Recent tensions between the U.S. and China reflect a sharpening battle among imperialists for the world’s wealth. The U.S., top dog since World War II, is struggling to maintain control over resources, markets and exploitable labor. With critical shipping routes and huge oil reserves in the South China Sea at stake, a clash between the U.S. and China looms as a potential prelude to all-out war, the inevitable outgrowth of imperialist competition.
As always under capitalism, the international working class will bear the brunt of this conflict. Imperialist war will end only when the working class, led by the revolutionary communist Progressive Labor Party, seizes state power. Only communism can serve workers’ needs. Only a communist society led by PLP can truly make us free.
Challenging U.S. Supremacy
Over the past 18 months, China has escalated its campaign to claim sovereignty over the South China Sea, a 1.4-million-square-mile stretch of the Pacific. By building two thousand acres of artificial islands as military outposts, China is asserting its dominance over Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and other smaller capitalist powers in the region. But its main thrust is to challenge U.S. naval supremacy from the Pacific to the Mediterranean.
On May 25, five days after a U.S. surveillance aircraft was warned away from a disputed reef where China is building an airstrip, “a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman called on America to end its ‘provocative behaviour.’ Global Times, a state-owned newspaper known for its hardline views, said war would be ‘inevitable’ if America kept complaining about the island-building” (Economist, 5/30/15).
Meanwhile, the U.S. is countering China’s activity in the Pacific and any threat to its military bases in Guam. Under a 10-year defense pact signed in April 2014, the U.S. will have access to eight military bases in the Philippines—including two with ready access to the Spratly archipelago in the South China Sea, the site of China’s chain of island fortresses. As the opposing imperialist powers fortify their positions, a Philippine military consultant said, “Once one side crosses, then it will be like a tripwire, all hell will break loose” (Straits Times, 5/31/15).
The Next Pearl Harbor?
Island building reflects the Chinese bosses’ long-range planning for the same scenario that led Japan to strike Pearl Harbor and ignite World War II: a U.S.-enforced oil embargo. Beijing is well aware of its vulnerability as an oil importer. Much of its energy supply travels thousands of miles over seas patrolled by the U.S. Navy.
In response, the imperialist generals of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) are undertaking a massive buildup for a potential World War III. On May 26, they released an official “white paper.” According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the U.S. bosses’ leading think tank:
China is building a military to fight and win wars. The Chinese military is focused on ensuring recent investments in the PLA translate into genuine warfighting capability. The white paper clearly states that the PLA intends to “endeavor to seize the strategic initiative in military struggle, proactively plan for military struggle in all directions and domains, and grasp the opportunities to accelerate military building, reform and development” (CFR, 5/27/15).
Beijing’s anti-U.S., blue-water push dovetails with its Maritime Silk Road project. It aims to extend its maritime influence through Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, and Kenya—and, via the Suez Canal, to Greece and Italy in the Mediterranean Sea, a U.S. lake since the Soviet implosion of the 1980s.
As Foreign Affairs, the CFR’s journal, reported:
On May 21, Russia and China concluded ten days of joint naval exercises in the eastern Mediterranean, which included live fire drills. China and Russia both see opportunity in a weakened southern Europe. In 2008, the China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) invested 4.3 billion euros to operate one of the three terminals at the Greek port of Piraeus and rebuild a second terminal there, a venture that would give China’s Maritime Silk Road an important outlet in the Mediterranean. Meanwhile Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned gas company, is seeking to develop a new gas pipeline via Turkey and Greece, bypassing Ukraine (5/26/15).
Back in the Pacific, the U.S. is beginning to marshal its own potential World War III alliance, using China’s expansionism as a lever to hasten Japan’s remilitarization. Last July, it backed a Japanese resolution to end the longtime ban on deploying its military overseas (Washington Post, 5/23/15). For the first time, Japan will join the U.S. and Australia in a major military exercise, “a sign of the growing security links between the three countries as tensions fester over China’s island building in the South China Sea” (New York Times, 5/26/15). In addition to its military build-up in Asia, the U.S. is pushing the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) as an economic front against China’s ambitions. But the U.S. capitalist media is openly acknowledging that these tensions may be headed toward military conflict:
The debate in Washington is over whether Chinese restraint should be encouraged through diplomacy and appeals to legal principles and international norms, or imposed by force. Either way, restraint is not assumed (Wall Street Journal, 6/2/15).
Workers Will Pay the Price
As the U.S.-China rivalry escalates, the ruling class will use anti-Chinese sentiments to rally U.S. workers to fight for the capitalists’ spoils. Likewise, workers in China will make and man the guns to kill their working-class brothers and sisters. Our party fights to rid the world of ruling-class wars for profits. Join PLP today!
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Pakistan May Day Women and Farm Workers Unite vs. Bosses
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- 04 June 2015 209 hits
SINDH, PAKISTAN, May 1 — More than 1,000 workers marched here today, demanding an end to the anti-labor contract system, to recognize home-based women workers as workers under labor laws, and to implement the labor laws and safeguards for agricultural workers. No law can protect workers from capitalist exploitation. PLP asserted that we need to build a communist movement to defeat imperialism and overthrow capitalism with workers’ power.
The mass May Day was staged by the National Trade Union Federation (NTUF), Home Based Women Workers Federation (HBWWF), and Sindh Agricultural General Workers Union.
One speaker said that workers — from the fields to the factories — were facing brutal exploitation. While there may be labor laws for the industrial sector, they are merely on paper and remain unimplemented. He called the ruling class here an agent of finance capitalists and imperialists, working to privatize and end state subsidies of oil, gas, food and water. The union leaders team up with the bosses to feed workers illusions. The bosses’ laws don’t protect workers. Workers protect workers. Every fight we engage in exposes the ruling class. What’s more, each fight toughens us up. We build confidence in our ability to fight for communist revolution.
Militant Women Workers
A woman speaker attacked the deprivation of millions of home-based workers who use their homes as factories and produce goods for industrialists. These mostly women workers are part of the production process and make up a 40 percent share of the national economy. These women work two jobs simultaneously, as a waged factory worker and as an unwaged worker in the family. The speaker said those working in this “informal labor sector” are not even recognized as workers by the ruling class government. More than 15 million home-based workers have been demanding their basic rights for the last 20 years, and now they are organizing. This fight against sexism is going to hit the bosses where it hurts. These women had a militant contingent on May Day.
Finally, a leader of the farm workers said that though technically they are covered under labor law Sindh Industrial Relations Act 2013, the laws are never enforced. The landlords force them into private jails. Forced labor is also common. Agricultural workers are treated worse than animals.
The non-Muslim workers are facing even worse attacks in the name of religion. This includes the Kolhi (descendants of the hunting-gathering population that once subsisted on Thar Desert’s fauna), Bheel (a majority-Hindu tribal community) and Meghwars (the “untouchable” community under the Hindu caste system). Girls are kidnapped, sexually tortured, and forced to change their religion. Religious leaders, the government and the courts are all responsible for this reign of sexist, racist terror.
A mass revolutionary communist PLP will bring this struggle to its logical conclusion — the overthrow of the bosses. The religious and military fascists will be eradicated with communist revolution. For that, we need one international party, not unions. It’s fertile ground and dangerous work, but the harvest will be abundant.
Brooklyn, May 21—Today marked the 22nd monthly anniversary of Kyam Livingston’s death while held in a Brooklyn holding cell and denied medical attention. Led by her mother, neighbors, friends and PL’ers, demonstrations against the racist murder of Kyam at the hands of her NYPD jailers have been held every month since.
In this struggle, as well as in the campaigns for justice for Shantel Davis, Kiki Gray and too many more, our message has been consistent. We have called for working-class unity — for men and women, Black, Latin and white — to join this fight against racist police terror. We have brought this message into unions, churches, schools and other organizations, securing support for the struggle and bringing out members of those organizations to participate in the demonstrations and other activities. Our message that we all have a stake and obligation to fight back has been well received.
We have explained that racist murders by the police are not the actions of “a few bad apples” but are caused by the capitalist system’s need to terrorize working-class communities and dampen fightback against the exploitation all workers face. This occurs most often in Black, Latin and immigrant neighborhoods. The systemic nature of this violence is shown by numerous cases where no charges are brought against the kkkops, or they are simply let off by a judge.
We’ve drawn two lessons: capitalism must be overthrown with communist revolution if we want to end this police terror, and we must build working-class fighting unity to do this. At the rallies, hundreds of Challenges are distributed to workers on their way home and or those stopping to listen to the speeches. Our 2015 May Day March through the heart of this Flatbush neighborhood was well received, as thousands of CHALLENGEs were distributed and thousands saluted our march and joined in our chants.
But even within a positive struggle, bad ideas can surface. Today’s rally was attended by a group from “Black Women’s Lives Matter.” They argued that white men shouldn’t have spoken at this rally, and that they benefit from their white skin and gender. They also said that fighting sexism is more important than fighting racism. In fact, they spent more time attacking the white male committee members than they did attacking Kyam’s murderers. The “identity politics” of this group divides the working class. After they spoke, Kyam’s mother spoke, saying she was heartened by support, but felt the need to name and thank the members of the Justice for Kyam Committee after the verbal attack by this group.
Many people are drawn to the fight against police terror. This is a good thing. Each brings their understanding of the world to this fight. PLP and CHALLENGE have been fighting this issue since our birth, 50 years ago. “Police War on Harlem” was the headline of our first edition! Our members walked the walk and talked the talk in the Harlem Rebellion, as we have in countless struggles since. We welcome the exchange of ideas. Communist revolutionaries have long said we have nothing to lose but our chains, we have a world to win!
Indiana — A group of students got together and organized an anti-police terror rally on campus. The rally was organized by three student organizations, Students for Social Change, Black Student Union, and the Latin Cultural Club, where PL has a solid base.
The aim of the rally was to show solidarity with Walter Scott in Charleston, South Carolina, Justus Howell in Zion, Illinois, and Freddie Gray in Baltimore. PL’ers and friends gave speeches detailing the injustices of capitalism and how it needs racism and police terror to sustain itself. Connections with the struggle in Ayotzinapa and Palestine were made as well.
Building Leadership
In the initial planning of the rally, there were some questions as to how the university, which is very bureaucratic, would respond to an unplanned protest. Despite this uncertainty, we continued with having the rally and dared the administration to stop us. They never did.
The number of students at the rally was small. Initially there were about seven, but that number grew to fifteen after some students passing by decided to join.
We managed to get out about 30 CHALLENGEs even though the area we selected (mistakenly) wasn’t as highly trafficked as we had at first thought. Even though we didn’t find as many passersby as we wanted, friends who are new to giving leadership were strengthened and politicized by organizing the event.
After the rally, they were already saying, “When are we organizing the next one?” and “The next one should be at City Hall, so we can call out the mayor.”
Communism: A Long-term Struggle
Campus work in Indiana is very modest and is rebuilding itself. But even with these slow gains, the work is solid and has a sound foundation. We have learned first-hand that quality is primary over quantity, and that students can be won to multi-racial unity. We are continuing the struggle to win our base to communism, not just in theory or practice, but in both.
This takes a long-term outlook on revolution, because even after the eventual seizure of state power, the actual revolution is just beginning. Taking power will be a hard task to complete, but reorganizing society will be an even harder one. However, it is what is to be done if we wish to have a world free from exploitation, wars, racism, sexism, and any other obstacle that oppresses the working class.
NEW YORK CITY — A group of PL’ers recently went with a coalition of community groups to call on New York State legislators to save a “rent stabilization” law at risk of being gutted by the local bosses in favor of “mixed”-income neighborhoods. The current law limits rent increases for workers on short-term leases (one and two years) to those determined by a Rent Stabilization Board, with a cap on how much landlords may increase rent.
Landlords and others who support throwing poorer workers out to attract wealthier tenants insist that “mixed”-income neighborhoods are necessary to bring in services. These filth use racist code words, like making Black and Latin-majority neighborhoods “cleaner,” or “safer,” or “reducing crime.” They support changing the laws to better suit their profit agenda. Liberal rulers would like to put power into the hands of the Warren Buffets who can “take care of poor people” while pretending that the reality of this racist capitalist dictatorship over the working class doesn’t exist.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has promised to find or build 200,000 “affordable” housing units. “Affordable” is out of reach for many families whose annual income is $16,000 to $23,000. For example, new buildings will be built in East New York, Brooklyn. The city will provide incentives and tax breaks to the developers so that 20 to 30 percent of the apartments will be “affordable,” with around 10 percent meeting the definition of “low” income. This will guarantee swollen profits for the real estate industry, dramatically increasing overall rents by squeezing out low-rent apartments.
New York City has long been in a major housing crisis. It has lost 400,000 “low” and “moderate” rent housing units, including 55,000 rent-stabilized apartments where rents rose above $2,500 a month and were de-regulated by the law. Working-class tenants,including the elderly, already pay 50 percent or more of their income for rent. Gentrification of working-class communities in all five boroughs has progressed rapidly, displacing thousands of families and changing entire communities.
Landlords routinely flout the law and ignore repairs, leave buildings in dangerous conditions, and commit deliberate criminal acts and harassment to force tenants to move. Government-owned housing projects languish for lack of repairs, such as the building where the NYPD murdered Akai Gurley. Small buildings and private houses for rent are not covered by any rent laws at all, and rents rise almost overnight and transform entire blocks into upper-income housing. Working-class tenants have nowhere to go, so some leave the city to face long and difficult commutes to work. Tenant success stories in the courts, welcome as they are, are extremely few in number.
PL’ers at the rally argued that the working class needs to understand that bankers, bosses and the real estate industry hold class power. Politicians who thrive on the cheers while chanting empty slogans don’t have a magic wand to change “bad landlords.” Their bosses are the capitalists! It is dangerous for workers to be lulled by the liberal politicians into having false hopes about capitalism. We argued for moving beyond short-term limited reforms, however necessary, to overthrow capitalism and fight for workers’ power under communism. United by an international PLP, we can build real housing for all, in a system based on workers sharing what we have so that we can meet the needs of the working class worldwide.