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Bosses Use Mass Shooting for Imperialism, Fascism
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- 12 December 2015 36 hits
In a period of escalating inter-imperialist competition, the capitalist ruling class will seize on every opportunity to use racism to divide workers—and to enlist them into the next big war.
The latest tragedy came on Dec. 2, when 14 workers were killed and 21 injured in San Bernadino, California. The two shooters, whose motives remain unclear, had apparently proclaimed allegiance to the Islamic State, or ISIS. The U.S. bosses quickly used their government and media to sensationalize the crime and whip up anti-Muslim racism. Beyond trivializing the deaths, the rulers are exploiting workers’ fears to gain support for more fascist police repression against Muslim, Black, and immigrant workers—and for the inevitable, global military conflict to defend U.S. imperialism and its declining empire.
Terrorism and Religion: Twin Dangers to the Working Class
Terrorist violence is a political tactic to strike fear and panic. The biggest death toll—by far—comes from state terror waged by the U.S. and its powerful allies or imperialist rivals, from drone strikes and bombing campaigns to racist police murders. Smaller regional imperialists like ISIS, skimming Middle East oil profits under the veil of religion, are just following the big bosses’ lead.
But regardless of where it stems from, terrorist violence is always anti-working class. The communist antidote and alternative is mass, revolutionary, working-class violence to seize power from the capitalist class and build an egalitarian, internationalist world. The Progressive Labor Party is organizing a movement to create such a world—a society run by workers to serve workers’ needs, a society without profit or wage slavery or any form of exploitation.
The bosses’ media pushes the racist idea that Muslims are inherently dangerous to their fellow workers. In fact, all religious movements are dangerous to workers. All of them divert workers’ natural anti-capitalist anger into the false and divisive unity of nations or religious creeds. Whether Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, or Muslim, from Pope Francis to the Ayatollah Khamenei, the cynical leaders of these movements work hand-in-hand with mass-murdering capitalist rulers to preserve the profit system.
Workers respond to aspects of religion that speak to their deepest aspirations—their need for hope and comfort inside the brutal nightmare of capitalism, their desire to alleviate others’ suffering, their vision for a society where all are truly equal. But no mythical supreme being can make those aspirations a reality. Only the international working class can create an egalitarian world. That is our fight to win, in the here and now, alongside our class sisters and brothers.
Religious Appearance, Capitalist Essence
The ISIS bosses consists mainly of former higher-ups in Saddam Hussein’s old regime, striving to regain and expand control over the oil wealth of the Middle East. These moguls twisted the California killers—among many other confused workers—with phony, pious propaganda. Quoted in the industry journal OilPrice.com (11/29/15), Texas-based Robert Bensh, “managing director at Pelicourt, a Western-owned oil and gas company navigating tricky conflict zones,” noted how religious faith is manipulated to serve profit:
Every modern day conflict—even if not immediately evident—has at its heart control over resources from oil and gas to water. Religion is but a symptom; a tool used to consolidate opinions, cement power and lure in new recruits.... ISIS is trying to build a nation here—a fully functional state with its own oil and gas resources.
High Stakes = Boots on the Ground
The rise of ISIS is a direct challenge to U.S., British, and French control over Iraqi oilfields—control won at a cost of millions of working-class lives over decades of bombings, occupation, and U.S.-sponsored genocide. For these partners in crime, the solution is a wider war that an ISIS attack on U.S. soil could mobilize. On Dec. 2, hours before the San Bernardino shootings, Congress heard prophetic testimony from Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the policy think tank funded by ExxonMobil and the dominant, finance capital wing of the U.S. ruling class:
The existence of the Islamic State is a clear and pressing danger to the security of the United States and that of our allies. This threat must be confronted and destroyed before ISIS operatives attack us right here in Washington and in other American cities.
The day after Defense Secretary Ashton Carter notified Congress that 200 Special Operations forces would be sent to spearhead the fight against ISIS, Boot called for many more boots, U.S. and allied, on Iraqi ground:
I believe we will need a force of 20,000 to 30,000 … including a substantial Special Operations task force…to galvanize and support a Sunni uprising in Iraq and Syria. If we make such a commitment, allies such as France, Britain, and Egypt are likely to step forward as well.
U.S. v. Russia…
In another Dec. 2 development, U.S.-dominated NATO extended a formal invitation for membership to Montenegro, historically a Russian satellite in the Balkans—a once and future flashpoint for U.S.-Russia conflict. Representing ExxonMobil’s interests, Boot seemed to be inviting an open conflict with Russia, despite U.S. bosses’ lack of readiness [see box]. Here is how the CFR analyst assessed a likely U.S. escalation:
Against these benefits must be weighed the potential risk of confrontation with Russia, whose air force is already bombing U.S.-supported rebels in Syria. This is a very real concern… Make it clear to Russia that…its forces will challenge ours at their own peril....The Turkish shoot-down of a Russian jet has exposed Putin’s bluster and is likely to make him think twice about confronting NATO forces in Syria.
In its “ISIS War Games III” report (12/3/15), the Atlantic Council, another policy-formulation group backed by the biggest Exxon-tied U.S. financiers and industrialists, goes one step further:
Should ...the transnational threat of ISIS reach alarming levels, the United States might be left with the least desirable of all options: military occupation akin to the U.S. presence in Iraq from 2003 to 2011.
…And Bringing the War Home
In response to San Bernadino, Barack Obama issued an appeal to intensify the enlistment of Muslim community “leaders” into networks of informers—a modern take on Hitler’s Judenrat, the Jewish Council leaders enlisted by the Nazis to organize the deportation of European Jews to the death camps. The ruling-class Times (12/6/15) approved: “[T]he authorities may have to rely more on encouraging Americans to watch one another and report suspicions. Federal and local governments already have programs urging friends, families and neighbors to identify people targeted for [ISIS] recruitment.”
Turn Imperialist War Into Revolutionary War!
As German poet and communist Bertolt Brecht wrote: “General, man is very useful. He can fly and he can kill. But he has one defect: he can think.” The capitalist bosses, driven by their competition for maximum profit, will never stop plotting for war to redivide the world’s resources. But their grand plans will go nowhere unless they win the international working class to fight willingly for imperialism—or, at the very least, to be terrorized into submission and obedience.
The revolutionary communist PLP is building an international movement in 28 countries—and counting—to smash the entire capitalist system. The bosses may start their next global showdown, but organized communists can finish it—by organizing fightbacks against racism and imperialism, and winning millions of workers to join the fight for a world without capitalism. We need all workers to stand and become leaders in this struggle. Join us!
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To help ready the U.S. for a broader conflict with rival Russian or Chinese imperialists, Barack Obama has successfully pushed the U.S. Defense Department to open all military combat jobs to women—and may soon force somen to register for the draft. The rulers’ leading mouthpiece, the New York Times, cloaked this move toward global war as a victory for egalitarianism, one that will both “make the military stronger and… narrow America’s gender equality gap” (12/6/15). As to “whether women should now be required to register in the Selective Service System,” the Times answered its own question: “It could be done easily.”
Our party stands for the absolute equality of all workers. But doubling the number of those eligible to kill and die for the bosses’ profits is no triumph for working-class women and men. . All military recruits, men and women both, must be organized to turn the guns around—and turn imperialist war into communist revolution!
SAN FRANCISCO, December 2 — “They executed my child…25 bullets in my baby”…He “was was supposed to start UPS today. He got his uniform,” …Gwen Woods described the police murder of her son Mario Woods and that his future on a real job was snuffed out. A Bayview resident said that the video is hard to watch: “He got shot like he was at a firing squad. Deplorable.”
Videos went viral of five racists San Francisco police surrounding and assassinating Mario Woods, 26, on Thursday December 2. The bosses’ usual claim: “He refused to drop a knife and tried to walk away.” The videos show him stunned with beanbags and staggering against a wall, followed by a volley of gunshots.
By the next night, over 300 angry people assembled around Mario’s memorial for a Vigil , March and Community meeting at a Local Church on 3rd St in the historically Black Bayview District of SF. PLP joined a large multi-racial crowd, Black, Latin White and Asian, reflecting the common working-class anger. Speakers and posters referred to other racist police murders. People welcomed each other. Some Black residents of the Bayview District saying “We are so glad you’re here” to those who appeared to be from other neighborhoods. “Mario Woods RIP” was all over the walls and street.
Along with the long list of young Black men murdered by police in the Bay Area, the racist police have killed 2 Latin young men from immigrant families in the last year. White & Asian youth are not subject to police terror at such a high rate but also come under the gun. The assassinations of Mario Woods, Alex Nieto, Amilcar Perez Lopez, and Kenneth Harding were addressed at the rally.
PLP talked with people and distributed around 200 flyers and CHALLENGEs. Like our leaflet, we asked the question “Why with all this fightback has there been no fundamental change in Police Conduct? The murders, arrests, searches and judicial abuses continue.” And not to mention mass incarceration! We explained that the police are doing exactly what they are supposed to do — serve the ruling class by terrorizing Black and Latin workers, dividing the working class and keeping all workers in line through fear. We made some friends and plan to bring our flyer back to areas where we have political activity.
Same Fight All Over
Family members, friends, Bayview residents, members of neighborhood Churches and Black Lives Matter spoke about Mario and the history of police murder/harassment up and down 3rd St. Again, folks from outside the neighborhood were welcomed.
A PL’er spoke to bring solidarity greetings from Chicago. “The struggle there brought masses of working people and youth took over the streets in reaction to Laquan McDonald s assassination and cover up. It’s the same fight all over.” (see page 3). He said that removing the SF Police Chief Greg Suhr or forcing out the Chief of Chicago Police won’t make things fundamentally different. It will be new faces, new tactics but the same old racist terror. He urged people to make the long hard struggle to get rid of the capitalist system as part of our fight to end its racist economics, ideas and culture. “We need an alternative to this system that profits from racism and division. PLP organizes to replace capitalism with its opposite, a communist system: A system of equality, dignity and shared responsibility for all our needs; a system that produces everything for the needs of the whole global working class.” He got applause and was able to get more contacts from some of the organizers and some people in the school system.
CHICAGO, November 27 — “Your power is in the streets, not looking around in stores! Take the streets!” A member of the Progressive Labor Party said this in response to a Black nationalist mis-leader during a march on a popular U.S. shopping day called “Black Friday.”A multiracial group of Progressive Labor Party members and friends attended the march on Michigan Avenue to protest the racist murder of Laquan McDonald by the Chicago kkkops. This area is where many expensive stores and shopsare, and was called by phony mis-leader Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/ PUSH Coalition, and others. The Black nationalist mis-leaders wanted to lead the antiracist workers into the stores, “just look” around, and not buy anything.
The PL’ers marching have a better strategy than the dead-ends pushed by fakers like Jackson. These misleaders want to channel workers’ anger into walking around “just looking” inside ritzy stores in rich neighborhoods. These stores are too expensive for workers to shop in, and are done to make a publicity stunt to the capitalist media. PLP fights to unite our class, Asian, Latin, Black and White, to fight back!
Black Nationalism vs. Antiracism
PLP came to the march as a multiracial group, despite the efforts of local Black nationalist misleaders to exclude us because they wanted a “Black Space for Black Rage”. PLP opposes identity politics, like nationalism, and neither believes in nor fights for separate “spaces” for different workers with white skin or Black skin.
PL’ers spoke with marchers and contrasted our strategy with the nationalists. The intensity of rebellions led by the Black working class in places like Ferguson and Baltimore are testament to the intense oppression of Black workers in the U.S., especially women. Black leadership is key to building a mass multiracial communist movement to smash capitalism with armed revolution. Black nationalism offers no solutions to capitalism or the racism, sexism and imperialism it feeds on. Black nationalism merely changes the skin color of the capitalist oppressors, leaving Black workers exploited by someone who looks like them with the claim that it’s “progress”.
Black Workers Key To Revolution
One of the misleaders who spoke at the march showed their true colors and said we have to vote for Hillary, “so this will not happen again.” A PL member countered with a speech making the connections that ultimately it was capitalism that killed Laquan. Since Hillary Clinton is one of the biggest imperialists in the world, workers have no interest in her or any candidate the capitalists run for election.
As long as the capitalist system remains, the international working class will never be free of racist police terror, rampant unemployment, or the imperialist wars spawned by capitalism’s relentless drive for profit. Black workers, especially Black women, are hit the hardest under capitalism day in and day out. PLP emphasizes Black and women leadership and is organizing a mass working class movement because it will take the whole, united, multiracial working class to fight back together. Together, the working class can build our own mass leaders and smash this racist capitalist system and its genocidal cops with communist revolution. We have a world to win. Join us!
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Fightback for Kyam’s Justice Inspires New Generation
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- 12 December 2015 34 hits
BROOKLYN — Twenty-nine months into the struggle for Kyam Livingston, murdered in 2013 by Brooklyn cops’ racist medical neglect in Central Booking Jail, an increased presence of high school students in the monthly rally represented an important step forward. This advance didn’t happen spontaneously. Earlier in November, Kyam’s mother, Anita Neal, joined Natasha Duncan—whose sister, Shantel Davis, killed in 2012 by the New York Police Department—in visiting a local high school. Along with a focused effort by Progressive Labor Party youth clubs in Brooklyn, the two women helped introduce a new generation of young working-class fighters to this anti-racist fight.
This struggle is a fight against sexism on two fronts: exposing the racist, sexist murder of Black working-class women in Flatbush, and the fierce leadership given by women in the streets, as demonstrated by Anita, Natasha, and PLP.
Carrying signs and balloons, the protesters flooded into the center of Church Avenue and East 18th Street. The chants rang out: “We want Justice for Kyam Livingston, killed in a Brooklyn cell!” All traffic stopped as CHALLENGEs and leaflets were distributed. Two or three police officers came running to the group to shoo us back to the sidewalk, but the protesters would not be moved. A sympathetic crowd gathered on the sidewalks, excited to see business as usual stopped by the demonstration.
Students from Brooklyn Tech, John Jay and Tilden high schools spoke at the rally. A teacher painted a picture of life under capitalism, pointing out the deaths caused by this racist system. The teacher emphasized the common interests of the working class, and how we need a communist society to benefit working people and not just the wealthy.
Worker-Student Unity
As another speech was given in Spanish, many people stopped to listen to the words of unity. Church members, neighbors, welfare workers, and retirees all spoke at the rally, attacking a capitalist system that allows workers to die slowly because we are denied the resources to save our lives. We saw a worker-student alliance emerging in this fight.
Anita Neal spoke three times to describe her anguish and loss. This is the third year, she noted, that she has suffered through Thanksgiving without her daughter. Money was collected for future leaflets and sound permits. People donated their nickels, dimes and dollars; the working class is ever ready to support the struggle against racism. Many speakers thanked Anita for giving them the leadership that allows them to fight back. They understood that the death of one worker is an injury to all.
After the speeches in the center of the street, we let go of our balloons and watched them waft up into the clouds. The demonstration then marched back to the corner for another 45 minutes of speaking and chanting. We will demonstrate again on Monday, December 21. The struggle will continue!
LOS ANGELES—Three racist murders by the Los Angeles Police Department over the past six months were protested on the Venice boardwalk by 30 members of two Unitarian churches, along with members of Progressive Labor Party. The killings of Brendon Glenn, Jason Davis, and Jascent-Jamal Lee “Shakespeare” sparked chants of “Black, Latin, Asian, White! To Smash Racism We Must Unite!”
Now more than ever, we must publicly denounce the bosses’ racism and accelerating drive toward fascism, as the capitalist profit system moves inevitably toward broader inter-imperialist war. All of us must struggle with one another and within ourselves to become leaders in the class struggle.
From Marchers to Organizers
These protests are important not because we think reforms can fix the problems of capitalism, but because taking to the streets shows the power of a united, militant working class. During the pre-march rally, a comrade called on marchers to become organizers: “If everyone on the Westside of Los Angeles who agreed with us about racist cops were here today, we’d have 10,000 people marching.”
Another speaker reminded us how important it is to stand up and protest police murders and the other atrocities of capitalism and imperialism. Through multiracial unity and international workers’ solidarity, PLP is building a mass revolutionary communist movement to smash racist police terror and this entire racist capitalist system. Every time the working class has stood up and fought back, the capitalist ruling class trembles in fear. Now is the time for workers to rise again!
Communist Leaders Serve the Working Class
After the march, a member of one church said she had “never done anything like this before.” For years, PL’ers and friends have been inspired by this woman’s dedication to feeding homeless workers and her concern for fellow workers in the church. Today marked her first demonstration, a qualitative advance in her commitment to the class struggle. A comrade said, “If you can change, so can lots of other people. And you know some of them.” She smiled and nodded. The implication was clear: Through continued struggle we can win workers to become the leadership our international class needs, communist leaders to help build a movement of millions and liberate the working class from capitalism.
Our work is cut out for us: to create more organizers and more communists. We have invited several new people to our monthly PLP study group and added them to our CHALLENGE mailing list.
We continue to struggle with our friends, coworkers, neighbors and fellow churchgoers to come out and protest. As the anniversary of Tamir Rice’s death and the non-indictment of Mike Brown’s killer kkkop approaches, there will be another rally followed by a “Protesters Potluck.” Stay tuned for more articles!