NASSAU COUNTY, NY, February 20 —

Grievances and labor laws or class struggle? How do we win co-workers who have been temporarily co-opted by the bosses’ games of favoritism, racism and sexism? Can white workers be won to understand that racism hurts them? How is the goal of communist revolution connected to these problems?

These are some of the questions threaded through meetings of hospital workers as we try to organize against the bosses’ attacks.

One meeting several weeks ago began with a hospital worker passing out a recent CHALLENGE article written about the workers’ fights. Then he made sure everyone got the newest paper. From there began a lively debate about how to fight the hospital bosses.

In the weeks before the meeting a flyer mysteriously appeared all over the hospital. It publicized the attacks on workers in various departments. In many cases these attacks were clearly racist, since they appear to be restricted to black workers. Several housekeeping workers were just fired and workers from another department had been written up and suspended. The flyer called on workers to organize to fight back.

After the flyer, the fired workers were reinstated. The workers did involve the union with their terminations, but the assessment at this meeting was that the flyer definitely played a role in the bosses reversing the firings. At the same time the bosses and the union leaders began threatening anyone they suspected was associated with the flyer.

The rehiring of the fired workers and the reaction from the bosses and union leaders fueled a lively debate. Some of the workers wanted to understandably focus on the write-ups and the technicalities of the grievance cases. Other workers connected these attacks to the bigger things going on around us like the capitalist economic crisis, widening wars and deeper fascism.

The workers who had received write-ups do see the disciplines as racist and are dissatisfied with many of the union delegates whom they view as either in the bosses’ pockets or unwilling to fight militantly. From this point the debate began between the ideas of fighting the bosses mainly by union grievances and the bosses’ labor laws versus developing class struggle against the attacks and building to communist revolution. That first meeting ended with the consensus that the workers would work on the grievance cases at the same time we’d work to build a rank-and-file fight.

At another meeting we heard reports that the threats from the bosses and the union leaders continue against the suspected “trouble-makers.” Also, another worker was fired. The debate continued between relying on grievances and labor laws versus class struggle and communist revolution. Another point of discussion this time was the need to win white workers to understand how racism hurts them.

The workers at this meeting made plans to continue the fight against the racist firings and write-ups. Several of them want to join a PLP study-action group. It’s no surprise since many of them are part of CHALLENGE networks 

As CHALLENGE has long reported, unemployment is a capitalist killer. Now the NY Times (2/25) has surveyed a number of studies proving this point — although, naturally, this bosses’ mouthpiece doesn’t trace unemployment to the profit system. It simply states that, “A growing body of evidence suggests that layoffs can have profound health consequences.” It then reports:

     • A Yale study “found that layoffs more than doubled the risk of heart attack and stroke among older workers.”

     • An Albany, NY State University 2009 study “found that a person who lost a job had an 83% greater chance of developing a stress-related health problem.”

     • A 2009 paper published by a Columbia University economist and a Chicago Federal Reserve researcher concluded that “during the recession of the early 1980s…death rates among high-seniority male workers jumped by 50% to 100% in the year after a job loss.”

Even the Threat of Job Loss
Causes Death

Furthermore, fear of losing one’s job can be more deadly than the actual layoff itself. The Times quotes a 2009 University of Michigan study which “found that ‘persistent perceived job insecurity’ was itself a powerful predictor of poor health and might even be more damaging than actual job loss.”

This was supported by events at the ArcelorMittal steel plant in Lackawanna, NY: “The anxiety among the 260 workers…actually began months, even years, before the company announced in mid-December 2008 that it was closing.” Even before it closed last April, it was discovered that “at least a half-dozen workers…had coronary problems dating back to 2006.” Three, all in relatively good health, died of heart attacks within weeks of one another.

All these latest studies only confirm a 1976 Congressional report which attempted to “estimate the cost of human suffering of people being out of work.” (NYT, 10/31/76) The report, based on 40 years of statistics from the Great Depression in the 1930s through 1973, concluded that when unemployment rose 1.4% in 1970 it led directly to the death of over 30,000 workers in the next five years, from stress-related ailments (strokes, heart and kidney) plus suicides. In fact, Committee testimony stated that, “The national rate of suicide in the U.S. can be viewed as an economic indicator,” so close is the link between joblessness and workers’ violent deaths.”

Consider, if a 1.4% rise in unemployment leads to 30,000 deaths over the following five years, how many deaths will result from the present Great Recession. Its recent 10% rate is more than double the prior 4.5% (supposedly “normal” for capitalism). That would mean 100,000 dead over the next five years. Do the math!

That’s only the “official” jobless rate. The real rate is over 20% (see CHALLENGE, 3/3).

Racist Unemployment

The overall figures become twice as devastating for black, Latino, Asian, immigrant and Native American workers, because racist discrimination, dating back to slavery and before, causes double rates of joblessness for these groups. The unemployment rate for Native Americans hovers around 80%! Racism nets the bosses extra trillions in profits because it enables them to pay these workers a good deal less than white workers.

This is also true for the long-range related effects of joblessness on workers’ families, through malnutrition, mental anguish and untreated sicknesses because of the unemployment-caused loss of health insurance. Infant mortality rates show dramatic increases within one to two years of a recession. Johns Hopkins professor Dr. Harvey Brenner told Congress that “short-term general hospital admissions…respond very sharply to adverse changes in the economy as do mental hospital admissions, for an unbroken period of about 127 years in the U.S.”

Unemployment is integral to capitalism and has existed since the birth of the system. Bosses compete against each other for maximum profits. Each one tries to produce as much as possible to capture the market. This inevitably causes overproduction: the market cannot buy all that’s produced. So bosses must resort to curtailing production, meaning mass layoffs — the “boom-and-bust” cycle — to try to maintain profits.

Unemployment can only be eradicated by eradicating capitalism. That requires a violent communist revolution. Building Progressive Labor Party to achieve this goal is a continuing struggle until we finish them off, ending bosses and profits and their overwhelming mass violence that destroys hundreds of millions of lives through unemployment, racism and wars. 

(Part I — CHALLENGE, 3/3 — detailed Israel’s attacks on Gaza, its apartheid conditions enforced on Palestine, the racism towards Arabs and Muslims and relations between Israeli and U.S. rulers.)

In Palestine there were mass uprisings against Israeli rule in 1987 and 2000, but today there is very little resistance. Since 1990, the governing Fatah party has negotiated with Israel, with the U.S. as mediator, and has become the administrator of much of the West Bank, without ever achieving independence. Most Palestinians view Fatah as corrupt and incompetent. It has now even taken over many internal policing duties from the Israelis.

To protest Fatah, in 2006, the majority (even Christians and secularists) voted for Hamas, which offers only regressive Islamic fundamentalism. Most Palestinians are completely disengaged from either party, but a vacuum exists in the middle. Even the small groups that do continue activism focus on single issues, like the Israeli-built Wall or the fascist judicial system. All are nationalist-oriented, calling for an independent Palestinian state, without examining the nature of the current society or what they need to build.

Palestine and Fatah are dominated by a small number of relatively wealthy families. The masses are poor workers and farmers. These relations will not change in an independent Palestine, leaving poverty and inequality intact. History has repeatedly demonstrated that the fight for the working class’ control of society cannot be postponed, since local ruling classes, and the rich imperialists who control them, continue to run society in the same old way in the “liberated” state.

A nationalist outlook also cuts off the possibility of alliances with workers in Israel, some of whom are also oppressed, especially recent and darker-skinned immigrants and the super-exploited temporary workers Israel imports for its lowest-paid jobs.

In Israel, there is also some limited opposition to government policy. About 5% of young people resist mandatory military service, and are imprisoned. A small group of veterans has spoken out about the atrocities they’ve seen in Gaza and other places in the occupied territories. Some Israelis object to the depths of degradation of, and cruelty to, the Palestinians. However, their demands are usually for “peace” and an end to the military occupation, without considering the role Israel plays for Western imperialism or the class relations in their own society.

Many in Israel and Palestine hoped that Obama would actually represent a new U.S. policy and bring change to the area. They didn’t realize that Obama represents only the interests of the U.S. ruling class, which do not change no matter who is President. In fact, a position paper prepared for Obama before he took office only reiterated the old U.S. call for “two states,” dominated by Israel economically and militarily. Before his inauguration, Obama was silent as Gazans were being slaughtered.

Before our trip to this area we prepared a document which reviews its imperialist history, indicating the weakness of nationalism and calling for an egalitarian communist society. We were fortunate to meet some young Israelis who agree with this position and will begin working with us. Throughout our travels in Israel and the West Bank, we distributed 50 CHALLENGES and as many position papers to activists we met along the way. As we continue to follow up with these friends, we will attempt to stimulate a multi-ethnic communist movement so badly needed in Israel/Palestine. J

Correction: Part I (CHALLENGE, 3/3/10), has a typo. It says that Israel began “building up Hamas in the 1950s as a counterweight to the secular nationalist Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).”

The years are incorrect; the PLO was not formed
until 1964, and Hamas didn’t form until 1987.

It becomes clearer by the day that the U.S. invasion and blockade of Haiti has imperialist and racist, rather than charitable, goals. Besides maintaining a grossly underpaid or unemployed, U.S.-dominated, almost entirely black cheap labor pool there, the top U.S. priority is seizing political and military control of this strategically-located country. It stands at the geo-political crossroads of Caribbean trade routes, the Panama Canal, Cuba and Guantanamo Bay, Venezuela and potential off-shore oil reserves.

This follows a century of imperialist exploitation of Haiti, making it the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country, leaving it completely vulnerable to such an earthquake.

General Douglas Fraser, head of the Pentagon’s Southern Command, which runs the inadequate “aid” effort, said 13,000 of the 20,000 U.S. troops sent to Haiti would remain indefinitely. He told Agence France Presse (2/14/10), of “a transition of immediate relief capability to an enduring capacity here in Haiti.” The 7,000 departing troops, including the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, are now on their way to more pressing tasks in Afghanistan and Iraq.

One month into Obama’s “humanitarian” occupation of Haiti, its devastated working class continues to suffer severe shortages of every basic necessity. Fraser’s forces did woefully little to help Haitians:

• “As many as a million people have still not received any international food assistance.” (Huffington Post, 2/4/10)

• The January 12 earthquake left 1.2 million Haitians homeless and afflicted more than 3,000,000. “Only a quarter of those in need have plastic or a tent over their heads. And a lack of latrines looms as a major problem.” (Miami Herald, 2/14/10)

• The U.S. Navy News (2/9/10) boasted that, “Medical and dental personnel from the 24th MEU treated more than 100 Haitians [!] on the island of Gonave.”

• The USS Normandy delivered “more than 1,000 gallons of water” in its 21 days of Haiti service, an amount the ship uses every day to flush its toilets, and equal to the water in an average backyard swimming pool.

• The $450 million in U.S. aid sounds like a lot, but it amounts to just $150 per stricken Haitian. Compare that with the $1 million Obama is shelling out for each soldier in his ongoing civilian-slaughtering Afghan surge.

Bill Clinton For President — Of Haiti?

As U.S. soldiers patrol Haiti’s streets, Obama & Co. are cooking up a scheme to make Bill Clinton the country’s virtual colonial governor. The Miami Herald reported (2/10/10):

“The Obama administration is quietly advocating a plan to reconstruct Haiti that could involve a central role for former President Bill Clinton. The plan, designed by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s staff and presented to top Haitian officials in recent days, calls for the creation of an Interim Haiti Recovery Commission to oversee the ‘urgent early recovery’ over the next 18 months. The commission’s top priority: create a Haitian Development Authority to plan and coordinate billions in foreign assistance for at least 10 years.

“The plan...states that the commission could be co-chaired by the Haitian prime minister and ‘a distinguished senior international figure engaged in the recovery effort.’ Haiti observers believe the job description describes [Bill] Clinton although he’s not named in the document. The United Nations has already named him to coordinate its reconstruction efforts.”

U.S. Bosses See Opportunity in
Haitian Workers’ Misery

U.S. capitalists hope such direct political control will enable them to expand sweatshop operations in Haiti. One U.S. think-tank, the Center for Global Development (CGD), bankrolled by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, actually sees Haiti’s $3-a-day garment factory pay as key to recovery, provided bosses don’t beat workers too much: “Apparel assembly pays relatively low wages wherever it is done in the world.... The United States should... facilitate Haiti’s apparel exports and create [these $3-a-day] jobs...” (CGD, 1/25/10)

Before the quake Bill Clinton used his UN post mainly to campaign for more U.S. sweatshops in Haiti. Last October he led a trade mission — financed by billionaire George Soros — of U.S. investors that explored “manufacturing opportunities” in Port-au-Prince. If Obama’s plan goes through, Clinton could soon become Haiti’s garment boss-in-chief.

Kerry Kin Wants Relief Militarized for U.S. Wars, Present and Future

CHALLENGE has noted that U.S. rulers are using the Haitian disaster to divert people’s genuine compassion into serving U.S. imperialism. We revealed that the directors of Doctors Without Borders in fact represent Exxon Mobil, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and other interests profiting from U.S.-led wars. Now John Kerry’s daughter, Vanessa Kerry, MD, has called for an open militarization of medical relief under Pentagon command.

A resident at Harvard-run Massachusetts General Hospital, Kerry wrote in a NY Times op-ed piece (2/13/10), “The United States should create a service corps of doctors, nurses and medical technicians to deploy to humanitarian disasters like the one that struck Haiti last month.” In other words, well-meaning rank-and-file supporters of Doctors Without Borders should don the uniform of the U.S. war machine.

‘Healers in Uniform’ — A ‘Force
Multiplier’ Enhancing U.S. Military

Dr. Kerry insists that giving modest medical care can help the U.S. ruling class (to which she belongs by birth) win the wars it now wages and must soon wage to preserve its threatened worldwide empire. She proclaims, “Our generals in Iraq and Afghanistan have long recognized that providing basic services to populations there is central to the success of their mission.” In a paradox only a capitalist could appreciate, Kerry said that more healers in uniform could actually enhance the Pentagon’s killing power: “In military terminology, improved health care should be seen as a force multiplier.” This is a technical term the U.S. military reserves for especially lethal weapons systems. Kerry’s plea looks like a backdoor attempt to revive the “national service” program (that is, a restored draft) her father couldn’t sell in his failed 2004 White House bid but one which was part of Obama’s 2008 campaign.

Catastrophes like Haiti prompt outpourings of sympathy and real attempts to help from the working class and its allies. Capitalists see disasters as chances to increase both their own profits and workers’ misery. Communists view them as opportunities to serve the working class, spreading our ideas to prevent disasters, with workers organizing our class to help all workers in a profit-free society.

Ridding the earth of the parasite class of billionaires through communist revolution is our Party’s long-term goal.