Taxi Workers Slam Uber With International Solidarity

LONG ISLAND CITY, NY, February 2—While tens of thousands of workers and youth were protesting at JFK and other airports against the racist travel ban on Muslims from seven countries, the NY Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA) called a one-hour strike on travel to JFK. This bold act of international, anti-racist solidarity was delivered by an immigrant, mostly Muslim workforce, and enjoyed widespread support.
Uber, on the other hand, tried to make a quick buck by quadrupling their rates on fares to and from JFK. The one-hour strike further exposed Uber as a strike breaker, union buster, and price gouger in the midst of an international crisis. A “Delete Uber” campaign erupted as thousands deleted Uber apps from their smart phones.

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DC Transit Put the Brakes on Budget Cuts & Fare Hikes

WASHINGTON, DC, January 30—Progressive Labor Party members protested with 25 other workers and riders outside the headquarters of Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) as the transit bosses held a public hearing began on raising the fare and cutting service.
Over 300 workers and riders attended the hearing. Ninety workers spoke out, condemning the cutbacks in transit service and the proposed increase in fares. The next day, the transit bosses claimed to have found some money to reduce their estimated deficit.

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Worker-Student Alliance Threatens Campus Bosses & Cops

NEW YORK CITY, January 20—At our campus’s main entrance, dozens of multiracial, multigender, students, faculty and staff held a militant rally supporting undocumented immigrant students. Much organizing and struggle led to this rally and there is much more to come. The antiracist marchers chanted “Racism means… We got to fight back!” at a line of confused and intimidated campus police. Tensions rose.
As we approached the campus entrance, a young woman Muslim student declared, “Okay I’m skipping class and staying. This is way more important and my professor should be out here anyway.”
Near the scared line of campus police, we hesitated. We didn’t realize it, but the cops were afraid the militant rally would shut down the main campus entrance. But we backed off, and several cops breathed audible sighs of relief.

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LA Airport: These Racist Borders Have Got to Go

LOS ANGELES, January 29—Friends and members of Progressive Labor Party joined thousands of protestors at Los Angeles International Airport to demand the reversal of Trump’s fascist travel ban on Muslim workers. We were energized that so many workers responded quickly and militantly to fascism. It confirms our confidence in the working class that when workers are attacked, they will fight back! Now more than ever, we need to be talking to our friends and building relationships in mass organizations so that we can channel working class rage into war against the bosses and their capitalist system.

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Imperialist Trump Inherits Crises

The United States presidential election circus has moved to the White House, where the volatile Donald Trump has become the face of the U.S. ruling class. While Trump tweets his “alternative facts” (also known as “lies”), he is inheriting a weakening U.S. empire under threat from inter-imperialist rivals Russia and China. The growing instability of the worldwide capitalist order points the way to the next world war.
Trump is assuming the presidency as U.S. bosses’ world dominance faces its greatest challenge since World War II. The old global order—where a far superior U.S. military held sway over the Atlantic and Pacific, dominated the Middle East and Latin America, and controlled every oil route—is under attack from all sides.
U.S. losses in Iraq and Afghanistan, on top of internal divisions within the U.S. ruling class, have emboldened Russian and Chinese bosses to expand their spheres of influence. Seeing a power vacuum, smaller capitalists are seizing any opportunity to assert their autonomy. As the U.S. bosses scramble to put their own house in order, fend off their challengers, and hold on to their faltering empire, they are stuck for now with the undisciplined, unreliable Trump.

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MEXICO Workers Fight for Energy, Organize for Power

VALLE DE CHALCO, MEXICO, January 25— Occupations, demonstrations, marches and road blockades throughout Mexico greeted the government’s twenty percent price increase on gasoline and diesel. On January 1, as the new price increase went into effect, the government said that if they didn’t increase gasoline prices, they would have to make more cuts in healthcare, education and other social programs.
No matter what, increasing the price of gasoline is unsustainable for the working class, which increases the cost of transportation and the most basic products nationwide.
For workers in Valle de Chalco, this is another chapter in a long battle over securing energy sources like gasoline and electricity for the working class. For members and friends of the Progressive Labor Party, it is an important battle in the struggle for workers’ power.

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UC Davis Students, Workers Shut Down Fascist Rally

Davis, CA, January 13—Several hundred students and workers at the University of California at Davis shut down a planned fascist rally featuring Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos and drug price-gouger Martin Shkreli. This sharp confrontation was a small lesson on the role of the state (the government) in protecting fascists, their capitalist masters, and the whole capitalist system. The Progressive Labor Party wants to destroy this bosses’ government and put the working class in power. That’s communism!
Fascist Yiannopoulos was kicked off Twitter when he led the vile, racist harassment of “Ghostbusters” actress Leslie Jones.

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Oakland March: New Reds Politicize Crowd

OAKLAND, January 21—Progressive Labor Party and friends energized a passive crowd at the National Women’s March with our militant anti-capitalist chants and speeches. The turnout was 60,000 people marching without speeches or chants. We decided we had to turn it up. We chanted, “Hey Trump, you fascist, we’ll burn your house to ashes.”
While some appeared confused and apprehensive to join us, many joined in and asked for multiple copies of our 800 leaflets and copies of CHALLENGE. It is out job as communists to expose the whole system, not just trump.

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Class Struggle Rages on in China

Donald Trump, the big-mouthed business tycoon, got elected U.S. president, running on the tide of discontent of the U.S. working class. He claimed during his campaign that the U.S. has been declining because China stole U.S. jobs. He promised that he would force U.S. companies to bring the jobs back. The first day in office, he claimed, he would label China as a manipulator of currency and threaten to put a 45 percent tariff on goods from China. Many workers in the U.S. were led to vote for him because of his tough words on China, trade and job issues.
In response to Donald Trump’s exclamations, David Barboza wrote an article in the New York Times (12/29/16): “How China Built ‘iPhone City’ with Billions in Perks for Apple’s Partner”, accusing China’s government of subsidizing Foxconn to locate its manufacturing facilities in Zhengzhou City, the capital of Henan Province. Journalists like Barboza appear to be preparing public opinion for Trump’s planned policy of getting tough with China.
But, in fact, the Chinese did not steal the jobs from the U.S. It was the U.S. multinational companies that moved jobs to China to avoid paying workers the fair wages and benefits they deserved. Fueled by their racist drive for profit, they came to Chin

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Haiti's Solidarity Soup: Celebrating Workers’ Power

Département du Sud, Haiti—January 1 is an important date on the Haitian calendar; it not only marked the beginning of a new year, but also liberation from chattel slavery and the formation of the world’s first Black republic. Traditionally, workers in Haiti mark the day by eating pumpkin soup—soup joumou, a thick stew with meat and lots of vegetables—recalling that under slavery, they were prohibited from enjoying this soup (it was reserved only for the slave masters and other exploiters).
This year, however, because of the ravages of Hurricane Matthew last October, not only did over 1,000 Haitian workers die, but the pumpkin crop was virtually destroyed in the three southern departments affected. Thus pumpkins were rare, expensive, and unaffordable for most workers in the region.
So another tradition was born. In one provincial town, the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) organized a collective “solidarity soup.”

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