Gang violence and chaos has taken an upturn since the 2021 assassination of Jovenel Moïse, who along with Haitian rulers, backed and united the G9 federation of existing gangs in order to suppress working class anger and demonstrations against his rule. (Al Jazeera, 3/13/24) Gang violence generally affects areas where industries are located and places where informal activities are the main sources of income for the masses in Haiti, for example the lower part of the city, the Croix des Bossales market, Carrefour airport and the Route de l’aéroport, Cité Soleil, Bas Delmas, Croix-des-Bouquets, to name just a few places. It is in these places that the working class went every day to chache lavi (literally, look for life). Workers here eke out a living and survive on a daily basis. Therefore, each time a street is paralyzed, life is no longer possible for the majority. Factories in the Sonapi free-trade zone have been shuttered. Odd jobs on the streets (gas stations, vehicle repairs, small businesses, repairs and sales of electronics and household appliances, etc.) that were the source of income for millions of Haitians have disappeared. Many institutions that provided services and jobs, such as hospitals, were burned down. The current unemployment rate is difficult to calculate but most families now depend solely on money transfers from the diaspora.

In 2023 alone, $3.8 billion in remittances were made (Haitian Times, 1/7), and 2024 is undoubtedly… even higher. Workers in Haiti are on the brink of starvation. The annual inflation rate is 46 percent (trade.gov). In the capital, the presence of gangs makes it nearly impossible to go to the market; in the country overall, there are hardly any goods on the shelves, including needed medicines. The ports are blocked and the roads inaccessible to transportation. Workers have long depended on cheaper imported goods (98 percent), especially food (50 percent) from the Dominican Republic, which discourage local agricultural production (Dominican Today, 9/13/22).

Mass political action is difficult at this time, with day-to-day survival being the primary focus of so many. However, the Progressive Labor Party here, trying to be faithful to communist practice, continues with building ideological awareness. Our comrades and friends study communist ideas and history to prepare ourselves to debate the events in political discussion forums. We organize politically significant activities—revolutionary self-help—to build and maintain the trust of the masses. On January 1, for example, the PLP worked with our base to prepare and distribute the traditional pumpkin soup in four neighborhoods in a provincial town, as we have been doing for more than eight years. Many working-class families can no longer prepare soup as before: pumpkin (joumou) is rare and expensive, as are other ingredients and meat.

The following is a preview of the introduction to an upcoming pamphlet,formatted for CHALLENGE. In this pamphlet, we will examine how capitalist/imperialist competition led to the creation of Israel; why the alliance between the U.S. bosses and Israel highlights the growing weakness of U.S. imperialism; and how nationalism has continuously proved deadly for the working class. The only solution to the dead-end of capitalist wars is communist revolution. This pamphlet will be available on our website and in print next month.

The ongoing horrendous, genocidal destruction of Gaza by the bosses of Israel continues to horrify workers all over the world. As indiscriminate bombing of residential areas, schools, hospitals, and refugee camps by the Israeli Defense Forces relentlessly drives the death toll far beyond 50,000 adults and children, workers across the world cry out in solidarity with the people of Gaza. In demonstrations large and small, signs and chants condemn the Israeli bosses and their U.S allies who refuse to cut off the supply of arms and bombs to Israel. 

Even as Netanyahu unilaterally orders assassinations, terrorist explosions of cell phones and airstrikes on Lebanon, Syria, and across the Middle East,  Trump and his new cabinet of horrors will continue the U.S. imperialist plan of enabling Israel’s right to “defend” itself and will continue to send billions in military aid. The unwavering patronage that Biden and Harris provided to Israel indict them in the history books as genocidal collaborators. Netanyahu – and the rest of the world – knows that Israel is key to the U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. But where a U.S./Israeli alliance used to project strength and power, it is quickly isolating the U.S in world opinion and threatening to pull the U.S. military into the quagmire of war. 

Whenever and however World War III begins, capitalist bosses, large and small, will call on workers to line up behind one national flag or another to kill and be killed in battles to determine which capitalist bosses will control which lands and resources. In many of the demonstrations against the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza, people wave Palestinian flags and chant for a free Palestine. There can be no freedom for workers in Palestine or any place in the world under capitalism. We support workers’ fightback against genocide, fascism, imperialism, and capitalism. But we reject nationalist misleaders like Hamas and Hezbollah who, like the Zionist bosses after WWII, cynically divert workers’ fury into nationalist fervor. Like the communists in Russia during World War I and the communists in China during World War II, the working class of the world today can and must turn imperialist war into revolution.

Imperialist competition creates Israel

For several hundred years before WW I, present day Palestine and many other Middle Eastern countries were part of the Turkish Ottoman empire. When oil, first discovered in the region in the early 1900s, became the world’s major industrial and military fuel, capitalists in Europe and in the U.S. took increasing interest in control of the area and its vast resources. During World War I, the most powerful Western imperialist, Great Britain, encouraged nationalism among various Arab groups previously exploited by the Ottoman empire and enlisted them to fight with Britain against Turkey and Germany. In exchange, Great Britain held out the promise of a Pan-Arab independent state after the war.

Before Palestine became a British Mandate, it was occupied by diverse groups of Arab and Jewish farmers and herders. Some of the Jews living in Palestine had emigrated from Russia and Europe to escape the brutal anti-Jewish racism of tsarist pogroms and intense marginalization of Jewish workers throughout Europe. Some were inspired by a nascent Zionist movement. During the 19th and early 20th century, capitalists encouraged nationalism to solidify the development of bourgeois nation-states and colonial and imperialist control of resources around the world.

Within this context, the Zionist movement grew. The leadership of the Zionist movement came from the petit bourgeoisie (small bosses) and the educated elite. The British bosses supported the Zionist leaders’ call for mass emigration of Jews to Palestine because they believed that a large group of middle-class Europeans could provide military and political support against the demands of Arab nationalism. 

History is full of examples of heroic resistance on the part of the working class to capitalist oppression, displacement, and violence. But as a class, we must fight harder to gain the confidence we need to rely on each other rather than on a seemingly lesser-evil capitalist also doing battle with a bigger, more powerful capitalist. We must reject all forms of nationalism and fight now for communism – a society where the land and other resources are protected and cultivated for the survival of the world’s working class.

On January 6, health care workers and allies gathered in front of hospitals in cities such as Boston, New York, Minneapolis and San Francisco to demand an end to the destruction of hospitals in Gaza, the arrest and abuse of doctors and other providers, and the ongoing genocide. So far at least 885 healthcare workers in Gaza have been killed and 128 remain in custody. Israel is preparing to kill off as many Gazans as possible with even more urgency, attempting to deny the entry of any food or water or any medical care. Some U.S. health workers called in sick in order to participate. 

In New York City, a few comrades joined with the hundreds gathered outside NYU Tisch hospital, a pro-Zionist institution that has fired and harassed health workers for just mentioning support of Gaza. The demonstrations were organized by Within Our Lifetime, Doctors Against Genocide and Health Care Workers for Palestine.  But there is little hope for Palestinians without a mass movement that calls for class based international unity to rid the world of capitalism and imperialism, an idea that several comrades regularly put forward in these organizations as we join their actions. It is not enough to choose between the collaborators of the Palestinian Authority or the Islamic fundamentalists of Hamas who call for martyrdom. Workers of the world must unite for a society we run for ourselves, a communist world.

This is what solidarity looks like

Under freezing temperatures of 10 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit, several members and friends of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) spent about four hours outside the migrant refugee camp at  Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. We came to distribute donations of clothes, shoes, suitcases, coats and bedspreads, collected by comrades and friends. We were received with great gratitude by all those who came to meet us during this day, many of them were without coats, women in flip-flops and children with just a sweatshirt, under that temperature that made everyone tremble because of how cold it felt.

It was painful to feel what they told us through their testimonies, all the work they spent in that shelter where the coldness is terrible and more because that shelter is in a broken place near the coast. The bathrooms are outside the tents and the heating is not felt. We also provided a breakfast consisting of latte and hot chocolate, bread, sweets, donuts, biscuits, cream cheese, etc. that they gladly received and that served to warm us up a little.

The children were very happy because many of them received toys, crayons and books. It was a very nice day that despite the cold, the solidarity and gratitude shown among all warmed our hearts.

Many received our newspaper and a special bulletin of CHALLENGE. We also received the telephone number of most of those who came to collect the donations and we agreed to make a group chat on WhatsApp so as not to lose contact, since many of them are being taken out when they are two months at the shelter. The rest of the more than approximately 2,000 that remain will be taken out on January 15 or 16 when the mayor closes this shelter, leaving the uncertainty of where they’re going to end up.

Is communism possible? Yes! It is possible. Today it was demonstrated once again in this small day of solidarity.
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Visiting a concentration camp

Today I visited the Migrant shelter at Floyd Bennett Field for the first time; it was enlightening to say the least. I work for the Department of Education  as a high school counselor in a title one school. The students I serve are predominantly Black and Brown children from all over New York City with many different cultural backgrounds. When people ask me what I do for work, I always like to tell people that “I’m doing the lord’s work” for a living. While I consider being a school counselor in 2024 one of the hardest jobs in America right now, I have developed a brand new respect for people who spend their free time and energy serving the working class and welcoming migrant families who are housed here in NYC.

When I first got to Floyd Bennett Field, the housing establishment immediately gave me the impression that it was a concentration camp, the only difference is that there were no keys and locks on the gates, but there was 24/7 security monitoring the migrants that were allowed to go in and out of the compound. Checking ID’s making sure the people coming in and out were accounted for. When we got to the compound we were only allowed to wait in front, a few hundred feet away from the entrance. Families came pouring out of the compound headed out to the nearest highway to either catch a bus to go run errands or look for work. Most of the families that came to get donations from us just so happened to stumble upon us as they came outside. There were kids and adults without coats and proper winter clothing. I saw people with shorts, skirts, t-shirts, flip flops on a very cold day in November. In Floyd Bennett Field, there aren’t any buildings, just miles of land, so the wind that swept across the field made the temperature feel 10-15 degrees colder than normal. But the look on the faces of the children and members of these families were unbothered, as if their bodies had adapted to living with this discomfort and cold temperature. 

There was a moment that I stood and looked at all the people who came to help the migrants, and how bundled up we were because of how cold it was, and we were shivering and visually extremely cold, while the migrant workers were unbothered, while wearing half of what we had on. It was disturbing to know that people had to adapt to living like this, just to survive. I could go on for hours pointing out the inequalities I witnessed while being at the shelter, but what really left an impression on me was the smile on the families’ faces I witnessed, after they got a hot cup of coffee or found a winter coat that fit. The smile on the little girl’s face after she sipped her hot cup of cocoa and picked up a Dora the Explorer book. This experience is a must for helping our class see the humanity in the workers who are often derided by Trump and the racist media  as “criminals” and “invaders”and it was humbling to say the least. I can honestly say that I haven’t felt that good about myself in a long time, despite serving our NYC youth everyday. This was different and a must for any person who calls themselves an honorable human being. 
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Unity warms up migrant families and me

On a cold and windy Sunday at Floyd Bennett Field, while other volunteers were helping people sort through the clothing donations, I was serving cups of hot chocolate and coffee to migrants on the other side of the fence and inviting them to come look at the donated items. Chocolate? Cafe con leche? I was offering in broken Spanish. People were gracious and grateful for a hot drink and good will. Most were families with young children. Many were native Spanish speakers, some weren’t, although most seemed to understand both Spanish and English.

Just as my feet and hands were starting to get numb from the cold and wind, I felt someone hug my legs. A smiling young girl in a blue jacket with a red bow in her curly dark hair was wrapping her arms around me and saying gracias. I will never forget this warm and sweet gesture. My hope for this child, her family and all other new migrants is that they find a safe and prosperous life here.
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Capitalism can’t insure health

The January 15, 2025 editorial of CHALLENGE describes the failures of U.S. healthcare, from Covid-19 deaths to antivax propaganda. It also aptly criticizes the absence of conditions that predict health like housing and income.

For decades, workers have fought for health care for all. During the late 19th Century, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck instituted a health insurance program to counter the socialists’ demands for reform. Other countries modeled healthcare after a health insurance model but also never achieved equality among different economic groups. Even today, the highly praised systems of France and Sweden maintain differential care for the poor and wealthy.

The U.S. system also maintains multi-level coverage, from employer based and public, to no coverage. COVID benefits increased Medicaid eligibility, but in 2023 the federal government used bureaucratic rules to cut it, and 23 percent are uninsured. Undocumented immigrants and those in the U.S. for less than five years are ineligible for public benefits like Medicaid. Among Black workers, 60 percent had no insurance yet represented only 40 percent of the population. While workers from Asia in the U.S. live, on average, until 84 years of age, Native Americans, on average, only reach 64 years.

Health activists have continued to struggle for single-payer and Medicare For All reforms. Single payer would provide healthcare through workers’ contributions like taxes that the government and the government would pay as does Medicare. Medicare For All would cover everyone, be public, and have no profit.

Such provisions are essential to eliminate the big insurance companies like United HealthCare which restricts providers, denies care, and increases the charges of care from 22-44 percent. Private insurers cut expenses for Medicare with their Medicare Advantage plans that restrict access. Over 200 rural and many urban hospitals have closed, and many surgical hospital patients are kicked out after a day or treated as an outpatient. Meanwhile, funds are plowed into expanding wars and billionaire pockets.

The weaknesses of these reforms include the lack of benefits for the social determinants of health (although some health centers now offer social and legal services to patients). Having everyone in one plan could make it even easier to ration care as England has done with its National Health Service.

Advocates are writing legislation for Congress to implement it, a strategy that has been used for decades. In a period of declining capitalism and increasing threats of World War III, it is unlikely to succeed. However, we can learn from history when the urban rebellions, the Civil Rights movement, and the fight for the Charles Drew hospital in Watts, L.A. won Medicare, Medicaid, and hospital desegregation during the 1960s. Strikes by unions have also secured health insurance for its members. Struggles like these are more likely to succeed than legislation. Ultimately, maintaining good health and health care will require workers to run society. In the early days of the Soviet Union and China, the government wiped out catastrophic diseases and increased life expectancy and infant survival. Until workers run a communist society, we can engage in struggles for benefits, housing, public Medicare, unrestricted Medicaid, better staffing for hospital workers, and safe working conditions for all while building a revolutionary movement.
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