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U.S. Aggression Will Never Help the People!
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In many countries, on every continent, people are taking up the revolutionary science of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and putting it into action. Some groups are larger and have more experience, some are smaller and just getting started. But all these different parties and organizations are getting down together to tackle the task of making revolution.

How the Revolution Will Wipe Out National Oppression and Inequality

Revolutionary Worker #824, September 24, 1996

Carl Dix, spokesperson for the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, recently addressed a meeting of students active in the fight against attacks on affirmative action. This article is based on his talk.

The question of solving the oppression of Black people has been on the front burner in U.S. history several times—like right after the U.S. Civil War and when the civil rights and Black liberation movements were on the scene. Bob Avakian, Chairman of the RCP, makes a very interesting point about these points in history. He say each time America's answer was to continue subjugating Black people, with maybe some surface changes. So this system has already had several chances to deal with this problem and I say, their time is up!

Today, there's a lot of rhetoric about how the problems society faces are only made worse when the government tries to fashion a solution. But the problem isn't that government in general isn't capable of solving the problems of society. The problem is that this government is run by the very class of people that is responsible for these problems—the capitalist class, the very people who benefit materially by continuing to inflict these problems on the great majority of people. This is why the solutions that they come up with won't eradicate poverty and won't end the oppression of Black people or any other problems in society. But that don't mean it isn't possible to solve these problems.

It is possible to feed the hungry, to house the homeless, care for the elderly, educate the people, welcome immigrants, provide healthcare, childcare and more. But to bring into being the kind of society that can do all this, first you gotta make revolution. Millions of people have to rise up in armed revolution, overthrow this capitalist government, wipe this dog-eat-dog system off the face of the earth and go on to build a whole new world. I know to many people that sounds like an extreme solution. But we're dealing with some extreme problems here and nothing less than revolution can solve them.

It's Gonna Take a Revolution

So how would a revolutionary society get rid of the oppression of nationalities and nations of peoples within society? And why would a socialist society be able to do this? Let me take the second part of that question first.

The kind of revolution that I'm talking about, we call a proletarian revolution—a revolution that has to be based on the people on the bottom of society. You have to unite broadly with other sections of people throughout society to carry it out, but it's got to be based on the working class—the class that objectively has nothing to lose but its chains. In order to free itself and all humanity, the proletariat has to get rid of the capitalist system and build a whole new society.

We got to get rid of the monopoly capitalist class which owns and controls all the means of production and resources in society. We got to overthrow the U.S. ruling class that exploits and oppresses people all over the world. We got to get rid of the capitalist system—which is the foundation for national oppression. And we got to get rid of the capitalist division of labor which is the material basis for the oppression of women.

This system has thousands of laws on paper outlawing discrimination, yet discrimination infects every part of capitalist society. This is because the capitalists have a greater law in command—the law of maximizing profit—and under this law all of society is maintained in a twisted state. But under socialism, with power in the hands of the people, a whole new society can be built. The profit motive can be taken out of the way society functions and operates. And things can be run in the interests of the broad masses of people.

To do something like this, you can't just put a new group of people in power and hope they'll do right by everybody. We won't say to the masses who just rose up and made the revolution, "OK, y'all can go back home now. Just sit back and let the Revolutionary Communist Party take care of business for you." No, we'll be challenging people and leading them in attacking every aspect of injustice and degradation left over from capitalist society.

We'll have to do that because our goal is to build socialism as a transition to a classless, communist society. A society where the means to produce wealth is the collective property of the people. And where the people decide what to produce and how to distribute what's produced collectively. A society where people are not forced into relationships of domination and subjugation in order to survive. A society where backward ideas and prejudices are being rooted out—not reinforced like they are under this setup.

After the Revolution

Now, on the question of how, under socialism, we would lead people to end the oppression of Black people and other oppressed people. Well, first off, we would lead them to do this unapologetically. We're not gonna say, "Well, we gotta do something about this oppression but it's unfair to ask any white person to change their racist ways and thinking." And we're not gonna say, "We gotta do something about what's been coming down on the sisters but don't worry, you men, none of you all will have to change your male chauvinist ways." We're gonna lead people to revolutionize all of society. And in the struggle to change society, people will have to change themselves. This will be a rude awakening for some people. And some people will put up fierce resistance. But the broad masses will welcome this—because it will be a truly liberating process.

We say straight up in the Programme of the Revolutionary Communist Party that, after the revolution, we're gonna have a firm affirmative action program. Our Programme says:

"Since the history of the development of capitalism in the U.S. is a history of the most savage oppression of the Black, Native American, Mexican-American, Puerto Rican, Asian and other oppressed peoples, taking up this question for solution is crucial for the U.S. proletarian revolution.

"The new proletarian state will take immediate and special measures to change the situation of all-around social equality... Everybody is going to have an urgent feeling that their own conditions must be improved from this ugly devastation of capitalism. But Party members and other class conscious people are going to have to go out and struggle with the rest and set an example in practice, in self-sacrifice and voluntary labor, to see that the neighborhoods at the very bottom are rebuilt—and improved—first, while people in other areas will have to be given second priority, and in some cases even to largely live with what they've got for a time until the resources can be devoted to that problem too. If the proletarian state does not apply this policy, then the basis for proletarian power will be seriously undermined, because the oppressed people would rightly say, "How is this different from before? We're still on the bottom."

Revolutionary Example in Maoist China

Now, we recognize that doing this ain't gonna be easy. But the proletariat's got some historical experience to learn from.

Look at what they did in China under Mao Tsetung's leadership. When the revolution triumphed in China in 1949, over 80 percent of the people were poor and illiterate peasants in the countryside. And in the cities, people suffered terrible poverty.

There was a lot of struggle in the Communist Party of China about how to move forward in this situation. Some leaders in the Party said that in order to rebuild society you had to rely on the small section of educated professionals and award them with continued privileges. But Mao Tsetung rejected this and instead mobilized the broad masses of people to break down all the differences in society—between countryside and cities, between mental and manual labor, between people of different nationalities, between men and women.

Some of you may have seen the video Breaking With Old Ideas, a movie done in China during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. This movie tells the story of a struggle to develop revolutionary education in the countryside.

As I said before, the struggle we're waging today raises the whole question of what kind of society we want. And this movie gives people a real sense of how, once the masses have power, they can really transform society.

Breaking With Old Ideas shows how the poor peasants struggled against a whole tradition of discrimination and elitism in education. And it shows how through this struggle they revolutionized the system of education in China. They got rid of the old, irrelevant curriculum. They changed the criteria for admissions, giving poor peasants and workers the chance to go to college for the very first time. They overthrew backward-thinking school officials who promoted elitism and discrimination against the oppressed.

The masses struggled over who should be admitted to college. Should it just be the kids of intellectuals and high-ranking Party members? Because if they did it like that they'd be recreating a class structure not radically different from the one they were used to before. Or did revolutionary China need their own version of affirmative action?

And what kind of education should people get? Education focused on memorizing facts and spitting them out on command? Or education geared toward solving real problems in society? And what was education for? Making money and getting a privileged place in society? Or serving the people and working to build a new society free of oppression?

Under Mao's leadership and his revolutionary line, the people began to transform the educational system so that it became part of the whole process of revolutionizing all of society. During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, peasants and workers decided collectively who should go to college. And the criteria they used to make these decisions wasn't like who could do the best on entrance exams or who had read the most books. Instead they considered things like: Who would best be able to come back and serve the community and help solve the problems the people faced.

The revolutionaries fought to combine education with productive labor and put forward the slogan, "Every student works, every worker studies." Students weren't allowed to go off to school and just learn abstract theories. Learning was integrated with solving real problems of the people. Peasants with rich practical experience were invited to serve as part-time lecturers at agricultural colleges. And intellectuals went to the countryside to work alongside peasants.

And through all of this, a lot of attention was paid to the question of national minorities.

Now many people don't know this, but when the proletariat seized power in China in 1949, there were more than 30 different nationalities in the country. The Han people made up more than 90 percent of the population and there was a whole history of Han chauvinism, where minority nationalities faced oppression and discrimination.

Even before 1949, Mao fought to unite the minority nationalities as part of the revolution. He said, the culture, religion and customs of the national minorities shall be respected. They must not be compelled to learn the Han spoken and written language and they shall be helped to develop their culture and education in their own languages. He said the minority nationalities must be treated as as equals and he said the people must forbid all practices of insult or contempt towards national minorities, in word or deed.

After liberation, the government invested in economic construction in minority areas, proportionately higher than in other regions. Substantial aid was granted to finance educational and medical institutes for minority nationalities. And assistance, materials, party cadres and technical staff were provided in order to develop industrial and agricultural production in minority areas.

Before 1949, the education of minority nationalities in China had been terrible or non-existent. In socialist China, special sections in the education departments in the central and local governments were assigned to pay attention to developing education for minority nationalities. Some schools had special preparatory classes for minority students to help them catch up with others and go on to higher studies. More teachers were sent into minority areas and programs were set up to train teachers from the minority nationalities. Special institutes were set up to train revolutionary party cadres from the minority nationalities so that they could go back to their areas and lead the revolutionary struggle.

All this shows how, under socialism, the problem of national oppression and discrimination can be consciously taken up by the masses of people and solved.

What It's Gonna Take to Defeat Attacks on Affirmative Action

Now, I want to end on this question of what it going to take to defeat the attacks on affirmative action.

The system is trying to polarize society in a way that will help them carry out their assault on affirmative action. But we have to bring about a whole different polarization—one that brings together people of all nationalities, and from all walks of life, to fight against the attacks on affirmative action. This is a polarization that's favorable to winning this battle and favorable for carrying the fight further. Now, to do this, we got to build a determined battle throughout society. We got to rally people broadly for this fight and unite with a lot of different forces. But we also got to make sure that the fight gets fought all the way through and doesn't get sidetracked.

You got Bill Clinton saying "mend it, but don't end it." You got Jesse Jackson working to focus things on registering and voting. You got faculty and even some regents saying: Don't worry, just sit back and let us take care of things and don't do anything radical or you'll alienate everybody. You got all those forces out there, and we gotta figure out how to fight in the midst of all of this.

We got to forge real plans that will enable us to unite with those who really want to defend and extend affirmative action. We got to unite with people when they're doing something that's gonna push the fight forward. We also got to know how to struggle when people are dragging things back from our goal.

As students you all can play a crucial role in this battle. You got the freedom and the responsibility to speak up for other sections of the people who are under attack by this system and to take action. And once you get things started many others will join in because what we're fighting for is right.

We got to draw on lessons from the past, and from the present, too. How did affirmative action come about in the first place? Not because the system wanted to get rid of discrimination. Not because the people voted for it. Affirmative action came about because of the uprisings in the 1960s and the fear this put into the system's heart. And the only way we're gonna stop them from snatching it back is through waging the same kind of determined resistance.

We can do this, sisters and brothers. Look at the battle to stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal. The system wanted to murder him on August 17. But the struggle of the people forced them to back off and grant a stay of execution. This fight ain't over. Mumia still doesn't have a new trial and they still want to execute him. But this initial victory has shown us that the only way to stop the execution of Mumia and get him free is by continuing to wage a broad, diverse and determined struggle.

Now, some people say that taking it to the streets ain't where it's at in this fight. Right now reactionaries are trying to get an anti-affirmative action initiative put on the 1996 ballot. So some people are saying that the only way to win this is to register people to vote and get them out to the polls. But we gotta stop and ask—what kind of system would even put such a reactionary thing on the ballot? If they came to us and said, "We're going to hold a vote on whether slavery should be put back into effect," should our response be to organize people to vote no!?

Hell no! We'd need to be out in the streets building determined mass resistance to stop it! That's what we need to do around these attacks on affirmative action. And by doing this we can have broad impact on different sections of the people.

If we seize the time and step out there and take this battle on for real and don't half-step, there's a lot of other people we can win to join with us. We can strike blows to this system of oppression and degradation. And when we do that, we'll be able to go into other battles against this system with even more strength.

The World Is A Ghetto: Revolution Is the Solution

by Carl Dix

Revolutionary Worker #957, May 17, 1998

Following are excerpts from the May 1st presentation in Chicago by RCP national spokesperson Carl Dix:

We're here today to celebrate May Day, the revolutionary holiday of our class, the working class worldwide. May Day is the day that we, the slaves who are determined to be slaves no more, come together and rededicate ourselves to our historic mission--to wipe the bloodsucking capitalist system off the face of the earth once and for all, and build a whole new world on the ashes of this messed up one. It's the day when we take stock of how far we've come in our fight for world revolution and plan concrete steps to bring this new world into being.

Today, on May Day, we send special revolutionary greetings to our beloved comrades in Nepal, in Peru, and in the Philippines, who are engaged in the crimson path of Maoist people's war. And we send out a red embrace to all the workers and peasants around the world who, like us, are struggling to bring dreams of a better world into reality.

To do this, we gotta be organized. Our enemy, the capitalist class, is organized. Our class is organized too--we have a political center for the world revolution in the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM), a movement which groups MLM parties and organizations in different parts of the world. It was formed in 1984. It's just an embryo of what it needs to become, and one of the important concrete steps we need to make in the year to come is to strengthen this important organization of revolutionary proletarians worldwide.

This year is the 150th anniversary of the Communist Manifesto, and it's fitting that the RIM has issued its call today, "Workers of all countries unite." This ain't a call for scratching each other's back or for mutual sympathy. It's a call to make the world revolution our starting point in our struggle to wipe out the injustice and misery we see around us every day. This call is based on the fact that in today's world, only a revolution led by our class, the proletariat, can visualize and realize a world without rich nations exploiting and feeding off the people and resources of poorer nations; a world where there's no oppression, no racism, no male domination, no elite classes; a world where common people struggle and work in common for a better life for all. This kind of world has a name, sisters and brothers: Communism....

Although the rule of our class was overturned in the Soviet Union in the 1950s and in China in 1976, we ain't discouraged. Why should we be? It took capitalism hundreds of years to establish its rule, and this was just one system based on exploitation and oppression replacing another one. What Communism represents--doing away with exploitation and oppression and the division of society into antagonistic classes once and for all, all over the world--is a far more radical rupture with the past. So we should expect our revolution to involve a complex process of advances followed by setbacks and then more advances. Our movement is like a baby that took some impressive first steps, but then got knocked down. This baby is gonna get back up, and not only will it walk some more, it's gonna run and gonna climb till it storms the heavens and makes revolution. The ideals of our class, as embodied in the Communist Manifesto, are far superior to the decadent, historically obsolete ideals of capitalism. Our ideals are more realistic too because they correspond to where human history is at and what is necessary and possible today to free humanity from the dog-eat-dog existence that capitalism enforces.

*****

This system is a disaster and a total failure for the great majority of people on this planet.... Trying to make capitalism more human is like trying to tame a pool of piranhas. It can't be done.

Today, you get the imperialists talking about globalization, like it's going to mean everybody's going to get rich because they're going to invest in the stock market, get on the Internet, use their cell phones, and all that. Well this is a cruel lie. You want to get down to what globalization really means? Let's talk about Nike. That's a global corporation. Nike moved their factories to South Korea because that was the way to jack up their profit margins--move to a place where they could exploit labor by paying a lot less. But once they were set up in South Korea, they saw some new opportunities open up. So they closed down in South Korea. They opened up in Thailand where they could pay the workers 70 cents an hour. They opened up in Indonesia so they could pay them 40 cents an hour. They opened in Vietnam where they could pay them 20 cents an hour. They opened up in China where they could pay them 14 cents an hour. Most of these workers are women, some as young as 14. Many have recently moved from the countryside to the cities in search of work. Like all capitalists, Nike is always looking for new countries where they can exploit the workers more intensely and jack their profit margin even higher. Phil Knight, the top man at Nike, is worth over $6 billion and is the sixth richest man in the world. A Nike worker in Vietnam would have to spend every single penny of her salary for three months to buy a pair of the shoes she makes!

Globalization has created a world where workers and oppressed people all over the world are more bound together. Bound together by ruin and misery, but more importantly bound together by a common enemy and a common future. Capitalism forces its competitive values on us by pitting us against each other in a desperate struggle to survive. In this way, they breed chauvinism among the workers of the rich, oppressor nations. They even get us on the battlefields, fighting and killing workers of other lands. But what we have in common is stronger than what divides us. This is why, when we see people struggling against harsh, brutal conditions in other lands, our hearts go out to them. Workers and oppressed people in any particular country have more in common with the workers and oppressed in other countries than with the capitalists in their own nation.

Sometimes you run into people and they don't buy it. They say, "Nah, I don't see what I have in common with them, I go, more in common with this dude over here, he's my countryman." But there's a little check we can run on them. If you get laid off your job, go to the American capitalist and say you deserve work because you're an American. See if they'll give you a job on that basis.

Here's another check you can run. Don't pay your rent this month. And then you tell your landlord, "You and I are part of the same nation. Let me stay here even though I didn't pay this rent." See how much unity you're going to be able to forge on that basis. If you don't believe it...don't pay your rent and see if an American landlord would give you a place to stay cuz you're an American.

The impact of globalization, of the capitalists moving their investments around the world with the flick of a computer button in search of higher profits, has created an unprecedented human migration. Every year 75 million people from poor countries migrate to other countries in search of work. Five years ago, the United Nations reported that 100 million people were living in countries other than the one they were born in. In the 1980s, 10 million people immigrated to the U.S., with and without papers. The economic pressures caused in poor, oppressed countries by imperialism have forced 20 to 30 million people a year to move from the countryside to the cities in search of survival. This is creating giant cities where millions are forced to scavenge just to get by. In Lima, Peru, a garbage dump became a shantytown of 10,000 people in six months. This is giving new meaning to the old song by War, "The World Is A Ghetto."

But throwing millions of poor and desperate people from all around the world together makes the system very vulnerable. Look at the rebellion in Los Angeles in 1992. It got sparked off when the cops who beat Rodney King got let off scot free--and that single spark started a massive prairie fire, not only in L.A. but across the country. It began with Black people taking to the streets in rage, but soon everybody else joined in. Most of the people arrested during the rebellion were Latinos from many different parts of South and Central America. Whites and Asians got involved too. And the L.A. rebellion sparked off rebellions and protests in over 150 cities across the U.S. And it was even echoed worldwide as people's eyes lit up to see the masses rise up in L.A. and other cities in the "belly of the beast." This points to the fact that we might look different and speak different languages, but we all know the language of oppression and the sweet song of resistance. The L.A. rebellion showed powerfully the potential for the proletariat to unite all the have nots and rise up against our common oppressor. It also showed that when we do that, we can win sympathy, support and allies from the middle class who are also victimized by the brutal workings of the system.

*****

In a May Day message, Bob Avakian, the Chairman of the RCP, says, "Today, more and more, among the oppressed people you hear it said: `The system will never change. They will never stop doing what they are doing--it only gets worse. If they want war, let's give them war!' Yes, but let's do it right! and let's do it for real. Let's do it to win--and be clear on what winning means." When our leader, Chairman Avakian, says let's do our revolution right, he means it has to be a proletarian revolution, a revolution led by the working class and its party....

It is very important that right here in the U.S., in the belly of the mightiest imperialist beast, there's a party that's been down with the RIM ever since it was formed in 1984. I'm talking about the RCP, a party that does all its work from the perspective of preparing for revolution in this country as part of the world revolution.

Again, as Chairman Avakian says: "Let's do it--make revolution--when the time is ripe. When the situation is most favorable for revolution. Let's get prepared for this. Whenever the time comes--and it will come--we must be ready. We have work to do to get ready. And the work we do to get ready can make this time come sooner."

Today millions of people hate what's going on in U.S. society. They hate the growth of the right-wing in and around the government, the growth of racism and sexism, the attacks on the poor and on immigrants, the criminalization of the youth, the police brutality and repression, the plant closings and downsizing, the polarization between the haves and have nots, the attacks on women's right to abortion. Many are keenly aware of the efforts by the ruling class to turn the anxiety and fear of the middle class about their increasingly unstable position in society against the poor by promoting hysteria about crime. There is growing resistance to what Refuse & Resist! correctly calls the politics of cruelty. Significantly, the youth are more and more taking center stage--from joining protests in support of political prisoners, like the recent Jericho march and the fight to stop Mumia Abu-Jamal's execution to joining efforts against police brutality like the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality and the fight for abortion rights for women. Here in Chicago the youth are an important feature of the fight against the attempt to force people out of public housing.

This growing resistance is dealing powerful blows to the system. We need much more of it. And we need to go beyond resistance, because resistance by itself can never end the criminal rule of this bloodsucking system. We need a revolutionary movement. The RCP stands shoulder to shoulder with the people as they fight back against the system's attacks today, but as it says in the Communist Manifesto, in the movement of the present we're looking to and taking care of the interests of the future. As revolutionaries, as we unite with the people to fight the system today, we're building organization, we're forging unity among people from different backgrounds and of different nationalities, we're helping people to get a sense of their own strength, the strength we have when we unite and fight back, we're spreading the understanding that the system is the problem and revolution is the only real solution. This sense of our strength and the enemy's weakness and vulnerability, this organization, this unity and this revolutionary understanding will help us beat back some of the enemy's attacks today and get in a better position to continue to fight. And it will all be crucial when the time comes, when the system is deep in trouble and the masses refuse to go on putting up with this shit any longer, when it's time to launch the all-out revolutionary assault. This time is coming, as Chairman Avakian said, and we gotta get ready for it because it would really be criminal to miss the chance to rise up and do this rotten system in once and for all through revolution.

An important part of being ready is having a vanguard MLM party that can bring together all the discontent that's out there among different sections of the people and weld it into a powerful revolutionary movement capable of making revolution. And we've got that kind of vanguard in the RCP. And everybody who's had it with this system and the shit it brings down on the people, who can't wait for the day when nobody has to live like this anymore--when we can rise up, make revolution and wipe this mess off the face of the earth once and for all--needs to get down with the RCP. Work with it, join it and help build it as part of getting ready for the great revolutionary storms that are on the horizon.

I especially want to say something to the young people in the audience. Cuz any serious revolutionary movement has got to have the youth at the forefront. It's good that we've got veterans like me and a party like the RCP who can impart our experience, our understanding, and be right there with you shoulder to shoulder struggling against the enemy. But it ain't mainly going to be the older generation that makes the revolution. It's going to be the young generation that does it. This is how it was back in the 1960s when my generation was young and when we forged the revolutionary movement that rocked the imperialist system back on its heels. Well your generation, you young people, have got to take up this responsibility today, and you've got to take it further than my generation. We don't need to just rock this system this time. We need to take it down once and for all. That's the responsibility your generation has got to take up.

In looking at it, it's positive that among the young people of this generation there are many fearless fighters. People ain't afraid to take on the enemy. But you gotta step it up. You've got to step up taking on the enemy. And you've got to rise up out of the trap of turning your rage on each other. But there's a way to do that--by coming together and taking on the real enemy. If you want to get on that tip, you've got an advantage that my generation didn't have back in its day. Because there's a party, a party that's got some experience in the struggle against the enemy, that you can work with, get down with. A revolutionary vanguard that can help lead in waging resistance against the system's attacks today as part of getting ready for revolution. Like I said, this is something my generation didn't have. Something that's very important and precious.

The RCP is our party--a party that's serious about winning and knows what winning means. A party that can take the pulse of the people and determine when the time to strike arises. A party that can handle the twists and turns that getting ready for revolution in a country like this will inevitably throw in our path. A party that can forge the alliances we'll need to have a real shot at winning. A party that has developed a strategy for taking on the military might that these imperialists have to throw at us...

The revolution we're talking about is the most radical, thoroughgoing break with all traditional property relations and traditional ideas. It's no wonder that carrying through this kind of revolution has been a process that involved advances and setbacks. But it's the only revolution that's based on the way society has actually developed and where things are really headed, and it's the only real way out of the madness of today. Like Mao Tsetung said, the road is tortuous, the future is bright.

This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online
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Inequality, Poverty and Hype in the "New Economy":

The Down Side of the Boom

By Raymond Lotta

Revolutionary Worker #999, March 21, 1999

The politicians and businessmen brag about it. The mainstream economists wheel out statistics. Clinton repeats it like a mantra. The message? "This is the best economy in 30 years." So good that some of its boosters have called it a "new economy."

My inquiries took me to an economist at the Congressional Budget Office. He also shared some numbers with me. In 1994, a year after Clinton took office, those households that made over $200,000 a year (about 1 percent of households) received 14 percent of national income. In 1997 this elite group increased its share of total household income to 20 percent--an astonishingly rapid rise in concentration of wealth at the very top. Some people do have reason to celebrate.

Boom Times for Them

The U.S. economy is indeed growing faster than it did in the early 1990s. America's growth is outstripping that of the other imperialist economies. Official unemployment has come down from 7.3 percent in 1993 to 4.5 percent in 1998. The federal budget balance has gone from a $300 billion deficit to a $70 billion surplus. Inflation is at its lowest level since the early 1960s.

New jobs are less likely to offer health and pension benefits--so fewer of us are seeing doctors today than in 1989. The percentage of the labor force in unions fell rapidly in the 1980s and continued to decline in the 1990s--so fewer of us have contract protections. Labor costs have been pushed down by employers and this is an important reason that more people have been hired. It's not some miracle of "job creation."

Poverty Amidst Growth

The bottom 20 percent of the population in income and the bottom 10 percent of the labor force have been hit hard. In 1997 and 1998, real wages rose for low-paid workers. But the hurtful effects of cuts in welfare, food stamps, and other social programs are beginning to be felt more widely. A 1998 survey by the Children's Defense Fund found that in the early stages of "welfare-to-work," only a small fraction of new jobs found by welfare recipients paid above-poverty wages.

We're constantly told that education is the ticket for the disadvantaged. It doesn't quite work that way. Black and Latino women college graduates actually saw their wages decline during the 1992-97 recovery. Meanwhile, young Black and Latino males are being locked up in prison at a terrifying rate.

Wealth Gap Widens

The headline economic event of the decade has been the soaring stock market. But look again: 60 percent of U.S. households own no stock, and close to 90 percent of the spectacular market gains of the 1990s went to the top 10 percent of households.

Inequality, poverty, and hype. This is the story told in the statistics and commentary that follow. This is capitalism in its turbulence and cruelty.

*****

Health Care as a Luxury

Despite the growing economy, the number of people without health insurance has been rising sharply. In 1997, 43.4 million had no health coverage. This is 16.1 percent of the population, the highest level of the decade. 22 percent of Black people and 34 percent of Latinos are without health coverage. The working poor make up the largest segment of the uninsured. (See Charts #1 and #2.)

Why is this happening? One, most of the new jobs in the economy are in small businesses that are less likely than big companies to provide health insurance. At the same time, many large-scale employers are cutting back health benefits, both for employees and their dependents. A survey by the Kaiser Foundation showed that in 1985 nearly two-thirds of all businesses with 100 or more employees paid the full cost of a worker's care; in 1995, only one-third did so.

Two, "welfare reform" is eroding health support from Medicaid (the government health insurance program for the poor). Six million people have left the welfare rolls in the last five years. The jobs they typically find do not provide health insurance. Some of these people can still get Medicaid coverage for a year, but then they are dropped. In many states, income limits for Medicaid are set so high that even many poor people do not qualify. For immigrants, new laws have created an intimidating atmosphere that keeps many who might otherwise be eligible for Medicaid from applying.

Three, more and more people simply cannot afford to pay for private health insurance.

The growing lack of health coverage and the rising cost of health care are taking their toll. Medical costs are rising faster than workers' wages. As compared with people who have health insurance, the uninsured are less likely to get check-ups and treatment, less likely get prescriptions filled. Many of the uninsured wait until they become very sick and resort to hospital emergency rooms.

There is evidence that late detection and treatment of diseases like cancer are leading to higher death rates for poor people and Black people. It is a problem linked to declining access to health care.

The Lock-up Boom

The number of people locked up in federal, state, and local prisons is close to 1.8 million--an increase of 500,000 since Clinton came to office. (See Chart #3.) The United States has the largest penal system in the world. Nearly 1 of every 150 people in the United States is in prison or jail--a rate of incarceration that ranks close to the top of the world. The lock-up frenzy continues even though crime rates are falling.

The prison population is mostly young and poorly educated. While Black people make up 12 percent of the U.S. population, starting in the 1990s Black people accounted for more than 50 percent of the people being sent to state and federal prisons.

The United States has 1.5 to 2 percent of its potential workforce in jail.

Unemployment--Looking Behind the Official Numbers

Over the last year the government has been trumpeting the "low rate" of unemployment: 4.5 percent in 1998, down from 7.3 percent in 1993. But this statistic gives only a partial picture of joblessness and misses the problem of underemployment.

To begin with, different groups of people are affected differently by the economy. For instance, the Black unemployment rate in 1997 was 10 percent--a distressingly high level of joblessness and double the overall unemployment rate.

More generally, the official unemployment rate doesn't reveal longer-term unemployment and "underemployment." Not included in the unemployment statistic are those people working part-time but who want to work full-time, people who want to work but who have been discouraged from looking because they fail to find jobs.

If you put these categories together, you get an "underemployment rate" of 8.9 percent in 1997--which is considerably higher than the official unemployment rate of 4.9 percent. For 16- to 25-year-old Black males with a high school degree, their unemployment rate was 23 percent and their underemployment rate was 37 percent. For those without a high school degree, their unemployment rate was 37 percent and their underemployment rate was 51 percent.

Having a job does not mean you keep a job. Layoffs and downsizing have persisted through the "boom economy." Between 1992 and 1995, 15 percent of all workers holding jobs for one year or longer lost those jobs. While many found new jobs, on average the new jobs paid 14 percent less than before. Older workers who lose jobs, including white collar and middle-manager professionals, have a very hard time finding comparable jobs.

High-Tech Hype: Virtual Jobs, Real Layoffs And Low Wages

With the economy growing, 18 million more people are working today than in 1993. But we have to look more closely at the job situation.

There's a lot of hype about the employment prospects opened up by new "information technology." But jobs in computer-related fields accounted for only 4 percent of the job growth between 1992 and 1996.

Look at Chart #4. It compares the numbers of people laid off from major industries between 1993-98 with the number of people employed in 1995 by the 20 "new titans" of the computer chip and software industry, like Microsoft and Intel. The total employment of these firms was close to 130,000. That compares with 721,000 working for General Motors in the same year. People losing jobs in other industries will not be able to simply upgrade to the high-tech sector. The well-paying high-tech firms are not big employers.

Manufacturing jobs that once paid middle-class wages are increasingly replaced by retail and service jobs which pay low wages. Together, these low-wage industries accounted for 79 percent of all new jobs in 1989-97. In 1997, the Bureau of Labor Statistics forecast the fastest-growing jobs through the year 2006. The profession with the most growth: cashier!

In 1997, 28 percent of the workforce earned poverty-level wages. It's been at that range throughout most of the 1990s, not exactly testimony to a robust economy supposedly "lifting all boats." 35 percent of employed women are earning poverty-level wages or less.

Poverty in the
Expanding Economy

In 1997, the poverty rate (the percent of the population living in poverty) stood at 13.3 percent. To be "in poverty" means not having enough money to meet basic needs. It means living below the so-called "poverty line." Over 35 million people were poor in 1996 and 1997.

With the economy growing, the poverty rate fell from 1993 to 1997. But the poverty rate in 1997 was still higher than it was in 1989 (the peak growth year before the last recession). In other words, the poverty rate is higher than in previous years with a strong economy.

There is another important characteristic of poverty in the 1990s. More and more poor people are living in extreme poverty. (See Chart #5.) In 1997, 14.6 million people had incomes of less than half the poverty level. This was an increase of over 500,000 from 1995. 40 percent of all poor people in 1997 were in this "deeply poor" and often desperate situation.

In California, nearly 30 percent of children under 6 were living in poverty in 1996. More than 1 in 10 children in the U.S. were living in extreme poverty.

The robust economy of the 1990s has not been bringing about a significant reduction in poverty. Why? Low-wage workers have a hard time working their way out of poverty. Sharp cutbacks in government assistance to the poor are creating a more desperate situation for many of the poor. And while the economy has been growing, income and wealth continue to be concentrated at the top levels.

Hunger and Homelessness

In the midst of economic growth, hunger and homelessness remain serious problems. Some of the people who suffer from hunger and homelessness have been poor for a long time. But homeless shelters and soup kitchens are also serving working poor whose jobs don't pay enough to put food on the table or a roof over people's heads.

Recently published national studies show 4 million or more children and many millions of adults regularly don't get enough to eat. Based on 1995 data, the United States Department of Agriculture estimated that 11 million Americans living in 4 million households are experiencing "moderate or severe hunger"--this means, for example, that adults are regularly forced to seriously cut back on what they eat so their children don't starve. An additional 24 million people live in 8 million households where people regularly skip meals or leave the table hungry because of lack of money. In all, about 35 million people in the United States experience varying degrees of hunger.

A study carried out in March 1998 by Physicians for Human Rights among Latino and Asian legal immigrants in California, Texas, and Illinois found that more than one in three of the immigrant households suffered from "moderate or severe hunger."

"Welfare reform" is creating new problems. A study released in Wisconsin, a state "pioneering" welfare reform, found that people who moved off the welfare rolls into jobs were 50 percent more likely to say they did not have enough money for food than people still on welfare.

Between 1994 and 1998, the number of people on food stamps dropped steeply, from 28 million to fewer than 19 million. Some people are no longer eligible. A significant number of people who are eligible for stamps aren't getting them because of the hostile climate that has been created around such assistance.

This is a major reason that emergency food providers in major cities report continued long lines and requests for food, particularly among working families and households with children. About 600,000 people in New York City now rely on emergency food. According to Second Harvest, one in 10 Americans, or an estimated 26 million people, get all or part of their food from charitable food agencies.

Homelessness is hard to measure--there is little interest by government agencies to develop detailed figures. The two trends most responsible for the rise in homelessness over the last 15 years are the shortage of affordable rental housing and the increase in poverty.

Earlier this year, the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty estimated that 700,000 people are homeless on any given night, and up to 2 million people are homeless at some time during any one year. A 1995 study estimated that 12 million adults in the U.S. have been homeless at some point in their lives.

In 1998, the U.S. Conference of Mayors found that applicants for public housing in 30 survey cities had to wait an average of 24 months from the time they applied until the time they received a space.

The lack of affordable health care contributes to homelessness. As the National Coalition For the Homeless put it: "For families and individuals struggling to pay rent, a serious illness or disability can start a downward spiral into homelessness, beginning with a lost job, depletion of savings to pay for care, and eventual eviction."

Deepening Inequality of Income and Wealth

Inequality has increased sharply over the last 20 years. Chart #6 shows the widening gap between the upper income and lower income groups, greater now than at any time since 1947. It has consistently increased over the Reagan, Bush and, now, Clinton years.

From 1979 through 1997, the income of the bottom 20 percent of families fell 7.6 percent, while the income of the top 20 percent was growing substantially.

What this has meant in terms of the distribution of income is this:

In 1979, the lowest fifth of families received 5.4 percent of all family income, but in 1997, their share declined to 4.2 percent. In 1979, the top fifth of families received 41.4 percent of all income, but in 1997 received 47.2 percent of all family income. The wealthiest fifth now averages 11 times more income per family than the poorest fifth. The middle 60 percent saw their share of income fall from 53.2 percent in 1979 to 48.6 percent in 1997. In the 1990s, the income gains were greatest for the very rich: the top 1 percent of families saw their incomes grow by 10 percent.

So the rich have gotten richer, the poor have gotten poorer, the middle has been squeezed.

But this pattern of income inequality doesn't tell the whole story. It doesn't include bank accounts, holdings of stocks, bonds, and other forms of wealth. The distribution of wealth in America is much more unequal than the distribution of income. In 1995, the wealthiest 10 percent of households controlled 72 percent of total wealth. The top 1 percent alone controlled nearly 40 percent of total wealth! The bottom 40 percent of households had only two-tenths of a percent of wealth.

What we have been looking at here has been unequal distribution of income. This inequality stems from unequal ownership of the productive resources of society. A tiny minority of the population, the capitalist-imperialist class, controls the means of production and exploits an international class of laborers. The economy and society are structured to serve the interests of the capitalist class. Inequality and poverty are built into capitalism.

Tremendous wealth is being created over this period of economic expansion in the U.S. But true to the nature of capitalism, this wealth pools up in the upper reaches of society.

America never was and never will be an egalitarian society...until there is socialist revolution. In fact, it is a society which continues to grow only more unequal.

Selected References

Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein, John Schmitt, The State of Working America, 1998-99.

Edward Wolff, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1998.

Business Week, "Sharing Prosperity," September 1, 1997.

Edward Luttwack, Turbo-Capitalism.

New York Times, "Uninsured in U.S. Span Many Groups," February 27, 1999.

Food Research and Action Center, Recent Studies on Hunger in the United States.

National Coalition for the Homeless, How Many People Experience Homelessness?

National Center for Children in Poverty, Young Children in Poverty.

New York Times, "Welfare Policies Alter the Face of Food Lines," February 26, 1999.

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On the 150th Anniversary of the Communist Manifesto

Statement by the Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement

Revolutionary Worker #956, May 3, 1998

February 1998 marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Communist Manifesto. Written by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, the Manifesto marks the beginning of the class-conscious proletarian movement. The Manifesto, in a broad and sweeping way, revealed the workings of capitalism and the need for the proletariat to overthrow this system and construct a new social system of socialism and communism.

150 years later, the Manifesto still strikes us with the power of its denunciation of the capitalist system, the scientific clarity of the causes and solutions of exploitation and oppression, its soaring revolutionary vision of a new society without class divisions, and its resounding optimism and confidence in the revolutionary class and the ultimate triumph of its historic mission.

The course of the proletarian revolution has proven to be protracted and complex, full of twists and turns, of partial victories and temporary defeats in the course of its ultimately triumphant march. The revolutionary science first developed by Marx and Engels has developed through stages and in connection with the struggles of millions of people over the many decades to what we understand as Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. Yet the Manifesto has lost none of its relevance for today.

The Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement calls upon the participating parties and organizations of RIM, together with other Marxist-Leninist-Maoist forces, to use this 150th anniversary to take up the study and promotion of the Communist Manifesto, to use this anniversary as an opportunity to boldly promote our communist vision among the masses, and to discuss and deepen our own understanding of our scientific ideology and the historic mission of the proletariat.

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	.	How Maoist Revolution Wiped Out Drug Addiction in China by C. Clark Kissinger
In the United States today, ending drug addiction seems impossible. The system claims to be ``fighting drugs'' -- with cops, new medications, religion, new therapies, and ``just say no'' campaigns. But despite all of this the drug problem won't go away -- while armed police enforcers harass and brutalize the people. Why? Because this dog-eat-dog system causes drug use, and because powerful forces within the system profit off of drug sales. The production, transportation and sale of drugs is a multi-billion-dollar business. It is run by big-time capitalists who have ties throughout the U.S. government, the CIA and the police. Meanwhile, the top rulers of this system blame the people for the ``drug problem'' -- especially poor ghetto youth. MAOISTS SAY: ALL OPPRESSION, INCLUDING DRUG ADDICTION, CAN BE OVERTHROWN! How do we know? Because after Maoist revolution won in China, in 1949, the people themselves led by the Communist Party of China used Maoist methods to wipe out drug addiction. This experience and these methods are very relevant to the world today! Revolutionaries all over the planet are studying the contributions of Mao Tsetung, the greatest revolutionary of our time. And they are teaching the people how Mao's theory and practice can show people today how to liberate themselves. On Mao's 100th birthday, December 26, 1993, celebrations of the Mao Centenary went into high gear. This story of how Maoist Revolution ended drug addiction shows that ``WHEN REVOLUTION HAS ITS DAY, PEOPLE SEE THINGS A DIFFERENT WAY.'' Old China Had the World's Biggest Drug Problem Before Mao's revolution won, in 1949, the people of China were miserably poor, ruled by a handful of rich landowners, warlords and foreign capitalists. Under that old society, many people were strung out on the pipe. There were 70 million junkies in China -- addicted to opium, morphine and heroin. Half-starving laborers used the sweet opium dreams to cover the pain of hunger and hopelessness. And the lazy rich used drugs to fill up their empty hours. In some areas everyone even children, smoked opium. In the cities, tiny bottles of drugs were sold on the streetcorners like ice cream. People got high on the job. The people of old China suffered terribly from this drug addiction. Many poor people used their pennies on the pipe instead of food. Addicts often abandoned their children or even SOLD their children to buy more drugs. Addicted women were often forced to become prostitutes and many died of diseases. How the System Started this Drug Addiction Drugs were forced on China by the rich colonialists of Europe and America. The British government even waged the famous Opium War in 1839 to force China to accept opium brought on English ships. Malcolm X wrote: ``Imagine! Declare war upon someone who objects to being narcotized!'' This drug trade started because big capitalists could make fortunes selling addictive drugs, and because colonialist governments needed that trade to finance their takeover of China itself. Corrupt Chinese officials profited too, by helping the foreign capitalists enslave the people. This is similar to the way the U.S. ruling class helped create today's worldwide plague of drug addiction. The U.S. ruling class is tied into the drug traffic at all levels -- they often organize it, finance it and defend it. In the 1960s, the CIA flooded heroin into oppressed communities to pay for their secret war in Laos. Then, in Reagan's 1980s, the CIA expanded cocaine traffic to finance their secret war against Nicaragua. U.S. drug companies make profit off speed and downers which are sold in both legal and ``illegal'' ways. The official connection goes down to the street level -- where cops demand their ``cut'' of drug profits. The experience of both China and the U.S. shows why this system can never solve drug addiction. The system causes the suffering and isolation that makes many people escape into drugs. The system uses drug addiction to weaken the people and enslave them. And all kinds of capitalists and officials then make big money from drugs. In short, this system CAUSES drug addiction and profits from it. In China, the Maoist revolution ended drug addiction QUICKLY. Mao's revolutionary armies defeated the oppressors' armies in 1949. THREE YEARS LATER, in 1952, there were no more addicts, no more pushers, no more opium poppies grown, and no more drugs smuggled in. In only three short years China went from 70 million drug addicts to none. How Did the Maoist Revolution End Drug Addiction? In China, the revolution created a People's Liberation Army and then a new People's Government. This government and the revolutionary masses were led by the Maoist vanguard party, the Communist Party of China. When the revolution won in 1949, the power in society SERVED THE PEOPLE for the first time, not the oppressors. There were big problems of all kinds, left over from the old society. But now it was possible for the people to be organized in their own interests to solve those problems. From the first months of the NEW POWER, the revolution used the Maoist method of MASS LINE to take on drug addiction. This campaign did not rely on social workers talking down to the people or on punishments. The revolutionary communists relied on THE MASSES OF PEOPLE -- throughout cities and countryside -- to organize themselves to end drug manufacturing, sale and use. The Maoist revolutionaries called on the addicts themselves to step forward, kick their habit and join the struggle for a new society. The Maoist revolutionaries organized the people in the communities to struggle with their addicted brothers and sisters: to persuade them and educate them. Ex-addicts and their families joined big marches and rallies. Drugs were burned at neighborhood celebrations. Kids were organized in their schools. The NEW POWER meant that the newspapers and radio were mobilized to support the revolutionary campaign. It was hard to kick the habit, and many addicts resisted at first. But the masses knew if an addict was still copping drugs. Children argued with parents. Wives argued with husbands. Everyone asked the addicts to get with the new society. At the same time, the revolutionaries organized the people to bust up the business networks that sold drug poison to the people. This meant that supplies were disappearing -- it was getting harder and harder for addicts to stay high. In short, the struggle against drug addiction became a large-scale mass movement -- the kind of mass movement only a true revolutionary government of the people can create. Ending Drug Addiction Is Part of the CLASS Struggle Mao Tsetung said "UNITE ALL WHO CAN BE UNITED AGAINST THE REAL ENEMY." In China, the vanguard taught people that ending drug addiction was part of the CLASS STRUGGLE against the old society -- and people were urged to make clear distinctions between the people and the enemy. The Maoists said that the system and its big-time supporters should be considered enemies, and that the addicts should be considered part of the people and should be treated as victims of the system. This is the opposite approach from the pig-cops and most religious preachers who act like ``the system is OK'' and who treat addicts like human trash and criminals. Because of these class distinctions, addicts were not arrested when they ``went public.'' Instead, the people praised the addicts for doing the RIGHT AND REVOLUTIONARY thing. Because the people were in power, the addicts eventually lost their fear of seeking help. Deadlines were set: addicts got several months to get clean. During this period, they could keep a little opium and they were given injections to ease the muscle cramps of withdrawal. Mao's revolutionary government also said small-time drug dealers would not be treated as Enemies of the People -- IF these small-time operators helped end the drug trade. The revolutionary government offered small-time dealers a one-time-only deal: Mao's government bought out all ``the product'' that small dealers and growers had. In exchange, these small-time operators had to get out of the drug business for good. Some small-time drug dealers resisted this deal -- they were called out by the people and arrested. Some were put under constant neighborhood surveillance, others went to prison to be re-educated. This revolutionary policy treated all poor people as brothers and sisters. Poor addicts and dealers got ``A WAY OUT'' of the drug trade. They were given jobs and were encouraged to join the struggle for a new society. A different approach was taken toward the big-time drug traffickers who got rich off the suffering of the people. They were classified "Enemies of the People." These big-time criminals were put on trial in front of thousands of people. People whose lives were ruined by drugs testified against them. These big-time oppressors got COLD HARD JUSTICE: life in prison or public execution. There weren't many such executions -- only five or ten in the largest cities. Mao's Anti-Addiction Campaign was a Great Success By the end of 1951 the New China News Agency announced that the drug problem had been ``fundamentally wiped out'' in northern China (which had been liberated first). Southern China, which included many opium-growing areas, took another year or so. The fact that there was a new revolutionary STATE POWER made all this possible: There was new money issued and revolutionary control of banking that stopped money laundering. The discipline and consciousness of the revolutionary movement meant that drug dealers couldn't buy off people in the new government. And the development of a new SOCIALIST economy meant that it was possible to provide jobs and eliminate the poverty that forced people into the drug trade. China had almost no drug addiction for over twenty years. Then it came back, after 1976. This is because the Maoist revolution was overthrown. As soon as old-style capitalism came back, drug addiction started to reappear. In a bitter way, this capitalist restoration also shows how YOU CAN'T FREE THE PEOPLE WITHOUT MAKING REVOLUTION AND THEN STAYING ON THE REVOLUTIONARY ROAD. Maoist revolution rejected the whole BOURGEOIS approach to drugs: Maoism is not about a few reforms, ``some money for drug rehabilitation.'' It's not about individual ``solutions'' through one-on-one therapy. It's not about filling prisons with addicts while allowing big capitalists to get rich on drug trade. It is not about the hypocrisy and useless moralism of the preachers. Any talk about getting rid of drugs without proletarian revolution is just a pipe dream. Mao's revolution was about real solutions -- it was about stopping the terrible slavery to drugs, and stopping the capitalist drug trade that profited off people's suffering. And lots of other oppression was being wiped out too. Using Maoist methods, the revolutionary masses got rid of prostitution, sale of children, brutal poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, wife beating, crime, police brutality, and so on. The revolution completely changed the lives and thinking of millions and millions of people. It led the people to do things that were unthinkable only a couple years before. MAOIST REVOLUTION WORKS because it gets to the root of the problems: Maoist revolution overthrows the oppressors and their old system, and then relies on the masses to continue the revolution and build a whole new society. That's what it's gonna take here too: a revolution. Real change is way past due. * * * * * A longer version of this article is available as a pamphlet from RCP Publications, and originally appeared in RW #734. This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online http://www.mcs.net/~rwor Write: Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654 Phone: 773-227-4066 Fax: 773-227-4497 (The RW Online does not currently communicate via email.)