A gang of thieves—aka private developers—are celebrating in their St. Charles mansions over their latest scheme to rip off public funds and tax money. The Convention Center, with the blessing of their bought-off state and city politicians, will build a huge hotel with $114 million of public funds and millions more in property tax exemptions (Bureau of Governmental Research).
The policy of allowing private hospitality capitalists to profit from public funds, tax exemptions and the wholesale theft of tax dollars is outrageous. Only 3% of the city budget goes to families and children while the rich steal $160 million. It shows that the government is solidly in the pockets of the rich.
Just one example is the Convention Center hiring of State Rep. Walter Leger III as vice president for Strategic Affairs. While in office, Leger sponsored legislation to enable public funding for the Convention Center hotel. A high paid position is his reward. If that ain’t corrupt, what is?
DECEPTIVE “FAIR SHARE” IS A NET LOSS FOR RESIDENTS
While Mayor Cantrell boasts of getting a “fair share deal” with a return of some city taxes to the Sewerage & Water Board, most residents don’t know that she agreed to legislation which included public funds for the hotel.
The total tourist tax dollars bypassing the city budget and going into private profiteers’ bank accounts was $180 million a year. Now “only” $160 million in taxes are being funneled to these private interests. To offset the money that the hospitality capitalists “lost,” legislation was passed that grants them even more money by way of new taxes. They also scored whopping tax exemptions for themselves. The net result of this “fair share” is that the people are getting less, the tax dollars are still stolen and the Convention Center is getting even more money.
Knowing this deal is unpopular, Mayor Cantrell is now criticizing what she agreed to. Convention Center President and General Manager Michael J. Sawaya said, “the mayor, when we agreed to the PILOT [payments in lieu of taxes] and agreed to give her $28 million, she agreed to support the hotel project,” he said. “She committed to it in front of the governor, in front of all of us.”
So, who is really running the city— the mayor or the mainly conservative, white, super-rich capitalists pulling the strings? We need to build up the independent power of the working class to fight this theft and have money for our kids.
In 1952 Arthur, Mortimer, and Raymond Sackler purchased Purdue Frederick, which would become Purdue Pharma later in the 1950s. Purdue Pharma is largely responsible for the opioid crisis, as it’s so lovingly called. Despite arguing that they were passive board members who only approved routine management requests and had no involvement in the production or marketing of opiods, the Sacklers are criminals and should be treated as such.
In the 1980s, it was a war on drugs declared by Ronald and Nancy Reagan. A War On Drugs: a machine, a fan to disperse the funk of the loads of dope they were pumping into black communities. Back then the drug addicts were portrayed as criminals and crack heads. These days we see the media give a more sympathetic gaze to addicts, fueled by billion dollar pushers in luxury suits.
The behemoth pharmaceutical company have been forced to pay fines to over 2,000 plaintiffs, including almost two dozen US states who believe that drugs like OxyContin were deliberately pushed, knowing full well how addictive they are. The fines, however, represent a tiny fraction of what the Sacklers make off their drug-dealing empire. They have been found guilty in civil court, but where are the criminal charges? They should face jail time.
Men like Alton Sterling have lost their lives for selling single cigarettes and DVDs. Every day in America Black men are viewed as criminal for being inside their homes or on the way to their jobs. The Sacklers are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands. Where are the criminal charges? The military with its pollution, the banks robbing us eyes wide shut… where are the criminal charges? Demonstrations have been held in protest.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James said that she has requested records from 33 financial institutions. However, $1 billion in wire transfers to Swiss bank accounts were revealed in records from just one institution. Reports have been made that the U.S. Justice Department is involved in separate talks with Purdue Pharma. Negotiations involve possible civil penalties tied to federal probes of OxyContin sales, but could also include criminal charges using statutes normally used to prosecute drug dealers. This is a call to not only hold these criminals accountable for the mass homicide they commit, but a call to release the millions suffering in US prisons for being poor. Criminalize the billionaires!
Nearly a year ago, a leaked memo revealed that the Trump administration was trying to reinterpret Title VII in order to allow discrimination against LGBTQ people. The flimsy policy that included LGBTQ people under “sex” in Title VII (the law that protects against job discrimination on basis of gender, race, etc.) was established under the Obama administration as an effort to buy LGBTQ votes without effecting any change. With no real protections in place, it has taken almost no effort for the current administration to reverse almost every gain LGBTQ people have made.
The unelected, notoriously bigoted Supreme Court will be deciding on three cases this October that will determine whether this legalization of discrimination will be upheld, endangering millions of people’s jobs, insurance, and well being. Trump’s Department of “Justice” has aggressively fought for the reinterpretation, often using the argument of “religious freedom” to mask their dangerous homophobia and transphobia.
“RELIGIOUS FREEDOM”
The use of “religious freedom” as justification for these policies is not an attempt to protect anyone but to divide the working class against LGBTQ people. The capitalist class knows that if they claim that this is a matter of religion, LGBTQ people and allies will blame religion for these attacks instead of the real enemy: the rich, powerful capitalists that benefit from our oppression. Meanwhile, the capitalists are pandering to workers who are religious, hoping to incite them against the cause for LGBTQ equality.
RISE IN VIOLENCE
It is no coincidence that Louisiana candidates for governor are insulting trans people in campaign ads, or that celebrities like Drew Brees are avoiding consequences for working with anti-LGBTQ hate groups like Focus on the Family; the capitalist class is funding the complete reversal of every right won by LGBTQ people. This has also served as an open call to violence against queer and trans people. Hate crimes are at a record high. So far this year, 20 trans people—almost all black trans women—have been murdered, including one killed in an ICE concentration camp. As with every marginalized group, when our rights are under attack, our safety is threatened as well.
SECOND CLASS CITIZENS
The past year has seen attacks on LGBTQ people on every front: housing, healthcare, emergency shelter, education, and more. The attack on Title VII is at the heart of this. Allowing job discrimination against queer and trans people would effectively cut us off from everything needed to survive. By legalizing job discrimination and ramping up anti-queer and anti-trans bigotry, the ruling class is making sure that unemployment remains high enough to weaken the working class.
FIGHTING BACK
Resistance is growing. Although the mainstream LGBTQ rights movement has been co-opted by corporate interests and nonprofits, in June people around the country honored the 50th anniversary of Stonewall with militant, anti-corporate, anti-cop actions at Pride events, often opposing the nonprofit boards that erased the militant politics of the original Pride marches. LGBTQ people have won victories for trans healthcare in Wisconsin, and an immigrant trans woman, Alejandra Barrera, has won her freedom from an ICE concentration camp. In September, activists in New Orleans held a march protesting the anti-trans Crimes Against Nature in Solicitation law during the corporate-funded Southern Decadence.
LGBTQ people should be protected against discrimination and violence, not forced to be second class citizens. Only militant action will win us our rights and protect us from these attacks. We must resist every attempt by the capitalist class to divide us against one another. It is only through unity and working class solidarity that we will liberate ourselves from the oppressive rule of the capitalists.
Trump and Mohammad bin Salman celebrate $12.5 billion in U.S. weapons sales to Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi monarchy, a long-time ally to the United States under both Republican and Democratic administrations, is a fascist monarchy which is thoroughly based on extreme inherited privilege, racism, and hatred of women and LGBTQ people. The monarchy denies all rights to workers and is based on system of servitude and slavery. They are the gatekeepers and beneficiaries of the criminal oil monopolies that want to rule and destroy the Earth for profit.
The U.S. government does not represent the workers of the U.S. It is a sales agency for military profiteers and other capitalist criminals. The military corporations are private companies that are strangling the economy and looting the federal budget. Trump traveled to Saudi Arabia to close a deal for more weapons.
The U.S.-Saudi alliance is bathed in the blood of the Yemeni people, of the Yemeni children who have been slaughtered and starved by Saudi use of U.S. Weapons.
The US and Saudi monarchy claim that Iran is to blame for the bombing of oil facilities. The Trump administration on behalf of Exxon and BP is sending more weapons and troops. But this is no different than sending troops to support Hitler. The U.S.-Saudi alliance is bathed in the blood of the Yemeni people, of the Yemeni children who have been slaughtered and starved by Saudi use of U.S. Weapons.
The Yemeni people have a right to fight back just as all workers and oppressed people have the right to fight back to defend our rights and our futures. We need to stand together against those who are occupying and colonizing, from the rain forests of Brazil to the mines of Afghanistan, from the gates of the UAW strike against GM to the demand for homes in South Africa and New Orleans.
Renters have nothing to gain from another handout to developers. A tenants’ union is the way forward.
By Joseph Rosen
Most households in New Orleans are spending more than half of their income in rent. Across the city, the rate of evictions is on the rise. In response, politicians are selling us ‘solutions’ to the housing crisis that are devised by the very people at the root of the problem. Various schemes to ‘reinvest’ in neighborhoods or to provide ‘affordable housing’ all amount to the same thing: handouts to the rich who are intent on pushing out working class, mainly Black New Orleanians.
One scheme—so called “opportunity zones”—has proven to be an enormous windfall for rich investors and real estate developers. This tax loophole was put into effect as part of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for the rich. Landlord-in-chief Trump who inherited his real estate fortune from his redlining KKK father designated more than 8,000 census tracts across the country as “opportunity zones,” including 25 in Orleans Parish. These cover the Treme, Gentilly, 7th Ward, Gert Town, Algiers, Central City, Magnolia and more—all areas targeted for gentrification.
By stashing money in so called “Opportunity Zone Funds” rich people can skip out on taxes that would otherwise be applied to the profits that they get from their various enterprises. Workers in New Orleans have to pay a 9.45% tax on the purchase of a hot meal while real estate investors can pay as little as a 0% tax on the purchase of an apartment building—all in order to supposedly “spur investment” in areas “of greatest need.” This giveaway has resulted in a massive land grab. Real estate holdings have been consolidated into the hands of fewer and fewer landlords. The New Orleans Redevelopment Fund is an “opportunity zone” tax shelter worth $30,000,000.
Vote no to Constitutional Amendment 4
Big property developers have devised yet another scheme deceptively claiming it will help with affordable housing. An amendment to the Louisiana state constitution would give the city the authority to waive property taxes for investments in “affordable housing” units, exempting properties up to 15 residential units. This amendment does not even specify how the term “affordable housing” would be applied. The city is already rewarding developers of high-end condos with millions in tax exemptions for making as few as 1 out of every 20 units “affordable housing.” Worse, this giveaway increases gentrification by raising rents in the neighborhoods where these expensive new condos are built, forcing more workers out.
To live, workers need to be paid more. To make higher profits, bosses need to pay less. The bosses have the money, the workers have the numbers. The solution makes itself apparent. The same applies to renters. Renters need a real tenants’ movement that can organize for rent control, tenants’ rights and an end to mass evictions.
Sept. 25: Malcolm Suber and members of Stand with Dignity speak outside City Hall .
On September 25, Stand with Dignity and community organizers showed up to City Hall to demand that the City of New Orleans stop its shakedown of working-class, majority Black residents. They called for immediate relief from the fines and fees that have targeted poor, working residents while the rich get off with tax exemptions galore. Since 2002, more than 56,000 warrants have been issued for municipal and traffic offenses. These fines, fees, and warrants are traps for cash-poor residents. Community organizers demanded that the City stop sentencing its residents to debt slavery. Stand with Dignity puts it plainly: “Being poor or jobless is not a crime.” STOP THE SHAKEDOWN!
Haitians continue to fill the streets in the hundreds of thousands to demand an end to the criminal U.S.-backed government of President Jovenel Moïse. Moïse has tried to rob the Haitian masses on the command of U.S. capitalists and international banks. The Haitian people have risen up to show that they won’t take it any more. The days of the ruling regime are numbered.
On September 7 thousands of Venezuelan workers, peasants, and students participated in the Great International Anti-imperialist March in Caracas. There it was announced that the International #NoMoreTrump Campaign had collected 13,287,742 signatures against the coercive measures, financial blockade and economic terrorism imposed by the U.S. government of Donald Trump. The working masses of Venezuelans ask for the solidarity of workers around the world to demand an end to the cruel U.S. embargo, an end to the gangster Trump regime, and an end to U.S. imperialist bullying.
165,000 Pro-China demonstrators took to the streets of Hong Kong on June 30, 2019.
U.S. Media Censors Pro-China Demonstrations
By Gregory William
Who is leading and funding the protest movement in Hong Kong? Tellingly, demonstrators outside the U.S. consulate called on Trump to take over Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Human Rights Movement and other involved groups are funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, a CIA project. Leaders with these groups held meetings with U.S. and British officials in luxury hotels. Although many Hong Kong workers are impoverished, these organizations represent the very wealthy.
On behalf of capitalism, the U.S. government has tried to destroy China since they liberated themselves from colonialism in 1949 and set about building a socialist society. Unsurprisingly, the U.S. corporate media has not covered pro-government demonstrations in Hong Kong, even though half a million marched on August 18.
Capitalism and Colonialism to blame for Hong Kong’s problems
So-called pro-democracy groups distribute British flags and call for the return of British colonial rule. Britain cruelly colonized China for 156 years to steal its labor and wealth. Colonialism always counts on a small group of privileged people who collaborate with the colonizers to become wealthy at the expense of workers and peasants.
Through the Opium Wars (1839-1842, and 1856-1860), the British empire decimated the Chinese economy, got millions hooked on opium, and subjugated the population. This was done largely for the British East India Company, which needed markets for opium after the military takeover of India. This led to decades of rule by brutal warlords sponsored by different imperialist governments.
The majority of China was liberated from colonial rule in 1949 when the Communist Party, under the leadership of Mao Zedong, came to power. At that time, colonial conditions were so bad that life expectancy was only 36 years. With the establishment of the socialist economic system, life expectancy rose to 68 years by the early 1980s. Today it is over 76 years.
Nevertheless, the British government held control of Hong Kong until 1997, developing it into a world financial center like New York. When China regained Hong Kong, the government unfortunately agreed to allow capitalism to flourish in the territory. This is why it is one of the world’s most expensive cities. More than half of Hong Kong apartments cost over $2,550 a month. So many people sleep in 24-hour fast food restaurants that they are dubbed McRefugees. At the same time, Hong Kong is home to a million millionaires. Seventy percent of their obscene wealth is in real estate.
Democracy for millionaires, poverty for workers
Recent laws bringing Hong Kong more directly under Chinese government control have terrified the millionaires. China’s failure to alleviate the workers’ suffering, however, has alienated some workers from the mainland government. The millionaires stepped in to take advantage. Whenever there is a revolutionary vacuum this happens.
The immediate spark of the protests is an extradition bill. The proposed law would allow Hong Kong authorities to hand over criminals wanted in the mainland. The rich see this as a threat to their power. They do not want any barriers to their profits. Although there should not be billionaires or even millionaires, China does imprison and execute capitalists who go beyond certain limits of destructiveness. For example, billionaire Xu Xiang was sentenced to five years for his role in crashing the country’s stock market. This is intolerable to Hong Kong’s elite.
During Trump’s September 24 UN speech, he not only came out in support of the Hong Kong protesters, he berated the Chinese government for not allowing unfettered capitalism. He said, “Not only has China declined to adopt promised reforms, it has embraced an economic model dependent on massive market barriers.” In keeping with longstanding U.S. policy, Trump wants to undermine what is left of socialism, and to recolonize China. This is the thrust of the trade wars. But why should the U.S. government dictate how other countries run their economies?
More socialism is needed, not less The capitalist media says socialism is the problem. But the issues facing Hong Kong—and the rest of China—stem from capitalism, which has created inequality. The socialistic elements of the Chinese economic system benefit the vast majority. Workers in mainland China have no interest in losing the remaining gains of socialism. Workers in Hong Kong have an interest in accessing those gains themselves. They both have an interest in expanding socialism.
Millions of Chinese people rose up in the 1960’s and 1970’s to drive socialist revolution forward, but the Chinese Communist Party began opening the country up to capitalism in the late 1970’s. However, there was not a full-scale restoration of capitalism, as happened in the Soviet Union. This is why China has raised millions of people out of poverty. The remaining socialist elements, including the state ownership of banking and many key industries, and economic planning, have been responsible for these gains for the masses, not capitalism.
Nevertheless, the re-emergence of large-scale capitalism in China and capitalism in the Communist Party is a danger to the masses of people. The future of China depends on how well the Chinese working class organizes against this. Workers’ strikes are common in China, and this is a good thing. As Mao said, “It is right to rebel against reactionaries!”
The answer is not for the rest of China to become more like Hong Kong, or for Hong Kong to drift closer to the ruling classes of the U.S. or Britain. The answer is more socialism.
Those of us organizing and fighting for revolutionary socialism need to be constantly aware of the lies of the rich ruling class. We need to solidly defend all people fighting for their right to self-determination and tell the truth about all the gains that people have made in their struggle to build socialism in the face of constant imperialist attacks.
The people of Cuba have maintained a revolutionary culture which has made strides for humanity over the last 60+ years despite violent attacks and embargoes by U.S. imperialism. Recently the Trump administration tightened the sanctions and embargo placed on the Cuban people as imperialist punishment for having a peoples’ government and providing free health care and education.
Following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Cuba was isolated, and the United States and other imperialists renewed a vicious attempt to suffocate the country. This led Cuba to enter what is known as the “Special Period,” where Cubans were faced with extreme economic hardship with no help from the outside world (limited access to imports, the global market, oil, etc.). They lost 80% of their imports as well as exports. The Cuban people were faced with the immense task of building up production from within, using all that they had on their small island in the Caribbean to feed, house, educate all human life.
The capitalists’ goal and ideal outcome would have been (and still is) the starvation, suffering and death of the Cuban people. They have bombed rice fields, blocked shipments of food and medicine, and made travel or trade with Cuba illegal. What was the result?
The result has only been validation that socialism does work. Despite the violence against Cuba, they have achieved a near 100% literacy rate, 85% homeownership (compared to 65% in the US) with no homelessness, and they have built a healthcare system that puts countries like the United States to shame. They have developed a vaccine for lung cancer, virtually eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV and have some of the most progressive policies for queer and trans people in the world.
While the U.S. has reallocated over $270 Million from FEMA to Border Patrol in the middle of hurricane season, Cuba holds the torch for the best hurricane preparedness in the world. They have offered hurricane relief to the U.S. (including New Orleans after Katrina) which has consistently been turned away by the U.S. government.
The Trump administration has tightened the blockade heightening a fuel crisis for Cuba as well as terrorizing Venezuela. The democratic presidential candidates are no better: Bernie Sanders bashed socialism in Latin America, calling Venezuela’s President Maduro a “vicious tyrant”. These types of comments are not accidental nor are they a failing of Sanders’ political development: they are distinctly anti-communist, anti-worker, and set the stage for imperialist intervention in Cuba and Venezuela.
Is Cuba perfect? Of course not. We must understand the damage that hundreds of years of colonial terror and capitalist exploitation leaves behind and celebrate all that the Cuban people have accomplished despite the odds. The forward movement of the revolution is how revolutionaries acknowledge issues and empower the masses to find solutions collectively. Cuba’s president has said that the people will not enter another Special Period. Cuba’s response to these attacks is more revolution to maintain and renew the revolutionary culture that has inspired the Cuban people throughout the years. Solidarity with the Cuban People!
