Hundreds Sit In at UCLA

LOS ANGELES, March 4 — Today several hundred students rallied and sat in at UCLA’s administration building, backing the state-wide March 4th day of action against education cut-backs. Leading up to March 4, discussion within the student groups organizing for it exposed the cuts to the state budget and public education as being essentially racist, since they disproportionately affect low-income working-class black and Latino students the most.

These cuts in public education were linked to the U.S. ruling class’s need to devote hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out its financial system and for imperialist wars that mass murder our working-class brothers and sisters in the Middle East and Central Asia. A speaker at the main rally declared, “A capitalist system that bails out the banks and funds imperialist wars for oil” must be destroyed!

The same speaker also said the state cuts writing and retention programs on university campuses while exempting military research labs like U.C. Berkley’s Lawrence Livermore Lab and UCLA’s School of Engineering Center of Innovating Nano-science for Defense. Therefore, students must realize when defending “public education” against privatization that public universities are also an essential part of the U.S. imperialist infrastructure.

The struggle to explain the racist nature of the cuts impelled two young black women to speak at a teach-in (during the sit-in held just outside the Chancellor’s office) about the need to build multi-racial unity against racist attacks on working-class black and Latino students. These comments were especially important in lieu of the student fraternity at UC San Diego that recently held a sarcastically-themed “Black History Month” party in which it celebrated racist portrayals of black people. Soon afterwards a noose was hung from a tree, further highlighting the racism existing on public university campuses.

Today there were also efforts to occupy buildings, a popular tactic lately at California universities. But the sit-in at the administration lasted longer than expected, so no buildings were occupied. However, these events have contained confused politics that don’t clearly explain the purpose of occupations. This time there were many discussions at several meetings analyzing the university’s role in supporting imperialism and capitalism by generating racist ideology and war research.

Students concluded that strategic occupations of buildings conducting such research would disrupt the university’s ability to produce for war and fascism while also making a political statement about the tie-in between the cuts and imperialist war. PL’ers are active within this movement to win students to see that the only solution to the crisis-caused cutbacks is to smash capitalism and fight for communist revolution.

Much has been learned in organizing the March 4 events. Mobilizations of students and workers are positive, but fulfilling their revolutionary potential can only occur through consistent ideological struggle for a communist analysis of the racist nature of capitalism and its natural connection to imperialism. PLP’s effort to organize students to fight back must be oriented to see the limits of reform and the ultimate need for communist revolution. J

H.S. Students Stand Ground, Lead Walkout

LOS ANGELES, March 4 — At 7:15 A.M., about 100 teachers, staff and students rallied today in front of the high school where I work as a part of a national call to action to protest budget cuts in education. We carried signs, chanted and distributed information to parents.

The majority of the teachers in our school district have wanted to strike since the end of the last school year. Last year we lost almost 3,000 teachers and more than 1,500 staff positions to mass layoffs district-wide. Consequently, class sizes have increased, counselors have more students to program, school office staff had their workloads doubled, janitorial duties became impossible, the classrooms have been left dirty and school supplies have long since been used up without being replaced.

The teachers and staff at the school sites are
angry, but the union has repeatedly backed down from confronting the district. They keep repeating that “We have to work together in order to deal with the results of the current economic crisis.” In the schools that means we must accept the cuts, take on an impossible workload and watch our students suffer while the district bureaucrats spend money on million-dollar security systems and “consultants.”

It’s always the same story under capitalism. The working class must work harder with fewer resources while the rich bosses get richer. If we ask for support, they hire someone to “research” how to make us work even harder with still less resources. All this is heaped on an overwhelmingly black, Latino and Asian student population suffering these racist cuts while hundreds of billions are spent on Obama’s imperialist Mid-East and Asian wars — in which they hope to use these youth to kill and die to maintain their oil empire.

8:00 A.M. — As the teachers and staff walked back into school to begin the school day, many
students stayed outside to continue the rally. They were organized and motivated, even marching through the school buildings convincing other students to walk out of class to join them in a rally and march. The teachers were so proud!

The administrators, security and police harassed the students as they demonstrated, but they stood their ground and refused to return to class until the end of second period. Even though the school itself wasn’t shut down, it really taught them a lot of
lessons. They learned how to organize and what to expect from the state apparatus when they start fighting back. Many of my students returned to class energized and confident that “next time will be even better.”

3:00 P.M. — Many students and teachers were inspired by the morning’s events, but it was difficult convincing anyone from my school — in the city’s southern section — to travel all the way downtown to march with the colleges and unions. More than 5,000 people demonstrated that day throughout the city.

I’m continuing the struggle with my coworkers and students by working to build a worker-student alliance with the staff on campus and other workers from transit and industry.  We will build on the actions and bring into this struggle the ideas of communism: class consciousness, working-class power and the
urgent need for revolution.

Red Teacher

The scandal involving NY State Governor David Paterson is far broader than the Empire State. It represents the attempt by the main section of the capitalist class to exercise more direct control of the government — a hallmark of fascism — in order to serve its needs domestically and its war-making abroad. Meanwhile, it exposes its electoral system as a farce and reveals once again that choosing “black representation” (Paterson is the state’s first black governor) merely continues the rulers’ racist oppression of the whole working class, black and white.

Shocking political scandals, like Watergate and the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, generally reflect power struggles among competing capitalists with stakes far graver than the alleged offenses. The case of New York’s embattled governor follows the pattern. His misdeeds — trying to free an aide from an assault charge, and accepting free World Series tickets — are relatively minor. His real crime, according to the liberal-imperialist bosses’ NY Times editorial (3/3), lies in failing to correct a “dysfunctional and frequently corrupt Legislature.”

The Rockefeller-led dominant faction — and its servant Obama — that the Times represents, faces exploding military expenses for its widening wars amid domestic economic catastrophe, especially its racist super-exploitation of black and Latino workers. It needs swift enactment of job- and service-slashing state budgets along with tax hikes.

But Paterson hasn’t managed to squash organized opposition from smaller, “business-as-usual” bosses who have no stake in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan or Saudi Arabia. Their leader is anti-tax magnate Tom Golisano, who owns a payroll-services firm tied to small businesses. Last year, Golisano created a logjam in Albany by bribing two Democratic state senators, Hiram Monserrate and Pedro Espada, to turn Republican.

Warmaking Bosses Target
Ineffective Gov

At first, the imperialist wing enlisted liberal New York attorney-general (and former Kennedy-in-law) Andrew Cuomo as Paterson’s grand inquisitor, either to oust him or, at least, get him to toe the ruling-class line. But Cuomo’s gubernatorial ambitions created a blatant conflict of interest. So, Cuomo has handed the Paterson prosecution to “independent counsel” Judith Kaye. Some “independent”!

The state’s former Chief Judge, Kaye now works for the top ruling-class law firm Skadden Arps, which “ranked first among law firms representing Fortune 100 companies” in 2009, according to the National Law Journal. Thus, Kaye’s clientele includes Exxon Mobil, Chevron, JP MorganChase, Citigroup, Halliburton and other beneficiaries of Obama’s ever-expanding war efforts.

Domestically-oriented banks were rankled by Paterson predecessor Eliot Spitzer’s pro-imperialist, wartime regulation regime which disciplined those Wall Street banks that, in pursuit of immediate profits, were completely disregarding the long-range interests of their class, leading to economic chaos.  This gang brought Spitzer down by exposing his prostitute habit. Now the defenders of the U.S. overseas empire are striking back.

Ravitch Plan for Rulers’ Rescue: Sell State to Banks, Give Unelected Capitalists Open State Power

The Times editorial, demanding that Paterson resign if things get too ugly, reminded readers that “Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch is highly capable.” Ravitch is also highly loyal to the imperialist rulers. Days later (3/11), a Times editorial trumpeted his “way to bail out New York.”

Ravitch’s scheme involves selling bonds to the likes of JP MorganChase and Goldman Sachs and creating “an independent board of highly-respected private citizens to assess the progress toward a balanced budget.” This panel could only represent the bondholders. Ravitch aims ultimately at anti-worker “painful but necessary budget cuts.”

Titans of capitalism inspire (and pay) him. “Ravitch has approached the Rockefeller Foundation [and] the New York Community Trust... to provide research grants to...support his work.” (NY Daily News, 12/15/09) The friendly-sounding Community Trust in fact comprises ruling-class predators like JP MorganChase, Citigroup, and Bank of New York.

Boston Model: Bankers, Other War Profiteers ‘Advising’ Politicians

Ravitch’s empowered “respected citizens” would closely resemble the newly-formed Massachusetts Competiveness Partnership (MCP), which soon will be “providing advice to Beacon Hill lawmakers.” The Times-owned Boston Globe editorialized (3/8) that the partnership “brings hope for a new era of civic leadership.” (Our emphasis — Ed.)

This shadow state legislature boasts Raytheon chief William Swanson and State Street Bank CEO Ronald Logue as directors. Raytheon, a leading “merchant of death,” sells the Pentagon much of its indiscriminately murderous missile systems. Arch-imperialist State Street holds over $10 trillion in global assets in custody, including many so-called “sovereign” wealth funds of foreign governments. The Globe favorably likened MCP to the “Vault,” a similarly unelected, anti-working-class, banker-led group that dominated policy in the 1960s and 1970s.

Replacing Paterson with such “civic-minded reformers” would only strengthen the war-making imperialists. The Albany circus, like Obama’s shattering of his anti-war campaign promises and his protection of bankers at the expense of increasingly unemployed workers, exposes the futility of voting.

All politicians serve one capitalist faction or another. True freedom from exploitation can only follow a worker-led communist revolution that destroys the profit system and its billionaire parasites. This is PLP’s long-term goal.

PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY, MD, Feb. 25 — When Karl Marx said “Workers of the World, Unite!” he was declaring that the borders between countries were bosses’ tools to divide workers. Communists call for the abolition of all borders as part of unifying the working class worldwide. Nowhere was this goal more needed than at today’s racist town hall meeting, (organized by “People for Change” and “Help Save Maryland”). It was designed to launch a grassroots movement of black and white people to attack immigrants, especially undocumented workers, blaming them for the effects of the economic crisis of capitalism that all workers are facing. PLP’ers and friends declared, “No way!”

We came early and passed out flyers entitled “Stop Racist Attacks on Workers with Militancy and Multiracial Unity,” freaking out the organizers who expected no opposition and wildly threatened to have us arrested by “the police ringing this area.” This assumption that the police would protect them shows how the capitalist system supports these kinds of disgusting racists. As U.S. rulers face increasing competition they are paying for their wars on the backs of the workers – and dividing workers by winning blacks and whites to attack immigrants helps keep all workers from seeing who their real enemy is.

We also distributed a flyer called “10 Myths about Immigrants” that refutes the lies that undocumented workers don’t pay taxes, “bring disease,” “are criminals” and are a drain on educational and health resources. The truth is that undocumented workers pay more taxes than others and are horribly underpaid and exploited. They are closer to the condition of exploited slaves in the 19th century.

The panel consisted of black and white speakers whose program is already enacting racist policies in the public policy arena (see Box). Roy Beck from Numbers USA is a lawyer who specializes in helping businesses get rid of undocumented workers. In his campaign D.C. mayoral candidate Leo Alexander scapegoats undocumented workers for the lack of jobs for low-income black workers. A former social worker on the line-up spoke of having been fired from her job for refusing to help immigrant women with babies get food stamps.

We interrupted her speech, demanding to know “Did she want those babies to starve?” A lawyer explained the “rights” citizens have to turn in undocumented workers to the Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and encouraged the audience to do so. The last speaker was from Help Save Maryland, whose sole purpose is to sow hatred for undocumented workers and lobby for racist laws against them. They are even proud of being on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of extremist groups! 

The 50 people in the meeting hall included six journalists and 12 politicians. Our members peppered the panel with sharp questioning, led off by a PLP’er who boldly condemned the panel, declaring, “I have worked my whole life to bring black and white people together, but this meeting feels like a Ku Klux Klan meeting.” The racists heckled her, but we demanded that she be allowed to speak. A panelist told her that she should take her “illegal immigrant” friends and go to Central America and make a revolution, to which she hotly responded that she’d be pleased to make revolution anywhere!

Our questions and comments exposed the lies that problems of taxes, criminality, bad schools and poor health care were because of undocumented workers, and demonstrated that the capitalist system and Wall Street were to blame, not the Latino workers the racists wanted to blame and deport.

A black friend declared that what the anti-immigrant speakers were saying about Latinos was exactly the type of racist statements made about her during the Civil Rights era. She was particularly shocked at the depth of anti-immigrant hatred espoused by the black people in the room. The organizers, she said, were trying to scare people with undocumented workers as the bogeyman.

To fight back against this fascist organizing we cannot rely on the leaders of liberal mass organizations like CASA de Maryland that limit their struggle to reforms and working within the system. Our friends in CASA tell us not to confront these racists but to work with “friendly” politicians, even though this strategy is already failing badly. These liberal politicians, from Obama down to local leaders, push anti-immigrant legislation to help the bosses divide and rule. They can be even more dangerous than the open racists because they can deceive workers about their good intentions as they sign the laws that further attacks on our class brothers and sisters.

We can win through communist organizing and relying on workers to understand that their interests lie in fighting for a communist future of equality that can be won only by a united, anti-racist, working class. We can advance by fighting racist cutbacks in health, education, and jobs, through door-to-door campaigns, and by educating our base and the broader masses that such struggles can make gains only by identifying the capitalist class and state as the enemy, not our brother and sister workers regardless of their status, ethnicity, “race,” or place of origin. J

Bosses’ Anti-Immigrant Attacks in the Washington, D.C. area

• Banned Maryland driver’s licenses for undocumented workers.

• Stopping special educational services for undocumented (read Latino) children — Prince George’s County just laid off 120 parent/community liaison/translation workers!

• Using “E-verify” to stop undocumented workers from getting jobs or setting up bank accounts in Maryland and the District of Columbia —
major lobbying and campaigning underway!

• Eliminating in-state college tuition for undocumented families — done in Virginia, under consideration in Maryland.

• Eliminating health care for undocumented workers except for the emergency room.

• Eliminating food stamps and welfare payments for families with an undocumented parent — even when the children are citizens.

MIDWEST AIRPORT, March 8 — After all the lies, intimidation, and harassment, the metro-area and airport cleaners won their battle! SEIU members made signs on February 27 as the strike was to begin on March 1. The cleaning bosses saw this was really going to happen so they sent their lead negotiator to meet with the union rank-and-file Bargaining Committee. After 18 hours of nonstop negotiations they came to an agreement late Sunday night: better health insurance plus three raises separately over three years and equal pay for black cleaners.

The cleaning bosses’ last BS proposal, before they saw the workers were serious, was sent in a letter passed out by supervisors and managers to airport cleaners. The union steward read it and ripped it up in front of his supervisor and coworkers. He told the supervisor to his face, “this is baloney!” His coworkers agreed!

There were sharp political discussions with airport workers around CHALLENGE and the need to strike for a short-term reform, but with the goal for long-term class struggle for communist revolution, and to create an anti-racist, anti-sexist society. Our CHALLENGE readers at the airport also struggled sharply with coworkers who were going to cross picket lines out of fear of the bosses. Many minds were changed.

After threatening to take action, with multi-racial union members’ support, metro-area black workers, who were paid $2.50 less than Latino and white cleaners, won back pay and the same wages as the other cleaners. However, because workers live under capitalism their small victory still does not eliminate our problems.

An increase in wages does not change that the workers are exploited to create profit for the bosses. In the end, the unions work for the bosses, and won’t fight for what workers truly need — a world run by workers for workers. Maintaining capitalism means small gains inevitably get taken away.

We have a few Latino union members who are in danger of losing their homes after taking out subprime loans before the U.S. economic crisis hit. Now the banks want to foreclose on their homes. Capitalism does not work. The airport struggle made the political ideas of PLP a little clearer for a few airport workers. Also, we built a CHALLENGE study group out of our political struggle.

We received political support from as far away as workers at Kennedy Airport in New York, who showed their support with offers of union support and money. This anti-racist and political solidarity is greatly appreciated.

One thing about the metro-area and airport fight-back that many people have commented on was the multiracial unity which cut across racial, national, and language lines. Women took the lead in organizing resistance to the racist anti-working-class attacks.

The international working class has a long way to go in our battles ahead for a new and better society and world , but PLP will be there to lead our class onto victory! March on May Day for communism!