Mexico: Teachers’ Strike Hits Capitalist Education

MEXICO CITY, September 2 — For the last two weeks, 80,000 Oaxaca teachers from the CNTE (Coordinator of Education Workers) Local 22 have been on an indefinite strike against the education reform proposed by the bosses’ government of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. They have organized massive blockades of government buildings, the stock exchange, TV stations and the Mexico City airport.
Teachers from the states of Michoacan, Guerrero and the Federal District have joined these protests. Members of Progressive Labor Party have participated as well, distributing more than 5,000 flyers advancing our communist politics. We’re planning a series of talks on dialectics with a group of teachers who are participating in the struggle.

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Fight DC Metro Transit’s New Jim Crow

WASHINGTON, DC, September 3 — Public health workers, Progressive Labor Party members, Metro transit workers and community residents are leading a fight against racist unemployment enforced by new Jim Crow policies at the regional transportation agency.
In late 2011, Metro stopped hiring people who had criminal records even though they had served their sentences and passed all the job requirements. They also re-ran background checks of workers who left the job due to work violations or extended sick leave. If they discovered a conviction, they fired the worker.
Metro fired one worker after she served a small amount of time for fraud. Her crime: reporting a lower income in order to receive a childcare subsidy! Another worker lost his job but found one driving at another bus company.

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Fascism in Schools: Philly Bosses Bust Teachers Union

PHILADELPHIA, PA  August 16 —Today,  the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) effectively destroyed its teacher union (the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers or PFT.) It declared that it is a “distressed school district” that “cannot efficiently educate its children” unless it is allowed to cancel its contractual obligations with its teachers and other employees.
In June, the SDP laid-off approximately 40% of its staff claiming that it was “financially broke.”  It is now seeking to re-hire some of them in the cheapest possible way by suspending seniority rules,  changing salary schedules,  and allowing principals to choose the “best” teachers for the students. The SDP will “re-hire” only those teachers whose salary is the lowest or those who are “willing” to accept an immense wage cut and not complain about it. None will get any of the “commonly accepted” benefits and protections. In other words: SMASH the union.

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Workers Confront Obama’s Imperialist Attack on Syria

Newark, NJ— Members of the Progressive Labor Party joined about 25 other workers today to protest the U.S. ruling class’s planned attack on Syria.  Called by the community organization, People’s Organization for Progress, the rally leaders criticized Obama and then discussed the history of U.S. imperialism in the Middle East. But they stopped short of identifying capitalism and inter-imperialist rivalry as the main reasons for attacking Syria. CHALLENGE  was welcomed by workers in the demonstration and on the streets.

Brooklyn, NY, August 30 — Students, teachers,  and workers, Asian, black, Latino, and white rallied against the racist murders of Shantel Davis in Brooklyn and the looming racist bombing Syria. The protesters pointed to racism as a necessary element of capitalism. The racism that allows fascism to be built at home, illustrated by racist police murders, is also the bedrock that facilitates imperialism abroad.
PLP rallied in this Flatbush neighborhood because it experiences racist police terror each and every day. It is important to win black workers to struggle against all forms of nationalism, enabling them to be won to communism. They are crucial to communist revolution.
The Flatbush community had a positive response to our presence. Many good conversations occurred about communism, why we should oppose Obama’s bombing of Syria, and the links between racism and imperialism. As of this writing, the U.S. has yet to bomb Syria. Obama parroted the same Weapons of Mass Desrruction lies as his predecessor Bush. In building an anti-war movement, we must keep class war for communist revolution front and center.

Racist Petraeus and Thugs, Beware: Anti-war Students, Profs on the Rise

NEW YORK CITY, September 4 — As President Barack Obama prepares to strike workers in Syria, former CIA director and war general David Petraeus has found a new stomping ground as an honors professor at the City University of New York (CUNY).  Meanwhile, students and faculty from many senior and community colleges have launched a campaign against further militarization of CUNY.
Amid perennial tuition increases and financial aid cuts, CUNY’s Board of Trustees appointed Petraeus to teach a one-year course to Macaulay Honors College, whose top-tier students are 60 percent children of immigrants or immigrants themselves.

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DC: Rulers’ Reforms Retain Racism

Washington, DC, August 24 — Today’s March on Washington, 50 years after the historic march that helped lead to the Civil Rights Act, was a timely reminder that reformist politics cannot fundamentally change the racist inequalities of capitalism.
Back in 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. and other mainstream civil rights leaders argued that working within the system — by allying with liberal President John F. Kennedy — would win the fight against racism in the United States through federal action. Others, like Malcolm X and Jim Forman of SNCC, engaged in a more militant struggle against racism. The Progressive Labor Party went a step further by calling for revolutionary action to smash capitalism, the source of systemic racism in the United States.

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‘Salt of the Earth’ Unites Workers Fighting Cuts

On August 24, I rode with hospital workers attending the 50th anniversary of the historic 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The bus ride seemed to be shortened for us by watching Salt of the Earth. I have seen this film many times, but this group of mainly black women hospital workers, who are fighting their hospital shutdowns, was simply the best audience I have watched it with.
As the film plot developed, Ramon and other men’s sexism were greeted with jeers in the bus. As the men stopped work, ignored their bosses’ demand that they return to work and set up their picket line, cheers of approval rocked the bus. Hoots of anger greeted the injunction to limit the strikers’ picket line. As Esperanza and the women took over picket duty and showed their ability to lead the struggle, approval was heard over and over. In fact the movie hadn’t ended as we reached RFK stadium and groans were heard as the bus captain started making announcements. On the ride back to NYC, a tired group watched the end of the movie and took a well-deserved rest after a grueling day.
One reason we showed this film was to help overcome the divisions in the three hospital struggles in Brooklyn. Workers are looking at their “own” hospital as most important. Each union acts as if the struggle affects only their members and makes deals allowing for layoffs, service cuts and closings. They urge workers to rely on politicians to “save” us rather than using the power of our class to fight back.
Although seemingly dated in its black-and-white format and old cars, Salt of the Earth is powerful as it shows workers fighting sexism, the need to fight racism and nationalism, the role of the police and courts, the limitation of simple bread-and-butter trade unionism, and much, much more. Directed by one of the blacklisted pro-communist Hollywood Ten and banned for years in the U.S., this film offers many opportunities for us to discuss with our friends the wide-ranging reasons why capitalism needs to be overthrown with communist revolution.
Red Glasses

Obama-Sharpton ‘Anti-Racism” A Farce

This is my first political action since moving to Indianapolis from Minnesota. I went to the Indianapolis celebration of the historic March on Washington. This “celebration” was a farce since in it was tightly controlled by open supporters and flunkies of the local bosses (Al Sharpton’s National Action Indiana chapter officiated) along with Mayor Greg Ballard who just came back from meeting President Obama. Ballard gave us capitalism’s idea of “antiracism,” saying,  “when I went to see President Obama there were mayors of other races there too and it showed how far America had come.”
This is the same Mayor whose cops were hassling black homeless workers in the park. Also, Ballard walked into the event with an entourage of city and county cops to let everyone know the Indianapolis bosses were in “control” of this gathering.
I did not give out CHALLENGE but I met an organization that I can get involved in to raise the Party’s communist ideas. They are needed now more than ever as the international working class is under increasing racist attack. From Indiana to Syria communist revolution lead by PLP!
Indiana Red

Mother’s Battle for School Library: An Education in Class struggle

CHICAGO — This September marks the third anniversary of the 49-day sit-in to hold onto La Casita. For years there had been an on-going struggle between Whittier Elementary School parents and the Chicago Public Schools Board of Education (CPS) to have a library.
The struggle came to a head when, by accident, some members of Whittier’s Local School Council (LSC) found a work order to demolish La Casita. A sit-in began on September 15.  On its second day, police cordoned off the entire block, trapping mothers and supporters inside and keeping the rest of us out. The police threatened to arrest and even deport the moms if they didn’t vacate La Casita.  There was no food or water inside.

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Racist NYC Cops: Murder, Inc.

BROOKLYN, NY, August 31 — Another black woman has been murdered by racist New York City cops in the ruling class’s continuing terror campaign against black and Latino working-class people.
On July 22, reports circulated in the bosses’ media about Kyam Livingston, a 37-year-old African American woman who died while in police custody. According to the NYPD, Kyam had violated an order of protection by “attacking her grandmother in a drunken rage.” They claimed they were “rescuing” the grandmother by whisking the alcoholic and physically violent Kyam in handcuffs off to the 70th Precinct and then to Brooklyn Central Bookings Jail. While awaiting arraignment, they say, Kyam suffered from “sudden seizures” and was immediately rushed to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

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