Chinese bosses begin rehabilitation of Syrian bosses
Reuters, 9/21–Syrian President Bashar al-Assad arrived in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, his first visit to China since 2004 and his latest bid to end more than a decade of diplomatic isolation under Western sanctions. Being seen with China's president at a regional gathering should add further legitimacy to Assad's campaign to return to the world stage. Syria joined China's Belt and Road Initiative in 2022 and was welcomed back into the Arab League in May. "In his third term, Xi Jinping is seeking to openly challenge the United States, so I don't think it's a surprise that he is willing to go against international norms and host a leader like Assad," said Alfred Wu, an associate professor at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore…Alongside the U.S., Syria faces sanctions from Australia, Canada and European states, but bids to impose multilateral sanctions have not secured the support of the U.N. Security Council, where China and Russia both have a veto. China has used its veto at least eight times on U.N. motions condemning Assad's government…Syria, a small oil producer, holds strategic significance for China. It lies between Iraq, a major oil supplier to China, and Turkey, the terminus of economic corridors stretching across Asia into Europe. Syria also borders Jordan and Lebanon.

Russia selling wheat directly to Egypt, bypassing market
Bloomberg, 9/26–Egypt is in talks to buy 1 million tons of Russian wheat through a government-to-government deal, people familiar with the matter said. The talks have taken place for delivery this season, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t public. Egypt is one of the world’s top wheat importers and its purchases are closely tracked as a global benchmark…Russia has had two bumper harvests in a row, reinforcing its position as the biggest wheat shipper. Still, some recent sales of Russian wheat to Egypt have been complicated by efforts to enforce an unofficial price floor for the country’s supplies.

Yelling fire in a crowded congress
BBC, 9/30–An investigation has been launched after a congressman in the US House of Representatives triggered a fire alarm as his party was trying to delay a crucial budget vote on Saturday. Jamaal Bowman, a New York Democrat, says it was an accident. But his opponents have accused him of trying to disrupt the vote designed to avoid a US federal government shutdown. The alarm prompted an hour-long evacuation…The alarm went off as Democrats were attempting to delay the vote as they sought more time to read the bill and decide whether to support it…" Today, as I was rushing to make a vote, I came to a door that is usually open for votes but today would not open. I am embarrassed to admit that I activated the fire alarm, mistakenly thinking it would open the door," Mr Bowman said in a statement. He added that he was not "in any way, trying to delay any vote". "It was the exact opposite - I was trying urgently to get to a vote, which I ultimately did and joined my colleagues in a bipartisan effort to keep our government open."

U.N. decision to send troops to Haiti pending
France24, 10/2–The UN Security Council will decide on Monday whether to endorse an international force to back Haiti's police…Kenya announced in late July that it was ready to take on the lead-nation role and deploy a 1,000-strong force to the impoverished Caribbean country. The United States, which has expressed willingness to provide logistical support but no boots on the ground, indicated last month that several other countries were prepared to contribute to a multinational security force. Those countries include Jamaica, the Bahamas and Antigua and Barbuda. China, which holds a Security Council veto, has previously expressed skepticism about an international security mission. It has instead emphasized a need to crack down on the arms flow from Florida.

In Part One of this five-part series, we looked at impacts of climate change over the past year.  CHALLENGE considered the September 17 climate march and analyzed its weaknesses. Part Two considers how the continued use of fossil fuels under capitalism puts the survival of humanity at risk.
The amount of carbon dioxide (the main gas generated by the burning of fossil fuels or wood) has been rising since the Industrial Revolution in the late 1800s. Over the past 70 years, the Earth’s temperature has risen steadily each decade (see graph). Small changes in the average global temperature can have major impacts.

Despite pledges by the world’s capitalists to limit greenhouse gas emissions, the summer of  2023  was the hottest on record. In 2015, capitalist bosses from nearly two hundred countries signed the Paris Agreement, which targeted a limit for global warming by 2100 of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The planet has already warmed by 1.2 degrees Celsius, and the latest climate models project that we’ll pass 1.5 degrees by the mid-2030s (new.stanford.edu, 1/30). Even if all the big-emitting nations (led by China and the U.S.) fulfilled their short-term emissions cut commitments, temperatures will rise by 2.4 degrees Celsius (climateactiontracker.org). The consequences? A “new normal” of devastating weather events, from mega-hurricanes and killer floods to raging wildfires and drought.  As United Nations Secretary General Antonio Gutterres said, “We are in the fight of our lives and we are losing” (theguardian.com, 11/7/22). More recently he added, “Our climate is imploding faster than we can cope with, with extreme weather events hitting every corner of the planet”(theguardian.com, 9/7).

Workers protest, bosses burn more oil
A wave of mass demonstrations is demanding an end to the expansion of fossil fuel and a phase-out of existing gas, oil, and coal installations.  At present, however, financing of fossil fuel exploration, development, and use continues to rise. In the United States, consumption of energy derived from fossil fuels increased by more than 2 percent in 2022. Britain has reopened coal mines in the name of “energy security” after the war in Ukraine disrupted energy markets. On September 27, it approved an enormous oil and gas project in the North Sea, “ignoring warnings from scientists and the United Nations that countries must stop developing new fossil fuel resources if the world is to avoid catastrophic climate change” (Associated Press, 9/27).  After U.S. President Joe Biden promised to block further oil exploration in Alaska during his 2020 campaign, his administration approved the massive Willow oil project.

Left to the capitalists, the odds of shutting down the carbon economy in time–and sustaining a liveable planet–are slim and none. In the U.S., Biden and the liberal Democrats–representing the Big Fascists of finance capital–are controlled by the “supermajor” energy companies and the multinational banks that finance them and reap huge profits in return. Meanwhile, the Small Fascists fronting the Republican Party are bought and paid for by domestic energy companies, notably Koch Industries and coal-mining giant Peabody Energy. In schools, children are taught the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide but are assured that we can stop it by recycling or buying electric vehicles or installing solar panels and heat pumps for our homes. The underlying message is to blame individual workers for climate change and to hide the truth: that global warming is the product of the anarchy of capitalism and its drive for maximum short-term profit. Only a communist society run by and for the international working class can balance workers’ need for energy with the need to preserve a healthy and habitable world.

Workers want change, bosses want profits
One recent example of the capitalist bosses’ bad faith is their decision to hold the next United Nations climate summit this December in Dubai, in the oil-soaked United Arab Emirates. The conference president will be Sultan al-Jaber, the CEO of the UAE’s national oil company, which is committed to exploit fossil fuels through the year 2100 and most likely beyond.

The October 4 CHALLENGE noted that the Climate Week demonstration drew more than 75,000 marchers, including significant numbers of Black and Latin workers and youth  and members of labor unions. Some welcomed the demand of  “System Change, Not Climate Change.” The march was bracketed by sit-ins at banks and museums that take money from fossil fuel companies, as courageous workers put their bodies in entryways to draw attention to the catastrophe now unfolding before our eyes. This year alone,  devastating wildfires have consumed forests from Canada and the U.S. to Spain and Brazil. The fires poison the air hundreds, even thousands of miles away. As forests dry out and rain patterns shift, climate change has increased the likelihood of these fires by 50 percent.

Millions of workers and students are fighting back against climate change and Big Oil. Fridays for Future is a youth-led international organization in 7,500 cities across the globe, from Sweden and Belgium to  Peru, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and Sierra Leone. Extinction Rebellion, based in Britain, calls for civil disobedience to push governments to act. While many participants in these liberal-led reform groups sincerely want to see ”system change,” most do not yet approach the crisis from a class perspective.

The only climate solution is communist revolution
We must win workers to the understanding that the only climate solution is communist revolution, and that only a revolutionary communist party–Progressive Labor Party–can smash capitalism and its rotten, climate-poisoning ideas. It’s not enough to appeal to governments for stricter environmental regulations or to pressure banks to stop financing fossil fuel companies. Communists challenge the basic premises of capitalism: the need for money, the exploitation of labor, the extraction of commodities in the interests of inter-imperialist rivalry.

Many of the participants at the September 17 march would be receptive to this message if given a chance. It’s up to us to share it with them, to develop personal ties and build a base within these mass organizations.

PLP aims to lead the international working class to smash capitalism and replace it with a worker-run society. In future articles in this series, we will challenge the notion that solar and wind power alone can replace fossil fuels and consider the possibilities to advance the clean energy transition with nuclear energy while also limiting growth.

Progressive Labor Party (PLP) in Haiti organized a cadre school in September for 26 participants, members and friends, workers, and teachers, but mostly students from working class backgrounds. Study is an important aspect of understanding how the capitalist system works and why it cannot be reformed and must be replaced by a revolutionary communist egalitarian society.

Our goal is that study will be incorporated into class struggle on campus and beyond, and our Party will grow into a force to be reckoned with in Haiti and beyond.

In Haitian Creole, we say "Tout moun se moun" meaning that workers need a system where they will be treated as human beings--the human race. That phrase is often included in the following excerpted letters (see all letters at www.plp.org)
*

In the cadre school, we studied several texts over the course of three days: The Principles of Communism by Marx and Engels, Jailbreak and Build a Base in the Working Class by Progressive Labor Party, among others. We learned about what communism is and what capitalism is. We also learned how each system is organized, and about the position of each person in that system. We learned about how to build solidarity among our class.

The capitalist system is concerned primarily with making and keeping profit—making money. It doesn’t concern itself at all with seeing working class people as human beings—as long as workers can reproduce themselves in order to go to work another day to make more profits for the bosses, then the capitalists are satisfied.

Communism is a system where we see that production is organized for the good of the working class, so that workers can live like human beings. Each member of our class will have the right to an education that serves our class, and will have the right to free and decent health care that meets our needs.

This is the kind of world that I would like to live in, for myself, my family, my town and my class. In order to achieve the goal of communism, we need to build an organization capable of leading the fight, which unites all members of the working class, from Haiti to everywhere else in the world.
*

I was happy to participate in the cadre school where we learned a lot of thing. I learned about how the capitalist system wants me to think only about myself—that success in life means becoming part of the capitalist machine, rather than what’s good for the vast majority of society.

We looked at the world situation, for example, the war going on in Ukraine, and discussed how that war is part of the rivalry of the big capitalist countries to gain a bigger control of the world and its profits. I think we have to destroy that kind of a system, and that we need a communist revolution to do that, and a communist party to lead us. Then we can establish a communist society…to share in building that society and reaping its benefits equally, according to need. A world without racist discrimination.

But in order to arrive at that goal, we have to do the work in a way that builds the collective consciousness of workers and students, rather than the individualist consciousness that capitalism fosters. I believe that this cadre school helps us move forward in the correct direction….We here can be an example to show how to do this…
*

Ayibobo—greetings comrades. The cadre school helped us understand more about the functioning of the capitalist system.

The capitalist system is one in which we are forced to live under [unfavorable] conditions…exploitation in the factories and the fields; unemployment; racism; inferior houses, education and healthcare.

And now there are gangs that control Haiti and make daily life even more miserable for us. We shouldn’t have to live in such misery and fear every day! It’s a good thing that workers living in some neighborhoods controlled by the gangs have been fighting back. We need more of that!

But we also need to understand that the gangs are only a symptom of a decaying capitalist system and the way to get rid of the gangs is to get rid of the capitalist bosses who profit from them, once and for all.
*

What I learned from the cadre school is that everyone should be able to live like a member of the human race—decently, without racism, poverty, and the misery this system creates. In a different—communist—society we won’t look at and put a value on people based on their appearance. If we understand the importance of building solidarity within our class—both here in Haiti and elsewhere around the world, that will help us in the fight against the capitalist system.

In the capitalist system, the bourgeoisie appropriates all wealth from the labor of the working class; this is basically unfair, because if you create something, why should someone who did nothing profit from it?

For over 60 years, members of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) have marched, rallied, walked picket lines, and donated food and money to striking industrial workers to help intensify the class struggle. This year marks a huge number of striking workers across the country. PLP believes that strikes can be schools for communism and can build antiracist class consciousness. Strikes often reveal the true colors of union bosses like Sean O’Brien (President of the Teamsters) and liberal politicians like Joe Biden who claim to be on the side of the working class but really serve the bosses’ interests.

In August, 340,000 UPS workers were ready to strike. O’Brien set up “practice” picket line schools across the country. He spouted fiery words to encourage UPS workers to strike. But days before the strike was to happen, he announced a tentative contract with UPS claiming it was the best contract in UPS history. This announcement dashed the hopes of many UPS workers and other workers wanting to pressure the bosses to give up some of their profits.

What the workers told us
PL’ers spoke to many UPS workers on practice picket lines and elsewhere. They told us that there had been two contracts to vote on: a Master and a Supplemental that varied by geographical region. For example, Virginia and Maryland fall under the Atlantic region. Not all supplementals contained the same provisions. The Western and Central have big bumps in pensions as opposed to the Atlantic. The New England supplemental gave part-timers a way to become full time—by working at least 30 days for eight hours during a 60 day period. Local 705 in the Chicago area had negotiated a provision that for every four new full time jobs, three will go to a part timer and one to  a full timer. This could be a real game changer.

The Atlantic supplement does not have that provision. Angry workers questioned union leaders during meetings as to why such a fractured negotiation had happened. Some part-timers have worked there for 24 years!

Part-timers bear the worst schedules with no regular hours. They may be on the schedule to work from 4pm to 8pm, but have to call in every day to see if they have to come in earlier, say 10:30 am or noon. If part-timers have a child or an elderly family member to care for, their partner, spouse or significant other takes most of the responsibility for care taking, doctor appointments and sick days.

There are “full-time combo” jobs that in theory they can apply for, but even with twenty-four years seniority, they cannot jump over a full-time person with a year’s seniority for the position.
The standard lunch hour has been reduced from an hour to thirty minutes. A worker needs to request an hour lunch break two days in advance!

At one UPS distribution station in Virginia, the union leaders recommended that the rank and file vote Yes on the Master and No the supplemental. Many workers voted No on both agreements, but nationally the contract was approved.

What is to be done?
PL’ers will continue to help UPS workers understand the nature of capitalism. Bosses will always place profits ahead of workers’ needs. Union bosses and liberal politicians get perks under capitalism and do not want to change the system. Voting for politicians is a dead end. Reading CHALLENGE, discussing these ideas with their coworkers and joining Progressive Labor Party to fight for communism is the best way forward on the road to workers’ power!