Eyewitness Hits Bosses’ Lies About Haiti’s Workers’ Fight for Survival

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — As we entered the city we found it to be remarkably calm, especially at night. Many people sleep in the streets; some do this because they have lost their homes, others because their homes are presently unsafe, and because they fear there will be another earthquake. Workers here have built tent cities to live in. Despite the poor conditions, there is order and community. People arrange their tents into straight lines, leave spaces for public use, and organize a security crew to watch over them at night and to ensure that cars do not trample the tents.

Click to read more ...

State of Their Union: Expanding U.S. Imperialism in Haiti

In Obama’s State of the Union address, he grossly insulted the earthquake-stricken working class of U.S.-occupied Haiti. He talked for over an hour, mainly about domestic issues, concentrating on restoring U.S. bosses’ profits amid workers’ misery, while completely ignoring the more than 200,000 deaths — a toll vastly multiplied by the poverty U.S. capitalism forces on Haiti. (See CHALLENGE, 2/3) He passed over the millions more now suffering injuries, disease, homelessness and hunger under the guns of well-cared-for U.S. troops.

Click to read more ...

Wall Street Big Shots Run Doctors Without Borders

• Doctors Without Borders (DWB) Chairman (and Exxon Mobil and JP MorganChase heir) Richard Rockefeller, M.D. heads the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the main bankroller of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) think-tank. Rockefeller’s CFR has helped guide every U.S. military invasion since World War II — massacring millions in Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan while training death squads in Latin America.

Click to read more ...

Eyewitness Report on Haiti’s Workers’ Heroism Inspires HS Students, Staff

NEW YORK CITY, February 3 — “We will have to rebuild Haiti all over again. Maybe this time we should make it communist,” exclaimed a student. “What do you guys think?” she asked. This occurred at our emergency student government forum last week in a local high school about the crisis in Haiti

Click to read more ...

D.C. Metro Bosses Hike Fare, Kill 2 Workers; PL’ers’ Target: Capitalism

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 27 — Tonight Metro bosses held public hearings, asking the public to comment on whether the transit system should raise fares, reduce service, or transfer funds from the maintenance budget into operations. Some choice! All of these actions would harm workers and intensify racism.

PLP’ers testifying at the hearing condemned the “choice,” demanding no cuts in service, no fare increase, and no attacks on workers, calling instead for a mass militant movement led by labor to fight for proper funding (from the bosses who have made billions from the transit system). Another person declared that these cuts were fundamentally racist because of their disproportional impact on black and Latino workers. But today’s capitalist system in crisis is unlikely to respond favorably even to the most militant actions of workers, making a revolutionary organization critical to the future.

Click to read more ...

PL’s Ideas Catching On: Airport Cleaners Vote Strike vs. Bosses’ Racism

MID-WEST AIRPORT, February 1 — At the packed SEIU union hall, metro area and airport cleaners voted unanimously to strike against the racist bosses. The metro area cleaners are preparing  to fight against unfair labor practices, contract give-backs and racism. Meanwhile,  janitors in a downtown office building filed two formal complaints  against the cleaning bosses for blatant racism. New black cleaners are forced to wear different uniforms from the Latino cleaners at $2.50 less pay!

This racist super-exploitation is designed to increase the bosses’ profits and maintain a racially-divided work-force. But this divide-and-conquer attempt failed — all the black, Latino, white and Asian immigrants and citizens voted not to clean one single building until our demands are met.

Click to read more ...

Mass Anger Erupts Over Bloomberg’s Racist School KKKlosings

BROOKLYN, NY, January 26 — Billionaire mayor Mike Bloomberg’s Panel on Educational Policy voted to close twenty “failing” NYC schools today, some time after 3:00 am following nine hours of testimony from staff, students and parents at these schools protesting such a decision. Two thousand angry workers and youth drowned out NYC schools’ Chancellor Joel Klein with chants during his entire opening remarks. Through long-standing ties at one of the twenty schools, three PLPers managed to gain early spots on the speakers’ list. We used these opportunities to broaden out the already sharp attacks on Klein and condemn the overall racist nature of these school closings and education under capitalism in general.

Click to read more ...

Chicago PL Youth Tie Haiti, Katrina to Capitalism on King-Day March

CHICAGO, January 16 — “We know what we’re fighting for!” echoed down 63rd Street in Englewood, drawing people out to watch the multi-racial group of youth and adults march, chanting “No more rich and no more poor!” The march, hosted by a church in Hyde Park, was against poverty and for equality, to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, but the tone turned militant when youth around PLP, mostly Englewood residents, took over the chanting.

We distributed a flier connecting the capitalist-inflicted poverty and the devastation in Haiti following the earthquake to the similar economic-related Hurricane Katrina disaster. PLP’s “Fight-Back!” chant had people dancing in the streets, at the bus stops, raising their fists and chanting. It was a welcome change from the usual gang members walking down 63rd Street!

Click to read more ...

The Great Train Robbery: Bosses Destroying Transit Jobs, Service

“Public-Transit Passengers Face Rough Ride.”  This is the happy New Year message from the Wall St Journal (WSJ) (Jan. 2, 2010). As spokesperson for the big financial capitalists like Goldman Saks, Bank of America, and Citibank, the WSJ only confirms what we transit workers already know about the destruction of transit jobs and service in our own particular cities.

Here are some Facts:

Click to read more ...

AIDS Protesters Picket White House, Slam Obama’s Racist ‘Freeze’

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 27 — PLP joined several friends in public health  as well as 40 other AIDS activists as they picketed the White House on the afternoon of Obama’s State of the Union address. Chanting, “Money for AIDS, Not for War” and holding signs saying, “Frozen AIDS Budget Means Waiting Lists for AIDS Housing and Treatment,” we protested Obama’s racist and sexist proposal to freeze federal spending on domestic programs for three years. These are areas where mostly black, Latino and female workers need services the most: public health, housing, literacy, and transportation.

As one activist wrote in her call to action, “This is a nightmare scenario. We’re in the middle of an economic crisis, and people are losing their jobs, their homes, their healthcare. This budget freeze would devastate efforts to address HIV in our communities, and around the world. Waiting lists are growing every day for housing, and AIDS treatment and care. Syringe exchanges can finally get federal funding, but now there’s no new money to fund them. We have to push back!”

Click to read more ...