How do you spell fascists? IDF
How do you spell murderers? IDF
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Hey, hey, ho, ho!
The occupation has got to go!
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Joe Biden, you can’t hide!
We charge you with genocide
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They are killing kids overseas...
Shut it down!
They’re killing kids in our streets...
Shut it down!
They’re getting killed by bombs...
Shut it down!
They’re getting killed by police..
Shut it down!
If they keep bombing...
Shut it down!
This racist system
Shut it down!
This genocidal system
Shut it down!
This capitalist system
Shut it down!
Shut this racist system down!
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U.S., Israel hand in hand
racist murder is the bosses’ plan,
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From Palestine to Mexico
The bosses borders, got to go!

Young masses reject liberal fascist ideas
The Cease-fire Teach-In hosted by the Newark Water Coalition last Friday reveals at once the intelligence of a fighting working class and the constant pitfalls that nationalism and liberalism present for mass consciousness in our class. Organizations representing the Democratic Socialists and also local college-based Palestinian organizers gave presentations that demonstrated how tactics for combatting imperialist genocide can be derived from workers who are not in our base directly.

The working class's knowledge from experience fighting local Zionist reactionaries in the streets of New Jersey reveals that we in the Progressive Labor Party must continue to learn from the militancy of our class brothers and sisters and spread this collective wisdom with those in our base. At the same time, our political participation in the teach-in and the strategic points that we made about widening imperialist world war–regardless of a cease-fire–and our larger critique of capitalism, strengthened our understanding of the need for a mass communist party as the basic historical necessity for our class to move forward. And the Newark Water Coalition will never host a meeting where we can make this plain. 

Several very smart young people who attended this teach-in validated our idea that a mass party for communism is necessary and possible. One young woman who has attended study groups in the past indicated that reform is limited based on her experience and that the need for a wider revolutionary commitment is necessary for true change. Others responded very favorably to our calls for an anti-capitalist worldview and the need to put forward internationalism rather than nationalism. 

Finally, we addressed observations about “white moderate” complacency and support for Zonist genocide made by the Palestinian youth from the college community. We pointed out that this “white moderate” agenda is led and put forward most viciously by the Black and Latin political class, or as we like to call them liberal fascists. And this point, too, was not rejected. So the bottom line is that it was heartening to see folks come out in large numbers to a Newark-based mass event and that our line was embraced. It shows that more and more we need to insist on the idea that workers do embrace our line and that it is up to us to put it forward and give them that chance to do so because these ideas DO NOT come about spontaneously or organically in a world that smothers our brains with nationalism and liberalism of all kinds. 

Patience guided by steady honest criticism, self-criticism, and effort, is how we will win folks in the ones and twos to our mass line. There are no shortcuts. 

*****
A communist’s valentine’s day
Some comrades and I recently hosted “A Communist’s Valentine’s Day,” which we hope to make an annual event. The idea was to collectively express love for the international working class. We had more than 20 PLP members and base members attend. For some, it was their first time hearing about the Party. 

At the beginning, we ate brunch and did ice breakers. We asked participants to write down questions to spark discussion. Questions included “What does success mean to you? Is success possible?” and “In a perfect world, what would you be doing tomorrow?”, which may not seem political at first glance, but quickly resulted in political discussion that prompted many of us to raise the Party’s line. 

One quote that resonated for me was “Success (in this system) means that you are meeting every one of capitalism’s demands, and that’s not possible.” We discussed how no worker can truly be successful individually and that “success” we may feel under capitalism can be taken by the bosses suddenly and without any remorse. Only by building a communist world can we achieve collective “success.”

After the discussion, we offered the paper and people readily took it and expressed interest in our upcoming study group. One friend took a copy and exclaimed in awe, “This is real?!” Yes, the fight for communism under the leadership of the PLP is real, and it’s growing! 

We closed out the night (the event lasted several hours!) with a candle vigil for workers who are under attack and for comrades and loved ones we’ve lost in recent years. We lit candles for migrant workers who are being denied adequate housing in NYC, for workers and children being bombed in Gaza, for students facing racist schooling, for loved ones lost to the capitalism-caused crises of COVID, suicide, and drug overdoses, for the late comrades Carolyn and Fernando, and for others. The vigil was a bonding experience that tied us closer together and served as a reminder of all those we will keep fighting for. 

*****
Origin fails to trace the origins of racism to capitalism
Watching the new docudrama by Eva DuVernay, Origin, a few things stand out. It is a movie showcasing systems of oppression in three places in the world: the contemporary U.S., Nazi Germany, and contemporary India. However, I don’t believe I heard the word capitalism or the phrase “working class” used even once in the movie. The word“racism” is submerged into the emphasis of the movie, the concept of “caste.”  The film is based on the best-selling book “Caste” by the former New York Times feature writer, Isabel Wilkerson (who also wrote “The Warmth of Other Suns’’ about the U.S. Great Migration from the South). The fact is that if you stay for the full credits, the movie’s production was supported by several capitalist foundations. The film has been promoted in a big way (with interviews by the director on television) and several newspaper reviews (e.g. the liberal bosses want this film to be seen).

The story correctly considers the fact that the ideology of Jim Crow, miscegenation laws, and racist pseudoscience of a century ago in the U.S. was very useful to Nazi Germany in creating concentration camps against Jews (but also against Roma people and many others). It also portrays the gross indignities that the Dalits (formerly called “untouchables”) are continuing to be subjected to in India. The glossing over of the origin (pun intended) of these divisions (that were exacerbated by British colonialism and imperialism) despite the movie’s name is frustrating. DuVernay may mean well but completely ignores the class divisions that largely define the various castes of each country. Without considering the class nature of these capitalist systems, the horrible conditions cannot be truly understood. Solutions to the question of ‘caste” were not provided probably because they do not exist under racist capitalist systems. Only an egalitarian communist society can conquer caste as well as class divisions that the bosses rely on.

*****

Poverty is up, up, up
New York Times, 2/21–Nearly two million New York City residents, including one in four children, lived in poverty in 2022, an increase of 500,000 people that amounted to the biggest single-year jump in a decade…The biggest reason for the surge in poverty, both nationally and in New York, was the end of several pandemic-era government policies, like the expanded child tax credit, enhanced unemployment insurance and cash payments that helped low-income families keep up with rising costs…Black, Latino and Asian New Yorkers were roughly twice as likely as white residents to live in poverty, and women were more likely than men to be unable to afford their basic needs, according to the report…While the city said in October that it had recovered all the jobs lost during the pandemic, the positions that have returned have mostly been in low-paying industries, like home health care…At the same time, the retail sector, a higher-paying industry that disproportionately employs Black, Latino and Asian workers, shed more jobs than any other industry…The need for public aid is clear at Grand Street Settlement…has seen its food pantry lines swell to 2,800 people a month, up from 500 before the pandemic.

Iranian oil pipelines attacked
Al Jazeera, 2/21–Iran has accused Israel of being behind two attacks last week on gas pipelines that disrupted supplies in several provinces, further raising tensions between the regional archenemies amid the war on Gaza…“The explosion of the country’s gas lines was the work of Israel,” Oil Minister Javad Owji said on Wednesday after a cabinet meeting. Two explosions hit Iran’s leading south-north gas pipeline network on February 14. The blasts hit a natural gas pipeline from Iran’s western Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province up north to cities on the Caspian Sea. The roughly 1,270km (790-mile) pipeline begins in Asaluyeh, a hub for Iran’s offshore South Pars gas field. In December, a hacking group that Iran accuses of having links to Israel claimed it carried out a cyberattack which disrupted as much as 70 percent of Iran’s petrol stations.

Israeli soldiers share the loot
Haaretz, 2/19–...soldiers have been looting the property of Gaza Strip residents after taking over their homes…columnist Nahum Barnea quoted the testimony of one reservist doctor: "Smaller, less disciplined forces have looted telephones, Dysons, motorcycles and bicycles… At some point, I stopped commenting on it, because I was viewed as a nudnik."A combat soldier in the Givati Brigade proudly showed Uri Levy, a reporter for Kan 11 public television, a large mirror taken from a home in Khan Yunis. On social media, soldiers post videos like the one of a soldier proudly displaying soccer jerseys taken from a Gaza home, while reservists boast of gourmet meals prepared from food they took from Gazans' kitchens…The looting is dwarfed by the unprecedented death and destruction and the pride soldiers take in them, as documented in videos… Looting reflects a negation of the enemy population's humanity, making it acceptable to rifle through their personal belongings, even the most intimate ones, and choose what to take.

Australia prepares for Pacific war
Financial Times, 2/21–Australia is to more than double the size of its naval fleet with an extra A$11.1bn ($7.2bn) of investment to adapt to China’s military build-up in the Pacific region. The navy will expand to 26 warships, including 11 new frigates and six new large vessels with long-range missile capability, as Canberra toughens its military stance in response to rising regional tension. The investment will give Australia its largest navy since the second world war…The naval overhaul comes a year after Australia’s Defence Spending Review unveiled the biggest strategic shift in its military posture in almost 80 years, arguing that intense Chinese-US competition had become the defining feature of the Pacific region. It cited China’s military build-up as the “largest and most ambitious of any country since the end of the second world war”. 

In late January, in another sign of the international crisis of capitalism, masses of workers handed U.S.-friendly Argentinian President Javier Milei a humiliating defeat. More than 1.5 million workers joined a national strike against Milei’s “omnibus” austerity reform bill, a vicious attack on the working class. After four days of militant fightback in the streets, Milei’s administration was forced to withdraw the bill (Truthout, 2/7).

As Argentina continues to whiplash between rightwing and fake-left misleaders, the third largest economy in Latin America is a vivid illustration of how voting and reforms will never bring workers the world we need. Only a revolutionary mass communist party—Progressive Labor Party—will finally put an end to the terrors of capitalism.

Capitalism=unending misery for workers
Under the dictatorship of Juan Peron after World War Two, Argentina welcomed hundreds of Nazis to build a fascist movement in Argentina. Peron also put in a wave of reforms, including pensions and subsidized electricity, to pacify revolutionary activity and set up the working class for decades of future misery.

In the worldwide capitalist crisis of the 1990s, Argentina was hit hard and never recovered. The richest 10 percent in Argentina now control 60 percent of the wealth (Buenos Aires Times, 1/28), and the country’s poverty rate exceeds 40 percent (BBC, 1/29)—including more than eight million children. In 2023, inflation soared to 211 percent, its highest rate in 32 years, leaving workers with pesos that are next to worthless (NBC News, 1/11/24). 

Over the past twenty years, conditions in Argentina’s notorious favelas have gotten even worse for workers who have nowhere else to live. Many search through landfills to find scrap to build flimsy houses—or even food to bring back and cook (BBC, 6/26/22). That’s capitalism in a nutshell, a system where workers are forced to search through garbage for their next meal. Under communism, we will ensure all workers have adequate housing and healthy food available, according to their need. 

China gaining in U.S. “backyard”
U.S. dominance in Latin America faced little competition until the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the U.S.-dominated International Monetary Fund (IMF) forced a series of widely unpopular austerity cutbacks. That left an opening for China, which has made loans totaling $138 billion to Latin America and the Caribbean (Wilson Center, 9/23). From 2005 to 2019, around 40 percent of Chinese investment in South America went into Argentina (Council of Foreign Relations, 2/5)—making it no surprise when  Argentina joined China’s international infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative, in 2022. The struggle between U.S. and Chinese imperialism is forcing smaller capitalist bosses to choose a side.

Under Milei, Argentina has shifted its policy away from China and back toward the United States. Milei recently cancelled Argentina’s planned entry into BRICS, the China-led alliance with Brazil, Russia, India, and South Africa (AP, 12/29/23). He went so far as to call Chinese leaders “thieves” and “murderers” and has pushed for doing more business with “the U.S., Israel and other countries that defend freedom” (Financial Times, 2/6).

Rising facism in Argentina
Not so long ago, U.S. imperialism had unchecked control over most of the world. Today, however, their influence is degrading with every deal another country signs with China. While the U.S. and China battle it out for world supremacy, smaller countries are being pulled into the rising tide of fascism, and Argentina is no exception. As Milei and his group of “free market” capitalists struggle to build closer ties with the U.S. and wean the country off dependence on Chinese imperialism, they must try to smash worker fightback as well as disagreements within their own class.

After Milei took office on December 10, he eliminated half of the government’s 18 ministries and promised to cut subsidies and privatize state-owned companies. For “moving “quickly and decisively” to “restore macroeconomic stability,” the IMF rewarded the new administration by agreeing to resume payouts (The Economist, 1/14). Since then, however, the Donald Trump admirer has encountered significant obstacles in implementing his big initiatives.

On December 27, Milei submitted the omnibus bill that would allow him to rule by decree for two years--and encountered stiff resistance from Argentina’s Congress (Reuters, 2/6). He’s been forced to back off from his campaign promise to scrap Argentina’s peso and replace it with the U.S. dollar. While Milei has rejected China’s offer to finance Argentina’s $43 billion debt to the IMF, and is pushing instead to pay off the debt by terrorizing workers through austerity cuts (Financial Times, 11/11/24), his pivot to the U.S. may not be so easy to achieve. Argentina still has contracts with China for lithium mining and soybean sales (Reuters, 12/7/23). Many of the country’s bosses see China as an economic lifeline. They know they desperately need to avoid another credit default (Atlantic Council, 11/3).

To rebuild Argentina’s ties to the U.S. in such a volatile period, Milei has no choice but to intensify his attacks on the working class. His omnibus bill would force workers to opt into boss-controlled unions and imprison protest organizers for six years. The president is also pushing for mass layoffs, massive privatization, and huge cuts to government services and subsidies (The Economist, 1/14). For Milei and the capitalist bosses he represents, fascism is not an option—it’s a necessity.

As Chinese imperialism grows stronger, some workers may find comfort in China’s challenge to U.S. dominance. But we must be clear: All capitalist bosses stand for mass exploitation, for rising fascism, and for building toward the next world war. 

Workers must build revolutionary leadership
While we applaud the bold protesters in Argentina, workers cannot rely on short-term reforms. Even if the current fightback delays or dilutes the bosses’ next round of attacks, liberal misleaders will leave the working class unprepared to face even sharper attacks down the line. Nothing short of building a communist movement, led by Progressive Labor Party, will serve workers’ long-term interests. 

Capitalism inevitably breeds inter-imperialist rivalry. In Argentina, neither Chinese nor U.,S. imperialism will bring anything but fascism and disaster for the working class. We must build a revolutionary communist movement that destroys capitalism once and for all.