Mexico : PLP’s Internationalism Antidote to Bosses’ Nationalism

MEXICO CITY, September 12 — Comrades from NY and LA who joined the Summer Project in Mexico showed Party members and friends here the international character of PLP. They contributed with their knowledge and experience in the class struggle, and we saw how similar workers’ struggles are worldwide. This helped show our friends the failure of the capitalist system, even in the U.S., which is supposed to be the most technologically advanced and has one of the highest concentrations of capital.

PLP fights to develop a non-electoral world party that defends the workers, organizes struggles to learn how to overthrow capitalism, and spreads the understanding of the need to build a communist society.

Internationalism creates great fraternity, trust, and love for the working class. This explains our comrades’ taking a leave from jobs and families to participate with us. In just a few hours there was great camaraderie amongst the summer project participants; we talked, shared, laughed, and planned the next day’s activities. It was especially motivating to know that we workers are capable of acting for our own class under capitalism. Under communism it will be that much greater, since we will smash the bosses’ ideas of racism, sexism and nationalism that divide us. 

Internationalism Opposes Nationalism

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France : Union Misleaders Divert School Strike into Dead-end

PARIS, September 16 — A national teachers strike — backed by the biggest high school students union and the main federation of parents — is looming in both the public and private schools. The teachers’ unions are calling for a 24-hour walkout on September 27. They’re demanding “an end to job cuts, a different budgetary logic,” and “a democratic transformation of the educational system to ensure the success of all pupils.”

But one-day strikes are no threat to the bosses or the government. They’re a tactic the union misleaders use to keep control and divert workers’ militancy into a dead-end.

Over 52,000 jobs were cut in education in the past four years. Another 16,000 have been axed this school year, and still another 14,000 are slated to go in 2012. Meanwhile, the student population has risen by 60,000 this year.

All this leads to larger classes, difficulty finding substitutes for absent teachers, and the elimination of optional subjects and individual aid for pupils.

In budgetary terms, real teachers’ salaries have been frozen for 16 years. According to the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), “even if overtime and bonuses are included, the average salary of teachers [in France] remains below the OECD average.”

An opinion poll published yesterday showed that 64% think the schools “operate badly,” up from 40% in 2007; 60% say the school system does not ensure equal opportunity.

Indeed, 31% of the university students are the children of executives and highly-paid academics. On the other hand, 12% come from white collar families, and 10% are children of factory workers.

Capitalism, Class Bias and Racism Go Hand-in-Hand

It can’t be any different under capitalism. Education in capitalis

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But Can’t Do It Without Killing Capitalism: ‘Horrible Bosses’ Film Says, ‘No Options? Kill ’em!’

I just saw the hilarious new movie, “Horrible Bosses,” and want to recommend it to CHALLENGE readers. It is a full-fledged comedy about three buddies who decide, after realizing that they have no other options, to kill their bosses!

Each of the three has a different situation: Nick (Jason Bateman) is a dedicated white-collar worker whose deceitful, treacherous, and completely evil boss (Kevin Spacy) chastises him for being two minutes late for work, among other things. He fails to give him a promotion after leading him to think he’ll get one for months, just to trick him into working harder. Nick tells the boss he’s going to quit, but the boss threatens to blacklist him with all the other companies in the field.

Kurt (Saturday Night Live’s Jason Sudekis) is another hard-working office worker for a small family-owned industrial company, and shows genuine concern for his coworkers. When the druggie, immoral, hedonistic son (Colin Farrell) takes over as head of the company after his father’s death, he threatens to fire Kurt if he doesn’t fire two other workers.

The third main character is Dale (Charlie Day), an innocent, young, and engaged-to-be-married dental assistant who is sexually harassed by his female boss, a dentist played by Jennifer Aniston.

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‘Stalin sent 12-year-olds in flying saucer to U.S.’? Anti-Communist Trash: No Science, Pure Fiction

Annie Jacobsen and her new book “Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base” have been popular with NPR, the New York Times, the Daily Show and Democracy Now. Her book is a rehash of what goes on at the U.S. military testing base in the Nevada desert. However, what is grabbing headlines are the allegations made in the book’s final section.

Jacobsen alleges that the “Roswell Incident” –– in which a UFO supposedly crashed in the New Mexico desert in 1947 –– was actually a failed Soviet propaganda campaign. She claims that the UFO in question was a Soviet spy plane designed by the Nazi Horten brothers and flown by 12-year-olds who had been genetically/surgically altered to look like aliens by the infamous Nazi Josef Mengele. The plane was crashed in the U.S. in order to cause a War of the Worlds panic (reference to H.G. Well’s novel that details the conflict between invading Martians and humans) that would serve as a cover for a Soviet invasion. The grand mastermind of this plan was, “naturally,” Joseph Stalin.

This theory is yet another method to equate two diametrically opposing forces: the Nazis and Soviets. Nazism is a variety of fascism (a form of capitalism in crisis) at its most brutal combining vicious racism with sexism and nationalism. While Nazism is inherently anti-working-class, the Soviets were fighting for a workers’ state. The Soviets vehemently fought the Nazis. Yet the U.S. continues to keep the workers in the dark through outright anti-communist lies.

Jacobsen’s anti-communist nonsense was spewed forth by a single anonymous source (most likely her over-active imagination) without any concern for facts or evidence. The media, owned by the ruling class, has been praising the book’s unscientific allegations. But facts are stubborn things, and they belie Jacobsen’s tale.

Immediate problems arose in Jacobsen’s story. Nazi Mengele did not disappear after the abandoning of Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945, but rather fled the Soviet Red Army, an odd behavior for a supposed ally. He worked in concentration camps, including Gross Rosen, before taking a job as a medic for the Wehrmacht (armed forces of Nazi Germany).

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Nazism Alive and Well in Baltimore Racist Capitalism Knows No Bounds

A ‘‘study’’ rivaling Nazi experiments on World War II prisoners were carried out in Baltimore’s poor neighborhoods by the Kennedy Krieger Institute, affiliated with Johns Hopkins University, which for six years ‘‘knowingly expos[ed] black children as young as a year old to lead poisoning...exploring the hazards of lead paint’’ (NY Times, 9/16).

Lawyers in a class action suit said ‘‘more than 100 children were endangered by high levels of lead dust in their homes despite assurances from the...Institute that the houses were ‘lead safe.’’’ The Institute provided no medical treatment to the children, who ranged in age from 12 months to five years old.

The ‘‘children were enticed into living in lead-tainted housing...and intentionally subjected to lead poisoning,’’ said the suit, presumably to ‘‘assess the success of lead paint...abatement measures.’’ The suit stated that, ‘‘Nothing about the research was designed to treat the...children for lead poisoning.’’ Baltimore has the highest lead poisoning rates in the U.S.

One court compared the experiment ‘‘to the Tuskegee syphilis experiment which withheld medical treatment for African-American men with syphilis’’ (NYT).

One lawyer declared that when parents signed consent forms, the contracts failed to provide a complete and clear explanation about the research. David Armstrong, father of the lead plaintiff, said he was not told that his son, aged 3, was being introduced to elevated levels of lead paint dust. During the two-year experiment, the child received no medical treatment for lead. Later when he took his son to a pediatrician, he discovered the boy had blood lead levels 2½ to 3 times higher than before the experiment began.

‘‘I thought they had cleaned everything [in the apartment] and it would be a safe place,’’ Mr. Armstrong said. ‘‘They said it was ‘lead safe.’’’

The Institute’s CEO said, ‘‘The research was conducted in the best interests of all the children enrolled.’’

Such are the depths to which capitalist racism sinks. Only by exterminating this stinking system will the working class ever be free of such racist attacks on our children.

Bosses Rob Students, Teachers in Chicago School Scam

CHICAGO, September 3 — J.C. Brizard, the new Chicago schools CEO by way of the Broad Superintendents Academy, is pushing a racist attack on this city’s predominantly black and Latino student body as well as an assault on teachers’ wages. He wants to add 90 minutes to the school day and two weeks to the school year in “exchange” for a 2% raise. That’s 29% more work for 2% more money.

More time in school may or may not be a good thing for students, depending on how the time is used. But contrary to the lies of Brizard and his boss, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, this move has nothing to do with improving conditions for students and everything to do with lowering costs to educate working-class children. This cost-cutting means that fewer students will learn to read and develop basic skills. They will be primed to fall victim to minimum-wage jobs — if any at all, given today’s massive unemployment. Many will be driven to join the military out of economic desperation. 

Capitalism uses public education primarily to justify the profit system and to exploit the working class. It “educates” students to believe in the system while setting them up to accept mass racist unemployment as “natural” and to “do their patriotic duty” to fight in the bosses’ oil wars.

Brizard is doing the work he was trained to do by the Broad Academy. Its website’s home page reveals its purpose: “Wanted: the nation’s most talented executives to run the business of education.” It goes on to say, “Without dramatic changes, the U.S. economy will continue to suffer…. Our standard of living will decline, our democracy will be at risk and we will continue to fall behind as other countries far surpass us.”

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While Workers Lack Leadership and 50,000 Die: Battle for Libya’s Oil Heats Up Inter-Imperialist Rivalry

The Libyan civil war has heated up the rivalry among the world’s imperialists, as U.S., British, French, Italian, Russian, and Chinese rulers jockey for access to the country’s oil and gas riches. What Obama hails as Libya’s “liberation” from dictator Muammar Qaddafi is in fact a bid to recolonize it into a Western protectorate. And if Libya unravels, U.S. rulers are preparing for an invasion.

Rebel Racism Rampant

Obama called Libya’s NATO-backed rebels “courageous.” For our class, however, there are no heroes in this civil war. Nobody is fighting for workers. All sides represent oil-thirsty capitalists and stand guilty of atrocities.

Both Qaddafi’s forces and the rebels have executed handcuffed prisoners. Racist rebels massacred scores of black migrant workers and recently jailed hundreds more as alleged Qaddafi mercenaries from sub-Saharan Africa. NATO bombers under overall U.S. command wiped out 85 civilians in one August raid. “An estimated 50,000 people have been killed in Libya since the start of the uprising, according to the rebels’ military leadership” (Independent, London, 8/31).

Libya’s Den-of-Thieves ‘Saviors’ Include Anti-U.S. al Qaeda Allies

But while the triumphant U.S., British, and French imperialists vie for Libya’s energy riches, they’re having trouble patching together a viable local government. Tribes and regions within Libya are also competing for their own shares of the oil profits, thus weakening the new, supposedly ruling National Transitional Council (NTC). “Already council members have fallen into dispute over the $65 billion Libyan Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund” (Bloomberg News, 9/1).

In addition, Obama & Co.’s opportunistic reliance on radical Islamists to do their dirty work poses still worse threats to the U.S. ruling class. The London Independent noted (8/28): “The rebel military commander behind the successful assault on Tripoli had fought in Afghanistan alongside the Taliban and was an Islamist terror suspect interrogated by the CIA. Abdelhakim Belhadj, the newly appointed commander of the Tripoli Military Council, is a former emir of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) — banned by Britain and the U.S. as a terrorist organisation after the 9/11 attacks.” In power, radical Islamists could steer Libya closer to an anti-U.S. Iran or help destabilize Saudi Arabia (the cornerstone of oil-based U.S. imperialism), a long-time goal of Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda.

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Fight Over Hospital Closing Signals Need for City-wide Strike

AVERNE, NEW YORK, August 13 — Over 350 Peninsula General Hospital workers and community residents of this predominantly black and Latino area rallied today to fight the closing of their hospital. Workers had enthusiastically organized door-to-door to bring their fight-back message to the Rockaway and Broad Channel neighborhoods. Their hospital had been slated to close due to Medicaid/Medicare cuts and through theft by the MEDSYS management. MEDSYS, which also runs Brooklyn’s Brookdale Hospital (and others), uses hospital revenues like its own piggy bank (see CHALLENGE, 8/3).

A Brooklyn PL hospital worker spoke at this rally, exposing the fact that this is not an isolated event. Hospital bosses, along with city, state and federal politicians, are planning to close many more healthcare facilities. This is part of the strategic plan to cut workers’ livings standards in order to maintain profits as well as pay for imperialist oil conflicts worldwide. He called for uniting all our brothers and sisters in a citywide strike of all the hospitals to stop all the layoffs and closings. He also urged an occupation of Governor Cuomo’s NYC offices to publicize this struggle.

Union Misleaders Play the Bosses’ Game

In sharp contrast to the rank-and-file’s actions, the leadership of SEIU-1199 tried to mute the workers’ anger with their worn-out message of “call your local politicians,” the very same politicians who have voted for these cuts. The union misleaders did nothing to mobilize 1199’s 300,000 members, many of whom face similar layoff threats.

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Angry Strikers Storm Hearing on City’s $100 Million Verizon Rip-off

NEW YORK, August 17 — Thousands of striking Verizon workers, wearing red shirts and full of working-class rage, descended on Murray Bergtraum High School to protest a new $120 million contract for phone and Internet services between Verizon and New York City’s Department of Education. The deal was up for approval by the Panel for Education Policy (PEP), the rubber stamp for Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s anti-student policies.

A little earlier and a few blocks away, the leadership of the strikers’ unions, the Communication Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, had tried to make this protest as symbolic as possible. They began their rally with the Pledge of Allegiance and a big “thank you” to the New York Police Department for allowing the protest. But the servile union leadership could not contain the workers, who marched to the PEP meeting and filled the chairs. After schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott directed his cronies to pass the massive budget cuts coming to the city’s schools, they approved the Verizon contract by an 8-4 vote. Since Bloomberg appoints a majority of the PEP’s members, this was hardly a surprise.

Still, the striking workers dominated that meeting. They showed no fear for the thugs in blue and in suits that were protecting the stage. The workers’ chanting and shouting down the PEP shook the room with a palpable energy. They were pissed off because the DOE was helping to strengthen Verizon and therefore attacking the striking workers.

The state (the police and the courts) is the organized force by which the ruling class dominates the working class. When fear fully gives way to rage, the working class will rise up and destroy the state. The uprising by youth in England, after the cops killed a young black man, clearly illustrates this. But only communist leadership can lead the workers’ rage into an egalitarian society that will provide for their needs.

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Mexico PLP Project: Turn Workers’ Anger into Red Revolutionary Force

MEXICO CITY, August 23 — In Mexico City the majority of workers live in miserable neighborhoods that surround the city. The PLP’s Summer Project was based in two of these neighborhoods, and included the participation of teachers and comrades from several countries. We distributed flyers, but mostly focused on visiting CHALLENGE readers and their families. Building a base in the working class is essential for a communist revolution.

During the first week we concentrated our efforts in a neighborhood close to the most important industrial zone in the center of the country. We visited some twenty people at work and at home. We had meetings with about half of them.

These conversations made it clear that industrial workers are the key to the revolution. They have the power to stop all production and the knowledge to run the factories for the working class. In time of crisis, fascism crushes their lives and that of their families. But with PLP there to lead them, frustration and anger will become a revolutionary force. We were told that a worker has to try to make it on 600 pesos (about $48) a week, has to put up with abusive bosses, insults and often even physical abuse. Work-related injuries are common and the bosses leave workers unprotected.

One of our friends described the injury of a worker who had his ankle crushed at a bridge construction site. It was difficult for the injured worker to make ends meet on 400 pesos ($32) a week, which is t

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