BRAZIL—In 206 cities, hundreds of thousands of students and teachers took to the streets in protests, outraged by President Jair Bolsonaro’s announcement to cut 30 percent of funding to public universities and high schools. Racist and sexist Bolsonaro is now under attack and rightly so. But voting so-called leftists back into power is not the answer. It’s not just Bolsonaro. It’s the whole damn capitalist system.  Various socialists or “leftists” today – from Bernie Sanders in the U.S. to Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva- just want to fix capitalism. That’s not possible.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of workers are striking, demonstrating and fighting the cops, demanding no cuts to their pensions and other safety net programs. This is working class power. It should not be wasted on an effort to replace Bolsonaro with some socialist hack. Let this be a school for communist revolution. We need workers and students in Brazil to join the communist Progressive Labor Party (PLP) and organize for an egalitarian society totally run by the working class. Bolsonaro won big because the fake leftist governments - led by the Worker’s Party (PT) which was in power for twenty years - dished out a few crumbs to the working class and then screwed them royally.
By the time of his October 2018 election victory, Brazil was in the deepest recession in its history, corruption was rampant among politicians, and homicides were at record levels (nytimes.com, Oct 28, 2018). It was Lula and his fake “leftist” Workers Party– in power for almost 20 years– that put Brazil in this crisis.
 The current cuts come on top of years of budget cuts by the previous governments led by the Workers Party. They are part of a policy of austerity measures aimed at shrinking government spending and privatizing the country’s resources. They target the humanities and social sciences as part of Bolsonaro’s far-right nationalist party’s ideological attack on the “left”, which he claims has turned the universities into “hotbeds of Marxist indoctrination” (Aljazeera).
Bolsonaro also aims to privatize 100 state-run companies in areas such as energy, ports, highways, and airports, a process that began over 20 years ago when the government began privatizing Petrobras, the state-owned oil company, and South America’s largest. Now, under Bolsonaro, that plan is being intensified with a vengeance. Some capitalists aligned with Bolsonaro will control businesses that were previously controlled by capitalists aligned with Lula.
This is also a defeat for Chinese imperialists who have made huge investments in Brazil – and especially in Petrobas - while the Workers Party was in power.  Bolsonaro’s fascist program is a full-fledged attack on the working class.  Since taking office, he has lowered the minimum wage, eliminated labor legislation protections, announced the dismantling of social security and the slashing of pension benefits, and attacked public education.  He is promoting racism to divide and weaken the working class.  He campaigned on the promise of seizing resource-rich indigenous lands that “are an obstacle to agri-business” (Campo Grande News, 4/22/15).
Bolsonaro promotes vicious racism against the indigenous tribes to divide the working class and justify this land grab.The massive demonstrations show students and workers acting in their own class interests.  Now, they need to reject the socialism of the Workers Party, which has produced little for the working class. Join the PLP and transform this anti-government movement into an armed revolution for a classless society-- communism. 
 Workers and students in Brazil have seen first-hand, over the last 20 years, how socialist reforms within a capitalist economy fail the working class.  Join the Progressive Labor Party and help us build a new international communist movement for real workers’ power.

The bosses’ media is filled with cries of a “Social Security (SS) crisis,” screaming that SS will “run out of funds” unless taxes are increased and the retirement age is raised. But this is not a crisis of SS. It’s a crisis of U.S. capitalism.
Until 1968, the bosses’ law mandated that all payments into the SS Trust Fund be used only for retirees’ pensions. But that year the Johnson administration broke that law by “folding” the surplus revenue in the S.S Trust Fund into what the bosses called the “Unified Federal Budget”(UFB). Why? Because the cost of their imperialist war in Vietnam was creating a huge deficit. But now, by including those billions and trillions of surpluses from the S.S Trust Fund into the UFB, they could steal those surpluses and use them to reduce the Federal deficit and pay for the cost of that war and all the imperialist wars to follow: Grenada, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Gulf  War I, Iraq and the longest one of all: Afghanistan — 18 years and counting.
Workers pay a SS tax rate at 7.65 percent (including Medicare) and the employer pays an equal amount. But the employers’ amount comes from the workers’ labor so, in effect, 15.30 percent is being paid by workers to build the SS Trust Fund, ostensibly to cover workers’ retirement and Medicare.
The Federal government is obligated to pay back the SS surpluses robbed from the SS Fund — in the form of Treasury bonds — a robbery which by 2015 left the SS Fund $4.6 trillion short. This leads to their lie that “Social Security is endangered.” But in actuality —  as noted in the NY Times (1/21/90) — the government is using the $4.6 trillion of SS surpluses it robbed “to pay for everything from jet fighters to thumb tacks.”
For instance, this addition of the SS surpluses to the UFB made the 1998 “budget surplus…a mirage….about which both the President [Clinton] and the Republicans crowed incessantly.” It “was due to a big surplus in Social Security….The rest of the budget showed a deficit of almost $30 billion. Most of the Social Security surplus, which supposedly goes into the Social Security Trust Fund, was spent on other programs” (NY Times, 11/9/1990). Thus, with a $100 billion addition from a SS surplus, this sleight-of-hand turns an actual $30 billion federal deficit into a $70 billion federal budget “surplus.”
The rulers’ crocodile tears about “saving Social Security” is utter bullshit. The Carter, Johnson, Clinton, and Obama Democrats along with the Reagan, Bushes, and Trump Republicans have all, been using the working class’s pension money to prop up U.S. capitalism, cutting taxes on the rich while paying for the rulers’ imperialist wars.
The deficit crisis is part of the general crisis of capitalism. It will always try to solve that crisis on the backs of the workers who produce all the value in society. Such “solutions” will continue until the working class, led by its revolutionary party, the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) rises up to destroy the bosses’ state power and establishes a society in which retired workers will be provided for by the social value produced by our entire class. Profits, bosses, and imperialist wars will not be part of that picture.

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The bosses shift the tax burden
In the 1980s, the Reagan Administration, with the help of the Democrats, cut income tax rates for the rich from 70 percent down to 28 percent. Corporate income taxes fell by 23 percent. Meanwhile, it raised the Social Security tax on workers’ wages. Thus, the New York Times reported (1/21/90) that, “The burden of taxation was shifted from the income tax to the Social Security tax….[75 percent] of all Americans now pay more in Social Security taxes than they do in income taxes.” Thus, “the expenses of government are financed more by a tax on the poor and the ‘middle’ class and less by a tax on the wealthy.”

BROOKLYN, June 6 – “Pay back the money you owe!” “Whose streets? Our streets!” Chants in Spanish and English filled the air as more than 30 workers from a community immigrant organization confronted a wage-stealing boss this week: a small-time capitalist who makes his fortune ripping other workers off by exploiting their unscientific belief in Tarot Cards. It was a militant protest that reflects years of Progressive Labor Party efforts to organize fightback among immigrant workers!
The workers carefully planned this protest in the days before, bringing signs made by young workers drawn with Tarot hands and crystal balls, with messages like “Thief Tarot Reading”, and “Your Future: Jail”, both in English and Spanish. This petty boss, filled with rage, screamed and called the cops on the workers! While the protestors entered the store with chants demanding the stolen wage money, the petty boss yelled and tried intimidating the workers to leave his store. After kicking them out of the store he also demanded they leave the sidewalk, because according to him, it was private property.
There was a great feedback from the passersby of the neighborhood, who not only took our leaflets describing why we were there, but also had discussions with us asking what was going on and even stayed at the rally to simply watch the action with surprise and admiration.
A petty boss and a gutter racist
Towards the end of the rally, the petty boss was just so furious at the bravery and actions of the workers that he began to say even more disgusting racist insults and at one point he even said how he was so happy what Trump has been doing to Latin workers with mass deportations.
At that point a young comrade of the party, who was one of the leaders of this action, lost his control and began to curse out the petty boss and even reminded the petty racist boss that he was also an immigrant. A few other protestors also joined in the match of insults, but eventually we had to retreat when the cops came.
The petty boss even lied to the police that the protestors had wrecked his store, but there was no evidence of that, and our lawyer told the police that not only was that a lie, but that the community organization is a peaceful entity and that we were within our rights and were not breaking the law in any way. After the rally, all of the protestors went to have pizza and soda for dinner to cool off after this intense event.
Building for struggle and revolution
Planning for this demonstration began at a weekly meeting of a liberal community organization two days before, where members of the communist Progressive Labor Party have been working for many years. Over the past year, workers and PL members have demanded side by side to the leaders of this community organization to support direct actions and confront wage-stealing bosses, as it was done in the past for workers who came to the organization asking for help against wage theft.
The community organization has recently transitioned to younger leadership, who have re-started this campaign of direct action and have even allowed one of our young comrade leaders of PLP to take more charge of this campaign, while under the liberal community organization’s direction. This week, the workers scored a victory: the organization’s leadership would support direct action to confront the thieving bosses!
Following the meeting, a dedicated workshop took place where the members of the organization brainstormed on how to proceed, including making signs. The petty boss had already been disrespectful to the lawyers of the organization when requests were made on the phone. At the end of the workshop, it was decided that the lawyers of the community organization, along with 30 members, would go to the work site with a letter of demands followed by the protest.
Criticism, self-criticism, and the science of struggle
At the next weekly meeting of the community organization, the protest was evaluated and analyzed by the workers. While the workers supported the action, some of the leaders of the organization weren’t too happy about the screaming insults that had been exchanged with the petty boss. According to their reasoning, they fear the possible arrests of our mainly undocumented members.
Then the young comrade of the party took the stand and spoke at the meeting and made a self-criticism. He indicated to the workers that he was not going to just stand there while the petty boss made these horrible racist remarks and wasn’t going to tolerate the bosses attempt to intimidate the workers. Even though the young comrade apologized about possibly putting our undocumented sisters and brothers in danger, he also took full responsibility if he got arrested, since he himself is documented and fully aware of his rights. He felt he was within his right to yell at the boss as long as he didn’t touch him.
The young comrade also took this opportunity to compare and criticize the liberal mass organization’s many previous staged arrests that are planned ahead of time, as opposed to unplanned spontaneous arrests, which are considered real fight backs. We must continue to lift the class consciousness of the workers in the fight back against the bosses, including making direct actions and confrontations against the exploiters. When the time comes, the working class will be ready to take control of the means of production with communist revolution!

The European Union’s parliamentary elections revealed the fraying alliance between the U.S. and the European Union (EU), as well as the weakening of U.S. imperialism and its liberal world order. The voting also exposed the growth of openly fascist movements and the widening ruling-class splits within the most important countries in the EU. Finally, it underlined the urgent agenda for the main-wing, finance capitalist bosses as they move toward the next global military conflict.
The instability and splintering within longtime U.S. allies like Germany, France, and Britain, alongside the sharpening rivalry between the U.S. and rising imperialists in China and Russia, points squarely to an eventual world war. That’s the only way imperialists can solve their contradictions, even if only temporarily. At the same time, this volatile period offers a strong opportunity for Progressive Labor Party to organize and turn the guns around for communist revolution.
The old-guard European leadership includes the French banker president, Emmanuel Macron; Germany’s lame-duck chancellor, Angela Merkel; and Britain’s imploding Conservative/Labour establishment. They want to continue to ally with the U.S. main-wing bosses, represented by liberal Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren.
EU split
These Big Fascists, whose multinational alliances (like the EU and NATO) protect their long-term imperialist profits, are the ones who continue to hold lethal state power in both the U.S. and most of Europe. They’re still the main threat to the international working class. If anything, the far right’s recent surge enhances the liberal bosses’ ability to mislead workers into backing “the lesser of two evils.”
At the moment, however, the Big Fascists are under siege from more domestically-oriented bosses. These Little Fascists are crudely racist nationalists who share an isolationist, short-term, profit-taking outlook. They don’t want to be taxed for the next big war because their investments are less directly tied to imperialism. As finance capital finds its core interests threatened, the main-wing bosses will necessarily resort to fascism to unite and discipline their own ranks. Then they will intensify their attacks on the working class in preparation for World War III.  
The growing split between these two camps can be seen in the EU parliamentary election results in the following countries:  

• Germany: The ruling main-wing coalition parties, the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats, both took major hits. The Little Fascist Alternative for Germany made gains in eastern Germany, while the outsider liberal Greens grew among young, urban voters, mainly in the west.

• Italy: The openly fascist, anti-immigrant League swept the field and won more than a third of the vote, expanding from its base in the north and more than doubling its support in just one year.
• France: Marine Le Pen’s National Rally won big on an anti-immigrant platform, mainly in rural areas, defeating Macron’s En Marche! party, which remained strong in cities.
• Britain: Nigel Farage’s anti-EU Brexit Party, formed just six weeks earlier, won an easy victory. The Conservative and Labour Parties, which together represent London-based finance capital, combined for just 23 percent of the vote.  

In general, the centrist coalition that has run the European Parliament for decades lost its majority of seats, declining from 54 percent to 43 percent (npr.org, 5/27).
Weakening EU vacilates between imperialist rivals
The European Union, made up of 28 European countries, or 27 if and when Britain leaves, was created in 1993 to counter the almighty rule of U.S. imperialism in the post-Soviet era. The EU is essentially a borderless union to increase the bosses’ profits through a free flow of goods and labor. On one level, the Union has worked well for the blood-sucking bosses.
The EU’s trade structure has propelled it to become the world’s second-largest economy after China.  It produced $19.9 trillion….China produced $23.1 trillion and the U.S. was third, producing $19.4 trillion(The Balance, 2/27).
As the EU rulers attempt to cope with both their struggling economies and waning political influence, some are turning toward China and Russia—and away from a weakening U.S.—for trade, alliances, and security. A number of countries are actively hedging their bets. In fact, the escalating trade war between the U.S. and China appears to be pushing much of the EU toward the China camp. France and Germany have publicly resisted U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat campaign to ban the Chinese telecom giant Huawei, though two British carriers “said they would not offer Huawei phones to customers who wanted access to their new 5G services” (New York Times, 5/24).
Meanwhile, Europe’s open fascists seem to be pivoting toward Russia. In a recent scandal in Austria, the deputy prime minister and leader of the far-right Freedom Party was forced to resign after a video showed him offering government contracts to a reported Russian oligarch’s niece (CNBC 5/22).  
The main danger
Millions of workers in Europe are rightly skeptical about the EU, a capitalist creation that has created widespread unemployment and gross inequality. But because of the decline of class consciousness since the reversal of the communist revolutions in China and Russia, many of these workers are falling for the old divide-and-conquer trick of racism. “...In some countries, such as Poland and Germany, extremist parties have risen in popularity despite decent rates of G.D.P. growth. Migration, racism, demagoguery, and the development of social media have all played significant roles” (New Yorker, 5/30).
Despite the alarming rise of a new generation of open Nazis, the liberal Big Fascists remain the main danger to our class. These main-wing finance capitalists are committed to maintaining U.S. control over the Middle East and its cheaply extracted oil and natural gas. They are pulling out the stops to build a patriotic, multiracial mass movement to convince workers to fight and die in the next world war. They’re creating reformist anti-revolutionary mass movements like Black Lives Matter or the various European Green parties to channel working class anger into electoral politics and an agenda for war and fascism.
When workers lack class consciousness and a communist understanding of the world, they see reforming capitalism as their only option for a better life. They side with one camp of bosses or another. But relying on any bosses’ side is a lose-lose strategy for our class. Neither the Big Fascists nor the Little Fascists can make capitalism work for workers. They can bring us only exploitation, oppression, and a living hell on earth.
Fight for communism!
The rulers’ deepening instability means increased racism, sexism, nationalism, and attacks on the working class. But as we immerse ourselves in the rulers’ mass movements, injecting communist politics, exposing the bosses’ hypocrisy and fighting off their attacks, we will build confidence in the working class. This is a necessary step toward building an international communist movement and transforming the bosses’ wars into communist revolution. Only then will our class be able to seize state power and lead society for the benefit of billions, not the profits of a few billionaires. Join us!