Bronx: students hungry for class struggle

Our fall semester is almost over but students and workers all over the Bronx (and the rest of New York too!) have been active in the class struggle, alongside members and guided by the politics of Progressive Labor Party (PLP). Our two main issues have been the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the fact that the two community colleges in the Bronx, which serve primarily Black and Latin students, have gone more than a year without a cafeteria. One of our main messages has been to connect these two things by showing that imperialist war –an essential part of modern capitalism – means that there’s less money for education. We’ve collected signatures on a petition, organized a Palestine-solidarity film festival and participated in some great marches and demonstrations. Most importantly, some students attended the PLP College Conference where the need for a worker-student alliance and a revolutionary party to lead the working class was discussed. Throughout the semester, CHALLENGE has been ever-present, getting into the hands of hundreds of students and workers – who we see as hundreds of potential new members of the Party. As we head toward finals, our fighting spirit is high! At one campus we’re ending the semester by calling out the President in public for failing to provide a cafeteria and the students are here for it!
*****

For thanksgiving, we raised consciousness against genocide

For this year’s Thanksgiving holiday, a group of CUNY students and faculty in our PLP club had no plans. At the last minute, we learned about and joined a bus trip to Plymouth Rock, sponsored by a Brooklyn-based community organization of workers from Haiti. Plymouth is the site of the 1620 Mayflower landings and one of British capitalism’s first successful colonies, and today is the site of the annual “National Day of Mourning” ceremony. The ceremony and protest were multiracial, attended by hundreds of indigenous workers from the U.S., Canada and Mexico, alongside mostly Black workers and a variety of young pro-Palestine youth.

These workers and youth stood in the pouring cold rain hearing speeches from indigenous and Palestinian youth, connecting the past and present European and U.S. genocide of indigenous civilizations with the U.S.’ genocide of Black, Arab and Palestinian workers. One militant young indigenous woman leader, after movingly summarizing the list of U.S. imperialism’s crimes and connecting them with anti-Black racism and police terror in the U.S., named the ultimate cause of all oppression: capitalism, with revolution as the solution.

Despite these strengths every speaker missed a class analysis of capitalism, and could not identify international workers’ power for communism as the solution. And with communist politics absent, the call for revolution was quickly submerged and confused with capitalist ideas of nationalism, identity politics like supporting small Black/ indigenous capitalists, and religion, exemplified by the emphasis on prayer and nationalist flags of Palestine, Lebanon and various Black nationalist flags in the crowd.

The next day, we visited Harvard University, and as one of the CUNY students writes: 

Harvard lives up to its reputation and my expectations, with grandiose structures and buildings that exactly flaunt its “old-money” status. Our group was small, and we were short on time, but we distributed CHALLENGE nonetheless. Reactions were mixed, with a majority being negative.

Many were simply shocked, but we did manage to distribute a decent amount of newpapers!

It’s likely that most of the students with a working class background have some understanding of class, as they’re surrounded by actual children of the bourgeoisie but there needs to be an organized and committed Party club to expose the reality of deep inequality and false meritocracy to win the students to fight for the working class and not be the future stooges or members of the capitalist class.

If I learned anything, it would be that it reinforced the idea that we need better organization and greater commitment. Had we a larger group and more time, we could have seized space and had a greater presence and really disrupt the square.
*****

Scratch a liberal, find a capitalist apologist

AFT (American Federation of Teachers) union president Randi Weingarten has a fascinating talk for our friends in education. First she repeats what is now common: Kamala lost because the Democratic Party (DP) ignored workers’ worsening life for 40 years.

Then Weingarten notes that 60 percent of high school grads do not go on to college. So she wants them all to get an education that develops “four skill sets [horrible technocratic phrase]: critical thinking, problem-solving, resilience and relationships.” Sounds good. But what does she really mean? Go to Microsoft and other corporations and work up courses tailored to their desire! Fits the venue of her talk, Columbia University’s graduate school of government.

We can realize those four humanistic needs ... only on the communist path.

Weingarten’s specific politics, like those of the reporter, long-time social-democrat Harold Meyerson: “That’s why unions are indispensable in the fight not just to win the working class’s political support [that is, steer them into the DP], but to preserve and strengthen American democracy.”

Organizing in the unions, yes. However, we can be bold and declare, U.S. democracy is capitalist oppression. We don’t want to strengthen it. Our way out is to overthrow it. Replace it with our own machinery of rule, by us as well as for us.
*****

Rose Rossi, beloved by many in the Bay Area and beyond, passed away this spring, leaving behind a legacy of dedication to building Progressive Labor Party (PLP) and advancing the struggle for communism. A groundbreaking technologist who made huge advances in the field of Natural Language, Rose fought for the working class and against racism from the time she was in high school. She marched with Martin Luther King in Selma, organized against the Vietnam War, and fought violent gutter racists in Progressive Labor Party’s iconic Boston Summer Project of 1975.

Her strong and unwavering commitment to antiracism, anti-imperialism, and anti-capitalism strengthened a multitude of struggles across decades.
Later in life, Rose expanded her focus to ecological justice work in Bayview Hunters Point in San Francisco. A committed basebuilder, her avid study of and expertise in the works of Marx and Lenin were invaluable to PLP clubs in the Bay Area and brought several members into the Party, strengthening its overall presence in California.

While Rose is dearly missed by those who love her, her material influence is still felt deeply and lives on. In studying CHALLENGE, Rose  once remarked, “A good article always reminds us why it is necessary that we fight for communism…but often it’s in the last paragraph. I think that should be reversed. We need to always say it first.” 

In other words, it is necessary to meet fellow workers in the struggle for communist revolution now. Because the moment can only be now, as the history of countless failed socialist and reformist movements has taught us.

That was the lesson our comrade left us, one that rings truer than ever today. The capitalist bosses’ liberal democracy is  now showing its true face. Genocides are live-streamed to workers held captive under crumbling  empires lurching toward fascism. The earth heats to unbearable temperatures and the imperialists do nothing to stop their oppressive race to devastation. It is in these moments we must stand steadfast like our Rose, remembering to continue to build toward victory for our class, and having the humility and hope that a better future must be possible. Comrade Rose lived what she believed in a lifetime of telling the truth, never compromising or settling, always inspiring countless others. We must live by the principle of “Don’t vote, revolt!” and take up the banner so lovingly and militantly carried by our passed-on elders. In all that we do, we promise to do you proud, Comrade Rose!

¡ROSE, PRESENTE!¡LA LUCHA SIGUE!  ROSE, NEVER FORGOTTEN, THE FIGHT CONTINUES!

Shooting of CEO shocks bosses as workers celebrate

The Daily News, 12/5–The fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has triggered a wave of rage-filled reactions on social media, most of them expressing contempt and dissatisfaction with the health insurance industry he represented. Thompson was gunned down early Wednesday morning… “When you see the entire internet — left and right — united around one thing, and that is celebrating the death of a healthcare CEO, you have to ask ‘Why?’ and I don’t think that has been discussed at all” … “There’s no discussion of the systemic cruelty in our healthcare system, or the fact that thousands of Americans die because CEOS like [Thompson] and others deny essential life-saving care to Americans.”

Turkish workers fight privatization

Duvar.English, 11/21–In Ankara, 500 workers at the Çayırhan Thermal Power Plant have locked themselves inside the mine in a protest against privatization plans…The privatization process for the plant began a month and a half ago..Workers [fear]...losing both their jobs and homes..miners stated they would continue their occupation inside the mine until their demands were acknowledged, while hundreds of workers and their families pledged to keep up their protests outside the mine… "We are migrant workers…All of us are migrants…”

Under capitalism, human rights don’t extend to gold mine regions

BBC, 12/4–Dayane Leite never wanted to become a sex worker but at the age of 17 her husband died of a heart attack and she couldn’t pay for the funeral. Her hometown, Itaituba…is at the heart of the country’s illegal gold-mining trade, so a friend suggested raising the money by having sex with miners…“The women are seriously humiliated there. They may be slapped in the face and yelled at…While the environmental harm of the mines is well known, the human cost - which the UN says includes violence, sexual exploitation and trafficking - goes largely unreported…The three largest customers of Brazilian gold are Canada, Switzerland and the UK. More than 90% of all exports to Europe are from areas where illegal mining occurs…

Free speech becoming a memory at U.S. universities

NY Times, 11/25–Colleges and universities have tightened rules around protests, locked campus gates and handed down stricter punishments after the disruptions of pro-Palestinian demonstrations and encampments last spring. The efforts seem to be working. Universities have seen just under 950 protest events this semester so far, compared to 3,000 last semester…administrators have often enforced — to the letter — new rules created in response to last spring’s unrest. The moves have created scenes that would have been hard to imagine previously, particularly at universities that once celebrated their history of student activism.

U.S. war planners ponder whether Trump can split China and Russia

Foreign Affairs, 12/6–“The one thing you never want to happen is you never want Russia and China uniting. I’m going to have to un-unite them”…Donald Trump boasted in an interview…early indications suggest that the coming administration might seek to damage the Chinese-Russian partnership by reducing tensions…with Moscow in order to put pressure on Beijing…Michael Waltz…whom Trump has tapped to serve as his national security adviser, advocated…for the United States to help wind down the war in Ukraine…and…divert resources to “countering the greater threat from the Chinese Communist Party”...Russia has become very dependent on China economically, with 40 percent of Russian imports coming from China and 30 percent of Russian exports going there…This dependence is deepening…

Protesters fight against French-Israeli imperialism 

WIVB4.com, 11/14–Protests erupted in Paris on Wednesday against a controversial gala organized by far-right figures in support of Israel. The event, intended to raise funds for the Israeli military, included Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich among its invited guests…Smotrich, a vocal advocate of Israeli settlements, had been expected to attend Wednesday’s gala, dubbed “Israel is Forever,” which was planned by an association of the same name. The group’s stated goal is to “mobilize French-speaking Zionist forces”...On Wednesday night, several hundred protesters marched through central Paris, denouncing the event as a “gala of hatred and shame.”

As the global crisis of capitalism drives the bosses toward fascism and war, the bloody clash between Russia and U.S.-backed Ukraine is escalating by the week. Amid speculation that president-elect Donald Trump might try to force a peace deal on Vladimir Putin’s terms, a body blow to NATO, North Korean troops massed alongside Russian forces in the Kursk border region. In response, lame duck President Joe Biden gave his blessing for Ukraine to launch British-made missiles deep into Russian territory. Russia upped the ante with a threat to lower their threshold for using nuclear weapons (NY Times, 11/19), and then attacked Ukraine with a ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear payload (Reuters, 11/22).

While we can’t predict where or when the next world war will start, three things are clear. First, the collapse of the old liberal world order has ushered in a period of dangerous instability and chaos. Second, the U.S. rulers are both deeply divided and in steep decline as they struggle to stave off their imperialist rivals in Russia and China. Third, the imperialist bosses’ vicious dog fights are lose-lose propositions for the international working class. To date, official estimates count close to 200,000 workers–conscripted soldiers and civilians–killed in the inter-imperialist proxy war in Ukraine (economist.com, 11/26).

For the international working class, there is only one solution to the madness and carnage of capitalism: communist revolution. We need fighters to turn the guns around and choose to fight for a borderless communist world led by Progressive Labor Party!  

Inter-imperialist rivalry sharpens after U.S. election

As the unpredictable “America First” Trump prepares to take office, the main-wing U.S. rulers–the Big Fascists of finance capital–are scrambling to keep on board their European allies, who have already invested over $100 billion in the Ukraine bloodbath. While France and Britain backed Ukraine’s missile strikes in Russia, Germany has refused to deliver its own long-range missiles to the cause (politico.eu, 11/18). Polish Prime Minister Donal Tusk warned that the escalation posed a “real and serious threat of global war” (Politico, 11/22).  This shows the Big Fascists’ desperation and disregard for the lives of millions of workers - who will ultimately pay with their lives. 

Meanwhile, China is pressing its case as a more reliable ally than the U.S. At last week’s G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, President Xi Jinping promoted the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and strengthened a bilateral relationship with Brazil (aljazeera.com, 11/20). In a pointed contrast to Trump’s threats to raise U.S. tariffs, Xi promised open trade and benefits for emerging economies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America (New York Times, 11/20). Alongside their carrots, the Chinese capitalist bosses are also sharpening their sticks. They are outpacing the U.S. in arms manufacturing and now boast the largest blue-water navy in the world (Foreign Affairs, 10/2). In September, China tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile in the Pacific Ocean since the 1980s (AP, 9/26), While the Chinese bosses are struggling at home with slowing growth and a debt crisis in their housing sector, they still have a big advantage over their U.S. rivals: a more disciplined and united ruling class that is further down the road to full-blown fascism. 

The current period’s proxy wars, trade wars, arms buildups, unstable alliances, and dramatic shifts in economic power are reminiscent of the years leading up to World War I, when more than 20 million workers were slaughtered for the rulers’ profits. Compelled by the vicious, zero-sum competition of capitalism, the bosses are always being driven toward the next world war, whether they are ready for it or not. 
But just as workers are now being won or coerced to kill their class brothers and sisters on the other side of made-up borders, they can also be won to kill a system that has no regard for their lives. As they develop an internationalist, antiracist, class-conscious outlook, workers can be organized into a mass party to smash the bosses’ profit system and build a world run by and for the working class.   

Bipartisan rising fascism in the U.S.

Global volatility and the split within the U.S. ruling class will bring even sharper attacks on workers in the U.S. With less of a stake in liberal democracy, the Small Fascist bosses behind Trump (see glossary, page 6) are using him to accelerate the rise of fascism. In most cases, they are building on a foundation laid by the liberal racists of the Democratic Party over the last thirty years. Echoing Bill Clinton’s work-or-die welfare reform, Republicans are pushing Medicaid work requirements and spending cuts that could strip millions of workers and children of their healthcare (NYT, 11/20). Following up on the Biden administration’s threats to slash aid to colleges that allow anti-Zionist, anti-genocide protests, Trump is vowing to eliminate both aid and accreditation (Jerusalem Post, 11/14). 

Moving forward with Trump’s nazi plan for mass deportations of undocumented workers, arch-racist “border czar” Tom Homan has jumped on a Texas rancher’s offer of 1,400 acres for immigrant concentration camps (Texas Tribune, 11/19). Citing an 1807 law for suppressing “insurrection” or “domestic violence,” Trump is already pushing for the U.S. military to round up migrating workers for detention and expulsion (NY Times, 11/18). The soon-to-be Klansman-in-Chief will inherit a headstart on anti-immigrant policy and infrastructure, thanks to Biden’s assault on asylum and the border cages built under Barack Obama (cnn.com, 7/13/19).

Fight back!

From Ukraine to Gaza to the U.S., we need multiracial unity to stand up and fight back against these brutal attacks. We must expose the capitalist system as a bosses’ dictatorship that can  never serve the needs of our class. Under capitalism, mass murder, racism, and sexism are essential elements of the bosses’ pursuit of profit and power. Our only alternative is communism, a dictatorship of the working class. 

The current period is dangerous to be sure. We have a long road to travel to build a mass communist party, but it’s also a period of huge opportunity. While Trump’s fear-mongering and scapegoating found traction among more workers than before, the winner of the 2024 U.S. presidential election–in a landslide–was “none of the above.” Where Trump got around 77 million votes and liberal misleader Kamala Harris around 75 million, close to 90 million eligible voters didn’t bother to go to the polls (usnews.com, 11/15)--and that doesn’t include the millions of undocumented workers or felons convicted by the bosses’ racist criminal injustice system.

In short, there is a great mass of workers who have lost all confidence that capitalism can make their lives any better. It’s our job to transform their cynicism and passivity into class consciousness and organized fightback against the rulers’ rotten death machine. We must struggle together by joining and building the international communist Progressive Labor Party. Together, we can fight to win a communist world. Join PLP!