In a period of escalating inter-imperialist competition and declining U.S. presidential support, the capitalists will seize every opportunity to use tragedies such as mass shootings for their own purposes. On October 1, a gunman opened fire on a large crowd of concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival on the Las Vegas strip, killing 58 people and injuring 489 others. The brutality of capitalism is able to take this tragedy and use it to ramp up support for the police force and increased fascism.
The police have been heralded as heroes of the night and calls for increasing their presence at large events is now abundant. The ruling class has jumped on this opportunity for rising fascism: more searches, SWAT special reaction team sharpshooters in place at large events, and increased calls for a “see something, say something” atmosphere. The capitalist system is what workers really need to “say something” about.   
Innate Bruality of Capitalism
The shooter, 64 year-old Stephen Paddock, a white male, was described by the media as a retiree living a quiet life who liked country music and gambling. This is the racism of the system and its media bursting from the seams. Anytime an act such as this is committed by another “race,” the story is very different. Blame is placed on an entire “race” or religion and great lengths are taken to dehumanize the person.
In reality, although no proof has emerged of a political or religious affiliation that drove the ideology of this unthinkable act, capitalism creates monsters every day. In the hotel where Paddock eventually took his own life, police found 23 weapons, including 12 rifles with “bump stocks” which allows it to serve as an automatic weapon. In his home, another 19 weapons were found along with explosives and several thousand rounds of ammunition (CNN.com, 10/5). Only under this system of extreme alienation and isolation could an otherwise “regular guy” rationalize an action this heinous against his class brothers and sisters.
You wouldn’t know it by the amount of coverage, but this is not the only recent mass shooting. There have been 273 mass shootings this year alone (Business Insider, 10/2). Capitalism and imperialism are inherently violent. It is no wonder that the top imperialist country in the world would have a culture of violence, from movies to video games to rampant gun ownership. The U.S. working class is disaffected, insulated and living in a constant state of fear—fear of losing their jobs, healthcare, homes and more. This is all a tinder box for reactionary acts like the one committed by Paddock.
While this single incident may be the deadliest mass shooting in “modern” U.S. history, it pales in comparison to the over 1,000 mostly Black, indigenous and Latin workers murdered by the police every year in this country (The Counted, the Guardian). Not to mention that the genocide of Native workers is conveniently left out of U.S. “modern” history. This is compounded by the fact that the U.S. ruling class commits genocide on a daily basis all around the world, especially in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. In March this year alone, U.S.-led coalition air strikes killed 1,484 civilians in Iraq and Syria (Newsweek, 3/31).
Altruism is in Nature
As in all crises created by capitalism, we get to see the true nature of our class. Even though the isolation and dehumanization of this rotten system creates people like Paddock, the working class is resilient. Whether a hurricane hits or a shooter takes aim into a crowd, we have seen time and again the inherent collectivity of our class. In the face of death, workers ran back into the danger zone to administer first aid or pull others out. There are countless stories of workers risking their lives for other workers.
As the working class, our humanity is directly tied to one another. We have nothing to lose but our chains. One day our class will rid the Earth of this violent system. We will create a society where everyone’s worth is valued. Our natural sense of collectivity will not only be allowed out during a crisis, but will blossom in our everyday lives. Fight for communism.

MEXICO CITY, October —The hundreds killed in the earthquakes in Mexico show that capitalism is deadly.
The U.S. Geological Survey predicts as many as 1,000 died in the earthquakes of September 7 and 19 in Mexico. Countless are injured or homeless, and two thousand schools are damaged. Natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes are inevitable, yet when people’s safety is a priority preventive measures can be taken. But under capitalism profits are more important than workers lives.
The earthquakes have affected several states, Morelos and Puebla as well as the Istmo de Tehuantepec in Oaxaca. These are some of the most marginalized communities of indigenous population, who have endured years of oppression and misery. They have suffered social inequality, state violence, corruption and racism. Cities like Juchitán in Oaxaca and Jojutla in Morelos look like war zones due to the devastation. The solidarity of the working-class community is a big contrast to the lack of help from the government. The rebel teachers from the Sección 22 in Oaxaca have been organizing in support of the affected communities.
Under Capitalism, Workers’ Lives Don’t Matter   
In Mexico City, many men and women workers have been killed. They worked under unsafe conditions, just like the earthquake in 1985. Many more are victims of the building contractors who, in order to maximize their profits, use cheap materials in their constructions. One case in point is Colegio Rebsamen, where the administration is, not only  guilty of bad education, but allowed dangerous conditions for its students by colluding with the constructors to endorse the school building. In Xochimilco, in the marginalized zone of San Gregorio, many families lost their homes because of the precariousness of the construction.
These tragedies are examples of how this murderous system works: workers’ lives do not matter. The capitalists’ never-ending drive for profit leads them to create cities in risk zones regardless of the danger, like in Mexico City, where floods and earthquakes destroy the fragile homes of thousands of workers, and their lives. Contamination and stress destroy thousands of lives and leaves hundreds of thousands with a bad quality of life. Capitalism doesn’t worry about having a system to prevent these occurrences, with alarms, secure constructions or a culture of prevention.
Salute to Young Leadership  
The capitalists and their governments can’t fix the tragedy, only workers’ solidarity has saved lives and embraced those left with nothing. The government intervened just to control the organization and solidarity of the working class. The youth have been at the forefront, they know that this system has given them nothing. The marines, army and police have taken control of certain disaster areas, to which volunteers have resisted, but because there was no organized fight back, they weren’t able to stop the government from coming into these areas. The working class has to organize themselves in order to smash this lethal system, no electoral party will do it.
Progressive Labor Party celebrates the thousands of youth who have mobilized to help, it shows the working class potential for social change, even with the whole capitalist system against us. The transformation of the capitalist system can only be realized if we organize a Party that will destroy it and its parasite multimillionaire elite class once and for all. The youth of Mexico are considered the industrial army reserved to fill in the jobs and fight in their wars. They have tried to present them as worthless, interested only on the superfluous, they call them “ninis” (they do not work, don’t go to school…) or “millennial’,” these are racist and anti-working-class insults, which try to hide the fact that capitalism has nothing to offer these youth.
The bosses are also coopting working-class collectivity for their nationalist purposes, turning a good thing into a bad thing. It is on the basis of human need, rather than nationality and ethnicity, that prompted the working class in Mexico to show solidarity and save lives. Nationalism remains a deadly path that seeks to sever our class.
Capitalism Is Not Forever
Capitalism will not last forever, the working class will rise and change this murdering system. We can turn the terror of the earthquake into hope for the future. A future free of oppression, death, profit, and criminal negligence. That is the message that comrades of PLP have been spreading amongst our friends in the support brigades we have participated. Our challenge is to transform the potential of the spontaneous solidarity among workers, into the reality of the power of a permanent organization for communism.

The Star-Spangled Banner and the American flag are symbols of racism, but they also represent the never-ending wars and mass destruction of U.S. imperialism. When Colin Kaepernick first ‘took the knee’ during a National Football League (NFL) game last August, he was specifically protesting the racist police killings of Black people. “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color…this is bigger than football and it would be selfish … to look the other way. There are bodies in the street…and people… getting away with murder.”
But Kaepernick went further: “a system that perpetually condones the killing of people, without consequence, doesn’t need to be revised, it needs to be dismantled!”
As the U.S. rulers move ever closer to world war with it’s imperialist rivals, China and Russia, we must once again remember those cries from the young Black rebels from Ferguson. “The whole damn system has to go.” In the Progressive Labor Party, that means organizing millions of workers to build a multiracial, revolutionary movement to not only ‘dismantle’ this capitalist system, but also replace it with communism, an egalitarian society that fights to eliminate racism and sexism forever.
NFL Owners Promote Racist Patriotism and Imperialism
The NFL is a huge, profit making, mega corporation run by billionaire owners. As they lie about free speech, they have conspired to ban Kaepernick from football, hiring many lesser quarterbacks. Yet, when Army and Navy ‘honor guards’ paraded during halftime ‘shows’ the NFL was paid by the Army and Navy. As Air Force jets performed aerial shows during halftimes, the NFL collected their ‘patriotism’ money from the Air Force. Free speech is not free. It’s bought and paid for.
And the NFL is perfectly suited to promote this militaristic patriotism. You start with the Star Spangled Banner, written by a pro slavery racist, and originally attacking and degrading slaves fighting for their freedom (TheRoot, 7/7). As Edward Curtin says, it “is a celebration of war, meant to stir martial emotions.  And football is the war sport par excellence, extremely violent.... In the 1960s, Brazilian television, in an effort to distinguish football (soccer) from American football, aptly termed it “military football.” (Counterpunch, 9/27).
Build a Mass
Anti-Racist Movement
As more athletes start protesting, questions arise. How to fight racism? Trump wants all kneelers fired. LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers basketball superstar, called him a bum. Many cheered. But when Cleveland cops killed Tamir Rice and were acquitted, James said nothing. “I don’t have enough knowledge about it.” Some owners are trying to coopt the movement. They are ‘joining’ their players in a show of ‘unity.’ Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, a million dollar Trump supporter, exemplified this phony unity. He linked arms with the players and kneeled for a few seconds before the anthem was played, then they stood up. That’s no protest at all. Shortly after he announced that players who did not stand would not play. In the PLP we fight for a revolution and an egalitarian, communist world. We welcome people who hate Trump, as we encourage them to join us in the fight for communism. We welcome people who hate racism, but want to ‘improve our democracy,’ even though we think this ‘democracy’ is completely phony. We don’t welcome the racist, billionaire NFL owners.
There is a history of athletes fighting back. The communist Paul Robeson was a militant fighter against racism. The bosses blacklisted him and took away his passport, so he could not perform in Europe. Sprinters Tommy Lee and John Carlos raised their fists on the medal stand at the 1968 Mexico Olympics. They were vilified, sent home, thrown off the U.S. team, received death threats and had their medals taken away. Muhammad Ali famously said that “no Vietnamese ever called me a ni**er” as he refused to go fight in the Vietnam War. The Government tried to jail him. These athletes, like Karpernick, fought back and paid a price. More must take a stand until we are millions and bringing forth an egalitarian, communist world. Join us!

As the Myanmar military continues its genocidal onslaught—murdering children, raping women, torching whole villages—against the Rohingya people, the U.S. rulers’ media have focused on religious differences in this small country in Southeast Asia. In reality, the mass atrocities and displacement in Myanmar are products of capitalist greed and inter-imperialist rivalry. U.S., Chinese, and local bosses are vying for control over rich reserves of oil and natural gas in Rakhine state, the Rohingyas’ home. Even more critically, U.S. bosses are exploiting the plight of Myanmar’s Muslim minority in a desperate effort to check China’s rise as the dominant power in Asia—and beyond.
China’s “Malacca Dilemma”
China’s ambitious One Belt One Road (also known as the New Silk Road) aims to control Eurasia and East Africa through a land- and sea-based trading network. This multi-trillion-dollar project would create roads, ports, and railroads through Central and South Asia, enhancing China’s access to Middle Eastern and European markets (see CHALLENGE, 3/9/16).
One of six OBOR corridors would connect China to India via Myanmar and Bangladesh. Moreover, Myanmar is “a vital cog in China’s strategy…to avoid its Malacca dilemma” (Huffington Post, 9/23).  At present, 25 percent of the world’s oil—and most of China’s energy supply—is transported through the Malacca Strait, a chokepoint between the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
To reduce their vulnerability, guarantee that oil imports from Saudi Arabia flow freely, and strengthen their military foothold in the region, the Chinese bosses established the $10 billion Sino-Myanmar pipeline, connecting the Bay of Bengal to China’s landlocked Yunnan province (Stratfor, 9/14). China is also building a deep-water port in Rakhine at Kyaukphyu, which “will give China highly prized access to the Indian Ocean” (New York Times, 7/20) and is “expected to contribute huge profits to Chinese business conglomerates such as Citic Group” (Huffington Post, 9/23).
As U.S. President Donald Trump neglects to follow up Barack Obama’s overtures to the newly “democratic” Myanmar, now led by genocide apologist (and Nobel Peace Prize winner) Aung San Suu Kyi, China is exerting more power in its backyard:
Across Southeast Asia, China is energetically bringing nations into its orbit, wooing American friends and allies with military hardware, infrastructure deals and diplomatic attention…Once completed, ‘Kyaukpyu will be a Chinese naval base,’ said Mr. Maung Aung Myoe, the military analyst. ‘China desperately needs access on the eastern side of the Indian Ocean.’ China is already building Indian Ocean ports in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and it is seeking approval for one in Bangladesh (NYT, 7/20).
Instability in Rakhine is a problem for Chinese imperialists:
China has a particular interest in pressing the Arakan rebels to the peace table.…Keeping Rakhine free of unrest may have also been a factor in China’s blocking the United Nations from issuing a statement on the allegations of atrocities committed by Myanmar’s army there (NYT, 7/20).   
But for U.S. imperialists, ethnic cleansing in Rakhine could be a pretext for potential military intervention in the region.  Under the smokescreen of “human rights,” the U.S. hopes to destabilize Myanmar and thwart China’s looming regional supremacy:
“[T]he generals at the Pentagon see the [Myanmar corridor] as an enemy supply line. With the U.S. flexing its military muscle in the South China Sea….
[p]lacing Rakhine state under US/NATO protection would be an obvious way to sabotage this project” (Global Research, 9/15).
This is why the Rohingya crisis is getting so much media attention in the West.  While the U.S. imperialists ignore the killing of Yemeni workers by their oil-soaked allies in Saudi Arabia, they cry crocodile tears for the Rohingya. The criminal wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria should teach us to be wary whenever the mass-murdering U.S. bosses voice their concern.
Myanmar: This is What Capitalism Looks Like
With a poverty rate of 37.5 percent, Myanmar is one of the poorest countries in Asia; in Rakhine, the poverty rate is 78 percent (CFR, 9/13). The country has the lowest life expectancy in Southeast Asia and the second highest rate of infant and child mortality (World Bank, 2014).
To keep workers from organizing to overthrow this failed capitalist system, the bosses drown them in religion and nationalism. In Myanmar, Buddhists represent 87 percent of the population. Buddhist rulers have persecuted the mostly Muslim Rohingya people for centuries. Since the military takeover in 1962, the government has excluded the Rohingyas from citizenship. They need official permission to marry and have limited access to education, jobs, and residency. In some parts of the country they can only have two children (CFR, 9/13). These restrictions resemble the racist laws imposed by the Nazis against Jewish people in Germany.
Attempts by the Rohingya people to fight back have met with little success, due both to their limited numbers and weak political line. The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), funded by bosses in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan (International Crisis Group 12/15/16), is driven by nationalist politics. After ARSA’s recent attacks on government buildings, the ruthless Myanmar government responded  by killing thousands and forcing nearly half a million (including 240,000 children) to leave the country. Aung San Suu Kyi defends these atrocities under the guise of “national security.”  
Meanwhile, her administration acknowledged that it will manage the redevelopment of the razed villages, a potential goldmine for local capitalists. The government plan “is likely to raise concern about prospects for the return of the 480,000 refugees, and compound fears of ethnic cleansing” (Reuters, 9/27).
Long Fight Ahead
There are many lessons to be learned from the tragic developments in Myanmar. One in particular is the role played by the big imperialists in a seemingly “internal” affair. Whenever the bosses’ media pay close attention to crimes against workers, a little digging will reveal the rulers’ economic and political interests—which are never to serve the working class. Only a communist revolution, led by Progressive Labor Party, can smash the murderous profit system and end racist genocide for all time. Join us!