Letters

 Bronx: ‘Share the fire for justice’
The following are reflections from the City University of New York (CUNY) students in the Bronx about celebrating May Day 2020 with each other about how to fight the disease of capitalism.

It’s often easy to forget our innate right to resist, in a world meticulously designed to imprison the masses. Free will can seem like a distant myth. May Day is a beautiful reminder that resistance is our birthright. The survival of our families depends on our courage to resist. I am grateful to have been a part of the gathering and look ahead to a future that cares for all.
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My first Labor Day with the communist movement was very different from any other May Day. Despite the new faces that were also part of this virtual conference, the joy and connection of the truth was evident. The truth was the one that through songs, dances and poems, we were able to share with each other the fight against the disease of capitalism. A disease that can only be cured with an injection of communism. On May 1st we celebrate not only the fight for workers’ rights but also to be part of the cure for a system of oppression that continues to keep the 99 percent down. We will rise up and proclaim freedom from unnecessary wars, social classes, racism, poverty and  oppression. This past May Day the communist movement celebrated the cause of this struggle, we the workers.
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May Day was an amazing experience. I got to meet people who shared the same fire and desire for justice. I was able to see the different and unique ways they share their message through their art. I’m also able to learn new terms such as “racial politics”. I also think that even though it was my first time I was able to participate. Even though this May Day was virtual, I hope the next May Day will be in person. This in person May Day might even top off the virtual May Day experience!
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Red Greetings!
I participated in my first May Day 73 years ago. Our Party, having overcome any and all conditions in organizing for our international working-class holiday, I find that today’s march contains probably the biggest hurdle we’ve yet encountered in battling the virus of capitalism.
It’s great to realize that our Progressive Labor Party has won so many young people to fight for communism. Truly, you are the future.
On May Day, I celebrated my 90th birthday yesterday and our celebration is the happiest present I could receive!
HAPPY MAY DAY, comrades, and continue building our multiracial revolutionary communist Party!
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We organized in the interest of students
Capitalist education has always failed working-class students, and right now the disaster of online learning shows that very clearly. In New York City, online classes began on March 23 and today there are still large numbers of students without devices that allow them to connect to their online classes, families with no wifi, families whose parents are essential workers so older children become the caretakers to younger children, teenagers working full time to support their families after layoffs, and children dealing with the illness and death of family members. But the Department of Education just keeps moving along, insisting on business-as-usual, just remotely. Disgustingly, some families have even had Children’s Services called on them because their children have been “absent” too many times!
Some teachers in my school have committed to NOT going with business-as-usual, and have moved away from our typical curriculum—to bring political discussion to our classes, exposing the racist, anti-working class nature of the ruling class’ response to Covid-19, to do our best to provide emotional support to our kids, and to help them find ways to fight back and fight for the schools they deserve.
One student decided to survey students about whether remote learning was working or not working and shared with teachers a document with criticism and suggestions for improving the situation. She was later attacked by several other teachers for doing so, and some of us jumped to support her, and fought  to keep the student’s voices in the picture. They had gotten to her and she wanted to quit, but with some struggle, she decided it was more important to make sure that student’s voices are heard.
We now have a small team of students and a few teachers producing a weekly newsletter being sent out to the whole school. It is a weekly update from student surveys about what’s working for them and what they need, links to news articles, as well as some fun things. Everything is determined by students, as they fight to shape what their learning environment is during this time. Moving forward, it will expand, keeping as its focus that students will fight to shape their school and that teachers & administrators should be listening, and that students can fight back against this racist, capitalist system.
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Mexico: workers amidst a pandemic
Just like the rest of the working class, healthcare workers are insecure and have no rights,and  they are the first to catch the virus due to the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE).
Here is the real “Achilles Heel” that can send us to the abyss and deepen the negative effects of the pandemic in Mexico.
The government talks about “leveling the curve” and “staying home” in order to contain the virus and prevent the collapse of the health system.  When in reality there are other factors that can cause the collapse prematurely, but are not taken into account:
1)    The lack of PPE for healthcare workers has seen an increase of cases in different hospitals in the country.
2)    Several doctors’ and nurses’ protests and rallies denouncing the lack of safety and supplies, that could eventually lead to a series of “massive strikes” in hospitals.
In reality our health system collapsed long before Covid-19 appeared in our lives.  Years and years of neglect, instability and privatization have translated into a lack of personnel and shortages in protection, medical equipment, and the lack of general supplies.  That is what we had before the current medical emergency which has in turn made them one of the highest risk groups for infection.
The institutional rhetoric, mounted on this base, has transformed them into “heroes” and “heroines”, in other words, “the front-line soldiers” that must sacrifice for their “sisters, brothers and country”.  Over the weeks the media, of course, and all social networks reproduce this discourse without analysis or criticism.
The government is happy with the rhetoric, as it scatters and distracts from the real issues.  We suffer from the cuts in public health budgets, the deterioration of the infrastructure, and the lack of access to health services for most of the population.  We need to stop “romanticizing” the precarious and risky conditions healthcare workers are forced to work under for the moment.  Doctors, nurses and public health workers in our country are not heroes or heroines; they are workers that are being exposed, for decades to a series of political injustices, from low salaries to the lack of the most basic labor rights.
We must not forget that when these workers have fought for their rights they  have been strongly repressed.  So, instead of reproducing the discourse, we need to demand that the  government immediately provide the supplies and infrastructure these workers need.  It is the only way to save lives.  And it is the best way to prevent the system from collapsing.  The government could redistribute the funds for the mega projects like the Tren Maya or the Santa Lucia Airport, that, needless to say, should  take a back seat  to healthcare.   
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Virtual May Day in the midwest
I attended another Progressive Labor Party (PLP)  May Day. This year it was virtual due to the coronavirus  pandemic. We talked about how we all are fairing during this crisis. Later, we shared stories from  our 1st May Day gatherings from years ago. There was also a presentation on the class struggle as it emerged out of primitive  communism to our 21st Century  capitalist world. Also, we discussed how the global  Covid pandemic will affect revolutionary work, and how it’s fascist to force meatpacking  workers back to work to die by the bosses and president Trump in the name of profits. We discussed the need to be involved where there are workers and win them to join PLP.
It was also not lost on anyone how global capitalism is an artificial system of inequalities that took a virus to open the eyes of millions of workers globally that capitalism  does not work for our class. We need to get out this message of communist revolution as the way out of this capitalist  hell. We ended our Zoom gathering by singing the Internationale.
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