NEWARK, NJ, February 3 — Today, over 20 students, teachers and local workers protested the U.S. occupation of Haiti. Signs such as “Haiti: this is what capitalism looks like” and “200,000 deaths is not natural, It’s Capitalism!” attracted many commuters walking by. Some joined the demonstration, while drivers honked in support. A high school student group called the rally.

Within three days after the earthquake, the group immediately raised $1,500 for aid relief. Then, when one of their teachers read CHALLENGE and other international newspapers with the students, they realized the problem was much bigger than lack of aid to Haiti.

The newspapers reported the U.S. was barring aid because of its military build-up there. However, only CHALLENGE helped the students to understand the real reason for the build-up: the U.S. needed to put on this “humanitarian face” to mask the establishment of bases for future imperialist wars.

We also noted how the racist media portrayed Haiti’s working class as “looters.” One student said, “That’s f#*@d up; this is the same thing they did to New Orleans.” Students’ anger rose when reading CHALLENGE’s timeline detailing imperialist interventions since the 1791 slave revolt against the French.

Then the conversation turned to solutions to these problems. Some student  CHALLENGE readers jumped in, saying, “It’s obviously capitalism, so we need a revolution.” Another added, “A communist revolution.” Others, however, still think capitalism can be reformed, that only through participating in the government, challenging the politicians and bosses who don’t care about workers, can we establish a fair society. While one said “communism will just be worse,” everyone agreed that imperialism is bad, and that led to discussing an action.

The teacher reviewed past protests with former students against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. One student yelled, “We need to have a protest to let people know what’s going on. I didn’t realize this was happening in Haiti until I read these articles.” Others quickly agreed and began distributing flyers to students in other schools.

Later that week, at a NYC event with over 15 other NJ and NY schools, the students excitedly distributed flyers promoting the protest. On that day five  students marched down the neighborhood’s main street carrying posters, chanting loudly and winning other students to join them. By the time they reached their destination a dozen more had joined.

At the protest, some local workers spoke to us about the situation in Haiti. Many were unclear about what we were protesting but soon they seemed to agree that what’s happening in Haiti was wrong.

One black worker said, “Say what you want, but I don’t vote. I don’t think voting will ever get us what we need. There should be jobs, good education and good health care for everyone. We don’t have that now and it doesn’t look like Obama’s going to give it to us anytime soon.”

Another college student walked by, saying, “I was wondering why there’s so much military there. I’m glad all these high school students are out here. My college friends and I have been discussing protesting too.” She then gave us her contact info and told us to call her when something else is happening.

Then a teacher explained how the conditions created by capitalism and imperialism led to over 200,000 deaths in Haiti. Another worker declared how capitalism will never end imperialist wars, although we’ve been told that World War 1 was “the war to end all wars.” A young black student said the way the media portrayed many of Haiti’s workers was to justify a U.S. military build-up, saying we needed to organize other students and expose the racism created under capitalism.

The next day after school we discussed what we’d done. Students were mainly positive about the event, saying it felt good to stand up for something. Some were disappointed that other high school students and anti-war organizations hadn’t participated. We realized there are many liberal groups that believe the U.S. can use the military for “ humanitarian”  purposes, like in Haiti, and that it should only be opposed when used for imperialist purposes like in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Finally, we need to be persistent in our organizing. Even though many people may not agree with us now, as the situation in Haiti unfolds, just like with Katrina, people will increasingly see that capitalism is the main cause of the problems. The students agreed, adding that a year ago they didn’t even know what capitalism was. Now they’re
organizing to get rid of it! J

NEW YORK CITY, February 14 — This past weekend, members and friends of the PLP from throughout the city met, guided by the slogan of “sharpening up the contradictions” between communism and capitalism.

We started on Friday by taking a collective of students and teachers to see the movie “Valentine’s Day.” This film was a piece of crap but the theater was packed and millions more went to see it over the weekend. So we figured we would too, and try to sharpen up the struggle against the racist, sexist and imperialist ideas the bosses need us to absorb.

Our estimate of the period is that the rulers need to win over larger segments of the population to such views. They also are very adept at providing the masses with endless options to escape a reality of economic crisis and war. So we went to the movie expecting escapism, racism, sexism and pro-war propaganda. Sure enough it was all there, and several of the students we brought were spot-on in identifying the bosses’ messages in this seemingly harmless film. We reconvened Saturday morning, veteran and newer comrades alike, and sure enough we had a study group to discuss the movie’s plotlines and politics.

Following the discussion was a very cold but enthusiastic march in Harlem. The march went past project buildings, a precinct where we denounced killer kkkops, a methadone clinic, corporate banks, and an army recruiting station situated in the heart of Harlem.

Response to our chants of “Imperialist war means we got to fight back!” and “The workers united can never be defeated!” was mainly positive. One resident encouraged us to keep marching after expressing his anger of methadone clinics in his neighborhood. Having drug clinics in a mainly black and Latino neighborhood is no solution for health care, and is a result of the ruling class’ racist attempt to oppress workers.

With CitiGroup receiving $45 billion in bailout money, we picketed a Citibank branch and encouraged people to join us. Barack Obama bailed out the banks and Wall St. with hundreds of billions this past year, yet teachers and students are facing cuts to funding for their classrooms.

We picketed an army recruiting station in a mostly black neighborhood. Along with bailing out banks, the bosses also target working-class neighborhoods for their imperialist war operations overseas. The bosses are desperate to gain soldiers for their oil wars by bribing scholarship money or citizenship to soldiers in return for their blood. Our picket received many words of encouragement from those close-by, who joined our chants and called for “death to the bosses!” We will be back in these neighborhoods.

Several young comrades gave street speeches for the first time. CHALLENGE and our chants were well-received in general on streets where major rebellions rocked the bosses system in the past and will do so again.

Sunday wrapped up our weekend with a study group on contradiction, the first law of dialectical materialism, our universal philosophy. We discussed the need to sharpen contradictions in our PL work. We shared common experiences of pushing forward political struggle with allies, of striking the balance of seeking out the points of disagreement with our friends even as we strive for greater unity in the relationship. We reaffirmed the vital importance of building these relationships in the context of campaigns to also sharpen up struggle against the bosses’ system and its attacks on our class wherever we are. We emerged in a stronger position to build towards a fighting May Day 2010. 

Newark Mayor Cory BookerThe bosses want nothing more from their schools and youth organizations than the preparation of the next generation of loyal workers and soldiers. It is a positive development that in the debate world lots of students argue against capitalism. Over the past weeks debate teams have organized picket lines at Senate offices protesting the imperialist invasion of Haiti and also protested Newark Mayor Corey Booker’s opening remarks at a tournament with eighteen letters reading CAPITALISM = POVERTY.

Booker’s lame reply was that he was making capitalism work in Newark, where unemployment rates top 50% among black youth aged 18-30, by bringing in micro-loans to encourage small business. A lot more could have been done to disrupt his speech and a lot remains to be done to keep the U.S. bosses invasion of Haiti in the front of people’s minds. But debaters are learning that real change comes from more than just talk. PLP and CHALLENGE are in the mix to point out the path to real change: communism.

QUEENS, NY — “You know we’re gonna get screwed on this,” said the PLP’er. His coworker and CHALLENGE reader shrugged.  At today’s briefing (the meeting at the beginning of a shift) the boss tried to force extra work onto a group including the PLP’er and several CHALLENGE readers. They would have to work a flight, and fuel vehicles.

One worker objected to the group having to do two jobs at the same time. Not surprisingly, the supervisor ignored the criticism since without class struggle he controls everything and doesn’t have to listen to a word we say. Furthermore, the white boss’s arrogance takes on a racist character as he ignores the input of the mainly black and Latino workers.

“We do all the work and should be making the decisions about who gets what assignments,” said the PLP’er to another group member.

“What do you expect?” responded the worker, who’d seen enough capitalist exploitation to be able to predict a thing or two as well. True, we should expect a dictatorship of the bosses under capitalism, but fighting back and building the PLP can lead to a revolution and workers’ power.

However, the workers were still under capitalism two hours later when the boss stormed into the break room, upset that two vehicles had not been fueled. What did he expect?

Since the head supervisor could now reprimand him, the junior boss told the group of workers they were in trouble. “You’re getting a formal warning, which can lead to a letter on your permanent record and further disciplinary action.” What all this will mean is unclear, but essentially it is a boss attacking a group of workers to save his own neck — nothing new.

“They’re digging their own grave when they attack a group of us,” said the PLP’er later. “They’re happy to call you into the office by yourself because when it’s you alone against a boss they have all the power. They can take your job away; they can take the food off your table; they can take the roof from over your head.”

“But when they attack a group of us? They can’t fire all of us! We do everything around here and they know that when we remind them.”

The workers argued back and forth about if and how they should take action. “I’ll just go talk to the head supervisor tomorrow” said one worker. Another volunteered to go and try to convince the junior boss at the end of the shift.

“Whatever we decide, we should do it together, because that’s when we are the strongest. That’s when we have the power,” said the PLP’er. Unity is the key to our strength — individually fighting back is no solution.

The bosses love to isolate and alienate workers who speak up and play favorites with others. This takes on a racist and nationalist character: with white and Latino workers encouraged to identify with white and Latino supervisors rather than their sister and brother workers.  All workers get hurt when we are divided and can not stand up together against the bosses’ attacks on us.

The idea of a united response worried another worker. “I don’t know, [the junior boss] tends to get frantic when he feels cornered and won’t listen then,” he reasoned. “Good,” shot back the PLP’er, “he should be afraid.”

The workers continued to discuss their plan of action, but could not come to a consensus. The PLP’er talked later with one worker about escalating the struggle with the bosses, and that while we may not win every battle we need to build anti-racist unity for the war.

This struggle can move forward with more discussions about the need to fight back and how the little struggles we wage today are a necessary training ground for the mass struggles of the future. Workers have now been more intensely exposed to some of the PLP’s ideas of unity, resistance and revolution.

The bosses’ class war is unfortunately far from over, with many more workers from Port-Au-Prince to New York City facing death, unemployment and cutbacks so long as capitalism rages. Positively, young workers like this PLP’er are organizing industrial workers at the point of production, where the struggles to organize working-class fight-backs provide a school where communist ideas can flourish.  More battles lie ahead. J