Yes, Haitian President Aristide was deposed by CIA

The Grayzone, 3/1—A spectacular jailbreak in Gonaïves, Haiti in August 2002 saw a bulldozer smash through the local prison walls, allowing armed supporters of Amiot “Cubain” Métayer, a gang leader jailed weeks earlier for harassing Haitian political figures, to overrun the facility. Métayer escaped, as did 158 other prisoners. Among them were perpetrators of the April 1994 Raboteau massacre, which left dozens of Haitians dead and displaced. The victims were supporters of popular anti-imperial President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Documents released… reveal that the jailbreak was part of a complex US intelligence operation, aimed at undermining Aristide’s presidency. At the heart of this operation was Janice L. Elmore, a CIA operative working undercover as a Department of State “Political Officer” in the Port-au-Prince US Embassy at the time.
The breakout set in motion a violent regime change campaign, which ultimately ousted Aristide from office on February 29, 2004. After being deposed and flown to South Africa, Aristide claimed to have been “kidnapped” by US forces and directly accused Washington of orchestrating the plot. 

French capitalists benefit from war In Ukraine

France24, 3/11–Ukraine has become the world's fourth-largest arms importer, while France has replaced Russia as the world's second-largest exporter behind the United States. Arms imports to Europe rose by 94 percent in 2019-2023, compared to the preceding five-year period, while overall global arms transfers decreased slightly, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)...The increase is "partially explained by the war in Ukraine, and Ukraine has become the fourth largest importer of arms in the world in the last five years"...in the 2019-2023 period, 55 percent of imports to Europe were from the US, up from 35 percent in the 2014-2018 period…While Russia's exports declined, France saw its own grow by 47 percent, thereby narrowly edging out Russia to become the world's second-largest exporter.

Being “anticapitalist" may lead to FBI investigation

The Intercept, 3/7–Aaron Bushnell’s death by self-immolation in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington last month has provoked nationwide soul-searching about the war in Gaza. For the U.S. government though, the airman’s death excites a different kind of search: for so-called extremists, particularly left-wing ones. Last Wednesday, Sen. Tom Cotton…sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin asking why and how the Pentagon could tolerate an airman like Bushnell in its ranks. Calling his death “an act of horrific violence” that was “in support of a terrorist group [Hamas]”...Bushnell’s posts on Reddit and other social media platforms before his death reflected this embrace of anarchism…the FBI maintains a program specifically for combating anarchists, called the Anarchist Extremism Program…An internal FBI threat advisory obtained by The Intercept defines Anarchist Violent Extremists as individuals “who consider capitalism and centralized government to be unnecessary and oppressive,” and “oppose economic globalization; political, economic, and social hierarchies based on class, religion, race, gender, or private ownership of capital; and external forms of authority represented by centralized government, the military, and law enforcement.”

Military bloc forming in challenge to U.S.-dominated NATO

Barron’s, 3/11–The navies of China, Russia, and Iran are staging joint drills in the Gulf of Oman this week, Beijing said Monday. The military activities -- to be conducted from Monday through Friday -- are aimed at "jointly maintaining regional maritime security", according to a statement published on the social media platform WeChat by China's defense ministry. "China will send... guided-missile destroyer Urumqi, guided-missile frigate Linyi, and comprehensive supply ship Dongpinghu to participate in the exercise," the statement added, without providing further details…This year's round of joint exercises coincides with soaring tensions in the region as the war in Gaza rages and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have launched a flurry of attacks on ships in the Red Sea. Russian state media reported that a detachment of ships from the country's Pacific Fleet, led by the Varyag cruiser, arrived at the Iranian port of Chah Bahar on Monday ahead of the drills.

Following the February 8 general election in Pakistan, thousands of workers across the country have shut down highways, picketed government buildings, and united in workplace strikes. The country’s capitalist bosses have responded by unleashing riot police with tear gas to beat protestors and conduct mass arrests.

Millions of workers and youth are enraged with the election’s outcome, which saw jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Party candidates sidelined amid widespread allegations of fraud and vote rigging (Guardian, 2/17). The wrath of these workers is rooted in profound economic misery that has only intensified in recent years. Workers are caught in the crossfire between an increasingly divided Pakistani ruling class and the vice-like grip of competing U.S. and Chinese imperialists. The international communist Progressive Labor Party calls on the working class of Pakistan and around the world to reject the bosses’ schemes to make us choose sides between competing factions of racist, nationalist exploiters. Our only way forward—our only way out of crushing poverty and genocidal imperialist wars—is to build the revolutionary struggle for a borderless and egalitarian communist society, under the leadership of a mass PLP.

Workers in Pakistan bled dry by inter-imperialist rivalry
Strategically situated in South Asia, with a population of over 200 million and armed with nuclear weapons, Pakistan has long been a focus of interest for rival imperialist blocs. In 2001, after the attacks of 9/11, as U.S.-NATO forces invaded neighboring Afghanistan, the U.S. bosses pressured Pakistan’s rulers into a military alliance against the Taliban. The consequences of the ensuing twenty-year occupation were staggering: more than 70,000 lives lost, $150 billion in debt, and a deadly surge in clashing insurgent groups (Time, 5/29/22).

The crushing debt made the Pakistani bosses even more reliant on loans to stay afloat, a crisis that the predatory U.S.-led International Monetary Fund (IMF) was happy to exploit. To qualify for the latest IMF bailout, Pakistan’s ruling class turned the screws even tighter against workers by raising fuel and electricity prices, triggering widespread protests in major cities (Reuters, 1/11).

Over the past decade, meanwhile, the Chinese imperialists have positioned themselves as an alternative source of loans to Pakistan, investing tens of billions of dollars. In the process, China has incorporated Pakistan into their transcontinental infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Under the guise of “development,” the Chinese bosses gained critical access to Gwadar Port and the Indian Ocean beyond, skirting other transit routes patrolled by the U.S. (Wilson Center, 10/20/20).

In reality, the flood of Chinese investment across Pakistan has created even more exploitation and poverty. In the resource-rich province of Balochistan, workers have protested against Chinese fishing boats that dominate local waterways and increase local unemployment (The Diplomat, 5/29/22). What’s more, as the troubled Chinese economy contracts, more infrastructure projects across Pakistan are stalling. With China less willing to forgive their billions in loans, Pakistan’s economy is in freefall (South Asian Voices, 3/22/23). Workers across the country are certain to bear the brunt of this imperialist disaster.

Local bosses crank up fascist discipline
Much of the chaos now rocking Pakistan is driven by a split within the Pakistani ruling class on whether to side with U.S. imperialism or rival Chinese or Russian imperialists. In a country where the military has long dominated the economy for its own profit, this instability is nothing new. Since Pakistan’s formation in 1947, no prime minister has completed a full five-year term (Al Jazeera, 2/12).
In April 2022, after populist misleader Imran Khan took a neutral stance on the Russian imperialists’ invasion of Ukraine, he was attacked with a no-confidence vote in parliament and ousted from office. Leaked cables later showed that U.S. diplomats had threatened economic and political consequences if Khan remained in power. Once he was out of the picture, weapons sales ticked up from Pakistan to the U.S.-backed Ukrainian military (The Intercept, 8/9/23).

The latest election fiasco reflects a period of rising fascism in Pakistan. The old guard bosses, represented by pro-U.S. political parties, are openly disciplining Khan and his China-leaning capitalist backers. Although the PTI won the most seats in the election, the rival Pakistan Muslim League and Pakistan People’s Party have joined to form a majority coalition government and guarantee that pro-U.S. forces will hold the reins—at least for now (BBC, 2/20).

The allegations of corruption and collusion aside, workers everywhere must see that Khan—or any other capitalist politician—is no answer for the needs of our class. Despite throwing a few crumbs out to workers, Khan did nothing to stem the country's skyrocketing inflation and unemployment, nor did he challenge the imperialists and their rapacious financial institutions (Stratheia, 8/23/23). Rather than mobilize behind our oppressors, workers must redirect our anger at the capitalist system itself and unite as a class to overthrow it.

Glimmers of fightback point to communist future
Workers across Pakistan have demonstrated a strong fightback culture that can inspire our class and our communist future. In the summer of 2022, unprecedented flooding devastated the country. As thousands were killed and more than thirty million displaced, workers took rescue actions into their own hands and saved many lives. Despite limited resources, comrades from PLP helped lead some of these efforts to set up medical camps and distribute food and tents while pointing out the failure of the capitalist bosses and their system (see CHALLENGE, 9/21/22). 
In October, 2023, when the racist bosses enacted a ruthless policy to expel over one million refugees from Afghanistan back to that country and to militarize the border, workers of different ethnic backgrounds came together to organize a months-long sit-in to pressure the government to back down (Times of India, 12/25/23).

These courageous actions are only a glimmer of the potential of what the working class can achieve when we unite and organize in our common interest. In a volatile world on a crash course to the next world war, our future survival hinges on our ability to weave these threads of fightback into a mass international movement for communism. Workers of the world, unite! Join PLP!

The following piece was originally published in the June 14, 2017 edition of CHALLENGE (volume 49 no. 12). Ruling-class historians have segregated the fight against racism and the fight for an egalitarian system, communism. In reality, the two were connected like flesh and bone. Many anti-racist struggles were led by, initiated by, or were fought with communists and communist-influenced organizations. Many Black fighters were also dedicated communists and pro-communists of their time.

In turn, the bosses have used anti-communism as a tool to terrorize and divide anti-racist fightback. Regardless of communist affiliation, anyone who fought racism was at risk of being red-baited. Why? 1) The ruling class understands the natural relationship between anti-racism and communism, and 2) Multiracial unity threatens the very racist system the bosses “work so hard” to maintain. 

This series aims to reunite the history of communism with anti-racism. Part I explored how the fight to free Scottsboro Boys was ignited by the International Labor Defense of the Communist Party. See Robin D.G. Kelley’s book Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression to find out more. 

The following piece excerpts from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in the essay, “The Civil Rights Movement” by researcher Davarian L. Baldwin at Trinity College.   

The Civil Rights Movement was a decades-long mass uprising of Black and white workers and students against the most open forms of racism in the U.S. Its impetus was the growing international communist movement fresh off the defeat of fascism in Europe and quickly growing in China, Africa and around the world, combined with the growing resistance to racism by the Black workers in the U.S. 

The U.S. ruling class tried to shut down the mass anti-racist fightback by using anti-communism to divide and terrorize the movement. In the period right after World War II, the Soviet Union was admired by workers around the world, including in the U.S., for defeating the Nazi war machine. The workers-led society in the Soviet Union stood in stark contrast to the legal segregation workers faced in the U.S.

Communist movement was dawn of The Civil Rights Movement
While the racist Jim Crow laws in the South were are well known, segregation cut across the country. Black workers who moved to northern cities to look for jobs faced racism in looking for homes and on the job as well. 

Between 1940 and 1960 the Great Migration brought over six million African Americans to industrial centers in the urban North and West, where migrants were met with new forms of racial containment. They were often restricted to domestic and retail service work. Those who found industrial employment were kept out of labor unions.

The communist movement had been heavily involved in the fight against racism in the South since around 1930 and had built up a mass movement that included Black and white workers and students. The struggle to defend the Scottsboro Boys, nine young Black men wrongly accused of raping two white women, galvanized the anti-racist movement (see CHALLENGE, 5/31). This communist-led struggle brought thousand of Black and white workers into organizations that fought racism and trained many of the leaders of the civil rights movement. 

If you look at all the…auxiliary organizations[of the Communist Party in Alabama], the International Labor Defense, which focused on civil rights issues, they had up to 2,000. The Sharecroppers Union had up to 12,000. You had the International Workers Order. You had the League of Young Southerners. You had the Southern Negro Youth Congress. [In total], it touched the lives easily of 20,000 people.

There were many people who were trained in the Communist Party who went on to become Civil Rights activists [including] Rosa Parks…some of her first political activities were around the Scottsboro case…She never joined the party, but as a young woman, she and her husband, in fact, attended some of the meetings…the infrastructure that was laid forward that becomes the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama, was laid in many ways, not entirely, by the Communist Party (Robin Kelly on WNYC Radio 2/16/2010).

WW II and After: Communist Fighters Under Attack 
The movement against racism that grew in the 1930s didn’t stop during World War II.

The United States entered the wartime world as the self-professed face of democracy, but African Americans began to make links between Nazi racism, European imperialism, and American [racism].
Veteran activist and president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) A. Philip Randolph threatened to lead a 100,000-person March on Washington Movement (MOWM) in November 1941 if wartime production was not desegregated…

Between 1942 and 1945 industrial centers, military camps, and port cities, including Detroit, New York, and Los Angeles, exploded with race riots. Ongoing…attempts to constrain black life erupted in violent riots in more than forty cities (Baldwin).

After the war, the U.S. bosses came under increasing pressure as the Soviet Union and the international communist movement exposed the hypocrisy of U.S. capitalism, describing itself as a pillar of “democracy” while denying even the most basic freedom to Black citizens.

Black workers led the charge against racism
Black communists played a leading role in exposing U.S. racism to the world and came under attack as well. Paul Robeson was a communist actor, singer, athlete and political activist. He was a man of international renown and used it to build the movement for workers’ power and the fight against racism. Robeson and other communists came under extreme attack by the U.S. bosses who were terrified of the multi-racial fight against racism

In 1947 W. E. B. Du Bois placed the grievances of African Americans before the newly formed United Nations in his famous “Appeal to the World” address…singer and activist Paul Robeson signed a U.S.S.R. petition to the United Nations, “We Charge Genocide,” documenting a series of human rights abuses against African Americans. Communist activist Claudia Jones organized in Harlem for jobs, housing, and humane immigration policies. Both Robeson’s and Du Bois’s passports were revoked until 1958 while the Trinidadian [Claudia] Jones was deported to Britain. In the Cold War context, black struggles for freedom were largely denounced as un-American (Baldwin).

The bosses’ anti-communist McCarthyism campaign was an attempt to strangle the communist movement in the U.S. and stop the fight against racism. It terrified many people. Leading fighters were driven underground, out of the country and some were put in jail. For a while, there were few public demonstrations against racism in the South or North as anyone, Black or white, who stood up against Jim Crow, housing or school segregation was labeled a communist and subject to being harassed or attacked by the FBI.

But the working class continued to fight and the struggle against racism eventually focused on the Jim Crow laws that segregated all forms of life in the South. The U.S. bosses were particularly vulnerable to the fight against Jim Crow laws. The German Nazis had used the laws as a model for setting up their fascist system “[Hitler in Main Kampf] describes the United States as ‘the one state’ that had made headway toward what he regarded as a healthy and utterly necessary racist regime” (NY Times 5/22). Black soldiers returning from the war were increasingly unwilling to tolerate fascism at home after fighting it in Europe.

Many Black workers began to resist legal segregation and Alabama civil rights leaders decided it was time to take mass action against the laws. 

In 1955, Rosa Parks was asked to make a stand that would spark the campaign. When she refused to get out of her seat setting off the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Black working class of Montgomery, experienced by the communist-led fight to defend the Scottsboro Boys and the many other battles against racism, was prepared to fight and that they did.