Asian Trade Deal: Prelude to war?

On November 15, China signed the world’s largest “free” trade agreement with 14 other Asia-Pacific nations. Beyond reducing tariffs and easing barriers to capitalist investments, the trade deal represents a giant step toward fascism and global war between China and its imperialist arch-rival, the U.S.
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) “covers almost one-third of the world’s population and about one-third of its gross domestic product” (South China Morning Post, 12/1). The new alliance includes all 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, China’s top trading partner. It also draws four traditionally U.S.-leaning countries more deeply into China’s orbit: Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. By strengthening ties with its neighbors, China will be less vulnerable to U.S. sanctions. Along with the Belt and Road Initiative, the gigantic Chinese infrastructure project of trains, roads, and gas and oil pipelines, the RCEP gives China tremendous leverage over poorer debtor capitalist bosses.

Click to read more ...

Anniversary of Alex Flores: WOMEN WORKERS LEAD ANTIRACIST MOVEMENT

LOS ANGELES, November 30—"We all want justice for these families. That's why we are here. But if we are honest, and this is a hard conversation to have especially with the families who lost loved ones, real justice can only come when we overthrow capitalism!"
This speech was also the overwhelming sentiment of the 75 people, including five other families who lost loved ones to racist killer cops, who came to Newton police station tonight. We commemorated the life of Alex Flores, who was murdered by the racist LAPD November 19, 2019.

Click to read more ...

Biden’s Cabinet: Faces of Liberal Fascism

The United States president exercises government power on a day-to-day basis to keep the blood-sucking, war-making U.S. profit system running. This job requires a committee of people, a Cabinet, that assists the president with the constant oversight and adjustment of executive government activity: imperialist war, law enforcement, government finances, diplomacy, preserving capitalism, and more.
In analyzing the role of presidents and prime ministers of their day, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote in the Communist Manifesto that “the executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.” In 1848 when capitalist classes in Europe were on the rise, they were relatively unified and focused on completing their drives to push monarchs from power and suppress early efforts of workers to organize fightback and revolution.

Click to read more ...

Hospital bosses have no mercy for working-class patients

CHICAGO, November 24—Over 35 multiracial workers and community members braved the wind and the rain today to protest the bosses’ racist proposal to close Mercy Hospital. Members of the communist Progressive Labor Party (PLP) spread revolutionary politics to help build the struggle against this racist attack. While distributing CHALLENGE and making conversation with workers, PLP asserted that a health industry under capitalism will always sacrifice workers’ lives for profit.

Click to read more ...

Colombia: for Javier, shut this racist system down!

BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA, December 2—The brutal murder-by-cop of Javier Ordoñez was the last straw. The video of their initial interaction, which was widely shared on social media, shows Javier Ordoñez pleading "please, no more" as cops repeatedly electrocuted him with a stun gun. He later died of head injuries while in police custody.

Click to read more ...

Mohawk Update: No such thing as a neutral state

CHICAGO, December 2—We are currently seeing workers fight back by cooperating in a mass way to take on the racist capitalist bosses. Members of the international communist Progressive Labor Party (PLP) are helping build a citywide antiracist support network, because the only defense we can count on is a unified and fighting working class.

Click to read more ...

Homeless workers displaced again:Trash the bosses and their courts

NEW YORK CITY, November 29—About 80 protesters in the Upper West Side opposed Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to forcibly relocate workers from The Lucerne (hotel-turned-men’s shelter) to the financial district. Out of this struggle, workers and Progressive Labor Party members are learning two things: the potential power of working-class unity and the inability of this system to provide housing for all.

Click to read more ...

Red memoir: A life of labor and love

In A life of Labor and Love: A Red Memoir, Wally Linder reminds us of both the power of a united working class to fight the capitalist bosses, and of the special people that make up our class. He interweaves the political and the personal as he chronicles his 89 years of life. He shares the joys and the tragedies, and we get a glimpse of the heart and soul of this ordinary but extraordinary man.

Click to read more ...

Biden’s victory buys time for bosses—workers still lose!

The results are in. The victory for U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is a step toward more racism and global war. In the March/April issue of Foreign Affairs, the leading journal of the liberal finance capital wing of the U.S. ruling class, Biden stated, “As president, I will take immediate steps to renew U.S. democracy and alliances, protect the United States’ economic future, and once more have America lead the world” (Foreign Affairs, 1/23). Now that Biden and running mate Kamala Harris have won the election, their first task is to strengthen the U.S. in its life-and-death competition with the Chinese and Russian capitalist bosses.
Historically, the ruling class has used elections to sort out their differences and redefine their strategies for inter-imperialist rivalry and the best way to attack the U.S. working class. But with U.S. capitalism in a state of growing weakness and volatility, this fall’s election resolved very little.  If anything, the gutter-racist Trump has become even more dangerous as he refuses to concede (New York Times, 11/16).

Click to read more ...

It’s a lethal system: SMASH THE BOSSES AND THEIR KKKOPS

LOS ANGELES, November 18—The headline almost says it all. He Checked into a UCLA Hospital While Suffering From a Mental Illness, and a Sheriff Shot Him Nine Times While Trying To Use the Restroom  (LA Taco, 11/16).  
On October 6, Nick Burgos, 38, was gunned down by LA County Sheriffs while hospitalized at Harbor UCLA hospital. Not even within a so-called "health" institution are workers safe from these kkkops. A healthcare mass organization, in which Progressive Labor Party is active, responded with protests. One  family, survivors of previous police terror, joined the fight. Their loved one Ruben Herrera was killed in the same hospital by the same racist sheriffs six years prior.

Click to read more ...