East Orange, NJ, July 12 — “Can’t you see what they are doing to us? Listen to these people we need to start fighting back,” yelled an angry black worker standing in line to collect his monthly welfare check. He was one of hundreds exposed to PLP’s ideas as we organized over 30 students and workers to rally in front of the Essex County Development Center.
Racist Cutbacks and Unemployment
As the ruling class continues to spend more money on imperialist wars across the globe, the working class is facing more and more cuts. A recent study by Brown University put the cost of “post 9/11” wars at around $4 trillion.[1] Meanwhile 300 General Assistance (GA) clients lost their Emergency Assistance benefits. Thousands had their “benefits” suspended without notice (while still eligible) pending state review. Even those that do get GA get only $140 a month!
While the bosses talk about unemployment being at 9.5% in NJ, that number is at least doubled for the mostly black and Latino workers of Essex County. In Newark it is over 20%. This is why PLP calls it racist unemployment. While it hurts all workers, it is always worse for black, latin and immigrant workers.
Meanwhile, the Democrat controlled State Legislature voted to force thousands of public employees to pay huge increases in their pension and health care coverage contributions.
While the workers and their clients real interests are to unite against the bosses’ tremendous attacks, many are motivated by a lack of class-consciousness and see the person on the other side of the glass as the enemy rather than the bosses who profit. This is not a coincidence. The capitalists spend billions promoting racist, anti-working class ideology so that workers don’t see who their real allies are.
Workers welcome CHALLENGE and PLP
As we sold CHALLENGE to the workers waiting to get into the building, it was clear from their comments that they saw the Republicans and Democrats as no more than attack dogs for the bankers, bondholders, and billionaires who are profiting from this. Last year alone, the banks received almost $3 billion.
PLP showed that, besides just attacking the Republicans and Democrats, we must smash capitalism, the main cause for these attacks. We exposed the racist cutbacks and called for clients and workers to unite as the first step towards building a communist revolution. Many of the workers eagerly took CHALLENGE. As the crowd got more and more energized, the cops tried to stop our rally but with no success. One woman came running out saying, “[The cops] wouldn’t let a guy in because he had one of your newspapers. They made him throw it out. But they didn’t see mine cause I put it in the pile of other papers.” After she said that the workers on the line folded up their papers and put it in their pockets so they wouldn’t get taken away.
Many workers also left their contact information and urged us to keep in touch. This has given us a chance to build a base amongst the many unemployed workers here in NJ. Through base building and class struggle our aim is to win many of these workers to be leaders in our party.
[1] http://news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2011/06/warcosts