LETTERS

Covid-19 exposes roots of exploitation
A PLP comrade in a transnational factory in Mexico reports that 10 percent of their workforce; healthy workers over 50 years old, or with a chronic disease such as diabetes and/or hypertension are being laid off and sent into quarantine. Even if the company guarantees the minimum wage during the quarantine, it means a reduction of wages. These workers, in order to make ends meet, have to work overtime, or double shifts, and now they can’t do that.
Taking into account that these workers’ wage is $6 a day, being laid off is going to be very difficult in a short period of time, and in the long run if they can’t do double shifts or work overtime and on Sundays, it will reflect next year in the annual profit-sharing distribution.
Most corporations are avoiding their future responsibilities with workers, and it is almost certain that once the pandemic is over, our co-workers will not be back at work. The bosses are recruiting new workers to fill 40 vacancies, and most of these workers are under 35 years old.
The bosses solve their problems with disregard for  workers’ lives, it is no coincidence that the two cities with the highest number of infections in the country are the ones with the highest concentration of maquiladoras. Workers die of covid-19, or hunger, because they have no money to pay for what they need.
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Tenants pour collective outrage on racist slumlord
The company that manages the apartment building that I live in posted an insulting and insensitive notice to all tenants. The notice stated, “Tenants have been expressing concerns about the present economic condition that the pandemic is creating that we just want to make clear that we expect you to act responsibly. This is business as usual and continue to pay your rent on time.”
We were all outraged and insulted! I began reaching out to my neighbors and suggested we all get together and meet at my place. I organized my house by social distancing chairs and we all had a candid discussion about our financial situation during coronavirus. Out of the discussion we found out that two neighbors’ household income was cut in half and our youngest neighbor’s job had shut down completely and she is in the U.S working on a Visa. We talked about how the notice offended us and how in the middle of a pandemic they could try to terrorize us about rent. We agreed to write a response and all sign it, and present it to the management company.
My neighbor and I drove separately to the management company and tried to present them with our statement. We discovered that they all were working remotely from home, so we set up the meeting with the building manager instead for the next day. We explained how offensive that notice was and presented him with ours. We demanded that the management company review each tenant on a case-by-case basis and discuss what we feel would be an acceptable payment on our part and this would be reviewed throughout the economic crisis. He said that the notice was not meant to be offensive or to terrorize us but one neighbor spoke up unequivocally and said, “It did.”
Although we got the building manager to agree to look at each neighbor on a case by case basis and forced him to back down from the property management’s order, we all knew this would  not be enough! The period of corona and its aftermath has and will sharpen the racist attacks on our class exponentially. I was honestly fearful in organizing my neighbors into my house and I would not have thought twice about this before the pandemic.
However, this action brought my neighbors and me together on a level of respect and care for one another that never presented itself before. It also gave me the opportunity to point out why the profit system of capitalism does not work for working class people and why I’m a communist. I gave them all a copy of CHALLENGE and will go back and have further discussions with them because we will have to escalate our fight. As horrific as this pandemic is it holds staunchly to what we know as the Party is true: the only solution is communist revolution.
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College discussion group responds to racist attack
Our community college club has, despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, been struggling to give mass antiracist leadership to workers and students, even internationally! Our multiracial discussion group includes students, faculty, former students now working, friends, and has expanded to Progressive Labor Party friends currently in Canada and Yemen. We recently heard a firsthand report on the situation in Yemen, amidst an ongoing crisis of imperialist-war-created mass starvation, cholera, and dengue fever. Despite the delivery of thousands of tons of aid from workers around the world, competition among the local capitalists means this aid rarely reaches the working class, or only does so through favoritism and/or extortion. This week we received an update from our friend since Covid-19 has been confirmed there, and we will struggle with our friend to write for CHALLENGE.
We also responded to a racist incident witnessed by a former student who now works in healthcare. The former student witnessed a racist coworker and a group of police beat a Muslim immigrant patient who was obviously emotionally disturbed. This despite protests from other healthcare workers and doctors at the hospital. During the beating the racists found a pocket-sized Quran, tore it in half, threw the torn pieces at the Muslim patient, and then stomped on the pieces on the ground.
Our former student contacted us. We supported this young worker and collectively discussed a plan of action to protest this racist incident. At the moment, the very real fears of reprisal and job consequences have won out, but we are still in touch with this young worker and will give whatever support we can.
As inter-imperialist rivalry sharpens and the U.S. bosses move ever closer to fascism and imperialist war, sharpening racism and sexism means we must be on higher alert. Our best and only defense against fascism is building a base for communist revolution in the working class. With increased dangers to the working class also come increased opportunities to expose this racist profit system, organize workers and students and fight back. Whether this antiracist struggle flares up or not, we gained valuable practice mobilizing our multiracial group ready to fight. Next time, we’ll be even more ready for these conversations, and ready to up our organizing efforts.
We will have struggles ahead in winning the confidence of the working class to fight back and to join the Party. But while the capitalist crimes against our class grow daily from Yemen to New York, the struggle continues. Self-critically, as a part of this process, our club must also improve writing more articles and letters to CHALLENGE.
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CHALLENGE is essential news!
When this crisis struck, the first thing that hit me is that we need to find a way to get our literature out there right away.
First, I wrote letters to each of my current CHALLENGE  readers about the need to read the paper right now and sent them each a copy in the (snail) mail. Then I looked up as many of my former CHALLENGE readers as I could think of, wrote them letters, and sent them a paper by mail. Then I asked a couple of newer friends if they’d like to get the paper and sent it to them as well. I am currently sending CHALLENGE to over 30 people that way (one essential worker is taking 3 to work), and I have more former readers I am reaching out to with each issue. I have been following up with those readers to make sure they have read the articles I pointed out and ask their reactions. It is a great opportunity to get back in touch with people and gauge their thinking.
But it didn’t feel like enough, so I started to get creative. Walking through my neighborhood, I saw several newspaper boxes that have been abandoned (papers not delivering during the crisis). I designed, printed, and pasted some homemade CHALLENGE signs on the front and put our papers inside, separating into English and Spanish so people can more easily see the headlines. I have been refilling them on an almost daily basis (and finding more), and people are taking them!
In the last 10 days I have distributed 121 papers this way. I am now stocking 7 boxes and plan to expand further. (Another comrade has made homemade news boxes and has been placing them in soup kitchens.)
People are full of questions. This crisis has once again exposed the sham that is “democracy,” revealing the chasms of racist inequality and the savage profit motive that guides all decisions in our society. But we shouldn’t let down our guard for a minute; the bosses too are working overtime to push their twisted ideas. For example, liberals are pushing the idea that people like Cuomo can be stable, even heroic leaders (see article on Cuomo in CHALLENGE, 4/29/20) and that Biden can “unite the country.” These ideas are poison for the working class.
That’s why getting people CHALLENGE during this time is essential. As I have told my friends in my letters and phone calls, it is the only paper that is absolutely committed to the international working class and the only paper that will tell the whole truth about capitalism.
During the period leading up to the Bolshevik revolution, when the Bolshevik Party was illegal, workers smuggled newspapers into the Russian territories. Some women famously sewed stacks of them into their skirts.
Now during quarantine, we must find other creative ways to make sure the working class learns and spreads the news of communism and revolution. The struggle continues
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