Liberal bosses move further toward fascism in Atlanta
The Intercept, 5/31–…a heavily armed Atlanta Police Department SWAT team raided a house in Atlanta and arrested three of its residents. Their crime? Organizing legal support and bail funds for protesters and activists who have faced indiscriminate arrest and overreaching charges in the struggle to stop the construction of a vast police training facility — dubbed Cop City — atop a forest in Atlanta. In a joint operation with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, or GBI, Atlanta cops charged Marlon Scott Kautz, Adele Maclean, and Savannah Patterson — all board members of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund — with “money laundering” and “charity fraud.”
A total of 42 activists are currently facing state domestic terror charges on the flimsiest of police claims, while three others face hefty felony intimidation charges for distributing flyers that named a police officer connected to the brutal police killing of 26-year-old forest defender Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán.
Proxy war in Somalia continues
France24, 6/4–Some 54 Ugandan peacekeepers died when militants besieged an African Union base in Somalia last week, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni said, in one of the worst recent attacks by Al-Shabaab jihadists in the war-torn country…The toll is one of the heaviest yet since pro-government forces backed by the AU force known as ATMIS launched an offensive against Al-Shabaab last August.
Al-Shabaab, which has been waging a deadly insurgency against Somalia's fragile central government for more than a decade, claimed responsibility for the May 26 attack, saying it had overrun the base and killed 137 soldiers…The militants drove a car laden with explosives into the base in Bulo Marer, 120 kilometres (75 miles) southwest of the capital Mogadishu, leading to a gunfight, local residents and a Somali military commander told AFP…In a report to the UN Security Council in February, UN chief Antonio Guterres said 2022 was the deadliest year for civilians in Somalia since 2017, largely as a result of Al-Shabaab attacks.
Analysis of war preparations in China and in U.S.
Der Spiegel, 6/2–George Yeo, the former foreign minister of Singapore, discusses the ongoing power struggle in the Pacific region…China is on its way to becoming the world's biggest economy. It will be a comprehensive power and the United States feels threatened by it. It sees a threat to its global dominance and is trying everything to slow down China, and even to bring it down if possible.
China's push towards nuclear weapons has to do with its need for a second-strike capability, i.e. the possibility of responding to a nuclear attack with a counter-strike. The Chinese know that the U.S. wants to deny them this ability. The U.S., on the other hand, senses that without its nuclear deterrent capability, China is likely to prevail in a conventional war over Taiwan. So they want to be able to threaten China with a nuclear attack…one of the reasons why there is so much interest in the South China Sea. Not so much because of the freedom of navigation, which has never been an issue, but because of submarine warfare. China’s view is: Let's assume our opponent can locate every one of our ballistic-armed nuclear submarines. Well, then I'll increase my warhead count from 500 to 1,000, maybe even to 1,500. Because even if the other side destroys 95 percent of them, I'll still have some to hit back with.
U.S. workers are not doing well
AJPH, 6/1–Increases in U.S. life expectancy slowed from 1950 to 1954 and 1955 to 1973, accelerated from 1974 to 1982, and progressively deteriorated from 1983 to 2009, 2010 to 2019, and 2020 to 2021 (–0.97 years/annum). Other countries experienced faster growth in each phase except 1974 to 1982. During 1933 to 2021, 56 countries on 6 continents surpassed US life expectancy. Growth in U.S. life expectancy was slowest in Midwest and South Central states…The U.S. life expectancy disadvantage began in the 1950s and has steadily worsened over the past 4 decades. Dozens of globally diverse countries have outperformed the United States. Causal factors appear to have been concentrated in the Midwest and South.
New York City, May 18–Progressive Labor Party (PLP) comrades joined 300 workers and students in a powerful march sponsored by Make the Road NY in Bushwick, Brooklyn. We were protesting against high rents, displacement and evictions in this rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. Comrades connected with many friends in the march and on the streets. The demand of the organization and politicians who spoke was that the state legislature pass “Good Cause” legislation. “Good Cause,” if passed, would supposedly mean that landlords across New York state with buildings with less than six apartments can’t evict or raise rents dramatically without good cause.
Migrants not our enemies
As we marched, comrades chanted with the marchers and distributed 150 CHALLENGE papers about May Day around the world and 200 PLP leaflets demanding low rent housing for all homeless people in shelters and arriving migrants. New York City is now housing new migrants in the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, paying the hotel owners $200 a night per room! The liberal bosses and their lackey politicians in NYC are deviously using these migrants to divide the working class and to distract us from the real enemies (the capitalists). The same way racism affects the entire working class, so does unemployment, which the bosses use in order to bring down wages for the entire working class, including for white workers. We can’t let the bosses divide us and that’s why all workers need to unite, Black, Latin, Asian and white. The bosses want to use migrants as scapegoats and want to blame them for their problems, but we need to direct our anger against the capitalist bosses.
Reform is never enough
Marchers enthusiastically took CHALLENGE and our leaflets which stated, “Workers need power, not crumbs! A worldwide system that won’t provide jobs, housing and healthcare for the working class doesn’t deserve to exist. The working class needs to destroy capitalism with revolution. We need a system that will collectively and globally eliminate exploitation, war, racism and sexism. We need communism, community in its essence.”
The contradiction between reform and revolution was on display. While desperate, angry workers support reform, they know from experience that even if “Good Cause” is passed by the state government, it will largely be ignored by the landlords without long, drawn out cases in landlord court.
“Why are so many politicians speaking?” asked a participant.
“To direct and control the workers’ movement,” answered a comrade.
“Why can’t they pass a law forcing the landlords to open up empty buildings and apartments the landlords are holding?” a friend asked.
“Landlords are part of the capitalist ruling class and dominate all aspects of our lives,” the comrade answered. Some workers say the fight for reforms is a step toward revolution. That’s an illusion. There is no peaceful transition from reform to revolution. PLP’s role is to participate in the reform fight while sharpening the revolutionary side of the contradiction. It’s happening now!
Pro-U.S. generals in Pakistan move to sideline Khan from elections
Foreign Policy, 5/17–A week after his arrest on corruption charges, former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan faces an escalating confrontation with the country’s political establishment. Recent developments suggest Pakistan’s military leadership is going full throttle to sideline Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party from politics. National elections, currently scheduled for October, loom. Khan blamed Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir for ordering his arrest by paramilitary forces last Tuesday; he was released a few days later. Just before his arrest, Khan repeated allegations that a senior military officer was behind a November assassination attempt against him, which the military denies.
U.S. decline and China’s rise in Middle East– a review
Foreign Affairs, May/June 2023–In March 2023, China’s announcement that it had brokered renewed diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran threw into sharp relief the United States’ rapidly diminishing role in the Middle East…the United States completed its inept withdrawal from Afghanistan, a country that Washington had spent 20 years trying and failing to bring into the Western fold. Then the president [Joe Biden]…soon found the Saudis rebuffing a U.S. request to increase oil production during the war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, U.S. diplomatic efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal faltered…And the administration looked on helplessly as the most far-right government in Israeli history came to power, threatening the country’s claims to democracy, fueling a new wave of violence, and jeopardizing the Washington-backed Abraham Accords. Observers may be forgiven for wondering whether U.S. influence in the region has declined permanently.
Workers in U.S. and around the world are becoming poorer
Brookings, 5/16–Current inequality levels are high. Contemporary global inequalities are close to the peak levels observed in the early 20th century, at the end of the prewar era (variously described as the Belle Époque or the Gilded Age) that saw sharp increases in global inequality. Over the past four decades, there has been a broad trend of rising income inequality across countries. Income inequality has risen in most advanced economies and major emerging economies, which together account for about two-thirds of the world’s population and 85 percent of global GDP. The increase has been particularly large in the United States, among advanced economies, and in China, India, and Russia, among major emerging economies.
Peaceful change in Sudan transforms into bloody war
Der Spiegel, 4/22–Starting in December 2018, Sudanese author Shadin Al Fadil wrote one of the most impressive chapters of the Arab democracy movements for their country - one which has been ravaged by massacres, famine and crises over the years. They managed to achieve what no one had believed possible: They protested until they drove dictator Omar al-Bashir from office. After 30 years of dictatorship, democracy suddenly seemed within reach. Sudan had become emblematic of what can be achieved through peaceful resistance.
Since then, though, hopes for democracy have been further and further destroyed by the country’s powerful military. And now, those dreams could be buried for good in a hail of bombs. Since the early hours of Saturday morning, Africa’s third-largest country has been in a state of war. There is fighting in almost all parts of the country, with two rival generals and their armies facing off against each other. On one side is Sudan’s regular armed forces, commanded by the de facto president, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. On the other is the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), under the command of his deputy Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, known as Hemeti.
The work of Carolyn’s life speaks for her
I met Carolyn in Tupelo, Mississippi in the summer of 1979. David Duke, leader of the KKK, had declared that Tupelo would become the national headquarters of the Klan. Progressive Labor Party and INCAR, an organization we were building at the time, refused to accept this and launched a campaign to make Tupelo the headquarters of antiracism and the fight for communism. Over 40 volunteers joined the Project at various times. Carolyn was there the entire summer.
The Project dug deep roots in the Black working class of Tupelo. We organized public CHALLENGE sales, rallies and lots of visiting to make and consolidate friends who joined the Project. Carolyn was involved in it all.
I actually met her when she was sitting on the balcony of the apartment where volunteers were living. She was making “sun tea.” She had a gallon jar filled with tea bags, sugar and lemon slices. We had a long talk as the hot summer sun brewed the tea. I realized later that she was lounging there because she was recovering from her gunshot wounds.
Mid-way through the Project a march was organized from the Black worker’s housing project where we had a base to downtown Tupelo, where there was a rally. Carolyn and Findley Campbell were standing at the sound truck giving speeches when a racist, who we later learned had been released from jail that morning and given the shotgun, opened fire into the crowd.
Carolyn and Findley were sprayed with birdshot. Our security team leaped into action, tackling the shooter and keeping him from firing again. Suddenly the police, who had not been visible before, swarmed over our team, arresting many. Birdshot, used for shooting birds, sprays small pellets. Carolyn was shot down one leg. Although the doctors were able to find and remove some of the pellets, many remained in her leg the rest of her life.
Our comrade, Floyd, was charged with attempted murder and held without bail. I arrived in Tupelo at that point to work on the legal case. No defense attorney in the state of Mississippi would take the case. The district attorney called Carolyn and Findley to appear before a Grand Jury conniving to get them to testify against our comrade charged with murder! I warned them that we were all probably going to jail for what we were going to do. There was no hesitation. Carolyn and Findley were each called into the room and refused to say a word. Ranting and raving, the prosecutor called me into the room. I told the whole story, since I was not a witness to any of it. As Carolyn had come out she whispered to me that she recognized some of our CHALLENGE readers on the Grand Jury! The workers of Tupelo were on our side. The charges were dismissed.
The Project immediately organized a second march. Walking in the first row as we headed downtown was Carolyn proudly waving a red flag. That’s how I will always remember her–proudly waving the red flag!!
*****
It’s good to see the big picture
I was disappointed that I could not attend Progressive Labor Party’s May Day march in Brooklyn on Saturday, April 29. However, on Monday, May 1, I accompanied a comrade to a march in Trenton, NJ being led by Cosecha. Cosecha is an organization that struggles to improve the conditions of undocumented workers. They fight for driver’s licenses, paths to citizenship, etc. My comrade has worked with that organization for a few years. On the drive down, he was expressing his frustration about how little he thought he had accomplished with them in all that time.
When we arrived, there was a lot of evidence to the contrary. The members of Cosecha had adopted several of PLP’s chants – “La clase Obrera, No Tienen Fronteras” and “Obreros, Unidos, Jamas Seran Vencidos” (The working class has no borders, and Workers, united, will never be defeated). Although my Spanish is intermediate, I could tell there was much more class analysis in the speeches.
I congratulated my comrade on the impact he has had over the years. It pays to be in it for the long haul.
In addition, we distributed many DESAFIOS (spanish version CHALLENGE), not only to the marchers, but to the residents of the largely immigrant neighborhood where we marched.
*****
A Neighbor’s story with CHALLENGE
This past Saturday a couple of comrades, including an awesome high school student, came to do another CHALLENGE newspaper sale at the 15 floor building where my partner and I live. A neighbor had the following to say after we asked him what he thought about it. The first time he saw the newspaper outside his door he did not pay it much attention. Eventually, he grabbed it and left it in his car. Then, during his lunch break he began looking through it and even started to discuss some of the ideas with a coworker. He told us, “When I read the paper I feel strongly. By now I know I’m going to get another. And look forward to it.”
He also spoke about how challenging life as an immigrant father and husband from Ghana is in the U.S. How supervisors at his job have used his ideas in a way that has discouraged him from wanting to contribute further. How he wishes we lived in a world where people were encouraged to freely contribute our naturally endowed gifts to provide for each other. We responded by saying, “That’s communism!” He shared how more recently a bill collector called him to get their money for a Covid test his family had received way back when the pandemic was more intense. He was trying to say how backwards capitalist society is in that it puts profits first over people’s wellbeing. He also expressed that what the paper is communicating reminds him of parts of his life where he has been vocal about what is wrong with this system. We told him that the fact that the paper’s ideas have hit this key cord within him to the extent that he felt compelled to share it with a coworker is a really powerful thing! We asked him if he would be open to coming over to our apartment in the near future to talk more about these communist politics. To which he said definitely!
Our neighbor’s growing confidence in our ideas and willingness to get closer to us represent another nail in the coffin of a profit system that depends on keeping us divided in order to keep exploiting us. This new development - one of many recently in our building - is the product of becoming more disciplined and committed about distributing CHALLENGE where we have lived over the last 4+ years and fighting to be more communist in the way that we live, share with our neighbors, and respond to each other’s needs.
*****
I protested: rent is too damn high!
I attended a protest in Jersey City titled The Rent is Too High put on by a local chapter of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). While the march attracted some vocal young workers, the majority of the downtown crowd they were speaking to seemed indifferent.
Maybe it is due to their call to action, which involves passing a measure before the city council for a right to counsel for tenants paid for by developer taxes in the future. If that sounds far off to you as well, you are right. While local agitation and engagement is good, without a permanent solution of communist hope and revolution, the struggle will continue.
*****
Remember: it was the reds who smashed the Nazis
May 9th is the day that the Soviet Union celebrates the defeat of Nazi Germany and its allies. In the largest land war in history with 27 million dead, the Soviet people, led by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union led by Joseph Stalin, smashed, at least for a time, the most evil doctrine yet to appear on our planet. Had the Nazis defeated the Soviet Union, many if not most of us would not be here to talk about it.
Even though Germany and other countries banned the flying of Russian and Soviet flags during the demonstrations there, people all over the world celebrated the Soviet victory.
Today the PLP is attempting to learn from and advance upon the lessons of the USSR. Visit the PLP.org website for more information.
In early January of this year Comrade Russell Phillips died. He was a longtime member of The Progressive Labor Party. Russell worked at Lenox Hill Hospital for about 5 years in the late 70’s to early 80’s.
Along with other Party members he consistently fought the management of that hospital around racism. He also combined bread and butter issues (he worked in the engineering department) with broader international issues.
He would leaflet and sell CHALLENGE consistently both in the hospital and outside at the entrance.
In 1983, when Russell was leafleting against the Reagan invasion of Lebanon, the hospital bosses instigated a backward worker to violently attack him with a 2 by 4. That worker was suspended and Russell was fired.
The sellout hospital workers union 1199 to whom Russell had been a thorn in the side of, did not defend him and he ultimately lost his job but over the course of those years had brought many communist ideas to the hospital workers.
In 1979, he was involved in PLP’s activities in Tupelo, Mississippi when the Party violently fought back the attacks of the Klan.
Russell soon after moved to NYC and organized at Lenox Hill Hospital against the hospital bosses and sellout 1199 leaders.
Eventually moving to Philadelphia, Russell did political work in a small church.
Russell was always reading the Party literature and many other sources. He called me a week before he died to discuss a podcast he had just seen criticizing NATO’s instigation of The Ukrainian War.
Russell was just shy of 91. He had good innings but will be missed by his close friend in Philadelphia Jean and the many comrades and workers who knew him. Rest in power.
