Evict the bosses, power to the tenants

IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, April 4—Once again, this capitalist system has left workers without basic necessities. In response to yet another eviction, a local tenants’ union and non-profit community organization took action today to support a  working-class family. The family is struggling to regain control of their home of 14 years from the clutches of a racist investment company which has bought up “distressed” properties in gentrifying Inglewood. As Progressive Labor Party (PLP) joins the fight for this one family we also fight for all workers to build for communism, a society in which housing would be available to all without the plague of profit.
This nearly five month battle, taking place in the midst of perhaps the largest homeless crisis in the history of California, has been inspiring. We plan to win this battle, but the massive amount of homeless workers rages on, and it’s worldwide. It’s part of this racist, exploitative capitalist system. For homelessness to end, this whole damn system has to go.
We fight alongside our fellow workers and communists have a solemn responsibility to point out the pitfalls of fights to win reforms under capitalism. Capitalism requires that our basic needs be bought and sold for a profit, making housing a commodity.
When a worker can’t make regular payments, the landlords or the banks who hold the mortgage use the capitalist legal system to throw that worker and her family out. This guarantees continued profits for the landlords and bankers. Only a communist revolution will ensure distribution of housing to all based on need and the elimination of homelessness.
Workers call out capitalist lackies
On the morning of our rally, 18 campaigners drove about an hour from Inglewood to Irvine, CA to investor Don Madden’s church. A  non-profit called this action to convince the clergy of the church that they should exercise their moral authority and persuade the investor that buying out Inglewood homes and evicting workers was “wrong” and that he should instead do the “right” thing for this family.
We carried signs and “Wanted” flyers with Madden’s picture on them, and called on church members to help the family by signing a petition and calling Madden’s office.
We rallied in the church parking lot, putting flyers under car windshields and talking to parishioners as they came in and out. Apparently, this was more than what the church leadership could stand. They called the local cops and had their “security” run around taking flyers off cars and even snatch some from the hands of churchgoers who were speaking with us.
Security told us we were trespassing on “private property.”We were escorted to the church’s “free speech” area, on the sidewalk next to the entrance to the parking lot. There, security stood in front of us, motioning cars to drive past us without taking a flyer. Irvine cops also threatened to arrest us if we went into the street to hand a flyer to a driver. This was our “free speech.”
Capitalist segregation divides workers
It was striking to see that, although the church was only an hour’s drive away from the evicted family’s working-class neighborhood, it was an entire world away in other respects. The family lives in a predominantly Black and Latin neighborhood; the church members were almost exclusively white, many driving Mercedes and BMWs.  This non-denominational, Christian church boasts on its website of its “food distribution center,” its diverse clergy, and its goal to “inspire people to follow Jesus and fearlessly change the world.” But, the church’s main building is the second largest church building in the state.
In 1998, the church purchased an 18-acre piece of adjacent property for $18 million; in 2005, it spent $35 million on a new worship center, bookstore and café; in 2008, it spent $33 million on its student ministries facility, a chapel and a parking garage. Imagine how many homes the church could have bought  struggling working-class families battling homelessness. So much for “fearlessly” changing the world.  
Prior to this action, the campaign had reached out in several ways to the church clergy, with no response. But our mere presence in the parking lot with some flyers and signs brought an immediate reaction. Now the head pastor wanted to talk with us. And what did he have to say in a phone call with the evicted family’s eldest daughter? That he was “shocked” and “offended” by what we did. That he would not do anything to help the family or to reach out to the investor on their  behalf, as this was a “personal matter.”
The moral: apologists for the oppressor class of capitalists and landlords like the head pastor have no shame. Their sense of “right” and “personal morality” does not include calling to account or criticizing racist profiteers who evict workers in the midst of a pandemic.
Capitalism is the true virus
Capitalism breeds bloodsuckers like Madden who make a living off of the misery of working-class families. But Madden is small fry compared to the biggest banks that run the U.S. housing market through their enormous wealth and ability to lend and invest. These banks use their billions to control the politicians who make the laws. These laws protect the profits of the bankers at the expense of the working class.   
Even if this campaign is successful in regaining this one house, it will only allow this one family the “privilege” of continuing to pay and pay a bank or mortgage company for decades. Reforming capitalism’s property laws will also not change their basic dynamic: private property interests always take precedence over the needs of the working class.
A revolutionary communist government would seize control of all available housing and build whatever else is necessary, creating decent housing for all. The plague of homelessness would become a dim memory of capitalism’s savage past.
Fight for communism. Power to the workers!