NEW YORK CITY, September 4—Retired city workers here in NYC are fighting back against the joint city bosses and union plan to force 250,000 retirees from traditional Medicare plus, a premium free medigap plan, into a Medicare (dis)advantage plan run by a private for-profit insurance company. This struggle, which has been going on for over two years, has exposed once again that healthcare is run to provide profits for the healthcare bosses and the needs of the capitalist state rather than the needs of the working class. Only communist revolution can build a society where healthcare is based on the needs of the working class.

As access to health care services has become more difficult in the U.S., life expectancy has dropped every year for the last five years. It is at its lowest since 1996 (CDC, 8/31/22).  We have all heard personal stories of health care delayed or denied by insurance companies causing unnecessary deaths and of shortages and the high price of drugs causing still more fatalities. Furthermore, Black workers here have the highest age adjusted death rate amongst all workers in the U.S. (Society of Actuaries, 7/20). Racism infects all aspects of the U.S. healthcare system. For example, the higher copays included in the Medicare (dis)advantage plan would hurt all but fall disproportionately hard on low-income Black, Latin and women retirees. This will only change when we replace capitalism with communism.

Fighting back gives the workers a temporary win
A recent court decision blocked the city/union plan from going into effect. This occurred because of the determined efforts of retirees to fight back! Although the judge found that retiree’s property rights (the underpinnings of the U.S. legal system) had been violated by the city/union plan, this doesn’t mean that this particular attack will “stop” or that the legal basis preventing it won’t be “legally” changed or superseded. As the reality of war and fascism develop, more and more of the “rights” we think we are guaranteed will fall away. The only “right” we can rely on is our willingness to fight.

At every step of this struggle we have fought not only the city bosses but also the leadership of the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC). Furthermore, we expect that the MLC will soon announce new health care coverage for city workers that will reduce access to healthcare institutions and cost them more. Every choice that has been made by the MLC leaders has protected the profits of the medical insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry and has attempted to shift additional costs to workers. As the old saying goes, “with friends like these, who needs enemies?”

Workers need communism, not union leaders
Many retirees wonder why the MLC is on the side of the city bosses. PLP says that unions are capitalist institutions and union leaders accept capitalism and its needs. Union leaders sit on the boards of directors of health insurance companies. They sit on pension boards that invest in and hope to profit from health insurance and pharmaceutical companies.  They therefore will seek to force workers through lies, persuasion and coercion into 1) accepting more and more fascist cutbacks and 2) preventing any resistance.

On Labor Day Marches this year thousands and thousands of workers will be marching through the streets of New York and elsewhere in the U.S. What if these workers were won to join together under the leadership of Progressive Labor Party to fight for communist revolution? Then we could build a society where the health needs and all needs of every worker would be guaranteed!

Why I joined
On July 16, 2023, I joined the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) where I became part of a collective communist tradition. It just so happened that I joined on the last day of PLP’s International Convention. As a young communist, I was enamored by the weekend-filled events, workshops, sing-alongs, and breaking bread with some of the sharpest minds and committed comrades. I am proud to say that this was the first political party where I not only felt I belonged, but also where I knew I was surrounded by people who were serious about organizing the international working class, about fighting for communism.

Why is this important to say? Because the so-called “left” in the United States is in complete disarray. We are nowhere near building the capacity that we need in order to defeat the bosses and win. The left has been divided into many meaningless factions with no real, tangible, political objective and a plan to get there. For a time, I was floating around various Pan-Africanist and cultural nationalist groups that understated the primacy of class analysis within a mass organization or party. They lacked the understanding required to fully commit to building multi-racial class unity. It was not until I started to hang around folks at PLP that I saw how wrong I was. I attended the international convention in hopes to better understand the objectives of the Party and really see if they practiced what they preached and wow.

They certainly proved that and then some. I walked into the huge foyer on the last day of the convention where I saw the most diverse, inter-generational, and international group of people all around me speaking several different languages but somehow I still felt like I could understand what they were saying. I was greeted several times with warm smiles and gestures showing me where I could sit and eat, look at old newspaper clippings of comrades fighting fascists, supporting revolutionary, anti-colonial movements in the Global South, and/or engaging in direct class struggle. I had the chance to meet with a comrade from Chicago…an older Black woman, who sat me down and told me her story of how she came across the party and eventually joined. She was willing to answer all my questions and defended the party line vehemently. She’s been with PLP for over 30 years.All I could do was smile as we all gathered around towards the end of the convention singing “The Internationale.” Because I finally saw the future…what a communist future would look like. It was right in front of me. And since that day, I’ve been incredibly motivated to fight with the rest of the working class to see this future too and fight back with us.
*****

East Africa: ‘comrades stronger than ever’
Comrades from East Africa are now growing stronger than ever. The Progressive Labor Party (PLP) meeting helped me to be more aware and patient in fighting against fascism beyond borders, “races” and nationalities in our class struggle.

Many East African comrades are now better prepared to recruit new members to our Party by forming close friendships with them and working with them inside different institutions like colleges, schools, political parties, and in the agriculture industry. We learned from one comrade who was part of an antisexist fight at a university where girl students are sexually bribed by professors to get high marks.

We are becoming stronger after having several annual meetings with our Party from different parts of the world who shared with us how to organize our Party— things like how to be patient, how to remove fear, how to organize our fighting through practicing criticism and self criticism, and how to be more active in the class struggle. We learned how to organize ourselves by forming clubs, using online meetings and evaluating our fighting. We learned how to pick out one leader, even though we are all leaders.
Our collectivity is a strong weapon against fascism and unscientific thinking. Joining PLP is the solution to fighting for workers dignity and against all the evils of capitalism.

A sweeping victory for a brave athlete and her team
Standing for the national anthem is a choice everyone has to make in their life. From the beginning of my collegiate volleyball career and years prior, I’ve always kneeled during the playing of the racist  national anthem. On my present team I am one of two, on a team of sixteen girls, who consistently kneels. While most are scared to kneel it gives me a sense of power while others praise this racist country.

On the weekend of August 26th my volleyball team was traveling to Liberty University, a university known for being highly religious and racist and sexist. This school brought on a new challenge for me, as the thought of aggressive backlash was a very possible outcome. The history and state of this school is very problematic, and the environment they create felt unsafe to some of the girls on the team. Liberty University is known for their strict rules on how they operate, having a handbook that is disgustingly prejudiced, and operating under a point system called “The Liberty Way”.

This point system declares that “sexual relations outside a biblically ordained marriage, romantic displays of affection with a member of the same sex (e.g., hand-holding, kissing, dating, etc.), and actions confirming denial of biological birth sex (e.g., asking to be referred to by pronouns inconsistent with one’s birth sex, using restrooms and changing facilities reserved for persons other than one’s birth sex, etc.) are prohibited by The Liberty Way.” Any of these prohibited actions will result in points that eventually will add up to result in $50 to $100 fines.

After doing more research I found that the very president of Liberty University was also involved with a blackface scandal resulting in multiple of Liberty’s Black staff members quitting. The actions of this school did not align with my political views and I wanted to do something about it, while also feeling safer in a hostile environment. After talking with a couple girls on my team I decided to ask my team, and coaches, if they wanted to participate in kneeling for the national anthem with me for this weekend. At first, I got a couple immediate yes’s from people who wanted to support me and kneel in protest of this problematic school. I also met with many people (staff and teammates) who asked questions about why I kneel, and simply wanted to learn more about the school and why I asked them to kneel this specific weekend. I was overall met with a lot of positive and excited teammates who wanted to make an impact.

However, even though I was met with lots of positivity, many of them were met with angered parents who were very upset with them, threatening to stop supporting them financially, and questioning their loyalty to their family and their morals. Even through the scary environment and disappointment from parents, almost every girl and staff member made their own decision and chose to kneel, in support of me and against racism and sexism. Many parents and girls got very emotional, feeling the power we were generating from our statement. My teammates had many thoughts after doing something they’ve never done before.

After speaking to a couple of them they stated that it was nerve wracking but they felt powerful in their actions. Other teammates even spoke to how kneeling for the anthem was important to them because of the racism they experienced growing up, and how unsatisfactory and unfair our system is. This was truly a bonding, touching, and impactful experience that sparked tears from fans and players. We went on to sweep our opponent resulting in two victories that day.
*****

Helsinki trip meets antiracist demonstration
I was visiting Helsinki in early September and found myself in the middle of a huge demonstration against racism and fascism, with over 11,000 people marching through the city’s center for hours.
The demonstration was called by over a hundred groups angry about racism and about government ministers with fascist backgrounds holding office, such as the Deputy Prime Minister, who had to apologize over the summer for hundreds of racist and anti-immigrant slurs in her social media.

The march was led by a huge banner in Finnish saying, “We Will Not Be Silent” and a banner in Finnish, Swedish and English demanding “Racists and Fascists OUT!” The call for the march denounced the government’s new statement against racism, demanding action instead. It also called for racists and fascists to be thrown out of government.

I joined the march for a while, joining in familiar chants (even though they were in different languages!) and talking with some of the marchers about what it would take to really end racism and fascism not only in Finland, but everywhere. Several I spoke to agreed that racism couldn’t be ended by any capitalist government and that only a multi-racial fight by the working class could make real change. One was especially interested to hear about Progressive Labor Party, and I promised to send copies of CHALLENGE.
*****

What to do when nazis protest in your neighborhood
For more than a year, workers fleeing intolerable conditions of extreme poverty and deadly drug gang warfare in their home countries, have been bussed from the southwestern U.S. border to NYC in the tens of thousands. They have struggled through many hardships to get here, hoping for jobs and a better, safer life for themselves and their children. What they have found when they arrive is that no coherent plan has been made for them by national or local politicians.

Working people are under attack throughout the world. Wars rage, as capitalist rulers try to extend or maintain their power abroad, while using fascist terror to increase the exploitation of their own workers at home to maximize profits. We workers here in the U.S. face many of the same problems, as bosses downsize, close shop, and speed up those workers still with jobs, while the rulers’ front men, politicians of all stripes, push through cuts in healthcare, education, and social services to free up money to fuel their growing war machine.

These same rulers and their bought and paid for political stooges use racism to divide workers, including immigrants vs non-immigrants. Some workers, frustrated by the conditions so many suffer here in “the land of freedom and opportunity,” buy into the racist lies pushed by the capitalist exploiters who run this system and the politicians who work for them. They attack these migrants as “illegals,” a threat to their neighborhoods and a drain on the economy.

Last week, hundreds of racists demonstrated in front of a former Catholic high school on Staten Island, now being used as a shelter for a proposed 300 women and families. They were organized by a local racist, Scott LoBaido, who is supported by racist Staten Island politicians like Nicole Malliotakis. When an injunction forbidding the use of the school as a shelter was overruled, the racists announced another demonstration, to be held on August 28th.

A Staten Islander myself, I learned of the demonstration that morning and alerted the Party leadership. Within hours, 30 Progressive Labor Party (PLP) comrades and friends had gathered and planned a counter demonstration in support of the migrant refugees. Chanting loudly, with CHALLENGE, leaflets, and placards, joined by some neighborhood workers, we marched to the school at the opposite end of the street from the racists. Using a bullhorn, we voiced greetings and messages of support to the migrants inside in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole. Before we left, we promised to return in greater numbers to confront the racists and to show the migrants that the racists did not represent all Staten Islanders.

PLP’s line is that what we call the Big Fascists are a bigger threat to workers than the Small Fascists. We must stand up against the open Small Fascist racists like Malliotakis and LoBaido, as we did on Staten Island. However, we must not be fooled by the Big Fascists like NYC Mayor Adams, NYS Governor Hochul, and U.S. President Biden. These covert racists are only too happy to see workers fighting each other, instead of joining together to fight for communism and destroy this racist capitalist system that cannot provide the jobs, housing, healthcare, and education we all deserve and need.