LETTERS: ORGANIZE AGAINST RACIST RESPONSE TO COVID-19

Students confront sickly inequality
The Coronovirus has swept the world and left no one unchanged in its path.We know that those most attacked by capitalism (Black, Latin, undocumented, low wage workers), will also be hit hardest in times of crisis. My friends, coworkers, and I knew that we would need to be ready to fight for our class, the working class.
It was announced Thursday afternoon that schools would remain open but would be getting a deep cleaning every day by custodial staff. According to the principal of the school where I work, the four Latin women who clean our building every day were being required to do at least twice the work with no extra help and no extra pay. Well the Social Justice Club (SJC) would not stand for this.
A group of 10 students confronted the principal and demanded that either more workers be hired to cover the extra hours, or the women be paid overtime. The principal of course said she wanted this too but it was out of her hands. The students did not let this slide. They met and came up with two possible solutions. First, they wanted to start a petition to circulate around our school and the whole charter network with the demands given to the principal. Second, they wanted to organize teams of students and staff to keep schools clean.
The work we have been doing in the SJC all year has led to this. We have discussed exploitation and super-exploitation and how to struggle around these issues. Students have confronted the principal on other issues, so the fear of fighting back has subsided. The members of the club are well respected on campus for speaking up and fighting for everyone.
The students were quick to respond to this attack, but the upcoming period will be challenging. The next day, it was announced that schools would be closing for at least four weeks. The hourly wageworkers on our campus of course will take the biggest hit. While I am in communication with members of the SJC about this issue and others plaguing our community with this new reality, parents are understandably scared and are putting a lot of restrictions on their children’s movements and activities. Although we likely won’t be able to meet in person, I will continue to communicate with members to keep the idea of fighting for our class in the forefront of their minds.
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A ride against racism
I’m a high schooler in New York City, and commuting by train is a part of my everyday life as it is for many New Yorkers. One morning not long ago, I was rushing to get to school and the trains were running pretty slow, so platforms were jam packed with riders waiting for the train. As the train pulled into the station, I started pacing really fast up and down the platform, to try to land a car with empty seats. Luckily I saw one and I hopped on.       
Upon sitting down, I realized that the left and right rows of the train car were piled up with passengers. All the rows in the center aisles were empty except where I and another woman were sitting. People were voluntarily standing up even though there was a whole row of empty seats across from me, and more empty seats next to us. I looked around and realized that people were crowding on the other ends of the cart, with only and an elderly Asian woman and myself sitting. Suddenly this hit me like a wave, I realized people were scared to ride the train next to an Asian woman wearing a surgical mask.
Reality kicked in. I saw this as a clear example of how the media and news outlets build racism by continuing to associate Asians with the Coronavirus. This media is fueling racist lies that feed into our daily interactions with other people, and work to divide us from each other. I believe racism is something that we need to work on dismantling instead of feeding into it. We can start by taking small steps to reject racist ideas that we see in the media. Whether it’s sitting next to an Asian person on the train to challenge racist Covid-19 myths, or calling people out on a racist joke, even if they claim they weren’t serious, these small acts can help contribute to the active fight against racism in our world.
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Fascist liberals turn their backs on the working class
Over the last week the response to COVID-19 has grown from warnings to full blown shutdowns. With work from home mandates, the closure of the hospitality industry and public schools, and a near total shut down of New York and other cities across the country, workers have been left to fend for themselves and each other.
As the ruling class continues to fight with one another and display a total lack of regard for worker’s lives, millions of our brothers and sisters are sitting at home isolated and afraid.
It is our responsibility as a party and as fellow workers to support one another now. Politicians and city officials will not step up for us. Not even fake socialist Bernie Sanders.
In an effort to help with crisis relief I wrote to the NYC leadership of the Bernie Sanders campaign and people I had met who are close to the campaign to try and organize a food drive for workers who are in total isolation, cannot afford to stockpile groceries, or who have lost their source of income due to closures.
And what did I receive? Not a single response.
This is a campaign that has touted its support for the working class and makes calls for healthcare for all. But faced with a true crisis, in the eye of an emergency, they’ve turned their backs on the working class.
Today I received an email calling for workers to sign a petition to “…make sure that Bernie wins the Empire State…” The working class needs food, shelter, and support right now but all the campaign is focused on is continuing election efforts.
The NYC Food Bank is still accepting donations and will arrange for pick-ups of donations over 100lbs. Workers need to support each other right now. Organize with fellow residents in your buildings, call neighborhood friends, and ensure that we keep each other healthy, safe, and connected during these unprecedented times.    

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CUNY workers prescribe fightback

The Covid-19 pandemic has shown in stark terms that capitalism cannot provide the health and safety of workers—and it has also shown that the administration of the largest city university system in the country, the City University of New York (CUNY), cannot keep the campus workers and students safe either. There is little to no plan to deal with the pandemic. There have been vague and misleading communications, contradictory statements from various levels of administration, and a complete and racist disregard for some of the most exploited workers in the system.
As usual, it is some of the lowest paid, disproportionately Black and Latin faculty, who are under the greatest threat. The part-time faculty has been asked to “make the sacrifice” and become skilled at online learning in a few days. On some campuses, part timers are being asked to “create a log” of all the work they do while on other campus. For these part-timers, who only get paid for their time in the classroom and office hours, this amounts to mountains of additional unpaid work.
On many campuses, our union chapter and rank-and-file teachers and staff stepped forward with solutions—how to keep the food pantry open, secure laptops, reach out to student organizations, and publicize services in the community. But, just like after 2017 Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, this leadership is given by the working class, not any administrators or coordinators. Administrators are scrambling to “retrain faculty” at the 11th hour, with no regard to what the impact will be on our students.
Members of Progressive Labor Party have discussed this capitalist-bred pandemic with students. Our students—experts in capitalist exploitation and oppression—exposed the inequality between the closing of private universities and the open CUNY schools. This sends the message that our lives really don’t matter under this capitalism system. We also read and discussed the previous CHALLENGE editorial (2/19) on the coronavirus.
Those of us in the universities and colleges must make every effort to stay in touch with our students, unite with them as they deal with everything from unemployment, substandard housing, racist medical care, the kind of twilight zone they are entering into in terms of their education. PLP is not needed to expose the horrors of capitalist health care and education—but workers and students do need a communist party to plant the seeds of a new world, where workers can run society and be healthy.
Join PLP and help lead the fight!