CHICAGO, March 20 – The racist and sexist indifference of the capitalist bosses towards workers in the hospitality industry is making itself painfully clear as the devastation from the Covid-19 pandemic grows. Like all other industries under capitalism, it relies on the value stolen from the labor of workers employed for profits.
The hospitality and food service industry in general are major employers of millions of workers within the United States, many of them Black, Latin, Asian and immigrant women workers. Already workers in these industries have been subject to unpredictable schedules and low pay, and now that local government bosses are mandating that dine-in restaurants close (a proper public health precaution), they are further thrown into economic uncertainty.
During this pandemic, the bosses are terrified by the economic damage that is bound to occur to their businesses and can offer no plan to assist workers, aside from some crumbs and empty sympathy. More than ever, the international working class needs a communist society to help prioritize workers’ health during moments of disaster and to ensure that we can all work as we are able and receive the resources that we need. The communist Progressive Labor Party (PLP) is fighting to build that society.
Bosses hang workers out to dry
Up until a few days ago, I worked at one of the many restaurants in Chicago closed due to the pandemic. As of last week, Illinois had 37 cases of Covid-19 and most people were in denial of the severity of the virus. Because I work with the public and have an underlying health condition, I was slightly worried about becoming ill. My concern was not irrational after all. Two days later, Illinois reported over 100 cases of Covid-19 and as a result, liberal Illinois Governor JB Pritzker (himself a billionaire) ordered all dine–in restaurants and bars closed – my place of employment being one of them.
This restaurant is part of a large restaurant group that owns over 120 restaurants and employs around 8,000 workers. Two days after Pritzker’s order, every worker received a text message notifying us of an upcoming conference call that afternoon where the company president would be updating us on the current situation.
Although there were many people on the call, all the workers were muted and only the president’s voice was heard – typical of the bosses. We listened as he notified us that most of us were immediately laid off and our insurance would be cut off in at the end of the month, however, partners would still be receiving half of their salary. He broke into tears as he explained that he did not know what would happen to the company. He along with the other bosses built an empire with our labor, laid us off, and now we are being subject to listening to him cry over the phone.
In the midst of a pandemic, thousands of workers will not only be devoid of income but they are also going to be without health insurance. Many of these workers are paid minimum wage or a hair above it and often have to fight to be scheduled enough hours to live.
Before the pandemic, my restaurant was so slow that we would close two extra days a week. My co-workers and I were already hurting financially. Internationally, millions of workers are being furloughed from their jobs. When this is over, many of us will not have jobs to go back to. When the bosses are faced with a financial loss, they will cut their ties with us without hesitation. My company, which must make tens of millions of dollars annually, started a GoFundMe for workers being most affected by this layoff. They are asking other workers to pay for the losses.
Communist revolution is on the menu
As long as this capitalist system remains in place, the international working class will be expected to foot the bill for the crises that the system itself creates. But there can be a silver lining, in that many of those same workers most beat down by this racist and sexist profit system will become more open-minded to more cooperative and egalitarian alternatives.
Workers across the globe are starting to display a sense of solidarity through social media by sharing memes about how capitalism is the virus. Some say that we need socialism to fix everything; however, socialism is not enough. The international working class needs to be in complete control of its own destiny, controlling all means of production and using the wealth that we create from our labor to serve our own needs. The only solution is communist revolution, led by the PLP. Workers of the world, unite!

NEW YORK CITY, April 1—Up to now eight Metropolitan Transit Authority workers have died during the raging Covid-19 outbreak.
While their death certificates will determine the virus as cause of death, their real killers were the racist MTA New York City Transit and its inaction to protect its mostly Black and Latin workers from the disease! Given the MTA bosses callous response more will dies as the ink on this issue dries.
The deaths were avoidable. But what’s it to the bosses if a few workers die in the line of duty, so long as the profit machine keeps rolling?
Capitalism has worked overtime to show the workers that our lives are expendable. Progressive Labor Party members working in the MTA continue building bonds with co-workers, and backing demands for MTA to provide sufficient proper protective equipment and sanitary facilities to keep us safe. Some MTA workers also demand housing for homeless workers on the trains— and end the racist cleaning disparities between stations in wealthier and more impoverished communities. At the same time though, none of that is enough. A new world is necessary so such deaths never happen again, either in the MTA, or anywhere else on this planet—communism.
No protection
The deceased eight include bus operators, station cleaners, track workers, conductors, and bus maintainers.
One of the deaths occurred on March 28, when a train operator died of smoke inhalation, heroically giving his own life to bring his train and passengers into a station after reports that someone in the second car squirted accelerant onto a shopping cart and lit it on fire. Though he didn’t die from Covid-19, capitalism and the increasingly unstable atmosphere it is creating with this disease brings out more anti-communist attacks by workers against other workers. Had the operator had protective gear against smoke, he likely would be alive today. But the MTA can’t be bothered with that either.
Transit lies, workers die
Until very recently, the MTA was refusing to provide PPE (proper protective equipment) to its front line workers against Covid-19—and lied about not having to offer it. In early March, they warned a train operator who wore one during his shift not to do so, because of “public perception.” These bosses care more optics than workers’ safety.They’ve failed to properly sanitize our train and bus operating positions and crew room facilities while launching a PR campaign to look as if they’re cleaning the whole system. On transit Facebook pages, many subway train operators and conductors have posted pictures of dirty wipes after taking it upon themselves to clean.
Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 has admitted that at least one of these deaths could’ve been prevented if proper PPE had been distributed. But as the saying goes, a day late and a dollar short! Their acknowledgments won’t bring back our deceased co-workers.
Local 100 has done the bare minimum to secure such protections for us. Even with the MTA agreeing to offer us some pathetic equipment after discussions, this union has shown it’s willing to wait for workers to die before lifting a finger. Under capitalism, today’s unions serve the bosses and crack the whip to keep workers in line and from revolting.
The masks MTA will now provide us with are not the recommended N95 masks, but instead flimsy surgical ones. This persists despite a 2012 pandemic memo the agency put out, mandating they stockpile a six week supply of N95 masks, hand sanitizer, and cleaning wipes for workers.
A visit to any train or bus reporting location for workers shows that any available sanitizer is in rare supply—save for the NY State issued one, made through racist, super-exploitative prion labor. And none of these locations are providing sanitary wipes.
No testing kits for workers
Workers are also upset that MTA Chairman Patrick Foye, who recently contracted the virus, was able to get a test so quickly. Meanwhile we have to jump through hoops just to get one. The number of transit workers with the virus has quickly shot past 600, with over 3,330 ordered to self-quarantine after exposure, as of late March (New York Daily News, 3/31).  The MTA’s Covid 19 hotline has flooded with calls from workers worried about their health. Yet this was the same man who downplayed our concerns, now stricken with the same disease he has allowed to ravage us.
Lack of access to these tests means the real numbers of infected could be even much higher than the MTA’s numbers, spreading the disease and not even knowing it. Foye can take as much time as he needs to recover.
Unfortunately, workers will have to come in without even knowing they have the virus, since testing is virtually impossible for us to acquire, if we don’t feel ill.
More are calling in sick by the day, forcing more service cuts and fewer trains, which leads to heavier ridership and more crowds—a breeding ground for Covid-19. The racist bosses don’t care about forcing their workers and customers to suffer as long as they can save a buck and themselves.
In furthering its efforts to appear protective of workers, MTA recently implemented “social distancing” rules for crews to abide by. We have to maintain six feet from one another, which is virtually impossible to do, given how small many of our crew rooms and locker facilities are.
The MTA has changed the regular weekday train schedule to a modified Saturday schedule—because multiple crews are incapacitated—the rooms have become even more crowded. Under capitalism, being sick is a profit scheme for the bosses.
Liberate transit system with communism
The MTA continues to put profits over workers’ lives, and it is crafting an angry and fearful atmosphere here. Many of us are wondering when, not if, we’ll come into contact with someone who has the virus. Chances are we already have.
We’ve had to take things into our own hands, buying our own cleaning supplies, and hoping that shields us. RTO, the MTA’s train division, people are booking sick as a form of protest, along with being legitimately ill.
Some bus operators sectioned off their front sections, essentially giving free rides, as people entered from the back door. This was before the agency made it an official policy for now.
These modest actions by workers show that workers can and will work in the interest of serving our class.
But the ruling class wants us afraid, so we wont organize as one.  We can’t have reliance on their stooges, like Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is cutting Medicaid from the state budget during this emergency.
Transit workers and riders will continue suffering under these racist crooks until we come together and fightback collectively for our health, and eventually, for a communist revolution!

INDIANA, March 8 – Over 30 workers gathered in celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD) to learn about its history and various past and present anti-racist, anti-sexist women fighters. The theme for this year’s event was “One United Working Class vs. Sexism.”
The program was organized in order to collectively learn more about the fights against capitalism and sexism led by international working class women throughout history and the present. We also sought to collectivize building and strengthening our base in the area. It is important for us to continue to sharpen our line against anti-sexism and talk about waging this fight with our line as communists.
Those present were treated to a program that included a short video about the history of IWWD followed by discussion, interactive games, and personal comments from comrades about fighting back against sexism with communist unity. Examples were shared in an interactive timeline that highlighted historical worker-centered events, such as the 1866 creation of Mississippi’s First Labor Union by the Washerwomen of Jackson. Also featured were the fightback against sexist violence in Chile and the nationalization of childcare in the Soviet Union under the Bolsheviks.
Each of these examples showed how women workers have given and continue to give fierce leadership to major struggles internationally. The event ended with us singing the Internationale.  
Communists fight sexism head on
The personal, political, and international experiences of various women workers was featured in the event. One worker gave a speech in Spanish about their experiences fighting against the corrupt government alongside her father in Mexico. When the comrade came to the U.S., she met members of PLP and realized that we were a group committed to fighting against injustice; not just talking about it.
She joined the Party and raised her children to also be active fighters against injustice. She ended by relaying her hopes for all the young girls in the room to never settle on bein “princesses,” but rather s fighters in the battle against racism, sexism, and capitalism.
Another worker spoke about working in the hospitality industry and the intense sexism she experiences every day. She highlighted the capitalist attacks against women specifically in Indiana. For example,the maternal mortality rate is the second worst in the U.S. For every 100,000 live births, 50 white women die. This number is nearly doubled for Black women in the state (America’s Health Rankings, 2019).
She stressed that capitalism is the reason why sexism and racism exist. This worker was introduced to the party through a persistent comrade who struggled with her, continued to get her the paper, and remained consistent. This is a reminder that what we do, the relationships we make and strengthen matter.
Pushing our line and work forward
Contrary to the feminist idea that men are the source of sexism, the root cause of sexism is capitalism, and both women and men suffer from its inequalities and exploitations. Sexism is a tool of divide-and-conquer. While women are the main target of sexism, men are also hurt my sexist ideas and practices. For example, studies have shown that the pressure of misogyny is linked to increased depression and substance abuse among men (The Guardian, 2016).  
 This event showed us the importance of continuing to meaningfully connect with people and engage them with our politics. Of the 30 workers in attendance, almost half were yet-to-be members. This was an important revelation, showing that PLP’s work is recognized and respected by others in the community.
It also showed that we must strengthen our political work and relationships. Taking these active steps will only lead to the liberation of the working class by building a communist world with a militant line and practice against sexism, racism, and capitalism. PLP continues to lead the way!

As the Covid-19 pandemic spreads to hundreds of thousands of workers in more than 160 countries or territories and counting, the world seems filled with uncertainty. But one thing is for sure: This crisis dramatically exposes the utter inability of capitalism to meet the needs of the international working class. In their callous negligence in mishandling Covid-19, the rulers are telling us—again—how little they value workers’ lives under the profit system.
For the capitalist bosses, Covid-19 is both a challenge to their system and an opportunity to experiment and impose more intensive fascism. For the working class and Progressive Labor Party, it is also a challenge and opportunity. We will need to learn how to operate in new ways, and it won’t be easy. But if we succeed, we can show workers how a healthier society could be run in the interests of our class. Only a communist revolution can stamp out capitalism, the deadliest pandemic of all time.
The China model: open fascism
In Wuhan, China, the early epicenter of the crisis, the Chinese ruling class responded at first with denial and repression. Their openly fascist state muzzled doctors who tried to warn the world of what was coming. Then it put 45 million people on lockdown, turned countless Chinese workers away from over-burdened, under-supplied hospitals, and left them to die at home without care (Reuters.com, 2/13).
When you contrast the policies of today’s Chinese bosses with the communist health care system built by Chinese workers after the 1949 revolution, the choice is clear. The Chinese communists’ monumental public health campaigns, led by the revolutionary “barefoot doctors,” treated curable diseases and eliminated others entirely. In just ten years, they doubled workers’ life expectancy and halved infant mortality, the greatest public health gains in the history of humanity!
As the Covid-19 spreads around the globe, other countries are following in China’s fascist footsteps. South Korea, with the second most confirmed cases in Asia, instituted a massive testing program—by itself an essential tool for containing an epidemic. But as people tested positive, the government used a new law allowing it to track “CCTV footage, GPS tracking data from phones and cars, credit card transactions, immigration entry information, and other personal details” of anyone infected (Reuters.com). The South Korean bosses are exploiting Covid-19 to escalate surveillance and tighten control over workers, measures that will outlive the pandemic.
In New Rochelle, NY, Governor Andrew Cuomo, a liberal Democrat, created a one-mile-radius “containment zone” and deployed the National Guard to police it (NPR.org, 3/10). On March 13, President Donald Trump declared a “national emergency” under federal laws that allow him to “seize property, organize and control the means of production, seize commodities, assign military forces abroad, institute martial law, seize and control all transportation and communication, regulate the operation of private enterprise, restrict travel, and, in a variety of ways, control the lives of United States citizens” (Congressional Research Service Report). This is the beating heart of fascism.
The Italy model: infrastructure collapse
As Italy has gone from a few hundred confirmed cases of Covid-19 to more than 30,000 in barely three weeks, its healthcare system is overwhelmed. The Italian bosses have responded with new guidelines for triage, “The criteria for access to intensive therapy in cases of emergency must include age of less than 80 or a score on the Charlson comorbidity Index of less than 5” (The Telegraph, 3/14). In other words, doctors will determine who deserves a life-saving ventilator and who does not. (The Atlantic, 3/11). The Nazis’ Third Reich had a similar stance on health care.
The worldwide scarcity of intensive care beds and resources is no surprise. In 2015, a New York State Health Department task force estimated that “a severe 6-week outbreak” would result in 89,610 patients in acute respiratory distress “and there will not be enough ventilators in the State to meet the demand” (health.ny.gov). The bosses knew the next pandemic was coming, but spare inventory is a drain on profits. Hospital “efficiency” is profitable; excess capacity is not. In the U.S., the richest nation in the world, there are only 2.8 hospital beds per thousand people—fewer than in South Korea (12.3), China (4.3), or Italy (3.2) (NYT, 3/14). In New York City, home to Wall Street and its tens of billions of dollars in annual profits, more than 20 hospitals have closed since 2000 because of “financial pressures” (nbcnewyork.com, 8/6/13). Some have been replaced by luxury condo buildings. As always, the bosses put money over people.
In the absence of adequate health care, or even minimal numbers of tests, the capitalists are promoting “social distancing,” shutting down public spaces (including schools), and self-quarantining at the first sign of sickness. While these may be sound recommendations from a public health perspective, they make survival nearly impossible for workers who don’t have paid sick leave or options for child care. Those hit hardest by capitalism’s racist inequalities—Black, Latin, immigrant, the homeless and the uninsured workers—are also the most vulnerable to the coronavirus and the least equipped to adjust to the “new normal.” We must continue to wage struggles to help these workers and their families stay safe, healthy, and fed.
Fight the bosses, not each other
One historical aspect of fascism and the drive toward inter-imperialist war is the pitting of workers against each other. With Covid-19, egged on by racist talk of “the Chinese virus” by Trump and his flunkies, some workers have been led to look suspiciously at anyone who sneezes, especially if they appear to be of Asian descent. In addition, short-term shortages of supplies have created frenzies of unnecessary hoarding. When workers are isolated and afraid, they are more susceptible to the contagion of the bosses’ rotten ideas: selfishness, individualism, competition.
But let’s be clear: Our real enemy is capitalism. In every disaster, “natural” or otherwise, from Haiti to New Orleans to Puerto Rico, workers have chosen the right side and defended their class. In this urgent time, PLP will continue to work within our mass organizations and stand for worker unity and class consciousness over fear and hysteria. Where public schools are closed, we can run Freedom Schools. We can organize food drives and fight for the homeless and undocumented. We can show the working class that we can run society!
As the U.S. ruling class tries to infect us with racist fear-mongering, communists in PLP must respond to fight the root causes of this pandemic: the blood-sucking bosses and their diseased system. Today we have an opportunity to demonstrate how communism is the only solution for our class. Make the fight against the coronavirus a fight against capitalism! Join Progressive Labor Party!

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Fascists divided in crisis: Trump vs. Biden

As the Covid-19 crisis intensifies, the capitalist ruling class has been rocked by division and instability. Worldwide oil prices and demand are at record lows (NYT, 3/4). The world’s stock markets, from New York to London to Shanghai, are crashing as well. In the U.S., the Donald Trump administration has been a disaster of anti-scientific incompetence. Two years ago, it dismantled the federal pandemic response team. More recently, by failing to make widespread coronavirus testing quickly available, the government has been instrumental in causing a broader outbreak.
Rulers not immune to splits
It’s clear by now that an isolationist, Fortress America approach—the agenda favored by the domestic Small Fascists behind Trump—doesn’t work against a virus. But it’s also important to point out that today’s public health crisis was created by the liberal finance capitalists, the same Big Fascists who are hoping to capitalize on the pandemic to win back the presidency and their control over the state apparatus in November.
It’s no accident that the U.S. government’s first significant action on Covid-19 was to pump 1.5 trillion into short-term lending markets, to keep finance capital afloat. That figure dwarfed the initial emergency “relief” bill rammed through by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, an insulting measure that offered paid sick leave to only 20 percent of workers (New York Times, 3/14). The bosses will put the greed of capitalism before the needs of the working class every time—even more so when their profits are threatened.
The liberal Democrats’ pathetic response to the Covid-19 echoes their decades of criminal disinvestment in workers’ health. Consider the record of Joe Biden the bank and credit card industry stooge who is now the heavy frontrunner for the Democrats’ presidential nomination. Beginning in the 1980s, whenever he wasn’t pushing for racist mass incarceration, then-Senator Biden led the charge for cutbacks to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (theintercept.com, 1/13). He consistently endangered the same groups now most at risk in the current pandemic: the elderly, the disabled, and low-income families and individuals. He backed the Ronald Reagan budget cuts that “cut federal medical aid to more than a fifth of the American population” and gave states the freedom to eliminate medical care entirely for the working class(Washington Post, 8/21/81).
In 1987, in the runup to his first presidential campaign, Biden supported an amendment to list HIV among “the list of dangerous infectious diseases that would prevent immigration to this country” (thedailybeast.com, 3/13).
Obama and Biden, a toxic duo
In his current cynical campaign for Black votes, Biden’s main claim to credibility is his eight years as Barack Obama’s vice president. But when it comes to public health, Obama’s legacy is an anti-worker debacle. In 2015, the “change we need” president called for an 8 percent, $50 million cut to the program that “helps uninsured families receive vaccines and funds the government’s response to disease outbreaks that stem from lack of immunizations”(theatlantic.com, 2/2/15).In total, Obama proposed $399 billion in cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health programs, including home health services. As the New York Times (2/2/15) noted:
In addition, Mr. Obama’s budget would reduce scheduled Medicare payments to teaching hospitals, hundreds of small rural hospitals, nursing homes and health maintenance organizations that care for older Americans and people with disabilities.
The Obama-Biden centerpiece legislation, the Affordable Care Act, left more than 25 million people uninsured and tens of millions more underinsured, with high premiums and prohibitively high co-payments and deductibles: “Of the 194 million U.S. adults ages 19 to 64 in 2018, an estimated 87 million, or 45 percent, were inadequately insured” (commonwealthfund.org, 2/7/19). Even with a free Covid-19 test, a hospital stay for pneumonia can cost an uninsured worker “between $75,000 and $100,000 for 10 days” (cnbc.com, 3/10). When adequate care equates to bankruptcy, is it any wonder that many workers are reluctant to get treatment?
As Biden’s record shows, the liberal bosses are indeed the main danger.