INGLEWOOD, CA, October 15—Over the last two days about 100 family and friends showed up for the services of our fallen working class brother Ivan Solis Mora. Ivan, who was suffering from a mental health episode (see CHALLENGE 10/18), was treated with bullets by kkkop instead of compassion and medical care. That’s kkkapitalism for you! Mental illness is a death sentence under a system that routinely treats sick and disabled workers as disposable.

Friday evening was the viewing followed by the morning mass and burial on Saturday.  At the viewing, a family member made green ribbons for us to wear to bring awareness to the growing mental health crisis, along with pins with Ivan’s picture. Surrounding his casket were floral arrangements, most with religious messages, and one shaped like a guitar. Petra, his mother, told us how much he loved playing his guitar and writing music. His actual guitar was also on display.  

Student and teachers organize for Ivan
In addition, there were four large foam poster boards in front of each easel with over 400 signatures of students and teachers from a PL’ers high school with the message, “a mental health crisis does not warrant a death sentence.” This activity was spearheaded by our comrade teacher who created an advisory lesson on what happened to Ivan. With the advisory lesson, all teachers in the school then taught their students about what happened to Ivan as part of a larger problem of police violence disproportionately impacting those with underlying mental illness. Afterward, students from the comrade’s after school club took the boards to every classroom and approximately 400 out of 600 students and teachers signed them. Later, the comrade visited the family to share the story and the messages from the school community. The family chose to display the boards right out front for all to see.  

While these two days were surely tearful and somber, they didn’t lead the family to pacifism.  Over the preceding two weeks the family led two actions that the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) participated in, including a rally and march to City Hall to confront the City Council and a second march from their home to the Inglewood police station.

On the day of the City Hall action, about 30 family members and friends showed up at a nearby intersection.People passing by, whether in cars or on foot, were very supportive, honking horns, stopping to talk about what happened. Groups of high school students walking home after school were particularly interested in learning about what had happened. As they began their march to City Hall, a comrade inspired others who were initially quiet at the rally, and led them in fight back chants as they entered.  

Liberal politicians response: crocodile tears and more dead-end reforms
The City’s head of security first told everyone that only five people could go into the meeting.  After some struggle, he allowed more of us in, but said “none of the protestors.”  So much for open government meetings and free speech under capitalism.  Not surprisingly, despite hearing from the family members, Council members could offer the family nothing more than the usual phony “thoughts and prayers.” There is another group that is also giving leadership in this struggle. One of their leaders is running for Los Angeles City Council.  

At this particular event, not only did he call for the typical tried-and-failed reforms like body cameras, but also invited the City Council to the family’s next action and had the cop-mayor take a photo with the family. There is a clear lack of understanding of the interconnectedness between the state and the police when this is the approach.  

Contrastingly, PLP understands that the entire ruling class and their police state are the enemy. Politics is everything in determining if we will one day end this system once and for all.Different Party members are getting to know members of the family independent of each other making home visits. One comrade had talked with Petra about us working on an article about Ivan for CHALLENGE, and today two other comrades visited the family and showed them the front-page article.Some groups “fight” police brutality by running for elections, but this only makes them part of the bosses’ state. The Progressive Labor Party instead calls on all workers, students, and soldiers to build the revolutionary communist PLP so that we can destroy their state and lead us into a communist world.

The racists on Staten Island are not stopping their attacks on the asylum seekers being housed in shelters there, but the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) and other antiracists are stepping up our efforts to support and defend them.

By order of New York City officials, St. John's Villa, a former private school that was the site of two previous pro-migrant vs anti-migrant demonstrations, is to be emptied of its residents by November 15th. The racists are now concentrating their attacks on migrants in the former Island Shores Senior Residence on Father Capodanno Blvd. Every night, the racists have been congregating in smaller or larger numbers to loudly spew their anti-immigrant filth to disturb the residents. Their continued presence has caused the NYPD to set up barricades on the streets surrounding the facility, ostensibly to prevent any confrontations.

When members of the coalition of antiracist organizations arrived at the facility for our planned demonstration, we found these barricades in place. Some of the racists were already there, and when we demanded that the cops allow us to demonstrate on the Island Shores side of the boulevard, we were told we had to cross to the other side. The racists were allowed to remain, showing once again on whose side are the police.

Undeterred, we used a bullhorn and our voices to chant support to the migrants. The police then forced us to stop using the bullhorn. To show their "impartiality," they also stopped the racists from using theirs. We then formed a picket line and continued chanting vigorously and loudly. Before we left, members of Peace Action Staten Island, the Democratic Socialists of America, and the PLP made speeches, stressing  the need for antiracist worker unity. The Party members who spoke made it clear that the only solution to workers' problems worldwide is communist revolution.

Prior to the rally, some of the Peace Action members had leafleted at the College of Staten Island and in the Port Richmond neighborhood, which is populated by many immigrant workers. The rain may have had some effect on discouraging students and workers from those areas from coming to the demonstration. Our rally still had double the number of the racists, but about half of us were from outside Staten Island.  We distributed CHALLENGE there and continued to talk afterwards about our plan to build the Party and fight for communism.
The racists have a fairly well-organized core in the community, backed by most of the politicians on the Island.

They attack the immigrants, but they also attack Democratic NYC Mayor Adams, blaming him, Governor Hochul, President Biden, and "white liberals" in general for the immigrant problem and all the other ills facing the working class. Just as did the Nazis in the early days, these racists claim to represent the interests of blue collar workers. Their racism is dangerous to the entire working class. The Democratic Party politicians agree with them about limiting immigration, cutting back  benefits to the poor and other workers, and supporting a bigger military to prepare for war.

It does present an obvious danger, but even more dangerous to workers are the "white liberals" that the openly racist "Small Fascists" decry.

Biden and his cohorts represent the interests of the dominant "Big Fascist'' capitalists. It is their vicious exploitation of workers in Central and South America that has led to the desperate increased migration to the United States from those countries. As the workers struggle across the border, “Small Fascist” governors ship them to cities in the North. Once there, supposedly liberal politicians  crowd our fellow workers into unhealthy shelters, tent cities and even throw them onto the streets. The Democratic Party liberals have no plan to help the migrants and are happy to see the racists attack them and divide the working class.

In NYC, and especially Staten Island, the PLP  and its antiracist allies must continue to build a movement against the open racists. At the same time, we must struggle to show our friends and other workers and students that fighting racism within the system is not enough. We must smash capitalism to destroy racism. THE ONLY SOLUTION IS COMMUNIST REVOLUTION!

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.

Flooding from extremely heavy rain in New York City on September 29th shut down the city. It knocked out the subway system, flooded tens of thousands of homes and buildings and submerged cars trapped on highways. The rainfall, equivalent to more than a month worth of rain falling in three hours (CNN 9/30), exposed the failure of capitalism to manage even the most basic functions of society. Short term profits required by the needs of the real estate developers have left basic infrastructure in the center of U.S. capitalism woefully insufficient and there is no path for the situation to be fixed under capitalism. The massive changes needed to solve flooding in New York require an upheaval to the way society is organized that can only come through revolution and the building of a communist society.

Storms are getting worse as capitalism continues to wreak havoc on the environment. As society literally swerves between floods and fires the real estate developers at the top of the food chain in NYC are continuing to build, build, build. By owning the services of the politicians through donations to the Mayor on down, the permits are approved for taller and taller skyscrapers that are popping up all over the city.

Climate change runs into anarchy of capitalist development
Capitalism needs to seek profits. NYC was once a manufacturing center with million industrial workers at its peak in 1947 (NY Times 3/22/81). Today there are 58,000 manufacturing jobs in the city (Bureau of Labor Statistics). As U.S. capitalism lost its manufacturing power the capitalists needed to find new sources of profit. New York led the way with the development of retail and real estate. As small buildings and undeveloped lots are replaced by towers as high as 90 stories, the developers don't build sufficient infrastructure to accommodate all the new people moving in.

New construction should typically be built with accompanying infrastructure that can handle a 100-year rainstorm. This means a storm that would have a one percent chance of happening in any given year. New buildings in the city are being built with infrastructure that is designed for a five-year storm, meaning a storm that has a 20 percent chance of happening in any year (theverge.com 9/29).

A second cause of increased flooding is that new development is taking away areas where rainwater can seep directly into the ground. As empty lots and undeveloped land are built on there are fewer and fewer places that are unpaved. This forces increased amounts of rainwater into the sewers. NYC sewers were built to handle 1.75 inches of rain an hour. More than that and they back up into the streets and basements and even toilets in basement apartments. Last weekend had rainfall of about 2.5 inches an hour for a sustained period. In NYC a hundred-year storm is classified as 3.5 inches an hour, double what the sewers can currently handle (NY Times 9/29). Black, Latin and Asian workers bear the brunt of the flooding as thousands of basement apartments are the last refuge for low wage workers in a city with off the chart rents.

The capitalists won’t fix this
Decades upon decades of development would now have to be undone to properly deal with the flooding in NYC. This is not something the bosses even think about as the cost of fixing the problem under capitalism would devastate their profits. Instead, they are following a gradualist approach of installing tree pits on sidewalks that are designed to drain rainwater. These tiny, performative measures are being over-run by the continuation of development and climate change making heavy storms more frequent.

Capitalism is failing again and again. The education, health care and infrastructure are all broken. Workers power through communist revolution is the only solution.