As the UAW strike against Ford, GM and Stellantis enters its third week, it has “expanded” to 20 percent of the membership on the picket lines and 80 percent still working, including at the most profitable truck plants that produce the Dodge Ram, Ford F-150, and Chevy Silverado. The 38 Parts Distribution Centers that got called out on strike only service the dealerships and have no effect on production. They also added only about 6,000 workers to the total on strike.

Trying to give cover to the UAW leadership and bolster his sagging presidential campaign, Joe Biden spent about two minutes on a GM picket line while his labor secretary is assigned to Michigan to make sure the strike doesn’t spread. But PLP has been out to the picket lines, too, talking with Ford truck and assembly workers in Michigan and Chicago and to Stellantis parts depot workers in New York, offering support, international solidarity, and talking about the need for communist revolution.

Biden calls himself “the most pro-union president ever,” yet he was one of the architects of the 2008 bailout that saw the auto bosses make $250 billion in profits over the past decade while auto workers saw their real wages drop by 20 percent. Biden recently forced a national contract on railroad workers that they had overwhelmingly rejected and is trying to ensure a loyal industrial workforce as the rulers escalate their proxy war with Russia in Ukraine and prepare for a possible conflict with China.

While the UAW leadership and corporate media have the workers focused on wages and restoring past concessions, all of which are important, the main underlying issue is the transition to Electric Vehicles (EVs), which is already underway, and where U.S. bosses find themselves trailing behind Tesla and China, the #1 producer of EVs in the world. A Hyundai EV factory will soon be operating in Georgia.

The UAW already represents less than half of the US auto industry. The transition from gasoline engines to EVs will cost thousands of jobs as current facilities that produce engines, mufflers, catalytic converters, fuel injectors and other components will be retooled or shut down. Many workers will not be around to see the benefits of whatever wage hike is ultimately settled on. One of the main goals of the UAW is to get the auto bosses to agree to have the new battery and EV factories, many of them joint ventures with smaller companies, covered by the national labor contract. If they don’t get it, they will ultimately represent a smaller and smaller share of the industry.  

Scientific and technological changes in production are nothing new, especially in the auto industry. Many Detroit workers and families remember in the 1990s, when GM built the Hamtramck Assembly plant and Chrysler built the new Jefferson Assembly and together they closed more than 13 factories as automation and robotics cost tens of thousands of jobs and reshaped the industry. Similar struggles are underway about the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The problem isn’t science or technology, it’s who controls it and who runs society. These advances can serve the profits of the billionaires or the needs of all workers. Once we eliminate the bosses and their system with communist revolution, science and technology can serve the masses. We need a lot more than a wage hike. We need to abolish wage slavery!

U.S. agents struggle to keep Colombia in the fold of their decaying empire
Foreign Affairs, 9/13–For many observers of Colombia, it is hard to imagine that a former member of M-19, the guerrilla group that waged war against the state for nearly two decades, could attain the presidency. Yet in 2022...Gustavo Petro, a former M-19 organizer…ascended to the country’s highest office. Despite Petro’s populist and at times anti-U.S. rhetoric, the Biden administration has since made overtures to the new president…the United States may be hoping to prevent Colombia from falling into China’s orbit. But as Petro begins his second year in office, Washington’s charm offensive is yielding diminishing returns. For one thing, Plan Colombia, a security and antidrug cooperation package that has been the linchpin of the U.S.-Colombian relationship for nearly a quarter century, looks increasingly obsolete. Signed in 2000, the joint initiative helped quell Colombia’s guerrilla war and arguably prevented the country from becoming a failed state, and it has been backed by more than $12 billion in funding…But Petro has opposed Plan Colombia since its inception…

Haiti-D.R. diplomacy rises to level of guns and tanks
Al Jazeera, 9/14–The Dominican Republic will close its entire border with neighbouring Haiti later this week, President Luis Abinader has announced, as a conflict over the construction of a canal from a shared river worsens. “Unfortunately, they left us no alternative but to take drastic measures,” Abinader told reporters…He added that even if the Haitian government…could not control the construction of the canal, his country could. “We have been prepared for weeks, not only for this situation but also for a possible peace force in Haiti,” Abinader said.

Officials in the Dominican Republic say the project will divert water from the Massacre River, which runs in both countries, and violate the 1929 Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Arbitration…Haiti’s government had said on Wednesday that it met with Dominican officials in the Dominican Republic that day to try to resolve the canal dispute…On Thursday, the Dominican Republic said the looming border closure was set to include all land, sea and air routes. It also said it deployed a further 20 armoured vehicles to a military camp on the border.

U.S. and Chinese bosses continue fight over who gets Pakistan
The Intercept, 8/9–The U.S. State Department encouraged the Pakistani government in a March 7, 2022, meeting to remove Imran Khan as prime minister over his neutrality on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to a classified Pakistani government document obtained by The Intercept. The meeting, between the Pakistani ambassador to the United States and two State Department officials, has been the subject of intense scrutiny, controversy, and speculation in Pakistan over the past year and a half, as supporters of Khan and his military and civilian opponents jockeyed for power. The political struggle escalated on August 5 when Khan was sentenced to three years in prison on corruption charges and taken into custody for the second time since his ouster…The sentence also blocks Khan, Pakistan’s most popular politician, from contesting elections expected in Pakistan later this year.

French bosses back down slightly on mission “Occupy Niger”
France24, 9/14–"France welcomes the liberation of Stephane Jullien," said a spokeswoman for the [French foreign] ministry. Jullien, a businessman long based in Niger, had a role representing the interests of French expatriates at the French embassy. He was arrested on September 8 amid deteriorating ties that followed a coup in the former French colony in West Africa. France had announced his detention on Tuesday and called for his "immediate release". Relations between Niger and France went swiftly downhill after the July 26 putsch, which ousted French ally president Mohamed Bazoum. Paris, which has about 1,500 troops deployed in Niger…has stood by Bazoum and declared the post-coup authorities illegitimate. There has been speculation that France will be forced into a full military pullout from Niger, with a French defence ministry source saying last week that the French army was holding talks with Niger's military over withdrawing "elements" of its presence.

About 13,000 GM, Ford and Stellantis workers are on strike in what is being called “the first strike against all the ‘Big 3’” and “the biggest auto strike in decades.” Yet, as of this writing, only 10 percent of the workers are striking and 90 percent are working with no contract (the expired contract was not extended).

Against the backdrop of 100,000 striking TV and screenwriters and actors in the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, a spike in strikes and organizing around the U.S., the mood of the workers is changing. After the “summer of strikes,” the pro-capitalist union leaders and politicians have a tiger by the tail! In the recent contract struggles involving 120,000 railroad workers and 350,000 UPS workers, Biden and the union leaders were able to kill the strikes before they happened! Workers are not yet able to break away from the liberal politicians and union misleaders.

Joe Biden, who calls himself, “the most pro-union President ever,” was one of the architects of the 2008 bailout that reaped $250 billion in profits for the auto bosses while auto workers saw their real wages drop by 20 percent. These concessions helped GM, Ford, and Stellantis pocket $250 billion in profits over the past decade, with the three CEOs increasing their pay by 40 percent, with each one now making between $25-$29 million annually (Economics Policy Institute).

Biden recently forced a national contract on railroad workers that they had overwhelmingly rejected, and he quickly dispatched Labor Secretary Julie Su to Detroit to resolve the strike, reflecting the larger issues at stake. One, is the transition to electric vehicles (EVs). Another is winning a loyal industrial workforce as the U.S. escalates the proxy war with Russia in Ukraine and prepares for a possible conflict with China.

The strike comes as the bosses are investing billions to develop EVs while facing stiff competition from Tesla and international challengers. China is the #1 producer of EVs in the world and Hyundai will soon build electric vehicles at a new factory in Georgia. John Casesa, who previously headed strategy at Ford said, “The transition to EVs is dominating every bit of this discussion.” (NYT, 9/16).

The transition from gasoline engines to EVs could affect millions of jobs as traditional auto plants that produce engines, mufflers, catalytic converters, fuel injectors and other components will be retooled or shut down. One of the main goals of the UAW is to get the auto bosses to agree to have the new battery and EV factories, many of them joint ventures with smaller companies, covered by the national labor contract. The union also wants to regain the right to strike over plant shutdowns.

The new “reform” leadership of the UAW, elected by an unenthusiastic 10 percent of the membership, has got a laundry list of demands they have no intention of winning, including a 40 percent wage hike, a shorter work week,  and abolishing the multi-tiered wage system. They say they want to reverse concessions that they and the old leadership gave up over the past decades in order to keep the auto bosses competitive with their international rivals. The auto companies have proposed a 20 percent wage hike over four years.

In 2019, the UAW led a 40-day strike at GM while the International President and a slew of national officers were either under federal investigation or on their way to prison for bribery and other corruption charges. Then as now, the strike is at least in part, an attempt to consolidate the membership around the leadership.
For our members and friends of Progressive Labor Party, the main lesson of this current upsurge is that we must not let this moment pass us by. We are watching too many of these class battles unfold from the outside. That must change. We are calling on more comrades and readers of CHALLENGE to get jobs in auto and Amazon, at UPS and in mass transit, so that we are better positioned to fight for the political leadership of the workers. At its core, this fight is reform vs. revolution.

As Marx pointed out in “Value, Price and Profit,” we cannot restrict ourselves to fighting over contracts and grievances, to what he called the “unavoidable guerilla fights,” that spring up from the ongoing class war.  “Instead of the conservative motto, ‘A fair day's wage for a fair day's work!’ [we] ought to inscribe on [our] banner the revolutionary watchword, ‘Abolish the wage system!’”

Fight vs anti-migrant racism grows
As reported in the last CHALLENGE, racists have been demonstrating against the housing of refugee asylum seekers in a former Catholic school on Staten Island. Led by attention-seeking “patriot” Scott LoBaido and supported by Staten Island politicians of both parties, the racists have been verbally attacking the refugees-many from Latin American and West African countries- with vile epithets, frightening some of them so much that they asked to be moved to a different shelter.

After a Progressive Labor Party (PLP) member learned on Monday, August 28th, of the hate rally to be held on that evening, he notified the Party leadership, who quickly organized a pro-migrant support rally to confront the racists. More than 30 comrades and friends, including a couple of antiracists from the neighborhood, marched to the shelter, formerly St. John Villa School, chanting loudly in support of the refugees. Outside the shelter, we spoke on a bullhorn to let the migrants know that we were there to support them, not to attack them. We let the racists know that we were communists, and that we would be back in growing numbers.

The racists announced another hate rally for Tuesday, September 5th. Some Party members learned about the racists’ march from friends in Peace Action Staten Island (PASI). PASI endorsed the next migrant support rally to counter the racists. A leaflet was quickly disseminated. Antiracists from Staten Island and Brooklyn gathered at a predetermined location and marched to the rally point at the shelter. Again, we shouted encouragement to the refugees.

One of the talking points of the racists had been that there was a school with girls very near the shelter, and that they could be in danger from the male migrants. We discovered that an alumna of that school, St. Joseph Hill, had garnered over 200 alumni signatures on a petition supporting the migrants and condemning the racists. Then, on Thursday, September 7, a group of immigration organizers and  leaders of faith-based organizations attempted to hold a press conference outside the shelter in support of the refugees. According to news reports, the racists drowned them out so that few of them could be heard.

So, it appears that support for the migrants is growing on Staten Island, but the racists still dominate the scene. What is clear is that if it had not been for us communists in PLP, the racists would have had a clear field for their hate. We were the spark. Whenever racism and fascism rear their ugly heads, communists must organize to chop them off. To paraphrase what one of the participants in the latest rally said, “I just want to be able to come back with more numbers than they have!” That is what we will continue to build on Staten Island - an antiracist movement to shut the racists down.
*****

​​Big Fascists undermine workers’ education
At a community college in rural northwestern New Jersey, Sussex County Community College (SCCC), self-styled “progressive” administrators actively undermine front-line faculty members who fight for workers to receive a decent education.

In a resignation letter from the start of the fall semester, an accomplished student counselor outlined the problems at SCCC: 1) The condescending racism that the Latin counselor faced from his supposedly enlightened liberal colleagues, 2) Disconnected senior faculty and administrators who didn’t listen to faculty “below” them who actually interacted with students on a daily basis, 3) The lack of initiative to solicit student feedback — all pointing to one conclusion. Senior level faculty and administration at the college, who claim to be enlightened progressives, are more interested in their own careers than helping students.
This counselor had struggled heroically to keep working class students in school in spite of the horrendous material conditions that capitalism imposes on them. He succeeded against all odds -- only to have his more senior colleagues undermine him at every turn.

In a classic example of bourgeois individualism, other faculty members grew jealous of the relationships that he had worked so hard to cultivate with students. These more senior faculty demanded that he send more of his students to them for future counseling needs — regardless of who the students themselves actually wanted to talk to. When he refused, his supposedly “progressive” bosses at the College stripped his position of any student-facing activities, relegating this talented counselor to administrative busy work.

This, combined with the lack of support for front-line faculty who directly help students, the racism shown by more senior faculty towards an increasingly diverse student population, and the smug and condescending attitude towards his important mission to help working-class students, was too much for him to bear and he resigned.

While it’s sad to see such a talented staff member leave due to egregious burnout, his resignation letter points to a silver lining. It is the students and frontline faculty and staff themselves who can carry the struggle forward and secure decent education for workers in rural New Jersey. If they are unified in their cause and armed with the Party’s level of analysis and dedication, they will be unstoppable!
*****

Firefighters die defending the bosses profits: A tribute to Augie and Bear
On July 5th, two firemen from the Newark Fire Department were trapped and killed fighting a fire that started aboard a cargo ship bound for West Africa from Port Newark, NJ. The cargo ship was filled with over 1200 new and used cars and approximately 157 shipping containers (NJ Spotlight News).Augusto “Augie” Acabou and Wayne “Bear” Brooks entered the ship along with their captain and other firefighters. They reportedly found and extinguished the fire, but upon their way back out Augie and Bear became disoriented and trapped, and died.  The ship’s crew had been completely evacuated prior to the firefighters entering. There were no lives in danger aboard the ship, but firefighters were still sent in to risk their lives to protect burning cars that will likely be replaced. The families want answers.

At a tribute to the firefighter’s lives held at a shopping mall New Jersey on August 8, Bear’s widow stated “He went in there to put out a fire to save materialistic things, not a person, not a human being - materialistic things. And he never came home” (Abc7ny.com, 8/23).  

Urban firefighters are sent in to risk their lives to protect the bosses’ property and businesses.  In cities like Newark, fires occur predominantly in Black neighborhoods, many of which are neglected due to decades of class war against Black workers and gentrification led by self-serving politicians like Newark’s fake leftist mayor Ras Baraka.  Meanwhile, in wealthy communities, fire suppression systems are relatively efficient and adequate.
In a society led by and for the working class - a communist society - workers can take the lead on building the safest housing conditions to prevent fires from starting in the first place.  Workers can discuss how to approach extinguishing fires with minimal loss to human life and the damage to the environment.

Only a revolution led by the working class can bring about the freedom to do this. For all workers like Augie and Bear, for the countless firefighters that die every year protecting the property for the blood sucking landlord class and banks, workers must build a dedicated party whose primary objective is to smash capitalism and rid society of the profit system that will gladly exterminate the workers to preserve their wealth.
*****

Natural disasters or capitalist genocide?
Reading the editorial on the Maui fires, there seems to be a link between the wildfires in the forests of Canada. While these fires are labeled as ‘natural’ disasters, but the real issue is the capitalism and it’s continual  genocide of indigenous workers. Corporations and their sugar plantations played a large role in depleting the water sources, as sugar is a very water intensive crop. Water is crucial to Hawaiian cultural practices and they believed that water couldn’t be owned, that it belonged to all. I am seeing a connection between the fires in Maui and Canada and the forest fires that occurred in Brazil and Australia a few years ago. These fires led to the displacement of many indigenous communities. In the case of Brazil, the burning of the Amazon forest was set by the Brazilian ruling class to make way for their agribusiness. Prior to that, an Amazonian tribe had won a court case to halt the cutting down of the Amazon forest. If we’re going to discuss climate change, we need to include the role of indigenous workers and the ongoing legacy of colonialism into these topics.