President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration, banning travel to the U.S. from seven mainly Muslim countries, has endangered and torn apart thousands of workers’ lives. A four-month-old baby from Iran was denied life-saving heart surgery. A breastfeeding Sudanese mother was separated from her 11-month-old child while both were detained at a Dallas airport. Countless refugees were trapped in life-threatening situations. Entry was denied to an Iraqi translator who’d risked his life for U.S. imperialism in the bosses’ war in Iraq; to an Iranian biologist working on a cure for tuberculosis at Harvard; to countless other scientists, doctors, researchers, and students.
While the U.S. bosses wage imperialist war, devastating millions of workers, they are also working overtime to prevent workers from escaping their death sentence (see box). No matter how the U.S. judicial process plays out, this racist policy serves only the needs of the capitalist ruling class. Sharpening imperialist rivalries—conflicts between bosses of different countries—are pushing the world closer to a wider global war. Whatever their internal differences, the U.S. rulers are using Trump’s anti-Muslim ban and “America First” nationalism to win the U.S. working class to their cause: the fight for U.S. capitalism and the bosses’ oil profits.
The difference between Trump and Barack Obama is less about ideology and more about political strategy. Obama deported record numbers but veiled his racist policies with lip service to religious and racial tolerance—a tactic to deceive and pacify the working class. Trump has taken an openly racist tack to mobilize his racist base. The good news is that anti-racist workers have responded en masse and fought back. Within hours of Trump’s signing his executive order, thousands of workers--Black, Latino, Asian, and white, men and women, young and old—rushed to join protests at numerous airports and dozens of cities throughout the U.S. and the world, from London and Paris to Manila and Jakarta. Workers set aside religious differences and joined in multiracial unity. This unity is essential for the working class to win a world free of racist borders, sexism, war and poverty, a communist world run by and for the international working class.
Ban: Nothing New
for U.S. Racism
These attacks on workers are nothing new. Trump’s racist fear-mongering comes on the heels of eight years of Deporter-in-Chief Obama’s racist immigration policies. (Between 2009 and 2014, Obama deported 2.5 million workers.) Trump’s “new” policy, in fact, is born out of Obama’s 2015 Terror Prevention Act, which listed the seven countries in question. Obama’s act, in turn, was a “turbocharged” version of President George W. Bush’s immigration policy (Nation, 6/27/16).
Fortified national borders—the better to divide and exploit the working class--are essential to capitalism. In the 1930s, under liberal Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the U.S. bosses deported hundreds of thousands of workers to Mexico. During World War II, they turned away mainly Jewish refugees, sending them straight to the Nazis’ death camps. More recently, the bosses have used anti-Muslim racism to justify countless invasions, pillaging, and destruction in the Middle East (see box). For workers, crossing the border between the U.S. and Mexico has become more and more deadly for workers. During the Obama administration, children sent by their parents as a last effort to flee conflict in Central America were sent back—even though it was effectively a death sentence for some (New York Times, 7/16/16).
Trump’s immigration ban was significant as well for the countries it excluded—most notably Saudi Arabia, the leading source of cheaply extracted oil and a source of huge profits for ExxonMobil, where U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was CEO until last December: “In his order...Trump invoked the Sept. 11 attacks three times. Yet Saudi Arabia... home to 15 of the 19 attackers, was not included on the list of countries...[This] reflects the deep economic and security ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia” (NYT, 1/30).
The Courts and
Liberals Won’t Save Us
So what does it mean when the courts and many politicians—both Democrats and Republicans—are denouncing Trump? It reflects the rulers’ disarray as they try to get their capitalist class in line and protect the faltering U.S. empire. To that end, they will not blink at killing millions of workers around the world. Although Trump is less predictable and perhaps less easily controlled than other recent presidents, he will either deliver the pro-war movement the bosses need or they will find another racist politician to take his place. The judges temporarily blocking Trump’s order are the same forces that target Black workers for racist mass incarceration. Meanwhile, the real criminals on Wall Street are stealing billions from our class.
We cannot vote or petition our way out of capitalist oppression. The only way for the working class to get what we need is through mass revolutionary violence and the seizure of state power. To win the world, the international working class, organized by Progressive Labor Party, will have to take it! Only communist revolution, led by PLP, can smash exploitation and mass imperialist murder for all time.
Smash All Borders
The thousands of anti-racists who have taken to the streets and the airports send an important signal of resistance to the bosses’ attempts to divide the working class. They show the potential of multiracial unity to fight back. But fighting for a “fairer” immigration policy is a losing battle for the working class. Borders are created by capitalism; they serve only the bosses. Meanwhile, capital flows freely from one country to the next. The international working class has no need for these artificial lines. Smashing nationalist borders and building a revolutionary mass working-class movement is the only way forward.
Every time the bosses attack, we, the international working class, must be organized to fight back and confront them with multiracial unity. On Friday, February 3, more than a thousand New York City bodega owners went on strike against Trump’s ban and in solidarity with the detainees. Marchers protesting the racist police murder of Ramarley Graham in the Bronx joined the bodega protesters. To move this unity to the next level, we must turn reform battles into a fight for communism. The international working class deserves a better world--a communist world, led by PLP!
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The bosses’ media has used anti-Muslim and anti-Arab racism to paint war in the Middle East as part of an endless conflict between Muslim sects. But the real cause of the horrors inflicted upon our class is inter-imperialist rivalry, as can be seen in the seven countries targeted by Trump.
In Iran:
U.S. bosses remain locked in a struggle with China and Russia, the main backers of the Iranian regime, for control over the Middle East’s vast energy wealth, an increasingly deadly struggle for the working class.
What US bosses fear most is the encirclement and isolation of Saudi Arabia and its oil fields, the grand prize for U.S. imperialism, by Iran and its regional allies.
In Iraq:
The U.S. has a long history of attacks on the Iraqi working class, most recently killing more than one million in the second Iraq War.
Iraq is emerging once again as a focal point for U.S. rulers. U.S. bosses remain locked into Iraq’s petroleum-soaked politics.
ExxonMobil’s vast and growing operations in the country are aimed at controlling Iraqi oil sources, which are of growing importance to rival Chinese bosses.
In Syria:
For millions of workers, the horror of wider war is already a reality. The U.S. proxy war with Russia has left cities demolished, displaced millions of refugees, and slaughtered hundreds of thousands workers.
Trump’s order includes a total and indefinite ban on Syrian refugees.
In Libya:
Using the phony “responsibility to protect” excuse for waging wider wars, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton engineered a U.S. invasion in 2011. Bombing and missile raids by the U.S. were supposedly aimed at saving Libya’s citizens from dictator Muammar Qaddafi. In reality, however, the invasion was designed to consolidate oil deals the imperialist powers had made with the unreliable Qaddafi and each other.
In Sudan:
China first supported the Sudanese government in Khartoum fighting against separatist rebels in the south, who were funded by the U.S. But when the rebels succeeded in freeing their oil-rich province from control of the Khartoum regime, the Chinese skillfully switched sides to sustain their gas and oil projects.
China helped develop the South Sudan oil industry, which now exports 80 percent of its oil to China.
Chinese troops are part of a UN “peacekeeping force” that protects the oil wells and pipelines.
In Yemen:
Yemen is being torn apart in a proxy war between the Iran-backed Houthi rebels and the pro-Saudi/U.S. regime. A Saudi-led coalition has conducted indiscriminate air strikes across the country, killing thousands of workers. The finance capitalists fear any threat to U.S. control over the world’s foremost profit center in neighboring Saudi Arabia.
In Somalia:
The working class is caught in the crossfire of the imperialists’ fight to control Middle East oil. Over the last several months, the U.S.’s rampage has increased to six raids a month (Telesurtv, 10/16). Obama folded these raids into the perpetual war waged under the “Authorization for Use of Military Force,” the Congressional legislation signed into law one week after 9-11.
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U.S. and Chinese Imperialism: Already At War in Africa
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- 10 February 2017 66 hits
Africa is emerging as a massive battlefield between U.S. and Chinese imperialism, who covet total control over the continent’s enormous resources, labor, and emerging markets. The multilingual, multiethnic working class is caught in between this rivalry, having already endured centuries of pillaging and underdevelopment by European imperialism, with nothing but more violence, bloodshed and devastation from either bosses’ side.
While U.S. imperialism tries to regroup militarily from the devastating defeats in Iraq and Afghanistan, the rate of U.S. military involvement in Africa has been ramping up quickly. U.S. Special Forces units are now conducting operations in 33 countries in Africa, or two-thirds of the continent. “’It’s the land of tremendous opportunity, but the land where, if the perfect storm brews, a lot of negative things could happen,’ said Major General Joseph Harrington, commanding general of U.S. Army Africa. (Defense Times 10/2/2016)
While Obama frequently claimed humanitarian reasons for sending troops to Africa, “The majority of African governments that hosted deployments of U.S. commandos in 2016 have seen their own security forces cited for human rights abuses by the U.S. State Department, including Algeria, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, and Tanzania, among others. Elite U.S. troops are also deployed to Sudan, one of three nations, along with Iran and Syria, cited by the U.S. as “state sponsors of terrorism” “(The Intercept 12/31/16).
The military operations aid in propping up governments that support U.S. imperialism, kicking out governments that don’t, and conducting “proxy wars.” Proxy wars are provoked by major imperialists, but are not fought by them directly. In Africa, proxy wars secure the U.S. bosses’ access to those natural resources, emerging markets and sources of cheap labor without which capitalist production cannot function without.
China’s Bosses Gain at U.S. Imperialism’s Expense
Chinese and U.S. imperialism are already in direct economic confrontation in Africa, where the U.S. is being “crushed” (CNN Money, 6/30/16).
The Democratic Republic of Congo is just one example. It is Africa’s second largest country and, with 80 million workers, is the largest French-speaking country in the world. Its potential as an emerging capitalist market is rivaled only by its richness in natural resources. The DR Congo contains the world’s largest supplies of fresh water, as well as the world’s largest deposits of oil, copper, diamonds, gold, uranium, and coltan. Nearly every cellular phone in the world, for example, uses coltan and cobalt, likely mined by working class children as young as seven (Reuters, 1/19/16).
The situation of women workers is extreme, with the UN blasting the DR Congo’s government for routinely permitting and using rape as a tactic to terrorize politically active women workers.
Only when China’s bosses started coming out on top of the mass slaughter of the Congo Wars, in 2002, did reports about “human rights” become a concern to the U.S. bosses. “Since 2000, China has emerged as Africa’s largest trading partner and a major source of investment finance as well. Large numbers of Chinese workers have moved to Africa in recent years…as high as one million” (Brookings.edu, 7/11/16). In addition, China has added Africa to its $8 trillion “One Belt One Road” (OBOR) project, building strategic deep-water ports and railway networks (The Duran, 6/7/16).
While the imperialist powers fight it out behind the scenes, workers everywhere else in Africa are bearing the brunt of the attacks carried out by warring militias, leading to massive casualties as well as starvation and homelessness and the forced enlistment of child soldiers. “Chad’s forces just a few years ago were involved in a report from Amnesty International about a massive recruitment of child soldiers. …this is one of the U.S.’s main proxy forces [in Africa]” (In These Times 8/17/2015).
Workers Fight Back!
The working class of Africa has produced masses of women and men leaders who have led tremendous fightbacks against imperialism. The masses continue to organize and fight! In 2011, demonstrations against unemployment in Tunisia transformed into rebellions that brought down the government. Repeated general strikes in 2016 in the DR Congo, (Reuters, 2/16/16) brought entire sectors of the mining-based economy to a screeching halt. Miners, students and workers have rocked South Africa with rebellions for years.
The workers are bravely fighting, amidst lethal danger, under the leadership of liberal misleaders and reformist ideas. The history of mass communist-led fightback and anti-imperialist struggle, however, is in the fabric of working class history. Our work to earn the leadership of the masses is cut out for us, and we continue building the communist Progressive Labor Party across Africa.
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5 Years Later, No Justice for Stephon Watts under Capitalism
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- 10 February 2017 84 hits
CALUMET CITY, Feb 1—Today’s rally marked another year no justice served for the racist murder of Stephon Watts.
Five years ago, on the morning of February 1, 2012, Calumet City kkkops William Coffey and Robert Hynek forcibly entered the home of 15-year-old Stephon Watts and shot him dead in his basement. The Watts family still struggles with the pain of losing their loved one, and the fact that his racist murderers are still free to terrorize other working-class youth and their families. PLP was active in planning the rally that marked the fifth anniversary of his murder, continuing the fight for justice for Stephon and for all other victims of capitalist state violence.
Shot and Killed for being Black with a Butter Knife
To those who knew him best, Stephon is remembered as a vibrant child who loved working with computers. He was diagnosed at an early age with Asperger’s syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism. On the morning he was murdered, his father had called 911, as instructed by medical professionals, to deal with an outburst Stephon was having before school.
The two kkkops, both of whom were familiar with Stephon’s condition, pushed their way into the house although Stephon’s father insisted that the situation was under control by that point. Upon seeing Stephon with a butter knife in his hands at the bottom of the stairs, the racist thugs opened fire, killing the youth instantly.
Despite the outrage and tireless fightback of family, workers, and students, the racist courts soon declared the murder justified and threw the case out. While supporting the family in their struggle, the comrades involved have consistently put forward the communist analysis of the class role of the police and the courts under capitalism. The kkkops are the cutting edge of fascism for the capitalist class, who need racist and sexist terror in order to divide and oppress workers and protect their profit system. In the instance that the racist bosses or their kkkops are put on trial, the courts work hand-in-hand with them to ensure that they receive no real punishment for their crimes.
Working-Class Anger Prevails
Two scores of fighters showed up in support of the 5th anniversary rally, the result of extensive planning work of the family, PLP, and various other community organizations. Stephon’s sister kicked off the event by speaking on the memory of her brother and the need to continue the fight on his behalf.
Two kkkops from the Calumet City department had the gall to walk up to Stephon’s mother and offer their “services” for the demonstration. She quickly shouted them down for their racist crimes. The cops scattered off.
After the crowd was fired up, we took to the streets to march on the Calumet City Police Department. PL’ers sharpened the political tone with chants of “White cop, Black cop, all the same! Racist terror is the name of the game!” and “Racism means, we got to fight back! Sexism means, we got to fight back!”
The majority of those present received a copy of Challenge, and we made some new contacts.
Once arriving in front of the police station, different speakers took to the microphone. A teenager with autism gave a moving speech about the daily struggle of living with special needs under capitalism. Two other mothers of Black youth murdered by the kkkops told their stories and echoed the demand for justice. A number of comrades spoke on the bullhorn about the need to reject the latest reform scheme and instead to help organize the fight for revolution. It was empowering for everyone involved to participate in a direct action blasting the racist brutality of the system.
Justice for Stephon means Communism
As communists, we must never hold any illusions about the plans the capitalist bosses have for our youth. The bosses will only offer the majority of us more fascist police terror and racist wars, because that’s what their system needs to survive. Our goal remains to win more and more workers and students to communism, a world where racism will be outlawed and police terror will only be a nightmare of the past. Justice for Stephon! Justice for the international working class!
For more information on Stephon Watts and ways to contribute to the struggle, please visit justiceforstephonwatts.com.
BERKELEY, February 1—Thousands of people took to the streets to protest the fascist, racist Milo Yiannopoulos who was supposed to speak at the University of California Berkeley campus. The protest ultimately ended in a direct action that shut him down! Although our communist PLP contingent only included seven, it remains vital that we continue to put the line on the line as these anti-fascist fightbacks continue to pop up. From San Francisco to India to Mexico, the Progressive Labor Party will turn out to ensure that there is no free speech for fascists!
Racist Speech Leads to Racist Violence
In the weeks leading up to the event, there had been debates on campus about free speech versus the need for direct action to stop this fascist, sexist, racist, Trump-inspired movement. Yiannopoulos makes a living spewing hateful ideas. He is a senior editor at Breitbart News, a Zionist rightwing company. He has been part of Trump’s movement and often spews sexism anti-Muslim racism. This public figure supports the Muslim ban and talks about how Muslim people are violent and rapists. Most who turned out were convinced to shut it down, especially after the UC administration allowed the event to go forward in the “name of free speech.” Under capitalism, “free speech” is used an excuse to spew racist, sexist hate-speech. More importantly, racist speech translates to racist actions. People like Yiannopoulos embolden racists to attack workers, even if he doesn’t directly tell people to do it. So, PLP says no free speech for racists!
Parts of the crowd used the police barricades to trash the building and attacked the cops who were trying to protect the space where Milo was supposed to speak. Some Trump supporters were present, one of whom got decked.
These actions had a mass character and sympathy from many who were there or watched it live-stream. The actions also left some young people wondering what they should do in a confrontation. Other lay students were there to see “what’s up.” Some Berkeley High School students proudly told us about the walkouts against Trump following the election.
Mass Protest Creates Opportunity for Communists
Such mass actions are opportunities in PLP’s fight for communism. Our responsibility to spread communist ideas and practice increases. When we have personal or organizational ties with young people, we can move them towards a life-long commitment to fight for an egalitarian, communist world when we involve them in these actions.
PLP members and some friends came out together. Our poster with the CD headlines “This capitalist system, Shut it down” (see photo) caught many people’s attention. This allowed us to distribute CHALLENGE and a flyer and gave us opportunities to have deeper discussions about the way capitalism is leading to growing fascism and the need for a communist movement. The interest of workers that we were able to engage with was evidenced by their eagerness to share contact information, and one woman even asked if we had any upcoming events that we were organizing.
Debate has ranged after this event as the mass media tries to lead people to passivism in the face of attack. The debate is wide open for communist to be involved. It will take mass, organized violence to overthrow this system.
No Free Speech for Sexism and Racism: Milo Yiannopoulos is a court jester dancing on the stage set by the biggest capitalist players (Republican Democrats politicians, Goldman Sachs finance capitals, Breitbart open white nationalists/racists & sexist attackers) Milo‘s hate speech clearly has ties to the highest levels of State Power- He performed at the Republican Nominating convention, Young Republicans are sponsoring a tour of the US campuses, his jokes and attacks echo Breitbart/Bannon and Trump tweeted to stop Funds for UC Berkeley since he could not speak.
Shut Down Alt-Reality: The role of the bosses’ state in defending fascism is illustrated when the University argues for “free speech” to give “safe space” for organizing a movement to attack workers and students worldwide. Part of fascism is the “alt reality” that Milo and Trump promote: “There is no real racism or sexism in society—it’s all the heads of those who fight back” Spreading of such “alt-reality” is part of the growth of fascist culture and thinking. It is a revolt against science disguised as “alternative” facts (read: lies).
Um al-Hiran, ISRAEL-PALESTINE, January 18— Early in the morning, a large police force arrived at Um al-Hiran, an “unrecognized” Bedouin village in the Negev (southern Israel-Palestine) to demolish the village and evict its residents from the land. They have done this repeatedly over the years to set up a town for rich Jewish people from abroad, which will be named “Hiran.” The cops attacked with brutal violence and massive force. They killed Yaqoub Mousa Abu al-Qia’an, a Bedouin teacher from the village, and wounded many residents and activists, including two members of the Knesset (the legislative body in Israel) from the leftist organization “Joint List.” The cops were armed as if going to war with heavy weapons and body armor. Before the demolitions, the police blocked the roads leading to the village and tried to stop activists from arriving to the aid of the residents.
To cover up their racist murder, the police quickly branded Yaqoub Mousa Abu al-Qia’an a “terrorist”. The story they gave was that he was driving a truck during the demolition of his village, which he used to hit and kill a policeman. He was then killed by police fire. The government claimed that this was a “terrorist attack” aimed at police officers. However, Abu al-Qia’an’s autopsy revealed the regime’s blatant lies. The police shot him first, which caused him to lose control of his truck and hit them. Then they shot him again.
The attacks enraged people all across the country. On the same evening, activists went out to protest in Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem, and other cities. On the next Saturday, activists - both Jewish and Arab - came to Umm al-Hiran to show solidarity with the residents. All of this was done in defiance of the government and its slander of the Bedouins. The boss’ main strategy is to divide and pacify working class anger by scapegoating the most vulnerable. We must defeat this boss’ lies by building multi-racial unity, like the workers did here.
These events are typical of the Israeli government. For decades, its Zionist policy has been the same: give Jews as much land as possible, and take away as much land as possible from Arabs. When Arabs try to resist this, the regime brands them as “terrorists”. Compare this eviction to how the Israeli government wants to “evict” settlers from Amona (a blatantly illegal west-bank settlement) to a nearby hill, after being sued for building on (stolen) private Palestinian land. Each settler family will get 2 million NIS ($500,000) in compensation, and no one will be shooting at them. This hypocrisy is racism at work, plain and simple.
However, Israeli bosses also uses the same tactics against Jewish workers to enrich themselves. In 2015, Israeli police violently evicted working-class families from the Tel-Aviv neighborhood of Givat Amal Bet. The billionaire real-estate tycoon Yizhak Tshuva purchased the land - formerly state land - and decided to build luxury towers on it. Jewish workers housed on this land by the government since 1948 stood in his way, so he sent the cops to throw them out violently, without them having alternative housing.
This is why Jewish and Palestinian (including Bedouin) workers must unite against this racist policy and defend the right of all workers for their homes. The ones who should be evicted from this land are the tycoons, the fascists, and the cops. As long as capitalism exists, justice for workers is a pipedream. We need to continue to be in the fight exposing this racist system and struggling for more multi-racial, revolutionary, working class unity.
