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Elections: Capitalist myth vs working-class truth
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- 05 September 2024 287 hits
Working with “progressive” people against the Palestine genocide, we realized that we saw many misleaders of these groups trying to win people to the importance of elections. When we raised questions, these "leaders" responded with their version of history, citing several historical examples to make the case for how voting makes change. In this article we are challenging their version of history which is essentially capitalist with a working class understanding of what actually happened.
Capitalist Revisionist History 101: Elections help the working class
Working Class History: Capitalists' fears of revolt and revolution is what helps win reforms for workers—not elections. And of course, reforms disappear-- frequently and violently.
Myth 1: Franklin Delano Roosevelt “gave” the working class Social Security in 1935.
What really happened:
Communist led workers in the 1930s were fighting, often violently, to organize unions and against the ravages of the Great Depression. Workers were being shot at and also shooting back. Workers saw the still socialist Soviet Union as a beacon of hope, but capitalists feared the real possibility of communist revolution spreading to the U.S. and in China workers seized power led by communists.
For the rulers one frightening example was International Unemployment Day (March 6, 1930). Hundreds of thousands of people in major cities around the world took to the streets to protest mass unemployment associated with the Great Depression. In June of 1932, nearly 20,000 World War I veterans from across the country marched on the United States Capitol to request early payment of cash bonuses. President Herbert Hoover had to order out the U.S. Army to disperse them and their families.
Because of these and similar actions then, we do have Social Security now - a Social Security that does not provide a comfortable retirement for workers. The average Social Security benefit is about $1900 dollars a month. The average rent in the U.S. is $1700 a month.
Like all social systems capitalism is not forever. The future is communism where the working class rules all aspects of society with no racism, no sexism, no inequality and no money.
MYTH 2: Lyndon Johnson gave us the Civil Right Act because Martin Luther King backed him.
What really happened:
At the beginning of the 1960s, antiracists were marching, boycotting, sitting-in and picketing against police and white supremacist violence. Starting in 1964 in NY and led by Progressive Labor Party comrades, there were over 250 rebellions against both police brutality and protests against countless evictions which were forcing poor workers into the streets.
The Civil Rights Act was in response to these angry demonstrations. While it might have temporarily improved the lot of Black workers, most of these changes have disappeared.
Today, the working class, particularly Black and Latin workers, is worse off. The number of Black and Latin prisoners in the U.S. grew tremendously over the years. Today, 25 percent of all the prisoners in the world are in the United States! The U.S. has only 5 percent of the world’s population. Voting protections are gone in many states. Racism is alive and thriving. When workers take power, that’s communism, we will eliminate racism once and for all.
MYTH 3: A wider Vietnam War was avoided by electing Lyndon Johnson as President over “extremist” Goldwater.
What really happened:
No wider war was one of Johnson’s statements prior to the election. The Vietnam War went from 23,000 troops to 536,100 troops under Johnson. Vietnamese were herded into fortified “hamlets” with promises that were never met. They found concentration camp like living conditions. Many villages were burned by U.S. troops because they were suspected of harboring the Vietcong. In the village of My Lai, U.S. troops were photographed murdering elders, women and children. This also happened in many of these hamlets.
Agent Orange, containing dioxin, was used extensively resulting in over 400,000 Vietnamese people dying from exposure. Over 300,000 U.S. soldiers also died from exposure. Though it was stopped in 1971, dioxin still persists in soils, water, sediment, fish, aquatic species, and the food supply,
Black soldiers, thrust by racism into front line units, were killed and wounded at a much higher rate than white soldiers in Vietnam. Black soldiers led and organized with white soldiers to oppose the Vietnam War even in the Army.
Today profiteering nationalist wars span the globe and world war is closer than ever. Our goal in the Progressive Labor Party is to turn imperialist world war into a class war of workers against the capitalists. Power to the working class.
Myth 4: Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa on April 27, 1994, signaling the official ending of apartheid in that nation. Mandela was a "hero", imprisoned for years, and leader of the African National Congress party (ANC).
What really happened:
Mandela made a deal with South Africa's white capitalist rulers, who were feeling the economic effects of external sanctions and internal pressures. In return for his freedom, ending the ban on the ANC, repealing apartheid legislation, and granting free elections, the ANC would cease their agitation and guerilla activity, and capitalism and the capitalists would continue. There were thousands of soldiers ready to fight massing in Botswana at the time.
As a result of this deal, the ANC has been the ruling party in South Africa until this year. What has that meant for most of the majority Black population? Nearly half the adult population of South Africa lives in poverty, with women and those living in rural areas, overwhelmingly Black, most affected. Because of the AIDS denying, and money-saving beliefs of Black millionaire Thabo Mbeki, South Africa's President from 1999 to 2008, South Africans suffered an unnecessary 330,000 AIDS deaths. Today, whether in terms of wages, wealth, or consumption, South Africa places among the world's most unequal countries. Many of the corporations are still owned by the same white capitalists.
The lesson: whether racist white capitalists or Black nationalist capitalists, they are all murderers. The only solution is communist revolution -- no bosses, no money, everyone sharing both scarcity and plenty. This is what Progressive Labor Party is fighting for. Join us!
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Let’s organize for communism: the world we wish to see
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- 05 September 2024 237 hits
In August we held our annual Progressive Labor Party (PLP) BBQ! Even though it was muggy and hot - it was upbeat and well attended! Long time supporters and friend—along with those who we have recently met—enjoyed the delicious grilled food along with potluck items generously contributed! Workers of all ages, races and nationalities shared in friendly political discussion! Children played and enjoyed the play structure and bouncy house!
Sharing stories of struggle
Four comrades involved in organizing the BBQ spoke to the group.
The first comrade welcomed everyone - He explained that we are a party for communist revolution. We don’t vote, we organize! We fight to unite workers of all races and nationalities in one party that believes in an egalitarian society in which the wealth is shared! He welcomed the speakers!
The second comrade spoke about his experience coming to the U.S. as a teen with his family and meeting the PLP. Then when his family faced a harrowing racist attack, PLP helped them fight back. He spoke about the need to support and welcome refugees and immigrants who are enduring great adversity. He went on to describe the role of the U.S. and other imperialist powers in creating the conditions that lead to global migration.
Another speaker, a school nurse, spoke about the struggle of fighting for safe staffing in the health office and classroom as a union member. And the difficult struggle of organizing for reforms while at the same time fighting for a communist society.
Finally we bring you the inspiring speech of a comrade who recently joined the Progressive Labor Party:
“Four years ago, I began questioning why we had two options for the next President of the United States and I had to make a choice based on which of these candidates was less evil. Not even "good enough", not even "ok", but literally LESS EVIL. That question led me on a whole journey of discovery of both learning and unlearning our history, the forces that drive change, and what my role as a working class person can be.
Capitalism is evil and it's infected us globally. Where there is profit, there is exploitation. Where there is exploitation there is suffering.
My grandfather worked his whole life in a factory making minimum wage, as a gas station attendant, and as a Sears salesman. He worked these three jobs at times simultaneously. The people who say you just have to work hard enough to be "blessed" by wealth are lying - this reminds me of the George Carlin line: "we call it the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it." My grandfather worked incredibly hard. At the end of his life my grandfather said "I wish I had never been born" in regards to how hard his life was. And it was hard for what? So the factory owners, the top few people at Sears could live a life of leisure and luxury?
Join PLP, organize, and fight for communism
Right now capitalism is the air we breathe and the water we swim in. It's hard to see it for how common it is. But people created capitalism and we can destroy it. I’m not going to vote - I am going to organize. My vote means nothing to capitalists who throw millions of dollars to the person who best represents their interests – not ours. No liberals have ever just given the working class something. It was only after massive rebellions and strikes and civil unrest that they tried to pacify us with reform. And they do this because they are scared of us. And they should be.
That is why I joined the Progressive Labor Party – an international party. A party that is uniting workers all over the world. We want to see a world that is not run by the capitalists, that is not driven by profits at the expense of the lives of the rest of us - the working class. As a mom with young children I want to see a world where we are all surviving, we are all equal, we are all able to enjoy the one life we have to live.
I’m going to help organize a movement where workers can unite and resist. I’m going to help educate others just like me through discussion and study groups (starting one too!). I will fight sexism, nationalism, and racism – the tools of oppression. I will resist the cynicism instilled by the capitalist class that we aren’t strong enough or capable or “good” enough to mobilize and fight back. And I hope to be a part of the largest global revolution in history. I hope you will consider joining me.
Thank you friends and comrades, for being here on our day of organizing and friendship!”
‘So what are you gonna do?’
At my transit quarters, it is in the back room, away from our supervisor, where the workers’ ideas are shared. Today my coworker shared his struggles with money; like many of us he’s waiting for the over time (ot) to return.
It hasn’t been consistent in four months. Most workers depend on overtime to keep their heads above water, with rising prices of gas, rent increases, etc. My coworker, Mohammed, said he had to borrow from his pension to make repairs to his home but needs more money to finish it. My other coworker, Satana said,”make a Youtube video. Everyone who’s struggling can make it easy; they just have to be creative.” Rolling my eyes, I said, “You can’t expect that to work for everyone.” He said “yes.” I told him “there are over two billion people living in extreme poverty. That means they live on less than $3 a day, they surely don’t have phones.” My other coworker, Jackson, said “That’s the problem with capitalism. It keeps the rich making money and the poor, always needing money.” Santana said,”yeah, that’s why they need to fix that problem of capitalism.” I said, “capitalism can’t be fixed, it’s working perfectly the way it was designed to.” Jackson said, “capitalism doesn’t work for us.” So I asked him, “So what are you gonna do on election day?” He said, “ probably vote for Harris.” I said, “why?” He continued, “because I like her running mate. What’s his name again, Tim something hmm… ahh Walz!” I asked, “why do you like him?” He continued, “because he seems nice and level headed.” I said, “he’s no better than Harris, things will only get worse under them.” “We’ll see,” he said. It appears I have my work cut out for me. We all need to get an early start and make sure no worker sees any one of these racists as a choice for the working class.
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How I make small gains in a big protest
On August 18th I and other comrades took part in the National Day of Action demonstration in Brooklyn, NY. This demonstration was called by several groups including DSA, Jewish Voicefor Peace, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and others to take place as the Democratic National Convention was starting in Chicago, IL. Most people there were angry about the genocide taking place in Gaza.
Although our main work is with those we know in mass organizations, where we work, go to school or where we live, participation in rallies like this one are useful in putting forth our ideas among folks we wouldn’t meet otherwise. I always bring pen and paper to get contact info and ask for donations to help pay for the next edition of our paper!
Collectively our Party group distributed between 300-350 CHALLENGEs. The response to our efforts was very positive. I always ask for donations for the paper and this time I got $56.00.
Other comrades got donations as well. In addition, four people gave me their contact information to find out more about Progressive Labor Party.
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AIPAC doesn’t direct U.S. imperialism
I think there is one misleading phrase in the editorial of Sept.4. It states that “neither Harris nor Biden has the spine to defy the Zionist lobby,…AIPAC.” The implication is that Israel determines the foreign policy of the U.S. It is actually the U.S. that needs Israel, which is the only reliable U.S. ally in the Middle East since the fall of the Shah of Iran and the recent waffling of Saudi Arabia between China and the U.S. Israel is essential as a base to protect the fossil fuel resources and transit routes in the area, the extremely important shipping lanes of the Suez Canal, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, as a bulwark against local nationalist and extremist movements and the power of Iran, and has given the U.S. cover in dealing with unpopular actors such as apartheid South Africa and the Contras. AIPAC is useful for buying politicians and limiting their critiques of Israel, but that is a secondary role, not what determines U.S. needs. We need this understanding to be clearly understood that no presidential candidate will decrease support for Israel, lobbies aside.
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Loved the organizing, write more!
I loved the article about our Kentucky friends organizing at the Republican National Convention in August. They described in detail how they distributed CHALLENGE, engaged people in conversations, even reaching out to people who identified with other parties. Their efforts showed how multiracial unity is possible! While at the Convention, the cops brutally killed another Black man. Our friends immediately mobilized to protest this killing, showing a great deal of flexibility and commitment. The article provided many examples for others to follow. I hope we hear from them again!
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Shifting imperialist alliances in Asian Pacific
France24, 8/28–Pacific Island leaders endorsed a landmark regional policing plan Wednesday at a summit in Tonga, a contentious move seen as trying to limit China's security role in the region. Leaders unveiled a plan to create up to four regional police training centres and a multinational crisis reaction force, backed by $271 million in initial funding from Australia. Under the plan, a corps of about 200 officers drawn from different Pacific Island nations could be dispatched to regional hot spots and disaster zones when needed and invited. "This demonstrates how Pacific leaders are working together to shape the future that we want to see," said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, hailing the agreement.
The Australian leader made the announcement while flanked by leaders of Fiji, Palau, Papua New Guinea and Tonga -- a symbolic show of unity in a region riven by competition between China and the United States…Wednesday's announcement was a diplomatic victory for Australia and for the Pacific Islands Forum, a regional bloc which had appeared deeply divided on the topic. China's Pacific allies -- most notably Vanuatu and Solomon Islands -- had voiced concern that the policing plan represented a "geo-strategic denial security doctrine", designed to box out Beijing.
Israeli military expands war into West Bank
Al Jazeera, 8/31–The Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that Israeli airstrikes near the al-Ahli Arab Hospital (Baptist Hospital) have killed two Palestinians and wounded others. Citing local sources, it reported that Israeli fighter jets had targeted the perimeter of the hospital, and emergency and rescue teams were still working to retrieve the fatalities and casualties…Israeli settlers mounted a large-scale opening fire on the villagers…
The Jenin Government Hospital announced it had suspended its daily dialysis services due to ongoing disruptions in essential supplies caused by the Israeli military siege of the city, according to Wafa, the Palestinian news agency. The hospital has been under Israeli military siege for the past four days, leading to severe operational challenges, Wafa reported…Israeli forces had damaged the electricity supply line to the hospital, and the backup generators have been running continuously for four days.
War in Gaza tracks with rising anti-Muslim racism
Brookings, 8/27–After years of improvement, American public attitudes toward Muslims and Islam have declined in the past few months, and expressed public prejudice toward Muslims remains higher than toward any other religious, ethnic, or racial group studied. These are two of the key findings in our latest University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll (UMDCIP)...after years of improvement, favorable views of Muslims and Islam have declined in the two polls we have carried out in 2024. Favorable views of Muslims dropped to 64% from 78% in 2022, returning to 2016 levels; favorable attitudes toward Islam dropped to 48%...The drop in favorable views of Muslims occurred among both Democrats and Republicans, but it is notable that the drop in favorable views of Islam was more pronounced among Democrats.
Russia and China combine military forces to challenge U.S.
New York Times, 8/13–China and Russia have pressed an informal political and economic alliance against the West. Now they are stepping up the cooperation between their militaries with increasingly provocative joint war games. Chinese and Russian long-range bombers patrolled together near Alaska for the first time last month. Days earlier, the countries held live-fire naval drills in the hotly contested South China Sea for the first time in eight years. And they have more frequently buzzed the skies and sailed the waters together near Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, where America has strategic interests.
The military exercises are, in some ways, the most vivid expression of an alignment between China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia as they have sought to challenge their chief geopolitical rival, the United States…To Washington, the exercises sow doubts about whether the United States could prevail in a war in Asia against the combined forces of China and Russia. While American war planners have long considered scenarios with China and Russia individually, they have paid less attention to the prospect of the two nuclear-armed states fighting together because it had long seemed so unlikely.
On August 10, after assassinating a top Hamas leader in Tehran and a Hezbollah commander in Beirut, the genocidal Israel regime targeted a Gaza school-turned-shelter during morning prayers, killing more than 90 people. Nazi Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to keep bombarding Gaza until Hamas is obliterated—which translates into the nonstop slaughter of women, men, and children with no place to turn. Israel’s reckless assassination spree is pushing the Middle East toward a regional war and, given the crisis of capitalism and intensified imperialist competition, toward World War III.
Over the last 10 months, based on conservative estimates, nearly 40,000 workers have been killed in Gaza. According to the medical journal The Lancet, the true death toll from Israel’s ethnic cleansing—including bodies buried under rubble and “indirect” deaths from the collapse of health and food distribution infrastructure—exceeds 186,000, or more than 8 percent of Gaza’s prewar population (Al Jazeera, 8/7). The missile strike on the Gaza City shelter struck a prayer hall filled with 200 workers and children, strewing the scene with bodies and body parts. “The dead are all in pieces,” one worker said (New York Times, 8/10).
Progressive Labor Party calls for internationalism and multiracial unity to smash the U.S.-backed Zionist baby-killers and the murderous capitalist system behind these racist atrocities. Only communist revolution by the international working class can end capitalist genocide for all time!
Zionist isolation and U.S. weakness
As war widens in the Middle East and the blood-soaked Israeli bosses become more and more isolated, there are clear signs of growing U.S. weakness in the region. After the latest assassinations, Iran demanded an emergency meeting of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation. The OIC proceeded to hold Israel, “the illegal occupying power, fully responsible for this heinous attack.” Saudi Arabia, a bitter enemy of Iran until China arranged a rapprochement in March, called the murder of Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas a “blatant violation” of Iran’s sovereignty (Al Jazeera, 8/7).
As Israel’s crimes against humanity show no sign of ebbing, the United Nations keeps telling the world that there is no longer any safe place in Gaza. Schools, shelters, and hospitals are all routinely targeted by Zionist bombs and missiles. Even with more reports of torture and rapes in Palestine by Israeli soldiers, the Biden-Harris administration continues to write a blank check for money and weapons to these war criminals.
After Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s settler Nazi finance minister, stated it “may be just and moral” to try to free Israeli hostages by exterminating 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, the Zionist regime faced a firestorm of criticism from the European Union (Financial Times, 8/9). If Iran and its proxies back up their threats of retaliation, the U.S. may soon find itself in a lonely place in taking Israel’s side.
Spiral to WWIII
U.S. complicity in the Gaza genocide has further eroded its influence over the vital, oil-rich Middle East. Both regional challenger Iran and imperialist rivals China and Russia are moving aggressively to fill the power vacuum. While U.S. Middle East “alliances” are disintegrating, Iran’s strategy of building up proxy militias and appealing to potential allies seems to be working. The imperialist rulers of Russia, Iran’s key backer, have used the horrors of Gaza to expose the U.S. rulers’ hypocritical criticism of Russia’s onslaught against Ukraine. And while the U.S. funds two wars, China continues to strengthen its economic and political ties in the Middle East and Africa, frequently at U.S. expense. As the U.S. prepares to send a dozen combat ships and a squadron of fighter jets to defend Israel from retaliation by Iran, it’s been reduced to pleading with Israel to accept a ceasefire agreement.
Meanwhile, both wings of the U.S. capitalist ruling class are working to squash a growing anti-genocide movement. Avril Haines, Genocide Joe Biden’s director of national intelligence, claimed that “actors tied to Iran’s government [are] posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support to [anti-genocide] protesters.” This provoked 22 members of the Trump-controlled House of Representatives to demand the “investigation and criminal prosecution as well as financial ruin of Gaza war protesters, who they claim have received funding from Iran” (Ken Klippenstein, 8/9). It wasn’t enough for U.S. rulers to use their fascist KKKops to destroy overwhelmingly peaceful encampments protesting genocide in Gaza. Now they propose to criminalize the protests’ organizers.
While Top KKKop Kamala Harris agreed to meet with members of the anti-genocide Uncommitted movement, her security advisor made it clear she will never back an arms embargo against Israel: "She will always ensure Israel is able to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups” (Al Jazeera, 8/8). Neither Harris nor Biden has the spine to defy the Zionist lobby in the U.S., led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The group spent record amounts in recent primary elections to oust two anti-genocide Congresspeople, Jamaal Bowman in New York and Cori Bush in Missouri.
Worker-soldier-student fightback can end war
For the workers of the world, Zionism and Hamas-inspired Palestinian nationalism are both dead ends. Nationalism and racism are two sides of the same coin. They are used by the capitalist rulers to divide workers and mislead them into believing they have more in common with their oppressors than with their class sisters and brothers around the world.
Workers around the world have continued to protest the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Tens of thousands are planning to demonstrate outside the warmakers’ Democratic National Convention this month. PLP applauds the bravery and determination of these protesters. But street actions and campus encampments are not enough to end capitalist wars for profit! The international working class needs more.
During the Vietnam War, Progressive Labor Party built a worker-student-soldier alliance that called for turning imperialist genocide into a war for workers’ power. That means organizing soldiers in all capitalist-led armies to turn the guns around for communist revolution. Only an international revolutionary communist party can lead the fight to smash imperialist wars—and to build a new world run by and for the working class. Fight back for the workers and children of Gaza! Join PLP!
