Interimperialist competition on display in “coup belt”
New York Times, 7/29–Africa’s coup belt spans the continent: a line of six countries crossing 3,500 miles, from coast to coast, that has become the longest corridor of military rule on Earth. This past week’s military takeover in the West African nation of Niger toppled the final domino in a band across the girth of Africa, from Guinea in the west to Sudan in the east, now controlled by juntas that came to power in a coup — all but one in the past two years…Until this past week, Niger was the cornerstone of the Pentagon’s regional strategy. At least 1,100 American troops are stationed in the country…Any American withdrawal could open a door to Russia. The sight of Russian flags being waved by coup supporters in Niamey this past week echoed similar scenes after a coup in neighboring Burkina Faso last year.
Expanding war requires expanding weapons production
NikkeiAsia, 7/27–The Ukrainian military has begun using cluster bombs in its counteroffensive against Russia, following Washington's decision to supply Kyiv with the controversial weapons amid a munitions shortage…U.S. President Joe Biden…defended what he said was a "very difficult decision. This is a war relating to munitions. And they're running out of that ammunition, and we're low on it," he said in an unusual admission of U.S. limitations that could potentially undermine its deterrence…the U.S. initially resisted Ukrainian requests for the arms…But it reversed its stance as an ammunition crunch left it with few other options to support Kyiv. The shortage has also affected U.S. commitments to Taiwan, including by delaying the delivery of Stinger portable anti-air missiles and other arms…The Pentagon is now working to boost production…With U.S. intelligence assessing that Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered the military to be ready by 2027 to invade Taiwan, addressing supply constraints in the defense industry could prove to be a race against time.
French racism has long history
Al Jazeera, 6/30–French police brutally killed a 17-year-old in broad daylight during a traffic stop. Police initially lied and accused the youth of trying to run over an officer. And, as is often the case, national media reported police fabrications as facts — until cell phone video from a bystander showed the devastating truth…people across the globe have seen the horrific images of French police brandishing rifles and menacing the occupants of a yellow vehicle in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre before summarily executing the teenage driver with a bullet to the head as he pulled away...France has a long and sordid history of colonial racism…stretching from Haiti, Guadeloupe and Martinique in the Caribbean to Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean, North and West Africa as well as Vietnam, among many other populations. France has ruthlessly oppressed Algerian people in particular – including those who are French citizens…During the Algerian war for independence (1954-1962), hundreds of thousands and possibly more than 1 million Algerian people were slaughtered and systematically tortured by the French regime…In 1961, French police killed more than 100 French Arabs who were peacefully protesting in Paris.
U.S. ally deadly for human rights defenders
The Guardian, 4/4–Colombia was the deadliest country in the world for human rights defenders in 2022, accounting for 186 killings – or 46% – of the global total registered last year, according to the latest report from the international human rights group Front Line Defenders…killings of rights defenders across the globe increased in 2022, with a total of 401 deaths across 26 different countries, compared with 358 deaths in 38. Colombia saw more than three times the number of human rights murders than Ukraine last year, which was the country with the second highest number of rights defenders killed in 2022, with 50 registered cases. In 2021, Colombia also topped Front Line Defenders’ charts registering 138 rights defenders killed.
Summer Project inspired me!
The 2023 summer project inspired me to recommit myself to mass work in the service of communist revolution. The sustained fightback of many comrades in different areas was really impressive to witness and support. It was inspiring to find out Shantel Davis’s close relative had joined the Progressive Labor Party and called for communist revolution. In addition to the mass work scheduled into the trip, it was informative and encouraging to meet the comrades involved in mass struggles I had read about in CHALLENGE and hear from them first hand about the conditions faced by the international working class. Multiple comrades – including Black and Latin comrades – had been attacked and called racist by liberal misleadership in mass organizations for their principled stands in Chinatown and in the Rutgers strike. These comrades worked closely with a multiracial base in fightback against reformist and class collaborationist misleadership.
The accusations were ridiculous and invariably related to the bosses’ lackeys in union and community misleadership deflecting justified criticism. It was an eye opening experience. Sadly I learned that one of my comrades had lost their job since last summer as a result of their workplace fightback. However, seeing them continue to fight and organize motivates me to take more risks in struggling for communist revolution and the Party’s line. I learned a lot about the real conditions workers face on the ground, and fighting shoulder to shoulder with the dedicated PL’ers through the summer project is once again the highlight of my year.
*****
A night of collective culture
Our club was so very motivated by the recent Progressive Labor Party convention that we wanted to bring our base and members together to celebrate. The following weekend, we organized an evening of song and poetry in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole—and lots of good food to keep us going—for over 25 people: young and old, workers and students, veterans and folks who joined us for the first time, from several countries.
There were three guitarists; one comrade brought rhythm instruments so that whoever wanted could join in making music. Another comrade brought copies of a PLP songbook so that everyone could sing along, which was very helpful for those who were new to this kind of event. A couple of friends sang both original political as well as traditional songs in Creole and several people got up and danced.
We think that events such as this one, though modest and spur of the moment, helps us understand our role in creating the kind of collective culture—antiracist, antisexist, international, and pro-revolutionary communist (the polar opposite of capitalist culture)—that our Party and our class needs to develop to build a new world. Power to the working class!
*****
My first convention: I was so impressed!’
I had the privilege of attending the 2023 Progressive Labor Party convention for the first time. Since it was my first time, I had no pre-existing thoughts about what to expect. I must say that I was very pleased with the way the convention went. I was very impressed to see that the Party is really a multiracial group of individuals from different parts of the world who are fighting for the same vision and goals.
Ideas and solutions were debated in an open forum in which every member had the opportunity to express their struggles, experiences, and opinions in trying to advance the Party’s line forward which includes fighting against racism, sexism, for better healthcare, and for an egalitarian world and much more.
I was able to witness firsthand how a decision is made. It was really a collaboration among different folks from different walks of life. In addition, while there, I was able to see that the working class struggle is always at the forefront of their agenda.
*****
Remembering comrade Donna
Comrade Donna Perone was one of several comrades who passed away since the last Progressive Labor Party convention in 2015 (see Obituary in CHALLENGE, 5/1/19). During the 1980s she was chairperson of the International Committee Against Racism (INCAR) in Boston. While in Boston she was also part of the PLP security forces who physically battled the racist anti-bussing group Restore our Alienated Rights (ROAR) and the KKK. She was active in the bilingual education movement, and fluent in Spanish, French, and Italian. She created the first parent, teacher, student bilingual education organization, Project Pride, in the Spanish community while a counselor in the Framingham, Massachusetts public schools.
Family members in Italy were anti-fascist partisans in Italy during World War II. Her father was a member of the Young Communist League in the forties, and taught building trades in the South Bronx to Black and Latin students.
Donna organized to fight environmental racism and successfully led a movement of hundreds of people to halt the construction of a toxic waste burning incinerator in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn. Later, while a professor at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia she opposed the teaching of identity politics putting forth as an alternative a Marxist class analysis.
Further, she taught that IQ testing and standardized tests were part of the bosses’ racist plans to segregate the schools. Her award winning doctoral dissertation on reducing violence in the schools by creating parent, teacher, and student organizations served as a model program in the Philadelphia public schools.
Donna was a PLP member for over forty years, and her motto was “Serve the People,” which she did as an internationalist revolutionary communist throughout her life before succumbing to cancer after a heroic two and a half year struggle.
Los Angeles, July 4-The sound of beating drums traveled for blocks through downtown Los Angeles. Mirrored music could be heard near the international airport and in Santa Monica as well. Hotel workers from the Unite Here union Local 11 wanted to make sure their work stoppage over the July 4th weekend was felt by the hotel bosses in LA. As they took action to fight for a living wage, members of Progressive Labor Party joined them on the picket lines to remind them that the workers of the world produce and run everything and deserve nothing less than the whole pie. This we know will only happen with a communist revolution.
For three straight days, workers picketed in front of over a dozen hotels from 3 AM through 11 PM. The action culminated in a large protest where hundreds of workers, 90 percent of whom are Black and Latin women, marched to demand hotel profits be shared with them since the hotels can’t function without them. Hotel bosses stand to make billions with the upcoming World Cup and Olympics being hosted in LA, but they want to maintain the current $18.86 an hour minimum wage. One would have to work 17 hours a day to afford a two-bedroom apartment in LA with that salary. These poverty wages have left hundreds of women unable to be with their families, without healthcare, hungry, or worse. One woman can only afford to live hours outside of LA, so every week, she leaves her family to sleep four nights in her car outside of the hotel that she cleans.
While workers demand a living wage, hotel bosses responded that it's not their responsibility to keep up with the cost of living in LA. We know these thieves want to keep every penny of profit for themselves. Workers have the power to unite and fight for the reform of higher wages, but the only way to end exploitation is to rid the planet of capitalism.
Liberal politicians and union misleaders only appear to care
The liberal bosses and union leadership in LA sound like they are on the side of the workers. Union leadership is pushing for a minimum wage of $25 an hour. Council members Curren Price and Katy Yaroslavsky took it a step further by introducing a motion that would make the minimum wage for hospitality workers $30 an hour by 2028. Even these wages are at poverty levels for LA though. But the larger danger comes from when workers believe these liberals and misleaders are our friends. Capitalism is never run in the interest of workers. These union misleaders and local politicians are nothing but representatives of local capital. Their appearance of care for our class is to keep us settling for reforms instead of finding true change through revolution.
The biggest farce came when Los Angeles City Council members Hugo Soto-Martínez and Nithya Raman and Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo were arrested at a rally on June 22, 2023 in support of hotel workers. This is nothing more than an attempt to launch their political careers, similar to how DiBlasio’s New York City mayoral campaign took off after being arrested while “supporting” hospital workers. We can’t be fooled by these opportunists. Two hundred workers were also arrested at that rally, but they and what they were fighting for was not the headline of any news story because workers are disposable in this rotten system.
Workers solidarity now - communism ASAP
Although it was hard to talk on the picket lines because of the successful drumming to which workers were exposed, members of the Party made some connections with workers. They were encouraged by our support as we marched side by side with them and chanted. While the union misleaders limited their chants to “si se puede” (“yes we can”) and “huelga”(“strike"), these workers are learning important lessons from the picket line about class consciousness, solidarity, and workers’ power. One of the picket leader’s comments revealed this understanding - “They are making all this money from the Olympics already and they don’t want to share it with us. But we do the work. When the LA teachers went on strike, we joined them, and we have seen a lot of teachers come and support us too. We just have to keep fighting together.” Workers in LA are learning valuable lessons on the picket lines that can’t be learned anywhere else. Many had children joining them, so they are gaining this understanding as well. Our job as revolutionaries is to build on that understanding to reveal that workers can and will run society in a communist world.
The workers went back on the picket line on July 10th after a short break. Additionally the Screen Actors Guild union joined the Writer’s Guild on strike this week. This uptick in class struggle in the LA area gives us lots of opportunity to raise ideas of class consciousness and turn them into schools for communism. We will definitely be back out there with them and struggle to bring our base along so they can learn these lessons as well. The fightback in LA continues!
U.S.-Russia-Iran conflict brewing in Middle East
AP News, 7/14–The U.S. is beefing up its use of fighter jets around the strategic Strait of Hormuz to protect ships from Iranian seizures, a senior defense official said Friday, adding that the U.S. is increasingly concerned about the growing ties between Iran, Russia and Syria across the Middle East. Speaking to Pentagon reporters, the official said the U.S. will send F-16 fighter jets to the Gulf region this weekend to augment the A-10 attack aircraft that have been patrolling there…after Iran tried to seize two oil tankers near the strait last week, opening fire on one of them…the defense official told reporters the U.S. is considering a number of military options to address increasing Russian aggression in the skies over Syria, which complicated efforts to strike an Islamic State group leader last weekend. The official…said the U.S. will not cede any territory and will continue to fly in the western part of the country on anti-Islamic State missions.
China makes moves in Argentina
Al Jazeera,7/17–Massa, who recently announced his bid for president in this year’s election, met with a wide slate of government and business leaders, securing $3.05bn from Chinese institutions to finance railways, power lines, lithium projects and renewable energy in Argentina…But perhaps the announcement of most consequence came around the currency swap line between the two countries – a yuan lifeline…to the beleaguered Latin American economy, which is seeking more financial room to maneuver. There were a lot of thumbs-up signs from Argentine Economy Minister Sergio Massa on a recent trip to Beijing.
These growing ties have not gone unnoticed by the United States, the traditionally dominant player in the region, which has seen its influence on its so-called back-yard slip. In response, the US has sought to exert pressure on Argentina to rein in its ties with China, advocating privately, and in some cases publicly, against certain projects.
Racist kkkops in U.S. France
New York Times, 7/17–Years before France was inflamed with anger at the police killing of a teenager during a traffic stop, there was the notorious Théo Luhaka case. Mr. Luhaka…was …in his housing project in a Paris suburb in 2017 when the police swept in to conduct identity checks. Mr. Luhaka was wrestled to the ground by three police officers, who hit him repeatedly and sprayed tear gas in his face. When it was over, he was bleeding from a four-inch tear in his rectum, caused by one of the officers’ expandable batons.
Calls to overhaul the police go back at least four decades to when thousands of young people of color marched for months in 1983 from Marseille to Paris, over 400 miles, after an officer shot a young community leader of Algerian descent…Last month, after the police shooting of Mr. Merzouk, Alliance and another police union announced that they were at war with the rioters, whom they deemed “vermins” and “savage hordes.”
Israeli and Palestinian fascists fight on by killing Palestinian workers
The Guardian, 7/17–On the street in central Gaza City where the family of Khalil al-Bahtini lived, the contents of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander’s home and the two houses on either side remain spilled out into the street…The GBU-39 bomb that crashed through three floors of the Bahtini home, down into the basement, also blew apart one side of the Adas’s house, killing the family’s two teenage daughters. Dania, 19, died immediately, while her sister, Imam, 17, clung to life for two hours before succumbing to her injuries in hospital…The assassinations, which came during a ceasefire, led Islamic Jihad to respond with almost 1,500 rockets fired towards Israel over the course of five days…The violence left 33 people in Gaza dead, including at least 10 women and children, and, according to Palestinian officials, 103 homes were destroyed and a further 2,800 damaged.
Fight these thieving landlords!
At the end of June Progressive Labor Party members who participate in community organizations met at a conference where they were discussing housing budgets in New York. As always, this event was taken advantage of by bureaucrats and opportunist politicians who try to put the class consciousness of the working class to sleep. The mayor appoints the Board of Directors for the Rental Guidelines Board for New York City that decides the rent increases for the 1.5 million apartments with rent stabilization in the City.
Under capitalism it doesn’t surprise us that this kangaroo court decided against the interests of the working class and for the benefit of the thieving landlords. Three percent increases for rental leases of one year and for two year leases, 2.75 percent for the first year and 3.5 percent for the second. Some friends in the community organization said it’s ok because at least it’s better than the original proposal from the landlords. No! It’s a racist attack on working class families that have to choose between paying rent and paying for food and medical care. A rent increase between $40 and 150 a month will push low income people over the edge. The fight must continue!
What can save us is united working class anger and the repudiation of this abusive imposition. It also makes us happy to have gotten a good reception from the crowd to our newspaper CHALLENGE. We distributed 100 copies at the event.
We have to remain united and fight to smash this capitalist system that oppresses us. To the extent that we continue our work inside our community organization, we will continue to intensify the contradiction between reform and revolution, winning more workers to the communist ideas of PLP.
*****
‘We’re retired, not expired’
Retired NYC municipal workers have been fighting for over two years against a joint city/union plan to force them out of traditional medicare and into a private for profit so-called Medicare Advantage plan. Under capitalism, benefits that workers enjoy are always in danger of being taken away. The plan to reduce retiree health coverage, paid for by the city for over sixty years, is an example of that fact. We need to build for a workers’ state, communism, where bosses and their partners won’t be able to take back what we have fought for. In that spirit, we must redouble our efforts to win our friends into PL study groups and into our party.
On July 7th a New York State Supreme Court judge issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking the city of New York from forcing retirees out of city paid for traditional medicare and a medigap supplemental coverage and into a private for profit so-called Medicare Advantage plan. He said, in part, that retirees would likely suffer irreparable harm if forced into the new plan.
Retirees had packed the courtroom on July 6th and had previously demonstrated at City Hall, union headquarters as well as the city office of labor relations. We had been out in the rain, heat and freezing weather. We bombarded the mayor and city council with calls, letters and in person visits. We showed that we would fight back!
Although retirees were happy that the TRO was granted, many wondered what the city and union leaders of the municipal labor committee (MLC) would do next. Some thought the plan was dead. Others felt that a new plan would be devised. Although we are retired, we haven’t expired and will continue to fight!
