Letters of June 5

Workers’ Songs Spur Solidarity with Bangladesh Victims
I attend my union retiree chapter meetings. During the “Good and Welfare” section at the end of the meeting, I usually raise some point about the need for the working class to struggle and then sing a labor song for the attendees.  At the April meeting, after inviting
everyone to the PLP May Day celebration, I sang, “May Day is a Workers’ Day.” A few months ago, I handed everyone a New York Times article on the terrible garment factory fire in Bangladesh that killed so many workers, and called on the union to communicate with a Bangladeshi union to find ways to support the workers.  There was a lot of agreement among the retirees. The union told me they couldn’t do it, but that I should do it.
At this month’s meeting, I talked about the thousand people dead from the factory collapse in Bangladesh and the factory explosion in Texas that killed people in the town. I then said, “Because the boss is so helpful to all of us, I have a working-class song to sing to you.”  Then I sang the song with the chorus, “Put it on the ground, spread it all around, dig it with a hoe, it will make your flowers grow.”
As I sang the first stanza, people around the hall started to join in.  When I got to the chorus, many more people joined in. There were about 200 retirees in the room. It sounded pretty good. When I came to the end of the last chorus, people were applauding loudly. The chairman of the meeting said, “ I want to tell you that last night the union’s executive board agreed to do something about the Bangladeshi death toll.”
There are many roads we can walk on the way to revolution. Respect for the values of the working class is still alive and well. I usually get out between 60 and 100 Challenges before the meeting begins.
A Red Worker

Debate Black Nationalism vs. Multi-Racial Unity
The following five letters are from PL’ers and new friends in a conference of Students Against Mass Incarceration (SAMI). See CHALLENGE, 5/22 for full article.
Today, our PL club took part in a conference of Students Against Mass Incarceration. The politics of the event were very interesting. We witnessed a lot of radical, leftist thought going around. We also witnessed a lot of young, enthusiastic and intelligent youth engaging questions of racism, sexism and imperialism up front. The setback was that the conference discussions were framed around the ideas of black nationalism.
As Marxists, we realize that any form of nationalism, even nationalism of the oppressed, is at best false consciousness, and at worst, simply racist. Even though the nationalism present was seemingly progressive, and supposedly had the answers to the special oppression of black youth, we were able to realize the flaws of such a movement.
These flaws were made evident in the discussions: many problems were analyzed and elaborated on, but when it came to creating solutions, nationalist ideology fell flat. There was the contradiction of confronting racism, without the economic theory to tackle capitalism, its root cause. There was the contradiction of having to build multi-racial “alliances” to deal with Imperialism, while also having to maintain black leadership and black ideology in their organization. These problems were impossible to deal with under the framework of black nationalism. Only by understanding how capitalism uses racism to divide the working class, and how it uses Imperialism to dominate the world, can we apply theory to practice and effectively organize to fight back.
With that said, I was really inspired by the attendants at the events. To see so many dedicated young people addressing the problems of our society made me hopeful for the future. It was clear to me that if we introduced our Marxist ideas into the discourse, we could provide the answer they were looking for. Many of these young people were receptive to CHALLENGE, and were eager to discuss and consider the ideas present in the paper. We should continue to engage these students on a political level. The conference was very well-organized, and a pleasant reminder for why we fight for communism.
Enthusiastic Red
************
In the first workshop Consciousness, Vision, and Strategy, the discussion emphasized the necessity for an approach to creating unity and power within the black community.  “I think it’s beautiful that we have black people from all over the country coming together…and I despise the fact that we are spending most of our time talking about how to organize with white people…” 
The majority of the SAMI members made it clear that co-opting white leadership is a clear regression in their movement. While whites are their clear enemy, this discourse carries a strong sentiment that ostracizes
anyone who isn’t black.
As an undocumented person of color, I am a direct target of the same prison/detention industrial complex (and natural ally). But, I could not find common ground, probably because SAMI’s racial discourse is a reflection of the same paradigm that oppresses us all. In terms of organizing for a cause that affects all people of color, SAMI can bring short-term victories, but it is not strategizing around the root cause: capitalism.
However, part of me understands the necessity for a national race-based identity for black people in America. Currently, the black identity is understood and propagated in the context of historical tragedy.  The building of a national identity is part of a healing process, I think. It provides a sense of belonging, but more than that, a very necessary form of agency.
Felix
************
The general mood of the convention was a strong sense of nationalism rather than a well-rounded view of multiracial unity.
In one of the breakout sessions or workshops, it was quite evident that members of SAMI could not stress anymore the constant hatred for white supremacy. They provided ideas on ways to effectively unite the black people along with the support from other “racial” groups to fight capitalism and injustices of incarceration caused mainly by the whites as claimed.
There exist obvious parallels and common views shared by both the PLP and SAMI. However the key underlying difference is SAMI lacks the consciousness to realize that the fight against capitalism is not just inclusive to one group of people but rather the whole greater group in society, the working-class. SAMI has substance to facilitate strong movement but is clouded by the necessity to self-identify themselves with the black identity.  Furthermore, at the convention, members especially the youth, do not have the proper understanding of how to bring about change by practical means.
A Friend
************
Going to conventions with people like Students Against Mass Incarceration (SAMI) was a great experience in many ways. These SAMI people see many of the struggles that the working class goes through, but they have a mindset that they are the only “race” that struggles. This is very dangerous in many ways. For example, all of their efforts and ideas go to waste because they do not have a real solution. The most they are able to do is reform and in many levels those reforms are not real because they do not help all aspects of the working class.
Even though, there are many problems with their organization, they also have many qualities that are very important for change. The fact that they are able to organize and bring people together from many parts of the States is a huge skill to have. Another point in their favor is that they are very passionate about what they do and they believe in change and want to see the world transformed. However, the most important quality that they posses, whether they acknowledge it or not, is being part of the working-class struggles.
I learned many things today. One is that racism is universal and that getting over those prejudices are the key to making any change.  SAMI has the wrong enemy and the wrong fight. Even though, we are not going to convince everyone in these types of events to automatically have communist points of view, it is very important to continue to attend,  unite as a working class, and continue fighting for a revolution that we would all benefit from.
Red Student
************
It was inspiring to see so many black students serious about radical change. The U.S. has a history of militant fightbacks and culture from black workers. We need to build ties with these students. We met many interested in our communist ideas. Some NY students exchanged contact information with us.
Our friends, new to the Party, saw our political line in practice. It is one thing to talk about multiracial unity in a study group. It is another to see what the lack of multi-racial unity looks like. Our friends understood that we don’t need black capitalism. They then came to May Day and had a lot of good questions.
This conference demonstrated why we need a mass Party. We believe everyone can be an anti-racist communist fighter, not just black workers. We also can’t have a successful revolution without a Party. The working class needs to be united as one, under one organization, in order to defeat our enemy. We cannot afford any more divisions.
PLP college students need to adopt a more aggressive attitude in organizing. When we hear of such conferences or of the bombing in Boston, or of racist war criminal Patraeus coming to our campus in the fall semester, or the reintroduction of the military in our schools — we must be more proactive in talking to our friends about it, organizing for the event or a fight-back. We must do these things without being told. We need an attitude of initiative if we are serious about revolution.
Lali

DC May Day Needed More Focus on International Workers’ Solidarity
 I enjoyed reading about our May Day demonstration in D.C. in Challenge. I felt as though the spirit of the article accurately reflected the rebellious spirit of all the marchers that joined forces that day to fight against corporate greed. The only concern I have is that since Challenge is sympathetic towards the welfare of workers all over the globe, I felt as though we should have focused less on the action itself and more on the cause — solidarity with workers around the world in the fight against capitalism.
The action taken during the march is already done, so in my opinion, I don’t feel as though that should have been the main focus of the article. I say this because I feel as though we may run the risk of coming off as insensitive to those with possibly more pressing issues concerning their work in other parts of the world.
Even the headline of the article focused on our run- in with authorities, as opposed to why we actually had to face those pigs. However, I greatly appreciated the discussion about the workers in Bangladesh. It was good to let readers know that the cracks in the factory building were obvious but, unfortunately, ignored in the bosses’ rush to make profits. Nevertheless, thank you for being a voice among the madness of capitalism and keep up the good work!
DC May Day marcher

White Workers Not the Cause of Racism
We are writing another letter about the weakness of the articles dealing with anti-racist struggle, which we have noted in our paper.  One glaring example of this is a picture in one of the last issues showing a black college student holding up a sign which said “Smash White Supremacy.”
This is in fact advertising for the neo-racist concept that white people as a whole are responsible for racism, rather than the capitalist bosses of any color.  The concept that white supremacy is the essence of racism is supported by many of our old enemies, who newer Party members may not be familiar with: fake leftists such as  Bernadette Dorhn and William “Bill” Ayers of the Weathermen faction of SDS and their ally the African American neo-racist Haki Mahdibuti and his wife.  Indeed, they have written a book about this anti-white worker concept.
While the concept of white supremacy made sense during the period of apartheid-type racism in the U.S. (1896 – 1965), it has absolutely no Marxist sense at a time when fascists of color are threaded throughout the agents of the one percent.  We even have an African-American as “emperor” of the U.S. Empire.   Blaming white supremacy for racism is just another form of the neo-racist attack being launched by the bosses against the white members of the international, multiracial proletariat.
A racist capitalist system has been built on two levels of political economic control since the 1670s. This includes oppression and super-oppression, exploitation and super-exploitation, sometimes based on color, sometimes based on “race,” most of the time based on racialized ancestry. They’re designed to protect capitalism from the unity of the proletariat and to generate immense profits from both the exploited and the super-exploited.
To conclude, the workers of color will never be free from wage slavery so long as white workers, especially white members of the industrial proletariat, are somehow blamed as the causes of racism.
Fight for the kind of communism, which will end racism once and for all — in all its forms.
The Red Rabbi and the Red Preacher

Attack in Russia Shows Why Communism Is Needed
On May 10, a homosexual working-class man was brutally tortured and murdered because of his sexual orientation. The body of 23-year-old Vladislav Tornovoy was found in Volgograd [“Volgograd” is actually Stalingrad. Krushchev had it changed to try to wipe out memory of Stalin], 600 miles south of Moscow. Investigating officials told the media that Tornovoy’s head was smashed and that his body had multiple bruises and wounds. Before being killed, the victim was repeatedly brutally raped with beer bottles.
The ruling class in Russia is using the bogeyman of a shrinking population to stir up hatred based on sexual preference, and to consolidate the resurgence of the despotic Russian Orthodox Church.
Meanwhile, the liberal wing of the U.S. ruling class, is fostering anti-Russian hatred by building on the justified outrage against this crime among well-meaning workers. The rulers are also using the incident to build anti-communism and attack Stalin. Whenever the rulers can attack Stalin, they will.
PLP stands against all ruling-class ideologies that divide and oppress workers. Sexism enables males to dominate and disempower women, wrest control over their reproductive rights, steal billions of hours of unpaid domestic labor, and pay them less for other work in the pursuit of super-profits. Sexism justifies all sorts of degenerate behavior in the highly profitable industries of sexual exploitation.
PLP will negate all of the identities that capitalism needs in order to survive. We will struggle against false consciousness and any relationship based on domination and subjugation. We will build a communist world that meets all of our needs by basing our understanding of who we are on the material foundation of class, not the illusory fleeting social constructs of capitalist society.
Red Teacher


Letters of May 22

May Day Inspires Workers, Students: ‘We stand as one! The time is now!’

It was a very exciting and awesome May Day at the State Univeristy of NY in Albany. At 1 pm, students organized by the Student Revolutionary Coalition went through class buldings with  signs, pots and pans, yelling “WALK OUT NOW.” The students who joined in went around all the buildings, and met at the small fountain in front of the campus center. Students, faculty and staff joined in, about 100 or more people taking part in this rally against  corporations such as Sodexo and Coca-Cola at our university. Other demands were about the lack of diverse faculty and staff, and underfunded Africana and Latino Studies departments. Curriculum requirements for global culture classes are being cut while U.S history is still a requirement.
During the rally students took turns talking about what we are fighting for. We are also demanding fair trade products as options in our campus centers. Many custodial workers and food services workers (who are mainly black and Latino) joined us in this rally and also spoke about their struggles. After the rally at the fountain, we walked to the University administration building, where our demands were made clear to the president of the university. “All of our demands are non-negotiable!” one student said, “we will not stop fighting for what we deserve.  The time is now — we stand as one!”
It was amazing to see so many dedicated students walk out and stand up against injustice on campus. The president said he would set up a meeting about our concerns. We made it clear we are serious, and not looking for crumbs. The money needed for the things we are demanding is going into new buildings including a fountain and a stadium, while tuition and mandatory student fees are being increased by $300 and lab fees are going up!
Albany Student
***************
This was my second May Day, and I am more than happy to be part of PLP’s undeniable fight for a communist revolution. After being more involved and interacting with new people since last year, I enjoyed May Day more. It was amazing to hear what others had to say, and learn from their experiences and their struggles. The more I was involved and the more I understood what PLP is trying to overcome, the more I enjoyed May Day. More than anything, it taught me the importance of this holiday.
High School Student
******************
I experienced my first May Day event. It was inspiring to see the skit about Mayor Bloomberg and other bosses shutting down the schools, hospitals and raising bus and train fares. I really related to that particular skit because it showed the effects of capitalism and how workers protest them. I also enjoyed the vibe, how everyone was united and happy. PLP has given me a sip of the bitterness of black coffee that is capitalism. Lots of people in the working class suffer from unemployment, racist Stop-and-Frisk, few resources for youth, prisons and closing schools. I can’t wait to be in next year’s May Day skit.
Brand New Fighter
******************
PLP celebrated May Day in Brooklyn, helping to fight for the rights of workers. Many workers took a stand. I really enjoyed marching down the streets and chanting with people from different ethnicities. We all stood united and defended communism, which would create a better society for young and old. I used to think the U.S. was a “free country.” It really isn’t because we, the working people, are being oppressed by the capitalist system. Why do the U.S. bosses try to hide May Day? It’s because they want us to be in chains for eternity. But on May Day we proved them wrong. Nothing can stop us from celebrating such a historic day. It will lead to revolution. “Capitalism means we got to fight back!...Bush, Clinton, Obama, koupe tet, boule kay!” These were awesome, workers’ chants to let them know we are not afraid of their terror.
Inspired Tilden student
**********
What I liked most about May Day was how people united to fight back. May Day was a great way to come together to fight back against the violence the cops use against black youth, killing innocent people.
Anti-racist Youth

PLP Gives Birth to A New Proletarian Internationalism
An international, revolutionary, communist working-class movement is the only alternative to the capitalist destruction of the world and the genocidal massacres of imperialist war. Capitalists created the modern working class by organizing us into collective factory production. In the process, as Marx noted, they were creating their own gravediggers. Social production led workers to grow conscious of ourselves as a class that had no need for the capitalist class that privately owned the means of production and used state power to legalize its violent expropriation of the value of our labor.
Working-class consciousness reached new heights in the communist movement to seize state power by armed revolution. This movement aims to abolish capital, capitalists, and the ideologies that underpin the social relations of capitalism: individualism, racism, sexism, nationalism, and philosophical idealism.  Two great communist revolutions, in the Soviet Union and in China, showed the power of the communist vision — and also how hard it is to realize in practice and how easily it can be reversed back into capitalism.
Today it is time to rebuild the organized communist movement, this time on an international basis — one international working class, one international communist party, a new proletarian internationalism. It is time because capitalism is again creating its own gravediggers, now on a global scale.  The imperialist powers that dominate the entire world — though bitter rivals among themselves — are creating an international, de-nationalized labor system.
More than ever, the working class is swept up in a massive tide of migrant labor from poorer to richer capitalist economies. More than ever, workers of different national origins are living in world cities as a single work force. Millions of other workers, conscripted into the bosses’ militaries, are moved around the world with no respect to borders.
In short, modern imperialism is creating a new international proletariat. The capitalist bosses are giving us the material basis to organize an international communist party, to revolt against all owning and ruling classes, and to take state power to abolish capital itself. Organized by the international Progressive Labor Party, the new international working class can unleash a revolutionary movement with the communist vision to take power.
Dialectics teaches us about the distinction between appearance and essence. Capitalism appears to be unchallenged and triumphant throughout the world. In essence, however, it is a decaying system that carries the seeds of its own destruction.
Our world cities appear to be passive assemblies of hopelessly oppressed, divided, disarmed, and alienated workers. But in essence, they are launching pads of world revolution.
With this dialectical outlook, a small party like PLP begins to look like the seed of the international party that a communist revolution requires. The apparently local class struggles we join and lead become fertile soil of a new, international, revolutionary practice.
Our political line, while in need of deeper development, begins to look like the renewed stirrings of communist thought after a long, dark night. The obstacles and problems our Party faces are pangs of rebirth. They reflect a new beginning for proletarian internationalism after its historic defeat. 
If we take note of the new possibilities of the internationalized working class, we can sustain our hope to internationalize the Progressive Labor Party. None of our work is purely local or national. Every strike and protest and organizing drive — whether in Pakistan or the U.S., Haiti or Colombia — is linked to the international profit system and its preparations for world war. This May Day presents a new opportunity for PLP to build on our advances of the last fifty years and move toward a new proletarian internationalism, a world where “the international working class shall be the human race.” 
A Comrade
 

‘White skin privilege’ — A Bosses’ Ideology
I attended a Unitarian church meeting on April 14 in Minneapolis to view a film on “white skin privilege.” There were about 30 members of my church there, mostly  working-class, antiracist and white. Afterwards we discussed how to sincerely do something about racism.
Self-critically I was not as forthcoming on attacking White Skin Privilege. I hope to attend a Unitarian Convention coming up where PLP members active in the Unitarian church will be addressing it.
I tried to explain that it’s a bad ideology because whites are oppressed as workers while blacks are super oppressed workers. I gave the example of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. Black workers made some political gains by being in struggle together with white working-class allies. Otherwise the little we got from the ruling class as “concessions” we would not have. As one of my antiracist heroes Frederick Douglass  aptly said, “Power concedes nothing without struggle.” I hope in time to learn ways of challenging it in church as a ruling-class ideology. That is why I want to be at the Unitarian Conference with my Comrades. Communist ideology will win out eventually.
Minnesota Red



Letters of May 8

Christianity and Communism
I’ve had quite a journey, from Christianity to communism. I grew up in the church, sang in the choir, attended Sunday school and bible study weekly, and participated in outreach — what the church calls “soul-winning.” I was taught to be leery of material that contradicted my beliefs, lest they plant seeds of doubt, and so I read books that mostly encouraged my faith and reassured my beliefs, music that gave “glory to God” and surrounded myself with other believers.
However, a few outside messages crept in. I remember a high school teacher lending me a book entitled, “Ain’t I a Woman” by the feminist writer Bell Hooks. It prompted me to question the church’s stance on women.
Years later, in college, the professor of my Africana Studies class shared his radical political ideas about the U.S. and its class system, its treatment of black people and its foreign policies. It opened my eyes to things I had never thought of or heard before.
In another class, “Lies My Teacher Told Me” by James Lowen was required reading. I began to see that the world was a lot more complex than the church had taught me.
Still, I remained devoted to my Christian beliefs. It wasn’t until 2008 when I met someone (who later became my husband, and later on my ex) who confronted my beliefs head on. He challenged me to read books that argued against my beliefs. If after having read them I was still convinced of my beliefs, fine — but no belief should go unquestioned. It was after much study, many questions and many tears that I finally walked away from Christianity. It was the most liberating experience of my life.
I became a military wife. The man I married was a U.S. army officer. More than ever I was able to see how the rich used racism, poverty and the poor to their advantage. It was mostly young black men who served as soldiers; mostly white men who were officers; mostly people from impoverished neighborhoods trying to make something of their lives.
My eyes were opened to military culture: the admiration for the latest weapons, the instilled distrust for the Arab world. I learned of soldiers who had been deployed several times, of families torn apart by war, either through death or because the soldier came home mentally broken. My husband was well aware of these things as well, but said, “It pays the bills.” He also said, all the time, that those who want to see this system fall won’t see it fall unless there is bloodshed.
In 2010, I visited the professor from my Africana studies course. I told him that I’d de-converted from Christianity. We talked politics. Obama was now president. This professor used terms like “capitalism” and “ruling class” to show why Obama was no different from the rest, despite his charisma and his liberal stance. He gave me a copy of “Marx for Beginners” by Rius and told me I should check out the Brecht Forum.
I met some wonderful people there, including, years later, the couple who eventually invited me to their study group and introduced me to Progressive Labor Party, a journey of much quantitative change evolving into a qualitative change, from Christianity into PLP.
Whenever I think that change is impossible, I remind myself of my own transformation. A better world is possible!
Daycare Worker

How to Be Part of the Solution
I remember walking into Hunter College one day to attend a study group, not knowing really what to expect. All I knew is that I had this urgent feeling inside of me for a while that kept saying: “the world needs help. The world needs to change.” So I decided to do something about it, anything about it, and that’s when I reached out to my friend and that’s what brought me to the study group.
The first activity we did was to read and discuss some articles about hot-button issues. I noticed that the specific new articles we talked about weren’t really that talked about in the mainstream media, and didn’t get as much recognition as I thought they deserved. Reading and discussing the newspaper was really refreshing. I was surrounded by a group of open-minded people around my age, who all had their own opinions and had a common interest like me in becoming more concerned with the world and its problems instead of turning away from them.
I knew for a while how important the human connection was, but the study group just reinforced my long-held belief. There was a flow of interpretations, a flow of opinions, a way of looking at things you might not have thought of before. I felt like I was a part of something, a small community where I could see myself grow and evolve, and where maybe I could help someone else do the same thing.
I learned more about the political concept of communism and why people held onto it as much as they did. One of my friends also came along with me, and she began questioning everything that was said. At first that made me uneasy, because I knew that she is naturally very curious, and wants to hear as many sides as possible. But would the others see it that way as well? I was happy she did question many things though. Because she did that, I learned not just how, but why, communism.
I also realized that asking questions also can help bring out the situations that might cause dissent or problems for communism as a way to govern. And through bringing up the possible roadblocks, we also help discover questions other people might have and work towards solutions or answers in preparation.
What brings about changes in society is what is happening at the study group -- people coming together, and sharing. By actively thinking and collaborating we are able to come up with solutions together and then expand. Our study groups are definitely something to be proud of, because no matter what happens in the world, at least we tried to be part of the solution instead of letting life pass us by.
Challenge reader

Building May Day Brings Out Best in Workers
This year, my pre-May-Day organizing has had some modest victories and disappointments. As a young transit worker, with only a couple years on the job, my schedule fluctuates frequently, and it has been difficult to build consistent relationships with coworkers. Still, several of them bought tickets and committed to coming to the May Day dinner.
One of my coworkers lost nearly everything during Hurricane Sandy. I started getting to know her right after the storm, when she was forced to sleep at the job because her home was uninhabitable. With the current schedule, I saw her everyday, and we often talk about politics or play board games on break. She was excited to hear about our May Day build-up event a few weeks ago, as the topics included attacks on transit workers and sandy relief efforts. She even brought soda as a contribution to the potluck. After a lively discussion about communism, she agreed to march with us on May Day.
Unfortunately, I’ve also had some setbacks. One coworker, who I consider a close friend, was forced off the job and onto medical leave (despite his ability to perform many tasks). Instead of wanting to hang out more or get politically active, he got depressed and anxious about mounting bills.
Capitalism reeks havoc on workers’ lives, kicking us to the curb when it’s sucked all the profits it can from us. This coworker was politically conscious and always made people laugh in the break room. He’d backed me up during a confrontation with ConEd scabs last summer and joined me in supporting a school bus strike picket. We became close by playing board games and because I visited him in the hospital (when he first got sick). The system’s got him down and scrambling at the moment, and we haven’t been able to link up since he’s been out, so it seems unlikely he’ll come to May Day.
However, my girlfriend and I were able to visit one coworker. This was a great experience since I got to meet some of his family, I was able to hang out with him for the first time since the current schedule began, and my girlfriend got to better understand what the PLP means when we talk about building a base in the working class. We spoke about why May Day is an important day and he bought two tickets.
Finally, there are a group of health care workers who are also passengers I see regularly. When I first showed these workers articles about hospital closings and police brutality in their neighborhood they were interested. After taking CHALLENGE, a few of them gave me large donations for the newspaper. Two workers bought three tickets and gave me their addresses. While my schedule is again changing soon, I will be able to follow up with these workers and send them the newspaper in the mail.
I’m looking forward to a great May Day march and dinner, with coworkers and friends!
Transit Worker

‘Korean War History’ Exposes U.S. Rulers’ Murderous Role
The article on the Korean War (C-D 4/24/13) was both timely and informative. A recent book, “The Korean War, A History”, by Bruce Cumings, which I got from a comrade, is worth reading for its close examination of primary sources that have come to light over the past 20 years.
Cumings argues convincingly that the Korean War started as a civil war between the U.S.-installed puppet government in South Korea (ROK) and communist-led mass organizations and guerilla groups in the south. The ROK was led by a tiny elite that had supported the 35-year Japanese occupation (1910-1945) and high-ranking Korean military officers who had fought on the side of Japanese imperialists in WWII.
The 38th Parallel, the dividing line between North and South, was set up by John J. McCloy, a top Wall Street lawyer and later chairman of Chase Bank who was a leading postwar planner for U.S. imperialism. Cumings implies that which troops crossed that line first in 1950 was secondary to the civil conflict in South Korea.
After North Korean troops crossed the 38th Parallel, Dean Acheson, Truman’s Secretary of State, pushed through a U.S. strategy of rolling back the advance of post-WWII communist-led revolutions. This strategy was set out in National Security Council (NSC) Document 68, and resulted in quadrupling of the U.S. defense budget. In Cumings’ view, this shortly led to “hundreds of permanent military bases abroad, a large standing army, and a permanent national security state at home.” This projection of U.S. power abroad represented a sea change from U.S. policy before WWII.
The book also describes the massive destruction suffered by North Korean workers in the air war launched by the U.S. Long before Vietnam, U.S. raids were murdering (and dropping napalm on) tens of thousands of Koreans. According to Cumings, “at least 50% of eighteen out of the North’s twenty-two major cities were obliterated.” The book contains graphic photos of this massive destruction. As in Vietnam, disgusting racism was used to convince U.S. troops that their victims did not deserve to live.
Unfortunately, Cumings ends his book by calling for Korean reconciliation and “truth commissions,” as in South Africa. Workers should never forgive the imperialists for the crimes of war, economic crisis and racist genocide that are the inevitable result of their system of capitalism. That is the truth, and communist revolution, not capitalist reconciliation, is our goal. 

A Comrade

Letters of April 24

Can Class Struggle Use the Bosses’ Courts?
“This society is structured in inequality in all its aspects. The simplest formula for this is the 1% vs. the 99%. So why would we expect the 1% not to control and use the courts, government, education and the media in their interests? Why would we expect that the 99% could break down that structure of inequality by using those same courts, government, education or media controlled by the 1%?”
This question was posed to a law professor who had just given an expert account to a group of retired teacher unionists about the Supreme Court’s racist legal history: the 1857 Dred Scott decision declaring that slaves or their descendents have no rights; its negation of the antiracist statutes legislated by the post-Civil War Radical Reconstruction Congress, to Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 legalizing segregated schools.
The Reconstruction statutes — interpreting the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution allowing use of the courts to oppose racist acts — were then left unused for fifty years. Official racism prevailed in the U.S. until the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement in the streets forced them back into use. The liberal Warren Court (1953-1969) restored their use, starting with the unanimous 1954 Brown v. Board of Education, reversing Plessy v. Ferguson by ruling against racist “separate but equal” public schools.
The professor said that during the Cold War period, after 1954, the Court and Congress responded to the movement in the streets. Also the “business class” realized it needed to lighten up their official racism in order not to look so bad to the world’s black and brown majority during U.S. rulers’ rivalry with antiracist communism.
Good question: Can the working class use the courts in our class struggle with the bosses who control those courts? The rhetorical question expected the answer “no.” It was clear the speaker agreed that the courts served the 1%, saying the courts and police had smashed the very Occupy Wall Street group which coined the 1%-99% slogan, and that to this day Brown v. Board had not ended de facto school segregation. But he asserted that the courts were also arenas of struggle, that the 1% control of them could be fought in a movement-building way. Ruling-class structure could be opposed by working-class action.
While working as a litigator in civil rights cases, the professor said, “the revolutionaries, the activists, the militants in the community who brought us these unwinnable cases valued the court battles because in them oppressed people could have their stories heard.” Even today, tweets from the Floyd case vs. stop-and-frisk in New York, he said, were spreading to thousands of people the powerful stories young people were telling in court. (Testimony in this case revealed that NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told state legislators privately that stop-and-frisk was meant to keep black and Latino men fearful of the police whenever they left their homes.)
The professor concluded by saying we needed masses of people in the streets again if we wanted to influence the Roberts Court dominated by four reactionary judges who often win over a fifth for their many 5-4 decisions.
Pondering this question and answer, I was thinking that the concept of fascism was needed to understand the Supreme Court’s move to the right. Did the answer reinforce my colleagues’ illusions in the fascist direction of the Court — their vain hopes that with enough organizing within the Democratic Party, backed by popular action in the streets, could make the Court liberal again? And even if that happened, was the Warren Court such a boon to the black rebels and Vietnamese fighters of the ’60s? What was true here?
PLP often says that we can’t rely on the courts (agreeing with the questioner who said the ruling class controls them). But what about the speaker’s point that court battles galvanize public opinion and allow people’s voices to be heard? That certainly seems to be happening today in front of the Court as it hears the cases concerning homophobia — the Defense of Marriage Act and the California law recognizing gay marriage. And what about the point that social media is spreading antiracist awareness through the stop-and-frisk case? That appears on Facebook.
Do we write off legal struggle, for example, when backers  of  Ramarley  Graham,  Shantel  Davis  or  Kimani Gray want to pursue it, or do we incorporate their court cases into movement-building? Do we defend in court Brooklyn’s East Flatbush rebels arrested for breaking the bosses’ laws in their mass protest against police murder? Do we consider the liberal lawsuit against the UN demanding justice for the victims of the Haiti cholera epidemic to be just a waste of time, because the UN declared they had no such liability under their charter, or do we use it to expose the UN and build that movement?
I pose this question to CHALLENGE readers: Even if we don’t rely on the courts to give us what we want, can we use the courts in our struggles? How can we analyze the role of the courts dialectically, not in a one-sided manner? Can the working class act politically in the injustice system (as in the schools) even though the ruling class controls the structure of schools and courts? Should communist revolutionaries have a legal strategy and be training communist lawyers? Did they, in the past? What about the Scottsboro Boys case? How would this work in the struggles we wage today? What does the 50-year practice of PLP suggest?
A Questioner

Workers Need Communism, Not Heroes
When I heard of Hugo Chavez’s death and the plans to entomb him in a glass mausoleum, I thought about the legacy of leaders like Mao and Stalin who had mausoleums and statues dedicated to them. They never achieved their goal of communism which would end their workers’ suffering from capitalist exploitation and inequality.
Seeing the grief of people in Venezuela on TV, I mentioned to a comrade that I heard Chavez gave free heating oil, food subsidies and housing to many poor people. My comrade reminded me that during the Great Depression Roosevelt provided similar programs for the poor to prevent the working class from taking over and running society without capitalist profits and inequality like the communists in Russia had done.
I began to wonder if people in Venezuela would lose whatever gains they had made like the Russians and Chinese people did when their leaders died. Then I recalled some words that had stuck in my mind of the Mexican revolutionary Zapata who said, “A weak people needs a strong leader, but a strong people need only themselves.” That thought put the idea of leadership into perspective.
I think the true test of leadership today is how well comrades are helping workers feel that their own power is strong and important. How well are they being prepared to understand communist ideas and the concept of production for their needs without a profit system. Once the working class grasps and can fight for those ideas, we will become a material force that capitalists can never defeat.
Then instead of shouts of “Viva Chavez!” we will hear “Viva Comunismo! Vivan los trabajadores!” and “Muerte al Capitalismo!” (Death to capitalism).
A Comrade



Letters of April 10

PLP Communist School Spreads Internationalism

This letter is a product of a collective effort of our youth club that participated in a communist school and with its collective values.
In Colombia we worked in a very formative and instructive school with a group of comrades from different parts of Latin America and the United States, it was an enriching experience. In the political school, with a good number of participating workers of women and men and youth, we shared opinions and knowledge and realized that the problems of our class have a global level. The same needs and scarcity that we have are not foreign to the workers of different parts of the world.  
Good discussions in the group expanded our knowledge that this system of war and robbery is the only one to blame for the division among us, the producers of the existing wealth. Drug addiction, racism, nationalism, sexism, wage slavery are the promoters of violence and misery of the world’s proletariat.
This is why one of the biggest drug-dealing facilities in the world is found in Bogota, situated two blocks away from the center of logistics and intelligence of the national police, behind the army battalion of the Presidential Guards. This shows it as a very profitable business for the bosses. They want the youth pacified about their future. Meanwhile this murderous system promotes crime with drug trafficking and the prison industry.
We showed all of our comrades that we are firmly committed to the class struggle to destroy capitalism and build a new society. We believe in our international unity, around our communist program, in the growth of new communist leaders. We realize that the youth of the world are very important and are the future in strengthening our Party. We also want to extend an invitation to everyone to participate in our massive and revolutionary May Day so that this important day doesn’t serve bourgeois interests and their political parties, but instead is a commemoration of the battle for communist ideas.
We want to thank the Party for all the efforts and examples given and thank the comrades that participated in this school for offering us their knowledge. It makes us happy to know that this is not of just a struggle of few but it is part of a mass struggle and that the PLP is a communist international party.
Youth of the world: study, read and spread our paper, CHALLENGE.
International Comrades

Fascist, Anti-Communist Popes
Pope Francis (Jorge Bergoglio) from Argentina, the new advocate for billions of poor people ((he gave up his chauffeured limousine) comes with a long, bloody history of supporting fascist, anti-communist governments that committed genocide to support capitalist rulers.
After World War II, many Nazi backers of Hitler were given sanctuary in Argentina, disguised as priests after being processed through the Vatican in Italy. In the 1970’s “Dirty War” in Argentina, 30,000 labor activists, communists and their families simply “disappeared” and were never seen again. Communist women in concentration camps had their children taken away for adoption by wealthy families. Priests who supported impoverished workers were imprisoned and tortured but church superior Jorge Bergoglio refused to help them and years later hid priests in his home who were being investigated for supporting the military responsible for the “Dirty War.”
Pope Benedict who just resigned under a cloud of financial and sexual corruption within the Vatican also supported fascism, racism and war. When Hitler was jailing German priests who criticized fascism, he joined the Hitler Youth Movement that was attacking Jews and communists. Years later Benedict aided U.S. imperialist war in the Middle East and almost started a religious war by attacking the prophet Mohammed and Muslims.
The Catholic Church is in crisis and facing billions in lawsuits for hiding child-abusing priests. For centuries, the Church has earned protection for its vast real estate and financial holdings from European powers by providing millions of religious, obedient, non-revolutionary peasants and workers willing to fight for the rulers’ kingdoms, colonial crusades and empires. Today workers in most developed nations, including Europe, are deserting the Church because they want answers to their daily, worldly problems instead of an infallible, closed male society that bans women’s participation, gays, abortions and contraception.
With the selection of Francis from Argentina, the Church is shifting its emphasis from Europe to Latin America to embrace a more supportive base among 46 percent of the 1.2 billion Catholics. If the Church can mobilize and indoctrinate this vast pool of low-wage peasants and workers with anti-communist ideology, imperialist powers fighting over the Continent’s rich resources would gladly support a Church that would deliver a submissive labor force.
The only way workers can prevent being used as pawns in the Church-ruling-class chess game is to reject their religious, anti-communist ideology. Communism is the ideology of working-class society. We will triumph when we learn to analyze, understand and change the world to meet our needs.
Excommunicated

CHALLENGE comment: A statement by Argentine historian Federico Finchelstein (New School for Social Research in New York) supports the above letter: “The combination of action and inaction by the church was instrumental in enabling the mass atrocities permitted by the junta. Those like Francis that remained in silence during the repression also played by default a central role. It was this combination of endorsement and either strategic or willful indifference that created the proper conditions for the state killings.” (New York Times, 3/18)
The Times also reported that Francis was “the most prominent leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Argentina, an institution that remains under withering criticism for its role in failing to publicly resist — and in various instances actively supporting  — the military dictatorship  during a period when as many 30,000 people are thought to have been killed or disappeared.”

Chemistry 101 Does Not Teach This
Several issues ago, lithium (atomic number 3) was described in CHALLENGE as a “rare earth” element. This is incorrect. In fact, under “ordinary” conditions, lithium is the “first metal” in the Periodic Table in the sense that it is the metal with the lowest atomic number (as long as metallic hydrogen is excluded — metallic hydrogen exists only under extremely high pressure, if it exists at all, while lithium is “readily available on Earth).
Lithium is an alkali metal in Period 2, Group 1 of the Periodic Table. The rare earth elements are a set of 17 chemical elements, specifically the 15 lanthanides (with much higher atomic numbers) plus scandium and yttrium.
The rare elements have become a point of contention between the U.S. and China because China has the greatest amount of good quality, rare earth ores and China is announcing restrictions on how much  of its rare earth ores other countries can  acquire. These elements are used extensively in modern electronic “gadgets,” such as computers and fighter jets.
This is one more reason why the U.S. and China could go to war to “settle” the issue. The recent increase in China-bashing articles and reports in the news media is a good indication that an inter-imperialist world war might not be far off.
Of course, this is not what one usually learns in Chemistry 101.
CHALLENGE comrade

Letters from a PLP School:Microcosm of Communism

The cooperation we have experienced all weekend is seldom seen within the current capitalist world. It was refreshing to see that all are expected to contribute to the cause and no one was above responsibility. While the bosses continue to oppress the working class, building our own little community and discussing the root of our world’s corruption was inspiring. Thanks to this excursion, my life is improved by gaining more of the knowledge and experience necessary to advance the fight for communism.
New Comrade
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This weekend, I attended my second communist school, my first as a Party member and newly hired teacher. Last year as a student, I was impelled by the Party’s line to stand up and join the struggle to build a better, communist world. This year, my commitment was not only renewed, but strengthened by witnessing so many young people standing up and offering their dedication to building our Party. The eloquence and clarity of our comrades is what stood out to me the most. A sample: “I don’t want to be the bosses’ puppet anymore.” If this is just a small sample of what our youth is capable of, I am sure we will not have to be puppets much longer.
Red Teacher
*****************
Initially, I came to the communist school to go camping, play games and have fun with my friends. Camping with PLP members and student activists was indeed fun while we played board games and sports that helped us get to know each other better and make new friendships. But I’ve also realized that there is more to the world than fun and games. All throughout the world, workers are getting less recognition and fewer rights than they deserve.
Even rights we’ve already fought for and won are being taken away from us underhandedly and unfairly. I’ve come to find out that rulers take more “recognition” than they are due. Hearing all of the different opinions broadened my mind and although I like going with the flow, I believe I would most definitely stay and join PLP. Not for myself but for other people who have jobs and are being mistreated in any way or people who don’t have jobs because the bosses “don’t have room” for them. I feel I can make a difference and therefore I will, even if it is only a little bit.
My time at the communist school has been ideal. The mutual leadership practiced by everyone here has solidified my world views. We were able to visualize the future as a communist world through our practice of comradeship here at the school. By learning more about the practice and theory of communism, my decision was finalized. The choice to join PLP has been one of the few decisions I’ve made where I have felt completely confident and prepared to carry out.
Student
******************
I have been going to PL communist schools for years, first as a young student and now as a teacher. Every communist school always inspires me, as I get to participate in a collective that cooks, cleans, works and learns together. We see a true example of “to each according to need, from each according to commitment.” There’s no need to worry about commitment level though, because everyone always gives their all to the work that needs to be done, showing true commitment to the group, and to building a “micro”-communist world. This year was especially inspiring, having students from my school attend. They are new to the ideas of the Party but it was amazing to see them bring their own sharp analyses to the discussions and be so open to communist ideas.
Red Teacher