NEW YORK CITY—This spring as anti-Asian hate crimes came into focus for the main wing media, thousands of New Yorkers protested in Manhattan’s Chinatown where Progressive Labor Party (PLP) joined fellow workers in calling out the racist capitalist system that fosters these types of attacks. The protest was sparked by the March 16 mass shooting in Atlanta, GA where eight workers, including six women immigrant workers were shot and killed by a gunman. At the New York protest, amidst an integrated crowd of Black, Latin, Asian and white workers, PLP responded to speeches calling for the misleadership of liberal and Democratic politicians by distributing copies of CHALLENGE and holding a rally nearby that put our communist and revolutionary line front and center.
Asian, Latin, Black, and white: Workers of the World Unite!
At the rally, Andrew Yang, a former Democratic presidential candidate and current mayoral candidate took the mic. He promised to put more funding into the city’s New York Police Department (NYPD) Asian Hate Crimes Task Force if elected, to which the crowd chanted “Defund the police!”
Protesters pointed out that police have not protected Asian American workers in the past, and PLP added that they have never been on the side of the working class! The same Klan in Blue that murdered so many Black and Latin workers—George Floyd, Eric Garner, Shantel Davis and so many more. This is the same NYPD that liberal politicians are saying will “protect” Asian lives. The NYPD however has proved to be no friend to Asian workers - not now, not ever.
In 2017, a 38-year-old sex worker from China, died after she fell from a four-story window as officers were trying to arrest her during an NYPD raid on a massage parlor. In 2014, NYPD officers beat Kang Wong, an 84-year-old man for jaywalking on the Upper West Side.
At the protest the multiracial crowd was not fooled by Yang’s misleadership. Workers don’t need more or better policing - there is no such thing as better policing. Workers need an international communist revolution that delivers to each worker based on need, from each worker based on ability.
Multiracial unity shuts down liberal misleaders and myths
PLP and our class brothers and sisters cannot be fooled by the bosses’ attempts to pit Black, Latin, and Asian workers against one another. Despite the racist trope that Asian-Americans are a “model minority,” capitalism thrives off the super-exploitation of many Asian workers, just as they super exploit Black, Latin, and immigrant workers.
One quarter of Asian residents in New York City live under the poverty line (NBC News, 10/21/20). The true purpose of the unscientific “model minority” myth is to blame Black and Latin workers for their own suffering, when in actuality it is anti-Black racism and capitalism that paves the way for bosses to launch racist attacks against all workers.
Anti-Asian racism is fueled by U.S. imperialism, which was only able to take hold through the enslavement and exploitation of Black people worldwide. The fight against anti-Black racism must therefore be at the center of the struggle, just as Black workers are key to our revolutionary fight back.
That’s why PLP organizes a multiracial working class. Communism will win when workers internationally unite!
Covid-19 pandemic adds gasoline to racist flames
The recent wave of anti-Asian racism during the Covid-19 pandemic is not a new trend. In response to an influx of Chinese immigrants in the 1850s, the U.S. government passed its first major immigration law—the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882—suspending Chinese immigration for over 60 years and making Chinese immigrants ineligible for naturalization. This law reinforced the racist trope of “Asians coming to steal jobs from white workers,'' when in actuality it is capitalism that leaves all workers without sustainable means of living.
Similarly, in 1900, an outbreak of the bubonic plague struck San Francisco. It is likely that the outbreak began with a ship from Australia, but since the first stateside victim was an immigrant from China, the whole Chinese-American community was blamed for it and police violence followed overnight.
Over 120 years later, Asian workers are again being scapegoated and victimized during the Covid-19 pandemic. At the most recent protest, to show a truly working-class, antiracist response to the attacks, a group of PLP members and supporters led a rally to drive the politics of the mainstream march towards our revolutionary and international line.
One comrade gave his prepared speech and others led chants such as “Asian, Latin, Black and white, workers of the world unite!” on the bullhorn as hundreds walked by and we distributed nearly 240 copies of CHALLENGE. We also handed our bullhorn to a worker in the street, who led a chant of “No more hate!”
Comrades voiced the anger and fear they feel for family and friends in light of the recent racist attacks and named communism as the only answer to ending these racist attacks. We denounced the anti-Asian racism as the same racism that our Black and Latin students face in racist Department of Education schools and called for an international, integrated, worker-led revolution worldwide! Join PLP! Fight Racism!