For over two months, mass protests have made Hong Kong a new flashpoint in the escalating fight between U.S. market capitalism and Chinese state capitalism. Workers in Hong Kong and everywhere must refuse to be taken in by either set of imperialist exploiters. All bosses settle their disputes by shedding rivers of our class’s blood. The intensifying U.S.-versus-China trade war will inevitably give rise to armed conflict and an eventual third world war.
Images of masses of people attacking the cops and shutting down a center of global finance may seem inspiring. But in assessing any resistance movement, we need to look beyond appearances to its political essence. At their core, the Hong Kong protests are a reactionary, anti-worker movement. They serve the interests of local billionaires in a battle to resist control by the mainland Chinese capitalists and their organized crime syndicate, the once-revolutionary Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Hong Kong, exploiters’ paradise
In 1842, after feudal China’s loss to British capitalist narco-traffickers in the First Opium War, the island of Hong Kong was absorbed into a rising British Empire. It soon became a headquarters for Western imperialists and their local henchmen bent on sucking worker-generated wealth out of Asia.
In 1949, after the once-revolutionary CCP defeated the U.S.-backed fascist Kuomintang in a bitter civil war, Hong Kong remained a British colony and a crucial outpost of finance capital. By the 1970s, the Chinese capitalist bosses—a new “red bourgeoisie”—smashed the Cultural Revolution, a mass movement to restore the fight for communism. In 1997, these fake-left rulers agreed to allow independent finance capitalism to persist in Hong Kong for at least another 50 years: the “one country, two systems” deal.  
On August 5, workers called for a general strike with chants of “Restore Hong Kong, Revolution of our times!” Elements of the Hong Kong ruling class are making a bid for permanent autonomy, which the mainland Chinese ruling class will never accept. For the “Wall Street of the East,” stakes are high. Hong Kong features “[r]elatively low taxes, a highly developed financial system, light regulation….Most of the world’s major banks and multinational firms maintain regional headquarters in the city….” (Council of Foreign Relations, 6/19). Hong Kong is the key hub for investment for Chinese companies, giving them “access to global capital markets for bond and loan financing” (Economist, 10/1/14).  
Even as Shanghai and Beijing emerge as new financial capitals, Hong Kong remains of huge importance for China’s rulers’ bid to dominate the global profit system. They plan to integrate Hong Kong and neighboring Guangdong Province into a Greater Bay Area project “that could rival the San Francisco Bay or Tokyo Bay areas, …Echoing the connectivity narrative of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the Greater Bay would constitute a population of more than seventy million people and a $1.5 trillion economy” (CFR, 6/10). China’s absorption of Hong Kong would spell doom for independent capitalists who have flourished under “one country, two systems.” These are the forces behind this summer’s turmoil.
“Democracy,” exploiters’ tool
The average resident of Hong Kong has a living space the size of a parking spot; hundreds of thousands of poorer workers split such a space among three people (New York Times, 7/22). But instead of fighting the brutal inequalities of the capitalist system, protesters have been infected by anti-mainland racism. They target tourists with chants of “uncivilized” and “invaders,” and intimidate elderly mainland women at their morning outdoor exercises (NYT, 7/13).
From Xinjiang to Hong Kong to Taiwan, China’s ruling class faces growing internal challenges to its authority. The turmoil in Hong Kong today echoes the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising, another “pro-democracy” movement that favored more liberal, entrepreneurial, Western-style capitalism. In a period of intensifying inter-imperialist rivalry and rising fascism, China’s ruling class can’t afford to allow “two systems” much longer. Hong Kong’s “leaderless” mass action, loudly hailed in the U.S. bosses’ media, is a mask for the direct involvement of U.S. imperialism.
 Among the 40-odd NGOs backing the Hong Kong protests is a thinly-veiled CIA operation, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). As its founders openly admitted early on: “A lot of what we do today was done covertly by the CIA 25 years ago” (NYT, 6/1/86).Since then, NED has penetrated every “opposition” movement that aligns with the interests of U.S. finance capital, from Russia (1996) to Venezuela (2002) to Haiti (2004). Today it is active in Nicaragua, Ukraine, Xinjiang, and Hong Kong (thegrayzone.com, 6/18). Its influence is apparent in the English-language signage and American flags held by Hong Kong’s protesters.
Nationalism and war
As the trade and currency war between the U.S. and Chinese ruling classes escalates, each side is preparing its population for open conflict. The CCP has given its stamp of approval to Chinese nationalist Hu Xijin and his Global Times newspaper, with its 30 million online readers. Hu’s treatment of the U.S.-China rivalry: “There is a sense of crisis; America cannot prevent China’s rise.”  On the trade war: “We are willing to bear some pain to give the U.S. a lesson.”  On a future shooting war: “The possibility cannot be ruled out; the danger is greater than before”  (NYT, 7/31).  
But when it comes to exploitation and slaughter, China can’t compete with Western liberal democracy. From its origins in Greece to its enshrinement in the U.S. Constitution, democracy has been a cover for the rule of a tiny, propertied ruling class.  Democracy is the tool of enslavers—chattel slavery then, wage slavery today. Workers will suffer wage slavery and imperialist slaughter until we learn to see democracy for what it is: a dictatorship of the capitalist class. Our task is to replace capitalist democracy with proletarian dictatorship and a system that meets workers’ needs. That system is called communism.
Fight for communism!
Progressive Labor Party is building a revolutionary communist movement to pick up where the Red Guards of China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution left off—and to finish the job of leading the working class forward to the victory of a classless society. The Red Guards were fighting not for democracy but for centralism, for the principle that the highest expression of “majority rule” is the uncompromising commitment to the interests of the international working class. Only a mass communist party can lead this fight. Communist centralism remains our most invaluable tool. Join us!

BROOKLYN, NY, August 3 —The seventh annual Hoops for Justice basketball tournament brought together over a hundred workers and youth to honor the memory of Shantel Davis (23) and Kimani Gray (16), two Black youth murdered by the kkkops. The event was organized by the Justice for Shantel and Beyond Committee, of which Progressive Labor Party (PLP) has been a part.
Hoops for Justice is a special event because each year a multiracial, multigenerational group youth, workers, and comrades come together to play basketball, eat, distribute CHALLENGE, prizes and commemorate  Shantel and Kimmani with ballons. It’s the perfect blend of fun and
working class fightback!
More importantly, Hoops for Justice sends the  
message that we refuse to forget our working-class sisters and brothers, whose lives were robbed by racist police violence. PLP will carry the torch of justice forward to the only solution that can put a stop to racist cop murders: communist revolution.
Building workers solidarity
one hoop at a time
During the fast-paced games players waiting to compete looked through CHALLENGE as the announcer mixed in play-calling with political consciousness—calling out the racist NYPD and the true nature of capitalism, and the need of young workers to organize for a revolution. As it happens every year, halfway through the tournament, participants gathered on the court to listen to a revolutionary anti-racist song performed by a fellow comrade. Workers sang along calling out the roster of names of workers cut down in high profile murders. We then released white balloons, as a symbol to never forget, all while delivering a message that we also keep fighting the racist violence that robbed their lives.
Confidence in the working class, an antidote to fear
Unfortunately at the tail end of the event, some youth said they spotted a man in a motorcycle who was purportedly flashing a gun tucked in his waist at some of the local youth. For a brief moment it seemed as though the event was soured, and with just two games left to play.Organizers and other workers rushed to make sure everyone was okay, with one seventeen year old positioning himself in front a group of children he didn’t know in order to protect them—giving them his phone to watch cartoons while the situation was assessed. Workers have, workers can, and workers will protect each other without the racist harassment of the murderous capitalist police state.
This fact was reflected in the collective decision making and determination of PLP and our friends organizing the event not to end the tournament on a note of fear. Then a party member and sports commentator told the remaining crowd that we should stay and play one more game. He explained that the youth in this Brooklyn neighborhood are exposed to the capitalist violence that comes with living in impoverished and marginalized neighborhoods, that they don’t have the choice to just up and leave whenever disturbances happen, and so we shouldn’t either. We quickly organized another match that was  multi-generational, co-ed, and multi-racial to end the event, building solidarity and showing we’re not intimidated by violence that stems from capitalism.
    A world without kkkops is possible
Events like this are small, but significant examples of how the working class doesn’t need  bosses to run the world and doesn’t need kkkops to keep us safe. The working class can organize ourselves and create a world run by and for workers. And one day, we will—when we build a mass party with youth leading the way! The necessity to build PLP is clear. If we don’t, the bosses and their badge wearing goons will continue to exploit workers’ feelings of hopelessness and to redirect any sense of spirit towards dead-ends such as electoral politics. Only workers armed with communist politics and values have the power to turn the dark nights we’re currently living in into brighter days. Long live communism!

BAY AREA, August 6—Capitalism is nuts, and it drives us nuts, too—if we don’t fight it. After months of strife, the City of San Francisco passed a racist and anti-working class law to curb its homeless population, a problem that was generated by capitalism. The Conservatorship Law will take “guardianship” over the mentally ill homeless people. This law reveals how capitalism is a system of dictatorship. Progressive Labor Party and other fighters are struggling for workers to one day be rulers of our own fortune. Only communism provides the conditions to make that dream possible.
City creates & exacerbates crisis
For a decade, San Francisco hosted billionaire tech firms tax-free, and let the resulting sky-high rents enrich developers while throwing thousands into the streets. The City took $40 million from mental health and substance abuse treatment budgets. They harassed homeless people sitting on sidewalks or pitching tents against the rain. They had used water trucks to spray on people sleeping in doorways on winter nights. Now, tent encampments are encroaching on rich areas, and the City has suddenly “discovered” there’s a crisis in homelessness, mental health, and substance abuse. This crisis was created by the business-as-usual capitalist neglect for working-class needs.
The City’s response? A Conservatorship Law. Mentally ill people in the streets will be placed in a locked ward to receive intensive psychiatric care for up to a year.  Court hearings could renew these one-year terms indefinitely. “Once you’re fully conserved, you lose the right to live alone, choose your doctor, access your bank accounts, own a pet, or communicate with the outside world. The ACLU calls conservatorship ‘the greatest deprivation of civil liberties aside from the death penalty’” (SF Weekly, 6/5).
Capitalism is the real crime
Homeless people, seniors, people with disabilities, and protesters—who were focused on ending police violence and mass incarceration—united to fight this Conservatorship Law. The police, not mental healthcare workers, oversee this “intervention.” The reform demands are full-service supportive housing and mental health/substance abuse care. Much like how they deal with migration, the bosses’ system has turned the workers into criminals. The real crime is capitalism, not the people who try to survive it.
Everyone involved could see that capitalism is the cause of every aspect of this crisis: gentrification, rent gouging, displacement and evictions, police terror and the criminalization of poverty, budget cuts, and a vicious media campaign denying the humanity of capitalism’s victims. It was also clear that capitalism is causing people’s alienation, and that substance abuse is a horrific coping mechanism.
Communism is the cure
We want communism, where the working class owns and runs society, but also so everyone’s potential is recognized and their contribution is encouraged. We will never solve the housing crisis through reform, because its primary goal is opposite of the solution. Capitalism is a system of profit and power that can only come from exploiting and dividing people. Communism is a system of collectivity and power that can only come from putting the needs of the entire working class as the main determinant of societal decisions.
Prevention, not punishment
The protesters’ demands include street-corner micro-clinics, and 24-hour neighborhood clinics staffed with both mental health workers and counselors with personal experience of living on the streets and mental illness, and no cops. These demands are in accord with public health research and recommendations, including the recently passed resolution of the American Public Health Association and the San Francisco Health Commission on treating incarceration as a public health issue.San Francisco has a history of fighting back: protesters and mental and public health practitioners have demanded prevention, not punishment. They defeated building a new jail, which would have been filled with people charged with low-level nuisance “crimes,” allowing the City to sweep the streets with several hundred newly hired cops. They also defeated building a “mental health jail,” a tactic now being used across the country to re-brand the prison-industrial complex to make it seem like people will get treatment.
The City’s own data shows that 70 percent of the city’s homeless are formerly San Francisco renters. Displaced workers’ current mental health stressors are usually the result of living on the street, rather than the cause.
Fight continues
Although the Conservatorship Law passed, we grew in class-consciousness. At first, hardly anyone dared question this law. Now, many do and others will follow us as this battle spreads through California. We are in the middle of a public health and mental health crisis. How do communists and workers meet the challenge of waging these battles with a long-term view? Our challenge is helping our group see communist revolution and working-class power as the answer to these questions.

CHICAGO, July 25 – On July 24th, the Chicago City Council and newly-elected “progressive” Mayor Lori Lightfoot unanimously passed a law called the “fair workweek” ordinance. It’s already being widely celebrated by many liberal labor groups as a significant reform victory. Similar workers’ schedule reforms are currently in place in other major U.S. cities like New York, San Francisco, and Seattle.
But as the history of class struggle shows, we cannot reform our way to workers’ power. Like the national Fight for $15 campaign, the capitalist bosses and their misleaders running the unions will always manipulate any reform victory to ultimately serve their interests. We need the worker-run society of communism to guarantee safety, security, and egalitarian working conditions for our class, not another compromise with the bosses.
No fairness for workers
under capitalism
The city’s Fair Workweek Ordinance was first proposed around two years ago, as a means to address the unpredictable and unstable job schedules that many service and retail workers face. Many of the workers filling these mostly part-time positions are Black, Latin, and immigrant women workers, so the fact that they have to face such difficulties is another reflection of the racist and sexist nature of capitalism.
The most updated form of the ordinance that passed the city council, mandates that employers provide at least ten days advance notice of employees work schedules, instead of the one or two day notice that a lot of employers now give. It also mandates compensation for workers sent home from work on short notice. The different capitalist industries expected to comply include hotels, day laborers, healthcare facilities, and larger restaurants (chicagofairworkweek.com).
The ordinance was allowed to pass because the retail and service bosses were successful in pressuring the politicians to shape it more and more in their own favor. The final version of the bill excludes any worker making more than $50,000 per year, which intentionally leaves out many nurses and other healthcare professionals who still have their shifts cancelled at the last minute. Also, those workers who are employed at smaller businesses and non-profit organizations, not covered by the ordinance, will still face instability in wages and schedules.
But these shortcomings didn’t stop the union misleaders from SEIU and other organizations from singing their praises for the ordinance. They paraded different workers to the city council meetings to provide testimony, but after the bosses were able to chop the ordinance up in their favor, the bosses and politicians alike had very little reason to object to workers speaking out within their “democratic” rights.
This reform, much like the Fight for $15 campaign, is useful for the unions and the liberal bosses to sell the illusion of progress to the working class. They intentionally use terms like a “fair” workweek or wages even though there can be no equality or fairness between bosses and workers under capitalism. As the communist Karl Marx detailed over 150 years ago, the profit system is based off of the bosses extracting surplus value from the exploitation of our labor. If they paid us for the value of what we actually produce, the system would implode.
The only solution is
communist revolution
This is not to say that as workers and communists we should not be participating in reform movements large and small. We must, as these are the struggles where we learn to organize and understand our power as a united working class, and steel ourselves collectively in a period of growing fascism and inter-imperialist rivalry. But it is essential that we are clear among ourselves as workers that these reforms will never resolve the fundamental contradiction between the international working class and the capitalist bosses.
In order to resolve that contradiction – and all the racism, sexism, nationalism, misery, and inequality that comes with it – we need the mass international Progressive Labor Party openly advocating and organizing for a communist revolution that wrenches state power from the bosses and builds a collective egalitarian society based on our needs. When this revolutionary goal is widely grasped and embraced by the masses, capitalism’s days are numbered!