The July 7 assassination of Jovenel Moise ended his contested term as Haitian president and escalated an open battle for power—and riches—among Haiti’s capitalist bosses. Meanwhile, the U.S. and its allies are dictating who will be in charge as they compete with rival Chinese imperialists for future control over the Caribbean region, the historical U.S. “backyard.”
Haiti is a clear example of the fraud of “democracy” under the profit system. The country’s centuries of misrule and misleadership expose the fact that all forms of capitalist government—military dictatorships, “democratically” elected politicians, coups d’etat by the latest faction of insurgents—are dictatorships of the capitalist ruling class. Every government in the world today is built to serve the bosses’ need for maximum profit. The lives of workers mean nothing to them; we are brutalized and exploited in every nation on Earth. There is only one alternative that will change basic conditions for our class: a communist revolution to smash capitalism and create a new society run by and for the international working class.
The first great blow against slavery
In 1791, Haiti showed the way with a mass insurrection that ended slavery and struck fear in the heart of the bourgeoisie around the globe. Ever since, workers in Haiti have been under severe attack by local bosses and U.S. imperialists who saw their interests threatened. And ever since, those workers have kept fighting back! (see Haiti timeline, page 4)
The reality of Haiti today is that workers are struggling to eat and breathe while under the thumb of the capitalists. While Haitian politicians live the good life in their mansions in suburban Petionville, more than 80 percent of the impoverished working class lives on less than two dollars (U.S.) per day. Hundreds of thousands of people left homeless by the 2010 earthquake still lack safe drinking water (In These Times, 1/12/20).
The decaying U.S. ruling class and the rotting liberal world order have played major roles in these atrocities, notably under the blood-soaked Clintons and the Obama-Biden administration. In 1994, after decades of U.S. support for the criminal Duvalier gang, Bill Clinton ordered an invasion of Haiti to save the presidency of the pro-U.S. Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Although Aristide promised a kinder gentler capitalism–lifting workers out of poverty with labor and education reforms and bringing corrupt businesses to heel–she proved ineffective and was ousted.(Boston Globe, 1/12/04). By the end of Aristide’s presidency in 2004, he left a trail of misery and corruption (The Week, 2/8/15), further enriching Haiti’s ruling class, and lining his own pockets with hundreds of millions dollars earned through bribes from cocaine trafficking (Associated Press, 2/25/04). Then, after an earthquake struck Haiti in 2010, the Obama-Biden administration and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation exploited the deaths of over 200,000 people to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into the hands of U.S. corporations and the military while the working class starved (In These Times, 1/12/20). If anything, the situation for the working class in Haiti is worse than in 1994 (Time, 9/24/19).
Democracy is capitalist dictatorship
The competition to succeed Moise is a fight among different sets of bosses for the opportunity to exploit the working class for their own gain. Democracy offers the false promise that workers can have some control over society, but under capitalism there can be no such thing. Democracy has been a continual disaster for the working class around the world. Ultimately democracy is a tool the bosses use to settle their differences, legitamize the brutality of their system, and dupe workers into believing they are choosing leaders to represent them.
The horrific material conditions for workers in Haiti are the direct impact of imperialist exploitation by the two original modern democracies, France and the U.S. The elections, the courts, and the entire political structure in Haiti is controlled by a small group of wealthy business people who use gun-wielding gangs to contest for dominance (Just Security, 7/9).
Workers of Haiti also have a long and proud history of bold, class-conscious fightback. In 1956, workers in Haiti staged a general strike that forced the removal of a U.S.-backed general, Paul Eugène Magloire. The U.S. then installed the mass-murdering Duvaliers, Papa Doc and Baby Doc, until Baby Doc was ousted by a mass rebellion in 1986. General strikes followed in 1997 and 2004.
The Haitian and U.S. ruling classes have joined to attack any uprising and to crush communist movements in Haiti. But they haven’t won, because the fightback continues! Progressive Labor Party keeps growing in Haiti, attracting workers who reject the dead ends of reformism and nationalism and have come to see revolution as the only solution.
Imperialist fighting in the Caribbean
Though Haiti has been mostly run by the U.S. ruling class for the last 100 years, the Chinese bosses recently have made inroads in the region: “China has poured billions of dollars of investment into the Caribbean while signing tax and trade deals in an attempt to wrest the region out of the West's sphere of influence and bring it under the sway of Beijing” (Daily Mail, 9/23/20).
In 2018, the Chinese ruling class persuaded the capitalist bosses in the Dominican Republic to go against the U.S. rulers and drop their recognition of Taiwan in favor of relations with the Chinese rulers. The U.S. had stuck with the unpopular Moise even as the country broke down because his ruling clique had generally advanced U.S. interests (New York Times, 7/19). Not long before Moise was killed, his administration acted as a U.S. proxy in attacking Venezuela at the United Nations (El Pais, 7/8).
While it is still unclear what forces were behind the assassination, it is clear that the current chaos has surfaced in the context of the U.S. bosses’ desperate struggle to hold onto control of the country and the region.
Communism is the only way forward
In recent years, the militant fightback of the working class in Haiti has been mostly diverted by the bosses into support of various capitalist opposition groups. But the fact remains that capitalism, whether it’s installed by elections or a junta, has been devastating for workers. The working class in Haiti has been an inspiration for 230 years. Their militancy and refusal to stop fighting has set an example for our entire class.
At the same time, the lesson of liberal class traitors like Aristide is that we must move beyond the limits of capitalism and fight for workers’ power with communist revolution. Replacing one capitalist for another will get us nowhere. We have no need for bosses of any kind. We have nothing to lose but our chains!
*****
U.S. and European imperialists exploit workers in Haiti for 500 years
The extreme poverty faced by workers in Haiti and the instability of the country as a whole is not coincidental. Chattel slavery and imperialism have made sure of it (see editorial on page 2):
1492 — Columbus lands and claims the whole island of Hispaniola for Spain. In the ensuing years, the indigenous population was nearly completely wiped out by disease, enslavement, and murder.
1664 — France takes control of the western part of the island and starts importing slaves in 1670. Slave insurrections were frequent. Some slaves escaped to the mountains and joined the few remaining indigenous people.
1791 — A slave revolt sets off the inspirational Haitian Revolution, the first time slaves overthrew slaveholders and took power. These former slaves establish a government, and U.S. and European imperialist powers are terrified of the potential spread of slave revolts and revolutions.
1802 — Napoleon sends a massive invasion force, including 40,000 troops from other European countries. France gains control of part of Haiti and tries to reestablish slavery, but is defeated after a brutal war that killed tens of thousands of workers in Haiti and ended with over 30,000 French and European troops dead. Poland’s military force refused to fight; about 100 joined the workers of Haiti. Afterwards, the Polish workers were the only Europeans allowed to remain in the country.
1804-1825 — France, Britain, and the U.S. impose a crippling embargo, destroying Haiti’s economy and forcing Haiti’s government to pay 90 million gold francs to France as compensation for “lost property,”—the freed slaves. The government is forced to take out high-interest loans from U.S. banks, hobbling the country with debt until 1947.
1915-1934 — At the request of U.S. banks holding Haiti’s debt U.S., Marines invade to prevent Germany from establishing a naval base. The Marines dissolve Haiti’s government. The U.S. State Department writes a new constitution, eliminating the prohibition on foreign ownership of land. When Haiti’s parliament refuses to ratify the new constitution, the Marines dissolve the parliament and enact the State Department’s constitution through a rigged election limited to five percent of the population.
1934-1947 — The Marines leave but the U.S. retains control of Haiti’s finances.
1956-1986 — The Duvalier dictatorships are backed by the U.S. to defeat a strong communist movement.
1991-1994 — A military coup removing Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power triggers sanctions by the U.S. and the Organization of American States. U.S. and UN troops then invade and occupy Haiti, initially to reinstall Aristide.
2010 — A devastating earthquake destroys much of Port-au-Prince and kills 300,000. This is used as an excuse for the UN, the U.S., and the Clinton Foundation to resume control over the country in the name of “security” and “rebuilding.”
2012 — Hundreds protest against the high cost of living and call for the resignation of President Martelly. They accuse the president of corruption and failure to deliver on his promises to alleviate poverty.
2017 — The Provisional Electoral Council declares Jovenel Moise the winner of the November 2016 presidential election ending a political crisis which began in October 2015 over allegations of electoral fraud.
2019 —At least four people are killed and dozens injured in nationwide anti-corruption protests against President Moise and other officials (see page 6).
*****
Brooklyn: solidarity with workers in Haiti
Brooklyn, NY, July 16—“What you are saying is right, we don’t need more of the same bloodsuckers in Haiti anymore!” These were some of the responses as people stopped to chat with Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members and friends today in the center of the working-class Haitian community here as we rallied in support of the struggle of workers and students in Haiti. Selling CHALLENGE to passersby, we held signs in Haitian Creole, distributed leaflets in Creole and English, and spoke on the bullhorn in English and Creole about the struggle that has been going on against the misery and corruption created by the racist capitalist system (see editorial, page 2 ). And we linked the struggle in Haiti to the struggle of workers and students from Palestine to Colombia to Brooklyn.
We noted that the assassination of the Haitian president will not bring about any changes to the daily life of workers. All the usual criminals are vying for power, and the U.S. bosses are directing the show. The conditions of mass unemployment, hunger, need for clean water and decent housing and medical care, not to mention education—all these attacks on workers will not end until capitalism is overthrown and an egalitarian communist society is born, in Haiti and everywhere around the world.
We invite the workers in this Brooklyn neighborhood to join the struggle of the international working class. In fact, our PLP comrades in Haiti, when they learned about this small act of solidarity, and read the leaflet and the signs, said, “This is not a small action, it is big because it shows us that we are not alone in the struggle. It inspires us to continue the fight, to grow and recruit to PLP.”
- Information
red hot summer Fight racism, build revolutionary spirit
- Information
- 23 July 2021 399 hits
NEWARK, NJ, July 18—The Progressive Labor Party just hammered another nail into the bosses’ coffin. Over 200 people participated in our two-week Summer Project through four study groups, CHALLENGE sales of over 500 copies, a rally in Brooklyn, cookouts, and our motorcade protest finale.
This was a political success: workers supported us, and several pledged to be more involved, and six newer members strengthened their commitment to leading the fight for communist revolution.
Politicians with the support of the cops, courts, and media, try their hardest to force workers to accept the brutal abuse and murder we experience at the hands of gangs and police as a standard, everyday reality. Still, PLP reminded our class that we DO have an alternative to capitalism in every corner of the world: join the fight for communism today. 
Liberal bosses like mayor Ras Baraka are raffling off reforms like Universal Basic Income and a Community Review Board of the kkkops (see glossary, page 6) while ramping up police terror in working class neighborhoods. For Big Fascists, reforms are part of their imperialist war plans; to have a fighting chance, you need an army that is loyal to U.S. capitalism.
What workers need is class war for communist revolution. To get there, we need workers—from the U.S. to Haiti to Pakistan and everywhere else—to commit to a lifetime of fighting for our class with PLP.
Study groups, frontlines in the battle for ideas
The bosses’ ideas hold workers back from overthrowing this system, so we took on two of the most insidious ideas: identity politics and nationalism. We also exposed the brutal nature of capitalist forced displacement and homelessness by showing how gentrification and the refugee crisis are born from the same source: capitalist drive for land and wealth accumulation at the expense of workers from Newark to Chicago to Palestine.
When workers ask about where our conditions stem from, all arms of capitalism—politicians, reformist organizations, education, media—leave workers confused, divided, or won over to one faction or another of the ruling class. That is why the leaders of the Project decided to focus on the topics of nationalism and identity politics.
Without a class analysis, concepts like “identity politics'' and “intersectionality” do not offer any way of changing workers’ material conditions, i.e., housing, job protections, and education systems that super-exploit Black, Latin, and women workers. These concepts obscure the material roots of racist- and sexist-based labor and ensure that exploitation continues. No wonder liberal bosses and misleaders rely on these concepts.
As we’ve seen in our workplaces and online, these capitalist concepts primarily make white workers the enemy, rather than focusing on gutter racists like former president Donald Trump or liberal racists like the current president Joe Biden, who created and expanded these racist systems.
Black women workers key
Sexism is another insidious idea of the bosses, and besides fighting it in the class struggle, building leadership of women workers, particularly Black women, is key. Sexist division of labor in the home is one way that bars women workers from contributing. When some comrades took on the daily tasks of the home and made it collective, one single parent was able to provide leadership to the Project. Her leadership was critical to the success of this project.
These summer projects are schools for communist ideas and practices. When we fight to bring these ideas to life, we strengthen our Party, our friends, our political work, and the movement for communism in a small but significant way.
Driving towards communist revolution
The closing event, a motorcade of eight cars and 25 fighters, focused on three specific neighborhoods where the police are terrorizing workers, reflected PLP’s commitment to calling out the local misleaders in our city—from bought-and-paid-for activists to mayor Baraka. For decades, Baraka has been winning a base among Black workers and when workers speak out or fight back, they are attacked. It is precisely this reason why the political leadership of “progressives” is so deadly to workers: they divert us from communist revolution as the only solution.
So when we rode through this stronghold of Baraka’s liberal fascist organizing and not one of the 200 passersby booed, it showed the potential to win workers to reject capitalist ideas. When presented with a viable alternative, our class can choose to fight to be a class for itself.
PLP acknowledges that the conflict between gangs in Newark has been a long-standing reality for workers, but the increased police terror is indicative of rising fascism. Baraka is quick to increase police presence in the area to “clean it up” but betrays workers at the height of the mass struggle. At the beginning of our Summer Project, we exposed how Baraka sold workers out in struggles around decaying water pipes and public education. During the motorcade, we called out that he will do so again.
At the cookout that launched the Summer Project, the Rodwell and Spivey Families, recently terrorized by the cops (see CHALLENGE, 6/23), participated. During this motorcade, we slowly drove through their block. We honked and chanted, “Cops, courts, and the Ku Klux Klan—all are part of the bosses’ plan!” and “NPD you can’t hide—we charge you with genocide.” The only way state terror and racist policing within our communities will end is when we commit to building for communism with our fellow workers.
Criticism as opportunity for progress
The summer project exposed our main political weaknesses: individualism which resulted in the insufficient logistical organization and spreading out the leadership during our protests and events; uneven political understanding of our criticism of the pandemic; and a constant need to ensure that translation is insured at every event so that workers from any part of the world who are interested in our events and politics feel supported, respected and included.
Some of our comrades tend to “show up” for newspaper sales, rallies, or meetings and think that is good enough, but it is not. We have to bring passion and openness to each event. We have to see speaking on the bullhorn as a duty and an honor, not as a task for certain comrades over others.
Everyone must sell papers, but it will not inspire workers to listen to us or take us seriously if we do not encourage ourselves when we approach them. To rely on a few loud people who lead the event while others in the rear tend to fall back is not communist—these are the bosses’ ideas that must be struggled with.
But these errors are opportunities for growth, not reasons to quit. We have to be sharp and encouraging and help show our comrades in practice what is required.
The importance of struggle within and outside the Party is obvious when we hear participants say things like, “I’ve been looking for this organization for my whole life and I feel I finally found it” at the commencing cookout, or “I’m starting to find more people who think like me” during one of the CHALLENGE sales. When we feel responsible for the collective and our whole class, we can see how struggle is in the benefit of both the movement and the individual worker.
Lessons learned in the class struggle
Our class sisters and brothers face countless daily attacks: poverty, homelessness, exploitation, and terror from kkkops and landlords. Workers viewing our protests see everyone, and we all have to show the enthusiasm and militant passion needed to win others to the urgency of our line.
Every time we show up, workers cheer us on. On Broad and Market, the busiest intersection in Newark, workers stopped and listened to us. With consistent work, workers in Newark will take communist leadership as a valid alternative to the cult politics of voting, nationalism and anti-communism. So we take these lessons in stride and look forward to even bigger and stronger protests, meetings, and numbers of workers who join us from Colombia to Haiti to Newark and beyond.
LOS ANGELES, CA—The Shootin' Newton station can now add detonating a truck of explosives in a residential neighborhood to its list of terror it inflicts daily on the working class of South Central LA. The anger in the community is palpable! Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members and close friends have gone door-to-door in the neighborhood, attended a community forum, and will have an upcoming protest with families brutalized by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).
Only under capitalism would a stockpile of fireworks cause 17 injuries and a whole square mile of homes and businesses being destroyed. The LAPD has a long, racist history of brutal oppression in this primarily Black and Latin neighborhood. People were told they did not need to evacuate, that the fireworks would be safely detonated. But workers’ lives and belongings have no value in this system. This explosion is just another example of that.
As members of PLP, we know that in a communist world without the relentless drive for maximum
profit, incidents such as this would never happen. The safety and well-being of workers would always be primary. Many workers want to see the police abolished. That can never happen without a communist revolution.
As members and supporters of PLP, we have been organizing for almost two years in this community, which is just a few short blocks from where Alex Flores was killed. The leaflet we distributed at the community forum, along with copies of CHALLENGE, explained how the murder of Alex, along with countless others, and this bomb explosion are two examples of the role police play under capitalism – inflicting terror on those most oppressed. The cops and their bosses think their terror will paralyze us in our fight to smash the system, but they are wrong!
Although state power and its defenders, the police, can be intimidating, we can and will unite our class to end this brutal, racist system once and for all! We are meeting new people every day who want to fight back. Many are open to the idea of smashing capitalism. We will continue to raise communism as the only solution to racism, exploitation, and oppression.
Liberals are the main danger
The Party’s political position that the liberal bosses are the main danger continues to lead our ideological struggle. To try and squelch the anger of this community, the liberal politicians of South LA, all Black and Latin, pulled out all the stops hosting a forum with LAPD and ATF “to get answers.” (The ATF is The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives). They faked anger and sorrow about the incident, but when the community demanded names of who made the call for the detonation, the politicians played their usual role trying to convince people to wait patiently on the “full” investigation.
The front row of the forum was reserved for people with signs that read “God Bless the LAPD”. They carried noise makers and when we shouted down the LAPD or their politician apologists, they tried to drown us out. We confronted them asking why they were supporting the police when we know they will never hesitate to kill us or our family members. One of the people admitted that we were right. He said he was paid a lot of money by the LAPD to show support, but that he couldn’t do it anymore. He left the front row and moved to be with us.
Once the two sides of the forum were clearly identified, there were calls from the stage and one or two speakers for people to unify. A woman responded to that strongly when it was her turn to speak. “Don’t ask me to unify based on the color of our skin. If you are supporting the cops, even if you look like me, there is no basis for us to unify.” Many cheered for her.
Patience and urgency
We have learned from the experiences of many comrades that when the working class faces brutal attacks such as this explosion, urgency in response has to be primary. The presence of communist ideas will only come from PLP, so the sooner we get them out there, the more effective they will be. We did a decent job in our response to this attack by going door-to-door twice and attending the forum. Also, this month’s Flores Friday protest will change from our typical route to go through the blocks most directly impacted by the bombing, continuing to raise communist ideas along the route and connect the two fightbacks.
Additionally, we know that only a long-term outlook will sustain the level of fightback we need to ultimately lead to communist revolution. It is in the day-to-day seemingly small actions that we learn and relearn the lesson that our objectively small Party has a reach far beyond our size. While distributing copies of CHALLENGE at the end of the community forum, a Black worker looked quizzically at the paper. The worker, who had just recently moved to LA, said he had seen the paper before. The comrade asked where. It turns out the worker had gotten the paper years ago from a comrade professor all the way on the other side of the country!
The comrade and worker exchanged contact information and the worker will join our study group here and attend upcoming actions with us. The fight back continues!
- Information
Maryland: PLP unites worker struggles against capitalist rulers
- Information
- 23 July 2021 368 hits
MARYLAND, July 20—The struggle in Maryland continues on many fronts! The Archie Elliott III rally covered recently in CHALLENGE is one of many arenas where we raise communist ideas among our friends and neighbors.
In Mount Rainier, Maryland, we participated in a Pride Parade and met people who understood how the Pride movement is related to other aspects of capitalist exploitation. We managed to raise a political struggle with beads that had a mini-flyer attached about getting cops out of our schools. There was a van with JUSTICE is GLOBAL calling for vaccines for the world, and “Money crosses borders, why not workers.” Under communism education will be a lifetime process with schools everywhere from the factories to hospitals to offices. Meanwhile cops will be nowhere as there will be no billionaire capitalists that need the protection of cops. And getting vaccines to the world will be a priority, not just political bullshit from politicians. As far as money and borders, they will be relics of the past, long gone. Loved the article on PRIDE in the last issue, which showed how the capitalists try to undercut movements. Our parade was more pro-worker instead!
We are also active in fighting the criminal legal system: a Progressive Labor Party (PLP) member joined a rally and distributed CHALLENGE to several workers at the U.S. Department of Justice to FREE GWEN, a 76 year old woman reincarcerated after failing to answer her phone during her computer class. She is now FREE!
Workers at the University of Maryland are fighting to get a contract to include teleworking. One of the rally leaders was happy to see us because she had been active as a young student with our International Committee Against Racism group years ago! We planted a lot of seeds through that antiracist, multi-racial organization!
Reaching out at the food pantry to tenants has expanded our efforts to meet folks and share our paper. Tenant organizing and support is ongoing in Hyattsville where we have joined with residents to pressure landlords and help with the devilish effort to apply for rental assistance. We went with Eduardo (not his real name), a young father, to court on his eviction and his case was dismissed! It took at least 40 hours of work from several folks including one comrade (a tough bulldog!), a pro-bono activist lawyer, and the folks from Housing Initiative Partnership. A PLP comrade had to gather all the required papers, go to court, file the case and follow up to pressure the county to approve his application for rent relief. Whew! It’s not as dramatic as blocking an eviction with our bodies (or making a revolution!) but a win nevertheless. Under communism everyone would work collectively to share the available housing and to build more and better housing. We would not waste our time filing applications and court papers. So congratulations to all those involved in this winning struggle and join us in the fight for a better world, communism.
Meanwhile, the tenants who have been rent striking for 11 months are now suing their absentee landlord in Langley Park through CASA of Maryland. This campaign is led by one of our good friends in that organization who has also championed the fight against racist police brutality in the County as a member of Community Justice.The class struggle is everywhere! We need to be too, with CHALLENGE and communist ideas and strategies of intensifying the class struggle. Build leaders in the workng class! And get out there!
- Information
CUNY Fightback Students and staff speak out against racist administration
- Information
- 23 July 2021 424 hits
NEW YORK CITY, July 9—“It’s the best meeting I have attended all year!” This statement was made by a professor who participated in the City University of New York (CUNY) Student Speak Out, where over 30 students, along with professors, from CUNY participated in this virtual event to challenge the latest wave of racist attacks coming from the administration. Four students immediately joined a student strike community at the end of the event and pledged themselves to get more involved with this growing movement.
Friends and members of the revolutionary communist Progressive Labor Party (PLP) are part of this organizing effort. From learning about the daily frustrations that the racist CUNY administrators impose on students to guiding the fight-back with principles of multi-racial unity, youth leadership is growing to transform these reform struggles into a fight for communist revolution.
Rising student anger, sharpening class struggle
Anger is rising at the worsening conditions and racist “austerity” measures taken by the CUNY administration: decreased services coupled with rising costs in a university system that serves 274,000 mainly Black, Latin and immigrant students. Students are organizing against increases in class size, financial barriers to registering, reduced class offerings because of layoffs of part-time professors, decreases in services because of understaffed campus offices, and a rush to return to unsafe campuses.
The Student Speak Out gave us an opportunity to advance the struggle over the idea that we need to destroy capitalism – and its colleges and universities. The stories were powerful:
Multiple students reported not being able to get in touch with the financial aid office or the registrar for weeks.
Bursar holds – a block on registering because of money owed to the college – prevents students from graduating on time. This despite CUNY receiving more than $800 million dollars in pandemic relief from the federal government!
One student reported that a class she signed up for, which she thought was going to meet asynchronously, meaning there is no set class time, was meeting four days a week for four hours. Neither the students nor the professor knew that the modality had been changed by administration.
Another student had been kept waiting to learn about her financial aid. Still others were barred from registering, even though they were just about to graduate, because they owed money.
These daily humiliations feed worker anger with a racist capitalist system and with communist political leadership can result in openness to revolutionary ideas. One of those ideas is that the workers on campus, mainly Black and Latin, are not the cause of students’ problems- they are poorly paid, and the first ones to be called back to schools that may not meet health and safety standards.
This event did not just focus on the problems that the system throws in our faces. We also heard stories of faculty and students fighting together to solve these problems – a display of crucial solidarity. The assembled students rejected the politics of identity and representation, clearly seeing CUNY administration as the enemy, even though the Chancellor is Puerto Rican and the president of one of the campuses is Nigerian. They spoke about their past organizing of motorcades and rallies throughout the year, whether it was snowing, raining, or during a heat wave. Most importantly, we agreed to continue the fightback.
Capitalism and universities
Capitalism’s entire existence depends on exploitation of the working class. Schools and universities like CUNY train workers and professionals essential to running the capitalist state on one hand, while on the other hand producing and force-feeding us individualist, anti-communist, racist and sexist ideas. While the universities pretend to be “neutral” centers of “free” or “critical thinking” the reality is that since the capitalists hold state power, they wield it at the universities to ensure their “education” meets the capitalists’ needs, not the working class’. Ignoring the fake liberal hoopla around CUNY’s Latin Chancellor, proof of this can be seen by looking at CUNY’s Board of Trustees.
CUNY’s financial stream is made up of Wall Street bankers and lawyers who only have more racist attacks in store, starting with how to make the cuts that were implemented during the pandemic permanent. More online classes, fewer professors, fewer campus workers, and fewer classes mean working-class students are working even harder to make less—the capitalists are launching the same attacks against students worldwide.
Students and revolution!
The U.S. capitalists’ empire faces sharpening rivalry and increasing threat of world war with Chinese and Russian imperialism. As the U.S. turns toward fascism, students have a historic opportunity to join a revolutionary movement instead of lining up as cannon fodder for the bosses’ next war. Student demonstrations against racism and imperialism have fanned wider flames of working class rebellion around the world for decades, and CUNY is no exception. At the end of the Speak Out, students planned to participate in and help to lead a motorcade to the homes of two of the campus presidents, bringing our righteous anger at the racist treatment of our students to their doorstep. We invite all students to join this event next time around and join PLP to turn the next bosses’ world war into revolutionary war for communism!
Try as the capitalist class might, they can never extinguish the flames of rebellion. CUNY’s future is student, worker, and faculty unity and, led by communist politics, to transform the fightback for a better CUNY into a revolution for a new, worker and student-led communist society.Join PLP and help build a fighting student movement!
