Trump is a racist, woman-hating rapist. Trump is gutting every safety and workers’ rights law he can get his hands on. His tax cuts have handed over billions to the already bloated rich. He is destroying the planet and imprisoning thousands of children. His recent pardon of outright war criminals shows he is trying to build a following among fascist storm troopers and white nationalists—all to funnel more money to the capitalist class.
There are so many reasons to hit the streets like the masses of workers, women, peasants and students are doing around the world. But the Democratic Party is not seeking to unseat Trump over any of these issues. Instead they’re using the impeachment to pander to militarism and promote a dangerous war fever against Russia.
The Democratic Party is trotting out every criminal general, state department official, war monger and CIA agent to testify. This dangerous effort has unfortunately drawn in many liberal and even so-called progressive elements who think anything anti-Trump is great. There are differences between the Democratic and Republican Party. They differ on how to pursue imperialist wars, but not how to end them. Though their methods vary, both capitalist parties want to continue exploitation and profit-making without riling up the people.
You would have to completely ignore the bloody history of world war to think that the Democratic Party can really stop the rise of the right wing, which grows out of both parties’ ever-increasing funding for the war profiteering industries and militarism. Democrats are now taking the position that it’s a crime not to give weapons to Ukraine’s fascist government.
We need to take to the streets to get rid of Trump. This will send a message to the Wall Street Democratic party as well.
The right wing and Trumpism arose out of the capitalist drive for profits and global domination. The Democratic Party pretends to want to protect democracy from Trump while supporting U.S. imperialist intervention around the world, from Bolivia to Honduras to Ukraine and beyond.
We need to unite all the struggles for food, wages, equality, the environment, and housing as they do in other countries. We need to take to the streets to get rid of Trump. This will send a message to the Wall Street Democratic party as well.
Nov. 26: New Orleans Workers Group holds a rally in solidarity with workers, peasants, Indigenous people, unions, and women’s organizations against the CIA-engineered coup in Bolivia.
New Orleans Workers Stand With Bolivian People Against Fascist U.S. Coup
The New Orleans Workers Group stands in solidarity with the workers, peasants, Indigenous people, unions and women’s organizations against the CIA-engineered coup in Bolivia carried out on behalf of the ultra rich. This anti-democratic coup is aimed at destroying the immense gains made by the Bolivian people under the leadership of Evo Morales and the Movement for Socialism (MAS). The ultra-rich in Bolivia are deeply racist and want to crush the historic liberation of the Indigenous masses in Bolivia. The rich are horrified that the oppressed, the indigenous people of Bolivia, including Morales, took their fate into their own hands.
These forces of the ultra-rich are destroying schools, burning homes, and attacking women and popular organizations. Their aim is to turn back health, education, and equality gains made in recent years. They seek to return to private profit-making vultures the vast mineral riches of Bolivia such as lithium. They seek to cut the country’s social services in order to get into the good graces of the International Monetary Fund and U.S. banks. It is total nonsense that an uprising against Morales took place on the basis of election fraud. The generals installed a president and cabinet who all hail from the non-indigenous super rich in a majority indigenous country.
This is yet another example of how even the most admirable efforts to build socialism remain vulnerable to reversal if they are confined to electoral politics. History shows us that the only way that the basis for socialism can be won is by arming the workers and peasants and getting rid of the military generals and police of the old state. We know that the Bolivian workers and peasants are up to the task.
U.S. labor unions have denounced this coup and have expressed support for Morales. These include the United Electrical Workers union, the National Nurses United and the AFL-CIO, the main union federation in the U.S. representing 12 million active and retired members.
Nov. 12, La Paz, Bolivia: Confronting a police officer, a woman demonstrates opposition to the racist, anti-Indigenous, CIA-backed coup that forced democratically elected President Evo Morales into exile.
The right-wing, racist coup government has unleashed violent attacks on the Bolivian people. At least 31 people have been killed, mostly pro-Morales protesters. Nevertheless, the workers, indigenous, and progressive people have not backed down. Protesters have continued to fill the streets.
Indigenous women lead protests against coup in Bolivia. Many carry the Wiphala flag (above captionless photo), representing Indigenous nations of the Andes.
On November 19, mostly indigenous protesters amassed and blocked access to a major fuel plant in the town of El Alto. They created roadblocks using tires and other materials. Police and military forces descended on them, killing three and injuring 22.
Defiantly, thousands gathered around the St. Francis of Assisi church the next day to denounce the violence. Aurelio Miranda, 54, told the press, “The world must know the truth. What happened was a massacre…They used weapons like you use in war.”
All those fighting for a more just world, for indigenous and women’s rights need to show our continued solidarity in this fight. All power to the Bolivian workers and peasants!
Sign reads: “Fire the self-proclaimed President Jeanine Anez.”
After Trump announced U.S. forces would withdraw from northern Syria, the House of Representatives voted on a non-binding resolution against it. Although Republicans and Democrats seem divided on many issues, both are parties of endless war for profit who voted 354-60 to continue the illegal war in which 400,000 people have died since 2011.
Trump is a warmonger who just approved sending 1,800 more troops to Saudia Arabia, a U.S. ally carrying out a genocidal war against Yemen. Trump has pledged to keep troops in Syria to protect oil fields—the only thing the U.S. capitalists care about in the Middle East.
Pulling troops from Syria is not a bad thing. By attacking him on this, the Democrats are trying to be more right-wing than the war-crazed Trump.
Many progressives are confused. Hasn’t the U.S. military been protecting the Kurds in Syria? The answer is a clear “no” if we look at the big picture.
The Syrian Kurds have been attacked by Turkish forces, but Turkey is a Washington ally. The far-right Turkish regime represses workers and carries out constant attacks against the Kurdish people, all the while receiving more U.S.-made weapons than any country besides Israel or the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.).
Washington has supported the Turkish state for decades. So close is the relationship that the U.S. government has at least 50 nuclear warheads in Turkey. These stockpiles go back to 1962, when the U.S. government began positioning nuclear weapons there to threaten the Soviet Union.
But what about the “crazy militias” the corporate press says attacked the Kurds? The U.S. government has backed 21 out of 28 of these groups. Most are off-shoots of Al-Qaeda and Al-Nusra, armed and trained by the CIA and Pentagon. Washington used these groups to undermine the elected government in Syria and carry out atrocities throughout the country, not just against the Kurds.
The U.S. has fomented war in the country for eight years, but now that Syria has been restored to the control of the Syrian government, there is finally a prospect of peace. The Kurds have joined forces with the Syrian Army. There is no longer any pretext for the U.S. to be there.
It’s right that workers are angry over Turkey’s military attacks, and so our demand should be that Washington withdraw all support for Turkey, ending all arms sales and military aid to that murderous far-right regime.
The World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are the financial arms of U.S. imperialism. Just as the Pentagon pursues the aims of U.S. imperialism with war and occupation, the WB and the IMF achieve those ends through extortion.
These institutions were set up to keep colonized countries from developing by undermining their domestic industries and making them economically dependent on the U.S. Debtor nations are forced to export mainly plantation crops and to rely on the U.S. for grain and food imports. The U.S. government wields this dependency as an economic weapon, imposing sanctions against any nation (like Venezuela, Cuba, Iran) it perceives as a threat to its dominance in the global capitalist world order. Sanctions are an act of economic warfare that starve and impoverish workers.
IMF loans have obscenely high interest rates and include ‘structural adjustment programs’ that force debtor nations to privatize major industries and services and impose austerity measures on working and oppressed people. These include regressive taxes on the poor, cuts to wages, layoffs, and the destruction of labor unions.
The IMF is as anti-democratic as it’s anti-labor. The U.S. has sole veto power in both institutions and loans disproportionately to countries with repressive governments. The U.S. did not loan to Chile when it was governed by democratically-elected President Allende—that is, until he was overthrown by a U.S. backed military coup and the authoritarian Pinochet regime came to power. Under the military dictatorship of Somoza, Nicaragua received generous loans, but when the revolutionary Sandinista government rose to power, the U.S. imposed a trade embargo against the country.
The WB and IMF perpetuate the legacy of colonialism
So called “developing nations” suffer from poverty because they have been purposefully underdeveloped by centuries of colonial control. U.S. financial elites use the WB and the IMF to trap these nations in a vicious cycle of unsustainable debt. But the workers of the world have always been opposed to these heinous institutions. Since 2018 alone, the people of Argentina, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Haiti, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Sudan, Tunisia, and other countries have taken to the streets in protest. They refuse to be repressed by institutions designed only to protect the rich.
Working class people, who are most directly impacted by the IMF and WB, do not currently have a say regarding their policies. Until the IMF and the WB are collectively controlled by workers, they will continue to be weaponized by the rich to further oppress the global working class.
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.
Only a global organization of the working class is up to the task of halting the climate and environmental crisis. We must fight to meet the needs of all peoples of the world equally.
By Gavrielle Gemma
Youth climate strikers have forced the environmental crisis on to the world stage. They have also forced the capitalists and all the governments they control to scramble to come up with plans that sound responsive while they protect the profits of the fossil fuel and weapons industries along with the politicians in their pockets.
We must keep the movement going strong in the streets but to succeed, we need to honestly size up the opposition.
President Trump is an enemy of the planet and the people, but the Democratic Party politicians also personally benefit from the status quo. For decades they’ve been totally bought out by the capitalists in charge of oil, chemical, agribusiness, banking and military industries.
We must recognize that though they rule by different methods—one more openly fascist, the other more deceptive—both uphold the rule of capitalism, private property and oil profits. Hillary Clinton received millions from the oil industry and the Saudi Monarchy.
Why do millions starve when there is a global surplus of food? Why are countries bombed for oil? Why is a trillion U.S. tax payer dollars going to war profiteers every year? Why do we continue to use fossil fuels when clean and sustainable energy alternatives are available?
Because capitalists do not care how many millions die and suffer as long as they prosper.
More than ever the movement needs the leadership of those with the most to lose from the global ecological crisis—the workers, the displaced, and the oppressed nations of the world. That’s why we must fight to end capitalism, imperialism, and racism. We must fight for global economic equality.
United Nations is not the answer.
While 193 countries belong to the United Nations, it is controlled by the security council which is made up of superpowers and is dominated by imperialist countries. The United Nations gave cover to the invasions of Iraq and Libya – both wars for oil.
Were the United Nations a real force for the people, its delegates would have marched out of the UN headquarters to a nearby meeting of oil executives and ordered a mass arrest for crimes against humanity and other species. The oil executives had called this emergency meeting to figure out how to rebrand themselves and co-opt the movement.
“The change that needs to take place—the trillions of dollars of investment—is only going to come from companies with resources and scale,” said Ben van Beurden, chief executive of Shell. In other words, please don’t come after us.
If the climate change movement rose up against the $1 trillion a year U.S. military budget, we would have plenty of resources to be used for all the needs of humanity, other species, and the planet. The obscene profits they are sitting on need to be seized by the masses and used for survival, jobs and the environment. Clean energy, water, air, food and medical care cannot be under the control of private profiteers; it must belong to the people.
The climate struggle must recognize the inequality caused by imperialism in order to build solidarity and strengthen the movement.
We cannot fix the climate disaster with individual efforts or by thinking technology is the problem. Posing less air conditioning or more bike-riding as solutions fosters the right-wing phony claim that the movement is elitist. Air conditioning is a health necessity and should be available free to all people in every part of the world that needs it. Safe bike riding is important, but we need clean mass transportation for all. Poor people here and around the world lack these necessities.
Climate struggle and anti-imperialism are two wings of the same bird. The U.S. Military is a private army for the oil barons, not for democracy.
The U.S. budget is looted for a trillion a year that could be used for social benefits and earth repair. Politicians that support a “Green New Deal” but vote to increase the military budget are dangerous. We cannot fight for the earth without fighting for peace, against the weapons industry, imperialism, inequality, and racism.
Sheer numbers won’t do. On June 12th, 1982 a million people demonstrated in New York city against nuclear power. But its leaders were silent on nuclear weapons and U.S. wars. On the very day of the protest Israel was using U.S. weapons to bomb people in Palestinian refugee camps. A million voices were ignored easily by the government which said, “Let them march and sing, in the end they support us.” No struggle succeeds unless the rulers feel threatened by economic loss or fear that they may lose the people’s allegiance to their rule.
The movement must understand the root cause of the crisis; this will guide us in knowing where and how to build alliances among communities of all nationalities, and between youth and the working class.
The fight to save the planet must be the fight to uproot the cause of the environmental crisis. To win this fight we have to harness the enormous untapped power of the working class who once they know which side they’re on will be unstoppable. Organized, the working class can decide for itself what we will and won’t produce.
A worldwide day of outreach to the workers is the next step.
Let future strikes be led by youth and workers.
We should fight against pipelines and pesticides, and we should fight to save all species threatened by extinction. By mass action we can force change to some laws and this is important. But to save the planet, the human race and all species, to guarantee a healthy future for all the people of the world, it will take an overthrow of the capitalist system which puts profits above life itself.
Unions are joining the effort against climate change; workers are asking why they can’t have jobs that are safe for their communities and grandchildren. Youth of all countries have taken the lead once again, just like they did in the fight for civil rights in the U.S. displaying great courage and determination.
But a strong movement needs to think ahead, think strategically and understand that only with the workers on their side can we win. We will win.
The Trump administration has made no secret that they want to overthrow the democratically elected government of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Trump (with the Democrats following his lead) has thrown his support behind right-wing forces surrounding Juan Guaidó, who simply declared himself president in January. These extreme right-wingers want to overturn every gain made by the Venezuelan people. They want to make cuts to healthcare, education, and everything else that actually lifts up workers. They want to privatize Venezuela’s natural resources, including oil and gas, so that the rich can amass even more wealth. There is nothing good about anything Guaidó and his supporters plan to do.
As part of Washington’s escalation against the Venezuelan people and government, Trump signed an executive order at the beginning of August imposing what amounts to a full embargo against the country. Trump’s war-mongering National Security Advisor, John Bolton, announced the new policy at a meeting in Lima, Peru. Keep in mind that Bolton played a key role in the George W. Bush administration’s attacks on Iraq, and he has made a speaking career for himself going around the world promoting war against Iran. His policies devastated the Middle East, resulting in the deaths of millions, including thousands of U.S. soldiers who died for no reason (except to secure profits for U.S. weapons manufacturers and oil conglomerates).
Economic embargoes are war by other means. The primary victims are ordinary people, with children and the elderly being the most vulnerable and the most impacted. Economists Mark Weisbrot and Jeffrey Sachs conducted an extensive study that came out in April 2019, concluding that U.S. government sanctions against Venezuela have already killed 40,000 people. They wrote, “the sanctions are depriving Venezuelans of life-saving medicines, medical equipment, food, and other essential imports. American sanctions are deliberately aiming to wreck Venezuela’s economy and thereby lead to regime change.”
On August 10, thousands of Venezuelans flooded the streets of Caracas to protest the U.S. embargo. Many held signs and banners that said #NoMoreTrump! The embargo is an act of economic terrorism intended to crush every last vestige of democracy in Venezuela and to bolster the rich at the expense of the working class. As workers, we must stand in solidarity with the Venezuelan people and call for an end to U.S. imperialism.
