California wildfires kindled by capitalism

Wildfires are regularly occurring natural disasters whose effects on workers are worsened by the neglect of capitalism. Throughout the state of California, over one thousand workers are still missing and at least 80 have been found dead in the Camp Fire in Northern California and the Woolsey and Hill fires in Southern California. Over 11,000 homes, including the majority of the town of Paradise, have been destroyed and the fires have not been fully contained.

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Only refuge from capitalism: communist revolution

As a migrant “caravan” makes its dangerous trek through Mexico, capitalist bosses worldwide continue to scapegoat immigrants for the failures of the profit system. With the dwindling group still hundreds of miles away from the nearest U.S. border, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to send 15,000 or more troops with permission to shoot (Military Times, 11/1). Two weeks earlier, when the migrants approached Mexico from Guatemala, Mexican cops in riot gear greeted them with pepper spray. As they suffer from hunger, illness, and drenching downpours, these Central American refugees must also fend off the bosses’ racism and rising fascism.   

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STUDENTS WALK OUT AGAINST RACIST NEGLECT

Brooklyn, November 5—Over 50 mostly Black and Latin high school students walked out of their classes and staged an energetic protest in front of the John Jay Campus. They were protesting the racist conditions at the Secondary School for Journalism, one of five schools in the building. that were destroying their education and making it difficult for seniors to fulfill their graduation requirements. The students were fed up and they reached out to students at the other schools in the building and organized a walkout.
The New York City Department of Education (DOE)  has mismanaged this struggling school for years. Principals have been rotated almost every year over the last 5 years. One year they even started the school year with no principal. The DOE tried to have the Secondary School for Law principal at the time keep Journalism afloat.

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Newark workers show their mettle in fighting lead crisis!

NEWARK, NJ, November 7—Anger is beginning to rising inside the working class in Newark. For the second time in three years, Newark’s students and working class residents are plagued by lead poisoning in their water. As in Flint, Michigan, Cleveland,and other cities with large Black populations, the contamination of drinking water exposes the racist nature of capitalism. And, since high levels of lead in drinking water are a threat to all students and workers, this disgraceful neglect reminds us that racism is poisonous for the entire working class.

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Capitalism, a death sentence for mentally ill workers

NEW YORK CITY, November 5—People suffering from mental health need support. Instead, they are being killed by the cops, especially if they are Black or Latin. Communists and friends at a local church have organized a fightback against racist cop killings since the murder of Deborah Danner in the Bronx. On October 18, 2016. The forum “Fight for a Safe Response to People in Mental Crisis” built multiracial unity to fight racism and protect mentally ill workers and youth.

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Workers outraged at PetroCaribe and Gov’t robbery

HAITI, October 17—Large cities and small villages alike were quiet today. Nothing moved, except millions of workers and students and their angry shouts against the corruption of the capitalist government in the Petrocaribe scandal (see box).In one small provincial town the leadership of progressove labor party (PLP) organized a mass response of between 1500, and 2000 people.
Today’s demonstrations were held on the anniversary of the assassination of Jean Jacques Dessalines, one of the leaders of the Haitian fight for independence from French colonialism and slavery. Workers and students, young and old, marched resolutely against the outrages of the profit system, which has reduced the working class here and around the world to unrelenting poverty and war.

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Mexico: Indigenous workers fight mining bosses

OAXACA, November 6—In response to the inability of the government to comply with its obligations and to provide justice, indigenous workers of Oaxaca submitted the state and mining companies to a popular community trial. The Progressive Labor Party has initiated a participation plan within the movements that convened this trial. We want to show that only through a communist revolution can we end the attacks against the workers, the environment and the indigenous workers here.

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Students map global imperialism; rev up transit campaign

BROOKLYN, October 30—At today’s Progressive Labor Party study a group of Kingsborough Community College students and faculty, dozens of sharp questions were raised in this multiracial gathering of women and men, trying understand the world from a communist perspective and to making plans and change it. Our topic today was ‘Imperialism and fascism,’ part of a regular series on different topics, as well as evaluating our progress and giving leadership to the ongoing anti racist struggles at KCC.

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Gun forum: Capitalism behind the trigger

BROOKLYN, November 7—“When our public school friends walked out to demonstrate against school gun violence the organizers of the rally we went to did not want to let us speak. We took the mike and spoke anyway.”  This was said by one of the two public high school students who took part in a nation-wide school walkout last spring. They came to take part in a panel at a church forum about gun violence, particularly in schools and affecting youth. Quite by coincidence the date of the forum was the Saturday of the synagogue murders in Pittsburgh. The forum began with a moment of silence for this horror caused by racism and anti-Semitism as well as the shooting of two Black residents of Kentucky earlier in the week.

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80th anniversary of the international brigade!

October 28, 2018 is the 80th anniversary of one of the greatest examples of working class internationalism in history—the departure of the International Brigades from the Spanish Civil War. The Spanish Civil War lasted from 1936 to 1939. The War was, along with fascist Japan’s invasion of China in 1931, the true beginning of World War II.

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