LETTERS ... September 7, 2022

Down with Kingmakers & nationalism
During one of my last days of summer break, I went to see Lauren Greenfield’s 2019 documentary The Kingmaker. We learned about the legacy of the infamous Marcos family, which has terrorized the working class of Philippines since the late 1960s. Following in the footsteps of the late, heinous Ferdinand Marcos, his son Bongbong—aided by his mother Imelda—campaigned for the 2016 vice presidency in an attempt to reclaim the family’s power. Soon after his opponent Maria Leonor Robredo won, in Trump-like fashion, Bongbong protested the official count with no avail.

Amid the overlay of interviews between the director and various political figures, Imelda Marcos, and workers, the corruption and devastation brought by the Marcos family and their aids (including the state apparatus) onto the Filipino people gave me pause. Familiar things included misinformation through social media, replacing history and upending the education system, and dangerous cult personalities justifying the state-sanctioned terror inflicted on communities. I instinctively recognized the same tactics used by the U.S. ruling class and inferred that today’s gruesome reality in the Philippines could very well be the near future of the U.S. as long as workers do not fight back and continue to let weak reforms misguide much-needed change.

After the film, we had a discussion that had an impact on me. Multiple workers from the Philippines spoke of their experience confronting intergenerational trauma and a lack of pride in the country on account of the horrific government. One person expressed deep frustration that in the Philippines, there is no reliable mainstream news source. They continued describing the racism they have experienced from non-Filipino and Filipino people alike. They recounted a trip to New York that was soured by workers in a Filipino store. Because of the language the person spoke—the same used by the Filipino government—they received an antagonistic response. It was clear that national and cultural boundaries isolated this person from those who are not so different, as we all have a common enemy in the Marcoses, Trumps, and Bidens of the world. People also went more in-depth about the martial law enacted by Ferdinand Marcos, permitting his administration to rule with an iron-fist and cement him as dictator for essentially 14 years. I also learned the causes of the large Filipino population in the U.S. (now understanding why I had many Filipino classmates and teachers throughout middle and high school). It was due to the complex and insidious relationship between the U.S. and the Philippines, leaving workers from the Philippines with alienation and resentment.

I spoke to my experience of recently broadening my perspective and analysis of systemic oppression beyond my community to the international working class and finding that an organized, antiracist, antisexist communist party is what is needed to tear down the crooked elite. Afterwards, I connected with multiple people, telling them of my work within the Baltimore West Wednesday Coalition to achieve accountability of police murders and described the Progressive Labor Party. Since the place that hosted the event is close to home, I intend to remain in touch and make inroads to building greater class consciousness among organizers.

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Top Gun: Maverick, recruitment tool
According to a recent article by William Koehler on MovieWeb, films that want access to aircraft carriers, fighter jets and skilled pilots need to get approval from the Department of Defense (DOD). In the first installment of Top Gun in 1986, “the US Navy saw a 500 percent increase in the number of people joining to be naval aviators.” They even had Navy and Air Force recruitment booths in some theaters showing the movies.

The DOD also has final say on the script, so if it’s not pro-U.S. military, it doesn’t get in the movie. Top Gun: Maverick concentrates on a combat mission to destroy an enemy target, an Iranian nuclear facility. The film assumes the U.S. government and its military are doing the right thing because there is no discussion about the political or historical ramifications. It glorifies the military and “the best in the world pilots,” who will uphold
U.S. imperialism at any cost. Propaganda films like Top Gun influence youths to join the military to do something heroic. The high tech killing machines are used to make warfare look “cool.”

But the reality is much different. The reality is that the bosses use the military to kill our sisters and brothers all over the world to ensure their blood profits. We must make it clear that the bosses use entertainment to weaponize their imperialist goals at our expense. Let’s build a communist alternative, join PLP!

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Weakening U.S. desperate for old world order
“The U.S. economy is based on profits from control of an imperialist empire of more than 750 military bases in over 100 countries and a military budget that dwarfs every other country (12 times larger than Russia’s). It provides 80 percent of the world’s weapons exports including military training to 40 of the most oppressive, anti-democratic governments on earth” (Jeff Cohen – Veterans For Peace, Summer 22).

The purpose of Nancy Pelosi’s Southeast Asia tour and recent “we got your back” message to Taiwan (see editorial, page 2) is to pledge protection against China and security for more billion dollar arms sales and military training not only to Taiwan but to Japan, Australia and South Korea to set up a Southeast Asian imperialist bloc to oppose Chinese economic expansion just as NATO’s imperialist bloc aims to prevent Russia’s expansion into Europe.

Joe Biden’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia had more to do with multi-billion profits for Raytheon and Boeing’s sales of missile systems and fighter planes to protect U.S. oil interests in the Middle East than any increase in oil production.

When U.S. imperialists scream about a return to “world order” and “democracy” they mean return to U.S. empire rule. The media flood of old and new U.S. war movies and how atomic bombing of Japan saved the U.S. are military propaganda. The military presence and nationalist flag waving at all events are really demands for worker’s blood to be shed once again to defeat  U.S. capitalist competitors. I believe however that the worldwide working class can turn the next imperialist profit war into a class war for a communist system of equality and worker’s power that will smash racist capitalism. Join PLP!

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Remembering Camacho & Delano Summer Projects
Two Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members attended the memorial for Epifanio Camacho, longtime PLP member and leader in the Central Valley in California, a major agricultural area populated by large numbers of immigrant farm workers from many different countries.

Like many other (then) younger Party members, I participated in the Delano-McFarland PLP Anti-Racist Summer Projects, which took place between 1984 and 1990. Volunteers lived with local PLP members, almost all of whom were farmworkers. In the summer, farmworkers labored in 100 degree plus weather, frequently wrapping themselves in layers of clothing for protection from the toxic pesticides used by the growers in order to maximize their profits. We frequently went to the fields early in the morning to reach farmworkers with CHALLENGE and flyers from the Anti-Racist Farmworkers’ Union, which was led by PLP and the International Committee Against Racism (InCAR). In the late afternoons, we would go door-to-door in areas where farmworkers lived. PLP and InCAR led numerous marches and rallies through these neighborhoods on the weekends or late afternoons. During the projects, which usually lasted over six weeks, intense political discussion and activity planning took place at regular Party meetings.

One day, the volunteers were invited to come to Camacho’s house. This was the first time I had the chance to meet him. Both physically and intellectually powerful and politically sharp as nails, I could see why bringing workers like Camacho into PLP was so important to the growth and development of our revolutionary communist movement.

At Camacho’s memorial, I spoke on behalf of PLP. I first read two tributes written by PLP comrades from Mexico (see CHALLENGE, 8/17). I then read my remarks. This is a part of what I said:
[Camacho’s] greatest contribution to our movement was to show that PLP was and is serious about the working class leading society. We think he understood from his own personal conversion that the process of that transformation required deep immersion in the class struggle. He led that fight with a fiery spirit second to none. [He] was an invaluable member of our class, our communist party and the worldwide movement to abolish capitalism, end exploitation and wage slavery and establish a worker-run and worker-led communist society. Rest in power, comrade Camacho!

Several of the people who participated in the Memorial spoke eloquently about their own experiences as young people volunteering in the Summer Projects. They testified emotionally about the profound impact the experiences had on them during their formative years, and how those events had shaped their future lives.

My comrade and I had a long, in-depth discussion with one of the members of a family I stayed with in 1989. Although he is no longer a member of PLP, our conversation made it clear that he is still a communist at heart. He described in great detail some of the militant actions the Party led, and the importance of having a mass base in the working class. At one of those actions, a cop who wanted to shut down the action radioed headquarters for approval. He was told, in no uncertain terms, that it would not be a good idea given who the cops were up against, i.e. PLP and militant, antiracist members of the working class.

In discussing this memorial with a comrade afterwards, I realized what a privilege it had been to be part of the celebration of the life of this wonderful comrade! Epifanio Camacho may be gone, but the fruits of his communist labors continue through all of us who took part in the PLP’s work in the Central Valley and way beyond.
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