Hechos básicos de la economía 12 Editorial: Pandemia y capitalismo 12

Workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite! workers.org Vol. 62, No. 18 April 30, 2020 $1

On Mumia's birthday Global event honors political prisoners

By Mirinda Crissman and the question, “What is a political pris- incarceration. Currently at least two polit- Judy Greenspan oner?” This question and responses by ical prisoners have stage 4 cancer and are the more than 30 speakers, cracked open fighting for medical care and compassion- From behind prison walls nearly 39 a long-held secret of U.S. capitalist dom- ate release. years, Mumia Abu-Jamal continues to ination. Yes, there are political prisoners Russell Shoatz III spoke about his educate, energize and unite prison abo- in the United States. father’s condition. Russell Maroon litionists, former and current political Other moderators included Betsey Shoatz, a founding member of the Black prisoners, and the global activist com- Piette, a managing editor of Workers Unity Council and a former member of munity. On April 24, his 66th birthday, World newspaper; Santiago Alvarez, a the Philadelphia Black Panther Party Abu-Jamal’s story and legacy brought University of California, Santa Cruz stu- and the Black Liberation Army, is serv- together a virtual gathering “U.S. Empire dent activist; and Mike Africa, Jr. from ing multiple life sentences. Incarcerated vs. Political Prisoners,” committed to the MOVE organization. since 1970, he has recently undergone More on Mumia Abu-Jamal broadening this movement, not only to Megan Malachi of Philly REAL (Racial, cancer surgery. His message to the movement 6 free Mumia and all political prisoners but Economic and Legal) Justice talked about Former political prisoner and author to free us all. being born in 1981, the year Abu-Jamal Susan Rosenberg highlighted the case of Solidarity press conference 6 An amazing array of speakers sent was arrested and incarcerated. However, Dr. Mutulu Shakur, a political prisoner warm birthday greetings and spoke elo- it was not until she was in high school who was just diagnosed with life-threat- Abdulmumit stated, “It is not a matter quently about their individual cases, com- that she attended a rally and found out ening bone marrow cancer and has of our innocence or guilt. It is a matter munity campaigns and the uphill battle the truth about who Mumia was. launched a campaign for compassion- of supporting our freedom fighters and to win justice for prisoners. Hosted on Kathy Boudin, a former political pris- ate release. Shakur is a founder of the standing for our independence.” Commonnotions.org, the webinar was oner who is now a professor of social work Republic of New Africa and a respected, organized by Mobilization4Mumia, the at Columbia University in New York City, well-known “people’s” acupuncturist. COVID-19 underscores urgency Campaign to Bring Mumia Home, the Free talked about the blank look in her stu- Jihad Abdulmumit, a former political of prison abolition Mumia Coalition (NYC) and a broad array dents’ faces when she asked if there were prisoner and chairperson of the Jericho Speakers from Release Aging People of organizers. political prisoners in the U.S. She realized Movement, stated that this celebration in Prison (RAPP) addressed the urgency Moderator Johanna Fernandez, that she had a lot of educating to do. of Mumia’s birthday “should be a call to of releasing all elderly and immunocom- Baruch College (CUNY) professor and This extraordinary webinar exposed action.” He reminded listeners that politi- promised people, especially during this a coordinator of the Campaign to Bring the serious situation faced by many polit- cal prisoners are part of the history of our coronavirus pandemic. Donna Robinson, Mumia Home, opened the program with ical prisoners in the U.S. after decades of movement for freedom and liberation. Continued on page 7 May Day = Worker Power Today, in 66 countries the world as an important anni- around the world, May Day—​ editorial versary for the working-class International Workers’ Day—​ movement. Socialists and com- is an official paid holiday commemorated munists struggled the hardest to have it on May 1. But not in the United States. made an official holiday in many countries. While May Day originated here, What are the origins of May Day, and the ruling class has done everything why is it important to workers in this it can to eradicate any memory of this country? working-class holiday. As a result, The roots of May Day as a time to honor International Workers’ Day is officially the struggles of the working class began ignored in the country where it was born. on May 1, 1886. Some 300,000 workers However, it is commemorated around Continued on page 10 COVID-19: Fighting for our lives Battling virus and depression 3 Reproductive justice under siege 3 Health workers protest for safety 4 Don’t privatize the post office! 5 Marxism and the economic fallout 8 Indigenous communities devastated 9 Pandemic and the jobless crisis 10

Ohio car protest 2 Prison house of the oppressed 5 Prisoner demands PPE 6 Punished for dreadlocks 7

Venezuela 9 Laos 11 Greenland 11 Page 2 April 30, 2020 workers.org

Ohio Car protest demands prisoner release this week By Martha Grevatt Columbus, Ohio ◆ In the U.S. Mumia's birthday event honors political prisoners . 1 Over 100 cars, driven by people from all over Ohio, circled the state’s Department of Rehabilitation and Car protest demands prisoner release ...... 2 Correction in Columbus, the capital, on April 24. People with disabilities fight to be counted . . . . 3 From there, the car caravan went to the Statehouse Abortion access threatened during pandemic . . .3 to protest the dangerous conditions in state pris- Health care workers resist bigots and bosses . . . 4 ons. Marion and Pickaway correctional institutions have made national news as the country’s top two On the picket line ...... 4 “hotspots.” Each has a COVID-19 infection rate of WW PHOTO: SUSAN SCHNUR Prison house of oppressed peoples ...... 5 80 percent among prisoners. That’s over 3,500 cases Social-distance “die out” in front of Ohio Statehouse to demand Pandemic used as proxy to privatize USPS . . . . 5 between the two prisons! mass release of prisoners who face death from COVID-19, April 24. Press Conference for Mumia Abu-Jamal . . . . . 6 The Ohio Prisoners Justice League and Ohio Organizing Collaborative, caravan organizers, are with children held signs pleading for their father’s life. A Delaware prisoner’s plea for PPE ...... 6 demanding that Gov. Mike DeWine release 20,000 pris- The slogan “20K by May” was chanted, written on signs Mumia: A message to my supporters ...... 6 oners—​40 percent of those in state custody—​before and car windows, and worn on T-shirts and cloth face PA prisoners tortured for protesting racist policies . 7 May 1. That number would encompass those whose sen- masks. Some signs read: “Prisoners’ Lives Matter!” COVID-19 devastates Indigenous communities . .9 tences are almost over, those imprisoned for “nonviolent” Extremely popular was the slogan, which is the running offenses, elderly inmates and those with health conditions theme of many prison protests: “Free them all!” The jobless crisis and im/migrants ...... 10 that make them more vulnerable to infection. Seventeen prisoners have died from the virus in Ohio’s Lenin: Thinker and fighter ...... 10 After reaching the Statehouse, a group of about 50 peo- state prison system, which has an overcrowding rate of ple staged a socially distant die-out on the lawn. A family 130 percent. Another six prisoners died in the state’s only ◆ Around the world federal prison in Elkton. Without a massive and COVID-19 and basic facts of Marxist economics . .8 immediate prisoner release, the death toll will Longterm impact of historic oil price plunge . . . 8 rise exponentially—​imposing a death sentence on an untold number of prisoners. U.S. uses ‘drug’ lies to menace Venezuela . . . . .9 Ohio has the sixth-largest prison system in Laos keeps coronavirus under control ...... 11 the U.S., with 28 adult and three juvenile insti- The U.S. aims at Greenland, targets the Arctic . . .11 tutions holding about 50,000 prisoners. African Americans, only 13 percent of the state popu- ◆ Editorial lation, comprise 45 percent of the prison pop- May Day = Worker Power ...... 1 ulation. Mass incarceration is indeed “the new Jim Crow.” ◆ Noticias en Español Gov. DeWine has proposed to release a mere 100 prisoners, including rich white-collar crim- COVID-19 y hechos de la economía marxista . . . 12 inals, such as Thomas Noe, convicted of laun- Pandemia y capitalismo ...... 12

WW PHOTO: SUSAN SCHNUR dering money for the 2004 George W. Bush Ohio activists gather to encircle Department of Rehabilitation and presidential campaign and being involved in Corrections, then the Statehouse with a car caravan, April 24. the corruption scandal known as “Coingate.” ☐ Workers World 147 W. 24th St., 2nd Fl. New York, NY 10011 Phone: 212.627.2994 Join us in the fight E-mail: [email protected] for socialism! Web: www.workers.org Vol. 62, No. 18 • April 30, 2020 Workers World Party is a revolutionary Marxist-Leninist people are gunned down by cops and bigots on a regular Closing date: April 29, 2020 party inside the belly of the imperialist beast. We are a basis. Editor: Deirdre Griswold multinational, multigenerational and multigendered orga- The ruthless ruling class today seeks to wipe out Managing Editors: John Catalinotto, Martha Grevatt, nization that not only aims to abolish capitalism, but to decades of gains and benefits won by hard-fought strug- Monica Moorehead, Betsey Piette, Minnie Bruce Pratt build a socialist society because it’s the only way forward! gles by people’s movements. The super-rich and their Capitalism and imperialism threaten the peoples of the political representatives have intensified their attacks on Web Editors: ABear, Harvey Markowitz, Janet Mayes world and the planet itself in the neverending quest for the multinational, multigender and multigenerational Prisoners Page Editors: Mirinda Crissman, Ted Kelly ever-greater profits. working class. It is time to point the blame at—and chal- Production & Design Editors: Gery Armsby, Sasha Capitalism means war and austerity, racism and lenge—the capitalist system. Mazumder, Scott Williams repression, attacks on im/migrants, misogyny, LGBTQ2+ WWP fights for socialism because the working class oppression and mistreatment of people with disabilities. produces all wealth in society, and this wealth should Copyediting and Proofreading: Paddy Colligan, It means joblessness, increasing homelessness and impov- remain in their hands, not be stolen in the form of capi- Sue Davis, S. Hedgecoke erishment and lack of hope for the future. No social prob- talist profits. The wealth workers create should be socially Contributing Editors: LeiLani Dowell, G. Dunkel, lems can be solved under capitalism. owned and its distribution planned to satisfy and guaran- K. Durkin, Sara Flounders, Teresa Gutierrez, Joshua The U.S. is the richest country in the world, yet no one tee basic human needs. Hanks, Makasi Motema, Gloria Rubac has a guaranteed right to shelter, food, water, health care, Since 1959, Workers World Party has been out in the Mundo Obero: Teresa Gutierrez, Carlos Vargas education or anything else—unless they can pay for it. streets defending the workers and oppressed here and Wages are lower than ever, and youth are saddled with worldwide. If you’re interested in Marxism, socialism Supporter Program: Coordinator Sue Davis seemingly insurmountable student debt, if they even make and fighting for a socialist future, please contact a WWP Copyright © 2020 Workers World. Verbatim copying it to college. Black, Brown and Indigenous youth and trans branch near you. ☐ and distribution of articles is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved. 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In the battle vs. COVID-19 and depression WW Commentary People with disabilities fight to be counted By Edward Yudelovich The U.S. Immigration Act of 1882 also “miscounted” disabled people by prohibiting people from entering the “When the able-bodied community gets the sniffles, U.S. if they were “unable to take care of himself or her- we get pneumonia. … The difficulties are multiplied ten- self without becoming a public charge.” These restrictions fold,” said Damien Gregory, an African-American wheel- on the right of a disabled person to immigrate to the U.S. chair user with cerebral palsy. (“Coronavirus Strains were made even more restrictive in 1891, 1903, 1907 and Safety Net for People with Disabilities,” Wall Street 1924. All these draconian laws were also racist in exclud- Journal, April 19) ing Asian, especially Chinese, and other peoples. When asked about the numbers and statistics on how At Ellis Island in New York harbor during the peak the COVID-19 coronavirus has affected people with dis- years of U.S. immigration from 1870 to 1924, when poten- abilities, Susan Dooha, executive director of the Center tial immigrants were screened, interviewed and examined, for Independence of the Disabled New York (CIDNY), U.S. officials marked those with any form of disability with told the interviewer: “People with disabilities are not a chalked letter on their backs containing a different code being counted!” (Metrofocus, PBS, April 16) for each disability, so it would be easier to exclude them. PHOTO: ANTIPSYCHIATRY.ORG Dooha warned that people with disabilities are at “X” was the mark given to people with “possible mental February 2000, California Network of Mental Health Clients protests outside State Capitol building against a bill to higher risk for this pandemic due to the chronic con- illness” and “X” with a circle for “definite mental illness.” lengthen and expand criteria for involuntary inpatient ditions they face, the disparately more overcrowded (“More than Passenger Lists: The Other Records at Ellis psychiatric commitment—​which would be a death facilities in which they live, their ages and the preva- Island” by Rhonda McClure, Ancestry.com, March 2006) sentence with today's pandemic. lence of living in poverty—​all of which are dramatically This reporter’s mother, aunts and uncles entered the U.S. increased for disabled people of color. after going through Ellis Island. catastrophic financial difficulties as robust predictors of depression, warning that loneliness breeds depres- Miscounting people with disabilities COVID-19 pandemic unleashes perfect sion. Kanter and Manbeck’s practice is in the state of is nothing new in U.S. history! storm of depression risks Washington, the first U.S. COVID-19 epicenter. 2020, the year of the pandemic, is also a U.S. cen- Emotional, mental, psychological and neurodiver- This reporter has experience with depression. I was mis- sus year. However, racist, ableist and sexist methods of gent disabilities is a category of disability profoundly diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1975 and was improperly miscounting have also been used as weapons against the impacted by this pandemic. medicated for five years. Finally, a psychiatrist corrected oppressed. The original Constitution of the U.S. counted In an article titled “COVID-19 could lead to an epi- the diagnosis, after first encouraging me to visit the library enslaved African Americans as three-fifths of a person. demic of clinical depression, and the health care sys- and study for myself what was then called manic depres- In the U.S. censuses from 1840 through 1890, people tem isn’t ready for that, either,” clinical psychology sive disorder (now called bipolar). My psychiatrist and I considered “mentally ill” or “mentally re****ed” were scientists Jonathan Kanter and Katherine Manbeck at the collaborated to match my symptoms more closely to manic counted in those categories. University of Washington’s Center for the Science of Social depression in order to prove the first diagnosis wrong. This These data were used to facilitate forced institutional- Connection sounded the alarm: “Isolation, social distanc- psychiatrist gradually weaned me off extremely addictive ization of people with emotional, mental, psychological ing and extreme changes in daily life are hard now, but psychotropic medications which had caused serious side and neurodivergent disabilities in prisons and asylums, as the United States also needs to be prepared for what may effects, including drowsiness, disorientation, uncontrolla- well as to perpetuate racist stereotypes with falsified sta- be an epidemic of clinical depression because of COVID- ble shaking, inability to sleep and unusual and dangerous tistics regarding African Americans and Indigenous peo- 19. … We do not wish to be the bearers of bad news. But sensitivity to heat. ples. (“A Disability History of the United States” by Kim this crisis, and our response to it, will have psychological In 1993, my 83-year-old mother was medicated against E. Nielsen) It is significant that many of the people at the consequences.” (conversation.com, April 1) her will with some of these same antipsychotic drugs. After greatest risk for COVID-19 today in the U.S. are housed in They elaborated on what they called a perfect storm she refused to take her meds, a relative and a psychiatrist nursing homes, so-called mental institutions and prisons. of depression risks. They classified stress, loss, grief and Continued on page 5 Abortion access threatened during pandemic By Sue Davis nonconforming people as part of comprehensive repro- in Aurora, Colo., who said, “The pandemic is making these ductive medical care. decisions even more complicated for people.” She cited a “These anti-choice governors have created a health The abortion bans have been aptly labeled “political mother of two whose morning-after pill had failed; she was crisis within a health crisis,” Julie Burkhart told the April opportunism.” Nancy Northup, president and CEO of seeking a clinical abortion because two previous pregnan- 16 Los Angeles Times. She is the founder and CEO of CRR, commented: “These emergency abortion bans are cies had injured abdominal muscles and required surgery Trust Women, which runs nonprofit health care clinics an abuse of power and part of an ongoing effort to use costing $10,000. in Wichita, Kan., and Oklahoma City, Okla. sham justifications to shut down clinics and make an end Social distancing to stop the spread of COVID-19 Burkhart was referring to governors in eight Southern run around Roe v. Wade.” (Roe v. Wade is the Supreme has required clinics to space out appointments, reduc- and Midwestern states—Texas,​ Oklahoma, Tennessee, Court decision that legalized abortion in 1973.) ing available time for patients. Preliminary interviews Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Ohio and Iowa—​who Northrup added: “These same states have tried to ban with patients are now conducted via Skype or by phone. took it upon themselves to use the COVID-19 pandemic abortion access for years; no one should be fooled that Dr. Erin King, who runs the Hope Clinic for Women in as a chance to ban abortions. They contend that since this is warranted by the current crisis. We will use every Granite City, Ill., stated that only one patient at a time abortions are “elective” procedures and not “essential” legal means to ensure that abortion care remains avail- is in the building. Patients only see one or two staff medical care, scarce personal protective equipment able during this critical time.” members for a limited time, whether to get medication, should not be used to provide them. After legal skirmishes, most appeal courts put the have an ultrasound or the actual procedure, followed by In addition, a total of 18 states, including Kentucky, bans on indefinite hold by granting temporary restrain- recovery. “There’s just less availability for patients,” she Utah, West Virginia, Alaska, Arkansas and Indiana, signed ing orders. Although the far-right 5th Circuit Court of said. (Rewire.News, April 21) a friend of the court brief supporting the Texas ban. Appeals backed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive “A lot of our patients have lost their jobs and aren’t work- The bans were swiftly opposed by the Center for order a second time on April 20, Abbott backed down ing right now or have children home from school. It’s very Reproductive Rights, along with the American Civil completely on April 22 after his anti-choice bias was difficult for them to get to us … from a travel standpoint, Liberties Union, the Planned Parenthood Federation and overruled by a left-leaning judge. from a childcare standpoint and from a financial stand- the Lawyering Project, among others. National medical point.” Dr. King noted that many patients are applying for organizations weighed in as well, attesting that abortion COVID-19 complicates abortion care funding from local abortion funds, part of the National is time-sensitive, necessary care for women and gender When asked how COVID-19 is affecting abortion ser- Network for Abortion Funds (abortionfunds.org). vices, Trust Women’s Burkhart answered, “We do not “We’re also decreasing the price for patients,” King have enough staff, we do not have enough doctors, we added. “We just want them to be able to be seen and not do not have enough days in the week.” She noted that have to worry financially because the unemployment rate women traveled hundreds of miles from Texas to the is astronomical. It’s hit communities around us very hard.” Wichita clinic during the ban. What hasn’t ended is that many clinics are still being Joan Lamunyon Sanford, executive director of New relentlessly, physically hounded by anti-abortion zealots, Mexico Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, told many of whom do not observe social distancing and men- the Los Angeles Times that the number of women travel- ace patients by standing close to entrances and blatantly ing from Texas doubled by mid-April. She added, “Two coughing on them. The National Abortion Federation has weeks ago a 19-year-old arrived on a Greyhound bus from started a fund to help clinics hire outside security guards Louisiana, more than 900 miles away.” to stop aggressive “Right-to-Life” haters. (Rewire.News, But many workers have been unable to travel to use April 15) clinic services, particularly Black, Brown and Indigenous Limiting access to abortion is one of the many life-al- people in low-paying “essential” jobs who couldn’t afford tering, life-threatening effects of COVID-19. As right-wing In Texas, the Trust. Respect. Access. coalition was formed to miss several days work—​or couldn’t scratch together forces push their agenda while the pandemic rages, this is by 14 organizations in 2019 to push back against the enough money to pay for child care, transportation, food a powerful reminder that the demand for universal, com- anti-abortion ordinances by working with local activists to and motel in addition to the cost of a procedure. prehensive, free health care for all must always include the speak out. The Los Angeles Times interviewed Dr. Angela Marchin reproductive justice goal of accessible, safe abortion. ☐ Page 4 April 30, 2020 workers.org Health care workers resist bigots and bosses By Minnie Bruce Pratt separated from patients who have not. Sixteen residents have died of COVID-19 Antiscientific and right-wing attacks at the 180-bed nursing home. Eight more have intensified against efforts to contain patients have been hospitalized. the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.—​ Union leader Ford stressed: “It’s not with the U.S. president recklessly recom- that we want to strike, but at some point mending bogus “treatments” and fascists the employer has to realize that he has to protesting social distancing. be fair to our members.” During an April 23 press conference, The nursing staff is especially concerned President Trump actually suggested treat- that proper PPE is not available for all ing COVID-19 by injecting people with Denver, April 19. PHOTO: ALYSON MCCLARAN Phoenix, Ariz., April 24. facility workers. Nurses have N95 masks, household disinfectants or giving them but dietary, custodial, laundry and envi- internally in some way. Such a “cure” protesters. The right-wingers—​in town not being forthcoming with information on ronmental service workers do not. Nurses would very likely be lethal. to denounce the state’s “stay at home” their employees, I am sure there are clus- reported that management told them they In the 18 hours after Trump’s remark, order—screamed​ antiworker and anticom- ters that nobody even knows about.” SEIU- would have to start wearing trash bags as calls to New York City Poison Control seek- munist epithets, with one car aggressively UHW represents nearly 100,000 health PPE. ing help for exposure to such chemicals—​ bumping against a health care worker. care workers. (tinyurl.com/ybmsbcct) Staffing ratios are also a concern. like bleach and Lysol—​had almost tripled In Harrisburg, Pa., half a dozen National Nurses United, the larg- There should be two nurses and at least compared to a year ago. (nbcnewyork.com, medical workers from across the state est nurses’ union in the U.S., protested five assistants for 60 residents, but with April 25) came to the Capitol building on April 20 April 21 with a contingent of nurses many staffers out sick it is now common The same week as these killer remarks, armed with science and signs. They were gathered outside the White House in to have only two nursing assistants. While protesters across the country—​some there to oppose “ReOpen PA” protesters, Washington, D.C. Wearing face masks the union was able to win hazard pay for waving Confederate and Nazi flags—​ most of whom were not wearing protec- and adhering to social distancing guide- nurses, management has not extended denounced measures to control the spread tive masks. Some were armed with guns. lines, they read aloud the names of 50 that benefit to lower-paid service workers. of the virus recommended by health Katrina Rectenwald, a registered nurse health care workers dead from COVID- Technically the strike is in response to experts. Organizing and funding for the from a Pittsburgh hospital, said people 19. One nurse said: “We are here because management’s failure to bargain. After protests came from white supremacist, were not understanding the risk: “People our colleagues are dying. I think that right three bargaining sessions in March, neofascist and armed militia groups like come into our hospitals and we can’t even now people think of us as heroes, but owner Charles-Edouard Gros stopped the Proud Boys, religious fundamentalists do CPR because we don’t have appropri- we're feeling like martyrs. We're feeling responding. Workers have been without and right-wing, billionaire-funded groups ate PPE [personal protective equipment]. like we're being left on the battlefield with a contract since April 1. such as the Koch and Coors Foundations. People are dying because we don’t have nothing.” (tinyurl.com/ybgto6bs) Gros is the CEO of the New York-based On April 17, Trump encouraged the right- the correct equipment.” (tinyurl.com/ The Occupational Safety and Health Center Management Group. After buying wing protests in an inflammatory series of ycq4qyrt) Administration has so far refused the the facility and three other nursing homes tweets. (tinyurl.com/yc8pzym7) In Phoenix a group of nurses and NNU appeal to enact an emergency tem- from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in In response, health care workers are physician assistants stood in front of the porary standard to ensure that all health 2014, Gros cut staffing and took on sicker fighting back—for​ themselves as workers Capitol building on April 24 to oppose a care workers have the PPE needed to do patients. and for people in their care. Throughout “Patriots’ Day Rally” claiming, among other essential jobs safely. These measures made St. Monica one March and April, there have been many things, that the virus is a hoax. Intensive In Philadelphia, nearly 130 workers at of the most profitable nursing homes in militant health care worker protests care unit nurse Lauren Leander, who has St. Monica Center for Rehabilitation and the region. In 2018, federal regulators throughout the U.S. for protective gear volunteered to work full-time with virus Healthcare voted on April 24 to authorize cited Gros’ four facilities 14 times for and safer working conditions. patients, said: “Our main message was that a strike for May 4. The unionized work- harming patients. we wanted healthcare workers’ voices to ers, represented by District1199C, were Betsey Piette contributed to this article. Frontline health workers be heard louder than misinformation and acting in response to management’s confront the bigots … fear.” (cnn.com, April 24) total failure to address health and In multiple states within the last week, safety concerns of staff and patients. nurses and other health care workers … Union organizing confronts the crisis Union Vice President Elyse Ford have physically confronted antiscience The coronavirus is infecting medical reported that a 27-year veteran nurse right-wingers in the streets. workers at a much higher rate than is being has been hospitalized with the virus At the Denver, Colo., Capitol building publicly revealed, as an April 17 article in and is in intensive care. Fifteen percent on April 19, health care workers from local the Los Angeles Times emphasized. Steve of staff have tested positive or are await- hospitals, wearing green scrubs and pro- Trossman, public affairs director of Service ing results. (Inquirer.com, April 24) tective masks, stood in the streets to block Employees-United Healthcare Workers Residents who have tested posi- a car and truck caravan of reactionary West, commented: “Because hospitals are tive for the coronavirus are not being Harrisburg, Pa., April 20.

Even though the Trump Department of Labor restored apple” employers. Rather, the program offers workers the anti-worker definition of “joint employers” on Jan. virtually no bargaining power, so they are vulnerable to 12 (Workers World, Jan. 23), in Florida the company is abuse. The economically coercive practices inherent in solely responsible for working conditions in all its stores. the system make it difficult for workers to protect them- On the Both women, who were trying to provide for their fam- selves. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ilies while earning peanuts, were harassed by co-work- program’s systemic flaws exacerbate workers’ vulnera- ers and clients alike. When both complained, managers bility to the virus. retaliated by cutting their hours, and eventually Reddick Descended from early 20th century U.S. agricul- was fired. Allynn Umel, organizing director for Fight For tural labor practices, the H-2A program’s shortcomings picket line $15, compared McDonald’s failure to protect workers combine the historical exclusion of farmworkers from By Sue Davis and stop sexual harassment on the job with the lack of federal labor protections, rooted in racist Jim Crow pol- safety protections for workers during the pandemic. (In icies, with lax federal oversight and worker coercion. These Times, April 13) To support this struggle, sign the The report argues that “without reform, the number of New sexual harassment petition at metoomcdonalds.org. workers suffering abuse will only get larger, and already suit against McDonald’s anemic government oversight will prove even less effec- tive.” The report recommends legislative and regulatory Jamelia Fairley and Ashley Reddick, who worked Reform needed for H-2A farm changes to improve the program, as well as a totally for several years at McDonald’s in Sanford, Fla., filed workers visa program revamped model to prioritize the human rights of H-2A a class-action lawsuit against the company alleging workers and their families and elevate labor standards a widespread pattern of sexual harassment of 5,000 A new report released April 9 by Centro de los for all workers. (Workday Minnesota, April 10) women workers at the company’s 100 stores through- Derechos del Migrante (CDM), a migrant workers’ rights out the state. In addition to $500 million in damages, organization in the U.S. and Mexico, documents exten- their ultimate goal is to fundamentally change the way sive labor abuses in the U.S. H-2A visa program. “Ripe Wis. Carpenters strike against McDonald’s handles sexual harassment at all of its for Reform: Abuse of Agricultural Workers in the H-2A increased mandatory overtime 14,000 stores across the country. The suit, which spe- Visa Program” is based on in-depth interviews with 100 cifically demands “effective worker-centered antiha- workers across Mexico who came to the U.S. on these The 350 members of Carpenters Local 1733 went on rassment policies and procedures and training” for both visas in the last four years. The program was expanded in strike after their contract at Masonite Architecture in lower- and upper-level McDonald’s managers, is backed 2019 for a record 256,667 workers. All surveyed workers Marshfield, Wis., expired March 31, because the com- by Fight For $15 and the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund. experienced at least one serious legal violation, and 94 pany demanded a mandatory third weekend of overtime Because all McDonald’s stores in the state of Florida percent experienced three or more. a month. The workers “do not want to give up all their are owned by the company, this suit strips the global The study documents discrimination, sexual harass- weekends to work. Bottom line,” Greg Coenen, Local 1733 fast food giant of a legal shield that it has used to stop ment, wage theft and health and safety violations by business representative, told waow.com on April 8. But other suits in the past. Because 9 out of 10 McDonald’s employers with little or no way for workers to report when the company finally changed mandatory overtime to are franchises, the parent company has always claimed violations and gain redress. The report exposes that the three six-hour Saturdays a month, the workers, who make it is not responsible for labor violations in those stores. abuse of H-2A workers is not the product of a few “bad doors, agreed to go back to work on April 13. ☐ workers.org April 30, 2020 Page 5 Prison house of oppressed peoples By Monica Moorehead control issue. Nine southern states adopted then was Black. Four years later, these vagrancy laws—​which essentially made it conditions have not changed much. Based on a talk given during an a criminal offense not to work and were The incarceration rate for Indigenous April 9 Workers World Party national applied selectively to blacks—​and eight of people, however, is the worst in the U.S. webinar: “Free them all! COVID-19 and those states enacted convict laws allowing In 2015, Indigenous people were incarcer- racist mass incarceration.” for the hiring out of county prisoners to ated at a rate 38 percent higher than the Mass incarceration is nothing new to the plantation owners and private companies. national average, according to the Bureau U.S. This brutal policy of social control of “Prisoners were forced to work for little of Justice Statistics. Indigenous men were Women and oppressed gender prisoners. workers—especially​ the white supremacist to no pay. One vagrancy act specifically incarcerated at four times the rate of oppression of people of color—​harkens provided that ‘all free negroes and mulat- white men, and Indigenous women at six in the U.S. (PBS, Nov. 28, 2018) back to the days following slavery, with the tos over the age of eighteen’ must have times the rate of white women, according A February report from NBC News Black Codes in the Deep South before the written proof of a job at the beginning of to the Lakota People’s Law Project. stated that, based on data from 45 states radical Black Reconstruction era. every year. Those found with no lawful What makes these statistics even more and Washington, D.C., an estimated 5,000 Freed Black people, especially men employment were deemed vagrants and devastating is that according to the 2010 transgender people are being held in state demonized as “dangerous” and “men- convicted. Clearly, the purpose of the U.S. Census, the number of Indigenous prisons. Only 15 of those states confirmed acing,” were forced into semi-enslaved black codes in general and the vagrancy people was estimated to be between 2.5 that they house prisoners according to working conditions to be super-exploited laws in particular was to establish another and 6 million—less​ than 2 percent of the their gender identities. Being misgendered by former white planters. system of forced labor. U.S. population. puts prisoners at a higher risk of being Michelle Alexander’s groundbreak- “In W.E.B. DuBois’s words: ‘The Codes humiliated and sexually assaulted by brutal ing 2010 book, “The New Jim Crow: spoke for themselves. ... No open-minded Special oppression of women guards and other prisoners. Mass Incarceration in the Age of student can read them without being con- and transgender prisoners A 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey stated Colorblindness,” challenged the myth of vinced they meant nothing more nor less The intersection of race and gender-op- that imprisoned transgender people are the colorblind society ushered in by the than slavery in daily toil.’” pressed people inside prisons receives very 10 times as likely to be sexually assaulted Barack Obama presidency. little attention. Of the 2.3 million prisoners by fellow inmates and five times as likely That historic election did not change Modern-day prison house of nations in the U.S., 200,000 are women who were to be sexually assaulted by prison staff. the second-class social status of the Black Czarist Russia was once known as the mainly convicted for nonviolent offenses. Similar to society as a whole, women population, U.S.-born or migrants. In fact, prison house of nations due to the severe According to the American Civil Liberties and other gender-oppressed prisoners there were more im/migrants deported subjugation of at least 100 colonized Union, Black women represent 30 percent face systemic violence based on who they during the Obama administration than nationalities. These nations won full of all incarcerated women in the U.S., while are, especially if they are people of color. during the Republican-led administration political and legal rights with the creation they represent 13 percent of the general The coronavirus has pulled the cover off before he became the first Black president. of the Soviet Union. population of women. the scandalous, inhumane conditions that Here is an excerpted description on The U.S. has its own version of a prison And Latinx women represent 16 percent have existed in the prisons for decades. page 28 of Alexander’s book: “Most white house of nations. The legacy of the Black of incarcerated women, but are 11 per- Prisoners cannot escape the threat of test- people believed African Americans lacked Codes is very much alive with 2.3 million cent of all women in the U.S. Imprisoned ing positive or even dying from the virus, the proper motivation to work, prompt- people incarcerated. The U.S. still has the women are often coerced into having sex since social distancing isn’t an option in ing the provisional Southern legislatures largest prison population globally. with guards—​which is, in reality, rape—​in small cells and since prisons provide very to adopt the notorious black codes. In 2016, the Bureau of Justice Statistics exchange for basic necessities like toiletries poor health care and a bad diet. “As explained by historian William reported that 35 percent of state prison- and feminine hygiene products. The demand to free all prisoners should Cohen, ‘the main purpose of the codes was ers were white, 38 percent were Black and Over the past 40 years, the “female” be a priority, not only because of the coro- to control the freedmen, and the ques- 21 percent were Latinx. These are geno- prison population has increased by an navirus, but because the archaic capitalist tion of how to handle convicted black law cidal-like numbers, considering that only astounding 700 percent. Nearly 30 per- system and its prisons are incapable of ful- breakers was very much at the center of the 12 percent of the general U.S. population cent of incarcerated women globally are filling people’s fundamental needs. ☐ Pandemic used as proxy to privatize USPS By Dave Welsh Postmaster General Megan Brennan and other services. The COVID-19 pan- summer, and the Trump administration told the House Oversight and Reform demic has devastated the economy and is trying to leverage the crisis to sacrifice U.S. Postal Service workers, like Committee on April 9 that if the USPS with it the income of the Postal Service.” our public Postal Service at the altar of health care workers, go to work every day didn’t get relief, it would run out of money (Consortium News, April 23) private profit. risking exposure to the COVID-19 virus. by September. The American Postal Workers Union “The loss of the USPS would shatter our Over 900 USPS employees have tested “Trump made it clear he would not issued this statement on its website in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, positive for COVID-19, and over 40 have approve the so-called stimulus package April: “Postal workers are keeping our hit already weakened businesses and died. On Workers’ Memorial Day, April … if there was any relief for the U.S. country moving and the U.S. economy ravage communities. Our public Postal 28, postal workers in Des Moines, Iowa; Postal Service,” said Chuck Zlatkin, working for us during this time of crisis—​ Service needs all American ­leaders—​ Portland, Ore.; and Seattle plan vigils legislative director of New York Metro getting prescriptions delivered to people Democrats and Republicans alike—​to to highlight the dangers these frontline Postal Union. “Trump has no idea how sheltering in place, making e-commerce provide urgent and ongoing financial sup- workers face. many people depend upon the USPS to possible and keeping families connected. port from the federal government during Trillions of dollars have been get medications that keep them alive or It is the emergency distribution system this public health and economic crisis.” announced to combat the pandemic, but keep them from excruciating pain. The when our country is in crisis. Supporters can sign a solidarity state- the 600,000 vulnerable U.S. postal work- answer is that it delivers 1.2 billion pre- “But at this unprecedented time, that ment at apwu.org. ers who sort and deliver the mail have scriptions annually. work is under threat. The Coronavirus been omitted—despite​ being the public’s “Most people don’t realize the Postal shutdown is plummeting postal revenues Welsh is a retired letter carrier and favorite government workers, according Service receives no taxpayer money. while increasing costs. The Postal Service member of the National Association of to a 2019 Gallup Poll. It supports itself on the sale of stamps could run out of money by the end of the Letter Carriers. People with disabilities fight to be counted Continued from page 3 be involuntarily forced to take unproven great civil rights group Disabled in Action All disabilities can be considered to con- medications for COVID-19, which can be a and helped lead the fight for wheelchair stitute a rainbow in which the independent signed her into Hillside Psychiatric death sentence—​especially for those with lifts on New York City buses. Betsy stressed struggle of each disabled person for equal Hospital Strauss Cottage, where she was cardiovascular and respiratory afflictions. that the most important thing about people access, justice and health care enhances held for three weeks until she would agree This reporter recognizes that people with with disabilities is our abilities. the overall struggles of all peoples with dis- to take her meds and comply with an Elder and without disabilities have been helped I have traveled with scooter-user abilities and of all the world’s workers and Care plan of seven days a week home care, by the treatment of psychiatrists and other Mary Kaessinger in her struggles to nav- oppressed. Just as a pebble at the top of for which my father would have to pay. mental health professionals. But the cap- igate the 80 percent inaccessible New a snowcapped mountain can grow to be a My mother was forced to wear an ankle italist system, which puts profits before York subway system, when several peo- huge boulder, we can create a world where bracelet so she wouldn’t run away. When I people, encourages and promotes abuse of ple had to lift her and her scooter into a everyone is counted and can contribute visited her, a Jewish friend of hers, a Nazi patients and discourages nurturing, scien- subway car because it is not at the same according to their abilities and receive Holocaust survivor, was being given elec- tifically sound patient care. level as the platform. Sometimes she according to their needs. tric shock treatment for her nightmares In 1981, when I first identified myself had to change her route and travel long about the Nazi concentration camps. My as a person with an emotional disabil- distances to find a station with an eleva- Edward Yudelovich, a Workers World mother died two years later. ity, I joined with comrade Betsy Gimbel tor. She often enlightened me with the Party People with Disabilities Caucus In 1990, the Supreme Court ruled that in Workers World Party’s People with remark: “Welcome to my world.” organizer with emotional and hearing prisoners, who are disproportionately peo- Disabilities Caucus at the All Peoples COVID-19 has now “welcomed” the loss disabilities, dedicates this article to ple of color, do not have the same rights Congress in Detroit. The APC was the entire world to what disabled people the memory of Rosemary Neidenberg, as nonprisoners to refuse antipsychotic grandparent of today’s Peoples Power have endured and known in our bones whose encouragement helped fuel his medications. Many now fear that they will Assemblies. Betsy had been secretary of the for centuries. activism for the past half century. ☐ Page 6 April 30, 2020 workers.org Press Conference for Mumia Abu-Jamal on his 66th birthday

By Workers World Philadelphia bureau unwavering, almost four-decades-long movement to free Philippines, called in to say: “We need to prioritize the Abu-Jamal, imprisoned when he was just 27 years old. release of political prisoners, especially the sick, elderly A global audience was able to view a virtual press Santiago Alvarez, University of California, Santa Cruz and pregnant women. … We have a common struggle—​ conference on April 23 focused on journalist and student calling in from San Francisco, recounted hearing here in the Philippines and with our friends there in the Pennsylvania political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections’ “sick and U.S.—to​ have our political prisoners freed at this time and why he should be immediately released from wicked” false claim on April 15 that Abu-Jamal was being of the epidemic.” prison. Speakers from the U.S. and around the world hospitalized with COVID-19. Within minutes supporters participated. flooded the institution with calls, resulting in a call from Community activists demand: ‘Free Mumia’ The press conference launched four days of virtual Abu-Jamal himself that he was fine. Alvarez said, “While Janine Africa spoke on the movement that brought events celebrating Abu-Jamal’s 66th birthday, including it was a big scare, it was also a reminder of the urgency her and six other MOVE 9 members home after four a teach-in, “U.S. Empire v. Political Prisoners,” on April of how vulnerable Mumia is and how we need to get him decades in prison. “Never give up. We were told for over 24; a virtual dance party, “Mumia Libre,” on April 25; out immediately.” 40 years that we would never get and a 24-hour, “Poetry in Motion,” reading from Abu- Temple University pro- out. But we sit here today as proof Jamal’s writings from noon to noon April 26-27. Links fessor and well-respected of the power of the people.” for all events can be found at Mobilization4Mumia.com. Philadelphia journal- Razakhan Shaheed, from Nation Opening the press conference, Pam Africa, of ist Linn Washington Jr. Time, spoke about supporting jail- International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia provided an overview of house lawyers like Abu-Jamal who Abu-Jamal, began the 90-minute YouTube event the police, prosecutorial work to get other prisoners out. (youtu.be/m4WzmXD1RiI) with an appreciation of the and judicial biases that Gregory Muhammad, Nation of unjustly convicted Abu- Islam student research coordinator, Jamal and sentenced him described meeting Abu-Jamal in the to death. solitary confinement unit (B Block) A message to at State Correctional Institution- Strong show of Huntington in 1982. He also international solidarity described the work that The Nation my supporters Michael Schiffman, of Islam has done inside and outside an investigative author of prisons to free incarcerated peo- This slightly edited April 24 commentary by polit- joining from Germany, ple, including political prisoners. ical prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal to his supporters described how photos Blak Rapp Madusa, interna- on his 66th birthday is available at prisonradio.org/ taken by freelance pho- tional hip-hop “artivist” out of media/audio/mumia. tographer Peter Polakoff Pennsylvania, described working to Brothers, sisters, comrades, friends, people— at the 1981 crime scene bail out 97 people from jail, includ- I salute all of you because, although you think I don’t, as police arrived prove that prosecution witnesses lied ing nine Black mothers and caregivers, and trying to free I see, and sense, and feel a lot of what you do. And about significant aspects of the case against Abu-Jamal. vulnerable populations, including mothers and caregiv- what you do is nothing short of marvelous. He also described some of the 30 years of solidarity work ers, from the dangers of COVID-19. Dignity Act Now What this movement has become over these many by German groups in support of Abu-Jamal. Philly is also providing resources—​access to shelter, years is nothing short of miraculous. I thank you all. Mireille Fanon-Mendes-France, via video from Paris, food, clothing and testing for COVID-19—​after people I thank you for the fight that we’ve been a part of. We congratulated Abu-Jamal on his 66th birthday. The Fanon are released. are not done. We still have work to do because the Foundation director condemned capitalism not only for Charles Barron, New York State Assemblyman, gave an system is still fighting. Because the system by its very mass incarceration of Black and Brown and poor people, account of his own battle with COVID-19 and ended with nature has never been fair, has never been human, but also for its inability to prevent the tens of thousands of a fiery call to revolution: “The real problem is not just that has never been what it claims to be. deaths from the coronavirus. In capitalist countries, those we have bad diets and need to eat better, or that we need But we, in our fight, in our struggle, we can make most affected by COVID19 are poor people, migrants and to exercise more—​we have to fight with every breath to change, but only if we fight together, all of us, every one incarcerated people. She ended her talk hoping that “Next dismantle and destroy this predatory capitalist system!” of us. When we fight, we win. So, let us fight together. year we want to celebrate your birthday with you, freed Organizer Sophia Williams, from the Campaign to Never forget the love I have for each and every one from the colonial yoke of prisons.” Bring Mumia Home, chaired the event. of you for the remarkable work you have done and we Dr. Suzanne Ross spoke on the long history of inter- Co-sponsors of the weekend of activities included have done together. So, let’s get together. Let’s make national support for Abu-Jamal “from Germany, International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia it happen. France, Denmark, South Africa, Brazil and many other Abu-Jamal; Mobilization4Mumia; the Campaign to I love you all. On the Move. Long live John Africa. countries.” Bring Mumia Home; Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition Long live freedom, and down with this rotten-ass Sharon Cabusao-Silva, from the Organization of (NYC); Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, Bay Area; system. Families of Political Prisoners in the Philippines and Mobilization to Free Mumia (Bay Area); and Labor From imprisoned nation, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal. a longtime member of Gabriela Women’s Alliance, Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal. ☐

A Delaware prisoner’s Is Workers World essential to plea for PPE you? Then invest in it now!

This letter is from a prisoner at James population. So we can minimize and/or COVID-19 has exposed everything everyone is being called upon to show T. Vaughn Correctional Center in New prevent the spread of the virus. wrong with capitalism: solidarity and form a united front—​ Castle County, Delaware. Here in [redacted] building [minimum then please consider putting your Two prisoners have died from COVID- security] where I am housed, no masks • No national planning for universal money where it will really help achieve 19 in the Vaughn facility, and a combined exist, no hand sanitizers, other than our free, quality health care. that goal. 30 more have tested positive for the own soap which is not antibacterial. A • No provisions to support families We established the Workers World virus there and at a neighboring Sussex small amount of bleach is given to the tier from cradle to grave. Supporter Program 43 years ago so Community Corrections Center. On April workers to wipe the doorknobs off, but • No guaranteed high standard of readers could help promote work- 25, the administration finally announced that’s it. Not enough to clean the walls, living for all people. ing-class truth needed for revolutionary that they would distribute masks to the the floor, or the bathrooms. • Institutionalized racism, sexism, change. Members receive a year’s sub- 2,100 people housed at both facilities—​ This is a serious matter and needs to be LGBTQ2+ bigotry. scription to WW, a monthly letter about nearly a full month since the first con- addressed now before it gets out of con- • Class system rigged in favor of timely issues and five free subscriptions firmed cases. (tinyurl.com/ybba9h8r) trol. Otherwise the quarantine area will profits for the 1%. to give others for a donation of $75, In 2017, prisoners led an uprising at overflow with countless patients or vic- • Billions for the Pentagon, cutbacks $100, $300 or much more if you can. Vaughn. According to Isaiah McCoy, a tims of the deadly virus. for people’s welfare, including food If you prefer, donate monthly, just so former inmate there, the prisoners had This is a serious medical issue and and housing. it adds up to a minimum of $75 a year. exhausted all nonviolent means to pro- social distancing in a prison setting is dif- Write checks to Workers World test the “inhumane” conditions at the ficult to maintain, particularly for those in Workers World provides the theo- and mail them, with your name and facility. (tinyurl.com/ycuh46cc) dormitories and double cells. So for oth- retical and organizational ammunition address, to 147 W. 24th St., 2nd Floor, ers to get sick is inevitable. It’s important needed to crush this inhumane system New York, NY 10011. Or donate online To: D.O.C. Warden and Commissioner for you to issue a call for masks, sanitizing and create one that supports the work- at workers.org/donate/. It’s easy to set et al.: material, etc., for all buildings! ing class and all oppressed people—​ up monthly deductions. We are grate- revolutionary socialism. If the need for ful for your help in building Workers Due to the COVID-19 pandemic virus, [name hidden] that becomes clearer every day during World—​for today and for a socialist I am requesting facial masks and sani- April 11, 2020 this devastating pandemic—​where future! ☐ tizers be distributed out to the prisoner James T. Vaughn Correctional Center workers.org April 30, 2020 Page 7 PA prisoners tortured for protesting racist policies By Ted Kelly They take all meals in their cell. Their toilet has no lid men have since filed their own Pro Se lawsuits and are or cover, and if you flush the toilet twice within five being represented by PILP. Eric McGill was locked up in Lebanon County minutes, it locks for an hour. The cell lights are kept on These men are suing on the grounds that their deten- Correctional Facility in Lebanon, Pa., on Jan. 19, 2019. almost all day, sometimes 24 hours, with constant illu- tion is a violation of a federal law, the Religious Land Use For 15 months now he has been held there, not because mination even when prisoners are trying to sleep. and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), which was he has been convicted of a crime, but because he cannot These are the conditions that Lebanon County author- supposed to ensure religious liberty rights to incarcer- afford the preposterous $1 million bail the judge set. ities say are not “punishment” and do not constitute ated people and to prevent jails and prisons from impos- And during his entire pre- solitary confinement. The prison’s own ing arbitrary burdens on people. trial incarceration, McGill, a Criminalizing wearing handbook says typical punishment for They claim it is also a violation of the 14th Amendment, 27-year-old Black man, has engaging in a physical fight is 30 to 120 ratified in 1868, that defines national citizenship and for- been held in solitary con- dreadlocks is a days in solitary. bids states to restrict the basic rights of citizens or other finement (SHU) because These were the conditions McGill and people. he refuses to cut off his symptom of the racist, others in the SHU faced even before the Even Pennsylvania state prisoners and those in fed- dreadlocks. genocidal nature of pandemic caused widespread death eral detention are allowed dreadlocks. Lebanon County Lebanon County prison row-style lockdowns in prisons across claims that contraband could be hidden in them and authorities deny that he is mass incarceration. the country. that “locs” are “unsanitary.” Long straight or curly hair being held in solitary confine- Even in the racist bourgeois legal sys- is accepted, as long as it’s tied back. ment, which is regarded as To destroy the ability tem, someone like McGill is supposed Criminalizing wearing dreadlocks is a symptom of torture by the United Nations. to be presumed innocent at this point, the racist, genocidal nature of mass incarceration. To They claim he is simply placed of a person to practice having not been convicted of a crime. destroy the ability of a person to practice their religious in a “secure housing unit” that their religious and “It is a legal fiction that people detained and cultural beliefs is itself a form of genocide. is no different from the gen- pretrial can’t be punished. I don’t know The district judge is currently slow-walking this case. eral population—​despite cultural beliefs is itself how you can claim what is happening Workers World demands the immediate release of Eric the fact that they specifically to him isn’t punishment,” said Feldman. McGill and the other two claimants. During the pan- placed him in the SHU to pun- a form of genocide. Dreadlocks have a cultural and reli- demic current crisis, we must fight especially hard to ish him for refusing to submit giously significant meaning for the demand: Tear Down the Walls! Free Them All! ☐ to the racist demand that he get rid of his “locs,” a hair- Rastafari movement to which McGill belongs. It style worn by people of African and Indigenous nations is clear that he is being tortured for his religious across the world. and cultural beliefs. Matthew Feldman of the Pennsylvania Institutional Law McGill was told by multiple staff, including Project told Workers World that those held in Lebanon in writing, that the reason he is in solitary is County SHU are let outside their cells for a maximum of because he refuses to cut his hair. Feldman says one hour a day, between midnight and 2 a.m. That’s also at least two other Black men are now being held the only time McGill is allowed to use the phone. in solitary because they too refuse to cut their Five days a week, McGill gets one hour outside in the dreads. dead of night. On the other two days, he gets about five minutes outside. As long as it’s not raining or snowing, Violation of civil rights prisoners get the option of outdoor recreation or rec time Eric McGill wrote to the Pennsylvania for an hour. If they choose not to take it, they get 20 Institutional Law Project, a nonprofit legal aid minutes of indoor time. If outdoor rec is cancelled com- organization that represents people incarcerated pletely, they get a full hour of indoor rec. in any institution—the​ only statewide legal aid They’re allowed one half-hour visit per week. No organization doing this kind of work. WW PHOTO: JOE PIETTE books or photographs from the outside are permitted. The PILP provides free legal services for civil Car caravan demonstrators make a stop outside Criminal Justice McGill has had a cellmate for most of the 15 months. matters, mostly civil rights violations. Two other Center in Philadelphia demanding release of prisoners, April 15.

On Mumia's birthday Global event honors political prisoners

Continued from page 1 participants in the program included Mike people in Palestine and as oppressed peo- activist, eloquently added, “Anyone who Africa Jr. and Pam Africa. ple all over the world.” dares speak out against this empire ends whose daughter is serving a life sentence Former political prisoner Sekou Odinga Author and activist Susan Abulhawa, up in a cage. ... So we call for the release of in New York, said, “They have reduced [the called on all groups supporting political founder of Playgrounds for Palestine, all political prisoners right now, because it prisoners] to digging their graves, produc- prisoners to unite the power of the peo- touched on the similarities between the is the right thing to do. And we also make ing coffins, and making hand sanitizer that ple behind one banner “Demanding the prison systems in the U.S. and Israel. “In a bolder call, a more radical call, and that they cannot even use.” RAPP organizer and release of all political prisoners.” addition to the well-known cooperation is the abolition of prison itself. We must former political prisoner Laura Whitehorn Indian author and activist Vijay and training between U.S. police and move into a moment that no longer uses added, “We have to work to save the lives Prashad addressed the impact of COVID- Israeli occupation military forces, Israel the prison as the resolution to our social of aging prisoners and political prisoners 19 in creating a “great lockdown, leaving through its lobbies in the U.S. helps to contradictions. The prison must no longer during this virus.” RAPP, along with a 3 billion workers, 81 percent of the world’s push through domestic legislation that be a resolution to harm that is done.” broad coalition of groups, is conducting a population, without enough work to sur- helps to fill our prisons and subvert civil The program also included worker campaign to free them all. vive … while prisons are turned into death rights here. … Whether in Palestine or activists Chris Smalls, fired for demand- There was a sense of great urgency camps.” Prashad contrasted the failure of the U.S., it's all part of the same imperial ing personal protective equipment at but also strong optimism throughout Trump and other bourgeois leaders who white supremacist fabric.” Amazon, 1199SEIU vice president Estela the program. Several former political demonstrate “mass incompetence” with Teresa Gutierrez, national coordina- Vasquez; Fred Hampton, Jr., son of prisoners recognized and thanked Abu- socialist leaders who have responded to tor of FIRE (Fight for Im/migrants and assassinated Black Panther member Fred Jamal for his early advocacy about their COVID-19 with science and humanity. Refugees Everywhere) began with a spe- Hampton; Benjamin Ramos Rasado with cases through his writing and radio pod- “A powerful line has been drawn between cial shout-out to all health care workers. Pro Libertad; former prisoner Sekou casts. Everyone agreed that now was the the bourgeoisie and socialists.” She talked about the history of the im/ Odinga; and Angela Davis. moment to fight for Mumia’s freedom and migrant rights movement and the influ- The final speaker was Kevin Rashid for all of the long-held political prisoners. Freedom for Palestinian prisoners ence of the Black Liberation movement. Johnson, a political prisoner incarcerated Recently released MOVE 9 member Nancy Mansour, founder of Existence Gutierrez said that with Mumia’s writings in Virginia and a brilliant analyst. Johnson Janet Africa said, “They told us we wasn't in Resistance, spoke on the cruelty in on the migrant struggle and U.S. imperi- said, “We must up the ante in the fight getting out of jail, ever. We got out after 41 Israeli prisons before and during the pan- alism in Latin America, it was very easy against the injustice of mass incarceration. years. They’re saying Mumia is not getting demic. She read a letter to Mumia from a for migrants to understand the connec- We must also develop new alliances and out of jail. Use the example of MOVE. We family friend, who has been imprisoned tions between his case and the broader methods of struggle.” He ended by calling got out because of the people, because of by Israeli occupiers for 30 years: “We as struggle. What both the migrant strug- upon everyone to build a unified move- the support that people have behind them Palestinian prisoners, share with you and gle and the struggle of political prisoners ment to free the political prisoners. and have behind where we are now. We're all the political prisoners the same goals have in common is “the tenacity and the Links to the full program, as well saying don't stop that pressure. Don't and aspirations which are freedom and inspiration that these sisters and brothers as the other events celebrating Abu- stop forcing these people to answer for our essential right to resist racism and and family are giving us every single day.” Jamal’s 66th birthday, can be found on everything they do.” Other MOVE family oppression that we face as Indigenous Marc Lamont Hill, author and an Mobilization4Mumia.com. ☐ Page 8 April 30, 2020 workers.org COVID-19 and basic facts of Marxist economics

By Deirdre Griswold for free, like plucking a dandelion, has to money, not because it might be better, how much the market may be glutted have two kinds of value. One is use value. but because of the labor it takes to locate with cars, for example, even an old, bat- The stock market crashed in March but The other is exchange value. sources, transport the water, bottle and tered car will never sell for the same price partly recovered after the Federal Reserve market it. as a loaf of bread. Bank lowered the interest rate for bor- Use value vs. exchange value You can probably think of lots of other rowing. Then it crashed again. Companies The water we drink is probably one commodities that have a high use value Unemployment and the economic crisis are going bankrupt. The price of oil has of the most valuable things we consume but a low exchange value. Flour, for exam- So, to come back to the current and dropped to its lowest level in decades. every day. Without it we would die. So the ple, the main ingredient in bread—called​ growing economic crisis, Fortune mag- All are signs of drastically decreased use value of water is enormous. the staff of life. Pencils. Writing paper. azine wrote on April 16: “Another 5.2 economic activity right now. But it is also very cheap, meaning it Other commodities may have limited million Americans filed initial unem- But what does that really mean? has a very low exchange value. As vital as use value, like binoculars you keep in your ployment claims in the week ending April It isn’t just that people aren’t buy- water is for life, it will never cost as much closet and barely use, but a much higher 11. That brings the total unemployment ing as much stuff when they’re forced to as champagne, for example—​which is exchange value. They’re very costly com- claims over the past four weeks to 22 mil- stay home in this pandemic. Much more nice, but we can survive without it! pared to water. lion.” As of April 24, that figure has risen importantly, it means that far fewer So why is water cheap? So what is exchange value and how is to 26 million. workers are produc- In simplified terms, it measured? These millions of workers have either ing new value. its price is low in rela- lost their jobs or are housebound because And that’s the key It is human labor—​ tion to other things Human labor is the key of the virus—and​ therefore are not creat- to what is happen- we buy (called com- Exchange value is how much a com- ing new value. ing to the capitalist workers working—​ modities) because modity costs in relation to other com- It’s the obvious explanation for the economy now. When little labor is involved modities. And that is the key to measuring growing crisis of the economy—​but not workers aren’t work- that creates all in making it available. it: The exchange value of a commodity one you’re likely to read about in the ing, no new value is exchange value. That’s why it has a low comes from how much human labor is newspapers or hear about on radio and being created. The exchange value. incorporated into it. Let’s say it again: It television. The corporate media will way the capitalist Way back when is human labor—workers​ working—that​ report on unemployment as the result of markets work, however, is that they antic- the reservoirs in this country were first creates all exchange value. the economic crisis, not the cause. But ipate more and more growth as workers built, along with the aqueducts leading This is basic to Marxism, but is either that is putting the cart before the horse. go to work every day and create new value from them, quite a bit of labor went into ignored or downplayed by most bourgeois To repeat, human labor—​workers while being exploited by the bosses. When providing water. But now oceans of water economists. working—​is the creator of all exchange that’s not happening, there’s a big crisis. are flowing to cities and towns in many The more labor it takes to produce value. Marxist economics is crucial to under- sections of the country with little human something, the more exchange value it And right now, tens of millions of work- standing what is behind the economic labor expended in the process. So water, will have. Exchange value isn’t the only ers are quarantined or staying home under catastrophe accompanying the COVID-19 in most areas, is a minor expense. factor determining price, of course. shelter-in-place orders. They are “essential crisis. So here’s a very brief summary of What’s not so cheap, of course, are Prices can fluctuate according to supply workers” needed for the creation of new some of the basics of Marxism. the bottles of specialty waters from Fiji and demand. But they fluctuate around a values, but are unable to do their jobs. Everything that is exchanged (usu- or some other distant source that are basic ingredient: how much labor it took As a result, the capitalist economy is ally for money), which we can’t just get sold in stores all over. This water costs to produce the commodity. No matter going into crisis mode. ☐ Longterm impact of historic oil price plunge

By Betsey Piette threats against Iran on April 22, the futures banks and investment firms, and a grow- price jumped to $13.78. ing global market demand for U.S. oil and For the first time in history, on April 20 But if the price actually stays nega- gas. The U.S. also uses sanctions against the price of U.S. oil fell to minus $38 per tive, oil producers will be faced with the major oil exporters like Venezuela, Iran barrel. This was an almost $100 drop per dilemma of either giving oil away or pay- and Russia to boost its market advantage. barrel from January 2020 when oil was ing someone to take it. From inception, fracking has relied $60 per barrel. In a socialist world, producers would on deep-pocket investors willing to bet On April 21, oil prices fell even further, distribute oil to countries most in need. on future sales. But to cover the cost of sinking U.S. stocks to their worst loss since In 2005, for example, when IMF-debt- investments from shale gas and oil pro- April 1. Treasury yields also fell, further ridden Argentina faced a fuel short- duction required a return of at least $48 increasing market concerns. The negative age, socialist-leaning, oil-producing was felt long before the pandemic hit. Even per barrel. By contrast, current oil pro- price drop impacts futures contracts on Venezuela—​facing its own shortage of before the coronavirus struck, a global oil duction costs in Saudi Arabia are around oil due to be delivered in May. “Treasury milk and dairy products—​arranged a glut, due to overproduction, was impacting $2.80 a barrel. yield” is the interest percentage of return commodity exchange. investment markets. In April, U.S. energy giant Halliburton, on investment in the U.S. government's The drop in oil prices should mean In early March, OPEC and Russia a major shale oil producer, reported a $1.1 debt obligation. “Futures contracts” refers that people in the U.S. and other capital- agreed to lower the oil price per barrel. billion first quarter 2020 loss. It has dras- to the price of oil delivered on a later date. ist countries could pay less to heat their Both entities enjoy low production costs tically reduced production costs, laid off The glut, particularly in crude oil, is homes or fill up their cars. But do not that make this possible. OPEC announced hundreds and furloughed thousands of so serious that traders are finding them- expect anything like that to happen under it would also reduce production. OPEC workers. It expects a further decline in selves with oil reserves, no place to put profit-driven capitalism. member Saudi Arabia saw a possible revenue and profitability for the rest of them, and few buyers. Adding to advantage as lower prices were likely to 2020. the expense, after oil has been With an uncertain future hurt shale oil production in the U.S., now Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist pumped from the ground, it a major oil-export competitor. at MUFG Union Bank, has declared: “The needs to be stored in anticipa- for global production Russia, already hard hit by U.S. sanc- oil market is trading as if we’re in a new tion of future sales. Storage facil- tions, announced it would keep produc- Great Depression and demand is not going ities could hit maximum capacity in the aftermath of the tion at current levels because it needs the to come back for not months, but years. within three weeks. The alterna- revenue. With production impacted by There has been a sea change in the eco- tive, shutting down oil production, COVID-19 pandemic, this U.S. sanctions, Russia had no incentive nomic outlook.” (New York Post, April 20) risks damaging expensive drilling transfer of wealth from to carry the burden of U.S. energy debt. However, some oil-consuming coun- equipment. Recently over 12 of the top oil-produc- tries may benefit from this oil price cri- What is behind oil’s drastic oil-producing countries to ing countries have agreed to limit produc- sis. For decades, oil importers have paid drop in price, how long will that tion to between 10 million to 15 million exporters $60 to $70 per barrel or more. last, and what does this historic oil-consuming countries barrels per day, beginning in May. Yet Currently, because of the lack of demand, moment reveal about capitalist even that was not enough to stop the his- oil prices have been $27 to $30 per barrel. overproduction? could be an economic toric price plunge. So even though oil usage has dropped recently in China and India due to Giving oil away? and political factor for ‘Sea change in economic outlook’ COVID-19 quarantine restrictions, the With very few people driving some time to come. Much of the oil and natural gas pro- oil glut price crisis could mean billions in or flying, and with factories shut duced in the U.S. depends on fracking annual savings for India and China. down, it is anticipated that the shale formations. The U.S. production With an uncertain future for global pro- global demand for oil will fall to levels Why the drop in oil price? cost per barrel is considerably higher than duction in the aftermath of the COVID- last seen in the mid-1990s. Currently the Much of the blame for this crisis has been in the major oil- and gas-producing com- 19 pandemic, this transfer of wealth from anticipated price of U.S. oil to be delivered placed on the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet the petitors. For well over a decade U.S. shale oil-producing countries to oil-consuming in June and July fell to $11.57 per barrel. impact of overproduction of natural gas oil and gas relied on two factors—​steady countries could be an economic and polit- After President Trump made new war and oil from hydraulic fracturing (fracking) investments from oil company giants, ical factor for some time to come. ☐ workers.org April 30, 2020 Page 9 COVID-19 devastates Indigenous communities By Eno Flurry infections similar to that of the Navajo Nation. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation esti- This article is written in the colonized lands of the mates that more than 3,300 rural homes occupied year- Comanche, as well as the Tonkawa Nations—​now the round do not have potable water. All this is due to the state of Texas. Workers World supports the right to ongoing neglect of Indigenous communities and their self-determination of, and promotes full solidarity with, health and safety by the federal government. Indigenous struggles. Another issue faced by Indigenous Nations is a housing While Black and Latinx households are twice as crisis. While we are told to practice social distancing by likely as white households to lack indoor plumbing, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and other Indigenous households are 19 times more likely than agencies, in many Native communities this is simply an white people to not have indoor plumbing or access to impossible task. A report from Wyoming Public Radio clean water at their residence, especially in the Four about the Wind River Reservation shows overcrowded, Corners of the Southwest. (tinyurl.com/yao3b9jh) For multigenerational households, as many share homes with the Diné or Navajo Nation which covers parts of New their relatives, just as many other poor families do. Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona, much of the An additional crisis affecting some of the Native res- groundwater has been contaminated by 521 abandoned PHOTO: DESERET NEWS ervations is the closure of one of the few sources of uranium mines and is undrinkable. For many in the From Indian Country Today: “ ‘My feet hurt,’ says Denise tribal income—​casinos. A Harvard research team has Navajo Nation, it is the closest, most available water and Begaye, an X-ray technician with the Monument Valley estimated that upwards of nearly $50 billion in annual is given to the animals to drink—the​ same animals that Health Center, as she sits on a curb and takes a break from wages and benefits have been lost due to closures of they will one day eat. (tinyurl.com/reqy657) COVID-19 testing outside of the center in Oljato-Monument gaming and nongaming enterprises that many reserva- Just this alone—​the lack of access to clean water on a Valley, San Juan County on Thursday, April 16, 2020.” tions rely on for income to meet their needs. daily basis—is​ enough to exacerbate other issues, such This mass layoff of Native workers is leading to loss as illnesses including cancer. Four Indigenous research- been extended for every weekend until early May. of insurance coverage, where that exists, in addition to ers found in a new study that the rate of COVID-19 Pine Ridge Reservation is another severe case where the vastly underfunded Indian Health Service, and the cases per 1,000 people on a reservation is more than they have closed their borders to tourists and other non- growth of debt in areas in and outside of the reserva- four times higher than in the United States as a whole. members of that Native nation driving through it. This is tions. These casino-generated funds are used for what (Indian Country Today, April 25) And many Diné homes in South Dakota where Gov. Kristi Noem still refuses to would normally be funded by state or local governments: also lack electricity. issue a shutdown order, despite the huge COVID break- law enforcement, public safety, social services and edu- While the Native population only comprises 6 percent out at the Sioux Falls, S.D., Smithfield pork factory. cational support. So let’s break down what the tribal gov- of the total population of New Mexico, Gov. Michelle Nick Estes, Ph.D., a citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux ernments stand to lose: According to the Harvard Project Grisham reported April 12 that 25 percent of the state’s Tribe, noted that “COVID-19 is taking its toll on Indian on American Indian Economic Development, $127 bil- COVID-19 cases were Indigenous people, including the Country—not​ because Indigenous people are more sus- lion in national output; 1.1 million jobs, with 915,000 Diné and several Puebloan nations. While some of the ceptible to the virus for cultural reasons (as reported by workers who are non-Native, while 211,000 are Native; discrepancy is due to higher rates of testing by the Diné some media outlets), but because of a chronic lack of $49.5 billion in worker income; $12.5 billion in Tribal /Navajo Nation compared to that in neighboring states, underfunding of our healthcare services and, you know, government revenue; $9.4 billion in state and local tax that alone cannot explain the fact that the rate of infec- genocidal colonialism.” This is nothing more than a revenue; and $15.9 billion in federal tax revenue. tion on the Navajo reservation is 19 times that in the modern version of colonial white supremacy. These numbers represent the razor’s edge on which state of Arizona. As of April 26, the number of cases in Diné molecular biologist Wilfred Denetclaw said pos- Native nations in the occupied U.S. are constantly bal- the Navajo Nation had reached 1,716, with 59 deaths. sible reasons for the high COVID death rate in the Navajo ancing in their struggle against the neglect and violence (Navajo Times, April 27) Nation include the need for many people to travel to hot of the U.S. government. Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and Vice spots such as Albuquerque “to buy what they need, and And all this reminds us of the importance of the President Myron Lizer self-isolated after exposure to a then they bring the virus back.” struggles for clean water, such as the recent struggle COVID-19-positive health care worker in the course of Circumpolar Inuit communities in Alaska, who at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline their work. They initiated a 57-hour curfew over Easter are dealing with unsafe drinking water and lack of and the struggle in Flint, Mich. How can you have good weekend, which excluded essential workers and has sewage infrastructure, face a threat of COVID-19 health care if you do not have clean water? ☐ U.S. uses ‘drug’ lies to menace Venezuela By Raymond Tyler leaders are involved in drug trafficking The extraction of these resources is its members”—​a program that seeks to come with no evidence and are blatant nonconsensual. Large portions of Latin overthrow the democratically elected gov- During a time when thousands are hypocrisy. America, Africa, Asia and even Europe ernment of Venezuela. dying every day in the United States Colombia, a subservient ally of the have U.S. troops present or nearby; and The United States has seized frozen of COVID-19 and resources are dwin- United States and a neighboring coun- they have to bow to U.S. economic power assets of Venezuela and given them to dling, the United States has found the try of Venezuela, produces and ships because of military and economic coercion. Juan Guaidó. (venezuelanalysis.com, resources and money to plant “anti-drug” the largest supply of cocaine around Nations that don’t submit to the financial April 23) Despite the money pumped Navy ships off the Venezuelan coast and the world. (tinyurl.com/wzkec6g) The model and the dominance of the U.S. dol- into the U.S.-Guaidó-attempted coup threaten that country’s leaders with amount of drugs allegedly shipped in the lar are cut off from the world economy and starting in January 2019, the majority arrest. The Pentagon ordered Navy ships accusation of Venezuelan drug trafficking trade via U.S. sanctions and attempted mil- of Venezuela’s population still supports there to display power during yet another doesn’t come close to that number. itary coups. Maduro and the Bolivarian Revolution. attempt to get U.S.-appointed leader, COVID-19 took the mask off the United These steps—​the anti-drug Navy ships, Juan Guaidó, to replace President Nicolás States for-profit health model, exposing Countries under U.S. attack the seizure of Venezuela’s frozen assets and Maduro in office. To top that off, the U.S. a grotesque reality: The U.S. government Countries that are working to build the program to give some of that money put a $15 million bounty on Maduro. cares more about supremacy and profit socialism and separate to health care work- U.S. accusations that Venezuelan than protecting its people. Despite being themselves from the U.S. accusations ers via Guaidó—​are all the wealthiest nation in international capitalist attempts by Washington history, the U.S. has the system are under con- that Venezuelan to seize Venezuela’s oil highest confirmed death stant attack. Sanctions deposits. Venezuela’s toll from COVID-19. prevent these countries leaders are Bolivarian Revolution The remarkably high from getting medical had used the money death toll arises from supplies and equipment involved in drug from oil profits to build inherent flaws and con- as well as other necessi- trafficking come thousands of hospitals tradictions in the capital- ties, and they sabotage and schools and uplift ist system. The COVID-19 the countries’ economic with no evidence the overall living stan- battle plays second fid- growth and manufac- dards of working and dle to the protection of ture discontent. The and are blatant poor people. capital. current attack is focused Acquiring Venezuelan The United States may against Venezuela. hypocrisy. oil would be a victory be the wealthiest country Right now, when for U.S. big business. in history, but the wealth the United States can’t provide adequate For revolutionary Venezuela’s transgres- that it extracts from U.S. health care for its population, Washington sions against U.S. capitalism, the country workers is only a portion gave Guaidó $80 million in “Liberation has been sanctioned, attacked and threat- of that wealth. Much Funds” that are supposed to be distrib- ened with invasion. Special interest think of the wealth and the uted to Venezuelan health care work- tanks and media have falsely claimed corporate profits come ers. However, 17 percent of that money that Venezuela doesn’t have “proper elec- through the extraction of is to go to something called “the defense tions.” In reality, the only problem with resources and labor from and strengthening of the national legis- Venezuela’s election is the people’s choice other parts of the world. lative power and the social protection of goes against U.S. interests. ☐ Page 10 April 30, 2020 workers.org

editorial May Day = Worker Power Continued from page 1 to death: August Spies, George Engel, working-class struggle that is incorpo- to broadcast these demands. But we can, Adolph Fisher, Albert Parsons and Louis rated in May Day. for example, use every modern tool of com- across the United States walked off their Lingg. Four were hanged on Nov. 11, May Day was reignited in the U.S. 120 munication to demand that Immigration jobs demanding an eight-hour day. In that 1887; Lingg died in jail the night before. years later in 2006, when millions of and Customs Enforcement and migrant era, a “normal” workday could be 10 or Mass pressure finally won the exonera- immigrants, the vast majority from Latin detention centers be shut down now—​and even 12 hours long, with no overtime pay. tion of the other three. America, carried out a countrywide gen- stay closed beyond the pandemic. Within days of these walkouts, police These arrests and executions took eral strike. They were protesting the rac- Activists in many cities are protest- killed several workers on strike at the place during a time of heavy repression ist, anti-immigrant Sensenbrenner bill ing from their cars around a range of key McCormick Reaper Works in Chicago. against immigrants. Four of the five sen- that intensified anti-immigrant repres- working-class issues, including health and That led to a huge protest rally in tenced to death had come from Germany. sion, including the expulsion of between 2 safety in the context of COVID-19. Others Haymarket Square on May 4. Politically, the eight were anarchists. and 3 million immigrants during the sub- are holding “virtual” protests. Solidarity In the middle of the rally, a bomb was This terrible injustice perpetrated sequent Barack Obama administration. with prisoners and migrants, among the thrown into the crowd, killing several against the rising labor movement in the Of course, no holiday can make up for most oppressed and exploited sectors of workers and police. Police then broke up U.S. led activists at a meeting in 1889, the crimes committed against workers the working class, is a strong theme. the rally and arrested many of the workers. when there were widespread socialist every day of the year. Now, in the midst Show your solidarity for workers’ It was clearly a frameup. Why would movements around the world, to desig- of the coronavirus epidemic, when so struggles on International Workers’ Day. these workers bomb their own rally? One nate May 1 as International Workers’ Day. many millions are unable to work as the Join a caravan or action near you or vir- of those arrested for the bombing and later That outraged the ruling class in this economy shuts down, it is imperative to tually join with others to plan for work- hanged, August Spies, was a rally speaker country. So in place of May Day, the U.S. demand that every person receive finan- ing-class struggle. who was actually sitting on the platform at government in 1894 set up Labor Day cial support from the government, along Visit peoplespowerassemblies.org to the time the bomb was thrown. as a holiday in September. While peo- with health care, food, housing and more, find an action near you. To register for Nevertheless, eight workers were con- ple of course enjoy getting this paid day sufficient to meet their needs. Workers World Party’s Workers Assembly victed of the crime and five sentenced off, Labor Day has none of the history of We can’t gather in huge demonstrations webinar: tinyurl.com/y9nccq56. ☐ The jobless crisis and im/migrants By Kathy Durkin American and Latinx. Jim Crow policies prevailed, pro- moted by racist Southern politicians. Three years later, It’s not just COVID-19 that’s racing like wildfire across farmworkers and domestic workers were excluded from the U.S. It’s unemployment. The number of newly job- the Fair Labor Standard Act’s minimum wage and over- less workers has climbed to an astounding 26 million. time pay provisions. States enacted similar policies. That is due to coronavirus-related layoffs or furloughs Of the 3 million domestic workers, 90 percent are caused by business closures or contractions. women, overwhelmingly Black, Latinx and im/migrants. Added to the number of already unemployed people, Due to entrenched reactionary federal and state govern- the total is 33 million, the highest number since 1934 mental policies, these workers have endured low pay, during the Great Depression. That means one in five miserable working conditions without benefits, sexual workers is out of work! assaults and bigotry. Laws barring workplace racist dis- Job losses have particularly impacted low-income, crimination and sexual harassment do not cover them. service sector, young, disabled, immigrant and women Due to struggle and advocacy, nine states and Seattle workers. African-American and Latinx workers are being enacted a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights that prohibits disproportionately hard hit. Already existing inequities racial discrimination and sexual misconduct on the job. Farm worker wearing bandana over face and oppression have intensified. But 41 states do not guarantee workplace civil rights pro- Some 26 million claims for unemployment benefits tections. A national Domestic Bill of Rights Act has been have been filed since March 15. On March 27, Congress farmworkers taking risks [laboring in the fields] to put submitted to Congress, backed by the National Domestic enacted the CARES Act, a $2.2 trillion coronavirus food on our tables. At least 50 percent are undocumented, Workers Alliance. stimulus package. It allocated a one-time $1,200 “stim- so they won’t get the relief payments. Even their citizen The CARES Act grants domestic workers both unem- ulus” check for most adults, with $500 more per child. children are left out. They are told they are ‘essential’ work- ployment and stimulus checks, provided they have Social A weekly federal payment of $600 was added to state ers, but are not receiving ‘essential’ benefits.” They are now Security numbers and file income tax returns. However, unemployment benefits through July 31, and “gig” work- saddled with costly child care, grocery and transportation those who are undocumented, though laid off due to ers were deemed eligible. expenses. The union stresses the government should pay the pandemic, are ineligible for CARES benefits, sever- The financial benefits are not, however, quickly getting them hazard pay! (ufw.org, March 30) ance, sick pay and health coverage. They have no legal to workers who desperately need them. Lines at food banks protections. are growing. Many people who need stimulus funds the Left out of New Deal labor laws A lawsuit has been filed against the xenophobic Trump most are still waiting for them. Stumbling blocks through- Farmworkers and domestic workers have historically administration for denying stimulus payments to the out the process are preventing millions from applying for been excluded from basic legal protections. The New 1.2 million people married to taxpaying undocumented or getting unemployment checks. By design, many states Deal’s National Labor Relations Act of 1935, which rec- immigrants. have made it difficult for the jobless to get benefits. ognized unionization and basic labor rights excluded Fund all workers’ needs, not billionaires! ☐ agricultural and domestic workers, many of them African Benefits delayed or denied! Only 14.6 percent of eligible New York workers have successfully filed for benefits; the figure is 23.6 percent in Michigan and 17 percent in Florida. Only 10 states have approved benefits for previously ineligible gig workers, Lenin: Thinker and fighter even though the stimulus bill provided for them. Glitches April 22, 2020, marks the 150th anniversary of the and denials are rampant. (New York Times, April 25) birth of Vladimir Lenin, leader of the 1917 Russian Once again, the people of Puerto Rico, whom the Revolution. This successful socialist revolution was led Trump administration denied necessary aid after hur- by the Bolshevik Party, which Lenin had built during ricanes ravaged the islands—​and who pay taxes—​are the previous 14 years. In establishing a workers’ state, owed these payments by Washington. Yet, San Juan also known as a “dictatorship of the proletariat,” Lenin Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz has reported that as of April and the Bolsheviks were continuing the political work 25 no one there has received a stimulus payment, while of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the founders of 130,000 applications for unemployment benefits and communism. some for food stamps have gone unanswered. The new workers’ state, the Union of Soviet Socialist The stimulus bill was a bonanza for corporations, which Republics, was based on human needs, not capitalist prof- got $500 billion, but millions of hardworking undocu- its. Health care, food, education, employment and equal- mented workers got nothing. These indispensable workers ity for oppressed nationalities, women and LGBTQ2+ from Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and elsewhere people were basic human rights codified by law. Lenin speaks to workers, delivering the famous April pay taxes. They are working in homes, grocery stores, fac- Today Marxism-Leninism is synonymous with the Theses, 1917. tories, farms and hospitals during this pandemic. Yet, they revolutionary school of socialist thought. Essential are barred from obtaining unemployment benefits, stimu- readings include Lenin’s “Imperialism: the Highest by founding WWP members Sam Marcy and Vince lus checks, food stamps and government health coverage, Stage of Capitalism” and “The State and Revolution,” Copeland can be read at tinyurl.com/jw8mm6v and including for coronavirus testing and treatment. along with his writings on the national question. workers.org/book/lenin-thinker-fighter, respectively. The United Farm Workers explains: “$9.5 billion [of Workers World Party, founded in 1959, is unequivo- — Report by Martha Grevatt the stimulus package] is going to the agricultural sec- cally Marxist-Leninist. Writings on Lenin’s contributions tor, [but] it’s not clear if any of those funds will support workers.org April 30, 2020 Page 11 Laos keeps coronavirus under control By Joshua Hanks the Lao PDR, said, “I’d like to commend increase in confirmed new cases and its challenges for the country’s economic the Lao Ministry of Health, the National economy is already returning to normal. recovery and development, but China and The Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Immunization Programme, and frontline These three countries, while having Vietnam have both worked with the Lao referred to as the Lao PDR or Laos, has health workers for continuing to pro- less developed economies than Western PDR to promote its development. not recorded an increase in COVID-19 vide lifesaving vaccines in these difficult countries, have nonetheless been able to In 2016 China and Laos jointly began cases in 13 consecutive days as of April 25. circumstances.” prioritize public health needs and prevent work on the 257-mile Vientiane–Boten The number of confirmed cases in the Extra care is being taken to ensure the the virus from killing the most vulnera- Railway. Set for completion next year, its southeast Asian country is holding steady safety of continued immunizations. “To ble people. Through mass mobilizations trains will reach speeds of up to 160 kilo- at just 19. Sixteen cases were confirmed ensure the safety of health care workers of medical workers, party members and meters an hour and will connect Laos to in the capital Vientiane, while three were and communities from COVID-19 infec- soldiers, they were able to quickly coordi- China’s vast rail network. A major part found in Luang Prabang. Seven people tion during immunization services, social nate planned, successful responses to the of the project includes clearing undeto- have recovered, reports Khaosan Pathet distancing, hand hygiene and utilization worst pandemic in over a century. nated bombs along the line’s route, pro- Lao (KPL), the news agency of the gov- of protective equipment has been followed Despite a legacy of vicious imperialist viding benefits beyond more efficient erning Lao People’s Revolutionary Party. strictly,” said an April 25 article from KPL. war, Laos today has managed to score an transportation. A designated hospital in Vientiane, important public health victory, while the The new railway will also eventually Mittaphab Hospital (Hospital 150), country that sought to totally destroy it, the form a route to Thailand and terminate has treated all cases in the capital city, Despite a legacy of a U.S., has more total COVID-19 cases and in Singapore as part of a single railway reducing the spread of infections in the deaths than any other country in the world. network connecting all the countries of hospital system. vicious imperialist war, southeast Asia. Laos announced its first cases on Laos today has managed Recovering from U.S. war March 24, nearly a week after the gov- Laos, like Vietnam, suffered greatly Socialist solidarity ernment introduced such social dis- to score an important under French rule until 1954 and then Vietnam has long been the largest part- tancing measures as closing all schools endured a brutal U.S. war of aggression ner of the Lao PDR, and the COVID-19 and many shops, closing all border public health victory, while until 1975. That ended in communist pandemic reaffirms the deep solidarity checkpoints, and suspending the issu- the country that sought to victories, establishing the Lao People’s between the two countries. On April 21 ance of tourist visas for at least 30 days. Democratic Republic and the Socialist the Vietnam-Laos Friendship Association Immunizations for children are still totally destroy it, the U.S., Republic of Vietnam. Laos has been announced through the Lao embassy that being carried out, as disrupting them described as the most heavily bombed it will be donating medical supplies to Laos, could cause outbreaks of other diseases has more total COVID-19 country on Earth, with the U.S. having including 500 protective suits and 18,500 such as highly contagious measles. Dr. cases and deaths than any dropped nearly a ton of bombs for every face masks—​including 17,500 medical Panome Sayamoungkhoun, director person then living there. masks and 1,000 antibacterial cloth masks. of the Ministry of Health’s National other country in the world. From 1964 to 1973, as part of the “secret Vice President of the Vietnam- Immunization Programme, stated: war” against Laos, the U.S. dropped 2 Laos Friendship Association Nguyen “Every infant and every child in the Lao million tons of bombs on the country, Manh Hung said: “The gifts, despite Socialist priority: Health of the people PDR has the right to a healthy start to life almost equal to the 2.1 million tons the being small, deeply reflected the senti- that vaccines bring. Even though COVID- The success of the Lao PDR in con- U.S. used in all of Asia and Europe during ments of the Vietnam-Laos Friendship 19 has arrived in our country, diseases taining the disease draws in part from World War II. An estimated 80 million Association members toward the Lao such as measles, pertussis, diphtheria the experiences of its neighbors and fel- bombs remain unexploded in Laos, mak- people, contributing to promoting and many other vaccine-preventable dis- low communist-led countries, Vietnam ing agriculture impossible in many areas the special solidarity between the two eases have not gone away. These diseases and China. Vietnam, with a population of and killing dozens of Laotians every year. nations and affirming their commitment can still damage or even kill our children 95 million, has had no confirmed deaths At the end of the war, the Laotian econ- to holding hands to overcome difficul- unless we vaccinate them.” from the disease and only 270 cases. omy and society were devastated, bombed ties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.” Dr. Howard Sobel, the acting World China, where the initial outbreak was back to a pre-industrial state. The resid- (en.nhandan.org.vn, April 21) ☐ Health Organization representative to first detected, has successfully halted the ual effects of the war still create many The U.S. aims at Greenland, targets the Arctic By G. Dunkel and Paddy Colligan earth elements that China is willing to were then occupying Denmark, from develop. Prospectors are looking for iron establishing outposts in Greenland. Thule, The United States, even in the midst ore, lead, zinc, diamonds, gold, uranium which is now a U.S. Space Force base, is of a pandemic, doesn’t want to relax its and oil, but currently there is only one the only U.S. base left from those days. imperialist exploits in the Arctic. large-scale mine operating. While Denmark has been officially a Global warming is proceeding more Greenland has limited home rule under nonnuclear member of NATO, the U.S. rapidly in the Arctic than in any other Danish control; Greenlanders have a par- has based nuclear weapons at Thule. In region of the world. As it proceeds, liament, but Denmark controls foreign 1968, a B52 crashed and burned near resources, until recently buried under relations, defense and economic develop- Thule. It had been carrying nuclear weap- hundreds of feet of ice, have become ment. The United States couldn’t simply ons, which ruptured and burned. One of WW PHOTO: PADDY COLLIGAN available. Shipping lanes are opening up declare it was sending a new ambassador the weapons has never been recovered. Greenland’s international airport, near from East Asia to Europe or the east coast to Greenland—along with $12.1 mil- underdeveloped tourist facilities. of North America that cut the length of lion. Instead it needed the agreement of U.S. military vs. Indigenous sovereignty the trip by 3,000 miles. the Danish government, which allowed Camp Century is a much more relevant Islands in the Caribbean and parts of Greenland, the world’s largest island, the U.S. to set up its new consulate in a and dangerous example of how the United Ghana. The Danish government allocates straddles the Arctic Circle and has, “Danish military facility,” according to States uses Greenland. Between 1953 and to Greenland large, yearly block grants beyond 10 percent of the world’s fresh the April 24 Financial Times. 1967, the U.S. Army built a series of secret amounting to hundreds of millions of water bound up in the deep glaciers that The consulate will be moved to Nuuk, bases around Thule as precursors of a dollars. Danish bankers and corpora- cover it, huge deposits of sand and gravel the capital of Greenland, when travel larger ballistic missile complex. tions expect access to Greenland’s future growing from its melting glaciers. restrictions are lifted. The U.S. was planning to deploy up profits. These deposits can be cheaply trans- The United States has had military to 600 medium-range ballistic mis- Besides Denmark and the U.S., the ported to the construction industry of bases in Greenland since 1942. The bases’ siles with nuclear warheads, constantly Arctic Council consists of Canada, the European Union. Greenland has rare purpose was to block the Germans, who moving around on a railway cut into Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Greenland’s ice sheet. Project Iceworm Russia. Rising temperatures in the Arctic was never completed, but left behind have fueled a rising anticipation of future Pandemia y capitalismo están detrás tons of waste—​diesel fuel, polychlori- profits and rising tension inside this nated biphenyls (PCBs) and low-level council, reflecting competing interests. del aumento del hambre en EE.UU. radioactive waste. Due to global warming, Counterposed to the Arctic Council this waste is now being exposed. (Global is the Inuit Circumpolar Council, for- Continúa de la página 12 Partido Mundo Obrero, lanzó una lucha Environmental Politics, February 2018, merly the Inuit Circumpolar Conference. en 1982 para presionar al gobierno a abrir pgs. 33-51) It is a multinational nongovernmental para cupones de alimentos. sus depósitos de alimentos “excedentes”. The $12.1 million fund that the U.S. organization representing the 180,000 La lucha de un pueblo ganó beneficios Demandó a la administración Reagan y and Denmark are making such a fuss over Inuit peoples living in Alaska, Canada, de cupones de alimentos en primer lugar. organizó muchas protestas. Poco después is facing two challenges: how to develop Greenland and Chukotka, the eastern Eso es lo que se necesitará para que las de que ellos perdiera la demanda, este Greenland’s mining and how to develop area of Siberia. personas obtengan lo que necesitan, ya movimiento de base ganó la liberación other profitable activities, particularly About 85 percent of the people liv- sea alimentos, vivienda, atención médica, de toneladas de alimentos. tourism. ing in Greenland are Indigenous peo- trabajos con un salario digno o condicio- En la Cuba socialista, la producción y Denmark is a small country with a ple of Inuit ancestry. Some of them are nes de trabajo seguras. distribución de alimentos están altamente colonial past that is part of the imperi- demanding independence, but they all La campaña, La Comida Es Un Derecho, organizadas. La comida nunca se desperdi- alist bloc. At various times, Denmark’s seek the education and economic devel- nacida del Congreso de Todos los Pueblos, cia. Las necesidades de las personas siem- rulers controlled Iceland and the Faroe opment which respects their culture and respaldado por el Workers World Party/ pre son lo primero en importancia. ☐ Islands in the North Atlantic, the Virgin environment. ☐ Correspondencia sobre artículos en Workers World/Mundo Obrero pueden ser enviadas a: [email protected]

¡Proletarios y oprimidos de todos los paises unios! workers.org Vol. 62 Núm. 18 30 de abril 2020 $1 Colombia: Huelga de hambre en varias cárceles. COVID-19 y hechos básicos de la economía marxista

Por Deirdre Griswold obtener de forma gratuita, como arrancar agua cuesta dinero, no porque sea mejor, el mercado de automóviles, por ejemplo, un diente a un león, debe tener dos tipos sino por la mano de obra necesaria para incluso un automóvil viejo y maltratado El mercado de valores se desplomó en de valor. Uno es el valor de uso. El otro es localizar fuentes, transportar el agua, nunca se venderá por el mismo precio que marzo, pero se recuperó en parte después el valor de cambio. embotellarla y comercializarla. una barra de pan. de que el Banco de la Reserva Federal Probablemente pueda pensar en muchos bajó la tasa de interés para los préstamos. Valor de uso y valor de cambio otros productos que tienen un alto valor El desempleo y la crisis económica. Luego se estrelló de nuevo. Las empresas El agua que bebemos es probablemente de uso pero un bajo valor de cambio. La Entonces, para volver a la actual y cre- se están yendo a la quiebra. El precio del una de las cosas más valiosas que consu- harina, por ejemplo, el ingrediente princi- ciente crisis económica, la revista Fortune petróleo ha caído a su nivel más bajo en mimos todos los días. Sin ella moriría- pal del pan, se llama personal de la vida. escribió el 16 de abril: “Otros 5,2 millones décadas. mos. Entonces, el valor de uso del agua Lápices y papel para escribir. de estadounidenses presentaron reclamos Todos son signos de una drástica dis- es enorme. Otros productos pueden tener un valor iniciales de desempleo en la semana que minución de la actividad económica en Pero también es muy barato, lo que sig- de uso limitado, como los binoculares que terminó el 11 de abril. Eso eleva el total este momento. nifica que tiene un valor de cambio muy guarda en su armario y apenas usa, pero un de reclamos de desempleo en las últimas Pero, ¿qué significa esto realmente? bajo. Por vital que sea el agua para la vida, valor de cambio mucho mayor. Son muy cuatro semanas a 22 millones”. [El 23 de No es solo que las personas no com- nunca costará tanto como el champán, costosos en comparación con el agua. abril el total es a 26 millones.] pran tantas cosas cuando se ven obliga- por ejemplo—​lo cual es bueno, ¡pero Entonces, ¿qué es el valor de cambio y Estos millones de trabajadores han per- das a quedarse en casa en esta pandemia. podemos sobrevivir sin él! cómo se mide? dido sus empleos o están confinados a sus Mucho más importante, significa que hogares debido al virus, y por lo tanto no muchos menos trabajadores están pro- Entonces, ¿por qué el agua es barata? El trabajo humano es la clave están creando un nuevo valor. duciendo un nuevo valor. En términos simplificados, su precio El valor de cambio es cuánto cuesta un Es la explicación obvia de la creciente Y esa es la clave de lo que le está suce- es bajo en relación con otras cosas que producto en relación con otros productos. crisis de la economía, pero no es proba- diendo a la economía capitalista ahora. compramos (llamadas productos básicos) Y esa es la clave para medirlo: el valor de ble que lea en los periódicos o escuche en Cuando los trabajadores no trabajan, no porque se requiere poca mano de obra cambio de una mercancía proviene de la la radio y la televisión. Los medios cor- se crea ningún valor nuevo. Sin embargo, para que esté disponible. Por eso tiene cantidad de trabajo humano que se incor- porativos informarán sobre el desempleo la forma en que funcionan los mercados un bajo valor de cambio. pora a ella. Digámoslo de nuevo: es el como resultado de la crisis económica, capitalistas es que anticipan más y más Hace mucho tiempo, cuando se cons- trabajo humano, los trabajadores que tra- no la causa. Pero eso es poner la carreta crecimiento a medida que los trabajado- truyeron los embalses en este país, junto bajan, lo que crea todo el valor de cambio. delante del caballo. res van a trabajar todos los días y crean con los acueductos que conducían desde Esto es básico para el marxismo, pero Para repetir, el trabajo humano,—​los un nuevo valor mientras son explotados ellos, se requirió bastante trabajo para es ignorado o minimizado por la mayoría trabajadores que trabajan—es​ el creador por los patrones. Cuando eso no sucede, proporcionar agua. Pero ahora los océa- de los economistas burgueses. de todo el valor de cambio. hay una gran crisis. nos de agua fluyen a ciudades y pueblos Cuanto más trabajo se necesita para Y en este momento, decenas de millo- La economía marxista es crucial para en muchas secciones del país con poco producir algo, más valor de cambio ten- nes de trabajadores están en cuarentena comprender qué hay detrás de la catás- trabajo humano gastado en el proceso. drá. El valor de cambio no es el único fac- o se quedan en casa bajo órdenes de refu- trofe económica que acompaña a la crisis Entonces, el agua, en la mayoría de las tor que determina el precio, por supuesto. gio en el lugar. Son “trabajadores esencia- COVID-19. Así que aquí hay un resumen áreas, es un gasto menor. Los precios pueden fluctuar según la les” necesarios para la creación de nuevos muy breve de algunos de los conceptos Lo que no es tan barato, por supuesto, oferta y la demanda. Pero fluctúan en valores, pero no pueden hacer su trabajo. básicos del marxismo. son las botellas de aguas especiales de torno a un ingrediente básico: la cantidad Como resultado, la economía capita- Todo lo que se intercambia (gene- Fiji o alguna otra fuente distante que se de mano de obra necesaria para producir lista está entrando en crisis mode. ☐ ralmente por dinero), que no podemos venden en tiendas de todo el mundo. Esta el producto. No importa cuánto se llene Pandemia y capitalismo están detrás editorial del aumento del hambre en EE.UU. Los productores lecheros están ver- básicos, desde teléfonos celulares hasta rico del mundo incluso antes de la llegada distribución de alimentos de San Antonio. tiendo millones de galones de leche en las automóviles, se produce para ser vendido de COVID-19, porque muchas personas no Esta impactante escena se repite en todo lagunas. Los productores agrícolas están con fines de lucro. Si los agricultores no pueden pagar los alimentos. No se cultiva el país todos los días, a medida que la volcando las verduras frescas al suelo. Se pueden permitirse enviar alimentos, se ni fabrica como servicio público. Bajo el demanda se dispara, en algunas ciudades están destruyendo miles de millones de desperdicia. Y si los trabajadores no pue- capitalismo, producir y vender esta necesi- en un 50 por ciento. Los operadores de dólares en alimentos. den permitirse el lujo de comprar lo que se dad es un medio para un fin: las ganancias. bancos de alimentos rechazan renuente- Esto está sucediendo mientras millones encuentra en los estantes de los supermer- Antes de la pandemia, 37 millones mente a miles de familias necesitadas. de personas hacen fila para llegar a los cados, no lo hacen a menos que un banco de personas aquí estaban “insuficien- Mientras tanto, los bancos de alimentos bancos de alimentos locales que no pue- de alimentos, una organización religiosa o tes en alimentos”, un término elegante ahora tienen que comprar gran parte de den satisfacer la enorme demanda, que es comunitaria o un sindicato lo proporcio- para hambrientos. Alrededor de ese lo que solía ser donado, y a precios altos. mayor debido a los despidos de 22 millo- nen. Así es como opera el capitalismo. número recibió beneficios inadecuados Algunos están gastando millones de dóla- nes de trabajadores relacionados con el Si las tiendas están comprando menos del Programa de Asistencia Nutricional res para transportar cargas de camiones. coronavirus. alimentos porque sus clientes se quedan en Suplementaria. El año pasado, 40 millo- Varios han tenido que cerrar justo cuando ¿Por qué es esto? La escasez de ali- casa debido a las advertencias pandémicas nes de personas tuvieron que depender de su ayuda se necesita desesperadamente. mentos no existe en los Estados Unidos. o no pueden darse el lujo de comprarlo, bancos de alimentos y comedores popula- Sin embargo, el gobierno federal debe De hecho, hay abundancia de alimentos. como es el caso de muchos trabajadores res. Los trabajadores de bajos salarios, las comprar productos frescos de los agri- Pero muchos agricultores no pueden ven- desempleados, los agricultores se desha- personas mayores y las personas con dis- cultores y pagar para transportarlos a der a los compradores habituales, como cen de ellos. Cuando los restaurantes, que capacidad dependen de esta asistencia. las despensas de alimentos o establecer restaurantes, hoteles y escuelas, ya que habitualmente compran la mitad de los Pero luego golpeó COVID-19: 22 millo- centros de distribución. Podría contratar muchos están cerrados debido a la pande- productos agrícolas, no compran, se que- nes de personas fueron despedidas, sus- trabajadores desempleados para condu- mia. La red de distribución a esos clientes dan sin cosechar, sin embalar, sin trans- pendidas o tuvieron recortes salariales. cir los camiones y repartir los alimentos, se ha volcado y miles de agricultores no portar y, por lo tanto, sin vender. Alrededor del 59 por ciento de los traba- pero de forma segura. pueden permitirse el lujo de transportar jadores, desproporcionadamente negros Dado que este es un país capitalista, alimentos por todo el país. Hambre en el país más rico y latinos, habían estado viviendo de los ricos y sus políticos se negarán a Si no se compran alimentos, si no hay La pandemia ha puesto de relieve la un sueldo a otro. Ahora, muchos de los esto, ya que priorizan la obtención de mercados, si no se pueden realizar ventas precariedad de la vida de los trabajado- recién desempleados no pueden pagar ganancias, no las necesidades humanas. y obtener ganancias, los alimentos se des- res en los Estados Unidos capitalistas, y alimentos para sus familias y han recu- Incluso ahora con la crisis de desempleo, truyen, en lugar de donarse a los millones ha intensificado la contradicción entre la rrido a los bancos de alimentos. el Departamento de Agricultura de los que los necesitan. producción y distribución de alimentos. Las imágenes de las noticias mostra- Estados Unidos se negó a usar los poderes Bajo el capitalismo, la comida es una Ha revelado el hambre y la desnutrición ron a 10.000 personas en fila y espe- de desastre para ampliar la elegibilidad mercancía. Al igual que todos los productos generalizadas que existían en el país más rando durante horas en un centro de Continúa en la página 11