LA schools: Zoom over the bosses’ forced labor

LOS ANGELES—As the strike wave continues to roll across the country, more and more workers are gaining a deeper understanding of the true meaning of “labor power.” In Los Angeles alone, we have seen teachers, hotel workers, hospital workers, writers, and actors all take to the streets to fight for better working conditions, a living wage, and respect from their employers. Combine this historic moment with a communist educator who has been putting forward these ideas with teachers at a school for nearly a decade and some pretty exciting things can happen.

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APHA: Antiracist organizing leads to “ceasefire” statement & communist connection

ATLANTA GA, November 13—Twelve thousand public health workers descended on Atlanta for the annual American Public Health Association (APHA) conference. Some were there to learn, some to present their research, and some to network, but Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members were there to organize against fascism and for communist revolution. For weeks we had been planning to have a rally against Atlanta’s COP CITY, which has revealed the true fascist nature of the Democratic Party politicians in Georgia (CHALLENGE, 12/13). But then the Israeli government responded to the Hamas attack on Israeli and migrant workers by murdering tens of thousands of Palestinians. This fascist attack was fully supported by the United States government and further demonstrated the role of the Democratic Party in promoting fascism. They have attacked workers, professionals, and students who oppose genocide, labeling them anti-Semitic (See article on this issue). Throughout the conference, PLP members spoke openly about why the U.S. is so determined to support Israel no matter what: the U.S. ruling class is determined to protect its Mideast oil resources and pipelines and maintain a power base against Iranian, Russian, and Chinese competing capitalist interests.

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KCC: Resist bosses’ racist requirements

BROOKLYN, NY — After marking one year of the multiracial antiracist fightback against racist police terror, Kingsborough Community College (KCC) students and faculty continue the struggle in a campus atmosphere of sharpening fascism at the hands of the liberal administration, public safety, and their bootlicking accomplices. However, students, faculty, and Progressive Labor Party (PLP)members in the campus antiracist club, Common Ground, are adapting to the racist administration’s normalization of police surveillance and increased bureaucratic red tape.

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Ethnic cleansing was always the Zionist plan

Thin the Palestinian population “to a minimum. I am for compulsory transfer; I do not see anything immoral in it.” Which of these was said in 1938 by Israel’s first Prime Minister and which was said by the current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu recently? Well, Netanyahu’s is first, but you can see that the plan has not changed. In fact, as far back as 1895, the founder of Zionism, Theodor Herzl, said: “We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border…discreetly and circumspectly.” An Israeli intelligence document on 10/13 stated: “The evacuation of the civilian population from Gaza to Sinai…will yield positive, long-term strategic outcomes for Israel, and is an executable option. It requires determination from the political echelon in the face of international pressure, with an emphasis on harnessing the support of the United States.” And the support of the U.S. they certainly have, to the tune of $14.3 billion extra dollars.

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LETTERS . . . January 3, 2024

On the auto workers’ picket line I traveled to Michigan during the auto strike and a couple of us headed out to the auto workers’ picket lines to talk to workers about class struggle, fighting racism, and the communist revolution. We had some great conversations. One worker from the Dominican Republic has been working there for ten years. He has had several surgeries in that period, including his knee and hip, due to job-related problems. He emphatically denounced the multiple-tier system and proceeded to explain several aspects of our communist line to us! He said, "When you've got people doing the same job for different pay, some are struggling while some are not. That's nothing but division and it just shouldn't happen!" I told him how coal bosses in Kentucky pulled the same racist tactics because they thought bringing immigrants into the coal camps would prevent miners from organizing. I pointed out how such anti-worker ideology seeks to divide workers and create a justification for paying some even less. He exclaimed, “Right, they even used it to justify slavery! The capitalists take as much as they can convince us to allow.” We talked about the media slander the union has been getting, using the same talking points from 100 years ago. "Yeah”, he said, “it's corporate media for a reason -- that's who they work for. They say prices will rise if we get a raise. Well, prices have already been rising!"

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RED EYE ON THE NEWS . . . January 3, 2024

Columbia and NYU are landlords that happen to offer classes NY Times, 12/10–State lawmakers will unveil legislation on Tuesday that would eliminate enormous property tax breaks for Columbia University and New York University, which have expanded to become among New York City’s top 10 largest private property owners. The bills would require the private universities to start paying their full annual property taxes and for that money to be redistributed to the City University of New York, the largest urban public university system in the country…The amount the schools save annually has soared in recent decades as the two have bought more properties, and the value of their properties has also increased…the city’s wealthiest universities were bigger and richer than ever before, amassing vast real estate portfolios that have drained the city budget…Columbia has grown its physical footprint to become the city’s largest private landowner.

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Editorial: Why nationalism is no solution to genocide

Inter-imperialist rivalry has reignited genocide in the Horn of Africa. Workers in Sudan, Ethiopia, and Eritrea are trapped in nationalist conflicts that are stealing their homes, their future, and their lives. Spurred by inter-imperialist rivalry, these hostilities have descended into genocide, the systematic destruction of an identified group of workers. The working class has no stake in these ruling class dogfights. As Progressive Labor Party says: “No war but class war!”

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CUNY’s liberal fascism: Workers & kids we will liberate - Bury the bosses & their state

November 29, PELHAM, NY—On Sunday, more than 40 faculty, students, and staff from the City University of New York (CUNY) marched to the home of Félix (Felo) Matos-Rodriguez, the CUNY Chancellor. Like liberal fascists around the world, Matos-Rodriguez’s reaction to the U.S.-Israel genocide of workers in Gaza has been to demonize worker-student solidarity with the working class in Palestine struggling against Israeli fascism and to minimize the suffering of workers in Palestine as U.S.-made bombs rain down on Gaza. The protest was organized to object to his statement of October 11th, which ran to more than 450 words and didn’t mention “Palestine” or “Gaza” a single time.

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Arab, Jewish, Black, Brown, white: To smash genocide, we must unite!

BRONX, NY, November 18- Amidst hundreds of other anti-genocide protests across the nation and the world during the past several weeks, 150 protesters rallied outside of a Starbucks in the Bronx and later took over the streets to demand a ceasefire in Gaza and expose U.S. Representative Adriano Espaillat’s snake-like support for U.S. funding of Israel’s genocide. Millions of workers are exposing the role of these murderous politicians in Israel’s fascist slaughter. Although the main demand of the march was a ceasefire, our signs said ceasefire is “not enough!” “Smashing the Israeli state” is “not enough!” Workers need to smash capitalism and its racist borders worldwide! Many workers voiced agreement with the need to go further than reform demands. When one worker read the headline of the 11/29 CHALLENGE “From the rivers to the seas, communism will set us free!” she said, “NOW we are talking!!”

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From Cop City in Georgia to genocide in Gaza: SMASH LIBERAL FASCISM

NOVEMBER 29, ATLANTA, GA – This year's American Public Health Association (APHA) annual conference was held in Atlanta, a hotbed of ongoing class struggle against the expansion of the ruling class’s racist police state and environmental pollution and deforestation, called “Stop Cop City.” This is a prime example of the role of liberal bosses, their Democratic Party, and their Black misleaders paving the way toward fascism. For several months, the national health collective and friends of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP), with decades of experience organizing against racism in medicine, from health determinants to the shackling of patients in hospitals to imperialist war, met virtually in preparation. Building off our ties working within our mass organizations, we joined nurses and public health organizers and were able to connect with health organizers on the ground involved in the militant “Stop Cop City” fightback.

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