“The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class shall represent and repress them.”
— Karl Marx
The U.S. capitalist class’ media mouthpieces and think tanks have been on overdrive with the narrative that this is not a “normal” election year (New York Times, 9/24/16) or even that “this is the most important election since 1932” (Brookings, 12/18/15). This election finds the U.S. ruling class in volatile condition, with their imperialist power declining relative to growing Russian and Chinese imperialism. For the international working class, however, this election is important for another reason: the U.S. bosses are betting on Hillary Clinton’s “pragmatism” (NYT) to unite the U.S. working class behind the embattled flag of U.S. imperialism.
A lopsided majority of the boss-owned media supports Clinton, and openly labels Trump a racist. The U.S. bosses are well aware that bigger imperialist wars are looming. They cannot afford rebellions like Ferguson, Baltimore, Baton Rouge, and Charlotte. Meanwhile, Clinton, a “progressive,” campaigns on a slogan for U.S. working-class and ruling-class unity: “Stronger Together.”
There is nothing progressive about Hillary Clinton’s long service to U.S. imperialism’s racist, sexist, and genocidal reign of international terror. Progressive workers should join the international revolutionary communist Progressive Labor Party, and smash the imperialist system Clinton and Trump serve!
Trump Talks, Clinton Kills
The bosses contrast Clinton with the media frenzy over Trump’s more open racism, sexism, and his cartoonish behavior every time he’s near a microphone. Millions of workers rightfully shudder at Trump’s loyal core of fascist KKK and neo-Nazi supporters. His vague, Nazi-style policies include expanding racist “stop and frisk” policing nationwide, along with carpet bombing [ISIS] into oblivion” (Chicago Tribune, 12/16/15).
Clinton’s credentials as an imperialist murderer go far beyond idiot Trump’s. Her apprenticeship as a mass murderer began in her White House days in the 1990s at the side of her mentor, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Albright orchestrated the starvation of 500,000 Iraqi children and famously said their deaths were “worth it.” Albright was carrying out the orders of Bill Clinton, who, “On October 31, 1998… signed the Iraq Liberation Act that made it official US policy to support ‘regime change’ in Iraq” (Huffington Post 2/5).
Between sanctions, air strikes and “no-fly zones,” the Clintons continued the destruction of the first Iraq war through the 1990s while turning their attention to the Balkans and the
1999 Kosovo War, in which Bill Clinton called in NATO to bomb Belgrade, in the heart of Europe, and unleashing a decade of misery in the Balkans. Hillary, traveling in Africa, called Bill: “I urged him to bomb,” she told reporter Lucinda Frank (Huffington Post 2/5).
The Kosovo war was preceded by a propaganda campaign of disinformation to the international working class, declaring the need for a “humanitarian bombing” campaign for the Serbians. Again Albright is quoted as saying, “They [the Serbs] need bombing, and that’s what they’re going to get” (CounterPunch, 5/3/16). This disinformation campaign was useful practice for the U.S. bosses for their 2003 invasion of Iraq under George W. Bush.
Elected a Senator representing New York in 2002, Clinton’s most famous act was to vote for the Bush administration to invade Iraq. Ironically, in trying to defend her support for the war as it clearly became a disaster, and place blame on Bush, Clinton revealed that she actually never believed that there were any weapons of mass destruction there.
“The consensus [on weapons of mass destruction] was the same, from the Clinton administration to the Bush administration,” she said. “It was the same intelligence belief that our allies and friends around the world shared. But I think that in the case of the [Bush] administration, they really believed it” (CNN, 4/21/2004).
Wrong. Members of the second Bush administration didn’t “really believe it,” as was shown by the brazen lies told by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell in the build up to the war. (Huffington Post 4/7/2013) The U.S. rulers were looking for any excuse to invade to secure U.S. control of oil profits. And Clinton was more than willing to do her part.
Clinton Steps Up Service to U.S. Imperialism
After eight years of championing U.S. imperialism in the Senate (and doing little else), Clinton lost her presidential bid to fellow Senator Barack Obama in 2008. Obama chose Clinton to join his administration as Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013. Clinton upped her game to serve U.S. imperialism by publicly befriending arch-imperialist war criminal Henry Kissinger. As Secretary of State under Nixon, he is the architect of the following invasions, bombings, and genocides: Vietnam (1970), Cambodia and Laos (1970), Bangladesh (1971), Chile (1973), and Indonesia/ East Timor (1975).
Kissinger is directly responsible for the deaths of millions of workers, and the torture and maiming of millions more. Yet, Clinton sought and “relied on [Kissinger’s] counsel” (CounterPunch, 5/3).
In 2011, Clinton led the effort to engulf North Africa and the Middle East in mass destruction for oil by inciting and backing not one, but two civil wars, in Libya and Syria. It was during this period that the U.S. bosses were suffering from their failing imperialist wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and fueling hatred of U.S. imperialism throughout the Middle East. In a desperate attempt to create a pro-U.S. movement there, the U.S. ruling class helped initiate the so-called “Arab Spring.” The recent leaks of Clinton’s personal emails include aide Huma Abedin. The following from Situation Report No. 1 09/14/I, “I’m giving you [Clinton] credit for inspiring the ‘peaceful’ protests,” with regard to the massive demonstrations in Egypt, with quotation marks around the word “peaceful” (Wikileaks Clinton Email Archive).
The civil war in Egypt was followed up by U.S. sponsored militias inciting civil wars in Libya and Syria. Unable to build a pro-U.S. movement they could rely on, the U.S. bosses had Obama and Clinton cynically increase the intensity of the wars by providing arms to all sides. This situation is summed up by the headline “In Syria, militias armed by the Pentagon fight those armed by the CIA” (Chicago Tribune 3/27) and resulting in mass carnage in the area.
It Takes a Pillage: Hillary and Haiti
The Clintons’ history advancing U.S. capitalist interests in Haiti dates back to the first months of their marriage, in 1975. The Clintons visited Haiti at the invitation of an executive at Citibank, one of the U.S. ruling class’ biggest banks. In 1909, Citibank (then National City Bank of New York) took over the majority stake in Haiti’s banking from the French government. In 1915, when German imperialism competed with U.S. interests there, Citibank pressed the U.S. government to invade and brutally occupy Haiti for 19 years.
Citibank, now Citigroup, has continued its exploitation of Haiti’s cheap labor pool. Following the 2010 earthquake, Hillary, from her end as Secretary of State, coordinated a $16 billion “gold rush” of “aid” contracts with her Clinton Global Initiative (CounterPunch, 4/14). With more than 300,000 workers dead, the Clintons capitalized on disaster with the aim to turn Haiti into Citigroup’s low-wage haven based in garments, tourism, and call centers (CounterPunch, 4/11).
In thanks, “Clinton is the top recipient of Citigroup campaign cash in the 2016 election” (International Business Times, 9/27).
Bigger Stakes for Declining U.S. Imperialism
As the Russian bosses now try to take advantage of the U.S.-created bloodbath in the Middle East, Clinton is stepping up as the Bomber-in-Chief announcing expanding Obama’s systematic drone strike campaign. Once again, Clinton is demonstrating her willingness to do her part for the U.S. bosses as U.S. rivalry with Russian and Chinese imperialism slides towards world war from Syria to the South China Sea.
Capitalism murders and enslaves workers around the world every day. U.S.-style capitalism especially features mass racist incarceration, mass racist unemployment, slave labor work conditions for millions of immigrant and women workers, denial of healthcare, poisoned drinking water, and racist police terror against Black workers and, increasingly, immigrant and Muslim workers. Unemployed U.S.-born and immigrant workers often join the military to find work.
When the bosses face economic and political crises like the ones developing now between China, Russia and the U.S., the level of murder rises to new heights. The U.S. bosses are well aware that the fight for top dog status is “resovled” through war. Fully aware that Trump is utterly incapable of uniting the working class behind U.S. imperialism, they want liberal “Stronger Together” Clinton to galvanize the working class.
Don’t Vote, Organize!
The bosses wars pit worker versus worker in a death spiral that will only be broken by communist revolution. The working class can end the capitalist wars, but we have to reject their electoral circus and murderous politicians in favor of confidence in the working class. Our class history shows this.
In 1932, when the capitalist class bet on FDR, the U.S. capitalist class was in another crisis—and they faced down an international, communist-led working class that fought like hell. PLP picks up that legacy of the old communist movement! We carry it forward under the banner of smashing capitalism and all borders with millions of workers fighting for communist revolution. It’s not about Clinton or Trump—it’s about capitalism. Join our movement, and fight back!
EAST CHICAGO, October 1—The blatant environmental racism of capitalism is on full display in the industrial city of East Chicago, home to a majority Black and Latin working class population. As many as 1,100 residents are on the verge of being evicted from their homes in the West Calumet Housing Complex, after the city’s racist neglect of a lead and arsenic crisis that spans decades. But the working class of East Chicago and the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) are fighting back. We want decent housing now and a communist world in the future, where the workers run society.
Under Communism Workers Health Comes First
The West Calumet complex was built in 1972 as public housing for low-income Black and Latin families, just north of a lead smelting plant and surrounded by other industrial facilities. As early as 1985, testing by the state’s environmental agencies found soil lead levels in some yards almost 70 times above the Environmental Protection Agency’s maximum recommended amount! By 1992, the EPA was proposing the complex to be designated as a Superfund, a federal program designed to fund emergency clean-up sites, but it wasn’t until 2009 that West Calumet was recognized officially as needing emergency attention (Think Progress, 9/15).
Meanwhile, as the racist city bosses and government agencies tried to hide the problem, the constant exposure to lead poisoned the working families in the area. Children are especially vulnerable to the toxic effects of lead, and serious health problems such as brain damage, seizures, and behavioral disorders are potential consequences. Parents in the area in recent years started observing these and other symptoms for the businesses and politicians. For the bosses, pursuit of profit was more important than their children’s lives.
By the end of July, West Calumet residents received letters from the mayor’s office telling them that the area was uninhabitable and that they had 90 days to get out before the city demolished the complex. In the meantime, the residents are still being forced to continue paying their rent, so that they can continue to be poisoned under threat of not receiving public housing benefits. Had the situation not been exposed the bosses would have continued indefinitely profiting from renting a toxic dumpsite to poor workers.
Contrast the destructive consequences of capitalism in places like Flint, Baton Rouge, or East Chicago, to a communist future. Under communism, the health of workers would always be prioritized. Workers would never be allowed to inhabit unsafe housing with known toxins nearby. If any one were to be exposed, they would receive the most comprehensive medical care necessary to get them back to optimal health as soon as possible.
Bosses’ Agents Undercut Workers’ Fightback
Naturally, workers in the West Calumet Complex area were fired up over the racist health disaster caused by the city bosses. Emergency community meetings were quickly set. A health and outreach committee was established, and tenants and organizers started to discuss the possibility of a rent strike in the complex. Residents, community organizers, and communists from PLP organized through a committee named Calumet Lives Matter.
By now, the bosses’ agents have jumped in to try to put out the fire. An influential group of politicians, lawyers, and clergy began to commandeer the meetings and set out to block any attempts at meaningful direct action such as a rent strike or an occupation of City Hall and Housing Authority buildings. They engaged in the disgustingly racist and sexist practice of blaming the victim, telling residents that it was their own fault if they continued to be exposed to the lead in the soil or if they failed to get their blood lead levels tested. When PLP and East Chicago residents tried to organize meetings in spite of the misleaders, we were suddenly not allowed to reserve public spaces to have meetings. The racist thugs of the East Chicago Housing Authority directly intimidated some residents.
The consequences of this unnatural disaster have been devastating to the working class residents, many of whom are Black women with children. Many are scared and uncertain about their family’s future, and stressed about having to move suddenly. Those families who would otherwise move to another apartment in the area have been met with death threats towards their children from gangs. Many parents are horrified about how the lead exposure will affect their children now and in the future.
Join the Revolutionary Struggle For Communism
The next step is a march to the Housing & Urban Development Office, the housing bosses’ headquarters.
The capitalist bosses’ racist profit system leaves us no choice. We must organize our class internationally to destroy capitalism and replace it with a communist society that puts workers’ needs and development first at all times. PLP has been present in this fight since the beginning. Connections have been made with some of the mothers, strong bonds forged over the course of the struggle that won’t be easily broken. As we consistently raise communist politics and culture, we will bring this struggle to a higher level. It’s this day-to-day organizing that will win more and more workers to understand that only a communist world will ensure that no member of the working class is ever poisoned by capitalism again. Join us in this fight against racism and for a communist future!
MEXICO—Sometimes the targets of state terror are outright murdered or disappeared, like in the cases of the Ayotzinapa 43 or Mike Brown of Ferguson. Other times, the targets live to witness the perpetrators get off the hook.
That was the case in 2006 for over 40 women protesters in San Salvador Atenco who had been captured, abused, and tortured by police.
Eleven of those women have now come out to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights about the sexist violence unleashed on them by the government. They were raped, beaten, openly humiliated, and then denied medical care. Not one of the nearly two dozen cops involved have been convicted.
The governor overseeing these atrocities was none other than the current president of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto. The New York Times admits it is “unlikely that Mr. Peña Nieto’s government will conduct an investigation into whether he knew of or covered up the assaults.” The only impact this court ruling will have is a “deep embarrassment for [Nieto]” (9/22). Embarrassment will not stop the daily harassment, exploitation, and terrorization of women workers!
Prosecuting the Victim
“Rather than go after the police who committed the sexual torture, the state initially prosecuted the women. Five were imprisoned for a year or more, on charges like blocking traffic, detentions the commission found arbitrary…Mr. Peña Nieto told a local newspaper at the time that it was a known tactic of radical groups to have women make accusations of sexual violence to discredit the government” (NYT, 9/22)
The capitalist state first terrorizes and then criminalizes the targets of sexism. This double assault on women workers reveals just how central sexism is to maintaining state terror. Terrorizing those who have been super-exploited is one the bosses’ ways to ensure women don’t fight back and give leadership. This also acts as a setback for the whole working class. Without the leadership of working-class women, the movement against capitalism is crippled. The bosses understand this.
Women’s Place Is to Fight Back
The state’s resolve to terrorize women reveals another truth—when women fight back, shoulder to shoulder with working-class men, the bosses shake in fear. The 40 Atenco women were captured at a protest. This fact points to the distinct role working-class women play in the path to liberation from wage slavery.
Women, especially Black and Latin women, often provide some of the most militant leadership when it comes to fighting the bosses and their racist, sexist system, so the bosses need to terrorize women to stop them. In Mexico, women workers are leading the struggle in Oaxaca against the fascist attacks on teachers and students. In Baton Rouge, Black women made up the majority of the fighters against the police. In Brooklyn, Black women are leading the rallies and events against police terror.
No Profit, No Basis for Sexism
President Nieto’s attack on women fighters is typical in a system designed to super-exploit and oppress working-class women. Sexism equals billions of extra dollars in profits for the bosses because women are paid lower wages at work and women are responsible for unpaid labor at home in the form of childcare, cooking, and cleaning.
With a communist revolution, the working class army will abolish wages, capitalism, and the bosses’ state. There will be no more distinction between unpaid and paid labor, thus eliminating the material basis for sexism. Every member of society will share in the raising of children and other tasks that capitalism teaches us are “women’s work.” There will be no basis for unequal pay or benefits. All will receive according to their need, organized through a workers’ government.
Anything short of communism means women will continue to be exploited, abused, and terrorized. The Progressive Labor Party organizes in 27 countries to smash this sexist system. Join the fight!
BROOKLYN, September 26—The protesters moved out into the middle of the street, stopping traffic on Church Avenue on Sept 21. Kyam Livingston’s mother, Anita, echoed many of the speeches made at this demonstration when she said, “We need this struggle to end the killings. Voting won’t do it.” Members of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) were at this rally with our newspaper Challenge. We encouraged people to join the lifelong struggle for communism, a society run by the working class that will end racism and sexism once and for all. The demonstrators then released balloons and Kyam’s mother said an invocation to her daughter’s memory.
This demonstration marked the 38th month after the killing of Kyam Livingston who died under police custody in a Brooklyn holding cell. It was a large demonstration. There are always people standing on the street listening to the speeches and chants, but this time there was a larger than usual crowd on all the street corners. Many of those people crossed the street to stand with us. The crowd gave donations to help continue the struggle and many took our revolutionary, communist newspaper, Challenge. It was the day after the world heard about the racist police murders of two more Black workers—one in Charleston and the other in Tulsa, Oklahoma. People were angry and wanted to listen about fighting back. A PL’er spoke about raising this struggle on our jobs, in our unions and communities, and at our schools. Let’s organize to fight back everywhere. We need persistence and consistency in going out with the message that racism kills and we need to fight back with multi-racial unity. Many people had tears in their eyes while they listened to the story of how Kyam was cruelly mistreated and ignored by her jailers when she became ill and was refused medical attention.
Some members of a local church attended this rally. At that same church, a discussion on Black Lives Matter took place the following Sunday. A number of the attendees were loud in their anger towards the continued racist terror and spoke of their desire to seek solutions. Many people said they would attend the next Justice for Kyam Livingston demonstration.
At this rally, all the speakers talked about the need for multiracial unity to end these racist killings. They said that all people of all backgrounds, should be involved in the struggle against racist violence because it hurts us all. A PLP member said that capitalism breeds racism. Capitalists need a divided working class to keep wages low and their profits high. The capitalists cannot continue their rule if all the workers unite and fight back. The speaker said that only communism would end this contradiction and called upon people to read and distribute Challenge and become communists. Only this will end racism once and for all.
The demonstrators and supporters were so excited by this rally that they kept talking for another half hour after the demonstration ended. It’s clear that people are fired up. It’s clear that the struggle will continue. We need justice for all the victims of police murder and we need a communist world for the working class. Join us!
COLOMBIA—We are a group of young students, unemployed, workers, and soccer players. We are tired of war, bureaucracy, hunger, unemployment, injustice, capitalist laws that serve the few, inequality, the grave economic crisis, and tricks of all kinds played against the working class. We saw the need to organize a work and revolutionary action collective, and through this undertake the political road to building a party. Since we did not have the ideological base and were politically disoriented, one of our first steps was to participate—at the invitation of PLP members—in the May 1st “International Worker’s Day” march.
More than 30 of our youth participated; and it was there among the loud chants and slogans that we were introduced to some of the party’s ideas. Many of our comrades saw this as the organization and line we needed. So amid the debates and the literature we began to learn, and have since formed a new CHALLENGE readers’ group with 12 members.
This summer, we participated in a PLP meeting about working-class internationalism. It was a joy to meet comrades from around the world, and to realize that, like here, comrades are doing serious work and revolutionary struggle to transform society. Thanks to this meeting, we are writing this piece. It is the first time that we have collectively written to the party on our own initiative.
We now participate in sporting and social events, trying to build a base for the Party’s ideas. We also take part in different forums and debates around the recent peace process between the government and Colombian revisionism (see page 2). By their actions, these fake leftists support the government, exploiting disarmament to derail working-class struggle and use this class collaboration to maintain the failing system of capitalism. Our position is that as long as there is capitalism, it is inevitable there will be war. It is for this reason we call on our friends and other militants not to vote at all, but rather to organize for a communist revolution and worker’s power.
We want the bosses to be warned. Every day we are more convinced about what we do, and the importance of the class struggle fills us with courage. We know full well the responsibility we have to win more youth to continue holding high the red communist banners, the banners of PLP. Forward, comrades of the world!
