Paulsboro, New Jersey, December 28 — From a garment factory in Bangladesh to a chemical spill here, capitalism’s murderous worldwide reach shows that the working class must put this profit-hungry beast down with communist revolution. Few Paulsboro residents were thinking about the need for communist revolution however on November 30 when a railroad tanker filled with vinyl chloride derailed and crashed into the Mantua Creek. It released a cloud of this toxic gas into the community. 

The derailment was caused when the bridge failed to close properly. Parts of the bridge date from 1873. A few years ago, Conrail replaced the worker who operated the bridge with an electronic system to save the company about $100,000 a year. The electronic system failed so often that Conrail dispatchers and engineers routinely ignored the system’s red lights and drove trains across the bridge if it “looked okay.”

Many of the working-class residents of Paulsboro were exposed to this gas. The most intense exposure was in an area of the town populated by poor black and white workers. This area was evacuated several hours after the exposure. Seventy people were treated in the Underwood Hospital Emergency Room for respiratory problems, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and headaches. 

Approximately 700 workers were evacuated from the neighborhoods closest to the accident. They were sent to motels in the surrounding areas. Conrail set up a family assistance center at a hall in the neighboring town of Gibbstown. Residents who were not evacuated were told to “shelter in place,” meaning stay in their houses and keep windows and doors closed.

Two weeks after this accident, there are still two tankers filled with vinyl chloride and one filled with ethanol sitting in the Mantua Creek and none of the capitalist experts can figure out how to get them out safely.

There have been two public meetings since the accident and they have both been angry affairs. Paulsboro workers have blasted Conrail and the flunkey Paulsboro politicians for their handling of the emergency. In 2009, a coal train derailed on this same bridge and it was not adequately repaired. There was never an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. The evacuees complained of shabby treatment by Conrail’s support team.

So maybe most Paulsboro folks were not thinking about the need for communist revolution before November 30. But after the chemical spill, they are now planning to form a committee to fight the deadly negligence of the Conrail bosses. This can prove to be fertile soil for PLP’s communist ideas, a “chemical spill” poisonous to all bosses.

New York City, December 28 — Over 1,000 people left homeless by superstorm Sandy were moved into Manhattan hotels after spending a couple of weeks in various shelters. They were dumped at the door, often at fancy establishments, without money, food, clothes, healthcare, or means of transportation. With thousands of empty apartments and even more vacant luxury condos, the bosses would rather pay $300/night for a month than put families in permanent housing for a year.

These mostly black and Latino workers, who previously received some public assistance, now face eviction to homeless shelters. The racism and total human disregard with which they are being treated shows the true nature of U.S. capitalism.

At first, the evacuees resorted to begging food from stores while they asked the Red Cross and other agencies for help. Everyone rejected them until we demonstrated at the Red Cross headquarters. Then the 106 families we know got $100 per person/week food cards and Metro transit cards until December 18. On January 2, all food aid is due to expire, and those with food stamps can’t use them in midtown because their stamps are not accepted at most stores. The hotels removed refrigerators and microwaves from the rooms, so there is no way to store or re-heat food or keep medications like insulin. 

There is no “recovery center” in Manhattan where various agencies help survivors. No sources of health care other than Emergency Rooms were ever identified; no centers of food or clothing donations were set up to help these families. The first, very limited Federal Emegerncy Management Agency (FEMA) office opened here mostly aimed at helping small businesses.

Families have sought help from various local politicians, agencies and news outlets. All of them express their sympathy or momentary interest, take campaign photos of themselves helping victims, and then do nothing.  A small group of evacuees, trade unionists, and members and friends of Progressive Labor Party has formed, trying to build ties with families as they fight back.  

A week ago, hotels began to evict some families onto the street, even though FEMA is supposed to house them until at least January 12. Fifteen families were evicted from the Beekman hotel when their FEMA paperwork was a few hours late. A single mother with five children was evicted on December 27 and sent to a homeless shelter. Other families with young children were facing eviction New Year’s weekend, to make room for celebrators. Although NYC promised case managers several weeks ago, none has materialized. Those who were previously subsidized renters have received no guidance obtaining aid to rent again.

Our group held a rally at the new local FEMA office. After leafleting outside, we walked boldly into the FEMA office. Although threatened with arrest, we stood our ground and demanded answers. The staff simply said over and over again that FEMA would only offer individual assistance about housing, and refused to acknowledge any responsibility for enforcing their own hotel policy. 

One family did go in for individual help and was taken into a back room for 30 minutes. When they emerged, they said all they had been told was to call the FEMA phone number! When you call the FEMA number, you are told to go to a FEMA office. 

The Sandy survivors understand the treachery of politicians and the government; but they do not yet see the need to overthrow this system to create a communist world where workers’ needs, not profits, are the order of the day. We will continue to fight the bosses and their lackeys at these workers’ side, which can lead to recruitment of some more fighters for PLP and to destroying capitalism.

Workers Scour Dumpsters for Food, Scraps

The international economic depression caused by the internal contradictions of the capitalist system has hit Spain particularly hard. Unemployment in that country has reached 25%; 22% of Spanish households live under the poverty line and an additional 30% are living on the edge of poverty (NYT, 10/26; MercoPress, 2/24). 

The growing poverty has led to a rapid increase in homelessness and stressed the traditional aid to the poor networks run by the Catholic Church. Julio Beamonte, the director of Spain’s largest Catholic charity Caritas, commented in June that poverty in Spain now rivals the poverty that Europe experienced in the aftermath and rubble of World War II (Catholic News Agency, 6/6). 

A secretary for Caritas summed up the situation, “There are more poor people than last year, and they are poorer. After four years of financial hardship, poverty is more widespread, more intense and it is creating a polarized society in which the difference between rich and poor is growing” (MercoPress).

A recent report on National Public Radio’s (NPR) All Things Considered discussed the new mass phenomenon of “dumpster diving” in Spanish cities. This practice, common in the United States, involves the mining of urban waste sites (dumpster, trashcans, and dumps) for food and sellable goods, particularly metals that can be sold as scrap. One such dumpster diver told the reporter, “I used to build new houses, do renovations and refurbish old historic homes.” Now he digs in the trash for food. 

A Moroccan immigrant searching dumpsters in Barcelona told the reporter, “Now it seems so much of humanity is without work or anything. So this is better than robbery, you know? Collecting scrap metal. You can even jump down into the dumpster, no problem.” He then went head first into the dumpster with a friend holding his feet (NPR, 11/11).

In the midst of this growing poverty the capitalist class is finding new ways to profit from this poverty. Restaurants in Spain have begun to offer to reheat cash-strapped workers’ food while renting them cutlery and plates (Reuters blog, 9/24). After noting that “poverty is returning to Europe” British mega-company Unilever has shifted its business strategy in Europe to profit from the world’s poorest countries. They now offer consumers laundry detergent in five-wash packets, shampoo in individual packs, and single-serving packs of foods like mashed potatoes (Telegraph, 8/27). These individual portions are more wasteful and more expensive in the long run, but are all that workers living on the edge of poverty can afford.   

Workers in Spain are not content to simply bear the crisis on their backs. Mass street protests have forced Spanish rulers to pass a new two-year moratorium on evictions of poor families who can’t pay their mortgage. Yet the temporary nature of these reforms was immediately apparent. As Business Week notes, this moratorium is no gift to the working class: “Spain is trying to balance the threat of social unrest with protecting banks.” Deutsche Bank goon Bernd Volk re-assured, “It [the moratorium] seems clearly meant for extreme cases and is supposed to not overly dilute the rights of the banks” (BW, 11/16).

The new Spanish law demonstrates both the importance of active resistance and the limits of reform under capitalism. These workers have won a temporary victory in housing through struggle in the streets, but it will take the destruction of the capitalist system in order to fully and permanently meet the needs of the working class. 

This growing extreme poverty is prevalent not only in Spain, but also around the world. The imperialist countries may disagree over some issues like how to divide the spoils of empire, but they are united in their belief that the working class should shoulder 100% of the burden of the current capitalist crisis.

BAT-YAM, ISRAEL-PALESTINE — Recently, hundreds of anti-capitalist activists gathered in the municipal museum here to hold a “People’s Court” over Israel’s rotten public-housing system, which included scores of testimonies of its working-class victims. Two PL’ers joined this event to show solidarity with the victims and support for their struggle. This lousy system can’t provide even a minimal roof over the heads of thousands of workers.

This “court,” of course, being a workers’ convention while the bosses still hold state power, lacks any real authority to try our class enemies. But exposing the bitter truth about the public housing system is an essential step on the road to organizing a mass struggle against capitalism’s crimes. And the day will come when the working class will seize its destiny — and state power — and will be able to truly judge and punish its exploiters.

Israeli Sexist Laws ‘House’ Workers in Tents

The absurdity in capitalist “public housing” was exposed from the first court testimony. Esther, a single mother suffering from cirrhosis and living in a tent with her son, can’t afford housing in the “free market.” A public housing official told her to “have two or three more children!” Why? Because Israel’s rotten capitalist law allows public housing for single mothers only if they have three or more children. Esther wishes Prime Minister Netanyahu and Finance Minister Shteinitz could live in a tent even for one day rather than in their fancy mansions.

Orit, a single mother working very hard to support herself and her son, suffers from the “rent support” policy enacted by Israeli rulers as a cheap replacement for true public housing. She receives about $450 a month as “aid.” This doesn’t even cover her rent. She suffers under a minimum wage while her boss reaps all the profits.

The children of Amal, an Arab worker from Ramla-Lod (near Tel-Aviv) were thrown on the street due to home foreclosure. Her wages can’t provide adequate food for her seven children, but the officials claim she “does not meet the criteria” for public housing. The authorities have set her former husband against her as an act of divide and conquer.

In most cases, the public housing residents earn only a minimum wage (about $1,200 a month). They are forced to renew their public housing eligibility every two years, paying a fee of roughly $120. Inspectors are sent to their homes to check eligibility, but due to the inspectors’ many mistakes, residents are forced to pay fines which end up in the pockets of the capitalist state.

Welfare can’t pay for an apartment even with state “rent aid.” Sick or disabled workers don’t receive adequate aid. Housing officials mock the residents and unleash the cops on them if they dare complain. There are allegations that officials will provide or improve housing for women workers in exchange for sexual bribes. The public housing companies charge mobster-style interest rates for late payments. They threaten and attack the lives of many men and women. They withhold budgets and let apartments rot. They force illiterate residents to sign contracts they can’t read. They don’t allow the impoverished children of public housing residents to continue to live in their parents’ apartments, while well-off Kibbutz kids can easily retain their parents’ many privileges.

The Israeli State Comptroller reports (October 2009) that 700 public housing apartments stand empty but are unsuitable for human habitation due to neglect. The Finance Ministry claims that if all workers had apartments, the state would “go bankrupt like Greece or Spain.” This capitalist world-view is used to justify political repression.

Housing for the Rich

Meanwhile, the bosses and their servants live the rich life. A tycoon can rent land cheaply from the state — in Israel the state owns 93% of all lands). The Kibbutzim, bastions of Zionist capitalism (formerly under a “socialist” mask and now almost openly capitalist), received many lands free from the state for agricultural use, but now build mansions on these state lands for well-off people. And the government turns a blind eye.

The Amigur public housing company, controlled by the Jewish (Zionist) Agency (JAFI), is actually run by remote control by the Agency’s rich donors, who live in the U.S. These “donors” are nothing but speculators who use public housing apartments in Israel as profitable cash-cows. The apartments were sold not to the residents for a fair price, as the law claims to guarantee, but to various capitalist interests to line the pockets of wealthy U.S. investors.

One PL’er works with the Public Housing Team of the Tarabut movement. She has helped to resist evictions. Seeing all these residents and public housing victims fighting together has been very emotional for her.

Uniting Against the Class Enemy

This “court” numbers a large population of workers and unemployed with many problems: people with health problems; disabled workers; both secular and religious workers; a former drug addict; Jews and Arabs standing together to fight the oppressive capitalist swine. The latter use divide-and-conquer tactics, but that won’t help them this time. We, the workers, are beginning to unite against our class enemy.

Capitalism is a system which cannot guarantee decent housing for billions of workers worldwide. Such a system must be dumped in the trash heap of history. When the working class unites to destroy the capitalist state and erect a workers’ communist state, our resources could be managed fairly and democratically, guaranteeing everyone decent housing, food, healthcare and education at a quality befitting free human beings.

Join the revolutionary communist Progressive Labor Party. We are fighting for a world without exploitation, oppression and capitalists who grow rich from the work of others!