Letters of July 22

Tanzania: capitalism’s brutal disregard for workers lives
On June 1 schools in Tanzania reopened after a coronavirus shutdown for almost three months. From all over the country, students were returning to their boarding schools, where they live and study in very close quarters.  With no testing, masks, or plan for social distancing, teachers were very concerned for their own and their students’ safety and they took action to protect themselves from the pandemic.
The Tanzanian government’s failure to offer safety precautions is consistent with their whole approach to the pandemic.  Unlike many African countries, (Rwanda, Senegal, Ethiopia, and Uganda) that have controlled the spread with extensive testing and contact tracing, Tanzania’s President has ordered victims of the virus to be buried in the dark of night, underreported the number of cases and deaths, and “led a crackdown on anyone who dares raise concerns about the virus’s spread”(Washington Post, 5/22). In spite of the fact that some hospitals here are reportedly overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients, and 50 Tanzanian truck drivers tested positive on the Kenyan border, President Magafuli claims that prayer has defeated the virus and that the economy is the main priority. Along with U.S. President Trump and Brazil’s President Bolsonaro (who this week tested positive for Covid-19), President Magafuli’s open defiance of public health guidelines is leading to untold unnecessary deaths.
The pandemic is exposing President Magafuli’s anti-scientific incompetence and it has strengthened China’s hand throughout Africa. The Chinese National Health Commission has been sending medical teams and supplies to help African countries fight the pandemic. At the same time, the U.S. did utterly nothing to help other countries fight the pandemic, but they backed a coup-d'etat in Venezuela and ramped up their air war in Somalia.
As the fascist Tanzanian government fires health ministers and jails or disappears reporters who are critical of the government’s handling of the pandemic, the working class needs to organize in the schools, churches, unions, and communities to take care of each other through the pandemic and beyond. We need to stop waiting for the opposition party or unions in bed with the government to challenge government repression and anti-working class policies. Fellow workers and students need to take actions that will embolden the working class and point the way to a communist world run by and for the working class.
*****
Nooses in the hood: kkkops complacent, workers speak up
Our North Bronx Racial Justice group has just led two sharp actions against racist police terror:  one against police complicity with fascist noose-hangers in VanCortlandt Park and one against a City Council member who failed to challenge a brutally racist precinct captain as promised.
On the eve of Juneteenth two neighborhood residents discovered, to their horror, three nooses hung on the west side of the park near 242nd St. When reported to the NYPD they refused to categorize this as a hate crime and dismissed the action as leftovers from piñatas suspended for celebrations the previous weekend.
The rope loops, however, in no way resembled knots tied for such a purpose and the location was not that of an earlier party. Moreover, the deed reflected months-long activity by "Identity Europa" fascists in the park, and occurred in the wake of the discovery of an assault rifle found left in the park by a Yonkers racist to "kill enemies.”
All this was committed in the national context of a number of other nooses suspended and six other questionable hangings of Black and Latin men in response to the massive, ongoing revolt worldwide against racist police terror. The most recent of these occurred in nearby Morristown, New Jersey. Our coalition mobilized an action at the sight of the rope loop outrage with the slogan "A Noose is a DEATH Threat, Police Indifference is Complicity!" A number of speakers demanded a full investigation, with arrests and prosecutions -a demand we will continue  to fight  for, in the process exposing Mayor de Blasio and Commissioner Shea as the city's main fascists.
Two days later we joined a demonstration at Council member Andrew Cohen's office to press for diverting funds from the NYPD's bloated $6 billion budget. In particular we demanded billions to fund teams of mental health workers to be dispatched to calls for people in mental crisis as well as massive expansion of mental health counseling and treatment facilities citywide. The mayor's subsequent, cosmetic, mini reduction provided for none of these vital concerns, proving that  the "Defund" movement will always fail under a capitalist dictatorship. The capitalists need brutal state power to enforce their rule.
We also took Cohen to task for failure to follow through on his promise to probe an avenged atrocity in our neighborhood's 50th precinct. NYPD were called to arrest teen-ager Alfred Burns who was alleged to be stealing a bicycle. The arresting officer, after subduing the young man on the ground, proceeded to pummel his head 13  times until pulled away by a fellow officer. When confronted with our coalition members' outrage at this racist assault, Precinct captain O'Toole baldly threatened: "He (Burns) will continue to resist arrest in the future so we probably will have to shoot him!" In a subsequent meeting Cohen promised to "speak" to “Toule." There is no evidence that he ever did as he claimed when confronted.
We are raising aspects of the Progressive Labor Party's line continually with our friends who share these actions with us, but our main weakness is that we are not significantly expanding the circulation of CHALLENGE newspaper. This must be corrected. The mass antiracist movement that has developed worldwide makes many more people open to our line. We must seize this opportunity to grow!
*****
Capitalism is a Cannibalistic system
Is it any wonder that the words Cannibalism and Capitalism both look and sound alike? Moreover, in comparing how capitalism actually works, these words have very similar meanings as well.
I am watching a documentary called “Blood Business.” It’s about “blood donation” and its comparison to cannibalism. It’s sad how such a noble deed as donating blood is dominated by giant corporations that monopolize that market. Through a process called “fractionation”, blood plasma is collected, frozen, and shipped to hospitals all over the world. The multi-billion dollar industry is ever growing.
These companies exploit working-class people in meager economic conditions to profit from life-saving drugs made from their “donations.” There's a connection to Covid-19's prevalence when you look at this cannibalistic industry. Donating blood and blood products multiple times per week for months and years leaves the donor's overall health vulnerable to infection. Consequently, it shortens their lifespan and creates poor living conditions. People become extremely lethargic because they are donating proteins necessary for proper life function. These are some of the problems ignored in literature these companies give to potential donors. Why must workers do this?
America's economy is in such disarray that people are forced to give their life away in order to maintain it.And if exploitation from these behemoths wasn’t bad enough, there are drug dealers who exploit some donors. After a donor donates his plasma, his/her fee is paid on a debit card. Donors who are addicts can go literally across the street from the donation center and give over their debit card to the drug dealer. Drugs are exchanged for the credit on the card.
Regularly contributing people feel like “cows giving milk.” A quote from the documentary is, “Isn’t it ironic that masses of poor people are willing to donate their life’s blood for the rich?” In the inner city, there are lines around the corner where people wait hours in line to give their blood/plasma so that the rich can live and continuously exploit them.
There are four major blood banking firms talked about in the documentary. One of them, named Octapharma, has a CEO worth $6 billion dollars. Because the donors are paid a small fee or compensation for their donation, the parasitic companies do not like to use the term “payment” for blood donation, so they superimpose the term “compensation” so that the connotation is not that drug users are being paid for donating blood for money.
Capitalism is a cannibalistic “dog eat dog” system. This film exemplifies that. We must abolish this system that screws us all!
*****
What the ruling class won’t tell you!
As an original member of the PLP, I am inspired by these young workers who are learning and getting more sophisticated and more demanding in their issues as the mass movement continues. I am inspired by their thirst to understand their society and to question what kind of society they are living in.
Protestors are justifiably angry that they must pay taxes to police who kill them, but the majority of taxes we all pay goes to the military whose mission is to kill people in over 100 countries from over 800 U.S. military bases. Protestors need to understand that the racism and inequality they are protesting provides trillions in profits for this corporate capitalist system which continues to loot our communities and the world through unaccountable police and military forces who serve and protect the property and profit interests of their capitalist employers.
The capitalist media and their corporate backers want us to debate white supremacy and get rid of some bad cops instead of the real issue of unending class war between workers and capitalist blood suckers who use racism to divide workers in the U.S. and worldwide for their profits and power. These protests provide us with a tremendous opportunity to get CHALLENGE into the hands of these protestors who need to understand that capitalism is the main disease and killer and that only communism can provide for workers’ needs and justice.
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