Student solidarity with faculty  

Students and youth will always lead the way. This lesson was made clear to me again recently.

I teach at one of the colleges in the City University of New York system, which reached new lows in racist austerity when it failed to figure out how to pay many faculty members on my campus at the start of the new semester. CUNY, like many university systems, increasingly relies on low-paid, insecure part-time faculty called adjuncts, to teach its courses. It doesthis so that they can easily lay off and rehire professors as student enrollment goes up and down. Even at a public institution like CUNY, the dollar determines everything. 

This semester, due to understaffing in HR and Payroll, many faculty did not get paid, over the course of multiple pay periods! Our union chapter called a demonstration and while there were a decent number of faculty there to support our unpaid union siblings, there were more than a dozen students there to support their unpaid professors! They spoke of the quality of professors, how this attack on professors was really an attack on them and the need for solidarity to defeat racist austerity.

The students on my campus see the contradictions of capitalism clearly. They see the racism and sexism and exploitation. They see what unemployment and hopelessness can do to a neighborhood. And they see the need to fight back! Some of these students will attend the upcoming College Conference and I consider myself extremely lucky to be surrounded by the future leaders of our Party and the revolution.
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Newspaper seller meets communist

This summer, during a visit to Europe, where I grew up, I encountered a street vendor selling newspapers to passersby. Out of curiosity to find out the content in the newspaper, I stopped and talked to the vendor. It turned out that the newspaper was sold by workers experiencing homelessness, extreme poverty and social marginalization. This destitution is a direct product of workers exploitation by the capitalist ruling class. Cashing in on the backs of street vendors - through newspaper sales - is obviously an attempt, at best, to mitigate the problems of a profit – based economy. 

Our conversation led to a friendly relationship, especially when I offered in exchange a Progressive Labor Party (PLP) CHALLENGE newspaper. We both agreed to continue our discussion a few days later. The street vendor invited me to their house where we talked more about the daily tasks and challenges of homeless people, which evolved into discussion of revolutionary communism where work for wages, money and profit will be abolished. Instead, work will be done based on commitment to the good for all. Products and services will be free, and distributed in accord with people’s needs.

I will call my new friend John. He explained that he agrees with revolutionary communism, but he is doubtful it will be accomplished. That said, John was enthusiastic, adding CHALLENGE newspapers to his street vendor repertoire.

Besides various local, state and national institutions posturing as substantive reformers of this rotten capitalist society, there is one particular non-profit organization, which since 2013 manages street newspapers across six continents: the International Network of Street Papers (INSP), headquartered in Glasgow, Scotland. The INSP has 92 street papers in 35 countries, published in 25 languages, with 3.2 million readers. The organization ‘s own statistics show a staggering 300 million working class people around the world facing homelessness, and an additional 2.8 billion people living and working in inadequate conditions. This industrial reserve army of poor workers increases with every crisis, and diminishes with every revival of trade.

John and many others buy the newspaper at the supposed production cost, and sell them to the public at a mark-up, which they get to keep. As we walked to the bus stop, John expressed how he is aspiring to publish and edit the newspaper, which will truly reflect the lives of unemployed workers. He was critical of the editorial team of the current newspaper, because the street vendors’ daily lives are seldom addressed and written about. John and other street vendors are welfare recipients, and they are being used as ultra–low wage labor, standing on the street corner for several hours a day, selling newspapers. John manages to sell between 40-80 newspapers monthly.

Acting as reformers behind the struggle of unemployed and homeless workers are the capitalists, disguising themselves under such names as “Sisters of Charity organization”, “Santander USA”, Dedication 2 community”, and many more in Europe and Asia:”Grameen Bank”, “Seventh Generation”, “Better world Books” - they are nothing more then welfare organizations aiding the ruling class and throwing crumbs to the working poor. The educational institutions in Europe and the U.S., which go hand in hand with such organizations, are a long extended arm of the ruling class capitalists. They offer various degrees of programs in so-called social-economics. Their slogan “triple bottom line” – people, planet and profit –says it all: workers exploitation and resource extraction equates to wealth accumulation. They produce the next generation of capitalists striving to cash in on the backs of the working class. Communism will replace such institutions, now run by the ruling class, with a worker-run society where everyone contributes and shares- like a large sisterly, brotherly family- in society’s benefits and burdens.
We as communists are obligated to point out the reality of such practices, expose such institutions, and organize workers around the world into a revolutionary movement for communism. Join PLP!
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In Hiroshima: vet turns chance into solidarity

I traveled to Japan last month, eager to explore its history and reconnect with memories of the vibrant anti-capitalist movement that had inspired me years ago. I was particularly interested in learning about the struggles of Japanese workers and students today.

But meeting people and engaging in meaningful political discussions proved difficult. Language differences were an obvious barrier, and traveling as part of a tour group offered few opportunities to get beyond the usual tourist experience.

Then, in Hiroshima, I spotted a young man distributing political leaflets. Although I couldn’t read what he was handing out, I approached him. With the help of translation applications on our phones, we managed to have a lively political conversation lasting nearly half an hour.

He was a young Japanese communist organizing support for a demonstration against police repression following a recent mobilization of workers and students. They were protesting the growing threat of Japan’s right-wing government, led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, a favorite of Donald Trump.

His leaflet described an August 19 demonstration in which 15,000 people reportedly gathered outside Japan’s National Diet, their Congress, to raise their voices against war. It warned that established opposition parties and traditional left-wing forces were increasingly accommodating themselves to the Takaichi administration rather than organizing serious resistance.

The leaflet called for the urgent building of a new revolutionary working-class party. Drawing on the August 6 Hiroshima struggle, it urged workers and students to expand the ranks of the Modern Revolutionary Workers’ Party through the coming autumn struggles.

Despite the thousands of miles separating us, and despite our language differences, we quickly discovered something important: we shared a commitment to fighting capitalism and building a revolutionary working-class movement.

After our meeting, I emailed him a copy of CHALLENGE and introduced him to the history of the Progressive Labor Party and our continuing struggle to win workers to communism. We exchanged email addresses, and I invited him to write for CHALLENGE about the political situation in Japan and the struggles of Japanese workers and students.

I hope he accepts.

This brief encounter in Hiroshima reminded me of something fundamental. Capitalism is an international system. Its wars, exploitation, racism, and attacks on workers cross every national boundary. Our resistance must do the same.

The working class has no national borders. Whether in Japan, the United States, or anywhere else, workers face a common enemy in the capitalist system. Our languages and histories may differ, but our interests as workers are fundamentally the same.

What began as a chance encounter on a Hiroshima street became a small but meaningful act of international communist solidarity.

We must turn such encounters into lasting political relationships, deepen our international ties, and accelerate the growth of our Party. The fight for communism is international, and so must be our movement.
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