San Francisco, October 18–1,300 San Francisco Bay Area (S.F., Oakland, Berkeley, etc.) students and some teachers walked out of ten schools demanding a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza and humanitarian aid to Gaza. Most of the student protestors at many schools were non-Muslims of Black, white, and Asian backgrounds with many Muslim students in attendance, a great sign of unity.
This was in conjunction with walkouts in other parts of California, Florida, Illinois, and New York. At one school where 200 students left before the bell, the first speakers clearly called for unity between non-Zionist Jews and Palestinians being abused by Israel. Zionists had a field day, though, calling the students “terrorists” and sending many of them death threats. They also harassed the protesting students and teachers who peacefully protested. For a complete communist analysis about the increasingly volatile and fascist situation in Gaza and Israel, read the article and editorial in the 11/1 issue of CHALLENGE.
Also in the Bay Area, 97 percent of the United Educators of S.F. (UESF) voted in favor of a strike. Some members of the San Francisco Movement of Rank-and-File Educators and many, many certificated and classified members of our union helped to organize a great turnout of 3,300 certificated and classified school staff. Progressive Labor Party (PLP) teachers and other members passed out a “Capitalist Education Doesn’t Work” Party leaflet and ran out. Since this clear vote of the membership, the union bargaining team and the School District settled and have brought a tentative agreement (T.A.) to the membership. Two T.A. Informational Sessions were held just this week. A couple of PLP members in UESF tried to bring up the contradictions of this “historic” package in our breakout sessions. The vote on the contract will start on November 3, with the results to the membership on November 9. This might be another “non-strike,” folks! But whatever happens, once again this will be a school for a communist society. The fight continues!
Workers and students in New York City have risen up in anger at the fascist collective punishment that the Israeli government is raining down on the workers of Gaza.
Every day, hundreds to thousands have gathered – and Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members have been there in the struggle, pointing out that neither the Big Fascist government of Israel nor Hamas, the Small Fascists they helped install in Gaza, can lead workers to liberation. Most importantly, PLP called for a communist revolution that rids the world of all bosses and their lethal capitalist system.
In the Bronx, around 100 protesters gathered in front of the offices of Richie Torres, a representative to the U.S. Congress. This racist Democratic Party liberal weaponizes his Gay and Latin identity to try to convince his constituents, who live in the poorest Congressional district in the country, to unconditionally support the fascist, genocidal Israeli government. Our line stood out against the backdrop of Palestinian nationalism, as Hamas’ brutal attack has revealed their true nature as capitalists willing to kill workers for control of “their” workers. In fact, a recent survey showed that even Gazans see through Hamas’ lies; 44 percent of those surveyed in the territory said they had no trust in the Hamas government (Foreign Affairs, 10/25). Many of the demonstrators eagerly took our literature, which attacked both groups of bosses. PLP members had conversations with workers, struggling with them to understand that there cannot be a “Free Palestine” without destroying capitalism.
On Friday, October 27, a thousand people gathered in and around Grand Central Terminal, shutting down one of the busiest train stations in the country. After hundreds sat down inside the station, hundreds more took over 42nd Street outside and began marching west. As in the Bronx, the chants were mostly for an immediate ceasefire and for a “free Palestine.” While chanting “Arab, Jewish, Black, and white. Workers of the world unite!” we distributed more than 300 copies of CHALLENGE and 300 leaflets. One demonstrator, after carefully reading our leaflet, called it a “breath of fresh air” because it criticized Hamas while attacking the barbarity of 75 years of Israel’s colonial apartheid state and the ongoing Nazi-like collective punishment of Gaza.
Workers all over the world are demonstrating the powerful sense of solidarity that we have as members of the working class. This display is truly inspiring, lighting the way to a world where the international working class will be all there is, a future where every boss, whether Israeli or Palestinian, U.S. or Russian, will be nothing but a relic of the past. We are struggling in demonstrations, teach-ins and in one-on-one conversations with our friends, students, and coworkers to build communist ideas and our Party – to make this future a reality.
- Information
Pakistan: Death to the bosses, long live the working class!
- Information
- 03 November 2023 112 hits
PAKISTAN, November 1—Pakistan has long been used by the bosses to serve imperialist interests, and today it is suffering from the crisis of capitalism. But, we are involved in struggles with workers. We use chants like “Down with imperialism…Down with fascism” and “Struggle united to win the revolution.” We need to organize people around our communist line if we want to get rid of all these evils of capitalism.
Capitalist roots
Soon after its inception in 1947 the British colonialists and their local puppets started to lead Pakistan towards capitalism. The Pakistani state always stood firm with capitalist countries in their fight against the USSR. At the time, socialism was being discussed everywhere and the most super exploited members of our class were excited to join different progressive unions and political parties.
The bosses, however, chalked out a plan to counter this with religious propaganda, saying that socialism is against our faith and socialists are agents of India. Bosses started a crackdown against progressive entities; they put political workers behind bars, killed and tortured hundreds of workers and banned leftist political parties. It pushed the country toward political instability, economic uncertainty, intolerance, illiteracy, poverty, sectarianism and fascism.
Now the ruling class here is under severe crises; fundamentalism which was used to bring people against each other has become a monster and uncontrollable by its masters. Society is badly divided into different sectarian and ethnic groups which are contentiously killing each other to spread fear all over the country. Bosses maintain political and economic instability in the country.
We are trying to keep workers informed that bosses are united to exploit the working class. Bosses fight with each other to get the right to exploit and make money, and they have no intentions for the betterment of their followers. Local bosses are puppets of imperialism; they are acting upon the instructions of the IMF, World Bank and other capitalist institutions. Now it is time to unite against exploitation and plundering.
Workers fight back
Now many have started to understand the ruling class’s tactics, and are getting organized in a united struggle against high inflation, exploitation and intolerance. People’s Action Committees are being formed by the nationalist and progressive political workers in Pakistan to fill in the gaps which were created by the ruling class by dividing poor workers into different religious, ethnic, sectarian and communal groups to avoid a unified and cohesive struggle. We are trying to let workers know the exact economic, political and social situation.
People from all segments of society are actively participating in these strikes and sit-ins. People having different political, social and religious backgrounds are uniting against the imposition of unjustified taxes on their basic commodities, especially on electricity.
Companies make profits by extracting taxes from impoverished workers, forced to subsidize industrialists while facing a new tax every morning. Multinational companies are sending back their profits in dollars which is lowering the country’s foreign reserves.
‘Long live the working class’
We are involved in these strikes with our revolutionary line, our friends and comrades in different organizations are explaining the reasons why the working class is getting poorer. We are explaining that reforms are also used by the bosses to avoid revolution.
We used to chant slogans like “Reform or revolution….. Revolution, revolution” and “Stop the plundering….long live poor working class.” We also clarify that we need an international communist struggle to get rid of exploitation, poverty, inequality, injustices and fundamentalism. We will win under the red flag of PLP. Long live communism.
How do you spell fascists? IDF
How do you spell murderers? IDF
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Hey, hey, ho, ho!
The occupation has got to go!
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Joe Biden, you can’t hide!
We charge you with genocide
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They are killing kids overseas...
Shut it down!
They’re killing kids in our streets...
Shut it down!
They’re getting killed by bombs...
Shut it down!
They’re getting killed by police...
Shut it down!
If they keep bombing...
Shut it down!
This racist system
Shut it down!
This genocidal system
Shut it down!
This capitalist system
Shut it down!
Shut this racist system down!
Shut this racist system down!
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U.S., Israel hand in hand
racist murder is the bosses’ plan,
From Palestine to Mexico
The bosses borders, got to go!
U.S. bombs dropped by Israeli jets rain down on children
France24, 10/15–Israel's strikes on the Gaza Strip have led to an "unprecedented human catastrophe" in the Palestinian territory, the United Nations agency supporting Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said Sunday. "Not one drop of water, not one grain of wheat, not a litre of fuel has been allowed in the Gaza Strip for the last eight days," Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of UNRWA, told journalists. More than 1,000 people are missing under the rubble of buildings that were destroyed by Israeli air strikes in Gaza, the Palestinian civil defence team said on Sunday. Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip have killed at least 2,450 people since Hamas's bloody attack on southern Israel last week, the Gaza health ministry said Sunday.
Palestinian medical workers experience raw lessons of capitalism
Al Jazeera, 10/14–Dr Nisreen al-Shorafa has gotten barely 10 hours of sleep over the past seven days. The 30-year-old surgeon runs the emergency room at Al Awda Hospital in Tal al-Zaatar, between Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, and she cannot recall a time when she has worked harder. Dedicated completely to helping save the people who survived the relentless Israeli bombing, she has pushed herself beyond what she thought she could do. On Saturday, the hospital started receiving warning calls from the Israeli military. The message was stark and ominous: The hospital had to be evacuated because it would be bombed. “I’ll bet they [Israeli army] are proud of themselves, threatening to bomb the hospital,” said resident nurse Asala al-Batsh. “They insisted that everyone and everything move. All hospital personnel, all the patients, including those in the ICU, and the bodies in the morgue.” After trying to explain to the Israeli army on the phone the inhumanity and impossibility of moving everyone out of the hospital and southward, the team gave up. “We decided not to leave,” al-Shorafa said…The Palestinian Ministry of Health has urged the international community to intervene several times, but no response or assistance has come.
Capitalism climate crisis worsens
The Guardian, 10/5–At least 43 million child displacements were linked to extreme weather events over the past six years, the equivalent of 20,000 children being forced to abandon their homes and school every single day, new research has found. Floods and storms accounted for 95% of recorded child displacement between 2016 and 2021, according to the first-of-its-kind analysis by Unicef…The rest – more than 2 million children – were displaced by wildfires and drought. In absolute terms, China, the Philippines and India dominate with 22.3 million child displacements – just over half the total number – which the report attributes to the countries’ geographical exposure to extreme weather such as monsoon rains and cyclones and large child populations, as well as increased pre-emptive evacuations. In August 2022, unprecedented floods submerged a third of Pakistan underwater, causing billions of dollars in damage and displacing around 3.6 million children – many of whom went months without access to proper shelter, safe drinking water and sanitation.
Liberals remind us that they attack immigrants, too
Gothamist, 10/1– A top advisor to Mayor Eric Adams on Sunday called for the federal government to “close the borders” in order to prevent more migrants from coming to New York City. “We need the federal government, the Congress members, the Senate and the president to do its job: close the borders,” Adams’ senior advisor Ingrid Lewis-Martin said during an interview on PIX11. “And until you close the borders, you need to come up with a full-on decompression strategy where you can take all of our migrants and move them throughout all of our 50 states.” Lewis-Martin’s comments marked an escalation in the rhetoric from the mayor’s office surrounding the city's migrant crisis…Lewis-Martin said more than 61,000 migrants remain under the city’s care. The call to “close the borders” resembled comments made by several right-wing members of Congress who threatened to shut down the federal government if strict border policies were not included in a new funding bill.