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.
Who’s threatening who? Map shows locations of the dozens of U.S. military bases surrounding Iran.
No More Wars for Oil!
By Gregory William
Without ceasing their efforts to overthrow the legitimate government of Venezuela, the Trump administration and the U.S. military command have been revving up threats against Iran.
Trump and his gang have already demonstrated through their use of inhumane economic sanctions that they are willing to destroy the lives of thousands of people—all so that their capitalist masters can gain control of Iran and Venezuela’s oil fields.
In early May Trump’s National Security Advisor, John Bolton, announced the deployment of a carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the Persian Gulf to “send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attacks on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force.” Since then Trump has sent an 1,500 additional troops to the region.
Does Iran pose any threat to the U.S.? No!
Since the beginning of the last century, the United States has carried out more than 100 invasions of countries around the world. In that time, Iran hasn’t invaded a single country. Nor have they started a single war.
Bolton has had a hand in several U.S. invasions and wars—not least in Libya and Iraq, where hundreds of thousands have died as a result. During the lead-up to the Iraq war, Bolton systematically churned out lies about Iraq’s non-existent “weapons of mass destruction” to convince the public that war was necessary, leading to absolute devastation in that country and massive looting of U.S. taxpayers’ money. Bolton has been advocating for war with Iran for over 20 years and is now trying ratchet up tensions so that an accident or a false-flag attack might provide a pretext for war.
Here’s another claim workers might hear in the U.S. capitalist-owned media. Isn’t the Iranian government a despotic theocracy that curtails the rights of its people, and isn’t that a good reason for the U.S. to intervene?
There’s no reason to believe that this is a concern of Trump and company. One of the U.S.’ closest allies in the region, Saudi Arabia, recently beheaded 37 men and hung one of their bodies upside down on a pole in public. This hasn’t been a topic of discussion in Washington. Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to support the Saudi regime’s genocidal war in Yemen and gives the Israeli government billions of our tax dollars to murder innocent Palestinian children.
The Iranian forces that Bolton and Trump are promoting as the possible “liberators” of the country hail from the now-deposed fascist monarchy or alternately, from the so-called ‘National Council of Resistance,’ an organization aligned with the Saudi monarchy and Israel.
U.S. imperialists clearly have no interest in promoting democracy or human rights in Iran or anywhere else in the world. The long history of U.S. interference in Iran proves it.
In U.S. wars for oil, playbook hasn’t changed
In 1953, U.S. and British espionage agencies orchestrated a coup in Iran, ousting the democratically-elected prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh. In 1951, under the leadership of Mosaddegh, the Iranian parliament voted to nationalize Iran’s oil industry which had until then been under the control of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company—later known as British Petroleum (BP), the same company responsible for the horrible Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The Iranian government intended to use their oil resources to benefit the people of Iran rather than British and American shareholders.
Before the coup, the British initiated an international boycott of Iranian oil. They were trying to put an economic stranglehold on the country to make it bend to the wishes of the British and U.S. capitalist classes. In place of the popular government of Mosaddegh, the coup orchestrators installed General Fazlollah Zahedi, who shored up the rule of the Shah (the Iranian prince). The new regime relied heavily on Washington to stay in power. According to the CIA’s own declassified documents, for example, Iranian mobsters were on the U.S. payroll to stage pro-Shah riots as the coup was underway.
Under the Shah’s rule until 1979, thousands of social leaders, trade unionists, workers, students, and peasants were tortured and murdered by the SAVAK, a Gestapo-like agency set up by the CIA. Inequality soared to become almost the worst in the world, according to the International Labor Office. The people of Iran suffered all these hardships to enrich the owners of an imperialist oil cartel. This is really existing “free” market capitalism at work.
In 1979, the Iranian masses rose up to overthrow the imperialist-backed Shah. Although many of the demands of the revolution have not been met by the government of the Islamic Republic that replaced the monarchy, national independence remains a victory that the masses of Iranians are intent on defending. Any progressive Iranian knows that a U.S. war would be a terrible setback to their own struggle for political power within the country.
Why we must say no to intervention today
Nearly four times the size of Iraq, Iran is a country of 80 million people. A war with Iran would condemn an entire region of the earth to years of death and insecurity. This terrible cost to humanity would be paid by U.S. workers too. For every dollar of our taxes that’s wasted on death machines, that’s one less dollar spent on education or healthcare or all the things necessary to give us real national security.
We— the workers of the world— must stand up and declare that we will not pay for their oil with our blood.
U.S. Hands off Iran! End U.S. sanctions against Iran! Bring the troops home! Close the U.S./NATO bases! End U.S. aid to Saudi Arabia and Israel!
January 14: members of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3553 at the head of a march in New Orleans to protest the government shutdown, called by the New Orleans Peoples Assembly and the Congress of Day Laborers. Photo: @fotografi.ando
By Gavrielle Gemma
Real Layoff Was 18 Million Workers
Trump used disgusting lies about immigrants in a failed attempt to justify the denial of essential services and pay. But this only further unmasked Trump and his Wall St. cronies as enemies of the people. On what planet do the super-rich live? Trump suggested workers get credit at grocery stores while his billionaire Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross suggested we get loans from his banker buddies. It was mass anger and the strike threat by air traffic controllers and pilots that forced him back, not the Democratic Party.
What was this shutdown really about?
First, this was a test run to see how far a despised billionaire president can go by executive order. Trump wanted to declare a national emergency which could have suspended all civil rights. This would be like a mini coup, undemocratic and dangerous. With a pen stroke he can wipe out the pay for 4.5 million workers (direct and contracted workers doing federal jobs). It’s much worse considering that 4 times as many workers depend on the paychecks of laid off workers. That’s 18 million workers, most of whom will not get any back pay.
Second, Trump and Wall Street want to privatize all government services so their friends can profit. Already 2/3 of federal jobs are being done by contract workers (see box). Trump imposed an illegal pay freeze in December and has tried to bust the union, American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) which is fighting back.
Millions are imprisoned in for-profit prisons, immigrant detention camps, and jails for children. Trump’s capitalist buddies get millions of dollars from homeland security contracts. The wall would mean even more profits for them.
Third, Trump & Wall Street want to cut all social services from food stamps to Medicare and Medicaid. This is totally unpopular, so they resort to cutting services by the back door. Beware! Two thirds of the federal budget—our money—is already looted by banks for interest payments or by private war profiteers and repressive agencies of all kinds. The ultra-rich want it all for themselves leaving nothing for the people.
Fourth, Trump wants to see how far he can divide the working class by scapegoating immigrants. Drugs do not come in by refugees. With the assistance of the U.S. military, they come in through ports. Profits from the drug trade mean profits for the banks. The head of the NRA, Oliver North was a drug runner while he worked for the Reagan administration. Refugees are workers just trying to feed their families. More often than not, they are seeking refuge from the repressive economic and military policies of the imperialist U.S. government.
Trump is threatening to shut down the government again. We cannot count on the Democratic Party to stop him. We need mass action, workers solidarity and militancy in every city. NO MORE SHUTDOWNS!
Photo: @fotografi.ando
NO WALL, NO WARS, NO PRIVATIZATION, NO CUTS
BETTER WAGES, HEALTHCARE FOR ALL That’s national security! NO NEW SHUTDOWN!
Who Didn’t Hurt
Special exemptions to the shutdown were given to:
Oil & Gas companies whose offshore leases and permits to drill in the Arctic and in national parks were still being processed and approved while employees assigned to renewable energy were not working.
Mortgage lenders processed by IRS. Ordered by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who was dubbed “Foreclosure King” during the 2008 crash.
U.S. military/CIA/NSA and all forces of repression
Congressional gym reopened
Billionaire capitalists
Who Got Hurt
800,000 federal workers were not getting paid even though they were forced to work.
Native Americans lost access to critical health services and food pantries
Air travelers subjected to dangerous conditions according the Air Traffic Controllers Union
3.7 million contract workers. These were formerly direct federal jobs that have already been privatized. These are essential workers in agriculture, transport, serving meals, senior care and more. Due to privatization there 2 outsourced workers to every direct federal worker. They make 34% of the pay direct federal workers get (which is already too low) with almost no benefits. This has had a disproportionate effect on Black workers. Trump used an executive order last year to undo safety and pay regulation for contract workers. Many contract workers have been the victim of wage theft yet the government paid out $18 billion to contractors with multiple wage violations. Contract workers will not get back pay.
There are also 13,5 million workers who service the needs of the nearly 5 million who weren’t getting paid. These people work in restaurants, child care, auto shops, etc. The ripple effect of a layoff/no pay is always 4 times the number directly affected. They may not get unemployment and will get no back pay.
Women, Infants, Children (WIC) program provides funds for nutrition for infants and mothers
Domestic Violence Shelters
School breakfasts and lunch programs that cut back on fresh food around the country
Food safety inspections
Weather bureau storm forecasting
Children’s toys inspections
Airport security
Prisoners family visits, medical care, compassionate release stopped
Five Wall Street firms stand to line their pockets if Trump manages to “build a wall,” according to a recent report by Partnership for Working Families. These firms are: Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Renaissance, BlackRock, and Dimensional, all of which have investments in Sterling Construction Company, Inc. (the company hoping to build Trump’s wall). All 5 of these firms also profit from private prison companies CoreCivic and Geo Group. These private prison companies rake in billions off of prison slave labor. Dimensional and Renaissance are major Republican donors, but BlackRock, Wells Fargo, and JP Morgan Chase have all backed the Democrats as well. This just goes to show that the Republicans and Democrats are both the big banks’ parties, and they’ll do whatever it takes to make a profit, no matter who suffers.
IT IS DANGEROUS TO CONTINUE THE DECEPTION OF THE PEOPLE
The Clintons, VIP guests at Trump’s VIP wedding
By Gavrielle Gemma
Since its founding, the Democratic Party has represented slaveholders and later a substantial section of the capitalist ruling class. There are, on occasion, divisions among the capitalists, but only on how to prevent the rise of class consciousness and maintain the exploitation of labor, imperialist domination, white supremacy, not to end it.
Friedrich Engels, the collaborator with Karl Marx, wrote many years ago that in fact, the appearance of liberal, bourgeois democracy was best suited to capitalism. While relentlessly pursuing the same goal of profit at any cost, it disguised its ends better and deceived and pacified the people more.
The nomination of Hillary Clinton disgusted a vast section of especially young activists who opposed the militarist, oil company and banking candidate and who had come to realize that the Democratic Party was not a party of the workers or the people, but controlled totally by and for the 1%, the same 1% that controls the Republicans.
Millions of workers and youth were ready to leave the Democratic Party. They were inspired by just the mention of the word socialism by Bernie Sanders, even though he was a Democratic Party candidate. But Sanders, despite Democratic Party corruption preventing his nomination, heartily endorsed the rotten Hillary Clinton. Supporters had fervently hoped if not nominated, he would run as an independent. We cannot forget this undemocratic decision and capitulation to the very forces he was condemning.
Even the possibility of a long overdue break with the parties of capitalism scared the establishment, and they went into overdrive to hammer in a message that only the Democrat Party candidates could save us from Trumpism.
Trump arose out of the crisis of capitalists who felt their empire and profits were crumbling. They wanted to quickly pursue an assault on the workers, as well as accelerate the theft of the budget to be turned over to the war profiteers and banks as their solution.
The Democratic Party aided this by building up the military and supporting, eagerly, genocidal wars for profits. After all, both parties serve the same masters. The Democratic Party method is to pursue the same aim but more gradually, and they have gone along with cuts to social programs over the decades. They have deported millions of immigrants, initiated policies of mass incarceration and impoverishment, especially of women. They have supported continuous imperialist war and carried out fascist coups in the Ukraine and Honduras. Meanwhile, not one single meaningful measure enacted against the lowering of wages and insecurity of the working class was undertaken. Resorting to imperialist war, coups, and sabotage flows from the capitalist need to exploit labor, expand markets, get cheap labor and resources through domination of other countries. Are these the forces that will Fight the Right?
It was exactly Democratic Party deeds that paved the way for the ruling class to take a chance on a more openly reactionary president who could drive the capitalist engine of destruction of the world’s working class at a faster, unfettered pace.
That Sanders’ program is not revolutionary, and that he himself has often gone along with imperialism is undisputed. But it is the movement that exploded that was so important. However, both the “establishment” Democrats and the “left” Democrats immediately began to perpetuate the deception that the reason for the hated Trump regime is all due to bad people getting in, and if only we elect “good” people everything will be fine. This is not only historically false, but dangerous. Some younger activists have been led to believe that all things bad began with Trump. If only we could go back to the Obama years, all would be well. The result is the social democrats are actively herding people back into the Democratic Party rather than out of it.
It’s certainly a good sign that voters pick a democratic socialist, a liberal, over a white nationalist, but nothing more. That should be a signal that these voters are ready to organize, not to wait for a new congress to be the savior. Progressives can all recognize the extreme white nationalism, anti-worker assaults and dictator-of-the-world desires of Trump’s program. We are all supposed to fight the right. But awakening forces are told to ally with fascist FBI directors and generals—indeed anyone who criticizes Trump. Will that really hold off the right? That has been attempted often in history with disastrous consequences.
In Chile in 1974, Salvador Allende, a socialist, was elected president. The U.S. and Chilean oligarchy teamed up to sabotage the economy and arm and train the generals. Allende tried to ally with the liberal capitalist class forces of Chile, rather than arming the masses for the inevitable fight to come. The result was that Allende was murdered and the U.S. installed a 30-year brutal dictatorship, murdering thousands and impoverishing more.
Another dire example in history was in Germany. Again, rather than arm the masses to fight fascism, a popular front with bourgeois elements was proposed which led to disaster. Of course, neither the Democrats or Republicans opposed Hitler while he was staving off revolution and threatening the Soviet Union. The U.S. only entered the war to make sure the U.S. ruling class got its share of colonies and influence after the Soviet Union had basically defeated the Nazis at a cost of 30 million people.
The first and greatest danger to the workers and oppressed is to deceive the people by lending support to catastrophic imperialist lies. The U.S. /NATO bloc has encircled Russia with nuclear bases and warships while installing a neo-Nazi government on its border. In an anything-that-attacks-Trump-is-good stance, Democrats focus on Russian election hacking and turning FBI despots into heroes. Some sections of the capitalist ruling class just want to do business with Russia; others want to colonize Russia and steal its vast resources. The capitalist class succeeded, cheered on by both capitalist parties in turning Eastern Europe into a U.S./NATO Colony, with U.S.-supported ultra-right-wing regimes. Both sectors of the capitalist class have nothing but evil intentions.
The danger in all this, and the danger in deceiving the workers, is that another major imperialist war may erupt, a war in which workers have no stake. The first things progressives must do is debunk U.S. propaganda and explain that the U.S. goes to war only for domination of markets, cheap labor and resources to gain profit at any cost. No U.S. intervention ever brings democracy or prosperity – only death, destruction, repression and poverty.
Nor does it bring security and prosperity at home.
Winning a seat in the capitalist government can be helpful if used to educate and organize the people as progressive change always follow mass struggle, not the other way around. But how can we move the workers past capitalist lies if social democrats collude in perpetuating them. The newly elected DSA member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez set a terrible example by praising John McCain. McCain, from a military officer family, was a war criminal who bombed Vietnam mercilessly, promoted the invasion of Iraq and was a conservative and racist. An anti-war activist shockingly told me Ocasio-Cortez had no choice. If she didn’t join the chorus of flag wavers, she would be scorned in Congress. If political leaders only want to join the club and are afraid to risk their respectability, there will be no progress.
SUPPORT OF THE MILITARY GAVE RISE TO TRUMP Moving from a civilian to military based economy strengthens the ultra-reactionary forces and makes them and the banks more dominant in politics. So the consistent Democratic Party support for imperialism and the military under Obama and before helped give rise to Trump.
Trying to separate the rise of a reactionary politician from developments in the capitalist economy leads nowhere. Hitler was supported by the world’s capitalist classes because they felt it was either fascism or revolution. Without their support, he would not have risen to power.
ANTI-IMMIGRANT POLICIES RAMPANT BEFORE TRUMP During his term Obama was dubbed “Deporter-in-Chief”. But let’s go to the underlaying cause of the desperate migration of workers. It was under Bill Clinton that the NAFTA trade deal was signed displacing millions of Mexican peasants and workers and laying off workers here. Clinton said then “NAFTA means jobs.” But the Democratic Party is equally complicit in the wars and economic strangulation of other countries that have led to the global refugee crisis. To ignore this is to be complicit in deepening the crisis.
CARTER WROTE THE PATCO UNION BUSTING PLAN, REAGAN CARRIED IT OUT
UNIONS NEED TO STOP COLLABORATING WITH BOSSES, DEMOCRATIC OR REPUBLICAN PARTIES
Usually when you give money you expect something back from it. But unions continue to give millions of dollars, mostly to the Democrats who have given nothing back. The idea that progress can be made by collaborating with the bosses rather than fighting them is a tragic lie. Of course, the top echelons of labor have made out nicely. In the 1980’s, capitalists began a massive technological revolution using funds amassed through the labor of workers. But far from benefitting workers, they used these advances to lay off millions of workers in union industries, set up shops overseas, and wages have been sinking ever since.
The Democratic Party went along with it all. They made not one sincere attempt to even moderate the effects of the capitalist technological revolution. Similarly, while banks got $12 trillion in bailouts in 2008, not one meaningful measure was raised to bail out the people.
REFORM OR REVOLUTION The liberals and non-profit professionals like to say that we revolutionary socialists are only about theory and not for improving conditions under capitalism. This lie serves them well. Communists have been among the most ardent fighters for equal rights, union rights and social programs by organizing mass movements. Once these gains are established, non-profits move in and make careers and salaries while weakening the hard fought victories.
But we are not only about reform because everything won can be taken away. Every day, 25,000 children in the world die from treatable, preventable disease inflicted upon them by capitalism. There is enough food to feed the world were it not in private capitalist hands. The planet must be saved from the capitalists who only see profits at any cost. We must stop the mass murder of millions by U.S. imperialist war. We can return to the workers here the product of their labor.
This can only happen by awakening the class-consciousness of the workers and oppressed, not only to fight now, but also to fight to overturn the entire rotten system and bring in genuine socialism and a peaceful prosperous world for all. To advance this we need to openly break with the capitalist Democratic Party and advance independent mass political organizations, including building a labor party of the working class and the oppressed.
Forget all that claptrap about the Russia investigation. That ignores what by law and decency Trump and his cabinet of war crazy generals, billionaire bankers and capitalists should be indicted for.
He has a deep hatred of the working class, Black, white, Latinx and Asian. He is a danger to humanity and is destroying the planet. His conduct towards women and his policies affecting women are criminal. They’re meant to push us down to domestic servitude. Trump wants to immerse the world in war, possibly nuclear. He is disrupting the peace in Korea, preparing war against Iran by tearing up a treaty the rest of the world wants, and giving a trilliondollar payout to war profiteering corporations. He is most happy when his non-stop racism results in a record number of hate crimes across the U.S.
His main job is to try to infest white workers with racism using vile anti-immigrant rants, and portraying other countries in the most demeaning of terms. But just like the Confederate slaveholders detested poor white southern farmers, so do today’s capitalists detest white workers. They put on a hard hat as they laugh all the way to the bank when the working class is divided.
Trump’s policies are tax cuts for the already filthy rich, to increase their accumulation of wealth to even more obscene levels. For us, the workers, employed and underemployed, of all ages and nationalities, Trump’s goal is to destroy our standard of living to make us desperate. He is aided by his clones in the Louisiana legislature who are cutting every program that we the people have already paid for. That is what fascists do, and they count on people blaming scapegoats rather than them, the cause of all our problems. Every time Trump opens his mouth he lies and spews racist filth and every day as he becomes more unpopular, his anti-working class policies revealed, he escalates his rhetoric.
Trump can be found seated on his gold toilet or almost daily on his golf course. He should be arrested and jailed for crimes against humanity
It’s very clear that everyone in Korea wants peace. On January 2nd, North Korea offered an olive branch to the South: they asked to attend the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. South Korea accepted and responded with its own offer—diplomatic talks— which the North accepted. To many Koreans, peace and reunification might be possible.
Yet the United States government, controlled by its capitalist ruling class, continues to press for war. Korea sits on trillions of dollars’ worth of mineral wealth and tens of millions of laborers. The rich that run the US see them like they see their workers— as possible resources. And the US government is stopping at nothing to wage war to take those resources. That’s why:
It’s the US, not North or South Korea, that split the country by imposing the 38th parallel in 1945 (a divide and conquer approach)
It’s the US that continues to occupy the peninsula with almost 30,000 troops and forced the South to give the US permission in their constitution (Koreans can’t even call their country their own!)
It’s the US that continues to make nuclear threats (Trump screaming “my nuclear button is bigger!”)
The corporate media has no right to make North Koreans look like they’re the ones that are war-crazy. Nor does it have a right to make it look like the South supports the US government. The US has over 4,600 nuclear weapons and North Korea has no more than 20. Koreans in the South have been protesting every part of the US military occupation for decades. North Korea pledged that it would never strike first in nuclear war, and it even promised it would stop testing weapons if only the US stopped conducting military drills. But the US refuses when Koreans on both sides ask for peace.
The ruling class in the US wants war for the same reason that it wants to raise our rents and lower our wages: money and wealth. Every bullet, rifle, tank, missile, and warship commissioned by the US military adds to arms contractors’ profits. That’s not even counting all the looting US corporations could do after a war. And our taxes pay for it all. Meanwhile, the rich line their pockets, workers still live from paycheck to paycheck, and the government’s so focused on war that it hasn’t done a thing for our roads or schools.
The Workers Group stands in solidarity with the people of Korea, both for their sake and so we can see money being spent on workers at home.
