Comrade Mark Shapiro, one of the original members of the Progressive Labor Movement (PLM) and the Progressive Labor Party (PLP), died on January 12 at 78. Mark was a communist whose life and influence spread throughout the working class and encompassed both mental and manual labor. Married to Ann, a PLP comrade, Mark was a General Motors auto worker, a railroad brakeman, a high school and college teacher, a father to Daniel and David, a grandfather to four grandchildren and a father to two foster daughters, a musician who belonged to several bands and played the clarinet — his high school yearbook portrayed him as the “Benny Goodman of Weaver High.” Being a “birder” he and his wife Ann led the Hartford, Connecticut Audobon Society, while serving as a political leader among hundreds of workers and youth. Truly a communist “for all seasons.”
Perhaps Mark’s most significant contribution to the working class was his uncovering of one of the most vicious racist frame-ups of the 1960s, the George Whitmore case. The U.S. Supreme Court cited it as “the most conspicuous example of police coercion in the country” in its 1966 decision which became known as the Miranda ruling, to possibly protect those arrested from being coerced into false confessions.
After his auto and railroad jobs, and having obtained a Masters degree in physics at Columbia University, Mark began teaching science in New Jersey and later moved to Connecticut where he taught physics at Wesleyan University among other colleges in the area and social studies at Trinity College and Prince Tech.
He had been born into a communist family in Albany N.Y. His parents had been blacklisted during the McCarthy witchhunts. This background led him to join Progressive Labor Movement in 1963 and later the Progressive Labor Party (PLP). Mark became a member of PLM’s first trade union club and of the staff of CHALLENGE. He put his great sense of humor to work, writing the paper’s first humor column, “Marksmanship.” Years later his son said he liked to brag that the first big anti-Vietnam War protest in New York City was organized in his living room
Mark exposes the racist frame-up of George Whitmore
On August 28, 1963, two white professional women were murdered in Manhattan which the media labeled the “Career Girl Murders.” At that very moment George Whitmore, a young Black man, was in Wildwood, N.J. sitting with a dozen friends watching Marin Luther King make his famous “I Have A Dream” speech at the March on Washington. Whitmore had been previously acquitted of a frame-up by racist cops of a murder in Brownsville, Brooklyn. But the cops went after him again and arrested him for the murders of these two women. The cops wrote a 61-page “confession” and beat him into signing it. A Manhattan District Attorney joined in the frame-up and a judge sent the youth to Rikers Island for a “psychiatric” examination. The bosses’ press — 10 New York City newspapers at the time — lept on the case with ranting front-page “stories” smearing Whitmore as a “Black killer.”
At the very same time a civil liberties advocate, John Lawrence, who worked for a law firm, had decided to test a law by striding down Broadway in Manhattan carrying an unloaded rifle in full view, hoping to be arrested to create a test case in court. Sure enough the cops arrested him and a judge sent him to Rikers for an “examination.” He ended up in the same area as Whitmore. Lawrence had heard of Whitmore and they began talking.
Whitmore detailed to Lawrence about where he was in Wildwood, N.J. watching King’s speech on TV when the murders were committed. When Lawrence was released, he went to every newspaper in the city with his “scoop” and every paper refused to publish it, given that it exposed the racist trash they had been printing.
Lawrence then consulted the “newspaper” listing in the telephone yellow pages and saw “CHALLENGE.” He came to our office to see if we would print the story. Mark met him, listened to what he had to say and began writing a series for
CHALLENGE recounting his interviews with Lawrence exposing the racist frame-up. None of the city’s press pursued it but some out-of-town newspapers picked it up, never mentioning Mark’s reporting, of course. It became the story of the year, similar to the more recent racist “Central Park Five” frame-ups. Seven years later Telly Savalas made a TV movie dramatizing the case entitled “The Marcus-Nelson Murders,” only the second Kojak production.
Mark and Ann raised their family in Bloomfield, Connecticut, where he lived the rest of his life. He was a fixture at every May Day march until last year. He brought scores of his high school students to the anti-KKK march in Scotland, Conn., and remained passionately devoted to his communist principles and activities.
He and Ann were avid travelers, touring the world in places like China, Alaska, and Brazil, and taking camping vacations regularly to Maine and national parks nationwide where they developed an abiding interest in birding, leading them to the Audobon Society. In recent years he joined the fight to protect Bloomfield’s water from exploitative corporate interests and became active in supporting hospital strikers in his area, selling them CHALLENGE, containing stories he had written about their struggle. In his last years he suffered from Parkinson’s Disease but never lost his interest in the clarinet. He was heard playing it on the day before he died.
Comrade Mark Shapiro was one of many who devoted their lives to building the communist movement. While he is gone in body, the fruits of his labors will live on in the continuing efforts of revolutionary communists the world over to create a society that will liberate the working class from capitalist slavery. A toast to Comrade Mark, remembered forever!
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Trump’s Israeli apartheid plan weakens U.S. Imperialism
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- 07 February 2020 72 hits
On January 28, U.S. President Donald Trump, flanked by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, unveiled an Israeli/Palestinian “peace” plan. The plan gives Israel significant parts of the West Bank and control of most of Jerusalem. It legalizes illegal Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory, gives Palestinian refugees no right of return and gives Israel security control over some future Palestinian state. None of the capitalists competing for power in the Middle East accept this plan. More chaos and war is in store for the region, with workers dying for the bosses” profits. The Progressive Labor Party (PLP)organizes to turn these imperialist wars into working class wars against all capitalist bosses.
On Dec 22, 2017 a CHALLENGE editorial stated “U.S. President Trump’s recent move to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was a holiday gift to the Israeli ruling class, a big-power blessing of the country’s anti-Arab racism and apartheid, and a reflection of the embattled U.S. bosses’ growing isolation in the region and the world. It would also lead to even more instability in the Middle East, collateral damage to U.S. allies, and a rise in mass anger and fight-back against the U.S.”
Trump’s latest “peace” plan is more of the same. This time it is more specifically a gift to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is facing corruption and fraud charges in Israel. It is also a ploy by Trump to appeal to his racist, Zionist and evangelical base as he faces impeachment and a coming election.
Since recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital the U.S. killed the Iranian general Suleimani in Iraq and an Iranian missile strike seriously injured 30 U.S. soldiers, bringing the U.S. and Iran to the brink of war. Then masses of Iranians and Iraqis demonstrated against the U.S. and the Iraqi Parliament voted to kick the U.S. military out of Iraq. The instability and fightback that CHALLENGE predicted continues.
Further weakens U.S. imperialism
Indeed “mass anger and fight-back against the U.S.” is increasing and the imperialist wing of the U.S. ruling class is losing control in the Middle East. Their allies are wavering. The European Union and the United Nations both came out in opposition to Trump’s plan. Then so did the African Union and the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (Al Jazeera, 2/4). The ambassadors from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan did not attend the unveiling of the “peace” plan (NYT, 1/28).
But Sheldon Adelson and Jared Kushner were there. The Kushner family has major investments in Israeli settlements (Real Clear Politics, 12/6/19). Adelson is a billionaire, Zionist supporter of Israel and Trump. He is aligned with the more domestically oriented U.S. capitalists who want low taxes and less regulation of business.
Israel: birthed by imperialism, raised by apartheid
This imperialist control of and competition over Palestine started in 1948 when the new Israeli state murdered or expelled over 750,000 Palestinians, 85 percent of the population. In 1967 they took over more territory and left only 22 percent of the land in Palestinian hands, albeit occupied, and exerted complete militarily control over 30 percent of the territory and nearly all of its water, its borders, and security. The West Bank (WB) has now been illegally militarily occupied for 53 years. Military incursions into Gaza have killed over 7,000 since 2000, wounded thousands more, and left that area “uninhabitable,” according to the United Nations. The 20 percent of Israeli citizens who are Palestinians have markedly fewer rights than Jewish workers. By declarating itself a “Jewish State” in 2018, Israel has officially adopted apartheid.
Reject the bosses’ nationalism
Thousands of Palestinians have demonstrated against this “peace” plan, but their leaders are corrupt. The Palestinian Authority represents the small, ruling capitalist elite in the West Bank, where inequality is as great as in the U.S. It has a long history of cooperating with Israel to suppress dissent. Hamas is a fundamentalist party that rules Gaza and gains some support by inciting doomed armed actions against Israel.
Need Black-Arab-Jewish working class unity
Workers in Israel also suffer, with shortages of housing, jobs, and good schools. Yet Israelis are blinded by racism against Arab workers, especially Black immigrants. Meanwhile Palestinians are bombarded with nationalism, loyalty to the unity of all Palestinians regardless of their class. Many focus on desiring unity between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority and having their own state. As in all capitalist states, workers are misled by nationalism or patriotism- loyalty to local rulers, instead of allegiance to the international working class. The only hope for all workers in the Middle East is to build an international communist movement of Arab and Jewish workers to unite with workers around the world to overthrow imperialist capitalism. Join the Progressive Labor Party as we fight for an egalitarian, communist world.
Prince George’s County, February 5–Another police murder of a Black man happened just as the Community Justice Coalition (CJC) in Prince George’s County, MD was holding a conference call about police brutality! 43-year-old William (Boo) Green was another slain victim of racist capitalism. Only a revolution against the whole damn profit system can begin to end such racism, since it is needed by capitalism to intimidate, control, and subject us all to intense exploitation. Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members participate in the CJC to help sharpen the struggle against racism and to bring more anti-racist fighters into the communist movement.
Racist killer cop Owen
Boo banged into some parked cars in Temple Hills, MD, and the police put him in handcuffs (behind his back) and strapped him into the front seat of a police cruiser. Then Cpl. Michael Owen, a Black cop, shot seven times, fatally striking him, demonstrating that all cops carry out racist attacks. This same pig had killed another Black Prince George’s County resident in 2011! The police chief, Henry Stawinksi, and his top cops huddled and put out the lie that Boo was on PCP, but once they saw that local residents had cell phone videos that showed no resistance by him, or erratic behavior, they realized they had to change their story. They charged pig Owen with 2nd degree murder, manslaughter, and weapons violations (Washington Post, 2/4/). We’ll see if there is truly any accountability for this racist murder.
Capitalist racism: little changes in 27 years
This incident was just like an earlier police murder that PLP fought against–Artie Elliott in 1993 was handcuffed behind his back in a police cruiser and then murdered in a hail of bullets from two cops. So little change, after two Department of Justice consent decrees with the county, and a parade of “reforming” police chiefs! It takes a revolution, not some bogus reform, to end such racist police behavior.
Emergency meetup in response to Boo’s murder
We held an emergency meeting via conference call to consider a course of action in response to Boo’s murder. It turns out that a leader of the CJC grew up with him, bringing home how police violence harms us all. Coalition members had lots of recommendations, from encouraging an uprising against the police state violence to a renewed circulation of our petition demanding the firing of Chief Stawinski. A PLP member recommended we take to the streets with a bullhorn rally near the site of the murder to swell the ranks of our modest organization.
At our follow up meeting, another case of racist police action came to us. In this case, cops with guns drawn burst into a Black couple’s home, failed to identify themselves, poked around the house while the wife told them to get out and that they had no right to search her house. The terror felt by her and her husband is a prime example of how routine aggressive racist behavior is intended to intimidate and control Black working class people, all in the service of helping capitalists achieve maximum profits through the exploitation of the working class as a whole.
The fightback will continue!
Bronx, January 20 –On Martin Luther King day (MLK day) the interfaith coalition joined with a Black church in the Bronx for the third year to emphasize the struggle aspect of MLK day. Antiracists workers in this mass organization, and members of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) packed the church’s basement with a multiracial crowd, young and old, eager to learn from our panel of experienced organizers. The presenters clearly described the racist horror of police killings nationally, the scandal of Columbia Presbyterian’s attempt to close the Allen Hospital Psychiatric service, the life and death need to expand mental health services, and the campaign to stop cops from being the first responders to calls for people in mental crisis.
Surely the future must hold an egalitarian, communist world with medical care, food, housing and all basic needs available equally to all. That’s when the working class runs all aspects of society. In the meantime we organize to fight back against the capitalists who are mainly concerned with profits.
Cops hail from slave system
How cops respond to people in mental crisis is a racist horror. The Washington Post and the The Guardian estimate that uniformed, armed cops kill roughly 1,000 victims annually. Almost half are Black, Latin, or Indigenous, and fully half are people suffering mental crisis. Weekly friends ask, “Why are cops allowed to administer this racist carnage?” Why are they “out of control?” We answer that they are, in fact, very much “in control!”From their origins in the slavery enforcing murder squads, police have always served the fundamental needs of the U.S. ruling class. Now more than ever racist intimidation is vital to forestall any multiracial rebellion that could threaten the critical need of the U.S. to militarize to counter the ascendancy of other international imperialists, principally China, that are moving to become the Top Dog Imperialist. Knowing that this process is leading to World War III, the capitalist rulers depend on racist cop forces to terrorize and control the working class domestically as these bosses mobilize to defend U.S. imperialism globally. These cops provide the front line warriors nationally to promote fascism at home.
As empowering as our speakers were, an important part of the program came at the end when PLP challenged our friends, new and old, to sign on to weekly activity. Twenty three agreed to work together to save and expand Allen Psych services and to barrage the New York City Council demanding hearings and legislation to stop cops as first responders to calls for people in mental crisis and to expand mental health services sufficiently to meet a critically growing need. This was an important albeit small victory of the day.
Of course, the most important victory will emerge as we share CHALLENGE, issue by issue, with our new coworkers and convince them to march on May Day with us, grow closer to the Progressive Labor Party with us, and build the world wide movement to smash death dealing imperialism finally with world wide communist revolution!
The working class in France is on the move, with a bold and militant transit strike that has lasted more than six weeks and enlisted strong support from workers throughout the country (Odaxa poll, 1/8). At its peak, the action involved more than a million workers, from electrical workers to ballet dancers. In a period of intensifying inter-imperialist rivalry and harsher repression by the capitalist bosses, spontaneous fightback and class struggle is also on the rise.
Behind its investment banker president, Emmanuel Macron, the declining French ruling class has aggressively attacked workers in France and its former colonies in Africa. As Progressive Labor Party has pointed out, inter-imperialist competition—chiefly among the U.S., China, Russia, and the European Union—will inevitably lead to world war, as the bloodthirsty bosses scramble to protect their profits. France, in particular, is a dying empire desperate to keep its iron grip on the workers it exploits. Only by building an international communist movement, led by PLP, can workers move forward in this period—to resist the capitalists, and then to conquer them with communist revolution.
Nationwide strike
Last December 5, transit workers in France walked out of work and triggered the longest labor strike in French history. Workers shut down buses, trains, and high-speed rail lines, costing the bosses millions in profits. The strike was sparked by Macron’s proposal to savage the country’s pension system, cutting the average pension by 30 percent while raising the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64. These vicious reforms would most punish workers who’d taken time off due to injury or to raise children. The French pension system, established in the 1940s, is relied upon by France’s elderly, who have the lowest rates of elder poverty in Europe.
The working class in France has a long history of fightback against the bosses, going back to the Paris Commune of 1871. But this revolutionary history and spirit has been undermined by divisions in the working class and racism toward African and Arab immigrants, who are segregated in impoverished and neglected suburbs of major cities.
The immigrants’ struggles for survival have been ignored by sell-out trade unions and fake-left political leaders (Atlantic, 2/26/19), despite a three-week uprising in 2005 and repeated fightbacks since. Without multiracial unity against racism and the bosses’ state, the current upheaval will be sorely limited, both for immediate impact and for longer-term, revolutionary change.
France’s imperialist conundrum
The French bosses’ profits are driven both by their exploitation of workers at home and their continued economic control over 14 former colonies in Central and West Africa, which provide a steady flow of cheap raw materials back to France. The former colonies are required to hold 50 percent of their foreign reserves in the French treasury, while French multinational firms retain rights to extract natural resources from the region.
To guarantee the continued flow of resources and profits, France has threatened to withdraw troops from Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Mauritania as they face increasing violence from Islamic nationalist fighters (New York Times, 1/12). At the same time, France is using its permanent military bases in Africa to train anti-Islamist militias that have carried out genocidal massacres (International Crisis Group, 3/25/19).
Meanwhile, China has increased its investments throughout the region to $38.4 billion in 2016, as compared to France’s $7.7 billion. And where China is investing heavily in infrastructure and economic development in Africa, France’s imports remain heavily concentrated in commodities.
Revolution v. reform
The current upheaval in France recalls the lessons learned from the even more massive rebellion in May 1968, which toppled a government (see PL Magazine,1968, www.plp.org/pl-magazine/selections). Months of strikes and student protests against U.S. and French slaughters in Vietnam and Algeria led to the bosses’ state terror against students, and then to a general strike. Despite mass militancy and revolutionary fervor, workers and students were sold out by the fake-left Communist Party of France, which misled them back to the bosses’ elections. The capitalists remained in power, and workers’ reform gains were ultimately reversed. Like Bernie Sanders and other social democratic reformers in the U.S., the French “Socialist” Party—which later elected two presidents and groomed Macron—helped lead the way to betray our class.
Workers can’t rely on liberal politicians or boss-controlled union leaders to protect them from the capitalists’ attacks. While Macron has been pushed into a partial retreat, both in France and in Africa, history shows that the working class can’t be fooled into believing that any imperialist rulers have their best interests at heart. Far from it!
The only way to smash worker exploitation is to build Progressive Labor Party and fight for communism against the global capitalist class. Join us! We have a world to win!
