Cuba: international solidarity with working class in Gaza

Thousands of people gathered as part of World Day in solidarity with the Palestinian people, so that another genocide is not committed, this time in the city of Rafah. The event in Havana, Cuba, where I am spending a few days with my family, was an anti-imperialist tribune, in front of the embassy of the North American government, attended especially by young people. During the protest event, young representatives from different sectors of the country spoke, including workers' unions and several young Palestinians studying at the international medical school. Their broken voices narrated all the pain and suffering of their people who have been carrying on for more than 75 years fighting against Zionism and Israeli apartheid in the occupied territories. Their families have had to unite and leave everything behind.

All voices agreed in a unanimous condemnation of the Zionist government of Israel for the genocide committed against the heroic Palestinian people. This occasion has cost, in a few months of bombing, the lives of more than 30,000 innocent civilians, including more than 19,000 lives of children.

Different slogans were shouted, including the now famous one, “FREE, FREE PALESTINA!” 

​Transit workers say bosses’ attacks mean fight back!

After the recent attack on New York City Transit Conductor Alton Scott, city transit workers took a brave stand against the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) bosses. They filled out safety forms and refused to operate their trains, causing mass service disruptions on several subway lines for a day! Workers were and are fed up with the bosses’ failed solutions to protect them and for a moment in time realized that withholding their labor is part of the solution! The action has the bosses in full attack mode, with Governor Kathy Hochul announcing plans for 1,000 members of the state police and National Guard to patrol the subway in response. When capitalism is in crisis and the ruling class has no real answer to the racist unemployment, lack of housing, mental health, and drug addiction ailments their system creates. Instead they are  ratcheting up their attacks on workers, specifically Black and Latin workers. These actions don’t serve to keep riders safe but instead foster an environment of fear and unwillingness to fight back. 

Capitalist media tells us day in and day out that the only way to solve these anti-social behaviors in the working class comes through their fascist Klansmen in Blue, complemented by their cousins in the fascist military. This is the same National Guard that has no qualms about taking in  proud card-carrying Neo-Nazis in their ranks! While he forces cuts on the city’s critical social services, liberal Mayor Eric Adams funds the New York Police Department to the tune of $11 billion, the largest police budget in the country. It’s the same cycle: after another of these attacks, more cops flood the trains, yet the attacks continue. Now military forces stand armed with rifles outside Grand Central as a show of the ruling class’s power, while impoverished families struggle to pay their rent and put food on the table. 

Meanwhile, racist Adams blames these cuts on migrant workers escaping U.S. imperialism’s clutches, despite his city council projecting the city to take in an additional $1 billion more than expected for the fiscal year! MTA workers and riders have nothing to gain when looking to these stooges for protection. 

The Progressive Labor Party knows only the working class can put a permanent end to worker-on-worker assaults. Join us in the fight for not just a safer subway system, but a world where workers can be safe once and for all: a communist world.

Yes, Haitian President Aristide was deposed by CIA

The Grayzone, 3/1—A spectacular jailbreak in Gonaïves, Haiti in August 2002 saw a bulldozer smash through the local prison walls, allowing armed supporters of Amiot “Cubain” Métayer, a gang leader jailed weeks earlier for harassing Haitian political figures, to overrun the facility. Métayer escaped, as did 158 other prisoners. Among them were perpetrators of the April 1994 Raboteau massacre, which left dozens of Haitians dead and displaced. The victims were supporters of popular anti-imperial President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Documents released… reveal that the jailbreak was part of a complex US intelligence operation, aimed at undermining Aristide’s presidency. At the heart of this operation was Janice L. Elmore, a CIA operative working undercover as a Department of State “Political Officer” in the Port-au-Prince US Embassy at the time.
The breakout set in motion a violent regime change campaign, which ultimately ousted Aristide from office on February 29, 2004. After being deposed and flown to South Africa, Aristide claimed to have been “kidnapped” by US forces and directly accused Washington of orchestrating the plot. 

French capitalists benefit from war In Ukraine

France24, 3/11–Ukraine has become the world's fourth-largest arms importer, while France has replaced Russia as the world's second-largest exporter behind the United States. Arms imports to Europe rose by 94 percent in 2019-2023, compared to the preceding five-year period, while overall global arms transfers decreased slightly, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)...The increase is "partially explained by the war in Ukraine, and Ukraine has become the fourth largest importer of arms in the world in the last five years"...in the 2019-2023 period, 55 percent of imports to Europe were from the US, up from 35 percent in the 2014-2018 period…While Russia's exports declined, France saw its own grow by 47 percent, thereby narrowly edging out Russia to become the world's second-largest exporter.

Being “anticapitalist" may lead to FBI investigation

The Intercept, 3/7–Aaron Bushnell’s death by self-immolation in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington last month has provoked nationwide soul-searching about the war in Gaza. For the U.S. government though, the airman’s death excites a different kind of search: for so-called extremists, particularly left-wing ones. Last Wednesday, Sen. Tom Cotton…sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin asking why and how the Pentagon could tolerate an airman like Bushnell in its ranks. Calling his death “an act of horrific violence” that was “in support of a terrorist group [Hamas]”...Bushnell’s posts on Reddit and other social media platforms before his death reflected this embrace of anarchism…the FBI maintains a program specifically for combating anarchists, called the Anarchist Extremism Program…An internal FBI threat advisory obtained by The Intercept defines Anarchist Violent Extremists as individuals “who consider capitalism and centralized government to be unnecessary and oppressive,” and “oppose economic globalization; political, economic, and social hierarchies based on class, religion, race, gender, or private ownership of capital; and external forms of authority represented by centralized government, the military, and law enforcement.”

Military bloc forming in challenge to U.S.-dominated NATO

Barron’s, 3/11–The navies of China, Russia, and Iran are staging joint drills in the Gulf of Oman this week, Beijing said Monday. The military activities -- to be conducted from Monday through Friday -- are aimed at "jointly maintaining regional maritime security", according to a statement published on the social media platform WeChat by China's defense ministry. "China will send... guided-missile destroyer Urumqi, guided-missile frigate Linyi, and comprehensive supply ship Dongpinghu to participate in the exercise," the statement added, without providing further details…This year's round of joint exercises coincides with soaring tensions in the region as the war in Gaza rages and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have launched a flurry of attacks on ships in the Red Sea. Russian state media reported that a detachment of ships from the country's Pacific Fleet, led by the Varyag cruiser, arrived at the Iranian port of Chah Bahar on Monday ahead of the drills.

Following the February 8 general election in Pakistan, thousands of workers across the country have shut down highways, picketed government buildings, and united in workplace strikes. The country’s capitalist bosses have responded by unleashing riot police with tear gas to beat protestors and conduct mass arrests.

Millions of workers and youth are enraged with the election’s outcome, which saw jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Party candidates sidelined amid widespread allegations of fraud and vote rigging (Guardian, 2/17). The wrath of these workers is rooted in profound economic misery that has only intensified in recent years. Workers are caught in the crossfire between an increasingly divided Pakistani ruling class and the vice-like grip of competing U.S. and Chinese imperialists. The international communist Progressive Labor Party calls on the working class of Pakistan and around the world to reject the bosses’ schemes to make us choose sides between competing factions of racist, nationalist exploiters. Our only way forward—our only way out of crushing poverty and genocidal imperialist wars—is to build the revolutionary struggle for a borderless and egalitarian communist society, under the leadership of a mass PLP.

Workers in Pakistan bled dry by inter-imperialist rivalry
Strategically situated in South Asia, with a population of over 200 million and armed with nuclear weapons, Pakistan has long been a focus of interest for rival imperialist blocs. In 2001, after the attacks of 9/11, as U.S.-NATO forces invaded neighboring Afghanistan, the U.S. bosses pressured Pakistan’s rulers into a military alliance against the Taliban. The consequences of the ensuing twenty-year occupation were staggering: more than 70,000 lives lost, $150 billion in debt, and a deadly surge in clashing insurgent groups (Time, 5/29/22).

The crushing debt made the Pakistani bosses even more reliant on loans to stay afloat, a crisis that the predatory U.S.-led International Monetary Fund (IMF) was happy to exploit. To qualify for the latest IMF bailout, Pakistan’s ruling class turned the screws even tighter against workers by raising fuel and electricity prices, triggering widespread protests in major cities (Reuters, 1/11).

Over the past decade, meanwhile, the Chinese imperialists have positioned themselves as an alternative source of loans to Pakistan, investing tens of billions of dollars. In the process, China has incorporated Pakistan into their transcontinental infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Under the guise of “development,” the Chinese bosses gained critical access to Gwadar Port and the Indian Ocean beyond, skirting other transit routes patrolled by the U.S. (Wilson Center, 10/20/20).

In reality, the flood of Chinese investment across Pakistan has created even more exploitation and poverty. In the resource-rich province of Balochistan, workers have protested against Chinese fishing boats that dominate local waterways and increase local unemployment (The Diplomat, 5/29/22). What’s more, as the troubled Chinese economy contracts, more infrastructure projects across Pakistan are stalling. With China less willing to forgive their billions in loans, Pakistan’s economy is in freefall (South Asian Voices, 3/22/23). Workers across the country are certain to bear the brunt of this imperialist disaster.

Local bosses crank up fascist discipline
Much of the chaos now rocking Pakistan is driven by a split within the Pakistani ruling class on whether to side with U.S. imperialism or rival Chinese or Russian imperialists. In a country where the military has long dominated the economy for its own profit, this instability is nothing new. Since Pakistan’s formation in 1947, no prime minister has completed a full five-year term (Al Jazeera, 2/12).
In April 2022, after populist misleader Imran Khan took a neutral stance on the Russian imperialists’ invasion of Ukraine, he was attacked with a no-confidence vote in parliament and ousted from office. Leaked cables later showed that U.S. diplomats had threatened economic and political consequences if Khan remained in power. Once he was out of the picture, weapons sales ticked up from Pakistan to the U.S.-backed Ukrainian military (The Intercept, 8/9/23).

The latest election fiasco reflects a period of rising fascism in Pakistan. The old guard bosses, represented by pro-U.S. political parties, are openly disciplining Khan and his China-leaning capitalist backers. Although the PTI won the most seats in the election, the rival Pakistan Muslim League and Pakistan People’s Party have joined to form a majority coalition government and guarantee that pro-U.S. forces will hold the reins—at least for now (BBC, 2/20).

The allegations of corruption and collusion aside, workers everywhere must see that Khan—or any other capitalist politician—is no answer for the needs of our class. Despite throwing a few crumbs out to workers, Khan did nothing to stem the country's skyrocketing inflation and unemployment, nor did he challenge the imperialists and their rapacious financial institutions (Stratheia, 8/23/23). Rather than mobilize behind our oppressors, workers must redirect our anger at the capitalist system itself and unite as a class to overthrow it.

Glimmers of fightback point to communist future
Workers across Pakistan have demonstrated a strong fightback culture that can inspire our class and our communist future. In the summer of 2022, unprecedented flooding devastated the country. As thousands were killed and more than thirty million displaced, workers took rescue actions into their own hands and saved many lives. Despite limited resources, comrades from PLP helped lead some of these efforts to set up medical camps and distribute food and tents while pointing out the failure of the capitalist bosses and their system (see CHALLENGE, 9/21/22). 
In October, 2023, when the racist bosses enacted a ruthless policy to expel over one million refugees from Afghanistan back to that country and to militarize the border, workers of different ethnic backgrounds came together to organize a months-long sit-in to pressure the government to back down (Times of India, 12/25/23).

These courageous actions are only a glimmer of the potential of what the working class can achieve when we unite and organize in our common interest. In a volatile world on a crash course to the next world war, our future survival hinges on our ability to weave these threads of fightback into a mass international movement for communism. Workers of the world, unite! Join PLP!