Letters - 23 June 2010

PL Study Group Stirs Up ‘Plenty to think about…’

Our Pennsylvania CHALLENGE study group contains spirited and sometimes combative workers. Recently we discussed whether fascists should have freedom of speech. The discussion grew from the fact that the Neo-Nazi Aryan Nation is holding a rally at the Gettysburg battlefield in June.

One group member said he thought they should have this right, but added that a large protest should confront these fascists. Another member declared that the Aryan Nation is devoted to Hitler and genocide and should not have this right, but should be confronted and smashed by an integrated workers movement led by the PLP. A member who works as a waitress agreed with those sentiments.

Another member, a teacher, asked if the current government should be encouraged to pass laws barring these hate groups. But another felt this wasn’t the way to go. He said the current government is a capitalist one, and is more likely to pass laws against communists, that only the workers can stop these types of groups.

Then we discussed a recent newspaper column which advocated that the current government could be reformed to serve the interests of workers. This is just a classic liberal position, said one member, and will never happen since the current government is controlled completely by the ruling capitalist class and can never be reformed. It will take a workers’ revolution and establishment of a genuine workers’ state to fundamentally alter conditions for all workers. Except for one person, most agreed with this assessment.

The waitress said the discussion group gave her more than enough to think about, stating she was glad this group existed, along with CHALLENGE, since the mass media told nothing but lies.

Next year we hope to attend the May Day march.

Red Coal

Angry Workers Slam Pols for Racist ‘Non-Decision’

An angry crowd of 400 workers and youth filled City Council chambers on May 28 in Worcester, MA, to blast the racist Council members, shaking them up with cries of “Shame! Shame!”

After having confronted the Tea Party and their racist friends the previous week (see p. 1), the group returned here to expose the Council’s racist decision to not even discuss a boycott of Arizona and its racist laws. This was not the first issue from the Latino community the Council refused to discuss. It also voted against a livery service in Latino neighborhoods and against keeping swimming pools open.

After a short rally at City Hall, during which Progressive Labor Party along with community leaders spoke, almost the entire rally marched up the steps to City Council Chambers. Some organizers of the second action had the youth tape their mouths so they’d “be polite” while people were told to stand silently. But the workers were very angry and refused to be silenced. They soon started chanting “shame, shame” and “vote them out!” at the City Councilors, while the youth chanted “ No more hate.” Some of our comrades and friends led the chant, “Asian, Latin, black and white, against racism we must unite!”

The councilors were shaken. Some called for “defusing” the anger. One councilor said if the city didn’t do something it would explode. The local newspaper did not cover the rally, although a City Council reporter was present. So far, the newspaper has refused to print any letters about the action. It e-mailed one person, saying Councilor Barbara Haller was not a racist. Her actions have proved differently.

PLP members were in the leadership committee and others sold CHALLENGE.  We pointed out how racism hurts everyone by dividing the working class. We called for a workers’ society that we, not the bosses’ politicians, would run and how it will meet the needs of our class.

Anti-Racist Red

Make an Opportunity — and Work
Your Butt Off

A few months ago the political action committee of our local organization passed a resolution supporting immediate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan. Now more than 80% of the 100 or so members who attended the annual meeting of the full membership have voted in favor of the resolution. The three months prior to the meeting were rich in ideological struggle, with articles for and against appearing in the group’s newsletter.

We had to convince those who supported the resolution to attend the meeting and to be prepared to sit through discussion of organizational business.  A number of people in the political action committee wrote articles and helped with the get-out-the-vote campaign, but too much was done by too few of us.

After the meeting a friend and fellow member of the political action committee took us out for a drink. We showed him CHALLENGE and will talk to him about continuing to receive the paper and about joining our monthly readers’ group.

PLP’s 2005 statement, Dark Night Shall Have Its End, talks about the importance of seizing every opportunity during this difficult period to bring about a new period in which the movement for communist revolution can grow even faster. We see two kinds of opportunities: those we create and those that arise independently of our efforts.

We created this opportunity. Prior to our campaign, there was no groundswell of active opposition to the wars among the group’s members, who were preoccupied with other issues. In fact, probably about 90% of the people who voted for the resolution had voted for Obama; our linking of Afghanistan to Iraq was initially very uncomfortable for most of them.

We had to prove that the U.S. wanted to “secure” Afghanistan in order to build the TAPI pipeline and that the U.S. had supported the Taliban and might even do so again if they could cut a pipeline deal with them. The Karzai regime is hopelessly corrupt and similar to the Taliban in its oppression of women. We argued that it was absurd to believe that the U.S. is invading Afghanistan to help build infrastructure and support “human rights.” The U.S., state and municipal governments are so broke they can’t even maintain infrastructure here and are conducting assault after assault on workers’ rights, liberties, and standard of living.

Now another opportunity has come along, this one independent of our efforts. There’s a big rally and march May 29th in Phoenix in opposition to Arizona’s racist law attacking undocumented workers.  We are working hard to mobilize members of the group to go to Phoenix where we can expose both the local fascist scapegoating of immigrants as well as the liberal Dream (Nightmare) Act fascism documented on the back page of the May 26 CHALLENGE.

Determined Comrade

Captured By The Israeli Military

My niece in Greece has been a political activist since she was 16 years old. One of the causes she has been involved in is the plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza. She has gone there several times to do humanitarian work as a doctor.

She was on the last boat in the flotilla captured by the Israeli military. Because the boat was in international waters, the captain would not surrender until receiving instructions from the Greek government. When he refused to surrender, Israeli soldiers beat him badly with their rifle butts. Everyone on the boat was arrested.

In jail, the captives were not allowed food or water for a day and a half and were repeatedly strip-searched. Sixteen people were eventually released but thirty-five still remain in jail and the Israeli government has not released information about their condition and what will happen to them.

The boat my niece was on was carrying medical supplies and books. The brutal actions of the Israeli government will not stop the international effort to break the blockade of Gaza and assist our brothers and sisters who are suffering there.

New York City Comrade