Murder, Inc. Profit System Creates Global Warming

There have been over 120 reported deaths from Hurricane Sandy in the U.S., with another 100 or more in the Caribbean countries, the majority in Haiti, a reflection of the worst racist oppression in the Western Hemisphere. Sandy is the largest hurricane on record — over 1,000 miles in diameter —though it did not have the highest winds recorded.

In the U.S., tens of thousands were displaced by destruction of their homes, while in Nigeria in West Africa, the worst flooding in half a century has displaced more than two million people over the last few months and killed hundreds, with the figure still climbing. The overflow of the Niger River, the third largest in Africa, has mixed sewage with fresh water and brought crocodiles, snakes, and hippos into people’s homes. Are these exceptionally destructive events just a coincidence, or is there a common cause?

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Sacco and Vanzetti: Heroic Fighters Against the Ruling Class

“All my life I had struggled to rid the earth of the rich man’s crimes.”

— “Two Good Arms” by PL singers
Revolution Disc 2

The graphic novel Lives of Sacco and Vanzetti by Rick Geary dramatically presents the case of two Italian immigrants who were arrested for a 1920 murder and robbery. Nicola Sacco, a shoemaker, and Bartolemo Vanzetti, a fish peddler, both pleaded

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Breaking the Silence On A Racist Crime of KKKapitalism

Abridged and reprinted from a special issue of LE DÉFI , the local CHALLENGE in Haiti.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, October 28 — After the devastating 2010 earthquake a fragile Haiti was struck by a devastating cholera epidemic, brought in by the UN’s “peacekeeping” force MINUSTAH.

The UN did not vaccinate these troops coming in from an area where cholera is endemic. The so-called “international community” (which gave us cholera) wants us to believe the earthquake caused this genocidal epidemic when in fact the earthquake had nothing to do with it. There is a deathly silence about cholera here.  To this day, against all the scientific evidence, they refused to acknowledge their responsibility. Thousands among the oppressed class are dead, with many traumatized and in tears. If it is not eradicated soon, another wave of deaths will ensue because cholera is with us still and spreading.

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Capitalism is a Racist Disaster

Storms don’t know skin color or class, but capitalism is built on inequalities rooted in both.  An event like Hurricane Sandy that seems to affect “everyone” the same turns out to strike hardest at those who have the fewest resources, the fewest choices, the fewest places to go.   

Like Katrina in 2005, or the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 this system’s response to disaster shows that what is natural under capitalism is RACISM.   Footage of ruined yachts and vacation homes dominated the early images of the bosses’ media coverage. More recently news coverage has centered around devastated white communities of the region to the exclusion of areas like Red Hook, the Lower East Side, Coney Island and Canarsie.  But there is nothing “natural” about who pays the highest price in these disasters.  Meanwhile the ruling class gets to practice fascist police state tactics of population transfer, curfew, military direction of civilian affairs under the name of “emergency management.”

• ·       Undocumented workers live in fear of deportation and so many will not come forward to seek the help they need (in the aftermath of 9/11 families of undocumented restaurant workers in the Twin Towers received nothing!)
• ·       Mostly black DC 37 city workers were forced back to the job while mostly white UFT members got paid days off.  On the whole salaried workers have much more income protection than hourly wage workers.  
• ·       Red Hook supermarkets with no power take no electronic food stamps: no cash, no food.

Yet workers all over New York have worked collectively to help each other out.  While Obama and Bloomberg cruise around in helicopters giving orders, it will be workers who rebuild the homes, roads, rails, ports and more destroyed in this storm.  Some put their lives on the line to rescue people stuck on roofs of their homes, others have turned their front yards into collection centers for food, water and clothes that they then hand out to their neighbors. Still others have pooled what little resources they have to help the elderly, disabled and children get meals. This is human nature! The bosses push the idea that everyone is “naturally” greedy and selfish, but in real times of need, those lies are uncovered.

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Revolution, Yes! Elections, No! Imperialist War Has Got to Go!

An imperialist war-maker will occupy the White House no matter who wins the presidential election. Imperialism inevitably breeds war to settle conflicts among capitalist nations. In the United States, both the Democrats and Republicans organize for war to maintain U.S. domination worldwide. They differ only on how to wage it, on how the war machine can best protect and project U.S. capitalists’ global interests. 

Recent endorsements of Barack Obama or Mitt Romney by various retired military brass reflect a real difference in the kind of warfare the victor will pursue. In an October 21 appearance on CBS, Colin Powell, point man for the first genocidal Gulf War against Iraq in 1991, backed Obama. Three days earlier, Romney announced formation of a “military advisory council” of more than three hundred blood-soaked ex-generals and admirals. One of its more prominent members is Tommy Franks, the commander of the second genocidal Gulf War against Iraq, launched by George W. Bush in 2003. The two beribboned butchers hold competing views that mirror different capitalists’ interests. 

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Haiti Teachers Blast Slave Wages, Rotten Schools, Cholera

HAITI, October 28 — Sometimes all it takes is for someone to stand up and say no, for the whole system of exploitation and oppression to reveal itself. The rebels might get some crumbs from the bosses’ teeming table for his trouble. They might go back to being resigned to the bosses’ state power for ever. Or they might be radicalized by the experience and spend the rest of her life fighting for the working class.

But whatever the outcome of a reform struggle, once people stand up, and organize themselves, and then stand up stronger in numbers and conviction, and take the streets and march to the seat of power together, to the men with guns and money — then all bets are off, and it’s a teaching moment. It’s a moment when our action unmasks the power relationships that hold us in chains. 

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Mexico’s Labor ‘Reform’ Chops Wages, Hours, Seniority

The Labor Reform in Mexico is exposing the true nature of the capitalist system. The bosses, in their dogfight to control markets and maintain their rate of profits, have forced the Mexican government to reform labor laws, and take back many of the gains that the working class fought for and won through the years, many in bloody struggles, as in Chicago and Cananea in northern Mexico. 

The recently-approved Labor Reform is an insult to the struggles and dignity of the international working class. The bosses argue that the reform will generate jobs in Mexico, but it will almost certainly cause unemployment in another part of the world. This shows that the international working class has only one option: to become organized around an international party like PLP to fight for communism.

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LA Forum: The Elections Trap

Los Angeles, October 25 — The big problems facing public education are not necessarily a lack of funds or bad policy, but in fact the system itself which operates on the basis of maximizing profit. That was the message from panelists at a local community college forum titled “Beyond Elections,” attended by close to 150 students. The forum was in the context of the recent push by faculty and teacher unions to pass Proposition 30 which would raise taxes in California to pay for public education.

But the panelists pointed out that the problems originate in the political economy of capitalism; unless public colleges and universities can be turned into profitable enterprises, they will always be depending on a system that prioritizes the building of a racist police state and imperialist war. 

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This is Class War Patron or Boss, Don’t Be Fooled

Oakland, October 27 —  A loud and enthusiastic crowd picketed and rallied at Mi Pueblo Market today to popularize a community boycott here in Oakland (see CHALLENGE 10/17).  The most organized and noticeable group were young people in 67 Suenos who took over the parking lot chanting, “If you’re E-Verifying, We Ain’t Buying!”.  (a redo of  E-40’s rap song, “We out here trying to function”). One manager got so frustrated that he threw raw eggs at the crowd!  

PLP members and friends participated. We had signs and leaflets in Spanish and English about uniting the working class across all borders. (see photo). Our leaflet explained that the capitalist class worldwide causes migration around the globe and unemployment as a “labor policy,” as a race to the bottom for cheaper labor and maximization of profits. This hurts every worker, citizen or immigrant. We called to abolish racism, sexism, and nationalism with international working-class unity. When you look around, it’s only communists that say class trumps nationalism in all its forms. 

Here we have a former “illegal” immigrant, Juvenal Chavez, who now owns 21 stores, pays substandard wages and uses Immigration Customs Enforcement to scare workers from fighting back. Nationalism doesn’t get in his way when he screws these workers! At the same time, his stores always have the red, white and green of the Mexican flag all over the place.  “Patron” or “Boss — don’t be fooled — this is CLASS WAR.  Capitalists of every nationality and every country are our enemies!

The Real Choice: Vote or Revolt

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, October 20 — With the U.S. presidential elections around the corner, college students here held a study-action group to address some questions our friends may be having, mainly, “Can you vote away the ills of capitalism?”

One young woman voted for Barack Obama in 2008 with great zeal. Today she is a PL’er and believes that “when it comes to war and foreign policy, Republicans and Democrats are the same.” Even so, she fears that Republicans will cut funds for family planning and preventative health services for poor and uninsured workers. Actually, Democrat Clinton made the biggest cuts in welfare.  

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