On July 26, a group of generals in Niger staged a coup and seized control of the country. Although Niger is no stranger to coups, with five to date, the latest is yet another blow to capitalist rulers’ liberal democracy and to U.S. and French imperialism in the Sahel region of Africa. Niger joins Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Chad, and Sudan among nations in the Sahel region of Africa that have dumped U.S.-friendly stooges like ex-President Mohamed Bazoum in favor of military juntas aligned with Russian imperialists. This pivot is a telltale sign that the old U.S.-led liberal world order is imploding.  

Despite sanctions and threats of war from the spurned imperialists and their allies in the West African bloc Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the coup leaders are showing no signs of backing down. To this point, threats of intervention have been all bark and no bite. Even so, the region’s chaos and volatility, plus the desperation of competing capitalists, could mean that war in Africa is on the horizon. Meanwhile, the Niger generals are rallying thousands of workers behind them in a move to oust the post-colonial French bosses, who maintain four military bases and two thousand troops in the country.

If history is any guide, however, the latest set of misleaders will do nothing to improve the lives of workers in Niger. As in Mali and Burkina Faso, these workers will be forced to renegotiate the terms of their misery and exploitation with Russian imperialists and military gangsters. The only way out of this imperialist hell is a communist revolution. True independence for workers means smashing the deadly capitalist system that breeds imperialism, poverty, and war in the first place.

Uranium and imperialist atrocities
The Sahel, a vast region south of the Sahara Desert, is rich in gold and oil. It has long been in the lethal chokehold of French imperialism. Beginning with a bloody invasion in 1899, the French army committed unspeakable atrocities, bombing villages and murdering tens of thousands of Nigeriens before bringing the country under colonial control in 1922. Although Niger gained its independence in 1960, France reasserted its control eight years later, after the discovery of uranium in the Saharan city of Agadez (European Environmental Bureau, 10/18/17).

Niger today is the world’s seventh-largest source of exploitable uranium, which generates more than 70 percent of France’s energy supply (The Guardian, 8/5). The French bosses continue to rake in massive profits through Orano, a multinational mining company that is 90 percent French-owned. To sustain this exploitation, the French bosses have used graft and terror by local security forces to help keep brutal and corrupt politicians in power to do their bidding (The Guardian, 8/5). Fueled by inter-imperialist rivalry, anti-regime terrorists have gained strength throughout the region. Even after the U.S. spent millions to build a military base and sent 1,500 troops to Niger in 2014, the violence has intensified (The Intercept, 8/2). Now the chickens have come home to roost. Power-grasping monsters like General Abdourahmane Tchiani, a former United Nations “peacekeeper” who was trained at a U.S. military academy, is leading a move to steal the French and U.S. turf (The Intercept, 8/10).

Tchiani has been emboldened by coup leaders in Mali and Burkina Faso, who declared that any invasion of Niger by ECOWAS troops would be a declaration of war against them as well. The new capitalist rulers in Niger are standing defiant. They have suspended the country’s constitution, revoked defense agreements with France, and prevented foreign planes from landing (Vox, 8/12). With the coup now entering its third week, French bosses are desperate to protect their foothold in the region, including the $13 billion dollar Trans-Saharan pipeline designed to send oil through the Mediterranean and break France’s dependency on Russian oil (DW, 7/28/2022). The U.S. bosses, meanwhile, are faced with ceding more ground to China’s bosses, who own two-thirds of Niger’s oil fields and want to build a 1,200-mile pipeline through Benin to the Atlantic. The Niger coup gives China a huge opportunity to expand its imperialist presence (The China Project, 8/6).

Down with French imperialism!
While French bosses rake in billions from Niger’s mineral riches, ten million workers and youth live in extreme poverty. They are devastated by famine, pollution, and a lack of drinkable water due to capitalist-caused climate change. Thousands are being slaughtered by terrorist groups aided and abetted by French and U.S. imperialists. When workers flee their homes, they are killed or enslaved by smugglers, or succumb to the dangerous journey through the Agadez (UNHCR, 5/4/22). The French bosses had relied on their puppet Bazoum’s efforts to terrorize migrants at Niger’s borders and stem migration to Europe (Al Jazeera, 7/26).

After the coup, on the eve of the sixty-third year of Niger’s independence, 30,000 workers took to the streets shouting “Down with France!” while waving Russian flags. The French bosses are under siege within their borders and without. Workers in France have sustained an open rebellion against raising the retirement age and to protest racist police brutality. In France’s former colonies, from Africa to Haiti, coups d'etat, mass demonstrations, and seizures of fuel depots are the order of the day. But for the international working class, it’s not enough to exchange one set of capitalist exploiters for another. We need to take that slogan further–to “Down with capitalism!” Workers in Niger need Progressive Labor Party, not another coup or “democratically elected” African misleader who’s only looking for a share of imperialist spoils while maintaining the dictatorship of the bosses.

Russia vs. U.S. proxy war
As the Niger coup unfolded, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted a summit with African leaders in St. Petersburg, hoping to expand Russia’s growing influence in West Africa. Using the mass-murdering mercenary Wagner Group, Russia’s bosses are trading its military services in exchange for minerals and other natural resources. They cynically use anti-colonial, anti-Western rhetoric as they exploit and slaughter workers. The old Soviet Union is still viewed favorably by many workers in Africa because of its help in overthrowing their European colonizers. Though Russia’s position in West Africa remains tenuous, and they are spread thin by the Ukraine war, one thing is clear: their presence in the region has escalated the stakes of the Niger coup.

Western Africa has become a flashpoint in the imperialist competition between the U.S. and Russia. Both sides, whether through drone strikes or the Wagner group, are indiscriminately murdering workers in the region and pushing many into jihadist militias. As long as the working class in Niger is weakened by ethnic divisions and nationalist illusions, they will continue to be the imperialists’ sacrificial lambs. Even so, these workers’ militant protests show that they are hungry for an alternative. That alternative is communist revolution, led by Progressive Labor Party! From Africa to South Asia, from Latin America to Australia, we are building an antiracist, antisexist, internationalist movement to smash this rotten imperialist system and build a new world run for and by workers. Join us!

Science in capitalism serves imperialists’ war and profits. Science in communism will be used to end inequality created by the capitalists and to protect life in harmony with nature. Oppenheimer, the popular film directed by Christopher Nolan, is dedicated to the scientist Robert Oppenheimer who from 1941 to 1945 coordinated the Manhattan Project for the manufacture of the first nuclear bombs that were dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, causing the death of more than 200,000 people, mostly civilians, and reducing both cities to rubble.

Although the director has declared that his film does not carry any explicit or hidden message, the reality is that, due to its ambiguity and lack of objectivity, this film is being used by the ruling capitalist class to prepare millions in the U.S. and around the world, for the need to use atomic bombs as they did in Japan - only now they are much more destructive. The film makes the same false, criminal argument that bombs save lives, just as President Truman states in a climactic passage of the film.

The film Oppenheimer describes a successful physicist with a brilliant and charismatic mind. It depicts his affinity for social activities that bring him into close contact with a group of communists - an association from which he distances himself when his patriotic dilemma forces him to embark on a military project to build the bomb before the Nazis. With the goal of stopping the Nazis, Oppenheimer assembles and leads an entire scientific community that consciously or unconsciously submits to the military interests of the ruling capitalist class.

The Soviet Red Army defeated the Nazis, not the A-Bomb
One crucial fact that the film omits is that the Red Army, without atomic bombs, was able to crush the Nazi army, driving the Nazis from their territory and liberating Europe. The Nazi defeat and their surrender in May 1945 made the bomb project less meaningful, as stated by some of the scientists involved. However, the military in charge of the project, President Truman and the ruling capitalist class, pushed the project until they achieved their true purpose: their military hegemony in the world. The scientist Isidor Isaac Rabi warned Oppenheimer that "the military only uses scientists for their warlike purposes."

The construction of the nuclear bomb was another episode in the submission of science to capitalist interests. Three months later, in August 1945, the bombs were used under the crude pretext of "forcing Japan to surrender" though militarily they were already defeated. The film does not deny or contradict this vile capitalist manipulation, nor does it unmask the true purpose of dropping the bombs - to intimidate the world, particularly the Soviets, and make clear the military power achieved by the American capitalist class. As we can see now, it ultimately served to unleash the arms race between the two imperialist blocs that continue to drag the world into more wars, wreaking massive levels of destruction.

As the true purposes of the arms race became apparent, many scientists refused to participate in the construction of the much more destructive H-bomb. Oppenheimer was one of them, which is why they discredited him, reviving his association with the communists, to invent an allegation of treason against him.

The film does not unmask all this manipulation, rather, it tries to disprove the attacks on Oppenheimer as personal quarrels with Lewis Strauss, his former collaborator in the manufacture of the first bomb. The film shows how other renowned scientists such as Ernest Lawrence and Edward Teller , willing to collaborate in the arms race, betray Oppenheimer by testifying against him, while dozens of other scientists signed a public letter in their support.

Turn imperialist world war into communist revolution
In the context of the decline of North American and European imperialism, the imperialist alliance between Russia and China, and the growing division of the world into two imperialist blocs vying for control of the world, the dilemma presented in the film is as current as ever. The imperialists today threaten each other with the use of atomic bombs in Ukraine, Taiwan and any other disputed area.

Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. are about to approve a new military budget, the largest in history. The imperialists in Europe, Russia and China are also increasing their military budgets. The endgame of all the imperialists is war to control the world's wealth. The capitalists have shown that they build bombs to use them against people. Let's not doubt that they will use them again to maintain their control and their profits.

Capitalism means death and destruction. We need to put an end to all the capitalists and their bombs, and we can only do that with communist revolution. Communism means workers run society. Communism will not only end all wars, it will also restore the environment that capitalist irrationality and its thirst for profit has pushed to the brink of collapse. Communism will end poverty, inequality, racism, sexism and all the evils that affect the vast majority of the world's working population. Progressive Labor Party is in the fight for communism. JOIN US.

CHICAGO, August 11—Over 200 multiracial workers ended their strike with Loretto Hospital today, capping off 11 bold days of militant defiance towards the capitalist bosses’ rotten, racist healthcare system. By withholding their labor through striking, the workers were able to gain wage increases, steps towards safer staffing, and the recognition of Juneteenth as a paid holiday.

Comrades from the international communist Progressive Labor Party (PLP) were proud to support and learn from our fellow workers as we visited the picket line almost daily. We brought hundreds of CHALLENGE to distribute, dozens of tamales, as well as a letter of support with signatures from another nearby hospital. Most importantly, we shared the powerful ideas of communist revolution and multiracial unity as the best means to challenge this profit system.

By organizing on the job and joining unions, we can certainly force the bosses to give up some concessions they wouldn’t otherwise give up. But as long as healthcare or any other industry remains in the hands of the capitalist bosses, they will have the upper hand to make their profits primary over our needs. We invite all workers worldwide to join and help build PLP as the force that will destroy racist, sexist capitalism and replace it with a worker-run communist society!

Capitalism kills — heat up the class struggle
The dangerous racist conditions inside Loretto Hospital were brewing for some time before they boiled over in the form of this strike. As a safety-net hospital that serves mainly Black residents on the city’s west side, the workers at Loretto serve as a crucial resource to those going through mental health crises or struggling with substance abuse. The fact that the hospital bosses would cry broke and allow conditions to worsen so bad inside is a plain racist attack on both the workers and the patients.

Like many other capitalist institutions, the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 greatly sped up the decline inside Loretto. In 2021, the hospital bosses found themselves under federal investigation after it was discovered that top executives were funneling scarce vaccines away from workers to wealthy residents downtown (Block Club Chicago, 11/2/21).

Recently, there has been a staff turnover rate of around 60 percent, which leads to chronic understaffing of departments, overwork, and injuries (WGN9, 7/31). Earlier this year, a patient in the Emergency Room overdosed in the bathroom and afterwards died because there were not enough staff to work the department (WBEZ, 8/2). One thing is clear: capitalism kills!

These attacks and countless others from the bosses helped stir an above average level of urgency and militancy among these strikers. Even though the strike lasted eleven days, they kept up their energy and resolve. Beyond just chanting and marching, they pushed the limits by being openly confrontational with the hospital bosses.

In one instance, workers pasted printouts of safety violations all over a hospital vehicle. As security attempted to tear down the notices, even more workers came forward to replace the ones taken down! On another day, strikers banded together to block deliveries from entering the hospital in order to apply more pressure.

The length and boldness of the strike definitely got to the bosses. On one of the last days, an off-duty kkkop/security guard got openly confrontational with strikers on the picket line, threatening “I’ve got two [ammunition] clips for every one of you” and even putting his hands on the neck of one of the workers! All the other workers immediately rushed to the defense of their fellow striker.

It was a scary and despicable act, but it no doubt exposed the clear connection between the bosses and their attack dogs in the cops and the military to enforce their class rule. As capitalism slides deeper into global crisis and more open fascism, we need to be prepared as workers to confront the bosses’ physical attacks through the organized force of a Party.

Reform and revolution
The outcome of the Loretto strike shows both the potential and the limits of fighting for change under capitalism. On the one hand, workers were able to band together and gain a glimpse of our power and our essential role to make the system run. On the other hand, the hospital was allowed to stay open the entire length of the strike with many non-union workers still crossing the picket line without the union leadership making any real effort to win them over to the side of the strikers. Even with a new contract, many of the working conditions are still at the whim of the bosses who will violate them in no time.

PLP fights openly for a communist society where we don’t share any power with the bosses. It would be working people – like those of us on the Loretto picket line – who would be in charge of making decisions and running society collectively based on our needs as a class, without any money, wages or profit. Although under communism we would still have plenty of difficulties, it truly represents the interests of the international working class and a future free from racism, sexism, and exploitation.

A communist salute
We raise a salute to the workers of Loretto for sharpening the class struggle against the racist bosses! We are excited to follow up with new friends that we’ve made on the picket and are ready to advance with you on the long but rewarding path to a communist world!

SANTA MONICA, CA, August 12—The summer of 2023 continues to see workers’ struggles all over the Los Angeles area coming to a head. From striking writers and actors to education workers at the Los Angeles Unified School District and the University of California systems, hotel workers of Unite Here Local 11 have joined the fight back, beginning a series of multi-day, rolling pickets on July 2nd. While the rolling pickets make it difficult to sustain regular support as the locations are constantly changing, Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members and friends have joined the various picket lines around the city learning about their struggle, distributing Party leaflets and CHALLENGE to reinforce the fact that their struggle remains interconnected with the struggle of all workers. The vast majority of workers we spoke to welcomed our support and took our literature.

Bosses attack!
On Saturday, August 5, PLP members and friends joined the picket lines of hotel workers of the Viceroy and Fairmont Miramar hotels in downtown Santa Monica. Not long after we showed up to the picket line at the Viceroy, the union led a 1-mile march down Ocean Drive, a busy street full of tourists, to the Fairmont Miramar. Shortly after the march arrived, the hotel bosses had their security attack the workers which was quickly followed by the Santa Monica KKKops, who arrived to protect hotel property and try to intimidate the workers. They effectively split the march in two and kettled (surround protestors for a time and not allow them to leave) them with a barrier and wall of cops and cop cars.

After being released without any arrests, the workers continued with their rally. The hotel bosses tried to drown it out by cranking up the volume of their music but the union leaders continued with their speeches, and demonstrators stood their ground. However, as expected, these misleaders made no connection between the role of police as protectors of private property nor of the politicians (their keynote speaker was a former mayor of Santa Monica) in maintaining capitalism and all its horrors. Two members of the Flores family also joined us and spoke to workers which helped reinforce our point about the role of the cops. One base member, a Black healthcare worker who was trapped with the workers in front of the hotel, also found being in solidarity with the workers powerful. Another young base member thought the Party’s presence helped workers begin to acknowledge the link between their struggle and the capitalist system. He also participated in the 2022 University of California student worker strike in Davis. He noted that the Party’s presence there could have had the same effect on the consciousness of those workers too.

Pacifism is not the answer
Hotel workers were not only attacked by security and KKKops at the Fairmont Miramar, picketers at hotels in Long Beach and Dana Point were also viciously attacked by security, management, guests, and a “celebrity” chef. In response, the union organized three peaceful protests at these hotels over the weekend. PL’ers and friends joined 200 workers and community supporters at the Fairmont Miramar rally. As expected the union misleaders pushed pacifism and non-violence as a response to the violent attacks. Going so far as to say workers should not defend themselves if attacked. They even pointed out the scum security guard who led the attack to say that they are on the same side as the hotel workers even though they obviously made a choice to be in solidarity with hotel management. Most of the speakers were union reps and clergy. The only worker who spoke repeated the call for non-violence and praised the union leadership. Despite this we were able to distribute 20 CHALLENGEs and leaflets and make good connections with workers.

Record profits = record exploitation
Hotel workers in Los Angeles (LA) County make a dismal $19.73 per hour and can’t even afford to live in the areas where they service hotels that charge rates that reach over $400-600 per night! It’s disgusting!

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a single mother would need to make over $40 an hour to afford a 2-bedroom apartment in LA County, still well above the proposed $30 an hour minimum in Santa Monica that the union is pushing for. In a survey by the union, 53 percent of workers said that they either have moved in the past five years or will move in the near future because of soaring housing costs (www.businesswire.com, 7/18). Meanwhile, the hotel industry in Santa Monica is booming, with revenue exceeding pre-pandemic levels.

Many workers already live more than two hours away due to the exorbitant cost of living in LA County. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of hotel workers are Latin women, illustrating the gross sexism and racism built into capitalism’s profit system. A political and economic system that can’t meet the basic needs of the working class does not deserve to exist and needs to be smashed. That is why PLP calls for communist revolution, to smash these lousy conditions and put the working class in command.

Our leaflet emphasized how these workers’ fight remains especially interconnected with many recent struggles of workers who have struck or are currently striking. Strike fever here is spreading- LA City workers also conducted a one day walkout on August 8th. The leaflet also highlighted the limited power of strikes led by reformist union leaders who are loyal to a capitalist system which requires exploitation in order that profits be maximized. Even if union demands result in temporary gains, in a few years hotel bosses along with their allies in the bosses’ government will again resist providing even minimally decent conditions for the workers.

Moreover, the leaflet exposed the importance of racism and sexism in justifying the super exploitation of marginalized workers. As the strikes continue, Party members and friends in LA will remain committed to supporting hotel workers, writers, and actors throughout the summer.