NOVEMBER 29, ATLANTA, GA – This year's American Public Health Association (APHA) annual conference was held in Atlanta, a hotbed of ongoing class struggle against the expansion of the ruling class’s racist police state and environmental pollution and deforestation, called “Stop Cop City.” This is a prime example of the role of liberal bosses, their Democratic Party, and their Black misleaders paving the way toward fascism.

For several months, the national health collective and friends of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP), with decades of experience organizing against racism in medicine, from health determinants to the shackling of patients in hospitals to imperialist war, met virtually in preparation. Building off our ties working within our mass organizations, we joined nurses and public health organizers and were able to connect with health organizers on the ground involved in the militant “Stop Cop City” fightback.  

A comrade and friend from Los Angeles co-presented on a panel with Atlanta healthcare workers involved in the Stop Cop City campaign. We were joined by an organizer in the Santa Marta struggle against the fascist state and mining bosses. Workers there are organizing to protect hard-fought wins to keep foreign mining companies out of El Salvador. Comrades from Chicago also co-presented with the Atlanta healthcare organizers in a session on Decarceration and Abolition.  

Together, we wrote and distributed a brochure explaining Stop Cop City through a public health lens, distributed it at sessions throughout the conference, and coordinated a rally and press conference outside.The PLP contingent also guaranteed that our communist, antiracist, and anti-imperialist message was disseminated through our APHA CHALLENGE and in our speeches at the rally.  

Indeed, even the leadership of APHA did us a favor.  About a week before the conference, after nearly a month of genocidal attacks on workers in Palestine and widespread protests, the APHA’s Executive Director, Dr. Georges C. Benjamin, released a statement supporting  “peace” and “Israel’s right to exist.” This incited massive anger from many public health workers and students who were attending. Then, after discovering that we were planning the protest outside, conference organizers sent a warning, including the date and time of our protest to all 12,000 attendees of the conference.  We thank them for the mass invitation and for showing their true fascist colors!

Two protests: against racist cops and racist genocide
This resulted in two simultaneous actions; our Stop KKKop City rally planned with local Atlanta organizers and the other protest that grew out of the visceral anger of public health workers at the conference itself. We divided our forces as about 100 healthcare workers held a silent protest inside the governing council meeting urging the passage of a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and end of the occupation. 

On the outside, comrades linked the fascist attacks on workers in Gaza to the fascist attacks in Atlanta, including violent attacks on protestors just one day prior at the proposed “Cop City '' – the same site where environmental activist Tortugita was murdered.   

A comrade started his speech by saying, “If there was a chant that connected the fightback against Kkkop City and racist mass incarceration here to the open-air prison and genocidal attacks in Gaza, it’s booming in protests in cities across the world, with ‘Biden, Biden you can’t hide, We charge you with Genocide!’” The crowd outside began chanting it as well.  After a few rounds of chanting he asked, “But how many of us voted for him?”

This created a pause and some snaps in the back. He then explained not just Biden’s role in the five-decades-long racist wars on crime/drugs and mass incarceration but explained how this was made possible through our class’s illusions in the so-called Civil Rights “wins” of former organizers turned Democratic Party politicians.

Across the U.S., from Atlanta to DC, Detroit to LA, these politicians became servants of the ruling class and supported the expansion and militarization of the police for decades as a solution to deindustrialization and racist unemployment. Cop City isn’t new, the comrade said; the ruling class and the liberal politicians are doubling down and tripling down on this decades-long fascist build-up. He explained how Chicago and Baltimore have already constructed Cop Cities.  

Voting is a dead end, fight for workers power: communism
In Los Angeles, where this comrade is from, the  entire city council voted to expand the  police size and budget, even though it already takes more than half the city budget and has long been home to the largest jail on the planet — despite the presence of the city’s first Black woman mayor, Karen Bass. So we shouldn’t be surprised when in Atlanta, the current Black mayor supports the destruction of forests so they can build a training center for urban warfare. Speaking in solidarity, the comrade  said, “We can’t continue to make the same mistakes,” referring to illusions that the bosses' state and politicians can ever serve our class interests. They’re arming themselves and terrorizing our class because they are preparing for world war and are afraid of our class.  From Gaza to Atlanta, we must arm ourselves with revolutionary communist class consciousness and turn the guns around on the bosses and their state.   

This speech was well received by the rally participants including two friends from LA in the crowd. Our APHA CHALLENGE was distributed and after the rally and silent protest, about two dozen joined us in a debrief where we further discussed our line in addition to planning for future efforts leading up to next year’s conference.

NOVEMBER 29, OAKLAND, CA—Class consciousness and anti-capitalism were on full display during the past weeks of actions to shut down business as usual in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Tens of thousands marched in Oakland, San Francisco and outlying areas. Multi-generational, multi-racial\ethnic, international groups took action & power in the streets, in Schools and on the job.  The actions focused on stopping the genocide in Gaza, shutting down APEC (Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation), and stopping IPEF (Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity) & End Capitalist Destruction of the Environment. Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members urged all working people and students to follow the examples of the internationalist-minded Palestinians and non-Zionist Jews, who are not united with their ruling elites and who emphasized the commonality of their struggles. We had the opportunity to tie these immediate struggles to the need & goal to destroy capitalism with a world-wide revolution and to build a communist world.

Imperialist rivalry on display
After Presidents Biden & Xi Jinping met, Biden laid out his “calming” assurance that the two imperialists had reached mutual agreement on three items: 1) limiting fentanyl production. 2) Open military communication channels and  3) The impact of AI.  Then he made a “gaffe", calling Xi a dictator. As the PLP leaflet pointed out: U.S. and China bosses do play buddy-buddy, but the clash of their empires is inevitable. The Real Agenda: Biden & Xi Jinping seek to exploit & divide workers around the world while they compete for “allies” in their imperialist ventures.  The Biden administration launched IPEF in 2021 as a U.S.-led alternative for countries in the Indo-Pacific Area who developed deeper economic ties to China; also, as an alternative to the Belt & Road Initiative.  IPEF excludes China and includes some countries, not in APEC, like India. Some U.S. allies in the Americas accept capital investments from China. Some, now, criticize Israel as well as Hamas.  

Protests overwhelm police repression and media propaganda
Demonstrators denouncing imperialism and genocide joined up at the SF Civic Center, Market St,  Black Rock headquarters, (asset management), Democratic Party Convention in Sacrament. Many called for Free Palestine. At one demonstration, protestors physically surrounded CEOs as they sought to enter APEC Sessions: yelling & booing: “Shame, Shame” “Blood on your hands,” videoing CEOs for further shaming on the internet.                                                                                                                        

A day after Biden & Xi Jinping met,  a coalition against genocide, racism and imperialism  shut down the Bay Bridge; stopping traffic from Oakland to SF & disrupting those attending APEC(similar action happened on a bridge between Cambridge & Boston Ma.)                                                                                                               

In sharp contrast to anti-imperialist, internationalism  actions, groups of pro and anti-China demonstrators waved their national flags.  They clashed, on the side-lines of APEC, over which capitalist bosses to support. (Asian Diaspora from Tibet, Hong Kong & Uyghurs vs groups that support Xi Jinping ruling class in China & hoped to meet with him.).                                                                                        

Education workers in OEA (Oakland Education Association), UESF (United educators of San Francisco) & UAW 2865 (adjuncts, grad students and others in the UC System) passed resolutions for ceasefire and no weapons for the Israeli war machine. SEIU 1021 (service workers) & United Service Workers West(many janitors)passed resolutions calling for ceasefire.                                                                                             

The Belgian Transport Union has refused to load arms for Israel.                                               

No war but class war
PLP members’ experience at these actions brought home, in a real way, that thousands have turned fear and cynicism into anger and solidarity; particularity against imperialist genocide in Gaza. We got a great reception to our posters, CHALLENGE and flyers. (see pictures) Many eagerly responded to “No War but Class War”; “Stop the Genocide”, “Read a communist leaflet about what’s happening in Israel and Gaza.”  We focused on the interconnected oppression of capitalist rule in the USA to the oppression\genocide that imperialism brings down on workers around the world; especially with their junior partner, the Israel ruling class.
Tax dollars needed for public services like education and transit exported to fund the Israeli military, (i.e. cash for profit in the U.S. armament industry

Export of Israeli military training\intelligence to police departments in the USA which carry out racist attacks on Black, brown and low-income communities. C)$44 million for a new “Cop Campus”, regional training center, in San Pablo Ca. (near SF & Oakland). D) Needing to maximize profit demands that the US capitalists carry out with fascist attacks on immigrant labor with prisons, murder & family separation, similar to Israeli capitalists’ fascist attacks on immigrant labor inside Israel and Gaza.  E) the history of US capitalism’s displacement of indigenous peoples from “manifest destiny,” westward expansion to US imperialist actions throughout the “Americas” with wars and support of fascist coups.  Some people were not aware of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s infamous statement about the death of 500,000 Iraqi children from US war\sanctions: "I think that is a very hard choice, but the price, we think, the price is worth it.” Such conversations helped us to get names and several young people invited us to come to the actions they were planning to Shut Down APEC.

Internationalism & nationalism both on display
We, in PLP, learned a lot from the contradictions expressed in these actions. While groups were formed around nationality or national borders, expressed ethnic identity, carried Palestinian flags or focused on particular issues like climate, police terror, or the unhoused, they also contained multi racial\ethnic approaches and called for international unity among working people. In common struggle, there is plenty of room to argue that nationalism is no way out for working people. The worldwide solution is for the international working class to run society, with no borders; that means communism.                                                                                                                                           

During the protests, we explained our communist goals: PLP strives to build the world-wide movement for revolution and for a share and share alike, communism: no capitalist profits, no wage-system, no national borders, no racism, no sexism, working class unity with class siblings around the world.  We expressed our confidence that a mighty working class won’t be stopped when armed with commitment to production/distribution for the need and ability for all to contribute to an emerging communist world.

What is APEC?
In APEC’s own words: “Cooperation” means to “ensure that goods, services, investment and people move easily across borders. by promoting balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative and secure growth and by accelerating regional economic integration.” APEC trade deals cover 60 percent of global energy systems and impact some of the most climate-vulnerable areas of the world  ( https://www.apec.org/About-Us/About-APEC/)                                                                                                                            

*1,200 global, corporate CEOs (including: General Motors, Exxon, Chevron, Citibank, Tesla, SpaceX’s Musk, Boeing & big tech like Microsoft), 20+ heads of state (including Biden & Xi Jinping), 30,000 lobbyists, corporate execs, & international media.  President Xi Jinping met with American business leaders at a $2,000-per-plate dinner.

Trying to make SF look good on the world stage, the SF city bosses spent thousands to “clean up the City.” Homeless workers were removed from downtown areas. Some businesses were shut down.  Bridge and freeway exits/entrances were blocked. There was a huge police\security presence.  The media blasted that a great opportunity was coming to San Francisco to capture investments from “domestic and international” Finance Capital and to change its tarnished image as a failing city.

Workers in Pakistan are grappling with a dire economic situation. Inter-imperialist rivalry is heating up, particularly in dependent countries like Pakistan. It depends upon the financial capital of Saudi Arabia, China, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the U.S., in that order. For example, in order to obtain  the latest International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout, Pakistani bosses are forcing workers to produce weapons for Ukraine as collateral for the latest bailout package. In addition, Pakistani bosses are raising funds by stealing from workers and selling national assets like its ports to the UAE.

Various social issues are escalating, while the ruling elite shamelessly serves the interests of imperialism.  Unemployment is spreading rapidly, inflation is increasing daily, and workers across different industries are losing their jobs. Farm workers are being compelled by landlords to work longer hours for lower wages, and women and children are being pushed into bonded labor.  The Progressive Labor Party (PLP) is taking a leading role in the working-class fightback in Pakistan, explaining the situation and pointing out the need for a communist revolution as the only solution.

Workers fight back; bosses terrorize with crackdowns
The most impoverished sections of the working class face a lack of job opportunities in both the public and private sectors. Local industrialists and feudalists prioritize exploiting workers and shifting their capital abroad, resulting in daily suicides among workers and their families due to unemployment, lack of food, and shelter. Working-class individuals are actively participating in Action Committees, organizing protests and sit-ins against new taxes, high inflation, unemployment, and terrorism.

Government employees are staging strikes and sit-ins to pressure authorities to increase their pay in line with inflation. However, the finance department's adherence to IMF instructions makes it challenging for the government to provide relief. The fear of displeasing international monetary organizations like the IMF has led to a situation where Pakistan's default could collapse the capitalist economic system, leading poor workers  to challenge the state due to  hunger, exploitation, and poverty.

Protests extend from teachers to clerks, with various organizations, including the All-Government Employees Grand Alliance (AGEGA), mobilizing. The Punjab government's attempt to privatize schools is seen as a move that will increase unemployment and exploitation. The government is also set to introduce amendments to pension regulations under IMF instructions, sparking agitation among poor people against the ruling class's actions.

AGEGA's militancy has triggered a brutal crackdown, resulting in the arrest of over 556 demonstrators. Protesters from various unions, including the Punjab Teachers Union, All Pakistan Clerk Association, Health Employees' Association, and the Punjab Professors and Lecturers' Association, were subjected to torture and false cases, highlighting the intense suppression by authorities.

Party exposes bosses’ privatization schemes and corruption
The impending privatization of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is perceived as a ploy to appease capitalist supporters. Capitalist bosses, in every election, fund campaigns of almost every party expected to form the next government. This privatization, along with other institutions, is viewed as a means to bribe capitalists, although it raises concerns about the impact on public services.

Despite approximately 23 million out-of-school children in Pakistan, public school' neglect continues. Teachers' unions are criticized for their role, seen as self-serving and aligned with bureaucracy and politicians. The Progressive Labor Party (PLP)  is involved in these actions, using them to provide true revolutionary leadership, guiding workers to see their revolutionary potential, and understanding the root causes of Pakistan's political, social, and economic challenges. While participating in reform struggles, PLP offers hope for a brighter future, distinguishing itself from other leftist  and socialist parties.

Only working class PLP can lead the way
Political parties in Pakistan have often manipulated Palestine and Kashmir issues for sympathy and funds. Religious parties exploit these issues for financial gain. Despite working-class people's disconnection from these geopolitical concerns, religious parties use mosques to mobilize mainly businesspeople, shopkeepers, and government employees in rallies lacking the passion of the working class.

Religious parties' reluctance to aggressively address the Palestinian genocide is attributed to their ties with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The PLP supports progressive students, workers, and political activists in organizing demonstrations against imperialist greed and exploitation. The Party emphasizes the need to fight against the capitalist system, which it sees as the main cause of global bloodshed. PLP advocates for international organizations under its red flag to eradicate every evil of capitalism and establish a political and economic system guaranteeing equality, justice, and peace – communism.

On November 24, I joined three other comrades at the "Save Gaza," Black Friday March on Chicago's Michigan Avenue, the "Magnificent Mile," of expensive shops and restaurants. Several progressive groups were present at the event such as the US Palestinian Community Network and Students for Social Justice at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC).

Shoppers unnecessarily crossed through the rally, and at one point a racist shouted, "Stop killing babies and raping women!" While I don't know what kind of statistics there are about rape in this conflict, the hard evidence about the Israeli Defense Force's current killing of 6,150 children in just under two months should be spiking the radar of any "pro-lifer." The dehumanizing tactics of Hamas are centered in the imagination of those all too unwilling to grapple with Israel's own dehumanizing, US-supported tactics on Palestinians, where prior to the current slaughter 40% of the male population in Palestine had been imprisoned.

Once the march of about 1,000 took off,  there were several stopping points in front of businesses like Victoria's Secret and Starbucks shouting, "Shame on You!" while cops blocked the entrances. At one point we chanted, "CPD, KKK, IDF, they're all the same!" At another point an Arab American cop guarding a business was a particular focus for a small group of Arab protesters.

I carried a sign with the picture of Murod Kurdi, an Arab American worker from the nearby suburb of Oak Lawn who was murdered by a drunk driver. I got the opportunity to explain the PLP's support of the case to a worker handing out flyers. He referred to the area Murod was from as "Little Palestine,” on account of the large diaspora there. A family with a 5-year-old boy and his family holding signs of support for Palestine came closer to have him read my sign and ask about it. When the boy struggled to understand the importance of an Arab worker killed by a drunk driver, a member of their group explained that if the driver hadn't been white, they likely wouldn't have gotten away with it.

Though most shoppers hid away in stores or acted as unaffected as possible, I did get some CHALLENGEs to a few of them. A pair of young workers gazed from the sidelines in awe, and when handed a CHALLENGE and told it was a communist paper, one responded, "The people control the means of production!" I got handed one  to a young Black worker who raised her fist and began to march along the sidewalk with us. Another worker outside of Starbucks recognized CHALLENGE and asked for one.

Ending at the historic Water Tower, an organizer called for high school students to organize walkouts, for college students to challenge their learning institutions that often have Zionist backing, and to continue coming out every week.