Turn Obama-Putin War into Workers’ Class War

Escalating conflict between the beleaguered U.S. and resurgent Russian empires led President Barack Obama to cancel a planned September summit meeting with President Vladimir Putin. The “emerging differences” (as Obama calls them) behind the snub run far deeper than Putin’s granting asylum to National Security Agency whistle-blower Edward Snowden. It’s all about the unceasing fight for profits under capitalism.
Hostile blocs of capitalists, represented by Obama and Putin, are more and more at odds in their inter-imperialist competition for the world’s resources, markets, and labor. Those bosses who control global energy supplies gain political and economic advantages over their rivals. Each major power needs armed force — including nuclear weapons — to enforce its domination. It’s no surprise, then, that oil, gas, and missiles top the list of grievances between Obama and Putin. At the same time, both the U.S. and Russia are tailoring their tactics toward building coalitions for a wider confrontation down the road, one that may involve emerging superpower China.

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PL’ers Spark Anti-Racist Protest Against Trayvon Verdict

FORT WORTH, TX  August 1 — Following the George Zimmerman not guilty verdict, we have increased the anti-racist fight back in our area. While anti-racist demonstrations around the country erupted in the days following the verdict, the response in our area was almost non-existent.
To get the ball rolling, several PL’ ers descended upon a local mall armed with leaflets condemning the racist killing of Trayvon Martin and blaming the capitalist profit system for letting Zimmerman go. The leaflet linked the racist killing to those of black and Latino youth by police around the county. We also pointed out how capitalism profits from this racist terror through the mass unemployment and a low-wage workforce that mass incarceration and police attacks help perpetuate. Our leaflet was well-received, especially by many black and Latino students.

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Racist Rulers Trash Justice, Ramarley Spurs Fightback

Just back from the August 10 protest in the working-class Bronx, NY against the system’s refusal of justice for Ramarley Graham. On only 12 hours notice, 200 of us gathered in response to Frank Graham’s call to rally for his son once again, in front of the Bronx District Attorney’s office. The demand, the theme, was “justice”: but the reality is the exact opposite. The chants were all familiar and strong, peoples’ whole bitter lives pouring into their voices. “They say get back, We say fight back!” In Ramarley’s name, in the names of all our fallen.

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Student Actions Hit University Fee Hike

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI, August 1 — In June, students at the State University of Haiti (UEH) waged a struggle against the university administration to prevent a fee increase for entry to UEH (see CHALLENGE, (07/17/13). This increase, which aimed to limit the entry of workers’ children to UEH, had been proposed by a reactionary leader close to the government and its ruling class.
For three weeks, students from several faculties (campuses) here organized a series of student general assemblies, militant marches, sit-ins and demonstrations.

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Haiti: Masses Rip Imperialists’ Cholera Epidemic

PORT-AU-PRINCE, August 4 — July 28 was the date of the first U.S. invasion of Haiti in 1915. Today the current fascist government and its ruling-class masters chose it for a celebration. a “festival of flowers.” This is how they  commemorate almost a century of imperialist-led crimes against the masses in Haiti.
For almost 19 years, from 1915 to 1934, the U.S. bosses waged a relentless fight against the peasants, workers and students of Haiti. They killed many rank-and-filers during their bloody occupation, and murdered their leadership as well. One was Charlemagne Peralte, an organizer of the rural group called the Cacos, which had fought for many decades against the abuses of the local landowners, and then turned their fightback against the U.S. invaders.

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Providers Get Wise, Organize Against Fascist Healthcare

LOS ANGELES, CA — An indicator that capitalism is a sick system and needs to be replaced is when doctors, who generally live very comfortably, become disgruntled and burnt out from the “assembly line” our healthcare system has become. They recognize the harmful effects it has on patient care, particularly the most vulnerable: poor, black, Latino and immigrant patients.
For the last year, our “not-for-profit” HIV organization has almost doubled its first quarter profits, $95 million to $181 million from the 1st quarter of 2012 to the 1st quarter 2013. It has continued its attacks on our wages, benefits, scheduling and the staffing of our clinics. Short of rumblings in various staff meetings or side conversations, these attacks have gone virtually unchallenged until recently.

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Brazil: Masses Slam Rulers’ Austerity

SALVADOR, BAHIA, BRAZIL — Masses of students and workers took to the streets condemning the Brazilian government’s austerity attack on the working class while it pours billions into its ostentatious hosting of the World Cup and the Olympics. Workers and students protested on July 22, in the downtown square called Campo Grande, made famous by the carnival of Salvador–Ba in northeastern Brazil.
The demonstrations opposed the government spending while workers faced intense poverty. Demonstrations are continuing throughout Brazil, encouraged by the wave of opposition to the corrupt administration of the cities and the government budget. The police have answered with violence against the protesters who are fighting, the neglect of health and education and subjugating of women.

Fruitvale Station : A Racist System Murdered Oscar Grant

The movie Fruitvale Station documents the last days of Oscar Grant III, a twenty-three-year-old black worker from the Bay Area in northern California who was murdered by a cop from Oakland’s Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Police Department in 2009.

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Malcolm X Speaks: On the Sellout of the 1963 March on Washington

Just ten weeks after the historic civil rights march in August of 1963, Malcolm X gave an important speech — “Message to the “Grassroots” — in which he attacked the civil rights misleaders who’d collaborated with the ruling class and sold out the anti-racist struggle of the day.
When reading Malcolm’s insightful analysis, quoted below, it’s helpful to keep in mind that — back then — Malcolm still viewed nearly all white folks as enemies and advocated black capitalism.  But within a year, after two trips to Africa, he would make profound changes in his thinking.  He came to recognize that all oppressed people, including white workers, are part of a common, international struggle against a common oppressor. When Malcolm uses the word “white” in this speech, we can substitute “capitalist” to better reflect where he was heading.

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Capitalism Can’t End Racist Exploitation

On August 28, 1963, 300,000 demonstrators converged in multiracial unity for the March on Washington For Jobs and Freedom. Fifty years later, with racist inequalities growing wider all the time, we can see the limits of reform under capitalism — and the urgent need for communist revolution.

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