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We Have a Choice: Socialism or Extinction

Sept.25: Over 3,200 demonstrations against climate destruction took place worldwide, including in Bangladesh (above).

The capitalist system doesn’t just hamper our ability to recover from disaster; it is the principle cause. Capitalism thrives on toxic growth and expansion. So as to not be taken over by their rivals, corporations must forever seek out new sources of profit. The U.S. and other imperialist militaries are used for this purpose. On behalf of the owners of monopoly corporations, the military is dispatched to other countries to rob, dominate, and control resources such as oil and to establish new markets. In the process, the U.S. military emits more greenhouse gasses than most countries, making the Pentagon a top cause of global warming.

Anyone can observe the exponential increase of greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere since the rise of industrial capitalism. Atmospheric carbon dioxide was at 285 ppm (parts per million) in 1850. Before now, in 800,000 years of earth’s history, atmospheric carbon dioxide had not surpassed 300 ppm. It is now greater than 410 ppm. This sharp increase is the reason for the rise in global temperatures and for the amplified environmental catastrophes across the world.

The acceleration of climate change will only increase the intensity of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, droughts, and wildfires. U.S. coasts have been slammed by Katrina, Rita, Ike, Gustav, Sandy, Harvey, Irma, Maria, Florence, and Laura over just the past two decades.

Production for profit (instead of planned production) has put the future of human life in jeopardy, as Louisianans know all too well. Oil companies such as Shell, BP, and ExxonMobil are allowed by the state and federal government to scour the landscape for profits, destroying habitats and displacing people from their homes. Sea level rise as well as canal digging by the oil companies have caused Louisiana to lose one football field of land every hour. The culprit oil companies who pay next to nothing in taxes get off scot free.

Take away the incentive to hoard obscene amounts of wealth, and workers can easily meet all the needs and desires of society by producing according to a plan. More than ever, humanity needs a plan to deal with the disasters that the capitalists have left us to deal with. It’s time the working class takes the driver’s seat; the future of the world depends on it.

OXFAM REPORT SHOWS THE 1% ARE KILLING US AND THE PLANET

A September report by Oxfam concludes that, over the past quarter century, the world’s richest 1% has produced double the carbon emissions of the bottom 50% (over 3 billion people). Biden himself has already promised this wealthy, donor class that, “No one’s standard of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change” if he’s elected. In other words, keep your mansions, luxury bunkers, and piles of cash while the world’s people flee water and flame.

The world can’t wait for the rich to grow a conscience. It’s time to rise up!

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HOUSING VICTORY IN PHILADELPHIA SHOWS DIRECT ACTION WORKS!

This September, homeless mothers and children organized with Philadelphia Housing Action, Black and Brown Workers Cooperative, two homeless protest encampments, and others through a large-scale direct-action takeover of vacant, city-owned homes. This action resulted in forcing the city government in Philadelphia to agree to demands for 50 vacant homes to be used for very-low-income housing. As the economic crisis deepens and the pandemic continues without adequate response from the capitalist state, the people must take action to acquire what we need to survive. This is only a start to the work that needs to be done, but it shows the power of the people when we are organized!

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Statement from Unions in Support of Work Stoppages for Black Lives

“Last week’s actions by professional athletes in the NBA, WNBA, NFL, MLB, and professional tennis are a call to action for all of the labor movement.

“They remind us that when we strike to withhold our labor, we have the power to bring an unjust status quo to a grinding halt. The status quo–of police killing Black people, of armed white nationalists killing demonstrators, of millions sick and increasingly desperate–is clearly unjust, and it cannot continue.

“As unions representing millions of workers across the country, we stand in solidarity with our comrades on the courts, on the fields, and in the streets. We echo the call to local and federal government to divest from the police, to redistribute the stolen wealth of the billionaire class, and to invest in what our people need to live in peace, dignity, and abundance: universal health care and housing, public jobs programs and cash assistance, and safe working conditions.

“Progressive labor leaders stood with the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. We have a long history of supporting the Black Freedom Movement and we will not stop now. The labor movement and the Movement for Black Lives are each other’s keepers, and we are ready to work together to do what we must to win justice for our people. We support the demands for racial justice echoing throughout this nation, and the simultaneous call for a more just economy. We will use our strength and influence to make sure organized labor is on the right side of history in this moment.”

Signed by:

AFSCME Local 526

AFSCME LOCAL 2822 Hennepin County Clerical

AFSCME 3800 – U of MN Clerical Workers

Autonomous Design Union

Berkeley Federation of Teachers

Campaign Workers Guild

Chicago Teachers Union

Committee of Interns & Residents/SEIU

Cook County College Teachers Union – Local 1600

Detroit Federation of Teachers

Fight for $15

ILWU Local 142

International Coalition of Black Trade Unionists

Labor Notes

Madison Teachers Incorporated

Massachusetts Teachers Association

Milwaukee Area Labor Council

Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association

Minnesota Workers United

National Union of Healthcare Workers

New Haven Teachers Association CTA, NEA

Nonprofit Professional Employees Union

NPMHU Local 322

Oakland Education Association

Peralta Federation of Teachers, AFT 1603

Pittsburgh LCLAA

Racine Educators United (REA-REAA)

Restaurant Opportunities Center of Pennsylvania

Rutgers AAUP-AFT

Rutgers PTLFC-AAUP-AFT, Local 6324

Saint Paul Federation of Educators Local #28

San Mateo Community College Federation of Teachers

SEIU Healthcare IL/IN/MO/KS

SEIU Local 49

SEIU Local 73

SEIU Local 509

SEIU USWW

South Central Federation of Labor

Teamsters Local 251

UAW 2865

UFCW Local 7

Unemployed Workers United

UNITE HERE Local 274

UNITE HERE Local 2850

United Auto Workers Region 9A

United Educators of San Francisco

United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE)

United Teachers Los Angeles

United Teachers of Richmond

United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers Local 36

Young Workers Committee of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council

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Louisiana Workers March Against Evictions

On September 8, the New Orleans Workers Group organized a rally and march demanding that the city reinstate a ban on evictions.

People marched down the streets chanting, “Don’t starve, fight! Housing is a human right!” and “No More Rent!”. Speakers at the rally emphasized the need for unity between the employed and unemployed to build a militant organization of the working class to combat not just evictions but all the murderous policies the ruling class has used to wage war on us workers, from forcing us to return to work and denying people unemployment benefits to cutting social programs and giving huge bailouts to businesses.

When asked what brought them out to the march, one worker said, “I’m here to support the workers of our community. It’s absolutely inhumane that the city is willing to put people out on the streets during a pandemic.” Another worker remarked, “This state prioritizes landlords’ rights over renters’ rights. Housing is a human right. New Orleans already had a huge eviction rate before the pandemic, so now I’m very frightened and concerned about what might happen. I’m also concerned about the evacuees from Lake Charles. How long will they be displaced? Hotels are open for tourists now. But what kind of care are residents from Lake Charles getting?”

30,000 families in New Orleans are at risk of eviction. The majority of these households are Black, brown, women and children. Already people have been pushed out on the streets. Housing is our human right, but it’s going to take an organized mass struggle for us to win it.

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Urgent News to Keep Workers in Our Homes

  • CDC moratorium on evictions may not stop them.
  • Know the facts. Beware of phony eviction notices, harassment, fees, and lying landlords.
  • Eviction Court reopens October 5th.
  • Courts will be demanding CDC declaration and proof.

The CDC declaration is a big problem. It makes us swear we will pay all back rent and fees on January 1st. It must be downloaded, filled out, copied, and served to your landlord. The court says we will need proof.

We are fighting against this unnecessary obstacle and want a clear-cut ban on evictions and foreclosures and a ban on back rent or federal relief to pay it. But you may need the form to stop an eviction. We have copies of the declaration, just give the Louisiana Movement for Workers Councils a call at (504)-671-7853.

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Letter to Our Fellow White Workers:

Are you tired of being afraid? The news says we’re threatened by protests and “unrest.” But show me the protestor that’s a banker, a boss, a bill collector, or a landlord. While the boss is trying to cut your benefits or wages, we protestors are fighting to raise them.

Our wages are pitiful, our debts are piling up, and good jobs are harder and harder to come by. Yet the talking heads on TV are telling us to blame everyone but the ones sitting on all the money and power, who are living in mansions while we struggle to make ends meet.

The government can’t find the money to guarantee hurricane evacuees a place to lay their heads at night while billionaire Trump is handing out millions in “relief funds” (our tax dollars) to his slumlord son-in-law. Trump handed out trillions to increase the value of his cabinet’s corporate investments.

The politicians and their mouthpieces in the big business media are selling us lies. Trump, Pelosi, and all their billionaire buddies are the real criminals.

They want us to believe that Black or immigrant workers are stealing our jobs or living off what we pay in taxes. Our fellow workers aren’t the ones to blame for the more than 30,000,000 layoffs this year. Immigrant workers pay taxes; Amazon doesn’t. While we’re going hungry, Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos has gotten $48 billion richer since the beginning of the pandemic. Who’s stealing from who?

Whether by layoffs or cut hours, slashed benefits and pensions, or attacks on union rights, the rich are out to turn us into paupers—now more than ever. And though some may be spared today, the capitalists have it out for workers of all nationalities, Black and white, documented and undocumented. They’re poisoning and killing us off with drugs. Now they’re threatening tens of millions of us with evictions and foreclosures in the middle of a pandemic. We’re doomed if we don’t wake up and unite.

Are you better off now than you were in 2016? In 2008? Obama dumped trillions into the banks 12 years ago, and this year, Trump has dumped trillions into Wall Street. Yet again we workers have been hung out to dry.

Trump’s campaign promised to protect our jobs four years ago, but where are they now? Real unemployment numbers are worse than any time since the Great Depression. Instead of jumpstarting a jobs program, the Federal Reserve just spent $250 billion of our money to buy private corporate stocks. Just like after the 2008 bailout, trillions of dollars of our money will wind up stashed in private off-shore bank accounts.

Trump had four years to bring the troops home. Instead, he’s brought us to the brink of war with countries that have done nothing to us, like oil-rich Venezuela and Iran. Meanwhile, 200,000 people in the U.S. have died of COVID on his watch.

Trump sits on his gold-plated toilet and offers us nothing but fear and bullshit. And Trump’s fear-mongering is nothing but a service to the billionaires who sit on the boards of insurance, pharmaceutical, oil, and war-profiteering companies. He wants you to pay more for private health insurance even though the deductible is so high you can’t even use it. He wants you to doom the future of the planet to protect oil companies’ profits, not oil workers’ jobs. He wants you to believe that China threatens our national security so that he can give billion-dollar contracts to his buddies on the boards of war-profiteering companies.

It’s time we see through the lies that keep us workers from getting organized. Our enemies have enormous wealth that they’ve taken from our labor. But we’ve got the power of the world’s working class on our side—as long as we stay united. The bankers, bosses, and war-profiteers will do their damnedest to pit us against each other, to bribe us, or to trick us into squabbling over crumbs while they make out like thieves.

White workers, aren’t you about done letting the rich use us make themselves richer? They don’t give a shit about us. Trump said of his own supporters that COVID-19 might be a “good thing” because it would keep him from having to shake hands with “disgusting people.” Biden is just the same.

It’s only right if you’re angry. It’s time to turn that anger against the real enemy. Reject the racist lies of the rich! Reach your hand out to your fellow workers and start marching towards the future we deserve. United, we workers can win the world.

Sincerely, Sally (Alabama) and Joseph (Mississippi).

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Thanks to Trump, COVID-19 Vaccine Further Out of Reach

Trump sides with pharmaceutical companies and private profit instead of world’s people.

by Jennifer Lin

Trump has announced that the US won’t participate in the WHO-backed COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX), a global initiative of 156 countries working together to develop a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine and distribute it globally. Trump has already withdrawn funding from the WHO, which he falsely accuses of being controlled by China.

While international organizations including the WHO have praised China for its pandemic response and for assisting countries worldwide in curbing the pandemic, Trump insists on blaming China for Covid-19 in order to distract us from just how horrible the situation is in the US. Trump, who doesn’t believe in wearing masks and wants everyone to go back to work even though 200,000+ people in the US have died from Covid-19, once again shows he has zero commitment to public health.

Rather than being on the side of the people, Trump and his cronies are siding with pharmaceutical companies that have been profiting off the pandemic. One of these companies, Gilead, was given $99 million of US taxpayer money to develop remdesivir, a potential treatment for Covid-19. Gilead plans to sell remdesivir at $3120 per patient.

Pharmaceutical companies like Gilead see the pandemic as a giant cash cow, where the people fund research and development for lifesaving resources that Big Pharma hoards to secure billion-dollar profits. That’s why pharmaceutical companies are racing to produce vaccines as part of Trump’s Operation Warp Speed, which aims to sell vaccines by January 2021.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has already granted companies like Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Pfizer over 6 billion of our tax dollars to develop vaccines. When he was head of Eli Lilly, current HHS Secretary Alex Azar tripled the price of insulin. When asked if HHS plans to make COVID-19 vaccines affordable for all, he replied, “We would want to ensure that we’d work to make it affordable, but we can’t control that price because we need the private sector to invest.” In other words, the U.S. ruling class sees healthcare as nothing but a commodity and is willing to let people die so the rich can profit.

Trump is continuing with the same policy of mass murder we’ve seen since the pandemic began. Corporations have received bailouts totaling $500 billion while workers have lost their livelihoods and lives because of cuts to Social Security, Medicaid, and SNAP, mass unemployment, evictions, and being forced to return to unsafe jobs. How will we workers be expected to pay whatever outrageous prices Big Pharma charges for a vaccine when we’re already bankrupt trying to stay alive?

The WHO says another $35 billion will be needed for COVAX to succeed. Trump’s decision not to join this global effort is a threat not to just our safety, but to the safety of people worldwide. The only way out of the pandemic requires countries working together to develop a vaccine that everyone has equal access to, with an emphasis on protecting the most vulnerable populations. Countries like Cuba and China understand this; they are committed to offering vaccines to other countries rather than hoarding them for profit. We must oppose U.S. capitalists by championing global solidarity and organizing to secure healthcare as a right.

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Breonna Taylor – Say Her Name

Six months ago, Louisville police shot and killed sister Breonna Taylor, 26 years old, who was sleeping in her home. The police lied to obtain a no-knock warrant seeking an individual they already had under arrest. With no warning, in a KKK-type raid, police burst into her home. Her partner, Kenneth Walker, used a legally owned gun to fire one shot at those who invaded his home. The police fired 33 shots killing Breonna and spreading bullets everywhere.

Breonna Taylor was an award winning EMT, a brave woman who served everyone during the pandemic despite the danger to herself. No one is indicted for her murder—for her lynching—at the hands of the racist, out of control police, who work hand in hand with right wing militias and who serve the interests of the ultrarich. With compassion, training, and an accountability to our communities, we can keep us safe but not while the racist protectors of the rich are free to terrorize us.

All we hear from the big business media is that Black Lives Matter protestors, Black and white, are violent outside agitators, terrorists, and looters. Both Trump and Biden have disparaged protestors. Yet 40 million people have joined these protests. The violence has come from the police and armed right wing groups funded by millionaires. Protestors have a right to defend ourselves. Of course, we organize defense and protection from violent fascist goons. Recent exposés have uncovered the emails, texts, and messages of the scum that Trump calls “good people” that document plotted assassinations, killings, fire bombings, and other attacks. The fascists who plan and execute these attacks count on the police to keep them safe.

Over 15,000 protestors have been arrested since the murder of George Floyd. While one of the cops who killed Breonna was only charged with firing into other apartments, none are charged with her murder. They should all be charged, indicted, and put behind bars. But charges should not only be for the triggerman but the police departments and politicians who fund, support, and protect them as accomplices before and after the fact.

The big business media heaped the same lies and blame on civil rights activists. We the people must reject their accusations and call for the freedom of all arrested protestors and the jailing of every last murderer of the more than 14 anti-racist protestors who have been killed since the uprisings began in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.

The struggle to win justice for Breonna and all victims of racist police terror is far from over. The struggle will continue until we put society in the hands of working class rather than the capitalist class, which uses terror and violence here and around the world to gain and protect profits.

The New Orleans Workers Group has organized and will continue to organize mass protests against police terror just as we will continue our work to halt evictions, raise wages, and win income and security for all workers and oppressed people.

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Vote No on Amendment 1

Illustration by New Orleans Abortion Fund

Fight Back Against ALL Attacks on Reproductive Rights

It is imperative that the people of Louisiana vote NO on Amendment 1 on Tuesday, November 3 to protect abortion access in the state.

The capitalist class will not rest until they have stripped the working class of our rights to make our own decisions about our bodies. In Louisiana, they have been campaigning relentlessly to take away our rights to abortion, in recent years passing the most restrictive laws in the country. When their last attempt, which would have made abortion nearly impossible to access, failed, they immediately tried again. This time, they are seeking to limit abortion access via Amendment 1, which will be on the ballot in the November election. The amendment would prevent the state constitution from providing any support for abortion.

Just as with the previous attacks on our reproductive rights, this amendment is backed by Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards and state senator Katrina Jackson, as well as the entire Republican party, Louisiana Right to Life, and the Catholic Church. All of them are funded by out-of-state, right-wing foundations, think tanks, and organizations like the Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council and other capitalists. These are the same entities who have backed anti-LGBTQ, anti-woman, anti-reproductive rights laws across the country.

The purpose of these laws is to prevent women from participating in society, terrorize LGBTQ people, and extract as much profit as possible from the working class. These same capitalists back wars around the world, keep children in the concentration camps across Louisiana (where they have also forced hysterectomies on people), support the death penalty and mass incarceration, and subject the working class, especially Black workers, to fascist police terror. Their claims of being “pro-life” are nothing but blatant hypocrisy. They care only for profit, not for children, unborn or otherwise. These laws are acts of terror against the people.

We must not only vote against them but also organize. The state’s laws against abortion already greatly limit access, prevent abortion from being covered by any insurance, and impose unjust and unnecessary restrictions on providers. We must vote against this amendment and fight back against every limitation to abortion access already on the books. Abortion must be free, accessible, and legal. Anything less is an attack on all working class people’s rights to control of our own bodies.

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Abolish ICE, Relocate the Honduran Consulate

by Aminta Zea

As we stand in solidarity with the protestors in Portland who have been subject to fascist, white supremacist terror imposed by the U.S. government, we also remain cognizant that militaristic kidnappings are nothing new. For decades, the undocumented have been violently kidnapped and removed from their communities by ICE (Immigration service) agents and Border Patrol.

New Orleans has the largest Honduran community in the United States and has been besieged by ICE terror. Yet the Honduran consulate, representing the government put in by an illegal U.S. coup in 2009 (by Obama and Clinton) is now in an ICE Field Office at 1250 Poydras St. We demand it be relocated.

We recognize the parallels between the functions of the police and ICE, and we actively work towards abolishing these systems of racist oppression that continuously harm Black people, both migrants and U.S. citizens. We recognize that if we wish to abolish the police, we must also abolish ICE. ICE has only been around since 2003; there was a world before it and there can be a new world without it and without the police. From Portland, to New Orleans, to Tegucigalpa we remain firm in our rebellion against the capitalist class that is relentless in its genocide of Black and Brown people. Los pueblos de Honduras y los pueblos de Louisiana se mantengan firmes en su autonomía y su libertad.

Honduras, like many countries in Latin America subject to U.S. imperialism, has undergone massive state repression after the 2009 US backed coup against democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya. Zelaya’s policies included raising the minimum wage by 60 percent, free education for all children (including free lunch to the poorest children), reducing poverty by 10 percent during his first two years in office, and working towards an expansion of the reproductive rights of women. Because he put the Honduran people’s welfare above the interests of transnational corporations, he was removed from power by U.S. backed military forces. If we want to understand why so many from the northern triangle of Central America choose to flee to the United States, then we must realize that it is U.S. imperialism that pushes these people out of their homes.

The ruling elite continue to impose themselves on Latin American countries that say NO to capitalism and NO to a life where basic needs remain unmet. The current conditions of Honduras mirror the same state repression and violence we see here in the U.S. As millions of Americans march for Black Lives Matter, let’s remember that this fight does not stop at the borders of the United States. In the month of July alone, six Garifuna — Black Indigenous people — were murdered in Honduras under the dictatorship of Juan Orlando Hernandez. Garifuna people are fighting against their fascist regime in order to protect their ancestral lands and the rights of Afro-Indigenous and Indigenous people amid encroachment by the capitalist class.

The only way to combat racist exploitation, transmisogyny, and patriarchy is to overthrow capitalism. Imperialism — when the United States imposes violence and corruption on another country for profit — is the highest form of capitalism. Workers in the United States can play a crucial role in active solidarity with workers from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, who continuously fight U.S. imperialism and exploitation. We, too, are now seeing acts of war imposed by imperialism here at home.

Workers of all countries should stand up firmly to oppose to the illegitimate government of Juan Orlando Hernandez. We oppose the Honduran consulate being held at an ICE Field Office. The racist, discriminatory policies that occur at that office at 1250 Poydras St. prevent Hondurans from accessing services from the consulate for fear of arrest.

We oppose and aim to abolish ICE, to abolish the police and all forms of colonial subjugation and oppression. No more to the capitalist bosses who continue to steal our wealth. No more to the U.S. politicians that let them carry out this theft.

It’s time we workers say enough is enough. We will not stop fighting until all of us are free.