LETTERS OF APRIL 13

Amid Colombia’s Super-Exploitation: Winning Construction Workers to Red Ideas

A CHALLENGE reader told me that he has been working in construction for over 25 years; often receiving commendations for early arrival and efficiency in his work. Like millions of working people who create all the wealth, he does not own his own home. Banks refused to give him credit because of his low salary and job instability that can get in the way of his paying the monthly fees.

During the last year this comrade worked for five different bosses, in all cases without a work contract. They all exploited him and he was forced to work close to 55 hours a week. Sixty-nine percent of all work-related accidents affect this industry and 48% of construction workers don’t have social security or any benefits. They don’t have the right to bonuses, unemployment benefits, vacations, transportation subsidies or other funds.

Thousands of these indigenous workers are violently evicted from their native communities, therefore increasing the army of the unemployed. Forty-five percent of them barely finish elementary school which contributes to their belief that they are to blame for their own economic condition. When they get sick or injured they are immediately fired from their jobs, while sellout politicians like Morales Russi, Olano Samuel and Ivan Moreno, and slave drivers like the Nule Group, steal millions of pesos generated by their  labor. This racist capitalist system is disastrous for our class worldwide. It only offers unemployment, hunger, misery and bullets.

PLP is our revolutionary party. It works under the principles of proletarian internationalism, the dictatorship of the working class and communism. In many countries we are working with the masses, joining their struggles and their organizations.

For over a year I have been participating in the meetings of the construction workers’ union in Bogotá. Nearly 100 workers joined a union in an attempt to improve their living conditions. Currently, we have five regular CHALLENGE readers with whom we have political discussions. We are struggling with four more to create an educational committee in spite of the anger and opposition of the union leadership, who are more interested in protecting their personal privileges.

Here we have tremendous opportunities, and through this reformist organization we can connect with hundreds of workers to politicize these economic struggles and build a base for our communist ideas. Only through a massive revolution of urban and farm workers, students and soldiers, can we destroy this racist and sexist wage-slave system that can’t provide employment. Over the ashes of this system we will build a truly egalitarian society, a communist society. J

Revolutionary Fighter in Colombia

Of Terminology and Colonialism

I’ve noticed that, from time to time, CHALLENGE uses “Israel” and “Israel-Palestine” rather than “Palestine.” I believe that the correct name is “Palestine.” By this name we only mean the geographical region between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea, not any nationalist entity. Note that this region was called “Palestine” as early as 450 BC and up until 1948 AD. The Kingdom of Israel was razed by the Assyrian Empire in 720 BC, and the later Jewish kingdom in part of that area was called Judea until 135 AD. After that the region was called “Palestine” by the Roman Empire.

The modern “Israel,” on the other hand, is a colonial fortress of imperialism forced on the region by the Zionists and their imperialist backers, at the expense of both Arab and Jewish workers. As a communist, internationalist and anti-Zionist, I prefer to use the historically correct geographical term “Palestine,” and this should not be viewed as Palestinian nationalism. Using the term “Israel” in a modern context, however, should only be done when referring to the Israeli state, the Israeli bosses, the Israeli police and military and so on, and not to the geographic region it occupies.

Some would say that using the term “Palestine” is nationalist. But I ask: isn’t using the term “Israel” nationalist in the same way, and doesn’t it also grant legitimacy to the Zionist colonial project? And can country names be separated from some degree of national context as long as capitalism  — the source of nationalism — reigns?

A Red in Palestine

Patient Organizing Produces Teachers’ Fight-back

The schools have been facing massive cuts for the last three years. This year custodial staff was cut to the point that there are never more than two custodians at any school at any time. On top of this, clerical staff has been cut, at least at my school, to a single office worker. By March 15th the Los Angeles School district  put out 5,000 lay-off notices to teachers, counselors and all the librarians, about 1/7th of union members. This means that class sizes will skyrocket, especially in elementary grades.

At my school, nine out of 66 certified staff members got pink slips. Recently we had been pretty complacent or depressed in the face of the cuts. Teachers never leave their rooms and the staff is far from united. With the help of struggle from my PLP club I have been attempting recently to counteract this and build some fight-back here.

I learned how much work organizing takes when no one attended the first meeting I announced without follow-up. The next Tuesday teachers were leafleting in front of schools for the union, which gave me an opportunity to try again. I talked to teachers individually at the leafleting about having a strategy meeting on Thursday. The day of the meeting, I put a note in the boxes of those teachers I had talked to or knew would be interested.

About twelve teachers came to the meeting where we discussed the nature of the cutbacks and possible responses. The discussion ranged from LA’s school budget to the ruling class’ plans for charters/ed-reform to parent-student-teacher unity. We agreed to meet a week later and to try to find out more about our situation and how to involve parents.

The next week I again put a note in mailboxes, but because of struggle the teachers had with me I put it in everyone’s box. This time thirteen teachers came. Some from the previous meeting couldn’t make it but asked to be included in the discussion. We continued to discuss the issues and came up with two concrete plans: march as a contingent at the CountyFed’s rally in support of Wisconsin workers that Saturday and have a public meeting in the quad to include students this coming Thursday.

On Saturday we met at a teacher’s house and took the train into the march, meeting other co-workers along the way. A group of thirteen of us marched together, chanting, talking and making plans. Afterwards a group of us agreed to meet on Tuesday to organize the Thursday public meeting.

Our ability at my school fight-back is growing, in no small part because of the leadership of my coworkers, many of whom read CHALLENGE. Building personal relationships with these teachers has helped me organize these meetings with confidence in my coworkers. I have gotten to know some militant teachers and hope that this can help me expand my CHALLENGE network and the struggle here.

A comrade