AL-ARAKIB, ISRAEL-PALESTINE, December 15 — Several local and international working-class activists, including a PL’er, visited the “unrecognized” Bedouin village of al-Arakib and helped rebuild its demolished shacks and sheds. On Tuesday, the racist Israeli authorities demolished the village for the 42^nd time since the summer of 2010! Israel likes to showcase itself as “the only democracy in the Middle East.” But this “democracy” demolishes the homes of impoverished Bedouin workers and subsistence peasants because they are in the way of the real-estate capitalists’ steamroller.

In front of this criminal bosses’ state and its terrorist police, the villagers of al-Araqib fight back and stick to their ancestral land. They will not move, as the regime wants, to the nearby mis-planned Bedouin town of Rahat, where there are no jobs. The village’s leader, Sheikh Sayakh, once again thanked the Jewish, Arab and international working-class activists who come to help the villagers in their struggle.

The Zionist movement, the “Jewish” colonial nationalists, and the State of Israel it created 64 years ago try to “bring order” to the Bedouin settlements in the Negev (southern Israel-Palestine). This “order” means robbing the Palestinian-Bedouin worker or peasant of his ancestral land, which is his main source of livelihood, in order to let U.S.-based real-estate tycoons such as Ronald Lauder and Inving Moscowitz grow rich from land-theft. The Bedouins, who are, officially, Israeli citizens, are treated as second-class citizens and face racism. Many Bedouins serve in the Border Patrol with the hope of getting decent jobs afterwards, yet at the end of the day are still treated as nothing by these racists. This is the same way the racist U.S. treats Native American, Latino and black workers.

But we Jewish and Arab workers and activists came to al-Araqib in private cars (as Israel lacks public transit on weekends) and helped re-build five shacks. The message should be brought to all corners of the world: the racist, capitalist Israeli state is at war with Arab workers, including the Bedouins, as well as with Jewish workers. The basis of Zionism is racist land robbery. But we, workers of all ethnicities, “races” and creeds, are determined to stand firm with the villagers of al-Araqib in their just struggle.

Paulsboro, New Jersey, December 28 — From a garment factory in Bangladesh to a chemical spill here, capitalism’s murderous worldwide reach shows that the working class must put this profit-hungry beast down with communist revolution. Few Paulsboro residents were thinking about the need for communist revolution however on November 30 when a railroad tanker filled with vinyl chloride derailed and crashed into the Mantua Creek. It released a cloud of this toxic gas into the community. 

The derailment was caused when the bridge failed to close properly. Parts of the bridge date from 1873. A few years ago, Conrail replaced the worker who operated the bridge with an electronic system to save the company about $100,000 a year. The electronic system failed so often that Conrail dispatchers and engineers routinely ignored the system’s red lights and drove trains across the bridge if it “looked okay.”

Many of the working-class residents of Paulsboro were exposed to this gas. The most intense exposure was in an area of the town populated by poor black and white workers. This area was evacuated several hours after the exposure. Seventy people were treated in the Underwood Hospital Emergency Room for respiratory problems, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and headaches. 

Approximately 700 workers were evacuated from the neighborhoods closest to the accident. They were sent to motels in the surrounding areas. Conrail set up a family assistance center at a hall in the neighboring town of Gibbstown. Residents who were not evacuated were told to “shelter in place,” meaning stay in their houses and keep windows and doors closed.

Two weeks after this accident, there are still two tankers filled with vinyl chloride and one filled with ethanol sitting in the Mantua Creek and none of the capitalist experts can figure out how to get them out safely.

There have been two public meetings since the accident and they have both been angry affairs. Paulsboro workers have blasted Conrail and the flunkey Paulsboro politicians for their handling of the emergency. In 2009, a coal train derailed on this same bridge and it was not adequately repaired. There was never an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. The evacuees complained of shabby treatment by Conrail’s support team.

So maybe most Paulsboro folks were not thinking about the need for communist revolution before November 30. But after the chemical spill, they are now planning to form a committee to fight the deadly negligence of the Conrail bosses. This can prove to be fertile soil for PLP’s communist ideas, a “chemical spill” poisonous to all bosses.

New York City, December 28 — Over 1,000 people left homeless by superstorm Sandy were moved into Manhattan hotels after spending a couple of weeks in various shelters. They were dumped at the door, often at fancy establishments, without money, food, clothes, healthcare, or means of transportation. With thousands of empty apartments and even more vacant luxury condos, the bosses would rather pay $300/night for a month than put families in permanent housing for a year.

These mostly black and Latino workers, who previously received some public assistance, now face eviction to homeless shelters. The racism and total human disregard with which they are being treated shows the true nature of U.S. capitalism.

At first, the evacuees resorted to begging food from stores while they asked the Red Cross and other agencies for help. Everyone rejected them until we demonstrated at the Red Cross headquarters. Then the 106 families we know got $100 per person/week food cards and Metro transit cards until December 18. On January 2, all food aid is due to expire, and those with food stamps can’t use them in midtown because their stamps are not accepted at most stores. The hotels removed refrigerators and microwaves from the rooms, so there is no way to store or re-heat food or keep medications like insulin. 

There is no “recovery center” in Manhattan where various agencies help survivors. No sources of health care other than Emergency Rooms were ever identified; no centers of food or clothing donations were set up to help these families. The first, very limited Federal Emegerncy Management Agency (FEMA) office opened here mostly aimed at helping small businesses.

Families have sought help from various local politicians, agencies and news outlets. All of them express their sympathy or momentary interest, take campaign photos of themselves helping victims, and then do nothing.  A small group of evacuees, trade unionists, and members and friends of Progressive Labor Party has formed, trying to build ties with families as they fight back.  

A week ago, hotels began to evict some families onto the street, even though FEMA is supposed to house them until at least January 12. Fifteen families were evicted from the Beekman hotel when their FEMA paperwork was a few hours late. A single mother with five children was evicted on December 27 and sent to a homeless shelter. Other families with young children were facing eviction New Year’s weekend, to make room for celebrators. Although NYC promised case managers several weeks ago, none has materialized. Those who were previously subsidized renters have received no guidance obtaining aid to rent again.

Our group held a rally at the new local FEMA office. After leafleting outside, we walked boldly into the FEMA office. Although threatened with arrest, we stood our ground and demanded answers. The staff simply said over and over again that FEMA would only offer individual assistance about housing, and refused to acknowledge any responsibility for enforcing their own hotel policy. 

One family did go in for individual help and was taken into a back room for 30 minutes. When they emerged, they said all they had been told was to call the FEMA phone number! When you call the FEMA number, you are told to go to a FEMA office. 

The Sandy survivors understand the treachery of politicians and the government; but they do not yet see the need to overthrow this system to create a communist world where workers’ needs, not profits, are the order of the day. We will continue to fight the bosses and their lackeys at these workers’ side, which can lead to recruitment of some more fighters for PLP and to destroying capitalism.

Workers Scour Dumpsters for Food, Scraps

The international economic depression caused by the internal contradictions of the capitalist system has hit Spain particularly hard. Unemployment in that country has reached 25%; 22% of Spanish households live under the poverty line and an additional 30% are living on the edge of poverty (NYT, 10/26; MercoPress, 2/24). 

The growing poverty has led to a rapid increase in homelessness and stressed the traditional aid to the poor networks run by the Catholic Church. Julio Beamonte, the director of Spain’s largest Catholic charity Caritas, commented in June that poverty in Spain now rivals the poverty that Europe experienced in the aftermath and rubble of World War II (Catholic News Agency, 6/6). 

A secretary for Caritas summed up the situation, “There are more poor people than last year, and they are poorer. After four years of financial hardship, poverty is more widespread, more intense and it is creating a polarized society in which the difference between rich and poor is growing” (MercoPress).

A recent report on National Public Radio’s (NPR) All Things Considered discussed the new mass phenomenon of “dumpster diving” in Spanish cities. This practice, common in the United States, involves the mining of urban waste sites (dumpster, trashcans, and dumps) for food and sellable goods, particularly metals that can be sold as scrap. One such dumpster diver told the reporter, “I used to build new houses, do renovations and refurbish old historic homes.” Now he digs in the trash for food. 

A Moroccan immigrant searching dumpsters in Barcelona told the reporter, “Now it seems so much of humanity is without work or anything. So this is better than robbery, you know? Collecting scrap metal. You can even jump down into the dumpster, no problem.” He then went head first into the dumpster with a friend holding his feet (NPR, 11/11).

In the midst of this growing poverty the capitalist class is finding new ways to profit from this poverty. Restaurants in Spain have begun to offer to reheat cash-strapped workers’ food while renting them cutlery and plates (Reuters blog, 9/24). After noting that “poverty is returning to Europe” British mega-company Unilever has shifted its business strategy in Europe to profit from the world’s poorest countries. They now offer consumers laundry detergent in five-wash packets, shampoo in individual packs, and single-serving packs of foods like mashed potatoes (Telegraph, 8/27). These individual portions are more wasteful and more expensive in the long run, but are all that workers living on the edge of poverty can afford.   

Workers in Spain are not content to simply bear the crisis on their backs. Mass street protests have forced Spanish rulers to pass a new two-year moratorium on evictions of poor families who can’t pay their mortgage. Yet the temporary nature of these reforms was immediately apparent. As Business Week notes, this moratorium is no gift to the working class: “Spain is trying to balance the threat of social unrest with protecting banks.” Deutsche Bank goon Bernd Volk re-assured, “It [the moratorium] seems clearly meant for extreme cases and is supposed to not overly dilute the rights of the banks” (BW, 11/16).

The new Spanish law demonstrates both the importance of active resistance and the limits of reform under capitalism. These workers have won a temporary victory in housing through struggle in the streets, but it will take the destruction of the capitalist system in order to fully and permanently meet the needs of the working class. 

This growing extreme poverty is prevalent not only in Spain, but also around the world. The imperialist countries may disagree over some issues like how to divide the spoils of empire, but they are united in their belief that the working class should shoulder 100% of the burden of the current capitalist crisis.