Budget deal on border wall: more fascist terror for workers

Although a federal budget deal was reached between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress, workers should have no illusions that either party has our class interests at heart. President Donald Trump’s open, vicious, anti-immigrant racism and his fascist “state of emergency” is a big attack on our class. But both competing wings of the U.S. ruling class—the  main-wing finance capitalists represented by the Democrats, and the Fortress America nationalists fronted by Trump and his Republican base—serve the needs of U.S. capitalism. Both sides back the maximum exploitation of the working class, using whatever terror is necessary. Immigrant workers and children languish in torturous detention camps on the border with Mexico, and throughout the U.S. interior, with at least 22 deaths in the last two years (nbcnews.com, 1/6). Meanwhile Democrats and Republicans are quibbling over how many tens of thousands of bunks and cots the camps should contain!

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On Strike! Fight segregated learning conditions

CHICAGO, February 18—Working-class educators, students, and parents were able to secure a hard-fought reform victory from the racist bosses today. After nine days on the picket lines, teachers from Chicago International Charter Schools (CICS) and their employer have agreed on a tentative contract for the network that limits class sizes, provides protections to counselors and social workers, and guarantees teacher raises.
The CICS struggle was the second charter school strike in the city within three months, and is part of a growing anti-racist education movement taking place across the U.S. Comrades from Progressive Labor Party (PLP) were honored to be a part of this struggle, offering daily support and communist politics on the front lines. In the classrooms and in the streets, our Party remains eager to keep fanning the flames of working-class fightback and international revolution.

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NY Dream Act: Working-class youth deserve the whole world

NEW YORK CITY, February 20—Eighteen years after the bill was first dreamt up in 2001, New York State just approved its own version of the Dream Act, giving a select few undocumented college students access to financial aid. The Dream Act is a win for the liberal bosses, represented mainly by the Democratic Party, who aim to exploit undocumented youth as a chess piece in their games of war and fascism.

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Police & ICE terrorize immigrant workers

Maryland, February 12–A cohort of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members in Prince George’s County in Maryland have been working in a new coalition sponsored by an immigrants’ rights organization to address police misconduct. A town hall meeting was held that included Latin and Black victims of police brutality in collaboration with ICE (U.S immigrations and Customs Enforcement).

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Venezuela: inter-imperialist struggle causes crisis

There have been intense daily protests in Venezeula since 2017. The opposition in a threatening move declared Juan Guaidó as president in the National Assembly, and foremost as “President in Charge” of the country. This shows us as we’ve said in many articles that socialism of the 21st century offers almost the same as capitalism. We have to move the masses towards Communism.
The Venezuelan conflict has reaffirmed the chess pieces in inter-imperialist rivalries. This country has the biggest oil reserves in the world. Mike Pence, the vice-president of the United States, was the first to recognize Juan Guaidó as “president in charge” of Venezuela, after Canada, Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica and other countries lined up with the U.S. interests did the same.

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White Fragility attempts to stifle natural multiracial unity

LOS ANGELES, February 20—The church in which members of Progressive Labor Party (PLP)work organized a discussion on White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo, a book written purposefully for white people, by a white person, about the defensiveness of white people in regards to racism. This text successfully erases any class analysis of racism and builds on the cynical ruling class idea that white and Black workers cannot unite against racism:

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LA Strike: union sells out, workers exercise power

On day one of the teachers’ strike in Los Angeles, California almost 50,000 parents, teachers, and students converged in front of LA City Hall to march to the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) headquarters. As the days went by, community support grew despite a major teacher-bashing media campaign. Day five of the strike was a turning point, with more than 60,000 people rallying, and surveys showing almost 80 percent of LA County supporting the striking teachers.
LAUSD has historically been a school district with rampant racism and segregation. The rise of charter schools intensified this, taking away students with more academic skills and leaving the public schools in poor Black and Latin communities with higher percentages of students who need intensive support with less funding.

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Aurora shooting: capitalist alienation kills

AURORA, IL, February 15—Today, a 45 year-old Black worker Gary Martin, after learning he was fired, opened fire on supervisors and co-workers at Henry Pratt Co Warehouse in Aurora, a western suburb of Chicago. Martin killed five people before the cops gunned him down.
Martin’s fatal and inexcusable rampage is an extreme manifestation of the widespread alienation corroding the thoughts and actions of millions of workers worldwide who suffer under capitalism. As mass shootings become a more frequent occurrence, it becomes all the more essential to question and challenge the dehumanizing and unforgiving essence of the global profit system itself. The need for a revolutionary mass movement to crush capitalism and replace it with an egalitarian communist society is needed more than ever. Rather than relentless competition and the promotion of self-interest, workers uniting as a mass international Progressive Labor Party can build an egalitarian society where cooperation is the norm and where all workers’ social, physical, and emotional needs are met.

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Venezuela caught between rival imperialists

The economic and political crisis is rapidly intensifying in the resource-rich nation of Venezuela. As workers starve or die for lack of basic medical care, battle lines have been drawn between blocs of rival imperialists. The possibilities range from a CIA-inspired coup, to an all-out proxy war to a U.S. military intervention.  
On January 23, Juan Guaidó, the opposition leader and head of Venezuela’s National Assembly, declared himself interim president in open defiance of last spring’s contested national elections. His move was supported by the U.S. bosses and their allies in Latin America and Europe. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro shot back with a demand that all U.S. diplomats leave the country within 72 hours. Maduro has the backing of U.S. rivals Russia, China, and Iran.

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Workers vie for power, battle racist housing

NEW YORK CITY, January 21—“Whose streets? Our streets! Whose city? Our city!” On Martin Luther King Day, these fierce chants set the icy streets ablaze as a multiracial and multi-generational battalion of nearly three hundred workers marching against working-class displacement. This rally exposed that under capitalism, housing is a commodity, not a basic necessity.

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