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Colombia election: capitalist contradictions on display
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- 03 November 2023 390 hits
The intensification of dishonest propaganda that the bosses sell to the international working class is a symptom of the breakdown of capitalism and the sharpening of contradictions between classes. There is an increase in violence and exploitation where our oppressors use different tricks to control the masses of workers in the countryside and the city. This is evident in the desperate push to get behind their corrupt electoral system, with workers and students being offered to “choose” to their exploiters who will repress them under the farce of “representative democracy.”
Politicians at different levels of government, such as governors and mayors, aspire in Colombia to control the mass of profits derived from exploitation of natural resources and the labor of the increasingly impoverished workers. All electoral parties base their campaigns on lies rather than solutions and proposals, while attacking and belittling anyone who does not follow them. They bring to light mismanagement of public treasuries, the criminal records of their opponents and the constant violation of the bourgeois constitution by their peers.
Capitalism bases its development on the laws of profit. The ruling classes pull their leaders from wealthy capitalist elites and protect those leaders through the armed might of the state as well as drug trafficking mafias. The social democracy that fights for a “friendlier” capitalism always falls into the same patterns of misery and exploitation. Meanwhile, workers remain chained to this electoral circus, which blocks our path to fight for revolution. Only the destruction of the wage system and its racist state through the communist revolution will allow the working class to free itself from oppression, nationalism, racism, sexism and bloody imperialist bosses' wars.
Capitalism needs the electoral circus to make us believe that voting will help reform the profit system and address the needs of workers. This is why the bosses find populist candidates who divert and pacify thousands of skeptical workers and students who are tired of the endless violence perpetrated during the governments of Uribe, Duque and Santos as well as the failures of leaders like liberals Gustavo Petro and Claudia López.
We workers can’t continue believing the lies of any of these mafia factions, who seek to build their fascist state power to better disarm and control the anger of our class. During the marches for and against the reforms proposed by the current “government of change,” our work is focused on talking with relatives and friends in the streets, universities and workplaces about the traps and false promises of these reformists.
To this end, we are attending sit-ins, forums and rallies, sharing our newspaper Desafío, which condemns this corrupt electoral farce and declares that our class enemies will not be defeated by voting! We stand by our political line that only by building our mass Progressive Labor Party (PLP) will we be able to demolish them with revolutionary violent struggle, building a dictatorship of the international working class.
For this we repeat our call not to vote and instead organize around the PLP and its revolutionary communist political leadership. We must continually fight alongside our fellow workers because it is only the working class that has the numbers and historical potential to lead society. We fight to win more workers, soldiers and students to the need to destroy this warmongering system, responsible for all the unemployment, misery, poor health, environmental crises and generalized violence that we suffer daily.
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Justice for Rodwell Spivey Brothers: It’s not just Baraka—it’s kkkapitalism
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- 03 November 2023 395 hits
Before heading to work, a group of PLers marched to the courthouse in Newark to stand in solidarity with the Rodwell Spivey brothers for their early morning hearing. A group of antiracist fighters coming out en masse for over a year has produced more worker wins than these bosses ever have and ever could. Justin Rodwell was released after a #FreeJustin campaign led by the Rodwell Spivey family, college students, educators, nurses, and PL called the Rodwell Spivey Defense Team. Because of this work, the word spread like wildfire that Justin and his brothers and neighbors came to each other's defense when one brother was stopped and frisked by undercover police in front of their home. Although the news spreading on X, formerly known as Twitter, helped drive the campaign, we still pushed and recognized the importance of building the struggle in our local neighborhoods and workplaces. The struggle even expanded to Kingsborough Community College campus in New York, where comrades and students recognized and cited the same police terror threatening the working class in Newark and also being alive and well in the Bronx.
Building mass fightback led to a waged war against the Newark courts to drop the charges against the Rodwell Spivey brothers from 40+ years to lower-level municipal court charges. Now that the mass fightback has simmered down and the capitalist bosses did not win their usual opportunity to lock these young Black men up for profit, the judges and prosecutors are shelving the case and brushing off the family. As a result, the most recent court hearing was canceled, and family members were notified only after losing a day of work to get there. One family member of a PLer who attended spoke outside of the courthouse about how Black workers, particularly men, are set up to fail under this system, and it prevents them from working and being dedicated family members. One of the brothers affirmed that he applied for Amazon and UPS, and the potential charges were cited in his rejection letter. What happened to innocent until proven guilty? Another fallacy under a system that keeps the bosses’ hands clean and shoves workers with the muck.
Two comrades spoke out against a neighborhood vigilante who went viral after recording himself stepping to Mayor Baraka at a local basketball game for selling out workers in Newark who are being left homeless and vulnerable to corporate buyouts. The mom of the brothers stated, “Still, the Mayor wishing death upon him isn’t right, and if it wasn’t for him no one would know about our case.” We adamantly noted that raising the politician’s attacks against this vigilante over the politics of the situation will dangerously win workers to fight more broadly on social media and for him or against Baraka alone, which is a weakened approach to fightback.
It’s much harder for bosses to get away with attacks against the working class where ideas are being transmitted through fightback that concretely reveal evidence to workers of how racist profiteering is being made primary over our housing needs. Therefore, it’s not just Baraka, it’s Capitalism! This is a hard lesson we experienced when a comrade got fired for teaching their students to fight racism outside their school and was known to challenge the Principal rather than build a long-term base with teachers and students. This is also a challenge we must face inpunleashing the massive potential of the Rodwell-Spivey fightback. Although the family and PL thank this person for bringing attention to the Rodwell-Spivey case, we still recognized and pointed out that the cult of personality around him is dangerous and he is not above criticism.
Furthermore, we need masses of workers with the same anger and militancy to fight for an internationalist communist revolution with unity en masse and long-term strategy to build on the jobs in our neighborhoods. That is what PLP brings to the struggle. We aim to continue to build on our relationship with the family and broaden the struggle to fight to smash police and imperialist terror throughout the state and internationally.
San Francisco, October 18–1,300 San Francisco Bay Area (S.F., Oakland, Berkeley, etc.) students and some teachers walked out of ten schools demanding a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza and humanitarian aid to Gaza. Most of the student protestors at many schools were non-Muslims of Black, white, and Asian backgrounds with many Muslim students in attendance, a great sign of unity.
This was in conjunction with walkouts in other parts of California, Florida, Illinois, and New York. At one school where 200 students left before the bell, the first speakers clearly called for unity between non-Zionist Jews and Palestinians being abused by Israel. Zionists had a field day, though, calling the students “terrorists” and sending many of them death threats. They also harassed the protesting students and teachers who peacefully protested. For a complete communist analysis about the increasingly volatile and fascist situation in Gaza and Israel, read the article and editorial in the 11/1 issue of CHALLENGE.
Also in the Bay Area, 97 percent of the United Educators of S.F. (UESF) voted in favor of a strike. Some members of the San Francisco Movement of Rank-and-File Educators and many, many certificated and classified members of our union helped to organize a great turnout of 3,300 certificated and classified school staff. Progressive Labor Party (PLP) teachers and other members passed out a “Capitalist Education Doesn’t Work” Party leaflet and ran out. Since this clear vote of the membership, the union bargaining team and the School District settled and have brought a tentative agreement (T.A.) to the membership. Two T.A. Informational Sessions were held just this week. A couple of PLP members in UESF tried to bring up the contradictions of this “historic” package in our breakout sessions. The vote on the contract will start on November 3, with the results to the membership on November 9. This might be another “non-strike,” folks! But whatever happens, once again this will be a school for a communist society. The fight continues!
Workers and students in New York City have risen up in anger at the fascist collective punishment that the Israeli government is raining down on the workers of Gaza.
Every day, hundreds to thousands have gathered – and Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members have been there in the struggle, pointing out that neither the Big Fascist government of Israel nor Hamas, the Small Fascists they helped install in Gaza, can lead workers to liberation. Most importantly, PLP called for a communist revolution that rids the world of all bosses and their lethal capitalist system.
In the Bronx, around 100 protesters gathered in front of the offices of Richie Torres, a representative to the U.S. Congress. This racist Democratic Party liberal weaponizes his Gay and Latin identity to try to convince his constituents, who live in the poorest Congressional district in the country, to unconditionally support the fascist, genocidal Israeli government. Our line stood out against the backdrop of Palestinian nationalism, as Hamas’ brutal attack has revealed their true nature as capitalists willing to kill workers for control of “their” workers. In fact, a recent survey showed that even Gazans see through Hamas’ lies; 44 percent of those surveyed in the territory said they had no trust in the Hamas government (Foreign Affairs, 10/25). Many of the demonstrators eagerly took our literature, which attacked both groups of bosses. PLP members had conversations with workers, struggling with them to understand that there cannot be a “Free Palestine” without destroying capitalism.
On Friday, October 27, a thousand people gathered in and around Grand Central Terminal, shutting down one of the busiest train stations in the country. After hundreds sat down inside the station, hundreds more took over 42nd Street outside and began marching west. As in the Bronx, the chants were mostly for an immediate ceasefire and for a “free Palestine.” While chanting “Arab, Jewish, Black, and white. Workers of the world unite!” we distributed more than 300 copies of CHALLENGE and 300 leaflets. One demonstrator, after carefully reading our leaflet, called it a “breath of fresh air” because it criticized Hamas while attacking the barbarity of 75 years of Israel’s colonial apartheid state and the ongoing Nazi-like collective punishment of Gaza.
Workers all over the world are demonstrating the powerful sense of solidarity that we have as members of the working class. This display is truly inspiring, lighting the way to a world where the international working class will be all there is, a future where every boss, whether Israeli or Palestinian, U.S. or Russian, will be nothing but a relic of the past. We are struggling in demonstrations, teach-ins and in one-on-one conversations with our friends, students, and coworkers to build communist ideas and our Party – to make this future a reality.
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!
Shut this racist system down!
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U.S., Israel hand in hand
racist murder is the bosses’ plan,
From Palestine to Mexico
The bosses borders, got to go!
