L.A.- Shadow of things to come

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ly members, the misery of a growing The author of the Newsweek piece, Blacks, Latinos, women and other H. Hackworth, the magazine's military oppressed sectors of the working class, expert, is something of an exception. who have historically been over-repre- He describes how he grew up as a sented in the ranks of the reserve army poor white youth in Los Angeles in the of unemployed, are sinking deeper into 1930s and had run around with a mixedthe ranks of the impoverished and the race street gang, sharing their poverty jobless. and suffering the irrational shame felt by worker living standards and raising profit But something new has been happen- those families forced to turn to the state ing. Increasingly, those sections of the for "welfare" to stay alive. His story has working class previously enjoying a rel- the ring of truth atively privileged position are being With this as his point of departure, he driven down to the status of the so-called tells of the despair and resentment he and "underclass " (That is workino clace his mixed-race teen comnanions felt view people who have almost lost all hope of then. He equates those feelings with the ever again getting a job that pays a liv-same moods felt by American youth in The biggest surprise, however, com- He goes further, saying: "l've seen nized in a job-training and reconstrucing after the rebellion triggered by the similar despair and resentment on the tion corps to lead our disenchanted youth racist Rodney King verdict, is the faces of Yugoslav guerrillas in Trieste of all races on a campaign to rebuild widespread recognition by ruling class after World War II. I saw it among Kore- themselves, our crumbling roads, swaycircles that the uprising was not just an insurgents in 1950, and again in the ing bridges, and to tear down the Third another explosion in the ghettos against five long bloody years I fought guerril- World ghettos and rebuild them into las in Vietnam. What all of these modern cities."

A headline in a May 25, 1992, disadvantaged young people had in com- - Hackworth's proposal is not without Newsweek commentary on the meaning mon was a blind dedication, a belief in merit, and has an unusual ring of sincerof the uprising was not untypical. It the efficacy of sheer violence to achieve ity not to be expected from a read: "This Was No Riot, It Was a a kind of rough justice."

Revolt." Nevertheless, there has been He concludes with a call for another officer corps. But it requires more than no sign that the ruling capitalists and Civilian Conservation Corps. He says band-aids to dacify the fury in our cities. their political representatives know what such an institution, like the one estab- And the capitalist class can't afford a to do-beyond chanting in chorus, "We lished in the throes of the great cure: If the capitalist class were to foot depression of the 1930s, "could be orga- the bill required to seriously alleviate 6 SOCALIST ACTION. JUNE 1992 able to make up for reduced earnings by increasing the number of working famiminority bas been intensifying.

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ing wage.)

racial injustice. must do something!" however, retired U.S. Army Col. David the central cities today. representative of the reactionary U.S. living wage, affordable housing, enough schools and teachers to educate the growing numbers of crippled minds, health care for all, etc.-the resulting cut in the rate of profit would aggravate the overall crisis of capitalist economy.

Unfortunately, the needs of the capitalist system drive it in the opposite direction. The moguls of American capitalism must go considerably further toward reducing rates if they hope to stabilize their increasingly shaky economic system. They have no choice. They must try to save their system by further cuts, increasing the suffering of more millions. This is their long But this can only result in the creation an ever-larger portion of the working class with nothing to lose but their misery. This means that the working class will be compelled to fight back.

Capitalism itself, as we can see, is paving the road toward the only way out for working people-toward the Third American Revolution, A revolution which will establish a truly democratic order extending into every nook and cranny of society-in every workplace, in every community. Real democracy-not dollar democracy will lead to the abolition of all forms of social, economic and political injustice. This, in turn, will lead humanity toward creating a world socialist order based on production for human needs, not profits.—N. W.