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Smash all borders! Working people have no borders!
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- 03 November 2023 181 hits
BROOKLYN, October 1—On a sunny Sunday afternoon, after a rainstorm paralyzed the whole city of NYC, nearly 30 workers in Progressive Labor Party (PLP) and our friends from our local community organization held a rally in solidarity with migrant workers, fighting back against liberal fascist Mayor Eric Adams’s new ordinance to evict migrant families after just 30 days, forcing them to restart the housing process all over again.
Our small but mighty multiracial and multigenerational contingent met at a busy park nearby before the rally to make signs that reflected our internationalist and antiracist politics: Smash all Borders and Evict racist capitalists were among the dozen signs we towed as we marched across the park, handing out CHALLENGES to the dozens of multiracial workers, chanting “Workers united will never be defeated” and “Immigrants yes and evictions no” in English and Spanish. From the Park we marched through the streets of Bushwick en route to the migrant shelter, where we learned that our class siblings were put out in the street during a torrential rain storm. This putrid racism displayed today is what capitalism has to offer to families already terrorized by the profit system. A system that literally puts families into the streets in the middle of storms and floods deserves to be drowned. Smash all borders!
PL’ers have a proud history of antiracist fightback in the Bushwick neighborhood for more than two decades.''Workers readily received our communist politics, and many took both the CHALLENGE and leaflets, and some young people briefly joined the march and chanted with us. This shows that no matter the condition, no matter the location, there are antiracists everywhere.
Marching through liberals’ racist lies
The march was a welcome change from the politics reflected by the liberal community organizations in Bushwick where our friends and PL’ers organize.
The organization supports liberal politicians (including Adams, who conducted electoral campaigns in this neighborhood for many years), and their inability to respond to the crisis is just another example of how slickly the capitalists’ agents hide the racism they use to pit workers against workers. Even some Latin members of the community organization and the neighborhood are being misdirected into racist ideas against this new wave of migrants, blaming them for the rise of crimes and the lack of jobs.
The bosses have even managed to pit other undocumented migrants against Venezuelan migrants, now that the bosses have exploited the latter’s presence to spread anti-communism. The bosses have now turned their backs on Venezuelan migrants, and there are talks of massive deportations of Venezuelans back to their country to allow other and new migrants to take their place as the new super-exploited. There are now recent migrants (for example, from Ecuador, another country which is now suffering the effects of U.S. imperialism, Haiti, and Sudan) who are arriving in the U.S. and are last in line for work permits. It is clear that the sell-out politics of liberal capitalist organizations are incapable of helping workers fleeing the effects of imperialism and climate change.
Bushwick locals show solidarity with migrants
Once at the shelter, we gave speeches and chanted in front of the shelter, calling out the savage capitalist system as the cause, which needs to be destroyed and replaced by communism.
We also got harassed by a security guard, who claimed Bushwick locals would resent our presence and call the police. In fact, two locals who lived across from the shelter heard our chants, approached us, and asked to see our literature — proving that solidarity with migrants workers exists regardless of how hard racist bosses and their politicians pit us against each other. At first, some migrants were scared to show their faces in the window because of the harassment they often experience from cops. But a few of them did show their faces, and we waved to them.
Mayor Adams has been seeking to suspend the “right to shelter” law at a time when the City has the most need to house people. These politicians’ decisions—Republicans and Democrats—are driven by profit needs, not workers’ needs.
A Black woman PL’er gave a speech in Spanish that struck hard against this racist imperialist system and explained why communism is the only alternative:
We’re here today to say we need each and every one of you to join us to find a real way out of this nightmare. To fight for communism where no worker or child be forced to flee their homes because of war or poverty; a world without profits, money or borders. If we had communism no worker would need to seek refuge or be discarded.
We marched back to the starting point of our rally, receiving many nods and claps from workers along the way, distributing dozens more CHALLENGES. Our friends from the mass organization were older and struggling to walk but the strength of our solidarity and politics made it easier. By the end of our rally our friends were tired but still boosted by revolutionary energy, and were excited to continue the struggle to support migrant workers. The struggle to win our working class brothers and sisters to fight for a communist world continues. Onward!
San Francisco, October 18–1,300 San Francisco Bay Area (S.F., Oakland, Berkeley, etc.) students and some teachers walked out of ten schools demanding a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza and humanitarian aid to Gaza. Most of the student protestors at many schools were non-Muslims of Black, white, and Asian backgrounds with many Muslim students in attendance, a great sign of unity.
This was in conjunction with walkouts in other parts of California, Florida, Illinois, and New York. At one school where 200 students left before the bell, the first speakers clearly called for unity between non-Zionist Jews and Palestinians being abused by Israel. Zionists had a field day, though, calling the students “terrorists” and sending many of them death threats. They also harassed the protesting students and teachers who peacefully protested. For a complete communist analysis about the increasingly volatile and fascist situation in Gaza and Israel, read the article and editorial in the 11/1 issue of CHALLENGE.
Also in the Bay Area, 97 percent of the United Educators of S.F. (UESF) voted in favor of a strike. Some members of the San Francisco Movement of Rank-and-File Educators and many, many certificated and classified members of our union helped to organize a great turnout of 3,300 certificated and classified school staff. Progressive Labor Party (PLP) teachers and other members passed out a “Capitalist Education Doesn’t Work” Party leaflet and ran out. Since this clear vote of the membership, the union bargaining team and the School District settled and have brought a tentative agreement (T.A.) to the membership. Two T.A. Informational Sessions were held just this week. A couple of PLP members in UESF tried to bring up the contradictions of this “historic” package in our breakout sessions. The vote on the contract will start on November 3, with the results to the membership on November 9. This might be another “non-strike,” folks! But whatever happens, once again this will be a school for a communist society. The fight continues!
Workers and students in New York City have risen up in anger at the fascist collective punishment that the Israeli government is raining down on the workers of Gaza.
Every day, hundreds to thousands have gathered – and Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members have been there in the struggle, pointing out that neither the Big Fascist government of Israel nor Hamas, the Small Fascists they helped install in Gaza, can lead workers to liberation. Most importantly, PLP called for a communist revolution that rids the world of all bosses and their lethal capitalist system.
In the Bronx, around 100 protesters gathered in front of the offices of Richie Torres, a representative to the U.S. Congress. This racist Democratic Party liberal weaponizes his Gay and Latin identity to try to convince his constituents, who live in the poorest Congressional district in the country, to unconditionally support the fascist, genocidal Israeli government. Our line stood out against the backdrop of Palestinian nationalism, as Hamas’ brutal attack has revealed their true nature as capitalists willing to kill workers for control of “their” workers. In fact, a recent survey showed that even Gazans see through Hamas’ lies; 44 percent of those surveyed in the territory said they had no trust in the Hamas government (Foreign Affairs, 10/25). Many of the demonstrators eagerly took our literature, which attacked both groups of bosses. PLP members had conversations with workers, struggling with them to understand that there cannot be a “Free Palestine” without destroying capitalism.
On Friday, October 27, a thousand people gathered in and around Grand Central Terminal, shutting down one of the busiest train stations in the country. After hundreds sat down inside the station, hundreds more took over 42nd Street outside and began marching west. As in the Bronx, the chants were mostly for an immediate ceasefire and for a “free Palestine.” While chanting “Arab, Jewish, Black, and white. Workers of the world unite!” we distributed more than 300 copies of CHALLENGE and 300 leaflets. One demonstrator, after carefully reading our leaflet, called it a “breath of fresh air” because it criticized Hamas while attacking the barbarity of 75 years of Israel’s colonial apartheid state and the ongoing Nazi-like collective punishment of Gaza.
Workers all over the world are demonstrating the powerful sense of solidarity that we have as members of the working class. This display is truly inspiring, lighting the way to a world where the international working class will be all there is, a future where every boss, whether Israeli or Palestinian, U.S. or Russian, will be nothing but a relic of the past. We are struggling in demonstrations, teach-ins and in one-on-one conversations with our friends, students, and coworkers to build communist ideas and our Party – to make this future a reality.
How do you spell fascists? IDF
How do you spell murderers? IDF
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Hey, hey, ho, ho!
The occupation has got to go!
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Joe Biden, you can’t hide!
We charge you with genocide
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They are killing kids overseas...
Shut it down!
They’re killing kids in our streets...
Shut it down!
They’re getting killed by bombs...
Shut it down!
They’re getting killed by police...
Shut it down!
If they keep bombing...
Shut it down!
This racist system
Shut it down!
This genocidal system
Shut it down!
This capitalist system
Shut it down!
Shut this racist system down!
Shut this racist system down!
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U.S., Israel hand in hand
racist murder is the bosses’ plan,
From Palestine to Mexico
The bosses borders, got to go!
U.S. bombs dropped by Israeli jets rain down on children
France24, 10/15–Israel's strikes on the Gaza Strip have led to an "unprecedented human catastrophe" in the Palestinian territory, the United Nations agency supporting Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said Sunday. "Not one drop of water, not one grain of wheat, not a litre of fuel has been allowed in the Gaza Strip for the last eight days," Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of UNRWA, told journalists. More than 1,000 people are missing under the rubble of buildings that were destroyed by Israeli air strikes in Gaza, the Palestinian civil defence team said on Sunday. Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip have killed at least 2,450 people since Hamas's bloody attack on southern Israel last week, the Gaza health ministry said Sunday.
Palestinian medical workers experience raw lessons of capitalism
Al Jazeera, 10/14–Dr Nisreen al-Shorafa has gotten barely 10 hours of sleep over the past seven days. The 30-year-old surgeon runs the emergency room at Al Awda Hospital in Tal al-Zaatar, between Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, and she cannot recall a time when she has worked harder. Dedicated completely to helping save the people who survived the relentless Israeli bombing, she has pushed herself beyond what she thought she could do. On Saturday, the hospital started receiving warning calls from the Israeli military. The message was stark and ominous: The hospital had to be evacuated because it would be bombed. “I’ll bet they [Israeli army] are proud of themselves, threatening to bomb the hospital,” said resident nurse Asala al-Batsh. “They insisted that everyone and everything move. All hospital personnel, all the patients, including those in the ICU, and the bodies in the morgue.” After trying to explain to the Israeli army on the phone the inhumanity and impossibility of moving everyone out of the hospital and southward, the team gave up. “We decided not to leave,” al-Shorafa said…The Palestinian Ministry of Health has urged the international community to intervene several times, but no response or assistance has come.
Capitalism climate crisis worsens
The Guardian, 10/5–At least 43 million child displacements were linked to extreme weather events over the past six years, the equivalent of 20,000 children being forced to abandon their homes and school every single day, new research has found. Floods and storms accounted for 95% of recorded child displacement between 2016 and 2021, according to the first-of-its-kind analysis by Unicef…The rest – more than 2 million children – were displaced by wildfires and drought. In absolute terms, China, the Philippines and India dominate with 22.3 million child displacements – just over half the total number – which the report attributes to the countries’ geographical exposure to extreme weather such as monsoon rains and cyclones and large child populations, as well as increased pre-emptive evacuations. In August 2022, unprecedented floods submerged a third of Pakistan underwater, causing billions of dollars in damage and displacing around 3.6 million children – many of whom went months without access to proper shelter, safe drinking water and sanitation.
Liberals remind us that they attack immigrants, too
Gothamist, 10/1– A top advisor to Mayor Eric Adams on Sunday called for the federal government to “close the borders” in order to prevent more migrants from coming to New York City. “We need the federal government, the Congress members, the Senate and the president to do its job: close the borders,” Adams’ senior advisor Ingrid Lewis-Martin said during an interview on PIX11. “And until you close the borders, you need to come up with a full-on decompression strategy where you can take all of our migrants and move them throughout all of our 50 states.” Lewis-Martin’s comments marked an escalation in the rhetoric from the mayor’s office surrounding the city's migrant crisis…Lewis-Martin said more than 61,000 migrants remain under the city’s care. The call to “close the borders” resembled comments made by several right-wing members of Congress who threatened to shut down the federal government if strict border policies were not included in a new funding bill.
