College Youth: No Recruitment for Imperialist War

BROOKLYN, NY, February 19 — Sixty friends and PL’ers shouted down the military recruiters at the Medgar Evers College (MEC) town hall meeting today. While the administration and recent recruits claimed the program was a way to “provide opportunities and diversity,” the protesters successfully exposed its imperialist agenda. There is potential in turning this anti-war struggle into a fight for communist politics.
PLP hung up Wanted Posters of war criminal David “drones” Petraeus, who is now a professor at one of the university campuses, directly linking these military recruiters to “warrior scholars” like Petraeus they partially aim to produce. CHALLENGE was well-received by all, including the student recruits.

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KKKop Kerik Fronts for Phony Prison Reform

There’s a growing mass movement in the U.S. against mass incarceration, police brutality, and racism. But there are capitalist-class reformers waiting to co-opt this movement, directing it towards keeping the overall system of social control and exploitation.
This was evident at a January 29 talk about “a united front on prison reform” held by OAR (Offender Aid and Restoration), an Arlington, VA., nonprofit that helps people returning from prison. I went to spread the word about the criminal background checks at Metro, D.C.’s transit system, and to publicize a rally at Metro headquarters.

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Building a Base in the Working Class

BROOKLYN, February 21 — How does the working class learn and grow during a struggle? How are their contradictions resolved? These questions were raised recently with some members of Progressive Labor Party
involved with the Justice for Kyam Livingston Committee. Nothing can be resolved until people get to know each other.

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Eddie Healey: Flying the Red Flag for 40 Years

On February 14, Eddie Healey, a long-time member of the Progressive Labor Party, passed away. He and a co-worker stopped to help a motorist who was stuck in the snow. Eddie collapsed helping. He was rushed to the hospital, but could not be revived. Eddie will be sorely missed.

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Sochi Olympics: Capitalists Win, Workers Lose

Much has been written about the hundreds of billions in profits made from commercialism, real estate deals and security costs created by the Sochi Olympics. However, its real function is to convince the suffering working class that they are all winners under capitalism. The games are designed to foster a fierce nationalist corporate spirit and hero worship that propels workers to identify with their bosses’ profit agendas and wars against competitor countries, much as the 1936 Olympics in Hitler’s Germany preceded World War II.

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Venezuela's Oil: Imperialist Dogfight Victimizes Workers

Inter-imperialist rivalry is shaping events in Venezuela. The capitalists’ main fight is over oil. Venezuela is the United States’ third largest oil supplier and the leading exporter to Latin America. It has the world’s second biggest oil reserves. This is a huge bonanza for the imperialists.
The fight within the country pits president Nicolás Maduro (following Cesar Chaves’ pseudo-leftist politics) on one side, backed by the Chinese and Russian imperialists. Gustaro Cisneros, one of the richest men on the planet, supports Maduro’s regime.
On the right-wing side are Henrique Capriles and Leopoldo Lopez. The latter was one of the leaders of the 2002 coup against Chavez, which was supported by the United States. These two represent U.S. imperialism.
Neither gang represents workers’ interests. Workers in Venezuela are victims of capitalism’s world crisis, suffering high unemployment, mass poverty, slum housing and miserable health care. The capitalists are taking advantage of workers’ discontent, similar to what’s happening in Ukraine or Africa: to divert workers’ anger the bosses are pushing workers to fight each other by siding with one or another bosses’ camp.
The working class in Venezuela has a rich history of struggle against the capitalists but unfortunately they’ve never had a party fighting for a communist society. Progressive Labor Party is appealing to workers to join our revolutionary communist party and fight shoulder to shoulder, internationally, to break the chains of the imperialists’ puppet governments. Let’s build a world free of misery and oppression, a world where the riches of nature are enjoyed according to workers’ needs and commitment, not controlled by a profit-hungry bunch of capitalists.

Brazil: Genocide of Black and Indigenous Workers

The Progressive Labor Party has always said that racism is an essential aspect of worldwide capitalism. A case in point is the murder of poor black young people in Brazil, which is such a common occurrence that it rarely gets reported. Last fall, however, there was sharp struggle in Sao Paulo after the “accidental” killing of 17-year-old Douglas Rodrigues by a cop responding to a noise complaint. Douglas was simply walking on the street with his 12-year-old brother.

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Bosses Will Start the Next War... Communists Will Finish It

The specter of economic doomsday makes war between China and the United States... unthinkable..... Or does it? In fact, Chinese and U.S. military planners are thinking in exquisite detail..., about how to win such a conflict. — David Gompert, former Acting Director of National Intelligence under Barack Obama, Los Angeles Times, 8/26/13.

Imperialist war is inevitable under capitalism. Only war can resolve the imperialist powers’ competition for resources and exploitable labor, the lifeblood of their brutal profit system. History shows that the capitalists will sacrifice millions of workers to defend those profits.

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My Boss Got Fired — But the System Still Stinks!

BROOKLYN, February 12 — “I am happy: they fired my boss!” That’s what you hear all over Downstate Hospital in Central Brooklyn. A bunch of bosses were fired as part of N.Y. Governor Cuomo’s design to downsize, privatize, and/or close our hospital. But don’t forget: A handful of administrators have been fired, but hundreds of workers have been laid off in the past year and a half, with more to come.
That’s why workers have been fighting back, with numerous demonstrations but much more needs to be done. What’s holding workers back is that many of them believe our hospital won’t be closed and that the system can work for them.

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Fight DC Metro’s Racist Policies

Washington, DC, February 6 — Today, Metro workers led a protest against the transit system’s plan to raise fares and against its policy of refusing to hire formerly incarcerated workers.  Protesters included public health workers, government workers, public housing residents, and students.  They ignored attempts by transit police to move the pickets away from the entrance to the evening’s scheduled public hearings, chanting boldly against the racist policies of Metro.

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