print. For the full version, go here)

We in PLP don’t believe in building "cults of personality," but the working-class movement has great ancestry!

The great communist leader Joseph Stalin died 51 years ago. Among working-class people and many others, he was the most loved and respected person in the world because he represented the great achievements of the Soviet Union and the world communist movement. That love and respect can be measured, partly, by the witness of ordinary people.

One such person, V.A Atsiukovsky, eventually became a physicist and engineer. In 1994, past retirement age, he wrote "Communism — the Future of the Human Race. The account below is excerpted from his autobiography, The Adventures of an Engineer, the Notes of an Activist, 1998.

Joseph Stalin died on March 5, 1953. For the overwhelming majority of my generation, which had not fought in the war, and of the older generation that did, Stalin’s death was an immense tragedy. Of course, among us there were people who were silently glad at his death, but at that time they didn’t dare breath a word of such feelings. Later they tried hard to…disgrace not only Stalin but everything that had been done in his time. But during those days we were seized with grief, and with a single thought — to go to Moscow to pay our respects to our deceased Leader and Teacher.

Our plan was to use local commuter trains to get through all the cordons, which would…be stationed…to prevent any great crowds in Moscow, and then on the most distant train, which would no doubt still be running, to get to our goal.

My plan could not have worked better. Lying on the floor under a shelf in an almost empty commuter-train car, I heard patrols walking the platform at Liuban and stopping someone, but no one even entered the car I was in; soon the train moved farther along…. I managed to find a seat in the farthest train, which was completely packed, arriving in Moscow on the morning of the second day of the funeral, and set off to say goodbye to Stalin.

I managed to get through to Sverdlov Square only because I was wearing a military overcoat.… Towards the evening…there were about 100 persons, "interlopers" like me, gathered together.

About seven o’clock on the third day…, we were formed into a general column and, with us, began that gigantic line of those who wished to bid farewell to Stalin, a line that stretched throughout the whole of Moscow. … I went with the first group of 100, said farewell to the person for whom I had the most respect of anyone in the world, and went home to my Institute dormitory.

….Two days [later] I was called into the Young Communist bureau of my faculty…to give my explanation of how I had dared to abandon my Institute during such a time. …

"Did you understand that it was forbidden to go to Moscow?" they asked me.

"Of course!"

"And did you know that you’d get into trouble for that?"

"Of course!"

"And you went anyway? And will you do it again the next time?"

"How can there be a ‘next time’! We only had one Stalin, and I went to say farewell to him, and not to you. There cannot be any ‘next time.’"

"And you don’t regret that you did this?"

"I don’t regret it," I answered.

Movie Makes Anti-Fascist ‘Statement’

I recently saw "The Statement," starring Michael Caine and directed by liberal humanist Norman Jewison. The movie opens with French Nazis, called the Milice, killing seven Jewish workers. Then fast-forward to the present where a hit man, allegedly working for a Jewish Commando team, is hunting one of the Milice, Pierre Brossard.

Meanwhile, two French officials are also looking for Brossard. He’s guilty of crimes against humanity, based on a law passed to run down old fascists once and for all. But one of the officials, a woman who is an investigating judge, is looking for Brossard so he can identify a powerful member of the French government who also belonged to the Milice. The ending is pretty ironic and because it’s a vital part of the movie, I won’t give it away.

While the movie deals with the hunt for Brossard and his frantic efforts to escape, it also reveals how sections of the Roman Catholic Church in France helped hide Nazi collaborators after World War II, and how sections of the French police and "justice" system helped Nazis avoid punishment. The movie is very compelling in depicting the chief character, Brossard, as both a cunning fugitive, a vicious, treacherous member of the French Nazi movement, and a frightened, true-believing, right-wing Catholic. Simultaneously, it shows the dedication of the French anti-fascist officials in taking on both the church and members of the government. So, there’s a lot of detective work going on.

Clearly Jewison is not a communist, but he does give communists and Uncle Joe (Stalin) their due as leaders of the anti-Nazi resistance. Indeed, one reason why a section of the Catholic Church supported the Nazis was their belief that Stalin was the "anti-Christ" and that the "Jews" created communism. Could the same group be behind Mel Gibson’s anti-Jewish version of the crucifixion?

However, like most bourgeois humanist movies, Jewison says the system is basically O.K. and that dedicated seekers of justice will eliminate the "bad guys" who are the problem. What’s not shown is how racist ideology was used to create a Brossard, and how anti-Jewish racism was a cornerstone of Nazi capitalism.

This movie is a good starting point for discussions about Nazi fascism, the old "alliance" of Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt, and the major role of the police in the fascist movement. Most important, we can discuss the positives and negatives of the old communist movement, to avoid the same mistakes of allying with liberal and conservative anti-fascists in current and future wars.

One last point: the movie was never shown in Chicago itself. I had to go to suburban Wilmette to see it. While the neo-fascist LORD OF THE RING gets massive publicity and mass showings, curiously a film about fighting fascism, with pro-communist sympathies, gets shown way out of town.

An Old World War II Participant

LETTERS

New Bracero Plan: Same Old Robbery

If the rulers of the USA and Mexico re-establish the bracero program, it won’t differ from the old system. And the bosses will be the big winners.

Bush’s new proposal, accepted by Mexico’s President Vicente Fox, will repeat the same racist super-exploitation and robbery of the old bracero program. As contract labor, they can be easily controlled. Violators will be chased by the Migra (Immigration Service) and deported. The same applies for other "liberal" immigration reform plans, like the "Dream Act, which aims to create illusions among immigrant youth about capitalism and win their loyalty to U.S. imperialism’s endless wars.

Since the Fox government is even less capable of creating jobs than the Bush gang, it needs to export workers. Fox figures he can get away with the massive job losses Mexico has seen in the last couple of years by sending workers to the U.S., where they need even cheaper labor. The billions sent by Mexican workers in the U.S. to their relatives back home has become one of the biggest sources of foreign exchange after PEMEX (state-owned oil company) and tourism. On top of that, the bosses may figure they can get away with the same scheme in which they stole $1 billion from the old braceros, taking 10% of their wages for a so-called pension fund, money which they’ve never seen. (See article, page 3)

For U.S. bosses, the bracero program is a good source of super-profits, and lowers wages for all workers. In the old bracero program, farmworkers were paid 80¢ an hour, far less than the minimum wage.

Workers were told the lie that if they worked hard, their contract would be renewed. They competed with each other to work harder and harder, increasing productivity and the bosses’ profits. That’s why many workers preferred to be undocumented rather than a bracero or "guest worker."

This is also part of the bosses’ ideology: convince workers to feel "since we’re going to be screwed anyway, I’d rather be screwed this way than that way, and maybe I can get out of this hell by ‘making it’ and becoming a straw boss or a foreman."

Mexico’s government aided that ideological attack against workers by telling the braceros, "make sure you represent your country well in the U.S., work hard and send your money back so the country can progress." Well, the old braceros — now fighting to get back those stolen wages — are seeing the bosses’ lies first-hand.

Only class-consciousness can counter this divisive ideology. Whether workers are braceros, undocumented, documented or citizens, we’re all part of the international working class. We must fight for jobs and decent living conditions wherever we are.

But this class concept won’t fall from the sky. Communists must bring it. That’s what PLP has been trying to do in its many years of organizing among California’s farmworkers. Let’s fight for communism, with no borders, where production serves our needs as workers.

A veteran California farmworker

‘Kill ’em — There Are More Where Those Soldiers Came From’

Mel Gibson is in the news for his movie "The Passion of Christ," depicting Jesus’ last hours. It’s basically a new "Protocols of Zion," the forgery created by the Tsar’s secret police a century ago and used to justify the pogroms that murdered thousands of Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe. This forgery was then spread worldwide by Henry Ford, and became one of the Nazis’ ideological weapons to carry out their holocaust.

But this letter concerns one of Gibson’s few good roles (probably the only one):"Braveheart." It depicted the power struggle between the Scottish and English ruling classes. It also exposed the Scottish rulers’ betrayal of the Scottish people who fought the English King.

One great scene reveals the rulers’ view of their own soldiers throughout millenniums of class struggles. When the English and Scottish soldiers were fighting in close combat. King Edward I ordered his archers to shoot at random. One Knight told the King, "But our men will die too." The King replied that there are many more to take their place.

During the 1980’s Iraq-Iran war (when the Reagan-Bush, Sr.-Cheney-Rumsfeld crowd sided with Saddam Hussein), the Iranian Ayatollahs (today buddies with the British and helping the U.S. in Iraq) used young children as martyrs, sending them in droves to clear mine fields planted by the Iraqi army. Their "martyrdom" would guarantee them "a place in paradise." These were never the children of Iran’s Ayatollahs or rich bosses.

Today, Dubya, Blair. Rumsfeld and Spain’s Aznar couldn’t care less about the "Coalition" soldiers being killed in Iraq, since they know there are many more workers back home to take their places. They don’t even care to honor or visit the war’s casualties (see front page).

At some point, soldiers worldwide will realize there’s no honor in dying for any capitalist. We should do our utmost to ensure this happens sooner rather than later.

A Movie Buff

Bosses’ Borders Devastate Families

I’m a Party member in Mexico. Two years ago some friends and myself were fired from a factory for disagreeing with the bosses and being a threat to them and the union leaders.

For these two long years I’ve had a lot of trouble finding a job, so I had to immigrate to the country of illusions, leaving my family, my friends and everything one cares about.

This could be a bad scene from a movie. This situation has provoked tremendous anger in me against this system. I hope my wife and family have the same reaction and that it strengthens our conviction to organize to destroy this system. Everything we’re living through is caused by a system that cannot solve the problems of the working class.

This letter has been hard to write, but I really want to share my experiences with the CHALLENGE readers, including those in Mexico.

A while ago the Fidel Castro regime was sharply criticized, reporting that people had to leave Cuba or die of hunger. Part of my motivation in writing this letter is to say that immigration is not exclusive to Cuba but a product of the unemployment produced by capitalism. I hope this letter helps motivate those who read it to continue organizing, and together to replace this system with one that will meet workers’ needs without dividing families.

A comrade

Capitalism and Winter Deadly for Homeless

In Minneapolis capitalism and a harsh winter are a deadly combination for homeless workers. This January was the coldest since 1996. Many workers in Minneapolis-St. Paul have a serious homeless problem. Because of the economy, affordable housing is non-existent. Minneapolis leads the nation in this regard, ahead of Chicago and San Francisco.

The bosses are building plenty of luxury condominiums here. The Party is absolutely right in saying that capitalism produces for profit, not for need.

In the Twin Cities, the homeless are disproportionately black or Native American due to racism. Homeless workers are turned away from overcrowded shelters, given blankets and told to walk to the next shelter, about two miles away! Workers are sent out to risk death in 40° below zero temperature. Capitalism is truly criminal.

There’s $87 billion available for U.S. imperialist adventures in Iraq, but nothing for homeless workers, many of whom are veterans of the last Gulf War and from Vietnam. U.S. imperialism used them and threw them away.

Governor Pawlety says he "wants to solve" Minnesota’s homeless problem, but he can’t. He’s a servant of the ruling class. He threw 20,000 workers off Minnesota Care, the affordable health insurance here.

Workers must join PLP to destroy capitalism and create a communist society. Then the working class will erect homes based on need. Money and profits won’t exist. "To each according to needs" is a world worth fighting for. March on May Day for communist revolution.

Minnesota Red

Grocery Strikers Break With Union Hacks

My friend is on strike against the California grocery bosses and was forced to find another job. Many rank-and-filers are dispirited. The last union-organized event showed the union leadership is not fighting for the workers. Over 14,000 people marched in a massive demonstration along a terrible route only four blocks long. It's good that so many people came, but the leadership led them into an isolated part of Inglewood through empty streets. At the end the street was blocked with a stage where they made speeches telling us to vote for capitalist politicians.

I marched with the father and sister of my striker-friend. The strike has provoked much anger and frustration among supporters of the workers. My friend's father said it was like having a demonstration in their dining room, not taking it out to the public. He thought it should be held in downtown LA where throngs of people could see it and join. I added that, with appropriate leadership, markets along the route could have been shut down by the marchers.

After picketing every day, my striking friend stopped going because the union retreated, not allowing Ralph's Store workers to picket their own workplaces. She was assigned to a Pavillions store far from her home. No wonder morale is low. The union leadership is to blame. It's no exaggeration to picture them holding hands with the bosses, selling out the 70,000 strikers. Meanwhile, union chief Rick Icaza's $273,000 yearly salary was not cut one cent during the walkout.

Some friends and I started circulating a petition demanding regular meetings to inform everyone as well as a more militant union effort. The striker's sister said demonstrations and strikes are not as militant as they used to be, when they stopped production and scabs. That's exactly what workers need to do to cut off the bosses' profits. That's why we need class consciousness and communist leaders who organize the potential power of the working class, not union leaders who only want to control our anger and manipulate us into dead ends.

A striker's friend

RED EYE ON THE NEWS

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

Liars push ‘job training’

For 20 years, every job crisis…has been met with calls for retraining….

The trouble is, it doesn’t work, and the government knows it. The most comprehensive evaluation of training programs, conducted by the Department of Labor, followed 20,000 people over four years. For the vast majority, the government concluded that training made no difference whatsoever.

People got the same kind of jobs whether or not they’d been through the program….

In studying more than 40 years of job training policy,…not…one program…,on average, enabled its participants to earn their way out of poverty….

There are simply not enough decent-paying jobs….

In this context, to promote training in order to make workers think that unemployment is their own fault is a cruel joke…. (L.A. Times)

Imperialists always use lies

In 1846 President James Polk announced that Mexican troops had fired on American soldiers on American soil, and he took the country to war that eventually gained it California, New Mexico and Arizona. Was the disputed soil ours? Probably not. Did Polk distort the information he had? Almost certainly. He wanted the territory, and he needed a war to get it….

Presidents and other decision-makers usually get the intelligence they want….In 1961…I climbed to…a high-level meeting to discuss the planned invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs….Richard Bissell, a legendary figure of cold war intelligence,…assured us that once the American-backed rebels had established themselves, the Cuban people would rise up against Castro….

In 1967….our Vietnam intelligence … could have been off by 10 percent or by 300 percent because "the data is so soft that we cannot state with confidence whether we have been doing better or worse militarily over the past year…." The generals and the president wanted higher body counts….and that’s what they got.

Those now trying to figure out what went wrong before the war in Iraq should bear in mind a simple truth: we [U.S. rulers] are more likely to "know" what we want to know than what we don’t want to know.

(Richard Goodwin was a White House assistant to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.) (NYT)

US women’s pay really 44% of men’s

In a study commissioned by Representatives Carolyn Maloney and John Dingell, the federal General Accounting office reported that women’s earnings in proportion to men have actually gone backward. In 1983 it was 80.4 cents for every dollar for men. It is now 79.7.

Conservatives argue that it is due to women’s work patterns — leaving for child care, elder care, following husbands to new areas, etc. This study of more than 9,300 citizens and 18 years of data indicates that if these things were not [sic] factored in it would have been an astounding 44 cents to every dollar! (Liberal Opinion Week, 2/3)

Real disaster: the system

Millions of lives could be saved if poor countries were better prepared for natural disasters that now kill on average nearly 70,000 people each year….

Wealthy countries represent 15 percent of the population exposed to natural disasters but fewer than 2 percent of the deaths. The very poorest countries contain 11 percent of all those exposed to disasters, but account for 53 percent of the deaths.

"In a sense, this report is arguing that there is nothing natural about these disasters." (Financial Times, 2/3)

Hospitals charge poor more

A hospital sets a fee for each service it provides, but in the case of insured patients, no one pays the retail price….

The only patients who are truly charged the full prices are the uninsured, who are usually poor. (NYT, 2/3)

Dems won’t let Iraq go

The Bush administration…has not acknowledged its fundamental problem, which can be stated very simply.

The Bush administration wants the appearance of handing over sovereignty to a provisional government in June, but at the same time it wants to continue to control Iraq….

Democrats, including John Kerry…offer another fantasy: that the United States can hand security over to NATO, and the political problems to the UN, and pull out….

The Democratic presidential candidates have to understand that the United States cannot expect the UN — or NATO — to take over the task of installing in Iraq, against national and sectarian resistance, what would amount to an American satellite government. But is the United States, under this or any other administration, prepared to accept anything else? (Tribune, 1/21)

Elections 2004: Two Parties, One Warmaking-Racist Ruling Class

NYPD Murders Black Youth:

a href="#Law Of Capitalist Market: Half the Workers Can’t Meet Basic Needs">"aw Of Capitalist Market: Half the Workers Can’t Meet Basic Needs

a href="#Brass Says GI Deaths ‘Cost of Doing Business’">Br"ss Says GI Deaths ‘Cost of Doing Business’

a href="#Red Politics Influence Neighborhood Workers’ Struggles in Mexico">"ed Politics Influence Neighborhood Workers’ Struggles in Mexico

Celebrate 40 Years Of Challenge

a href="#‘One Party for one international working class . . .’">‘O"e Party for one international working class . . .’

Soldiers Back From Iraq Attack General Strike In Dominican Republic

Fight Racist Attacks On Black And Immigrant Respiratory Therapists

a href="#Domino Sugar Workers’ Bitter Layoff Pill Sweetens Bosses’ Profits">Do"ino Sugar Workers’ Bitter Layoff Pill Sweetens Bosses’ Profits

Internationalism Trumps Nationalism At MEChA Conference

Fighting for the Party in a Mass Student Organization

a href="#Schwarzenegger Terminates Workers’ Vital Services">"chwarzenegger Terminates Workers’ Vital Services

Bosses Use Union Leaders to Scab on Grocery Strike

Ford, DaimlerChrysler: Once A Nazi Always a Nazi

UAW Helps Auto Bosses Gear Up to Axe Workers

Rawlings Scores Big From Exploiting Baseball Workers

a href="#1911 Triangle Fire Didn’t End Sweatshops">"911 Triangle Fire Didn’t End Sweatshops

LETTERS

Anti-War Activists Need Red Politics

Red Army Liberated Auschwitz

Teacher Salutes Anti-Fascist Stand

a href="#Boycott, Picket Gibson’s ‘Passion’">Boyc"tt, Picket Gibson’s ‘Passion’

a href="#‘Community Policing’ Used to Stifle Class Struggle">‘C"mmunity Policing’ Used to Stifle Class Struggle

RED EYE ON THE NEWS

Elections 2004: Two Parties, One Warmaking-Racist Ruling Class

All Democratic . The nation’s biggest capitalists are searching for an effective wartime leader. Their dissatisfaction with George Bush is growing daily. Senator Jay Rockefeller called for a "full investigation" following weapons inspector David Kay’s charge that Bush had invaded Iraq under false pretenses. Rockefeller whined that Bush had "rushed into this war," that is, without first preparing public opinion to fight and die for U.S. rulers’ strategic oil interests. The imperialist wing of U.S. capital that Rockefeller represents needs a president who can win large numbers of people to militarism in the guise of "serving the nation."

That’s the real significance of John Kerry’s leapfrogging in the Democrats’ race for the White House, whether or not he gains the nomination. Walter Russell Mead, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a top think-tank for U.S. imperialism, commended Kerry’s success in Iowa: "With more than 80% of Iowa caucus-goers endorsing candidates who voted at least to authorize the U.S. strike against Iraq, it is beginning to look as if the Democrats are ready to put the anti-war temptation behind them....That would be good news for the Democrats. No anti-war candidate can win a national contest in 2004. It would also be good news for the country and for the world" (Wall Street Journal, 1/21). Mead adds, "historically, the Democrats have been America’s war party."

Of all the candidates, Kerry has the most fully-developed "national service" plan to build the military and enlist popular support for a police state. A major plank in Kerry’s platform is a program called "A New Army of Patriots." It demands a compulsory year of service for high schoolers. That service includes assisting local and federal law enforcement in homeland security. Kerry also promises college tuition in return for two years in the military, which he calls "the highest form of service." In addition to expanding the existing Police Corps program, Kerry would create a fascistic "Community Defense Service" with local captains functioning as the eyes and ears of the government.

Despite his recent stumbling, Howard Dean is also proving useful to the rulers’ war efforts. While U.S. imperialists see a Dean presidency as less and less likely, they praise his skill in leading young people into the dead end of electoral politics.

Michael O’Hanlon, who studies military affairs for the Brookings Institution, has written no fewer than six op-ed articles since December in various papers criticizing Dean’s lack of foreign policy experience. But the New York Times (2/1) editorializes: "If the product of the Dean movement is thousands of young people who are slightly hardened to the lure of a charismatic candidate, but determined to keep on fighting for a better world, it will have been a success no matter what happens to the former governor of Vermont." The Times quickly explains that "fighting for a better world" means working for the Democratic Party and, implicitly, for its war plans: "The real heroics come from you and your friends with the pamphlets, stolidly going door to door."

War criminal Wesley Clark remains in the race. The Butcher of Kosovo could become a more viable candidate for the rulers if events, such as another attack like Sept. 11, were to dictate a more rapid militarization of society.

The CFR’s Mead recites the old saying, "Vote for a Republican, and you get a Depression. Vote for a Democrat, and you get a war." But it’s wrong. Both parties serve capitalism. And it is the profit system itself that, continually and inevitably, brings economic misery, fascism and war.

NYPD Murders Black Youth:

Bloomberg’s Crocodile Tears Won’t End Racist Cop Terror

On January 24, the New York City Police Department added to its long history of racist murders. Many workers may ask: "What else is new?" The cold-blooded killing of black teenagers, defenseless women and children are among the NYPD’s specialties. But the city’s liberal bosses and politicians are putting a particular spin on this crime, trying to lead us into a dangerous political trap.

The facts of the atrocity are simple enough. Shortly before 1:00 A.M., cop Richard Neri shot 19 year-old Timothy Stansbury on a building roof in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, while the unarmed youth was taking a short-cut to a party.

A devoted family member, Mr. Stansbury held a night-shift job at McDonald’s. He was pursuing a GED diploma at Thomas Jefferson H.S. In short, he seemed to be a role model. Well, the cops have murdered many young black and Hispanic role models over the years, and the NYPD brass and mayor’s office have almost without exception taken the classic racist "blame-the-victim" approach to the deed.

This case seems different. Immediately after Neri had executed Mr. Stansbury, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelley described the shooting as "unjustified." NYC’s Mayor, billionaire media baron Michael Bloomberg, echoed Kelley and rushed to comfort the youth’s grieving family. On January 30, when Bloomberg attended the funeral, the Brooklyn D.A. asked a grand jury to indict Neri.

One black city councilman, Albert Vann of Bedford-Stuyvesant, called the gestures by Bloomberg a "defining moment," and predicted a brighter future for relations between New York’s black working class and the NYPD.And that’s the trap we must avoid.

The cops can never become less racist or lethal to the working class than they have always been. They provide the domestic front line of the profit system’s government, which communists call the state apparatus. They serve the big bosses and embody the bosses’ class dictatorship over us.

The bosses love to pretend that the cops’ role is to "prevent crime." But it’s just the opposite. The cops exist to help the rulers commit the crimes against us that their maximum profits require. Bloomberg, for example, has carried out hundreds of millions of dollars worth of budget cuts, slashing health, education, day care, the parks, etc., to the bare bones. These cuts have undoubtedly led to more workers’ deaths than all the many police murders in the last decade. The cuts serve the profit interests of NYC’s major banks. The cops’ legalized terrorism gives the rulers firepower to use against working-class rebellions that eventually explode against racist oppression.

The disgusting hypocrisy of Bloomberg, Kelley and Vann is an act designed to lure us into backing the bosses’ long-range plans for foreign wars and the police state that the profit system will need to carry out this scenario. Even before 9/11, the rulers were engaged in a sharp tactical fight over the best way to package the cops. One side, represented by the Manhattan Institute and its star pupil, racist Rudy Giuliani, NYC’s former mayor, didn’t believe too much in subtlety. Their tactic consisted of giving the cops the order to "shoot first and ask questions later." The cops happily complied. Giuliani’s administrations have a lot of innocent blood on their hands.

The other side, represented by police "theoretician" George Kelling, by Al Sharpton, by former NYPD Commissioner Bratton (now "serving" LA), by Kelley, and now, apparently, by Bloomberg, wants to dress up the racist wolf in sheep’s clothing. These liberals call for "community policing," which would recruit workers to snitch on each other and police each other. "Community policing" is a scheme to water down and/or squash the class struggles that will inevitably erupt in the wake of U.S. rulers’ oil wars and economic vise-tightening against our class. Under "community policing," the cops will still carry guns and use them against us.

A boss is a boss is a boss, and a cop is a cop is a cop. The main dangers for our class remain less in the policeman’s bullet than in the bullet disguised as balm for the wounds the bosses inflict on us.

We must never rely on the rulers or their politicians. Police terror is, and will always remain, an indispensable ingredient of capitalist state power. Bloomberg’s crocodile tears and "community policing" won’t change the fundamental class forces in play here. That’s the main lesson of Bloomberg’s repulsive posturing around the latest racist cop murder in New York.

a name="Law Of Capitalist Market: Half the Workers Can’t Meet Basic Needs">">"aw Of Capitalist Market: Half the Workers Can’t Meet Basic Needs

Wage inequality is widening in the U.S., due to capitalism’s drive for maximum profits and increasing international competition, especially among the bosses of the imperialist countries. Corporations are cutting labor costs by laying off workers, pushing those remaining harder for longer hours and shifting production to cheaper labor areas overseas.

As Karl Marx pointed out long ago, capitalists are driven to invest in technology and machinery — and now automation — that displace even more workers. All this plus shrinking unions, a stagnant minimum wage and the reduction in the manufacturing sector’s share of employment combines to uproot unskilled workers from higher-paying jobs.

This has produced "far more job-seekers than jobs…a recipe for higher inequality." (Economic Policy Institute) The lowest 10% of the pay range has seen their wages fall while the highest 10% has experienced a rise in pay, not to mention the astronomical increase for the top 1% of the super-rich. The bulk of the Bush tax cuts — approved by both parties in Congress — goes to the wealthy.

"More than 30 million Americans — one in four workers — are stuck in low-wage jobs that do not provide…a decent life….Thirty million…make less than $8.70 an hour, the official U.S. poverty level for a family of four. …It takes at least double this level for a family to provide for its basic needs. Their low-wage, no-benefit jobs translate into billions of dollars in profits, executive pay, [and] high stock prices…" (The Nation, 2/9)

These figures cover only the 100 million who work full-time. It excludes part-timers and the unemployed. Sixty percent of the unemployed are ineligible for benefits and receive zero income. The other 40% who do receive unemployment benefits get no more than half their pay, and then only for 26 weeks. Now 375,000 jobless workers whose benefits expired in January were denied an extension by Congress, and another two million workers will also exhaust their 26 weeks in the first half of this year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. So these nearly 2.4 million workers will also have zero income.

The so-called average wage, or even the median level, does not include these 20 million unemployed — the majority of whom have no income at all — nor the millions of part-timers (who traditionally earn less per hour than full-timers). So the average income of the entire working class is far lower than the figures reported just for those working full-time.

Capitalism is driven by the laws of the market to squeeze workers into lower wage levels to maximize profits. The laws of the market cannot be reformed. The international working class can only lead a decent life when we reap the full value of our labor, without the bosses stealing most of that value (see article on baseball-manufacturing workers in Costa Rica, page 8). The only solution is to destroy the profit system that thrives on this inequality and abolish wage slavery with communist revolution, the goal of PLP.

GI Writes:

a name="Brass Says GI Deaths ‘Cost of Doing Business’"></">Br"ss Says GI Deaths ‘Cost of Doing Business’

Recently our unit took leave for a few days. Before releasing us, one officer briefed us on safety, stressing careful driving and preventing injuries by avoiding dangerous activities. After formation, one soldier cracked, "Stay safe and make sure you don’t injure yourself so we can send you to Iraq." What activity could be more dangerous than having the brass send us to war? The soldier’s joke struck at the nerve of the officer’s and NCO’s concern for us.

The unit promotes recreation — drinking, playing pool, watching movies — and keeping each other in good spirits to maintain morale. Recently our first sergeant encouraged us to talk to our families and friends if we were down or depressed. "We want you to be able to focus on your work," he told us. Basically, they only care about our well-being as it affects our commitment to fight the war.

When we arrived here, a general told us to "know your enemy." He mentioned the continuing attacks on U. S. soldiers and the number of U. S. fatalities since the war supposedly ended and then said, "The most dangerous enemy is the soldier sitting next to you." He noted that most of the some 9,000 casualties (both injuries and deaths) were from accidents, mishandled weapons and the heat.

What a bastard! In Iraq the brass regularly order soldiers onto 12- and 24-hour shifts. One Gulf War veteran in our unit was a truck driver in Saudi Arabia. He said the brass made drivers repair, maintain, and operate vehicles for as long as 36 hours at a stretch. One driver was killed when he was run over by a 5-ton truck. He was sleeping under the truck after working two long missions. "Most of the driving accidents happened when we were working beyond exhaustion," our veteran friend told us.

Our senior NCO’s and officers tell us repeatedly they’re gonna bring us back home safe, but their job is to take us to Iraq to fight this war; coming home safe is optional. Our commander said his first priority is the mission and that he would sacrifice some of us for it. Sensing the chill in the room he smartly added, "That’s the cost of doing business." Of course, he didn’t mention the Iraqis slaughtered for the greater glory of Haliburton’s profits.

Red Soldier

a name="Red Politics Influence Neighborhood Workers’ Struggles in Mexico">">"ed Politics Influence Neighborhood Workers’ Struggles in Mexico

MEXICO CITY, Jan. 27 — A mass movement is growing in a working-class community here, demanding basic services like water, street pavements and drainage systems. Amid this struggle, many are reading, studying and distributing DESAFIO-CHALLENGE, gaining the understanding that the struggle is more than one for services, but mainly to end the oppression, misery and exploitation of capitalism.

Communism is the only way out. We’re looking for an historical and necessary change. Although we know it will take a long time, it’s worth waging the battles needed to get there.

A neighbor reading DESAFIO said, "I am hungry to know more about communism, to be able to destroy all the profiteers so that my children will no longer be cannon fodder to be exploited." In a recent PL study group, we read the article, "The Foolish Old Man that Moved Mountains." We agreed to challenge the ignorance and distortions many in the community have about communism.

Some workers here work for a transportation company. Many have been fired in the last few years. Some have gone beyond the limits set by the bosses, exposing the exploitative origin of the company’s wealth. Meanwhile, workers are fighting the bosses’ firings, wage-cuts and abuses. Fearing the workers’ anger will grow, so far the bosses have not fired the leaders of the struggle. Instead, they were transferred to other departments. Recently new workers were hired, but at lower wages and benefits. They will try to spread this to all workers.

We must build the Party and a mass communist movement to end this bloodsucking system. In another study group one worker asked, "What does communism have to do with firings?" Another responded, "If you have a better proposal, please put it forward." This kind of friendly but sharp exchange of ideas is crucial to building the Party.

Some workers have called for "a bigger PLP. We need to win more workers to visit and talk to workers about our Party instead of wasting our time watching TV at night."

We’ve taken some important steps, establishing a network of DESAFIO distributors with about 50 readers. We have also won a couple of dozen people into study groups, discussing the need to build the communist PLP. Even though some workers have been fired, we’re still in contact with them. The political potential is growing.

Celebrate 40 Years Of Challenge

BROOKLYN, NY, Jan. 24—About fifty teachers and other workers, students and friends of PLP celebrated the fortieth anniversary of the greatest working class paper around, CHALLENGE-DESAFIO in a hall decorated with working-class art and a collage of the paper’s headlines over the last four decades. we ate great food donated by comrades and friends.

A group of high school students read Bertolt Brecht ‘s poem, "General, Your Tank is a Powerful Vehicle." describing how the technology of the bosses’ war machine must depend on humans to function. Earlier in the day a youth group had discussed the article on the key role of soldiers in stopping imperialist wars by using their training and knowledge to fight the generals and the ruling class which use them as cannon fodder . The ruling class’s biggest problem is that workers can think. Our Party and its paper continues to train workers to think and act as revolutionaries.

The evening’s highlight was a speech by a comrade who described the impact CHALLENGE and the Party has had on an elementary school over a ten-year period. The consistency in spreading the paper and organizing discussions around it in this school sparked an important struggle against forcing children to recite the pledge of allegiance.

The attack on anti-fascist fighter Inez Weiner was kept front and center with a speech that inspired us to keep pushing forward. CHALLENGE will be a central part of our campaign to bring supporters to the courtroom at her April trial.

An older man attending the dinner revealed he had been a CHALLENGE reader 30 years ago in Ecuador. A teacher who came with him was impressed enough to take 100 papers to distribute in her classes.

We must continue to fight for the paper that is a breath of fresh air to the millions who are searching for a way out of the hell of capitalism.

a name="‘One Party for one international working class . . .’"></">‘O"e Party for one international working class . . .’

NEW YORK CITY, January 31—It was very emotional to see over 200 people participate in CHALLENGE’s 40th anniversary celebration in Manhattan. Lenin said the revolutionary press has a key role in the Party’s development, each of which were outlined by the first three speakers, in noting CHALLENGE’s accomplishments over four decades in serving the international working class.

The first speaker said our paper has struggled against the opportunist tendencies of the old communist movement. While learning from the giants in our history, we’ve also gone beyond that in organizing one Party for one international working class across all capitalist borders.

A second comrade declared that CHALLENGE has played a significant role in most of our political development. He said the first time he read the paper, he was very skeptical. He still remembered the front-page headline which said that capitalism, with its "booms" and economic crises, will only end when workers bury it. He read it three times that night. The next morning he sat with a co-worker at his job to discuss communism, Stalin, the history of the Soviet Union, the Vietnam War, and so on. For the first time in his life, the ideas of communism and the class struggle made him very emotional. When he joined PLP he understood that he was now responsible to win others to fight for communism.

A third speaker said that sometimes we feel like we’re isolated in a forest, not knowing what’s happening on in the world. "I bet all of us sometimes feel like we’re trapped in a hole. CHALLENGE can help us get out of that hole. It puts the entire world in front of us. Fight for communism!"

People talked about fighting racism, against imperialist war in Iraq, the fascist Patriot Act and other horrors capitalism has in store for our class. We also enjoyed delicious food served by comrades, along with some revolutionary culture. We concluded by singing the revolutionary working-class anthem The Internationale in several languages.

An Upper Manhattan Worker

Soldiers Back From Iraq Attack General Strike In Dominican Republic

SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, Jan. 29 — A 48-hour general strike shut down most of this Caribbean nation. Several demonstrators were killed and hundreds were arrested. The strike demanded an end to the government’s deal with the International Monetary Fund imposing more austerity measures on the masses, as well as a 100% wage hike for government and private workers, lower prices on basic foodstuff and an end to the constant blackouts. The country has been lurching from one economic crisis to another. In the last year, the peso’s value has dropped from 17 to the dollar to more than 50. Many Dominicans are risking their lives crossing the dangerous Mona Channel to go to Puerto Rico en route to the U.S.

The strike was called by some mass reformist organizations and supported by politicians opposed to President Hipólito Mejía’s scheme to get himself re-elected for a second term in the May balloting. The government blames the rotten economy on the world crisis of capitalism and the price of oil (imported from Venezuela). This is partially true, but the government’s corruption and ineptness has made conditions worse.

Last year, the rich Bainter bank collapsed amid a Parmalat/Enron-style fraud. The government spent over $2 billion bailing out the big investors while working people lost their savings.

Soldiers just returning from duty in Iraq patrolled the city during the strike (the D.R. being one of the few countries worldwide sending troops to help the U.S.-UK occupation). They even wore the desert camouflage uniforms used in Iraq, not the green olive ones used by the other thousands patrolling the cities. They used their Iraqi training to occupy working-class neighborhoods and attack strike protestors. A few days earlier, one Iraqi veteran killed a young man at a beer hall in San Francisco de Macoris.

The strike itself is mainly an electoral maneuver to dump the President. Most people supported it because they hate his government. But more than a general strike (a similar strike took place on Nov. 11), or changing one crooked President for another, is needed to end the misery suffered by workers here and abroad. Two days after the strike, the President ignored the mass outpouring against his policies and got himself nominated by a faction inside the divided ruling Party. A similar crisis is enveloping neighboring Haiti, where the U.S.-supported "Democratic Convergence" is trying to topple the former Clinton lackey, President Aristide. Only a united struggle on both sides of the island, based on PLP’s revolutionary communist politics, can free workers and their allies from this capitalist hell.

Fight Racist Attacks On Black And Immigrant Respiratory Therapists

CHICAGO, IL, Jan. 29 — The racist Cook County bosses are doing their best to divide the black, Latino, East Indian, Filipino and Mid-Eastern workers who comprise the Respiratory Therapy Department at Stroger Hospital. Armed with an agreement from SEIU Local 73 HC, they’re threatening to fire nine black therapists and technicians if they do not pass a "certification" test by March 31. This is a racist attack on all health workers and patients.

Racism is the cutting edge in the rulers’ push to fascism and war. Racist budget cuts in health, education, heating allowance and mass transit are financing the imperialist occupation of Iraqi oil fields and the Homeland Security police state. Stroger Hospital and County bosses are collaborating in this process, which arrests and deports Arab and Muslim immigrants, and imprisons more people — mainly young black and Latin men — than any other country in the world.

The Improving Community Health Survey shows racist disparities in health care from one Chicago community to another, and the gaps are growing. David Ansell, chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at Mt. Sinai Hospital said, "This is not a problem of individuals who have bad genes. I’ve been dealing with this for 25 years and it’s gotten worse, not better. Despite all these technological advances, the disparities have worsened between the haves and have-nots." (Chicago Tribune, 1/8)

These licensed and experienced workers have helped our patients breathe for over 20 years. Several black therapists are certified, but most were promoted and licensed based on seniority and work performance. Most have been out of school for 20 years and are heads of households, which makes studying difficult. The exam, which is not required by the State, costs $190 each time one takes it.

They are being sacrificed to settle the grievances of nine mostly East Indian therapists, who passed their certification but were never promoted. In February 2003, they filed a grievance, tired of doing the same work as the mostly black therapists for $4,000 less per year (Stroger Hospital already pays certified therapists the lowest wages in the city.) In May, Local 73 HC gave the bosses the racist solution they were looking for: give all non-certified (black) therapists six months to pass the exam or lose their jobs. All the new union leadership has done so far is to get a three-month extension.

Rather than play by the bosses’ rules and be bound by their agreement with the union, we will fight to stop the racist firing of the black therapists, and fight to upgrade the immigrant therapists. In battling this racist attack, we can unite citizen and immigrant, black and white, and explain how racism is at the very core of the profit system.

This an opportunity to unite the working class and build the revolutionary communist movement. On this 25th Anniversary of PLP defeating the Nazis and integrating Marquette Park, we can build a mass May Day aimed at defeating fascism with communist revolution.

a name="Domino Sugar Workers’ Bitter Layoff Pill Sweetens Bosses’ Profits"></">Do"ino Sugar Workers’ Bitter Layoff Pill Sweetens Bosses’ Profits

BROOKLYN, N.Y., Jan. 31 — At one time over 1,300 workers were employed at the Domino sugar refining and packing plant here in the borough’s Williamsburg neighborhood. Now the last 240 workers are being sacked, over 220 today and the rest later this year when the plant closes its doors for good.

The American Sugar Refining company claims the firings are due to the "falling demand for cane sugar," compared to competing sweeteners. But the real cause is capitalism, where profits trump workers’ lives.

In June 1958, Brooklyn had 222,000 manufacturing workers. By June of ’84, the number was down to 88,800; and by June of 2003 it had sunk to 33,967. The reason is that more profits can be made from real estate and "the gentrification rippling across" Brooklyn. (N.Y. Times, 1/31) Now the bosses want to use our taxes to build a new stadium for the "Brooklyn Nets," and build high-priced housing from which they can reap still more billions in profits.

The bosses’ drive for maximum profits pushes them to invest in machinery to lower the cost of labor (see Wages article on page 2). Nine hundred Domino workers lost their jobs to automation by 1992, while the company was making huge profits. Now capitalism’s "free market" finds greener pastures for profits in other industries, sugar substitutes or cheaper labor overseas.

In 1992-93, the 350 workers struck after rejecting a sellout proposal from the union leaders. No one attempted to scab or cross the picket lines. Yet this militancy and solidarity could not stop the bosses unstoppable drive for maximum profits.

What was missing was the communist leadership needed to point out to thousands of workers that capitalism is the root of the workers’ problems. Out of such a political struggle, and building on the militancy of the workers to sharpen the class struggle and involving hundreds of thousands of other workers in the city — spreading workers’ consciousness as a class — a revolutionary Party could grow and eventually become strong enough to destroy capitalism altogether. Under communism, workers will never be thrown out like garbage because of a new product but will do other useful things for our class, working for the benefit of the international working class.

Internationalism Trumps Nationalism At MEChA Conference

SEATTLE, WA, Jan. 16 — Because of the planning and presence of PLP, working-class internationalism won out over nationalism and liberalism at the annual MEChA Regional Conference for the Pacific Northwest at my campus here. I am an officer and active member of MEChA, a Chicano student organization. Since the conference theme was "Empowering la Mujer" [Women], we had arranged for a young women worker to speak about conditions in her plant, a subcontractor that makes parts for Boeing airplanes (commercial and military), super-exploiting their mostly immigrant, female workforce. Since Boeing is still one of the state’s largest employers, this hit home with many of the students at the conference.

The worker discussed the current world situation, how the ruling class is waging its wars by exploiting immigrant workers and using their children as cannon fodder. She concluded chanting, "Men, women, students, workers and soldiers united will never be defeated." All 300 students chanted along with her and gave her a standing ovation.

This reaction in an organization known for its nationalist politics shows the potential to win many of these young people to a more internationalist, class-conscious ideology if we continue to struggle with them. This is really what MEChA members need to answer the problems they face every day.

None of this happened by accident. Without a Party presence, the world situation either would not have been discussed at all or, if so, the solution presented would have been a very nationalist one. I have been trying to recruit members of this particular chapter for almost a year now, so my club knew the conference was an opportunity we couldn’t let pass by. It was important to do the work of the conference while also building the Party. My comrades’ help was invaluable, as always. After the conference our club decided it was imperative that more Party members get to know my friends in MEChA.

To further the political development of people in the mass movement, we must be there and raise our politics at these big events as well as in the day-to-day struggles. Because we were organized and politically conscious during this conference, we won two new contacts.

Our club now sees its main goal as furthering this internationalist, anti-imperialist line by struggling with our friends and the two new contacts to develop a class-conscious political ideology. My first step will be to ask my close friends to join PLP. Ultimately, the only thing that will help them is a strong Party to lead the fight against capitalism and towards communism.

Fighting for the Party in a Mass Student Organization

Recently I attended a student conference on worker-student solidarity, sponsored by a student organization in which the Party has been doing good work for a while. Before going, my Party club discussed the importance of revolutionary theory, how Lenin exposed the left fakers for failing to understand that a communist party takes revolutionary consciousness to the mass movement where it fights for these politics.

In several workshops about trade unions, it became clear that the contradiction really was between reform and revolution. At one workshop, people were asked about their organizations. I said I was in the Progressive Labor Party, that we were a multi-racial, international party whose platform was to eliminate racism and the system of capitalism, and that we make revolutionary politics primary in order to create a communist society free from exploitation, racism and sexism. I received a warm response.

The younger students asked if Cuba had communism. I said "no" and started to explain what communism was, but one of the facilitators said talking about communism would "take too long," that we weren’t there for that but rather for the presentation — advancing student-worker solidarity. So then we talked about that.

After that workshop one of the facilitators, who was in a union, said she really liked what I said and gave me information to contact her. I then gave her a CHALLENGE and said one of my comrades would call her. When I asked the whole crowd to take the paper, I made the mistake of not asking individual people, so I didn’t get too many out.

At another workshop, a United Farm Workers (UFW) representative described conditions for farm workers, warning there would be a major push by right-wing republicans to lower the minimum wage for these workers. He also criticized Bush’s immigration "reform" proposals and concluded that we must vote in the next elections. I then said relying on the unions and especially on voting to solve our problems was like a pet in a cage, trying to escape to freedom by running on the treadmill. Instead we need to place revolution at the forefront of our politics, to end exploitation by abolishing the wage system once and for all, meaning communism.

Again the union official said we couldn’t talk about that now, but rather about immediate solutions. I felt my position was clearly stated, and that any further talk of revolution would probably lead to me being kicked out. Later, someone asked what Cesar Chavez would do. I said Chavez turned in the names of union members to the Immigration Service. Ultimately I corrected my previous mistake, and distributed CHALLENGE to every PERSON who was interested.

In further meetings, we continued the struggle, crucial for developing some of our friends.

Liberal led organizations won’t give up leadership without a fight. We’re a small party and must do the painstaking, detailed work to win people closest to our ideas to the Party. Putting communist politics primary is most important. I learned that the collective is the key to organizing. We must investigate the contradictions, and determine which are primary and which secondary. Had I taken on all the contradictions at once, I probably would have isolated myself. I made a contact who will help continue the struggle of the group’s rank and file. Our strength is the line of the Party. We’re on the long road to building a mass communist party to take state power.

a name="Schwarzenegger Terminates Workers’ Vital Services">">"chwarzenegger Terminates Workers’ Vital Services

On January 10, California’s Governor released a proposed budget for 2004 containing sweeping cuts in desperately needed healthcare, social services and education for the working class. These cuts are part of the larger attack on the entire working class as U.S. rulers spend workers’ tax monies on fighting war after war to maintain their profits and world domination.

While state prisons received a hefty increase, Governor Swarzenegger proposed a $240-million cut from the State University budget. This will slash all higher education outreach and recruitment programs. The state’s largest outreach project is the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) which recruits a clear majority of low-income students, especially black and Latino, into higher education. The budget also increases tuition by 10% for undergraduates and 40% for graduates. This is on top of ex-Governor Davis’s 40% increase last year.

The reform leaders are focusing on saving EOP. They say we should ignore the openly racist nature of the cuts and appeal to the middle class — keep the message "simple." Their slogan is, "EOP equals social stability."

But if college education produces social stability, then we should see an increasing rate of stability as more and more people get college degrees. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that more people than ever graduated from college in 1996 and that rate has been continuing. It also reported substantial increases in graduation rates for all racial categories, but racism continues to mean lower numbers of black and Latino grads. According to the reformers’ logic, these increased rates should produce at least a small improvement in social stability. But, in fact, the 2000 census reported just the opposite. The gap between poor and rich doubled from 1979 to 2000 (N.Y. Times, 9/25). All major poverty indicators have worsened — unemployment, homelessness, children living in poverty, people without health insurance, etc.

There can be no social stability under capitalism, which is inherently unstable. A system that cannot provide healthcare, education, and needed social services for workers should be destroyed. The ruling class does not support public education to liberate workers from exploitation. From kindergarten through college, education exists predominantly to justify the exploitative capitalist system. New workers are trained and indoctrinated to enter different levels of the class hierarchy based on the family’s income level. Meanwhile, vast numbers of working-class youth are excluded through a combination of high tuition, racist under-education and high-stakes testing. While all workers are exploited, those excluded from education are forced into the most super-exploited jobs and/or into the bosses’ military.

PLP members and friends are participating in the fight against these racist budget cuts that are part of the bosses’ war budget and attacks on our class from Iraq to California. We can achieve a big victory and help to build a mass PLP by showing that this system needs inequality and uses racism and sexism to justify it. Capitalism will never provide the services the working class needs. PLP is fighting to organize students, workers, and soldiers to destroy the profit system and build a communist world based on creating a decent life for the working class. Join us!

Bosses Use Union Leaders to Scab on Grocery Strike

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 31 — Thousands of workers and students rallied and marched here, supporting the four-month-long grocery workers’ strike. The AFL-CIO, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), religious and community groups sponsored it. PLP distributed thousands of leaflets calling for action to stop scabs, shut stores tight, march on May Day and fight for workers’ power — communist revolution — because "a system that can’t provide decent health care for workers should be smashed." Many strikers and supporters bought CHALLENGE, saying the union leaders have refused to organize a strike based on the workers’ power and unity.

The demonstrators were angry at the attacks on the workers, whose health benefits have been cancelled, and whose strike benefits have been sliced in half. Some are also angry at the union leaders’ refusal to organize against the scabs and shut the stores. These union fakers also encouraged people to shop at a chain which has locked workers out and is using scabs. Except for one month, the UFCW and Teamster leadership allowed and urged teamsters to drive their trucks up to the picket lines, from where the store managers take the merchandise to the loading docks. The UFCW leadership has also pulled pickets from the distribution centers, allowing the teamsters to scab. Several teamsters said they wanted to honor the lines, but "without UFCW pickets, we were told we must do the work." Others encouraged them to reject this rotten leadership and back the strike.

While many are boycotting the stores, they’re open and many others are shopping. Ringing the stores with strikers and other workers throughout southern California might not guarantee the workers’ health benefits but, with red leadership, it could certainly show workers their potential power to act as a class against the bosses’ profit system, with its exploitation and imperialist wars.

Rick Icaza, head UFCW’s LA-based Local 770, with 30,000 members, was paid $273,000 in 2002. (LA Times, 1/26) His wages weren’t cut during the strike! He and the other AFL-CIO leaders are serving the liberal bosses, telling workers we’re powerless, that our only hope lies in voting for Democratic politicians whose health scheme would mean continued rationing based on the bosses’ war economy needs.

One of the rally’s main speakers was California State Attorney-General Bill Locklear, hailed as a "hero" by the union leaders for pursuing an anti-trust action against the three grocery chains. The unions want workers to rely on the bosses’ laws, the same ones that make it legal to scab and illegal to stop them, that label workers’ violence against scabs "illegal" while the U.S. government’s mass violence against the workers of Iraq in the drive for oil profits is completely "legal."

Many strikers and their supporters are open to an alternative to the bosses’ agents and their outlook. PLP is fighting to turn some of this potential into actual growth for the revolutionary communist movement.

Ford, DaimlerChrysler:

Once A Nazi Always a Nazi

Several developments in the auto industry confirm the fact that capitalists defend their interests and profits by any means necessary, including fighting ferociously for markets, using death squads to torture and kill workers, and joining hands with Nazis.

On the production front, Toyota has surpassed Ford as the world’s second leading automaker, a position it has held for 70 years. In 2003, GM sold 8.59 million units worldwide, followed by Toyota with 6.78 million and Ford with 6.72 million (not including Ford-controlled Mazda). Not only has Toyota passed Ford, but it is also set to displace DaimlerChrysler as the number three seller in the U.S. market. U.S. auto bosses are also trailing Toyota in the fast-growing Asian market, particularly China, where Toyota’s profits have outdone any one of the U.S. "Big 3."

Also, Ford is being sued in an LA federal court for participating in "crimes against humanity" during the ruthless military dictatorship that ruled Argentina in the late 1970’s. Between 1976 and 1978, death squads kidnapped 25 union delegates at the General Pacheco Ford plant. Ford bosses fingered the militant workers. The death squads entered the plant, tied the workers’ hands with barbed wire, put hoods on their heads, and took them to a sports center (a clandestine jail) at the plant complex where they were tortured for five hours. Then they were taken in a company truck to a police station where they were held secretly for several months. They were then jailed in Villa Devoto and La Plata for over a year. Two never returned.

On January 14, relatives and former workers filed a similar suit in a Northern California federal court, accusing DaimlerChrysler of conspiring to jail and murder 22 workers in an Argentine Mercedes-Benz plant during the military regime (Daimler owned Mercedes-Benz even before it took over Chrysler). An internal "investigation" recently "cleared" the company, but workers won’t retreat from exposing that the Mercedes plant bosses provided the military government with pictures of the more militant workers. Mercedes worker Esteban Reimer, labeled an "agitator" by the company, was kidnapped and murdered by the death squads. The plant’s chief of production, Juan Tasselkraut, worked for the Argentine intelligence services.

Both Ford and Mercedes were Nazi supporters. Mercedes was a major part of the Nazi war machine and used slave labor in its factories. Ford’s German subsidiary built trucks and other war vehicles for the Nazis, even during the war. Ford, like Charles Lindbergh, Joseph Kennedy (the Kennedy clan’s daddy) and Bush’s granddaddy loved Hítler. Henry Ford wrote the anti-Semitic "International Jew," praising anti-Semitism. Its Argentine edition contained the Protocols of Zion, a forgery concocted by the Russian Tsar’s secret police, which became the basis for modern anti-Semitism. Ford distributed this forgery worldwide, and published the first English translation of Hitler’s Mein Kampf. Ford visited the Führer, who awarded him the "Iron Cross." For decades, Ford’s hometown of Dearborn, MI was off-limits to black workers, unless they were going to or from work in his factories, and was run by white supremacist Mayor Orville Hubbard.

Lawsuits won’t end this era of endless wars, racism and police-state-Homeland Security, which are part and parcel of capitalism’s defense of its profits. Scratch any boss and you’ll find a Nazi. PLP is building an international revolutionary communist movement. That’s the best weapon to fight fascism! "Workers of the World, Unite!"

UAW Helps Auto Bosses Gear Up to Axe Workers

THREE RIVERS, MI. — "The new agreement makes doing business here…on par with Mexico. They don’t have to move the jobs to Mexico," squealed City Manager Joe Bippus about United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2093 adopting a three-tier wage scale at the American Axle parts plant here. It’s not the first time the UAW has agreed to wage concessions for "job security," but this is the first three-tier wage scale in U.S. auto plants.

Of the 1,000 UAW members who build axles and drive shafts, the 420 high-seniority top-tier workers earning about $26-an-hour will take a 64 cents-an-hour pay cut. The 580 second-tier employees earn $13.50 to $17 an hour. For new hires in the new, third tier, pay begins at $13.50 an hour, with no cost-of-living increases for at least two years and they will pay a bigger share of their health costs. About 100 third-tier workers will be hired later this year as part of the $28 million plant expansion.

Recently UAW President Gettelfinger assured an industry conference, "The perception of the UAW is that a relationship with our union can be a drag on your production process. The reality is far different." The "production process" reflects the growth of fascism in preparation for endless wars. "The reality" is that the nationalist, pro-capitalist union leaders are trying to stay in business by delivering workers to fascism and war.

About 2.7 million factory jobs have disappeared since January, 2001. Michigan has lost 170,000 manufacturing jobs during this time, and GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler are expected to slash up to 50,000 more jobs under the current UAW contract.

The union is renegotiating a new master contract covering American Axle’s U.S. operations. The current one expires Feb. 24. They’re also in talks with auto parts giants Delphi Corp. and Visteon Corp., spun off from GM and Ford, to adopt permanent two-tier wages. Last year they signed a $10-an-hour wage cut "to save jobs" at a Chrysler parts plant that was sold to Metaldyne Corp.

The union has spent the last 25 years, since the1979 Chrysler bailout, surrendering hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions in wage and benefit concessions, to make U.S. bosses "more competitive." This is how Gettlefinger and the whole generation of UAW leaders have developed. Now they stand at the brink of irrelevancy. UAW membership has dropped from 1.5 million in 1979 to 638,722 at the end of 2002. Of about 500,000 hourly jobs at U.S. auto parts suppliers, 80% are non-union, up from 50% in the 1970s. They’ve failed to organize a single European- or Asian-owned "transplant." And their choice for President, Gephardt, was the first Democratic hopeful to fall.

We don’t have to follow them over the cliff. Today they sacrifice jobs and benefits. Tomorrow they will sacrifice workers’ lives and limbs as international "car wars" become imperialist shooting wars. Building a mass, international PLP, that knows no nations or borders, can turn these imperialist wars into class wars for communist revolution.

Rawlings Scores Big From Exploiting Baseball Workers

Karl Marx discovered the "secret" of capitalist exploitation, the fact that workers are paid far less than the value they add to the production of finished goods. The rather complicated computations he used to arrive at the source of capitalist profits can be understood by the men and women of Turrialba, Costa Rica who make the nearly 2,000,000 baseballs used annually by major league baseball, for which they are paid approximately $2,750 a year. This is a mere pittance compared to the profits of the Rawlings Sporting Goods company that manufactures the baseballs.

Each worker handcrafts 4 baseballs an hour and is paid an average of 30¢ a ball. Rawlings sells the balls in the U.S. at $14.99 each.

"After I make the first two or three balls…they have already paid my salary," says 37-year-old Overly Monge. "Imagine that."

That’s surplus value in a nutshell. In the first hour, Monge makes his weekly wage. Rawlings grosses $60 (at $14.99 per ball) from those first four baseballs, more than Monge’s $55 weekly salary. For the next 54 hours he’s making profits for Rawlings. At 4 balls an hour, for a minimum 55 hours a week, he produces 220 baseballs. Rawlings profits from 216 of them, which brings them $3,237.84 PER WORKER EVERY WEEK! PLP fights for communist revolution to abolish this exploitive capitalist wage system altogether.

Not all of that is pure profit. But Rawlings profits from the Costa Rican government’s "free trade zone": no taxes, no import duties for the materials needed to manufacture the balls, on a 54,000-square-foot area awarded free to Rawlings. No wonder U.S. bosses want that free-trade zone extended to ALL of Costa Rica in the prospective NAFTA-like accord now being negotiated.

Brother Monge is earning the same $55 a week as when he started 13 years ago. And for that he suffocates in 95-degree heat sewing 108 perfect stitches along the seams in a process that can only be done by hand. "A machine can’t make them…but it demands the precision and speed of a machine." The worker becomes the machine.

"It messes up your hands…hurts your shoulders" and "deforms your fingers and arms." After nine years at Rawlings, Soledad Castillo, 46, cannot make a fist or touch her right palm with her middle finger. From 1991-1997, one-third of the workers developed carpel tunnel syndrome and 90% experienced pain of some kind.

Could there be any clearer reason to destroy capitalism and its wage system? A communist society in which workers reap the full benefit of the value they produce, will put the health of the working class first and foremost.

(All information and quotes from the New York Times, 1/25/04)

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Triangle: The Fire That Changed America by David Von Drehle.

Atlantic Monthly Press, 340 pages, $25

On March 25, 1911, a flash fire on two floors of the Asch Building, took the lives of 146 workers of the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. Nearly all were Jewish and Italian immigrants, mostly young women. It was the deadliest workplace disaster in New York history until the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, 90 years later.

The Asch Building still stands, at the corner of Washington Place and Greene Street in Greenwich Village, and billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared it an historic landmark this past year. It’s how the bosses and their politicians co-opt history. They’ve done the same thing with New York’s Tenement Museum and Ellis Island, and with the textile-mill museums in Lowell and Lawrence, Massachusetts. Some of the history is surprisingly candid about workers’ conditions, but it’s all presented as "ancient history." They’ll condemn the Triangle fire, and use it to show how the tragedy led to better working conditions, while ignoring the sweatshops that still exist, some within walking distance of the site of the Triangle fire. Yes, working conditions have changed, somewhat, through workers’ struggles against the bosses, but the essence of capitalism’s racist super-exploitation is a fact of life for most garment workers today, many of them immigrant women. And tens of thousands of workers still die every year in industrial "accidents." Only communist revolution can permanently improve workers’ lives and working conditions.

Washington Post reporter David Von Drehle’s book is a compelling account of the disaster, with all the horrifying details — the scores of victims who jumped to their deaths from a 9th-floor window rather than be burned alive and the locked doors that prevented their escape down the stairs. It also provides vivid accounts of the 1909 blouse-makers’ strike that emboldened the growing trade-union movement, some of whose leaders died in the fire, leading to some reforms of labor and worker-safety laws.

Von Drehle has compiled the first complete list of victims, and presents the only existing transcript of the subsequent manslaughter trial of the company’s owners, a document lost for decades. It includes heartbreaking testimony from survivors of the raging inferno. It also punctures the longstanding myth that defense lawyer Max Steuer won his clients’ acquittal by getting a key witness to repeat her testimony verbatim four times, showing it was rehearsed. Her testimony was not repetitive, except for some phrases that Steuer prompted her into repeating.

The owners were freed because the judge’s instructions to the jury all but forced an acquittal. To convict, the jury would have had to conclude that the owners knew the doors were locked and that the victims would otherwise have survived. This same judge had been forced to resign as city tenement commissioner seven years earlier, being held responsible for a Lower East Side fire that killed 20 people.

No one was held criminally responsible for the Triangle disaster. The company’s owners actually profited by collecting more insurance than their true losses, and successfully fought most of the civil lawsuits filed against them. Ultimately, 23 victims’ families and survivors settled for just $75 per claim!

The struggle against sweatshop conditions in the NYC garment industry strengthened the ILGWU (the garment workers’ union, today’s UNITE). But its Social-Democratic leadership became rabidly anti-communist, opposed the old Communist Party (which fought and beat gangsters who worked for the bosses), and allowed sweatshop conditions to flourish. But even if the more militant reformers of the old CP had won, today there would still be few unionized workers in New York’s garment industry or nationally. Sweatshops abound among many subcontractors to major apparel companies. Most garment workers in the U.S. are immigrants from Latin America and Asia, adding racism to the equation, a source of capitalist super-exploitation.

Ironically, N.Y. Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff just wrote (1/14) that the problem isn’t too many third-world sweatshops, "but too few." From China to NYC, from LA to the maquiladoras of Central America and the Caribbean, garment workers need communist revolution, not another century of meager, short-lived reforms. (Information drawn from the NY Post, 1/11/04.)

LETTERS

Anti-War Activists Need Red Politics

Last month a work-buddy and neighbor of mine asked me to attend a neighborhood meeting of the Dean Campaign which showed the film "Uncovered…."

A crowd of 60 to 70 people in their twenties and thirties and several of our vintage were told that similar showings were occurring across the country. Afterwards we’d be able to e-mail questions to the film’s producers and hear their answers over a speaker phone in the front of the room.

When the film ended and we were waiting for the phone to ring, I rose and said, "I hope it’s O.K. to make some comments while we’re waiting. Was anyone else disturbed, as I was, by…the voices of ethics and righteousness [from] veteran CIA agents, top military officers and high-level government officials, many of whom must have been the architects or agents of murderous U.S. policies throughout the world over the past several decades. Some may have even trained Saddam Hussein back in the ’80s or planned the murder of Salvadore Allende of Chile and tens of thousands of Chilean leftists."

One young woman replied, "That was to establish credibility for the film because there are a lot of people who don’t even know that the war was built on lies." I responded, "Yes, but it established credibility for more than just the film. By using these spokespeople, it makes it seem as though just the wrong people are in office, rather than that the whole system is criminal. And look at what the film omitted. Not a word about what the war was really about — control of Mid East oil. This glaring omission shows that the film’s real purpose is to build patriotism and hook all the disaffected anti-war people into the ‘anyone-but-Bush’ movement. The film makes it seem as though the U.S. government’s worst crime is lying. No! The worst crime is occupying a country — destroying and harming lives — to control its resources…."

When I finished, several people were nodding in agreement. I got the names and phone numbers of two people, after telling them about PLP. Although I didn’t talk about communism, I did induce the audience to think about this film in a new way.

Everyone should seek out these kinds of opportunities to bring communist politics into the anti-war movement. The people leading the meetings will never hand them to us. We must be bold and respectful, and build unity. I was nervous and my heart was beating hard, but I did it anyway. We communists have a responsibility to challenge the patriotic liberalism that is being promoted to build a base for U.S. imperialism and fascism. We must train ourselves to be bold!

Boston Reader

Red Army Liberated Auschwitz

January 27 marked the 59th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the largest and most infamous of the Nazi death camps. A group of Auschwitz survivors went to the site where many of Poland’s 2.6 million Jews were slaughtered by the Nazis and their Polish lackeys, to honor this day and call for world peace. A monument dedicated to the victims of Shoa (the Holocaust) will be completed near the Berlin Parliament by 2005.

I read a brief report about these celebrations in the NY Daily News and in the Dwelles-World, a German news agency. Neither mentioned the Red Army’s role in liberating Auschwitz and many of the death camps. By Jan. 27, 1945, the end of the Third Reich was only a few months away. The Red Army was advancing swiftly through Poland, headed for Berlin.

Many people still believe that the U.S.-led Allies won World War II. CHALLENGE has frequently exposed this fraud, but it’s worth repeating. Recently I talked with a young Israeli man living in NYC who considered himself "knowledgeable" in history. He repeated this fraud. He thought D-Day — the June 6, 1944 landing of U.S. and British troops in western France — was the turning point of the war. But by the time Churchill and Roosevelt decided to launch this Second Front, the Soviet Red Army had already decimated most of the Nazi war machine, defeating it at the Battle of Stalingrad in February 1943, at the huge battle between 6,000 Nazi and Soviet tanks at Kursk soon afterwards, and in other battles.

These lies comprise the anti-communist rewriting of history by the world’s capitalists. Without the Soviet Red Army, history would have been quite different.

An aspiring historian

Teacher Salutes Anti-Fascist Stand

Because I’ve been struggling in my school against the chaos created by the racist school system, the administration has harassed and punished me in many small ways. One was being sent to the New Teachers Workshops (NTW) which occupied me for three full Sundays.

As part of this ongoing struggle, at the union’s Delegate Assembly two months ago I had championed the defense of activists. At my first Sunday NTW, one teacher told me she had heard me at the Delegate Assembly and we had a little discussion about the school chaos created by the racist capitalist system.

At the next Delegate Assembly I challenged the resolution to stand silently to honor just the U.S. dead, saying we should also stand for the Iraqi dead, (Challenge, 2/4). At the next Sunday class, this same woman told me that she again had heard me at the Assembly and said, "I wanted to stand with you. It was wonderful what you did. But I was there with a friend and I’m not a delegate."

By standing up against the forces of fascism we give other people heart. They may not be ready to stand yet, but we must believe that at some point they will.

A working teacher

a name="Boycott, Picket Gibson’s ‘Passion’"></a>"oycott, Picket Gibson’s ‘Passion’

Hollywood actor/producer Mel Gibson is poised to bring out his anti-Semitic movie, "Passion of the Christ," a depiction of the final 12 hours of Jesus’ life. Gibson’s personal hate- and horror-filled version of Jesus’ trial/execution and his rejection of the "liberalized" Roman Catholic Church flood the film. Set to appear in over 2,000 theaters on February 25, the movie should be boycotted and picketed. The controversy already swirling around it should be used now and in the weeks to come to build working-class solidarity and explain how and why capitalism uses its mass media to build fascism.

Philly Anti-fascist

a name="‘Community Policing’ Used to Stifle Class Struggle"></">‘C"mmunity Policing’ Used to Stifle Class Struggle

In CHALLENGE’s Red Eye on the News (2/4), the article, "It helps to act like Reds!" equates Harvard’s Dr. Earl’s theory about crime prevention (N.Y. Times, 1/6/04) with communist practice. I disagree. Can we imagine the American Society of Criminology, the National Institute of Justice, the McArthur Foundation and other government agencies funding $51 million to Dr. Earl to teach people how to act like reds?

Dr. Earl’s Ten Point Coalition used a group of black ministers with plenty of time and resources to convince some people to act as Homeland Security-style spies and reporters against graffiti scrawlers and teenagers who hang out on the corners. His theory challenges the Giuliani-type fascist crackdown currently used by police here and worldwide which results only in overcrowding the prison systems and creating potentially rebellious soldiers. He proposes instead community meetings to get volunteers to clean up and police neighborhoods, asking kids to rat out crime ringleaders and to "coordinate their activities with policemen" (a possible model for Iraq, using Shi’ite holy men?).

Dr. Earl says we can solve problems through neighborhood meetings, but most community groups say they need living-wage jobs, smaller class sizes, after-school programs, child care, medical care, affordable housing, places for the homeless, etc. Dr. Earl’s article or theories never mentions these issues or war spending that robs the funds to pay for them.

From the Vietnam War to the war in Iraq, PLP communists have participated in many community groups, picketing welfare and unemployment offices, leading mass anti-war marches in many cities and pointing out how capitalism was responsible for their neglected neighborhoods.

To equate Dr. Earl’s pro-cop, stoolie program with how red comrades have worked among the people is either a mistake or a gross error in judgment.

Red Comrade

The U.S. as the Fourth Reich

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, Republican congressman from Long Beach, California, has introduced legislation that would force emergency room doctors to report and fingerprint any undocumented immigrants they treat. "America has become the HMO to the whole world," he said. "We are taking care of any illegal immigrant who can get to our country and get to that emergency room."

This means that ER personnel would ask people seeking emergency care, "Do you have your papers?" Most patients without papers would simply stay away — and die. Denying care is clearly the intent of this vicious racist bill. It also seeks to win workers and patients to blame immigrants for the horrors caused by the war budget.

Every week we hear over the hospital P.A. system, "Code blue, radiology waiting room, 2nd floor." That means another patient has had a cardiac arrest waiting for a bed in our overcrowded, downsized hospital.

Working in a hospital used by thousands of working-class patients from many countries, I see the next phase of intensifying fascism as particularly ugly for my co-workers and myself. We need to organize to resist and refuse these neo-Nazi proposals before they become law. As we raise resolutions in unions and professional organizations, we must educate those around us about the history of medicine in Nazi Germany. Our friends need to know how the Soviet Red Army eventually ended these atrocities militarily defeating the Nazi army. Must be time to start building a new Red Army.

Red Doctor

RED EYE ON THE NEWS

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

Cop violence not impartial

Far from being impartial enforcers of the law, New York police officers have historically taken sides against anyone threatening…particular ideas of order and authority — even when that meant clubbing workingmen demanding an eight-hour day or teenage girls striking outside sweatshops. (NYT, 1/25)

Contracts show war plans

A spokesman for Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary for Halliburton, claims that a contract for logistical services for troops in Iraq was awarded two years ago.... This contact…predates the invasion of Iraq by more than a year. How could a company get a contract for an event that had not yet taken place unless it surely knew that it would?

….Almost from the inauguration the Bush administration was involved in planning to invade Iraq. (Letter to NYT, 1/29)

US sells out Afghan women

U.S. support of fundamentalists in powerful positions throughout the country has left Afghanistan’s dreams of freedom dashed, and women far from liberated….

The moujahedeen do not approve of women leading any part of their lives in public, and harshly intimidate those who think differently….

The United Nations and international human rights groups recently released reports detailing widespread beatings, kidnappings and rape by these warlords and their militias. And several girls’ schools around the country have been set on fire. (LA Times)

Profits come before health

Sugars added to food….made up 11 percent of calories in American diets in the late 1970’s; they are now 16 percent overall and 20 percent for teenagers. By itself, that 20-ounce Coke or Pepsi in a school vending machine provides 15 teaspoons of sugars.

Understandably, industry lobbyists are uneasy about calls to cut consumption of sugars….Threatened by such conclusions, food companies and their friends in government try to…delay action, just as the cigarette industry did for so many years. (NYT, 1/23)

Iraq war long planned

[Paul] O’Neill, the former treasury secretary fired in December 2002….portrays an administration bent on invading Iraq from day one. "It was all about,… "Go find me a way to do this…."

When O’Neill goes to see Cheney in November 2002, to try to persuade him that another round of enormous tax cuts favoring the rich could cause deficits of a size that could cripple the country’s long-term economic future, the vice-president tells him….that we won the elections and we can do what we like for our backers….

The White House response has been to belittle O’Neill…. (GW, 1/29)

Arab youths losing hope

Of the 90 million Arab youth today (between the ages of 15 and 24), 14 million are unemployed….There’s not enough jobs and not enough hope," Jordan’s King Abdullah told the Davos economic forum. (NYT, 1/25)

Halliburton dodges taxes

Halliburton…goes to great lengths — literally to the ends of the earth — to escape paying…taxes to the government that has been so good to it.

Annual reports…showed Halliburton subsidiaries incorporated in such places as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Trinidad and Tobago, Panama, Liechtenstein and Vanuatu….as a corporate tax shelter. (NYT, 1/30)

Women’s wages still super-low

Equal Pay for Equal Work is the oldest demand in the feminist repertoire….

In the mid-’60s, women were paid 69 cents for every dollar a man made. After 30 years of struggle and hard work, we now make 74 cents for every dollar a man makes….

Except, of course, for black and Hispanic women, who are now making 63 cents and 54 cents respectively for every dollar men make. (Molly Ivens, Liberal Opinion Week, 1/12)

Rob Palestinians of water

More than 80% of water from the West Bank goes to Israel. The Palestinians are allotted just 18% of the water that is extracted from their own land. Palestinian villages and farmers are monitored by meters fitted to pumps and punished for overuse. Jewish settlers…use 10 times as much water per capita as each Palestinian. (GW, 1/28)

US-Pakistan terror tactic

Pakistan massed several thousand troops….Using a harsh century-old British method, officials handed local tribal elders a list and issued an ultimatum.

If 72 men wanted for sheltering Al Qaeda were not produced, they said, the Pakistani Army would punish the tribe as a group, demolishing houses, withdrawing funds….

Pakistani officials…conceded that they had been under intense American pressure to act in the tribal areas. They said they hoped the new approach would prove fruitful. (NYT, 1/31)

Former Bushite Sharpens Fight Between U.S. Rulers
LIBERALS SAY BUSH'S IRAQ POLICY ENDANGERS BIG OIL
Imperialist Rivalry Reaches the Moon and Mars
Teacher Stands Up For Iraqi Workers
Using Bosses’ Statistics To Teach Anti-Racism
‘Bracero’ Plan A Presciption for Exploitation, Fascism
Racist Immigration Scheme Reminds Farmworker of ‘Bad Old Days’
Racist NYC Mayor Turning Schools into Police State
Explodes Lies About School Violence
Election Charade Means More Misery for Salvadoran Workers
Aristide: From Liberal ‘Savior’ to Fascist Dictator
That’s Capitalism: Execs Profit From Workers’ Health Cuts
Talk About Robbing Workers: Bosses Steal Women’s Paychecks
Iraq War Sharpens U.S.-Russian Rivalry Over Oil
Feudalism or Capitalism? Both Hara-Kiri For Workers
LETTERS
Ezploitation Can’t Be ‘Voted Out’
Racist Jokes Used to Divide Us
When China Was Red Heroin Gangs Were Busted
U.S. Bosses Split Over China
Drug Barons Profit From Flu Epidemic
Making Communists is Crucial
Rule of Law Ties Us to the System
RED EYE ON THE NEWS
Cutting $ for kids’ health
‘Better under Communists’
Cruel squeeze at Wal-Mart
US OK’s terror vs. rebels
America accepts child poverty
Imperialist war: old story
Filipino rebel army 10,000
Another war for Iraq oil?
US grabbed half of Mexico
It helps to act like Reds!

Former Bushite Sharpens
Fight Between U.S. Rulers

LIBERALS SAY BUSH'S IRAQ POLICY ENDANGERS BIG OIL

Imperialist Rivalry Reaches the Moon and Mars

Teacher Stands Up For Iraqi Workers

Using Bosses’ Statistics To Teach Anti-Racism

‘Bracero’ Plan A Presciption for Exploitation, Fascism

Racist Immigration Scheme Reminds Farmworker of ‘Bad Old Days’

Racist NYC Mayor Turning Schools into Police State

Explodes Lies About School Violence

Election Charade Means More Misery for Salvadoran Workers

Aristide: From Liberal ‘Savior’ to Fascist Dictator

That’s Capitalism:
Execs Profit From Workers’ Health Cuts

Talk About Robbing Workers:
Bosses Steal Women’s Paychecks

Iraq War Sharpens U.S.-Russian Rivalry Over Oil

Feudalism or Capitalism?
Both Hara-Kiri For Workers

LETTERS

Ezploitation Can’t Be ‘Voted Out’

Racist Jokes Used to Divide Us

When China Was Red Heroin Gangs Were Busted

U.S. Bosses Split Over China

Drug Barons Profit From Flu Epidemic

Making Communists is Crucial

Rule of Law Ties Us to the System

RED EYE ON THE NEWS

Cutting $ for kids’ health

‘Better under Communists’

Cruel squeeze at Wal-Mart

US OK’s terror vs. rebels

America accepts child poverty

Imperialist war: old story

Filipino rebel army 10,000

Another war for Iraq oil?

US grabbed half of Mexico

It helps to act like Reds!