LETTERS of June 22

CHALLENGE: A Cure for Passivity

PLP Literature and CHALLENGE changed my life. It helped me recover from passivity. Now, I feel like I am doing real work for the revolution. I am proud of being a PL’er. Its Marxist outlook helped me understand the state of the world. Its analysis about the old communist movement helped me to understand the dialectics of the movement all over the world.

I enjoy using CHALLENGE to learn about the international class struggle. A recent article about the May Day celebration in Pakistan inspired me. Now, I am thinking of translating “Why Communism” into a leaflet and distribute it among the masses, for it is very much necessary for the working class in Bangladesh to know about communism.

The working class here never knew real communism because the phony communists promote a “Democratic Revolution” stage. They are not waging class struggle. Instead, they unite with the national bourgeoisie. These revisionists are doing the same thing as trade unionists of the CPM (a corporation) do in India: keep good relations with the ruling class.

PLP literature made it clear that we should be fighting towards a communist revolution. Only through class struggle can we build a mass PLP and have an armed revolution by millions of workers all over the world. “One Class, One world and One party” line is very much understandable in this world of universal capitalism. Love live PLP with a Red Salute!

Comrade in Bangladesh

No Compromise on Sexism

The June 8th editorial that very informatively showed the real motives behind the U.S. prosecution of Straus-Kahn (the sexist pig that headed the IMF) should have concentrated also on the hypocrisy of U.S. rulers with regard to violence against women.  From Saudi Arabia to Pakistan and all around the world, U.S. capitalists finance and enable regimes that punish and jail working women who struggle for even the most minimal rights.

Violence, rape and sexual slavery are the life experience of hundreds of millions of women worldwide under capitalism.  The profit drive turns women’s bodies into commodities to be bought and sold, or to be used in degrading culture, pornography and provocative advertising.  Capitalists use this terror and sexist portrayals of women to enforce and justify paying even less than the usual wage slavery levels to women workers, a super-exploitation similar to how racism oppresses black and immigrant workers.  Working women are further exploited as “unpaid labor” for their socially necessary work in raising the next generation of workers.

From its beginning, PLP has made the struggle against sexism a major priority.  From the Figure Flattery garment factory in the 1960s to the recent struggle at Stella Dora (where men and women workers struck against a sexist attack to lower the wages of the women workers), PLP has supported the struggles of women. It has worked to build the unity between men and women workers based on anti-sexist struggle that will be necessary to smash capitalist rule.

The PLP position that communism requires the abolition of wages would remove the material economic basis for sexist discrimination that results in lower-paid and unpaid labor. We must struggle with all workers, regardless of sex, to share in the necessary work. PLP has long struggled to put women in the leadership of the Party and class struggle; the PLP chairperson for years has been a woman, and women lead many areas of Party work. The Party understands that their experience of super-exploitation will make women especially dedicated and disciplined leaders in the life-long struggle for communism.

We make no compromise with sexism ever and our articles should reflect our hatred of the bosses’ violence and sexist degradation of women workers worldwide.

A Comrade

Unity at Haiti Fundraiser

Singers all gathered on the stage in front of 140 people. They started to sing “Haiti Cherie” – first in Kreyol, and then in English. The audience joined the singing, in Kreyol and in English. The audience swayed as they sang. It had been an incredible evening, one that required a tremendous amount of work, but it was worth every second of time. A lot of money was collected for the good works the Haitian group performs in their hometowns and villages in Haiti.

We have been working with this group in our church for a little over a year. When the earthquake happened, we were asked to find a grass roots Haitian organization that we could form a friendship with. We jointly organized a forum on the current state of affairs in Haiti last fall, and attended a number of fundraisers that workers from Haiti arranged. Both the church group and the Haitian group met together on many occasions to set up this evening of dinner and entertainment in order to solidify a growing relationship.

At the beginning of the evening people tended to sit at tables with their own friends. The keynote speaker of the evening stood up and called upon audience to participate by moving to tables where there were people they did not know.  The tables had multi-racial and a multi-ethnic makeup.  People soon got over their awkwardness. Many conversations started and former strangers got to know each other as they ate and drank together.

The entertainers for the evening ran a gamut of songs from romance to struggle, from talk of home to talk of a better future for all workers. People spoke of the need for unity and demonstrated it in their friendship. Many joined in with some of the songs. The best show of unity during the evening was the clean-up which involved 40 people from all different backgrounds working side-by-side.

The room had a complicated and involved setup, and there was an enormous amount of equipment, tables, food, etc. that had to be organized.  The entire clean-up took about 15 minutes because everyone spontaneously worked in unison, helping each other. A five-person detail was supposed to have put things away. Instead everyone helped. It was amazing and a wonderful show of unity.

Quite a few people who were in the room read CHALLENGE and some feel a commitment to a more struggle-oriented future. But here we were all together as brothers and sisters, and the embracing at the end and the singing of “Haiti Cherie” sealed the evening with harmony. Two communities brought together which would not under normal circumstances have had any contact with each other. We were brought together by the hard work and determination of a number of individuals in both groups. The future is bright because the present is full of purpose.

International comrade

LETTERS of May 25

British Imperialism Uses Royal Wedding

The British aristocracy and the Royal family have a thousand-year history of empire secured through rivers of workers’ blood and enslavement of millions. These rulers have spread their filth of racism, exploitation and war to a worldwide colonial system.

Today British imperialism has been reduced to a third-rate power by other imperialists and is desperately trying to rally its working class to support a resurrection of British power, the Royal family and new imperialist ventures. English workers were “given” a day off to win their participation in the Royal wedding celebrating privilege, power and patriotism. The event cost $12.5 billion worth of lost productivity, $100 million for security and $34 million for the wedding itself, paid by more taxes on workers now facing huge austerity cuts while millions are jobless, homeless and hungry.

The Royal family and British imperialism tremble as millions of workers in North Africa, the Mid-East and countries worldwide take to the streets rebelling against royal and family-dynasty billionaires who subject them to poverty, unemployment and misery while surrendering their countrys’ wealth and resources to imperialist bosses.

Communists must support the lead of workers’ worldwide rebellion against royal and imperialist oppressors and try to link their struggles with the need to destroy capitalism in all its forms and build communism.

A Comrade

Unity A Winner in Fight vs. Racist School Scheme

 About fifty students and teachers participated in the last part of a series of panel discussions organized by the debate team. This one was called “Millennium Brooklyn is Coming…Now What?”

The purpose of the event was to bring together all those who participated in the struggle against a new middle-class, mostly white school, being placed in our school building by the Department of Education (DoE). As CHALLENGE previously reported, this school would get funding that the four other schools in the building never got, setting up an apartheid-like situation within the building.

We wanted to analyze the gains our struggle had made, despite being unable to stop the new school from opening next fall. Students wrote speeches on different topics, including the segregation within NYC schools, the imperialist wars in the Middle East, the budget cuts, a recap of our fight against racism and what “winning” meant to us.

The main point made by the debaters was that even though Millennium Brooklyn could not be stopped from entering our building, our fight against racism continues. They emphasized that students and teachers still have to fight back because students shouldn’t have to be left behind just because their parents make less money than those in the new school.

One debater powerfully urged students on the John Jay campus to unite with students entering Millennium Brooklyn in the fall. She explained that the ones creating the segregation in the schools are the DoE bosses and not those new students. The debaters emphasized that the main “win” accomplished was the unity built between the students of the three schools. In previous years fights between students from the different schools were common.

This struggle also educated many about how the DoE has set up so many working-class schools to fail. The clear connection between the trillions spent by U.S. imperialism to conquer the oil-rich Middle East while school budgets continually get slashed was one example given. Lastly students recounted their development as leaders in the struggle. Everyone was invited to May Day so that we can all fight back against the biggest problem of all, capitalism.

School comrades

Stockton, CA.: Revitalize Struggle for Communism

On May Day, about 125 workers and students marched for immigrant rights. PL’ers marched along with black, Latino and white workers with signs in Spanish and English reading “The Workers’ Struggle Has No Borders. “ Our leaflet warned workers about the bosses’ intent on using 
unemployed and immigrant workers to recruit as soldiers for their oil wars for profit. A professor friend translated the flyer into Spanish. The immigrant community here has revitalized the 1st of May. We need to revitalize the struggle for
communism.

Friends in Stockton, CA.

LETTERS of May 11

 Fascinating Exposé of Krushchev’s Lies

“Khrushchev Lied” by Grover Furr (Erythrós Press and Media,  2011) is a fascinating book.  It exposes Khrushchev’s speech to the 20th Party Congress of the “Communist” Party of the Soviet Union as a complete pack of lies.  But it also shows that the claims Stalin was personally responsible for the “Great Purges” is a complete falsehood as well. It actually was a counter-revolutionary plot by many high-ranking Communist Party members. To cover up their schemes, the traitors executed loyal Party members and workers!  They even killed off some of their own plotters to cover their trail.  In fact, Khrushchev was heavily involved in these killings; Furr showed that it was Stalin who was instrumental in stopping them.

Furr does not investigate how so many traitors managed to get into such high positions (First Secretaries) in the Party organization.  In addition, Furr shows that the counter-revolutionary activity went on essentially continuously from the “end” of the capitalist interventions in the 1920s, throughout the 1930s, and even during World War II.  But, again, there is no discussion of how so much treachery was “allowed” to continue for so long.  Given this information, it is a testament to Stalin, the Red Army, the partisans, and the Soviet working class that they were able to smash the Nazis so decisively.

Furr makes it clear that he is basing all of his investigation on primary sources.  He strenously avoids engaging in biased journalism, exactly what so many anti-communist authors do.  In a final chapter dealing with Khrushchev’s motives,  Furr even refuses to take a definitive stand on why Khrushchev delivered such a fabricated speech. 

Furr could have stated outright that Khrushchev explicitly declared that the Soviet Union was restoring capitalism.  Khrushchev and his cronies had no idea how long it would take (35 more years for it to become “official” in 1991) and they continued to use Marxist rhetoric in their public declarations while systematically destroying every positive aspect for which many communists had fought and died.

Teachers should encourage their colleagues, especially history teachers,  to read this book.  It can be used quite well in a Study Group.  There is a long appendix and I would suggest reading the relevant section in the appendix right after finishing the corresponding section in the main text.  Having two bookmarks makes this easier.

Red Reader

Bosses’ Strategic Plan: Jails, Not Hospitals

I attended another public hearing, one of an endless series, about the “possible” closing of Oak Forest Hospital in Chicago.  The bosses slated Oak Forest and Provident Hospitals to be closed in the near future.  These are two of only three public hospitals that still operate in Cook County. The bosses laid off most of the workers at Oak Forest & Provident.  Before, Oak Forest took care of as many as 1,100 patients; now it is a shell that has 55 patients left. Provident had 200 beds; now only 25. It no longer accepts ambulances in its emergency room either.

In every public hearing, the workers and patients opposed the shuttering of these vital health facilities.  However, the bosses — in the form of the mostly Democratic Cook County Board, and its Health Facilities Governing Board, chaired by the former CEO of Tupperware — have other plans.  They are in the process of implementing a “strategic plan” that requires the county to save money instead of the lives of the working class.

The bosses justify their plans by stating that by closing hospitals, they will be able to provide better and more health care.  If this sounds like nonsense, it’s because it is. The “strategic plan” is a thinly-veiled racist assault on mostly black, Latino, Asian and white working-class patients of Oak Forest and Provident. This is class warfare: the bosses attack programs and resources that the working class heavily depends on.  

The budget is used to suppress the workers. The largest item in the county budget is for jails (the largest in the U.S.).  Its budget is $405 million, plus $38 million for the Juvenile Detention Center. The budget for the hospitals and clinics is 30% less, $313 million. The bosses’ priority is to keep workers under control, and to protect their faltering system.

Why is Cook County risking the welfare of the workers that live here? The bosses cut back to pay for their endless oil wars.  They are in a life-and- death battle with their imperialist competitors to gain more profits, cheap labor and expanding markets that capitalism relies on for its survival.  In times of economic stagnation or depression, the bosses increase economic exploitation, cut back services and become more repressive. By doing so, they expose the true nature of their ruling-class dictatorship.  It is PLP’s mission to smash the dictatorship of the ruling class and establish a system run by the workers, for the workers. 

The struggle to keep Oak Forest and Provident open will help win more workers to the Party and hasten capitalism’s demise.

Chicago Hospital Worker

Fighting for the Youth in Bogotá

The greatest desire for some workers’ families is for their children to become professionals, in other words to achieve an education similar to the capitalists’ children. Families that have managed to successfully graduate some children not only lose them but even become personal enemies.

The bosses teach these youth individualism and take advantage of it to maintain control. They win some to become their collaborators in the class struggle. Such individuals then become the bosses’ best ally in politics and government.

While the contrary phenomenon may occur, with some in the dominant class being influenced by our class and even become leaders in our struggles, this is less frequent and carries the danger of falling prey to capitalist ideology.

I work with five young CHALLENGE readers in an area the bourgeoisie has stigmatized as a “red-light district” in Bogotá, a section bathed in proletarian blood by death squads serving the bourgeoisie. Backed by the military, they engage in “social cleansing,” murdering everyone who disagrees with the current exploitative system, including more than 300 youths for “disobeying the rules.”

The current mayor, Samuel Moreno, utilized many of these killers in his election campaign, installing more security cameras and hiring more cops to impose a curfew for those under 18. Hundreds of adolescents were arrested.

Enduring this society of exploitation and political maneuvering, many of these youths have begun to disobey, but essentially remain passive. Our CHALLENGE readers are conscious fighters but many others pursue an idle existence, drowning in drugs, sexism and alcohol.

Without a clear revolutionary understanding, without unity of thought and action, all will continue this way until the capitalist crisis of war overwhelms them. We will not only not support any and all political gangsters but will intensify the system’s contradictions and take destiny into our own hands, forging the communist future we need. We expose the hypocrisy of “Democracy” as a bosses’ dictatorship, showing that the only alternative is communist revolution.

That’s why we fight ceaselessly for the unity of soldiers, students and workers, led by communists, against the racist system attacking our class. Through this our anti-imperialist and communist ideas and actions will build an internationalist PLP. The rotten bosses’ state may exist in different forms (monarchy, republic, fascist) but its criminal essence is always the same — the dictatorship of imperialism.

Comrade in Colombia

LETTERS OF APRIL 27

‘No choice but to be in it for the long haul…’

The struggle for communist revolution is a long-term commitment. This current international crisis of capitalism has brought untold misery to workers around the world from Haiti to Afghanistan and Iraq, from Palestine to right here in the U.S. The courage to fight back against the bosses has been shown under conditions of overwhelming intimidation and violence.   

Right now in my workplace the anger and frustration that exists in most workers has been tempered with fear. I have worked in a New York hospital for many years in a busy radiology department. 

There have been many struggles during that time but they have grown far fewer during this crisis as mass unemployment has risen and intimidation has increased.  Three workers have been fired in my department over the past two years mostly from minor infractions and poor managerial organization of the work-place that led to errors by my co-workers. These firings are really disguised layoffs — cost-cutting schemes to replace higher-paid older workers with lower-paid inexperienced workers.

As the department union delegate and a long-time PLP member, it has been my responsibility to both organize the fight-back and show why capitalism can never meet our needs. Joining the PLP to organize a communist revolution is the way to go.

It has been a difficult road to hoe. I haven’t yet recruited a new Party member, but I have built a CHALLENGE readers’ network with 11 papers distributed within Radiology and another four to five in other areas in the hospital. 

I sent a letter to management critical of its refusal to change the work-place procedures to reduce errors leading to disciplinary action and posted it on the union bulletin board. The department administrator called me into the office and screamed at me, threatening to remove me as union delegate.

I told him the workers elected me and only the workers can remove me. A petition backing up the letter was circulated but only 13 signed, about half of the technical staff. Many who agreed with the petition would not sign out of fear. But cowardice in the face of a bosses’ attack only encourages more attacks on us.

When the union VP and I met with management on the issue, the first thing the VP did was apologize to them for my posting the letter on the bulletin board. Of course, with that show of weakness, the managers refused to make any procedural changes to their inane system. Now they are on a path to try to fire a night-shift worker.  

After discussing the situation with a senior comrade, I am struggling with the committed workers to build a regular social group to attract and unify the workers in our department. Building a social-political base outside of the workplace has been a difficult task for me due to some limiting objective circumstances. This initiative will hopefully bring us closer together and overcome the fears of those who are upset but not stepping up.

I will rely more on CHALLENGE readers to help this work. We have an uphill fight ahead of us, but all our families’ futures are at stake.  By collectively building unity and fighting back, we can build an understanding that our class, united with communist ideas, can ultimately wield power. We have no choice but to be in it for the long haul.

Med Red

Capitalism Spreads Racism from France to Israel

In France, there is an extreme right-wing party called Front National. Its ideological leader was Jean Marie Le-Pen. The heir to his throne is his daughter, Anne Marine. Their slogan is “France with no Arabs or Blacks”. And what about the Jews? “They love money too much!”

In Israel there are two self-proclaimed racist, far-right parties: KM Michael Ben-Ari’s “National Union”, and “Yisrael Beytenu” led by the foreign minister Libermann. Their slogan is “Death to Arabs” or “Death to the Arab enemy” or, in other words, the idea of the “transfer.” “Transfer” is part of the political discourse in Israel and is basically a euphemism for ethnic cleansing.

I immigrated to Palestine from France “owing” to a racist law: the Law of Return. This legislation allows only Jews to settle and gain citizenship in Israel.

Supposedly Israel’s “democratic” symbols, such as the flag and anthem, contradict its racist laws:

Law of Return;

Law forbidding the commemoration of the Nakbah;

Demolition of houses;

Non-recognition of villages;

Robbing refugees of their houses;

Unfair blockade on Gaza;

Massacre at the “Dahamash” mosque in Lod in 1948;

Massacre at Qfar Kassem in 1956;

The October Massacre in 2000 and so on.

I’m ashamed of the state of Israel, its laws, its government and most of its parliament (Knesset) members such as Libermann and Ben-Ari – all of these are racists and capitalists.

Housekeeping Worker from Tel-Aviv

Workers from Mali Take Aim at Racist Police Brutality

”I’ve been thinking about what’s happening in the Middle East and Wisconsin, and with this war in Libya. We need to make a demonstration about more than just police brutality, it has to be international also,” said Manu, opening our meeting.

On March 19, members of our PLP club met workers at a demonstration against the Senegalese government in Harlem (see page 1), and one of them, Manu, originally from Mali, wanted the Party’s help in organizing a demonstration against police brutality. We then had a follow-up meeting with Manu.

Among the topics discussed was the vital role that multi-racial leadership plays in the Progressive Labor Party, and we shared some articles in the most recent CHALLENGE. We also explained that unlike reformist political parties, the PLP believes in ultimately smashing capitalism through armed communist revolution, and that we seek to unite the international working class around this position.

Manu stated he wished there was a movement powerful enough to confront the wars raging across the planet right now; we told him with his leadership, we could begin to become that movement! We resolved we would contact the PLP members in that area, and schedule a date for a larger meeting where we could bring the Party, Manu and his friends together and decide on a plan.

After eating some French-style cheeseburgers popular at this Harlem spot, the worker invited us to come meet some of his friends and family nearby. We met about eight and distributed CHALLENGEs to each.

Manu addressed his friends, and explained in a language indigenous to Mali, Bambara, that we were from the Progressive Labor Party and want to help them fight against racist police brutality.

A lively discussion followed. A worker who had worked through harsh conditions on a fishing boat told us, “I’ve seen racism. I was the first black man to work on the deck [of the fishing boat]. On shows like Deadliest Catch they don’t show there are blacks working below the deck.”

The other white fishermen “didn’t understand me or my culture. But I never got seasick and this really impressed some of them.” We learned that fishing is dangerous enough, but racism makes it potentially deadly.

Later we explained the Party’s growing work in Haiti, and the CHALLENGE article detailing the strike wave in France. “Citizen,” “documented” or not, workers in France and everywhere must unite on a class basis. We in the PLP are building multi-racial, international unity as the key to revolution. “Unity is the key,” summed up one worker.

When we departed, the workers said they would discuss further what we had said, and thanked us for coming. After exchanging contact information with our new friends, we invited them to participate in the upcoming meeting with Manu and his other friends who were victims of police brutality, and to other upcoming Party events here. There are many struggles and promising opportunities ahead, and we are continuing our work to serve the workers in Harlem through building PLP’s presence here, expanding the fight-back against racism and fighting for internationalism and revolution.

Comrades In Action

From Haiti to Brooklyn and Beyond: Students and Staff Unite!

“We need a whole new system, based on the needs of the working class, not the elites.”

This was the closing comment by a high school student who attended our forum and roundtable on the struggle in Haiti, sponsored by PLP members and friends. Over 50 people — students, teachers and paraprofessionals — came to hear staff members exchange ideas about that struggle and were excited to attend. They were all equal participants in the forum, raising the level of unity among us.

A lively exchange focused on several issues, with students directing questions to staff members. A student from Haiti gave a rousing speech outlining Haiti’s revolutionary history and the impact of that Revolution on Latin America. The student speaker called for solidarity with students and workers in Haiti, noting that the bosses’ media always tells us “Haiti is a poor country” but never tells us why — centuries of imperialist exploitation, especially by U.S. bosses.

The forum touched on the Haitian Revolution, the history of U.S. occupation, the legacy of the U.S.-backed Duvalier dictatorship,  the role of NGO’s, the failures of Aristide, and most importantly, which way forward for the Haiti’s working class. This activity generated a buzz throughout the school; many students and staff were discussing it.

The forum reflected a certain level of planning and preparation and students rose to the occasion. It was a small but an important step forward in deepening our awareness of the struggle of our brothers and sisters in Haiti. It became clear that the struggle there is part of a worldwide struggle by the working class.

Earlier that day our union chapter organized a staff picket line in front of the school, part of a citywide effort to mobilize members to support the struggle in Wisconsin and to fight the racist budget cuts. We need more actions as well as more forums. We need to turn these schools into ones for communist fight-back — from Haiti to Brooklyn…and beyond.

Red Teacher



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