Chicago, May 23 — Thousands of Chicago teachers, parents, and students petitioned, spoke out, rallied, sat in, marched and disrupted meetings to stop school closings, turnarounds, and consolidations that will attack over 40,000 students at 120 schools. Nevertheless, on May 22, the Chicago Board of Education voted to close 50 schools, turnaround five, and co-locate 11 with charter schools. “Transformation” of schools means a combination of shutdowns, overcrowding multiple schools in one building, firing teachers and redecorating schools based on the racist performance standards of federal and/or private grants.
Students from closing schools will be sent to 54 other schools that will cause overcrowding. The Board made this ruling in the face of clear and well-known evidence of racism — 88 percent of affected students are black, more than twice the percentage of black students in Chicago Public Schools (CPS.) Yet they could not defend their lies that schools needed to close to save money or that students would get a better education in the “welcoming” schools. Their hand-picked “hearing officers” had even recommended taking 13 schools off the list (at the last minute, four closings were removed.)
The move to shut down schools in Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, and other cities, mostly in black neighborhoods, is part of the racist attack on the living conditions of the working class. The ruling-class-led Broad Foundation is guiding this attack. Its plan is to close schools and divide up school districts in urban areas. This will further advance educational inequities and redistribute more education dollars to the wealthy. Chicago’s Mayor Rahm Emmanuel, with the help of the black CPS CEO, Barbara Byrd Bennett, is implementing the Broad plan despite opposition. Even Chicago’s ruling-class press called for fewer school closings. It’s not that they oppose attacks on working-class education, but that they disagree on how fast or how obvious these attacks should be.
The answer to this is not, as the Chicago Teachers Union promotes, a massive voter registration drive resulting in the election of a new mayor. Under capitalism, the needs of the capitalists dictate the parameters of reform wins. For example, when Richard Nixon was president, he enacted social programs that Barack Obama is now helping to destroy. It has nothing to do with the politicians as individuals or whether they are Democrats or Republicans. It has everything to do with the times.
Nixon was president when U.S. capitalism was dominant in the world — they could afford the social programs that a mass movement was fighting for. Now, in spite of all the billionaires and the growing disparities between rich and poor, U.S. capitalism faces serious competition from China, Europe, India, and other capitalists in the world. Its status as “Number One” is fading fast and it will need to depress working-class wages and conditions and go to war as it attempts to regain its standing. Electing a new mayor will not change that.
What will? The building of a revolutionary communist movement. When PLP was involved in the meetings, marches, and rallies, members pointed out the racism and the anti-student nature of the ruling-class system every day. School closings are an intensification of those attacks, but we also need to fight the daily capitalist status quo of neglect, lies, overcrowding, and under-resourcing schools.
To that end, we have plans to set up a “Freedom School” this summer to implement aspects of communist education on a small level. As our influence and experience grow, more will join PLP in the fight to end capitalism and its self-serving education system once and for all. Under communism, the need to move humanity forward will guarantee that everyone is educated to our fullest potential!

Imperialist rivalry, not religion, lies at the heart of the war in Syria. At stake are the vast energy resources of the Middle East. To maintain control of the region’s oil and gas, the U.S. capitalist ruling class is pointing toward a “decisive” Syria intervention. With the Russian bosses arming in opposition, U.S. rulers need to win U.S. youth to support a new military draft.  They also need the broader working class to support fascist war powers for widening regional conflicts. To date, however, their efforts toward these goals have faltered.
On the ramifications of the Syrian conflict, the New York Times (6/2/13), the top mouthpiece for U.S. capitalism, says:
The Syrian war fuels, and is fueled by, broader antagonisms that are primarily rooted not in sect but in clashing geopolitical and strategic interests: the regional power struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran; Iran’s confrontation with the West over its nuclear program; and the alliance between Hezbollah and the secular Syrian government of Mr. Assad against American-backed Israel.
Why Syria Matters
But that is only part of the truth. Regional bosses aren’t the only ones responsible for the blood of 80,000 Syrians. The Times fails to mention the greater clash between U.S., Russian and Chinese rulers that underlies — and will likely intensify — the slaughter in Syria. Syria stands at the doorstep of the competing imperialists’ geostrategic grand prize, Middle Eastern oil and gas resources. That’s why U.S. planners are seriously pondering the risks of an all-out invasion and occupation of Syria that would kill tens of thousands more workers.
On May 28, the Times published a more candid op-ed piece, headlined: “In Syria, Go Big or Stay Home.” In it, Ray Takeyh, a senior fellow at the finance capital-dominated Council on Foreign Relations think tank, and who previously served as Barack Obama’s chief advisor on Iran, called for “full-scale, decisive American intervention” in Syria. Takeyh suggests that such an onslaught would set the stage for a U.S. conquest of energy-rich Iran.  By contrast, a limited U.S. campaign — along the lines of the brutal but failed U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan — would only embolden Teheran’s pro-Russian and pro-Chinese ayatollahs.
As Takeyh wrote, “Rather than intimidating Iran, a less-than-decisive American intervention in Syria would do the opposite. It would convince Iran’s leaders that America doesn’t have an appetite for fighting a major war in the region.”
Russian bosses, allied to Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, are taking lethal steps to counter any U.S. offensive. Moscow is stationing more warships, including an aircraft carrier, at its naval base in Tartus, Syria. It has begun delivery of sophisticated, game-changing S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Damascus, to be followed by MiG-29 fighter jets. Russian ruler Vladimir Putin has defended this escalation as a response to the U.S. threat: “Russia… [is] only providing Assad with weapons intended to protect Syria from a foreign invasion” (Associated Press, 5/31/13).
Enter China
By 2035, China’s vast oil needs from the Middle East will double to seven million barrels per day (Oil Magazine, Dec. 2013). For the moment, China’s capitalist rulers are not equipped to project military power into the region. They are acting diplomatically, using the United Nations to oppose U.S. aid to anti-Assad forces.  But China’s push for a blue-water navy, to forcibly challenge U.S. supremacy in the Persian Gulf, is well under way. And China has already outfoxed the U.S. in Iraq, reaping the oil rewards of the Bush invasion as the U.S.-China rivalry escalates (see box).
Wider wars, like a possible near-term U.S.-Syria-Russia-Iran conflict, loom large for U.S. bosses. They’re also planning for an inevitable World War III with their imperialist rivals. Fresh from their misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, which slaughtered more than a million workers but failed to consolidate U.S. control, they are well aware of their military shortcomings. They know they need more troops and broader support for war — both within the working class and among U.S. capitalists themselves — than George W. Bush or Obama could muster.
True to form, the rulers’ loyal New York Times printed yet another militaristic op-ed piece (5/27/13) to demand restoration of the draft and a new way for Congress to declare war. Written by two Stanford University cheerleaders for the U.S. empire, retired General Karl Eikenberry (formerly Obama’s ambassador to Afghanistan) and Professor David Kennedy, the column proposed: “Let’s start with a draft lottery.... [that] could be activated when volunteer recruitments fell short, and weighted to select the best-educated and most highly skilled Americans providing an incentive for the most privileged among us to pay greater heed to military matters.”
The bosses’ idea is to rebuild their depleted officer corps by making top colleges once again a recruiting ground for the U.S. military. The Reserve Officers’ Training Corps is regaining lost ground on the campuses, returning to New York’s City College after a 40-year absence. The rulers’ broader goal is to build patriotism among young people. If they succeed in implementing a new, all-inclusive draft, no one will be able to escape military service — not middle-class students seeking college deferments, not working-class immigrant youth seeking citizenship via Obama’s Dream Act.
The Bosses’ Problems
In an attempt to unite the diverse array of capitalists represented by U.S. politicians, Eikenberry and Kennedy assert, “Congress must also take on a larger role in war-making. Its last formal declarations of war were during World War II. It’s high time to revisit the recommendation, made in 2008 by the bipartisan National War Powers Commission, to replace the 1973 War Powers Act, which requires notification of Congress after the president orders military action, with a mandate that the president consult with Congress before resorting to force.”  
For now, however, involving Congress more directly in U.S. militarization appears to be a pipedream. A significant Congressional contingent fronts for domestically oriented capitalists like the Koch brothers, who have little to gain from oil-driven military action overseas. And divisions will persist between states that profit from weapons contracts and those that need to protect profits with reinvestment in domestic infrastructure.
Meanwhile, a gut opposition to a universal draft has persisted since the Vietnam era among students and workers. Much of it stems from the militant anti-imperialist actions led by the Progressive Labor Party, which made “U.S. Imperialism, Get Out of Vietnam!” into a mass slogan supported by millions.
As U.S. rulers mount an international drive to war, communists in PLP and our allies must intensify our attacks on the ruling class in the score of countries where our Party is growing. We need to link the issue of imperialist war to every class struggle. The capitalists’ murderous drive for maximum profits must be fought in our battles against wage and social service cuts, against hospital cutbacks and strike-busting. It must be tied to our fights against racist, killer cops and against the mass deportations of immigrant workers. Most of all, it must infuse our organizing of rank-and-file soldiers to win them to fight the military brass, not their class brothers and sisters under attack by U.S. imperialism.
Building the Party while immersed in these struggles will ultimately lead to communism, the only system that will end exploitation, racism, sexism, mass unemployment and imperialist war. Workers of the world, unite!  Join PLP!

QUEENS, NY, May 30 — Dozens of airport workers rallied today outside JFK’s terminal 4 while officials and Delta employees celebrated the grand opening of the airline’s new JFK Airport gateway. The protesters were calling on airlines and airport service companies for an increase in wages and benefits, more job security and better treatment. The workers, who mainly work for companies subcontracted by Delta for terminal operations, marched outside the building, where several hundred feet away, officials and executives were gathering for its official opening.
The workers are predominantly black and Latino and are victimized by the racism of the companies that expect to get away with substandard conditions.
The protest was also directed against other airlines receiving subsidies or tax breaks for doing work at JFK and LaGuardia airports. This includes American Airlines, which received $1.2 billion in bonds from the NYC Industrial Development Agency, a wing of the Economic Development Corporation, for construction of a new JFK terminal. JetBlue, Air France, Korean Air Lines and Lufthansa also received over $400 million collectively in subsidies for work at Terminal 1.
“Companies at the airport get billions,” said Terminal 4 security worker Mohamed, but “people like me, low-wage subcontracted airport service workers, continue to struggle to get by on wages as low as $8 an hour with no meaningful benefits.”
Jamaica resident Jackson, a security officer for Air Serv who has worked in Delta’s terminal for more than three years, said he’s tired of being told there isn’t enough money for raises or benefits while billion-dollar terminals are constructed. “We haven’t received a single pay raise since I started,” he said. “We work full-time and still wonder if we make enough to pay the bills. This is no way to live. The problem is Delta received millions of dollars in tax subsidies to expand Terminal 4, but at the same time, we’re told there isn’t enough money for raises or benefits. There’s enough money.”
Jackson says some employees who worked in Terminal 3, Delta’s former facility that closed last Friday, don’t know if or when they will move to Terminal 4.
The racist, sexist exploitation of these airport workers is a clear example of how the capitalist system operates and of the necessity to overthrow it to create a communist society free of bosses and profits.

NEW YORK CITY, June 5 — The Municipal Labor Committee, a coalition of city-worker unions totaling 300,000 members — teachers, transit workers, workers in the mayoral agencies as well as fire and sanitation departments — will be rallying June 12 at City Hall park. Will this demonstration lead to a real fight to restore levels of city services needed in hospitals, schools and other vital areas?
Will it lead to a real fight for contracts that expired two and three years ago?
Will it end the racist police terror of “stop and frisk” and police murders?
Will it lead to a general strike that brings the banker-, real estate- and Wall Street-backed politicians to their knees?
We don’t think so!
Its main purpose is to win city workers, their families and friends to blindly follow and trust the preferred Democratic mayoral candidates of the various unions. The union leaders all support the capitalist system and its political process. They want us to buy into a rigged system that has always served the interests of the ruling class.
Progressive Labor Party members are participating in this demonstration to unite with our brothers and sisters who desperately want to fight back. We’ve helped lead struggles on our jobs and in our communities.
As we fight back, we will share our understanding that U.S. capitalism, fighting to keep its position as the top imperialist warmongerer worldwide, intends to cut our living standards, including wages, pensions, health care and governmental services, cuts that are all part and parcel of capitalism. We therefore build a movement that fights for the unconditional benefit of the working class and for the destruction of the profit system. We fight for communist revolution, to build a society free of all forms of exploitation, racism, sexism and boss-inspired war.