Editorial: Nationalism, Religion A Killer For Arab And Jewish Workers

Shut Down LA with a General Strike!

‘We’re here to support the strike, not to break it!’

Janitors-MTA Workers: Solidarity Forever

Wen Ho Lee Fiasco Reflects Fight Among Capitalist Factions

Yugoslavia: Fight for Oil Pipelines Behind Televised ‘Democratic Revolution’

Turn Strikes Into School for Communism

LA Times: Workers’ Ally Or Eastern Establishment Mouthpiece?

• Big Bosses On the Offensive Against Competition

Union Leaders—Friends or Foes?

Workers Stand Up for Class Struggle Union Candidate

Nader Has Nada for Workers and Youth

LETTERS

Why I Was Won to PLP

PLP Has Answer for UNITE Organizers

More on ‘White’ Skin Privilege’

In the Party, but Never Alone

What Che Stood For

AIDS Not a Killer?

AIDS Denial Is a Killer

Capitalism Can’t Conquer AIDS

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Editorial

Nationalism, Religion A Killer For Arab And Jewish Workers

The renewed killing in Israel and the occupied territories shows that the peace brokered by imperialism is the peace of the tomb. It also exposes the utter bankruptcy of nationalism and the deadly role of all religion in sabotaging workers’ struggles for a decent life.

PLP members working in mass organizations should vigorously put forward these key lessons as the situation unfolds.

The Clinton White House set the stage for the present bloodshed when it orchestrated the 1994 Middle East "peace" agreement signed seven years ago in Oslo, Norway. This deal supposedly pledged an end to Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza by 1999. The deadline wasn’t met, largely because U.S. bosses can’t control the internal politics of their own Israeli vassals.

Israel sees U.S. support lessening. Without it, their expansion as a capitalist power is virtually nil. The fact remains that the Israeli ruling class, as all capitalist ruling classes must maintain and extend its power. How to do this has become a conflict among Israeli rulers.

An important faction of Israeli bosses opposes the concessions promised by the Oslo agreement. The depth of this contradiction became clear with the 1995 assassination of Yitzak Rabin, the Israeli Prime Minister who had signed off on the Oslo deal.

Even if implemented, the agreement offers Palestinian workers little more than a vicious form of updated apartheid: "…a Palestinian state truncated by a massive system of bypass roads, encircled by Israeli settlement blocs, subject to closures and restrictions on freedom of movement and commerce, with no control of its borders or natural resources…" (Allegra Pacheco, an Israeli lawyer, NEW YORK TIMES op-ed page, 10/5).

Since Oslo, 800 Palestinian homes have been demolished in the West Bank and Gaza to make room for Israeli "settlers"; Palestinian joblessness has tripled; the Palestinian gross domestic product has declined by 21%; and 13,000 Palestinian workers have been jailed.

In the name of a Palestinian state, Yassir Arafat has brought the workers he rules nothing but misery, unemployment and exposure to terror from both Israeli cops and his own Palestinian Authority police force. No wonder they’re rebelling massively.

Arafat is clearly no longer in control of the situation. Even if he were willing to negotiate a cease-fire, there’s every reason to believe he couldn’t enforce it. His leadership faces a serious challenge by Hamas, the Islamic fundamentalist gang with a strong base in Gaza, where some of the deadliest battles have taken place. According to the TIMES (10/8), Arafat may not even control the militant Tanzim youth organization, which is supposedly under the banner of his Fatah organization.

But these internal conflicts among Palestinian nationalists don’t spell good news for workers either. The anti-Arafat revolt is taking place in the name of Palestinian nationalism and Islam. It leads straight into a capitalist trap. If Arafat falls, another boss will take his place.

Israeli became a state in 1948, when British imperialism—which had stood idly by while Hitler massacred six million Jews—decided its oil interests could best be served by a divide-and-conquer policy setting Jews against Arabs in the Middle East. After the 1967 Six-Day War, U.S. rulers hopped on this strategy for their own reasons. From the beginning of statehood, the Jewish nationalist-religious line led Israel to become a liberal fascist society—liberal in its internal politics and ruthlessly repressive toward the million Palestinian refugees Israeli independence had forced into exile.

The current fighting only widens this vicious circle. As we wrote last week, U.S. imperialism requires a pacified, stable western flank in the Middle East as it prepares for oil war in the Persian Gulf. But no treaty or back-room wheeling and dealing can smooth over the contradictions the profit system generates. And no amount of nationalist posturing or Jewish/Muslim sermonizing can settle rivalries among competing bosses or make capitalism serve the needs of Jewish and Arab workers.

Only communist revolution can put an end to this murderous scenario. Our Party can’t yet directly influence events in the Middle East. However, we can organize class struggle here around our revolutionary line at work, at school, in the mass movements and in the armed forces where GI’s can be won to understand that the bosses’ wars for oil are not in their class interests. As the situation sharpens throughout the Middle East, our political influence can grow as a function of the work we do now.

Shut Down LA with a General Strike!

LOS ANGELES, CA., Oct. 11 — As CHALLENGE went to press, 40,000 LA County workers went on strike today for a 15.5% wage increase over three years. A judge ordered about 5,000 nurses and lab technicians to remain at work. Workers need to defy the court injunction as part of learning how to smash the whole bosses’ dictatorship.

PLP workers, co-workers and students have been picketing with County workers and will continue to do so. CHALLENGE and PLP leaflets blaming capitalism have been received enthusiastically. Teachers at Manual Arts H.S. and other schools are picketing before school about their upcoming contract. Rank and filers in three unions are beginning to circulate petitions calling on the County Federation of Labor to organize a general strike.

The greedy County bosses would have workers’ families live on $22,000 a year while the capitalists enjoy more prosperity than ever. The rulers say there’s no money for health care or welfare, but they spend a billion dollars a WEEK to maintain a U.S. naval armada patrolling the Persian Gulf to defend Exxon’s oil empire! This strike can become a political battle against racism and exploitation.

‘We’re here to support the strike, not to break it!’

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 4— On Monday, Oct. 2, as soon as I heard that our union "leader" Neil Silver was calling on us mechanics to cross the MTA bus drivers’ picket line I asked some of my fellow workers what they thought about this back-stabbing. "We’re not going to work," they responded. "Instead we should go to the Division to show our solidarity with the striking drivers, to show them we’re not sellouts."

Early the next morning, several black, white and Latin mechanics met near the Division and began walking towards the drivers’ picket line. As we got close, a supervisor appeared to show us the door we could use to go to work "without being harassed by the drivers." We yelled, "We’re here to support the strike, not to break it!"

As we got closer to the drivers, mostly black and Latin, they began chanting against our union. We answered: "We’re here to continue the struggle, shoulder to shoulder with you guys. Any betrayal of you is a betrayal of ourselves." The pickets cheered, embracing us and shaking our hands. Indeed, working class solidarity won the day.

United we began marching towards a nearby corner where some County workers had begun the first day of their own strike. As we got close, the County workers crossed the street to join with us. We all rallied together against the rotten working conditions we all suffer. Motorists honked their horns to show their solidarity. It was indeed a joyous working-class celebration.

Later we had good discussions with the strikers, showing us that many of them are open to the communist politics we presented.

Janitors-MTA Workers: Solidarity Forever

The history of the relationship between LA transit workers and janitors goes back to the 1994 bus mechanics strike. A PL’er at Kaiser hospital was working with the janitors, who at that time were members of Local 399 in the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). She brought a number of janitors to the picket lines at bus Division 1 where PLP was concentrating its support of the strikers and distributing leaflets and CHALLENGES. Through their efforts, striking mechanics and supporting drivers were asked to speak at a July ’94 Local 399 union meeting. We explained the strike and thanked the janitors for joining the picket lines despite the 100° heat.

A year later these janitors and hospital workers put together a potent challenge to the rotten leadership of Local 399. Their Multi-Racial Alliance slate won 21 of 24 seats on the Local’s executive board. Our Party and a transit comrade were active in this reform victory, voided immediately by the international, led by none other than John Sweeney, now AFL-CIO president!

A core of these janitors has held together all these years. They have withstood the attack of the current Mike Garcia leadership as well as the on-and-off courtship by several fake left Trotskyite groups. The fraudulent election last April by the Sweeney-installed Garcia leadership failed to disrupt them. Party members have remained active with the janitors, both socially and organizationally, including their current battle to recapture the Local union leadership in a new U.S. Department of Labor-supervised election this coming Oct. 27. One hundred and twenty of these janitors came to this year’s May Day march.

It was a pleasant surprise for a Party member—in the middle of a transit strikers’ meeting—to get a call from a janitors’ caucus leader asking where and when to bring down a group of janitors to support the striking bus drivers. Cynicism sown by the bosses and union leaders should never blind us from the eventual rewards to be won from relying on our fellow workers to fight for liberation from the rot of capitalism.

Wen Ho Lee Fiasco Reflects Fight Among Capitalist Factions

As reported in a previous issue, all sides agree Wen Ho Lee spied on other Chinese nuclear scientists for the FBI. Was Wen Ho Lee also a spy for China? Who knows? Who cares? China is now a capitalist country. Capitalist competition includes economic and military espionage. Under communism we will have no nations, corporations or capitalists. We’ll have cooperation, not espionage.

Despite all their posturing, U.S. bosses probably don’t really care either. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, sophisticated Soviet nuclear scientists have been roaming the world, waving resumés and "secrets." Furthermore, the investigation into the "leaking" of U.S. nuclear secrets began when it appeared that China had obtained the design of the U.S. W87 nuclear warhead. This warhead is useless without a MIRV (multiple independent re-entry vehicle) delivery system, in which one missile takes off with 10 warheads and then comes down on 10 different targets. But China’s whole nuclear arsenal contains two dozen single-warhead ICBMs (the U.S. has 8,000 nuclear warheads mounted on missiles). Nor is China spending the money necessary to develop MIRV. China's total annual military budget of $35 billion is approximately what the U.S. spends on nuclear weapons alone.

The Struggle For Power In Washington

The case against Wen Ho Lee began in the fall of 1998 with secret hearings of an U.S. House committee chaired by Christopher Cox. He and many other right-wing Republicans represent a faction of the U.S. ruling class unconcerned with guaranteeing access to cheap Mid-East oil. They want to use high-energy prices to profit from domestic oil and oil produced in Latin America and Asia. They also want to invest heavily in the aerospace industry, for strategic weapons, rather than on more and better-paid troops (as their Clinton/Rockefeller rivals believe is primary for an invasion of Iraq). Portraying China as an immediate nuclear threat fuels their goal.

This right-wing faction sees Clinton, a servant of Rockefeller/Big Oil, as its main internal enemy. They hated Clinton’s policy of improving relations with China and granting China permanent normal trade relations. They think increased trade with China will hurt domestic manufacturers who are also part of their political base.

In February, after the 1999 the impeachment of Clinton failed, the Cox Committee began leaking information about security failures in the Department of Energy (DOE) during Clinton’s administration. The Cox Committee’s star witness was DOE intelligence officer Notra Trulock. Trulock claimed Wen Ho Lee’s spying threatened the lives of "tens of millions of people." The DOE awarded Trulock its $10,000 Special Act Award as a payoff for pinning the blame for the DOE’s security lapses on Wen Ho Lee. The DOE had more leaks than a colander. There were over 500 laboratories and aerospace industry locations from which the Chinese (or anybody else) might have obtained the codes for the W87 warhead.

Trulock, however, betrayed his Clinton-Administration bosses. He participated in a right-wing web site calling for the impeachment of Clinton, DOE Chairman Elliot Richardson and Janet Reno. Eventually the Clinton administration disbanded Trulock’s office. He took his ten grand and went to work for TRW, a military contractor.

China Vs. The U.S.

Regardless of the failed Wen Ho Lee case, it seems clear the ruling class want to use trade relations, cultural exchanges and other tactics to avoid confrontation with China now. They recognize that China, with its huge population and resources, is a future threat. Ultimately they may have to go to war with China for control of Asia. But for now they want to avoid anything that will divert their military forces from concentrating on the Middle East and its oil. Their strategy is to consolidate control of the Persian Gulf before getting involved in a war with a major power like China. Our strategy is to expose their plans, unite against these spymasters and use every class struggle to win workers to fight for communism.

Yugoslavia: Fight for Oil Pipelines Behind Televised ‘Democratic Revolution’

He "storming" of the Parliament building in Belgrade, that put an end to the Milosevic regime, was carefully orchestrated by bourgeois forces which no longer found Slobo useful. Indeed, this "democratic revoluiion" was televised for the benefit of Skyplus, CNN, etc.

Behind the smoke-screen of media spin about this "democratic revolution" lies a tangled web of steadily sharpening inter-imperialist rivalries. The struggle to control oil and use it for world domination lies at the heart of them.

In 1999, U.S. rulers and their NATO pals conducted a 78-day reign-of-terror bombing over the former Yugoslavia. They pulled off this atrocity in the name of "human rights." The big gangsters in Washington, Paris, London and Berlin blew up factories, bridges, and school busses, supposedly to stop genocide in Kosovo and free Serbia from the Milosevic dictatorship. Milosevic had killed his share of workers, but he was a choirboy compared to Clinton and the other NATO heads of state. In their eyes, Milosevic’s real crime was an attempt to build a network of oil refineries and pipelines that would have made him a major regional energy player independent of U.S. and British oil firms in the scramble to market Caspian crude.

The election of Vojislav Kostunica doesn’t change the essence of this conflict. If anything, the deadly rivalries over oil have sharpened since the bombing ended in June 1999. Milosevic seems to have become the fall guy for his own faction. His downfall appears to have been engineered with the collusion of U.S., German, British and Russian bosses (see Stratfor.com, 10/9; EL PAIS, 10/7; and DER SPIEGEL, week of Oct. 9).

The in-fighting over Balkan oil routes among major U.S., European, and Russian energy companies is more intense than ever. Russia’s giant LUKoil has expressed an interest in buying up Serbia’s presently state-owned firm, NIS. When we reported the 1999 air war, we noted that Russian oil bosses were using Greek energy companies as an intermediary for the Balkan deal. No longer.

LUKoil is also making deals to rebuild the oil refineries at Novi Sad and Pancevo that NATO’s bombs destroyed. These plants form part of Milosevic’s grand scheme to become an oil baron—build a pipeline northward into Serbia from Skopje in Macedonia, which stands to be a hub for Caspian export pipelines. The oil, mainly Russian, would then flow westward through existing pipelines to the Adriatic and the western European market.

Another planned route, from Bulgaria through Skopje to Albania, has become the focus of intensified conflict since the air war. This line, known as the AMBO project (Albania-Macedonia-Bulgaria Oil) was originally the brainchild of Exxon rival BP Amoco and the oil industry equipment giant, Halliburton. Now it’s become an open-season prize. Texaco, French giant Total Fina and LUKoil, have all entered the contest. Much more significantly, so have Exxon Mobil and Chevron. Both the U.S. government and the European Union (EU) rulers are competing fiercely to finance it. The EU, in blessing Kostunica, offered billions to rebuild Serbia. Clinton & Co. are planning similar "gifts."

The failure of the NATO bombing raids to settle the situation has forced the main wing of U.S. rulers to change its tactical line in the Balkans. Two years ago, former Bush Secretary of State James Baker said the U.S. had no interest in the struggles there. Baker happens to be an Exxon heir and leading mouthpiece. The U.S. rulers’ position remains that the Middle East holds the grand prize in the struggle to control world oil markets. But LUKoil’s Balkan moves show the Russian rulers still intend to use Balkan pipelines as a springboard to restore Russian imperialism to super-power status. The turning point in U.S. rulers’ thinking came when Russian troops spat in NATO’s face by seizing the Pristina airport just after the bombing had ended in June 1999. Now the influential Exxon-funded Brookings Institute says that the U.S. must maintain a permanent military presence in the Balkans.

U.S. rulers may have helped engineer Milosevic’s downfall and Kostunica’s rise to power. But they haven’t settled anything. Kostunica himself isn’t going to be a patsy for U.S. interests. He represents a faction of Serbian bosses who remain determined to get a big piece of the oil pipeline action. One indication showing that Kostunica has no intention of letting either Kosovo or Macedonia slip from Serbian control. "Further bloodshed over the issue, with NATO soldiers in the middle, can’t be ruled out." (Wall Street Journal, 10/9)

Imperialism makes further bloodshed inevitable. Russian and U.S. bosses have diametrically opposed interests in the Balkans. German and other European rulers have already created their own independent-of-NATO military top priority in the wake of the 1999 air war. Another armed conflict over Balkan oil routes is only a matter of time.

Turn Strikes Into School for Communism

After a long drought, there is a modest increase in the number of strikes. A tremendous revolutionary potential exists in this outburst of anger. Our Party is more seriously involved in strikes and contract battles, fighting for the political leadership of the workers.

These experiences bear out our strategy of being active in mass organizations. From inside the unions we are in class struggle against our bosses, the politicians and the law. New comrades have joined the Party as a result of our using communist politics to fight the bosses. Our communist analysis, leadership and long-term personal relations have made it clearer that we have to eliminate capitalism and build a mass PLP that fights for revolution and a communist society.

As pressure builds for another Middle East confrontation, the political stakes are very high. We’re in a life-and-death battle for the hearts and minds of the working class! The rising discontent among the workers and growing number of strikes is occurring during increasing tensions over oil in general, and Iraq in particular. The dominant wing of the ruling class is consolidating its political position while trying to win the masses to support a Mid-East ground war.

For nearly a month, workers waged a bitter strike against Raytheon, the country’s third largest war contractor that NETTED over $400 million in profits last year. Strikers were arrested on the picket lines. There were 10,000 Raytheon workers in 1990. There are 2,700 now. Jobs are moving to low-wage, non-union areas.

Bath Iron Works workers struck against the IAM union leadership. The workers rejected the contract twice because the proposed High Performance Work Organization would eliminate 500 jobs. In both strikes, the union leadership has wrapped itself in the bosses’ flag.

The rulers need to win the very workers they are attacking, to support their war plans. Auto, steel and aerospace workers and those in related industries produce the weapons used by the rulers to enforce poverty-level wages around the world and kill millions on behalf of Exxon’s oil empire. BUSINESS WEEK warns the bosses they must share some of their immense wealth with the workers if the bosses want them to support the "national interest" (i.e., the coming wars). Yet the rulers must continue their attacks to accumulate more profits than their competitors and the additional billions needed to keep capitalism in power. At the same time they are trying to win us to sacrifice our class’s sons and daughters in their wars.

We should respond to these strikes and potential strikes more vigorously. We must reject the trade union approach. We put the needs of the working class first. We build strike support and working class unity, nationally and internationally. We must win workers to see that any strike will "lose" if we aren’t prepared to break the law. After all, communist revolution is the ultimate breaking of the law.

We fight to make strikes "schools for communism." This means seizing this opportunity to train a new generation of communist leaders. Invaluable lessons will be learned by attempting to bring revolutionary communist ideas into the heat of class war.

LA Times: Workers’ Ally Or Eastern Establishment Mouthpiece?

Why is the LA TIMES giving favorable publicity to strikers, from janitors to actors to transit and County workers? Why has it continually attacked Mayor Riordan and the members of the County Board of Supervisors?

In every field, the Eastern Establishment/Rockefeller wing of the U.S. ruling class is attacking the old LA rulers. The LA TIMES has become a key weapon since the CHICAGO TRIBUNE bought it. The old TIMES favored increased U.S. military involvement in Colombia and ground troops in Kosovo and was critical of Clinton’s foreign policy in the Middle East. The new one exposes the mayor and police chief for hiding police corruption and the Board of Education for building a huge new high school for poor Latino youth on a toxic dump. Six years ago during the bus strike, the old TIMES condemned bus mechanics as "greedy." Now it says they’re not and deserve public support, along with the County workers. It appears the Federal government, the AFL-CIO and the LA TIMES are the "good guys" and the LA city government is the bad one.

In reality the dominant wing of the ruling class is engaged in a long-term fight to take control of the country’s second largest city. It has two aspects: either destroy—or bring into line—the politicians who do not toe the line, and win the working class to patriotism and allegiance to this main wing of rulers through the Democratic Party and the unions.

Big Bosses On the Offensive Against Competition

This fight has sharpened. The Eastern Establishment is on the offensive nationally to consolidate its power. It faces imperialist rivals increasingly asserting independence. It also must prepare for a coming oil-inspired ground invasion of Iraq. It needs a loyal working class willing to send its sons and daughters to war to defend these bosses’ oily profits, a working class that thinks capitalism is the best system.

The bosses remember the 1992 LA rebellion in which black and Latin workers, joined by white youth, rose against this racist system. These same workers ride the buses, go to County Hospitals and to the LA public schools. The LA TIMES wants to convince them that capitalism is "considerate" of the working class.

The coming city-wide elections will see Rockefeller puppet and pro-AFL-CIO Antonio Villaraigosa running for mayor of LA, with the TIMES playing its role. In light of this, how much more important is CHALLENGE to the cause of workers’ liberation?

Union Leaders—Friends or Foes?

LOS ANGELES, October 10 — The AFL-CIO is being touted as the workers’ "savior." But when transit union leader Neil Silver told transit mechanics to cross the drivers’ picket lines, workers said, "Kill the bastard!"

Transit unions, by stopping anti-worker transit zones and maintaining union wages, appear to be on the workers’ side. In reality, they’ve accepted prison labor to clean buses, replacing union workers making $12 hourly. They’ve allowed introduction of 2- and 3-tier wage levels. LA County will be forcing thousands of welfare recipients into transit and County jobs at the lowest wage tier. The union leaders are silent about this racist assault. PLP members and friends have attacked it.

Transit workers responded positively to PLP’s leadership during the current walkout, some asking to join PLP. Workers can and will fight for our own class interests and for workers’ power when given the opportunity.

• The mechanics who refused to cross the drivers’ picket lines and led their co-workers to march against their own leadership’s strike-breaking orders demonstrate this potential, as do those picketing with County workers, defying divisive union hacks to unite our whole class against racist 2-, 3- and 4-tier wage schemes.

• The drivers and mechanics meeting to plan further actions prove workers will act as a class.

• The youth and workers bringing food and money to transit picket lines see that the working class must rely on itself and its revolutionary communist party, not on any group of bosses.

• Striking workers, friends and members of PLP, have gone to college campuses to discuss the strike and the fight for worker-student unity and revolution. Similar discussions are occurring among janitors and garment workers. More is needed and possible—in factories, schools and barracks!

The unions’ main slogan is, "Give us our fair share." They don’t want workers to think as a class and fight racist, fascist Workfare, welfare cuts or racist attacks on students, much less on Iraqi or Palestinian workers! They want workers thinking, "Give me mine and Rockefeller can have his." That can lead to supporting wars to protect the big bosses’ empire.

Workers cannot fight for our "fair share"—leaving the bosses with their "share," super-profits! Workers produce all value; the bosses steal most of it. The only "fair share" for workers is the whole ball of wax.

Workers Stand Up for Class Struggle Union Candidate

"Do they really work here?" asked a skeptical candidate in the opposition when he saw the endorsements. A dozen workers came out in print endorsing our opposition candidate with comments like, "…One with an intrinsic knowledge of the power possessed by the working class," and "…addresses problems that worker face around the world and how they relate to us."

The political, class-conscious nature of these comments continued in testimonials of class struggle on the shop floor and in union meetings. A group of workers from a subcontractor added their voice: "May your fight and our fight grow in strength and unity!" they wrote, exposing poverty wages paid by this subcontractor to a mostly "minority" workforce.

"…It is refreshing to see a candidate still concerned about the effects of racism so rampant in the workplace," added a veteran with over 20 years seniority.

A shop steward from another union at the plant and a long-time activist from another local at the same company in a different state rounded out the picture. "There are only two sides," said the shop steward "workers’ power or bosses’ power." We "stand for working-class power."

"It’s kind of radical," protested still another candidate in the opposition. " I could never get anybody in my building to say things like that. I don’t think it’ll win you any votes. Of course, I believe it."

"Well, they say things like that in my building," answered our candidate.

"…And people are starting to think like that in my building, too," interrupted yet another member of the opposition.

"Give me a couple of hundred to pass out in my plant," added a fourth candidate, ending the debate.

Workers are listening to what we say. They are discussing it amongst themselves. Carrying on a principled, class-conscious, anti-racist, internationalist campaign is not only possible, but also means something. Our challenge now is to place this campaign in the context of the potential "strike-wave," and increasing preparations for war to take Baghdad for Exxon-Mobil.

We can bust the limits imposed by narrow, trade union politics. The same bosses willing to sacrifice our sons and daughters in the Mid-East eliminate our jobs and speed us up. Our campaign has taken dead aim at these twin attacks. Our battle cry must be, neither oil wars nor economic attacks at the point of production. As one of our shop floor organizers said, with some pride, "They’ve never seen a campaign like this before!"

Mid-West Union Campaigner:

Nader Has Nada for Workers and Youth

BOSTON, MASS, Oct. 3 — Thousands of students and workers protested the first presidential debate between Al Gore and George W. Bush here today. Many were appalled by the exclusion of Green Party candidate, Ralph Nader. PLP members distributed CHALLENGES and over 1,500 leaflets entitled: "No Matter Who’s Elected, Organize to Fight Next Oil War"; and, "Nader: Not a Real Alternative."

Thousands of people, mostly students, have turned to Nader as a leader because they’re fed up with mainstream political parties and the illusion of U.S. democracy. Nader says he represents the working class men and women of this country and wants to take the power out of the few who run the corporations and put it "back into the hands of the masses."

The previous Saturday, PLP members from Boston Univ. and Harvard attended a student-power conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where we raised the likelihood of war in Iraq and struggled against those who urged students to vote. Following one teacher’s statement on ROTC targeting working-class high school youth for recruitment, we made the call for soldiers to turn the guns around on their officers. During the day we met several students interested in PLP’s views. The next day we distributed over 1,000 leaflets at a Nader rally, exposing him as a servant of the biggest bosses.

The bosses’ main use for Nader is to try to encourage the disaffected and cynical youth to participate in the capitalist system. At the same time the rulers have to keep him somewhat isolated, so that masses of workers won’t be swayed from their main henchman, Al Gore. At some of the rallies supporting Nader, the AFL-CIO organized pro-Gore thugs to intimidate and sometimes physically attack Nader supporters at the rally. (Are they enemies? See box.) The AFL-CIO leadership clearly encouraged disunity among the protestors and divisions between workers and students instead of worker-student unity against the bosses and the cops.

During this week, we learned that many workers and students who support Nader are open to, and even support, PLP’s analysis of the failure of capitalism to meet the needs of workers and students. We also obtained a number of contacts interested in PLP’s organizing to oppose the next Mid-East oil war. Relying on the electoral system to choose between one oppressor over another oppressor is not the solution to the racist, sexist system of capitalism. We must try to win these workers and student to building a communist revolution.

The U.S. ruling class knows many workers and students are disenchanted with the two-party system, many realizing that the capitalist class controls both parties. Enter Nader. Rather than weaken the Gore candidacy or tilt the election one way or another, Nader’s job is to mobilize these disenchanted who might not vote at all and draw them back into the electoral system.

Instead of joining the presidential debate protestors, Nader tried to attend the debate itself, but was barred, only reinforcing the idea that Nader is "outside" the capitalist electoral process. Many on the left see him as a true pro-worker/student alternative to the Democrats/Republicans. Many "socialist" parties even endorse his candidacy. However, the liberal bosses know Nader is part of the "responsible" (read: loyal) opposition. Despite any tactical differences with Gore/Bush, Nader is building a pro-U.S. nationalist/patriotic movement. Nader doesn’t want to destroy capitalism. He only wants to reform it. (For more information on Nader’s links to the ruling class, see CHALLENGE, Sept. 20, page 4.)

This past spring, Nader and the AFL-CIO were united in opposing China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, waging a pro-U.S. imperialist campaign. Today, Nader is attacking Gore as a corporate stooge while the AFL-CIO supports Gore as pro-worker. Are they now enemies? Far from it!

Nader and the AFL-CIO continue to condemn super-exploited and forced labor in China, Latin America, Saipan and Southeast Asia but hypocritically do not expose and condemn these same atrocities here in the U.S. Nader’s Public Citizen Global Trade Watch (GTW) says on its website: "…China continues to ignore its 1992 Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. prohibiting trade in prison labor products." Yet, nothing is said about products made with prison labor in the U.S., both for export and domestic use! The U.S. has jailed more people (2/3 black and Latin) than any other nation, a half million more than China (which has nearly FIVE times the population of the U.S.).

The AFL-CIO even defends U.S. prison labor: "The AFL-CIO backs the idea of inmates working but wants it done ‘carefully.’" (Wall Street Journal, 6/29/99)

By ignoring racist prison labor in the U.S., the AFL-CIO and Nader’s GTW help support it. By not tracing the source of exploitation in the U.S. and in other countries to the capitalist system, they set us up to unite with U.S. capitalists in a patriotic nationalist movement, against workers abroad. The leadership of the organizations involved in anti-globalization, anti-Democrat/Republican protests—from the national unions to non-governmental organizations like Nader’s—are trying to channel the anger of honest, principled workers and students opposed to exploitation and oppression into supporting U.S. imperialism. The AFL-CIO has been the "point man" for U.S. imperialism for 50 years, working hand-in-glove with the CIA to crush rank-and-file worker rebellions worldwide. If trade wars turn into shooting wars, a patriotic nationalist movement will suck their followers into supporting such wars.

LETTERS

Why I Was Won to PLP

During the 1999 UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico) strike there were a lot of difficult times, but the biggest struggle was with myself. To be apathetic is not very difficult in this country. "I have enough problems of my own without worrying about others" is something heard a lot. We become invididualistic and fall for stupid phrases like, "Even if I wanted to, there’s nothing I can do"; or, "Be happy with what you got," as if we had anything.

Today, I understand a lot I didn’t know before. The long student strike at UNAM not only taught me to hear people but to listen carefully to what they say. I saw how a worker, peasant or housewife can teach many more things than can be learned from a book. They might not know statistics, dates or who Lenin or Marx were, but they know what being exploited means. They know what it is to try to have a better life but cannot because it doesn’t depend on them. To them, a university is something they will never see from the inside.

I was not the only one to see things that way. Many other brothers and sisters did also. A fuse needed to be lit. Our Party tried to reach many of these people, although not enough. But through our study groups and personal conversations we helped light this fuse.

How did the Party do during the strike? Well, I was one of those won to the Party, which leads to an even more important question: WHY was I won? After knowing the Party for several months I realized the only way to change things was to fight for communism, for a society where racism and "races," religions and classes are things of the past.

We must forge ourselves to become red soldiers in the fight for a better world, and help light even more fuses. I know it’s not that easy but once that fuse is lit, your mind becomes free and nothing can change that. Once we unite with those communist ideas, there’s no government, no matter how fascist, capable of stopping us.

Red General Strike Council Activist, UNAM, Mexico

PLP Has Answer for UNITE Organizers

A series of collective struggles inside our Party group have helped us advance our political work. We can overcome many difficulties if we rely on the working class.

I carried these ideas to two friends who are organizers for UNITE, the garment workers union. They are always talking to me about the problems in unionizing. I pointed out to them that workers have always organized themselves, under the most difficult conditions, if they are given correct leadership. It’s difficult to do that with a sellout union—many UNITE members’ earnings barely reach the minimum wage and they have very little job security. So it’s important not to limit our talks with them to simply joining the union. Rather we should broaden our organizing to include fighting exploitation, wage differentials, racism, sexism and all the other divisions the bosses create among us. We must rely on workers, while helping them in on-the-job struggles.

Based on this, we win workers to understand what PLP advocates: that the only solution is to fight for a society where workers rule—communism.

A NYC Garment worker

More on ‘White’ Skin Privilege’

The LA comrade’s letter (9/27) says it seems ludicrous to say that some group of workers is privileged for having less surplus value stolen from them than the rest of working class because of the "white skin privilege" since they, too, need to work in factories and are endangered with layoffs also. But in capitalist society, this privilege is a fact of life. I think the majority of workers agree with the main liberals who say that white workers benefit from racism, since many people are saturated with ruling class ideology. Marx, Engels and Lenin expounded throughout their lives that communist theory cannot be learned from just working in factories, but only from a lifetime of practice and theory in the Party.

The fact is that most workers may know generally what profit is but are not aware of what surplus value is nor do they consider it stolen. In fact, most bosses and certainly their theorists don’t know what surplus value is either. They think it comes from the circulation process as well as the production process. As Marx discovered, "Surplus value and the rate of surplus value are, relatively, the invisible and unknown essence that needs investigating." Workers may feel "cheated" but that’s a far cry from knowing that they are not paid for most of their work—as a class—that value has been stolen from them, as the LA comrade puts it.

It may be "stolen" but they won’t know this until they understand the Marxist theory that explains it. It is not stolen in the sense that someone mugs you on the street. To understand that is not only to be a worker but to be immersed in Marxism-Leninism, within a communist party like the PLP.

NY comrade

In the Party, but Never Alone

I am a communist and a freshman student on a State University of NY campus. I’ve been in the Party for almost two years and very committed to the struggle against capitalism. At times, it has been hard to push the Party’s ideas and still be considered "cool" with my non-communist friends. However, I’ve always had my club’s support and still do. Nevertheless, due to distance it’s impossible for me to attend club meetings or speak to a Party member on a daily basis.

In the past I’ve attended Dialectical Materialism classes, joined in protests, helped organize a walkout and been active in many things, but was never alone. I always functioned in a collective. Now I’m the only Party member on my campus. It is difficult (but possible) to advance the Party’s ideas alone. I’ve met other college Party members who prepared me for this, telling me how to "be in it, to win it," how to form study groups—basically how to spread the Party’s ideas and build a base.

Knowing I have the support of my club and my Party has kept me focused. I feel more committed to PLP than ever before. I thank my comrades for mailing me CHALLENGE, for calling me to see how I’m doing, for sending me e-mails, for writing letters, helping me with school papers and visiting me. I truly appreciate it. As I tell my friend Neo, communism is not a figment of our imagination, it’s a way of life. It is possible. Keep selling CHALLENGES, recruiting members, spreading the Party’s ideas.

Red tig turned college Red

What Che Stood For

This past October 8 marked the 33rd anniversary of the murder of Ernesto "Che" Guevara by CIA-led commandos in Bolivia. Che was indeed one of the most interesting human beings in the revolutionary upsurge during the ’60s. A CHALLENGE supplement on Che, published at the time of the 20th anniversary of his murder, detailed his political error of relying on the "guerrilla foco." He believed that "a few good guerrillas"—not a mass-based revolutionary communist movement—could make a revolution.

That supplement also mentioned Che’s criticisms of Soviet-style socialism which are very close to those made by PLP. He saw the Soviet economy using capitalist methods and laws and said that no matter how small, these capitalist influences will overturn socialism. Che championed political—not material—incentives as the motivation for building a workers’ society.

Although Che is a national hero in Cuba, his criticisms could apply there today where the influence of capitalism is rampant.

We in PLP say that socialism itself carried too many remnants of capitalism (like the wage system). We believe that the road to workers’ liberation is to fight for the abolition of wage slavery and build a society where production corresponds to the needs of the entire working class: communism.

A NYC Reader

AIDS Not a Killer?

Although the article "King Leopold's legacy: Imperialism and the Origin of AIDS" (9/13) makes many good points, here is a counterpoint to the mainstream HIV/AIDS theory.

AIDS in Africa is diagnosed by four clinical symptoms: diarrhea, fever, persistent cough and weight loss of greater than 10% in two months. HIV antibodies are not required (World Health Organization-WHO-definition established 1985). Despite this loose definition, 99.95% of Africans do not have AIDS; 97% of HIV-positive Africans do not have AIDS. TB, malaria and measles far outnumber AIDS in Africa. AIDS is not the leading cause of illness or death in any African nation (WHO, November 1999 Weekly Epidemiological Record; Harvard University Global Burden of Disease Study, 1996; WHO, Geneva 1996 Fighting Disease, Fostering Development).

The article states, "HIV/AIDS will kill 67% of today's teenagers in some African countries." This seems to refer to a report by Robert Gallo that 67% of blood specimens collected in 1972/73 from 75 Ugandan children were HIV positive (Saxinger et al., 1985). Why, 22 years later, isn't Uganda depopulated?

UCSF researcher Tom Coates in Washington, D.C. on 7/28/99 revealed three AZT clinical trial studies being conducted on pregnant women in Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria. AZT is known to cause birth defects in pregnant women and was shelved in the late '60s as a possible cancer drug because it was found to be too toxic for human consumption. Now Glaxo-Wellcome, the pharmaceutical giant, has every intention of dumping AZT on the people of Africa.

For anyone who wants more information on AIDS dissent, e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for an information packet which will give you many sources from the Perth group in Australia to retrovirologist, Peter Duesberg, at Berkeley, etc.

CHALLENGE Reader

AIDS Denial Is a Killer

Since the AIDS epidemic began, a handful of "AIDS dissidents," led by the University of California-Berkeley's Peter Duesberg, have denied that HIV causes AIDS. Though scientifically discredited, Duesberg's monstrous hoax received new lifeblood when President Mbeki invited him to join a South African AIDS panel. However, evidence linking HIV and AIDS is as compelling in Africa as in the U.S. For instance, among Ugandans aged 25-34, HIV-positive people were 27 times more likely to die than HIV-negative people. Projections of the impact of AIDS on Africa's youth are not Gallo's, but were reported by UNAIDS in June 2000.

Currently, infection rates are based on many clinical studies, using highly accurate antibody and PCR tests. Early on, African doctors noted the alarming rise of ailments as exotic in Uganda as in Iowa: severe wasting in well-nourished young patients; cryptococcal meningitis, PCP, AIDS dementia. It is racist for Duesberg to suggest that African doctors can't distinguish between these and endemic diseases.

(Note: Reuters reported on Oct. 3 that South African doctors urged an end to a raging debate over President Thabo Mbeki's controversial AIDS views, saying it was confusing people who should be focusing on fighting the spread of the AIDS virus. The South African Medical Association (SAMA) said it was concerned at the growing number of people who were now questioning the existence of the AIDS precursor, the HIV virus, after Mbeki questioned the causal link between the two. "The point we want to raise is that at this point in time there shouldn't really be discussion about whether HIV causes AIDS," said SAMA chairman Zolile Mlisana. "Whether HIV causes AIDS or not is not a matter of speculation, it's a question of scientific fact.")

At present, malaria and TB kill more Africans than AIDS. But HIV has an 8-10 year incubation period, and has only recently arrived. Another decade will pass before millions of infected people die, during which countless others will be infected. Malaria and TB mainly kill the very young and old. AIDS will have a greater impact because it kills the young and middle-aged, those of child-bearing, family-supporting and teaching age.

Mbeki has said that the real cause of AIDS is poverty. He's right! Without imperialism's crimes, the pandemic would have never happened. But coming from the president, in bed with the International Monetary Fund and national bosses, this expresses the utmost cynicism. Picture an inner city high-rise in flames, while children jump from windows. On the sidelines stands the fire chief, shaking his head: "They're dying because they are poor, what can we do?"

Unlike harmless crackpot theories, AIDS denial has lethal consequences. It's as bad as holocaust denial, because it disarms the international working class from fighting against this holocaust.

[Sources: Nunn et al. (1997) BMJ 315:767; Durban declaration (2000), Nature 406: Cherry (2000) Nature 406:113; UNAIDS report, Geneva, 6/2000; Schwartzlander et al (2000) Science 289:64; Ackah et al. (1995) Lancet 345: 607. Evidence that HIV causes AIDS is convincingly summarized at www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/evidhiv.htm]

Red Scientist

Capitalism Can’t Conquer AIDS

The debate about the origins of AIDS in Africa seems to be missing a key element. Neither the scientific or political forces organized around Mbeke nor those organized by the UN and the imperialist AIDS establishment will never permanently conquer the disease. Some of the medical triumphs of the now failed revolution in China are very pertinent here.

A British surgeon, Dr. Joshua Horn, who practiced in revolutionary China, recorded his experiences in a fascinating book, "Away With All Pests." Chapter 9, The Conquest of Syphilis, should be read by anyone involved in the fight against AIDS.

As the communists saw it, the solution to abolishing any disease is not simply toi reduce it to its medical components. Medical treatment was not primarily a battle to find the right combination of drugs. The primary causes of syphilis were political. They were found in the invading and indigenous armies fighting in the service of exploiters; in poverty, drug addiction and sexism. In short in feudalism, capitalism and imperialism.

Magic bullets like Salvarsan, or later penicillin, while clinically effective, could not halt syphilis from spreading worldwide. But communist-led revolution did. In 1966, when there were less than 20 cases per hundred million in China, there were 46,561 NEW cases among U.S. troops alone in Vietnam!

Currently a vicious round of wars, all fought in the service of exploiters, are devastating Africa. There are now 12 million refugees shuttling from country to country and countless millions of internal refugees. All the imperialists, especially the French and the U.S., are up to their necks supporting one or another faction in these wars. Infrastructure or costs of drugs (as the AIDS Conference implied) are not the main problem under these circumstances.

I salute all those active in the fight against AIDS and believe that communists who launch an unremitting attack on the liberal-led AIDS establishment will be able to win many honest forces from both camps of the virus/no virus reform debate.

An Anti-imperialist

Editorial: Black Workers Are Still The Key Force For Revolution

• Fighting Racism:A Hallmark of PL
• The Collapse of the Old Communist Movement and Rise of Nationalism
• Defeat the Twin Evils – Racism and Nationalism!

Dump All Bosses and Union Hacks, Strike! Strike! Strike!

LA County Workers Flexing Strike Muscle

AC Transit Workers Champion Solidarity

Students, Faculty, Workers Rip Racist Police Terror

Protest Scares Principal And Cops At Bogus Bogan HS

a href="#Police Terror Against Youth = Chicago Bosses’ School Reform">"olice Terror Against Youth = Chicago Bosses’ School Reform

a href="#Workers’ Poverty Grows Among Bosses’ Economic Boom">Wo"kers’ Poverty Grows Among Bosses’ Economic Boom

a href="#Columbus Day: Celebrate Or Protest — You Be The Judge">"olumbus Day: Celebrate Or Protest — You Be The Judge

a href="#Clinton-Barak-Arafat’s ‘Peace Process’ Kills More Workers">Clin"on-Barak-Arafat’s ‘Peace Process’ Kills More Workers

a href="#Alaskan Oil: Another Oil Bosses’ Battleground">"laskan Oil: Another Oil Bosses’ Battleground

• Exxon: The 800 Pound Gorilla

The Communist Fight for Literacy and Knowledge (conclusion)

• Literacy, For What?

LETTERS

Workers of the World, Write! AFL-CIO Betrays Immigrants Again

a href="#Waiting for Lefty’ Sparks Strike Call">"aiting for Lefty’ Sparks Strike Call

Fujimori May Go But Fascism Stays

Dialectics Inspires Workers

A Communist Who Was Not a Communist

---

Editorial:

Black Workers Are Still The Key Force For Revolution

Racism is the main weapon U.S. bosses use to rule. Racism produces billions and billions in extra profits from workers. It is also used to divide workers and keep white workers from uniting with black and Latino workers to fight the system that oppresses us all: capitalism.

(The following is based on a report and discussion on Fighting Racism and Nationalism from a PLP Workers’ Section meeting Sept. 30-Oct.1.)

"Without patience I wouldn’t be here today." A black worker from Detroit told how for 15 years his close friend kept him around the Party through CHALLENGE and on-the-job struggle. He remembered the first time he saw CHALLENGE, and how at first he didn’t read it. After reporting on his experiences in a recent union election he said, "That’s why I’m here; to join the Party!"

Right now we’re fighting for the political leadership of MUNI, AC Transit and striking MTA transit workers in California. These mostly black, Latin and Asian workers, with a lot on the line, are defending the Party and standing up to the bosses and union hacks. They are a key part of the infrastructure that makes the economy function. A black worker described how stepping forward in this struggle was related to developing stronger personal ties with Party organizers. The transit report benefited from the comments of transit workers from five cities. One worker joined PLP during the discussion. Another had recently joined.

In the Jefferson Hospital contract fight in Philadelphia, the union president sarcastically referred to a leading PLP member as "believing in the revolution no one else believes in." The 400 mostly black and Latin workers at the meeting stunned the union hack by giving PLP a standing ovation.

These experiences bear out our strategy that the fight against racism is primary in building the revolutionary movement, and that black workers are the key force for communist revolution. Super-exploited black workers and youth are concentrated in basic industry, the military and the major urban centers, the main pillars of our revolutionary strategy.

Fighting Racism:A Hallmark of PL

The 1964 Harlem Rebellion was the first of many that swept the U.S. in the 1960’s. PL "Wanted For Murder" Posters against "Racist Gilligan The Cop" were everywhere. CHALLENGE became the flag of Harlem’s rebels. The rulers accused PL of initiating the rebellion and jailed our members. We did not initiate it, but are proud to have played an important role in this rebellion against racist unemployment and police terror.

Over the next 35 years, we established a record and culture of anti-racism from which there is no turning back. From the 1970’s to the current fight in Morristown, NJ, we have led tens of thousands in confronting the Nazis, the KKK and their police protectors. In the 1990’s we gave leadership in fighting the wave of racist police terror in many major cities. Black workers and youth have always warmly embraced the Party. Yet we continue to face obstacles to recruitment and consolidation of black workers.

The Collapse of the Old Communist Movement and Rise of Nationalism

In July 1967, the Detroit Rebellion exploded. Within 72 hours, an armed working class spontaneously defeated the racist cops and the Michigan National Guard. President Lyndon Johnson was forced to use troops on their way to Vietnam to retake Detroit. The Chinese (then) Communist Party proclaimed its support for the rebellion before the entire world.

But those days are long gone. The rebellion was put down, the Chinese revolution was reversed and there is a new Ford assembly plant in Vietnam. Nationalism helped kill the old communist movement and has spread like a cancer.

Now we have to contend with nationalist misleaders like FBI informant Al Sharpton, The Jackson Two (Jesse Sr.& Jr.), and a host of black politicians, preachers and union leaders. Jesse & Son are all smiles on the cover of their new book, IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY. A parade of black Olympic athletes, especially the NBA "Dream" Team, wrapped themselves in the bosses’ flag of racism and genocide to get fat endorsement contracts and set black workers up to support Gore and another Mideast oil war.

The collapse of the old communist movement has slowed every aspect of the revolutionary process. The racist rulers have been given a second wind that workers are paying for with millions of casualties.

Defeat the Twin Evils!

We have the ability to overcome the twin evils of racism and nationalism. Some of our greatest resources are the black workers and youth currently in the Party, like those at the Workers’ Section meeting. We must rely on these comrades and win them to take more leadership and responsibility for the Party.

Hardly a week goes by without black youths being killed by the police. Two million people are in prison; half are black and Latin. By every measure—infant mortality, wages, longevity and health care—super-exploited black workers face the brunt of the bosses’ attacks.

Every area can initiate a more aggressive plan for recruitment, consolidation, and development of black workers. Part of this is winning more CHALLENGE readers, writers and distributors, which will improve the quality of our paper and make it a more effective weapon.

The bosses have long feared the revolutionary potential of black workers, and their ability to lead the whole working class. Let’s give them plenty to worry about. Black workers are more open to the Party, but weigh their decision carefully. Although we’ve got a long a ways to go, this meeting showed were making important strides to guarantee black workers will lead the way to communist revolution.

Dump All Bosses and Union Hacks, Strike! Strike! Strike!

LOS ANGELES, October 4 — "I was wrong. You were right; we can’t trust the company or the union leadership," declared a higher-paid, senior mechanic to a PLP member. He had just heard Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1277 President Neil Silver and the ATU board say union mechanics were "free" to cross the picket line of striking drivers in the United Transportation Union.

Silver’s treacherous dealmaking with Democratic governor Gray Davis shocked this city’s entire working class. The union leaders promised Davis to get workers to cross the picket lines if he signed a bill covering possible privatized transit zones in which cuts in wages and benefits would be barred for four years. After that it’s bosses’ heaven.

Even as Silver was spilling his guts on TV, friends and members of PL were writing a leaflet denouncing the sellout and making plans to deliver the message to the striking drivers that the only ATU member crossing the line would be Silver.

‘Kill the Bastards’

As these leaflets arrived on the picket lines, the strikers cheered when told that the union leaders were the only scabs. "Kill the bastards" was the sentiment on the lines at division after division, reacting to the flyers and promises of unity. At one downtown division a group of about 20 drivers nearly hoisted a mechanic on their shoulders when he brought the flyers. Others told a Party member that ATU back-stabbing made them stronger.This is the spirit the union hacks fear and are trying to ignore. PLP is tapping this strong burst of workers’ solidarity and class sentiment by building the unity to counter the misleaders’ attempts to weaken the strike. "I was afraid to go down to RRC (Repair Center) this morning," said one worker. "I thought so many of these guys who are hurting would take it as an excuse to cross." He shook his head; "God, I was so glad so many showed up, so the ones who came to cross were ashamed or afraid to do it."

It is impossible not to run into workers during this strike that are not open to the ideas of CHALLENGE and of militant and revolutionary leadership.

Strike! Condemn The Union Hacks!

This strike should be spread. The fact is, the mechanics’ contract is also expiring. We are advancing the idea that mechanics should walk out as well and make it a really mass transit strike.

We must get CHALLENGE into the hands of as many of our old readers as possible. And we will reach workers who have lately awakened to how close to the edge we live, even though many of us are comparatively well-paid. Whatever "comforts" we’ve had are slipping away. More workers must be won to realize that instability and insecurity are growing in—and are built into—this capitalist system.

LA County Workers Flexing Strike Muscle

LOS ANGELES, October 4 — A possible general strike of 90,000 County workers was shaping up here, which, if combined with the bus drivers already on the picket lines and a possible walkout of 40,000 teachers, would make for one of the largest strikes in the city’s history.

The 47,000 County workers in Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 660 were scheduled to go out on Oct. 10. They are demanding a 15.5% wage increase over three years, after having gotten peanuts for most of the 1990s. The County bosses are "offering" slightly more than half of that, while corporate profits and CEO incomes are out of sight. Many rank and filers are opposing the 2-tier wage scheme which would use Workfare to bring in low-wage workers.

Meanwhile, the bosses here have reduced workers’ health care to a new low and are scheming to throw thousands of workers off of welfare. They will then be forced into Workfare where they will "earn" poverty level "wages" and replace unionized jobs, lowering wage levels for the whole working class. Plans for privatizing welfare would worsen this situation even further.

Workers must demand: (1) an end to Workfare and these welfare cuts; (2) abolition of the 2-, 3- and 4-tier wage systems; (3) smashing of the racist cop terror that tries to keep the super-exploited black and Latin workers "in line"; and (4) an end to racist wage differentials.

The other 43,000 County workers and the teachers should join Local 660 and the striking transit workers to build a general strike that unites all workers across all lines, uniting black, Latin, Asian and white workers in one mighty wave to set the bosses back on their heels. This could stop LA dead and would demonstrate it is the workers who produce everything of value but it’s the bosses and bankers who grab most of it in their drive for maximum profits.

Workers must be wary of bosses and union leaders who try to appear as our supporters in an effort to use us for their own purposes. The fight by the Rockefeller interests for control of LA involves these top bosses trying to build a mass popular movement—working through the sellout leaders of the AFL-CIO and those in the black and Latin communities—to get workers on their side as they prepare for an oil war in the Mid-East. That’s why their ruling class media, like the LA TIMES, publishes apparently favorable reports about the strikers and potential strikes.

We can’t rely on any boss, nor on their lieutenants in the AFL-CIO or whoever they install in the White House. There is no "lesser evil" under the profit system—only absolute evil. Capitalism is anti-worker and racist to the core. No matter who runs it, it is set up to make the bosses rich by attacking the workers and making us fight their wars for control of the world. We say dump it!

AC Transit Workers Champion Solidarity

OAKLAND, CA., October 2—Transit workers in Amalgamated Transit Union Local 192 here took a solidarity stand with their striking brothers and sisters in LA today while endorsing a transit unity rally in the Bay Area along with a work action of their own to put pressure on their bosses during a contract struggle. They voted to:

•Send a letter of solidarity to their fellow transit workers in LA opposing any crossing of picket lines and declaring that no union member in the transit locals in LA return to work until the contract fight is decided;

•Call for a Bay Area Transit Unity Rally of workers at MUNI (in the Transport Workers Union) and at AC Transit here to support each others' demands in their contract fights;

•Refuse to work overtime for at least one week, which could cripple the company since it refuses to hire additional drivers (it's running with 55 drivers short) and depends on overtime to meet schedules

Students, Faculty, Workers Rip Racist Police Terror

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 3— Students and workers are fighting hard to avenge the murder of Howard University student Prince Jones by the Prince George's County Police Department. Over 2,000 signatures have been gathered on a petition demanding the racist cop be indicted for first degree murder. Howard University students and staff rallied at the office of the Virginia prosecutor, putting Fairfax County on notice that nothing short of the murder indictment would be tolerated.

Over 150 residents attended hearings in Prince George's County, held by a government-appointed Task Force on Police Accountability. They condemned the police and the county government for brutality and racist murder. Those who testified included the leaders of the Howard University Alumni Association, Howard University students and faculty, and members of the newly formed Prince George's County People's Coalition for Police Accountability. A representative of the transit workers' union Local 689 testified. The Local 689 executive board voted to condemn the killing. Many victims of the police told stories that moved many to tears and determination to fight back.

In each of these activities, PLP played an important role mobilizing in our mass organizations to build a militant, multi-racial movement against police brutality and racial profiling.

Many critical strategic political questions are being debated. Should we fight for a more independent civilian review board? Should we focus on changing the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights (LEOBOR), which shields killer cops from scrutiny? Should we focus on getting elected officials to come to our side?

PLP argues that only a sustained, militant, working-class movement can limit police murders in any way. Legislative solutions are dead-ends. The capitalists will evade them since they need to have a brutal police force to keep the private property system strong for the rich. The movement must mobilize workers, students and others to lead the struggle to punish the cop and the politicians. We will participate in an anti-police brutality demonstration on October 14 at the Capitol and aggressively petition at the Million Family March on October 16. But only communist revolution can stop the capitalist system that generates racist police brutality.

Protest Scares Principal And Cops At Bogus Bogan HS

CHICAGO, IL, October 2 — "Look, I could have arrested him for felony mob action. He had 200 students trying to get back into the school. Our lives were in danger." Yeah, right! Their "lives were in danger." Two cops with guns against students with notebooks.

On Friday, September 29, two students were arrested at Bogan H.S. We were both charged with disorderly conduct. The young woman was also charged with trespassing. It had been a really spectacular day for students because we staged the first ever, real protest in front of our principal’s office. At Bogan, all students must wear a white shirt, black pants and black shoes. But seniors normally get out of wearing their uniform on picture day.

Our principal decided to change that and demanded we come to school in our uniform, change into our picture clothes and change back into our uniforms after we take our senior pictures. This pissed off the entire senior class and we even got support from some teachers.

Anger was so deep and widespread that almost the entire senior class marched to the principal’s office demanding that she change her policy. Students were really hyped about having such a large group fighting for the same cause. We felt that with the right leadership we could get almost anything we wanted. The designated leader made a devastating mistake by letting the principal talk him into a private meeting. He then told everyone to go home and he would personally handle it on Monday.

As we were all leaving, the security guards and cops started hassling everyone for their ID’s and forcing us to leave our school. Outside, we were discussing our protest and criticizing the leader. Someone yelled out that someone was being arrested in the school.

I ran into the school to find two kkkops on top of a young woman, handcuffed and in a headlock. I asked them, "Why are you arresting her?" They told me "Get the f--k out of here! This is none of your business." I said, "This is my business! She’s a fellow student." They told me, "Get the f--k out of here before we arrest you too." I refused to leave the 16-year-old girl in a headlock with the two cops, so they arrested me for "Disorderly Conduct."

A student who reads CHALLENGE got on his bike and tried to organize students to block the police car. He also circulated a petition demanding that I not be suspended. Others circulated petitions against wearing our uniforms on picture day.

As long as the bosses have state power the laws, cops and courts will always be anti-working class. Many Bogan students understand that things are only getting worse and more restrictive. This week I am making more of an effort to get CHALLENGE into their hands. This will help their political development.

Fascism is developing rapidly in the Chicago public schools. Under the disguise of Zero Tolerance, thousands of students have been suspended and expelled and hundreds of teachers have been fired. Education under capitalism is only for the bosses’ profits. Under communism, it will be for the use and development of the entire working-class.

a name="Police Terror Against Youth = Chicago Bosses’ School Reform">">"olice Terror Against Youth = Chicago Bosses’ School Reform

CHICAGO, IL, October 2 — "You crooks got away this time, but sooner or later I’m going to get you." This threat to four 14-year-olds came as they were leaving Juvenile Court, from the cop who had arrested them. Armed robbery charges against them had just been dropped. However, being innocent means little under capitalism and even less under racist Chicago school reform.

Mona is an active parent at her children’s schools. On Saturday, May 13, she saw her son and three classmates being put into cop Whitehead’s police car. Whitehead is stationed inside Dixon Elementary School. The four eighth graders had been playing ball in their Southside neighborhood. Whitehead claimed to be looking for a gun, a pair of gym shoes and a silver chain.

Later that evening, Whitehead called Mona to say the four youth were being charged with aggravated robbery. Mona asked, "Was a weapon or the stolen property found on the boys?" "No!" squealed Whitehead.

The next day Mona’s neighbor told her that her seven-year-old son was offered a chain by an 18-year-old youth with a criminal reputation in the neighborhood. Mona went to talk to this youth and found he also had the gym shoes. She reported this to the police but nothing happened. On Monday the boys had a preliminary hearing and were put on house arrest. They could only go to school and back home.

Under racist Mayor Daley’s school reform, there is a reciprocal reporting system between the school district and the police department. It says that any time a student is arrested on drug, weapons, or forcible felony charges, the schools must be contacted. Even though cop Whitehead and Dixon Principal Cristler knew these boys had no prior record, they wasted no time handing down ten-day suspensions and barred the boys from attending their 8th-grade graduation activities.

The boys did graduate and started high school. But their story is far from over. Even though the charges were dropped, the racist Board of Education has ordered the students and parents to appear at expulsion hearings on October 11. Mona said, "The board has three sets of rules; the ones they make up as they go along, the ones they have to protect principals, and the ones they use against parents that give leadership in the schools."

Clinton/Gore have used Chicago as their national model for "School Reform." Modest increases in test scores have been paid for by unprecedented fascist attacks on students, parents, teachers and school workers. Since 1997, 42,255 Kindergarten through 8th-grade students and 33,887 high school students have been suspended. Only 1% were suspended for weapons: only 3% for drugs. In the same period 1,537 students have been expelled; 1,128 are black, only 69 are white. Black students are 54% of the student body, but 72 % of all expulsions. (All figures from Chicago Public Schools, End of Year Reports to Illinois State Board of Education.) Over 200 teachers have been fired, including PLP members Moises Bernal and Carol Caref. School workers have lost their health care coverage.

PLP fights to "Put Students First." We will demonstrate with Mona and the other parents, at the Board of Education, at the expulsion hearings. Our PTA is forming a committee to investigate the number of students affected by the record-sharing between the schools and the cops. This fight for our children exposes capitalism as the children’s oppressor. Smashing this system stops this. Building communism buries it.

a name="Workers’ Poverty Grows Among Bosses’ Economic Boom"></">Wo"kers’ Poverty Grows Among Bosses’ Economic Boom

Last month, the Census Bureau reported poverty rates fell to 11.8% in the U.S., the lowest level since 1979. The Clinton administration quickly took credit for this. It will surely help Gore’s candidacy.

But amid this economic "good news," there’s a lot of old-fashioned bad news for black and women workers. "Median income for women declined last year even as men earned more money. As a result, women’s earnings are only 72.2% that of men, down from the peak of 74.2% in 1997. Economists said the decline in median income for women reflects an influx of poorer women into the market. "(WALL STREET JOURNAL, 9/27).

So in the middle of this capitalist "boom," the oppression of women grows. But when one group of workers is super-exploited, the rest of the working class suffers. Bob Greenspan, the director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said, "women entered the work force at a rate four times faster than men did, pulling the median income level down." (WSJ).

The Census Bureau report wasn’t good news for black workers either. Even though median income for black families hit a record $27,010". "that is significantly lower than the $42,504 the average white household takes home" (WSJ).

The fact is in the "best of its economic times" capitalism can’t solve the problems of sexism, racism and inequality. Larry Mishel, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank, said: "Inequality is stubbornly high and not declining as one would expect in a strong recovery. It’s historically high, and still higher compared to other countries." Mishel also noted that over the past 10 years, the average middle-class family works 279 more hours a year. He added: "This is why you could have prosperous times where people are going to talk about the stress of balancing work and family."

The Census report doesn’t register the full magnitude of capitalism’s inequality "since it fails to factor in all income for the top earners, capping it at $1 million. Nor does it include capital gains income, which has risen significantly in recent years as stock options and investing have become more popular." (WSJ).

When it comes to children, capitalism is an even bigger failure. While children represents 26% of the overall population, they make up 38% of those living in poverty. And even though the Bureau considers the poverty rate lower now, it is still higher than it was in 1973.

Thus, capitalism in "the best of its times" cannot serve the interests of millions of workers and their families. This is because those bosses and companies who made huge profits, and gave stock options and capital gains to a few investors and CEOs, made these profits "the old-fashioned way": exploiting all workers, and super-exploiting black and women workers.

We in PLP have a better choice: fight to destroy capitalism and its racist-sexist oppression and build a society where workers produce to satisfy the needs of the entire working class, not those of a few bosses and their lackeys. That’s communism.

a name="Columbus Day: Celebrate Or Protest — You Be The Judge">">"olumbus Day: Celebrate Or Protest — You Be The Judge

The official history books tell how Columbus "sailed the blue in 1492". Thus, began the "glorious" history of the European "civilization" of the Americas, leading to the establishment of the U.S.A. less than 300 years later. For years the U.S. has celebrated Columbus Day. Like this writer, many workers get Columbus Day as a paid holiday and millions of students are off from school. However, should this be a day of celebration or of protest?

Columbus had persuaded Spain’s king and queen to finance an expedition to the East Indies and Asia, seeking gold, spices and other valuables. Spain had recently become a nation. Most Spaniards were poor peasants who worked for the nobility. The nobles were 2% of the population but owned 95% of the land. Thus, Columbus was helping to fulfill the greedy goals of Spanish royalty.

During Columbus’ first voyage to the "New World," the first crew member to sight land was supposed to get a large lifetime pension. In the early morning of October 12, 1492, an ordinary sailor named Rodrigo called out when he saw the white sands of an island (in the Bahamas). Columbus lied, claimed he had seen land the evening before and later received the reward. So much for Columbus’ honesty!

Columbus was known as an expert sailor. He chose to sail west to find a shorter, more economical route to Asia. Instead he "discovered" the Bahamas and other Caribbean islands. Never mind that there were already several well-developed civilizations in the Americas, including (but not limited to) the Arawak, Inca, Mayan and Iroquois. Some were relatively peaceful, some were warlike; some were led by men, some by women; some had rigid class structures, some were collectively organized. Upon returning to Spain after his first expedition, Columbus insisted he had reached Asia (it was Cuba) and an island off the coast of China (actually Hispaniola, later called Haiti and the Dominican Republic).

Columbus recorded his first observations of the Bahaman Arawaks in his ship’s log (diary): "...They willingly traded everything they owned....They do not bear arms (weapons)....They would make fine servants....With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."

European observers noted how the Arawaks, like many of the "Indians" on the mainland, were remarkable for their hospitality and their belief in sharing. However, these honorable traits were abused by the European merchants (early capitalists) of the Renaissance, consumed as they were by the religion of the popes, the government of kings and the frenzy for money (gold, raw materials, markets) that marked Western civilization’s elite and their first emissary to the Americas, Christopher Columbus. After finding little gold, Columbus wrote: "Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold."

A significant source of information on Columbus is the multi-volume "History of the Indies" by Bartolome de las Casas, a Catholic priest, who also transcribed Columbus’ journal. (Las Casas had participated in the conquest of Cuba. For a time he had a plantation with Indian slaves, and later suggested replacing Indians with African slaves until the cruelties he saw turned him into a critic.) Las Casas wrote that when he arrived in Hispaniola in 1508, "there were 60,000 people living on the island, including the Indians; so that from 1494 to 1508, over three million people had perished from war, slavery and the mines...I myself writing it as a knowledgeable eyewitness can hardly believe it..."

The noted historian Howard Zinn wrote: "What Columbus did to the Arawaks of the Bahamas, Cortes did to the Aztecs of Mexico, Pizarro to the Incas of Peru, and the English settlers of Virginia and Massachusetts to the Powhatans and the Pequots." Over the centuries that followed, millions of Indians and African slaves perished in the holocaust of the Americas. The legacy of Columbus is nothing less than genocide, a product of a system based on money, profits, class exploitation and oppression.

[Source: A People’s History Of The United States, by Howard Zinn, published by Harper Collins, 1999.]

a name="Clinton-Barak-Arafat’s ‘Peace Process’ Kills More Workers"></a>"linton-Barak-Arafat’s ‘Peace Process’ Kills More Workers

The renewed fighting in Israel and the occupied territories is another example of U.S. imperialism’s peace-making skills. It was touched off by a provocation from openly fascist Israeli politician Ariel Sharon, who last week held a public rally at the Dome of the Rock, a shrine sacred to Arab muslims.

Sharon dislikes the deal Clinton & Co. are hoping to force on Israel. He thinks his faction of bosses can get more than Clinton is offering, and so he’s trying to sabotage it. The Palestinian boss Arafat heads a shaky coalition of capitalist wannabes, many of whom disagree with concessions he has OK’ed in talks with Israeli and U.S. rulers. The Sharon provocation merely set a spark on powder that was already very dry.

U.S. imperialism wants to stabilize the situation between Israeli and Palestinian bosses in order to guarantee its western flank in the Middle East, as it prepares to launch its next oil war in the Persian Gulf. But the western flank doesn’t seem to want to be stabilized. Even if Clinton & Co. can get a few politicians like Barak and Arafat to go along, the latest fighting shows the entire region torn by conflicts that can’t be suppressed by signing a piece of paper.

Now Clinton’s Secy. of State Albright is calling a meeting of Arafat and Barak, presumably to force them into line. The big gangster wants the little punks to obey, but the little punks can’t or won’t knuckle under. No deal can satisfy all the different factions of bosses, because any deal will come at the expense of one or another. More importantly, no deal can meet the needs of Arab and Jewish workers, whose deepest class interests require the leadership of a party that fights for revolutionary communism. The militancy of Palestinian working-class youth in the current struggle is admirable. But under the leadership of nationalist thugs like Arafat, it is a dead-end that will keep the Palestinian working class imprisoned in the profit system’s misery.

Imperialism can never solve the problems it creates. In the words of an ancient Roman historian, "It creates a wasteland and calls it peace." The current fighting in Israel may temporarily subside. But eventually, it will be followed by much wider and more deadly war.

a name="Alaskan Oil: Another Oil Bosses’ Battleground">">"laskan Oil: Another Oil Bosses’ Battleground

As the liberal rulers continue to lay the groundwork for their next oil war in the Persian Gulf, Alaskan oil is emerging as a significant issue in the presidential campaign. Iraq and Alaska are related. Although it’s a very complicated situation, we should understand its main points, to be able to see through the baloney tossed at us by the candidates.

Bush has promised to open up the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) for oil exploration. Partly he’s tossing bone to the domestic Oil Patch gang, BP Amoco and energy equipment giants like Halliburton. These forces form part of the Republican base, but the Rockefeller forces have been adamant about denying ANWR access to the domestic oil industry. However, the latter needs to be brought into line if the Rockefeller interests are to forge any class unity around their plans for Middle Eastern oil war.

But BP (British Petroleum) Amoco is another story. If Bush can induce BP Amoco, Halliburton, et al. into supporting the Rockefeller Persian Gulf war agenda, he may yet be a future president. Halliburton stands to reap billions from any deal to make and install the equipment that would bring in ANWR oil. BP Amoco is at present the main producer of Alaska crude, with 70%.

The Rockefeller wing has opposed opening up the ANWR right now, for its own reasons. In the long run, releasing these vast reserves benefits Exxon Mobil, which will need large increases in domestic production as a hedge against disruption of Persian Gulf supplies by a major war. In fact, the main wing of the big bosses has always viewed Alaskan crude largely as a strategic military reserve. But this oil is useless until it can be brought to the pump. Even if Bush & Co. were to win the White House and open up the ANWR, the first drop wouldn’t be brought on line for five or ten years.

The issue is less whether to open ANWR than who should open it and for what purpose. BP Amoco and the domestic Oil Patch, rivals of the Rockefeller camp, wants to sell it for profit on the world market. Cinton/Gore want it mainly for use in war. Two years ago, Clinton opened up a quarter of the former Naval Oil Reserve in Alaska.

But Clinton/Gore/Rockefeller also want BP Amoco to jump on the Middle East war bandwagon. So bribery becomes necessary. In addition to Alaskan profit-sharing, they may offer BP Amoco a cut of the action in Iraq or possibly Iran, both of which BP once dominated—provided the U.S. can seize them back. The U.S. rulers figure this would be enough of a bone for BP Amoco to tone down its alliances with Russian and Chinese oil companies and BP’s attempts to re-enter Iraq or Iran without the U.S. stamp of approval. However, BP has its own desperate need for new oil sources, as last year's NATO butchery in Yugoslavia for Caspian oil pipelines showed. It might not easily knuckle under to the Rockefeller trade-off.

This is another significant aspect of the inner class contradictions of state power. The U.S. federal government is absolutely the creature of the dominant capitalists. Whether Bush or Gore becomes president, the ANWR will be used primarily to meet Exxon Mobil's goals. In a pinch, this state power will be used ruthlessly against "friendly" rivals like BP Amoco. In the event of a "national emergency," the main wing would immediately sieze these reserves and what could BP Amoco do about it? How many British divisions can strike Alaska on BP Amoco’s behalf? Exxon Mobil has already prepared for such an eventuality. When BP Amoco took over ARCO and its huge undeveloped Alaskan holdings, Exxon Mobil claimed "rights of first use" over oil from these tracts, dating back to 1964, and then vowed to enforce these "rights" if exploration or production ever started. Exxon Mobil also maintains significant operations in Alaska.

For now the Rockefellers are content to let BP Amoco and other Exxon rivals do the bulk of the hard, very expensive work of getting crude from the frozen earth. This is a basic capitalist tactic: let your competitors take the biggest risks and then elbow them aside to grab the reward.

Meanwhile, the war drums are beating harder for another U.S. intervention in the Persian Gulf. U.S. stooge Kuwait is the latest to fall in line asking for U.N. protection against Iraqi threats. U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright came up with a list of "red lines" Iraq mustn’t cross and threatened war if it disobeyed.

So, with increasing rapidity, the stage is being set for the next oil war. The jockeying on the home front for the upper hand in Alaska must be viewed as part of this process. Our Party will continue to expose U.S. imperialism’s war plans and to organize against them on every front where we have forces.

Step on Rulers’ Achilles Heel!

U.S. rulers face a major obstacle as they gear up for their next Persian Gulf oil war. Their class interests require preventing French and Russian oil companies from gaining a foothold in Iraq that would Challenge Exxon’s world energy dominance. Ultimately, this goal can’t be achieved without war. But oil war demands a large U.S. army of committed ground forces, and the U.S. ruling class continues to be haunted by the so-called "Vietnam syndrome"—a military whose troops won’t willingly fight and die for the rulers’ aims.

The latest warning about this dilemma comes from former Marine Corps General Anthony Zinni, who until last summer had been head of the U.S. military’s Persian Gulf Central Command. On Sept. 27, Zinni warned the Senate Armed Services Committee that the "political will to take military action" against Iraq is still absent (Reuters). He cautioned against launching another oil war without public support.

The bosses know they have a problem. They haven’t won working-class soldiers and sailors to their agenda. We must carefully evaluate this contradiction. We must avoid leaping to the wishful-thinking conclusion that therefore they will not go to war. That would be a deadly error. On the other hand, we should see that their political weakness is an Achilles heel that our class can turn to its advantage. Our communist forces can grow in the midst of these blood-lettings for oil profit. Nothing is going to be handed to us, but if we put forth our line and organize around it under all circumstances, we can plant the seeds for turning imperialist war and fascism into their opposite—communist revolution.

Exxon: The 800 Pound Gorilla

From the OIL DAILY, April 5, 2000, on Exxon's tiff with BP Amoco over legal claim to Arco's oil tracts. "While Exxon has a reputation for vigorously protecting its contractual rights, the Dallas-based giant may have also been teaching its expansionist British rival a lesson: ‘Exxon wanted to remind BP who the 800-pound gorilla is,’ one industry source said."

The Communist Fight for Literacy and Knowledge

(Conclusion of three-part series.)

Any bosses’ education initiatives face a basic contradiction of capitalism: while they have a life-and-death need to mask the truth, objective reality refuses to be ignored. The more they try to shove their lies down our throats, the more they will expose themselves as liars. The bosses’ version of reality simply doesn’t fit the daily experience of working-class families.

Workers will not reach these conclusions automatically. Seeing through bosses’ lies doesn’t necessarily lead to communism.

But communist teachers are in the middle of these education wars, IN the schools! There we can: (1) engage in class struggle for working-class literacy, both inside and outside the classroom; and (2) thereby sharpen our ideas on educating the working class to take power.

The bosses force teachers to spend years studying capitalist teaching techniques, to learn how to teach their ideas. In contrast, many of us are really just starting to develop a communist approach to teaching, and in capitalist-controlled schools at that. Our individual experiences may be rich in lessons beneficial to the working class, but we still lack truly comprehensive knowledge.

We need to become true experts in the fight for literacy. It is the fight for knowledge, the fight for revolution, which, Marx said, is a fight to change the society, but also to change OURSELVES. We should involve ourselves deeply in the bosses’ reform programs to learn how to wage struggles for educational practices serving the working class, especially how to apply our scientific philosophy—the principles of dialectical materialism. All this can become springboards for initiating class struggle at all levels of the school and community. Knowledge gained from this practice adds to future action.

Teachers should collectively make plans and report our progress and problems in CHALLENGE to encourage debate and development (like the recent exchange on rap music).

The bosses are raising the stakes in education, sharpening their attacks on the working class. They want to train workers and soldiers to serve fascism and capitalist war. To answer them, we must train workers now to serve their class and to prepare themselves to take power.

Literacy, For What?

Ruling Class Purpose:

· Train workers to be more useful tools of capital by teaching them certain skills necessary for capitalist production.

· Train workers in capitalist ideology so they can better serve the needs of the capitalists preparing for war against their economic rivals.

Workers who can’t read are generally unreliable for the bosses, both on the job and the battlefield. They are almost certainly disenchanted with the system, angry and bitter. Jails to control "unmanageable" workers and youth are only one part of the rulers’ strategy. They need loyal workers who will fight and die for capitalism. As NEW YORK TIMES columnist and ruling class spokesman Thomas Friedman says (8/8), in complaining about popular resistance to war, "Americans don’t want to die for virtually anything." Workers and youth are still seen as "inferior." Truly high levels of literacy will continue to exist for only a small percentage of the population.

Communist Purpose:

For communists, literacy is a weapon for understanding and changing the world. Workers need to analyze events and understand and apply dialectical materialism, to understand the Party’s ideas better so as to develop their commitment to communism. This creates determined revolutionary members and leaders, vital to move the working class to power and successfully construct the first truly communist society.

High Communist Standards for the Working Class

In every subject area, we can plan lessons that critique aspects of capitalism. For example, when a local hospital was conducting biodeterminist experiments to "prove" black and Latin youth were "violent by nature," a ninth grade English teacher developed a unit in "controversial issues." By investigating issues from all sides (a principal of dialectical materialism), students unmasked the racist nature of these experiments and wrote letters to a mass organization fighting the experiments. Through this they learned: (1) literacy strategies for reading difficult material; (2) how to evaluate sources; (3) the perfect form for business letters; and (4) appropriate vocabulary (like "fascism" and "pseudo-science"). They later attended and spoke at a scientific forum condemning the experiments. Later, after a local police murder, these students could make the connection between the racist experiments racist police terror. More could have been done to link the classroom learning to class struggle against capitalism, but several youth were recruited to the Party out of this work.

LETTERS

Workers of the World, Write! AFL-CIO Betrays Immigrants Again

On Oct.2, the AFL-CIO presented its proposal for amnesty for undocumented immigrant workers at a mid-town Manhattan press conference. Local 1199 president Dennis Rivera welcomed other hacks and politicians, including Central Labor Council head Brian McLaughin who announced the AFL-CIO endorsement of the Latino and Immigrant Fairness Act of 2000 (LIFA).

This is the second recent change in the AFL-CIO’s position, In the past, the union leadership had been leading attacks against immigrants, but a couple of years ago they began supporting immigrant workers’ rights because (1) the need of many U.S. bosses for cheap labor; and (2) to build Latino support for the Democratic Party. Now it supports LIFA, which provides limited amnesty, affecting less than 500,000 undocumented immigrants.

Monica Santana, organizer of many mass marches for unconditional amnesty, was at the press conference to protest the AFL-CIO’s support for LIFA since "it excludes 5.5 million other undocumented immigrants." She also said the AFL-CIO "took advantage of the mass mobilizations organized by immigrant groups like hers, to betray it [by] pushing for a partial amnesty." Several groups active in this fight also protested, calling it a stab at their movement.

Indeed, we in PLP participated in many of these mobilizations but warned workers not to trust the AFL-CIO or the Democratic Party, that they were just using workers to push their own political aims. They serve the interests of the liberal section of the ruling class, the Exxon-Mobil-Rockefeller bosses who are preparing for another oil war in the Middle East. They need such workers both for support and as soldiers.

The moral? Never trust such union hacks or politicians—they all serve and defend the profit system.

A Red Immigrant

a name="Waiting for Lefty’ Sparks Strike Call">">"aiting for Lefty’ Sparks Strike Call

Recently a friend organized twelve of us to see the play "Waiting for Lefty." We had a great time. Written by Clifford Odets in the 1930s about a New York taxi strike, this stirring work shows drivers struggling against their own fears and against the union leadership to fight for their class. It depicts the many ways capitalism corrupts and destroys everything, from personal relationships to science to medicine. It sharply attacks anti-communism, recognizes the militancy of working-class women and ends with the workers chanting "Strike! Strike!"

The cast even restored a scene from the original production that the author had cut from the published version because he feared it was too openly Left. In this scene, which exposes the commercialism of Broadway theater, the producer’s receptionist offers a starving actor a copy of the Communist Manifesto.

As a prologue, the theater company enacted a short play of its own about the current strike of TV commercial actors. They dramatized both the reasons for the strike and the struggle involved in trying to win entertainment industry workers to solidarity with the strike. It was clear that the reality of workers’ struggles today had inspired this company of artists.

It sparked our group to discuss the growing strike wave in Los Angeles. Besides the actors and the recent janitors’ strike, MTA workers are now out, city workers are about to start a series of "rolling strikes" and 95% of LA’s teachers voted to authorize a strike.

"It’s interesting how the LA TIMES is portraying these strikes so favorably," one person remarked.

"That’s true," said another. "This is the first time I’ve ever seen TV news and the papers interview riders who supported the strike."

"The CHICAGO TRIBUNE—which recently took over the TIMES—never gave transit workers such favorable publicity there either, she continued. "I guess it’s true that [as CHALLENGE has reported] it’s not so much pro-union as anti-Riordan and pro-Rockefeller. The Eastern Establishment is using the strikes as a way to attack Mayor Riordan and his group of real-estate developers and entrepreneurs."

"They’re going after his law firm too. And don’t some of his relatives own big stakes in some of the smaller regional bus companies that would benefit from the breakup of MTA?"

"We should call for a general strike," said a young worker. "That would really up the ante in this struggle. It would give workers a taste of power."

"You’re right! We should call for a general strike—and point out that the enemy is capitalism. Of course, however badly the Rockefeller forces want to go after Riordan’s crowd, I don’t think they’d go that far!"

Workers’ struggles can inspire art, and good art can inspire struggle. We were all sorry we hadn’t known about this production sooner, so we could have gotten more of our friends to come with us.

LA Comrade

Fujimori May Go But Fascism Stays

After 10 years in power, Peru’s fascist dictator Fujimori is calling for new elections and is dismantling the hated Intelligence Service (SIN), exiling its head, Vladimiro Montesinos, to Panama.

After the last electoral farce on July 28, Fujimori declared "victory" even though everyone knew it was a huge fraud. Since Fujimori’s Peru 2000 Party did not win a majority in Congress, Montesinos began buying some opposition congressmen. He was such a sleaze bag that he videotaped every act of corruption to blackmail those he corrupted, just in case. This video was made public and now the almighty Montesinos is in exile and the Fujimori regime is collapsing.

Indeed, behind this power struggle among different bosses, there was CIA pressure on Fujimori to dump Montesinos, who had become a hindrance for the CIA he had served so well for so many years. In addition, mass protests against the Fujimori-Montesinos cabal mushroomed. The mass discontent made this deadly duo expendable for U.S. imperialism and the local capitalists.

Even though the CIA and the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) claimed Peru did a lot to fight drugs during the 10-year Fujimori regime (the DEA-CIA has two military bases in Peru), still Montesinos’ connection with the drug mafias was well-known. In the 1980s, Montesinos was a lawyer for some of the biggest drug bosses here.

Under Fujimori the old comprador [native bosses agents] rulers were replaced by a new set of bosses. So in the July elections, these old bosses supported the presidential candidacy of Alejandro Toledo, a World Bank official. After the July electoral fraud, this set of bosses organized the mass protests against Fujimori.

But the fact remains Peru’s economic crisis is so big and poverty has increased so much, any new government will have to follow the same fascist shock measures Fujimori used against workers for the last decade. Fifteen of the 25 million here earn less than $50 a month, and five million earn less than $25 a month!

This has provoked many people to discuss what to do about the widespread corruption and vast poverty. They won’t find the solution among the many different groups of bosses and reformists who, unfortunately, are leading the protests. There’s a good opportunity to build a PLP group here to fight for the only true liberation for workers: the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Some comrades in Peru

Dialectics Inspires Workers

Although I have been around the Party for a few years, I just recently really began analyzing things dialectically. The international Dialectical Materialism (DM) school the Party organized in July helped me become a better Party member. Since this revolutionary philosophy gives us more confidence in fighting the capitalist system, a group of workers in Upper Manhattan, NYC, have begun DM classes to better defend ourselves against the many bosses’ attacks in a country claiming to be the most "humanitarian" in the world.

In our first discussion we discussed how many people think philosophy is something very complicated, but in practice we deal with it every day. It is the profound study of every process, and the universality [all things are connected] of everything. We studied how things appear externally (appearance) and internally (essence).

All of us gave simple examples and applied them to our workplaces. One person said the factories where we work look very nice and neat from the outside (appearance), but inside we are exploited and labor under very unsafe conditions (essence). It was a good beginning for our classes.

I also attended the first day of the Workers’ Section meeting last weekend. We discussed international events, particularly the threat of another oil war against Iraq by U.S. imperialism. We also heard some interesting reports from the LA transit strikers, who thanked the Party and CHALLENGE for their support. They all agreed the best part of the struggle was meeting PLP. An autoworker from Germany attended and was very happy seeing us united under the red flag of communism.

An Upper Manhattan Worker

A Communist Who Was Not a Communist

A former fellow worker of mine just died suddenly of an unsuspected aneurysm (bulge) of her aorta (the main artery from the heart to the rest of the body). The aneurysm started to leak, with catastrophic results. She was 71 but acted, spoke and moved like a 50-year-old. She had been a former supervisor of mine, but was more like a beloved mother to all those whom she supervised.

She was born in China, one of seven children of an international banker, all of whom moved to the U.S. before the 1949 revolution. She was alone among her brothers and sisters in getting a graduate degree and becoming a professional scientist.

Primarily as a result of her background she was staunchly anti-communist, but despite her professed class outlook, her relationships with those around her and her attitudes toward other people set an example that communists would do well to emulate.

She always made you, never herself, the center of interest in any conversation. Whenever she would call the house to speak to me, and my wife answered the phone, the conversation always began with an inquiry as to how my wife was doing, how her job was coming along, how the children were doing and so on. Then, and only then, would she ask to speak to me. She never regarded it as a waste of her precious time to greet my wife by name and chat with her for a few minutes. She never simply asked to speak to me without even identifying herself, as so many people do.

She made everyone—whether building-maintenance workers or secretaries or fellow scientists—feel equally important. She also made you feel you were capable of doing anything, particularly when you went to her to express self-doubts. Instead of parading her own accomplishments, she built peoples’ self-esteem and self-confidence.

It was clear from her attitude that, as far as she was concerned, everyone was equally capable if she/he put her/his mind to the task at hand. She always gave you the feeling you made a difference in the world.

If she disagreed with a point you were making, she would first compliment you on your insight and thoughtfulness. Then she would add tiny adjustments to it, that you would be able to agree with, until it turned out to be somewhat different from your original point and sometimes closer to her own thoughts on the issue.

With her ready wit and winning smile, she brightened up the entire office. Rather than a boss, she was a leader.

So ironically, while in her own mind she was a staunch anti-communist, in practice she was, in many ways, a far better communist than I. But I was not afraid to learn from her.

An Eager Student of the People

Deep in the Heart of Texas: Students Rip Racism

a href="#Editorial: Clinton-Gore’s OIL Is More than an Electoral Ploy">"ditorial: Clinton-Gore’s OIL Is More than an Electoral Ploy

U.S. Air Sorties Against Iraq: More than During Vietnam War

Spread MTA Strike to Bay Area Transit Workers

MTA Strikers Welcome Student Support

Bosses Battle For Control Of LA!

a href="#Workers’ Power Is "Illegal" Under Capitalist Democracy">"orkers’ Power Is "Illegal" Under Capitalist Democracy

Union Bosses Win Big At IAM Convention

• CHALLENGE comment

Defense Contractor Raytheon Makes War on Workers

Morristown Politicians Beat Fascist Drums

Local 371 Donates $1,000 to Anti-Fascist Fighters

Bosses Have Shaky Hold On Amnesty Marchers

Postmodernism: Virtual Idealism

Wen Ho Lee Is No Friend of the Working Class

LETTERS

Amnesty Marchers Embrace CHALLENGE

a href="#‘Get In It To Win It!’">‘G"t In It To Win It!’

Kicking Around Communist Politics

Fired and Fired Up

Peru: Is U.S. Playing Both Sides?

a href="#‘We Must Get Rid Of Capitalism!’">‘W" Must Get Rid Of Capitalism!’

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 Deep in the Heart of Texas: Students Rip Racism

LUBBOCK, TEXAS, Sept. 25 — In July 1999, police in Tulia, a town of 5,000 in the Texas panhandle, indicted over 40 alleged "cocaine dealers" in a dawn raid. Thirty-eight of those arrested were black (of a black population of 240). The rest had close ties to the black community. The raid netted no drugs, no money and no guns. Yet most of those arrested have been convicted on the testimony of a single undercover agent, despite the fact lawyers have proven his testimony false. Sentences have been harsh, with people with no prior convictions receiving 20-25 years in prison; others received 60, 99 and over 400 years. These long sentences have forced still others to accept plea bargains in order to care for the community’s children. On September 20, over 100 people attended a forum at Texas Tech University (TTU) here exposing these racist prosecutions and discussing the campus campaign to boycott prison-made goods, such as Dell computers. A minister from the Tulia Friends of Justice, a defense lawyer for one of the accused and a student from TTU Activists spoke. The minister and the lawyer both detailed the injustices of these trials. The student linked these arrests to broader issues of racist police actions and the rise of prison labor.

TTU Activists first initiated a campaign against prison-made goods and learned of the Tulia atrocities at a May Day dinner last April. Since May, we have sponsored a fund-raising dinner for Friends of Justice, participated in their activities and attended one of the trials. This fall we began leafleting the campus and local working-class communities. We took CHALLENGE, PL Prison Labor pamphlets, the petition against prison-made goods and a forum leaflet to a local Green Party meeting. Students there endorsed the forum and the prison labor campaign and helped to leaflet the campus.

We went to first meeting of the student feminist organization and highlighted the Tulia incidence, prison labor and the forum. They agreed to co-sponsor the forum. Many from this group distributed leaflets and sign-up sheets and petitions during the forum. We also contacted the student ACLU, the Black Student Association and the campus Democrats. Many teachers allowed us to announce the forum in their classes. Others did so on their own.

The forum was one of the biggest political events in many years on our very conservative campus. Many students stayed afterwards to continue discussing these arrests and prison labor and how they could get involved. Some wanted to confront local political candidates. Others wanted to figure out how to help the Tulia families. Over 30 students signed up to participate in the TTU Activists’ campaign against prison labor. Twenty-five CHALLENGES and over 20 PL Prison Labor pamphlets were distributed.

Many of these groups and concerned individuals view what happened in Tulia and the growth of prison labor as "deviations" from a basically sound and fair legal system. In fact, as the election nears, national liberal groups, the LA TIMES, ABC-TV, and other national media have been developing exposes of the incident in Tulia some saying it’s a product of a few rural Texas racists. The ACLU is contemplating bringing a civil rights lawsuit.. Many hope these actions will lead to reforms that will correct the injustices in Tulia and the prison system.

In working with these groups and individuals, we intend to show the fundamental relationship between racism and capitalism and the growth of fascism and war. The corporations that demand ever cheaper labor and employ prison labor and their henchmen—the local DA and courts, the federal government that funds the "war on drugs" and "community policing"—are responsible. We cannot rely simply rely on the courts and appeals, but must raise the fight against these arrests and prison labor on our campus, on the job and in the community, to build a mass movement of workers and students. Only when the working class is in power, when capitalism’s wage system has been abolished and replaced with communism, will the racist exploiters, not the working class, be in jail.

a name="Editorial: Clinton-Gore’s OIL Is More than an Electoral Ploy">">"ditorial: Clinton-Gore’s OIL Is More than an Electoral Ploy

Clinton's decision last week to release 30 million barrels from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (or SPR, oil put aside for the military in case of war) isn’t just a cheap gimmick to help Gore’s presidential campaign. Sure, Clinton-Gore want to pose as opponents of high energy prices and as friends of the working class. But there’s more to this maneuver than electoral politics.

The SPR decision is consistent with U.S. rulers’ search for a tactic to eventually provoke a military provocation with Iraq. Iraq holds the largest, cheapest petroleum reserves in the world, next to those of Exxon ally Saudi Arabia. According to the French newspaper LA TRIBUNE (9/18), despite U.S. sanctions, Iraq could produce as many as four millions barrels a day right now, and possibly much more than that if sanctions were to end. PETROLEUM INTELLIGENCE WEEKLY (2/1/99) reported that Iraq has a master plan to pump more than six million barrels a day, after the embargo is lifted. Production costs in Iraq average less than a dollar a barrel.

So Saddam Hussein & Co. could throw a big monkey wrench into the Clinton-Gore wizardry simply by cutting production. Exxon Mobil, Chevron and other U.S. oil firms are the biggest users of Iraqi crude at the moment, though they resent having to pay Russian and French middlemen for the privilege. If Hussein decided to withhold this oil from world markets, prices would rise again. Clinton-Gore know this. Their decision to release a modest amount of SPR reserves could be interpreted as a dare to the Iraqis. Eastern Establishment mouthpiece BUSINESS WEEK warns: "Saddam May Soon Release His Best Weapon: Oil Blackmail" (issue dated Oct. 2).

U.S. imperialism is gearing for another Persian Gulf war. Saddam Hussein and the gang of bosses he represents have their own immediate profit interest. But much more is at stake. Whoever controls Iraqi oil can dictate trends in the crucial world oil market. As CHALLENGE has repeatedly pointed out, the current situation is intolerable to Exxon Mobil and other Rockefeller-controlled oil companies. The U.S. policy of sanctions has failed politically. Its only success has been the murder of a million Iraqis, mostly children, since the end of Desert Storm I in 1991. Despite these sanctions, Iraq is "officially" producing nearly three million barrels a day and another 200,000 to 500,000 on the "illegal" market. Worse yet, from U.S. rulers’ viewpoint, is the series of multi-billion dollar contracts the Iraqis have with Russian, French and Chinese oil firms. These contracts become effective the moment sanctions end.

Control of oil is critical to the world domination every imperialist power craves. U.S. bosses’ strategy requires preventing the emergence of a rival super-power in Europe and/or Asia. In Europe, only the Russians could play this role. Right now, they are down but not out. If Russia’s Lukoil were to play the same role in Iraq that Exxon Mobil plays in Saudi Arabia, Russian imperialism might get well in a hurry and threaten U.S. rule.

So behind the Clinton-Gore bullshit about lowering home heating bills for "working families," the outlines of a much larger conflict are emerging. France is clearly allying with Russia to end the embargo against Iraq, on Saddam Hussein’s terms rather than Exxon’s. In direct defiance of U.S. policy, French and Russian airplanes landed in Baghdad on September 24. The visits were supposedly for "cultural" and "humanitarian" exchanges, but the Russian flight just "happened" to have on board some executives from Russian oil companies.

French bosses are playing a pivotal role in the developing inter-imperialist rivalry over Iraqi oil. In 1990-91, the U.S. managed to bribe them into joining the Gulf War coalition by offering them a cut of Kuwaiti oil. But Kuwait’s oil reserves pale against Iraq’s. France stands to gain much more from co-operating with the Russians and Chinese to beef up Iraqi production than from taking a few Kuwaiti crumbs offered by Exxon Mobil. With Iraqi crude and Russian and Chinese markets at its disposal, France’s oil giant Elf TotalFina could leapfrog past BP Amoco and Shell to rival Exxon Mobil as the world’s top supplier of refined oil products.

The main Rockefeller wing of U.S. rulers is determined to prevent an anti-U.S. alliance that would include France, Russia and China and that would drag the rest of Europe into its net. But bribery can go only so far. Ultimately, war remains the only solution for U.S. imperialism in its drive to prevent Exxon Mobil's chief rivals from cornering Iraqi oil.

By releasing a fraction of SPR reserves, Clinton-Gore have solved nothing. Even if prices dropped slightly in the short run at the gas pump and for home heating deliveries, they could rise again when the SPR reserves must be replenished. However, if Saddam Hussein takes the bait and pulls some Iraqi oil off the market to counter the U.S. move, look for more sabre-rattling from Washington.

U.S. rulers know their sanctions policy has failed to accomplish its goal. Iraqi oil must be controlled on the ground. Whoever holds the oil wells will determine who pumps the oil, refines it and profits from it. The capitalist system can never solve these disputes without armed conflict. If the SPR ploy fails to provoke Saddam Hussein into giving U.S. bosses a reason to beat the war drums, they'll find another excuse.

War and imperialism are inseparable. The next oil war will kill more workers than the last. It will also sharpen many contradictions among the major imperialist powers and possibly generate a lot of mass anger both inside and outside the armed forces. Our Party can certainly grow in the crucible of these contradictions.

U.S. Air Sorties Against Iraq: More than During Vietnam War

The recent CHALLENGE articles about the U.S. presidential elections becoming a forum for war against Iraq are correct. Both Bush and Gore favor this position. As CHALLENGE has said repeatedly, next to Saudi Arabia, Iraq has the world’s biggest oil reserve, and it is cheap to produce.

Since Desert Storm 1991, U.S. policy towards Iraq has been based on (1) bombing, and (2) trying to build an internal opposition to topple Saddam Hussein and put a U.S. puppet in power.

Interestingly enough, one of the key forces in the U.S.-financed anti-Saddam group is the Iraqi "Communist" Party (ICP). Indeed, the April ICP Central Committee meeting called for no change in the U.S. Iraqi policy following the U.S. elections (IRAQ NEWS, 6/28). The history of the ICP’s turn from having led mass general strikes and being the key force among the oil workers from the 1940s to 1960s to a totally corrupt pro-imperialist party today is beyond this short letter.

The other aspect of U.S. policy to take Iraq is war. "According to the Pentagon, since the end of Desert Storm 280,000 air sorties have taken place against Iraq, the biggest U.S. modern air campaign ever, bigger than during the Vietnam war. Iraq says that since December 1998 more than 300 civilians have died and 890 have been injured by 21,600 air attacks carried out by U.S. and British planes. The Pentagon spends $50-$60 billion a year in its military siege of Iraq." (WWW.laInsignia.org, 9/25).

The imperialist fight for control of oil combined with Saddam Hussein’s nationalism have been deadly indeed for the working class of Iraq.

NYC Comrade

Spread MTA Strike to Bay Area Transit Workers

LOS ANGELES, CA., Sept. 27 — With the transit strike in its third week here, contract talks have broken down. Picket line morale is good. Mechanics and clerks continue to honor them. But the bosses are determined to slash wages and increase workloads. Waiting on the AFL-CIO leadership or Democratic Governor Grey Davis to save the day would be a big mistake. There are no "good" and "bad " bosses. They’re all bad. Striking drivers, along with mechanics and clerks, have the power to take on all the bosses, and in the process spread the movement for communist revolution.

During a dinner meeting at the home of a striker, an MTA mechanic (a regular CHALLENGE reader and May Day marcher) said, "I want to join the Party, and I want help to involve my friends." After this, the Bar-B-Q ribs tasted even better.

The next night, a striking driver called a PLP member to ask, "What do you think about this strike? What should we do?" The Party member explained, "The union is always working with one set of bosses or another—sometimes with both. We need to expose the bosses’ plans, along with those of the union sellouts. We need to meet and visit workers in their homes, and put the fight for workers’ power and political demands on the table." The driver answered, "I agree. If you want, we can meet at my house. I’ll invite another driver who thinks like a radical too."

The MTA Board of Directors, with their $500,000 professional negotiating team, is insisting on $23 million in givebacks from the drivers (plus what it wants from mechanics and clerks). However, we have other enemies too. Transit unions throughout California gave a lot of money and manpower to elect Democratic Governor Gray Davis. But the union big wheels were shocked when he vetoed a bill that would have "guaranteed" that any privatized "transit zones" maintain union drivers. A union leader said, "The strike would be over in 24 hours," if Davis signed the bill. The union’s strategy of relying on these slime balls means delivering workers into the hands of our enemies!

More than 2,000 strikers and supporters marched on Gateway Center last week to protest outside contractors scabbing on the strike. Teamsters and United Transportation Union(UTU) members are transporting the well-paid, white collar, mostly white suburban commuters. Strikers must confront the Teamster and UTU leaders, reach out to the drivers, and organize mass pickets to shut Gateway Center tight!

What’s more, MTA mechanics and clerks should be on strike, not merely honoring picket lines. Everybody out together! No one goes back until we all go back! Clerks and mechanics are receiving neither strike benefits nor unemployment checks. Going on strike would start the meager strike benefits and raise the ante against the bosses.

MTA strikers are battling for the whole working class. In the Bay Area, MUNI and AC Transit workers have rejected similar contracts, but are being kept from striking by the union, media, politicians and courts. This strike can encourage AC and MUNI workers to follow their lead. Simultaneous transit strikes in LA, San Francisco, and Oakland would go beyond our local bosses and expose the hand of the main wing of the ruling class behind the drive for low-wage mass transit. PLP is active in all three of these contract fights. We will organize more concrete support between MUNI, AC and MTA workers.

The PLP is bringing communist revolution to the workers through CHALLENGE, leaflets, and discussions. We are bringing some workers and students to the picket lines, but we can do better. We are exposing the dogfight between the bosses, while alerting workers to the growing threat of a Mideast oil war. By giving more concrete leadership to the struggle at hand, and fighting for the political leadership of the workers, we can build the movement for communist revolution, and a society where free mass transit will exist to meet the needs of the workers.

MTA Strikers Welcome Student Support

The MTA bus drivers have been on strike in LA for about 12 days. Students have struggled to get to school, asking friends and neighbors for rides. Many students miss school because their parents may not have cars. They must walk blocks and blocks to get there, all because of the MTA bosses.

I feel it’s wrong for the MTA bosses to take advantage of the bus drivers. Without them there’d be no MTA, no bus transportation at all. The main reason for the bus drivers’ strike is the long hours and hard work the bosses force on them.

We went to the bus drivers’ picket line with signs reading, "Students support MTA strike"; "Defend and support MTA strike"; and, "If MTA workers win, students win; if MTA workers lose, students lose. Workers and Students Unite."

The bus drivers were very glad to see us. When we got there they started a picket line and we joined them. It seems like we energized them. We gave them CHALLENGE and leaflets and had good talks with them. We said we’d return with more students. They said we would be welcome.

If the bosses weren’t so selfish and greedy, the bus drivers would not be on strike and students would not have to miss their education like the bus drivers are losing out on their jobs. We will continue to support the strikers.

LA High School Student

Bosses Battle For Control Of LA!

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 26 — For the last fifteen years, two groups of capitalists have been battling for control of this city. This fight has been fueled by the general crises of overproduction and the sharpening inter-imperialists rivalry, especially over oil.

The Committee of 25 used to rule LA. These were leading industrialists not allied to the Rockefeller group. But as the NEW YORK TIMES (8/13) reported, "Nearly all of the Fortune 500 companies that once had headquarters in Los Angeles, from Arco and Unocal to the First Interstate Bank, have been acquired or have moved elsewhere…But the most potent symbol of the decline of the old order was the sale of the LOS ANGELES TIMES…to the Tribune Company of Chicago by its controlling share-holders, the Chandler family, which once defined civic commitment but now has almost vanished."

Ever since this happened, the LA TIMES has been attacking the motley crew of real estate developers around Mayor Riordan who have essentially replaced the Committee of 25. This has helped the Rockefeller drive to capture LA politically. Occidental Petroleum remains headquartered here but is locked in competition with the Rockefellers.

The battle for LA has been hell for the working class. A UCLA study ranked Los Angeles County 100th among 318 urban areas in personal income, down from 36th some 10 years ago. Thousands of high-paid jobs in aerospace and manufacturing have been wiped out by Rockefeller victories against their rivals, such as McDonnell-Douglas.

Like the war in Yugoslavia, or the invasions of Haiti and Somalia, the main wing of the ruling class is using "humanitarianism," this time to politically re-capture LA. Their mass organizations are their foot soldiers. THE NATION (8/21) pointed out, "But when the [janitors] strike came, the public response was overwhelmingly supportive. Not a day went by without an article or column in the LOS ANGELES TIMES about how the struggle of the primarily Latino janitors reflected LA’s class and ethnic divisions." Later on it explains, "Community groups and unions have always talked about economic justice, but now these issues are resonating within the mainstream, the media…and even some business folks."

The Rockefeller wing is building this Latino community base to gain its allegiance in the battle against the local ruling bosses and in order to use its youth in a future war for oil in the Middle East.

Riordan and the remnants of the Committee of 25 may be vicious, but they are up against the masters in the Rockefeller gang. When NYC transit workers threatened to strike last December, the courts issued a fascist injunction, threatening huge fines against the union and each striking worker. There was no strike.

In LA, a 1996 Consent Decree ordered the Metropolitan Transit Authority to invest $1 billion in improving bus service; the biggest civil rights award ever! Again, this was to insure that the low-wage, predominantly Latino garment workers (without cars) get to their exploitative jobs efficiently enough as well as win them for the aims previously described. Behind this contrasting tale of two cities, the Rockefeller section of the ruling class dominates both court systems and uses each for their own purposes.

The LA transit strike presents us with a chance to organize against wage progression, part timing, welfare-to-work and prison slave labor. To add fuel to the fire, 47,000 County Hospital workers, court and welfare workers in SEIU Local 660 have set a strike date for October 10. In strikes like this, we can learn that we can organize and run society better than Riordan or Rockefeller. We can expose the billionaires’ dogfight and build a mass base for PLP. We can learn how to make a revolution!

a name="Workers’ Power Is "Illegal" Under Capitalist Democracy">">"orkers’ Power Is "Illegal" Under Capitalist Democracy

Apparently, workers’ power is illegal in the manufacturing plants of the USA. Class collaboration, on the other hand, represents the height of "democracy."

Recently thousands of leaflets appeared at my plant, from candidates for union office calling for workers’ power. The present union leadership wants a "partnership" with the company. Management declared the "Workers’ Power" leaflets, "Illegal!" The union hacks had already distributed their literature throughout the plants the prior week.

While the bosses cut our jobs and sell whole sections of the plant, the present union leadership pleads with the company to "find a solution together with the union." We call for class struggle, international working-class unity, strike support, fighting racism and sexism on and off the job and uniting immigrant and native-born workers to build workers’ power to fight these attacks. We are also the only ones campaigning to end fascist prison labor.

The events of the past week have led to many good discussions about how the bosses use the cover of democracy to maintain their dictatorship. We’ve discussed the history of how the company fired communist activists and leaders of our union after World War II. The union’s anti-communist leadership, with the support of the company and the government, organized locals according to crafts, spread over vast distances. This was to discourage rank-and-file groups from organizing at the worksite and developing voting blocks. Shop stewards were appointed, and expected to support the misleadership if they wanted to maintain their badges. Not to mention the large numbers of paid full-time union functionaries whose main job now is campaigning.

The discussion of the local elections has not ended. Our supporters have gotten into public debates with the hacks about the AFL-CIO calls for "workers’ rights" and "democracy" around the world. We’ve obtained proof that the new AFL-CIO international department is getting its money from the same old source—the CIA! Then we showed how the AFL-CIO supports U.S. imperialism around the world. (More in next issue.)

Another hot topic is whether to make fighting racism a big deal in the campaign. Some opposition candidates think pictures of us fighting the Nazis "wouldn’t get us any votes." "It’s alright to put in one sentence about that, but no more," they say. Even some rank and filers question how fighting the fascists relate to the campaign. We answer that resolute struggle against racism, on and off the job, is absolutely necessary to build the type of rock-solid unity we need to fight back against the bosses’ fascist attacks.

An older white worker expressed his support for one of our candidates. "I’ll tell you why I’m voting for you," he said in front of a group at work. "It’s because you are against racism and because you have left-wing ideas. There are too few like you around here!"

As these examples show, the question of whether we should "curb" our politics to get votes has been front and center. Votes can’t be our primary goal if we are to build the revolutionary movement. We will carry on a serious electoral campaign, even while the very nature of the workplace limits our "freedom of speech." We must judge our success in a mass way by how many workers we’ve moved to understand the true nature of capitalism in this period. Let’s see if we can’t get a few more like our anti-racist, left-wing candidate around here!

We should have no illusions. In the final analysis the only way workers can take power is with communist revolution. Winning masses to the left will give confidence to our new and potential members. In this way, we can make this campaign a "school for communism." Being declared illegal won’t stop this campaign, or our revolutionary march to workers’ power.

Mid-West union-election campaigner

Union Bosses Win Big At IAM Convention

SEATTLE, WA., Sept. 20 — CEOs aren't the only ones widening the gap between the haves and have-nots. The Executive Council of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) gave themselves huge salary increases at the IAM Convention here this week. International President Buffenbarger’s salary went from $138,000 to $180,000. General Secretary-Treasurer Wharton went from $127,000 to $170,000. The General Vice-Presidents went from $112,000 to $155,000. It pays to be a union leader!

How did the rank and file fare at the anti-Republican, pro-Democrat Machinists love-fest? Union bosses gave their wholehearted support to an increase in strike pay, from $100 a week to a whopping $115!

A proposal to add language to the IAM Constitution opposing prison labor was voted down. A proposition to elect union stewards where they aren't currently elected—voted down. Prohibitions against discrimination and harassment—voted down. Propositions to remove provisions preventing over 95% of union members from seeking office—voted down. A proposition to eliminate language that limits freedom of speech—voted down.

Not all IAM members, including some Convention delegates, are "allowed" copies of Official IAM Circulars that govern the actions of union members. A proposal to make copies available to all union members was voted down. A proposal to add a union member's Bill of Rights to the IAM Constitution was voted down. The Law Committee said that the IAM Constitution already contained the rights listed, so it wasn't necessary to add anything to the Constitution. However, when the exact same proposal was brought before the 1996 Convention, the Law Committee said the Constitution would have to be rewritten to provide the rights contained in the proposal.

The CEO of Harley Davidson spoke at the convention and received a standing ovation! A previous recipient such an ovation was Boeing CEO Phil Condit. Condit is selling off chunks of the company and has already off-loaded enough work for a company the size of Boeing. Meanwhile, Boeing has turned its back on retirees and laid-off workers.

Boeing managers who are also IAM members attended the convention, so the company has reps voting on proposals. The convention promoted the "lean manufacturing" High Performance Work Organization (HPWO) that supports maximum profits for the elite at the expense of workers. HPWOs mean more paid union reps on the company payroll, acting as managers for Condit. Bath Iron Works (BIW), the flagship IAM Local where the HPWO was introduced, is now on strike. Workers there have rejected the IAM/company HPWO.

It's obvious that IAM’s union bosses have earned their reputation of having a COMPANY/union. They support the bosses’ corporate-funded Democratic Party that helped give working people NAFTA, GATT and the WTO, all of which cut jobs and workers’ wages.

IAM Convention Delegate

CHALLENGE comment: As the delegate describes, the IAM international leadership wants to assure complete control over this manufacturing and "defense" industry union.

The BIW strike referred to was like the proverbial elephant in the room that nobody wanted to talk about. The BIW workers have rejected both the original contract and a company/union deal arranged a few days later. This bitter strike, along with a similar one against Raytheon, has lasted over a month.

Both Raytheon and BIW, a unit of General Dynamics, are key war producers. The union leadership, with political allies like the Kennedys, aim to build pro-war feelings blaming others (Like Iraq) for the problems suffered by workers like the current high price of gasoline and heating oil (see editorial and Raytheon article).. Our Party must fight tooth and nail to realize the revolutionary potential contained in this outburst of working-class anger against job elimination. As pressure builds for another Middle East confrontation, our Party has the responsibility to make strikes like these "schools for communism" throughout the working class.

Defense Contractor Raytheon Makes War on Workers

BOSTON, MA, Sept. 26 — The laws of capitalism are operating full blast against the strike of Raytheon workers fighting the third largest war contractor in the country. The company netted $400 million in profits last year. Now it is forcing workers to fight to maintain their health and pension benefits and to prevent their jobs from drowning in a sea of fierce bosses’ competition.

Other war contractors have moved as far away as Arizona to take advantage its lower wages. To compete, Raytheon has reduced its IBEW union workforce by two-thirds. It is also "rewarding" its non-union white collar workers for their loyal scabbing by threatening to move 550 of their jobs out of state.

Capitalism drives bosses to strive for maximum profits to stay afloat. This leads to fierce competition to cut costs, mainly the cost of labor. Raytheon is no different than any other boss. So no matter how much profit they make, if they "rest" for one minute, other war contractors will leap ahead of them.

PLP supports these striking workers. A leaflet prepared for distribution at the picket line pointed out that these attacks on workers are "happening when the U.S. economy is supposed to be the strongest it’s ever been. Perhaps these attacks are one reason the economy" is "booming."

However, it is important for workers in war factories to understand that their jobs produce the weapons used by the ruling class to enforce poverty-level wages around the world and kill millions on behalf of Exxon’s need to control oil supplies. Even more, when workers in the U.S. rebel against this same ruling class, the bosses call on the National Guard and even the Army to smash the workers. And the weapons they use are produced by the very same working class being attacked.

Turning strikes into schools for communism—and building a mass PLP to smash all the bosses—is the best victory Raytheon and all workers can achieve.

Stop Attacks against Immigrant Workers!

Morristown Politicians Beat Fascist Drums

Morristown, NJ, Sept. 25 — Politicians in this city, which has become a center for racist attacks on immigrant workers, are goose-stepping behind the fascists in Farmingville, NY. There last week two day-workers were picked up and beaten, almost killing one of them. This attack followed "complaints" that the workers were "crowding the streets" in the morning. The NEW YORK TIMES reported that these workers are harassed on daily basis and have even had their residence shot at in the middle of the night.

In Morristown, almost 100 immigrant workers from Ecuador, Guatemala, Colombia and Honduras gather at many corners early in the morning for work. Most of these jobs are hard labor ones like landscaping or bricklaying.

Morristown politicians pushed, but failed to pass, a so-called "quality of life" loitering law which would have punished immigrant day-workers with fines and jail terms for standing on corners.

These events follow a string of racist attacks in Morristown:

• Several months ago the First Baptist Church—located right across the street from the Morris County Courthouse—"mysteriously" burnt down. The church was used mostly as a soup kitchen and a place where many Latin and black workers gathered;

• On July 4th, the fascist Nationalist Movement, protected by the cops, held a rally against affirmative action and defended the former Chief of the State Police, Carl Williams, who admitted using racist profiling to make arrests;

• During the counter demonstration that day, cops arrested ten anti-racists (including PLP members) and viciously attacked demonstrators with pepper spray. Those arrested were charged with felonies and held on high bail;

• Immigrant workers trying to play soccer in the town continue to be harassed in local parks by the cops and neighbors. Town officials claimed that if they wanted to play soccer in one field they needed a million-dollar insurance policy!

All these racist attacks are signs of the bosses’ fascism. The sharpening of the inter-imperialist rivalry steps up the bosses’ march towards war against their competitors. They need to use a bigger stick to discipline workers to accept their war plans. PLP has been organizing Morristown residents—black, Latin and white—to fight these attacks, expose the bosses’ racism and fight for workers’ power.

Local 371 Donates $1,000 to Anti-Fascist Fighters

NEW YORK, N.Y., Sept 20 — Tonight the Delegate Assembly of Social Service Employees Union (SSEU) Local 371 voted overwhelmingly to support the anti-fascist defendants who protested a racist march in Morristown, N.J. on July 4th. PLP’ers have a long history of bringing anti-racist and anti-fascist issues both to our members on the job and to city-wide union meetings. We have organized and joined co-workers from our job sites in demonstrations against police terror here in NYC, against slave labor Workfare and around issues big and small where we work.

Our mass sale of CHALLENGE also helps ESTABLISH an atmosphere in which we can raise sharp political issues. Tonight, for example, 52 CHALLENGES were distributed among about 180 union members present.

We hope other comrades will raise similar proposals in their locals. This will help spread the anti-racist, anti-fascist, pro communist message we helped bring to Morristown, NJ into our mass organizations.

The approved resolution reads as follows:

"WHEREAS SSEU Local 371 has a proud history of opposing the activities of racist groups like the KKK and against police brutality; and,

WHEREAS at a July 4, 2000 rally in Morristown, N.J. against the racist Nationalist Movement of Mississippi nine adults and one minor were arrested; and,

WHEREAS vicious police tactics at this year's anti-World Trade Organization demonstration in Washington, D.C., and at the Republican and Democratic Party conventions, as well as the anti-racist action in Morristown reveal a change in how federal, state, and local governments respond to mass demonstrations; and,

WHEREAS these changes in police tactics and use of the legal system as well as the growth of Workfare and prison labor are signs of growing fascism; therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED that this local support those arrested in Morristown by contributing $1,000.00 to their legal defense."

Bosses Have Shaky Hold On Amnesty Marchers

CHICAGO, IL, September 23 — Today, about 10,000 workers and youth marched for amnesty for the six million undocumented immigrants living and working in the U.S. More than 300,000 live in the Chicagoland area. The Democratic Party and AFL-CIO leadership used nationalism and patriotism to line up votes for the upcoming elections.

Workers mainly marched in groups by their country of origin, while being encouraged to take a shirt with the American flag and the Statue of Liberty.

But the marchers were way ahead of the misleaders and wide open to PLP. We distributed 1,500 communist fliers and sold over 650 CHALLENGES (More workers might have chosen CHALLENGE than the Statue of Liberty T-shirts). We could have distributed twice as many if we had done a better job at mobilizing our forces to attend the march.

In the 1980’s, the AFL-CIO led the fight to penalize employers who hired undocumented workers. But with the economic "boom," the bosses need more workers at low-wage, dead-end jobs. The union leaders are ready to accept these low-paid workers as long as they pay union dues. Tens of thousands of immigrant workers making minimum wage are already paying dues to SEIU, the Teamsters and others. At the first sign of an economic downturn, they will face mass unemployment and immigration raids.

The bosses are using the amnesty movement as a Trojan Horse. Under Clinton and Gore, "Operation Gatekeeper" has doubled the fascist Border Patrol in four years. This has led to one million arrests and more than 1,500 deaths of immigrant workers! The price of amnesty will be Latin workers sending their sons and daughters to kill and die for U.S. imperialism. U.S. rulers are preparing for ground war in Iraq, and will do whatever it takes to maintain control over Latin America. The politicians and union leaders want us to wave their masters’ flag.

The bosses’ amnesty will not end terror at the border, stop racist cops or starvation wages. To the rulers, we are all "illegal." There will be no amnesty from imperialist war. PLP is an international communist party, open to all. Working people have no nation! Smash all borders with Communist Revolution!

Postmodernism: Virtual Idealism

Rejecting the real world and truth about that world has become very popular in recent capitalist culture. Many current ideological fads reject any possibility that people can have actual knowledge of the natural or social world. Authors widely read in college classes on philosophy and literature declare, in the name of "Postmodernism" or "Deconstruction," that science, logic and history can never be objective and true. These views claim that science and knowledge generally are mere "social constructions" or "narratives" which have no more right to be considered true than religion or astrology.

One reason people consider these fads favorably is their claim to be "liberating" points of view. To some degree many people realize the capitalist media and schools feed us many ideas that either have little value or are downright harmful. Capitalists use their control of these institutions to foster ideology benefitting them and victimizing us. The "postmodernists" respond by saying that if there is no real world and thus no truth about it, then all claims by defenders of the system, and by religious dogmatists, racists or sexists as well, must be bogus. They claim if we all understand that illusion and reality aren’t really different, we will be free of the system’s hypocrisy and lies. This "truth" only liberates the rich and powerful. Here are some examples.

One of the most influential figures in postmodernism is the 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche boldly declared that "truth is an illusion" and that "free spirits" would recognize this. (Nietzsche was not troubled by the fact that this implies his own position is an illusion!) Good capitalist philosopher that he was, Nietzsche glorified war and rejected equality and equal rights. He advocated a conception of class liberation which required wage slavery for the working class: "A higher culture can come into being only where there are two castes of society: the working caste and the idle caste, capable of true leisure; or, to express it more emphatically, the cast of forced labor and the caste of free labor" (Human, All Too Human, p. 439).

More up-to-date is French post-modernist Jean Baudrillard, who maintains there is no difference between appearance and reality. "Today the entire system is fluctuating in indeterminacy, all of reality is absorbed by the hyper-reality of the code and of simulation. It is now a principle of simulation, and not of reality, that regulates social life." ("Symbolic Exchange and Death"). Just before the 1991 ground war started in the Persian Gulf, Baudrillard applied this idea that reality and simulation are now the same, and wrote that the Gulf War would not take place. After it did take place and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed, he wrote another article saying that THE WAR HAD NOT REALLY HAPPENED. [!] It was only a mass media "simulation" of war.

It is common for Postmodernists to claim that they are exposing important biases in science or history. (Of course, if biases really do exist, then science and history must exist in order to have these biases, no?!) French Postmodernist Luce Irigaray claims Einstein’s famous equation E = mc2 is "sexed" because it "privileges what goes the fastest" and "fastest" is supposed to be a masculine characteristic. She also claims that physics "privileges" rigid body mechanics over fluid mechanics because only the male sex organ becomes rigid. (Never mind that capitalist science and technology uses the physics of fluids f9or its many economic and military applications.) Parts of science certainly are distorted by sexism and used against women, as in medicine or biology. Ridiculous analyses like Irigaray’s can never expose real sexism in natural science, however, since they can’t tell the difference between ideology and genuine knowledge.

Knowledge Indispensable To Organize Change

Undoubtedly there are Postmodernists less stupid and reactionary than Nietzsche, Baurillard and Irigaray, but the postmodern attitude that there is no real world and no truth can never lead to liberation, only to passivity and helplessness. Established powers are always safer if many people believe little or nothing can be known. Changing society to destroy oppressive conditions or institutions requires collective action, and that action requires knowledge in order to plan and organize change. People who believe knowledge cannot exist cannot change things. Baudrillard understands that inaction results from his view, and praises apathy and indifference.But the ruling class knows, and fears, the working class is not always apathetic, so it makes all sorts of bogus claims: that capitalism will last forever and get better and better; that some "races" are "inferior"; that the miseries of this life will disappear in heaven, etc. This, of course, is bunk. But "exposing" it by saying there is "no reality or knowledge" leaves the working class with what we have now—the misery of capitalism, with the rulers on top and the workers on the bottom. Rejecting truth and knowledge guarantees that all changes will be directed only by the rulers of the capitalist system, not by the rest of us. The truth does not automatically make you free, but it’s indispensable for getting there. Lenin was right on target when he wrote, "Without revolutionary theory, there can be no revolutionary movement." The movements we get without revolutionary theory are the movements for more war, racism, unemployment, and police murder that the capitalists already offer us.

Hydrogen Bomb Designer, FBI Informer,

Wen Ho Lee Is No Friend of the Working Class

For months and months, the capitalist media, led by the NY TIMES, told us we should hate nuclear physicist Wen Ho Lee because he was a "Chinese spy." Now many of the same pimps of print and whores of the airwaves urge us to support Dr. Lee because he was lied to and threatened with execution by the FBI, was a victim of anti-Chinese racism, was chained in solitary confinement and is a devoted patriot and family man who loves fishing and is probably not a Chinese spy after all!

Save your tears. Some workers, soldiers, professionals and others have the political sophistication to understand that ALL the actors in this drama represent factions within the U.S. capitalist class. We must spread the idea that to support any of them is against the interests of our class. You cannot fight for freedom and against racism by supporting loyal servants of the racists who divide, exploit and oppress us.

The appearance and essence of Wen Ho Lee

Wen Ho Lee was born in 1939 in Taiwan, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1963. He came to the U.S., and gained a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University in 1969, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1974. "An accomplished physicist with more than 20 years devoted to the design and development of nuclear weapons [LA TIMES, 9/24]," Lee worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory in applied mathematics and fluid dynamics from 1978 until he was arrested and fired in 1999. If Lee held a similar position in Iraq, the U.S. government would condemn him for developing "weapons of mass destruction." (Like all capitalists, they emphasize property. The working class should see hydrogen bombs as "weapons of mass murder.")

Dr. Lee may appear to be "loveable," but in essence he is a real-life "Dr. Strangelove," an accomplice in designing efficient weapons to kill our fellow workers. He worked for the only government that has ever used nuclear weapons. In 1945 the US dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing a quarter of a million Japanese civilians, not to end World War II (Japan had already offered to surrender) but to threaten the then socialist Soviet Union. Talk about racism against Asians!

In addition to being a killer for U.S. imperialism, the mild-mannered Lee is a stoolpigeon. The FBI used him and his wife to spy on other Chinese scientists. According to the Sept. 17 LA TIMES, "The case against Lee was complicated by the little-publicized fact that he and his wife, Sylvia, acted as FBI informants in the 1980s, reporting on contacts with Chinese scientists they made on two trips to mainland China.

"Lee first came to counterintelligence attention in 1982," the TIMES reported, "during an unrelated FBI investigation. At the time, the bureau was investigating another Taiwan-born scientist at the Lawrence Livermore laboratory, who it code-named Tiger Trap. The FBI suspected that Tiger Trap had passed information to China about the neutron bomb, and agents overheard Lee talking to the scientist in California. The bureau contacted Lee and asked him to go to Livermore to meet Tiger Trap and try to learn what the other scientist might have done. Lee flew to Livermore, and the FBI paid for his trip."

How To Fight Racism

The FBI has a record of vicious racism. No one who works with the FBI can conceivably be worthy of the support of anti-racists. Yet just as black nationalism has blinded many to Al Sharpton’s history of being an FBI informant, so have Chinese and other Asian nationalist organizations and individuals flocked to the support of Wen Ho Lee.

Communists who participate in these reform organizations should do so with the intention of winning sincere anti-racists away from their nationalist misleaders. For example, in LA today anti-racists should be won to organizing support for the striking transit drivers, who are primarily black and Latino, and building unity between them and the riders, also primarily black and Latino. If the teachers and County workers also strike, we should build unity among all these groups, and blame the capitalists, not the workers, for the rotten public transportation, health services, and education foisted on black, Latin, Asian, and white workers. To ultimately defeat racism means to recruit anti-racists to PLP to destroy the capitalist system that requires racism to survive.

(Next issue: The appearance and essence of the case against Wen Ho Lee.)

LETTERS

Amnesty Marchers Embrace CHALLENGE

As we were separating the Spanish and English versions of CHALLENGE-DESAFIO at the Chicago amnesty march, someone approached me and asked about the paper. When I explained it’s a communist paper, he handed me two dollars.

I know hardly any Spanish except for a few phrases I’ve learned to sell the paper to Latin workers. I took 80 DESAFIOS to distribute. Many workers responded when I said I had a communist paper that fought for the unity and equality of the workers of the world. Often when one worker reached into a pocket for some change, other workers would tap me on the shoulder with change or dollar bills in their hands, requesting copies. (I was asking for donations and telling these workers they should give whatever they wished.) Then I was swept along with the march. While the leadership led nationalist chants ("La Raza si, La Migra no"), many workers around me joined enthusiastically when I started chanting, "Obreros si, La Migra no" and "Las luchas obreras no tiene frontieras" (The workers’ struggle has no borders"). When I ran into a friend I had not seen in many years, she encouraged the group she was with to take up the working-class chants.

Many carried Mexican or U.S. flags and had T-shirts saying, "America is my home." They were following the nationalist leadership that dominates the groups they came with. But many hundreds of these workers were eager for communist ideas. By the end of the day I had distributed 85-90 papers and collected almost $70.00. This experience brought home to me how important it is to be in the mass organizations that brought these workers to the march.

Pocket Full of Change

a name="‘Get In It To Win It!’"></">‘G"t In It To Win It!’

Today we were very excited to be part of the 10,000 workers that participated in the Chicago amnesty march. I work for a community organization involved in the amnesty struggle for 25 years. Now that the Democratic Party and the AFL-CIO are behind a new wave of amnesty demands, my group has become more alive.

Still, the march belonged to the ruling class. The community organizations serve the bosses, whether they know it or not. The speeches were both political and religious. Some cardinal was there. I was thinking, "Please don’t start mass now. It’s raining!" He didn’t. Congressman Luis Gutierrez told the crowd he would introduce an amnesty bill in Congress on October 2. Many speakers were honest workers who really believe the politicians are on their side.

One of the most exciting moments for me was to see marchers joining in Party chants as they passed the corner where we had a bullhorn and red flags. "Obreros, Si! Capitalista, No!" Some Party members came to the march in buses from different organizations. We led many chants, passed out 1,500 leaflets and sold over 650 CHALLENGES. But it wasn’t enough. The most important work is yet to be done.

We can’t organize people from the sidelines. We must be in the mass organizations and do the work they’re doing in order to build a mass base for the Party. In this case, we need to be marching with the workers, demanding amnesty with them, while exposing the capitalist misleaders and winning people to fight for communism. How are we going to convince people to join the Party and be communists if we don’t organize with them in the mass movement they are a part of? We’ve got to get our feet wet. We must do this reform work without letting it absorb us. This will make us stronger, like today, 10,000 stronger. Que viva el comunismo!

United with PLP

Kicking Around Communist Politics

Some youth here in El Salvador have organized a soccer team to build unity and friendship among young people. We are also using the opportunity to bring communist politics to these youth.

A few weeks ago we received the supplies and uniforms. We thank our class brothers and sisters for their contributions that made this possible.

One way we’re building PLP is distributing CHALLENGE-DESAFIO after each game. Youth here and in other areas are beginning to realize that the road to our liberation from capitalist slavery is to join with the working class and the PLP. This is bad news for the bosses.

Red Soccer Players, El Salvador

I am a 38-year-old peasant who has always considered myself a fighter for the working class. I feel even stronger about this since PLP comrades have been explaining to us here how to build the Party to fight for communism.

I call on other farmworkers to join with us to build a world without bosses.

A Peasant CHALLENGE Reader in El Salvador

Fired and Fired Up

I am a factory worker in New Jersey. On Sept. 20, at 3 PM, my bosses fired me. Earlier in the morning, a new general manager told the guy with the lunch and breakfast truck in front of the factory to leave and never come back, or he would call the cops. I called the manager outside the factory and told him what he did was unjust, and that workers are not animals and need the food truck. The manager told me he was following orders from the factory owner. So I said, "Let’s go see him."

The manager asked me, "What do you propose?" I said that they should allow the truck to come in the morning. He agreed and even shook my hand. While this was happening, workers had stopped working and were coming out to the eating area to protest what the manager had done. The manager agreed with them and told them what we agreed to just minutes before.

At 3 PM, the head of the shop called me and said the owner had fired me for, "incited the work action earlier." I know deep inside that the action was spontaneous, but I was moved by the reaction of my fellow workers, men and women, who are fed up with all the abuses, exploitation and harassment by the bosses of this factory. I am outside the shop but I know the struggle has just begun. My brothers and sisters will continue fighting back. Long live the struggles of workers! Down with exploitation!

Fired and Fired Up

Peru: Is U.S. Playing Both Sides?

Peru’s president Fujimori’s sudden announcement of national elections minus his candidacy has produced an interesting scenario in that country. Fujimori dissolved the dreaded SIN (National Intelligence Service) and sent his own Rasputin, SIN’s chief Vladimiro Montesinos, off to Panama. Why was Montesinos dumped so fast? After all, he’s been serving U.S. imperialism since the mid-1970s when the Peruvian army began buying Soviet MIGS. Montesinos was jailed for giving the CIA blueprints of the MIGS. Upon his release he became a lawyer and went to work for well-known Peruvian drug dealers. He then became what many believed to be the real power behind Fujimori’s 10-year regime. He used the SIN to spy on everyone and to jail, kill or "dissappear" many of his enemies. Thousands were imprisoned as "subversives," just for being suspected friends or members of the Shining Path guerrilla movement.

Suddenly both Fujimori and Montesinos became a hindrance to U.S. imperialism. This accelerated several months ago when it was revealed that Montesinos and the Peruvian army were importing thousands of Russian rifles from Jordan and selling them to the FARC (the main guerrilla army in Colombia). This erupted at the same time Clinton was visiting Bogota to seal his Plan Colombia ($1.7 billion in U.S. aid for the Colombian government and army).

At first, Montesinos blamed "rogue" officers in the Peruvian army, but Jordan certified the rifles were a legal sale. This was the tip of the iceberg. Either Montesinos was trading with the "enemy" (the FARC), or was part of a CIA maneuver to deal with both sides. Many believe his removal was used to take this incident off the front pages, including the realization that the CIA and the U.S. ruling class might be playing both sides of the fence in Colombia. After all, Montesinos has been a faithful CIA operative for decades; the CIA knew about the Jordanian shipment and sale to the FARC for a long time (Stratfor Intelligence Report, 9/19). As recently as the summer of 1999, the head of the NY Stock Exchange journeyed to Colombia to meet with FARC’s chief, Tirofijo ("Sureshot"), in his jungle headquarters.

This series of events demonstrates that capitalism and its lackeys have no principles except those which serve their particular class interests. It would be a big mistake for any worker to side with either Fujimori or Montesinos or any politician who wants to replace them.

Red Path

a name="‘We Must Get Rid Of Capitalism!’"></" />"We Must Get Rid Of Capitalism!’

A friend and colleague recently told me about a powerful experience he had at a meeting of public health workers. As the invited "scientific expert," he presented research showing that racism is bad for people’s health. He said being exposed to racial discrimination while pregnant contributes to premature birth and infant mortality. This is important because infant mortality in the U.S. is twice as high for blacks as it is for whites.

During the discussion a guy asked, "If society has limited resources and black babies are doing much worse than white babies, it sounds like resources have to be shifted from the better off group to the ones who need more. How is this going to happen?" Another black scientist responded with a long statement about "…the many factors and mechanisms which are still not well understood…" In other words, she ducked the question.

After several more questions, the same guy raised his hand again: "Maybe I didn’t ask my question clearly enough, but what I really wanted to know is how this sort of Robin Hood thing—taking from the well-off to improve the health of the poor, black mothers and babies—how’s it going to happen?"

My friend, feeling a bit nervous, finally jumped in and said, "As a friend of mine is always telling me, the real answer is that it CAN’T happen under this system. If we want to really eliminate the inequality that causes high black death rates, we must get rid of capitalism."

I’m not sure exactly what he expected, but what happened took him by surprise. The room burst into applause. The whole tone of the gathering changed. The boring questions stopped and people started relating the fate of their struggling clinics to the activism of the ’60s, and moved past the proper, academic style into a discussion of society, power and politics.

Hearing this story made me think: how many times over the years did I NOT raise political points in the course of conversations with this colleague, or how many CHALLENGES did I NOT get around to sending him? He seems to have been paying more attention than I thought.

But it works both ways. Years ago when we were working hard on a project, I made the comment, "Well, it’s only research." I meant it wouldn’t change the world. But I kept working on research with him, and it turns out he had a point. This kind of research can be a useful way to get political ideas in front of many, many good people. That can help build the fight against racism and capitalism. And that is exactly what can change the world.

Red Researcher

1. Bosses' Thirst for Higher Oil Profits Lead to War:
   Workers Pay Through Nozzle Now
   With Blood Later
2. Blair Diverting Mass Anger to `Take Back Iraq'
3. Capitalist Dogfight Over Control of OPEC
4. MTA STRIKERS STEER MILITANT COURSE
5. MTA Strikers, Riders: Don't Take Side on Bosses' Dogfight!
6. MUNI Bosses...DOWNLOAD THIS!
7. LA Teachers Must Fight Racist Attacks Agains Youth
8. Part II: Liberal Literacy Proposals
   Rulers Want Fascism As the `Standards'
9. JUSTICE FOR PRINCE JONES!
10. FIRED PLP TEACHER PUTS RACIST BOARD ON TRIAL
11. Boosting the Circulation of CHALLENGE
12. Capitalism: The Highest Stage of the Oppression of Women
    Communism = Jobs; Capitalism = Prostitution
13. CUBA: Communism and Capitalism Don't Mix
14. Pro and anti President Alberto Fujimori supporters fight each other
15. LETTERS
    1. Proud To Be A GI `Neath the Red Flag
    2. Move to Cheap Labor Not Just From U.S.
    3. Rap Music: Pro-Boss or Pro-Worker?
    4. Big (Oil) Fish Eat Small Ones
    5. `Greens' Like Red Views
    6. `White Skin Privilege': A Liberal Myth
    7. Health Care Needs Red Transfusion
    8. Is the New Ruling Party of Mexico Nationalist?

---

Editorial

Bosses' Thirst for Higher Oil Profits Lead to War:
Workers Pay Through Nozzle Now
With Blood Later

The current conflict over energy prices is another prelude to the oil war CHALLLENGE has warned about for several years. Obviously, workers are paying through the nose for the price hikes at the gas pumps and for home heating. But this is nothing compared to the price we'll be asked to pay in blood when U.S. rulers launch their next military attack to protect Rockefeller's Exxon Mobil domination of the world's largest and cheapest source of oil, the Middle East.

The bosses' media is spilling a lot of ink over the supposed "shortage" of certain fuels. But this is a myth. As Ali Rodriguez, the president of OPEC (the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries) admitted on Sept. 13, "the organization's members have up to three million barrels a day in spare capacity." (Bloomberg News) So there's no lack of supply. The real issue is a conflict between the haves and the have-nots within OPEC. The have-nots--Venezuela, for example--worry that a large production increase without an equal increase in demand "could create a massive drop in prices," like the one in 1997-98, when the so-called Asian "Tiger" economies--South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore--temporarily went into the tank.

A drop in prices would harm mainly the OPEC have-nots, whose oil costs more to produce than the relatively cheap Saudi, Kuwaiti, and UAE Persian Gulf crude controlled mainly by Exxon Mobil, Shell, Chevron and BP Amoco. The biggest oil companies can make money when prices crash because their cheap, plentiful resources enable them to gain market share over their rivals.

So one aspect of the present fight over prices is the attempt by upstarts like Venezuela to break away from Exxon Mobil's domination. Venezuela used to be a Rockefeller vassal. Now it seems intent on freeing not just itself but the entire world oil supply system from Exxon's domination. Venezuelan president Chávez recently invited U.S. competitor Russia to join OPEC. And Exxon's French arch-rival, Total Fina, has become a big player in Venezuela.

But the big prize remains Iraq. Beyond appearances, the current oil "shortage" hides a general overcapacity. The international energy bosses are really fighting over who will dictate how the surplus is used. Control of world oil supplies lies with the producer that can raise or lower production quickly and in large quantity. Right now, only the Saudi-Exxon-Chevron-Shell-Texaco combine can play this role. Iraq could do the same if the U.S. sanctions against it were lifted and its oil production facilities were brought up to speed. French, Russian and Chinese oil companies have signed multi-billion dollar deals to walk into Iraq and do just that once sanctions end.

Exxon Mobil, backed by the U.S. government it controls, can't allow its main business opponents to develop Iraq as an oil source rivaling Saudi Arabia. The only alternative to war would be for Saddam Hussein to break his contracts with Total Fina, the Russians and the others, and roll out the red carpet for Exxon. This isn't in the cards. So in the middle of the presidential campaign, U.S. rulers are defining the conditions under which they will launch further military attacks against Iraq, which they have been bombing since December 1998.

In classic imperialist fashion, the murderers in Washington are looking to provoke an excuse for war. Clinton's Secy. Of State Madeline Albright admitted as much to the press on September 13, talking about "red lines" that Saddam Hussein must not cross. Meanwhile, Kuwaiti oil bosses linked to the U.S. are drilling oil in a zone also claimed by the Iraqis.

We can't predict when U.S. rulers will launch the next oil war, nor what the concocted provocation will be. Another oil war is surely in the cards. The continuing fight over prices shows how crucial oil remains to modern capitalist economies, much more crucial than "new economy" products like software. Whoever controls oil supplies and can defend them holds a decisive advantage over the competition. Exxon Mobil holds this advantage now and will do anything to keep it. We should have no illusions: the 1991 slaughter known as "Desert Storm" is due for a sequel. It will be even bloodier and spawn more opposition than the first, and it will happen regardless of the U.S. presidential results in November.

The system, not individual politicians, dictates the nature of events. Capitalism, which lives for maximum profit, always leads to instability and war. When Exxon's next mass murder for oil wealth erupts Progressive Labor Party must organize workers' opposition and build its forces by advancing the fight for communist revolution as the only alternative to the bosses' periodic blood-lettings.

Blair Diverting Mass Anger to `Take Back Iraq'

The price of energy products is dictated by the producers and their governments. Prices are rising, partly because OPEC members outside the Middle East are dragging their heels on production rises, thus limiting the amount of oil, and partly because Exxon, Shell and BP Amoco have cut their investment in production by 75% since 1990.

In Europe, high energy prices are due primarily to taxes, which pay for social services. French bosses just cut the gas tax. This was probably a political ploy. They don't need to mobilize French workers into a war frenzy against Iraq. Quite the contrary: French oil companies have an open invitation to rebuild the Iraqi energy industry.

This isn't the case in Britain, where prime minister Tony Blair refused to cave in to recent protests demanding lower gas taxes. This is probably a political ploy in the opposite direction: the old British Petroleum company had major interests in Iraq, and its successor, BP Amoco, would love to recoup losses there. Blair seems to be trying to direct mass anger in Britain toward the Middle East. A "take-back-Iraq" campaign could emerge. New York Times op-ed columnist Paul Krugman (9/17) praised Blair's "courage" in refusing to heed the protesters' demands for lower taxes.

Capitalist Dogfight Over Control of OPEC

OPEC is an interesting case study in the first law of dialectics, the unity and conflict of opposites. Each country in OPEC represents a gang of bosses with its own national interests. However, at the same time, they all fall into one or another of the imperialist camps.

The shifting sands of alliances among these oil barons are reflected in the current jockeying for the post of OPEC secretary-general, the organization's top spot. The new OPEC chief is slated to be picked in November. Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq have all fielded candidates. The winner needs unanimous support. The Iraqis won't back a pro-U.S. Saudi. Now a Venezuelan, OPEC current president Ali Rodriguez, has said he may run. Rodriguez would be a compromise between the U.S.-British rulers, who want a Saudi, and the French-Russian-Chinese bloc, who are hoping to refine and market Iraqi oil. Even though the Venezuelan oil bosses lean toward the French-Russian gang, U.S. firms, led by Exxon, still pump a lot of oil from Venezuela.

So there are wheels within wheels. But "compromises" among bosses, especially with control of the world's oil market at stake, are castles in the sand. The main aspect of the relationship here is conflict. All this maneuvering will still end in war.

MTA STRIKERS STEER MILITANT COURSE

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 20 -- "Hey Bobby, I don't have one cent in the bank, but I'm telling you don't give MTA anything. Nothing, you hear?" a bus driver told his union board rep yesterday among a group of striking MTA drivers. "I don't care how long it takes," he continued. "Don't give them a thing."

Such is the spirit of the United Transportation Union drivers in their strike against the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). The bosses have stated publicly they want to grab $23 million from the drivers over a three-year contract.

The union leadership is fighting a defensive battle to merely keep what we've got--which means working 12 hours and 51 minutes a day, 5 days a week (24 hours overtime) in order to pay bills and send your kids to college (LA TIMES, 9/16). It means continued use of prison slave labor to clean buses and bus stops. Keeping what we've got means 20% part-time drivers and 24-month wage progression to reach base pay for new drivers and mechanics (a two-tier system). These union leaders would have transit workers keep one foot on the gas pedal and the other on a banana peel.

Striking MTA workers are maintaining solid picket lines. MTA mechanics and service personnel--not on strike--are respecting the lines. The strikers have received support from janitors, garment workers, teachers and students. PLP has gone to the picket lines with CHALLENGES and other Party literature. We have exposed the power struggle behind the strike among different groups of bosses (see box).

PLP says strikers and riders should not take sides in this bosses' dogfight. This lhs led to some good discussions with striking workers. Some are now seriously considering joining a PLP study group and helping to distribute CHALLENGE.

MTA Strikers, Riders: Don't Take Side on Bosses' Dogfight!

Behind the LA transit strike there is a struggle for power among two groups of bosses. The mayor and his cabal of local businessmen all want a piece of the MTA's $2.5 billion budget, no matter how much it screws up public transit. This is why these local bosses, from Riordan to Supervisors Burke, Molina and Yaroslavsky, are calling for the drivers to give up $23 million in concessions.

But the main wing of the U.S. ruling class, led by the Rockefeller forces and their Exxon-Mobil oil giant, are using the Federal government to take power from these local bosses. They had already defeated the old Committee of 25--leading industrialists headquartered in LA--which had been running the city and represented money independent of the Rockefellers. The latter are building a labor-community-environmental alliance of, especially, the large Latino and black population so they can use their youth in a war to maintain control of Mid-East oil.

They are taking hold of the out-of-control LAPD. Their next move may be on the MTA which, for the last four years, has been under a Federal District judge's consent decree to spend $1 billion to rebuild the ruined bus system. Mayor Riordan's MTA is appealing the federal ruling mandating purchase of 300 new buses.

The liberal LA TIMES (bought by the pro-Rockefeller CHICAGO TRIBUNE) and the Spanish language daily LA OPINION are running articles sympathetic to, and respectful of, the striking drivers (just as they had with striking janitors earlier this year). Similarly, they are presenting the case for the mostly low-paid workers who ride the buses in a way that holds transit bosses responsible for the misery caused by the lack of bus service.

The main beneficiary of all this activism will likely be mayoral hopeful Antonio Villaraigosa, Speaker of the House in California's Legislature. He can be the junior partner of the coalition being built by the Rockefeller forces to put the final nail in the current local rulers' coffin.

MUNI Bosses...DOWNLOAD THIS!

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, September 19 -- Informal contract talks are continuing between the MUNI and Transport Workers Union Local 250A. Mayor Willie Brown is playing mediator, the union's International Rep is calling for labor peace and the press is incessantly reminding us it's illegal to strike. MUNI management talks about "cooperation," but uses new policies and the press to attack drivers. MUNI workers have twice overwhelmingly rejected proposed contracts.

Drivers carried out a very successful N.O.T. (No Over Time) campaign over Labor Day weekend to expose short-staffing at MUNI. Only about eight of 160 drivers signed up for OT actually worked, resulting in a 15-20% cut in service. This show of the potential power to shut the city down forced General Manager Burns to admit that MUNI was short about 200 drivers.

Management retaliated by threatening to cut OT, leading to service cuts, particularly on the weekend. Then the bosses end up calling drivers in for OT to fill missing service.

Far from terrorizing drivers, it's angering everyone, including the riding public. The bosses need overtime more than we do, even though many drivers rely on it. Unless they hire hundreds more workers, they cannot run their mass transit system without it.

The American Public Transportation Association is meeting here (Sept 24-28). This "professional association" of transit managers from around the country has plenty to talk about. MUNI and AC drivers have rejected contracts on both sides of the Bay, and LA transit workers are on strike. Actions here in support of the LA transit strike, against weekend service cuts at MUNI and the lack of progress in contract talks, can advance the struggle and keep transit workers in the driver's seat.

The bosses are determined to get a four-year contract. They want "labor peace," not another year of struggle, and they'll pay a few more pennies to get it. They are using everything from the Mayor as "the good cop" to front-page attacks on PLP in the San Francisco CHRONICLE. If drivers don't maintain the momentum with growing job actions while reaching out to AC workers and LA transit strikers, the bosses and union hacks will keep us "voting until we get it right."

The workers' anger, the union leaders' isolation and PLP's mass base have temporarily blindsided the bosses. Their plan for low-wage mass transit with no protection for the workers has been exposed. Joint strikes by MUNI and AC drivers would further expose the whole system of wage slavery. This could definitely open the doors for bigger recruitment to PLP and increase the Party's influence far beyond Bay Area transit workers.

By fighting for leadership of this struggle, we can learn many valuable lessons in the fight for communist revolution. We have struck fear in the bosses and many rank-and-file leaders are emerging. The bosses are downloading CHALLENGE off the website while more workers are saying they want to be part of our movement. We are closing the gap of understanding and confidence that exists between the Party and the workers.

LA Teachers Must Fight Racist Attacks Agains Youth

LOS ANGELES, September 19 -- Teachers here will vote on September 25 to authorize a strike. But what kind of a strike will it be? Will it put students first, in a strike against racist attacks on youth and for better education? Or will it be limited to teacher raises?

Last year California passed Proposition 21, a dangerously fascist law, which increasingly targets black and Latin youth for prison. Students state-wide, including those working with Progressive Labor Party here, led walkouts against Prop. 21. One of the main reasons the rulers launched the Prop 21 campaign was to spread the racist lie among millions of adult voters, that youth, especially all black and Latin youth, are in violent gangs and threaten public safety in California.

This fascist attack invaded the educational system itself. Every high school has cops on campus harassing students for non-criminal misbehavior. Some schools have more cops than others, perpetuating the racist idea that kids in some neighborhoods are "more dangerous" than others. What used to be considered ordinary adolescent behavior now gets you into the courts and the criminal "injustice system." An ordinary fight--two kids squaring off on the playground--is grounds for a citation, and will land the student in court along with his/her parent. So will being more than an hour late to school, or being off campus at the doughnut shop after lunch.

We are fighting for the union to address these demands: (1) "Cops and courts out of the schools"; (2) lower class size--20 students per class; (3) well-equipped, clean classrooms with a Teacher's Assistant in every room; (4) the district build 200 new schools.

The President of the Board of Education admits it would take new classrooms for 200,000 students right now to eliminate year-round schools--at current inflated class sizes of up to 38 and more high school students in a room! It would take at least 200 new schools to adequately house LA students.

Both the school bosses and the union give lip service to "improving education." The district says put more power in the hands of the principal (Oh, sure!) and make all teachers work an extra hour every day. (Many teachers already do this.) The district wants to punish teachers at schools that score low on the racist standardized tests by instituting forced teacher transfers, allowing the principal to "choose his own team" and eliminating local school leadership councils. This will only result in more harassment and intimidation, instead of fighting for real working-class accountability to parents and students on the part of teachers.

The union says the way to "improve education" is to pay teachers more money. Teachers need more money to live on, but what makes a good teacher is his/her commitment to the working class--not how much money he/she is paid. The union has a vague demand, without any real teeth, for a grievable Classroom Bill of Rights covering class size cap, clean, safe and adequate facilities, and textbooks, materials, equipment and furniture.

The district's proposals and the union's counters, as well as the union's refusal to fight for enough schools and small enough classes to really teach, shows what hypocrites they are. Schools that don't really teach students the skills and knowledge they need are consigning them to a future of poverty jobs at home or as cannon fodder in the next imperialist war abroad.

Neither the district nor the union will confront the more fundamental issue in public education, the way that national standards for content of education, and textbooks and tests aligned with those standards, are increasingly focused on preparing--and forcing--students to join the Army and go off to fight in the next war.

One tiny example of this is the California Social Studies Standards for 11^th grade history: The United States in the 20^th Century."" The only reference in the Standards to the indigenous population of this hemisphere is to the Navajo Code Talkers who helped the U.S. beat Japanese Intelligence during World War II. Not only is this incredibly racist in omitting their cultural heritage as well as the savage racist treatment Native Americans received, but it shows, as one student pointed out, the purpose of teaching U.S. history in high school. The Navajo code talkers were included to teach students the "moral" that even if "your people" had been treated badly by the government in the past, you should still believe in and fight for it when asked. History is taught to indoctrinate students to be "good citizens and soldiers."

As teachers of the working class, we have qualitatively different and higher standards than racist standardized tests or principals. We're fighting to teach what's in the interest of the working class--the truth about society. Although this is most clear in a U.S. history class, it applies in all our classrooms. To win we must teach students the class nature of society and fight for as hell to teach this.. Simultaneously we must show we'll only have such complete schools that operate in the interest of the working class when the working class controls society.

Part II: Liberal Literacy Proposals
Rulers Want Fascism As the `Standards'

The National Center for Education and the Economy (NCEE) authored the influential 1990 report, "America's Choice: High Skills or Low Wages." They argue that U.S. bosses need to invest more money in education to compete with their global rivals. As a symptom of rising fascism, they are now writing workplace standards in every industry, including skills required for each job classification, assessments, and certifications. This represents the direct alignment of business, government and labor unions. NCEE is moving quickly into New York City schools, and the Chancellor's District (the large collection of the lowest performing schools) is adopting their literacy program for all its high schools.

NCEE's program carefully steers between the ideological wars on literacy instruction that have split the ruling class in the past. They advocate both immersion in "authentic reading and writing activities" (whole language), and explicit instruction in reading skills and strategies (phonics). Their research shows one will not work without the other.

The emergence of this bridge between what have been warring factions mirrors the victory of the liberal Rockefeller agenda over their New Money competitors. To put their plans into action, the bosses must use whatever dialectical materialist research has crept into science.

On the surface, this approach to literacy instruction is similar to ours. Students will learn about language as a process, step-by-step. It will be presented as something knowable, but alive and changing, not a set of immutable laws to be memorized for no good reason. Students will get instruction in higher order reading strategies from the beginning, but instruction will also be tailored to their individual needs. Classes will be between 20-25 students. Skills instruction will be spiraled from the more simple to more complex in a comprehensive manner. Teachers will get ongoing training, and an on-site instructional specialist who will assist them and team-teach with them.

However, the bosses are not about to start serving the working class, not by a long shot. Capitalist schools, especially in the cities, are just plain broken. Philosophically and programmatically, the program has many problems.

It is based on students learning a process, reading. However, the content of their learning is pro-boss and pro capitalist. And in case the ideas don't stick, it doesn't matter WHAT students think, only that they follow directions. This encourages the same know-nothingness so common in popular culture. Following directions, although admittedly more complex, is still a high priority for capitalist education.

The program is steeped in the junk culture of popular young adult novels. These works reek with self-centered characters, petty jealousies and competition, either gross-out blood and guts or wildly idealist romance, all kinds of ethnic and gender stereotypes, and of course, no consciousness of social classes or class struggle. While the best of them do deal with more realistic themes and even anti-racism/anti-sexism, they still steer students away from class struggle and into an accommodation with capitalism.

Some teachers say, "At least they're reading." But this represents a cynical view. Communists believe young people can be won to reject capitalist culture, which must be exposed for the almost total lack of literature with pro-working class values and lessons. Without a communist analysis, students will learn all the wrong lessons from junk culture.

The lessons for teacher development are also scripted and mechanical, showing that the bosses can't trust them either!

Formal tracking is being reintroduced into schools. Many classes have students at varied skill levels. In the name of focusing on students who need specific and basic literacy instruction, many schools are now tracking on three levels. Several pro-working class teachers questioned the program's commitment to high expectations, fearing students would end up languishing in the lower levels of the program.

The second year of this two-year program centers almost exclusively on reading non-fiction so students can understand science, math, and social studies. These texts are the tools the bosses rely on to spread their ideology to future workers. The history of U.S. education, and the collective experience of the working class, confirms that capitalism will never truly educate our young people.

(Next issue: the bosses' unsolvable contradictions and the role of communist teachers.)

JUSTICE FOR PRINCE JONES!

UPPER MARLBORO, MARYLAND, Sept. 19 -- Today a delegation of Howard University students and faculty and residents of Prince George's County presented petitions containing over 1,200 signatures to the County Executive on behalf of murdered student Prince Jones. They demanded the firing and indictment of killer cop Carlton Jones, the firing of the police chief and compensation for Prince Jones' family.

The petitions have been circulating at Howard University, at Prince George's Community College, at federal agencies and among labor unions in the area. This presentation was to put the county officials on notice that workers and students will not let this racist murder of a Howard University student be swept under the rug. The petition campaign is just beginning. More actions will be carried out to demand justice.

Justice cannot be achieved under capitalism, however. The police are a critical force for keeping workers, especially black workers, terrorized and intimidated. It is their role to be brutal. Capitalism's attack dogs need constant "exercise." Murdering Prince was just one more example of this.

Al Gore held a campaign rally at Howard to win black students to his side in his campaign against Bush. He even held a minute of silence for Prince. Yet Gore and Clinton promote racist policies, like welfare repeal and war in the Middle East. We should have no illusions about their fundamental support for capitalism and its brutal police, whatever pious words they may preach to sucker us into voting for them.

This murder was the 5^th (and 13^th shooting) in 12 months by PG police officers. The list of PG residents murdered by cops is long. PLP vows to continue the struggle to smash the capitalist and racist system that needs such cruel racist terrorism to thrive.

FIRED PLP TEACHER PUTS RACIST BOARD ON TRIAL

CHUCAGO, IL, September 15 -- Today the three-day termination hearing for PLP member Carol Caref ended. The Chicago Board of Education is trying to fire her for "putting a student in harm's way." This stems from one of Carol's students being arrested at an anti-KKK rally in 1997. During the '97-'98 school year, the Board had 2,303 students arrested for minor offenses like having pagers in school. Clearly, it's the racist Board that puts students in harm's way every day, not anti-racist teachers like Carol.

At the hearing, the Board's attorney questioned our opposition to police protection for the Klan. He asked Carol, "Wouldn't you agree that PLP's ideas are also unpopular?" "No," she said, "not at all. I have discussed communism with lots of people, and explained that communism means an end to the racist profit system. It means organizing society based on people's needs, not the needs of the corporations. That idea is very popular with people I've talked to."

Arrests are only the tip of the iceberg. Students are subjected to daily indoctrination and harassment. The Board uses scripted lessons and high-stakes tests to teach racist lies. They set up military academies to prepare students to fight and die in support of imperialism. In the last five years, these fascist policies have greatly increased under the regime of CEO Paul Vallas.

Many teachers were fired when their schools were taken over by the Board for low-test scores. Those attending the hearing included teachers who have been fired for speaking up or refusing to kiss their principal's ass. The Board is about to fire many more teachers under "intervention." They are not interested in implementing programs that might actually help students learn. Instead, they want to blame teachers, students and parents for capitalism's dismal and calculated failure to educate children.

Teachers like Carol and Moises Bernal (another PLP teacher being fired) teach students to think and to understand the world in order to change it. By firing them and trying to remove PLP from the schools, the Board is sending a message: don't fight back. The decision on Carol's case probably won't come until December. But the legal fight is only one aspect of our struggle.

We are linking the firings of Carol and Moises to the hundreds of other fired teachers. We are fighting racist attacks on students, such as the policy that expels any student who is arrested at any time, even on the weekend, and even before going to court.

We are organizing for next week's Board meeting, together with other teachers, parents and students. We will see many more parents and students that we know in their homes and invite them to participate. The Board meeting is Wednesday, September 27, at Amelia Earhart School, 1710 E. 93^rd St. from 4-6 p.m. Join us.

Boosting the Circulation of CHALLENGE

NEW YORK CITY, September 18 -- A group of us workers recently gathered for our regular political discussion. Part of it concerned why and how we should increase the sale of CHALLENGE. We began by reviewing current sales and plans and problems involved in increasing them.

Bob: In the last few years, I've gotten the paper to perhaps a hundred different workers. Recently, however, it's gotten difficult because my job assignment doesn't allow me to get around to see all of these workers. I put 30 CHALLENGES on a literature table available to various organizations at the school where I work. I get the papers to my co-workers when I see them. I've tried to get some of them to help set up a distribution network but that hasn't happened yet.

Joe: It's great that so many of your co-workers have seen CHALLENGE. I think you should establish regular readers. We need to guarantee that you get the paper at the start of each issue. Then you can make a plan for each day of the week to get the paper to all your regular readers and to as many others as possible.

Ned: I sell 35 papers each week in my office and at nearby offices where other members of my union work. At union meetings and demonstrations, I sell up to another 40 or 50. I'm trying to increase my regular weekly sales from the pool of occasional readers.

Joe: I'm new on my job and I was never that good at selling the paper. I'm trying to get to know some of the workers on my job. They're higher-paid workers, professionals. I'm trying to get more involved in the union. I want to relate what's in CHALLENGE to struggles here on the job. I've had some good talks with A. B knows my politics but doesn't take them seriously. I'm going to ask some of my old friends if I can mail them the paper. I agree that CHALLENGE puts forward communist politics more fully than any of us do individually, but sometimes I think CHALLENGE is too strident.

Bob: It SHOULD be strident and make us angry and want to fight back.

Joe: I like the articles and the editorials. I learn a lot from them. But I'm afraid the jargon will turn off the workers on my job.

Ned: We can go through an issue of CHALLENGE to see what we think of what Joe and Bob are saying. Joe, you could get a paper to A. You could also approach some of the support staff in your office. There might be some workers in WEP [Work Experience Program--Workfare] assignments there. They might like CHALLENGE more than higher-paid professionals. I agree you should get involved in the struggle at your job. There's a contract coming up. Perhaps you could write up some of the discussions you have with your co-workers.

Jack: I distribute 15-18 on my job. That number has gone down in the last year as the number of workers in my office decreased.

Mary: I don't sell any papers. I'm here mainly to find out more about PLP. I think there are some workers at my job that would be interested in CHALLENGE. We often have discussions about what's happening in the world.

Ned: When I think about selling CHALLENGE, I think how quality and quantity constantly interchange. The more we understand the need for a communist press in building for communist revolution, the more we try to increase the circulation of CHALLENGE. The more we try to circulate the paper, the more political discussions we're apt to have with our friends. This in turn can lead to more class struggle. This happened on my job around the acquittal of the cop-murderers of Amadou Diallo. More class struggle then can bring about increased readership and distribution of CHALLENGE. This process strengthens the political awareness of our friends and can help convince them of the need to join PLP to help build the revolutionary movement.

Mary: This has been a good discussion, I think I can try to get a few papers out to my friends.

Capitalism: The Highest Stage of the Oppression of Women
Communism = Jobs; Capitalism = Prostitution

"The best from Moscow." "Sweet, fresh Poles." "Ukrainian Pearls!"

read the ads in a Berlin tabloid. For what? Jewelry? Produce? Caviar? Nope, they're advertising for prostitutes. Now that free market capitalism has swallowed the East whole, "half a million women from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union are being shipped abroad each year."

"Communism put women to work, post-cold war capitalism does not," reports the NEW YORK TIMES (9/19). "More than 60% of Russia's unemployed are women."

"The business of trafficking for sexual exploitation is booming. It's an industry worth several billion dollars a year," says an official of the European joint police force, Europol. The trade in women from the East has spread throughout Europe. It's increasingly well-organized, dominated by the Russian-German and Ukrainian-German mafias.

It is "a world of violence, disease and misery." Children are born from this capitalist "business." "There are regular clients for pregnant women." Child prostitution is growing as well. (Profits have absolutely no scruples.) Three cases involving 12 children in Usti, a Czech border town near Germany, included one 9-year-old.

This prostitution is borne of the mass poverty and unemployment bred by capitalism. "Prostitution is the only way to feed their families," admits the TIMES. "Others come deluded, lured [by] work as babysitters or barmaids, forced into unpayable debt, deprived of all freedom in the end." The women may be teachers or farm laborers or unemployed, 18 to 30. Often they have one or two children to support.

"The women are terrorized," often unable to pay off the debt to the gangsters for their transportation and visas to the West. And they're terrified the gangs will harm their families back home if they try to escape.

The average rate in brothels is $75 for half an hour. The women are "paid" no more than a tenth of that. From these "wages" they must buy food and pay rent, so their debts mount. Prostitution is not illegal in Germany in designated urban areas. Most of the 7,000 prostitutes in Berlin are from Eastern Europe.

One young Gypsy woman, forced into prostitution at 15, "with a ravaged look in her big brown eyes...seemed a waif broken before she could live." In contrast, the TIMES says, "Under the former Communist governments, Gypsies had jobs...and overt racism was repressed....Women here [in the West] from Belarus, Bulgaria, Russia and elsewhere would also have had jobs."

So capitalism's "human rights" campaign marches on, over the ravaged, exploited bodies of millions of women. Despite all the shortcomings in the Soviet Union and China, under communist workers power prostitution was wiped out for the first time anywhere in human history. With full-blown capitalism comes full-blown degradation of women. The communism that PLP fights for is one in which the cause of these horrors--profits, and the bosses who reap them--are wiped out. Only under such a system will women and men be able to lead full and productive lives, contributing to the greater good of the working class that produces everything of value.

CUBA: Communism and Capitalism Don't Mix

Often things are not as they seem. So we discovered at our last PLP club meeting while discussing the recent Millenium Summit at the United Nations, and the situation with Cuba.

The Summit's stated purpose was to discuss "global" problems like poverty, disease and war. Rosa sighed, "It sounds like so much talk, vague proposals and nothing for the working class." "Capitalism is still capitalism," said Jose. When some delegates applauded Fidel Castro's speech, they were not on the road to communist revolution. Rather they were uniting so-called "third world" countries for a bigger piece of the capitalist pie.

"What about Fidel visiting the Riverside Church where you go?" asked Angel. "Are people more interested in communism?""The church is an Eastern Establishment Rockefeller-built institution," replied Susan. "Since the Elián case, it has spearheaded the move to shift U.S. public opinion towards ending sanctions and "normalizing" relations with Cuba. The Old Money wing of the U.S. ruling class wants to invest and gain market share in Cuba, where they are losing out to their European and Asian competitors because of the 40-year-old embargo. Far from being pro-communist, these forces claim that U.S. capitalist relations with Cuba will cement "civil, democratic society" there."

The goal of the various groups, which attended Fidel's event at the church, was in essence the same as those of the eastern liberal rulers. However, while there is a lot of anti-communism, there is also interest. "One of my church friends told me she started a singing of the `Internationale' in the Nader contingent at the Labor Day parade," said Susan.

A new comrade to PLP, fairly recently in the U.S. from Cuba, said, "The embargo has strangled Cuba, but the workers are ideologically prepared to confront U.S. imperialism. They have defended socialism and under harsh conditions have developed an advanced educational and medical system. I haven't seen the repression they talk about. One is proud to be a communist. Cuban workers went to fight Apartheid in South Africa. Cuba has been a beacon for workers' aspirations.

"But you can't mix capitalism with communism," he continued. "Communism doesn't exist in Cuba. Cuba used to import 13 million barrels of oil annually from the Soviet Union. Since it fell, the figure is now three million. We're at option zero.""There are lessons we must learn," said Manuel. "Cuba followed the line of the Third International, as did all communist parties at that time." "In fact," added Susan, "PLP was born as members of the old Communist Party USA left it to begin the long fight against revisionism."

"Yes," continued Manuel. "The concept of socialism resulted in state capitalism and a new capitalist ruling class. Socialism kept money, material incentives and wage differentials for technicians and managers. It promoted nationalism within countries to `unite all the people,' rather than internationalism to further the struggle of the workers for complete power as a class."

Comrades then made plans for monthly classes on dialectical materialist philosophy, to advance organizing in factories, expand CHALLENGE distribution and participate in a Coalition march for amnesty for immigrants in NYC on Oct. 14.

The international working class needs power and communism. Can do, but not without fully learning history's lessons, building the movement for revolution from below, in every "country," at a new stage. Such is PLP's task. What we don't know we can learn as we evaluate and re-evaluate our daily efforts, actions and inter-actions, struggles and thoughts.

Pro and anti President Alberto Fujimori supporters fight each other

LIMA, PERU, Jan. 18--Pro and anti President Alberto Fujimori supporters fight each other. It wasn't just corruption that made Fujimori call it quits (and call for new elections next year), but the fact that his Rasputin, Vladimiro Montesinos, was either doublecrossing his masters in the US, selling weapons to the FARC (main Colombian guerrilla group) or becoming too much of an obstacle for the Plan Colombia (U.S. war plans for Colombia)

LETTERS

Proud To Be A GI `Neath the Red Flag

Organizing in the military these past three years has been a constant struggle, not only with fellow soldiers, but also with myself. Especially now I often think about leaving the army, as if it has been this isolated part of my life. I realize that building for the Party is a life-long challenge, and that my army experience isn't isolated, but part of a collective, a continuous wave of knowledge and experience for future soldiers.Developing a " wave upon wave" of Party members and friends has always been our collective's goal. However, after attending the International Conference and listening to students in workshops discussing the importance of mass work and military work, now the seriousness of this goal has become more evident. Talking to our teachers and discussing the importance of their role helped put this into perspective.Meeting old comrades and family was great, but seeing the new faces, hearing about their struggles and advances around the world had a definite impact on me. Listening to experienced leaders and most importantly young leaders made me proud to be a soldier 'neath the Red Flag

Red GI

Move to Cheap Labor Not Just From U.S.

The letter "Bosses' `Boom' on Workers' Backs" (9/20), about bosses moving operations to where labor is cheaper, describes suffering not limited to U.S. garment workers. Four hundred garment workers at the Montego Bay Freezone in Jamaica will lose their jobs by the end of September. Mark Hart, CEO of the Hart Group of Companies, told THE OBSERVER newspaper that Apparel Handlers Freezone Ltd. is moving to Honduras where "production costs are lower." The company manufactures Hanes brand T-shirts for the Sara Lee corporation in the U.S.This is how Sara Lee "rewarded" these workers for their good work. "The factory that we are closing down won the quality award for the entire Sara Lee division two months ago," said Hart. "In fact, we were supposed to travel to the U.S. next month to receive the award."These workers are not alone. Thousands have lost their jobs in the Jamaica apparel industry in the last four years in similar fashion. And when they find a place where labor is cheaper than in Honduras, they'll move there (even though what they pay workers is not enough anywhere). That is the essence of capitalism--the less workers earn the more profits the bosses make.

Again, CHALLENGE was correct about the "dirty secret" that the boom capitalists are enjoying in the U.S. and worldwide rests on the backs of workers. The latest World Bank annual "Report on World Development 2000-01: The Fight Against Poverty" clearly shows almost half of the world's population (2.8 billion) subsists on less than two dollars a day; 1.2 billion live on less than a dollar a day. Even though 70% of these poor people live in Africa, Asia and Latin America, extreme poverty has also increased in the imperialist countries and in Eastern Europe. Between 1987 and 1998, the amount of poor people multiplied by 20 times in the former socialist countries (from 1.1 million to 24 million earning less than a dollar a day). In Russia it's 19% and in former Soviet republics of Asia, like Tajikistan, it's 68%.

If capitalism gets away with murder when it's unopposed in what it calls "the best of times," producing such mass misery for so many people, all the more reason to oppose it and fight for communism.

Red and Proud

Rap Music: Pro-Boss or Pro-Worker?

The letter on illiteracy and rap music (Sept. 20 issue) was important. As the writer says, rap music does influence millions of youth who we want to win to PLP.

Today, hip hop--like all culture--belongs primarily to the bosses, to promote capitalist culture and win youth to defend the system. In its early days, rap music was a source of street entertainment and creativity (the originals MCs were black urban youth marginalized by the capitalist system). Their politics even then pushed individualism, trying to brag about their skills to distinguish themselves from other MCs. There was little if any criticism of the society. However, the fact that these youth were "making" the music by themselves--apart from music industry influence--was a powerful statement on the inherent creativity of the working class. Rap became a wildly successful underground phenomenon.

The ruling class caught on, quickly bought the music and institutionalized certain forms, primarily the super-nationalism and later gangsta rap and pretty-boy entrepreneurial rap, with heavy doses of women-hating/exploiting and continued emphasis on individualism. They also attacked anti-police trends.

The ruling class has made hip hop appear "subversive." The bosses market many rappers as social critics because they talk about the "real deal." But much of rap--in the name of "reality"--depicts black and Latin youth as sexist, racist and willing to screw their fellow workers to get ahead (just as capitalists do). This ideology forms the overwhelming thrust of rap music today.

There are always exceptions to the general trend. For example, many politicized youth in New York City like a lesser-known rap group called Dead Prez. They have been at police brutality demonstrations selling CDs for a dollar "for the cause." While their music appears to condemn aspects of capitalism, like the police, their "cause" is counter-revolutionary, ultra-nationalist politics. In the name of hatred of the bosses' state (we're for that), they're primarily working for the bosses by dividing the working class (not surprisingly, they are now being promoted by the local media to a wider audience).

There are undoubtedly working-class rap groups advancing more pro-working class, anti-racist politics who could be won to our ideas. We should review them in CHALLENGE and develop relationships with some of them. We should create communist culture, build a base in cultural groups around our ideas. The ruling class may control culture now, but we communists want to take advantage of their internal contradictions to expose them and eventually destroy them and their sick culture once and for all.

Rap is influential among the Party's base. Let's continue this debate! Articles on culture will get more youth reading, selling and writing for the paper, and better understanding the bosses' lies. READ, SELL, AND WRITE!

Author of literacy series

Big (Oil) Fish Eat Small Ones

Oil companies proved once again that the role of politicians is to serve and obey the rules of bosses' profits. Last month El Salvador's legislative assembly passed a law regulating the huge profits made by Texaco, Esso and Shell here. This was supported by legislators from both ARENA, the right-wing party in power and by the opposition FLMN (the former guerrilla group turned electoral party). These politicians claimed they were doing this to "help the people." In reality they were answering the cries of some local bosses being hurt by the huge cost of oil.

Well, under capitalism the big fish always eat the small ones. Big Oil pressured the U.S. Embassy, which warned the local politicians that interfering with the "free market" would risk getting El Salvador kicked out of the Caribbean Basin Initiative (which lower tariffs for local exports to the U.S.). The three oil companies threatened to move their operations out of the country.

President Francisco Flores did his job and overturned the legislature's decree. He produced a "consensus" allowing the oil companies to self-regulate their profits for two years. That's like letting the wolf guard the sheep.

So while some local bosses might suffer from increased energy prices, workers will wind up paying with higher prices and wage cuts in this bosses' dogfight. What other choice do workers have but to fight to destroy all the bosses, for a society where workers rule: communism?

PLP comrade, El Salvador

`Greens' Like Red Views

Two weeks ago, we decided to attend a Green party meeting to raise issues about prison labor and a local fascist campaign against black youth and workers. Without hesitation, we identified ourselves as PLP members. During the meeting we were able to show how the U.S. bosses use sweatshop labor and prison labor here, not just in China. By raising the true nature of capitalist exploitation, we were able to counter their nationalistic views. This was accepted with great enthusiasm and objective questions.

We also distributed flyers concerning our local campaign against prison labor, PL pamphlets about prison labor and several CHALLENGES. The local Green Party agreed to provide assistance as well as attend a forum concerning prison labor in the future. Although time will tell whether our revolutionary ideas made an impact, it was still a great opportunity to try to show honest local people how capitalism works to exploit all of us.

Your brothers and sisters in Texas

`White Skin Privilege': A Liberal Myth

This past summer some of us in the LA area have had to deal with the current view of racism pushed by the ruling class. The theory of "white skin privilege"--the main liberal explanation of racism's role in today's society--states that white workers benefit from racism through gaining "privileges" or "wages" from their "white skin." This directly contradicts the communist class analysis of racism: it hurts the ENTIRE working class. No worker benefits from racism. Because all workers have surplus value stolen from them--the amount of value workers produce but is kept by the bosses--it seems ludicrous to say that some group is privileged for having less stolen from them. It is no privilege to be forced to work in a factory with layoffs always possible.

Advocates of the "white skin privilege" theory very mechanically pick and choose the "benefits." Yes, white workers do, on average, earn more money, live in better neighborhoods and are more likely to go to college than minority workers. But this alone is not enough to actually determine a benefit from racism. To actually substantiate a real benefit from racism one must compare the position of white and non-white workers when they experience different levels of racism. Compare wage differences between white and minority workers in different areas of the country, a study PLP has made. If "white skin privilege" was correct, then the wages of white workers would be highest where the wage differentials were highest. But the exact opposite is true. In the south of the U.S., wage differentials were the highest, but BOTH WHITE AND MINORITY WAGES WERE THE LOWEST.

Places with the highest degrees of racism are among the poorest in the world. The liberals' answer is that poor people are just racists because they are poor--another lie. Historically the ruling class--the wealthiest--has been the most racist group. They created racism to justify slavery and super-exploitation and the Ku Klux Klan and their ilk to spread racist ideology. The rich paid for eugenicists to "scientifically" justify their racist actions and funded the rise of Nazism.

But, quite the opposite, the working class has made the most strides against racism. From the multi-racial communal working class ghettoes of Seattle during the great depression to the mass actions of the working class today in protests against the Klan in New York or fascists in New Jersey or California, the working class has shown itself to be the most active fighters against racism.

It is incorrect, though, to ignore racism and treat all workers exactly the same. The most important lesson to be learned from all this is that because minorities are by and large super-exploited, they are more aware of capitalism's horrors. Such workers often become the most militant fighters in class struggles. This again shows how racism hurts white workers: racism separates white workers from the proletariat's most militant fighters.

Racism divides the working class into small powerless groups, creating incredible exploitation and oppression. The fundamental aspect of capitalist society is the exploitation of the WHOLE working class. Thus, racism's separatism hinders the working class's fight for its own societal need, communism. Saying that some workers benefit from racism is saying that continual exploitation is a benefit.

We must fight "white skin privilege" and show that racism hurts all workers in order to work towards a revolution and an end to racism and exploitation. If masses of workers are won to believing they benefit from racism, they will then see anti-racism as only a moral issue. Worse, they will be won to fighting wars to "help" the oppressed for "humanitarian" reasons. The ruling class could then easily win workers to fight a war to "help" the Iraqis, Colombians, etc. and thereby rid themselves of their "white skin privilege." Our future depends upon working as a class against racism, both in the U.S. and with our brothers and sisters around the world.

LA comrade

Health Care Needs Red Transfusion

I'm a nurse working at a Philadelphia hospital. Recently I experienced the extent medical fascism has grown in the capitalist health care system. A patient in the intensive care unit (ICU) where I work was being kept alive by heroic measures. He was attached to several machines which were circulating his blood, oxygenating his lungs and dialyzing his kidneys. Two ICU nurses and a team of perfusionists (managing cardio-pulmonary by-pass) were assigned to his care around the clock. This man was hovering on the edge of death every minute. We were pouring blood products into him and he was bleeding them all back out. He was receiving numerous intravenous medications in an attempt to maintain his very unstable blood pressure. I am new to ICU and had never seen such an extensive effort made to keep anyone alive. I was excited and proud to be a part of this heroic effort.

Unfortunately, some of the nurses on our unit resented these measures-we were "wasting limited resources" on a patient who was going to die anyway. One nurse said that if she had a car accident and there was no blood left for her she would have a fit. I have known this young black woman for some years. She is a militant anti-racist and a devoted caregiver. How could such a fascist idea have corrupted her thinking?

Discussion of this incident made me realize that many medical professionals believe "wasting" limited resources on "futile" care drains these resources from other areas of need. This attitude is in sharp contrast to the philosophy described in a book called "Away With All Pests." It describes a number of cases in which heroic measures were taken to save the lives of individual workers in Socialist China. This dedicated care of individual workers took place at the same time that vast social efforts were made to eradicate disease. All of this was possible because medical resources were not limited by capitalist profiteering.

In Philadelphia there is a PLP collective working in an organization fighting for universal health care. Our collective used this example to promote the struggle against medical fascism by this group. We received a sympathetic response from these doctors, nurses and community activists. We're presently discussing how to best lead this group in class struggle against medical fascism. We're carefully considering a campaign against hospital understaffing, an issue that could unite non-professional workers fighting for jobs with professional workers fighting for better patient care. Any ideas how we can best build the Party in the midst of this struggle?

Red Nurse

Is the New Ruling Party of Mexico Nationalist?

To say that president-elect Vicente Fox's National Action Party (PAN) is nationalist shocks many here in Mexico. After all, PAN is considered by many in the left and liberal circles (like the PRD, the Party of Democratic Revolution) as an agent of U.S. imperialism. Fox himself used to head Coca Cola in Mexico.

PAN's Principles say it strives for the "unity [of the nation] above all forms of divisions like classes..." Therefore, PAN is for all-class unity of workers and bosses, of "all Mexicans." This myth of a society where nobody exploits anyone else, where we are all "one happy family," means that in case class struggle threatens to break up this "happy family," nationalism will slam those who do the threatening.

PAN will continue to do what the PRI (Revolutionary Institutional Party) has done for the last 60 years ruling Mexico, use the educational system (private and public) to push the nationalist myth that "All Mexicans are brothers and sisters." They bow to the Mexican flag and sing the national anthem in the schools. The teachers (both from the national teachers' union--SNTE--and the dissident CNTE union) are the human tools imposing this.

When a ruling group seest its primary interests best served by maintaining class peace, it will fight like hell to make all of us believe that the "national interest" benefits all.

What can we do? Fight against what PAN and all the bourgeois parties push, and show that the class interests of mental and manual workers are opposed to nationalism. The only valid nationalism occurs after an effective social change in society. And then it will be used very briefly.

That's the only reason Fox's PAN could be considered more dangerous to workers than the PRI, since at least in principle PRI doesn't say to use all means at it's disposals to fight against those who would break the "national unity" of Mexico. But PRI has its own way of pushing this nationalism, combining it with "internationalism." It says Mexico must have its own particular "national personality" to efficiently function internationally. That's because PRI repreents Mexican companies like Telmex, Vitro, Femsa, Imsa and many others which export overseas.

So, just as former PRI president Zedillo advanced the cry of "independence" on September 16, Fox will do it his way, telling us to bow to the Mexican flag and the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe and the "founding fathers."

A new reader in Mexico

CHALLENGE RESPONDS: Thanks for your letter. Nationalism is indeed a weapon used by all bosses in one or way or another to exploit workers. Nationalism was born with capitalism, particularly aftter the French Revolution of 1789. We don't believe workers' revolution will have any use for any forms of nationalism, not even for a brief moment. Internationalism today and tomorrow is the order of the day.