Capitalism has just dealt the U.S. working class two major blows: Hurricane Sandy and Barack Obama’s re-election as president. While the U.S. ruling class is ever ready to allocate trillions of dollars for wars to preserve its profits and oil dominance in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, it has refused to spend a dime on seawalls to prepare for storms like Sandy, not to mention Katrina in New Orleans or Ike in Texas.

The system’s profit-driven lack of preparation for the latest storm, fueled by profit-driven global warming, killed more than a hundred U.S. workers and made life miserable for hundreds of thousands more without power, water and food along the East Coast. Sandy also devastated the Caribbean, especially Haiti, where racist U.S. bosses have concentrated on milking profits from poverty-level wages following the 2010 earthquake. Their ruthless neglect left those workers wide open to the devastation of Sandy.

In the hurricane’s wake, the bosses brought militarization rather than relief to ravaged black and Latino neighborhoods. Meanwhile, Obama — who managed the crisis by landing Marines in New York and New Jersey — won four more years to spread war and fascism abroad and at home on behalf of his U.S. imperialist backers. The only storms those rulers care about are World War III and its deadly preludes.

The Exxon Mobil/JPMorgan Chase wing of U.S. finance capital backed war-maker Obama’s re-election. These owners of U.S.-based, globally oriented companies face increasing competition from China’s rising capitalists and a resurgent Russia for control of worldwide markets and resources. Using armed force to protect U.S. domination of Middle East and North African oil and gas, especially in Saudi Arabia, has been Obama’s top priority since day one of his first term.

On behalf of Exxon, he has broadened the U.S. war theater far beyond Iraq and Afghanistan to Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Pakistan. Next on Obama’s hit list are Chinese and Russian proxies Syria and Iran — and, after them, quite likely, China and Russia themselves. He is already landing Marines in Australia and troops in the Philippines as U.S. rulers turn their eyes toward Asia.

Meanwhile, Obama has presided over massive cuts in wages. He has slashed newly hired workers’ pay in half (part of his much-lauded bailout deal with GM and Chrysler) and has frozen federal workers’ earnings. His policies have ravaged education, health, housing and other workers’ needs in favor of trillion-dollar-plus funding of the U.S. war machine. Capitalism’s New Depression sharpens both the Pentagon’s scramble for cash and workers’ crushing poverty.

Sandy approached New York City with predicted devastation to low-lying, working-class areas. But billionaire Mayor Bloomberg saved his imperialist allies big bucks by declaring mandatory evacuation of flood zones but not spending a nickel to carry it out. He refused to deploy the city’s 5,900 transit buses when hundreds of thousands of workers, the great majority without cars, required relocation to higher ground. Many workers drowned. Thousands more still freeze and fester without heat, electricity or clean water. And they have become “criminals” for defying evacuation orders.

Mayor’s Racism Hits Projects

In a further racist move to humiliate mostly black and Latino workers in devastated city projects, Bloomberg is distributing adult diapers to waterless project residents instead of fixing their plumbing. But in Lower Manhattan, home to U.S. capitalism’s Wall Street, the bosses spared no effort or expense to rebuild exploded power stations, pump out vaults and repair thousands of miles of pipes and wires. The stock exchange lost only two days of trading. But workers in neighborhoods like Brooklyn’s Red Hook and Queens’ Far Rockaway have no basic services well into the third week after the storm.

In anticipation of broader wars and police-state fascism, Obama, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg have used the storm to justify a martial law crackdown far tighter than the one after 9/11. Workers traveling from Brooklyn to Manhattan had to wait for hours in holding pens before boarding buses. They still face gasoline rationing.  More significantly, Marines have joined the National Guard in patrolling streets in Brooklyn, Queens, and Hoboken, New Jersey.

It used to be that relatively integrated National Guard “citizen soldiers,” under the command of local governors, would assist in disasters. But in and around New York, racist rulers at the highest Pentagon levels are deploying mainly white Marines, trained to kill Arabs and Asians, against potentially rebellious black and Latino workers. In some blacked-out areas, residents are restricted at night to their apartments. They lack light, heat and water while cops and troops patrol the streets.

Obama’s Latest Surge —
The Marines

While terrorizing our class, Obama’s surge of Marines into New York warms the hearts of racist killer cops and their ruling-class patrons. The Obama-boosting New York Times featured triumphal, D-Day-style photos of Marines taking the beach at burnt-out Breezy Point, Queens, the guarded, gated, most segregated enclave in New York.

Meanwhile, undocumented workers face double suffering. Ineligible for FEMA assistance, they may be used at below the minimum wage to clear devastated areas, like what happened in post-Katrina New Orleans, Louisiana.

All of this adds up to the rulers expanding their social control over the working class. While they make no plans to ward off “natural” catastrophes, the bosses use these opportunities to exert control over workers and pave the way for more open fascism. In hard-hit cities like New Orleans and Galveston, Texas hundreds of thousands of workers — most of them black and Latino — have lost their jobs and homes and are never coming back. Housing projects and private homes are not being rebuilt. The ruling class treats workers like garbage, to be thrown away when they cost too much to sustain.

On the opposite side, workers’ collective answers to Sandy shows how working-class control of society would both deal constructively with weather disasters and also plan to prevent widespread damage in the first place. (See box on the Soviet Union and China and its former communist leadership, page 1.) This bodes well for our class and the Progressive Labor Party’s goal of replacing the bosses’ profit-minded dictatorship with workers’ rule.

“In the void left by the slow and inadequate institutional emergency response, improvised relief networks sprang up. Neighbors helped one another” (Village Voice, 11/7/12).  While police arrested volunteer water distributors as “looters,” and troops grudgingly dispensed meager Army food rations, workers shared real meals with one another. They cooked on sidewalk and rooftop grills and at churches and community centers they took over (see letter on page 6). Workers, not cops or Marines, organized water-hauling brigades to bring a semblance of decency to those without plumbing.

Our Party’s members were out in the streets, in the projects and the hospitals, delivering food, water and clothing to those who had lost everything. PL teachers organized their students, in solidarity with their parents, to distribute aid to the stricken. PL doctors administered medical assistance to workers bereft of needed medicine. (See page 3.)

Glimpse of Communism

Imagine an entire society organized and run on the principle of workers tending to workers’ needs. Our Party understands that it will take a revolution to achieve it. One of the biggest obstacles to our class’s seizing power for itself is the trap of electoral politics. More than 62 million people, most of them workers, voted for Obama. They believed, against all evidence, that he would bring progress and improve their lives. But Obama’s vicious suppression of the working class in his first four years and in Sandy’s aftermath proves that he will continue to serve war-bent imperialists.

Progressive Labor Party calls on all of its members and friends to go to the devastated areas with material aid and political aid, as well. We need to use CHALLENGE to point out how a communist society, run by and for the working class through collective action, can overcome any and all problems workers face.

Once profits and bosses — and the racism, sexism and poverty they create — have been eliminated, the working class can conquer any storm.

Bronx, NY. I had signed up with the NY State medical volunteer corps a week before, but they were demanding minimum 12-hour shifts, making it impossible for a working MD to participate. Only now, after a week, was it possible to make one’s own hours.

When I arrived, I saw the vast floor covered with wall-to-wall cots, including many children and the elderly, as well as a wall of cages for pet cats and dogs. People lined up to see me in small numbers, since no general announcement of my availability was made.

Of those I spoke to, nearly all came from Far Rockaway, 24 miles away, with a few from the burned-out houses of Breezy Point, Queens. Some had lived in Redfern public housing, 14 buildings where there is still no heat or electricity. Others were renters in low-lying homes or apartments and had lost all their possessions.

Since the storm they had been moved three times, from Queens College to York College to this shelter in the Franklin Armory in the Bronx. This afternoon, they were suddenly told they’d be moving again today, but no one would tell them where. As one elderly white woman said, “they treat us like criminals, not victims.” They had not had access to medical care for the last five days.

I saw patients at my table in full public view, with no way to do anything except take a blood pressure or listen to a chest (identical to my experience in villages in occupied Palestine.) Everyone had lists or bottles of prescriptions that had run out, for high blood pressure, diabetes, or mental health. Of the six insulin-requiring diabetics, only one had been told that there was a refrigerator where her insulin could be kept.

One elderly diabetic, whose Medicaid had been cut off, had no way of paying for her medication. After receiving no help from the shelter staff, a young volunteer lawyer managed to find a pharmacy three miles away that would fill her prescription, but there was no way to pick it up. Two others needed to go to the hospital for evaluation. But since there was no transportation, an ambulance had to be called for one, and I provided taxi fare for another. A social worker was scheduled to come in two days, when these residents would be gone.

There were two large cases of medical equipment, over-the-counter medicines, and some dressings, left by some agency. However, patients in need of more advanced supplies, like nebulizers or apnea machines, had no access to them. As I was getting ready to leave, passing around Motrin, Tylenol and what CHALLENGES I had, more patients asked to be seen.

While all this was going on, the place was packed with politicians, representatives of the Salvation Army in fancy dress, and a Turkish news agency. I demanded to speak to someone who could actually solve particular problems. Eventually I got filmed telling Scott Stringer, Manhattan’s Borough President, that there had to be a general policy that insurance companies could not refuse to pay for medications being refilled before their “due date,” if they had been lost in the storm. Not one of the bigwigs was able to offer any solution to simple problems like transport to the hospital or pharmacy.

The most helpful person I spoke to was a victim, Ed, who was still working at his job delivering phone books. He was trying to solve everyone’s particular problems, keep people informed, and challenging those in charge. He described how his son had been assigned to a school in Brooklyn, although they lived in the Bronx. They took him there to register with all their belongings in tow, since no secure storage is provided.

The next day the Department of Education (DOE) told him to switch his son to a school in the Bronx, and now they are moving again. The DOE threatens parents with ACS (child removal services) intervention if their child does not show up in school.

Ed also explained that if a family is moved to a hotel, they are given $2,000 to spend, which may last for 10 or so days. They can then look for an apartment, and if they find one and qualify for FEMA assistance, they may stay for 3-18 months. The $2,000 hotel allowance was deducted from the rental assistance. There is no assurance that most will be able to find a temporary or permanent residence.

Another family told of being awarded a FEMA grant which could not be directly deposited because of their bank’s malfunction. It was sent to their abandoned address. FEMA then refused to stop payment and redeposit the amount, saying the family would have to wait for the check to be returned.

Everyone in the shelter, black, Latino or white, was poor. It was clear that capitalism does not wish to take care of the working class. Racism is used to divide us in neighborhoods, schools and work, to super-exploit black and Latino workers, and to make invisible, the suffering during natural and man-made disasters. In this shelter, residents were getting along together, but their overwhelming individual problems and their constant motion made it difficult for them to protest.

Ed, like many others, agreed the system has to go. They see the murderous dysfunction of capitalism and its servant politicians. Many took CHALLENGE and we will get to know them and win them to fight for revolutionary change. We need to fight for a new world organized around workers’ needs, not the profits of a few.

Red Doc

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI, November 12 — Up to 700 angry students from campuses of the State University of Haiti, up in arms over the racist police killing of Damaël D’Haïti, a young law student two nights ago, took to the streets here today, confronting armed police, some in an armored tank.

Starting at 8:00 AM, several hundred students assembled at the Law School, chanting that the killer cop be brought to justice, and demanding quality education. They marched to all the nearby campuses, gathering more students at each one, effectively shutting down many. At each corner along the route, they burned tires and set up roadblocks. Traffic in the crowded downtown area was paralyzed for much of the day.

After several more campus stops, including a private university next to the Central Police Station, they called on those students to join the march. When they returned to the Law School they were met by a squad car with about six police (PNH). The cops — armed to the teeth — tried to block their way but were vastly outnumbered and were forced to retreat.

The students moved on to the Police Commissioner’s Office, demanding that the killer cop not be moved from that station. (The PNH moves “troublesome” cops around in order to hide and protect them.) Back at the Law School, angrier than ever, the students faced off against six MINUSTAH (UN occupiers of Haiti since 2004 to suppress such actions), squad cars and an armored tank.

When the tank advanced on the students, the cops were met with a hail of stones the students had placed in the streets to block traffic. Then they retreated a few yards. When the tank moved forward, the students responded with more stones, then retreated again.

The battle continued for hours as students moved from school to school. This spontaneous outbreak developed into a more organized display of anguish and class hatred. Numerous students took leadership, many under the leadership of the Progressive Labor Party. Young but seasoned comrades worked side by side with new, emerging leaders. Flyers were produced, decisions were discussed and carried out. Plans were made for mass participation in the teachers’ strike the following day. Students spoke about revolution. A Party study group is in the works.

What provoked this outrage? Saturday night, at a concert at the Law School, the cop, employed by the nearby University Hospital and wearing civilian clothes, entered the campus illegally. (Haiti’s Constitution bars armed police from entering campuses.)

When the concert ended, there was a little ruckus among a few students, which quickly died down. At that point, the cop shot into the crowd, hitting Damaël in the face. He died immediately. (We met with a student who had witnessed the killing.) The cop ran from the school and tried to hide back in the hospital. However, some students followed and caught and held him until cops from a nearby station arrived and took him into custody.

On Sunday, the news spread quickly. Hundreds of students assembled at the Law School to decide on an action. Meanwhile, the Police Commissioner pompously announced that the cop “could not be guilty” because Hospital police don’t carry guns. “What does that prove?” the students countered; the cop carried an illegal gun!

The students decided to mobilize citywide and called for joint action for this morning. Leaflets were readied for distribution at all campuses.

Students in Haiti have a long history of militant fight-back. They have vowed to continue this struggle against racism and for justice for their fallen comrade.

Young black and Latino workers and students worldwide are considered cannon fodder for the bosses’ wars and at the point of racist cops’ guns from Port-au-Prince to New York City and beyond. This struggle is part of an international one against racist police brutality in a decaying capitalist system. It will surely lay the foundation to spoil the bosses’ plans for continued imperialist wars.

Newark, NJ October 20 — Before the dust could even settle from the Chicago teachers’ strike, national union boss Randi Weingarten and Newark Teachers’ Union (NTU) boss Joe Del Grosso were quick to sell out the education workers and students here in Newark.  The contract, which took over two years to work out, will give the capitalists and their puppets (like Superintendent Cami Anderson) easier access to implement their fascist rule.

While there are members of the teachers’ union organizing a “no” vote against the contract, the ruling class is putting their soldiers in line to make sure it goes through.  Two of the biggest provisions of the contract are the two-tier wage system and the “Election to Work” agreements that teachers in closed schools are forced to sign to keep their jobs.

Two-Tier Wage System

The biggest part of the contract that has drawn outrage from union members is the two-tier wage system.  This scale caps teachers at lower wages.  It also refuses to recognize the difference between teachers with a BA, MA, and PhD, thus making the argument that additional certifications have no impact on how well they teach. Teachers can earn “bonuses” for being rated highly effective.

The union continues to push this merit scale. This will create a division among workers by putting them on two different scales and giving out a limited amount of bonuses to particular teachers. However, as we have seen in areas like Baltimore and other places, after this merit pay system is implemented the number of teachers rated highly effective will definitely drop.

  Many teachers at the contract presentation voiced these concerns, something that the union leadership completely ignores. One of the main goals of the ruling class is to lower the cost of education as it prepares for wider, larger wars in the future. 

Turnaround Schools and ‘Election to Work
Agreement’

One of the most unsettling aspects of the new contract is the union’s willingness to allow the Superintendent to close down 30 schools in the next three years.  That is almost 50% of the Newark schools! When confronted with opposition to allow these closings, Del Grosso said, “Well, she can close as many as she wants, we are limiting her.”

Even more troubling than the complete cooperation of the union leadership in closing schools is the “Election to work” agreement that teachers in these schools will be forced to sign if they want to keep a job.  Any teacher slated for one of these “turnaround” schools will have to sign an agreement that will override many of the rights that union members have fought for in the past.  According to the contract, “the limit on the number of subject or content areas that a teacher may be assigned to teach shall not apply…The limit on the number of classes, consecutive assignments, preparation periods, and room assignments…shall not apply.”  This is what the bosses would like the rest of the schools to be like. 

Clearly this hurts both teachers and students.  These schools, which are very similar to charter schools, can work a teacher for two or three years until they are burnt out and leave the education system.  This can give the bosses greater control over teachers since many will not stay long enough to get tenure (which will be a thing of the past as well). They will be so busy keeping their heads above water that they won’t be able to organize and fight back even if they wanted to. It will save the ruling class millions in workers’ wages by having teachers stay for only a few years rather than making it a lifetime career.

Racist Attack on Students

In a school system that is 96% black and Latino, Newark’s reforms are more similar than different to the ones in Chicago, New York and other cities.  Students suffer because most of these teachers will not have as much room to fight for student rights.

Teachers will not be as effective because of the different content areas that they are responsible for as opposed to becoming more proficient in particular subject areas. And the community of the school will lose out because of the increased turnover of teachers.   This makes perfect sense for the ruling class, which does not care about ”educating” these students to understand the world, but simply to teach students obedience and basic skills to work menial jobs. 

Preparing for fascism
and war

As the U.S. ruling class prepares to fight larger, more intense wars against its rivals, education will become increasingly important.  The disciplining of the future working class to accept low wage jobs or unemployment as well as to give their lives in the bosses’ wars will depend heavily on the teachers’ reduced ability to fight back as exemplified by this contract. 

This will also save the bosses millions of dollars in wages, giving them more wiggle room to spend money in other areas on the war front (reindustrialization for producing war materials and overseas spending) and allow capitalists to accumulate profits.

Contract Shows Need to Fight For Communism

This struggle has opened up the door for a student-teacher-parent alliance.  Many parents have been passing out flyers to teachers urging them to vote no.  Discussions in the school have become much more political as well.  In one elementary school two workers were talking about the implications of the contract.  One worker organizing against the contract spoke to a group of workers on the need to organize for communist revolution in the long term while fighting against the contract now.  Some of the teachers were skeptical.

As the days went by and more information came out about that contract, one of the teachers put a note in the comrades’ mailbox at school saying, “You’re right, we do need a revolution.”

While it may be jumping the gun to believe that workers can be won to the overthrow of capitalism in a week, this shows that workers are more open to our politics.  Those that argue for limiting our fight to reforming capitalism are starting to see the limits. 

In the 1960s and 70s many courageous teachers in Newark fought hard and went to jail for the reforms that other teachers enjoyed.  Now that the struggle has died down, the bosses have been working overtime to take these reforms away.  This is not just happening in Newark but worldwide. The only way to guarantee that workers control their future and create schools that will allow students to reach their fullest potential is through the building of communism. Therefore, we will continue to work with teachers, students, and parents to fight the bosses’ attack, expose the class nature of capitalism, and link this to the need for a communist revolution.  There is no other choice.