SAN JOSE, CA, September 2—“Same enemy same fight, to smash sexism we must unite,” PLP and other anti-sexists at the Santa Clara Hall of Justice where rapist Brock Turner was released.
Turner was convicted of three felonies for sexual assault against an unconscious woman and was sentenced to a mere six months in jail, only serving three. Progressive Labor Party gave leadership across San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City to protest the special oppression of women (see LA report on page 3).
Building the Action
We built support for the protest by making posters and selling CHALLENGE at a public university in the Bay Area. We canvassed the day before, too. Eleven people, mainly women, came out to make posters. We also signed up eight students to either come to the protest at the Santa Clara Hall or come to future Party events. Many were angry at the sexist injustice system and one student said, “Revolution is the only way to stop this, I need to be with y’all.” PLP is hosting a “Smash Sexism BBQ & Movie” event to continue our efforts to fight against sexism and build working class unity.
It’s Not Just Persky, It’s Capitalism
Aaron Persky, the judge who served a careless ruling justified his decision by claiming Turner had given up a “hard-earned swimming scholarship” and that prison would be “severe.” Perksy is sending a sexist message: that an elite white man’s future overrides the safety of college women. This sexist judge and the whole injustice system have got to go! To draw this connection, we chanted, “Turner and Persky one and the same, sexist terror is the name of their game.”
Persky is one part of a wide criminal system that serves to protect ruling-class interests and idea, not working-class women. Harassment, intimidation, and abuse from courts and the police are common across the country, which is a large reason why women don’t report rapes and why few perpetrators ever face conviction or jail time.
In the few cases that went to trial, prosecutors could be brutal to the victim and judges extremely lenient to the rapist. In one email exchange, a prosecutor referred to a woman who had reported a sexual assault as a “conniving little whore.” A cop wrote back: “Lmao! I feel the same” (NYT, 8/11). In the Bay Area, 28 police from five districts used a 17-year-old girl as a sex slave (CNN, 7/3).
Sexism’s Twin: Racism
In New York City, we discussed how racism and sexism function together inside the police and the courts. If the judge can admit that prison is harmful for Turner, the millions of working-class Black and Latin working class, who are routinely criminalized? The Turner case is a sharp contrast to the five Black teens from Brownsville, Brooklyn who were wrongly accused of rape. The media instantly demonized and convicted them, while Brock Turner, an actual rapist, got away with a mere three months. In the sexist, dehumanizing profit system, which treats all workers as commodities, rape and sexist violence are rampant.
The San Francisco education club met to discuss the political points prior to publishing the leaflet. A comrade pointed out that state violence against women serves the same purpose as racist state violence against Black workers. These acts of violence create divisions between women, men, Black, and white workers. It breeds the kind of terror aimed to immobilize workers from uniting against oppression and exploitation, guaranteeing billions of super-profits and their rule.
Know Your Enemy
We discussed with friends about naming our enemy: it is capitalism or patriarchy? A patriarchy is a society in which men have systemic power, and women do not. But that analysis leaves out class society, and assumes women in power (i.e., bosses and politicians) will make life better for working women.
In India, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi brutally suppressed striking railway workers and pushed their families out of their homes. In Britain, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher attacked striking miners, closed unprofitable industries and privatized those that remained. Hillary Clinton destroyed the lives of countless women from the U.S. to the Middle East (see page 8). When the occasional woman attains a position of power, the bosses run a victim-blaming campaign against other poor women.
Sexism’s root cause is capitalism, not men. In fact, sexism hurts men—in very material ways. When women’s wages are depressed, the rest of the working class men go down with them. Ever since 1973, though productivity grew by 72 percent, workers wages rose only by 9 percent (ThinkProgress, 9/2/15).
Buying into the bosses’ ideas and practices benefits only the ruling class and destroys our chances of having a successful working class revolution.
Build an Egalitarian Society
PLP is committed to building a communist society where women and men will work side by side to meet the needs of the working class. We saw the beginning of what’s possible last century. In revolutionary China, prostitution was virtually eliminated. In the Soviet Union, educational facilities at all levels granted equal access to men and women. (At the height of the Soviet era, 60 percent of engineers were women.) Maternity leave with full pay was universal; new mothers had no worry about losing their jobs. There were ample kindergartens, day care centers, nurseries, and playgrounds, as well as communal dining rooms. The concept of housekeeping as “women’s work” was abolished.
We can learn from the successes and mistakes of China and the Soviet Union to build a better world under communism. PLP fights directly for communism, abolishing wages at once—the material basis for racist and sexist division.
We saw the potential for this society during our protest, women and men, Asian, Latin, Black, and white united against the sexist violence of Brock Turner and the capitalist state protection granted by Judge Persky. From Brooklyn to San Francisco to Los Angeles, fight for communism!
LOS ANGELES, September 2—The Progressive Labor Party made an immediate coast to coast call to action when Stanford rapist Brock Turner was let out after a three-month jail sentence. Turner’s case is an example of the sexist culture and oppression that feeds on capitalism.
Who Benefits? The Moneybags
At our rally, a multiracial group of women and men exposed the sexist nature of capitalism in both Spanish and English. A common saying on the bullhorn was, “Who benefits from sexism?”
One comrade gave multiple examples of how capitalism needs sexist ideology and how women are seen as disposable objects. He pointed at billboards surrounding the neighborhood.
One sign in particular had a huge logo of the Hustler Casino, owned by sexist filth Larry Flynt who is best known for his pornographic magazine. Hustler has a proud 42-year history of oppressing women and selling their bodies as commodities.
Wage Slavery
This sexist culture has an economic root—wage slavery. In 1921, Lenin wrote that “under capitalism the female half of the human race is doubly oppressed….not only are they exploited as members of the working class, they continue to be ‘household slaves,’ for they are overburdened with the drudgery of the most squalid, backbreaking and stultifying toil in the kitchen and family household” (in a Supplement to Pravda No. 51). Wage labor exists as long as unpaid labor exists. Abolishing the wage system is the essential step to smashing sexism.
Passersby stopped to talk about how they have not heard many people talking about sexism and immigration in the same sentence. This was coming from Latin women, who are very familiar with sexism. It shows that sexism is very much on worker’s minds.
When one speaker was trying to explain how women were paid less by the bosses, a group of passersby screamed, “20 percent less than men!” The wage gap is much higher for Black, Latin, Asian, and undocumented women.
Sexist State Violence
Referring to this wage slavery, comrades pointed to the surrounding neighborhood homes of garment workers. Sexism affects women all over the world. “Since coming to office in 2009, Obama’s government has deported more than 2.5 million people—up 23% from the George W. Bush years” (Fusion, 1/7/16). In addition, the Deporter-in-Chief’s latest targets are women and unaccompanied kids fleeing capitalist violence in Central America.
The main violence against working-class women is coming from capitalism and the government that serves it. This capitalist state violence aims to terrorize and weaken the whole working class.
Women and Men Unite!
There is no doubt that capitalism is not on the side of the workers. We can even see that in the current presidential campaigns (see page 8). What progress has capitalist society made now that our daughters can run for president and fight shoulder to shoulder with men on the front lines for U.S. imperialism? Progress for the bosses, greater attacks on workers. So again we asked, “Who benefits from sexism?” Not working-class men, or women.
Women and men must struggle shoulder to shoulder on the front lines for communist revolution. That would be victory for the working class. Let’s fight!
One September 2, over 180 million workers went on a one-day strike in India. Workers from state-run factories, power stations, and banks, and at garment factories in Tamil Nadu, automobile factories in Karnataka, a major hospital in Delhi, transportation industries in Haryana, iron mines, to sanitation plants, all partcipated, making it the largest strike in history (Guardian 9/2)! This strike cost Indian bosses over $2.5 billion dollars. It is a victory for working-class consciousness.
The strike was called in response to Prime Minister and leader of the fascist Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Narendra Modi’s vicious attacks on workers in the name of balancing the budget and improving the economy. Under Modi, health workers in some states have not been paid in months and food subsidy and distribution programs are unfunded. The government is actively encouraging private employers to attack workers attempting to unionize while labor protections have become weaker and weaker. Modi has pushed for increased foreign investment and privatization of state-run industries, which would lead to even lower wages and fewer jobs.
When the government learned of workers’ threats to strike, it offered to increase the minimum wage from $96 to $135 per month, but workers did not take the bait (Al Jazeera 9/2/16). They struck and are demanding a minimum wage of $268 per month, stronger labor laws and enforcement of the laws, universal social security, and a ban on foreign investment in the railroad system. Women are playing a large role in this struggle, and union leaders say it’s essential to get equal pay for men and women as part of this strike.
Some politicians are threatening to invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) on sanitation workers in Ahmenabad who are still on strike. Similar to New York’s Taylor Law, ESMA allows the government to fine, fire, and arrest striking workers if they don’t return to work.
These millions of workers are standing strong and know that they, not the bosses, have the power. If they continue fighting together, the bosses’ attacks won’t work. This working-class unity terrifies the bosses, because the bosses know that it will eventually eliminate them and their racist, sexist profit system.
The racist U.S. media has refused to publicize any news of the strikes because they know that workers realizing their power in one country can inspire workers worldwide. CHALLENGE is the only newspaper that spreads news of working class struggles all around the world. The Progressive Labor Party distributes CHALLENGE in over 27 countries and we aim to unite the international working class.
It is the job of the Progressive Labor Party to turn this struggle into one for communist revolution. Any victories won from the strikes can be taken away, as we see in the United States where pensions, benefits, and pay are being slashed. The only way to maintain long-term victory is to fight for a world where workers, not bosses, run society.
HAITI, Sept 7—Solidarity must be at the heart of what it means to be a communist. Communism is not only a political and economic system, it is also a way of life. Building an international revolutionary communist party means breaking the boundaries of racism, sexism, social division of labor and economic inequalities fueling the life of workers-all barriers created by capitalism to divide and alienate the working class.
Therefore, communists must develop our line through our everyday lives, along with developing trust between communists and the working class. This summer, PLP here continued to experience and develop that solidarity with North American communists and friends and relatives.
We relied on our friends to help overcome some logistical difficulties. A young friend drove our visitors to the lodging. He had a drink with us and joined in a lively discussion about the current level of class struggle in Haiti. We accompanied the U.S. comrades everywhere: tired, a comrade felt a cold coming on; right away, a friend brought her leaves and honey to prepare a cure.
On a short journey out of town, a doctor friend drove and stayed overnight with us, and we ate and drank together, talking late into the night, strengthening our ties. For other visits, we traveled in a pickup other friends provided for us. Together we visited a retired worker from the U.S. trying to build a social service center in a small rural community. We shared the comforts and discomforts (Some had to ride in the back of the truck). For several days, we traveled together, sharing food, drink, music, and talk, talk, talk! Three to four people shared a dish or a bottle of water.
During our journey we became friendly with many people we met on the road. When we were told that the mother of a new comrade had just passed away, we even shared gifts: on arrival, the U.S. comrades brought some dried fish (a specialty from another region of Haiti that had been visited) to the mother of one comrade and she gave them some casave, a specialty from her town, to them on their departure; they also gave books and textbooks for the daughter of the friend who drove for us, and for another girl in her family.
For the last two days we cooked together, struggled with one another on the daily work of the Party, strengthening our ideological understanding of racism, sexism, armed struggle, poverty, the class struggle and the prospects for building our Party.
In our Party, we want to build lives together in free and full solidarity today without any form of inequality among our ranks. Join us! Long live communism, long live the PLP.
…Not only are conditions worse today than they were during Attica,… Attica once again…. is synonymous with prisoner resistance.
—Heather Ann Thompson, history professor at the University of Michigan, (Jacobin, 9/9)
NEW YORK, September 9—Forty-five years ago, Black imprisoned workers led their white and Latin counterparts in a rebellion against the racist deplorable conditions at Attica prison in northwestern New York State. Today prisoners nationwide are organizing once again. Capitalism is a never-ending disaster. For workers, students and prisoners worldwide only communism is a solution: a world without racism, sexism or imperialist wars.
Concentration Camp
In September of 1971, the conditions at Attica prison in the northwest corner of New York State were brutal. Inmates suffered from starving bellies, untreated infections, falling teeth, lack of toilet paper, and showers only once a week often without any soap (Jacobin, 9/9). With about 2,300 inmates, Attica was overcrowded to almost twice its capacity. The prisoner population was 54 percent Black, 9 percent Puerto Rican and 37 percent white. All 383 guards were white.
So the prisoners organized. They read Marx and Frantz Fanon. They formed the Attica Liberation Faction uniting different political groupings. They had educational rap sessions in the prison yard. They put together demands for improved conditions and sent them to state, city and prison officials. All demands for change by the prisoners were ignored.
Rebellion
After a prisoner fought back against a brutal guard, the prison bosses ordered a crackdown that led to a violent fight. The prison guard was beaten and eventually died. But a small group of more politicized prisoners immediately changed it into an organized rebellion. Meetings were held, demands were discussed and formulated, and leaders were chosen. A central part of the prison called Times Square was fortified. They chose a negotiation committee. They figured out how to feed 1,300 people and obtained medical care for those most in need.
Rockefeller’s Fascist Savagery
But New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller and various authorities were not interested in negotiations. They had a two-pronged racist strategy: spread vicious lies about the rebellious prisoners and viciously attack them as soon as possible. Both the media and various officials spread racist lies about supposed atrocities committed by the rebels, including slitting the throats of the hostages. The attack by the state involved hundreds of state cops, National Guardsmen, and both current and former prison guards. They were handed weapons from a supply truck without regard to serial numbers and they had their own personal weapons.
Road to Mass Incarceration
The attack started with a gas that incapacitated the rebelling prisoners. This was followed by fifteen minutes of indiscriminate shooting that slaughtered 29 prisoners and 9 guards. After the prison was totally secured, four more prisoners-leaders of the rebellion- were hunted down and killed. That was followed by vicious beatings, torture and no medical care. Heather Ann Thompson: “In the aftermath is when the real brutality begins. The doctors are trying to help prisoners, while guards are dumping them off of stretchers, kicking them, urinating into wounds, making the most horrific scene unfold.” (Democracy Now, 7/9).
President Richard “Nixon repeatedly assured Rockefeller he did the right thing, because Attica was “the Blacks,” and part of a nationwide conspiracy by the communists and Black radicals to undermine [U.S.]” (truth-out, 9/9). Within a year, Rockefeller enacted a law that formed the seeds of the “war on drugs” (racist war on workers) operation.
Attica scared the bosses, and they reacted with more terrorization of the Black and Latin working class. In 1970, the year before Attica, there were nearly 200,000 people in prison. By 2015, that number to 2.3 million people, a 400 percent increase in the rate of incarceration (Five-Thirty-Eight, 2/12/16).
Attica is a symbol of working-class rebellion and viciously racist aftermath. Attica today means fight back against racist state terror.
Prisons can be a site of struggle and fightback. At the Kinross Correctional Facility in Michigan 400 prisoners protested today to commemorate Attica. And more are organizing again against deplorable prison conditions throughout the country. Nationwide protests are growing against racism and sexism. More than ever, we need to fight for communism to end these capitalist atrocities once and for all.
