Brooklyn, NY, December 15 — Today workers from a community mass organization in Bushwick had a march in the neighborhood to publicly inform both workers and the bosses about the updated law that has been passed in New York State, which will raise minimum wage to $8 an hour from $7.25. This so-called achievement is being praised by the community organization as another win for the workers. PL members have constantly reminded the workers that these reforms are only “bread crumbs” and will never be enough, because the bosses will always attack workers’ standard of living by increasing the price on rents, food and fares and that only a revolution can free us from this vicious cycle. The organization leaders always respond that something is better than nothing.
Documented and undocumented workers participated in the march and also gave speeches at the end of the rally. The real truth about the minimum wage reform battle came from the last speech by one of the women in the community organization, who supports the Party, especially during a crisis when her husband became ill, was given the opportunity to give a public speech. This is her story:
“I’m married. My husband got ill about a year ago, and ever since I’ve been forced to carry on all the responsibilities in my home now that my husband cannot work due to his illness. Earning $7.25 an hour cannot pay the rent, transportation, food and other expenses needed in the home, electricity and telephone, etc.
“I currently have two jobs so I can somewhat cover the expenses, and I know that on December 31 they will raise it to $8 an hour. But the rent also goes up, the price of milk and other products necessary for daily consumption, and now there are plans of raising the price of the Metro Card (fare card for public transit), so that means that the increase that we are going to receive will still not cover the expenses. It is good to have that increase now, but we need more. $8, $8.75, or $9 is not enough. We need a salary so we can live with dignity. We need $12 or more!”
This is a perfect example of how the bosses use sexism to make superprofits from the special oppression of women workers.
The ruling classes, which are just a few parasites at the top, need the wage system in order to steal from the labor power of the working class, which they have done since the start of class society. Even though $8 or $12 is better than $7.25, Progressive Labor Party continues to point out those workers need to destroy the capitalist profit system that imposes wage slavery on the workers with a communist revolution once and for all.

ALTOONA, PA, December 21 — Over 100 unionized electrical workers here have been locked out for one month by the criminal corporate Penelec bosses. These workers, who’ve been walking the picket line every day, had voted down the latest contract and the bosses responded by locking them out.
The bosses have declared that the lockout will continue until the workers accept this contract. However, the workers are in a fighting mood and are refusing to back down to the profit-hungry bosses.
There’s been some community support for the workers but with the holidays upon us, it’s clear that the workers’ families will be facing tough sledding. It is another example of a class war being waged by many in the working class.
The local press has given these brave workers very little news coverage while they attempt to convince everyone that the only thing worth reporting is local crime. The same could be said for the bosses’ national media. It is the leadership of PLP that is needed to help workers break from bourgeois ideology and move in a revolutionary direction.
This struggle deserves the support of all working people.  Damn the Penelec bosses!

NEGEV, December 12 —  Massive protests both here and around the world forced Beni Begin (the Israeli government official in charge of “resolving” the Bedouin settlements in the Negev) and Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel the racist Prawer-Begin Plan which would evict (read: ethnic cleansing) 40,000 Bedouin workers. This massive victory against apartheid was only made possible by international and multi-ethnic solidarity of workers against racism and fascism.
Two weeks before, on Nov 30, thousands of Palestinian-Bedouin workers and peasants, as well as Jews and Palestinians from the rest of the country, rallied near the poverty-stricken Bedouin town of Hura against the racist Prawer Plan. The multi-ethnic protestors stood for two hours, facing heavily armed cops and mounted police and demanding justice, as well as the recognition of all Bedouin villages. After two hours of protest, the cops charged in, attacking the unarmed workers and peasants with clubs, tear gas, concussion grenades, water hoses and horses.
Dozens were arrested and brutally beaten, including a 10-year-old child. As of Dec 15, they are still in custody, children included. In response, local youth threw stones at the cops and blocked the road with burning tires. The fighting continued for two more hours. Then some of the protestors drove to the police precinct to demand the release of their arrested comrades. Two PL’ers joined the protest, from beginning to end, standing together with their Bedouin comrades against the racist plan.  
The Prawer Plan was nothing but thinly-disguised ethnic cleansing. It called for the deportation of 40,000 Bedouin workers and subsistence farmers from the so-called “unrecognized” villages to crowded (mis-)”planned” towns where unemployment reaches 50% and over 60% are below the poverty line. The bosses’ goal was massive land-grab of Bedouin ancestral lands, to be seized by the state and handed over to U.S. and local real-estate tycoons, such as NYC’s Ronald Lauder (worth $32.3 billion), who would have used it to build fancy houses for the rich.
The state claims that the Bedouins are “squatters”, but how can someone be a “squatter” on lands their families have lived on for generations? The real “squatters” are the Zionist regime and its fat-cat U.S. patrons, who wish to do a somewhat smaller “Nakba” of 1948 (the deportation of 750,000 Palestinians, yet to return to their lands).
Even after the defeat of this plan, Bedouin workers and peasants live in the “unrecognized” villages that still lack basic infrastructures and amenities and have inadequate education and healthcare, all while being harassed by the Jewish (read: Zionist) National Fund who seek to take over their lands and livelihood. The government claims that it cannot provide services to tens of small, “scattered” villages even while it provides excellent infrastructures and services to dozens of well-off Kibbutzim, Moshavim and individual farms, all exclusive to upper-class Jews. These excuses reek of racism.
Capitalism, especially in its Zionist form, is hell for all workers in historic Palestine “from the river to the sea” (an anti-Israeli slogan). However, experience from South Africa and Zimbabwe shows that replacing colonialist (in this case, Zionist) capitalism with Palestine boss capitalism will solve very little of the workers’ problems. Racist apartheid was replaced by native capitalist rule, in service of U.S. imperialism, and now increasingly oppresses workers and murders striking miners. Capitalist “national liberation” holds no promise to the impoverished workers of all ethnicities and “races.”
The victorious fight against the Prawer Plan shows us the way to defeat our class enemies: working-class unity and struggle to the end. The only real solution to the horrors of capitalism is communist revolution under the flags of Progressive Labor Party and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat from the river to the sea. This could help create a red Middle East and a red world. Under communism we will share all land and resources equally, and smash all remnants of racism. Join us!

China is putting military muscle behind president Xi Jinpeng’s call for “a new type of great power relationship.”  World domination is, of course, the ultimate goal for all imperialist  powers. What is China’s strategic intent? That’s what U.S. intelligence analysts are considering in regard to China’s recent aggressive military moves in East Asia.  
Of course, pro-China commentators are asking the same question about U.S. (and Japanese) strategy. Spurred by inter-imperialist rivalry on a global scale, the arms race and military confrontations between China and the U.S. have reached a new level of intensity in the Western Pacific.
A dramatic new stage began Nov. 23 when China declared a new Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea. The declaration demands that anyone flying into the zone notify Chinese authorities and follow instructions from China’s air-traffic controllers. That’s a challenge to the U.S., Japan and South Korea because it claims control over an area that not only is very close to their territory but also includes an area that surveys indicate is rich in resources.
The situation quickly heated up. On the day of the announcement China flew a “maritime patrol,” including fighter escorts and an airborne warning and control-type plane within the ADIZ. In response, Japanese “self-defense” aircraft intercepted the Chinese aircraft. The U.S. quickly denounced China’s move and on Nov. 26 flew B-52s over the area without complying with China’s demands. On Dec. 15, South Korea announced an expanded air defense zone that overlaps China’s, and stated it would fly over the area to defy the Chinese.
Another ominous confrontation occurred a few days later in the South China Sea near Hainan, a Chinese island province in the Tonkin Gulf. The USS Cowpens, a guided missile cruiser, narrowly missed colliding with an escort ship operating with the Liaoning, China’s only aircraft carrier. China objects to U.S. surveillance operations in what it considers its exclusive economic zone, while the U.S. insists the area is part of international waters and that all nations have the right to be there. It is only a matter of time before a deadly incident occurs.
It is clear that the growth of China’s economy and power is pushing other imperialists into preparations for confrontation, if not war. These moves include lining up new support, mainly from Japan, the Philippines and South Korea.
The U.S. has long pressed Japan to expand its already formidable military strength, despite Article 9 of Japan’s constitution that bans it from maintaining military forces. The Japanese “Self-Defense Forces” have been growing since the 1980s, when the U.S. and Japan were confronting the Soviet Union, China and North Korea.
Led by far-right prime minister Shinzo Abe, the Japanese cabinet, on Dec. 17, approved a five-year buildup and $24 billion in military spending, a five percent increase over the previous five. (All understate real spending. U.S. annual “defense” spending is well over $700 billion and China’s is probably well over $100 billion.) The budget came with a national security strategy stating that Japan will seek more “proactive” roles for its Self-Defense Forces abroad and loosen guidelines on arms exports. It also emphasized a strong Japan-U.S. security alliance.  
Just the day before, U.S. Secretary of State Kerry was in Vietnam offering assistance with Vietnam’s disputed maritime borders with China in exchange for more trade and security cooperation. Earlier in the year, U.S. and Philippines agreed to more U.S. military presence in the Philippines, including pre-positioning of equipment. The U.S. promised to help the Philippines defend its territorial waters in any conflict with China.
On a broader diplomatic front, on Dec. 14, Abe and leaders of the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed at a Tokyo summit on the need for “freedom of the high seas and skies.” This was a response to diplomatic gains by China at other regional conferences, where it used lucrative investment projects to win support from Cambodia and other Asian nations.
What are the chances of large-scale military engagements in the short run? The Chinese strategy is a protracted one, and although China is angry about being encircled by the U.S., it realizes it has much to lose in military engagements with a Japan backed by the U.S. The Pentagon is refocusing on Asia with moves that include reinforcing bases in Guam, continuing to station thousands of troops in Japan and Korea, and positioning smaller units of marines and soldiers in Australia and the Philippines.  On Dec 14, the U.S. sent a fleet of drone aircraft to a Japanese air base.
China has mounted a “charm offensive” accompanied by lots of cash aimed at most countries in Asia. It seems to be adopting a divide-and-conquer strategy toward Japan and the Philippines, which are already in the U.S. camp. Over time it might be able to detach these countries from alliances with the U.S. Therefore it probably sees nothing to lose in ratcheting up pressure on those countries. This type of strategy has traditionally been called “inflicting death by a thousand cuts.” Along with steadily expanding economic ties, this approach seems to be paying off in regard to Taiwan, which many CIA officials concede will be in China’s camp in the foreseeable future.
No workers in any of the countries involved have anything to gain by supporting the imperialist aims of their national bosses. The bourgeois political leaders of all large countries only represent the interests of the giant banks and corporations that exploit the working class. All they offer working people is ongoing poverty and military atrocities. Rather than accepting nationalistic propaganda issued by corrupt capitalists, workers must strive to build international ties for communist revolution. Progressive Labor Party is committed to this effort. Join PLP to smash imperialism.