Worker-Patient Unity Needed vs. Cuomo-Boss Gang-up

These racist plans will likely involve hundreds of layoffs and cuts in services in central Brooklyn. A year ago, as Downstate Medical Center  “saved” Long Island College Hospital from closing, we felt secure in what we thought was an economically sound, indeed growing, institution in a sea of troubled Brooklyn hospitals. But the appearance belied the essence of what was going on. How could this happen?

To understand this and how to fight back, we need to take a step back and grasp what is driving the changing capitalist health care system in 2012. Change is caused by the interplay of contradictory or competing forces. What are the forces at play in healthcare?

Click to read more ...

Jewish, Arab Workers March vs. Evictions

TEL-AVIV-JAFF, ISRAEL-PALESTINE, May 8 — Thousands of Jewish and Arab workers, many of whom live in public housing apartments, marched today to protest the racist policies of the public housing companies. The marchers demanded housing for all (regardless of ethnicity) and an end to the evictions of Arab workers from their homes by the “Amidar,” “Amigur” and “Halamish” companies. Chants also called for a revolution and for an egalitarian society. A speech by a PL’er linking the racism in housing to the bosses’ financial interests and calling for a workers’ revolution was welcomed by loud applause.

Exploiting Jewish Workers 

Israel’s public housing companies, at least partially state-owned, were

Click to read more ...

Israel Steals Land; U.S. Tycoons Profit

WADI AL-NAAM, ISRAEL-PALESTINE, March 30 — Hundreds marked the Land Day in memory of violent land theft engineered by the Israeli government since 1976, in this “unrecognized” Bedouin village in southern Israel-Palestine. Eight thousand working-class families live in this village, with no basic infrastructure such as electricity, running water and proper roads.

Another village in southern Israel-Palestine is al-Arakib, also not recognized by the Israeli government. Its residents hold title for their lands since the days of the Ottoman Empire. This does not bother the Israel Land Administration, which makes fiery speeches about “the right  of private property” but hypocritically forgets this “right” completely when it comes to the rights of workers in general and Arabs in particular.

Click to read more ...

U.S. Constitution Serves Only the Ruling Class

“Liberals” and “conservatives” both tell us that the U.S. Constitution is there to protect the working class and middle class from oppression. As Jerry Fresia’s Toward an American Revolution — Exposing the Constitution and Other Illusions shows, nothing could be further from the truth. In a word, the Constitution was intended to be and always has been an instrument of the capitalist class to protect its wealth from former slaves and the rest of the working class. It ensures power over the propertyless. Initially it protected the slaveowners from the northern bankers and manufacturers. The book is now almost a quarter century old, but is still very relevant and an easy read.  

Today, there are numerous executive orders and laws, that pretend to protect us from terrorism. They permit increased wiretapping and electronic surveillance. They allow anyone the government chooses to be held in extended arbitrary detention without trial. They carry out military tribunals with no rights of appeal, and many other forms of governmental oppression.  

Click to read more ...

Students Defy Racist Principal Forman Defend Communists

BROOKLYN, NY, May 9 — “Fight back, fight back!” Hundreds of Clara Barton H.S. students poured out onto the streets today to protest harassment and show support for two teachers, both PLP members, who received an unsatisfactory (U) rating last June. The rally had a broad base of support and was endorsed by local union delegates as well as union caucuses, including  SOTU (State of the Union). Hundreds of students and many staff members wore stickers with messages of support all around the school. 

When students came out of the building, a group of retired teachers were there to greet them with signs. The students grabbed flyers as they left the school. Many still wore the stickers and chanted “Schools Not Jails” as they exited.

Click to read more ...

PL’ers Shine Red Beacon on Anti-NATO Protest

CHICAGO, May 20 — Thousands entered the streets here today to protest the meeting of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). NATO was formed after World War II to contain and undermine the first workers’ state, the Soviet Union. The western bosses feared that the example of the communist-led USSR, which had just defeated the German Nazis, the world’s most powerful military, would inspire workers worldwide to fight for a workers’ state. 

Click to read more ...

Obama: Peacemaker or Warmonger?

The upcoming presidential election campaign between the U.S. capitalists’ twin stooges, Barack Obama and Mitt Romeny, marks a critical period for the candidates’ imperialist handlers. Facing large rivals (China, Russia) and smaller ones (Iran, North Korea, al Qaeda), the bosses’ solution requires ever-widening wars led by the U.S. in the Middle East and Asia, especially over energy resources. To wage them, they need to win millions of workers to back the U.S. rulers’ policies, now personified by Obama.

It’s a difficult proposition for the bosses, since these policies are directly opposed to workers’ class interests. Romney’s election could make it even more difficult, since he’s a more transparent enemy of workers and youth.

Click to read more ...

May Day HS Walkout Hits Racist Cuts, Cops

BROOKLYN, May 1 — At noon today, a handful of students exited Brooklyn Technical High School and gathered at a local café. Although their numbers were smaller than they’d hoped, the students decided to go through with their planned course of action. Lined up in two rows, they began marching and chanting around the school. Soon other students from the school joined them. A march of 15 grew into a march of 50.

Chants were led by a few young people who have been in or around Progressive Labor Party. Instead of limiting the protest to racist cutbacks on education, the chants tied together a number of ills that students face under capitalism. 

Click to read more ...

College Students Answer Attacks: ‘Register to Revolt!’

It’s election season at Queens College, a time when all the register-to-vote-ers and the student government hopefuls rally to show us how effective they think elections are, both on campus and on the national scale. On our campus these election campaigns (both student and presidential) are happening in an immediate context of massive tuition hikes, a heightened exploitation of our teachers, fewer and fewer options for us when we graduate, and an intensifying criminalization of black, Latino, and Muslim students. So, we fought back! 

Click to read more ...

Signs of Rebellion As Teacher Union Hacks Side with Bosses

BUFFALO, NY, April 27 — New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) is on a campaign here to win teachers to defend capitalism, a tough sell when teachers are being singled out for especially vicious attacks. Delegate numbers for NYSUT’s state convention, the state affiliate of the two national teacher unions, are sharply down this year. Teacher anger is seething. 

Click to read more ...