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Fightback vs. Zionist censorship in school: ‘no one is alone in the struggle’
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- 09 May 2024 230 hits
The following speech was given by a NYC public school school teacher at our May Day march in Brooklyn, NY.
I am a New York City public school teacher who teaches history. In November, I openly supported students who wrote a letter to demand the school administration take a stance against antisemitism and anti-Muslim racism, and that the school create a space to mourn the death of Palestinian workers.
In response to my advocacy for students, two days later in the middle of my class, an assistant principal told me to dismiss early, that I was under investigation and removed from the classroom, that I wouldn’t get union representation, and that I had to turn in my keys and was now barred from all contact with students and parents.
For 100 days after, I was placed in a reassignment center called the “rubberroom” without ever being charged. I was not given a chance to defend myself, I was kept in total isolation. Isolation is a strategy of the bosses to force people to stay quiet and disconnected from fellow teachers and the school community at large.
In fact, they call the reassignment center the rubber room because the rubber room is where you place people who are “crazy” and because it is meant to break people’s spirits. For four months, I sat in a windowless room with flickering fluorescent lights.
Instead of solid walls, 10 rubber-roomed teachers sat silently for eight hours a day surrounded by glass walls so that we could be monitored and disciplined by supervisory staff. I lost track of time in that room and was constantly reminded of how I should internalize the bosses punishment, that I should internalize in isolation some sort of guilt.
By disappearing me from school, it sent the message to other teachers and students that speaking out against genocide meant reprisals. That you all have to fall in line or even cheer for U.S. bombs being dropped on Gaza or else you will lose your job, not get into college, be expelled from your community.
I confess, I often broke down—the whole situation felt overwhelming. I had to constantly remind myself of my commitment to a better, more egalitarian world, and my love for students to keep myself sane. Ultimately, it was the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) that helped me and my entire school community fight against silencing and isolation. They helped give us the support to overcome cynicism and turn it around into a fight with the capitalist school system.
With the support of PLP, we were able to fight back and combat my own cynicism and feelings of despair. They organized and constantly reminded me that I was not alone and that we can and need to win.I was connected with teachers who faced similar circumstances from the Bay Area, Maryland, and Michigan. In addition, the Party mobilized a defense committee of teachers, parents, and students who were brought around communist ideas of class struggle.
Days after I was removed, over 100 students with their parents' support, immediately sent letters of protest to the school administration, superintendent, and school chancellors. Parents called the school and agitated against the administration in person during school.
A comrade also organized my local school union chapter into a class struggle chapter. Teachers came to the largest union meeting ever at school and sent a signal to administration that teachers would not be silenced or harassed. Many teachers spoke out about their sexist, racist experiences with the bosses. Now long-term committees are being organized and a newsletter is being written to maintain the struggle and broaden it out to support more workers at school.
Because of the power of this collective fightback, I was finally returned to the classroom! That no one is alone in the struggle and that we are stronger together in a Party was a key lesson that I learned! If you haven’t joined the Party and are a member of the club, you should because it will sustain you and one day empower you to stand with oppressed and exploited people. We need to build a base that can mobilize to defend people under attack.
I saw the power of an alliance of students, parents, and educators who are politicized, energized, and organized. It took the entire school community to win! This victory is to be celebrated. However, winning this reform is not nearly enough. Without a revolutionary party to fight for a communist horizon, it is too easy to forget the lessons of struggle in this Dark Night. One such lesson from the past that should not be forgotten is the Nazi policy of Gleichschaltung, which saw nearly all German teachers disciplined to enlist in the project of fascism. Joe Biden and his liberal misleaders are preparing the working class for sacrifice, war, and genocide through isolation and silencing—a version of their own Nazi Gleichschaltung. All of this is to indoctrinate young people so that they are willing cogs in the fascist machine.
It is our task as educators, as communists, and as members of a Party to show young people that there is an alternative. That there is another path away from genocide. That people are not alone in the fight for a better world but that people have and will stand against the genocidal capitalist bosses. We must fight for communism which empowers the entire working class across borders from here to cop-city in Atlanta, to Sudan, to Palestine.
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Tanzania: we need solidarity vs. the flood by capitalist disregard
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- 09 May 2024 192 hits
The corrupt and visionless leaders in a region in northeast Tanzania sold plots to people to build houses within a basin, which has been known to be prone to flooding since the colonial era. Due to the population expansion and the rise of high demand of urban land, the human settlements in the area expanded rapidly from 2010. In addition, the impacts of climate change brought heavy rainfall since November 2023 bringing daily flooding. The government turned a blind eye even though its citizens were suffering from the loss of homes, clothes, food, fresh and clean water, electricity, and roads.
In the last few weeks, the flooding intensified and over 3,000 people lost their homes. The most affected are women, older people, both primary and secondary students, poor people, disabled people, and some Progressive Labor Party (PLP) comrades who lived there. Over 79 houses were totally demolished by the water that turned the basin into a temporary lake. None of these people were given food or any other social services by the government; however, a local government official donated 200 bags of maize to 1,067 people, less than half of those affected.
More flooding is expected in the coming weeks. Worse impacts may include eruption of waterborne diseases such as cholera due to improper dumping of sewage and destroyed toilets. The situation is likely to pose social miseries to the entire town. The PLP members from other areas have visited this area and are organizing the donation of clothes and food. We ask comrades from other countries around the world to join hands with us in international solidarity with money for food, clothes, and rent, etc.
Let us fight injustice, inequality, and capitalist exploitation of our working-class brothers and sisters. Communist revolution will be the turning point of getting rid of all the burdens of the capitalist system. “Let us shout as an international working class”. When we stand together, fight together, we win together and enjoy a happy life as one global working class.
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International May Day Greetings . . . Haiti: ever onward to victory, we shall win
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- 09 May 2024 184 hits
Revolutionary greetings from Progressive Labor Party in Haiti on the occasion of May Day 2024
Comrades,
Every first of May, the lion tries to wake so it can roar, but its voice is still stifled. However, not for long will the chains of the executioners rest so firm and strong, to keep the lion mute any longer. Soon, the roar will be heard in the four corners of the earth. We can hear it, if we ignore the diversions of the executioners.
Comrades, we send you our revolutionary greetings from Haiti. Our greetings are full of hope in the unleashing of the working class, this lion that can never be slain.
From Haiti to Palestine, passing through all the countries where executioners torture and murder to try to silence dissident voices, we will never stop chanting: “Hasta la victoria siempre”, venceremos—ever onward to victory, we shall win”.
Long live the communist struggle, long live the PLP.
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International May Day Greetings . . . Israel-Palestine: march against fascism
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- 09 May 2024 189 hits
Comrades,
I send you revolutionary greetings from Israel-Palestine, at the forefront of the struggle against fascism. Here, the bosses' dogfight over state power and profits led to the rise of an openly fascist government. This administration makes no liberal pretense and viciously attacks the working class, especially women, LGBT, Palestinians, and asylum seekers.
The old, liberal wing of the ruling class opposes this, fearing that the end of the liberal charade will destabilize the regime and endanger their ties with the international business class, which also prefers to wear the liberal mask.
Meanwhile, the newer, less well-established wing of Israel's bourgeoisie welcomes the new regime, hoping that it will rob the older part of the ruling class and distribute the spoils among the newer wing.
This led to mass protests of hundreds of thousands of people, mostly staunchly nationalist (Zionist) in character. We, as communists, participate in the Block against the Occupation, reminding the "patriotic" protesters of "The Elephant in the Room" they would otherwise gladly ignore, namely colonialism.
This May Day, we participate in marches in Nazareth and Jaffa against the regime, against fascism, and for one communist state from all the rivers to the seas, with equality and freedom for all working-class people. March on May Day - smash capitalism and fascism!
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International May Day Greetings . . . Brazil: we have a world to win
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- 09 May 2024 186 hits
Long live the communist struggle, long live the PLP.
Greetings to Progressive Labor Party on the occasion of May Day 2024 from Progressive Labor Party members and friends in Brazil.
The reactionary policies of fascists and capitalists only generate wars which in turn destroy man and his environment, as Marx had already said. Today the wars against the working class and the proletarians of all countries make us see that the fight against capitalism and fascism must be the element that guides the daily life of the working class.
During the last century imperialism and fascism were responsible for two world wars in which tens of millions of workers perished. Even today, wars continue to destroy our class and the environment through the threat of increasingly sophisticated nuclear weapons. Only the union of workers, proletarians, of the entire working class to turn the guns against capitalism can give a better future to our world. Active and unemployed workers and students, ALL UNITED AGAINST CAPITALISM AND
FASCISM.
BUILD THE INTERNATIONAL REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNIST PLP! WE HAVE A WORLD TO WIN!!
