The Worker - Spring 2014

Workers of the World Unite

Spring 2014

50¢

The Worker Continuing the tradition of

A New Beginning for America’s Communists

the Daily Worker, founded 1924

PARTY OF

Party of Communists USA founded May Day 2014

COMMUNISTS USA

Within our individual clubs, members were In 1919, our forerunners were members of the Socialist Party, and then because of Socialist Party visited by national committee members and support for American imperialism in WWI and its were told that no opposition to the party’s line antagonism to the Bolshevik revolution in 1917, would be tolerated. There were threats, and comrades’ allegiance to a Marxist-Leninist finally expulsions. Entire clubs were ideology demanded they leave that Socialist Party. liquidated. Long time club members were Today communists are facing a similar problem dropped from the rolls because of their within the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). support for 20th century socialism and their refusal to give blanket support to the Some, calling themselves “communists” profess a Democratic Party and the Taft-Hartley Union loyalty to a structure led by the 23rd Street faction. misleadership sellouts. All of this provoked Communists discipline themselves to the science of comrades to discuss the formation of a new Marxism-Leninism and its world application (tens party. of millions inform their struggles with that ideology today). What began as an informal discussion by We seek a return to the party’s roots, where some older comrades in 2011 has come to fruition.

The Communist presence in we advocate class struggle over attempts to A new vanguard party of the working class has Union Square New York City support one section of capital against another. been formed to apply our science to the struggle for We fight for socialism; we are a party of May Day socialism in the United States. communists!

Comrades frustrated with the anti-working class Reforming the profit gouging banks and misleadership of the Communist Party USA at first monopoly trusts of capital and tailing the tried to reform the party from within, just as Lenin had tried to reform Democratic Party are not the strategy and tactics of a Communist Party. the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. And as with Lenin, we saw Socialism prioritizes worker needs by investing the wealth that is that this could not be done. Long standing bureaucrats had taken control produced in worker education, healthcare, housing and pensions. of the CPUSA and were in the process of liquidating it from within. First Communist Party demands are built on the real experience of the Soviet they discontinued the printed press, they closed the party’s print shop, peoples living in a nation that practiced those priorities. and ended the print edition of the People’s Weekly World (Nuestro Joe Glazer asked once in a song, “what do you do when you are too old Mundo). International Publishers, the party’s publishing house has not to work and too young to die?” As producers of the wealth we earned printed a new book in years! During this same period even the classics the right to banish that issue. We can quibble about details, but every haven’t been reprinted (not one title by General Secretary Gus Hall or American should know the guarantees every citizen of the USSR could National Chair Henry Winston appears in the online catalogue). Party count on and what each citizen’s responsibilities were under socialism. standards were lowered incrementally, first by eliminating the monthly It wasn’t a dream. The ugly by-products of capitalism didn’t exist there. dues books, then by destroying shop and community club structures, then withdrawing support for our mass organizations including the U.S. All the things we fight for today in the United States such as health care coverage, good schools, universities, housing and enough food for Peace Council, the National Alliance Against Racist and Political everyone, was achieved in the USSR. That is what we want. That is why Repression, the National Anti-Imperialist Movement in Solidarity with we are communists, and why we are now returning to our class struggle African Liberation, Women for Racial and Economic Equality, Jewish roots. Don’t be fooled by the present 23rd Street misleadership. They Affairs Associates and finally the Trade Unionists for Action and have accepted the no struggle precepts of social democracy. Join with us Democracy. Each of these mass organizations was founded by the in the fight for socialism, working class power and proletarian CPUSA. The current party misleadership allowed them to die.

In this context discussions began to take place about the need to correct internationalism. Unite with us and fight, we have nothing to lose but the anti-Soviet revisionism and right-opportunism and return the party to our chains; we have a world to win through our science and discipline! the science of Marxism-Leninism.

Unemployment Crisis, What We Can Do Now to Stop the Attacks Inside this issue:

Hollywood, Healthcare, Anti-imperialism, Ukraine, Film, Sport, El Obrero

by Jessica Coco (serves on the Executive Committee US Friends of the Soviet People) While there has been increased spending on the military, subsidies to big corporations like Exxon/Mobil and Monsanto, and more tax cuts to the wealthiest one percent, Congress has made profound cuts to SNAP (food stamps), senior and public housing and education, in addition to refusing to extend unemployment benefits. At a time when the economy is absolutely abysmal for the working class, with record levels of homelessness due to both the foreclosure scandal and chronic under and unemployment, these cuts can only be characterized as criminal.

Social security will be next on the chopping block. Congress says the US government has no money. But if the problem was a lack of funds, continued as Unemployment page 3

The Worker / spring 2014 / page 2

A lot Happens Under That Sign

By Joseph Hancock (The author lives in Hollywood, CA. He is a rank and file member of American Federation of Musicians, Local 47) There are many signs in Southern California, but none are as important as the Hollywood sign. Originally built over the beginnings of Hollywood known as “Holllywoodland”, the sign was partially destroyed, rebuilt and fortified so that it can’t be vandalized or burned. It is patrolled and monitored 24-7 by a sophisticated system as technical as Hollywood itself.

The village of Hollywoodland still exists below the sign. This is where the original movies were made, and where the original movie makers lived. They made silent pictures and backed them up with a theatre organ and subtitles. Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keeton came from this era. They went on to have long and successful careers in “the talkies.”

This moved Hollywood from a cottage industry to the mega industry it is today.

There is also a long and sinister side of Hollywood history that goes along with Hollywood’s glamorous side. The labor rackets, the red scare, blacklist, and destruction of the more progressive aspects of American culture. The first studio owners established a company union known as the IATSE or IA for short. The International Association of Theatrical and Stage Employees and Motion Picture Operators of the United States and Canada (that’s a mouthful) was the producers union.

They set the wages and conditions of work and held a monopoly on who worked and who did not. This union was later affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and had great relations with the union leaders of the time. No one dared to challenge the IATSE because if you did, you didn’t work. This was the system that implemented the blacklist of suspected “Reds” in Hollywood. This was the same “Blue Book” system that the Waterfront Employers and the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) used to “screen” communists off the waterfront, just like in the movie starring Marlon Brando. The system controlled every aspect of the business but one. The performers writers, and directors! The actors, singers, and musicians, screen writers, and directors belonged to other unions and did not share the IATSE company union mentality. It was through these unions that change began to take shape.

There was also a strong Russian presence in Hollywood that exists to this day. There are many old Russian, Ukrainian, and Armenian people in and around Hollywood. There were movie stars like John Randolph and Kirk Douglas that had Russian roots. Until the digital age, there was a film development company known as RGB named for the color spectrum, Red, Green, Blue. They developed all of the 35mm film for the motion pictures for years, but they were replaced by technology as Hollywood went digital. This affected other workers and trades in Hollywood too. In the theaters it’s not necessary to “show” a movie anymore. All you need is a DVD player and a sound system and there you go. No need for projectionists! As for music, individual instruments are replaced by synthesizers and a 24 piece orchestra is reduced to 11.

Shows in the theaters don’t have live music anymore! Been to Las Vegas lately? There are Dancers with taped musical performances. This has created a huge job drain as has “runaway” production as Hollywood pursues its bottom line.

Things could have turned out differently, but for this one big complex structure created by the original studio pioneers known as IATSE. Here’s why. Roy Brewer was the bigwig at the IATSE during the crucial years when class struggle was developing in Hollywood.

Roy’s real job was as a paid agent of the FBI. Ronald Reagan was President of the Screen Actors Guild. He was also an FBI agent. (He certainly didn’t make his living acting did he?) With FBI control of the major labor organizations, there was only one route to follow to make change in Hollywood. Thus was formed the Conference of Studio Unions which was

affiliated with the CIO. They gave IATSE a run for their money, but with the collusion of the capitalist state and studio moguls, they were no match for the corruption that surrounded them.

The story of Hollywood is an excellent example of the power of state monopoly capitalism. The class struggle was handicapped before it began by the collusion between the studios, organized crime, and the U.S. government. All aspects of the development of motion pictures was controlled from the top down. Screen writers were censored and prohibited from expressing their artistic talents. Workers were prevented from organizing by thugs and spies, government agents harassed and intimidated celebrities to keep them from being active in causes like the Societies for American-Soviet Friendship, the Stockholm Peace Appeal, and even local issues like renters rights. There was a total lockdown on political expression. Books would later be written on this dark period of American history.

The U.S. Constitution was trampled upon. Members of the entertainment industry were compelled by subpoena to testify against their friends and associates. Most pleaded the Fifth Amendment. Many pleaded the first and the fifth Amendments. Some committed suicide to avoid finking on their friends.

It may surprise the reader to learn two important things. The Communist Party USA was relatively small when compared with the industry employment statistics.

Secondly, those that professed party membership openly did so because the goals of the party were to defend the U.S. Constitution. They were to win the war against fascism (director Frank Capra comes to mind) and later to fight for trade union rights and many of the things we take for granted today. The Communist program was a very modest one, focusing on democracy and justice for all, an end to racial segregation, a defense of trade union rights, and better conditions of life for the working people. A very successful project of the members of the Communist Party and their sympathizers was the production of the film “Salt of the Earth” which was the story of the Empire Zinc strike in New Mexico. Talented Hollywood screen writers and artists worked on the film with the members of Local 890 of the Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers International Union. While the style of socialist realism generally refers to painting and sketches, the film is a great example of the style of socialist realism and great working class art. It was a great act of solidarity for the artists of Hollywood to make a movie about a miners’ strike in Hanover, New Mexico. It shows what can be done when a strong vanguard Party of Communists exists. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. It’s up to us to re-create some of that Hollywood magic, working class style. It’s up to us to build “a party of a new type” that Lenin teaches us about. Not a party run by finks and government snitches, but a real communist party made up of workers from all of the sectors of society. We can’t afford to let what happened in Hollywood in the 20th Century happen again.

continued from Unemployment page 1

The Worker / spring 2014 / page 3

Why Does Capitalism Need Unemployment? why would Congress be increasing the military budget or giving millions away in taxpayer subsidies to billion dollar corporations?

It is an issue of priorities concerning what our taxpayer money should be spent on: the wealthiest corporations and banks or working people and our families. In order to fight back, we need to understand why and how these cuts and attacks are taking place, what we the people can do before Congress eliminates all the social programs that we the workers have fought so hard to win.

Under capitalism, production is not based on satisfying human needs, but on the maximum profit for capitalists. As robots begin to be used in auto assembly plants, thousands of workers were laid off. As the industry publication Inside Technology 360 writes: “In some ways it came down to simple money saving issues like robots not needing lunch breaks or bathroom breaks. Robots never call in sick or take vacations.

Robots also don’t require health insurance or request raises.”

The unemployed workers become part of what Marx called the “reserve army of labor.” They become available to work at any job, no matter how little it pays. The capitalists use them to leverage lower wages generally, if a worker refuses to work for low wages, they can easily be replaced by an unemployed worker.

Wal-Mart example: 24,000 desperate people apply for nearly 800 minimum wage jobs in Washington D.C. The Waltons of Wal-Mart have more money than 41% of the US population.

Historical reasons for reforms We often take for granted the rights we have as workers; whether a 40 hour work week, unemployment insurance, social security, food stamps, the right of children to go to school, or something as simple as clean water to drink. President Roosevelt in the 1930’s didn’t institute these reforms out of kindness or generosity; it was the struggle workers organizing and demanding our government institute these reforms or face revolution. The 1917 socialist revolution in Russia was the first to institute the 40 hour work week, while the average work week in the US and most exploitative capitalist countries was 12 hours a day, 6 days a week with one day off for males and 16 hours a day, 7 days a week with one day off a year for women and children. The average worker under capitalism died by the time he or she was in their mid 40’s, due to disease, starvation, or just exhaustion. When the Soviet Union instituted the 40 hour work week, workers around the world saw that socialism making the impossible possible: guaranteed employment, lower work hours, free healthcare and education. Soon communist groups throughout the world began to grow and seriously organize. In the US, with the Great Depression and Dust Bowl in tow, nearly 1 in 4 people, including children were unemployed. This caused over 3-9 million workers to die of cold and starvation. Many people were calling for revolution. Many unions, often led by communist activists, were not just demanding shorter hours, but forcing employers to accept them. Fearing

revolution, the ruling class decided reforms were urgent and so Roosevelt instituted the 40 hour work week, the prohibition of child labor, universal public education through high school, unemployment insurance and social security. (At that time, few working people could have collected social security as the early retirement age was 62, more than 10 years longer than a working class person would live)

What we need to do

While 1.3 million workers are scheduled to exhaust their unemployment benefits, along with tens of millions more soon to exhaust their state extension, both the Democrats and Republicans thought little of the hungry children of these workers, instead going on vacation. Both parties represent the ruling 1% and exist to only give an illusion to the working class that we live in a democratic state, when in fact we do not. In this country nearly all the members of Congress are millionaires. In fact, to run for office they need corporations and banks to buy their seats.

Obviously the ruling class is willing to spend so much money on candidates, because they see it as an investment to future profits.

Eventually if we want a different system, one that is democratic for the working people, we will need to fight for socialism where the capitalist class is oppressed and the workers rule; where education, the environment, jobs, and a living income are a right, not a privilege, for all individuals both young and old. On our way there we need to fight for reforms.

Just as workers organized effectively in the 1930’s demanding jobs or an income, we need to do the same. We need to organize a mass movement of working people and flood all our major cities and Washington DC. There are 325 million Americans; if we can organize even 2 million, you can believe Congress will start to listen to us; otherwise we can expect cuts as brutal as in the early 1930’s that decimated millions in our country. Please join this movement, speak to your neighbors, friends, and family; let’s organize a march.

Rebuild the Unemployed Councils

by Kelly McConnell (The author is founder, Los Angeles Council of Unemployed and Homeless (LACUH) In the late 70's President Carter signed into law the Humphrey/Hawkins Full Employment Bill (“The Fair Trade and Balanced Growth Recovery Act Of 1979). Although officially law, the act was never implemented or funded. When Ronald Reagan came into power he of course, ignored it.

The bill aimed at 3% unemployment and to put the Vietnam vets back to work. The bill also would have prevented many industries from going abroad and would have helped in rebuilding the infrastructure.

After President Obama came into office he could have issued an Executive Mandate, declared the Humphrey/Hawkins Bill law and funded the bill to keep unemployment from the 2008 crash from devastating the country. Of course he did nothing but bail out the rich and corporate elite. He could have prevented the crisis without even going to Congress.

Since the crash of 2008 the United States along with the rest of the world has suffered terribly and unnecessarily from the crisis that was allowed to happen knowingly, allowing the super rich to profit at our expense. The nation now is reaping more wealth for fewer than ever before. Wall Street is enjoying unheard of growth and profit while much of the country stagnates and withers on the vine.

For the last six years the Obama administration has done little or nothing to alleviate the suffering while the rich get richer and gives the national debt as a reason for the lack of action. “We’re broke,” exclaims Obama, while there is more wealth than ever. The lack of action as well has given the ring-wing political forces a basis to attack any plan for creating jobs.

Inaction on the part of a Democratic President gets sighted as proof democratic forces have no viable plan or solution to put the country back to work. The DLC has allowed the right minority to win the argument for any massive federal job programs or social spending while increasing

defense spending in every sector more than ever. Even when we had a rare "Democratic majority" in Congress they did nothing.

For the last six years,I would like to say, that we have collectively built a strong End Unemployment movement to create jobs and end the recession, while the governmental power structure has done little or nothing.

Before the crash I personally told Sam Webb, Chair of the CPUSA that the crash was coming and we should rebuild the Unemployed Councils that won so much in the past including organizing the labor movement.

This was months before the crash, but the Party did nothing and is still doing nothing. Many party leaders later stated they knew the recession was coming! But why didn’t they do anything? Or, why were they silent?

I for one, was not.

There have been a few attempts to start something with the unemployed and of course the 99 percenters. I did go to the We Are One demonstration in Washington in 2010 where there were 170,000 excited people. But where, might I ask, is the fightback now and what happened?

Never, in people’s memory has there been so many unemployed and for so long since the 1930’s and the Great Depression.

The real question is what are we collectively going to do? We must focus on building a real worker's movement. The opportunity in this nation to build a truly revolutionary movement and party to fight back for job creation and full employment is at hand. Realizing these things at home gives us the opportunity to be in solidarity with workers abroad as well. One worker at a rally of occupiers stated,"If I am unemployed I am patriotic but if I complain, I am a communist.” Where have we heard these type of comments before? How true are such positions due to unemployment and poverty while so few get so wealthy.

The Worker / spring 2014 / page 4

Editorial

RECENT EVENTS IN UKRAINE

Events in Ukraine recall the spread of fascism in Europe before and during World War II. The same Nazi collaborators known as the Svoboda Party and the Right Sector in the Ukraine, the followers of Stephen Bandera, leader of the Ukrainian fascists in WW II, have now removed a democratically elected government through the use of “the open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic, and most imperialist elements of finance capital” which is the classic definition of fascism. The players in this crime are the usual suspects, the United States and the European Union.

Since the fascist coup d’état in Kiev, wholesale violence against working people has increased. The U.S. appointed Prime Minister of Ukraine, Arseniy Yatseniuk, has said that mass protests against his regime are crimes against the state, and many anti-fascist activists are in Kiev jails.

Despite his continued bellicose rhetoric, the masses of the Ukraine's largest cities continue to protest against the fascist Kiev government. The people remember all too well attempts by Bandera and his followers to “ethnically cleanse” the Ukraine for the Nazis in WW II of Russians, Jews, Poles, and other groups. All of the Ukraine was liberated from Nazism by the Soviet Red Army at a cost of millions of lives. Now the USA and EU find themselves on the same side, helping to accomplish what the Nazis and Ukrainian fascists failed to do the first time.

We in the Party of Communists USA and organizations like the US Friends of the Soviet People unwaveringly stand in solidarity with the struggling anti-fascist working class of Ukraine, who are calling for referenda on determining their regions’ future status, establishing People's Republics, organizing armed self-defense people's militia, and passionately requesting material assistance, by any means necessary, from all progressive forces. Many people are raising red flags reminiscent of their Socialist Soviet republics. We call on the United States and its economic partners to withdraw their support from the followers of Svoboda, Right Sector, and other fascist organizations. We support the right of the Ukrainian people to self-determination, for democratic rights including respect for cultural and national differences, and to live free from the terror of fascist tyranny.

Letters The Zimbabwe Communist League sends its fraternal greetings to the Party of Communists USA on its inauguration.

We do not normally approve of breakaway Communist parties. In this case the continued support by the CPUSA for the Democratic Party, in particular for the psychopathic Obama, even if qualified, cannot be supported.

We recognize that within the USA, the Democratic Party offers marginally better conditions for the working class and the poor, but outside the borders of the USA, their record is far worse. Since WWII, the body count for the Democratic presidents is far higher than that of the Republican presidents. Truman -- Korean War, Johnson -- Vietnam War and 1st Congo War, Clinton -- 2nd Congo War. The UN figure of 5.4m people dead in the 2nd Congo War makes Clinton the world's biggest mass murderer since Adolf Hitler.

On the other hand, the Republicans have provided us with (comparatively) the best president since F.D. Roosevelt from an international point of view -- Richard Nixon. Nixon concluded the SALT Treaties with the USSR, recognized the People's Republic of China and pulled the USA out of the Vietnam War; after which he was impeached.

As regards Obama, we will never ever forgive him for the the invasion of Libya, the country which had the highest living standards in Africa and the foul murder of Comrade Muammar Gaddafi. This was followed by genocide against black Libyans.

In one year, Obama's forces killed more black Libyans than the Ku Klux Klan killed black Americans in its entire existence. Despite this we do not hear the CPUSA giving 'critical support' to the Ku Klux Klan which is in fact far less harmful than Barack Obama.

We wish PCUSA our very best wishes in establishing itself as the vanguard party which can lead the working class and the poor in the United States to overthrowing capitalism at its most destructive centre.

Ian Beddowes General Secretary Zimbabwe Communist League

Soviet War Memorialin Treptower Park, Berlin by sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich—A Soviet soldier holding a German child, with a sword, over a broken swastika.

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The Worker/El Obrero

Official voice of the Party of Communists USA Editor - Stephen Paulmier Managing Editor - Angelo D’Angelo Editor Español - Eban Rabinovitch Contibutors: Ryan Chegwin, Jessica Coco, Fiona Fairchild, George Greene, Dean Gunderson, Joseph Hancock, Peter Korman, Kelly McConnell, Eban Rabinovich, Darnel Scheffer, Kenny Stoltman

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Healthcare

The Worker / spring 2014 / page 5

Has “Obamacare” covered everyone?

by Fiona Fairchild (PCUSA national secretary, Women's Commission member, former pathology laboratory worker) the state health coverage. I use that along with my tiny income to pay No. I have still been unable to get health insurance. I do have a preexisting condition, which is a crippling chronic autoimmune disorder. utilities, eat, and keep a roof over my head. It diminishes each month and will soon be gone. And I must spend down to zero before they will It is wonderful that an insurance company, based on this condition can help me, but by that time, I may be homeless. I could not survive no longer turn me down immediately. However, I still do not qualify. without the electrical equipment, which allows me to survive each day.

My income is far below poverty level, which, according to the ACA Without a place to live, I would not last very long. website information, means I must not apply to the regular companies, but instead must apply for Medi-Cal, my state’s “welfare” insurance.

So I still have to pay for MRIs and medications from my savings. And However, I still cannot get that, because I do not qualify for disability or since I cannot get insurance, I will be fined.

Social Security as I did not work enough years in my life, and that qualification is what it is all based on.

No, the ACA does not cover EVERYONE. But it was a nice try.

In addition, I am living on the meager savings I got from selling Only in a socialist system can people like me get healthcare. my deceased parents’ home. That small sum prevents me from receiving

Anti-imperialism

Pivot to the Pacific

We are told that the United States is going to pivot to the pacific. Well, this rhetoric reveals little that is not already known. The moneyed one percenters are refocusing their vast military muscle westward having short memories for their experience being bloodied and beaten in Vietnam a short 40 years ago and getting the same in Korea before that.

But pivot they will and using the faux state of occupied Hawaii as their fulcrum the plan is to saturate the vast distances with computer guided drone weaponry to intimidate any and all challenges to their hegemony.

Subic Bay in the Philippines is gone, the Japanese people are rebelling against the bases on their land, on many fronts the US military complex is experiencing the upwelling of working people and their demands for justice, peace and an end to super exploitation by imperial capital.

Hawaii islanders have potent experience defeating the venial practices of these military madmen. From the brutal imprisonment and dethroning of their queen Liliuokalani in 1893 to the repressive, racist policies of the sugar and pineapple barons in the early twentieth century. Finally the full force and totalitarian practice of the US military (after using Pearl Harbor and their own unprepared forces as bait to entice the Imperial Japanese industrialists into a war of attrition) to confiscate a whole island to use as a target for the practice of exploding ordinance. Hawaiian people heroically resisted all of these outrages, time and again emerging victorious, exposing, for the world to see the undemocratic nature of the United States ruling structure. US capital was forced to end run its own legal system to topple and then occupy the island nation. Then, organized and led by comrades schooled in struggle by working class Soviet and American experiences (Revolution in the land west, USSR and the general strike in the east, California), these local and imported wage slaves united to send the sugar barons on their all fours begging for statehood and McCarthyism to save them from the righteous lokahi (unity) of the masses. Led by a poet, singer, hero George Helm, Hawaiian people ended the bombing of the island of Kaho’olawe just as some short years later their brethren in Puerto Rico would end the bombing of Vieques.

George Helm, the iconic Hawaiian working class leader who stirred the people to struggle with dignity in the service of justice, paid with his life the ultimate price for his Herculean efforts. His courage laid the foundation for generations to stand on, heralding the consciousness of the youth, engaging the wisdom of the kapuna (elders), extolling the genius of the people gathered to cultivate and nurture the ‘aina (land).

by Stephen Paulmier (retired pressman-GCC-IBT)

In his spirit the struggle continues and the repugnant character of the military brass stands exposed. Their latest effort is to enlarge another bombing target on the island of Hawaii (largest in the archipelago), at Pohakaloa, the pico (bellybutton) of this lava land with its volcanic people. their plan is to expand the already despoiled “training grounds” in the saddle between the two 14 foot peaks of Mauna George Helm thousand Loa and Mauna Kea. At an expanded miltary base there the reserves and weaponry now being forced out of the ill-reputed bases around the Pacific Rim are to be quartered.

The minions of corporate capital are gathering, propagandizing their “virtues” as employers and philanthropists. Atop the highest peak, a sacred halowed environ for the Hawiian people, they seek to install a “scientific” wonder, a thirty-meter telescope. Extolling their largess while laying waste to the collected wisdom of Hawaiian culture, pitting knowledge (U of Hawaii is used to possess the peak) against profit (Trusts leverage billions from taxpayers to finance “astronomy”) in a dance of ignorance (their profit motive hidden from view) to the tune of commercial comedy (PR and marketing satire to confuse the public).

So lays the landscape of corporate America’s intentions for its survival.

Survival because its growth is no longer an option, the planet has become a hostile place for capital’s contrivance. From environmental exploitation to the super exploitation of human labor, the only choice for the one percent in the guns or butter equation is to arm to the teeth.

Legions of experienced working people are employed now to devise new methods of spilling blood and numbing minds as their siblings scratch out an existence in under employed and unemployed urban ghettos. Working people scour the library of past experience and creative witness to organize themselves, uniting, agitating and empowering a new class ready to assume the reigns of power.

Unafraid, and mature, this seasoned generation of righteous actors are exposing, defanging and challenging the status quo. In Hawaii, Edward Snowden’s actions were precipitated by this ethos, Chelsey Manning acted within the military itself and an awakening Soviet people in eastern Europe, unable to be harnessed by appeals to the fascist prejudices of false nationalism rise to the moment. These and countless others in regions around the globe are acting in fearless potent enmity to the one percent. This is the tide of socialism surging against the phantoms of capital. Join this organization of working people; share your experience in the cause of a world based on the maxim to each according to their work.

http://leagueofyoungcommunistsusa.org

The Worker / spring 2014 / page 6

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The Worker / spring 2014 / page 7

Film

Darnel Scheffer (University student and organizational secretary of the League of Young Communists)

Not all of these titles are explicitly about Marxism-Leninism, some of them are historical films which either feature Marxist-Leninist history, or they are documentary films examining various social problems in our society as a direct result of Capitalism, Imperialism, Racism, and capitalist class Dictatorship in America and the world. Historical contexts must be examined with these films, such as "1911" for example, which is about the first Chinese Revolution that established the Republic of China, it was not a successful socialist or communist revolution, though I believe it to hold great social context in the way it shows revolutions being hijacked for the interests of the upper class.

Other films are made by liberal or patriotic producers, so obviously have hidden US propaganda or otherwise anti-revolutionary lies in them, though the general basis of the film is important. As Marxists we have the capability to look past these inaccuracies and look for the deeper meaning of these films.

Some films such as "Crips and Bloods: Made in America" may sound as if they have no relevance, but this documentary especially looks at gang violence in LA as being a result of the decades and centuries of racist institutionalized violence and classism as the direct parent of the now out of control violence we have in the region. These documentaries may not be explicitly revolutionary in nature, but that documentary in specific takes a deep look at the roots of the gang violence in the guerrilla warfare carried out by the black communities in LA against racist and violent repression by military forces

Sports

in the 1960's, so although seemingly irrelevant, it exposes many issues we as Marxist-Leninist Americans would definitely find relevant when debating the need for socialist change in America.

"Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee" and "War Witch" are examples that dramatically and very graphically expose the results of imperialism on native populations, and the societal reactions to it in both the USA with the Native Americans in the 1800's and in Africa in the 21st century. So although these films may seem to vary broadly in spectrum and topic matter, they all are relevant to the struggle, and what it is we are fighting for and against. These films present an invaluable historical context to our struggle, its necessity and it's development.

All Titles marked (N) are available on Netflix as of now.

Mission to Moscow Crips and Bloods: Made in America (N) Salt of the Earth (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9oY4rmDaWw) The wind that shakes the Barley (N) The act of Killing (N) Che (N) Goodbye Lenin Reds (N) 1911 (N) A good day to die (N) Malcolm X Trudell (N) American History X Black Power Mixtape (N) War Witch (N) Crossing the line (N) Dirty Wars (N) Assembly Flame and Citron (N) Cesar Chavez Baader-Meinhoff Komplex (N) South of the Border (N) Man with a movie camera (N) Bury my heart at Wounded Knee

Guest Column: A Black Agenda Radio commentary by its managing editor

Donald Sterling Thinks He Owns Basketball Players, But Really Does Own the NAACP www.blackagendareport.com

by Bruce Dixon Billionaire racists will be billionaire racists. Not much we can do about that. But the fact that our so-called civil rights organizations depend on the deep pockets of Wal-Mart, Comcast, and the David Sterlings of this world even though they pretend to represent the interests of ordinary black people is not something we have to live with.

For us at Black Agenda Report, the most telling angle on the story of Donald Sterling, the racist billionaire owner of the LA Clippers, was that the Los Angeles NAACP , which had been about to give Sterling a second – not a first but a second “Lifetime Achievement Award” eagerly stepped forward to offer redemption and forgiveness for the small cost of a few more strategic donations from the deep pockets of Donald Sterling.

This won't be the first time Sterling has purchased absolution for his many sins. In 2003 Sterling settled a housing discrimination lawsuit paying $5 million to plaintiff attorneys alone, and in 2006 he was accused again of refusing to rent apartments to African Americans and Latinos. But a steady stream of donations to big-name so-called civil rights organizations amounting at most to a few ten thousandths of his net worth, were sufficient to make it OK in the eyes of those outfits, and in the case of the NAACP, they were sufficient to get him that first “lifetime award.”

Depending on the rich and powerful to pay their bills while pretending to speak for the poor and oppressed is not a mere bug in the way our 21st century civil rights organizations function, it is a fundamental feature, baked into the bones not just of the NAACP, but of the National Urban League, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, the National Conference of Black State Legislators, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, Al Sharpton's National Action Network and many others of this kind.

In the practice of catching corporate racists with their pants down and extracting a franchise here, a dealership there, a TV show or hefty donations to worthy causes the hunter always gets captured by the game.

In Georgia where I live, the Southern Christian Leadership Council got the CEO of Georgia Power to head up their building fund. Residents of

Shell Bluff, a poor, mostly black town invited Rev. Joseph Lowery of SCLC to their town to show him their cancer epidemic, evidently caused by radiation from a leaking Georgia Power nuclear plant, while federal agencies refused to fund testing of their air, water, soil, wildlife or persons. Georgia Power is now building brand new nuclear plant next to the old ones with $800 million in loan guarantees from the Obama administration. But all that SCLC could do was tell them, “go vote.”

Wells Fargo had aggressively sold sub-prime mortgages to blacks, and is believed to have engaged in thousands or tens of thousands of the same kinds of robo-signings and illegal foreclosures that Bank of America pled guilty to. So after the bailout, Wells Fargo partnered with the NAACP to do “financial literacy” classes for youth. There are examples like this in any direction one cares to look.

Donald Sterling may imagine he owns basketball players. But he really does own the NAACP, just as surely as Verizon and Comcast, Aetna, WalMart, MSNBC and others own the National Action Network, Rainbow-PUSH, the Urban League, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and the rest of our politically bankrupt black misleadership class.

ObrErO

El Un nuevo comienzo para los comunistas de Estados Unidos

Partido de los

COMUNISTAS EE.UU.

En 1919, nuestros precursores eran miembros del Partido Socialista, y entonces debido al respaldo que el Partido Socialista le brindó al imperialismo de Estados Unidos en la Primera Guerra Mundial y a su antagonismo a la Revolución Bolchevique de 1917, camaradas que eran leales a la ideología marxista-leninista organizaron su retirada del Partido Socialista. Hoy comunistas enfrentan un problema similar dentro del Partido Comunista USA (CPUSA).

Algunos que se llaman “comunistas” expresan su lealtad a una estructura dirigida por la facción de la calle 23 en Manhattan, NYC. Comunistas se disciplinan en la ciencia del marxismo-leninismo y su aplicación en el mundo (decenas de millones orientan sus luchas con esa ideología actualmente). Lo que comenzó como una conversación informal entre algunos camaradas de edad avanzada en el 2011, hoy ha rendido fruto. Se ha constituido un nuevo partido de vanguardia de la clase trabajadora con el propósito de aplicar nuestra ciencia en la lucha por el socialismo en los Estados Unidos.

En este contexto se iniciaron conversaciones con la intención de corregir los errores revisionistas antisoviéticos y el oportunismo de derecha y traer de nuevo al partido a la ciencia del marxismo-leninismo.

En nuestros clubes partidarios particulares, los miembros recibimos visitas de los integrantes del Comité Nacional quienes informaron que no se toleraría oposición alguna a la línea partidaria. Se hicieron amenazas y finalmente hubo expulsiones. Se liquidaron clubes completos.

Miembros de muchos años fueron expulsados debido a su respaldo al Socialismo del Siglo 20 y por negarse a rendir un respaldo ciego al Partido Demócrata y las traiciones laborales debido a la fidelidad a la ley Taft-Hartley. Todo esto conllevó que camaradas discutieran la formación de un nuevo partido.

La presencia comunista en Union Square Nueva York Primero de Mayo

Camaradas frustrados con el mal-liderato de carácter anti obrero del Partido Comunista USA inicialmente intentaron reformar al partido desde adentro, de la manera en que Lenin intentó reformar al Partido Laboral Social Demócrata Ruso. Y como en el caso de Lenin, nos dimos cuenta que esto no era posible. Control del CPUSA había sido asumido por burócratas de muchos años y estaban en el proceso de liquidarlo desde adentro. Primero descontinuaron la publicación de sus revistas y periódicos, cerrando la imprenta del partido, y cesaron de publicar el periódico People’s Weekly World (Nuestro Mundo). ¡La editorial del partido, International Publishers, no ha imprimido un libro en años!

Durante este periodo ni siquiera los clásicos han sido publicados. (Ni un solo libro escrito por Gus Hall, anterior Secretario General, o por Henry Winston aparecen el catálogo de su página de Internet.) Las normas partidarias fueron bajadas de manera gradual, primero con la eliminación de los libros de pago de cuotas, y entonces con la destrucción de las estructuras en los talleres y comunitarios, y entonces retirando el respaldo a las organizaciones de masas incluyendo al Concejo Estadounidense por la Paz, la Alianza Nacional en Contra de la Opresión Racista y Política, el Movimiento Nacional Antiimperialista en Solidaridad con la Liberación Africana, Mujeres por la Igualdad Racial y Económica, Asociados sobre Asuntos Judíos, y finalmente Sindicalistas por la Acción y la Democracia. Cada una de estas organizaciones de masas fue iniciada por el CPUSA. La actual mala-dirigencia permitió que murieran.

La Lucha Ucraniana

Partido de los Comunistas EE.UU. fundado Primero de Mayo 2014

Deseamos regresar a las raíces del partido en las que se abogaba por la lucha de clases por encima de los intentos por respaldar a una sección del gran capital sobre la otra.

Nosotros luchamos por el socialismo; ¡somos un partido de comunistas!

La estrategia y tácticas de un Partido Comunista no son la reforma de los bancos parasitarios y los monopolios financieros y ser rabiza del Partido Demócrata. El socialismo le reconoce laa prioridad a las necesidades de los trabajadores por medio de la inversión de las riquezas en la educación, servicios de salud, vivienda y pensiones. Las demandas de un partido comunista se basan sobre la experiencia real del pueblo soviético que vivió en una nación que aplicó esas prioridades.

Joe Glazer me preguntó en una canción, “¡Qué haces cuando eres demasiado viejo para trabajar y demasiado joven para morir? Como productores de las riquezas tenemos el derecho a eliminar esa pregunta. Podemos diferir sobre detalles, pro todo estadounidense debe conocer las garantías que todos los ciudadanos de la URSS disfrutaban y cuáles eran sus responsabilidades bajo el socialismo. No era un sueño.

Los productos feos del capitalismo no existían en esa nación. Todas las cosas por las que luchamos hoy en los EEUU como planes de servicios de salud, buenas escuelas y universidades, vivienda y suficiente alimentos para todos, se había logrado en la URSS. Eso es lo que queremos. Por eso somos comunistas, y la razón por la cual regresamos ahora a nuestras raíces en la lucha de clases. No permita que el actual malliderato de la calle 23 le engañe. Ellos han aceptado el concepto de la social-democracias de no luchar. Únase a nosotros en esta lucha por el socialismo, por el poder de la clase trabajadora y el internacionalismo proletario. Únase a nosotros y luche, no tenemos nada que perder que no sea nuestras cadenas. ¡Tenemos un mundo que ganar por medio de nuestra ciencia y disciplina!

Eban Rabinovitch (un estudiante y sindicalista militante licalizado en San Antonio, Tejas)

Los recientes hechos en Ucrania no han señalado la nueva llegada de la democracia a este país que ha sido abusado durante 24 años de capitalismo salvaje sino una vuelta al fascismo hitleriano del siglo XX. Este movimiento fascista surgió con la ayuda de la Unión Europea y Estados Unidos y cuyo objetivo no es solamente destruir a su oposición sino organizar persecuciones políticas que acaban en la muerte de sus oponentes. Esas fuerzas reaccionarias, descendentes ideológicas de Hitler, están organizando prohibiciones de partidos opositores, sobre todo, el partido de nuestros compañeros en el Partido Comunista Ucraniano, y también organizan persecuciones de rusohablantes que no quieren ser víctimas de los fascistas en Kiev.Los medios occidentales no sólo echan la culpa de las muertes en el este de Ucrania a Rusia, sino que además evitan utilizar la palabra "nazi" en los materiales sobre los acontecimientos en el país, afirma el académico canadiense Michel Chossudovsky.

De este modo, la prensa occidental ha desplazado la responsabilidad de la tragedia en Odesa a los partidarios de la federalización, evitando deliberadamente hablar de las acciones de carácter criminal realizadas por grupos neonazis, escribe Chossudovsky, fundador del Centro para la Investigación de la globalización Global Research y profesor de economía en la Universidad de Ottawa, en su artículo publicado en la página web del centro.

Según el experto, en la cobertura realizada por los medios occidentales de los acontecimientos en Ucrania hay una regla no escrita: cuando se trata de acciones

contra la población civil en el este del país, las palabras "nazi", "fascista" o "neonazi" son un tabú.

De este modo, los periodistas occidentales llaman "patriotas", "ultraconservadores" y "luchadores por la libertad" a los miembros del grupo radical Sector Derecho a pesar de que utilizan símbolos nazis y declaran abiertamente su lealtad al líder nacionalista ucraniano durante la II Guerra Mundial Stepán Bandera y a Adolf Hitler, afirma el analista.

Chossudovsky también destaca la amarga ironía con la que el 9 de mayo los medios occidentales "explotaron" con el escándalo sobre el "código secreto neonazi" utilizado en las cajas del detergente de la compañía Procter & Gamble. Según ha informado el periódico 'The Huffington Post, las cifras 88 y 18 dibujadas en las etiquetas de los productos de la línea Ariel se utilizan por los grupos extremistas en Alemania para representar las frases "Heil Hitler" y "Adolf Hitler", ya que corresponden a las letras A y H según el lugar que ocupan estas en el abecedario.

Sin embargo, ese mismo día estos medios no fueron capaces de "descifrar" las atrocidades cometidas por los neonazis en la localidad de Mariúpol en el este de Ucrania, se indigna el analista.

Chossudovsky también destaca que la prensa de Occidente se sigue negando a reconocer el hecho demostrado de que el Sector Derecho cuenta con el apoyo de gobiernos occidentales.