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The 500th Fight for West—No Justice under kkkapitalim
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- 04 March 2023 466 hits
BALTIMORE, February 22—For the 500th time, we decried racism. A successful protest caravan, stretching 22 vehicles long, boldly wound through the city’s streets. The demand was accountability for the police murder of Tyrone West, and for all victims of police brutality. Tyrone’s life was stolen in July of 2013 by 17 racist cops, in the same way George Floyd and Tyre Nichols were murdered by capitalist thugs in blue. These 500 protests prove there is no justice under this capitalist system. As we demand accountability, we must also organize the fight for a world run by the working class - that’s communism.
Importance of a long-range outlook
Every Wednesday, for nine-and-a-half years, without fail, a street rally or a livestream event has been organized as a central part of carrying on this struggle.
Progressive Labor Party (PLP) has done its best to help strengthen this important anti-racist work. And PLP has simultaneously strived to share its vision of the future, a communist world with no more racism of any type, and no more police brutality.
Seven Party members from the DC area also participated in the caravan, adding strength and additional logistical capability that proved particularly helpful after the lead car was disabled.
New generation of fighters
A young comrade, who has made regular contributions to West Wednesday for some years, spoke at the final rally. He began, “No more police terrorism! I’m a member of the Progressive Labor Party, and my belief is in a revolutionary society where we go beyond this system.”
He went on to say the purpose of police under capitalism is to divide us racially, create fear, and suppress the whole working class. He ended with words that earned applause: “It’s good that we’ve come together as a…multiracial coalition.” Another young PL’er from DC also spoke, sharing that only with revolution can we end police terror.
Some tears and some comfort
The night before the caravan, at the final planning meeting, one topic was how everyone felt after so many years of struggle. A member of Tyrone’s family became tearful, talking about all of these 500 weeks, while Tyrone’s main killers remain on the police force, with promotions. But she also spoke about how vital the support has been for her, and about specific contributions by particular freedom fighters in the West Coalition.
In the case of a PLP member, she said he has given her comfort that helps when things are rough, based on an understanding he has shared that there is always a solution.
When it was this comrade’s turn to speak, he explained that dialectical materialism (the philosophy at the heart of communism) teaches that all things exist in paired opposites. Therefore, the existence of a problem implies the existence of its solution. Or, to put it another way, history poses no problem for which the solution doesn’t already exist. It was one of those moments when the positive role of communists, in an anti-racist mass movement, was clear, helpful, and heart-warming.
Working women leaders in the movement
During this evening’s caravan, Tyrone’s sister stood tall through a moonroof, speaking and chanting powerfully to everyone in the long train of vehicles and to passersby.
Things were well-organized, with the front and rear cars in steady communication. Flyers had been prepared for handing out at mini-rallies along the route.
However, before even reaching the site of the first mini-rally, the lead car, with flashers on, made the route’s planned turn onto a major street. That lead car was suddenly and severely rear-ended – and probably totaled – by a driver who turned, much too fast, onto the same street, from a different direction. The speeding driver may have been careless and distracted, or sent by police.
Three people were in the caravan’s lead car. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt, but their car was forcefully thrust off the street, across a sidewalk, and onto a home’s front yard, barely missing a major collision with a large tree.
Led by the women in the West Coalition, the caravan stayed in place, allowing time to deal with the situation. Then they re-organized a new lead car and rear car. Considering the time that had been lost, they wisely led the caravan directly to the final rally at City Hall.
Other volunteers had previously set up a huge grill at City Hall so that, after the final rally, delicious hot meals were ready for everyone. In addition, twenty-eight people took copies of CHALLENGE.
It was clear that racism is the weak spot of capitalism. Just like when the horrific murder of George Floyd sparked twenty million people to hit the streets for months of forceful protest, the horrors of racism, including the horrendous murder of Tyrone West, continually lead to mass movements within which new leaders step forward. The future is bright. Never give up in the fight for communism!
Millions of workers have been devastated by earthquakes in Turkey and Syria and a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio–and most of all, by capitalism. These tragic events were not “natural” disasters or accidents. Corrupt building practices and neglected infrastructure are part and parcel of a system that’s based on the ruthless drive for maximum profit.
On February 6, the mass collapse of flimsy buildings in Turkey and Syria killed 50,000 workers and displaced millions. Three days earlier, an oversized Norfolk Southern train with inadequate brakes burst into flames. Fifty cars derailed, spewing toxic chemicals into the air, killing thousands of fish in nearby waterways and potentially contaminating the area’s drinking water (Newsweek, 2/17).
As imperialist rulers hoard resources to prepare for their next global conflict, more corners will be cut at the expense of workers’ health and safety. To get workers to passively accept these disasters and then agree to fight in World War III, the capitalist bosses will need increasing fascist repression. ‘Lesser evilism,” the idea that some bosses are less racist, less sexist, or less profit-driven than others, will be a literal “dead end.”.
Under the leadership of Progressive Labor Party, the international working class must turn the guns around and seize state power. Only then can we guarantee that the construction industry, the railroads, the chemical plants, and the water treatment facilities serve workers’ needs. The only solution is communist revolution!
Turkey’s bosses: profits over workers
Instead of going all out to save and help workers after the earthquakes, the Turkish ruling class went all out to prepare for their regional oil wars with neighboring bosses in Syria and Iraq. Because of decades of racist displacement by the Turkish rulers, the Kurdish and Syrian populations were hardest hit by the disaster. Predictably, Turkish President Recep Erdogan dodged all responsibility: “What happens, happens, this is part of fate’s plan” (The Guardian, 2/09). Days later, Turkey resumed its bombing of Kurdish forces in Syria and resumed its pursuit of a $20 billion deal for F-16 fighter jets from the U.S. (Associated Press, 2/20). As the U.S. bosses square off against Russian imperialism in their proxy war in Ukraine, they’re doing all they can to strengthen NATO and consolidate its relationship with the Turkish ruling class. But Turkey has become an unreliable regional ally, as evidenced by its purchase of $2.5 billion in Russian missiles in 2017.
Like all capitalist rulers, Turkey’s bosses have long placed profits over people. To deflect the masses’ rage after a previous earthquake killed over 18,000 people due to faulty construction, Erdoğan promised tighter building safety codes. But in 2019, he boasted of granting zoning “amnesties” to contractors, 40,000 of them in the hard-hit city of Gaziantep alone (NPA Syria, 2/23). Warnings from disaster specialists were ignored (Birgun, 2/06). After the most recent earthquakes, Erdoğan’s regime moved quickly to funneling relief efforts into the corrupt Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, which is notorious for rewarding patronage jobs to Erdogan supporters.
U.S. infrastructure strategy a train wreck
President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Plan focused on the U.S. infrastructure crisis over helping workers survive the bosses’ latest economic crisis. As the U.S. rulers drive toward more full-blown fascism, they are calling for workers’ “sacrifice” and funneling more resources toward war preparations.One big problem for the bosses is the lack of discipline within their own class, including the railroad bosses. A core principle of Precision Scheduled Railroading, the operating standard for major railways in the U.S. is to eliminate “unnecessary” costs. In practice, this translates to fewer workers per train line, fewer safety measures, and less inspection time. Fronting for the dominant finance capital wing of the U.S. ruling class, Biden is squeezed between the railroad bosses’ push for maximum short-term profits and the rulers’ broader need for reliable transportation infrastructure for the coming global war, most likely with China. Regardless of how the bosses’ internal struggle plays out, workers stand to lose. Last December, cheered on by union misleaders, Biden signed legislation designed to kill a potential strike of over 100,000 railroad workers (CNBC, 12/12/22). Once again, we saw that workers’ allegiance to liberal capitalist politicians leads only to the betrayal of our own class interestsThe only thing that can save us from the rot of capitalism and the bloodbath of imperialist war is to fight back against all bosses and to build PLP.
A related example: Every two days, the bosses’ chemical companies have accidents. When workers fail to fight back, it’s more profitable for the capitalists to absorb the cost of these accidents than to pay for rigorous safety measures (CNN, 2/22). The bosses at Norfolk Southern are well aware that their accident rate has increased each of the last four years (NS Corp, 1/25). From 2016 to 2021, there were 13,000 violations relating to hazardous materials, or triple the number in the previous five years–a clear reflection of weak federal oversight (NYT 2/17). With over 12,000 chemical facilities across the country, many nearby residents have reason to live in fear. The predominantly white working class population of East Palestine and the surrounding area have been, systematically segregated from their Black and Latin class sisters and brothers. They are chronically unemployed, under-employed, and underpaid. Capitalism’s racist system hurts the entire working class.
For safety, workers need communist revolution
Over and again, we see workers saving workers. In Pakistan, workers risked their lives by wading through toxic, deadly flood waters to distribute vital donations. In Haiti, workers are funding and running community kitchens, and providing clothing and shelter for striking garment workers.. In Turkey and Syria, thousands of workers and youth are breaking through the border to help other workers after the earthquakes.All of these efforts are courageous and essential. But ultimately, they will be futile if we fail to understand that we can save ourselves and our class only by smashing capitalism, the root of all these problems.
Earthquakes will keep happening under communism. But when the working class gains state power, and enforces strict rules for development and building safety, the human toll of these disasters will be far less. Transportation accidents will also occur under communism, though there will surely be fewer of them when workers are empowered to oversee the production and maintenance of these systems. When the means of production are owned by and for the working class, rather than by private individuals and corporations, a strong and resilient infrastructure will be viewed as a social necessity. By working together and sharing resources, liberated from the divisions of private property and wage slavery, workers will create a safer, freer world. Join us! Build Progressive Labor Party!
CHICAGO, February 26 – Around 50 Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members and friends gathered on the city’s south side today to celebrate our fifth annual Black and Red event. The multiracial, multi-generational and international crowd in attendance engaged in an interactive program that highlighted the invaluable leadership and contributions of Black communists in past, present, and future revolutionary struggles.
Our local collective began organizing this event five years ago as a response to the many anti-communist distortions and outright lies by the bosses that falsely claim communism to be a political movement limited to white workers. The truth is that Black workers have always given key leadership to the fight for communist revolution, correctly understanding it as the only force to destroy the racism, sexism, and exploitation inherent in the capitalist profit system.
In contrast to the bosses’ Black History Month celebrations, which emphasize the need for more Black-owned businesses and individual success, PLP emphasizes the importance of Black workers leading the Party with comrades all over the world to put an end to racist capitalism once and for all. To be Black and red is to be an antiracist revolutionary!
Working-class Black history is communist history
We began our day at the DuSable Black History Museum, a south side landmark for over 50 years. The museum was founded by Margaret Taylor-Burroughs and her husband Charles, two Black organizers with well-known communist affiliations. PLP members made a list of scavenger hunt questions for our group to engage with the different exhibits and highlight the more radical history of various freedom movements.
We next headed to the local fieldhouse for lunch, socializing, and an event program. After dining on some delicious West African dishes, a new comrade kicked festivities off with an impassioned reading of “Good Morning, Revolution” by Black communist poet Langston Hughes. Although modern sources prefer to ignore or minimize Hughes’ embrace of communist internationalism, any serious analysis of his works such as this poem demonstrate his commitment to revolution.
Another veteran PLP member then took the mic to give some historical context to the violent mass struggle to end chattel slavery and the influence that struggle had on the theories of the communist Karl Marx. Through his work as a journalist reporting on the Civil War in the United States, Marx was able to better develop his understanding of how racism is essential to the profits of capitalism and how one could not be seriously fought without fighting the other.
We next watched a short video also highlighting the influence of communist theory and practice on countless antiracist mass movements in the 20th century, including the defense of the Scottsboro Nine against legalized lynching during the Great Depression and the struggle against the brutal apartheid regime in South Africa. Far from being confined to the history books, the lessons learned from these brave struggles continue to inform our fight in the present day.
Lastly, to give the keynote speech, another veteran comrade drew on her decades of experience as a Black communist in PLP and how that has guided her fightback against racism and sexism in profound ways:
“The earliest comrades of our Party realized that the people who had this generational commitment to fighting the capitalist power structure had to lead this revolutionary movement for it to ultimately win.
Along with this leadership being mandatory for this Party to win, multiracial working-class unity also had to be a defining factor. Our Party views antiracism as more than just a ‘good feeling.’ It is dedicated fighting action in just about every way imaginable.”
Black workers are key revolutionary force
In the fight to destroy capitalism, the international working class must rely on the leadership of those workers most exploited and oppressed by this rotten racist system to truly win an egalitarian communist world. We salute our Black comrades and fellow workers for their ongoing role as an indispensable revolutionary force.
Loudoun County, VA, February 14—“FIRE KEOLIS” rang out today as about 100 transit workers in ATU Local 689 and their allies took their over-month-long strike to the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors. Their demand? End the politicians’ deal with Keolis. The workers exposed a gang-up of these “progressive” political leaders with Keolis, the $6 billion French transit company perpetuating a two-tier wage system and cuts to benefits.
The Loudoun politicians, despite their crocodile tears for workers, are proving yet again that the state is a tool of capitalist class domination. By definition, the bosses’ politicians cannot represent workers’ interests. Workers must fight them and the Keolis bosses tooth and nail, defeating them and their entire system with communist revolution.
Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members have played an important role in this strike. We have joined picket lines and brought revolutionary ideas by sharing CHALLENGE newspaper with scores of workers. We protested with workers at the French embassy and mobilized transit workers from other jurisdictions to join the picket lines (see previous strike reports in CHALLENGE, 2/1 and 2/15).
Reject cuts and wage disparity
Today’s action featured a fiery speech by a PLP member, the former president of striking ATU Local 689. He declared, to unanimous cheers, that if the workers’ demands were not met, the workers should initiate a general strike. Such an action, he said, would build on the great 1968 general strike in France that brought the French bosses to their knees and led to big increases in wages and benefits.
Multiracial workers also spoke about the desperate need for significant improvements in their contract in order to survive. The two most pressing concerns are cuts to benefits and unequal wages: one pay scale for the union-represented commuter bus drivers, and one for the non-union local bus drivers. Workers are refusing this division between local and commuter drivers.
Union leaders have begun to take a more militant line—the current Local 689 president declared that he would not be fooled by politicians again and would not support any of them in the next election.
But the International union leaders continue to emphasize relying on Democratic politicians, which ties workers to the capitalist system.
The PLP approach of building a revolutionary party within these front-line battles in the class struggle must replace this self-defeating march to the ballot box.
Strike fever
Why did the workers zero in on the Loudoun Board of Supervisors? These politicians have a contract with bottom-feeding, Nazi-linked Keolis (Atlantic, 3/18/2014) which states that the company would be fined daily for failing to provide service – something Keolis can’t do with a 95 percent effective strike! But the politicians were happy to violate their own contract and not enforce fines against Keolis. The failure of the politicians to punish the French company in this wealthy suburban area has allowed the company to stonewall the striking workers rather than negotiate to meet their demands. As we have seen in countless strikes over the years, politicians will offer aid to their real bosses, the capitalist bosses who own the means of production. Workers may vote but capitalists are the rulers.
Strike action against Keolis has spread beyond Loudoun County. Teamsters local 639 in Prince William County, VA struck Keolis this week and joined today’s rally in solidarity. Keolis was run out of its contract in Las Vegas (thisisreno.com, 2/14), and lost its contract in Raleigh, NC as well. The transit workers in Reno have struck three times against Keolis to try for a decent contract. Strikes, as Lenin said, are schools for war where workers learn to fight against their class enemy, the bosses. Strike fever is growing!
Working-class solidarity
PLP members linked this transit fight to the intense negotiations between Montgomery County teachers (MCEA) with their Board of Education,
sharing flyers from that struggle in Amharic, English and Spanish. PL’ers also brought some well-received posters reflecting the broad importance of the struggle in transit. Transit and transit workers are essential to the bosses’ ability to run society. Even during the beginning of the pandemic, the bosses understood the necessity of keeping transit running.
One of the strikers who spoke carried and waved the sign, “A GOOD CONTRACT = PUBLIC HEALTH.”
Other workers welcomed the sign, “TEACHERS SUPPORT TRANSIT WORKERS.”
Our Party fights for multiracial struggle and internationalism. A transit strike in Loudoun County impacts workers all over the world. We talked with workers about a Senegalese railroad strike in 1947 that lasted 4 months, recounted in God’s Bits of Wood by Ousmane Sembene. That story also ends with a speech calling for a general strike in Dakar, Senegal, which linked nicely to the PLP call for a general strike here.
Of course, even a general strike and militant uprisings alone cannot defeat capitalism and racism. We call on workers to channel this militancy into building a revolutionary communist Party to smash this criminal system, and create a society led by workers that guarantees a decent life, without exploitation, for all. As the major imperialist powers build toward world war, workers will be under increasing pressure to sacrifice and produce for the bosses. The workers in Loudoun County are providing the leadership we need to defeat the bosses and build a world run by and for the working class.
The group included a number of students and faculty from Manhattan College who are excited to be working more closely with us. Others came from our Racial Justice coalition. We aimed our poster at the cop station, chanted loudly, and then shared accounts of other racist murders like Deborah Danner and Ramarley Graham. The action was covered by TV12 and we were interviewed by a local paper. We vowed to keep up the fight and to keep the pressure up on our local cops to make them back off their racist policing.
Oppose Biden’s eugenic covid policies
The Biden Administration announced it will end the emergency provisions for Covid-19 on May 11, 2023. This has ominous implications for millions of people in the U.S. It means an end to free medications like Paxlovid, which will now cost $100-130 per dose, masks, and tests. An end to expanded Medicaid will leave millions uninsured. An end to access to food stamps for millions and an end to eviction prevention funds will increase hunger and homelessness. Medicare funded telehealth for seniors will end in 2024. This will imperil more people with Covid-19 especially as the more communicable variants of the virus arise.
At this date, 400 people are dying each day as people surrender their masks and have inadequate ventilation. Why? The capitalists are eager to get people back to the workplace to keep their crisis ridden system afloat.
Once again capitalism reveals its disgustingly racist and sexist disregard for, poor, Black, brown, disabled, elderly, retired, and indigenous workers.
Once you’re too old or sick to work and are not producing profit, you’re worthless and marginalized. Public health activists around the U.S. are circulating this petition and writing articles to alert the public. Please share this petition with your friends and organizations: “Oppose Ending the National and Public Health Emergency Declarations; https://tinyurl.com/prwuzf2s. And join the Progressive Labor Party to end the rule of the rich.
*****
My first MTA union meeting
In January, I attended the TWU Local 100 mass membership meeting for New York CIty Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) workers. This was our first such meeting since the Covid-19 pandemic; it was my first ever. With our contract being up in May, many of my colleagues were no doubt looking to the union heads to show strong leadership in our imminent fight against management.
But, of course, the meeting instead exemplified how much in bed Local 100 is with the racist MTA bosses.
After the meeting’s initial meet and greet with separate departments, we were directed to a larger hall, where we sat and listened to these phonies tell us how they will bring a fight, while their actions have shown otherwise.
I also took note that the rank and file did not get a Q & A session to hold their feet to the fire…a clear harbinger of what was to come.
John Samuelsen, former Local 100 President and current TWU International president, began his speech with platitudes of his Brooklyn upbringing and history as a track worker, saying he will support us fully. But “Sleepy John,” as others have called him, soon echoed the TA’s contract time lies about having budget problems, which we all roundly booed. He also mentioned pushing for an amendment that would allow us to strike in lieu of the fascist Taylor Law.
Imagine asking the bosses for permission to withhold our labor-HA! Samuelsen also conveniently forgot to mention that he denounced our 2005 strike and gave us absolutely no support then.
Local 100 President Ritchie Davis also didn’t leave much to the idea that he will stand up to management. When a section of the crowd began chanting “Hazard Pay!” as he discussed our contract, he noticeably didn’t return their enthusiasm.
KKKop Mayor Eric Adams made a cameo appearance as well. He stood up and lied that his fascist initiative to clear out homeless encampments and the emotionally challenged in the subways with the pigs “leads with mental health professionals” and that “everyone is trying to distort what we are doing.”
Adams’ plan has been to flood the trains and station platforms with racist cops underground to attack special needs people, and forcing the unhoused to accept dangerous shelter conditions aboveground! That’s not a distortion at all!
While the talking heads proved disappointing, there were signs of hope. When one of the speakers said, “This is a militant union,” an audience member loudly said, “No it’s not!” in response.
Many of my co-workers aren’t confident the union will get them a good contract. Truth is, no union under capitalism will get any worker what they truly need and deserve. And that’s where the Party comes in, to present the only alternative: a communist world.
To that end, I was able to have a discussion with two train operators during the meeting. One criticized the fact that the union leadership made no mention at all about Tyre Nichols’ racist murder.
He noted how, as a Black union, that was a glaring omission. He also repeated the party’s line on having to fight anti-Black racism! Luckily, I had a spare CHALLENGE on hand to give them. I exchanged contacts with them and plan on choosing to work at the same line locations they do to keep meeting with them as much as I can. I hope to continue meeting other workers receptive to our line and will keep my best foot forward in doing so!
*****
No kinder kkkapitalism
Liberals and progressives often point out that citizens of some countries, especially Scandinavian countries, enjoy more access to social services than those in the U.S. Other places like Canada and the U.K. pride themselves on providing a better quality of life because they have universal healthcare.
However, this is largely theoretical, especially when we look more closely at Canada. Yes, all Canadians are entitled to free health care, but it is difficult for many Canadians to take advantage of their benefits. There are serious shortages of doctors in sparsely populated areas. Specialists are almost nonexistent except in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal or other major cities. People make long drives, sometimes days, for cancer care.
In a possible future communist society, we might assign doctors and other medical staff to underserved areas. That seems like infringing on an individual’s rights to our “democratic” minds, right? The difference is this – the physician would not be working for a wage. He/she wouldn’t be tied to a large metropolitan area in order to maintain a certain lifestyle. His/her lifestyle would not be any different from a bus driver, an electrician or a teacher.
Historically, British citizens have been very proud of their NHS (National Health Service). While they generally fare better than folks in the U.S., right wing politicians are continually trying to impose “austerity measures'' that would reduce access to health care. In Canada, federal and provincial politicians like Doug Ford are currently passing legislation to privatize parts of the healthcare system in response to governmental failure during the pandemic. Failing the public as an excuse to hand workers’ health over to the capitalist bosses is the name of this game, and it is one liberal politicians in countries with universal healthcare will keep playing so long as we allow it.
In short, reforms under capitalism are usually short lived or sometimes a complete smoke screen. Only under communism will all people have access to the care they need and deserve.
