OAKLAND, CA, May 22—The 73-car caravan to cancel rent and mortgages was loud and militant involving hundreds of members of the National Day of Action, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment and the Progressive Labor Party (PLP). The workers arrived with signs on their cars and flags flying with messages, “Rent Strike Today, Cancel Rent Tomorrow!”  The PLP contingent exposed capitalism. “Workers Build Houses, Capitalism Creates Homelessness” – “Capitalism is Killing Us” -“Communist Equality, Not Capitalist Inequality.”
Most cars had two protesters. From the sidewalks and balconies, workers cheered and raised their fists in solidarity. Many were tenants of real estate racist capitalist Neveo Mosser. The worker’s response inspired us. We drove to San Francisco and protested at the home of rent profiteer Mosser, who owns 600 apartment units in Oakland and is steadily raising rents forcing tenants into homelessness. We placed a notice on his door to quit or be evicted, made speeches, and passed out leaflets. PL’ers sold CHALLENGE, promoting communism, a system  where workers would distribute housing based on need.
 Community groups around the U.S. have been organizing rent strikes, as the Communist Party did during the Great Depression. “The rent strike is a cry for dignity: We are all deserving of a home, no matter the color of our skin, financial status, or culture,” said Donnette Letford, an undocumented immigrant from Jamaica and a member of the group New York Communities for Change (The Intercept, 4/25). Capitalism can never provide what Donnette wants. Communism will eliminate both profits and homelessness.
Homelessness in Oakland, California
To pay the high rents in Oakland requires a full-time job at $45/hour. That means with 4,000 homeless in Oakland before the pandemic, 70 percent Black workers, there are four empty units for every homeless person. Land speculators like Mosser hold the empty units, waiting for the higher rents coming with gentrification. In November 2019 four Black mothers occupied an empty home, saying “it is a crime to keep homes vacant while people suffer on the street from the California housing crisis”. They won a concession from the landlord but homelessness continues (see CHALLENGE, 2/5). Also, demonstrators took over  Mosser’s restaurant in San Francisco in February (see CHALLENGE, 3/18). But until workers take political power and run all of society the struggle continues.
Covid-19 exacerbates exploitation and inequality
Increased homelessness and starvation during the pandemic is inevitable. First, every Federal government since the Clinton administration has closed down public health agencies and barely prepared for the predicted pandemic. Medical personnel and equipment were disorganized as the government and corporations competed instead of cooperating. For-profit privatization had led to multiple hospital closures. During the chaotic state government lockdowns tens of thousands big and small businesses have closed or gone bankrupt. So that 40 million workers have had to apply for unemployment (democdracynow.org, 5/21), not counting millions of undocumented workers who don’t qualify. Over two-thirds of workers live pay-check to pay-check (Forbes, 1/14/19) and can’t pay an unexpected expense. Once laid off, many could not and did not pay rent. As the rent strike says, “Can’t Pay?  Won’t Pay”. That’s capitalism: 1) inadequate racist health care, 2) a racist housing crisis, and 3) racist layoffs. The Progressive Labor Party says join the fight. For housing. For jobs. For healthcare. And for a communist revolution.
Governors Gavin Newsom of California and Andrew Cuomo of New York have declared temporary moratoriums on evictions. San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose temporarily cancelled evictions and rent increases, but refused to cancel rent or utility bills. San Jose said it would be unconstitutional to cancel rents, which are private property. Right! The constitution protects property and not workers!!!
Capitalism is the disease; communism is the cure
The capitalist system caused this pandemic.Communist society would put workers’ health and well-being as the first priority through disease prevention and creating a healthy environment. Experiences in post-revolution Soviet Union and China show that when workers control society, disease is prevented. China is now a capitalist country, and initially tried to cover up the outbreak to protect their stock market. But after the revolution in 1949, workers ran China and placed workers’ needs as the top priority. All workers were housed, and they eliminated several devastating diseases like syphilis and schistosomiasis using public health education and working class ingenuity.
But capitalists put profits first, endangering workers’ lives on the job and in their imperialist wars. This is especially true for health care and front-line workers during the pandemic. Internationally they are leaving refugees to die in camps (rescue.org) and in ICE detention and jails, and on indigenous reservations where the Navajo have the highest rate in the U.S. (Wired, 5/23). Capitalists can’t change because the laws of capitalism (profits first, exploit to the max) make them the murderers they are.
The blatant racism and inequality of capitalism make building the communist movement more important than ever. At the caravan, one new recruit saw all the people out demanding rent cessation and commented that revolutionary thinking may be awakening. Break the chains of capitalism! We have a world to win!