- Information
Letter from Kurdish communists: Bury bosses under rubble of their racist system
- Information
- 16 March 2023 66 hits
Recently, a Kurdish comrade from Turkey came to our Progressive Labor Party (PLP) club meeting to report on the devastating earthquake that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions of Turkish, Kurdish and Syrian workers, youth and children. He is a member of the CUNY Professional Staff Congress, the National Writers Union, and the Labor Party of Turkey (EMEP).
On February 6th, back-to-back 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes hit eleven provinces, home to 13.5 million people. Thousands of buildings collapsed. As of February 24, the official death toll is more than 44,000, and this only reflects reports from hospital morgues. Thousands of people are still missing, and authorities say that more than two million people have been displaced.
The bosses fear the masses and don’t want to mobilize workers and youth into a mass rescue and rebuilding effort. Communism would do exactly the opposite, we mobilize our class to provide aid and help to rebuild areas affected by natural disasters.
While earthquakes may be a natural event, death, and destruction are not! They are a result of the greed of the profit system. All the ruined buildings were built by construction companies and monopolies using cheap and low-quality construction material. Safety was never a concern for them, even as Turkey sits on fault lines that cause earthquakes. In 1999, there was another big earthquake. Like now, the government did not send proper aid to the disaster zone. Instead, workers, socialists, trade unions, and mass organizations brought aid to Düzce and set up camps. The government sent riot police to attack the aid tents and then sent “aid.” Since then, communists and organizers have continued to fight back.
After 1999, the state passed an “earthquake” tax to prepare for future disasters. The amount of money collected in the last 24 years would save thousands of lives today. But the bosses used it for their ends.
Turkish President Erdogan’s first response was not to rush aid to the victims but to declare a state of emergency. There was no government relief effort for days, especially in the provinces of Hatay and Antakya.While people under the rubble were still tweeting their addresses, the government blocked Twitter to suppress live feeds of the devastation and opposition voices. After a public outburst, Twitter was unblocked, and almost 20,000 troops were deployed, but even then, soldiers were not directly involved in clearing the rubble and rescuing victims. Due to this capitalist incompetence, many victims died from hypothermia since the region experienced a harsh winter. Many people could not even find shroud cloths to cover their dead.
The state of emergency is aimed at attacking left-wing and progressive, mass organizations who rushed to set up relief efforts and camps for the victims. The government wants to counter class rage and solidarity. When working people act in solidarity, it boosts class confidence .”
We say NO to fascist provocations, and YES to the unity of Turkish, Kurdish and Syrian workers! We stand with workers and youth in Syria, fighting against racism and lynching that have been organized by fascist and counter-insurgency organizations. Racism is poisonous to our class. The working class has one option in confronting capitalist barbarism: our unity!
We will win. We will win with the understanding that working people do not deserve this. We will clean this blood and dust together. And we will hold the bosses accountable for this destructive capitalist massacre. We know who the murderers are. The day is coming when the racist rulers will be buried under the rubble of their system as the workers come to power.
Chinese imperialists work on empire building
New York Times, 3/11–Finally, there is a peace deal of sorts in the Middle East…between Saudi Arabia and Iran…brokered...by China…Alliances and rivalries that have governed diplomacy for generations have…been upended. The Americans, who have been the central actors in the Middle East for the past three-quarters of a century, almost always the ones in the room where it happened, now find themselves on the sidelines during a moment of significant change. The Chinese, who for years played only a secondary role in the region, have suddenly transformed themselves into the new power player. And the Israelis, who have been courting the Saudis against their mutual adversaries in Tehran, now wonder where it leaves them. “There is no way around it — this is a big deal,” said Amy Hawthorne, deputy director for research at the Project on Middle East Democracy, a nonprofit group in Washington.
“Yes,the United States could not have brokered such a deal right now with Iran specifically, since we have no relations. But in a larger sense, China’s prestigious accomplishment vaults it into a new league diplomatically and outshines anything the U.S. has been able to achieve in the region since Biden came to office.”
Israeli bosses continue expansion into West Bank
France24, 3/12–Israeli soldiers shot dead three Palestinian gunmen after they fired at troops in the occupied northern West Bank near Nablus, the army said on Sunday, as violence in the region continued…The soldiers, members of the elite infantry Golani reconnaissance unit, grabbed three M-16 rifles and a pistol used by the Palestinians, the army said…Violence intensified last year, but has worsened in the West Bank since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to office in December in a governing coalition with ultra-Orthodox Jewish and extreme-right allies…Netanyahu…has vowed to continue the expansion of West Bank settlements…Since the start of the year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of 81 Palestinian adults and children, including militants and civilians. Twelve Israeli civilians, including three children and one policeman, as well as one Ukrainian civilian have been killed over the same period…
China bosses aspire to run the world
Al Jazeera, 3/13–President Xi Jinping…thanked the delegates for giving him a third term and promised to “take the needs of the country as my mission, and the interests of the people as my yardstick”, according to the AFP news agency. “Security is the bedrock of development, while stability is a prerequisite for prosperity. “We must fully promote the modernisation of national defence and the armed forces, and build the people’s armed forces into a Great Wall of steel that effectively safeguards national sovereignty, security and development interests.The trust of the people is the greatest driving force pushing me forward, and also a heavy responsibility on my shoulders,” he said. “The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has entered an irreversible historical process.”...and reiterated that Taiwan was part of China.
The Great Game is on …in DR Congo
Der Spiegel, 2/9–In the faded Grande Salle of Manono, a small town in the Democratic Republic of Congo located a two-day drive from the nearest big city, the focus is on global politics. The question is: Who should be allowed access to the minerals of the future located in the earth below their feet? "The Chinese," or "the people from the West?"...According to geologists, though, the earth beneath Manono contains what might be the largest lithium deposit in the world. Completely untouched…Some have even said that control of Manono will translate to control over the global market price of lithium…the Congolese government does, in fact, have ambitious plans and has even established a battery research center at a university in the country. For now, though the focus continues to be on who holds sway over the world’s largest lithium deposits.
The fight for Hadi, a nail on the bosses’ coffin
Last summer a teenager, Hadi Abuatelah of the Chicago suburb of Oak Lawn, was riding in a car stopped by the kkkops who said they smelled marijuana. Hadi ran in fear of the cop who tackled him and beat him around the head and body very severely. As a result, he had a brain bleed and injuries to his body. To this date, Hadi still has difficulty walking.
Watching the video, it is amazing that he survived this vicious attack! Initially, the three cops involved were going to get off. Since last summer, a multiracial group of dozens of workers and youth have attended the monthly Oak Lawn police and fire board meetings to demand the cops be brought up on charges. Finally, only one of the three cops has been charged.
Hadi, his family, and the majority of the leading organizers of the coalition are from Palestine. One can’t help but note the parallels of racist attacks here in Oak Lawn with the fascist Zionist regime of Israel.
A recent board meeting tried to impose a more fascist approach to the proceedings now that one of the officers is facing indictment. Several kkkop thugs and their buddies attempted to monopolize the meeting and build support by showing videos depicting violence against the police. After a few minutes of this “copaganda,” the multiracial coalition supporting Hadi started chanting to stop the video. The klan-in-blue was again forced to back down.
The struggle in Oak Lawn continues. Clearly, it’s not a question of “a few bad apples.” Police exist to instill terror against the working class and guarantee that the capitalist system continues its quest for maximum profits. The fight back to support Hadi is like a nail in the bosses’ coffin. Building an egalitarian communist society requires struggles like these to ultimately succeed.
*****
Nature of union leaders and confidence in workers
The January 18th article “Lessons From Historic Nursing Strike in a Time of Growing Fascism” was very poignant in pointing out the contradictions of the St. Vincent Hospital nurses strike against Tenet. However, I took issue with the subtitle that was added to the article entitled: “Union sells workers down the river.”Although there were strengths and weaknesses in the strike, I don’t believe your statement to be a true characterization of the union. Here are some reasons why: The union fought for the nurses, and none of them went back to work unless they all went back. They were out for a year in wind, rain, snow and heat. Rank and file nurses who worked in the hospital, not just those on the union payroll, were on the bargaining team. After the strike ended, they had to reapply for their jobs and fight the state about paying back their unemployment insurance. They beat back the Right to Work Foundation, which tried to decertify their union, and they won! Now this is not to say that the role of the unions is not pro-capitalist and continues to rely on the Democratic Party and their politicians. However, as someone who was able to work with one of the nurses on the bargaining committee, your subtitle was disheartening.
There are limits working within the trade union movement and our role is to push past these limits, and politicize the rank and file, and fight ideologically for communist leadership of the unions, as much as possible. We apply theory and practice, as is the case in all of our struggles. Strikes are difficult to organize and sustain. Would it have been possible for the MNA leadership to organize the entire nation-wide membership of National Nurses United (NNU) to strike in solidarity with St. Vincent’s nurses and organize health care workers in all of Tenet’s facilities across the country? That would have been a historic feat. The fight for safe staffing which saves lives is the same fight as the nurses in the recent New York City nurses’ strike. However, the nurses in Worcester were up against Tenet, a nationwide for- profit Healthcare chain.
All in all, I thought this important to share with you because the subtitle that the editorial staff added put a real damper on my willingness to show this great article to the nurses, and others who organized and helped to support the strike. Many workers and other nurses across the country were inspired by the St. Vincent nurses strike. After recently speaking with our leadership collective, I have since distributed this issue to our base, to get their feedback and to my surprise several folks said they found the article to be inspiring and did not notice the subtitle. The role of the pro-capitalist nature of the union leadership is clearly explained in the article. I think they clearly agreed with that.
La lucha continua!
*****
Avatar: the problem with ‘purpose’ of art
In the March 1, 2023 issue of CHALLENGE, there is an astute review of the blockbuster film “Avatar 2.” The review acknowledges how the film plays to a romantic notion of classless utopia but, in fact, ends up reinforcing racist notions of species difference and divesting ordinary people of the power to change the world. It is at once aspirational and defeatist. The review’s analysis is a dialectical and thoughtful piece of Marxist cultural criticism, a welcome presence in the pages of the paper.
The argument is weakened, however, by the proposition that “the purpose of art under capitalism is to reinforce the ideas that help the rulers to maintain their power while degrading the working class, so that we believe we are powerless and incapable of transforming or running society.” There are two problems here. (1) How can this square with the laudatory commentaries in this series on the writings of Langston Hughes, who is praised for his commitment to producing literary works calling for a revolution? Wasn’t he creating “art under capitalism?” (2) More importantly, this formulation confuses "function" with "purpose." "Purpose" implies conscious intentionality, meaning that writers and screenwriters try their best to mislead working-class readers and audiences, turning them into passive recipients of ruling-class ideology.
"Function" would be a clearer formulation, suggesting that the objective effect of most literature and film produced under capitalism is to confirm dominant ideologies, without the writer/screenwriter necessarily or consciously intending this effect.
Asserting "purpose" rather than "function" actually weakens a communist analysis of how life under capitalism spontaneously gives rise to ideas and attitudes supportive of the status quo. At times there is conscious ruling-class intervention in the propagation of dominant ideologies, as is shown by current attempts by Florida Governor DeSantis to outlaw the teaching of antiracism. But more often capitalism’s ability to reproduce dominant ideologies as "common sense"—what we all just know to be true--is far more toxic. As Karl Marx noted, “The dominant ideas in any age are the ideas of the ruling class.” This “dominance” is achieved not primarily through intentional brainwashing, but through passing along—through art and literature, as well as everyday life—unquestioned and seemingly natural assumptions about what it means to be a social being. Common sense is much harder to combat than conscious ideological conspiracy. In its criticisms of cultural works, CHALLENGE should not make these issues seem to be simpler than they are.
*****
Fight back and crush the bosses’ traps
Wage theft in New York City, despite the existence of laws that “protect” the worker, is very much a common thing. We know about the law against wage theft, but it is increasingly difficult to find justice, since for any claim they divide the workers so that they make these actions only individually.
At the beginning of this month, a group of more than 40 workers from different community organizations met, marched and held a sit-in in front of a luxurious hotel, on 60th Street near Central Park. The action was taken because the hotel bosses fired, unfairly and without reason,and stole wages from a worker with many years of service. That worker had not been informed of her dismissal and she was not allowed to go into work when she had arrived to do so.
The organization, where several Progressive Labor Party comrades are members, accompanied her and we chanted our classic slogans in the march: “Workers United Will Never Be Defeated!” … “This Fist Can be Seen, Workers in Power,”and other chants. At the door of the hotel, the letter was delivered to those in charge of the administration on duty, and we hope soon for the solution and reinstatement to the worker at this employment.
The bosses make the laws and the traps; the workers must fight and crush their traps.
*****
Capitalist disaster steals lives
After viewing daily media video on the Turkey-Syria earthquake, two contradictions emerge, the first being the total absence of any steel beams in the concrete-wire mesh debris from endless photos of modern high-rise buildings that collapsed over each other. The second contradiction was many perfectly intact high-rise buildings right across streets from rows of collapsed homes. Turkish leader Erdogan had granted amnesty to housing contractors who’d defied safety codes and regulations using wire mesh instead of steel beams to provide faster, cheaper building frames. Not only did the cheaper constructed buildings fail to prevent the earthquake from flattening them, but the wire mesh debris has prevented rescuers from digging victims out. There are also protests over a missing billion-dollar fund collected after the last earthquake to build aid stations and care for victims of future catastrophes. Because of capitalist greed and corruption, Turkey is approaching 50,000 casualties and 13 million homeless.
Meanwhile in the US, a two-mile long 150-car train crash in Ohio is flooding thousands in poor communities with toxic gasses and poisoned water. Railroad companies are profiting big time in cuts in their workforce, maintenance and safety.
Today’s events prove capitalists will sacrifice to the last worker for their own profits and will stop at nothing to stay in power. Progressive Labor Party calls for a communist revolution to replace our profit dominated social system with a communist society without wages, profits and divisions.
*****
She was a comrade to look up to
A comrade to look up to. The day after the family of Raymond appeared in a Bronx court, I called Carolyn to find out what happened. She said she debated with herself whether to go to the court and decided to go. Raymond’s mother and our comrade hugged and shared a few words. An example of Carolyn’s confidence and undying love of our working class.
*****
Workers call out China CP’s sellout
Some older people in China seem to remain boldly supportive of real communist principles, and critical of the Communist Party’s sellouts.
The following passage is from a New York Times article yesterday about recent protests in China against cuts in government-provided medical insurance.
“Video footage that circulated online indicated that large crowds gathered around Zhongshan Park in Wuhan, as the police tried to divide them by imposing barricades. When police officers tried to push the crowds back, older men and women refused to back off and shouted in officers’ faces. Some sang songs like “The Internationale,” an anthem employed by both the ruling Communist Party and by protesters, who have used it to suggest that the party has strayed from its ideological roots.”
- Information
NYC: Capitalist crisis drives racist healthcare cuts
- Information
- 04 March 2023 61 hits
NEW YORK CITY, February 23—NYC’s City Council held hearings on a bill that would cut city sponsored health benefits. These cuts are coming because capitalism is in crisis and at war. The bosses are trying to manage their crisis on the backs of the working class. The bosses view the lives of retirees as expendable since they no longer produce profits. At the hearing city and union leaders spoke on the need to control costs by cutting benefits. Retirees spoke against decreasing access to health benefits or increasing the costs to workers when they use these benefits. The struggle to stop the reduction of city sponsored health benefits to these and the current workforce continues. The racist cuts are also exposing once again that the union’s leadership is loyal to the bosses system and will do whatever the ruling class needs them to do.Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members active in this struggle are urging our friends to join our movement to build a communist world where healthcare will be free to all based only on their needs.
Workers are fighting back!
CHALLENGE has reported on efforts by retirees to stop these givebacks which have been agreed to by the New York City government and the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC), an umbrella of all city unions having contracts with NYC. Demonstrations at city hall and union headquarters as well as mass letter writing and telephone call campaigns have expressed our anger at attempts to privatize our medicare benefits. This attempted change will mean less access to needed health treatment and will affect low-income workers the most (disproportionately. Black, Latin and women). Now this same gang is pressing for similar reductions for the active workers. Similar cuts are going on or have taken place throughout the U.S.
War and economic crisis driving attacks on health benefits
The U.S. bosses are facing the increased likelihood of war as they face off against their main imperialist rival China and its ally Russia. To prepare for war, bosses want to divert billions to the war budget. They know that healthcare costs as a share of the U.S. gross national product have risen from 5 percent in 1960 to 19.7 percent in 2020 (USA facts.org). Lowering these costs potentially would free up money for the war chests.
The war is related to the economic crisis being felt around the world as imperialist powers like the U.S., China and Russia compete for profits and power. As hospitals merge and grow into larger conglomerates, they demand higher rates for their services. For example the cost of a colonoscopy can range from $1,100 to $3,700 for the same procedure depending on where you go (Choicehealth.com). The pharmaceutical industry is charging whatever the market will pay for new life saving drugs. New cancer drugs cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per year for those who can afford them or have insurance that will pay for them. National total health expenditures are expected to grow by at least 5.1 percent from 2021-2030 (USAfacts.org). The biggest bosses, who control policy, want to cut these costs so that they can compete against their imperialist rivals.
Fight to learn, learn to fight!
As we engage our class enemy, we need to learn about how capitalism works. We are building PLP study groups to help build more communist leaders/fighters in this battle. Join us to build a healthier world under communism!