Anaheim Protesters Demand Workers’ Justice

ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA — On July 21, the Anaheim police (APD) executed Manuel Diaz on Anna Drive. The next day they killed Joel Avecado. These deaths are a heavy loss for their families, friends and communities. The Anaheim police have killed at least eight young workers this year.

Every day, kkkops are killing and brutalizing young workers. Black, Latino and immigrant are the most attacked. Asian youth in Orange County’s Westminster, Filipinos in Los Angeles, and young white workers are also the targets of the bosses’ police.

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Capitalists’ ‘Solve’ Crisis: Bail Banks, Cut Pensions

The state of Illinois owes $83 billion to the pension fund of state university workers and teachers, state gov’t workers, and suburban and downstate public school teachers.  The state wants to reduce its obligation to the thousands of workers who paid into the fund, and who either plan to retire or who now depend on their pension to survive.  These workers don’t receive social security, and unlike high-ranking retired state officials, their pensions are barely enough to live on.  

At a rally organized to protest the proposed cuts, a retired teacher spoke of how she depends on her $28,000/yr pension after teaching for 30 years.  She and many other pensioners feel betrayed by the state for breaking the promise of a secure retirement in exchange for years of service.  But what else can we expect from a rotting, decrepit system.

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Politicians, Union Hacks Zap Workers Bosses’ Killers: Hospital Closure, Billion$ for War

BROOKLYN, AUGUST 15 — Downstate Hospital workers held a rally on August 8 to fight proposed layoffs and to keep the hospital open. This week, nearly 400 workers received pink slips. 

The threatened closing and layoffs affect all workers but are particularly racist and sexist. Downstate serves mainly poor black and Latino workers, most whom are Caribbean immigrants. The workers are mainly black, Latino and immigrant women. Capitalism is built on, and breeds, racism and sexism. These divisions cannot be eliminated without destroying the root cause. 

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In 2000, Youth and PLP Battled Police Terror

On March 16, 2000, Patrick Dorismond and a friend were hailing a cab in Manhattan when undercover Detective Anthony Vasquez — not identifying himself as a cop — asked  Dorismond if he had any drugs to sell. Indignant, Patrick told him “No!” in no uncertain terms. Patrick was angered by the insistent “dealer.” When Patrick tried to wave him off, the cop punched him. Patrick defended himself and immediately was shot by another cop and lay on the street in pool of blood, gasping for air. He died soon after.

The next weekend a large, militant demonstration occurred at Patrick’s workplace, attended by many rank-and-file community groups. The protesters tore down barricades and the police were told not to “escort” the marchers. While politicians and misleaders called for a federal investigation, the protesters’ mood was clearly different. People were very receptive to Progressive Labor Party literature and CHALLENGE. Some speakers championed the need to close down Wall Street and the city’s business districts.

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Bosses’ Police Declare War on Working Class

In July, the names of Manuel Diaz and Joel Acevedo were added to those of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr., Ramarley Graham, Shantel Davis, Rasheed Simms, Anastasio Hernandez Rojas, Sergio Guereca, Carlos La Madrid, Derek Lopez, Raul Rosas and countless others who have been murdered by the police. In the immediate aftermath of the Manuel Diaz murder, residents of the Anaheim, CA, neighborhood where he was shot took to the streets to confront the police over the unjustified killing. Police dispersed the crowd with tear gas, rubber bullets and a rampaging police dog that tried to attack an infant (Democracy Now, 7/24/12).  

The murders and the police response have led many to wonder whether the police have declared war on black and Latino communities. In fact, for forty years now the police have officially declared war on the entire working class. Following the urban uprisings of the late 1960s, the ruling class looked for better ways to control working-class anger. Because black, Latino and immigrant workers are the most exploited under capitalism, the bosses fear their anger and use racist ideas and outright racist attacks to keep populations passive. Since the sixties, the police have become increasingly militarized.

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Car Wash Workers Expose Exploiting Boss

A group of workers associated with several community organizations conducted militant protests in front of two car washes, property of two different owners. The group chanted “Car Washers United Will Never Be Defeated” and “Workers United Will Never Be Defeated,” as well as many other militant slogans. We showed our solidarity with these mostly immigrant workers, some undocumented, who’ve had “enough” and have decided to form a trade union to fight for their rights and to be heard. These workers are fighting for a higher minimum wage and better working conditions.

Justice and Workers’ Rights

Just the mention of these two ideas got the owners of the car washes to retaliate against the workers, reducing their working hours and harassing them to force them to quit their jobs. The main issue here is the soon-approaching union elections.

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Apartheid Alive in South Africa Armed Miners Defy Racist Massacre

Apartheid is alive and growing in South Africa. The racist police massacre of 34 striking miners, the wounding of 78 others and the arrest of 259 outside the Lonmin platinum mine in Rustenberg on August 16 mirrors the apartheid of the late 20th century, the one of a racist white Nazi-type capitalist ruling class oppressing the entire black population. In fact, apartheid became a virtual synonym for racism.

“The strike and the government’s iron-fisted response are emblematic of…South Africa’s largely white-owned business establishment and…[the fact] that the ANC [African National Congress] and its allies have become too cozy with big business” (New York Times, 8/17). 

The current apartheid pits this mostly white big business

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SOUTH AFRICA: RACIST MASSACRE OF STRIKING MINERS

“I never thought I’d see this in my South Africa in a million years.” That’s how one young reporter, speaking for many, expressed his horror at the racist police massacre of 34 striking miners, the wounding of 78 others and the arrest of 259 outside the Lonmin platinum mine on August 16.

This horror is compounded by the fact that one of the most inspiring and heroic struggles of the later 20^th Century was the mass struggle against Apartheid in South Africa. Workers and students organized a movement of millions under the most Nazi-like terror, led by the African National Congress (ANC). Miners, auto and transit workers and students led strikes and walkouts while their leaders were either in prison or in exile. They carried out armed struggle.

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Capitalism Equals Mass Racist Murder and War

The mass racist killings on August 5 by a neo-Nazi veteran in Milwaukee, Wisconsin was not an isolated atrocity. When Wade Michael Page murdered six people and wounded three others in a Sikh temple, he reflected both the long-term needs and contradictions of U.S. imperialism. As the U.S. ruling class proceeds on its collision course with rising capitalists in China over the world’s oil and gas and cheap labor, its murderous brutality will victimize workers at home, as well. 

The ex-GI’s crime exposes a serious flaw in the U.S. war machine, where racism cuts two ways. On the one hand, the top brass needs racism to motivate troops to kill dehumanized enemies. On the other, racism hinders U.S. bosses’ ability to mobilize for ever-larger wars that will inevitably become global.

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Anti-Racist Troops Turn the Guns Around

U.S. rulers’ worries over the Pentagon’s ability to field a reliable military harkens back to the mass GI rebellion during the Vietnam War. Writing in the June 1971 Armed Forces Journal, Col. Robert Heinl, a Marine historian, described it as “The Collapse of the Armed Forces.” And it was a massive collapse:

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