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Working-Class Exploitation to Win Ruling-Class Wars
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- 25 November 2016 35 hits
Throughout its history, the U.S. Military has used racism and sexism to divide and manipulate the working class in an effort to build a military to fight their wars.
- Not Recognized By Name
During the American Revolutionary War, the typical Black soldier was a private, often lacking a name or official identity. He was carried on the rolls as A Negro man, or Negro by name, or A Negro name not Known - Denied Human Rights But Forced to Fight
During the Civil War, Black slaves substituted for White masters who chose not to fight. Pressured by Congress to increase enlistment, some states compensated slave owners up to 120 pounds for slaves who served. - Three-Fifths A Human Being: All Parts Soldier
By the end of the American Revolution, over 300,000 men would fight, including approximately 5,000 who were Black. However, the new U.S. Constitution re-emphasized Black inferiority by deeming that, for political representation, each enslaved Black person would only count as three-fifths of a human. - Returned to Chains After Combat
After fighting in the War of 1812, Black soldiers were returned to their owners once the war ended and re-enslaved, through the Treaty of Ghent which provided for the mutual restoration of properties, including slaves. - Defending Murder: Houston Rebellion 1917
When the Twenty-fourth Infantry, of which all members were Black, arrived in Houston, the segregated Texas City responded by enforcing Jim Crow laws and enlisting city police to harass the men. On August 23, two cops beat and murdered a member of the infantry in response members of the 24th organized the Houston Rebellion. In November 1917, the largest court-martial in U.S. military history convened at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio to try sixty-three soldiers from the rebellion. Thirteen of the convicted men were executed by hanging on December 11 and 47 others received life sentences. - American Weapons not American Citizens
Although they were still not considered American citizens, more than 17,000 indigenous workers fought in WWI (1914—1918). They would, however, not receive any veteran benefits until 1924, when they were declared citizens, yet racism and exploitation were still commonplace in the military. - Jim Crow On The Ground & In Flight
During WWII (1940 – 1952), the Tuskegee Airmen were the first Black military aviators in the U.S. Armed Forces. The Military was still racially segregated and Black soldiers were subjected to racism both within and outside the Army. In Southern States Black soldiers were also was still subject to Jim Crow laws. - Scapegoating on U.S. and E.U. Soil
During WWII almost four times as many Black soldiers as whites were executed in Europe after military courts-martial, despite the fact that Blacks made up less than 10 percent of troops (NYT, 2013). - Turning a Blind Eye to Racist Extracurricular Activities
In 1986, Marine and Army troops based at Camp Lejeune and Fort Bragg in North Caroline took part in Neo-Nazi and White supremacist activities led by the White Patriot Party and KKK to which Army spokespeople responded, “We cannot restrict their freedom of expression, in as much as it does not interfere with their military duty, or violate civilian or military lay” (NYT, 1986). - Breeding Grounds for Racism
In 2012 Reuters reported that Neo-Nazi and Skinhead groups were encouraging followers to enlist in the U.S. Army and Marine Corps to acquire military skills. A 2005 Department of Defense report states, “Effectively, the military has a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy pertaining to extremism. - Sexual Assault: Unprecedented and Unreported
A 2012 Pentagon survey found that approximately 26,000 women and men were sexually assaulted. Of those, only 3,374 cases were reported. In 2013, a new Pentagon report found that 5,061 troops reported cases of assault. - Mass Rape Goes Unreported and Repressed
On the Lackland Air Force Base in Texas at least 43 female trainees who went through boot camp from 2009 to 2011 reported being sexually assaulted or raped by 17 male instructors. Service members who report a sexual assault were 12 times more likely to experience some kind of retaliation than they are to see an attacker convicted. - Racial Thursday: Weekly Dose of Racism
Still common practice, one day a week, the U.S. Army allows soldiers to use racial slurs and share racist thoughts within their units without consequence. This practice has been dubbed Racial Thursdays.
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Antiracists Confront White Supremacist Conference
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- 25 November 2016 42 hits
Communist author Mike Golash of the Progressive Labor Party speaks out at #StopNPI pic.twitter.com/YxZvxGGTAT
— Alexander Rubinstein (@AlexR_DC) November 19, 2016
Washington, DC, November 19—Over 500 antiracists protested outside a conference of the racist National Policy Institute (NPI). These NPI scum are often called coat-and-tie white supremacists. During this years’ conference these Nazis got several tastes of militant, antiracist action. The Progressive Labor Party (PLP) also took a small step forward in building a movement for communist revolution.
The NPI are hard core supporters of eugenics, the idea that races are biologically different, and that whites are simply “better stock” than others, who they call the “mud people”. The NPI was celebrating the election of Donald Trump, their partner in advancing racism, and were making plans to further a “white nation.”
No Food for Racists
The antiracists from Smash Racism DC were having none of this. The day before, the antiracists had succeeded in forcing the Hamilton Restaurant to cancel the NPI’s annual dinner. The NPI then moved their dinner to Maggiano’s Restaurant, at which point antiracists stormed the restaurant, disrupting the dinner and spraying a foul-smelling liquid on Richard Spencer, NPI president, who was trying to mock the protesters. After leaving the restaurant shortly before the cops arrived, the demonstrators picketed outside the restaurant, which was forced to close its doors to new diners.
Though small crowds have picketed this annual conference in DC in the past, this year’s rally was more mass and militant. Fittingly, these NPI racists were meeting in the Ronald Reagan building. Even though a huge police presence prevented the demonstrators from shutting down the conference, we were able to shut down several NPI members. They were booed when they came out and tried to mock the demonstrators. One racist’s face was bloodied.
At the rally a member of the Progressive Labor Party spoke on the need to take this moment of anger at the election of openly racist and sexist Donald Trump and turn it toward a revolutionary movement for communism. We need to abolish the whole damn capitalist system, which uses racism and sexism to maximize profits for the few at the top. (See twitter @PLPchallenge for the speech #StopNPI). Millions of workers abandoned the Democratic Party in this election because it has failed them, and millions more simply stayed home for the same reason. The PLP member warned that the liberal bosses are regrouping with people like Senator Elizabeth Warren to try to funnel the energy of these workers and youth into the Democratic Party and pointless electoral politics. Instead we must boldly put forth and fight for a revolutionary alternative; a multiracial movement of women and men fighting for an egalitarian world.
Today, several of the protesters asked to be contacted by the PLP to learn more about revolution and communism, the real alternatives to electoral politics. We must be deeply engaged in the anti-Trump protests to bring awareness of our revolutionary ideas to thousands more. Join us.
DENVER, COLORADO, November 2—The Progressive Labor Party (PLP) brought the fight against racism and for a communist world to the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association (APHA), an organization of public health professionals and policy makers whose mission is to improve public health and achieve equity in health status. We’ve helped over 300 people think about the relationship between racism and poor public health. Most important, this struggle has translated into bold action. We joined with others in passing important resolutions on police violence and demanding UN financial support for Haiti’s cholera epidemic (see letters). PLP is moving the struggle to the left and exposing APHA as an institution that won’t fix public health. Only communist revolution can deliver the healthcare that workers need and deserve!
Resolve to End Racist Violence
As the fight against racist police terror has intensified in the U.S. over the past two years, PLP members in APHA have called attention to the serious threat to public health that police terror poses. Last year, PL’ers joined with the Black Caucus of Health Workers at the APHA meeting to present a panel on police violence and public health, the only session at that conference to address this problem. Students from California who were inspired by that discussion joined us in introducing a resolution against police terror this year.
After nearly a year of research, we had a resolution condemning the role of police as racist agents of capitalist social control, complete with 82 references to the academic literature. Among the actions demanded by the resolution were decriminalizing homelessness, loitering, sex work, and drug use; tougher police accountability and demilitarization of police departments; putting money into promoting racial and economic equity; and creating community-based alternatives to policing, including more jobs and restorative justice programming for addressing problems like drug use and prostitution.
As expected, the APHA Joint Policy Committee (JPC) that previews resolutions prior to submission for a vote, gave the paper a negative assessment. Capitalist-supported institutions like the APHA will not oppose racism because they support a system that needs it. However, the crowd refused to accept the racist ruling. The hearing was intense, with dozens of supporters demanding to override the JPC’s disapproval.
Beyond Police Reform
The next day, a student co-author of the resolution gave a talk to 300 people called “Beyond Police Reform,” demonstrating that police serve the capitalist class and calling for fundamental revolutionary change. “Law enforcement,” she argued, “cannot be reformed for the benefit of the working class. Education for the police, body cameras, or tasers aren’t answers,” she declared; instead, she said that cutting policing and using funding instead for strengthening working class communities was a solution.
Police terror and other aspects of capitalism like unemployment and unsafe housing are the root of workers’ poor health. Good public health requires addressing these things. The authors of the resolution insisted, “This is what public health should fight for.” However, the JPC deemed this as too impractical and far-reaching, showing that APHA cannot really giving the working class the healthcare it deserves. In fact, capitalism will never be able to eliminate unemployment because it needs to hire and fire workers to deal with periodic crises and keep wages low. The bosses will never give workers safe housing or clean water, as we’ve seen in Flint, Michigan where they poison the water with lead and in rural working-class white communities where they poison the water with cancerous fracking chemicals. For working people to be healthy, we must eliminate this deadly capitalist system. In fact, the essence of public health must be fighting for a world of equality where all working people will have healthy, productive, and creative lives, the opposite of the exploited lives of workers under capitalism. Communism offers this possibility.
The Struggle Intensifies
We would not let the JPC’s negative evaluation slow the momentum we had achieved. PLP prepared and widely distributed a flyer calling for a public rally in support of the resolution. Over 60 public health professionals rallied in front of the convention center, signaling a unique moment in history: the first time that APHA members have publicly protested en masse against a position of the APHA leadership! Militant chants rang out for over an hour, including:
No public health silence in the face of police violence!
Indict, convict, send killer cops to jail, the whole damn system is guilty as hell!
An unusual parliamentary ruckus ensued on the floor of the 300-delegate Governing Council as the resolution was brought forward for a vote. Fearful that the resolution as written would become APHA policy, the leadership suspended the rules and labelled it a “latebreaker” so that it would only be in effect for a year and would come up for reconsideration next year. This is further proof that the APHA is not interested in or capable of creating the necessary changes to fix public health. We can make progress in reform struggles like these, but we can’t expect to create permanent solutions without a communist revolution.
The resolution passed in this modified form. Making the resolution permanent APHA policy will be part of our continued efforts next year in Atlanta. Although reforms are limited, passing the resolution against police terror had a mass character and brought us in close contact with many young public health activists. This would not have been possible without parallel activities in the broad anti-racist movement, including the actions and rebellions against racist police murders in Ferguson and Baltimore supported and led by PLP, Black Lives Matter, and the families of victims of police murders. Similarly, within the APHA, the past year’s president, a friend of PLP, played a positive role by making anti-racism the centerpiece of APHA activities this year and supporting the resolution against police violence on the floor of the convention.
On to Next Year
“Health equity” was the theme of the convention, but only the unflagging, consistent work of the Party and friends clarified the role of racism in the struggle. Look forward to next year in Atlanta, when the theme will be climate change. We welcome you to join us in the struggle to eradicate racism, end capitalism, climate change, and realize a communist world.
THE BRONX, November 17—“This makes me want to get even more involved!
“This felt really good!”
“For the first time in a long time, I don’t feel trapped!”
So spoke three college students in the Bronx after two weeks of antiracist organizing on their campus. This included a mini-walkout, forums, film showings, protests and study groups.
Members and friends of the Progressive Labor Party are playing a leading role in this growing fight back! We are discussing revolution and communism with our friends, old and new. The idea is catching on that “It’s not just Trump, it’s capitalism!”
Wall Against Racism
The day after the elections, hundreds of students attended Social Justice forums on campus and pledged to get involved in campus fight backs. A few days later, a dozen students walked out of one class with their professor chanting, “Racism means we have to fight back!” and held a rally near the cafeteria. Two days later, more than 50 students organized a “wall against racism” and rallied and chanted in front of the school. Speeches were given about the need to fight racism worldwide and the need to have multiracial unity.
Many are seeing the outcome of the Trump election as their signal to get politically involved. On our campuses, the issue of the possible deportation of undocumented students and workers and the racist harassment of Black, Latin, and Muslim students has been front and center. At the same time, many students are realizing that the Democrats, with their mass deportations and mass incarceration, are no solution either. The whole damn system has to go.
In the last few weeks, many new students have come forward to give leadership in these events. They have helped to organize protests, they have given speeches, they are discussing how to fight racism and organize for revolution. They are the future leaders leaders of the movement we are building for a better world!
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Annual Dinner Builds Solidarity vs. Anti-Muslim Racism
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- 25 November 2016 38 hits
BROOKLYN, November 12—In the face of rising anti-Muslim racism stirred up by president-elect Trump, members of Progressive Labor Party and others in our local Unitarian church organized an even bigger annual interfaith dinner this year. Over 100 people of all ages gathered at our Unitarian church for our 16th annual dinner with Muslim workers and their families! After the September 11 terrorist attacks, we made a concerted effort to reach out to our Muslim working-class sisters and brothers to build solidarity against anti-Muslim racism. Over the years, we have built a thriving relationship that has enriched the lives of all. We are one step closer to building class-consciousness, one step closer to communism.
Cultivating Multiracial Unity
What began as a divided room 16 years ago has blossomed into a working-class family. More members of the Unitarian church participate now, and the dinner is an even mix of Muslim and Unitarian workers. We no longer have to encourage people to sit at a table with folks they don’t know. People socialize naturally regardless of their background. It’s a testament to our comrades’ outreach and community building that has fostered this sense of family and mutual respect. Our unity is based on our common struggle to end capitalism.
Many attendees gave captivating speeches. A Black Muslim imam stressed the need to overcome the racism, sexism, and division stirred up by the election. A spokesperson from the church conveyed a prayer of healing and solidarity from our minister. One PLP member who helped foster the relationship between the religious organizations spoke of the need to fight together in the face of rising fascism. These words prompted a church member to spontaneously stand up and talk about protecting and standing up for anyone who is being bullied or harassed.
The final speaker, a Muslim woman involved in many community organizations, emphasized that hate crimes are on the rise in New York. A racist letter was distributed in an apartment building in Queens saying that it is a Trump building and non-white person was not welcome. She stressed the importance of Muslim workers uniting with other antiracists to fight anti-Muslim racism and sexism being espoused by those emboldened by the election.
The election of Donald Trump has shown that capitalism is in crisis and open racism is increasing as a result. However, antiracist workers are emboldened, too. Mass marches all over the country show that millions of workers will stand up against racism. Marches show that we have the capability to fight this racist system, and dinners like these show the potential for a new communist one. In these volatile times, it is more important than ever to unite under one flag, the red flag of communism and PLP. Only with class-consciousness and multiracial unity can we defeat the capitalist bosses looking to divide us. This dinner showed that with workers looking out for one another, anyone could be a family. There is hope for a brighter future. We are already seeing glimmers of what could be! Join the fight against racism and the fight for communism now! We strive to build a world without inequality, religion, borders, and capitalist exploitation.