The Worker Spring 2016 PCUSA CONGRESS ISSUE
Workers of the World Unite
50¢
Our Time Is Now Syria Chemtrails Marxism Internationale
I N S I D E
Party of Communists USA - continuing the tradition of the Daily Worker, founded 1924
The inaugural congress of the Party of Communists USA (PCUSA) takes place in historic Monroe, State of New
York from April 1 to 3, 2016. The PCUSA was founded two years ago in response to the clear need for a militant, working class, vanguard party to sharpen the struggle for socialism by the U.S. working class. Under the banner, "Our time is Now, building a future of Peace, Equality, and Socialism”, we will assess our party’s previous activity, and plan and prepare our work for the next four (4) years. The focus here is on the further development of the PCUSA as revolutionary party of the American working class. Specifically, a party program of action is to be discussed and articulated, resolutions on important questions will be discussed, the organization of the commissions will be assessed and adapted, and we will elect the incoming Central Committee and other bodies of the Party. The PCUSA takes seriously its responsibilities for solidarity toward the international community of communist and workers' parties. It endeavors to maintain fraternal relations and class struggle responsibilities with Communist and Workers’ parties throughout the world on the basis of proletarian internationalism. We are honored to invite representatives of fraternal Parties to attend and/or send their fraternal greetings to the congress. Yours in solidarity and comradeship, THE COUNCIL OF SECRETARIES OF THE PCUSA
Abolition of Charter Schools All working class parents who have children in public schools (and the students themselves) know that the state of most public education in the U.S. today is deplorable and has been declining for decades. Some 66% of 4th graders are not reading at grade level, and 64% of 8th graders are not reading at grade level. A good part of the reason is what we could call the “McDonaldization” of education. Under capitalism, education is not meant to provide students with a well-rounded understanding of the word around them (much less to encourage ideas of how to change it), but to prepare them for the “world of work,” that is, to get a job where they will be exploited by one or another capitalist. These days, a large proportion of new jobs are in McDonalds or other service industries. Why would the capitalists want to educate someone who can read well or do math, when they just want someone to be able to push a button that says “Big Mac,” or count out the $3.59 change when a customer hands them a $10 bill for an order of $6.41. Of course, there are other, more highly skilled and better paid jobs, many of which require a good knowledge of computers and other technological fields. Clearly parents (and most students) want their children to be prepared for these kinds of jobs, and there must be schools that provide such education. It is in this situation that the ruling class comes in with its “solution” – charter schools, considered by their promoters as “education corporations.” Make no mistake about it: charter schools are being pushed at all levels of government, from President Obama and his Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, to New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo. The Federal government has spent $3.7 billion to
Angelo D’Angelo & George Greene (retired teachers)
promote charter schools. Even liberal New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio only wants to limit their expansion, not to abolish them. They are also supported by billionaire monopoly capitalists, from Bill Gates of Microsoft Corporation to the Walton family of Wal-Mart. Charter schools are a form of privatization of education. A group whose proposal for a charter school is approved gets to establish its own rules and select its own staff. It even has the right to exclude and expel students, including by limiting the number of Special Ed students and those not proficient in English (thus raising the school’s scores on standardized tests). But in practice most charter schools choose their students by lottery. The schools are paid by public funds through the local board or department of education, frequently supplemented by corporate funds. They do not have to release their financial information to the public. Needed money is siphoned from underfunded public schools. Charters are often co-located in public Continued on page 2
Repeal Taft/Hartley
The interests of working people, the workers verses the interests of the propertied class, the owners of capital. Labor law in the United States serves generally the interests of capital, effectively sanctioning the interests of workers while exclusively guarding the interests of the owners of capital. The advance of the working people of the Soviet Union created conditions in the world for the advance of working people in all nations, important gains were made. Capital and the owning class worldwide were forced to retreat and the movement toward an organized and empowered working class pressed its demands upon the crisis ridden edifice supporting the status quo. In the 1930s reaction exposed its ugly head via the rise of fascism, the effort of capital to stem the tide flowing against it. The war enviably followed pitting imperialisms national centers against the rise of the peoples movement and the first socialist experiment in workers management of state affairs, the USSR. Worldwide the workers movement responded, forcing a truly democratic response to the threat against the working class, a class conscious tidal
Stephen Paulmier wave of patriotic socialist fervor pushed the productive forces of the world to defend and defeat the reaction of capital. Beaten and bloodied the owning class reacted again, in the euphoria of the workers victory they turned on the inspiration of the class struggle, their arch enemy, Soviet Socialism and rammed through a structural realignment in the legal theater to stem the tide for working peoples justice. While to this point the rights and responsibilities of human activity were progressively being articulated as led forward by the peoples of the USSR; now the bastions of capital asserted their interests, spewing the tactics of hate and avarice. Defining the interests of workers as subservient to the exploiters of the labor power. The incentive of human productivity would be chained to the caprice of maximum profit, responsibility be damned. Such is the context in which the Congress of the United States passed the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947 otherwise know as the Taft/Hartley Act; effectively enshrining the prerogative of the ruling class while rendering workers defenseless. Continued on page 2
The Worker / Spring 2016 / page 2
Abolition of Charter Schools
Continued from page1
school buildings, taking away space from libraries, labs, etc, from the public schools. Charters claim that their students do better on achievement tests but despite the aforementioned advantages, charters do not generally have better test results. Researchers from Stanford University who surveyed 15 states found that 80% of charters students did no better than their counterparts in public schools. Charters spend much money on PR on TV and have convinced many working-class parents that their children will get a better education. This pits parents whose children go to underfunded and neglected public schools, against charter school parents. All this distracts these parents and their children, particularly from Black and Latino neighborhoods, from uniting with the teachers and fighting for adequately funded and democratically run public schools and to challenge an education system that serves the “1%”. The charter schools serve the interests of the monopolies in various ways. They see the $600 billion spent on public school education in the U.S. each year as a potential source of profits. Banks that lend money to charter schools do not have to pay taxes on the interest they charge. The fact that the teachers in the great majority of charter schools are not unionized is a major blow to the trade union movement. (One should note that in many countries, teachers’ unions are some of the most progressive and even revolutionary unions.) Often, the heads of the chartering groups pay themselves huge salaries. Thus, Eva Moskowitz, the head of the Success Academy who has no background in education, and Geoffrey Canada, the recently retired head of Harlem Children’s Zone, both in Harlem, New York, each received over $400,000 a year. Moreover, suburban schools and those in middle class neighborhoods are already better than those in working class neighborhoods. This is largely because they have a much higher level of funding per pupil, since the budgets for school districts generally
Chemtrails
Jessica Coco
come from real estate taxes. Why not provide an equal level of funding per student across the country, so that “inner-city” schools get the same funding as suburban schools? Let us be clear – charter schools are part of the privatization of social services in general. In New Orleans, particularly since Hurricane Katrina, public schools have been closed (just as public housing has been torn down), so now 80% of schools there are charter schools. In Los Angeles, currently 25% of students attend charter schools, but the Broad Foundation (headed by billionaire Ali Broad) is trying to push this up to 50%. All privatization of public services is an attack on public workers, as the workers in these private firms are usually not protected by a union. Continued from page1
Repeal Taft/Hartley
Taft/Hartley is the single most damaging weapon in the arsenal of capital against the peoples effort to organize. In a pointed and intense offensive it legislated away the struggle and sacrifice of legions of working people. It codified the new offensive against socialist progress and identified by name the origin of its irritation, communism. (Though later that paragraph was stricken via a defiant and relentless peoples campaign for justice, the act audaciously labeled the belief in communism to be the disqualifying characteristic for membership in working class organization.) This tactic was leveraged to expel from the workers movement any and all semblance of working class authenticity. The rewards of opportunism and collaboration were used to render the class utterly defenseless. By the time the victory against that part of the act was won the damage done was catastrophic. Our work to reverse this damage is cut out for us. Repeal of this legislation in its entirety has no higher priority for the working class of our nation. Our Party of Communists USA makes no greater agitation in support of the class struggle than the organization and education of our class on the importance of this effort. Repeal Taft/Hartley! Informative articles on this anti working class legislation can be found on the web using any search engine.
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What are those white trails in the sky? When is the last time, you saw stars at night or a sky which isn’t always hazy? Chem-trails refer to chemicals usually consisting of aluminum, radioactive barium and others, being dumped into our air. 32 states have enacted weather modification legislation(See weather modification association website), and the governments of Germany, UK, and Sweden have all acknowledged openly chem-trails exist. They say it’s to control global warming. However, the use of heavy metals actually creates global warming by trapping greenhouse gasses and destroying the ozone layer. The question then is why is this really being done and what can we do about it?
There are numerous explanations for the creation of chem-trails. As a means for weather modification they can be used to create droughts, monsoons, and destructive tidal waves. Chem-trails also have an adverse effect on non-GMO crops. Non-GMO and Organic crops cannot tolerate high levels of aluminum. This is can lead to a food monopoly for Monsanto, which created aluminum resistant GMO crops as far back as the mid-1980’s. This can force countries to buy GMO products from Monsanto. Monsanto, an agricultural company by the way owns Blackwater (now renamed Academi), a para military organization. Since the introduction of Chem-trails nearly 10% of all Americans are now diagnosed as being asthmatic; a 28% percent jump from 2001according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) and this number is rising drastically; while Alzheimer’s is now the #1 cause of
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The Worker/El Obrero
Official voice of the Party of Communists USA
Editor - Stephen Paulmier Editorial Board: Angelo D’Angelo, Jessica Coco, Jared Cooper, George Greene, Joseph Hancock, Kelly McConnell, Greg Rose, Daniel Vila
Published quarterly Website: partyofcommunistsusa.org partyofcommunistsusa@outlook.com
Letters, art, poetry and image submissions encouraged death among Seniors. Aluminum toxicity is known to cause both. Manufacturing dominated the US GDP in the past, today healthcare is becoming one of the most significant sectors of the US economy. Illness translates into more healthcare benefiting Big Corporation as well as more taxes for the US government. Equally important perhaps, it’s difficult for sick people to rebel as they are struggling just to juggle a job. The only way to fight Chem-trails is to educate others and to 1. See weather modification association organize to overthrow a system that profits from droughts, wars, and 2. McFadden ER Jr, Warren EL. Observations on asthma mortality. Ann Intern Med. human illness. 1997;127:142–7.
The Worker / Spring 2016 / page 3
INTERNATIONAL
SYRIA: LET US MAKE OUR COLLECTIVE VOICE OF REASON BE HEARD
An Urgent Appeal by the U.S. Peace Council
To All of Our Friends in the Peace Movement Dear Friends and Comrades in Peace,
As you are all well aware, after almost half a decade of violent proxy war, terrorism, and bloodshed in Syria, the warring parties have agreed to meet once again, this time in Geneva, Switzerland, to find a political solution to the ongoing war that has cost the lives of tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children, has left millions of Syrians homeless, and has turned millions of others into refugees flooding Syria’s neighboring countries and Europe. Many experts believe that this is the last chance for achieving a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis. It is also well known that these negotiations are being held under extremely complicated circumstances. This conflict has more than two sides and it is certainly not solely about the government of Syria and its opposition. Here we are also dealing with regional power rivalries, with each country pursuing its own interests, and the drive by the United States and NATO states to redraw the map of the Middle East to achieve their own imperial goals. It is also part and parcel of the global drive to encircle, contain, and subdue Russia and China, as a continuation of the neocons’ global strategy. At the global level, the United States and NATO consider Syria as a stepping stone toward a regime change in Iran and ultimately in Russia, and are trying to bring Syria under the West and NATO control by any means possible, including financing, organizing, and arming the militant/terrorist groups fighting the Syrian government, either directly or by using their proxy states and regional allies. This has inevitably put the U.S. on a dangerous confrontation course with Russia, which sees the overthrow of the Syrian government and establishment of another pro-NATO state near its borders as a major threat to its national security. Russia considers this an extension of what NATO is doing in Ukraine. The shooting down of a Russian fighter jet by NATO member Turkey was a clear escalation of this dangerous and intentional confrontation. At the regional level, the conflict cannot be reduced to a war between two opposing camps only. It is not simply the case of Syria, Iran and Russia on the one side, and Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, Turkey, Israel, and others, on the other side. Although all of the countries in the latter group are acting within the overall U.S./NATO plan for regime change in Syria, each of them has its own particular agenda for Syria and the region as well, and is trying to push the events in the direction that serves its own interests.
Both Saudi Arabia (closest U.S. ally after Israel) and Qatar (home of the U.S. Central Command) are dead bent on overthrowing the Assad government by use of force. They have been acting as the main dispensers of money and arms to the militant rebels and foreign terrorists in Syria. Saudi Arabia, particularly, has been considering Iran as its main rival and enemy in the region ever since the 1979 revolution that took Iran out of the US/NATO sphere of influence. For the Saudis, the overthrow of Assad’s Syria, the only Arab state independent of US manipulation and a long-time ally of Iran in the Middle East, serves to weaken Iran and ultimately pave the way for regime change in that country. However, despite agreeing on the goal of forced regime change in Syria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey have different ideas about who should replace the Assad government. For the Saudis, who are intent on spreading their own extremist Wahhabi version of Islam in the region, the favorites are ISIS, Al-Qaeda-related groups like al-Nusra Front, and other extremist Islamic groups like the Islam Army, and the Asala wa Tanmiya Front (Authenticity and Growth Front, also supported by U.S.). On the other hand, Qatar, like Turkey, supports Islamist groups affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, like the Sham Legion and the Turkishfunded Ahrar al-Sham. In many cases, each of these groups is itself a coalition of dozens of Islamist groups fighting in Syria, many of whom are in fact foreign fighters. All in all, according to BBC, “there are believed to be as many as 1,000 armed opposition groups in Syria,
commanding an estimated 100,000 fighters,” each, of course, under the control or influence of one or more of anti-Assad governments involved. Until recently the main focus of these governments and the United States was on an armed overthrow of the Assad government, and the U.S. made the policy of “Assad must go” a pre-condition for any direct negotiations with the government of Syria. However, the entry of Russian military into the scene has made a military victory for the Western powers and their regional allies virtually impossible and, hence, has forced the U.S. to soften its position on the method, but not goal, of removing Assad. As a result, the focus has now shifted to finding a way for removing the Assad government from power through “peaceful” negotiations with the participation of both the Syrian government and the opposition, and allowing for a “transitional period” for regime change....
Dear friends and comrades in the peace movement, Looking at the whole picture, there is no doubt that we are faced with a dangerously explosive situation in Syria and the Middle East. The true voices of the Syrian people have been silenced by foreignimposed war and terrorism. We in the U.S. peace and anti-war movement cannot passively watch the intrigues, deceptions and manipulations, which are leading to yet another disaster. We should raise our voices of reason in support of the people of Syria loudly and demand that all parties involved in the Syrian negotiations work honestly and sincerely toward a peaceful solution to the conflict. We appeal to all of you to help organize demonstrations in front of your local Congressional offices and demand that your Congressperson and Senator pressure the Obama Administration to guarantee that Syrian people are allowed to participate in the negotiations freely, and that the Syrian people alone are allowed to decide the future of their country, not foreign powers and their proxy forces. We call on all activists in the peace movement to flood the emails and phone lines of the White House and the State Department and demand the following: 1) Stop all foreign efforts to force regime change in Syria:
a) Stop bombing Syrian economic infrastructure in the name of fighting ISIS. b) Stop injecting foreign fighters into Syria.
c) Stop funding, organizing and arming the combatants in Syria.
2) Let the Syrians themselves decide the future of their country free of all foreign intervention: a) Allow all truly moderate internal opposition groups and the Kurdish organizations to participate in the negotiations. b) Exclude no segment of the Syrian population from peace negotiations.
c) Exclude all foreign opposition forces, as well as all terrorist organizations, from the negotiations.
3. Lift all sanctions on Syria. Provide humanitarian aid to the Syrian people. Help the Syrian refugees settle wherever they want — including back in Syria.
4. End all wars of aggression, all forms of foreign occupation, and all externally-generated regime change policies in the region. U.S. Peace Council January 23, 2016
Abridged for space considerations. Find the full text at:
http://www.wpc-in.org/statements/syria-let-us-make-our-collective-voice-reason-be-heard
The Worker / Spring 2016 / page 4
Editoral Board
PCUSA — Who We Are
People are losing their homes and their apartments, sleeping on the streets. Utilities like water and heat are being shut off. Military spending has skyrocketed while earned pensions are being cut to the bone.. No one cares for our disabled veterans that are the unwilling victims in our imperialist wars. People are losing their jobs through no fault of their own. Private bankers and corporations have millions while working people live from paycheck to paycheck. Innocent people are being gunned down in the streets, victims of state sponsored terrorism every day all across the USA. There is no real economic justice. There are no real civil rights. We live in a citadel of racism. This is all part of a socio-economic system called capitalism. Capitalism is the system of exploitation of the many by the few. It is this system of exploitation that is hell bent on destroying the earth’s environment. We have had enough of capitalism. Have you?? We should own it all…WE ARE THE 99%
Karl Marx said that “labor creates all value.” What that means is that “workers have built it all.” Everything should belong to us! We have to take what is rightfully ours. We need to continue the American revolution of 1776 to the next stage-a change to a society controlled by working people. That’s why we are building a vanguard Communist Party of the working class in the USA! (If you are under thirty years of age, join the League of Young Communists (LYC) and fight for the rights of young people in the USA.)
fight each other. They use all forms of bigotry to keep us apart- racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and national chauvinism, the degrading of people because of their various different nationalities. We struggle for the rights of people with disabilities. Many of us are disabled workers ourselves. Some of us were injured at work and cannot work anymore. After we have built this country, the bosses have discarded the us like garbage. We are part of the working class. The capitalists ruthlessly super-exploit some in order to better exploit us all. The PCUSA aims for a scientific socialist society with a planned economy with full employment for people’s needs, not corporate greed. We demand peace and global security. We struggle against imperialism and NATO. We struggle for the people’s right to self-determination and national liberation. If this sounds good to you, we need your help in this good fight for a better life. JOIN the Party of Communists USA and League of Young Communists (LYC)!
We are carrying on the historical traditions of the American Communist Party, founded in Chicago in 1919. Based on the science of MarxismLeninism, communists have historically emphasized that only through class struggle, can working people attain their economic freedom. We fight against the oppression of all workers. The bosses love it when we
Charles Gannon
A World in War
As a civilian population we sit back and watch our leaders make decisions on our behalf. We watch as war is glorified daily on the media across the world in countries everywhere. It is evident, especially for the U.S., that war is a motive for capitalists to increase capital through imperialistic actions, stealing from other nations, and billing the government, making weapons manufacturing companies profit off government funding. As we plunge the planet in to war, threatening countries with bombings and invasion and occupation, all we do is create more destruction as nations fight back, leading to endless fights.
What is the result of these mindless acts of violence and destruction? The increase of terrorism as we enrage civilians of other nations with our killings, provoking people who seek reprisal, leading to the endless War On Terrorism. A famous quote, that is true in every last detail, is “war is terrorism with a bigger budget”. The definition of terrorism by the Merriam Webster dictionary is “violent or destructive acts (such as bombing) committed by groups in order to intimidate a population or government in to granting their demands”.
For the U.S., who are our enemies? It seems like almost everyone. We glorify attacking Middle Eastern nations, we glorify attacking African nations, we glorify attacking Asian nations. Out of all these nations we talk about invading or attacking, our government seems to fancy attacking Muslim nations, like Iraq, Iran, and Syria. Second to that our government seems to love glorifying attacking nations in Asia, mainly China, North Korea and Russia. It is evident in our media, not only news but our own entertainment games where our main enemies are Chinese and Russian.
The problem with the war influence by the capitalist establishment is not only does it send the poor, who are struggling with life and poverty, to
war in their name, but it also brings out the worse feelings and views in us. War influence by the capitalist establishment breeds a evil outlook, where racism and hatred prospers. Look at nations involved in war and occupation, those they fight are people they hate. A scary large amount of people in the U.S. hold hatred towards Muslims because the Media distorts the followers of Islam by using the phrase Muslim extremism. We never promote that Muslims are just like other religions when it comes to the extremists, every religious group has them; no, we promote only a one sided view of the religion we love to hate, which creates a generalization mind set. This only further proves the point that war influence under the capitalist establishment brings out hatred for whoever we wage war with, it brings out the worse side of humanity, as we blindly go in to battle with nations and people we've never met. We as a human race must stop this before it gets out of control. We are heading down a road of our own destruction and extinction. We make the wealthy richer as we buy guns and bombs to kill each other. We aim nukes at othes with our finger on the trigger hoping the other side doesnʻt pull their trigger. The more we fight the more we make life hard for ourselves, if we wish to advance as the working class, our attention and our struggle must be waged against those who send us to mindless wars in favor of the one percent. The capitalist class must be stripped of power and influence.
In Memoriam In loving memory of our dear Comrade, Esther Freistadt Cicconi, 95 years in the struggle for Peace and Socialism. May 26, 1919 - February 3, 2015
ECONOMIC SCIENCE
The Worker / Spring 2016 / page 5
Capitalism Needs the Unemployment It Produces George Greene
[Summary of Chapter 25, Section 3, of Capital, Vol. 1] In every capitalist country, there are always people without work, who are forced by their circumstances to take any job available. Why is that? First, this was not true in earlier forms of class society. Under slavery (whether in ancient Greece or Rome, or in the pre-Civil War U.S.), there were no slaves looking for a master to own them. In feudal Europe in the Middle Ages, the serfs were bound to the land of their master, and so they could not be unemployed. And in the future socialist society, there will be no need for unemployment, as the increased productive forces will allow everyone to work a shorter work week (whether 30 hours, 25 hours or even less) with no decrease in earnings. As a matter of fact, in the 1930s, while the whole capitalist world was suffering from the huge unemployment of the Great Depression, the socialist Soviet Union eliminated unemployment while building up its modern industries under its five-year plans. No, unemployment is a purely capitalist phenomenon. So why does capitalism produce unemployment? It is precisely because capitalism is an increasingly productive system. That is, as capitalism develops, it continually adds more, and more modern, machinery, pushing more workers out of work even as it increasingly produces more commodities (goods for sale). But capitalism also needs unemployment. As even capitalist economists admit, capitalism goes through recurring production cycles. In these, production expands for a time until more commodities care produced than the working people with their limited wages can afford to buy. Production then falls of, leading to a recession. Finally, the number of commodities produced is low enough so that they can be sold, and once again production rises. The capitalists call this a “boom-bust” cycle. It is particularly during the period of expansion of production that capitalism needs the unemployed. If there were not enough workers available for the increased production, the capitalists would not be able to produce the extra commodities that they throw on the market or,
heaven forbid, they would have to pay their current workers more (which would of course cut into their profits). That is why capitalism needs a pool of unemployed workers, what is also called the reserve army of labor. Of course, as soon as too many commodities are produced, the capitalists get rid of their extra workers (whether through layoffs or just through attrition, the basic effect is the same). Let us take a recent example, from the motor vehicle industry, historically a key industry in the U.S. economy. In 1996, there were some 11,830,000 motor vehicles (cars and trucks) produced in the U.S. By 1999, this number rose to 13,025,000, an increase of 10%. However, the number of motor vehicle workers rose from 1,240,300 to 1,312,600, an increase of only 6%. From 1999 to 2011, the number of motor vehicles produced fell to 8,655,000, a fall of 34%. But the number of workers fell to 716,900, a decrease of 45%. So in both the “boom” and “bust” periods of the economic cycle, the number of workers increased slower or decreased faster than the increase or decrease in production respectively. That is why unemployment remains even when production increases.
CULTURE
The Internationale Arise, ye prisoners of starvation!
We want no condescending saviors
Toilers from shops and fields united,
For justice thunders condemnation:
We workers ask not for their favors;
The earth belongs to us, the workers,
Arise, ye wretched of the earth! A better world's in birth!
No more tradition's chains shall bind us; Arise, ye slaves, no more in thrall!
The earth shall rise on new foundations:
We have been nought, we shall be all! 'Tis the final conflict;
Let each stand in his place.
The International working class Shall be the human race!
'Tis the final conflict;
Let each stand in his place.
The International working class Shall be the human race!
To rule us from a judgment hall; Let us consult for all.
To make the thief disgorge his booty To free the spirit from its cell,
We must ourselves decide our duty, We must decide, and do it well. 'Tis the final conflict;
Let each stand in his place.
The International working class Shall be the human race! 'Tis the final conflict;
Let each stand in his place.
The International working class Shall be the human race!
The union we of all who work: No room here for the shirk.
How many on our flesh have fattened! But if the noisome birds of prey
Shall vanish from the sky some morning, The blessed sunlight still will stay. 'Tis the final conflict;
Let each stand in his place.
The International working class Shall be the human race! 'Tis the final conflict;
Let each stand in his place.
The International working class Shall be the human race!
The Worker / Spring 2016 / page 6
Who we are!
The League of Young Communists (LYC) is an organization of youth in the United States of America between the ages of 1829. We join the class struggle with the PCUSA on the side of the working class under its political guidance for the organization and education of youth in the struggle for a socialist society.
Affiliation:
Our Method:
Raised into Debt
Jared Cooper
Today, one of the ills which plague our society is one of debt; university student debt to be specific. According to an article from USA Today from April of 2015, total debt for U.S. university students equals to around $1.2 trillion dollars. Another article by Market Watch from May of 2015 states how the student debt is not finished increasing. In it, it is suggested that the average university student graduating in 2015 with a bachelors’ degree will be around $35,051; an increase from 2014.
There are many issues facing citizens of the United States today; and while this is one of many, it is significant. This is the further increase of debt on a generation which will come to inherit the mantle of the United States. However, what will we do to stop this crime against the new generations? Many aspects of the United States’ are decaying from infrastructure, healthcare, and education along with it. There is no true option with the exception to call for a change. Not one that would be outrageous or destructive for the everyday individual, but one which may bring us closer to a life which does not trod us through the muds of debt and chains for years of our already short lives. What then, might be the solution? The change? The answer is simultaneously simple and complex. It is a change in systematic
Firstly, an identification with the ideology of Marxism-Leninism.Secondly, an affiliation with the organization, The Party of Communists USA (PCUSA).
Application of Marxist-Leninist science to contemporary events and issues challenging youth in the class struggle. Demonstrating the reality of revolutionary change, we struggle in solidarity with youth on local, national, and international class issues in the interests of youth. Committing our energy toward the building of a new world based on the Marxist-Leninist science of socialist organization.
structure. A system which strips away the enslavement of debt. One which will provide needs such as: food, a roof over our heads, healthcare, an education, and much more if we simply work to better ourselves and the communities we live in. Some would call it radical, but radical can simply mean relating to the root of something. In this case, this change is the solution to the root of the problem. If all people are able and willing to contribute, then all individuals should therefore be supplied the needs and opportunities of life without having to work away days and nights, simply for attempting to receive needs and progress in making a better life. Berman, Jillian. “Class of 2015 has the most student debt in U.S. history.” 9 May 2015: Market Watch. Web. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/class-of2015-has-the-most- student-debt-in-us-history-2015-05-08
Rayfield, Nicholas. “National student loan debt reaches a bonkers $1.2 trillion.” 8 Apr. 2015: USA Today. Web. http://college.usatoday.com/2015/04/08/national-student-loan- debt-reaches-abonkers-1-2-trillion/
VOTE Electoral Struggle
Peter Korman
One of the most interesting things I have learned while running for public office has been that there is absolutely no need to receive any funding whatsoever in order to be successful in getting your platform across to people. All that is technically required is that you receive enough signatures on a petition in order to express that it is the will of some of the people that they would wish that you be on their voting ballot as a choice for whatever office you are running for. Asking for money from individuals makes an individual who is running become beholden not to the people that they are supposed to serve but rather beholden to those that have given them the money to basically purchase their success. This allows the campaign donors, usually corporations and big capitalist companies to control the individual if they become elected to office.
It has indeed been proven that there is no need to engage in this type of begging for resources from destructive organizations such as corporate capitalistic corporations. This removes the candidates focus away from the needs of the people in towards the needs of the donors as they are seeing your candidacy as a business investment. This makes the issues
of making human lives better secondary to that of corporate and business profits. This is how are constitutional republic has been destroyed and turned into an oligarchy due to decisions that favor corporations and far right big businesses. An example of this would be the Citizens United United Supreme Court decision. This decision equated the expenditure of big capital to the fundamental right of human freedom of speech. This means that corporations are allowed to dump as much bribery money into the hands of the candidates they wish to control as puppets as they wish without any reprisal from being audited by a watchdog agency to make sure such casino politics does not occur. However; this is a direct result of the contradictions of the capitalist system. Everything is for sale and commodified. Even the law and the well-being of the citizenry. References
Citizens United versus Federal Elections Commission, October, 2009, Supreme Court of the United States.
The Worker / Spring 2016 / page 7
Puerto Rico: Another crisis created by capitalism
Daniel Vila
On Monday June 29, the Governor of Puerto Rico, Alejandro García Padilla, delivered a message to the people of Puerto Rico stating that the government’s $73 billion debt is unpayable. The governor declared, “The public debt, considering the present level of economic activity, is unpayable”. Although the incompetent liar who made so many rosy electoral promises put on his best poker face in an attempt to give the message an air of urgency, his words were generally met with a ho-hum attitude by most Puerto Ricans. This, because in the weeks before his message, all the major media and political organizations had already reached the same conclusion and Wall Street’s three major credit evaluation companies had degraded to “junk” status the bonds issued by the government of Puerto Rico. This is a fabricated crisis
Puerto Rico’s colonial government is simply bowing to the demands of international financial forces which, like in Greece and around the world, have been demanding the implementation of draconian economic measures to squeeze more wealth from the pockets of working people and greater privileges for the super wealthy. Since the privatization of the Puerto Rico Telephone Company in 1998, the people of Puerto Rico and in particular the working class have been resisting countless efforts by the two ruling political parties, the Popular Democratic Party and the New Progressive Party, to eliminate labor and democratic rights and efforts to apply fierce neoliberal economic measures to maintain and increase wealth accumulation for a small predator elite, mostly USA corporations and Wall Street vultures.
For example, two years ago teachers and other public sector workers and supporters occupied the Legislature of Puerto Rico in response to the government’s decision to reduce the benefits for retirees. Videos and pictures of the dramatic takeover electrified the country. In the same period, even police took to the streets with thousands shouting anti austerity slogans and some carried signs denouncing that both major parties were the same! Governor Padilla has since his speech been telling the country that the way to solve this crisis is to implement the recommendations in the Krueger Report, developed by a group of economists headed by Ann Krueger, a former bureaucrat for the International Monetary Fund and tied to the corporate elite. This report proposes that Puerto Rico: • Reduce the number of hours worked by government employees; • Privatize government owned agencies specifically the electric company (Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica), the water resources company (Autoridad de Aqueductos y Alcantarillados), the State Insurance Corporatio (FSE) and the public education system; • Reduce the minimum wage which is now $7.25 an hour; • Reduce the number of sick days.
In addition, the July 11 edition of El Nuevo Día says it has confidential information that the government intends to fire public sector employees. The previous governor already fired some 30,000 workers. Since 2008, Puerto Rico has lost 200,000 jobs and more than half a million Puerto Ricans had moved to the USA.
As evidence of the preference by elites to attack workers via “disaster capitalism” and Puerto Rico’s inability to remedy its economy due to its lack of sovereign power, the colonial governor said, as quoted by El Vocero on July 3: “We will not get Puerto Rico out of this mess by taking sun on the beach.” With these words he was referring to his intention of reducing the number of vacation days won by public sector unions. However, regarding the corporate sector he has a different tone, putting forward a plan to grant multinational corporations even more tax breaks.
This is what capitalism is, a plan of attack by Wall Street, by the hedge fund investors who profit off these debts and the misery they cause and by the international capitalist financial institutions like the IMF and the World Bank to dominate the economies of many countries thru imperialist debt.
In his book, Confessions of an Economic Hitman, John Perkins states: “Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign ‘aid’ organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet’s natural resources. Their tools included fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.” He explains in detail that the goal of these hitmen is to first sink countries in debt. Then since the debt is not payable, the international loan agencies takeover and privatize a country’s public sectors and are also granted access to mineral deposits and given other corporate incentives or privileges. In a nutshell, that is what Wall Street, the banks and international finance institutions are forcing on the people of Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico is covered with shopping malls and fast-food chains. Local small businesses and agricultural producers have been quashed by USA invader corporations. These corporations make more than $40 billion annually in profits and pay no taxes. They hire low-wage workers who, contrary to capitalist myth, pay many local and sales taxes, not federal taxes though. These corporations also receive hundreds of million$ in government subsidies. Capitalism makes billions in profits from the colonial status of Puerto Rico. That is why Puerto Rico is a colony of the USA: to transfer wealth from the people to the capitalists. This is why Puerto Rico needs independence. The Fightback has begun
In the past two months there have been many demonstrations organized against the agenda of the ruling rich. I was in Puerto Rico in August when hundreds of teachers and their supporters marched to the governor’s mansion, La Fortaleza, to protest all the policies mentioned above. And in September, some 10,000 union led marched again to the governor’s mansion. This one had the participation of broader sectors though, with university students, religious organizations, community groups and environmentalists blasting the repressive economic measures proposed to supposedly allow Puerto Rico to be financially sound. And on October 21, the union which represents the public sector workers who produce and distribute the country’s electricity declared a one-day strike and mobilized thousands of workers from its union and other unions against the government’s plan to privatize the electric company. Various labor leaders have already warned that approval by the legislature of the measures proposed by the Krueger could lead to a general strike.
Socialists and many revolutionaries are putting forth that the debt is not really owed by the working and middle classes and that it was the wealthy who received and squandered the tens of billions which were borrowed of the last decades. Their position is clear: The debt is not ours and we will not pay it. Furthermore, the more politically clear sectors propose that this crisis which has been created by the corporate elite be used to build a new revolutionary political movement which should use the historically low popular support for the two corporate political parties to build a new movement which could lead the country to Independence and socialism.
El OBRERO
¡Obreros del mundo, Uníos!
Partido de los Comunistas EE.UU.
EDICIÓN DEL CONGRESO / Primavera 2016
50¢
Continuando la tradición del Daily Worker, fundado en 1924
Puerto Puerto Rico: Rico: otra otra crisis crisis creada creada por por el el capitalismo capitalismo
Por Daniel Vila El lunes 29 de junio el Gobernador de Puerto Rico, Alejandro García Padilla, dirigió un mensaje al pueblo de Puerto Rico declarando que la deuda de $73 billones es impagable. El gobernador declaró, “La deuda pública, tomando en consideración el presente nivel de actividad económica, es impagable”. Aunque el mentiroso incompetente quien durante su campaña electoral había hecho un sinnúmero de promesas electorales optimistas asumió un rostro sombrío en un esfuerzo por comunicar un sentido de urgencia, el mensaje no cayó como sorpresa a los oídos del pueblo. Esto, debido a que en las semanas previas a su mensaje, los principales medios y organizaciones políticas ya habían llegado a la misma conclusión y las agencias de evaluación de crédito de Wall Street ya habían clasificado de “chatarra” a los bonos ofrecidos por el gobierno de Puerto Rico. Esta es una crisis fabricada El gobierno colonial de Puerto Rico sencillamente está doblegándose a las exigencias de las fuerzas financieras internacionales las cuales, como en Grecia y alrededor del mundo, han estado exigiendo la implementación de medidas draconianas con el propósito de exprimir más ganancias de los bolsillos del pueblo trabajador y obtener más privilegios para los acaudalados. Desde la Privatización de la Puerto Rico Telephone Company en 1998, el pueblo de puerto Rico y en particular la clase trabajadora han estado resistiendo constantes esfuerzos de los dos partidos gobernantes, el partido popular Democrático y el Partido Nuevo Progresista, los cuales desean eliminar derechos laborales y democráticos e imponer severas medidas neoliberales económicas para mantener y aumentar la acumulación de riquezas por la pequeña élite depredadora, mayormente corporaciones de USA y los buitres de Wall Street. Por ejemplo, hacen dos años el magisterio y otros trabajadores del sector público y sus simpatizantes ocuparon la Legislatura de Puerto Rico en respuesta a la decisión del gobierno de reducir los beneficios a personas recibiendo pensiones de retiro del gobierno. Los videos y fotos de la dramática ocupación electrificaron al país. Durante el mismo periodo, hasta la policía tomaron las calles con miles gritando consignas en contra de la austeridad y algunas con carteles denunciando que ambos partidos principales eran lo mismo. Desde su discurso, el Gobernador Padilla le ha dicho al país que la manera de resolver esta crisis es implementando las recomendaciones del Informe Krueger, desarrollado por un grupo de economistas dirigidos por Ann Krueger, quien fungió de burócrata del Fondo Monetario Internacional y es parte de la élite corporativa. El informe propone: • Reducir el número de horas trabajadas por empleados públicos; • Privatizar las agencias del Estado especialmente, la Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica, la Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, el Fondo del Seguro del Estado y el sistema de educación pública; • Reducir el salario mínimo que ahora es el mismo que el federal; • Reducir el número de días por enfermedad pagados. Además, el 11 de julio el periódico El Nuevo Día publicó que tenía información confidencial que el gobierno tiene la intención de despedir empleados públicos. El Gobernador anterior ya había despedido algunas 30,000 personas. Desde el 2008, Puerto Rico ha perdido algunos 200,000 empleos y más de medio millón de personas se han mudado a USA. Muestra del rencor que las élites y el Gobernador colonial siente hacia la clase trabajadora son sus declaraciones citadas en el periódico El Vocero el 3 de julio: Nosotros no podemos pretender sacar a Puerto Rico del atolladero de crecimiento económico tomando sol en la playa”. Con estas palabras se refería a su intención de reducir el número de días de vacación logrados por miembros de uniones del sector público. No obstante, en cuanto al sector corporativo tiene un tono diferente, impulsando un plan para concederle aún más exenciones de impuestos.
Eso es el capitalismo, un plan de ataque por Wall Street, por los fondos inversionistas buitres, los cuales se benefician de estas deudas y la miseria que provocan y de las instituciones financieras capitalistas internacionales como el FMI y el Banco Mundial que aspiran dominar a los países a través de la deuda imperialista. En su libro, “Confesiones de un gangster económico”, John Perkins declara: “Los sicarios económicos son profesionales que reciben salarios jugosos y que le roban a países trillones de dólares. Ellos canalizan dinero del Banco Mundial, la Agencia para el Desarrollo Económico de USA, y otras organizaciones extranjeras que ofrecen “ayuda” hacia las cuentas de familias acaudaladas que dominan los recursos naturales del planeta. Sus herramientas incluyen informes financieros fraudulentos, elecciones amañadas, sobornos, sexo y asesinatos. Su juego es tan viejo como el imperio, pero que ha asumido una dimensión nueva y aterradora en estos tiempos de globalización”. Perkins explica detalladamente que el objetivo de estos sicarios es en primero lugar hundir a los países con deudas. Y luego, como la deuda es impagable, las agencias prestamistas internacionales se apoderan y privatizan los sectores públicos y se les conceden acceso a recursos naturales y otros incentivos y privilegios. Y eso es precisamente lo que Wall Street, los bancos y las organizaciones financieras internacionales le están imponiendo al pueblo de puerto Rico. Puerto Rico está cubierto de centros comerciales y negocios de comidas rápida. Los negocios pequeños locales y productores agrícolas han sido aplastados por las empresas invasoras de USA. Estas empresas se embolsan más de $40 billones en ganancias anualmente y apenas pagan impuestos. Emplean a trabajadores de bajos salarios quienes, a pesar de no pagar impuestos federales, y contrario al mito capitalista, pagan varios impuestos al gobierno de Puerto Rico e impuestos sobre productos comprados al detal. Estas empresas además reciben cientos de millones en subsidios gubernamentales. El capitalismo se beneficia con billone$ en ganancias como consecuencia del estatus colonial de Puerto Rico. Por eso es que Puerto Rico es una colonia de los USA: para transferir las riquezas del pueblo a los capitalistas. Y por es que Puerto Rico necesita su independencia. Ha comenzado una resistencia Durante meses recientes ha habido varias manifestaciones en contra de la agenda de los ricos. Estuve en Puerto Rico en agosto cuando cientos de maestros/as marcharon hasta la mansión del ejecutivo, La Fortaleza en rechazo a las políticas mencionadas arriba. Y en septiembre, algunas 10 mil personas protestaron de nuevo frente a La Fortaleza. Esta contó con la participación de otros sectores sociales como estudiantes universitarios, organizaciones religiosas, grupos comunitarios y ambientalistas los cuales rechazaron las represivas medidas económicas propuestas para supuestamente encaminar a Puerto Rico hacia una economía saludable. Y el 21 de octubre, el sindicato que representa a los trabajadores del sector público que generan y distribuyen la electricidad, la UTIER, declaró un paro y movilizó a miles de sus miembros y afiliados de otros sindicatos protestando los planes de privatizar a la Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica. Ya varios líderes sindicales han advertido sobre la posibilidad de una huelga general en caso de que la Legislatura apruebe las medidas propuestas en el Informe Krueger. Socialistas y revolucionarios argumentan que la supuesta deuda no es responsabilidad de la clase trabajadora y la clase media y que son los sectores acaudalados quienes recibieron y despilfarraron las decenas de billone$ que se tomaron prestados en décadas recientes. Su posición es clara: ¡La deuda no es nuestra y no la pagaremos! Además, los sectores más comprometidos con llevar a la clase trabajadora al poder político proponen que esta crisis que ha sido creada por la élite corporativa se utilice para construir un nuevo movimiento político revolucionario que se monte sobre el históricamente bajo apoyo para los dos partidos corporativos y que pueda llevar al país hacia la independencia y el socialismo.