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How We Normalize the Evils of Capitalism

By Enigma E

Capitalism creates a world of haves and have-nots. The many suffer, while the few prosper—that’s the way of capitalist AmeriKKKa. Stop and think: Why do people go hungry? Why doesn’t everyone have a home? Why isn’t there universal quality education & healthcare? Why are more and more privately owned prisons popping up? Why does the economic inequality gap widen year after year? All this in the self-proclaimed “richest/most powerful nation the world has ever seen!” Why do people regard the rich as if they’re so much more deserving of nice things than we are?

I want us to rethink how we approach the world. Think about why you do what you do daily. We do it to fit into the structure of capitalist society. Our labor generates much more value than the portion we get as wages. But since the rich privately own the land and the factories where we work, they take the bulk of that value for themselves. We as the working class are literally working ourselves to death. People are more stressed, and they have little if any leisure time. We have to get rid of the false notion that economically poor people “don’t work hard” and that’s why they are poor. That notion is bullshit, perpetuated by the ruling class and their media henchmen. Working class people are the hardest workers that do the most crucial work for the betterment of society. Shout-out to the sanitation workers, the school cafeteria workers, bus drivers, service workers and day laborers. They deserve vacations, sick days, livable wages, time to spend with their children and much more.

The working class masses pay the salaries of the cops, judges, and politicians at every level of government. We have to get rid of the notion that they’re better or do more than us! Politicians are crooks that get bankrolled by the capitalist class to do their bidding, repressing the masses of people economically and socially. Electoral politics was best described by Karl Marx who said, “The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them.”

This is a pattern of programming that must end! We are the vast majority, we create everything, we deserve to live a rewarding life. We deserve livable wages, good housing, education and healthcare. Through mass struggle these goals are more than attainable. This planet is full of resources for every living creature to coexist in harmony. We, the majority, MUST rise up—it is the only salvation for this planet. We, the workers of the world, are powerful beyond measure. It is our duty to fight to win the class struggle. All Power to the Proletarians!

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We Need a Tenants Union, Rent Control!

By Sally Jane Black

There is more than enough housing for everyone.

The housing crisis in New Orleans is not caused by a shortage. It is caused by predatory developers and landlords who see every opportunity to develop as a chance to gouge workers and raise rents. Meanwhile, the few rights tenants have in Louisiana are often impossible to uphold because there is no support for workers in civil courts, and most of these laws were written by landlords in the first place.

There are thousands of housing units sitting empty in New Orleans and thousands of workers struggling to afford apartments that are often infested with vermin, rotting or covered in mold, over-crowded, and with no guarantee they won’t be kicked out tomorrow.

Recent attempts at relieving the housing crisis have included inclusionary zoning, limitations on short-term rentals, and property tax loopholes that all fail to address the fundamental issues: high rents and unsafe, inadequate housing options available to the working class. 64% of renters in the city pay more than a third of their income on rent (and a third of renters pay over half of their income). History shows developers will drop affordability requirements (which usually last a few decades at most) the instant they are able to, as they did at the American Can apartments. The city’s legal eviction rate (5.2%) is twice the national average and does not include the many who are evicted only with a threat, forced out with rising rents or harassment, or simply come home to find their possessions on the curb. Tenants cannot even withhold rent to force a landlord to make vital repairs to their homes.

Without a powerful tenants movement, this will not change. We must demand rights for tenants that empower workers, and we must demand rent control.

Unless a powerful tenants’ movement puts pressure on law-makers, “solutions” will always favor the rich. There is no way to make a tax cut big enough to make raising the rent less profitable. While working class homeowners deserve relief from the property tax increases, landlords need to be restricted more directly. Shelter is a basic human need, and landlords know tenants will pay anything to keep a roof over their heads. Strong rent control laws can put a limit on what landlords and property managers can charge tenants, including those who are already cost-burdened.

In New Orleans, every new development is taking tax payer money to build hotel rooms and condos while workers are being pushed out of neighborhoods by gentrification. The failed Amendment 4, backed by local nonprofits and conservative law-makers, was designed as a concession to developers before the fight had even begun. In Germany, mass movements have won rent control and have succeeded in forcing landlords to shut down developments and concede to demands for better housing regulations.

The laws we have are a reflection of the class struggle; law-makers answer to us only when we take militant and mass action against them, loud enough to drown out the money of the capitalists who fund their campaigns. With a tenants union strong enough to pressure the landlords, the people can fight back and protect the rights they win.

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Impeachment Hearings Keep Needs of the Working Class Off the Agenda

By Malcolm Suber

What is the American public to make of the impeachment inquiry taking place in Washington, DC? Daily we are tantalized with the prospect of some government “whistleblower” finally producing the “smoking gun” that will nail the criminal Donald Trump. The Democrats promise eventual evidence of Trump’s “high crimes and misdemeanors,” never mind the criminal U.S. wars that have seen 44,000 U.S. bombs dropped in the first year of Trump’s presidency. The Democratic Party leaders and their backers know that the Republican majority US Senate will not vote to remove Trump from office. Instead Trump is being given the opportunity to pose as the victim of the Democrats who failed to nail him during the Russiagate investigation. To his base of true believers, Trump is fighting the Washington establishment who seek to undermine his plans to put “America First” on the world stage.

The U.S. working class has more pressing problems than Trump’s crooked attempt to pressure the Ukrainian government into investigating his rival crook Joe Biden. We should follow the lead of the workers and oppressed in Puerto Rico, Chile, Sudan, Honduras and Haiti. They have all taken to the streets to demand the resignation of their corrupt bourgeois governments. Millions of Puerto Ricans took to the streets to demand #RickyRenuncia and a change in government followed. Millions in the U.S. can do the same by demanding #TrumpResign.

The U.S. imperialist ruling class regime requires endless war abroad and intensified state repression at home, both of which are rooted in white supremacy and the arousal of hatred for non-whites. Democrats are carrying out an impeachment inquiry that casts doubt on Trump’s loyalty to their program of war mongering. This lets the Democrats tout their pro-war and anti-Trump credentials, all while skirting the real problems of income inequality and cuts to social programs such as food stamps and Medicaid. Just like Russiagate, Pelosi and the rest of the war-loving Democrat leadership have united to condemn Trump for pressuring a foreign power to interfere in the so-called “democratic” U.S. electoral process while the suppression of working class and oppressed voters continues to rise across the country.

Millions of Puerto Ricans took to the streets to demand #RickyRenuncia and a change in government followed. Millions in the U.S. can do the same by demanding #TrumpResign.

To support this impeachment inquiry is to suspend our knowledge that the U.S. is a sworn enemy of both Ukrainian workers and domestic whistleblowers.

The Nazi-loving regime in Ukraine receives direct U.S. government support. Recorded phone conversations between U.S. State Dept officials reveal that the top U.S. ambassador to Europe Victoria Nuland actively promoted the violent opposition forces which took power in the 2014 coup that toppled the Ukrainian government. The Obama/Biden government helped turn Ukraine into a failed state beholden to international finance capital and the rule of Nazi hordes. At home, the Obama administration prosecuted more whistleblowers under the Espionage Act than any other administration in US history.

The current probe into the quid pro quo call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is the height of hypocrisy. The truth is Trump’s brazen bribery upsets the capitalist ruling class who would prefer that the oppressed masses not know how these gangsters operate. Both Republican and Democratic Administrations have used the State Department and the CIA to influence international politics to benefit their individual electoral positions. The imperialist U.S. government has staged coups, invasions and proxy wars abroad, all to secure a world safe for US investments in capitalist exploitation.

The current efforts to impeach Trump allow the US ruling class and its politicians in Washington, DC to ignore the needs of the working class and the poor. Guaranteeing a living wage, ending mass incarceration, jailing racist police, addressing the climate catastrophe, ending imperialist war and opposing capitalism are all off the agenda. By exposing their hypocrisy—much less their own dirty deeds—the Democrats have only improved Trump’s chances for re-election. Revolutionaries and forward-looking workers shouldn’t be put off course by this political theatre. We should focus on educating the working class that our only salvation is organizing class struggle for our own interests, not those of the U.S. imperialist ruling class whether they fall into the camp of Pelosi’s Democratic Party or Trump’s Republican Party.

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Migrant, Citizen Worker Solidarity is Key

By A New Orleans Resident

The collapse of the Hard Rock Hotel in New Orleans is a clear example of how the blood and sweat of workers are exploited only to make the rich even richer. Because rich bosses hire workers, exploit their labor, and show time and time again that they do not value us, worker solidarity is more critical than ever for the well-being and safety of the working class.

Delmer Joel Ramirez Palma is one of five workers who rightly filed a lawsuit seeking damages for the physical wounds suffered during the building collapse. The workers are taking a stand because they know that the building collapsed as a result of materials that were inadequate and supports too thin and insufficient for the building.

After filing the lawsuit and speaking to the media about the experience, Ramirez Palma was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), preventing him from telling his firsthand experience, preventing him from fighting for his rights, and preventing him from accessing much needed medical attention for the injuries he suffered.

The capitalist system which exploits the labor of workers for the benefit of the rich does NOT care if the labor is provided by Black workers, poor white workers, or migrant workers.

Mourn for the Dead, Organize for the Living: Construction unions, migrants’ supporters gather to honor Hard Rock workers. The Oct. 17 vigil was organized by the Southeast Louisiana Building and Construction Trades Council. These unions should p[ledge to open organizing campaigns in every construction site and open their doors to all workers, including migrants.
The capitalist system uses racism, documented vs undocumented, or gender-based discrimination to create roadblocks to worker unity. In the end, these forms of divisiveness only end up hurting workers. When we come together and turn our attention to those who exploit us, then and only then, will workers win what is rightfully ours.

It’s intolerable that in pursuit of tourist dollars in the city of New Orleans, which already brings in the most tourist dollars in the world, the rich business owners are putting workers, residents, and tourists in harm’s way by cutting corners. They are putting the safety of the workers and the general public at risk.

Migrant workers (and all other workers) gave labor, blood, sweat and tears to rebuild this city, so we must stand together when workers need to speak up, rise up, and fight for rights and safety. This is our duty!

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Hard Rock Hotel: The Real Story

What You Won’t Read in The Advocate or City Hall’s Press Releases

By Gavrielle Gemma

Without even knowing the technical specifics of the collapse, it’s obvious that capitalist greed, faulty construction and engineering, and city complicity are to blame.

City approves crooked developer, extra height
Company gave campaign $$$ to politicians
In 2011 the City Council approved a waiver for extra building height. They authorized a crooked developer, Kailas, to manage the project although this company was criminally guilty of robbing Road Home funds after Katrina.

While only one family member was jailed, the judge in his sentencing said that he was taking the fall for the whole family. This company, Kailas, and the building company they contracted, Citadel Builders, both donated thousands of dollars to Mayor Cantrell’s campaign.

Though one building inspector has been indicted and two more have been suspended, the full details of the unfolding scandal involving the New Orleans Department of Safety and Permits remain closed to the public. There is suspicion of widespread payoffs.

Citadel Builders was cited by the State of Louisiana for 11 safety construction violations in 2018 alone. They do not make public the nature of these violations. Still the building proceeded.

Workers in shut down area must get emergency pay
Lawsuits are already being filed by workers who were in the building and workers in the surrounding area who are losing income. The city is demanding the developer reimburse the city $400,000 for police and fire, etc. but is ignoring the daily crisis hundreds of other workers are now experiencing. The mayor should issue an executive order to pay these workers from a city fund that should be made immediately available to all those out of work. The city can sue the developer for compensation. Unemployment insurance will not cover many hard-hit workers or be enough to survive on in the coming months.

Independent investigation needed
An independent investigation must be conducted with the involvement of Hard Rock workers, construction unions and community leaders. We cannot depend on the city, inspectors or developers to fully disclose reasons for this extraordinary event.

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Convention Center Rip-Off of Public funds for Private Profit Ramps Up

Where’s the Money for Our Kids?

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.

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Jail Corporate Drug Dealers

By LaVonna Varnado-Brown

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!

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Supreme Court Will Not Stop LGBTQ Struggle

By Sally Jane Black

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.

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Not One Dime, Not One U.S. Soldier to Defend Saudi/U.S. Oil Monarchy

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.

No More Blood for Oil!

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No More Tax Exemptions for Real Estate Developers

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.