Protesters Win Red Cross to Act

New York, November 27 — Red Cross reps are surrounded by protesters as they try to answer the complaints of families from Far Rockaway displaced by the storm and placed in three mid-town Holiday Inns. These families have been displaced with prejudice, with no regard for mental, medical or any of their needs. Kids are going without diapers, the ill without medication, people without food.

By the end of the day, the displaced families were being interviewed by scores of social workers, getting health care referrals and more. Red Cross officials promised to meet with all 106 displaced families at the three hotels.

How Communists Moved the Masses to Control Floods

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, coverage in the bosses’ media emphasizes the helplessness of humanity in the face of nature’s destructiveness. Under capitalism, we are also constantly bombarded with the idea that people look out for themselves, and can never really work together for a common purpose without a money incentive. 

But workers’ own experiences show that these stories told by mouthpieces for the capitalists are lies. PLP members and friends have volunteered in local relief efforts in the New York/New Jersey area. We have heard about and witnessed both stories of life-saving heroism during the storm and the efforts of thousands of volunteers providing basic necessities to their class brothers and sisters.

 History also shows that workers and peasants in communist-led societies have shown the human desire to work for the collective without material reward in return. The communist-led revolution in China in 1949 brought workers and peasants to power. Production and work was organized based upon national five-year plans.

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FEMA on Sandy: Fiendish Effort to Mistreat Aid

In my neighborhood, I had an opportunity to speak with workers from Verizon and Con Ed, as well as folks who applied to help out with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) due to the effect of Hurricane Sandy. They told me how, in this capitalist system, those helping in the clean-up were treated as poorly as those they were sent to help.

Verizon had laid off so many workers that the remaining ones were left to carry the load of the overtime from Sandy. Somehow, the overtime money didn’t compensate for the absence of the workers who did the job so well at our side.

Con Ed workers were promised overtime. Then they got an e-mail saying those who worked in Staten Island did so “voluntarily.” These workers said thousands more homes had been devastated than the media reported, mostly in impoverished areas.

One friend who was trained to be a FEMA employee said, “The qualifications required were a clean criminal background and citizenship. I was to report to a training site in Philadelphia. I had to take classes for two days, paid $125 for each day and 50 cents for traveling expenses. My friends and I went together.

“There were at least 1,000 people wanting to be employed. On the third day, a Parr agent (working on behalf of FEMA) told us many were being denied. I received a letter a week later stating, ‘ The Chief Security Officer has found you unfit for employment as a contractor employee with FEMA. This decision is based on adverse information contained in your credit bureau report.’

Never before in my life had I been told I was found unfit to help individuals. Every week, I run a soup kitchen and clothing donations from my church. I have never had a complaint. If the government hadn’t closed its eyes in 2007 and allowed Wall Street to ravage the hard-working community, maybe I would be found fit to be a contractor for FEMA. Is FEMA fit to work for me or anyone struggling with disaster?”

In the communist-led Soviet Union and China, unemployment was zero; rebuilding flooded areas, constructing dams and wiping out diseases like syphilis and schistosomiasis were priorities, making useful jobs for millions.

Red Worker

What will stop the attacks on Gaza and the West Bank?

ONE STATE, TWO STATES or A COMMUNIST STATE?

Once again the Israeli Zionist rulers are launching a full-scale murderous military attack against the Palestinian civilians - men, women and children -  in Gaza, just as they did with the brutal Cast Lead massacre in 2008-2009. They claim that this is in retaliation for and to stop the rockets fired from Gaza into Israel. This is a big lie! The current murders are simply the latest step in the constant fascist attempts to “ethnically cleanse all of Palestine.

*There is no doubt that the 2^nd attack on Gaza is a war crime and that the military occupation of Palestine by Israel is wrong and unsustainable. At 44 years, it is one of the longest occupations in history and violates every precept of international law. Not only are Palestinians reduced to living on 22% of their former land, but they have been deprived of much of their water, farmland, employment, and freedom of movement. Continuous warfare afflicts not only the region but fuels world conflict. No one demonstrating here today disagrees with any of this.

*The much more difficult question is what should we be fighting for? Is it enough to demand that siege of Gaza and the occupation end, the settlements be dismantled, or a “Palestinian state” be established? This issue cannot be addressed without considering the role of racism and nationalism in the history of Israel and the current struggle between Israel and Palestine.

The influx of Jews into Palestine was a response to their racist persecution in Europe and the nationalist impulses of the late 19^th century. The massive increase in immigration after the Holocaust also largely reflected the refusal of Western nations to accept Jewish refugees.  In addition, the US and Britain were glad to have an enclave of people with Western capitalist values and ties in the Middle East, which was rapidly gaining importance as the major source of oil.

Instead of going to “a land without people for a people without land”, the Jews arrived in a densely populated area. In 1948, the UN gave 55% of the land to the Jews, when they comprised only one third of the population and owned only 6% of the land. 750, 000 Palestinians, 6/7 of the population, were brutally expelled from their homes. In the 1967 war, Israel began the occupation of Palestinian land and took total control over 46% of the West Bank. Now the Wall, the checkpoints, the ban against Palestinians working in Israel and other indignities have reduced Palestinians to a state of desperation.

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WORKERS’ UNITY ANSWERS BOSSES’ DISASTER

Capitalism has just dealt the U.S. working class two major blows: Hurricane Sandy and Barack Obama’s re-election as president. While the U.S. ruling class is ever ready to allocate trillions of dollars for wars to preserve its profits and oil dominance in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, it has refused to spend a dime on seawalls to prepare for storms like Sandy, not to mention Katrina in New Orleans or Ike in Texas.

The system’s profit-driven lack of preparation for the latest storm, fueled by profit-driven global warming, killed more than a hundred U.S. workers and made life miserable for hundreds of thousands more without power, water and food along the East Coast. Sandy also

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Sandy Shelter Shock: Capitalism’s Murderous Dysfunction

Bronx, NY. I had signed up with the NY State medical volunteer corps a week before, but they were demanding minimum 12-hour shifts, making it impossible for a working MD to participate. Only now, after a week, was it possible to make one’s own hours.

When I arrived, I saw the vast floor covered with wall-to-wall cots, including many children and the elderly, as well as a wall of cages for pet cats and dogs. People lined up to see me in small numbers, since no general announcement of my availability was made.

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Haiti: Students Rise Up vs. Racist Killer Cops

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI, November 12 — Up to 700 angry students from campuses of the State University of Haiti, up in arms over the racist police killing of Damaël D’Haïti, a young law student two nights ago, took to the streets here today, confronting armed police, some in an armored tank.

Starting at 8:00 AM, several hundred students assembled at the Law School, chanting that the killer cop be brought to justice, and demanding quality education. They marched to all the nearby campuses, gathering more students at each one, effectively shutting down many. At each corner along the route, they burned tires and set up roadblocks. Traffic in the crowded downtown area was paralyzed for much of the day.

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Union’s Racist Sellout Attacks Students, Teachers

Newark, NJ October 20 — Before the dust could even settle from the Chicago teachers’ strike, national union boss Randi Weingarten and Newark Teachers’ Union (NTU) boss Joe Del Grosso were quick to sell out the education workers and students here in Newark.  The contract, which took over two years to work out, will give the capitalists and their puppets (like Superintendent Cami Anderson) easier access to implement their fascist rule.

While there are members of the teachers’ union organizing a “no” vote against the contract, the ruling class is putting their soldiers in line to make sure it goes through.  Two of the biggest provisions of the contract are the two-tier wage system and the “Election to Work” agreements that teachers in closed schools are forced to sign to keep their jobs.

Two-Tier Wage Syste

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On Strike!

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI, November 13 — Sign reads “Brooklyn to Port-au-Prince: Professors Unite to Smash Racism!”

About 12,000 students and workers took the streets for a two-day teachers’ strike!  The entire demonstration was carried by the energy and vitality of the students. The international solidarity was vibrant. We stopped in front of schools calling on students and teachers to join the march. It was militant, and resulted in a battle between the MINUSTAH troops and students. (See next issue for full story.)

El Salvador: Putting Communist Ideas into Practice

San Salvador, September 23 — It’s everyone’s job to put communist ideas into practice

The process of building a base for these ideas is hard but not an impossible task for each PL’er. We feel that the lack of commitment to establishing a collective that can plan and guarantee the accomplishment of the tasks assigned to each member explains the slow growth of PLP in El Salvador.

Our comrades have a large membership; we could have three zonal collectives and one leadership collective in charge of planning areas of concentration for each member. In this way, we can guarantee that communist theory and practice remain primary. This could also help us deal with some contradictions amongst our membership.

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