As sharpening inter-imperialist rivalry leads to a worldwide crisis of capitalism, the bosses are trying to strangle the working class into paying for it. Over the next several issues of CHALLENGE, we will be writing about the various ways our class is under attack.
In the latest racist assault on Black workers in Chicago, the city is closing four high schools in Englewood, a Black neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. Robeson High School will be closed immediately, while the three others—Hope, Harper and TEAM—will be phased out.
Since 2000, 250,000 Black workers have been driven out of Chicago, a drop of 25 percent of the city’s Black population. In 2013, the city closed 50 elementary schools on the predominantly Black South and West sides. Since then, as abandonment and gentrification have continued to accelerate, 32,000 more Black children have left the public school system (Chicago Reporter, 12/19/17).
These attacks on Black working-class families are part of a racist push by the Chicago ruling class to shrink the city and make it wealthier and whiter. In both 2016 and 2017, Chicago was the only city of the largest ten in the country to lose population (Chicago Tribune, 3/22). Overall, the number of city residents has dropped from 2.9 million in 2000 to 2.7 million today.
The central feature of the Chicago bosses’ racist plan is to disperse Black and Latino workers from the city into low-service, high-poverty suburbs, while focusing large-scale development in the areas closest to downtown. “There are probably over 40 cranes currently operating primarily [near downtown]—very little in other parts of the city in the neighborhoods where working class residents live, particularly African-American and Latino communities” (Citylab 5/31/17).
Just as the capitalist system worldwide fails miserably to meet workers’ needs, the Chicago bosses are unable to provide even a basic standard of living and education for tens of thousands of local Black families. The only way out of this mess is to fight for a communist society that is run by and for the working class.
Bosses cut services to Black workers
Since the economic crisis of 2008-2010, when the bosses bailed out the banks and the real estate industry, the working class—and Black workers in particular—have paid the bill.
They closed neighborhood schools and mental health clinics; failed to rebuild public housing, dispersing thousands of poor black families across the region, and inadequately responded to … unemployment and foreclosures in Black communities…It’s a menu of disinvestment… The message that public policy sends to Black families in the city is that we’re not going to take care of you and if you just keep going away, that’s OK (Chicago Reporter 12/19/17).
It’s a brutal cycle: Racist unemployment and foreclosures drive families out of Black neighborhoods; neighborhood schools close for lack of enrollment; more families leave their destabilized communities. As a result, large areas of Englewood are now decimated:
So many homes have been demolished that some blocks are just fields of weeds. What’s left are side streets with wood frame homes, many of which are boarded up…the last decade and a half has been brutal. Not only did the housing crisis hit areas like this hard, but also the expansion of a massive rail yard swallowed up many of the homes...the school district’s policy of school closings …has contributed to population decline. In addition to Englewood High School, CPS has closed 14 [Englewood] area elementary schools over the past decade”(WBEZ News, 2/20).
The Chicago ruling class and their hit man, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama’s former chief of staff, are perpetuating a long history of attacks on Black workers. Even in the mid-20th century, when Chicago was a growing center of industry and finance, Black workers were forced into segregated, underserved neighborhoods.
Now U.S. capitalism is on the decline. As the U.S. ruling class and its imperialist rivals head toward more and bigger wars, decent-paying industrial jobs have been replaced by low-paying service jobs or no jobs at all. Chicago’s Black neighborhoods were “once teeming with manufacturing companies like Brach’s Candy and Western Electric. …If you go up to Cicero [Avenue], you see all these old factories. Well, they moved out and nobody moved in….What replaced them were vacant storefronts or churches” (Chicago Reporter, 3/29/16)
Today, the situation for Black workers in Chicago is desperate. Young Black men between 20 and 24 have an unemployment rate of 47 percent (DNAInfo, 5/26/17).
Bosses need more from real estate taxes
To keep profits and power, the Chicago bosses are chasing out the very workers whose parents and grandparents built the city. Rising residential real estate prices enable the city to generate tax revenues in an era of business tax breaks. In central city neighborhoods, high real estate prices are driving out working-class families while luring affluent people with the promise of elitist, segregated public schools. In neighborhoods further from downtown, like Englewood or Austin on the West Side, the bosses have chosen to chase people out rather than reinvest in deteriorating schools and municipal services.
In the 1970s, when industry began to leave Chicago, the local ruling class lost a big part of its tax base. Instead of cutting profits or reducing the interest payments the city owed the banks, the bosses stopped fixing the schools. “By the early 1990s, audits of school facilities found them to be in abominable condition. Parents protested holding fallen bricks from their children’s schools in hand….” Great Cities Institute 11/2016).
While the city issued $2.5 billion in school bonds to renovate aging buildings and construct new ones, much of the funding was designed to encourage real estate inflation and gentrification by “expand[ing] the number of ‘high performing’ schools: i.e., Montessori and gifted elementary schools and International Baccalaureate, magnet and selective enrollment high schools. As they were intended to reach a city-wide market, most of the selective enrollment high schools were centrally located” (Great Cities Institute 11/2016).
Many billions of dollars are needed to keep the South and West sides livable. Instead, the bosses are shutting schools and cutting services to chase people out. In crisis, the capitalist rulers will always treat the working class as a disposable commodity. Like every other city, Chicago will belong to the bosses until the working class seizes power and builds a communist society to serve the needs of our class.
MEXICO CITY—For May Day celebrations, the collective decided to organize a dinner for our friends and family members, many of whom who have participated with us in rallies, marches, and study groups, in order to invite them to join Progressive Labor Party and march with us on May Day.
The dinner
The dinner’s events were moderated by a comrade who has worked with us for less than a year, and who shows great interest in understanding and carrying out the Party’s line. We began by introducing everyone so that all were acknowledged and known. This system separates us such that knowing each other allows us to recognize that we all suffer the same exploitation, racism, and sexism.
A comrade then gave a brief report on the international situation in a communist context, which allowed us to discuss the national situation in the midst of elections.
The next talk was by a woman comrade who explained why from a class perspective electoral democracy did not represent the working class, and only becomes a trick to allow the national oligarchy to recycle itself and to make fascism legitimate national policy.
The next talk was by another woman comrade who recounted the origins of May Day, and how it has always served as the beacon for the working class to ensure it stays the course of class struggle.
Finally, another comrade discussed the line of our party, why we are organized in a communist party, why we struggle, how we organize, and what we struggle for. Everyone was invited to join us and march with us.
The event turned out to be very sociable and our ideas were well received, we were able to commit several attendees to agree to meet in study groups to better understand the line and the reality of the situation faced by the working class.
The march
Like every year, we met in front of the “Palacio de Bellas Artes” to have a rally at the meeting point of the few independent unions that still exist in the city. They no longer have the same influence due to the violence and the electoral climate in the country. We then withdrew to meet up with the various other collectives and march as a contingent. By 10 am, a collection of 40 PL’ers, family members, and sympathizers. We distributed 1,500 flyers.
We joined the march toward the Zocalo, our red flags high, with a banner and three megaphones that announced our presence. We exposed the disastrous effects of capitalism on the working class while laying out the connections between capitalists and politicians who serve one another to extract maximum profits from workers (see page 5). We sang communist the songs of Bella Ciao and the International and chanted our slogans.
We have a long way to go to build working-class unity. We will continue to raise consciousness and organize a mass movement of workers under the leadership of PLP.
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Gearing up for May Day with young workers
A few days before May Day, the Party collectives from Mexico City and Mexico State united in a celebration of the coming May Day. We had three dinners in different neighborhoods where the workers we are organizing, for a a communist revolution, live.
Around 60 people participated, we talked about the crisis, oppression, and the need for a party and communism. The main topics of discussion were the political climate with the current elections and the origins of May Day. Most of the attendees went on to march with us on May Day.
The meeting focused on the role played by Mexican politicians in obeying the capitalist class. Compared to other capitalist nations in the U.S.-aligned Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Mexico is one of the most corrupt and unequal with the Mexican political class earning salaries far higher than those earning minimum wages. The working class gets endlessly poorer as the basics such as fuel, among the most consumed products, become more expensive. On a daily basis it gets harder to receive basic health and social services since salaries are constantly getting cut.
We spoke about how the same politicians also own factories and are invested in the big industries, while their own family members profit and inherit wealth from the same. The negligence and nepotism by the political parties, the violent attacks against working class movements in the country, and the “structural reforms” that only serve the interests of the bosses all reflect the total lack of democracy for our class. We understand that the vote is a farce that only allows us to decide which party watches out for the interests of the competing imperialists.
We in the PLP in Mexico have deepened our understanding of communism by having discussions that develop consciousness and allow better understanding of how the capitalist system functions. We understand how the media are an instrument of capitalist manipulation, and that the electoral process is a form of control and merely an illusion for workers looking to better their condition. The political parties claim they are on the side of the working class despite their opulent lifestyles, and they use their bourgeois democracy to maintain their elite status while workers have no real say in how their society is run. We understand the political class are lying parasites, and voting for the lesser evil only breathes life into capitalism keeping it from being destroyed.
We live under a capitalist regime where constitutional instruments, like periodic elections, only serve the dominant class to elect which of their sectors will rule. Given the complete capitalist control from the get go over these elections through various instruments of manipulation (the media, academics, religion, and electoral justice system) it is clear the working class will remain in the same oppressed condition. The only difference is some bosses may be willing to offer us crumbs. Some politicians may be a servant for a competing ruler or imperialist.
In countries like Mexico, where economic inequality exists, and the dictatorship of capital gets bloodier by the day, elections only serve to manipulate and maintain control over the working classes by achieving the appearance of democracy.
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OAXACA: Communist May Day attacks dead-end electoral politics
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OAXACA—PLP members and friends marched along thousands of education workers, the fighting members of union Section 22. We waved our red flags, chanted, and carried a big banner that read:
!A Revolutionary Communist May Day, THE ELECTORAL CHARADE IS A BOSSES DICTATORSHIP, Destroy capitalism, Build Communism!
Comrades helped distribute 3,000 leaflets (see box below).
This great mobilization happened during the 72-hour strike by the Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE). There was massive participation of teachers from Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guerrero, Michoacán, Mexico City, Valley of Mexico, and many more.
The main demand is the repeal of the Education Reform, which ends labor and union rights, such as job security and retirement benefits.
Taking advantage of the electoral circus for president and senators, the CNTE is organizing for a national strike, looking forward to a general strike with other unions—Frente Único de Sindicatos Independientes & Organizaciones Nacionales, which is set to begin in the middle of May or June.
During this electoral process the working class is being bombarded by the media to elect their new oppressors in the capitalist imperialist class. Again, they want to impose a government loyal to the political and economic interests of the Trade Treaties and supported by the Structural Reforms.
On the other hand, we are pushing for class struggle, spreading our political line and getting more members who want a revolutionary communist change.
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It’s a bosses’ dictatorship
A version of this flyer was handed out on May Day
The upcoming election in Mexico is about which economic and political bourgeois group will keep the presidency. The candidates have been clear, that the economic model will not change in essence. The exploitation by the profit system will continue. In the electoral charade, the only ones who win are the capitalists. The workers lose when they fall for the capitalists’ game of ‘being a good democratic citizen’ legitimizing the bosses dictatorship and helping reproduce their governmental machinery.
Labor faker AMLO
The capitalists hope for a big voter turnout, especially those motivated by the dread of the extreme violence of president Enrique Peña Nieto’s government. The frontrunner for the July 1 election is Andrés Manuel López Obrador, nicknamed AMLO. According to El Nuevo Herald, he has an 85 percent of being elected as president.
He is the former mayor of Mexico City and framed as a “leftist.” His style is sometimes called Trumpian: a nationalist “Mexico first” agenda. He accuses other politicians of wielding their influence only for personal gain. He promises to make Mexico less dependent on foreign trade and pledges to reduce inequality.
However, he insists he will not pick out foreign companies and that fighting corruption will make Mexico more attractive to investors. David smilde, senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America, points out that when Obrador was mayor, he seemed “like a moderate progressive trying to work outside of Mexico’s traditional political class” (LA Times, 5/9).
Like other fake leftist politicians in Latin America, like Hugo Chavez in Venezuela or Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil, capitalism and its need for profits remain in power. There may be temporary measures to allay some of scourges of poverty, but as soon as profits fall so does the investment in the working class. Only if capitalism is actually overthrown and workers run society in our collective interest can we prevail.
While politicians are united in their interest to oppress the working class, they differ in which section of the national bosses and imperialist they pledge allegiance to.
López Obrador and members of his Morena party “have been vocal about expanding their trade partnerships with countries like China — a stance largely in line with the priorities of current Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto” (Politico, 1/7). This worries the U.S. imperialists.
Obrador’s “two main challengers are political moderates, but their rivalry is no less bitter for that. One [José Antonio Meade] is backed by the government. The other [Ricardo Anaya] is feeling heat from the federal prosecutor” (The Economist, 3/28).
No such thing as a good politician
We have to transform this social irritation into revolutionary consciousness to call on al sectors of the working class to change the system, into a system of social equality, communism.
The July 2018 election is held within the context of extreme social inequality: on one side, one of the most exploited and oppressed working class in the world and a multimillionaire capitalist class on the other. This capitalist system lets the bosses pay the lowest salaries in the world while making the workers work long hours. If the workers try to rebel, the “law” lets the bosses get away with violent repression and disappearances. This, no doubt, is a fascist dictatorship of the capitalists over the working class.
We know about fascism of the capitalist system in Mexico because of the high levels of violence we have to endure, the deaths, disappearances, and the displacement of hundreds of people. This is higher than that of the countries openly at war. We cannot talk of democratic elections with this conditions! The violence against women, specifically feminicides, grows at the same time as the labor conditions get worse.
Some sectors of the capitalist class in Mexico, as well as the world, like López Obrador for the presidency of Mexico, which might determine if he wins, even though some sectors do not like him, and will do anything to stop him. We think that the bourgeois might use violence before the elections to justify the use of repressive force to control the electoral process.
Increasing crisis worldwide
Capitalism is in crisis worldwide as World War III looms between Europe, Russia, Chin, and the U.S. Inter-imperialist rivalries are worsening living conditions for workers as local politicians align with one world ruler’s interests or another. In Mexico, all the candidates are moved by the power strings of the imperialists and the local bourgeoisie.
None of the candidates proposes anything other than capitalist exploitation and imperialist war, their program does not represent the millions of dispossessed. The working class has but one way to change things, organize around working-class democracy: democratic centralism. Democratic centralism is when we can discuss, openly, the political and organizational decisions to change the capitalist system of exploitation. Then, we carry it out the decision to the best of our ability before evaluating.
We have to build study and action groups in all schools, factories, and communities, so we can study reality and consciously transform society. Democratic Centralism promotes self-criticism and criticism to make us better communists.
We call on all workers to join PLP, a communist party that rejects elections! With PLP we will smash capitalism and replace it with communist society!
EAST AFRICA—Throughout cities and rural areas, PLP members united 650 teachers, students, parents, and workers to celebrate May Day in solidarity with working people around the world.
At these events, we discussed the fascist government crackdowns and the attacks on students’ education and teachers’ working conditions. We also discussed the need for communism and how it was different from the socialism of the 20th century.
University students in one meeting reported feeling deeply satisfied, saying it was the first time they had ever participated in this type of “strong discussion.” They were inspired that the college students and everyday workers were meeting together to discuss these issues on an equal basis.
The fascist conditions throughout the region require our members to organize with skill and cunning and to have profound confidence in our base of friends.
A big red salute to our courageous and resourceful comrades in East Africa for confronting the fascist onslaught and bringing this historical holiday and its vision of workers’ power to our class.
HAITI—While a small number of organizations and unions are aware of what May Day, International Workers Day means, a larger number buy into the bourgeois propaganda of the “festival of work and agriculture.” Thus, in order to build for revolution, we must still fight to build working class-consciousness. That’s the job of our Party, the Progressive Labor Party.
This May Day, PLP continued to draw lessons and build class consciousness based on the history of struggles that workers and students have been involved in, starting with the history of May Day. It was interesting for some, disappointing for others. But it was enriching for our Party, given the contradictions that emerged.
Rural workers, young and old, and members of women’s organizations joined us in solidarity. We had planned with our comrades to present a history of workers’ struggles in order to reinforce the idea of working-class unity in changing, in fact, transforming society.
We also wanted an opportunity to think about the situations that workers face today, especially here in Haiti. There has been a wave of arbitrary firings, repression and sexism in various work sites,. This is combined with below-poverty rate salaries, an ever growing rate of unemployment, and forced migration to countries like Brazil and Chili, where there is a need for low-wage workers.
Unfortunately, despite our efforts, some people were still blinded by the bosses’ lies, and fell into the trap of believing May Day to be a festival. Some participated in the bosses’ celebration of Haitian cooking—mainly for the rich and powerful locals and imperialist bloodsuckers in the capital.
The bosses’ festival provoked a discussion among our friends and comrades about what is the underlying politics of workers’ struggles. It was communist leader Vladimir Lenin who said that there is no revolutionary struggle without revolutionary consciousness. And for us, that means that revolutionary consciousness must be built in our struggles, in the contradictions that we face, and through criticism and self-criticism. Our Party in Haiti is growing in quality with each experience we gain in struggle.
On the other hand, in the evening we met for a dinner-debate with some of our friends, some of whom work in the public sector. We reviewed the experience of the day and evaluated it together. This allowed us to see that, despite the seeming strength of bosses, the workers we are beginning to understand the fight that we need to wage in the coming period.
One person expressed it in these terms: “Finally, I understand what we need to fight for and I agree with you in favor of revolution.”
This evening was an opportunity for our comrades to see how we have begun to inspire confidence in the masses, although we still have a long way to go in order for more workers to understand our line and lead the fight for communist revolution.
PLP is building revolutionary class consciousness wherever we are. We fight to annihilate capitalism in all its forms. Join us to build a new world without exploitation, racism, sexism, and slavery.
