Life under capitalism is getting worse
The Next Recession, 9/11–Life expectancy fell in the US in 2021 to its lowest since 1996, the second year of a historic retreat, mainly due to COVID-19 deaths…disparity in life expectancy between men and women widened last year to the highest in more than two decades, with American men now expected to live just 73.2 years, nearly six fewer years than women.

Deaths from COVID-19 contributed to over half of the overall decline in U.S. life expectancy last year. But COVID was not the only factor in the decline. Drug overdoses and heart disease are also major contributors,the data showed…Suicide-related deaths are the third-leading contributor to the decline in life expectancy for American men.

The decrease in US life expectancy was highly racialized: as the largest decreases in 2020 occurred among American Indian/Alaska natives, hispanics, Black and Asian populations. For native Americans and Alaska natives, life expectancy fell to 65, close to the national average during World War II…China’s life expectancy at birth is now higher than that of the US…“The stagnation in life expectancy reflects deep societal challenges — not just in our health system but also in our economic and political systems,” said Dave Chokshi, a physician and former NYC health commissioner.

Israel’s  Mossad admits it helped murder thousands of Palestinian refugees
The Cradle, 9/9–According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the office of the Israeli prime minister, which oversees and directs the Mossad, released the dateless document that implicates the intelligence agency in the atrocities carried out by right-wing Lebanese Christian militias. The document in question…exposes the Mossad’s role in, and facilitation of, weapon transfers that were used in the two-day, round-the-clock massacre of Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.

The bloody massacre took place in 1982, between 16-18 September at a camp under siege by the Israeli army, leaving thousands of Lebanese and Palestinian civilians dead, raped, and injured by the militias to whom Israeli occupation forces provided passage, weapons, and protection…“Goyim killing Goyim,” [Israeli President Menachim] Begin is famously quoted as saying in a bid to disavow any Israeli role in the events.

However, as Pultizer prize-winner Patrick J. Sloyan revealed in his book When Reagan Sent the Marines, [Israeli general Ariel] Sharon met with the Phalangist militia leaders the day after the assassination of president Bachir Gemayel, and abetted them in avenging his death. Sharon told the commander of the Lebanese Forces Militia Elie Hobeika: “I don’t want a single one of them left,” in reference to the Palestinians in the camps in Beirut.

Mining companies steal and poison in Colombian state of La Guajira
IGWIA, 9/16–Despite this Caribbean region’s natural wealth, Wayuu children in La Guajira are dying of hunger and thirst. Exploitation by multinationals, a lack of rainfall and the contamination of their wells only add to historical injustices. Today nearly 40% of the population of La Guajira does not enjoy optimal nutrition,...Indigenous children… are malnourished and since the beginning of 2021, 17 Wayuu children have died from malnutrition.

In recent years, plundering by multinationals, who exploit their resources in exchange for low-quality jobs, and pollution have only added to these historical debts...La Guajira is blessed with many natural riches: coal, gas, salt, sun and wind. The only ones benefiting from this wealth are the Colombian State and a few multinationals.

The Indigenous people blame more than 30 years of coal mining for contaminating their reservoirs. As if that were not enough, the mining companies have obtained licenses to divert rivers and exploit the riverbeds. As a result, the wells that the Indigenous people used to rely on to get through the summer have dried up. The State, however, has declared the extractive industries to be of “national interest”, condemning communities to involuntary resettlement and displacement.

Queen Elizabeth and her predecessors presided over much of the most deadly imperialism in history (see editorial about her much-delayed death, page 2). At its peak, England seized nearly one quarter of the Earth’s landmass and oppressed nearly 20 percent of the world’s population. Here are some lowlights of the British rulers’ 400 years of racist, blood-soaked colonial expansion:

• Between 1641 and 1808, Britain kidnapped and forcibly moved more than 3 million workers from Africa to the Americas. About 15 percent died en route; the rest were sold into lifetimes of horror.
• During the 1848-1849 Potato Famine in Ireland, a direct result of British economic policies, one million workers in Ireland were killed; another one million were forced to flee.  
• In 1903, to prevent a feared Russian occupation of Tibet, Britain used the British Indian Army to invade the country and massacre more than 700 protesting workers. A British officer told his men to “bag as many as possible.”
• In 1909, Britain’s Parliament passed what became South Africa’s first constitution. With the British working hand-in-hand with the racist Boers, new laws stripped Black workers of all political rights and their land, and paved the way for the legalized segregation and vicious exploitation of apartheid.
• In 1943, more than 3 million workers in India died of starvation after Winston Churchill forced the colony to export all of its wheat to feed British troops during World War II. Four years later, the British Raj partitioned India and Pakistan, an arbitrary division that uprooted 10 million workers and killed over a million more in unnecessary religious conflicts.
• In 1950, a British general conceived of the Briggs Plan to combat communist organizing in Malaysia. British troops forcibly relocated 10 percent of the country’s population to concentration camps.
• In the 1950s, as Queen Elizabeth toured the globe for photo opportunities, Britain fought off an uprising by the anti-colonial Mau Mau movement by imprisoning more than a million workers in barbed-wire concentration camps. Many, including women and children, faced “systematized violence and brutality and torture” with “forced labor and starvation policies” (Vox News, 9/13). 

Transit workers not scared by bosses’ tactics
At an early morning rally in front of a transit repair shop in Chicago, a railcar repair worker called for workers to fight back against the bosses. His words rang out as the workers cheered him on with encouragement, honking horns and smiles. "The bosses have tried to divide us, pit us against each other and disrespect us with low wages and poor working conditions."

A militant shop steward organized and spoke at the rally. A coworker told him how one of the low level bosses has been breaking the contract, giving overtime to his friends, and trying to micro-manage the workers. This big-boss wannabe had an opportunity to do the right thing - but he refused. He instead drove past our rally and called us some names, and said he would kick our butts.

The coworker who wanted to resolve issues with him was threatened with physical harm by another coworker! But our brave friend said he wanted to come to another rally and speak on the bullhorn!
The threats of this stooge rang hollow as one worker remarked, "We have been through life, and we have been through death (already) with Covid!"

The working class is in a life and death battle with capitalism every day. From the pandemic to floods from climate change to starvation, homelessness and increased gun violence against each other - it is capitalism that has created the conditions for all of these deadly things to keep on happening!

The ruling class in Chicago is intensifying their efforts to win workers to support fascism in the form of more police on buses and trains. But as communists, we say there will be no justice and no safety for the working class under capitalism!

The members of the Chicago Transit Justice Coalition will increase our efforts to organize the workers to fight back against the bosses, the sellout union officials and their rotten contracts. We are having discussions and debates about the role of the police. Members of the Progressive Labor Party will continue to distribute CHALLENGE to the workers and struggle to get more readers to spread the ideas of communist revolution.
*****
Death to royals,  power to the working class
“Our hearts are broken” is the message of the bourgeois British media to the world on the death of Queen Elizabeth who is the symbol of 400 years of slavery, colonialism, genocide, racism and imperialism that has caused millions of horrible deaths and billions suffering lives of poverty and misery worldwide.

The contradiction of a 96 year old queen, one of the richest women in the world, living in one of her castles attended by the best medical care and servants and the daily worldwide pictures of babies with only skulls with bulging eyes for heads and just ribs and sticks for bodies and legs dying by the millions from malnutrition and lack of medical care in Somalia, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Yemen and worldwide breaks my worker’s heart. Workers worldwide must recommit to end this murderous capitalist profit system from the British Empire to the U.S Empire and nascent Chinese and Russian empires. Fight for communism!
****
PL’ers at Labor Day
In the U.S., Labor Day is celebrated every first Monday of September. This date is a federal holiday. This year we found out that a community group that fights for workers’ rights and is led by liberal politicians was invited. We activated some PLP comrades who already participate in this mass organization. But this organization, together with other primarily Latin organizations that are now a coalition, was in charge of “opening the march.” The slogan of this march was to seek support for the Coalition of Excluded Workers and Unemployed Workers. Along the way, we handed out 100 CHALLENGEs and several hundred Party leaflets where we declared that we welcome fellow immigrants and families sent from Texas to New York City (see page 4).

As several comrades have already been working in this mass organization, there were several PL’ers helping in this event. One young PL’er arrived early to help with materials, transportation, food, and giving leadership, while the other PL’ers distributed CHALLENGE, Party leaflets, and had conversations with the workers. The young PL’er was also in charge of writing several signs for the march. While the liberal leaders of the organization marched with slogans like “Say yes to unions and yes you can,” the young PLer sharpened the struggle with slogans like “Workers united will never be defeated.” The PL’er also noticed how some participants had liberal slogans written on their masks, so the young PL’er decided to write on his mask “Eat the rich!—F*ck taxes!” Several participants seemed to appreciate it.

We also talked with some attendees. We came to the conclusion that this date does not have the warmth of MayDay: International Workers’ Day and it is absurd to try to forget the Strike in Chicago that originated this unforgettable conquest of the eight hours of work in the world. The number of attendees and the joy of the participants was remarkable. It is important for  communists to participate in these mass organizations, not only to lead, but also to sharpen the struggle with our communist politics and ideas. WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE!
*****

Amid a deepening recession, a sharp decline in U.S. dominance, a ruling class in turmoil, and an accelerating trend toward fascism and global war, President Joe Biden has finally unveiled his college loan forgiveness plan. Designed to erase $10,000 to $20,000 of student debt, the plan is being hailed as a big win for the working class. In reality, it’s a desperate effort to paper over the capitalist bosses’ broken college model.

In previous generations, a college education provided some workers with more financial security. Today, it both fails to deliver the elusive American middle-class dream and traps millions of students in capitalist debt slavery. Given Biden’s track record of opposing reforms to reduce debt or to make college free, the new plan is designed to buy young workers’ loyalty, encourage them to vote in dead-end elections, and hold them hostage to this miserable profit system. Though even partial debt forgiveness may be a temporary lifeline for many, the truth is that for young workers, capitalist education is a lifelong burden with a diminishing return.

We urge young workers to reject the Democratic Party’s liberal fascists and their bribes and to keep fighting back on the campuses and in the streets. Join Progressive Labor Party (PLP) and fight for communism, where education will be used to build the world our class deserves.

U.S. college crisis: symbol of capitalist disarray
The college crisis is a snapshot of the crisis of capitalism in the U.S. More than 45 million former students together owe $1.6 trillion, more than all other debts or private loans combined,excluding mortages (cfr.org, 04/13/21). In 2020, the average debt for private college students was $32,029; for those who went to public colleges, $26,627 (U.S. News, 6/8). Even worse off were graduates of often fraudulent for-profit colleges, who borrowed an average of nearly $40,000 (studentloanhero.com).

All in all, this is a big problem for Biden and the liberal Big Fascists, the imperialist main wing of the U.S. ruling class that controls global finance capital. Young workers shackled by student debt are unable to buy homes or start their own small businesses, a further drag on the bosses’ economy. Without more meaningful government interventions, ex-students will stay caught indefinitely in a spiral of debt. Moreover, Biden’s plan does nothing to slow the out-of-control escalation of college sticker prices. Nor does it compensate for the anti-worker, anti-student laws he pushed for during his long career as a U.S. senator. Jim Crow Joe was more than the architect of racist mass incarceration. He wrote legislation to block students from seeking bankruptcy protections after graduation, and championed a bill that made it impossible for student borrowers to reduce their debt burden (The Intercept, 1/7/2020).

In the heyday of U.S. imperialism, when the capitalists could afford to hand a few crumbs to the working class, the liberal rulers passed reforms like the racist G.I. Bill, the National Defense Education Act, and the Higher Education Act of 1965, which expanded college access for young workers at low cost. The bosses’ goal was to build U.S. patriotism by marketing the “American Dream.” By contrast, Biden’s forgiveness plan is a weak attempt to restore faith in a floundering system and win workers to sacrifice themselves to save a flailing empire.

Of course, if they so choose, the rulers could wipe out all college debt, a move that might prop up their struggling economy at least a little while longer. But to do so they’d have to raise taxes on corporations and the super-rich. The Big Fascists are too weak and divided to make that happen, an ominous sign for expensive war preparations against China and Russia.

The racist debt trap of higher ed
Though many students living below the poverty line will see their student loans vanish, Biden’s plan is a drop in the bucket for millions of Black students who on average owe $52,726 four years after graduation–almost double the amount owed on average by white students (Guardian, 2/19/21).

Compounding this racist disaster is the fact that Black and Latin students are more likely to get diminishing returns on their education, spending more time to complete a degree and earning less in wages or salaries after they graduate. They also are more likely to attend chronically underfunded schools with weak support services and poor living conditions, and to be taught by grossly underpaid and overworked adjuncts (Center for American Progress, 1/23/20). The enduring racist legacy of the capitalist education system is another major obstacle for the Big Fascists, who are desperately trying to pacify Black and Latin workers and buy their allegiance in the run-up to WWIII.

Communist education for true liberation
In the profit system rat race, education is a sorting machine for the capitalist hierarchy. Elite private institutions train the bosses of the future to exploit the working class. Other students are groomed to oppress our class as executives, lawyers, and politicians. Meanwhile, public institutions train middle managers, bureaucrats, teachers, and social workers—if they get the support they need to graduate. College degrees are held up as a prerequisite for escaping low-wage, dead-end jobs. But capitalist education will always be a racist failure, a lottery where young workers must make enormous financial sacrifices for a shot at a decent life. And if they  default on their loans or fail to land a good job, the bosses tell them they have only themselves to blame.

At the same time, colleges have been an arena for generations of international, working-class fightbacks, putting young workers on the front lines of militant class struggle. From the 1968 student rebellions in Mexico and France to the ‘70s-era strikes against the Vietnam War to the 2020 fightbacks against racist murders by the kkkops, young people have repeatedly taken to the streets while turning their campuses into schools for antiracism and anti-imperialism. In many cases, young people across the U.S. and globally have taken leadership from Black and Latin workers.

Under communism, education will be accessible to all, based on the needs of the international working class. Learning will not be confined to classrooms, nor will it pit students against one another in competition. Collectively we will study dialectical materialism, science, and medicine. Together we’ll learn the manual skills we need to build the communist world we wish to live in.

Contrary to the miseducation at capitalist colleges, history shows us what workers achieved under communist leadership. Early on, the Soviet Union made education free and accessible to all. Its universities waged struggles against racism and sexism and accomplished remarkable technological and scientific feats. The Chinese Cultural Revolution opened opportunities for higher education to the poorest families, and sent young urban workers to the countryside to teach and to learn from rural workers.

Progressive Labor Party’s message to Arab, Asian, Black, Indigenous, Latin, and white students is to unite with fellow workers of all trades and generations. Together we can apply the valuable lessons we learn from each fightback to ultimately smash this racist capitalist system, and to build a communist world where education will be free and liberating for all.