Chiapas: migrant caravan needs antiracist solidarity
A new multinational caravan of migrants has just left Chiapas to travel through Mexican territory and reach the border with the United States to see if they can cross. They are humble, hard working people, women and children full of dust and sweat, thirsty and hungry, many of them possibly sick, but all with the same goal, to reach U.S. territory to have a better life and get a job to help the families they leave behind.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden signs an executive order to deport on the spot those who do not meet the requirements for asylum and other measures comparable to that of former President Donald Trump, whom he vehemently criticized when, during his term, he took horrible measures against migrants, especially those coming from Latin America, the Middle East and Asia.
We are at a point within the territory, with the arrival of hundreds of migrants who entered during this period that most of them are in limbo, hundreds of them in shelters, others on the streets homeless without work and without a permit to work, so what do we do? What do our community organizations in which we are involved do to help our immigrant brothers and sisters? There is a great silence. No one says anything; there are no actions, no calls for protest actions in favor of our brothers who are fleeing their countries, hoping to have a better future in the so-called land of liberty and freedom.
A land in which they are super-exploited and where bosses use lies that migrants steal jobs from Black and Latin who are already here. In this period in which they are scapegoating migrants to win electoral votes. Trump is threatening to carry out mass deportations and liberals quietly promise the same.
All this leads us to think and to assure that neither one party nor the other, that there is no lesser evil candidate. Regardless of who wins, it is a lose-lose situation for our class siblings who are fleeing from the countries, the vast majority of which were former colonies, plundered and exploited by the colonizers. After centuries of slavery and exploitation, these countries are still suffering the horror of capitalism, imperialism and fascism that is exported from the developed capitalist countries,whose working class is also suffering the horror of exploitation and fascism of the bosses, who repress any sign of uprising and protests to ensure their political and economic interests.
Therefore the only way to resolve this horror, is to organize and fight within community organizations, industries and wherever our Party can organize and grow, until we become a mass party, ready to lead the international working class to make communist revolution and establish workers’ power which will liquidate once and for all the borders that separate us, resolve all the needs of the working class and build a better world for all and where we will give the final burial to capitalism and imperialism.
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Oppose “beautiful” (profitable) Bloomington
On July 17th, four comrades visited the Southside camps in Bloomington, Indiana. Located along the B-Line trail, these camps demonstrate the indomitable spirit of the most oppressed citizens in Bloomington. Community thrives even while this system does its utmost to destroy the spirit of the people. While the city claims to be the most progressive and liberal town in Southern Indiana, we see the true nature of Mayor KKKerry Thomson and the kkkops. Bloomington relies on the influx of 40,000 students to Indiana State University-Bloomington, marketed as the “most beautiful campus in the world” to make its profits. As such, the city must follow suit and make Bloomington as a whole “beautiful”. But, we know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the only thing a capitalist has eyes for is profit. Therefore, in order to make Bloomington as “beautiful” (profitable) as possible, the impoverished must be hidden from view. And so, before all the impressionable students come back to town, the City “cleans up town”.
An eviction notice has been served and the Bloomington Pig Department will take action on August 3rd, but we will not let them do so in silence. From this park to the next, they are being told that they can’t be here, nor there. Meanwhile, more and more cheaply built, overpriced apartment complexes are built to hold more students, and generate more profit. This process is a continuation of the settler-colonial project called Amerikkka and is not dissimilar to the plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the rest of the occupied territories.
We must come together in defense of the oppressed masses of the world. This depraved system must not be allowed to continue its violent attacks on our communities! Comrades, we can only defend the people through a violent destruction of the capitalist system that keeps us in chains. There is no time left to discuss long term strategy. We must be prepared for what is to come!
CHALLENGE Response: A red salute for your efforts to build solidarity and political struggle with displaced workers in your area. What is happening is undoubtedly part of a broader trend of violent state oppression by the world's capitalist ruling classes, and as you claim, it cannot be any other way as long as the profit system exists. The solution remains to build a mass international Progressive Labor Party that openly fights for communist revolution. Not just in defense of the oppressed masses, but a revolutionary movement led by those most attacked by racist capitalism and imperialism, particularly Black workers around the world.
To build a communist movement and PLP, we must understand the dialectical connection between short-term and long-term political strategies and never sacrifice one at the expense of the other. CHALLENGE looks forward to hearing more about the struggle in Bloomington and ways other workers and students can support this struggle!
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MTA: Racist speed-up & terror tactics kill worker
During a recent training practical for new train operators in New York City, a student train operator collapsed. He was taken to a nearby hospital where officials later pronounced him dead.
This, however, wasn’t just some tragic isolated incident. The racist environment surrounding the majority Black and Latin workers for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), the agency that operates the city’s trains and buses, undoubtedly played a role.
Before the operator collapsed while taking the practical, he told supervisors he was feeling very anxious.
While his cause of death has not been revealed as of this writing, many transit workers who have endured the stressful training practices the MTA forces its new hires through can relate to how he felt before his exam.
From the beginning of training throughout, the focus is on scaring new train operators through fear based tactics. They’re constantly told they will be severely punished or even fired for the smallest infractions--a complete lie. Some supervisors tell new recruits that half of them will not make it.
This is completely normalized as, “It’s just how it is down here.”
Couple that experience with the MTA bosses cutting training time to push more operators out faster, due to the Covid hiring freeze THEY implemented, and giving a signal exam train operators are supposed to get a perfect score on (or possibly be fired), and you have a recipe for incidents like this worker’s passing.
This shift in the training process represents MTA bosses’ efforts to speed up train service off the back of their workforce, our lives and health be damned. During the pandemic, the MTA shortened train operator training by seven to eight weeks.
TWU Local 100, the union that represents NYC transit workers, is in bed with the bosses, and has done little to nothing to address the way train operators are trained, or treated on the job. They have also worked with management to force more train trips into the operating schedules, leaving operators with less recovery time between their runs. While operating in and of itself isn’t necessarily physically demanding, it can be mentally strenuous. Operators have to be mindful of safe operation to ensure passengers aren’t thrown around the train, signal and track conditions on the route, and passengers on the station platforms as well. Several things can go wrong if we aren’t paying complete attention to the task at hand. Consequently, sufficient breaks after each trip are necessary to properly reset before making the next departure to the other terminal. Less break time leads to an increased likelihood of making mistakes, and receiving “plantation justice” (a term some in Transit have coined for the racist punishments MTA workers receive for infractions).
The job environment can put an immense strain on workers’ bodies. Many of our crew rooms are filthy and hazardous, with conditions such as mold and even silica dust. Many die shortly after retirement. It’s not uncommon for those who survive to suffer from ailments such as carpal tunnel, shoulder issues and knee problems in later years. The transit bosses will give their crocodile tears over this young worker literally getting stressed to death, then continue on with business as usual.
It’s clear that MTA workers and all workers need a better alternative that takes our lives into consideration, and that’s one where we don’t generate profit for the ruling class, but one where we collectively work to better the world for one another-communism.
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Book review doesn’t mention I’m in PLP!
The review of Anti-Racism as Communism left out two important things. The author is proud to have been a member of Progressive Labor Party for 52+ years. The book is dedicated to two collectives from whom I came to my understanding of racism and how to end it: the students I have known at Chicago State University and my comrades in the Progressive Labor Party.
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