Russia-China Rivalry to U.S. Doorstep!

Far from ushering in a new era of peaceful coexistence, Barack Obama’s opening to Cuba reflects a sharpening
inter-imperialist rivalry. By restoring ties to the Caribbean island, Obama and the U.S. capitalists he serves are seeking to reassert U.S. influence in Latin America at the expense of Russia, China, and Venezuela. While the U.S. bosses’ media focus mainly on economics and politics, the shift also has a significant military dimension. As the Russian and Chinese war machines set their sights on Cuba, it signals a growing probability of global conflict.

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Forum: Hails Ferguson Rebellion, Shuts Down Streets

NEW YORK CITY, December 21 — The Progressive Labor Party and other antiracist protesters escalated the fight against U.S. kkkapitalism here this weekend. Rising fascism in the U.S. — and an onslaught of racist murders by the cops — has left workers and youth no choice but to fight back. These two days in New York demonstrated that workers and youth are not only open to communist politics, but are willing to organize under communist leadership.

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2 Cops Dead: Only a United Working Class Can End Police Terror

Brooklyn, December 20 — When Ismayaail Brinsley killed New York Police Department cops Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos in Bedford-Stuyvesant, he did nothing for the mass movement against racist police terror. He was a man with a long history of mental illness who had earlier shot his girlfriend. Minutes later, according to the cops, he shot himself.
Before the bodies were even cold, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Police Commissioner William Bratton, Police Union Chief Patrick Lynch (fitting name), and a host of media talking heads and scribblers found their common talking point. They all linked the murder of the two cops to the mass outrage against racist police terror and the failure of two grand juries to indict the killers of Eric Garner and Mike Brown. No one even mentioned the racist carnival by the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association the night before the shootings, when cops spat in the face of the Garner family and supporters by wearing “I Can Breathe” t-shirts at a City Hall rally.

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Inside School and Out — Unite to Fight Racism

Brooklyn, NY, December 6 — “These cops really made me mad. They arrested my teachers for no reason.” This among other quotes plastered the Facebook walls of students at a Brooklyn high school. Students, parents and staff found out that over the Thanksgiving weekend, two of their teachers, along with 14 others, were arrested in Ferguson, MO during a protest against the racist murder of Michael Brown and subsequent non-indictment of kkkop Darren Wilson.

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PL Breaks City’s No-Protest Ban

Brooklyn, December 22 — “No justice, no peace, no racist police!” rang out loud and clear on the corner of Church and Nostrand Avenues in Flatbush tonight. Members and friends of Progressive Labor Party broke mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD commissioner William Bratton’s “ban” on antiracist protests. The City bosses want to honor the cops shot on December 20 by shutting down protests. As speakers pointed out time and again, where was the bosses’ time of mourning and concern for the children of Eric Garner and so many other victims of racist police terror? Passing cars honked in support of the protest. People passing by joined the picket line for a time or two around, chanting and raising their fists in unity against racist murders by the police.

College Conference Spurs Action in Boston

BOSTON, December 23 — The PLP college conference in November advanced the work at one college here. Several students from Roxbury Community College found it to be an “awesome experience” when they discovered that their opinions and values were shared by a diverse, sincere and interesting group of people who called themselves communists. Since then they have been meeting with the Party, getting to know each other better and learning more about capitalism, racism, fascism and communism. 

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Seattle: Fight Against Racist Police

SEATTLE, December 10 — Protests began in Seattle immediately after the grand jury in Ferguson refused to indict killer cop Darren Wilson for the murder of Mike Brown. That night one hundred cops donning riot gear and brandishing assault rifles came out to meet over one hundred students, teachers and workers who were shutting down intersections in downtown Seattle.
When some demonstrators moved onto Interstate 5, police attacked with tear gas, pepper spray and flash-bang grenades. Protesters on the overhead bridges responded by throwing rocks and firecrackers at police below. The police made some arrests and beat some people, but the workers and students were not deterred. On the national day of action four days later, over 1,000 people took to the streets to oppose racist police violence.
Since this initial outpouring of antiracist rage, demonstrations of varying sizes have been held almost every night. The Seattle Times (ST) editorial board attacked antiracists as a “roaming gang of belligerent hostiles” out to ruin Christmas and scare children. They harshly criticized Mayor Ed Murray for saying he sympathized with those angered by the Brown decision — a statement he immediately rescinded (ST, 12/2). Still, antiracists were not deterred.

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Marchers Hit Racist Understaffing, Welfare for Bosses

Newark, NJ, November 3 — Chanting “Same struggle same fight, workers and clients must unite”, and “The bankers got bailed out, we got sold out,” 125 unionized Essex County welfare workers marched and rallied here today. The workers were joined by the War Against Poverty Coalition (WAPC), the People’s Organization for Progress (POP) and several other organizations to protest the severe racist understaffing of welfare centers throughout Essex County. This is causing a huge backlog of Food Stamp and Medicaid applications. We demand jobs at living wages, restoration of all social service cutbacks, and an end to government subsidies/welfare for corporations.
Speakers included social service workers and one client. The client was laid off along with hundreds of other workers from a New Jersey factory. He spoke passionately about the inability of the understaffed welfare system to provide for the needs of people like himself. He called for welfare workers to unite with their clients, and not be sucked into an anti-client mentality. “Welfare reform” has deliberately promoted this kind of thinking.

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Racist Police Violence and Mass Incarceration Make Us Sick

New Orleans, November 19 — PLPers injected a healthy dose of communist politics into the annual American Public Health Association (APHA) national meeting of over 12,500 health care related workers. The theme of this year’s conference was “Healthography” and was focused on the fact that your ZIP code is more important than your genetic code in determining your health.
As we have every year for the past 15 years, a dedicated group of PL members and friends participated in the conference with the goal of spreading our revolutionary ideas, challenging public health workers to think beyond small reforms, and recruiting to PLP.  This year’s conference was one of our most successful.  We helped organize an outstanding session, advanced a policy resolution, and hosted a very successful “Troublemaker’s breakfast.”  

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Capitalism Dividing Arab, Jewish Workers Since 1948

Imagine that your home will be given, without your consent, to a rich man who will do with it as he pleases and dump you into the street. What would you say then? This is a reality in Kfar Shalem and Givat Amal, two suburbs of Tel Aviv in Israel, where Jewish workers are being expelled from their homes to make room for Israeli bosses to build skyscrapers. These two suburbs were once Arab villages prior to the racist, Zionist expulsion of Arabs in 1948, and now it’s Jewish workers being expelled by the Israeli bosses, once again in the name of profit. The fate of Jewish working class families in Givat Amal and Kfar Shalem is no different from their Arab counterparts in the Palestinian villages of El Arakib, Dahamsh and various neighborhoods in East Jerusalem where Palestinian residents are evicted to make room for Zionist settlement projects.

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