Politicians, Union Hacks Collaborate to Close Hospitals and Attack Workers

BROOKLYN, May 26 — Nurses, maintenance staff and clerical workers occupied the lobby of the Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center. These workers are Fighting against a pattern of racist hospital closures and cutbacks affecting workers in nearly 500 hospitals. The 3,500 workers in this hospital in the Brownsville neighborhood have lost their health insurance coverage because Brookdale has fallen behind in paying $23 million to their benefits fund.

The Brookdale administration claims that it fell behind on payments over the past six months due to its well-publicized financial struggles. But apparently the hospital’s parent company, MediSys Health Systems, had enough money to bribe State Senator Carl Kruger and Assemblyman William F. Boyd, Jr.

In March, federal prosecutors unveiled a criminal case against CEO David F. Rosen, who received millions of dollars in state and city grants and other favors in exchange for giving the politicians fake but well-paid “consulting” jobs. MediSys is also the parent of Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, another major hospital close to bankruptcy. This obscene corruption is nothing new under capitalism, and will remain the norm until workers remove profits from healthcare entirely by smashing it with communist revolution. The fight-back at Brookdale can be one step in that direction.

Brownsville is one of New York City’s poorest neighborhoods, and is 96% black and Latino. For insurance, the community relies primarily on Medicaid, which was cut this April by $2.8 billion. According to a May 2010 study by the Fiscal Policy Institute, unemployment here is 15% to 20%, or about twice the city’s 9.2% average.This excludes from the unemployment rate : the overworked, underpaid, and job-hunters, and those who’ve given up.

The infant mortality rate is on par with Mexico’s —  at 16.7 deaths per 1,000 live births — whereas the U.S. national average is 6.3 deaths per 1,000 births. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, only 32% of the population has a high school diploma, and the neighborhood contains the highest concentration of public housing projects in the United States.

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Protesting Peter King’s Anti-Muslim Racism

“The people united will never be defeated!” rang through the main street of Massapequa Park, outside the office of Rep. Peter King, the U.S. congressman who is building racism and xenophobia by holding hearings on Muslims. Eighty people chanted after one of the keynote speakers spoke of the need for unity of all people against bigotry, racism and hatred. By providing communist leadership to this movement, we can demonstrate that racism is a tool of the larger, systemic problem that is capitalism.

People from peace groups, church groups and others united to speak out against King’s poisonous ideas and to help build a new and growing coalition. There were many different ideologies within the circle of demonstrators chanting on the street that day. But almost everyone joined in chants like, “Muslims, Christians, Jews unite. We’re all in the same fight.”  There were cops on the street and a handful of King supporters who were shouting their usual garbage about demonstrators “not being Americans.”

The various groups that are working to develop relationships and build the movement against racism and xenophobia face a long and uphill struggle. A number of cars drove past; some people hooted at us while others supported us. About half the demonstrators and some passers-by took CHALLENGE.

The church group that sponsored the demonstration also organized a march against AgroProcessors for their abuse of Mexican-born workers, as well as a march in Staten Island against racist attacks on Latinos. These were other examples of uniting people against racism. All of these struggles grew out of church forums to educate members and friends about the particular manifestations of racism. We are getting better at developing these actions. We will do more and become stronger as the struggle continues.

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MAY DAY 2011: PL’ers Bring Communist Politics

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA, May 1 — Over 60,000 people participated in the May Day march, commemorating the day of the International working class. There were courageous youth who hissed and ridiculed harassing cops and politicians claiming to be the saviors of the working class. There were trade union misleaders demanding more crumbs from the capitalist system, and groups of peasants and indigenous communities, displaced by violence, denouncing state and paramilitary crimes.

There were relatives of the disappeared demanding justice, workers in low-paying jobs denouncing their abusive bosses, groups of teachers and students rejecting the privatization of public education. Doctors and nurses denounced the enormous theft of healthcare resources. Opportunists of every shade and color sabotaged the event with loud whistles and without any slogans, dancing as if in a carnival.

Members of PLP began the distribution of more than 3,000 revolutionary fliers and the selling of CHALLENGE very early. Comrades and friends, women and men, arrived in small groups to avoid police harassment. We organized ourselves behind our signs and proudly raised the red flag with the distinctive symbols of our Party.

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No Recovery for Economic Crisis Workers Must Fight Capitalist System

The New York Times (NYT) reported on May 31st that housing prices fell for the eighth straight month and hit the lowest level since the current depression began. According to ShadowStats, the actual unemployment rate has crept back up to 22.3%, despite a brief dip down to 22% in March as seasonal employment began to pick back up. Consumer spending has remained flat as wages continue to fall, despite a small spike due to rising gas and food prices.

The April index of pending deals (a measurement of anticipated home sales) dropped well below a predicted 1% dip to a collapse of 11.6%. With continuing high unemployment and mass wage-cuts, workers are in no position to buy a house in a market flooded with foreclosed homes.

According to the NYT (5/22), banks currently own 872,000 foreclosed properties and in are in the process of foreclosing on one million more. As long as this massive shadow inventory of homes exists, housing prices will continue to fall.

In his blog, economist and NYT columnist Paul Krugman (5/25) proposed that the U.S. is entering a third great depression, less like the Great Depression of the 1930s and more like the Long Depression that dragged on for four decades, from 1873 to the start of World War One. Workers should be warned that both the Long Depression and the Great Depression were worldwide crises in the capitalist imperialist economic system, and that they were “alleviated “ only by world wars.

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India: Capitalism Continues to Murder Workers

A recently released report from the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (Every Thirty Minutes, 2011) revealed that farmers in India are committing suicide at a rate of one every thirty minutes. During the past sixteen years, more than a quarter of a million farmers in India have committed suicide: a tragedy due to the ever-growing cycle of debt that U.S. agro-companies like Monsanto force on Indian farmers.

The IMF and World Bank, institutions controlled by U.S. and European imperialists, have forced market liberalization on India which means the elimination of government subsidies and government-backed loans to farmers. The introduction of U.S. agribusiness, particularly Monsanto, into the region has strong-armed many farmers to being dependent on seeds and fertilizers that are far more expensive than local varieties.

This economic imperialism has thrown agriculture in India into crushing poverty with most farmers making only $250 for an entire year of labor. Many of those who have committed suicide have done so by consuming the very pesticides that put them into so much debt. These victims of capitalism have left heart-wrenching suicide notes addressed to the Indian Prime Minister begging for assistance.

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Combat Capitalist Culture with Communism PL Culture Committee Growing

Members of the recently-reorganized Culture Committee of PL continue to struggle over ideas for presentations to counter the bourgeois culture that surrounds us with the hatreds and anti-working-class propaganda of the ruling class and their mass media.  Our discussion reviewed the pre-May Day event we organized in April. 

We conceived of the idea of a No Borders event to counter the vicious attacks upon undocumented immigrants called “illegal” or “alien” by the bosses’ press. As was pointed out at a demonstration in Staten Island, “How could anyone from the Earth be an alien?”  If anyone is alien, it’s the bosses who don’t care if workers live or die. They use us like pawns, an important cultural understanding. We produced the show, touching on the many facets of anti-immigrant propaganda that are becoming prevalent through media outlets and popular culture in the United States.

We opened the show with a little musical presentation that spoke to the need to smash all borders. Our poetry and song reflected the common humanity of ordinary people struggling in the face of the enormous obstacles that the rulers create to stop us from uniting. The show went on with excerpts from Paul Robeson’s speech made at the Peace Bridge on the Canadian border because Robeson was not allowed to leave the U.S. 

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Pakistan’s Sanitation Workers Fighting Bosses and Open to PL Ideas

PAKISTAN, May 13 — Sanitation workers are the most exploited workers in Pakistan. They live in miserable conditions with slave wages, no security, no pension and no benefits. Parents and children live together in small mud-made dwellings covered with leaves, with one room consisting of a kitchen, living and bedroom. Sanitation workers also suffer special prejudices — they are prohibited from eating or drinking with other people if they do not bring their own cups and dishes. Strikes have begun against these conditions.

They start work early morning and labor for 18 hours for slave wages, without proper equipment like gloves or boots. Permanent workers are paid only 5,000 Pakistani Rupees (PKR) (59 US$) per month; temporary workers get PKR 4,000 (47 US$). If they have an on-the-job accident, they cannot get medical treatment and can be fired anytime. Female domestic workers face violence and sexual attacks. There are no weekends or holidays in their lives —they live just to serve.

Many sanitation workers thus suffer from health problems produced by working conditions. Some suffer from blindness. Skin and breathing problems are very common but there is no free medical treatment or any other benefit. When sick they cannot remain in their small dwellings; if they do not work they cannot eat.

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I.M.F. Boss’s Rape Arrest Reflects Growing Imperialist Rivalry

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the I.M.F., has a long history of sexual assaults without any repercussions. But when he raped a West African hotel housekeeping worker in New York earlier this month, he was abruptly thrown in jail and charged with seven felony counts—but only because he had recently threatened U.S. monetary and imperial interests.

The racist rape of entire countries has been a chief purpose of the I.M.F since its creation in 1969. The agency imposes harsh, budget-slashing programs to impoverish and starve workers in less powerful capitalist nations and to safeguard profits for the U.S., European, and Asian investors that the I.M.F represents. Strauss-Kahn’s downfall stems from sharpening competition among these imperialists, not from any concern for his victim on the part of U.S. rulers.

Strauss-Kahn’s Biggest Crime: Allying with China

Strauss-Kahn’s indictment, drawn up under Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., a U.S. imperialist blueblood, contains many lurid details. But Strauss-Kahn’s most offensive act, to U.S. bosses, came last year in a speech in Washington. Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported (2/10/11), “Strauss-Kahn... has called for a new world currency that would challenge the dominance of the dollar.”

In the shadow of the White House and Pentagon, Strauss-Kahn was advancing anti-U.S. heresy. He proposed that world trade be conducted in a revived I.M.F.-sanctioned instrument called Special Drawing Rights (SDR), an interest-bearing international reserve asset created by the I.M.F. to supplement other reserve assets of member countries.

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Fascist Bosses Grow in Brooklyn H.S. DOE Tries to Suppress Fightbacks

BROOKLYN, MAY 23 — At Clara Barton High School, the Special Commissioner of Investigation (SCI) for the New York City School District has just completed an investigation that began in October. Assistant Principal Mims initially interrogated some students as they entered the school on a Monday after they had attended an October 2 rally in Washington, D.C. against budget cuts and for jobs.The SCI report finds that “Salak and Beckerman … recruited students to attend an unauthorized trip to a rally held in Washington, D. C.”

In fact, this rally was on a Saturday. All the students went with parental permission. Several parents joined them. Everyone was on a bus organized and paid for by the United Federation of Teachers (UFT). There were thousands of students at this rally, many from NYC schools. Many unions and community organizations, including the UFT, sponsored this trip.

Yet Principal Forman maintains that “no private trips are allowed.” We disagree. As Senator Eric Adams stated at a PTA meeting, outside of school and especially on weekends, parents are in charge of their children, not the DOE or Principal Forman.

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Big Bosses’ Nationwide Assault on Schools… Aim – More Racism, Bigger Lies

Every time workers turn around, it seems we face a new attack from school bosses who claim to promote students’ interests.  Closing schools, firing teachers, imposing more high-stakes exams, making graduation more difficult--all these are fed to us as part of a recipe to “improve” education.  Even budget cuts that savagely reduce resources are put forward as opportunities to help our young people! 

Republicans and Democrats across the country, from Obama down to local boards of education, are united in a coordinated effort to cut budgets. NYC Mayor Bloomberg’s attitude typifies the billionaire mindset that guides policy in the US: “ In fact, it’s healthy to go and say let’s cut a little bit and force the principals and the teachers and the administrators to say, ‘Is this program worth it?’ “

Bloomberg’s dismissive tone is disgusting enough on its own. Coupled with the fact that he’s speaking of a city where over 85% of the students are black or Latino, the racism he exhibits is criminal and at the same time infuriatingly typical.  And this was the bosses’ attitude before the recent economic crisis hit.  Since then, expanding imperialist war and evaporating paper wealth has driven the U.S. ruling class into a frenzy of budget cuts.  Forty-four states out of fifty anticipate budget shortfalls for 2012, totaling $112 billion (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2011).  Meanwhile, roughly a trillion dollars has been spent on Mid-East wars since 9/11. 

These cuts are about more than money.  They are about fear and control.  When teachers see their job security eroding, they are more easily whipped into line to peddle and defend the bosses’ lies.  This fear can intimidate students, parents, and teachers from fighting back against the school system’s racist neglect and miseducation.  

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