Poland: Bosses’ ‘Progress’ Spurs Wage-cuts, Layoffs

WARSAW, July 23 — Meet Marek. He’s in his late 50s and has been driving a 40-ton semi-trailer truck between Eastern and Western Europe for the past 35 years.
For decades, the two-lane R2 was the only road between Warsaw and the German border. Today, Marek drives the 454-kilometer (280-mile), four-lane divided superhighway, the A2.
“Before 2004 [when Poland joined the European Union (EU)], my work was simpler and better,” says Marek. “I also earned more. Today, there isn’t any border any longer, but wages have fallen. Many drivers get paid by the kilometer. Now, your income often depends on how far you get. And the number and the seriousness of the accidents have gone up.” Some trucks are hurtling along at 140 km/h (88 mph). And “anyone who drives the A2 regularly sees serious accidents again and again,” says Marek. “Braking a 40-ton truck is no easy thing.”
Of course, the cost of training drivers for the new superhighway would have eaten into profits. And as for speeding — well, time is money.

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Zionists’ ‘Protective Edge’: 56-year Onslaught vs. Palestinians

The world is witnessing yet again a brutal and murderous act of aggression by Israel’s Zionist government against the Palestinian people in Gaza. In the mobilized media of Israel and the pro-Zionist press abroad it’s presented as an operation driven by “The concern for peace and the well-being of the population in South Israel.” But is it really?

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RACIST NYPD KILLS AGAIN

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Eric Garner was murdered by the racist NYPD last Thursday. Choked to death by killer cop Daniel Pantaleo. Already, despite the assertions of Mayor DeBlasio that he was deeply disturbed by the video of the racist attack on an unarmed Black man, DeBlasio’s medical examiner(ME) is already leaking info to the NY Post trying to take the heat off the cops.

Any honest person who sees the video knows that Eric Garner’s murder was another continuation of the long line of people killed by the police for being Black or Latin.

When DeBlasio ran for Mayor he tried to get working class people out to vote for him by saying he was going to do something about there being two New Yorks, one for the rich and one for the poor. Well we see what he’s doing: first he hired Bill Bratton as Police Commissioner, the same Bill Bratton whose “Broken Windows” plan was nothing more than increasing police harassment and arrests of people in working class neighborhoods for any excuse possible.

Now DeBlasio’s ME office is trying to figure out how to get these racist murderers from the 120^th Precinct off the hook. As if a man dying while being brutally strangled is anything but murder.

Pantaleo and the other racists from the 120^th came out there looking to hurt someone. They were called because of a fight on the street, and when they didn’t get to hurt those guys, they went after Eric who had done the right thing by trying to break up the fight.

Yes, Pantaleo and the other cops who jumped on and then stood around while Eric garner died must be indicted and convicted of murder. However, if this was just an isolated incident, you could say that would be enough, but we all know it’s not. This is the NYPD doing their job.

DeBlasio and the ME and the Staten Island DA are all hesitant to go after the cops because they know the cops were doing what they’ve been conditioned to do, attack and terrorize Black and Latino workers in this city. That is a big part of how the wealthy, the capitalists that run New York, and this whole country stay in power and they are who these cops serve and protect.

Pantaleo must be brought to justice, but we will never be free of this racist police terror until we are free of the capitalist system. Freedom from police terror will only come from the working class taking power from the capitalists with communist revolution.      

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From Murrieta to Palestine — Smash All Borders

MURRIETA, CA, June 13 — “Stop racist deportations, working people have no nations!” “Las luchas obreras, no tienen fronteras!” Over sixty members and friends of Progressive Labor Party chanted loudly and carried red flags while marching through the heart of Murrieta, California, the site of a local Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center.
The situation in Murrieta is a product of U.S imperialism. U.S.-fueled political and economic instability has forced these children from their homes as the wars over oil in the Middle East have produced over 2 million displaced workers. For many, the choice is flee or die. As imperialist oil wars break out across the globe, the number of displaced workers will only grow.

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U.S. Imperialism Targets Children

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free….

For the 57,000 unaccompanied child migrants caught by the U.S. capitalists’ border patrol since last October, the Statue of Liberty is the world’s biggest liar.
U.S. rulers have powerful reasons to take a hard line against these vulnerable children. First, granting them refugee status could alienate their home countries’ regimes and further open the door to China, the U.S. bosses’ top imperialist rival and Latin America’s second-leading trade partner. In January, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) established a China-CELAC forum

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While AFT Backs U.S. Imperialism: Teachers Must Fight for All Children

Los Angeles, July 14 — Hundreds of teachers and other education workers took thousands of leaflets and hundreds of CHALLENGEs at the biannual American Federation of Teachers (AFT) convention here. Opposing the leadership’s racist slogan, “Reclaiming the Promise,” members and friends of the Progressive Labor Party called on delegates to fight racist deportations and racism in education, and to turn the coming imperialist war into a war against the bosses. We helped organize two forums on these issues with the AFT Peace and Justice Caucus. We organized a rally inside the convention center for an end to racist deportations, with a call for education workers to join us in Murrieta, California, for a rally against the attacks on young undocumented immigrants from Central America.

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Israel Mimics U.S., Kills Kids

Israeli bosses, with U.S. money and guns, are once again murdering children and workers in Palestine. Thousands of working-class Palestinian youth, on both sides of the apartheid wall, have taken to the streets, spontaneously rising against the Israeli regime’s racist repression.

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South Africa: Workers Strike Blow Against Big Auto

In the world’s most economically unequal country, 220,000 South African metal workers of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) have taken a swing at one of the most powerful auto companies on Earth — GM.
The sheet metal workers’ strike that started over two weeks ago has shut down and seriously curtailed production for GM, Ford, BMW and many other corporations throughout South Africa. This strike comes on the heels of last year’s four-week NUMSA strike of 30,000 and a recent five-month long strike in the platinum mining sector.

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Unitarian Youth Tackle the Need for Violent Revolution

Providence, RI, July 1 — Over 30 people participated in Progressive Labor Party’s forums at the Unitarian Universalists (UU) convention. For most, it was their first PL event. A few rejoined us from last year’s convention. Most were high-school students or young adults. The positive response to the forums and to CHALLENGE demonstrates the potential for building PLP among UUs.

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The Communist Fight for Sustainable Development

This article is the latest in a series written by a comrade who grew up in China during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR). The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the fledgling Progressive Labor Party were fraternal parties at the time. The GPCR marked a turning point in China, as more than 40 million workers, peasants, soldiers and youth fought to defeat the “capitalist roaders” and protect the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The GPCR and socialism were ultimately defeated, in part out of a failure to break with the CCP, as PLP ultimately did, and form a new communist party. But mainly socialism was defeated because it maintained too many aspects of capitalism. In particular, the use of money and wages helped sow a division between workers and peasants on the one hand, and professionals and intellectuals on the other. After the defeat of the GPCR, China went full speed ahead down the capitalist road. Today it has emerged as the main imperialist challenger to U.S. imperialism.
This article reflects the tremendous gains made by the Chinese revolution, as well as a glimpse of the material incentives and wage differences that ultimately undid those historic advances.

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