The US governments attacks in Afganistan and Sudan recently Caused the deaths of at least 21 people in Afganistan and 5 deaths in Sudan.

Government officials claimed "strong evidence" against Sultan Osama Ben Laden but declined to provide any details for this evidence. The Sudanese government stated that a pharmaceutical plant was destroyed and not a chemical warfare plant. The strike in Sudan sparked angry protests at the US embassy.

It is crucial to note that the site in Afganistan that was bombed was one of those set up by the CIA in the holy war against the former Soviet Union. At the time the Reagan regime called these Taliban "freedom fighters". The US government quietly encouraged the Taliban to take over at the expense of the warring military factions in Afganistan in order to create stability for US interests in Central Asia. This was at the same time that the US was praising the Taliban for its efforts in the "war on drugs", because they were eliminating the traditional economy of hashish in favor of the more lucrative commodity, heroin (the US ignored this part).

The US is also involved in the war in Sudan against the government in Khartoum and backing the christian fundamentalist army of Southern Sudan in a war where famine is a weapon and the killing never stops. The Sudan is another key to gaining greater influence for Uncle Sam in Africa largely at the expense of France whose reaction the attacks was remarkably mixed. So by launching the missles US imperialism is taking care of two things at once, striking a blow against the Taliban who proved useless to American interests and against the regime in the Sudan which the US government also sees as key to its interests.

American workers are told that they must be ready for further attacks and that by virtue of "America's Leadership" they can look forward to further actions by the state in their defence. In other words this is just the beginning of yet another new and bloody conflict.

The bourgeois press immediately jumped forward in debating whether the attack was similar the Hollywood movie Wag the Dog. This was a diversion from the fact that one of our former freedom fighters is now fighting against the US government.

There is a double dynamic at work, the US government is involved in a increasingly bitter factional struggle between Democrat and Republican factions of the ruling class at the same time it is also engaged in a struggle against the little imperialisms abroad (Haiti, Iraq, Panama and now Sudan and Afghanistan) that have shown more independent nationalist tendencies. The US government is clearly in an offensive against those former allies that have chosen to turn against their imperialist patron.

This also serves to show our allies that the US is still the strongest imperialist power in the world.

For the past several years now, the ruling class, with plenty of help from their loyal servants in the corporate media and in government, have been promoting the Big Lie that the Social Security system is about to go belly up in the not-too- distant future. The self serving purpose of this campaign has been another attempt to manipulate public opinion into (1), believing that a crisis really does exist and (2), accepting the inevitable cuts in their Social Security benefits that will be carried out under the guise of "reforms."

The very same politicians, Republicans and Democrats alike, who for years have been gleefully swinging the budget cutting ax, slashing social programs to the bone in order to finance big tax breaks for the rich, are coming forward with their remedies to "save" Social Security. Their solutions are nothing but poison pills that workers, including the unemployed and retirees, should refuse to swallow without a fight. To paraphrase the German poet Bertolt Brecht a bit loosely perhaps , whenever you hear the government talking about "reforms" these days, that 's the time to barricade your front door and tighten your grip on your wallet.

In 1983, the government created what's known as the Social Security Trust Fund, ostensibly to ensure that payroll taxes directed into the Fund would be used to pay retiree benefits -only. Currently the fund is taking in about $50 billion per year more than is being paid out in benefits. The fund is also invested in US Treasury securities which yields an additional $50 billion or so per year. What this adds up to is that the system is actually running a surplus of nearly $100 billion per year. (LA Times 2/16/98, A5) If this be the case, then what's all the worry? The only reason the so-called Social Security "crisis" exists at all is because the government , in its appointed role as Robin Hood In Reverse, is once more stealing from the working class in order to give to the rich. In this case the government has been, as they put it, "borrowing" the surplus money from the Fund and using it as part of the "unified Federal budget." In this way it can then be used to help pay, for example , the $300 Billion annually forked over to the Pentagon or the hundreds of billions given away each year to US corporations for tax rebates and various subsidies.

It is testimony to the skill of the American ruling class' public relations propaganda machine that it could get away with calling the coming proposals to reduce benefits , increase the age of retirement, and hand over Billions of our dollars of pension fund money to the sharks on Wall Street, a "reform." Some intentional fallout from this manufactured scare campaign has been the pitting of one section of workers against another. Many younger workers have swallowed the bait and believe they are paying into an already moribund system that's about to be bled dry by those too-numerous aging baby boomers. Naturally left out of the discussion by the big business controlled media is the trifling little fact that Social Security would continue to operate as a viable system if not for the Democratic and Republican Party politicians who have been looting the Fund for years to pay for everything but pension benefits.

President Clinton has called for a year of "discussion." So for the next several months, the administration will be busily scurrying about the countryside holding some of its typically sham "town hall meetings" at which they will be "listening to the people" in an attempt to build a consensus for their already decided on "reforms." Meanwhile the real discussions on how Social Security will be "reformed" will be made behind the scenes the political representatives , think tanks and lobbyists for the big corporations and banks. Release of the government's "Structural Adjustment Program" for Social Security will most certainly be delayed until after the November '98 congressional elections . In that way the Democratic and Republican Party candidates can continue posing as champions of the elderly, willing, no doubt to fight to the death to protect their pension fund. After the elections , however , crocodile tears will flow as these same politicians reluctantly "explain" the 'hard choices" that had to be made if "we" are to "save" Social Security.

Just how are the working class people going to successfully hold the line against these vicious governmental (read:Corporate) assaults on our standard of living? There are no easy answers. No guarantees.

But if workers are going to have even a fighting chance at all , they must first realize the class nature of all the political/economic battles that confront us on a daily basis. From the fight for universal health care , against unemployment and speed ups, for high quality education available to all, a clean and safe environment , to the preservation of our retirement fund, it is essential that working class people become conscious of themselves as a class and learn to recognize the capitalist class forces that stand between us and our aspirations. Most importantly , following this hightened understanding , the working class can themselves realize the necessity of building our own revolutionary organizations , industrial and political, with which to confront our tormentors in the class struggle.

Steve

Los Angeles Workers' Voice , Box 57483, Los Angeles, CA 90057

What masquerades as the free exercise of religion in this country in reality serves as a bulwark of reactionary thought within the working class - the only class capable of collectively solving the social problems caused by a system of global capitalism. The very multiplicity of churches in the US demonstrates at once the divisions in class society and the divisions within the working class. As the pull of traditional faith weakens, fundamentalism and new age spiritualism moves to fill in gap.

Religion as a social force is always reactionary. If patriotism is the "last refuge of scoundrels", then religion is surely the last refuge of the pathetic.

All major churches in the US can be invested in the same way as one would invest in a mutual fund. The reactionary social role of the religion is seen clearly in El Salvador where death squads received funds from evangelical christians to fight against the illusion of atheistic "communism" from guerrillas who in reality weren't communist and weren't particularly atheist either. The Israeli state has always been supported by the evangelical protestants who see in it the fulfillment of bible prophecy. Protestant sects like the Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah's Witless view the Israeli state and Orthodox Judaism as being a "remnant faith". The oldest pyramid scheme in the US, the Later Day Saints receive tithes from poor suckers all over the world to make the church "elders" back in Utah rich. In the eighties Jerry Falwell openly proclaimed that the only economic system allowed by god was 'free-market' capitalism and that American military power was sanctioned by god to bring Christian order to a chaotic godless world. The Catholic church has yoked most of Central and South America to cripplingly reactionary social teachings. The whole of the US acknowledges the Dalai Lama of Tibet as the spiritual head of the Buddhist religion, even though he was never more than the head of Tibetan Buddhist monks and that there are at least seven "High Lamas". It plays into the hands of Leftists in the United States who find eastern spirituality appealing and have the mistaken belief that an independent Tibet would be better for Tibetan workers. So like our democratic unions on the issue of Chinese slave labor, they line up against the rotten state-capitalist regime of China but end up supporting the bellicose imperialism of Uncle Sam who also uses slave labor in the prisons who make eveerything from airplane flight reservations to lingerie.

For the ruling class, religion is an excellent tool for mobilizing hypocritical moral outrage that is used to mobilize support for further cuts in the social programs. To the enlightenment mind religious freedom was the primary way to avoid destructive sectarian conflict. In the modern world of global capitalism religion serves only destructive purposes even when it is clothed in populism. Liberation theology serves to keep workers catholic. The priesthood has become a refuge for state-capitalists and reformists throughout North and South America.

In the US arrogance has crawled across the land clothed as an exercise in "freedom" in reality it keeps people stupid and uninformed and easily victimized. The Pentecostal and Charismatic movements proclaim their faith as if they themselves new "Christ" personally. There was no Moses or Christ. Moses was the Jewish version of an Assyrian lawgiver who was invented by the Jews to give themselves a national unity which at the time could only come through a religious faith. Jesus Christ isn't even the name of a person, it is a Greek title that means anointed savior. If there was such a man he was betrayed by his own followers who in their own guilt after the fact, proclaimed him as the son of god. Every time the ancient Hebrews were conquered they believed it was because they had transgressed the laws of god. These were a people who believed that spirits lived in pigs and other animals had hence had hundreds of bizarre dietary laws. They then would repent and become messianic in the same way that the Lakota took to the ghost shirt religion when finally conquered by the US military.

Religion is not a matter of personal choice, it is rather a matter of environment and conditioning. Those who convert to religions generally come from religious backgrounds. Why else would the dead sea scrolls be repressed? Why does Rabbi Hillel in his writings never even acknowledge a "Christ"? Because these things reveal the fabricated nature of religion in the US. It is encouraged today because it puts workers into the position of a narcissistic self-reflection that avoids questions of class society and social conflict. The fabled "protestant work ethic is used by the bourgeoisie to eliminate social programs that were intended to benefit the poor. One perception of religion in the US that one commonly encounters among immigrants is that there is no real spiritual faith in the US, that religion here is largely a social function for those who seek to belong to a community.

The older critiques of religion generally centered around debunking religious texts or by showing the hypocrisy of religion as it used by religious demagogues. The Federalists in the American revolution, particularly those who were free masons, believed that religious belief was meant primarily for the backwards masses or commoners and not for those who were a part of the landed ruling class of the enlightenment. Even the least harmful spiritual belief will serve only to distract workers from the necessary tasks of survival and class struggle. Because the root of spiritual belief is a narcissistic obsession with self that focuses all questions on the individual rather than on a class based community of interest.

Religions' task in society is to instill a "morality" that is meant to make people into good citizens. Of course, morality doesn't exist in the material world of the global capitalism and a false sense of security provided by a religion or a spiritual faith is not going to help workers overcome problems that are collectively shared as a class. Religious charity has always been a way for the ruling class to prove that they were socially necessary and better than the recipients of that charity. Religion as we know it today grows directly out of a primitive form of social organization which today serves to kneecap workers by selling them the promise of "pie in the sky when you die".