NYC Rally Backs Rebellion in Haiti against U.S./UN Oppressors

NEW YORK CITY, December 17 — “Haitian rebels are under attack: what do we do?  Stand up, fight back!” “Clinton, Préval, you can’t hide: we charge you with genocide!” Chants from fifty angry demonstrators bounced off the walls of the Haitian consulate building in Manhattan, as crowds of workers passed by on their way home in the frigid night. Speakers and flyers explained why workers in Haiti were right to rebel in the streets in the face of UN armored troop carriers, as living conditions there grow absolutely intolerable.
Haiti has 1.3 million homeless, 70% unemployment, more than a million school-age children excluded from schooling, a raging cholera epidemic in which 650,000 people (6% of the population) are expected to fall ill in 2011. The promised earthquake aid money has failed to reach the people and reconstruction plans rebuild for profit, not for people. Compared to all this, a rigged election is the least of their worries.
We praised the rebels in Haiti for showing the way ahead for workers everywhere, as similar rebellions break out in Europe. As a black building worker we spoke to recently about racism against Latino immigrants told us: “The whole world is waiting for a revolutionary change!” The rally was coordinated with activist union and student friends in Haiti. They included a photo and a statement from our rally in their press conference at a demonstration against the military occupation by MINUSTAH (UN Mission to Stabilize Haiti) and for free public schools for all.

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Organize the Jobless to Fight Racist Unemployment

NEW YORK CITY, December 6 — “I think it’s not fair to U.S. workers how they send jobs out of the country,” said Lisa as a group of workers were talking about unemployment. “But that’s what they always do,” responded Jenny. “It’s the way the system works. That’s how the capitalists make profits all over the world.”
“Some people are lazy, they expect free help,” said Jaime. “But there’s no assistance. It’s welfare to work,” explained Nelson. “Everyone is looking for work and there are no jobs.” “I work 12 hours a day, six days a week in a restaurant. When I demanded overtime the boss said OK, work 40 hours here and look for a second job,” said Juan. “Or stay here, work your 60 hours and get the money you need for your family.”
“There are no legal protections, only class struggle,” responded Jenny.
The capitalists and their politician servants are debating the economic crisis in terms of government spending, tax cuts, rising healthcare costs and “costly entitlements” like Social Security and Medicare. Their debate results in a massive attack on the working class while covering up the cause of the economic crisis.
The working class needs to listen to Jenny. The crisis comes from the anarchy and competition of the capitalist system. Only revolution to establish communism — a system that produces based on need, not profit — offers the world’s working class a future.

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Mexico: Red School Cuts Through Bosses’ Crap

MEXICO CITY, December 18 — This past weekend, about 25 members and friends of the Progressive Labor Party organized a communist school. Over the two days workers, teachers and young people studied the PLP document “Reform and Revolution” (see PLP website). A comrade teacher summarized the essence of the subject: “The importance of recognizing the limits between reform and revolution is needed to keep the ideas of the Party and of communism firm. The lack of clarity in this subject can lead to abandoning the fight for revolution, whether it’s because in our practice reform dominates or because we isolate ourselves from the workers and their struggles.”
Most of the people were impressed by a young female comrade´s welcome with a poster where she explained how capitalism chains our minds through consumerism, nationalism and electoral politics. She also showed us the importance of our task to break those chains.   
The international character of the Party was present with the participation of two comrades from another Latin American country. With their experiences and understanding they stressed the importance of dedication to the Party and to communism.
A comrade discussed the struggle the Party began in the community to the east of the Valley of Mexico to prevent its flooding (see 12/01/10). He explained the role that CHALLENGE has played in showing neighbors that the only solution is communism and that capitalism will never be capable of solving the problems it creates. Capitalists make decisions based on what will create the most profit for them. Under communism decisions would be made based on what the working class needs.

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Students, Profs Battle CUNY Bosses’ Tuition Hike

Storm College Senate Meeting

NEW YORK CITY, December 2 — Nearly 100 students and faculty members at the City University of NY (CUNY) held an indoor rally to protest next term’s threatened tuition increases and then invaded a College Senate meeting to denounce the hikes.

A student leader gave an impassioned, detailed speech explaining the racist nature of the hikes. Thirty-five years ago CUNY tuition was free. Now the majority of CUNY students are black, Latino and Asian, and because of long-standing racism in employment and wages are in an even worse position to pay this exorbitant tuition.

The speaker called on his fellow students to give more leadership in fighting the many problems that the working class faced.

A faculty member told the crowd that the PSC union (Professional Staff Congress of CUNY) was 100% behind the students’ struggle and related their struggle to students’ fight-back worldwide. He asked those present to say what they felt. At first it was quiet, but then it was like a dam bursting.

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Rulers’ Wiki-Circus Marks U.S. Clash with Iran, China, Russia, North Korea

Workers can’t count on ruler-orchestrated “exposés” like Wikileaks to somehow reform the profit system that creates wars without end. Wikileaks is trying to deceive people into believing that “independent” or “alternative” media can expose the capitalist class and somehow organize against it.

Wikileaks’ hackers and their now jailed, phony rebel chief Julian Assange have no intention of attacking U.S. imperialism. If they had:

• They would never have chosen the ultra-Establishment New York Times — and its European equivalents — to edit and publish their huge number of 250,000 “sensitive” State Department cables.

• And this gives the Times and its allies the opening to use the leaks to urge stepped-up U.S. military measures against growing — especially nuclear — threats to U.S. imperialism.

• The leaks also help Obama and the imperialists he serves to shift the spotlight from the disastrous economy onto foreign policy.

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Learning from Class Struggle United Fight vs. Jim Crow Segregation at Brooklyn High School

BROOKLYN, NY — “They [the Department of Education — DoE] are segregating kids again. Just like the Jim Crow laws. Blacks and whites were separated: different schools and different water fountains. There’s barely a difference.”

One student wrote this in response to reading the last issue of CHALLENGE, highlighting the sharp struggle in our school. The truth is that under capitalism, the school system will only serve the needs of the racist bosses. The only way that we can truly serve our students and community is by getting rid of the bosses and their schools. Then, under a communist society, we will have true education for our students.

The DoE has released an “Educational Impact Statement” which lays out its plans to put in a new selective school in our building. While they claim they want to provide “all students” with a “high quality education,” the academic requirements of the new school will leave behind most low-income black and Latino students, especially special education students and English-language learners.

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Mass Action Needed: AC Transit Union ‘Victory’ Cuts Workers’ Pay

OAKLAND, CA, December 13 — The results of the “neutral” arbitration between AC Transit (mass transit in SF Bay Area)  and ATU 192 have come back: major sacrifices for bus drivers, mechanics, and maintenance workers.  Topping the long list is an unprecedented 6% pay CUT in the first year of the contract.  Also, the company will no longer pay workers for the first day off when they call in sick. Sick workers will have to come in to work, if they can’t afford to miss a day’s pay. For parents who are holding  a whole family together on one paycheck — and there are many among us — this is blackmail. 

These are the results of the supposedly “neutral” arbitrator.  But how can the process be called “neutral” when transit workers have to bail out the transit agency?  We didn’t cause the crisis, the banks did! Yet the banks and corporations don’t have to pay extra, even though the transportation WE provide adds value to THEIR real estate and allows THEIR businesses to function. 

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Gov’t Aids Bosses’ Lockout of Nursing Home Workers

HARTFORD, CT., December 10 — The struggle at four nursing homes owned by Spectrum Health Care continues (see CHALLENGE, 12/1), with the bosses locking out the workers and the city government breaking the picket line.

The strike, which began in April over wages, holidays and harassment of union workers, became a lockout in August when the union, SEIU-affiliated District 1199, agreed to return to work with no conditions attached. However, since then the Park Street facility here has re-called only about 10 workers of the total work-force of 100, an average of three per month, and not according to seniority.

Furthermore, the jobs are far short of the original ones. All but one are per diem; previously most workers had 32- or 40-hour schedules. Both company actions are Unfair Labor Practices. A National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) hearing on Spectrum’s many previous Unfair Practices, originally scheduled for November 2, was postponed until January 25. (NLRB decisions are notorious for screwing workers.)

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Hospital Bosses Attack Pensions; Philly Rank-and-File Fights Back

PHILADELPHIA, December 13 — Since the 1980’s the bosses have been attacking workers’ pensions in South America, Africa, and Asia. They have had plenty of practice that they can now use against workers in Europe and the U.S. Philadelphia hospital workers are now facing this same attack.

Bosses’ View of Aging Workers: Garbage

What should happen to working people when they are too old or too sick to work anymore? The bosses believe that this is not their problem. Throughout the history of capitalism they have shown that they will use workers to make profits and then discard us like garbage when we are no longer productive.

Capitalism organizes society to make profits for a tiny minority of rich people at the expense of the vast majority of working people. But workers create all wealth. Therefore communists believe we have the right to be taken care of in old age after spending our lives contributing to society. Communism would organize society to fulfill the needs of the working class.

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Holocaust Looming? U.S., China Imperialists Clash Over Korea

China’s puppet North Korea’s yet unchecked attacks on U.S.-occupied South Korea make direct military conflict among rival global imperialists ever more likely. Flaunting a growing nuclear arsenal, the North’s fake “communist” dictatorial monarchy reportedly torpedoed a South Korean warship in March, killing 46 sailors (see box). Late last month, North Korean artillery shells killed two marines and two civilians on one of the South’s militarized islands.
Obama responded to the March sinking rather meekly, calling for no more than an “international investigation.” This time around, however, Obama has sent a U.S. Navy carrier group into the Yellow Sea, which North Korea threatens to make a “sea of fire,” if U.S. vessels violate its waters.
The imperialists’ sharpening Korean impasse highlights the interplay between the actual and the potential, a key category in communist analysis. At present, hostilities remain at a relatively low level. But, given the forces the rival bosses can deploy and the peninsula’s strategic importance to them, an all-out conflagration threatened by both sides could explode at any time.

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