Smash U.S. Gestapo—workers have no borders

Texas, September 21—Governor Greg Abbott launched Operation Lonestar, a belligerent, racist campaign to criminalize workers desperate to escape the horrors of U.S. imperialism. In a clear demonstration of the bitter rivalry between the Small Fascist conservatives and the Big Fascist liberals, the Abbott administration transported migrant workers, arriving on the Texas border, to democrat run states along the Northeast. This is life under capitalism. A few months into the offensive more than 11,000 migrant workers from Latin America and Africa have been bussed in working class neighborhoods (U.S.A Today, 9/2) with thousands being dumped in New York City shelters with no money, clothing, and given few resources to ensure their survival (The City, 9/16).

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Inflation, morbid symptom of capitalism’s crises

Inflation is the latest way the capitalist system’s crises are deepening the oppression of workers around the world. Capitalism is driven by competition and profit accumulation and generates global economic and political instability, preventing stability and wellbeing for the world’s working class. While inflation is depriving U.S. workers of some of life’s necessities, the U.S.’s export of inflation to other countries is even more devastating. We fight to replace this absurd system with a worker-run planned economy – communism.

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Profit motive poisons our class

Have you wondered about chemicals or other harmful substances in our food and water? Do you assume governmental agencies—the FSIS (Food, Safety, Inspection Service), the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control)—look out for our best interest, health, and well-being? Are we safe with high quality food and water? After reading this article, ask yourself these questions again. Weed killer in our bodies A Time Magazine online article 2017, (October) reviews several studies, showing that glyphosate, a weed killer known as Roundup, is increasingly showing up in people’s bodies. Here’s some evidence:

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RED EYE ON THE NEWS ... October 5, 2022

Life under capitalism is getting worse The Next Recession, 9/11–Life expectancy fell in the US in 2021 to its lowest since 1996, the second year of a historic retreat, mainly due to COVID-19 deaths…disparity in life expectancy between men and women widened last year to the highest in more than two decades, with American men now expected to live just 73.2 years, nearly six fewer years than women. Deaths from COVID-19 contributed to over half of the overall decline in U.S. life expectancy last year. But COVID was not the only factor in the decline. Drug overdoses and heart disease are also major contributors,the data showed…Suicide-related deaths are the third-leading contributor to the decline in life expectancy for American men.

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Atrocities of the British Empire

Queen Elizabeth and her predecessors presided over much of the most deadly imperialism in history (see editorial about her much-delayed death, page 2). At its peak, England seized nearly one quarter of the Earth’s landmass and oppressed nearly 20 percent of the world’s population. Here are some lowlights of the British rulers’ 400 years of racist, blood-soaked colonial expansion: Between 1641 and 1808, Britain kidnapped and forcibly moved more than 3 million workers from Africa to the Americas. About 15 percent died en route; the rest were sold into lifetimes of horror. During the 1848-1849 Potato Famine in Ireland, a direct result of British economic policies, one million workers in Ireland were killed; another one million were forced to flee.

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Letters ... October 5, 2022

Transit workers not scared by bosses’ tactics At an early morning rally in front of a transit repair shop in Chicago, a railcar repair worker called for workers to fight back against the bosses. His words rang out as the workers cheered him on with encouragement, honking horns and smiles. "The bosses have tried to divide us, pit us against each other and disrespect us with low wages and poor working conditions."

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EDITORIAL ... Student debt: Smash the bosses’ banks and state!

Amid a deepening recession, a sharp decline in U.S. dominance, a ruling class in turmoil, and an accelerating trend toward fascism and global war, President Joe Biden has finally unveiled his college loan forgiveness plan. Designed to erase $10,000 to $20,000 of student debt, the plan is being hailed as a big win for the working class. In reality, it’s a desperate effort to paper over the capitalist bosses’ broken college model. In previous generations, a college education provided some workers with more financial security. Today, it both fails to deliver the elusive American middle-class dream and traps millions of students in capitalist debt slavery.

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#RISEUPTOWN FOR 11 DAYS: DEMOLISH FOR-PROFIT HOUSING

CHICAGO, September 7—When real estate gentrifiers at Lincoln Property Company bought out the parking lot of Weiss Memorial Hospital in the Uptown neighborhood with plans to turn it into a luxury high rise development, a coalition of workers and organizers fought back and the international communist Progressive Labor Party (PLP) was there providing supplies and communist leadership to the struggle. Organizers quickly formed an encampment out of tents, tarps, and tables, collectivizing the resources provided by the coalition, formally called #RiseUptown. Motivated by the belief that housing should be affordable, if not free, this anti-gentrification coalition camped out in the former parking lot and Covid testing center for 11 days.

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Paul Robeson: Communist hero of the working class

The career of Paul Robeson, in both life and death, is an inspiring story of antiracist struggle and revolutionary communist class-consciousness and fightback: his life remains a model for the entire international working class. It’s also a story that makes crystal clear the racist hypocrisy of the U.S. ruling class, and the treachery of the bourgeois Black misleaders. They attempted to appropriate his memory after his death—while during his life, did everything they could to repress and tarnish him. Scholar, athlete, singer, actor, antiracist, communist

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Strikers fought, must steer towards revolution

Landover, MD, August 23—The two-week strike of mainly Black Metro Access workers at Hubbard Road ended with major concessions from the Metro transit system’s contractor, the infamous global exploiter of transit workers, Transdev. Their boldness and determination forced Transdev to come up with a 37 percent wage increase over three years, up from the previous paltry starting wage of $17/hour. It is the shameful racist capitalist system that forces such essential paratransit workers, who ensure that disabled and ill people can make their appointments, to fight for a barely living wage.

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