Letters of August 9

Healthcare Workers Fight to Unionize, Defy Management

Workers at Morris Heights Health Center in the Bronx are celebrating after voting overwhelmingly to unionize and join 1199 today. The organizing drive was initially spearheaded primarily by Black and Latin women at our center—nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and social workers. The struggle only triumphed, though, after they won the support of the most numerous and oppressed workers—the medical assistants, school health assistants, clerical staff, maintenance workers, and others.
Management did their best to defeat the organizing drive, distributing letters and emails urging the workers to vote no, meeting with them in small groups at their job sites, and in a last ditch effort, calling a center wide “town hall meeting.”  After years of disrespect and being underpaid, workers spoke volumes at that management-sponsored meeting, rejecting their claim that we didn’t need a union because “we are family.” On the day of the election, there was a palpable buzz of expectation and empowerment from this struggle. One co-worker who regularly reads CHALLENGE had the issue with the headline “Demolish Racism” boldly displayed on her desk, a response that inspired me to share PL’s ideas even more.
Management further tried to divide the workers by attempting to prevent “professionals” (Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistant, so forth) from participating in the election and joining the union by claiming that they too are supervisory staff. In fact, the ballot of the professional staff had an additional question to vote on, essentially asking if we are willing to be represented by a union with “non-professionals.” The resounding answer was YES.
The point of being organized is to stand together as one and fight for each other. We want one union, and our own union should not have separate divisions. There may be different job functions, but the important issue is that our strength is in our unity. In the end, workers from all categories stood shoulder to shoulder against the administration’s desperate attempts at divisiveness and intimidation. We all understand that the real struggle is about to begin in our fight for a decent contract, and we will carry our solidarity forward to the negotiation phase of this struggle.
At a time when every aspect of workers’ lives is under attack in this country, our solidarity is a breath of fresh air for all. We see the increasing anti-immigrant and racist violence in daily life across the country and globally. We see the worsening poverty and its disastrous effects up close and personal in our community here in the Bronx. We see the disparate healthcare issues in poor communities of color, the pervasive unemployment, and sadly, we see that the future is not bright for the youth in our school clinics. Our unity is an indication that we can overcome the divisions and racism that this country was founded on, and fight together to end this system that is oppressing and exploiting all workers.
It is important that we at MHHC, who are dedicated to serving one of the most oppressed communities in this country, fight back for a better life. Many of the workers at MHHC in fact come from this same community. Our resolve to stand together can be an inspiration for others to fight back in these increasingly difficult times. It gives us hope that some day we can rid ourselves entirely of the capitalist system that is destroying us and our families.

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Political Economy 101: Exploitation of Workers
This summer project has been a fantastic continuation of the Progressive Labor Party’s yearlong work! It is fitting that we found ourselves in Chicago, arguably ground zero now for U.S. bosses’ assaults on the working-class.
The racist Chicago Public Schools (CPS) system is cutting $46 million from its budget, which targets mainly Black and Latin students (who make up nine out of 10 CPS students). Mayor Rahm Emanuel helped suppress information about his kkkops’ racist murder of Black youth Laquan McDonald. And recently, Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) train operators passed a strike-authorization vote—the CTA has forced them to work without a contract in squalid conditions for over a year.
The CTA attacks also have a sexist nature to them. Many CTA bus drivers are Black women, who have no access to private rooms to pump breast milk. All the drivers also deal with disgusting port-o-potties the CTA expects them to use during routes.
We held a strong CHALLENGE sale at one of the CTA bus barns. Most workers were receptive. One woman worker who took the paper noted the sell-out union contract bans any actual strike actions. The bosses and the union leaders work together to stop workers from fighting back! To win we have to break the bosses’ rules. We run the trains and we can shut them down. And we’ll never see revolution if we can’t even defy the bosses’ laws!
At another sale at a train station in the city’s Southside area, we got a chance to put working-class theory into action. One comrade met a 17-year-old homeless Black youth. Even though the sale was over, we stayed until we were able to find him a shelter, buy him some food, and offer transportation money. That’s the spirit of communism—sharing resources equally, and not hoarding them.
But perhaps the most important development came during a discussion on political economy, later that day. We all agree that workers of all colors are exploited to varying degrees, with Black workers being super-exploited. However, while we agreed that white workers are also exploited, are they “oppressed?” We argued back and forth about what that term means to our class. I initially said that white workers are exploited, but not oppressed in the sense of laws passed directly disenfranchising them. Black workers, on the other hand, have lived that reality in AmeriKKKa for ages.
But then I wondered—the U.S. ruling class once passed laws limiting Eastern European immigration. Irish workers dealt with direct discrimination in job hiring during the 19th century. So is that an accurate interpretation of the term? I don’t know, but realized it is an imperative conversation to keep on having, as we fight for communism. I’ll remember this Summer Project for years to come!
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My First Communist Speech
This Summer Project in Chicago was an eye opening experience. The city has such a rich history of class struggle and worker fight back: from the Haymarket Square Riots to being the blueprint for residential segregation and the birthplace of a 14-year-old boy whose murder spearheaded the Civil Rights Movement [Emmett Till was beaten and lynched while visiting Mississippi in 1955, for supposedly whistling at a white woman, who later recanted her original story. Emmett’s mother chose to have an open casket at his funeral in Chicago, to show the world what racism had done. Tens of thousands attended the funeral or viewed his open casket. Photographs of his mutilated body were published all over the United States and galvanized the young Civil Rights Movement]. Being here with PLP, and the work being done here is adding to that history.
Part of the project was looking into the healthcare industry and its racist oppression of workers. We had a rally outside Cook County hospital, and for the first time I made a speech on the bullhorn. At prior rallies, I have done chants on the bullhorn but not a full-fledged speech. I discussed the racist policies plaguing the healthcare system. For example, I pointed out the lack of treatment for common ailments (diabetes, high blood pressure, allergies, and the like). Also how all workers, but especially Black and Latin workers receive subpar care in comparison to the ruling class. The greedy bosses in hospitals, in pharmaceuticals, and other businesses in medicine have turned healing the sick into another way of making profits. As someone who works in health advocacy and equity, this sickens me. But it is this anger I have towards people who exploit the healthcare of workers as well as the optimism I have for the future that drives me to work harder. Talking about healthcare under a communist society will be helpful when I bring that back to my friends and
coworkers. Especially as it is now clearer to me that healthcare is achievable for all workers.  
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Hiroshima & Nagasaki: U.S. Bosses Guilty of Genocide
August 6 and 9, 2017, mark the 72nd anniversaries of the two largest terrorist attacks in human history: The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the U.S. military in 1945. In the past, CHALLENGE has well-documented the real reasons behind the bomb dropped on Hiroshima: (1) To warn the then-socialist Soviet Union that the U.S. had an atomic bomb and that the U.S. would not hesitate to use it, and (2) to end the war with Japan before the Soviet Union could become part of the surrender negotiations, even though Japan had already offered to surrender and Truman had rebuffed the very same offer that was accepted following use of the bombs.
But why was a second bomb dropped on Nagasaki? The story behind the second bomb is even more horrendous (if that is possible) than the first one. It turns out that the U.S. military developed two different designs for an atomic bomb. The designs differed in the atomic fuel (uranium vs. plutonium) and the method used to actually detonate the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb had been tested in July 1945 in the New Mexico desert. But the other design had not. So what did the racist, murderous U.S. ruling class decide to do? They “tested” the other design by dropping a second bomb on Nagasaki.
I can’t think of anything that any ruling class has done that even comes close to what the U.S. ruling class has done and continues to do to the world’s working class, both nationally and internationally. I hope that we can use this anniversary to rededicate our efforts to rid the world of capitalism, the most deadly, racist, and sexist economic-political system in history.
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March to Commemorate 1967 Newark Rebellion
On July 12, several hundred folks gathered for a march and memorial to the men and women who were shot by the police and National Guard during the 1967 Newark rebellion. People testified as to how there were no roof snipers, as reported, or “senseless rioting.” Many of the scores of victims were shot as they sat in their own apartments.
A Newark cab driver, John Smith, had been arrested for an alleged traffic violation. Cab drivers and Newark residents demonstrated outside the precinct, and five days of fight back began. The reaction followed years of racist harassment and oppression, much like the events leading up to the Ferguson rebellion.
At the memorial, a woman read the ballistic record of the victims, citing the names of 27 killed, one as young as 10, another 73 years old.  All were recorded as having “insufficient evidence as to cause of death,” except for one man whose body contained bullet fragments. The woman explained how her pregnant mother had been shot—a line of bullets running from her stomach to her ear—while she sat by the window of her living room caring for other children.
The rally was organized by the People’s Organization for Progress, a reform group that believes in community oversight of the police and the need for revolution, but without changing capitalism. The main spokesperson referenced how racism has been used to divide and conquer the working class, but without mentioning the necessity for Black/white unity to forge the struggle for progress.
One hundred CHALLENGEs were sold. People showed interest in the recent article on the Harlem
rebellion of 1964. One man, who had come in a wheelchair, noted that he had been a part of the Harlem rebellion. Another man asked for two copies of the paper, and said he knew one of our comrades who had been a leader of Progressive Labor at that time.
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