Interimperialist competition on display in “coup belt”
New York Times, 7/29–Africa’s coup belt spans the continent: a line of six countries crossing 3,500 miles, from coast to coast, that has become the longest corridor of military rule on Earth. This past week’s military takeover in the West African nation of Niger toppled the final domino in a band across the girth of Africa, from Guinea in the west to Sudan in the east, now controlled by juntas that came to power in a coup — all but one in the past two years…Until this past week, Niger was the cornerstone of the Pentagon’s regional strategy. At least 1,100 American troops are stationed in the country…Any American withdrawal could open a door to Russia. The sight of Russian flags being waved by coup supporters in Niamey this past week echoed similar scenes after a coup in neighboring Burkina Faso last year.
Expanding war requires expanding weapons production
NikkeiAsia, 7/27–The Ukrainian military has begun using cluster bombs in its counteroffensive against Russia, following Washington's decision to supply Kyiv with the controversial weapons amid a munitions shortage…U.S. President Joe Biden…defended what he said was a "very difficult decision. This is a war relating to munitions. And they're running out of that ammunition, and we're low on it," he said in an unusual admission of U.S. limitations that could potentially undermine its deterrence…the U.S. initially resisted Ukrainian requests for the arms…But it reversed its stance as an ammunition crunch left it with few other options to support Kyiv. The shortage has also affected U.S. commitments to Taiwan, including by delaying the delivery of Stinger portable anti-air missiles and other arms…The Pentagon is now working to boost production…With U.S. intelligence assessing that Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered the military to be ready by 2027 to invade Taiwan, addressing supply constraints in the defense industry could prove to be a race against time.
French racism has long history
Al Jazeera, 6/30–French police brutally killed a 17-year-old in broad daylight during a traffic stop. Police initially lied and accused the youth of trying to run over an officer. And, as is often the case, national media reported police fabrications as facts — until cell phone video from a bystander showed the devastating truth…people across the globe have seen the horrific images of French police brandishing rifles and menacing the occupants of a yellow vehicle in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre before summarily executing the teenage driver with a bullet to the head as he pulled away...France has a long and sordid history of colonial racism…stretching from Haiti, Guadeloupe and Martinique in the Caribbean to Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean, North and West Africa as well as Vietnam, among many other populations. France has ruthlessly oppressed Algerian people in particular – including those who are French citizens…During the Algerian war for independence (1954-1962), hundreds of thousands and possibly more than 1 million Algerian people were slaughtered and systematically tortured by the French regime…In 1961, French police killed more than 100 French Arabs who were peacefully protesting in Paris.
U.S. ally deadly for human rights defenders
The Guardian, 4/4–Colombia was the deadliest country in the world for human rights defenders in 2022, accounting for 186 killings – or 46% – of the global total registered last year, according to the latest report from the international human rights group Front Line Defenders…killings of rights defenders across the globe increased in 2022, with a total of 401 deaths across 26 different countries, compared with 358 deaths in 38. Colombia saw more than three times the number of human rights murders than Ukraine last year, which was the country with the second highest number of rights defenders killed in 2022, with 50 registered cases. In 2021, Colombia also topped Front Line Defenders’ charts registering 138 rights defenders killed.
Summer Project inspired me!
The 2023 summer project inspired me to recommit myself to mass work in the service of communist revolution. The sustained fightback of many comrades in different areas was really impressive to witness and support. It was inspiring to find out Shantel Davis’s close relative had joined the Progressive Labor Party and called for communist revolution. In addition to the mass work scheduled into the trip, it was informative and encouraging to meet the comrades involved in mass struggles I had read about in CHALLENGE and hear from them first hand about the conditions faced by the international working class. Multiple comrades – including Black and Latin comrades – had been attacked and called racist by liberal misleadership in mass organizations for their principled stands in Chinatown and in the Rutgers strike. These comrades worked closely with a multiracial base in fightback against reformist and class collaborationist misleadership.
The accusations were ridiculous and invariably related to the bosses’ lackeys in union and community misleadership deflecting justified criticism. It was an eye opening experience. Sadly I learned that one of my comrades had lost their job since last summer as a result of their workplace fightback. However, seeing them continue to fight and organize motivates me to take more risks in struggling for communist revolution and the Party’s line. I learned a lot about the real conditions workers face on the ground, and fighting shoulder to shoulder with the dedicated PL’ers through the summer project is once again the highlight of my year.
*****
A night of collective culture
Our club was so very motivated by the recent Progressive Labor Party convention that we wanted to bring our base and members together to celebrate. The following weekend, we organized an evening of song and poetry in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole—and lots of good food to keep us going—for over 25 people: young and old, workers and students, veterans and folks who joined us for the first time, from several countries.
There were three guitarists; one comrade brought rhythm instruments so that whoever wanted could join in making music. Another comrade brought copies of a PLP songbook so that everyone could sing along, which was very helpful for those who were new to this kind of event. A couple of friends sang both original political as well as traditional songs in Creole and several people got up and danced.
We think that events such as this one, though modest and spur of the moment, helps us understand our role in creating the kind of collective culture—antiracist, antisexist, international, and pro-revolutionary communist (the polar opposite of capitalist culture)—that our Party and our class needs to develop to build a new world. Power to the working class!
*****
My first convention: I was so impressed!’
I had the privilege of attending the 2023 Progressive Labor Party convention for the first time. Since it was my first time, I had no pre-existing thoughts about what to expect. I must say that I was very pleased with the way the convention went. I was very impressed to see that the Party is really a multiracial group of individuals from different parts of the world who are fighting for the same vision and goals.
Ideas and solutions were debated in an open forum in which every member had the opportunity to express their struggles, experiences, and opinions in trying to advance the Party’s line forward which includes fighting against racism, sexism, for better healthcare, and for an egalitarian world and much more.
I was able to witness firsthand how a decision is made. It was really a collaboration among different folks from different walks of life. In addition, while there, I was able to see that the working class struggle is always at the forefront of their agenda.
*****
Remembering comrade Donna
Comrade Donna Perone was one of several comrades who passed away since the last Progressive Labor Party convention in 2015 (see Obituary in CHALLENGE, 5/1/19). During the 1980s she was chairperson of the International Committee Against Racism (INCAR) in Boston. While in Boston she was also part of the PLP security forces who physically battled the racist anti-bussing group Restore our Alienated Rights (ROAR) and the KKK. She was active in the bilingual education movement, and fluent in Spanish, French, and Italian. She created the first parent, teacher, student bilingual education organization, Project Pride, in the Spanish community while a counselor in the Framingham, Massachusetts public schools.
Family members in Italy were anti-fascist partisans in Italy during World War II. Her father was a member of the Young Communist League in the forties, and taught building trades in the South Bronx to Black and Latin students.
Donna organized to fight environmental racism and successfully led a movement of hundreds of people to halt the construction of a toxic waste burning incinerator in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn. Later, while a professor at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia she opposed the teaching of identity politics putting forth as an alternative a Marxist class analysis.
Further, she taught that IQ testing and standardized tests were part of the bosses’ racist plans to segregate the schools. Her award winning doctoral dissertation on reducing violence in the schools by creating parent, teacher, and student organizations served as a model program in the Philadelphia public schools.
Donna was a PLP member for over forty years, and her motto was “Serve the People,” which she did as an internationalist revolutionary communist throughout her life before succumbing to cancer after a heroic two and a half year struggle.
If the far-right Vox party joins Spain’s ruling coalition after the July 23 general election, it will be the first Spanish government to include open fascists since the death of mass murderer Francisco Franco in 1975. It would also mark the latest failure of liberal democracy to manage the growing global crisis of capitalism. As the U.S. bosses keep weakening in the face of an aggressive challenge by the Chinese imperialists, their junior NATO partners—the centrist parties that have ruled Western Europe since World War II--are losing their grip as well.
Instability is everywhere; everything seems up for grabs. With the war in Ukraine escalating and World War III looming, the old liberal democratic world order is in shambles. Confronted with runaway inflation, a wave of climate catastrophes, and mass unemployment (close to 13 percent in Spain), both the open fascist insurgents and the old guard liberals are scapegoating migrating workers—a hallmark of rising fascism. As millions of workers’ lives are upended in the general turmoil, a segment of the working class has been infected by the disease of anti-immigrant racism. In this dark night of weak class consciousness, the capitalist rulers are pulling out all the stops to mislead, deceive, and divide us. Regardless of which of the bosses’ factions wins the next round of elections, the rulers will ultimately need full-blown fascism to have any chance to destroy their competition and protect their profits.
Only an international mass workers’ movement, led by communists, can beat back the rising tide of fascism. Only communist revolution, spearheaded by the fighting Progressive Labor Party, can end imperialist war and create a society run by and for the working class. The profit system can’t reform its way out of this crisis. History shows us that it can never serve workers’ needs. Capitalism must be destroyed, root and branch. Join us—we have a world to win!
As liberal democracy weakens, open fascists rise
Six years ago in Spain, nostalgic for the Franco years (foreignpolicy.com, 6/29), a splinter group denounced the right-wing Popular Party as too soft and set off on its own. Widely dismissed and underestimated, the Vox party exploited workers’ anxiety over the Catalan separatist movement, which was pushing to break away from the richest region of Spain (centered in Barcelona) and form its own country. Using the classic fascist tools of gutter racism and sexism, and taking a nationalist page from the U.S. Small Fascist forces fronted by Donald Trump (“Make Spain Great Again!”) Vox “opposes abortion rights, denies climate change and rejects the need for the government to combat gender violence” (New Indian Express, 7/18).
Now backed by 15 percent of voters nationwide, Vox is being courted to form a new parliamentary majority by the Popular Party, which is favored to win the upcoming election after shifting to a more openly racist, anti-immigrant platform (El Pais, 7/24/2018). If that alliance comes to pass, Spain would join a growing list of European countries--including the old World War II fascist axis of Germany, Italy, and Vichy France--with openly fascist parties either within the government or as a leading opposition to the government. And with Spain next in line to hold the presidency of the European Union, Spanish fascists could influence the EU’s agenda.
When liberal democracy fails the capitalist class, fascism gives the bosses more direct control over all aspects of society, from the media and universities to industrial policy and war preparations. It’s no accident that fascism is the fastest-growing political movement in Europe today. This reality would have been unthinkable in the decades following World War II, when fascist parties were outlawed In Germany and marginalized in France and Italy. But times are changing, and fast. Millions of workers have lost confidence in the ability of the traditional post-war European parties to solve the glaring problems of capitalism. Europe’s capitalist rulers—the dominant banks and industrialists—are terrified of losing the white working class, a fear compounded by Britain’s departure from the EU and recent mass protests against the French bosses’ pension reforms. At present, these rulers aren’t moving to smash Vox or the likes of open fascist leaders like Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. If anything, they appear to be hedging their bets--just as they did in Germany in 1933, when they sanctioned Adolph Hitler’s appointment as chancellor by the liberal-backed president.
In the most recent elections in Germany, the most committed fascist nation during World War II, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) expanded its base, even after AfD members were arrested for helping to plan a fascist coup last December. The party is polling up to 20 percent, “neck-and-neck with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats and behind only the conservative CDU/CSU bloc” (france24.com, 3/7). In France, the National Rally headed by Marine Le Pen is now the highest-polling party in the country. Amid the ongoing rebellion over the French cops’ cold-blooded killing of a 17-year-old son of North African immigrants, it’s calling for harsher treatment of migrating workers, wholesale evictions of public housing residents for minor offenses, and the building of more prisons—the bosses’ modern concentration camps.
In their desperate attempt to hold on to power, the rulers’ mainstream liberal agents, from Joe Biden to Emmanuel Macron, are quickly adopting their own more virulent racist and anti-immigrant policies. From the Texas border to the segregated suburbs of Paris, they’re enabling mad-dog police terror. In France, the kkkops have even prohibited protests against their own racist violence! The result is a political spiral toward fascism. As the big capitalists move to the right, they’re legitimizing and energizing far-right parties that have little or no stake in liberal democracy. Vox, for example, is banning unfriendly news outlets from its events and calling for them to be shut down (Reporters Without Borders). As the bosses’ contradictions continue to sharpen, we can expect the liberals to follow suit in ditching the phony freedoms of capitalist democracy.
Only communists can defeat fascism
The working class cannot afford to sit around and wait for the capitalists to try to fix their unfixable contradictions. Economic and inter-imperialist crises inevitably lead to rising fascism and wider war. In World War II, the force that stopped full-blown fascism in its tracks was a communist-led working class. Although communists and other anti-fascists were defeated in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, they inspired workers throughout the world in the global conflict that followed, culminating in the Soviet Union’s destruction of Nazi Germany. The revolutionary Chinese Communist Party played an important role in beating back fascist Japan.
The Communist Party of Italy led the resistance that smashed the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini.
Today there are but two paths before us: fascism or communist revolution. There is no middle ground, no third way. As communist theorist R. Palme Dutt observed in Fascism and Social Revolution (1934), “Capitalism in its decay breeds Fascism. Capitalist democracy in decay breeds Fascism. The only final guarantee against Fascism, the only final wiping out of the causes of Fascism, is the victory of the proletarian dictatorship.”
And so our choice is clear. Build Progressive Labor Party!
U.S.-Russia-Iran conflict brewing in Middle East
AP News, 7/14–The U.S. is beefing up its use of fighter jets around the strategic Strait of Hormuz to protect ships from Iranian seizures, a senior defense official said Friday, adding that the U.S. is increasingly concerned about the growing ties between Iran, Russia and Syria across the Middle East. Speaking to Pentagon reporters, the official said the U.S. will send F-16 fighter jets to the Gulf region this weekend to augment the A-10 attack aircraft that have been patrolling there…after Iran tried to seize two oil tankers near the strait last week, opening fire on one of them…the defense official told reporters the U.S. is considering a number of military options to address increasing Russian aggression in the skies over Syria, which complicated efforts to strike an Islamic State group leader last weekend. The official…said the U.S. will not cede any territory and will continue to fly in the western part of the country on anti-Islamic State missions.
China makes moves in Argentina
Al Jazeera,7/17–Massa, who recently announced his bid for president in this year’s election, met with a wide slate of government and business leaders, securing $3.05bn from Chinese institutions to finance railways, power lines, lithium projects and renewable energy in Argentina…But perhaps the announcement of most consequence came around the currency swap line between the two countries – a yuan lifeline…to the beleaguered Latin American economy, which is seeking more financial room to maneuver. There were a lot of thumbs-up signs from Argentine Economy Minister Sergio Massa on a recent trip to Beijing.
These growing ties have not gone unnoticed by the United States, the traditionally dominant player in the region, which has seen its influence on its so-called back-yard slip. In response, the US has sought to exert pressure on Argentina to rein in its ties with China, advocating privately, and in some cases publicly, against certain projects.
Racist kkkops in U.S. France
New York Times, 7/17–Years before France was inflamed with anger at the police killing of a teenager during a traffic stop, there was the notorious Théo Luhaka case. Mr. Luhaka…was …in his housing project in a Paris suburb in 2017 when the police swept in to conduct identity checks. Mr. Luhaka was wrestled to the ground by three police officers, who hit him repeatedly and sprayed tear gas in his face. When it was over, he was bleeding from a four-inch tear in his rectum, caused by one of the officers’ expandable batons.
Calls to overhaul the police go back at least four decades to when thousands of young people of color marched for months in 1983 from Marseille to Paris, over 400 miles, after an officer shot a young community leader of Algerian descent…Last month, after the police shooting of Mr. Merzouk, Alliance and another police union announced that they were at war with the rioters, whom they deemed “vermins” and “savage hordes.”
Israeli and Palestinian fascists fight on by killing Palestinian workers
The Guardian, 7/17–On the street in central Gaza City where the family of Khalil al-Bahtini lived, the contents of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander’s home and the two houses on either side remain spilled out into the street…The GBU-39 bomb that crashed through three floors of the Bahtini home, down into the basement, also blew apart one side of the Adas’s house, killing the family’s two teenage daughters. Dania, 19, died immediately, while her sister, Imam, 17, clung to life for two hours before succumbing to her injuries in hospital…The assassinations, which came during a ceasefire, led Islamic Jihad to respond with almost 1,500 rockets fired towards Israel over the course of five days…The violence left 33 people in Gaza dead, including at least 10 women and children, and, according to Palestinian officials, 103 homes were destroyed and a further 2,800 damaged.
Fight these thieving landlords!
At the end of June Progressive Labor Party members who participate in community organizations met at a conference where they were discussing housing budgets in New York. As always, this event was taken advantage of by bureaucrats and opportunist politicians who try to put the class consciousness of the working class to sleep. The mayor appoints the Board of Directors for the Rental Guidelines Board for New York City that decides the rent increases for the 1.5 million apartments with rent stabilization in the City.
Under capitalism it doesn’t surprise us that this kangaroo court decided against the interests of the working class and for the benefit of the thieving landlords. Three percent increases for rental leases of one year and for two year leases, 2.75 percent for the first year and 3.5 percent for the second. Some friends in the community organization said it’s ok because at least it’s better than the original proposal from the landlords. No! It’s a racist attack on working class families that have to choose between paying rent and paying for food and medical care. A rent increase between $40 and 150 a month will push low income people over the edge. The fight must continue!
What can save us is united working class anger and the repudiation of this abusive imposition. It also makes us happy to have gotten a good reception from the crowd to our newspaper CHALLENGE. We distributed 100 copies at the event.
We have to remain united and fight to smash this capitalist system that oppresses us. To the extent that we continue our work inside our community organization, we will continue to intensify the contradiction between reform and revolution, winning more workers to the communist ideas of PLP.
*****
‘We’re retired, not expired’
Retired NYC municipal workers have been fighting for over two years against a joint city/union plan to force them out of traditional medicare and into a private for profit so-called Medicare Advantage plan. Under capitalism, benefits that workers enjoy are always in danger of being taken away. The plan to reduce retiree health coverage, paid for by the city for over sixty years, is an example of that fact. We need to build for a workers’ state, communism, where bosses and their partners won’t be able to take back what we have fought for. In that spirit, we must redouble our efforts to win our friends into PL study groups and into our party.
On July 7th a New York State Supreme Court judge issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking the city of New York from forcing retirees out of city paid for traditional medicare and a medigap supplemental coverage and into a private for profit so-called Medicare Advantage plan. He said, in part, that retirees would likely suffer irreparable harm if forced into the new plan.
Retirees had packed the courtroom on July 6th and had previously demonstrated at City Hall, union headquarters as well as the city office of labor relations. We had been out in the rain, heat and freezing weather. We bombarded the mayor and city council with calls, letters and in person visits. We showed that we would fight back!
Although retirees were happy that the TRO was granted, many wondered what the city and union leaders of the municipal labor committee (MLC) would do next. Some thought the plan was dead. Others felt that a new plan would be devised. Although we are retired, we haven’t expired and will continue to fight!
