We Must Unite Against the Right in a Mass Workers’ Movement

Last night’s attack on Club Q in Colorado Springs is a result of years of anti-LGBTQ fearmongering in federal election campaigns, state legislatures, local municipalities and school boards, and across the capitalist media. Even though most people support LGBTQ people and our rights, the rich have spent millions funding politicians who spread hate. These anti-LGBTQ campaigns are part of a program to divide, disenfranchise, and attack the working class. United we can defend LGBTQ rights and fight back on every issue affecting the working class, from immigrant rights to abortion access to ending US wars for profit.

Anti-LGBTQ Violence Funded by Billionaires and Hate Groups

Billionaire-funded hate groups posing as foundations and think tanks—including the Alliance Defending Freedom, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and others—have drafted hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills and policy proposals for state legislatures and school boards. These same foundations push attacks on abortion rights and anti-racist education and have blocked raises to the minimum wage. They push laws that target healthcare, sports, and bathroom access for trans people, especially trans youth; policies forbidding discussion of LGBTQ-related subjects and people in schools; and attempts by the state to take trans children away from their parents. As healthcare for trans people has come under heavier attack, suicide rates for trans people—especially trans youth—have risen.

That the Club Q shooting occurred the night before Trans Day of Remembrance and Resilience is hardly a coincidence. The past few years have seen a rise in anti-trans violence and record murder rates, especially for Black trans women. The more the capitalists push anti-LGBTQ policies through the government, the more the far-right is emboldened to carry out terrorist attacks.

Capitalist Media Has Helped Stoke the Flames

The media has been complicit in anti-LGBTQ campaigns, promoting the division and lies the politicians have been spreading. From Fox News to the New York Times, the media has spent years amplifying those who equate being queer or trans with being a sexual predator, including politicians and celebrities like billionaire JK Rowling.

Armed queer people standing guard at an event in Denton, TX, while police guarded the Proud Boys.

More Police Are Not the Answer

After many mass shootings, politicians and their wealthy backers took the opportunity to call for more funding for the police, but customers took down the shooter at Club Q, not the police. And when police have been on the scene, they have protected far-right, anti-LGBTQ hate groups. Recently in New York, police escorted a rally of far-right, anti-trans demagogues, which was met by counter-protestors defending LGBTQ people. Last week, police in Denton, TX provided protection to Proud Boys and Christian nationalists who targeted an event where trans people were reading to children.

Police do not prevent mass shootings, and they don’t exist to protect us. They serve the rich and powerful. Heavily armed by the same weapons dealers making fortunes off war, many police forces include members of the same hate groups targeting LGBTQ people and other oppressed people. During the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting, police waited outside for hours, refusing to help those trapped inside. In Uvalde, TX, police stood idly by while children were murdered.

In the last few years, local, state, and federal politicians have gone out of their way to increase funding to the police. Last year Biden urged city and state governments to spend $350 billion worth of COVID relief money on cops and jails. At the same time, the cost of living has skyrocketed, unemployment has worsened, and no relief has come from the government. The rich fear a scenario where these conditions lead to outright rebellion, as they did in 2020 in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd. The funding of fascist forces and the attacks on LGBTQ people, immigrants, and activists are meant to divide and weaken us. They don’t want us to challenge—much less overturn—the system of exploitation and oppression that is the basis of all their hoarded wealth.

Anti-fascist counter-protesters at an anti-trans event in New York.

Voting and the Courts Are Not the Answer

While Republicans openly run on platforms of hate, the Democrats offer empty promises. They have already given up on a federal bill to protect abortion rights after the midterms. And they have largely stood by as voting rights of millions—especially Black people—have been stripped away by the right wing. The Democratic Party blames voters for their losses and inaction rather than admitting that they have failed to address fundamental issues affecting all workers. They have failed not because they did not have support from voters or because of some broken Congressional procedure; they failed because they do not serve the people; they serve the rich.

Even if politicians could help us, we cannot afford to wait for the next election. Women and others who can bear children cannot access abortions right now. Immigrants are under assault, especially in Texas, where Governor Abbott has invoked invasion clauses to call in the National Guard. And no protection will come from the unelected, undemocratic Supreme Court, a panel of nine millionaires who stripped many rights last session and have openly proclaimed their intention to re-criminalize homosexuality, interracial marriage, and birth control in future rulings.

Mourners in Colorado Springs today.

We Need a Movement – Now

The only answer to this violence is a united front against rising fascist terror. We can build a mass, militant movement to make it clear we will not be divided and intimidated by their violence. To do this, we must go to our fellow workers directly and dispel the lies spread about LGBTQ people, stand in solidarity with immigrants, and speak out against the warmongers and parasites who profit off our suffering.

Fight Transphobia! Solidarity With Trans Youth and Their Parents!

State Lawmakers Across the Country Promote Anti-Trans Bills to Terrorize and Divide Workers!

Stop the War on Trans People! Protect Trans Kids!

Demand Healthcare, Not War!

By Sally Jane Black

Imagine if your child was taken away from you because you got them life-saving medical care.

Imagine if loving and supporting your child was considered child abuse.

This is what the state of Texas has decreed.

Last month Governor Abbott and Texas Attorney General Paxton sent “guidance” to state agencies to consider all forms of gender-affirming healthcare “child abuse”. Last week, state agencies began the process to removing trans children from their parents’ care, threatening parents, and suspending them from their jobs.

Recent studies have shown that receiving trans-related healthcare reduces suicide rates among trans youth by a staggering 73%. Access to trans healthcare is a matter of life and death, and the alleged regrets cited by detractors have been proven to be extremely rare. The state of Texas is trying to drive trans children to suicide and destroy families. Already, members of hate-groups are boasting online about turning trans youth and their families in.

The U.S. has a long history of stealing children from their parents as an act of violence against the oppressed. Whether it is separating migrant families or among the enslaved or indigenous people, the theft of children has been a common practice. In recent years, many of these children have been disappeared into underfunded and often abusive foster care systems. Trans children will fare no better.

Anti-Trans Bills Across the Country Written by Billionaire-Funded Hate Groups

Texas is not alone. This is the latest in a long series of attacks on trans children started years ago. This year alone, over 150 bills have been submitted to state legislatures that target trans youth participation in sports, use of public bathrooms, trans healthcare access, updating IDs and birth certificates, and teaching LGBTQ topics in schools. In response to this, Biden paid lip service to trans children in the State of the Union while doing absolutely nothing to help, going so far as to label the Texas attacks as “government overreach”—therefore tacitly endorsing the sentiment while only mildly rebuking the methods.

In Utah, a proposed law would set up a commission to study all student athletes—trans or not—and their bodies. This is an escalation of the policies attempted in other states where children’s genitals would be investigated by adults in order to let them play sports.  Meanwhile, Florida has passed an updated version of the “Don’t Say Gay” laws of previous decades, removing all references to queer and trans people from their schools. In Mississippi, a similar law is bundled with banning the teaching of the history of racism in the United States.

It is not a coincidence that so many laws have identical language across dozens of states, nor that these attacks are happening alongside anti-abortion measures and racist bans on Black and Indigenous history. These laws have been written by right-wing hate-groups masquerading as “think tanks” and “foundations” funded by the likes of the Koch and Walton families and other capitalists. In Florida, the “Don’t Say Gay” law’s backers were all well paid by the allegedly queer-friendly Disney corporation. They want to maximize profits by restricting the rights of women so that they can continue to pay less to all workers. Women have been in the forefront of recent unionizing. They are for a policy that will put women back to exclusively unpaid work in the kitchen and nurseries.

There is no place for trans or queer people in that world view, and so they seek to drive trans and gender non-conforming people back into hiding. And by wrapping it up in the language of religion, and fear and ignorance, they divide workers instead of the rich elites who are behind this.

These laws are part of the ongoing anti-science agenda of the rich. They seek to keep the working class ignorant in order to better control and exploit us. The “science” they cite to attack trans people flies in the face of the biological, historical facts of gender, which does not conform to the simple categories the capitalists want to force us into. The lies they spread about science, such as their anti-vaxx campaigns and anti-abortion legislation (which often requires doctors to lie about dangers of abortion) serve to make the public distrust science and healthcare, keeping us sick, uninformed, and misled.

Students Walk Out in Florida! Only a Movement in the Streets Can Beat Back Attacks on LGBT People

Trans people and other workers have engaged in protests in Utah and Texas in response to these attacks, and 500 high school students from across Florida walked out in protest of the “Don’t Say Gay” laws. Student organizer Jack Petocz was suspended indefinitely by his high school for leading the protest. We must stand in solidarity with Jack and all who have stood up to the attacks and follow their example.

We cannot afford to count on millionaires running the courts or Congress to do the right thing. This is an act of terror against trans people and those that support us. The message is clear: trans people are to be excluded from public life and driven back into the closet (or to suicide) and anyone who supports us will be arrested or worse. The only answer to these attacks is solidarity with trans people and their parents. While the numerous lawsuits against these attacks are appreciated, they are doomed to be repeated next year without a movement backing them up. Trans people cannot defeat these attacks alone. We must build solidarity with cisgender (non-trans) people by going directly to workers. We must continue what many have already begun in Texas, Florida, and Utah and protest in the streets and disrupt capitalists’ profits.

Many who have rightfully expressed outrage at these attacks have wrongfully targeted cisgender people as the cause of the attacks, ignoring that every single one of these laws will hurt cisgender people as well as transgender people. While it is trans children who will be driven to suicide and trans adults who are forced to work for pennies, it is often cisgender parents who will see their children taken from them and cisgender adults who do not fit the narrow capitalist labels of “man” and “woman” who will face harassment in public bathrooms as well. When trans and non-trans workers are under attack by the government, it is not time to fight amongst ourselves, but to unite against the wealthy parasites who are responsible for them.

Corporate Media Spreads Lies About Trans People

In recent months, hatred of trans people has been promoted by mainstream media and personalities, including JK Rowling and Dave Chappelle. Both have been rewarded for their bigotry with lucrative contracts or major movie releases that will continue to make them millions. Disgustingly, they wrap their bigotry and violence by sickeningly calling their transphobia “feminism” in order to pit trans women against non-trans women. They use their platforms to fear-monger and imply that trans people, especially trans women, are sexual predators or pedophiles, just as they did with gay people in the past. Women’s rights (including trans women) and LGBTQ rights are two wings of the same bird, and we fight the same bigotry and gender violence together.

Meanwhile, last year was the deadliest year on record for trans people in the U.S., with 56 murdered that we know of, and recent studies have shown that trans women make 60 cents on the dollar to what the average worker makes. It is not trans people who are the predators, but the politicians and their corporate sponsors who use trans people to buy votes and divide people.

Though trans people have existed as long as human beings have, the repression of trans people has led to the misunderstanding that being transgender is a new phenomenon. Trans people have always been here and always will be. In the last century, however, medical treatments for trans people have made great advances, allowing for medical transition for those who want it. However, the rich have made it inaccessible for most trans people, denying insurance coverage for hormones or surgeries and making excessive requirements that no other forms of healthcare have. They would have you believe that trans children are regularly having major surgeries, but the truth is, trans adults can barely access them. Most trans youth are put on medication that simply delays certain parts of puberty so that they can make a decision about their bodies once they are adults—exactly the opposite of the non-reversible procedures being talked about by corporate media.

We Must Unite Workers of All Genders!

Meanwhile, U.S. bombs are killing workers in Yemen, Somalia, and Ukraine. The rich have murdered millions by refusing to do anything to fight COVID. And it is not a coincidence that the far-right movement is gaining strength as the left-wing movement in this country waits passively for corporate lackeys like Biden, Pelosi, or Sanders to do anything at all to help workers. Instead of spending $770 billion on war, the U.S. should be funding healthcare for all, and we must unite to demand all trans healthcare be covered for youth and adults. We must not put faith in Democrats to stand up to these attacks or to fight the fascists. Every attack on trans people is an attack on workers as a whole. The capitalists want to tell us who and what we are, controlling everything from our healthcare and jobs to our IDs and even the clothes we wear.

The Struggle of LGBTQ People Brought Broad Acceptance and Support

We Need to Go Back to the Streets, Not Back to the Past

There is no doubt that the powerful movement led by militant LGBTQ people changed society. There has been immense acceptance, support and appreciation in society as a whole, the likes of which a mere 50 years ago was a distant dream. This struggle in fact released hundreds of millions from sexual repression. It is proof that it is the movement, the struggle, the fight that changes society and laws.

Transphobia Comes from the Top Down, Just like Misogyny, and White Supremacy

Capitalists Are Desperate Attempt to Maximize Profit, Divide the Working Class by Increased Repression

We can again mobilize and go to all students and workers to build a militant movement that will make the capitalists too afraid to try these same tactics again. Cisgender workers must stand with trans workers, and trans workers must not cower in fear or refuse to speak to those who have not yet seen past the anti-trans lies spread by corporate media. Trans workers cannot wait until it is “safe” to come out and speak to other workers. And when we (trans or cis) go to the workers, we must be direct and clear in our message about solidarity with trans people.

The capitalists have indoctrinated many in the working class with bigoted ideas—and they then turn around denounce them as “deplorables” for not using the right language. We cannot be like our oppressors and hide behind insistence on specific words and phrases for the sake of our own comfort or correctness, but be prepared and patient, clear and firm in our explanations. We must combat hate speech or intentional disrespect, but to reject reaching out to workers instead of combatting ignorance is to allow our oppressors to win. We owe it to ourselves to do this work.

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Fascist U.S. War Profiteers Are the Real Danger, Not Russia

Fascism Can’t Be Defeated Here While U.S. Funds, Trains, and Supplies Weapons to Fascist Governments Around the World

Hungry for Russia’s Oil and Gas, Washington Lying its Way to War Again

U.S. war hawks and their mouthpieces in the capitalist media claim that Russia is on the verge of invading Ukraine. This is yet another lie brought to you by the same people who falsely claimed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or that Syria “gassed its own people” and so on. The U.S. would lie its way into WWIII before admitting that its wars are fought one reason alone: to make rich men richer. Russia’s vast mineral, oil, and gas wealth is what the U.S. is really after.  

Is Russia a threat to U.S. workers? No! Last year, Russia’s military budget was under $62 billion. The official budget of the U.S. military budget is projected to be $753 billion—12 times the size of Russia’s. NATO’s joint annual military spending tops $1 trillion and is on the rise. The real threat to workers is that every social benefit we’ve fought for will be sacrificed to feed the war profiteers at the trough of the ever-ballooning war budget.

Here’s the truth: the U.S. has been on a steady march to push troops closer to Russia, despite assurances that U.S./NATO forces would not move “one inch eastward” in the words of U.S. Secretary of State James Baker in 1990. To raid resources, expand markets, and exploit more workers, the U.S. and the E.U. want Russia under their boot just like they’ve got Ukraine, Poland, and other countries of Eastern Europe. This would not only be a disaster for Russian workers; it would also increase the capitalists’ power to crush the living standards of workers everywhere.

The capitalists “served and protected” by the U.S. military want complete and exclusive access to the land, resources, and labor of the world. That’s why they’re so desperate to replace the independent governments of Russia, Belarus, Iran, etc. as well as those struggling to build socialism such as China, Cuba, Venezuela, etc. all of which they demonize and all of which have been subjected to harsh U.S. economic sanctions, terrorist attacks, and other forms of war.  

U.S. Installs Fascists to Enforce Corporate Pillage of Ukraine

While the big business media incessantly beat the drum for war with Russia, they bury the fact that in 2021 alone, the U.S. government pledged $400 million in tax-payer dollars to build up the military power of the fascist government of Ukraine which the Obama/Biden administration installed after a violent coup in 2014. The coup accomplished two main goals for the U.S.: Ukraine was forced to submit to the control of U.S. and E.U. banks, and it became a major buyer of U.S. weapons, which are now aimed at neighboring Russia.The U.S.-backed government in Kiev relies on fascist terror to crush resistance to their policies of gutting social programs, destroying pensions, and privatization, which have resulted in mass unemployment and hunger throughout Ukraine.

Since 2014 the country has seen an explosion of terrorism against trade unionists, Roma, Jewish, and LGBT people. Fascist gangs like the C14 patrol the streets of Kiev with the official sanction of the government. Living standards have declined to the point that 22.9% of Ukrainian children suffer from hunger according to the UN.

Anti-Fascist Fighters and Their Families in Donbass Shelled by U.S. Bombs

The people of Ukraine have resisted the attempted fascist takeover of their country. In the eastern part of Ukraine, in the Donbass region, anti-fascist fighters have waged a bitter war to defend the territories known as the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) and Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). Since 2014 the Ukrainian war on the Donbas has killed nearly 14,000 people including thousands of civilians.

In 2015, leaders from Ukraine, LPR, DPR, and Russia met in Minsk, Belarus to work out a diplomatic cessation of the war in the Donbass. They agreed to self-government and territorial independence for the Donbass. But in practice, the U.S.-backed Ukrainian government has done next to nothing to respect this agreement. Rarely does a day go by without some fascist Ukrainian paramilitary unit committing an act of terrorism against the people of the LPR and DPR. Ukrainian forces recently captured and tortured a Russian ceasefire monitor in Lugansk and carried out an armed attack on a settlement of civilians in the demilitarized zone of the DNR.

In April, Ukraine’s President Zelensky dropped all pretense at diplomacy when he declared that “NATO is the only way to end the war in Donbas.” Russia has made it clear that they would respond forcefully to any major escalation in the war as a matter of defense. It must be remembered that nearly 27,000,000 Soviet citizens were killed in the war against the German Nazis. People of all nationalities in Russia do not want armed Ukrainian fascists menacing their country. They will respond to the threat by force if necessary.

Biden’s Support of Ukrainian Fascism Comes Home to Roost

The fascist hell that Ukrainians are living through is what the U.S. wants for Russia. But this future may come first for the United States if we workers don’t get to the root of the worldwide fascist movement. Above all else, the ultra-rich want governments that answer to the profit motives of banks and corporations. If for that purpose they feel they need to rally their shock troops under the swastika and rule by open terror, that’s what they’ll do. U.S. backed Poland and Hungary have already taken this path.

U.S.-based fascist militias have been traveling to Ukraine to train with groups like the fascist Azov battalion, which is a unit of the National Guard of Ukraine funded by U.S. taxpayer dollars. Andriy Biletsky, commander of the Azov battalion and former member of the Ukrainian parliament, in his own words states: “The historic mission of our nation in this critical moment is to lead the white races of the world in a final crusade for their survival against subhumans.” These is the ideology of the “white power” movement that Rittenhouse, the Proud Boys, and others are a part of.

Fascists are puppets of the super-rich that use racism to divide and terrorize the people so the rich can hold on to their stolen wealth. This describes Kyle Rittenhouse to a T. His trial and acquittal were a major advance for the capitalists behind the U.S. fascist movement who seek legal protection and popular support for their terrorist troops.

It’s imperative that U.S. workers of all nationalities show up en masse to oppose racism and fascism. The fascists can only be defeated in the streets through mass action, not through the capitalist, white supremacist U.S. courts and not by relying on the Democratic Party which funds fascists in Israel, Ukraine, and beyond. The fight must also show solidarity with our brothers in sisters in Ukraine and Russia. We must demand that the U.S. withdraw all support to the fascist government of Ukraine. We can’t expect to win the fight against fascism here while it’s fueled by U.S. taxpayer dollars abroad.

No to War with Russia, Workers Unite to Fight the Fascists Here and in Ukraine

The Biden administration is asking U.S. workers to side with the fascist government of Ukraine in a war to colonize Russia. We’ll have none of it. From Kenosha to Charlottesville to Brunswick, Georgia, we’ve lost too many of our own to racist and fascist violence here. It’s time we come together and show the world that we will not be ruled by fear. Honor the martyrs of Ferguson, Kenosha, Donetsk, and Lugansk and the thousands more fighting fascism around the world.

Unite to Defeat Fascism and Racism from the U.S. to Ukraine!

No More Blood for Wall Street Profits!

Down with Fascism and White Supremacy, Up with Workers Power!  

Workers Voice welcomes feedback from our readers. Email us to share your thoughts.

Over 700 Protesters Killed in Year-Long United Struggle

On November 19, after a year-long struggle, more than 500 farmers’ unions from across India together forced the far-right BJP government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw three anti-farmer, anti-people, pro-corporate farm laws. The farmers’ movement represents more than 900 million Indian farmers and agricultural workers across diverse ethnic and religious groups and is supported by trade unions, workers, students, youth, and women’s organizations. This hard-won victory shows the power of working and oppressed people united in struggle and is a win for people’s movements around the world.The 2020 farm laws were designed by the Modi government to enhance corporate control over agriculture and further enslave farmers and agricultural workers—who are make up a majority of the Indian workforce—to corporations.

On November 26, 2020, after months of trying to persuade the government to withdraw the farm laws, Indian farmers began what would become the largest people’s movement in the world’s history. Millions joined railway and transit blockades, boycotts, a tractor rally, country-wide shutdowns, and sit-ins, including months-long encampments on the boarders of the Indian capital city, Delhi. For a year, the farmers remained united and drew support from across India despite brutal attacks by the government, demonization in the media, and extreme hardship during which more than 700 people were killed due to government repression.

Despite their historic win, the farmers vow to continue their fight until the laws are officially withdrawn during the upcoming parliamentary session and other demands are met. The other demands include the passing of a minimum price law, the withdrawal of legal cases filed against the farmers’ protest, and the arrest of those who are responsible for the massacre of farmers. This movement has maintained its purpose and solidarity even in the face of brutal repression and sacrifice, showing what will be required of us all if we are to win our own liberation by finally overturning the capitalist system.

This pamphlet collects quotes from dozens of revolutionaries, from Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party to Leslie Feinberg, pioneering LGBTQ revolutionary, to Lenin, Mao, Engels, and Marx. Their words have inspired millions to fight for a better world.

Fred Hampton (1948—1969)

“You don’t fight fire with fire. You fight fire with water […] We’re gonna fight racism with solidarity. We’re gonna fight capitalism with socialism. Socialism is the people. If you’re afraid of socialism you’re afraid of yourself.”

“We say we’re not going to fight capitalism with black capitalism, but we’re going to fight it with socialism. […] We’re going to fight their reactions with all of us people getting together and having an international proletarian revolution.”

“If you ever think about me, and you ain’t gonna do no revolutionary act, forget about me. I don’t want myself on your mind if you’re not going to work for the people.”

“We ain’t gonna fight no reactionary pigs who run up and down the street being reactionary; we’re gonna organize and dedicate ourselves to revolutionary political power and teach ourselves the specific needs of resisting the power structure, arm ourselves, and we’re gonna fight reactionary pigs with international proletarian revolution.”

“We might not be back. I might be in jail. I might be anywhere. But when I leave, you’ll remember I said, with the last words on my lips, that I am a revolutionary. And you’re going to have to keep on saying that. You’re going to have to say that I am a proletarian; I am the people.”

“We say primarily that the priority of this struggle is class. That Marx and Lenin and Che Guevara and Mao Zedong, and anybody else who ever said or knew or practiced anything about revolution, always said that a revolution is a class struggle.”

Click here to download our pamphlet Revolutionary Leaders on Socialism and Marxist Study!

Millions go cold in Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana
and in Damascus, Syria

What does the working class in these places have in common?  Through military force, the U.S. government has seized oil and gas resources and handed them over to private profiteers who wield total control over, what remains for now, a critical means of survival.  The military assault on Syria and U.S. military spending to seize oil for profits has causes deprivation and suffering for workers of both countries.

Syrian oil is nationalized and income from its export goes into public programs. The U.S. ultra- rich can’t stand this, so they impose Texas-style profiteering by force. The U.S. military occupation of Syrian oil fields is preventing oil delivery to Damascus, Syria which has a population of 2.4 million. They too are experiencing very cold winter weather.

The artic storm that hit the U.S. was forecast for over a week. No preparations were made by the Texas or federal government. No airlifting of food, water and thermal blankets was initiated. No emergency income was made available.  No emergency orders were issued to ban price gouging of electricity or gas. No money was reserved to fix broken pipes and restore drinkable water to millions. Texas, once Mexico, refuses to give the pennies of FEMA aid to undocumented workers who carry Texas on their backs alongside other workers. There are still blue tarps from hurricanes Harvey and Laura in Texas and Louisiana and unlivable homes all over.

As the storm approached, preparations were being made to bomb Syria. More U.S. weapons were being produced, more U.S. warships were being sent to threaten far-off countries, more U.S. sanctions were being imposed to starve and kill thousands around the world.

The U.S. military is currently directing and funding mercenary forces such as the SDF that are currently occupying Syrian oilfields. They are stealing 140,000 barrels of crude oil daily from Hasakah and smuggling it into neighboring U.S. occupied Iraq. The Governor of Hasakah, Mr. Khalil, said the plundering is directly enabled by U.S. military forces.

Secretary of State Pompeo and Sen. Lindsey Graham admitted to looting Syria’s oil in a testimony to the Senate Foreign Relation Committee in July 2020. Pompeo testified that an American oil company was taking crude oil into Iraq.

At that time Trump stated: “We’re keeping the oil, remember that. We want to keep the oil. Forty-five million dollars a month.”

The bombing in Syria also killed members of the Iraqi security forces who have been fighting ISIS. Iraqis have protested in the hundreds of thousands to demand an end to US occupation. Just last year the Iraqi parliament voted to remove U.S. forces, but the will of the people has been ignored time and time again by the oil hungry US.

Just like the last five presidents, Biden continues to war-monger in Syria under the guise of promoting democracy. He continues to fund the fascist state of Israel and arm the brutal monarchy of Saudi Arabia. Both of these governments are carrying out wars of genocide against the Yemenis and the Palestinians who endure the most extreme cruelties every day.

The politicians and energy company executives who celebrated the “jackpot” they hit when Texas residents’ bills rose by more than 10,000 percent should be jailed. Utilities should be put in the hands of the people who, led by energy workers, can then carry out a just transition to safe, reliable renewable energy.

This bombing should be a wake-up call to those who believe we can support Biden as we focus on only local issues. Syria today; Iran, Russia, or China tomorrow. Nuclear arms production is ramping up and the U.S. is preparing for space war. We must fight for jobs, housing, and a union. In the same breath we must reach the working class with a popular anti-war message as an issue of equal urgency.

The U.S. capitalist economy is dying, and the capitalists are resorting to war profiteering, fossil fuel production, and financial gambling to prop it up. These are the hands behind the rise of the right. If we ignore militarism, if we fail to be internationalists in all our struggles, the working class and oppressed here will suffer mightily.

U.S. Out of the Middle East

Money for Peoples’ Needs, Not for Rich Men’s Wars!

On December 19, tens of thousands took to the streets in Sudan’s capital of Khartoum and nearby city Umm Durman on the second anniversary of the Sudan’s December 2018 evolution, which resulted in the removal and criminal prosecution of the Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019. Less than a week later, the streets were filled again following the murder of yet another young activist at the hands of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a militia backed by the transitional government. Following this latest assassination, the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), a trade union coalition, launched the “Know Your Right” campaign to demand the dissolution of the RSF.

The right wing and the military have formed an alliance in opposition to leftist, union, and people’s forces. Demonstrators want power to be returned to civilian forces and are calling out the slow pace of change following the Revolution and the ruling government’s betrayals. On January 6, the transitional government signed the Zionist “Abraham Accords,” which are debt-forgiveness bribes by the U.S. and World Bank in exchange for Sudan ‘normalizing’ relations with apartheid Israel at the expense of the Palestinian people. Progressive activists as well as political parties within Sudan mobilized to reject the government’s position.

Click here to download the January 2021 issue of Workers Voice.

Fight for socialism. We have nothing to lose but our chains.

Workers Voice wishes you and your loved ones health and happiness in 2021. Yet, we carry heavy hearts into the new year as we continue to witness millions here and around the world plunged into unnecessary death from COVID-19 and other diseases. Millions more have sunk into poverty, hunger, and starvation caused by capitalism, imperialist war, and planet destruction.

In the face of these challenges, let us resolve to achieve greater unity among socialists, progressives, unions, and community activists and make 2021 a year we fully devote to reaching the workers and oppressed in all communities.

Around the world, this is happening. Take heart from the uprisings breaking out across the world. Take heart from the millions in India who are rising up against their own version of Trump, Prime Minister Modi, a racist nationalist and COVID-19 denier. In the biggest general strikes in human history, peasants, workers, and youth of all genders and nationalities are united against a common enemy. This is not an accident but a testament to years of work led by socialist forces. It is also the unfolding of world history, the story of the indomitable spirit, sacrifice, and struggle of the oppressed.

This will happen here too but not if we’re shackled to the idea that the Democratic Party is our salvation. We must mount a mass independent struggle for our survival rights, for equality, to defeat fascism and save the planet. We must break with any forces that support imperialist domination, deny self-determination and sovereignty, murder the masses through sanctions, and threaten millions with imperialist war.

NO WAR, NO INVASIONS, NO SANCTIONS
U.S. OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA, ASIA, AND LATIN AMERICA

Capitalism is on the decline, but in its death throes, even more nuclear weapons are being built. While millions starve, U.S. capitalists are looting the treasury to feed their addiction to war profiteering and financial gambling. We must organize to prevent war against Iran, China, Russia, and other nations in the crosshairs of U.S. imperialists. We must say no to invasions, sanctions, and space war. We must demand the closure of the 800 military worldwide.

The stakes are high. For nine months the Democratic Party has politely negotiated over relief, posturing for elections but has never raised a real fight for the people. Trump is a white supremacist who is clearly fundraising and organizing fascist elements. We the people can turn the tide, but to do so, we must foster class consciousness and independent struggle among the working class and oppressed. This means parting with the two parties of the Pentagon and Wall Street: the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.

The “relief” bill that just passed is an $2.3 trillion omnibus bill that mainly gives money and support to war profiteers to promote regime change, Israel, and space war. Clearly, the two capitalist parties only differ in the means by which they seek to rescue and continue war profiteering and exploitation.

Both capitalist parties have conspired to hide the fact that, throughout the crisis, the Federal Reserve Bank has handed out trillions to the banks each week. They have authorized the unlimited purchase of private bonds, reaping untold dividends for ultra-wealthy shareholders. That money alone could have guaranteed $600/week to everyone, including migrants and incarcerated people, and paid off credit card and student loan debts.

Our movement needs to fund the independent struggle of workers, not the Democratic Party, build united fronts, and organize rank and file in the unions to push them into mass action. Only the united power of the workers and the oppressed can stop fascism, imperialist war, white supremacy, gender oppression, and planet destruction. Onward to the mass struggle for the needs of the people!