Workers Reject Plea for Silence
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• Oil War Spills Into Somalia, page 5, • Chavez Spreads Liberal Brand of This Week: Capitalism in Venezuela, page 5 • Deserter Exposes U.S. Warmakers, page 8 January 17, 2007 Volume 39, No. 49 Suggested Donation US$0.50 assassinate Qasim. The killing failed and Saddam was wounded in the attempt. Middle East WORKERS REJECT expert Adel Darwish said the move was done “with the full knowledge of the CIA,” and that Saddam’s CIA handler was an PLEA FOR SILENCE Iraqi dentist working for the CIA and Egyptian intelligence. Saddam then fled to Cairo, and was put on a stipend by the agency. In February, 1963, the military wing of the Baath Party (which Saddam had joined) overthrew and killed Qasim. Roger Morris, a former U.S. National Security Council staffer, said that the U.S. (during the Kennedy administra- tion) played a significant role in this coup and that it was mostly funded “with American money.” Historian Hanna Batatu reported that the CIA cooperated in this coup and gave the Baathists lists 50,000 MARCH AGAINST RACIST KILLER COPS of Iraqi communists.The Iraqi CP NEW YORK CITY, Dec. 16 — A PLP contingent of 40 had organized one million May members and friends turned a liberal misleaders’ “silent march” Day marchers in 1959 and was protesting the NYPD’s recent racist murder of a young black the largest communist party in man, Sean Bell, into a militant, chanting outcry by thousands the Mid-East, but made the mis- against police brutality. take of allying with a “progres- Tens of thousands of workers and students disrupted the sive” nationalist (Qasim), which usual holiday shopping as demonstrators filled Fifth Avenue from helped lead to its downfall. 58th to 34th Streets. The march was organized by former FBI Saddam was brought back from informer Al Sharpton and endorsed by dozens of other liberal Cairo as an “interrogator” and misleaders. It was part of the Democratic Party’s long-standing soon rose to the head of Baath effort to pacify the working class.This time they tried to muzzle Intelligence. Thousands of com- the demonstrators’ anger with a silent protest labeled, Donald Rumsfeld greeting Saddam Hussein in munists named by the CIA were “Shopping for Justice.” But workers and students weren’t buying 1983 as envoy of the Reagan Administration. killed. this strategy.While the liberals at the front of the march tried Then, after that government moving the demonstration down a slippery slope of pacifism, the Amid all the thousands of words spewing forth from was overthrown by Qasim officers, the Baathists came to Progressive Labor Party steered it in a militant direction from the U.S. press and TV about the life and times of the exe- power again in another coup, orchestrated by the CIA the inside. cuted butcher Saddam Hussein, there’s one little item (during the Johnson administration). Reuters reporter The PLP contingent distributed over 1,200 CHALLENGES and missing: before Saddam became a threat to U.S. oil prof- David Morgan wrote: “In 1968, Morris says, the CIA over 2,000 leaflets to workers hungry for revolutionary ideas. its and to their Saudi-Kuwait lackeys, he was the virtual encouraged a palace revolt…led by long-time Saddam We boldly put forward a communist analysis of the cops’ racist creation of U.S. rulers and its CIA (just like the CIA- mentor Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, who would turn over the murder, linking it to the millions of others slaughtered by the sponsored Osama bin Laden later became a U.S. enemy). reins of power to his ambitious protégé in 1979. ‘It’s a very system that produces these KKKiller cops, from Queens, The story begins in 1958 when Abdul Karim Qasim led regime that was unquestionably midwived by the United NY to South Africa.One demonstrator agreed,“You’re right, get- a coup that year to overthrow the British-installed States, and the (CIA’s) involvement there was really pri- ting rid of Kelly [NYPD Police Commissioner] isn’t gonna’ stop monarchy. U.S. rulers viewed him as a threat to reliable mary,’ Morris says.” these racist cops! The whole system’s gotta’ go!” (See Red Eye on oil exports, because he was pro-Soviet and would upset The U.S. specifically promoted the Tikritis to domi- the News, page 7, item 2) He then took eight CHALLENGES and the U.S.-organized anti-Soviet Baghdad Pact — an nance among the coup-makers, which included al-Bakr distributed them to all his friends waiting to march. alliance of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Britain and the U.S. and his cousin, Saddam Hussein, who quickly became the After passing out most of our literature, we began to lead In 1959, the UPI reported that Saddam, then in his power behind the throne. When the Khomeini forces chants:“Black cop! White cop! All the same! Racist murder is the early twenties, became part of a U.S.-directed plot to overthrew the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran in 1979, the CIA name of the game!”; and,“Asian, Latin, black and white! To smash and U.S. rulers had one more reason to turn to Saddam police terror we must unite!” Soon one of the liberal demon- Another Fiasco — Execution Backfires to counter this new “enemy.” stration’s organizers tried to silence our bullhorn by accusing us Everything the U.S. bosses do in Iraq is turning Saddam invaded Iran in 1980. In December 1983, the of “disrespecting” the leadership’s request for a silent protest. into its opposite. While Saddam’s execution was Reagan administration sent Donald Rumsfeld to Baghdad Just then another demonstrator, 20 feet ahead of us, began timed for the beginning of a Muslim holiday to to meet with Saddam and his foreign minister Tariq Aziz. yelling, “No more silence! We’ve been silent for too long!” exacerbate the growing chasm between Shiites and A U.S. State Department summary of that meeting stat- PLP’ers and other demonstrators then began to join our chant- Sunnis (Saddam was a Sunni), it has mainly trans- ed that, “The two agreed the U.S. and Iraq shared many ing,“No more silence! No more silence!” formed Saddam into a martyr in the Arab world. common interests: peace in the Gulf, keeping Syria and This was a pivotal point in the demonstration and there was The execution has caused so much repulsion Iran off balance and less influential, and promoting Egypt’s no turning back! From beginning to end, thousands of demon- worldwide that the Bush administration is now reintegration into the Arab world.” strators began to chant all the way down Fifth Avenue. PLP’ers trying to blame its Iraqi puppet government for This meeting had come after Saddam had used chem- had changed the nature of the demonstration for the rest of the hurrying the hanging — as if the U.S. occupation ical weapons to kill tens of thousands of Iraqi Kurds, day. These liberals weren’t going to silence the anger of the forces don’t control that regime. Meanwhile, while which obviously was no bar to the developing U.S.-Iraqi working class! many in the U.S. thought they “voted for troop relationship. In fact, the Reagan administration worked to Our ability to influence thousands of demonstrators with withdrawal” from Iraq, the opposite is looming. prevent the UN from censuring Saddam for his use of the idea of fighting back inspired both us and our friends. Other Bush is planning to send 30,000 more troops.And these WMDs. groups took up our chants and a high school student in our con- the Democrats will surely vote for the extra bil- It was during the Iraq-Iran war that U.S. rulers went all tingent realized this and enthusiastically yelled, “Hey, that’s our lions the Bush gang is asking for the fiasco there.! continued on page 2 continued on page 2 Page 2 • CHALLENGE • January 17, 2007 2006: Workers Fight Back Against Bosses’ Attack Last year began with the tragic deaths of making alliances that could endanger U.S. from the West Coast to the East Coast. In Mexico, sparked by a teachers’ strike, work- 11 miners in Sago, West Virginia, victims of dominance. Farmingville, Long Island, we openly fought ers and their allies rebelled and took over their bosses’ criminal negligence. The year Amid looming threats to their worldwide our battle against anti-immigrant racism in the city of Oaxaca for six months, and ended with the racist assassination of Sean supremacy, U.S. rulers have been retooling the courtroom after arrests at a street rally fought local and federal cops. But the Bell by the New York City police, who serve tactics at home as well as abroad. in defense of migrant workers harassed by reformism of the struggle’s leadership mis- to protect capitalist property and terrorize Democratic Party politicians have taken racists. led it, calling for a “lesser-evil” governor to workers. Between the bookends of these office with the hope of being able to win Mass participation in immigrant rights ral- replace the hated repressive governor murders, the year was filled with evidence workers’ loyalty and better enable the lies is one among several examples of the Ulises Ruíz. Many also have illusions that the of the system putting its rulers’ needs above rulers to control the growing chaos in Iraq anger of workers fighting back against the social-democratic opposition party of the workers’ lives. But we also witnessed a and prepare for increasing inter-imperialist injustices of the system this year and of “legitimate President” of Mexico, López glimpse of the fact that not only do work- rivalry.