Dominican Republic officials: gutter racists
Al Jazeera, 11/24/22–Authorities in the Dominican Republic have rounded up thousands of Haitian migrants — and anyone who looks like they could be from Haiti — and deported them to a country in the grips of deadly gang violence and instability, advocates say. The forced removals, which rights groups say have escalated this month, have drawn international criticism and calls for restraint amid reports that unaccompanied children, pregnant women and other vulnerable people are being deported.

Some deportees have never set foot in Haiti…Dominican police and armed forces are detaining Haitians in the streets as well as “all those who look like Haitians.” More than 20,000 people had been deported in a nine-day period this month…including some Dominican citizens with Haitian ancestry.

An official source with knowledge of the matter…approximately 40,000 people will be sent from the Dominican Republic to Haiti in November. That is in addition to the 60,000 who were deported in the past months…UNICEF said an estimated 1,800 unaccompanied minors were expelled from the country this year alone, a number the Dominican Republic denies.“These deportations have resulted in the separation of families. People with valid documents have been deported, people who were born here in the Dominican Republic have been deported, ...These aren’t deportations. It’s persecution based on race.”

European imperialists revise plan to rob workers in Africa
Der Spiegel, 11/11–Starting next year, a consortium led by BP [British Petroleum] is to begin extracting natural gas here on the border between Senegal and Mauritania…Extraction is planned to continue for 30 years, with the profits being divided up between the energy giants BP and Kosmos, and between the governments of Senegal and Mauritania…Processes that normally take years must be completed within just a few months in order to meet European demand as rapidly as possible and to profit from the high global prices...German Chancellor Olaf Scholz …noted…It is sensible…to "intensely pursue" cooperation in gas exploitation. Berlin is currently under pressure to quickly find alternatives to Russian natural gas, and the West African country is more than happy to jump into the breach…The mood marks a significant shift from last year, when European governments were singing the praises of the potential in Africa for renewable energies and warning against the exploitation of oil and gas.

Elon Musk joins the ranks of military contractors
CNBC, 12/5/22–Elon Musk’s SpaceX is expanding its Starlink satellite technology into military applications with a new business line called Starshield. Starshield is likely to further tap the company’s biggest U.S. government customer – the Pentagon – which already represents a high-value buyer of SpaceX’s launches and has shown significant interest in the capabilities of Starlink. Few details are available about the intended scope and capabilities of Starshield. On its website, SpaceX said the system will have “an initial focus” on three areas: Imagery, communications and “hosted payloads” – the third of which effectively offers government customers the company’s satellite bus (the body of the spacecraft) as a flexible platform. The Pentagon has already made clear that it’s willing to spend heavily to have companies build out next-generation satellite capabilities.

Academic study shows capitalist control of state policies
Cambridge University Press, 9/18/14–Who governs? Who really rules? To what extent is the broad body of U.S. citizens sovereign, semi-sovereign, or largely powerless? …it can loosely be divided into four families of theories: Majoritarian Electoral Democracy, Economic-Elite Domination, and two types of interest-group pluralism—Majoritarian Pluralism, in which the interests of all citizens are more or less equally represented, and Biased Pluralism, in which corporations, business associations, and professional groups predominate. Each of these perspectives makes different predictions about the independent influence upon U.S. policy making of four sets of actors: the Average Citizen or “median voter,” Economic Elites, and Mass-based or Business-oriented Interest Groups or industries.

The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence.

Imperialism is making us sick
On December 1, World Aids Day, I went to a rally at the White House to join with other health organizers demanding the Biden Administration extend the public health emergency on Covid-19 and take executive action to boost global vaccine manufacturing. These demands were combined with a call for increased funding for HIV/AIDS as the “two pandemics collide.”

The fight for  Covid-19 prevention and care is similar to the long, militant struggles in the U.S. and South Africa for global access to HIV medication.  Covid-19 and HIV continue to be major health problems despite being downplayed by the Biden administration, which instead is funding war in Ukraine.

I shared fliers and CHALLENGE newspapers with 10 of the 25 folks present. I shared our work in the American Public Health Association (APHA) to get policy for global vaccine development and to build the struggle to embrace a revolutionary solution—communism. Two organizers from ACT UP from New York agreed that we should be fighting against imperialist war and thanked me for bringing this up. For an excellent Progressive Labor Party (PLP) presentation linking health and imperialist war go to: https://youtu.be/fzJ9ENoRjLs .

Health Gap reports that 690,000 die yearly from HIV and 38 million are living with HIV and 25 percent still do not have access to treatment. Thus, rally organizers demanded a  $750 million increase for international AIDS work to PEPFAR in 2023 and 2024 to address HIV, Monkey Pox, and Long Covid. (PEPFAR is the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief that began in 2003). Also, consistent with PLP’s work on global vaccination justice, the rally called for $100 million to fund the South African mRNA hub.

Speakers from ACT UP PHILLY,  Health Gap and others gave dynamic antiracist speeches,  denounced the failure of the U.S.  to provide health care for all,  and demanded that Biden extend the public health emergency to keep 15 million U.S. residents under Medicaid.

Hatred for the profit-gouging pharmaceutical industry was palpable. But there was no call to end the funding for imperialist wars.

Communists can join and give leadership to  these health care struggles while raising communist ideas. I talked with several of the 25 protesters and urged them to call out imperialism as much as they attack the drug companies. Imperialism is hurting workers through continued illness and war. Time to stand together for health and communism!

In ‘class’ struggle: building working-class unity
I teach at a nearly all Black Caribbean high school. When a student used the n word in class, I shut down my lesson. “We don’t do that here…next class, we will explore the power of words,” I told my 9th graders.

With the support of  comrades and our study group, I created a lesson that places the n word in its historical context: the violent system of slavery. As a comrade put it, “it’s on the lips of lynchers,” enslavers, and the Klan. That word is a weapon of the bosses to treat a section of our class as subhuman and divide us. Using it evokes and normalizes anti-Black violence. No one should participate in the degradation of our class siblings.

The lesson began with journaling about hurtful words said to us. “I’ll go first,” I said. “I was told I was too dark…a terrorist, to go back to your country.”

After sharing our personal experiences, I presented my claim: “we can’t separate words from their history. Hurtful language leads to hurtful actions. Using dehumanizing words spreads the message that some are less than.”

I gave students three pieces of evidence to break down and discuss. At the end, I asked if anyone would reconsider using this word. Many said yes, while others still believed the word can be reclaimed.

One student wrote, “I can try to lessen it…because it can dehumanize some people.”

Next time someone uses a slur, say, “That word is about accepting a part of our class as less than. We are constantly sent the message that we are worthless. I want you to be one of the sides of history that uplifts, not degrades, us.”

Does this mean I won’t ever hear slurs? No, but it gives me a basis to show students and teachers are on the same side.

Now, how does this connect to building communism? Winning students to a class-conscious outlook is non negotiable. In this lesson, they were introduced to the words, working class and ruling class (something we will return to in future lessons).

Capitalist education teaches us to view our co-workers and classmates as enemies. One student wrote, “I agree with the lesson 100 percent. It made me realize what white people said to downgrade our ancestors.”

We had a conversation differentiating between enslavers and poor white people. Without showing how language, like people, belongs to a certain class, it’s easy to fall into the trap of blaming those around us, instead of the system, for hateful language. It’s the ruling class that teaches us we are worthless, and that’s a system we ultimately have to smash. Of course, we don’t fight with just words. More struggle ahead!

Exploitation is the bedrock of capitalism
A CHALLENGE article (11/16/22) called racism “the bedrock of capitalism.” However, the bedrock of capitalism is exploitation. Racism, sexism, etc. divide our class to prevent resistance to our common oppression by exploitation. Racism enables exploitation, not the reverse.

Housing segregation leads to school segregation, discrimination in jobs and income, and different quality lives for Black and white workers.

Greater oppression is dealt to Black workers, in police brutality and killings, evictions, poverty, jobs, unemployment, housing, lower life expectancy, greater newborn and maternal mortality, incarceration, more deaths from Covid, etc.

So while white workers experience lesser oppression, on average, this is no “privilege.” White workers suffer greater numbers, but lower proportions, of all forms of oppression. U.S. whites average lower life expectancies than Asian or Lation but higher than Native or African Americans.

Exploitation explains the oppression of our entire class, and the enabling divisions victimize both white and Black.

Liberal antiracism fosters the lie that whites are privileged, that all white workers oppress all Blacks workers The 2019 NYT “1619 Project” pushed this lie, enabling the rightwing to target “critical race theory.” Both sides promote division, disabling a multiracial working-class movement against racism and exploitation, the true bedrock of capitalism.PLP has rightly focused on fighting racism, mainly because of its role in shoring up exploitation —the oppression of all workers. Fighting exploitation means in the workplace, not just neighborhoods, schools, and churches—wherever workers congregate.

In capitalist societies, elections like the recent U.S. midterms serve two critical purposes for the bosses. First, they resolve disagreements within the ruling class before the need to resort to violence. Second, they help to mask the true nature of the profit system—a capitalist dictatorship—and to keep workers tied to that system with the illusion that they can decide how it works.

The fallout from the November 8 elections reveals that ruling-class disputes—both within the U.S. and among the globe’s imperialist rivals—are becoming less and less controllable. The insurrection in Washington in January 2021 was a sign of things to come. As the U.S. economy deteriorates, as bosses in China continue to rise and authorities in Russia destabilize Europe, the U.S. bosses soon may be unable to rule in the old way. In a desperate attempt to save their failing system, they’ll need to turn to more open fascism as they move toward world war.

Over 100 million workers felt compelled to cast their votes in this capitalist dogfight, a near-historic midterm turnout. The rotten myth of liberal democracy remains a stubbornly powerful force. In reality, workers have no stake in the capitalists’ fight. All bosses routinely unleash racist terror on workers in the U.S. and worldwide. All are willing to sacrifice millions of our working-class sisters and brothers in wars to keep their profits and power. While the bosses and their media use lies and scare tactics to win votes for one side or another, Progressive Labor Party (PLP) has been organizing workers for over 50 years so that we can dump every one of these fascist capitalists, fake leftist or right wing , and run society for the needs of our class.  

U.S. rulers: both factions in disarray
The election results exposed the volatility swirling around the U.S. ruling class. The bosses’ media were predicting a landslide victory for the Small Fascists, the domestically oriented capitalists who are fronted by Donald Trump and seek to organize mainly dissatisfied white workers. But while Republicans regained a majority of the House of Representatives, their margin was far narrower than projected. After catering to the erratic Trump for the last six years, the Small Fascists are in disarray. This time around, his endorsed candidates lost most of their high-profile elections (CNBC, 11/9). Rupert Murdoch, the Small Fascist owner of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, labeled Trump the Republicans’ “Biggest Loser” (WSJ, 11/9). Meanwhile, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a more disciplined racist and sexist, easily won reelection. Though DeSantis spouts the same garbage as Trump, he seems more reliably committed to sustaining the illusion of “free and fair” elections.

Meanwhile, the Big Fascists of finance capital, mostly Democrats who aim to organize the multiracial working class to fight for U.S. imperialism, retained their slim control of the U.S. Senate. But a closer look reveals that their position is far from secure. In House races nationwide, Republicans outpolled Democrats by more than three million votes (Cook, 11/9). The Democrats lost support among Black and Latin voters (CNN, 11/9). Their Racist-in-Chief, Joe Biden, is 80 years old and without a clear-cut successor for the presidential election in 2024.

China and Russia: more advanced fascism
By contrast to the disunity and dysfunction of the U.S. ruling class, China President Xi Jinping deals ruthlessly with renegade bosses or workers who step out of line. He routinely expels members of China’s fake “Communist” Party.  In 2021, three of the largest Chinese tech companies were investigated for “graft.” After Alibaba chairman Jack Ma took issue with the state’s criticized financial regulations, he was temporarily blocked from putting his company on the Chinese stock market (Washington Post, August 2021).

In Russia, critics of Vladimir Putin tend to end up in jail or dead. In August, when Lukoil chairman and Ukraine war critic Ravil Maganov reportedly fell from a hospital window, he became the eighth Russian energy executive to die ‘mysteriously’ this year (CNBC, 9/2). Both Xi and Putin understand that they must impose rigid discipline on the ruling class to maintain fascist control over the working class.

“Protecting democracy”= building fascism
In the U.S., as the Big Fascists prepare for World War III against their imperialist arch-rivals, they are doing what they can to convince a broad section of the working class to join a mass patriotic movement. After failing to guarantee women’s right to abortion, they used the Supreme Court’s sexist decision to overturn Roe v. Wade to convince angry workers to vote for Democrats. Moreover, the Big Fascists unleashed the FBI to investigate the 2021 attack on the Capitol and the Jan. 6 Committee to charge at least 955 people in one of the most documented crimes in history (Insider, 11/22). This same legal beast will also be used on progressive fighters against capitalism.

Not only that, their pleas to “save democracy” from Trump and the Small Fascists drew millions to the voting booths in November, resulting in the second highest midterm turnout among 18-to-29-year-olds over the last 30 years (The Hill, 11/9). Always ready to hide their racism behind identity politics, they are bragging about the record number of Muslim candidates elected (Guardian, 11/26). These maneuvers represent a deadly trap for workers!

The Big Fascist liberals aren’t the lesser of two evils—they’re the greater  evil. From Bill Clinton to Barack Obama to Jim Crow Joe Biden, Democrats are the architects of racist mass deportations and racist mass incarceration. They’ve deployed racist drone bombings across Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. Behind their crocodile tears and phony shows of compassion, they are callous mass murderers.

There is no lesser evil; fight for communism!
For the international working class and the revolutionary communist Progressive Labor Party, the chaos engulfing the U.S. ruling class is both a great danger and an enormous opportunity. The bosses will continue to fight among themselves and ensnare millions of workers who are won to support one side or the other. But we also have the opportunity to show that capitalism offers us nothing but death and destruction—and that workers have a communist alternative. It’s an opportunity to point out that voting for one lying, racist politician or another every two or four years has nothing to do with real political power.

Workers will gain real power only when they smash the profit system and control every aspect of society, as they did after the two great revolutions of the 20 century. In the Soviet Union and China, politics was part of everyday life. Workers made historic advances in healthcare and education without ever going to the polls. They created a new society without campaign slogans or political stooges and parasites. Unfortunately, the Soviet and Chinese communist parties kept facets of capitalism, a mistake that ultimately led to the reversal of their tremendous gains on behalf of the working class. PLP celebrates the history of communist achievements, recognizes past mistakes, and organizes for a communist revolution that will sweep away capitalism and its illusions of democracy. Join us!

BROOKLYN, NY—“What if PLP takes power and not everyone wants to live without money right away?” “If communism outlaws racism, how are laws enforced under communism?”

These were some questions our multiracial Progressive Labor Party (PLP) student study group’s new comrades and attendees asked and discussed following our march against the racist KCC (Kingsborough Community College) campus police, administration, and the NYPD (New York Police Department). PLP and students are fighting them to drop the charges against Adrian, a student tackled by campus police, after being harassed by a racist student using the n-word (see CHALLENGE, 11/30).

Since then, the students have received a crash course in racist capitalism’s state power. Since our last article, instead of dismissing and dropping charges against the student tackled by campus police, KCC is pursuing allegations made by the racist student and charging two student leaders with violating CUNY’s (City University of New York) “Henderson Rules of Public Order,” threatening penalties up to suspension or expulsion. This is another example in a long line of liberal and reform institutions siding with racism instead of the working class.

For the capitalists, militant antiracist fightback is the true “crime.” As punishment, for three weeks students have faced combined attacks, from daily campus police harassment, to the lying of president Claudia V. Schrader, and confusing disinformation from the various campus administrative offices.

This pattern of racist harassment shows why this fight is about more than dropping Adrian’s charges. If we lose this struggle, campus police will feel free to harass, assault and beat up ANY student they want.

Despite these attacks —or because of them— the antiracist club Common Ground has seen over 100 students express interest. Leadership of a core of militant, Black, Asian and immigrant women and men leadership is emerging. This growth under sharpening external attack has sharpened internal debates, and members and friends of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) have encouraged making time for addressing important questions. Rich exchanges that began over tactics and strategy have widened into debates over reform versus revolution, with the ultimate question of confidence in the international working class at the heart of it all.

No more racist harassment!
As friends and students began joining us in greater numbers and gathering daily in the cafeteria, the campus police decided to brazenly harass those fighting back. On November 9, a half dozen campus police surrounded a group of club members and their friends, one of whom was bouncing a green foam ball while sitting (see “Exhibit A”) and was told “this is not a playground,” and “the ball constitutes a public safety threat.” To everyone’s shock, campus officers then declared that all students who do not have class at the moment must exit campus immediately. The students sat defiantly and remained.

The following week, students were sitting and enjoying music through a speaker when another half dozen campus officers surrounded them, telling them “playing any music is banned on campus.” This time, the students stood up together and confronted the police shoulder to shoulder. The campus police then repeated that everyone needs to go home and stated “it’s time for an ID check, as CUNY students you automatically are subject to them” even though IDs are already checked at the front gate. The students raised their voices and told them off, and the campus police retreated.

We are organizing a defense and political counterattack to build on our growing support, campus and CUNY-wide, distributing dozens of CHALLENGES, and we’re developing new young communist leaders along the way.

As long as we live under the dictatorship of the capitalist class, workers will be subject to racist and sexist attacks. The bosses and especially their liberal lapdogs preach the all-class unity garbage of “we’re all one community” on one hand, while protecting racists on the other and allowing military recruiters on campus to enlist soldiers for widening imperialist wars. But ultimately, it will take building a mass PLP —and a Red Army — to destroy racism and capitalism once and for all, which can happen only if all of us become mass organizers and lead mass antiracist struggles. And this struggle has the potential to become one!

A single spark can become a fire
Meanwhile, a four to one majority of delegates in the union representing 29,000 CUNY faculty and staff, the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), passed a resolution supporting KCC’s students, declaring “an injury to one is an injury to all.” While the resolution was being debated, some self-proclaimed progressive KCC faculty delegates issued ineffectual pleas for “more time to investigate.” A Black delegate from another campus responded from the floor “we’ve been ‘investigating’ this for 400 years, it’s time for action” and voted “yes”!

With each study group raising important questions, our new comrades are recruiting even more outstanding antiracist fighters and especially strong Black and immigrant women into the struggle. They are working through sharp political questions and learning to manage sharp disagreements while under increasing state attack. Under communism we will immediately outlaw racism and attack racists with the power of the Party. Despite these challenges, the dark night of imperialism will have its end and these students prove workers can run the world! Their experiences today are planting the seeds of a movement of millions of workers we have not yet met but share their hatred of racism and life under capitalism. As more students fight back and dare to envision a workers’ dictatorship and a bright communist future, the closer the day is when they will lead us there. JOIN US!