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The 36,000 Verizon workers currently on strike are fighting for the entire international working class.   With mass racist unemployment the rule in the U.S., the Progressive Labor Party salutes such courage to strike! The working class will need a lot more of it to turn the coming period of crisis at home and widening imperialist wars overseas into their opposites- and make a revolution for workers’ power. 

Racist, Sexist Verizon Bosses Aren’t Broke!

The racist and sexist Verizon bosses make around $1.5 billion per MONTH right off the backs of the workers – mostly Black women and many with families. Verizon has paid its top five executives over $250 million over the last several years and their cutbacks to “wireline” services profited $8.9 billion in 2014.  

  When their corporate attorneys aren’t hitting strikers with their Porsches like they did in Gaithesburg, Maryland on April 16, they’re outsourcing jobs, closing call centers, cutting the “wireline” workers, and hiring and super-exploiting low-wage, non-union contractors.  All these cuts drag the unionized workforce down closer to the pay and benefits of the non-union wireless workforce. This will help keep Verizon “competitive,” according to the bosses.

When wireless phones first came out, the CWA and the IBEW unions both failed to unionize the new workforce that was hired, supposedly to help Verizon stay “competitive” with other non-unionized providers. Verizon bosses are using the same arguments against unionized workers. An injury to one is an injury to all: sticking together is our only winning strategy.

Black workers at Verizon, especially women, are being hit hardest – and as the Verizon workers are showing over and over, they’re fighting back the hardest!

Biggest U.S. Bosses’ Agenda: Pay For Wider Wars

Where’s the money going? Not to the working class!  Right now, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are running for President of U.S. imperialism. Military spending is 56% of the bosses’ budget and that number isn’t going to budge as U.S. imperialism under Obama has expanded to Syria, Libya, sub-Saharan Africa, and the South China Sea. Drones are murdering mainly innocent workers in more than twelve countries. All the bosses’ servants in DC, from Sanders and Clinton to Trump, Cruz and Kasich, may disagree on taxing the rich and taxing corporations, but wider imperialist wars mean higher taxes are on the way.

These escalating war costs and the rising taxes are having ripple effects throughout the U.S. economy. Competition between bosses in every sector of the economy is intensifying, including telecommunications.  Verizon bosses know it- that’s why they’re attacking unionized workers now, to build a war chest of profits to take on AT&T, Sprint and other rivals in years to come as the costs of U.S. imperialism continue to rise.

No Lasting Victories for Workers Under Capitalism

As long as the capitalists hold state power, they will use their courts, politicians, laws and police to change the rules to ensure their drive for maximum profit. They will launch more wars against their strengthening Russian and Chinese imperialist rivals overseas.

Verizon workers are showing the working class the way forward. They’re striking against capitalist bloodsuckers, defending gains won over fifty years of bargaining and striking. And they’re fighting back for their non-union sisters and brothers.

MARCH ON MAY DAY!

We need a system where the profit motive that drives the bosses to attack workers and launch wars is abolished. Communism means smashing capitalism and racism, sexism and imperialism. Under communism, workers run society. Verizon workers already know they don’t need the bosses to run operations! A strike can be a step toward communist revolution, and the boldness of the Verizon workers is the kind of boldness our class needs to take our struggle all the way. PLP invites Verizon workers to march on May Day with us, the only holiday for the international working class. FIGHT BACK!

Brazil’s ongoing fight to impeach President Dilma Rousseff under charges of corruption is being touted as an effort to restore “democracy” from the political and economic turmoil that the country finds itself in. But make no mistake: Brazil’s current political and economic dilemma represents the inherent failure that is capitalist democracy. So why is congress really trying to impeach Rousseff? Like in capitalist democracies everywhere, Brazil’s ruling classes are fighting neck-and-neck to shift the country’s alliance along pro-U.S and pro-China imperialist lines. But no matter which capitalist calls the shots, Brazil’s working class is always the target. Neither Dilma Rousseff’s phony left party or its opposition serve working-class interests.
In fact, workers in every part of the world should be wary of the political parties and politicians that brand themselves as the savior of “democracy.” Democracies can never benefit the working class because they exist entirely to full the pockets of capitalist bosses, whether the bosses be pro-U.S. or pro-China. From U.S.’s Bernie Sanders to France’s Marine Le Pen, politicians have one goal in mind: to maintain the profit system of capitalism that benefits a few and exploits the masses. Their tactics are different but the goal remains the same. The Progressive Labor Party is the only party that represents the true interest of the working class. Our goal is to smash capitalism and rid the world of fail systems such as democracies, which pay lip services to the international working class. We champion a communist world where racism, nationalism, sexism, poverty and wars are no longer the seeds that workers reap.        
Dilma Rousseff along with members of her left-leaning Workers Party (PT) is facing accusation of corruption that might possibly hand the reins of political power to the equally corrupt right-wing conservative parties. The accusations stem from her alleged role with the now financially strap energy company, Petrobras. Rousseff, once chair of Petrobras, is believed to have accepted bribes from the energy company to finance her presidential campaign (NYT 12/03/15).
Mass streets protests along with judicial hearings make the call for impeachment seem like a call for justice. However, the demand to impeach Rousseff is a racist call by Brazil’s upper class, which is majority white, to turn economic tides in their favor. Their racist sentiment mirrors that of U.S. presidential candidate, Donald Trump and his supporters to “Make America Great Again.”  Above all, calls for Rousseff impeachment represent the struggle between pro U.S. and pro-China forces for control of Brazil and Latin America’s rich resources.
U.S. Tries to Counter China’s Pivot to Latin America
Brazil’s conservative parties along with its’ U.S imperialist backers are envious of China’s political and economic influence under Rousseff’s administration. In the subsequent years after the PT first took power championing economic and political influence for the masses of Brazil, Brazil’s trade with China soared while its share with the U.S. plunged. Shunning U.S claim to the Latin America, Brazil and China continued to develop deep ties, manipulating workers’ anti-U.S. imperialism into supporting a capitalist “multi-polar world” with China as its’ imperialist master. China’s influence remains intact to this day: in 2015, China and Brazil signed a series of investment and trade deals that totaled billions of dollars (The Guardian, 05/19/2015).
U.S. capitalist bosses’ imperialist quandaries extend beyond Brazil to include Latin America as a whole. They are on because China is engulfing Latin America into its’ imperialist sphere of influence. China’s investment in Latin America, for example, increased more than 20-fold, from $12 billion in 2000 to $285 billion in 2014 (NYT 10/3/2015). As a result, the U.S. ruling class is reconsidering its’ imperialist ambitions to focus entirely on countering China’s influence in the Eastern Pacific. In a recent report titled: “Expanding the Rebalance: Confronting China in Latin America,” Daniel Morgan, a senior military officer argue:
The growing cooperation between the governments in both regions and China presents political, economic, and military challenges that call for the incorporation of the Western Hemisphere into an Asian-Pacific Strategy… without a trans-Pacific strategy a U.S. regional approach will only create strategic risks and enable China to draw on its influence in the Western Hemisphere to support its interest elsewhere.
It is no wonder that U.S. capitalist bosses and their lackeys in Brazil are up in arms to out China and its’ servant, Rousseff.
Brazil: Infested with Racism, Sexism
Rousseff and her allies do not have the answers to stop U.S. imperialism, so workers should not heed their screams of injustice. While advocating economic reforms for the Brazil’s working class, the PT has partnered with big businesses. For instance, it has wasted tremendous money and resources to hold the money laundering 2018 World Cup, while many workers continue to live in abject poverty. Black workers in particular continue to suffer under the PT’s reign. Black workers, for example, represent 70 percent of those living in poverty. Like their U.S. counterparts, they are more likely to be murdered by killer cops. They are also shut out from leadership positions. A glaring example is President Rousseff’s cabinet: all except one minister is white (03/23/15).
Women and indigenous workers have also felt the brunt of the PT’s imperialist policies. Instead of focusing on these workers, the PT has been concentrating on Brazil’s imperialist rise rather than environmental and social objectives which disproportionally affect these workers. The PT is just a phony-leftist party playing the imperialist game. Brazil’s working class along with the entire working class of Latin America will be the pawns in this game for world domination.
March on May Day!
Like the political parties in Brazil, political parties and their puppet politicians in the U.S. and elsewhere are ploys to channel workers’ anger into support for different capitalist bosses. Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Dilma Rousseff and others want to maintain the chaos that is capitalism. Voting for politicians thus remains futile because no real change can come from a system that is not meant for us.
That is why the Progressive Labor Party say: Don’t Vote, Organize! A communist system built for and by the international working class is the only system that will truly represent our interest. Join PLP has we marched on April 27th to demand a better world for workers: a communist world.  On this day, May Day, we affirm our connections with workers around the world in the struggle for a communist world free of sexism, racism and imperialist war. Join PLP in making this world a reality.

HARLEM, April 2—Some powerful images of the rally following the Progressive Labor Party’s College Conference are worth sharing for readers of CHALLENGE. Picture militant chants and speeches from a multiracial, multigenerational picket line. Black workers leaving stores to come out and watch and at turns solemnly and enthusiastically raising their fists—and six of them joining the rally.
On the outskirts of the picket, CHALLENGE sellers struggling to keep up the demand for the newspaper, while engaged in excited debates about smashing Trump and communist revolution, and balancing pens to take down contact information from interested workers.
The rally energized the more than 35 members and friends of PLP, including some who travelled from the nearby states and had never sold CHALLENGE before. How was this militant advance for communist ideas possible? After a day of learning rich theory, history and discussion at the PLP College Conference!
Communist Internationalism Opens Conference
“What are we learning in school today?” This was the question posed in a tone-setting opening speech to the conference, as we dedicated our precious day off as students and professors in the bosses’ universities to the international working class (see speech, page 6). Even our attendance was a glimpse at what education might be like in a communist society. In a “classroom” that was multiracial and multi-generational, immigrant and native born, we heard an opening speech that described how the bosses’ attacks on students and workers span the globe and unite us. We learned that the fight between U.S. and rival imperialists like Russia and China is sapping money from education and will eagerly sap the lives from workers who will be sent to fight their wars. And we learned that even as the bosses mount their racist and sexist attacks on education, students fight back. From Haiti and South Africa to Mexico and Missouri, students are battling the onslaught of cutbacks. Most importantly, we discussed how PLP can transform these battles into revolutionary war for communism.
Workshops Combine History, Theory, Practice
After the opening speech we met in small groups to continue the discussion. We first learned a bit of history about racism in the United States. In the early to mid 1600s, plantation owners observed that Africans who had been brought over were forming deep ties with the poor whites who had come to the U.S. as indentured servants. These ties were formed on the basis of common exploitation by the plantation owners and led to instances of multiracial fightback, culminating in Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676, where an integrated group of workers rose up against the government of Virginia. This scared the owners who began formulating a system of racial divisions and instituted laws specifically designed to segregate the workers. (The material for this discussion was taken from Lerone Bennet Jr.’s book, “The Shaping of Black America,” specifically the chapter “The Road Not Taken.”)
The second workshop made it clear that, just as colonial Virginia bosses were able to enforce their racist system, the Bolsheviks were able to bring racism and other aspects of capitalism crumbling down when they took power in the Soviet Union. We learned about the incredibly difficult task of organizing a revolution in Tsarist Russia – building friendships and trust among the workers, organizing study groups, training hundreds of thousands of leaders, etc. The fruit of this hard work was visible as we read inspiring words from Langston Hughes as he traveled throughout the Soviet Union. We learn about Langston Hughes in the bosses’ schools, but we never learn he was a strong supporter of the Soviet Union.
Conference Rallies Against Racist Gentrification
Unlike the bosses’ schools, where we learn to accept the world basically as it is, today we learned that when the working class overcomes the racist, nationalist and sexist divisions that the bosses jam down our throats, revolutionary change is possible. The primary lesson we get from the bosses day-to-day is to be passive and try to do the best we can for ourselves or our families. The militant rally in Harlem was the antidote for passivity. Here and across New York City, developers have seen fit to close a relatively affordable grocery store where the poor residents were able to shop and are opening a much more expensive grocery store, which is completely unaffordable for most workers in Harlem. This racist attack was one of the many highlighted in chants and speeches by the group.
Dare To Learn, Fight
So what did we learn today? We learned that, as the opening speech made clear, the bosses’ racism, sexism, nationalism and oppression have an expiration date. We learned that workers can unite across these boundaries that the bosses invented to keep us separate. To get there, every one of the conference participants battled their own individualism and desire to enjoy their day off. Every one of the participants fought to learn, so they can return to their campuses, organize and learn how to fight like communists in the class struggle.
The conference raised the bar for every one present and intensifies our struggle for May Day. Our most intense discussions were over how to put the struggle for revolution primary in our lives, while being immersed with our fellow students and campus workers in our struggles and mass organizations. Organizing for May Day on April 30, and winning our friends and coworkers to recognize it as our international class’ holiday is part of that struggle. Winning our friends and coworkers means organizing and coordinating campus actions in advance of May Day.
Above all, the conference—run primarily by new, young comrades, eager to provide leadership to the working class—taught us that all learning isn’t done in the classroom, but from class struggle among the working class. Our growing fighters for communist revolution will open the door to a whole new way of learning and doing. Dare to struggle, dare to win!