Rohingya Crisis: U.S.-China Proxy War

As the Myanmar military continues its genocidal onslaught—murdering children, raping women, torching whole villages—against the Rohingya people, the U.S. rulers’ media have focused on religious differences in this small country in Southeast Asia. In reality, the mass atrocities and displacement in Myanmar are products of capitalist greed and inter-imperialist rivalry. U.S., Chinese, and local bosses are vying for control over rich reserves of oil and natural gas in Rakhine state, the Rohingyas’ home. Even more critically, U.S. bosses are exploiting the plight of Myanmar’s Muslim minority in a desperate effort to check China’s rise as the dominant power in Asia—and beyond.

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Workers March Against Haitian Bosses’ Budget

Port-au-Prince, Haiti, September 18—As growing demonstrations against the anti-worker national budget entered their third week, class struggle here is intensifying. A general strike was called by transport workers, followed by two more days of demonstrations. From the capital to the provinces, up to 10,000 people have angrily taken to the streets to protest outrageous attacks on the working class, including a flat tax of US$186 for access to public administration services and an annual renter’s tax of six to 10 percent. For example, an individual in a home worth US$3226 would pay US$326/year. The bosses’ budget includes more money for the functioning of Parliament and the executive branch than for education and health.
According to Radio Kiskeya, the strike was 95 percent successful around the capital. It was also widely respected in St-Marc, Petit Goave, Les Cayes, and Hinche, all large population centers. Union leaders are calling this a warning strike. If the government persists in going forward with the budget, more actions are planned.

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Bolshevik Revolution Centennial Series: Free at Last! The World’s First Workers’ State

This is the first in an extensive series of articles about the Bolshevik Revolution and the triumphs, as well as the defeats, of the world communist movement of the 20th century. We welcome your comments and criticisms.

One hundred years ago, November 7, 1917, marked the beginning of the single most important event of the 20th century, the Bolshevik revolution. Russia’s working class, headed by the revolutionary communists of the Bolshevik Party and its leader, Vladimir Lenin, freed one-sixth of the world’s surface from capitalism.
The world was changed forever. The rulers were now ruled. Exploiters the world over were trembling.
The Communist Manifesto of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels (1848) described why workers were oppressed and told them what to do about it. The Manifesto declared that in making a revolution workers “had only their chains to lose.” Seventy years later the Bolshevik Revolution proved that the chains of oppression can be ripped off completely.

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Struggle Deportation & Police Killings, Same Fight vs. Capitalist Terror

NEW YORK CITY, September 27—Over forty people attended from the different congregations where Progressive Labor Party (PLP) have a base gathered for a revival. We sang songs that called for justice, including the song, “Go Down Moses,” which a comrade rewrote to reflect our anti-racism politics. Some also sang “Ballad of the Deportees” to help inspire our antiracist struggles against deportations and murder by police.

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Mexico Earthquakes Destruction Uncovers Workers’ Solidarity & Govt’s Atrocity

The earthquake on September 19 killed at least 333 people in Central Mexico, injured thousands of others, and displaced thousands more. Hundreds of thousands of homes were destroyed or damaged so severely as to be uninhabitable. Mexico City has been devastated, but the states of Morelos and Puebla were particularly hit. Overnight, cities have become ruins.
In wake of this catastrophe, workers look to themselves to rescue and provide basic resources. Much like the 1985 earthquake exactly 32 years ago, the capitalist government exposed themselves to be the opportunist profit-driven leeches they are.

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Howard Students Shut Down Former FBI Director Comey

Washington, D.C., September 22—The Howard University bosses felt pain from their ill-advised decision to invite former FBI Director James Comey to be the featured speaker at the University’s opening Convocation. Over 20 students organized as “HU Resist” inflicted that pain. They marched into the auditorium just before Comey was to speak singing the old protest song, “We Shall Not Be moved.”
The protesters then chanted, “Get out James Comey! You’re not our homie!” and  “No justice, no peace, no f***ing police!” They read a list of Black members of the working class killed by the police.
Comey tried to speak but could not be heard over the chanting and finally sat down. The protesters marched out to join a bigger rally outside the auditorium. They rallied on the Yard (the main campus), growing in numbers.
The…students issued a statement saying Comey “represents an institution diametrically opposed to the interests of black people domestically and abroad. While his tenure at the FBI has finished, his impact on our community remains.”

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Anti-Racist Rebels Rock St. Louis Bosses

It’s barely three years since racist killer cop Darren Wilson murdered teenager Mike Brown in cold blood, in the streets of Ferguson. Now workers in the St. Louis area, and all over the world, have witnessed kkkop Jason Stockley get acquitted for the racist murder of 24-year-old unarmed Black father Anthony Lamar Smith. The international communist Progressive Labor Party (PLP)stands in working-class solidarity with the anti-racist fighters of St Louis, with the revolutionary message that justice for victims of fascist police terror will only be gained by smashing this racist and sexist capitalist system worldwide.

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Cuba: Hurricane Response Is a Political Question

The ability of a society to respond to natural disasters is primarily a political question. Communism is the exact opposite of the hopeless self-serving mantras of modern capitalism. While Cuba has long ago given up socialism in favor of becoming the next vacation hot spot, the ideology and practices have hung on to some degree, both in the state’s priorities and the outlook of the people.
Cuba’s reaction to Hurricane Irma gives us a fading look at what has been lost as the communist movement has declined over the last 50 years as well as a small glimmer at what is possible in a society fully dedicated to serving the needs of the great masses of people.

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FIGHT GENOCIDAL CAPITALIST LAND GRABS IN MYANMAR

Imperialism and Capitalist Exploitation at Heart of Myanmar’s Destruction of Rohingya Community

MARCH TO MYANMAR EMBASSY

SEPTEMBER 30, 4PM, 1747 Columbia Rd NW, WASHINGTON, DC.

The imperialist rivalry among China, India, and the US is embedded in the destruction of Rohingya villages, the murder of Rohingya people by the military and racist vigilantes, and the forced migration of at least 400,000 refugees into neighboring Bangladesh. These attacks are mainly portrayed as an attack on Muslims who have been denied citizenship in Myanmar, and labelled in the mass media as a religious issue. But is religious persecution at the root of this human crisis?  Or is it a storyline meant to mask the true cause: displacement of peasant farmers by capitalist and imperialist interests in order to exploit a strategic, resource-rich region?

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Capitalism: An Unnatural Disaster

The devastation of mass flooding in South Asia, West Africa, and the U.S. has exposed the anarchy of capitalism, a failed system that magnifies destruction instead of preparing society to get through the storms.
Under capitalism, resources are invested where the greatest profits can be made. In general, capitalist bosses have little interest in keeping themselves in check—partly out of greed, but mainly out of fear that other capitalists will get to those profits first.

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