Battle in the courts, battle in the streets

Last issue (CHALLENGE, 3/12) , we described the fascist masking legislation being pushed by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Zionists, the Baltimore Urban League and Black politicians in Prince George’s County. As promised, we fought back! The Maryland Senate Committee was blasted as over 20 students, disability activists, and Jewish Voice for Peace members along with a Progressive Labor Party (PLP) member testified boldly to condemn this bill as racist and anti-public health because it criminalizes mask wearing. I felt like I was riding with masked crusaders! Legislative hearings can be as distracting from revolutionary struggle as voting, but this time I felt like I was at a militant rally, albeit in Senate chambers. By sharing CHALLENGE with these activists, I have helped lay the foundation for a sharper struggle against racist capitalism and for a broader vision of the communist alternative.

Just before this hearing, several students from the University of Maryland testified at another hearing about threats against them for protesting the genocide in Gaza, while their fellow students broke protocol by holding up signs in the hearing room against Israeli fascist attacks on Palestinians. A few days later, legislators advanced yet another Zionist-sponsored bill to suppress dissent on campuses, sparking meetings and strategizing at two Maryland campuses to fight this bill. I shared my written testimony with  these students as a PLP member and am continuing to work with the Filipino student group.  

Other friends are fighting in legislative hearings, demanding that Maryland defund the Maryland Israeli Development Center (MIDC) with the slogan “Drop the MIDC”. They have also been supporting the Maryland teachers that the bosses attacked for opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Palestinians and their supporters have taken up the challenge, in both the legislature and the streets, to stop the Zionist efforts to use the U.S. state apparatus for Zionist fascism and against protesters. They and others fight with us to support immigrants as well. While the legislative battle in some ways is just shadow boxing, in other ways it opens the way for PLP members to build a base and gain adherents—with real boxing gloves--in the fight for communism and the abolition of capitalism! 
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‘Inequality is my whole LIFE’

As a nurse I knew how slashing insurance affected the most vulnerable: children, the elderly, those without hospitalization--in fact, most workers! I never suspected after my routine surgery that traditional Medicare benefits would leave me unable to work or function. Before the operation a panel of “experts” demanded a stress test to determine if my heart valve was “severely compromised” for insurance coverage. I passed the test but during surgery suffered a stroke. My insurance paid for the surgery all right, but to get back to work would require months of therapy.  A friend of mine who had worked for thirty years at rehab told me that insurance used to pay for rehab until a person was well. I was released from the rehab after ten days, entitled to rehab once a week but unable to use my right hand and wheelchair bound. 

So, in the first 24 hours at home, I fell twice. After an x-ray in a hospital ER, a friend from occupational therapy called me about state law.  Extra insurance days were mine—IF I were to stay hospitalized three nights.  A snowstorm secured me a room.  No snowstorm and I would have been out of insurance.    

All available rehab facilities were “sub-acute” enterprises for nursing home patients. Those patients were unable to manage their nursing needs unless they had relatives to depend on for support.  I, too, found myself depending on an already stressed nursing staff for my medication. 
Meanwhile my 95-year-old roommate, Sue, was in full control of her senses but her son had not come for two days. She had been patiently waiting in a chair since breakfast, not one to ring a buzzer. The aide ‘‘s response was, “You need to stay up.” My friend visiting thought we might try to move the woman ourselves.  “You‘ll get yelled at,” said Sue.  “They punish me already for not going to Occupational Therapy.  I tell them there I get tired of sitting for hours alone at the wall.”  When the aide came for lunch trays, both my visitor and I spoke up, “Our friend has been up since before breakfast. Please help her back to bed.”  

But what troubled me in both hospitals and rehab was the hierarchy of command. From doctors looking down on nurses who then look down on aides, to cleaning/nutritional staff to the bottom rung: the patient. I noted that nurses’ aides and cleaning folks came also burdened with family and financial problems. One aide’s little five5-year-old would be going for heart surgery in two days.

“Me, as a patient, I find being treated unequally bothers me most,” I vented to a woman hoisting large plastic bags filled with laundry. She cried out, “Inequality is my whole LIFE!”  I felt the power of a future fight back.
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Smash racist deportations

This is a Party leaflet being distributed to friends and progressive  bookstores on the racist ICE anti immigrant sweeps, and anti working class attempts by Trump to destroy the Department of Education. Both are fascist attempts to recreate Nazi Germany. Trump and his isolationist MAGA capitalists are a symptom of capitalism ‘s decay. Communist revolution by Progressive Labor Party (PLP), and the working class  is the only solution!

Fight racist deportations with communist revolution!

The fascist bosses under Trump have started rounding up undocumented immigrant workers from Mexico, Central America, South America, Haiti, and Africa. The new Gestapo, ICE, is not only going to work places, but also to churches, hospitals, and schools. The international working class knows no borders! Borders are racist, imaginary lines to draw where workers can be exploited, be it by U.S. bosses, Mexican bosses, or Chinese bosses.

The only way to end racist deportation is communist revolution led by the Progressive Labor Party. Under communism, workers will run society without borders, money, and racist divisions, which only divide workers from each other.

Fight for workers’ education with communist revolution!

The fascist attempt by Trump and Musk to destroy the Department of Education is an anti working class and racist attack on workers. Trump and company want for-profit charter schools that cater to wealthier families. These fascist attempts are not new. Nazi Germany fired thousands of Jewish educators, and turned German schools and universities into places to teach loyalty to fascism.

The only solution is communist revolution. Under communism, workers will educate children to respect knowledge, science, and art, without the racism and sexism found in capitalist schools.

JOIN THE PROGRESSIVE LABOR PARTY AND FIGHT FOR A COMMUNIST SOCIETY! For further information see www.plp.org
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