While Billionaires Profit, Racist Democrat Cuomo Cuts Schools: Protestors: STOP THE WAR ON CUNY!

ALBANY, NEW YORK, March 23 — Outside the Albany Capitol offices of Governor Andrew Cuomo, 200 City University of NY faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students picketed and loudly chanted “Tax the Rich, Not the Poor, Stop the War on CUNY!” and “Workers and Students Are Under Attack, What Do We Do?, Stand Up, Fight Back!” We were joined by parent and tenant activists.

The Professional Staff Congress (the CUNY faculty and staff union) organized this protest to demonstrate its anger at the Governor for cutting $95 million from the budget of the four-year colleges, and $17.5 million of the community colleges, to which NYC Mayor Bloomberg may cut an additional $35 million in NYC funding. Forty-six percent of community college students at CUNY come from households with incomes of $20,000 or less. Many of these students hold jobs in order to pay tuition and fees and buy textbooks.

Reducing funding for the community colleges will mean larger class sizes, less guidance, and further hikes in tuition, making it harder to graduate and forcing some to drop out. Slashing the funding of the community colleges is also racist, as 81% of the students are black, Latino, and Asian.

From Egypt to Wisconsin, workers and students are not accepting business-as-usual. This day was no different. Thirty-three of us sat down and blocked access to the Governor’s office. With the chants of 170 or so fellow demonstrators reverberating in the Capitol building, we were arrested. 

‘They Say Cut Back, We Say Fight Back’

The Governor’s slashing of billions from education and health care in a state with more billionaires than any other in the U.S. is outright class warfare. In NYC alone, there are 60 billionaires, and the wealthiest 1% of its residents receives an extraordinary 44% of all income. In NY State, there are 44,000 millionaires, who year after year increase their share of total income. Yet they object to extending a relatively small tax surcharge on high income, dubbed the “millionaire’s tax.”

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Murderers Without Borders Imperialists Cloak Libyan Oil Grab with Phony ‘Humanitarianism’

Obama’s invasion of oil-rich Libya marks U.S. imperialists’ first major use of their phony “Responsibility To Protect” (RTP) excuse for waging wider wars. The RTP doctrine, adopted at a 2005 UN summit, despite China’s and Russia’s objections, eliminates capitalist national borders as obstacles to imperialist intervention. The invaders have only to assert that they’re “rescuing the locals.”

Bombing and missile raids by the U.S. (with junior partner Britain and temporary ally France) supposedly aim at saving Libya’s citizens from dictator Qaddafi, under RTP. But the wave of Mideast rebellions made U.S. rulers and their imperialist allies shaky over maintaining the oil deals they’ve made with each other and Qaddafi over past years.

Obama was very ready to allot hundreds of millions for this latest war while cutting billions from education and social service budgets, causing massive layoffs of teachers and other government workers. The initial U.S. Navy attack with 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles alone cost nearly $100 million. As of March 29, the Pentagon had spent $550 million in the first ten days.

The upsurge that spread from Tunisia to Algeria to Egypt, where thousands of workers struck for higher wages and against mass unemployment as they did in Iraq — and continues to spread throughout the region — made the oil-thirsty imperialists nervous. Therefore, the U.S.-led campaign focused on protecting the Libyan assets of oil giants Exxon Mobil, Marathon, and Occidental (U.S.); BP (U.K.); and Total (French). At this writing, NATO air strikes were helping pro-U.S. rebels seize two oil refineries and a strategic export terminal. On March 27, they captured two oil-export ports.

Of course, the U.S. chose not to “rescue” protestors in Bahrain, the base of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, and allowed its government and invading Saudi troops to kill hundreds to ward off any rebellion that might eventually threaten Saudi’s oil fields, the world’s largest.

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Only Communist Revolution Can Free Our Class Madison: Thousands Pack Capitol to ‘Stop War on Workers!’

MADISON, WISCONSIN, March 5 — Arriving at midnight on March 3, I went to the Capitol early the next day. The streets were packed with people carrying picket signs, some from their unions, some homemade. Inside the Capitol rotunda a tremendous spirit of solidarity and joy filled the air. A group of boilermakers and pipefitters wearing hardhats entered to applause.

One of their leaders took over leadership of the chants. “Hey-hey, Ho-ho, Governor Walker has got to go! Union Power; Worker’s Rights” reverberated through the hall.

I asked if I could make some remarks. When I said I was from the Bronx, people chanted, “Thank you, thank you!”

I replied, “No, thank you, workers of Wisconsin. All over people are rooting for you who are on the front lines leading the struggle against attacks on working people.” I explained that on my campus we had a Support Wisconsin Day and showed them the stickers my local, the Professional Staff Congress, was distributing throughout NYC.

Class War

“Too many people have struggled and died for workers’ rights. There’s no way we will allow these gains to be erased.” Pointing to a Teamsters Local sign saying, “Stop the War on Workers,” I declared, “Class war was being waged against the working class. We must organize ourselves to make class war against the bosses. We should live to see the day when there are no more rich over us to exploit us!” The crowd agreed.

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Workers, Patients, Youth Unite to Fight: Racist Hospital Cuts — Murder the Nazi Way

CHICAGO, March 21 — Hospital workers on the picket line noticed an older man marching with them shaking his fist as they all yelled, “They say cut back, we say FIGHT BACK!” He was wearing a hospital gown under his coat. The dozens of hospital workers, community members and students protesting in front of Stroger Hospital of Cook County had attracted some patients, too. The protest was sparked by the plans of the County Board to close two of the three hospitals in Chicago’s public system, turning the patients out to fend for themselves.

PL’ers at the hospital, meeting with Coalition Against The Cuts in Healthcare (CATCH), had heard the most dramatic aspect of this particular cutback at a meeting weeks earlier. A nurse from Oak Forest Hospital, one of the hospitals about to be closed, described the plight of patients in the chronic ventilator unit, some of whom had been living there attached to breathing machines for many years. “They’re more like family than patients to me,” she explained. “We’ve been together for years.” These patients had been given a deadline of the end of the month to find themselves a nursing home to be transferred to. “This unit is closing,” they were told.

“I’ve known many patients from here who left for nursing homes,” said Michael Yanul, an Oak Forest ventilator patient with muscular dystrophy who tells his story on YouTube. “They all died. And that’s what frightens me.”

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Capitalism Survives By Destroying Workers’ and Soldiers’ Lives

Recently we had a forum on political economy and the current crisis.  At this forum there seemed to be some confusion about three concepts: how the bosses realize their profits, the crisis of overproduction and the tendency for the rate of profit to fall.  These three important ideas deserve to be understood individually and in their dialectical connections.

The realization question is an important basic concept in Marxist political economy.  Marx posited that while economic value is created in the production process by human labor, this does not put money in the hands of the boss.  That is, the boss has to actually sell products in the market to translate into the money form the surplus value (profits) produced by workers being paid less than the value their labor adds in the production process. 

A major problem is that workers are not paid enough to purchase everything that they make.  This is the realization question.  There are numerous ways that the bosses deal with this issue.  The bosses can buy up a lot of goods themselves. They can extend credit to the working class, which forces the workers to work off their debt in a kind of credit-card-slavery.  Most important, though, the bosses answer the realization question through competition and expansion.  The bosses look to find new “markets” by trying to undercut their competitors or by selling their goods to new people who have never had access to them before.  This is part of the initial drive toward imperial expansion.

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Quake Exposes Capitalism’s Inherent Fault Lines

Updated on Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 9:45PM by Challenge_Desafío

On March 11, a massive 9.0-magnitude quake hit Northeast Japan on the east coast of Honshu, the country’s largest island, which, combined with the 33-foot waves of the tsunami it created, killed 4,100 people and ignited hundreds of fires. In the disaster’s wake, entire villages, ports and even schools vanished. Some were evacuation sites for local residents situated on the coasts.

The tsunami hit Miyagi and Iwate prefectures the hardest, obliterating everything in its path, causing the highest death tolls, which could exceed 10,000. The quake’s magnitude has led to frequent aftershocks, including a 6.0 quake on March 15 that hit Shizuoka, extending over the entire Kantou (Eastern) region.

Additionally, the quake disabled the cooling mechanisms of Japan’s oldest nuclear power plant, sparking a meltdown that has forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands in the surrounding area and causing widespread fear that is being spread by the mainstream media on a 24-hour basis.

While there has been some criticism of the warning systems that gave residents little time to evacuate, most mainstream media sources in the U.S. and elsewhere emphasized Japan’s preparedness for such disasters and have praised the rapidity of rescues, evacuations and recovery efforts. As the world’s third largest economy, Japan has taken significant steps to safeguard its vulnerability against such disasters through fortification in infrastructure and the training, beginning in kindergarten, on how to react to earthquakes and other disasters. Workers in all areas hold weekly practice drills.

Workers Most Vulnerable, Suffer the Most

The protection and preparedness against such disasters, however, is more evident in the capitalist centers like Tokyo or Sendai (the largest city in the Northeastern region, which suffered significant damage), but become lax moving toward the outer regions where the damage and loss of life was the most substantial.  This is because most of the residents of these areas — like the small village of Saito in Miyagi prefecture which was totally wiped out — are predominantly working-class families: factory workers, farmers and fishermen/women, and the elderly who built homes there which are the most vulnerable to such catastrophic events. Moreover, tens of thousands of jobs will disappear, further intensifying the exploitation of the working class.

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War Over Oil Looms: Saudi Arabia, Not Libya, Main Prize for U.S. Rulers

No matter what course of action U.S. rulers may take in Libya, their main focus is on energy’s grand prize, Saudi Arabia and the greater Persian Gulf region. As important as Libya’s 46-billion-barrel reserves are, threats to far richer sources preoccupy Obama and the oil-fueled imperialists he serves.

As of March 11, dictator Qaddafi was brutally retaking key oil towns from the rebels, indiscriminately slaughtering civilians and his opponents. Leading senators — Democrat Kerry, Independent Lieberman, and Republican McCain — have called for a “no-fly zone” entailing U.S. bombardment of Libyan planes, air defenses, and runways. But, on that very day, March 11, Obama sent war boss Robert Gates to embattled Bahrain, on the Persian Gulf — not to Libya’s U.S.-backed neighbors Tunisia or Egypt.

Bahrain houses the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, which polices the globally-crucial oil exports of U.S. protectorates Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, U.S.-occupied Iraq and U.S. enemy Iran.

Kenneth Pollack, a Gulf expert having worked at the CIA, the National Security Council, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Brookings Institution, wrote a book in 2002, “The Case for Invading Iraq.” Now he has written: “It is not clear that... Libya is enough of a national interest to justify...long-term military and diplomatic commitment. Just within the Middle East, there are countries of far greater importance to the United States that may well need us to invest those resources there to make sure they turn out right.” (Brookings website, 3/09/11)

Iraq, following two U.S. invasions and sanctions that killed over two million, has, for now, “turned out right” for Exxon Mobil. Consequently, the latter now enjoys access to Iraq’s West Qurna oil field, one of the world’s biggest.

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PL’ers Back Wisconsin Workers Expose ‘Recall’ Fraud

MADISON, WI., March 12 — Today over 100,000 workers descended on the capitol here to protest the bill introduced by Republican Governor Scott Walker and passed by the State Legislature, removing collective bargaining rights for public employees, including teachers.

Fourteen Democratic Party Senators hiding out in Illinois to forestall the bill’s passage failed miserably because Walker maneuvered to pass the bill without them.  However, flanked by bagpipe-playing musicians, flags and Jessie Jackson, they returned today to Madison welcomed as heroes: “Thank you Fabulous 14, thank you!” 

Our PLP contingent was there to bring our message of communist revolution and working-class solidarity. We distributed 500 CHALLENGES and 1,500 leaflets.

Our first speaker announced on our bullhorn that we’d come from Indiana and Chicago and this received a huge “Yeah!” He thanked all the workers for their courageous stance against these latest anti-working-class attacks. He also noted that they are occurring in Indiana and Chicago as well and that we need to strike against this assault.

Then, referring to one of the popular chants of the day — “recall Walker, recall Walker!” he declared, “Recalling Walker will not work but smashing capitalism will.”

The next speaker encouraged workers to read CHALLENGE and the Party’s leaflet “Middle-Class Dream??? Or Working Class Power!!!” It reported that while the Madison-area Central Labor Council had voted for a General Strike, the AFL-CIO and its top dog Trumka had turned workers’ militant mass anger into a passive recall petition limited to the voting booth. The union leaders have sold out our class and will continue to do so.

The “middle-class dream” that union leaders and politicians want us to buy into has been a nightmare for most black and Latino workers due to the racist nature of capitalism. The former auto capitals of Detroit, Flint and Milwaukee have unemployment rates exceeding 50%! Among young black males it’s around 75%. “It’s not Walker it’s capitalism!” said the speaker. “These attacks have been coming fast and steady under the Democrats too.” Obama’s bailout of the auto industry put many more workers on the unemployment lines while the auto bosses are now reaping huge profits.

‘Thanks for keeping it real…’

Several workers stopped and took our literature. One AFSCME member told us he was looking for a job because he was about to be laid off. He said that when he told his union leader we needed to prepare for a strike the union “leader” replied, “No, that’s not what we need to do.” Another worker listened to our speeches for several minutes, took literature and gave one of our comrades a hug, saying, “Thank you all for coming and keeping it real.”

There was much opposition to our line, too. The push for recall had definitely replaced the call for a general strike. Reliance on Democratic Party politicians has replaced the power of the workers and students who early on had occupied the State Capitol and shut down the schools. In essence, today’s rally became a dangerous “get-out-the-vote-for-the-Democratic-Party” event.

However, we should have brought many more comrades and friends with us. One Party friend contacted us because she knew if anyone was going to Madison we would be. But, self critically, we should have called her. We marched and hung out the whole day together, talking about communism and why only in a communist society could we share the fruits of our labors, without racism, poverty or imperialist oil wars. While she’s still not ready to join, after today she’s much closer.

Other comrades who went got valuable practice in putting forward communist ideas to workers who otherwise would not be exposed to them. Only the Party was championing the working-class to take state power.

While we call for a general strike to shut down the entire system and unite the working class, still this is just a tactical move. The only long-run strategy we can follow is winning millions of workers to fight for communist revolution.

We agreed that our political offensive must be recruiting and developing more comrades through this struggle in Wisconsin. We’ve formed a committee to organize visits to contacts we made in Madison and to plan regular trips there. We also want to have some Madison workers speak at our Chicago May Day dinner.

However this struggle in Wisconsin turns out, we have everything to win by seizing this opportunity to build the Party. The struggle for state power and the building of a communist society is not a mere dream for the international working class. 

Poly-Sci Students Attack Racist Campus Layoffs

NEW YORK CITY, March 12 — The Political Science club on our campus has provided a glimpse of the force that young workers and students can become in leading the struggle for change. These students are providing leadership in the multi-racial, working-class struggle against our school’s administration, against the racist budget-cutters on the CUNY Board of Trustees and in the New York City and State governments. Communist ideas are not only present, but in a leading position.

The most recent club activities highlight both the international character of class struggle in the fight against capitalism as well as the need for workers and students to engage in both theoretical discussion and practice. The first event was a teach-in, entitled ‚”Youth Movement Rising”. Three professors covered the events in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, the student protests and rebellions in Europe and the role of U.S. foreign policy in all of these places. Unlike in the bosses’ media which stresses the fight for democracy and freedom, the speakers focused on the class struggle, including the fight against racist unemployment and increases in food prices.

The final speaker was a student leader who enthusiastically linked the uprisings around the world to the situation in New York. He noted students’ protests against budget cuts, against tuition increases, how we have held solidarity events for students in Haiti (including another teach-in last year). And he stressed the need to do more: for more students, teachers and workers to stand up against the attacks that the bosses launch at us.

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D.C. Metro PL’ers: Mass Struggle Needed vs. Arbitration Loser

WASHINGTON, D.C.  March 10, 2011 — Over 150 bus drivers and other Metro workers picketed outside the bosses’ headquarters today to demand that management withdraw its appeal to federal court of the arbitration award and agree to the contract that provides a 3% annual pay raise while cutting back on benefits. 

Workers have been without a contract for three years! Anger is boiling over at the bus garages. What part of “binding arbitration” do the bosses not understand? What they do understand is that they are backed by the power of the government and can probably get away with whatever the working class lets them. 

Arbitration Is A Loser for Workers

Arbitration is a win-win situation for the bosses. Invariably, the arbitration will force workers to accept less than they demand, forcing them to take the losses. That’s why the bosses have the gall to try to renege on a contract that is already a give-back contract for the workers! That’s why smashing the bosses and their government through a revolution to establish workers’ power and communism is the only permanent way to solve our problems.  And why flexing our collective muscles in this contract dispute through mass action is the only way to have any hope of stopping the bosses’ attack today.

The union leadership has a different plan, though.  At today’s rally, after meekly moving workers away from the entrance to the building at the request of the Metro cops,  they passed out postcards to send to various politicians in the jurisdictions served by Metro to encourage them to support the union.  What nonsense! Only the threat of a strike — most likely illegal — will make them pay attention. The politicians are all in the bosses’ pocket.

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