It’s important to take note of the increase in class struggle around the world — but it’s also important to understand that without communist ideas, it can’t lead to the end of capitalism and the racism, sexism and exploitation that feed it. As communists, we must be totally entrenched in the working class and the class struggle, put forward our communist ideas and win workers and students to them.
That’s not always easy when bosses, especially the liberals and so-called “progressives” like New York’s new mayor, Bill de Blasio, talk as if they want to make life better for the working class. But de Blasio’s “reform” agenda with talk about NYC being a “tale of two cities” with a huge “income inequality” between rich and poor may sound appealing, but they are deceptive. They really want to preserve capitalism so the big capitalists can further their economic and military goals in the world. Their “tale of two cities” approach is meant to pacify the working class and freeze it between having false hopes and being hopeless.
For example, low-rent housing in NYC is disappearing rapidly. In working-class neighborhoods such as Clinton Hill, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick in Brooklyn and others in the South Bronx. Real estate interests and bankers, as well as small, parasitic landlords lurking in their shadows, are kicking out working-class tenants, raising rents and rezoning areas for luxury high-rise housing. They use racist lies and slander to justify this, claiming that too much low-rent housing in an area makes it “undesirable,” or that black and Latino working families are “too noisy,” and more.
So, what is de Blasio’s proposal to achieve “housing equality?” Provide 200,000 new low-rent apartments in NYC over the next 10 years. That’s not even a drop in the bucket! A few hundred units in working-class neighborhoods every year, in a city of millions! Help for only a handful of workers and forget the rest. Then the politicians and their allies in unions and community non-profits will proclaim “Victory!”
Why do communists in PLP talk about fighting for “egalitarianism,” rather than reducing the gap between rich and poor? Because reducing the gap means there would still be rich capitalists, and they would still make their money on the backs of the working class. Under communism, we will organize society according to workers’ needs — from each according to commitment, to each according to need. With no bosses to make profits from dividing us, we will also be able to destroy racism and sexism.