ALTERNATIVE
SOCIALIST ISSUE #74 l JUNE 2021 SUGGESTED DONATION $2
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INSIDE STATE OF THE RECOVERY WAR IN ISRAEL-PALESTINE CLIMATE CRISIS
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WHAT WE STAND FOR No Return to “Normal” While the economy is rebounding due mainly to stimulus spending and the success of the vaccination effort, this temporary recovery is masking the broad instability of American capitalism. At some stage, working people will be expected to foot the bill for this crisis. We need a mighty struggle to demand: • Make the child tax credit permanent and fully fund high-quality, universal childcare. • Tax the rich and big business to fund permanently affordable, high-quality public housing. Raise the corporate tax rate to at least 35%! • We need an immediate transition to Medicare for All. Take for-profit hospital chains into public ownership and retool them to provide free, state-of-the-art healthcare to every American. • Fully fund public education! End school privatization. We need a national hiring program to bring on board tens of thousands of new educators to accommodate a permanent reduction in class size. • Cancel rental and medical debt accrued during the pandemic! • Cancel all student debt!
A Safe and Just Society: End Racist Policing and Criminal (in) Justice • Arrest and convict killer cops! • Purge police forces of anyone with known ties to white supremacist groups or any cop who has committed violent or racist attacks. • Cities should cut police budgets by at least 50%, and reinvest those funds in needed public services. • End the militarization of police. Ban police use of “crowd control” weapons. Disarm police on patrol. • End minimum mandatory sentencing, immediately release any prisoner charged with non-violent crimes of poverty and expunge their record, no more cash bail, close all private prisons! • Put policing under the control of democratically-elected civilian boards with power over hiring and firing, reviewing budget priorities, and the power to subpoena.
End Sexism, Homophobia, and Transphobia This Pride month, we’re seeing attacks come down from state legislatures on trans rights and women’s rights. Make this Pride month a month of resistance to these reactionary attacks!
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• Across the country we need to urgently organize to repeal laws that ban trans women from playing sports and young people from accessing life-saving, gender-affirming healthcare. • The Supreme Court is gearing up to attack Roe V. Wade, we need a reinvigorated women’s movement to fight all attacks on reproductive rights! • Domestic violence and sexual assault, already rampant, have skyrocketed under COVID. We need to fight genderbased violence, victim blaming, and sexism in all its forms.
For a Socialist Green New Deal Biden’s new infrastructure plan falls dramatically short of the immediate and drastic action needed to rein in the climate crisis. • Take the top 100 polluting companies into democratic public ownership. • Tax the billionaires and big business to fund extreme weather services including fully funded firefighting and forest management, and weatherizing homes. • For a GND jobs program to tackle climate change and provide well-paid union jobs for millions of workers. • Progressives in Congress should fight for a much bolder infrastructure plan based around a Green New Deal jobs program. They will need to organize a mass movement of youth climate strikers and the labor movement to demand its passage!
Rebuild a Fighting Labor Movement • Major unions, socialist organizations, and community groups should fight for the passage of the PRO Act. This can include rallies in every major city as a step toward preparing to occupy the offices of any senator that stands in the way of its passage. • We immediately need a $15 minimum wage and to get rid of the separate, tipped minimum wage. • We need to build radical fighting unions with accountable leaders that help organize social struggles against evictions, poverty, and racism.
End the Global COVID Chaos Despite widespread availability of vaccines in the U.S. and other advanced capitalist countries, the global COVID situation is a disaster. • We need maximum pressure on all Western capitalist powers refusing to support the TRIPS waiver! • Take big pharma profiteers into public ownership and turn existing vaccines into the People’s Vaccines! This would
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WHY I JOINED SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE Steven Molina, Queens NY I remember clearly being a 14-year-old high school freshman and getting my hands on two books: The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Che Guevara’s The Motorcycle Diaries. Malcolm X and Che Guevara centered me and helped me channel my anger into politics. I didn’t understand socialism or other big theoretical ideas, but these books opened the door to my lifelong political journey. As a first-generation Colombian growing up in Jackson Heights, Queens, my connection to my parents’ homeland was always strong. In high school I started learning more about Colombian history and politics in general, but it was learning about my parents’ homeland that convinced me of the urgency to organize the working class and build a socialist world. I learned that Colombia is one of the most dangerous places in the world for labor union organizers, who are murdered at higher rates than in most other countries. I learned that Colombia received the most US military aid of all Latin American countries. And I learned about the brutal role of corporations in suppressing Colombian resistance. For example, the Coca-Cola Company, its bottlers, and subsidiaries have funded paramilitary forces to conduct kidnappings, killings, and torturing of union leaders and their families for attempting to unionize Coca-Cola bottling companies in Colombia. go a long way in overcoming vaccine hesitancy in the U.S. given people’s widespread skepticism of big pharma. • In the U.S., we need Medicare for All including a robust investment in and coverage for mental health services.
Fight Racist, Far-Right Violence Over the past year we’ve seen a devastating uptick in violent hate crimes against Asian Americans. Trump’s racism opened the door for these attacks and while Biden is not using the same language, his nationalist campaign against China contributes to creating a climate where attacks like this can occur. Even with Trump out of office, the threat of the far right will continue to grow. The key to pushing back the far right is a determined response from the labor movement and all whose interests it threatens. • Organize against vigilante terror! We need multi-racial solidarity of the entire working class against racist violence. Where our movements face attacks from the far right, we need grassroots self defense. • We need a struggle against right-wing anti-protest bills being introduced in states across the country. • Many high profile mass shootings are motivated by far right, racist ideas, but many others are not. We do not believe gun control is in itself a solution to gun violence but we do support basic gun control measures.
As I became more frustrated with the extreme repression of organizing in my home country, I attended university and majored in Latin American studies. I later worked in immigration law, foreclosure prevention, and labor union organizing, but there were always limits on what we could do. I realized that you can do all the advocacy, acquire grants and foundation money, but as long as you are working within the safe channels of the existing order and not pushing the envelope for a new political alternative, you will not make fundamental progress out of our existing crisis. Socialist Alternative has been the organization through which I’ve been able to fight for a different type of society for over eight years now. It has taught me and continues to teach me how to fight locally while staying grounded internationally. J
For a New Political Party for Working People Fighting the right means abandoning the “center.” We need a new working class political party not beholden to big business interests. • While the Democratic establishment is being forced to “spend money” to address the immediate crisis, they are opposed to progressive policies that would bring real, lasting change. This was on display when they quickly abandoned the demand for a $15 minimum wage during stimulus negotiations. • Democrats and Republicans alike are unwilling to make any structural changes that threaten the dominance of big business. We need a new, multiracial left party that organizes and fights for workers’ interests and is committed to socialist policies to point a way out of the horrors of capitalism. • No attacks on democratic rights! We need to fight against all attempts at racist voter suppression being driven through by Republicans.
The Whole System is Guilty Capitalism produces pandemics, poverty, inequality, environmental destruction, and war. We need an international struggle against this failed system. • Bring the top 500 companies and banks into democratic public ownership. • We need a democratic socialist plan for the economy based on the interests of the overwhelming majority of people and the planet. S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G
THE STATE OF THE RECOVERY
Tom Crean, New York City
Evidence is accumulating that, after a massive contraction in the global and U.S. economy in 2020 triggered by the pandemic, a significant recovery is underway. The estimated global slump of 3.3% in 2020 was unprecedented since the 1930s, leading to devastating consequences with loss of jobs and food insecurity for hundreds of millions around the world while the billionaires got even richer. But it is now projected by the IMF that the world economy will grow by 6% in 2021 while in the U.S. the economy will expand by an astonishing 6.4%. While the reopening of the economy is widely welcomed by ordinary Americans after a year and a half of restrictions, the rebound is also extremely uneven and likely to be short-lived. It is another phase in a period of extreme instability for capitalism.
Describing the Recovery First of all, we need to ask why the recovery is happening on this scale? The key factor is the “pent up demand” in the economy, that is the ability and willingness of businesses and consumers to spend. This is primarily due to the unprecedented $5 trillion in stimulus spending beginning in March 2020, which is equal to over 23% of yearly GDP. Additionally, during lockdown, millions - particularly in the middle class - were able to work from home and saved money as a result. Of course, at the same time, millions of working people were going to food banks and facing catastrophic debt. Finally, a crucial element in the U.S. is the pace of vaccination which is one of the highest in the world. The signs of recovery are many. Domestic air travel has recovered close to prepandemic levels, pointing to a resurgence of domestic tourism this summer, leading to more hotel bookings. People are returning to bars and restaurants. There is an increase in sales of cars. But in recent weeks, there has been increasing talk of the economy “overheating,”
especially with the sharp increase in inflation in April to 4.2% from a year earlier. The spike in inflation is directly related to bottlenecks and shortages on the supply side of the economy. Shortages of microchips have led to auto assembly lines being temporarily shut down; shortages of lumber and steel have directly contributed to the highest increases in home construction prices in 15 years. Then of course there is the much discussed “labor shortage” which Republicans are blaming primarily on the $300 unemployment benefit top-up which is allegedly leading people to choose not to seek work (see p. 4). The Debate about Inflation More broadly, the Republicans, some economists, and a section of big business are trying to put the brakes on further spending by saying the government has put too much money into the economy already. They point to the danger of an “inflationary spiral” as in the 1970s. One reason the bosses fear inflation is that it can spur wage demands and strikes. The Biden administration and the Fed, along with many economists, believe that the current spike in inflation is due to temporary factors which will resolve themselves. They state that some degree of inflation is not a problem when inflation has been so low by historical standards in the last period. More broadly they argue that it is necessary to continue to provide support to an economy which still has 10 million fewer jobs than before the pandemic and which is being resuscitated from a “medically induced coma” as one White House official put it. The Republicans’ real goal in talking up the “inflation threat” is to put the brakes on further spending programs. Their main target is Biden’s proposed $4 trillion for infrastructure and social programs over ten years, spending which is actually completely inadequate to address the multiple crises
Biden made some big promises. Here’s where he’s backed down.
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ECONOMY facing working people. They are particularly opposed, along with the Chamber of Commerce, to Biden’s proposals to raise corporation tax and taxes on the wealthy to pay for the further spending.
What Will Happen Next
While Janet Yellen, the Treasury Secretary, and Jerome Powell, the head of the Fed, could be right that the supply-side problems pushing inflation will mostly be temporary, they may still be underestimating how far this spike can go even in the short term. If inflation continues to escalate during the coming months, the Fed may be forced to raise interest rates. With increasingly volatile financial markets, an interest rate hike could be the trigger of a financial crisis which is the clearly indicated next step of the longer-term crisis. In such a precarious economy, this would likely trigger another major recession. There are a number of asset bubbles waiting to burst including in corporate debt, stock prices and to a degree in housing. The recent sharp downturn in cryptocurrency values is a warning of what is to come.
No Way Out Under Capitalism As we have pointed out a number of times, the ruling class only turned to massive “Keynesian” (referring to economist John Maynard Keynes who inspired the New Deal) type measures because of the scale of the crisis their system faced. Without these measures, we would currently have 25% unemployment and mass destitution. However, printing money indefinitely as the Fed has been doing to prop up markets, or racking up debt to levels not seen since World War II, is not a sustainable policy. Neo-Keynesians like the supporters of Modern Monetary Theory advocate
Biden promised a health care public option. Biden’s new budget proposal, a $6 trillion wish list, does not include the introduction of a public option or his pledge to cut prescription drug costs.
printing money for social programs until the economy reaches full employment. But the temporary success of such measures is based on keeping inflation and interest rates near zero which - as we see - is already undermined. On the other hand, any attempt to return to the neoliberal austerity policies of past decades in the name of keeping inflation low as the Congressional Republicans seem to wish would lead to social upheaval as it has in other parts of the world. Biden’s policies are massively popular, including with many working class Republicans. But all the talk about FDR and the New Deal as inspiration for Biden obscures the fact that the New Deal at best mitigated the effects of the Great Depression and was in no way a solution. While there are many differences between the situation today and the 1930s, the key similarity is that the capitalists then and now have no straightforward path towards stable growth. It took the command economy and massive spending of World War II to finally pull the U.S. out of the Depression and the devastation of the war to restart the engine of capitalist growth internationally. Today, U.S. capitalism faces a multiplicity of problems and crises including enormous indebtedness, low productivity growth, the challenge of Chinese imperialism, but most of all the looming climate catastrophe. Politically, extreme polarization threatens capitalist democracy, as does, in a different way, the growth of powerful tech monopolies. Even before the pandemic, it was clear that the capitalists were not willing to invest in expansion of production and instead poured their profits into the financial market
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Biden promised to forgive at least some student debt. Biden can cancel all federal student debt through executive order. He has categorically refused to do this. His compromise was to cancel $10,000 per borrower, but now even this meager promise is missing from his priorities.
Biden promised a White-House led commission on racist policing.
As Derek Chauvin stood trial for murdering George Floyd, the White House announced they would not be moving forward with a commission to investigate racist police practices.
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POLITICS
UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS UNDER ATTACK Bryce Callaway, Boston A system as irrational as capitalism keeps even its most ardent supporters guessing. The U.S. economy, expected to get itself back on track as vaccines are rolled out and CDC guidelines relaxed, instead sees “Help Wanted” signs remain in windows even as consumer demand grows. After April’s massively disappointing jobs report, right-wing politicians sought to blame the “spoiled” workers receiving unemployment benefits who are allegedly now “too lazy” to work. Of course, chaos like this is nothing new, with repeated economic crises a feature of a system that prioritizes profit over people. Fourteen months into the COVID-19 pandemic, capitalism is still a long way from stabilizing itself. While billionaires have added trillions to their net worth via an overheated and Fed-protected stock market, it remains a mystery when or if we’ll see pre-pandemic employment levels return. Early numbers suggest May’s jobs report could show similar weaknesses. Capitalists know if they want the good times to keep rolling, they need workers back at work. The ruling class may decry the legacy and teachings of Karl Marx, but they do recognize a fundamental tenet of his work: without workers to exploit, their profits dry up.
Who’s to Blame? On the back of these depressed job numbers, conservatives jumped at the opportunity to name unprecedented government spending as the culprit. From their point of view, people are refraining from work because they earn more collecting checks through federal unemployment top-ups. As of this writing, twenty GOP-led states are cutting the $300 weekly federal unemployment benefits in the coming weeks. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also hopped on board to pressure lawmakers to end the supplemental benefit, leaving open the possibility that even more states will soon join the exodus. Across the aisle, Biden and leading Democrats are urging patience, arguing that their American Rescue Plan will “take time” to show its full benefits. Nancy Pelosi, adding credence to the axiom that a broken clock is right twice a day, notes the ongoing childcare crisis, closure of schools, and inability of many parents, especially women, to return to work as driving the unexpected correction in the jobs report.
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A sharp antagonism has developed within the American establishment. One section thinks government spending has gone too far and wants to see a quick end to pandemic-era benefits, while another wants to double down on spending measures, particularly childcare benefits, in order to prop up their crisis-ridden system.
Reconsidering Work The pandemic has laid bare the exploitation required for capitalism to function. During economic upswings, the contradictions of a profit-driven system can be muted. However, during the economic contraction of the past year, workers have seen up close the abominable methods capitalists will use to ensure their bottom lines stay green. Retail companies cynically use their employees for publicity, calling them heroes and essential workers all the while subjecting them to dangerous working conditions and then fighting them tooth and nail over hazard pay. The U.S. government’s criminal response to the virus put the responsibility on workers to enforce mask mandates, putting them in the line of fire for abuse and harassment from customers. For jobs that already pay so little and offer next to no benefits, it is hardly surprising that these same companies are facing serious labor shortages in the current market. Broadly, people are reassessing what they want to do for work in light of COVID-19’s dramatic effect on the job market. Some have changed industries entirely, abandoning retail for better paying (but still massively exploitative) warehouse positions. In response to the labor shortage, some employers have had no choice but to increase wages, sometimes significantly, to fill open positions. Amazon, Target, and Costco have all raised starting hourly pay in recent months, with some companies even offering signing bonuses as a way to entice workers into open positions. However, capitalists will always seek to roll back these incentives and will do so the moment they’re able to, meaning that it will take workers getting organized and fighting back to make them permanent.
What’s Next? With the ruling class divided on the steps forward to pull the U.S. economy further
out of the hole, Biden’s next two spending plans will be highly contentious and serious pressure will be put on the Democrats to reduce aid to workers. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s statement said the quiet part out loud, noting, “The $300 benefit results in approximately one in four recipients taking home more in unemployment than they earned working.” This, on its own, is entirely horrifying and demonstrates the desperate need to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Workers have already begun to point the way forward. In fifteen cities across the country, McDonald’s employees walked off the job, demanding a wage increase to at least $15 an hour. “Walkout Wednesday” was pointedly timed the day before the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting, drawing a distinct line between the exploited workers and the leeches who enrich themselves off their labor. In Maine, Dollar General employees left notes in the store window that challenged capitalism and called for strike action as they quit their jobs. If the unemployment top-up is rolled back, many workers will unfortunately have no choice but to be thrust back into lowpaying jobs that don’t provide a living wage. The Squad in Congress, who should be the
strongest bulwark against conservatives and corporate Democrats, have thus far refused to challenge Biden, notably remaining silent during the administration’s pathetic abandonment of a $15 an hour minimum wage. A different strategy is needed where progressives use their elected office, alongside unions and socialists, to galvanize workers into action through protests, rallies, and mass actions like walkouts and strikes. With conservatives vying for spending cuts, it will take the resistance of working people in the streets to defend the meager benefits temporarily extended to them. For example, progressives should rally around the need to permanently extend the child and childcare tax credits so parents are not forced to withdraw from the workforce because they can’t find affordable childcare. The same grassroots strategies can be used to create a movement to win a $15 hour federal minimum wage from the ruling class. The truth is, no section of the ruling class has the interests of working people in mind, and we can’t afford to put our faith in them no matter how “concerned” they sound. They will give and take away relief whenever it suits them unless we demand more. A system this irrational has outlived its welcome, and it’s only workers themselves who can forge a new path to a more just and equal world. Socialists and progressives must provide leadership by fighting for an extension and expansion of pandemic-era aid, a $15 an hour minimum wage, and Medicare for All. All the while we need to make clear that any gains we win under capitalism are inherently temporary and we must continue to fight for a fundamentally new system. J
S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G
ONE YEAR SINCE GEORGE FLOYD
FIGHTING OPPRESSION An Interview with Eljeer Hawkins, New York City
Where does the Black Lives Matter movement stand one year since George Floyd’s murder? May 25 marked the first anniversary of the global rebellion following the murder of George Floyd by convicted former law enforcement officer Derek Chauvin. Our struggle against racial oppression and law enforcement is at a critical crossroads as big business has gone on the offensive to co-opt the movement and its demands. The Black Lives Matter Global Network is in a crisis, lacking independent radical leadership and democratic accountability. The lives of Black workers and youth are still under threat from poverty, racism, and law enforcement terror.
How has Socialist Alternative participated in anti-racist struggles over the past year? Throughout the country, Socialist Alternative has engaged in several crucial struggles like stopping a new police station from being constructed in Pittsburgh, fighting for community control
WE CAN’T TRUST THE COURTS TO PROTECT REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS:
DEFEND ROE V. WADE! Ginger Jentzen, Minneapolis The U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) announced it will take on its first major challenge to abortion rights since Trump appointed reactionary Amy Coney Barrett to the high court last year. Coney Barrett’s appointment solidified a 6-3 conservative majority, all but guaranteeing that the court would take up one of the numerous challenges to Roe v. Wade that the religious right have been shoving through the courts for years. This case out of Mississippi, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, would ban abortion after 15 weeks, restricting the broader legal access to abortion protected by Roe v. Wade and the 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The latter case reaffirmed Roe, and guaranteed the right to an abortion before fetus viability (the point at which the fetus can live outside of the womb, which the court estimated at 23-24 weeks). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated 65 percent of legal abortions occur within the first eight weeks of gestation, and 91 percent are performed within the first 13 weeks. Only
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1.4 percent occur at or after 21 weeks (CDC, 2014). The Mississippi case poses a direct threat to the pre-viability precedent, and if changed or removed, would mean that states could pass abortion bans much earlier in pregnancies, potentially making the majority of abortions illegal.
How’d We Get Here? How did we get to this healthcare cliffedge when a majority of people nationally support maintaining legal access to abortion? For one, there’s been little to no organized resistance from the leadership of reproductive, LGBTQ, or women’s rights organizations like Planned Parenthood, NOW or NARAL. Additionally, the Democratic Party has taken a shamefully defensive approach to attacks on reproductive healthcare. Even when Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony of assault by Brett Kavanaugh during his Supreme Court appointment hearings injected the #MeToo moment into the highest echelon of the U.S. judicial system, the Democratic leadership refused to mobilize any real resistance. They redirected people’s focus to the 2018 midterms as an excuse not to fight, leaving the 20 million people
who watched the Kavanugh hearings with no way to meaningfully fight back. If a sufficient movement had been built to block the appointment of anti-abortion, anti-worker, alleged rapist Brett Kavanaugh, this could have been the basis for a real victory in the #MeToo moment. The conservative right boldly pushed for Amy Coney Barrett’s appointment when Justice Ginsberg’s death produced a vacancy on the Supreme Court. And for the third time, the Democrats spectated on Trump’s bigoted, anti-worker, anti-woman appointments. Instead of fighting to represent the more than 600,000 women and trans people accessing safe, legal abortions, let alone the fight for Medicare for All or labor rights, Democrats grumbled about the process. They intentionally avoided confrontations about Coney Barrett’s religious zealotry and her previous statements against abortion. Now, expectations about what can be achieved are raised with a narrow Democratic majority in Congress. President Biden has pulled together a Supreme Court commission tasked to consider, among other proposals, whether to expand the court to dilute the conservative majority. Biden also issued a
over the police in Philadelphia, and participating in a coalition to defund the police in New York. The work of independent socialist Seattle city councilmember and Socialist Alternative member Kshama Sawant has been tremendous in holding up the BLM banner through progressive legislation like banning the use of chemical weapons by the Seattle Police department against BLM protesters. We believe this is the best way to commemorate the lives lost to law enforcement terror and their families, by challenging the system of capitalism and racism.
What are Socialist Alternative’s plans in building BLM in the coming year? Socialist Alternative has launched an exciting new project to build a Black caucus to engage radicalizing Black workers and youth who want to dismantle racial oppression and capitalism. We aim to introduce into the movement the radical Black socialist tradition that dates back to the early 1900s rooted in internationalism, workers’ solidarity, multiracial class struggle, and organizing. J
statement committing to codify Roe, meaning he would push Congress to pass a federal law guaranteeing the right to abortion, regardless of the SCOTUS ruling. That Biden issued his recent draft budget without a whisper of perhaps his most repeated campaign promise to forgive some student debt should be a warning against the boldness of proposals originating from the Democratic leadership. Nothing short of an organized, mass resistance in the streets can stop the immediate threat to Roe v. Wade.
The Map for Abortion Access Roe v. Wade has been on the books since 1973 and the Supreme Court has frequently ruled against provisions that pose an “undue burden” to access. For example, last summer, the Supreme Court struck down a restrictive Louisiana abortion law that would require hospital admitting privileges for any clinic performing abortion by a 5-to-4 margin. Now with Coney Barrett on the court, the threats have escalated. A decision in Dobbs — expected in spring 2022 — is unlikely to overturn Roe outright by ruling that women aren’t guaranteed access to abortions before fetus viability. But what a SCOTUS ruling on Dobbs could do is kick the decision for abortion laws back to the states by determing that some bans on abortion before 23-24 weeks can be allowed. This would open the floodgates to Republican
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I N T E R N AT I O N A L
DESPITE CEASEFIRE IN ISRAEL-PALESTINE, STATE REPRESSION CONTINUES Leon Pinsky, New York City A fragile ceasefire has been agreed after the worst cycle of violence in Gaza since the 2014 war. Over 230 Palestinians were killed by Israeli airstrikes, almost a third of whom are children. Twelve people in Israel, including children were killed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad rockets. Israeli missiles destroyed hundreds of homes in Gaza, causing massive destruction and trauma in an area already facing unbearable living conditions.
Protests Continue, Israeli Regime Exposed Protests have continued across the country with a heavy police crackdown and mass arrests of Palestinians who rallied against Israeli repression. In Tel Aviv, thousands of Jews and Palestinians protested, with 1,500 blocking traffic on their way to the protest. Despite the Israeli regime claiming victory, a growing rejection of Israeli policies can be seen around the world and within the region, with millions protesting the horrific killing and leveling of buildings in Gaza, the ongoing displacement of Palestinians and land-theft, and the increased police violence against Palestinian citizens of Israel. The brutal reality of the far-right settler gangs terrorizing Palestinians was exposed to the world. The sheer scale of military barbarism from Israeli state demonstrated the cynical and false use of their argument of “self-defense.” Indeed, the pressure has reached the halls of the U.S. Congress, with Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and others going after Biden for his support for the right-wing Israeli government. While these efforts are commendable, these progressives should go even further. A recent statement by Socialist Alternative Seattle city councilmember Kshama Sawant highlights the role of mass protests in the U.S., solidarity from labor unions, and the importance of exposing the real interests of U.S. imperialism in the Middle East. Joe Biden, preferring to take a “handsoff” approach, was forced to react. Protests in the U.S. and internationally successfully exposed that “hands-off” is impossible when
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the U.S. spends more money arming Israel than it does on fighting climate change. With the oil-rich Middle-East’s historical importance for U.S. corporate interests, the government has poured resources into defending “friendly” regimes. The recent assault highlighted the rejection by growing numbers of Jewish-Americans of Israeli’s occupation and blockade of the West Bank and Gaza. Much of this is connected to a new generation that is inspired by the anti-racist movements in the U.S. and globally. The impressive international solidarity mobilizations, which saw millions around the world flood the streets, can and should be further built.
Crisis in Palestinian Leadership While Israel has claimed victory and “long-term harm to Hamas,” in reality Hamas was able to relatively strengthen its support among Palestinians. The corrupt Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in the West Bank enclaves has been weak in mobilizing resistance to the Israeli war machine, and for many years has collaborated with the occupation, resulting in significant loss of support. On the other side, since Israel pulled settlements and military forces from Gaza in 2006, Hamas has become the local ruling party (while the Israeli regime continues to be the main power controlling the strip) and has played a wholly reactionary, anti-worker role. They have been responsible for dispersing popular protests, breaking strikes, and jailing opposition. As a pro-capitalist, right-wing organization, Hamas has failed to put forward a strategy for the Palestinian liberation movement against the blockade and occupation. It has been young and largely unaffiliated Palestinians who have pioneered a return to the approach of mass popular actions as a way to fight the Israeli regime. Inspired by the 2011 revolutions in the Middle East, Palestinian youth have stood up time and time again to organize protests and reject both Hamas and Fatah. The Palestinians have a right to selfdefense, including armed resistance. However, Hamas’ tactic of indiscriminate attacks
can’t effectively weaken the massive aggression against the Palestinians. Furthermore, this tactic is used by the right-wing Israeli regime to mobilize the Jewish population against the Pale s tinians. Despite these serious issues, Hamas was unfor tunately seen by many as the only force standing against Israeli aggression.
Occupation and Repression of Palestinians Continues While millions in the region are breathing a sigh of relief as the massive bombings have paused, no real gains were made against the blockade and oppression of the Palestinians. Returning to “normality,” where the Israeli regime controls the Gaza border, sea, and sky; where free-for-all land theft is the reality in East Jerusalem; and where checkpoints and military occupation control the lives of civilians in the West Bank, is now put under greater challenge.
End the Occupation, Poverty, and Capitalism Members of Socialist Struggle Movement (ISA in Israel/Palestine) have been on the streets, fighting alongside Jewish and Palestinian protestors in Tel-Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem, including in Sheikh Jarrah. Against the divisive enlisted media propaganda, they and others have put forward the slogans “Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies,” and “No peace without struggle against the occupation, poverty and capitalism.” This crisis is interwoven with the political crisis of the Israeli government. After two years and four election cycles, the main
Collapsed building in Gaza.
political parties are still not able to form a government. Israeli society today has one of the highest poverty rates and is one of the most unequal countries in the OECD, with more than half of Palestinian families in Israei living under the poverty line. Under Netanyahu, healthcare and housing crises have worsened, while GDP has doubled. Natural resources are handed out to the richest families to profit from, while working people struggle. This is the reality that the right-wing Netanyahu government is trying to divert attention from by ramping up national tensions. Time and again, the Israeli regime has used Hamas’ tactics to undermine social struggles and the potential of developing opposition. It is clear that ordinary workingclass Israelis don’t have anything to gain from the ongoing repression of the Palestinian masses. Socialists firmly stand for the right of Palestinians to self-determination while guaranteeing national rights for millions of Israelis. However, a reality where two states exist side by side in a relationship of capitalist exploitation will not solve the underlying issues. Capitalism is a system rooted in exploitation and inequality and in this case will maintain national oppression. This is why Socialist Alternative and the ISA call for a socialist Palestine alongside a socialist Israel with two capitals in Jerusalem. Only in a regional
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Marie O’Toole, New York City
PRIDE 2021 How Will LGBTQ
As we honor Pride month this year, transgender people across the country are under attack by a record-breaking wave of antitrans bills in state legislatures, primarily targeting trans youth. The assault on our rights includes bans on participation in school sports, bans on access to gender-affirming health care for minors, and restrictions on school curriculums. Tennessee stands out particularly as it works its way through what has been dubbed the “Slate of Hate.” The most recent bill signed into law there is a requirement that businesses post notices publicly warning customers if the business allows trans people to use the appropriate bathroom. Legislative attacks on the rights of trans, intersex, and gender-nonconforming people is horrific, but only represents one side of what the LGBTQ community is up against. Last year was the single most violent year tracked for trans hate crimes, with forty-four people murdered as a result of transphobic attacks, overwhelmingly trans women of color. Trans people, and LGBTQ people more broadly, are at higher risk of poverty, homelessness, and suicide.
LGBTQ RIGHTS
Liberation Front and related organizations were formed directly out of the rebellion. The initial battle against prejudice and oppression was fought with calls for economic justice and a clear connection to anticapitalist struggles. These are the lessons that need to be brought back into our movement today. We now commemorate the Stonewall rebellion each June with Pride month. Unfortunately, in recent years its radical foundations have been obscured by corporate co-optation. Pride marches devolved into Pride parades where bank and big-business floats reigned while LGBTQ workers could only watch from the sidelines. However, activists have fought to reclaim the radical roots of Pride. This is exemplified by New York City’s third annual Queer Liberation March this year, which excludes corporate and police presence. Last year’s corporate Pride parade in New York was canceled due to the pandemic, but the protest march went forward in solidarity with the BLM movement as “The Queer Liberation March for Black Lives and Against Police Brutality,” which drew in tens of thousands of people. Pressure from this momentum has even led the organizers of corporate Pride to ban police from their future parades. This type of mobilization is extremely positive.
Liberation Be Won? Black Trans Lives Matter protest, 2020
LGBTQ Rights Under Biden
Demanding More
Many looked to last year’s elections as a light at the end of the tunnel and a way out from under the challenges of being queer under Donald Trump’s presidency. The Trump administration banned trans people from military service, reversed workplace nondiscrimination provisions, and removed explicit protections for LGBTQ people in health care. Biden’s campaign promised a stop to the most reactionary policies of the previous administration. On his first day in office, he issued an executive order that federal laws prohibiting sex-based discrimination should include sexual orientation and gender identity. He subsequently overturned the military ban, and ordered refugee programs to accommodate those seeking refuge for their LGBTQ status. Any reform that eliminates unequal treatment for queer people is positive, but it should also be noted that Biden has only tackled the most low-hanging fruit of reactionary policy. LGBTQ lives and well-being require much more fundamental changes. Protection against discrimination in health care is needed, but what does it mean if you are unable to afford a doctor’s appointment to begin with? We need Medicare for All, more union jobs that protect against workplace discrimination, and high-quality, permanently affordable housing, all of which will require more substantial pressure from below. The most long-term damage to LGBTQ legal rights coming out of the Trump era lies within the Supreme Court’s reactionary majority, which will not be reversed by any executive order. The appointments of far-right justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh loom heavily over the current wave of anti-trans bills, as do courts across the country with right-wing Trump appointees. Absent a mass movement for the advancement of LGBTQ rights, the courts cannot be relied on to overturn right-wing legislation.
An as of yet unfulfilled promise on Biden’s part is the passage of the Equality Act. This would enshrine into law protections against discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. It passed the House in February, but its future in the Senate looks bleak as the Democrats refuse to get rid of the archaic filibuster that allows a Republican minority to block any legislation that has less than sixty votes in favor. Passing proLGBTQ and any broadly pro-worker legislation will require real pressure being brought to bear. This month’s Pride demonstrations should be used to organize around concrete demands. Some of these demands should include passing the Equality Act, passing the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, and immediately introducing Medicare for All.
Stonewall rebellion, NYC 1969
No Pride For Some Without Liberation For All
Trans pride march, Portland 2018
The Radical Roots of Pride The spark for the modern LGBTQ movement came fiftytwo years ago with the Stonewall rebellion. A police raid at the Stonewall Inn, a New York gay bar, caused mass frustration to boil over. In reaction to discrimination and repression, a five-day riot broke out that captured the imagination of the gay community internationally. The early years of the movement were a time of radical organizing for the advancement of gay rights. The Gay JUNE 2021
Christopher St. liberation day, NYC 1971
The fight against transphobia and homophobia will never be successful if fought in isolation from other forms of oppression. As Stonewall veteran Marsha P. Johnson once said, “You never completely have your rights, one person, until you all have your rights.” The drive for profit at the heart of the capitalist system relies on a divide-andconquer strategy against working and oppressed people. In order to heal the divisions that continue to plague the working class, the labor movement should boldly take up the demands of queer people as an important part of a broader program for workers’ rights. Trans workers and workers of color are more likely to find themselves working low-wage, generally unorganized retail and service jobs. Unions can play an outsize role in forging unity and solidarity among working people by taking up bold campaigns to organize the unorganized. Doing this successfully, and winning the buy-in of all, will mean taking up demands against oppression more broadly. A true end to queer oppression cannot be achieved through a system that requires inequality to maintain itself. The struggle against queer oppression needs to be linked up to other struggles of the working class and oppressed, and channeled toward fighting for a socialist restructuring of society. An end to capitalism will not immediately erase centuries of transphobia and homophobia, but would strike quickly against the most notable inequalities and lay the basis for a society that could fully eradicate gender- and sexuality-based discrimination. J
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WHO CAN SOLVE THE CLIMATE CRISIS? Rebecca Green, New York City
State of the Climate
In an article titled “Understanding the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future,” 17 climate scientists from around the globe state that, “The scale of the threats to the biosphere and all its lifeforms—including humanity— is in fact so great that it is difficult to grasp for even well-informed experts.” Yes we’ve heard about increasing global temperatures, but these scientists lay out the much longer list of symptoms that will come as a result of unmitigated climate disaster: mass species extinction, unprecedented migration, more pandemics, extreme weather, and food, water, and land shortages. The situation is so bad that it has forced a section of the global ruling class to act. The World Economic Forum’s 2020 conference was dubbed by Time a “Climate Conference,” Biden released his climate-driven infrastructure proposals, and corporations have pledged to cut emissions. But the pace of change that’s possible on the basis of a competitive, freemarket economy, even one that has resolved to fight climate change, is far too slow. We need a socialist transformation of society on a green basis, which will only be achieved by a genuine revolt of the global working class.
Having already surpassed an increase of 1.0° C above pre-industrial global temperatures, we are on track to reach 1.5° C between 2030 and 2052. According to the international scientific community, anything above 1.5° C would be catastrophic. CO2, methane, and nitrogen levels (three long-lived greenhouse gases that cause warming) all started to dramatically increase in 1750 with the rise of the coal-fueled industrial revolution and the rise of British capitalism. Imperialism spread these fossil-fuel-burning, resource-extracting, and industry- b u i l d ing methods around the globe. Scientists have warned that we have either reached or surpassed a number of climate tipping points, which are a “point of no return” in the climate system that mean unavoidable and dramatic consequences. The conversion of the Amazon rainforest into a savannah, the melt-
ing of the West Antarctic ice sheet, and the complete collapse of the Gulf Stream are all decisively underway, meaning a collapse of biodiversity, huge dumps of carbon and methane into the atmosphere, extreme sea level rise, and uncontrollable weather. Climate-related extreme weather disasters jumped by 83% globally in the last 20 years, killing 1.23 million people. Major floods have doubled and severe storms have increased by 40%. Last year saw the worst wildfire season in the West on record and the Southeast broke the record for the number of tropical storms and hurricanes. This will only get exponentially worse. Right now, the West Coast is experiencing its worst drought in 1,200 years. Lack of rainfall and snowpack (frozen reservoirs that release water during spring and summer) are spelling what could be the worst fire season yet, with two fires each in California, Arizona, and New Mexico already this season. With a warming climate and worsening droughts, extreme water shortages will be “nearly ubiquitous” west of Missouri by 2040 according to projections from the federal government. Floods, drought, storms, fire, and global warming pose a dramatic threat to our homes, our communities, and our water and food supply. A half-billion people around the world already live in places that are turning into desert because of destructive agricultural practices and a warming climate that will eliminate the potential for anything to grow. Sea level rise, caused by melting ice at the poles will cause extreme flooding, eliminating coastal land for food production and displacing entire communities. By 2060, an estimated 13 million people in the U.S. will be forced to move away from submerged coastlines, which would represent the largest internal migration in American history. In 2019, weather-related hazards forced 24.9 million people across 140 countries to move. Estimates suggest there will be anywhere from 200 million to one billion environmental migrants by 2050 when you factor in permanent food and water shortages. Already in the U.S. a historic surge at the southern border has largely been driven by devastating hurricanes and prolonged droughts in El Salvador
and Honduras. And if all this wasn’t bad enough, increasingly dense cities in many countries and strained public services from forced climate migration threaten worse outcomes for future disease outbreaks. Scientists are already warning of more deadly pandemics to come, largely linked to deforestation and a loss of biodiversity. One of the most terrifying and underreported realities is that it is “scientifically undeniable” that we are already on the path of a sixth major extinction.
The Cost of the Climate Crisis All of these horrifying consequences of the unrestricted use of fossil fuels have been known to scientists, politicians, and CEOs for decades. But as scientists really started to ring the alarm bells in the early 80s, deregulation of industry and global expansion under the neoliberal era took carbon emissions to record highs. Capitalism’s virtually unrestricted pillage of the natural world in the interest of profits has gone so far that it now threatens its own economic and political security. In the last 20 years, an estimated $2.97 trillion in global economic losses have come as the result of climate-related extreme weather events. Food and water shortages, destroyed infrastructure, worse and more widespread human illness and instability, the collapse of tourism economies, and more will be extraordinarily expensive. The International Energy Agency (IEA), which informs climate policy globally and has historically encouraged the use of fossil fuels, issued a shocking report this month that sets the goal of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050. To illustrate the gargantuan shift this would require, they explain that for solar power, it would be the equivalent of “installing the world’s current largest solar park roughly every day.” Unfortunately, the IEA has been complicit in perpetuating a global economy whose foundations are fossil fuels, so how do we turn this freight train around?
International Response Joe Biden hosted a climate summit in April that brought together world leaders, almost all of whom belong to countries who have failed their completely inadequate Paris Climate Agreement promises, but who engaged in showboating discussions about the climate crisis nonetheless. Chinese President Xi Jinping attended the summit, where he doubled down on his previous commitment to reach carbon neutrality by 2060. But shortly after, Chinese minister Wang Yi issued a statement saying “If the United States no longer interferes in China’s internal affairs, then we can have even smoother cooperation that can bring more benefits to both
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S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G
countries and the rest of the world.” Essentially, China’s cooperation with Biden on the climate is contingent on broader relations between the two countries, which are deteriorating due to inter-imperialist rivalry. In order to meet Xi Jinping’s carbon neutrality pledge, China will need to invest $21 trillion to remove carbon from its energy system by 2060. In order to meet this goal, there has been a rapid expansion of Chinese “green finance.” Over the past five years, China’s “green finance” sector has become the second largest in the world after the U.S. Climate could well become a key battleground in the two countries’ battle for global dominance. Biden has proposed a $2.25 trillion infrastructure package in the U.S., which promises money to update and weatherize infrastructure, transition away from gas-powered cars, and ramp up research and development of renewable energy technologies among other things. In his speech unveiling the plan, Biden mentioned China six times, and explicitly framed it as an attempt to build up U.S. manufacturing and the economy to undermine growing Chinese economic influence. The Chinese economic model includes a very high level of state intervention into the economy. This has given the Chinese ruling class a certain advantage in scaling up key sectors. Seeing this, Biden is suggesting a level of state intervention into the economy not seen in decades in the U.S. This is accepted by a section of big business itself who recognize that it’s the only option given the scale of the crisis. So what about other countries at the summit? For poorer countries who have been devastated by COVID-triggered economic crises and continue to face outbreaks because of wealthy countries’ vaccine hoarding (see page 11), trillion dollar climate spending packages are simply not an option. Biden’s infrastructure package will barely scratch the surface of what is necessary to address the climate crisis in the U.S., which historically is the number one emitter of greenhouse gases. And Biden’s pledge of $2.5 billion for overseas climate finance is as insulting as his pledge to send 20 million vaccine doses abroad. Poor countries, many of whom have economies that are completely dependent on dirty energy (like Nigeria, Venezuela and Iraq), were promised $100 billion a year in climate finance starting in 2020, but this is yet another Paris agreement promise left unmet. Leaving poor countries that are saddled with debt due to the legacy of imperialism and colonization to fend for themselves on the climate (or the pandemic) is the murderous logic of capitalism’s reliance on the nation state. An “America first” approach to the climate is doomed to fail and will only fuel mass migration and leave millions of poor and working people from the JUNE 2021
Global South seeking refuge at the doorstep of advanced capitalist countries.
The Ruling Class’ Divided Response Many banks who have invested heavily in major polluters for decades will act as fetters on a transition to sustainability because abandoning these investments would be a big loss on their balance sheet. However, even among the titans of finance capital, there is a growing recognition that climate change carries tremendous fiscal risks. BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, has suggested that climate change will lead to a “fundamental reshaping of finance.” In a similar vein, corporations like Amazon, Coca-Cola, and Microsoft have begun to pledge carbon neutrality in coming decades. For these companies, disastrous climate scenarios pose the biggest threat to their medium and longer-term profits, meaning they’re willing to invest up front now. For Biden, the threat of losing the cold war with China and seeing the further weakening of U.S. imperialism globally has forced him to act as well. It is possible that we do see politicians and big business interests make a shift towards renewable energy to avoid full climate collapse, and to get in on a growing market. We should of course hold our applause for the companies and politicians who have waited until it was clear they would lose money to do anything at all, and we shouldn’t hold our breath that any of it will be enough anyways.
What Next? What is concretely needed to address this crisis is a global plan to completely rebuild energy grids that rely 100% on renewables in the next decade; ending new production of gas-run cars, scaling
u p elect r i c vehicle pro duction and m a s sively expanding public transit; developing renewable fuel alternatives for planes, trains, and cargo ships and completely phasing out fossil fuel dependence; retrofitting, weatherizing, and building new green housing and infrastructure to withstand extreme weather and accommodate climate refugees; reforesting the planet and overhauling our food system top-to-bottom, replacing mass monocrop agriculture with local, organic alternatives; and investing to historic proportions in yet-undiscovered technologies that can help deal with the crises of water shortages, infectious disease, coral reef and pollinator population collapse, and so much more. Despite a shift in the ruling class’ approach, it will inevitably be too slow because of the logic of capitalism. Inter-imperialist rivalries mean countries will work separately to develop and then hoard climate technology, instead of collaborating to most rapidly produce and share out the best innovations. Poor countries will be left behind. Corporations will continue to invest their profits in the financial markets as opposed to expanding their productive capacity in the direction needed by humanity. Fossil fuel interests, the agricultural industry, other major polluters, and their politicians will work to block a transition to a sustainable future with ferocity. While we’re seeing increased state intervention globally, the levels required to mitigate all of these bottlenecks and speed the process up enough to put us on track is extraordinarily unlikely. That is why we need to take things into our own hands. Mass
climate protests have clearly put this issue onto the agenda, and we need a dramatic ramping up of this movement. School strikes should be coordinated and planned as soon as schools open again in the fall, and should be ongoing with a plan to involve more students, teachers, and staff. The youth-led movement also urgently needs to link up with the broader working class. In the short term this could look like striking students appealing to local unions to join them for demonstrations and days of action. This will crucially need to include workers in polluting industries. Ten million people globally work directly for the fossil fuel industry, and many more rely indirectly on these and other highly polluting jobs. To build a powerful movement with political and economic power, demands for the environment need to be linked with demands to retrain these workers in new, sustainable fields with no loss of pay or benefits and a guarantee of high wages and union recognition. This type of organizing could win crucial victories that would help buy time. Fundamentally though, these battles will need to be waged again and again on a mass scale to address the many complex dynamics of the climate crisis caused by a system that is based on the exploitation of workers and the earth. What is actually necessary is a complete restructuring of a society on a socialist basis. This can only be won by the global working class asserting itself in a mighty struggle against the capitalist system. Mitigating the climate crisis on the time frame necessary requires an end to a for-profit system and its replacement with a democratically planned economy run by the working class itself. This means bringing the energy industry, the transport sector, key sections of manufacturing and finance fully into public ownership. On this basis, millions could be put to work helping rebuild a green economy, the accumulated wealth of polluting industries could be reallocated to green and socially productive projects, scientific innovation would be unleashed as global collaboration would replace nationalist competition, and instead of profits for a few, all economic activity would be geared towards meeting global human need. In this society, economic decisions would necessarily include environmental and social impact. On the basis of a truly democraticallyrun economy, we could make rapid decisions about the resources of society and put the full weight of the global working class behind stopping the climate crisis in its tracks. Winning this society will require the biggest ever united struggle of the global working class against capitalism. While the size of this task is mammoth, the future of humanity depends on it. J
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L ABOR MOVEMENT
NURSES ON THE MOVE Alishia Morales and Michael Foley, Worcester
Imagine yourself or a loved one going to the hospital for important medical care. But instead of the quality healthcare you expected, the hospital staffing level is scant. The few nurses you see seem rushed and overburdened. When you push the button for pain relief, no one comes for a long time. There just aren’t enough nurses. This is the experience of a patient’s recent visit to Saint Vincent’s Hospital in Worcester, MA as told to a Worcester Socialist Alternative member. In this context, and with the added tremendous pressures of caring for patients amid a deadly pandemic, nurses at Saint Vincent’s, organized with the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), went on strike in early March. As of this writing, they have been on strike for 12 weeks. This is a continuation of their courageous fight against Tenet, their parent corporation, who they struck against for 49 days in 2000.
Safe Staffing and Why It Matters For-profit hospitals are always looking to cut costs. One place they’ve been able to do this has been in stretching their patient-tonurse ratio to unimaginable limits, far beyond what is safe. Nurses at Saint Vincent’s are demanding a 3:1 ratio in order to provide quality healthcare and reasonable working conditions. It would be a blow to the executives at Tenet, as well as healthcare profiteers across
the state, if the nurses and patients at Saint Vincent’s won a 3:1 patient-to-nurse ratio in their new union contract. This could open the gates for nurses at hospitals across the state to fight for a similar demand.
Solidarity and Public Support Over the course of the long strike, the solidarity on Saint Vincent’s picket lines has been tremendous. Over 90% of the nurses have held the line for 12 weeks and the atmosphere has been fighting strong. Nurses unions from across the country have given financial support to the MNA, and healthcare workers from all over the region have shown up on the picket lines. Some have even organized actions to raise awareness about the conditions of their own hospitals afterwards. An important challenge now is to build deeper solidarity with striking nurses among other union workers. Teamsters and the IBEW have shown support on the picket line and opportunities for greater solidarity exist with other unions at the hospital. These include the physician’s union and the UFCW Local 1445, which represents cafeteria workers, admins, PCAs, and many others. Public support for the nurses is almost entirely positive. There is a lot of space to build on the current public support by encouraging members of the public to regularly visit the picket lines and encourage friends and families not to cross.
Capitalism and For-Profit Healthcare The strike at Saint Vincent’s is an important battleground in the fight against the backward priorities of healthcare profiteers. Socialist Alternative extends its solidarity with the nurses at Saint Vincent’s in their struggle for a 3:1 patient-to-nurse ratio. Winning this struggle could be a key step in building a struggle of all healthcare workers and patients for an end to healthcare profiteering. We need an immediate transition to Medicare for All as a step toward a fully democratic, publicly owned healthcare system. J
Nurses on the picket line at Saint Vincent’s in Worcester, MA.
DEATH AT AMAZON WAREHOUSE Rob Darakjian, Los Angeles On May 6, a worker at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama died on the job after collapsing in a bathroom during their shift. This tragedy unfolded just months after inhumane productivity requirements and grueling working conditions sparked workers at the warehouse to attempt to form
a union. The callous disregard for the health and safety of workers is nothing new for Amazon. In fact, it has practically become part of their brand. We do not yet know the immediate cause of death, but there should be no doubt that the more general causes lie in the stress and physical strain Amazon places on their workers. Though the union drive was defeated, it’s clear that the conditions that pushed workers to get organized still exist, in Bessemer and in warehouses across the country. Unions are needed more than ever to win better working conditions, which could have stopped this preventable death. J
Us Them
versus
Meaghan Murray, Minneapolis
We’ve seen the images making the rounds on social media: hastily-printed signs on fast food drive-through windows. “SORRY, NO ONE WANTS TO WORK HERE. WE’RE SHORT-STAFFED AND CLOSED.” Businesses across the U.S. are struggling to fill jobs as the rising vaccination rate is spelling a return to normal life. But the posted signs leave out a few details: Sorry, no one wants to work here, (at a business where workers are treated terribly by both their bosses and customers for $7.25 an hour.) We’re shortstaffed and closed (because after more than a year of being called “essential” and “heroes” without hazard pay and PPE, they don’t want to return to jobs that pay far less than unemployment benefits while COVID is still circulating.) Most of the 266,000 jobs added to the economy in April were in leisure and hospitality. How many of these new jobs (in notoriously low-wage and tip-dependent sectors) are paying a livable wage? The reality is, roughly one in four people receiving unemployment benefits are making more than they were at their old jobs. Why would anyone take a pay cut to face the conditions they settled for pre-pandemic? This doesn’t mean we should snatch away unemployment (like Republican states are trying to do), but it does say something about the sorry state of workers’ wages. Biden had a chance to raise the federal minimum wage to $15/hr earlier this year, but some phantom parliamentarian no one
had ever heard of decided that it wouldn’t fly with the stimulus package, which is totally cool and very democratic. How many senators then voted “no” to include it in the package anyway? Fifty eight, including eight Democrats. These people get paid $174,000 a year. And the corporations that boast about raising their wages to $15 or higher? Those are the same ones that were profiteering in a pandemic. Of course they can pay people more, and frankly, they’re desperate to get anyone to work for them at all. They’ll still union bust, though! Because worker power frightens corporations, the political establishment, and billionaires alike. This is the beginning of an important realization for many: that your labor is worth more than the crumbs the bosses pay you, that your health is worth more than the nonexistent health care that companies “just can’t offer,” that there’s something wrong when you can’t afford childcare with what your job pays, but your kid is distance learning and school’s out for the summer. What would it look like if we had mass demonstrations, strikes - like the one McDonald’s workers are organizing now - and protests for $15 across the country? Workers and organizers fought for $15 and won in Seattle and Minneapolis. It took a mass movement to win it, and that’s what we need to build... everywhere else. If we can stop a fast food spot from operating with wages you can’t live on, what else could we do? We’re not going back to business as usual. J
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COVID-19
GLOBAL VACCINE INEQUALITY SPELLS DISASTER Grace Fors, Dallas The U.S. is approaching “normal.” Millions are vaccinated, the CDC nixed its mask guidelines, and states everywhere are eagerly lifting restrictions in time for summer. But globally, COVID-19 is exploding. Entire regions are wracked with new outbreaks. The disaster in India has spread throughout South Asia, and Brazil’s COVID crisis is mirrored in Argentina, Paraguay, and Colombia all reporting their highest daily deaths in recent weeks. Subsaharan Africa, far from being less impacted by the pandemic as mainstream media has reported, is revealing itself to be a hotbed of undiagnosed transmission. These regions facing the worst outbreaks are expected to wait the longest to access COVID vaccines. At the time of writing, one billion vaccine doses have been administered, with over half going to three countries, while low-income countries have received just 0.2 percent. Twelve countries have yet to give a single shot, and it could be 2023 or later before shots are available to the general population. The unfolding chaos exposes not only a callous disregard for human lives in the Global South, but also deeper problems with capitalism. From neoliberal patent laws, to vaccine nationalism, to severe global inequality, every aspect of our current system is deeply inadequate to address the crises of the 21st century.
“Trickle-Down” Vaccination As soon as vaccines hit the market, western capitalist powers like the U.S.,
Canada, and the EU had already snatched up 96 percent of Pfizer doses and all Moderna doses. Many bought enough to vaccinate their populations multiple times. Bilateral deals with governments doling out billions to pharmaceutical companies to speed up development in exchange for priority access meant that even those with the money to bet on a vaccine were told there weren’t any left to buy. COVAX, the United Nations program backed by the Gates Foundation, was established to try to correct this. Aside from providing cheaper vaccines less effective against variants, COVAX is flailing from lack of buyin, and so far has only delivered a fifth of the doses it aimed for.
Neoliberalism and the Dominance of Intellectual Property Debates globally about what to do next have revolved around something called the “TRIPS waiver.” This refers to India and South Africa’s appeal to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to lift patent restrictions for treatments related to COVID-19, and allow countries to produce generic versions of the vaccines. The WTO operates on consensus, so any one country can block the waiver. Since its proposal in October it has been blocked over and over again by the same wealthy countries that have hoarded vaccines and are home to the biggest pharmaceutical companies. In a rational world, advancements created by society would serve society. The World Trade Organization historically has worked to ensure that
doesn’t happen. The WTO worked side-by-side with megacorporations like Pfizer to solidify enforcement of patent laws worldwide. Passed in the heat of the AIDS crisis, TRIPS played a key role in African countries waiting ten years to receive treatments that could have prevented tens of thousands of deaths. Meanwhile, neoliberal globalization dramatically increased the inequality between rich and poor countries, starved public health systems, and handed the multinationals dictatorial control over world trade. With so much of modern capitalism and global trade relying on hoarded intellectual property, winning equal access to medicines will require a dramatic restructuring of the economic system.
Biden and the Global Ruling Class Until his recent reversal on the TRIPS waiver, Biden had been largely carrying forward Trump’s “America First” approach to vaccination. In fact, blatant nationalism has been the overarching strategy of most rich countries who are eager to vaccinate their populations, prop up domestic demand, and get business revving again. However, several factors have forced Biden to adapt his tactics. One is China and Russia’s “vaccine diplomacy,” sending doses to other countries with strings attached. In spite of his loyalty to Big Pharma - who spent $13 million on his presidential run and $92 million in DC lobbying in the first three months of 2021 - Biden is nevertheless hardpressed to combat China’s influence on the global stage. Public pressure like Kshama Sawant’s resolution to the Seattle City Council that was replicated in cities across the country, played a critical role in forcing his hand. While Biden’s move puts pressure on remaining holdouts like Angela Merkel and Justin Trudeau, much more is needed: mass mobilizations throughout the EU and Canada will be necessary to demand that leaders move to suspend patents and put real resources into distributing doses to the Global South. We need a real plan to take on the task of vaccinating the world: the Battle Royale between the wealthiest countries will only make things worse.
Big Pharma Calling the Shots
Long lines for vaccines at a government hospital in Jammu, India. JUNE 2021
Between the AIDS epidemic, the opioid crisis, and COVID-19, the deaths caused by Big Pharma are likely in the millions. Pharma companies’ purpose is not to produce medicine or save lives, but to generate profit. Pfizer raked in an estimated $900 million in profits in the first quarter of 2021, and Moderna, $12 million. While the virus mutates, spreads, and kills thousands daily, Pharma CEOs are salivating at the prospect of continuing to cash in on treating new variants. Big Pharma is out of control, and we can’t control what we do not own. Taking all Big Pharma corporations into democratic public ownership is the only way we can ensure that prices are drastically reduced, and vaccines are sent to where they’re needed
along with staff to facilitate technology transfers, instead of revenues being paid out to shareholders or eaten up by the stock market casino.
What’s Next in Solving the Pandemic? Even if the WTO lifts the patents, experts say the earliest the world could see additional vaccine capacity would be in 2022. Why? To produce generic vaccines, governments would need to train staff, acquire raw materials in short supply, and retool factories for complex manufacturing - which could potentially go wrong. These obstacles to manufacturing capacity show why all information on vaccine production should be in the public domain. The vast financial resources that allowed wealthy countries to buy up vaccines must be used to invest in manufacturing infrastructure and skills needed to produce billions of doses worldwide. Several other hurdles remain. The world needs more than just vaccines. In countries with raging outbreaks, vaccinating a small portion of the population is not enough. Rapid containment is needed along with contact tracing and lockdowns which will require massive aid from rich countries and forgiveness of sovereign debt to stave off poverty and austerity resulting from lockdowns as happened in Colombia. This is to say nothing of the impact of existing wars and conflicts in exacerbating the pandemic. Gaza, already deprived of vaccines by the Israeli regime, saw its only COVID-19 testing center blasted by Israeli airstrikes, and shipments of doses and critical supplies like ventilators are held up by blockades. When it comes to increasing the global vaccine supply, the biggest concrete obstacle is a lack of critical raw materials. Vaccine makers are struggling to acquire filters and plastic bags used in manufacturing, and there is a grave oxygen shortage. Capitalism will distribute these on the basis of market forces, selling to the highest bidder whether they need it or not. Decisions on how best to use these resources should not be left to profit-hungry corporations, but decided democratically in the interests of people worldwide against the pandemic. Despite the obstacles in our path, there is a solution to the crisis. It just can’t be accomplished on the terms of Big Pharma and the WTO. Only on the basis of a dramatic overhaul of the current profit-driven system can we invest society’s resources in what working people need. The working class has the ability to streamline supply chains, upgrade public health infrastructure worldwide, and ramp up manufacturing to meet demand, and end the harmful environmental practices that lead to pandemics. Now more than ever, global public health means a world without war, climate destruction, and profiteering. The alternative is a bleak future of permanent pandemic and spiraling inequality. J
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BUILDING THE FIGHT FOR RENT CONTROL
HOUSING
Andy Moxley, Seattle
After a few months of declining apartment rents during the worst of COVID, Seattle’s corporate landlords have wasted no time in resuming steep hikes in the cost of housing. This will only further accelerate racist gentrification and economic evictions. Since January, they’ve jacked up rents a staggering nine percent, pushing yet more working people out of the city. Seattle is now the 5th most expensive city in the U.S. Unemployment levels in Washington are “similar to levels during the ‘Great Recession.’” All in the context of the most regressive tax system in the country. With the hard-won eviction moratorium expiring on June 30, all of this amounts to a nightmare scenario for renters and small businesses. What happened to us all being “in this together?” The truth is we never were.
failed, and will continue to fail, working class renters. And it won’t change in the future unless we set limits to rents, because corporate landlords are in the business of making money, not housing people affordably. That’s why Kshama Sawant’s socialist council office in Seattle is introducing rent control legislation and building a movement to win it. It won’t be easy to win rent control legislation, but we have won incredible victories over the last several years by building powerful movements. This includes the right to an attorney for any tenant facing eviction, the eviction moratoriums, the cap on exorbitant move-in fees, anti-slumlord laws, and of course last year’s historic Amazon Tax to fund affordable housing and homelessness services. In a situation where, before the COVID crisis and the capitalist recession of 2020, 46% of Seattle renters were already classified as “rent burdened,” we need rent-
Racist Nature of the Rental Crisis in Seattle
control now more than ever!
The ongoing rental crisis has a disproportionate impact on people of color, the elderly, and low-income renters - reinforcing historic inequities. Racial inequality is extremely severe in Seattle, where the median Black household income is 2.6 times lower than the average white household (giving Seattle the 8th highest level of disparity of the 50 largest US cities). In addition, Black Seattleites are three times as likely to be unemployed and roughly two out of three are rent burdened - higher than the already incredibly high general average. In the city’s Central District neighborhood, we’ve seen how profit-hungry developers have driven a housing policy that has turned the historically 70% Black neighborhood to less than 20% Black residents over the course of the last 50 years. Yet the Democratic political establishment on both the city and state level has done little to put a stop to racist economic and housing policy in Seattle over that period. While they may oppose racism in words, they in fact give carte blanche to corporate developers to continue to drive our Black neighbors out of the city.
The time has come to reignite our fight for real rent control without corporate loopholes, and force the Democrats to stop dragging their feet and finally pass Councilmember Sawant’s legislation. Our legislation issues a challenge to the political establishment to overturn the statewide ban on residential rent control while also calling for commercial rent control for struggling small businesses. Commercial rent control is a lifeline for these small businesses and is completely and immediately enactable by the city. There is no more room for excuses from Democrats on the City Council who have long hidden behind the inaction of their colleagues at the state level on this issue of dire importance. In addition, we are introducing a series of bills calling for a number of equally important, immediately implementable and desperately needed policies for renters and small businesses. These include increasing the notice of rent hikes from 60 to 180 days, requiring landlords pay relocation services if they try to economically evict tenants, and rental, mortgage, and utility debt cancellation for all struggling renters and homeowners. We need to send a clear message to big business and the political establishment: we will not let you force the cost of the COVID and economic crises onto the backs of working people. We’ve been told rent control in Seattle is not possible. They also told us a $15 an
Tenants’ Rights Victories The housing crisis will not resolve itself. The shameless profiteering of corporate landlords shows why the “free market” has
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We Need Rent Control
hour minimum wage was impossible, but we built a movement and won. A year ago, Mayor Durkan said about the Amazon Tax, “that never is going to happen.” But we fought and won it a few months later. It is clear that when the political establishment says something is “impossible,” what they mean is “it’s bad for my big business and big developers friends.” While we won’t win every battle, we know that when we build vibrant, grassroots movements, we can overcome huge obstacles. Our movement held a press conference on rent control in the Central District, which is in many ways ground zero in the fight between profit-seeking corporate landlords, on the one hand, and working class renters, homeowners, and struggling small businesses on the other. There you can see very plainly the “tale of two cities” that is playing out. On one side of the street you have the Liberty Bank building, a new affordable housing project built with public funds where one bedroom apartments go for $1,180 a month. On the other side, there are two for-profit housing complexes run by one corporate landlord. Rents range from over $1,500-2,400+ a month for the same one bedroom sized apartment. What possibly could be the difference? Profit. While the Liberty Bank building was built for people not profit, the other two were built purely for corporate landlord greed. The staggering differences here show what could be possible with a just housing policy. This includes not only rent control but social housing, high quality affordable housing built with public funds. For example, this could be paid for by expanding the Amazon Tax. By taking the profit motive out of housing, Dana Relph, Minneapolis Socialist Alternative has banded together with community groups, faith organizations, renter and labor unions and other organizations under the banner of Minneapolis United for Rent Control (MURC) to create a broad, multi-racial, working class coalition of organizers. The coalition is organizing a tabling and door knocking campaign to gather 20,000 signatures and inform renters and community members about the fight for rent control and put pressure on city council. The MURC coalition has developed coordinating committees with members from each group, broader general meetings for anyone to get involved, all of which drives
Seattle residents rally in support of rent control at City Hall with Councilmember Kshama Sawant we can stop the massive displacement that is happening in places like the Central District. It would allow those who have lived in Seattle all their lives to continue to live in their own neighborhoods while still taking in those, particularly young people, that hope to add themselves to the diversity of our city.
Build the Movement It is in no one’s interest except big business and corporate landlords, who use the skyrocketing housing prices to line their pockets, to let this housing crisis continue. But these interests have a powerful sway among the Democratic political establishment, which is why these same politicians tell us that things like rent control are an impossible pipe dream. But as famous French author Victor Hugo once put it “Nothing else in the world is so powerful as an idea whose time has come.” Rent control’s time has come. It became law in the state of Oregon in 2019 and a number of other states and cities are considering it now. It clearly has momentum. But momentum is not enough. We have to get stronger. We need to build a united movement of working and middle class renters, homeowners, and small businesses to take on the might of the corporate and political elite. That’s why we are now beginning a campaign to collect over 20,000 signatures of Seattle residents to support Kshama Sawant’s new legislation for residential and commercial rent control in addition to a slew of other tenant protections. If we fight, we can win - join us! J
the important work of reaching out to renters across the city. As we move forward and the momentum grows, we should recognize that City Hall will put pressures on our coalition to work within existing political structures, instead of relying on the movement and buildingby-building organizing. In order to build strength against this threat of co-optation, we should consistently stress that this movement’s strength is in its independence from the political establishment. As we build a movement for rent control, we must seize the opportunity to build class consciousness around the capitalist nature of the housing crisis, and point that movement towards solutions that truly revolutionize the way we see housing in this country. J S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G
FOURTEEN MONTHS OF REMOTE LEARNING
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“Parenting two young children before the pandemic was already a juggling act. Trying to manage remote learning while working from home and making sure that me and my partner’s schedules are coordinated so we can be n at our physical jobs when Br t necessary has been more igh en t we l l , p ar like a three ring circus. Just navigating the technical aspect of distance learning is a significant increase in work for parents. Kindergartners aren’t always able to independently log in to education apps and zoom rooms. Chargers go missing, tablets need to be restarted, and passwords are
forgotten. Teachers are facing their own set of issues with remote learning, and there’s plenty of glitches and changes, last minute messages on school messaging platforms, and even substitute teachers who don’t know how to mute the class (at least that technical problem provided some comic relief). I live in a two-bedroom house, and while it’s not exactly spacious, it’s always been fine – until remote learning. I have no idea how families who live in small spaces deal with it. Finding a quiet space for an important meeting is occasionally impossible. I had to buy new furniture to accommodate work areas for both kids, and now I get to yell at them to actually use the furniture instead of laying in their beds with the tablet. It’s not just the aggravation of technical problems or having to multitask. The emotional toll remote learning has taken on parents and kids is real. My kids were happy to go family members while simultaneously attending school with the same learning expectations. The general lack of transparency around reopening and education plans has been extremely frustrating to students and has left many of us feeling removed and powerless to influence our education and safety. Rushed plans to reopen at multiple phases in the pandemic have been confusing, unrealistic, and dangerous for ill-equipped school districts. School shutdowns have uncovered and exacerbated existing disparities in our education system. Lower-income and minority students have been some of the most vulnerable. The pandemic has also made it more difficult to obtain resources like school meals, counseling, and daytime shelter that millions of students rely on. The mental health crisis among teens and children, which has been a growing epidemic in recent years, has deepened since schools shut down. Students have been left
“For over a year, teachers have been forced to make remote learning work. We have been expected to meet the same results as “normal” years, years which were already extremely challenging given decades of underfunding of our schools. The result was inconsistent, frustrating, and creh ated demoralizing learning ar r yM he and work environments for or f i n , teac educators everywhere. When COVID first hit, most places went entirely remote virtually overnight. We sat anxiously in the deafening silence last summer, waiting to hear from
administrators if we’d be back in classrooms or not in the fall. Throughout the year we fluctuated in and out of different hybrid models. Changes often happened at a whim, with new schedules introduced at the last-minute, forcing us to continually reinvent the wheel on how to teach our classes. The same lesson has to be completely replanned to be taught online vs. in person, and planned twice to be taught both ways at the same time. Since we have no real control over students’ learning environment in all-remote, any chances of meaningfully engaging our students goes out the window. Teacher shortages meant that those of us still working had to fill in gaps with little support and certainly no additional pay. I met a paraprofessional who was asked to teach a second-grade class, but wasn’t given any lesson plans, a curriculum, or materials. Our whole world went topsy-turvy when we learned, on a few days notice, that the hybrid model was ending. With
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“Last spring, children, teens, and young adults faced a transition to virtual learning that abruptly removed us from our routines, resources, and support systems. I started remote learning in March 2020, and it has been extremely challenging. Spending prolonged periac t ie ods on Zoom or other video n la L eon, stude conferencing tools is draining. Some of my classmates still do not have the internet connection or technology to access these virtual classrooms. Others face the additional challenge of having to watch over their siblings or
to school almost always, in pre-pandemic times. Now, getting them to log in and pay attention is a daily struggle. Getting them to complete work “asynchronously” is typically a herculean task. Their interest in school plummeted along with the level of engagement that school provides. For the one friend I have whose kid is thriving in remote learning, I have five others whose kids are refusing to do school, not getting help for special learning needs, getting depressed, or becoming addicted to video games. My partner and I trade off on the endless reminders to get onto the next Zoom on time and the nagging to finish assignments. At some point I end up escalating to coercing and threatening. It’s hard to be an engaged and sympathetic parent at the exact same time that you’re trying to work for a living, with the immense stress of living through a pandemic and economic crisis in the background. Something has to give.” J
to deal with grief over losing family members to COVID and the unique stresses and difficulties of online learning in isolation from their peers. With the likely return to in-person learning during the fall, schools need more resources to contend with the effects of the pandemic on student learning. Standardized testing should be cancelled nationally and students’ grades from remote learning quarters should not be incorporated into their overall GPAs. Districts need to hire new teachers, nurses, and mental health professionals, who will be crucial to serving those of us dealing with the fallout of the pandemic like isolation and rising poverty. We need more permanent funding for our schools to overcome growing achievement gaps on economic lines and deal with the decades of crisis in our public schools.” J
no time to plan, we had to bear all of the responsibility for adjusting a bunch of new children to a brand new environment. Was there any real plan from the Department of Education? No. Were any teachers actually consulted in this decision? Absolutely not. This is the reality of remote learning. Teachers were already overworked before COVID and incorporating COVID safety measures while adapting to different teaching models has just made it worse. And all of this with little to no support and training from our schools and districts. The school year didn’t have to be like this. We’re going to see money come into schools from Biden’s stimulus package, but we’re going to need to fight to make sure that money is used to better the conditions of teachers, staff, and students. This needs to include mass hirings of educators, support staff, and counselors for our schools.” J
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I N T E R N AT I O N A L committees with elements of self-organization. Unsurprisingly, it’s also where the state has come down hardest. The vast majority of recorded deaths have happened here as police helicopters shot into crowds.
U.S. Imperialism and the Colombian Ruling Class
COLOMBIA
GENERAL STRIKE IGNITES MASS UPRISING
May 1st demonstration in Bogota, Colombia.
Darragh O’Dwyer, London
Deep into a popular uprising that has spread to every corner of the country, Colombia remains in open revolt. The rebellion kicked off on April 28 with a general strike called as a response to right-wing president Ivan Duque’s proposed tax reform bill. The euphemistically-named “Sustainable Solidarity Law” was dressed up as benefiting the most impoverished sections of society, but it actually meant an attempt to force the costs of the pandemic onto the masses. Yet the day has passed when such frontal attacks on workers and the poor can be implemented without grave consequences. The response of the Colombian masses powerfully demonstrates the type of resistance the ruling class can expect in this period of deep capitalist crisis.
Initial Victory The general strike set in motion a movement that went far beyond the expectations of the union leadership.
Militant demonstrations erupted in 250 towns and cities. Much of the country remains paralyzed due to blockades. Drawing into its ranks all sections of the exploited and oppressed, the movement is a panorama representing the diversity of struggles in Colombia. Workers, students, women, peasants, indigenous people, afro-Colombians, LGBTQ activists, environmentalists all united against a common enemy. The Colombian elite’s arsenal of divide and rule tactics — from racism to red-baiting — have proven ineffective in derailing the insurgency. On May 2, the movement scored its first victory when Duque withdrew the loathed bill. The movement went further and an array of other demands have been taken up. These include the halting of privatization of healthcare and pensions, free college education, ending state repression and for Duque to resign.
State Repression Human rights organizations report at least 40 deaths at the hands of state forces, over
a thousand injured, and hundreds of cases of protestors who have been “disappeared.” Police have sexually assaulted women — a vile but common method of deterring the most radical elements from taking to the streets. The Colombian riot police, ESMAD, have come to be recognized for their particularly brutal methods. Shooting protesters point blank, driving vehicles into demonstrations, and consciously terrorizing working class neighborhoods are amongst the many forms of repression they’ve unleashed on the masses. All of this is not a display of strength but of weakness, betraying a fear of a popular uprising that strikes at the heart of Colombian capitalism. To exert its control, the ruling class has only brute force to rely upon. But every baton blow drives home the realization that the state is not a neutral force but a tool of class domination. It’s in Cali, Colombia’s third largest city, that the struggle has reached its most advanced stage. Working-class barrios have been under control of neighborhood
PERUVIAN ELECTIONS: FUJIMORI VS. LEFT-WING CASTILLO Emily Culver, Pittsburgh
On April 11, Peru held the first round of presidential elections in a contentious and polarized environment, an expression of the deep crisis in the wake of the protests of November 2020. In a surprise for many, left-wing candidate Pedro Castillo came ahead winning nearly 19% of the total vote. In the runoff election on June 6, Castillo will face Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of former dictator Alberto Fujimori.
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Pedro Castillo is a primary school teacher and union activist from the left wing party called Perú Libre (Free Peru). His political activism began in 2017 when he led the mass nationwide teacher strike against then-president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. Castillo and his campaign face a difficult road ahead to victory. The right wing in Peru is used to waging campaigns of fear against any candidate that argues for progressive change in the country, or threatens to disrupt right-wing politicians and big
business’ hold over the country. However, widespread dislike and distrust of Castillo’s opponent, Keiko Fujimori, will be a strong advantage in his favor. Fujimori is aligned with wealthy and corrupt business interests and neoliberalism. A Pedro Castillo presidency would be a victory against Fujimori and the neoliberalism, corruption, and inequality that she represents. But, Pedro Castillo can only succeed in implementing the radical changes he proposes if he continues to build a wide
The movement also puts Biden in a corner. Rebranding U.S. imperialism in a rhetoric of democracy and human rights, he faces pressure to condemn the Duque government. But the U.S. has important economic and geopolitical interests in Colombia that Biden wants to protect against an ascendent Chinese imperialism. “I’m the guy who put together Plan Colombia” boasted Biden in last year’s presidential race. As an intensification of the war on drugs, “Plan Colombia” was a counter-insurgency campaign against left-wing guerilla groups. The U.S. supplied successive right-wing governments with money, weapons and training to step up a military and ideological offensive against the entire left and working class movement. This also led to the creation of ESMAD, which today terrorizes protesters with U.S.-made rifles and tear gas. All of this is the latest chapter in the blood-soaked history of Colombian capitalism. With the backing of U.S. imperialism, the levels of violence carried out by the Colombian state exceeds that of some of history’s most despotic regimes.
Colombia Resiste! International Solidarity Solidarity from the international movement of the working class is absolutely crucial. Feeble words of condemnation from capitalist governments mean nothing. But the heroism and ingenuity of protesters, particularly the youth, are a source of inspiration for the working class and oppressed throughout Latin America and beyond. That is why International Socialist Alternative has committed to building a campaign of international solidarity in support of the mass revolt in Colombia. We are struggling against the same global economic system that breeds only misery, violence and ecological destruction. Precisely for this reason we organize internationally — a world party that connects the struggles of the working class and oppressed across every continent, united in a common movement to break with capitalism and imperialism. J
base of support and democratic participation amongst the working and campesino classes in Peru in order to avoid yielding to the pressures of the right wing and big business. Real change for Peru has to be built not only on a rejection of Fujimori and neoliberalism, but also on the back of a mass working class movement that can provide an alternative. Carrying forward the energy from the November 2020 mass protests into this coming period are the only guarantee that the radical changes Castillo proposes are implemented, and more. J S O C I A L I S TA LT E R N AT I V E . O R G
C O N T I N U AT I O N S
THE STATE OF THE RECOVERY casino. Now they are moving towards increasing state intervention to shore up “strategic” sectors in their global competition with China and other powers. But while state intervention could boost sectors of the economy, the conflict with China will also have adverse effects on the world economy. The only way out of this dead end is to get rid of capitalism itself. The multiracial,
multigender working class is the only force with the social power to do this. But while working people are extremely angry at the system and willing to fight, they are not organized. An upturn, even of short duration, is an opportunity to develop the fight for higher wages. Already, with many workers refusing to return to horrible low wage jobs, some corporations have raised wages.
continued from p.3 Unions should seize on this opening in order to strengthen the labor movement for the battles ahead. We need to build fighting unions and a new political force independent of both capitalist parties that can begin to mobilize and galvanize the anger into a direct challenge to the bosses’ system. J
SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE ISSN 2638-3349
EDITOR: Keely Mullen EDITORIAL BOARD: George Brown, Tom Crean, Grace Fors, Rebecca Green, Eljeer Hawkins, Joshua Koritz, Calvin Priest, Tony Wilsdon
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DEFEND ROE V. WADE legislatures to test the ruling and restrict abortion earlier and earlier in pregnancies (as early as six weeks in a law just passed in Texas). According to the New York Times, allowing states to decide could increase the distance to the nearest abortion clinic from 35 to over 200 miles for millions of women. Women who can’t afford to take time off work or pay for childcare are increasingly impacted. Republican majority legislatures in approximately 22 states have passed various “trigger laws” that would make abortion illegal immediately, or soon after, if Roe is ever overturned outright.
Defend Roe v. Wade and Reproductive Rights! Attempts to restrict abortion aren’t new, and have been a line of attack for years. 2020 was one of the most challenging years in modern history to be a parent and a mother. When schools and childcare centers shut down at the beginning of the pandemic, the New York Times reports that “5.1 million American mothers stopped working for pay. Today, 1.3 million of them remain out of work.” Fighting for the right to legal, safe, and accessible abortion must not be separated from the fight for a healthy society.
Socialist Alternative is part of International Socialist Alternative (ISA), which has sections in over 30 countries. Learn more about the ISA at internationalsocialist.net.
continued from p.5 This means fighting for free childcare, a living wage, a Medicare for All universal healthcare system and much more. Building a mass movement, we can defeat these reactionary laws as a part of a fight for trans-inclusive, reproductive healthcare for women and LGBTQ people. When will the Democratic leadership, and their connected organizations like NOW, NARAL, Planned Parenthood, decide to wage a real fight for women’s rights? We cannot wait. We need our own, working-class party, prepared to fight for this program, and a world where women genuinely have the right to raise a family, when and how they decide to, or not. J
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STATE REPRESSION IN ISRAEL-PALESTINE socialist context can the right of Palestinians to return with national rights for all be guaranteed. Such a struggle requires a majority support of workers in the region, which means that Israeli workers have an interest in fighting the capitalist Israeli regime alongside Palestinians as the only way to achieve real solidarity and end the violence. The general strike, called on May 18, united Palestinians in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank in a historic show of solidarity. This effort, the result of pressure from below, shows the potential that the working
JUNE 2021
class has to change society. To build up solidarity against the occupation, siege, and national oppression, workers’ actions should be expanded and the organized working class within Israel, of both national communities, needs to challenge the corrupt Israeli regime and Israeli capitalism itself. New revolutionary struggles are erupting around the world. From Myanmar to Colombia, from Hong Kong to the Middle East, workers and young people are fighting oppression wherever it raises its head. The struggle for Palestinian liberation is part of
continued from p.8 this phenomenon with the new generation re-discovering the approach of mass mobilizations, protests, and strikes. Out of these movements new organizations, unions, and political parties should set themselves the task of developing a socialist alternative to the Palestinian leadership that can truly challenge Israeli aggression. Only the working class masses in the region have the power to free themselves from oppression and fight for a real alternative based on solidarity, security, and socialism. J
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ALTERNATIVE
JOIN THE SOCIALISTS Eva Metz, Seattle Capitalism is killing us: it’s destroying our health, our happiness, and our planet. It created the crises of the past year and then profited off of them, with U.S. billionaires pocketing an additional $1.2 trillion during the pandemic while millions got sick, lost their jobs, lost their homes, and went hungry. The hoarding of vaccines by wealthy countries has created a “vaccine apartheid” that is devastating the neocolonial world. While it may seem hard to think of a more naked example of the cruelty of capitalism than cutting off vaccine access to billions of people to protect the profits of pharmaceutical corporations, approximately nine million people die from hunger every year even though enough food is produced to feed the world 1.5 times over. Already, over 3.5 million people have died from the coronavirus pandemic worldwide, and according to new studies the real count could be dramatically higher at an estimated seven million deaths. The pandemic has underscored something that’s common sense to the majority of Americans who support Medicare for All — for-profit healthcare is making us sick. While many of us have spent the past year focusing on the global health crisis, another global crisis has continued to play out. 2020 closed out the hottest decade on record. We’re already seeing some of the devastating impacts of climate change, including a new normal of unnatural natural disasters: supercharged hurricanes, choking wildfires,
powerful flash floods, and more. With just 100 corporations responsible for over 70% of global climate emissions, the solution to impending climate catastrophe is not individual lifestyle choices, population control, or nihilism. It is the same as the solution to our failing healthcare system, our housing crisis, and our ever-growing inequality: socialism.
What is Socialism? In a socialist society, instead of a small minority of capitalists dictating the economy, decisions would be made democratically by working people. This does not just mean voting every few years for candidates representing one of the two parties of big business, but democratically planning the economy and society as a whole to benefit the needs of the many, not the profits of a few. Due to the sheer scale of the historic COVID crisis, the political establishment was forced to cough up unemployment benefits and modest direct stimulus checks. The situation has now seesawed, with job openings at a 20 year high as low-wage workers realize that they no longer have to settle for crumbs. Due to the illogical, chaotic nature of the capitalist system, at the same time that unemployment soared to record highs, overwork is literally killing us, with an estimated three quarters of a million people dying each year due to overwork. A socialist society would guarantee employment for all those able to work, shortening the work week with no loss in pay or
benefits. Getting rid of the wasteful, unnecessary sectors which exist solely for the benefit of capitalism, from advertising to the military industrial complex, and implementing widescale planning, cooperation, and automation would make it possible for humanity to meet the challenges of the future. Under socialism, housing, food, healthcare, and education would be guaranteed for all. But as the saying goes, we fight for not just bread, but roses too. Capitalism is making us miserable. It has created a mental health crisis so extreme that suicide has risen to the 2nd leading cause of death for Americans aged 10-34. A socialist society would not only provide free, accessible mental health services for all, but it would also address the capitalist roots of the crisis, replacing the alienation, precarity, and isolation of capitalism with democratic control, stability, and working-class solidarity.
The Fight for Socialism Capitalism uses racism, sexism, transphobia, xenophobia, and other forms of oppression as tools to divide working people, but the most powerful force in society is an organized, unified working class. As teachers, nurses, tech workers, grocery store clerks, logistics workers, construction workers, etc, we are the only ones capable of shutting down and transforming society, because we are the ones that make society run. As a new generation comes of age in an era where capitalism’s rotten nature becomes ever more clear, powerful mass movements
can win huge changes in society. This will inevitably lead many more to draw socialist and revolutionary conclusions. In Socialist Alternative, we used our experience in labor organizing to support the union drive at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, sending our members from across the country who spent months on the ground working with leading workers and union organizers. During the George Floyd uprising last summer, our members in the Amalgamated Transit Union in Minneapolis refused to transport arrested protesters, providing an example of the role the labor movement can play in the fight against racism. In Seattle, we have gone head to head with the corporate Goliath Amazon and won — twice — with a re-election victory for Socialist Alternative City Councilmember Kshama Sawant despite Amazon’s record-breaking $1.5 million spending, and a subsequent victory to Tax Amazon. We are now embroiled in a battle to defend Kshama’s seat and the right to protest against a right-wing, billionaire-backed Recall Campaign. As hundreds of thousands of Palestinians across Israel and occupied territories mounted a general strike, the largest unified demonstration in many years, we are proud to stand in political solidarity, as part of the International Socialist Alternative (ISA), with our sister organization in Israel/Palestine. To fight a global capitalist system, we need revolutionary internationalism, and the ISA is a global fighting organization with a presence in over 30 countries and on all continents. Join us. J