Retiree raises solidarity funds for workers in Haiti
I’ve been politically active in a large union for over 50 years as a worker and a retiree. I have led struggles on the job and tried to connect those struggles to events around the world and to build solidarity with workers’ struggles around the world.
When the recent earthquake left 2,000 people dead in Haiti and many thousands others injured and without shelter, food, clean water and health facilities, I brought the issue of international solidarity to my retiree association meeting in the form of a request for financial support.
I asked for a donation of $5,000 with a plan for a Haitian “hometown” association functioning in New York City and in Haiti to distribute the funds to working class folks in the small towns hard hit by the earthquake. One retiree asked if he could make an amendment. I was pleasantly surprised by his suggestion that we increase the donation to $7,500. We voted to send the larger amount.
At the end of the meeting, another retiree, who is from Haiti, said that he was proud that our association had taken this action in support of our brothers and sisters in Haiti.
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Immigration march coming up in DC
On September 21 a coalition of groups from different states will march in Washington DC to demand that the Biden government pass immigration reform for all undocumented immigrants currently in the U.S. Previously, various administrations have proposed immigration reform bills which have failed because the capitalist politicians didn’t agree with the proposals. They demanded requirements from immigrants to begin the process of legalization that in the majority of cases were impossible to complete.      
 The capitalists will never “agree” to resolve the problems of the working class. For them immigration reform means to guarantee a source of cheap labor to exploit in agriculture, factories, services and other sectors and especially to amass immigrant youth to enter the military to be cannon fodder in imperialist wars.              
 On September 21, PLP members will unite with our sisters and brothers, immigrant workers and their families in a mass march demanding immigration reform and amnesty for all immigrants. We will widely distribute CHALLENGE. We need to grow our bases into millions of workers organized for communist revolution and the seizure of power for a world in which the working class won’t need “reforms” nor “amnesty” because we will abolish all borders that separate us. We will be one international working class as we rid ourselves of all vestiges of capitalism. Only a united working class can lead an egalitarian society in which we will work collectively for the well being of all, a new communist society led by PLP.
CHALLENGE response: We need to expose the liberal bosses’ plans to use immigration reform as a path to fascism and war. Immigrant workers who are willing to embrace nationalism, patriotism, and sacrifice themselves  will be pawns of U.S. imperialists who are desperate for legitimacy and all-class unity against their rivals China and Russia. Emphasizing this can help arm our class against all faces of fascism.
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Response: no genetic defects from nuclear bombing
The September 8 issue of CHALLENGE’s article entitled “Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Bombed to Save U.S. Imperialism” excellently illuminates an important historical fact about the genocidal use of atomic warfare during World War II, but its claims about the long-term effects of this nuclear technology can be misused by anti-nuclear dogmatists who lose sight of the potentially positive use of nuclear power in a worker-run society.  It correctly points out that the US bosses’ use of atomic bombs on two Japanese cities in August, 1945 was an offensive measure aimed at the growing Soviet state more so than an act of defending the citizens of the US from imminent Japanese attack.  
However, the idea that one lasting outcome of this genocidal warfare is residual genetic defects among some Japanese people to this day is patently false.  This factoid, though at one time widely believed,or has been convincingly debunked (see Bernard R. Jordan’s 2016 analysis at doi.org).  In addition to distorting past history, this misinformation contributes to the phobia of all things nuclear that is befogging present debates over possible alternatives to fossil-based fuels. So there is a good deal at stake—as the article points out—in getting out the whole truth, both political and scientific, about the tragic events of August 1945 and their aftermath.
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Haiti: natural disasters compound capitalist-made crisis
Another earthquake. Another storm. Nearly 2000 confirmed dead so far, many more    wounded.  At least 60,000 homes were destroyed. Before this latest disaster 60 percent of workers in Haiti lived in poverty, 25 percent in extreme poverty. But ordinary people have never stopped organizing themselves and fighting for a better life.
Haiti was the first to form an independent Black nation after overthrowing slavery in 1791. For that audacious act of overthrowing racist slavery they have been punished ever since. France demanded the repayment of $21 million for the “theft” of its slaves, not repaid until 1947. The US invaded in 1915 and occupied the island for 19 years, enacting forced labor and the murder of resisters and stealing 40% of Haiti’s output. Until 2000, the US and the IMF manipulated tariffs, the economy and financed coups.  In 2000 Haitians elected the reformer Aristede, who, even though he was no friend to communism or the idea of workers running society, so threatened US and Haitian elites that he was kidnapped and whisked away to Africa.
A massive earthquake in 2010 killed over 200,000, destroyed much infrastructure, and left Haiti vulnerable to a cholera epidemic brought by UN peacekeepers. Most of the aid sent to the island was lost to government and NGO corruption. Since then a series of feckless Presidents have been manipulated into office by the US, the latest one assassinated by parties unknown only weeks ago.
In the western region where the latest quake occurred, no government presence has been seen. Local workers and students and community organizations are fighting as much as they can.
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