Intento de golpe: ¿Se acabó el peligro? ¡Alto a la guerra contra los vendedores ambulantes! 14 Struggle-La-Lucha.org Vol. 4, No. 1 · Jan. 11, 2021 Suggested donation: $1 Socialist Unity Party Partido de Socialismo Unido Twitter: @StruggleLaLucha Facebook.com/strugglelalucha email: [email protected] Coup attempt: Is the danger over? Jail Trump, his fascist mob, and killer cops

By Sharon Black

The storming of the U.S. Capitol by white supremacists incited by President Trump, which temporarily halted the certification vote, had to have the collu- sion of the federal and local police agen- cies. It is implausible that there was no preparation when these very events had been telegraphed for months by Trump himself. “Civil War January 6, 2021” was Unity with who and for what? Trump should not only be arrested but printed on the MAGA sweatshirts; this Here was an opportunity for Biden also extradited for war crimes. Trump was no secret. The only way that the rac- and the Democrats to strike a definitive is now wanted by Iraq for ordering the ist mob could freely occupy the Capitol is blow against Trump and the movement assassination of Iranian Gen. Qassem if the police made a deliberate decision he has spawned. He could have called for Soleimani and Iraqi Commander Abu to let them. Trump’s arrest or made an appeal for Mahdi al-Muhandis; Iran has also is- The world watched while armed fas- people to mobilize against the racist and sued an arrest warrant through Interpol cists carrying Confederate flags and reactionary threat. He didn’t. (International Criminal Police Organi- metal battering rams breached metal In many respects it was a betrayal of zation) for the same crime. detectors, held Congress hostage, took the Black voters, especially in Georgia, The antidote to fascism over oˆces, smashed windows, open- who courageously resisted racist threats is workers’ solidarity and socialism Trump’s Wisconsin ly carried ladders to scale the Capitol, to vote against racism and reaction. 2 posed for selfies with police and were The timidity of Biden and the Demo- While billionaires are raking in unpre- coup attempt eventually escorted out of the building crats is not surprising. cedented profits, cashing in while the 2 without initial arrests. What underlies these developments deaths of COVID victims pile up, the Fascist violence Two pipe bombs were confiscated, and the fascist reaction is the contrac- vast majority of the people are find- along with weapons and ammunition, tion of the capitalist economy and the ing themselves living in deeper mis- Wall St’s party 3 and five people are reported dead. A deep decay and crisis of the system. ery. Capitalist governments have not KKK-inspired noose was erected on the While seemingly hidden, it supersedes been able to stop the COVID pandemic No $2,000 west end of the Capitol. the will of capitalist politicians who at- and have failed miserably at provid- This was reminiscent of how the Al- tempt to represent one section or an- ing health care for the vast majority. The Housing War 4 abama authorities allowed the Klan to other of the ruling class. Widespread unemployment threatens attack the freedom riders in Anniston, It is an important lesson. The capital- not only low wage workers but also the Cuba and COVID 5 Ala., on May 14, 1961, nearly killing sev- ist class, regardless of its divisions, has middle class. Millions are facing evic- eral people. Local police did nothing for no will to put these racist scum in the tions, foreclosures and utility shuto¦s. at least 15 minutes. dustbin of history. Like the bankers and Traditionally it is the middle class, the The storming of the Capitol was con- businesses that were financing Hitler up small business owners, and others like sciously in the tradition of the previous to the last bullet, they are hedging their them who are isolated and in despair, END overthrow of the democratically elected, bets. They are reluctant to crush them. who are duped by fascist ideology. It is Cuba majority-rule Reconstruction govern- only a strong, united anti-capitalist and Danger of imperialist war Blockade ments in South Carolina, Mississippi, anti-racist working-class movement in the next 14 days Louisiana and the rest, which culminat- that can pull them away from such a Duryea Green 6 ed in the coup and massacre in Wilm- We would be seriously amiss to not destructive dead end. ington, N.C., in 1898. state the obvious threat of imperialist “Such a situation can only exist in pe- COVID and prison Contrast this with Kenosha, Wis. In war most immediately aimed at Iran, riods of extraordinarily acute social cri- but ultimately — regardless of which sis when the capitalist state is so torn by anticipation of community anger at the Biden’s picks 7 refusal to indict police in the shooting of administration is in oˆce — directed accumulating inner contradictions and Jacob Blake, streets were shut down and at any country that seeks to chart an weakened by its inability to overcome Trump’s the National Guard was mobilized in ad- independent course from imperialism its social crisis that it inevitably gives vance of the acquittal. — whether it is Venezuela, China, the way to extra-parliamentary, extra- Excecutions Democratic People’s Republic of Ko- legal forms of rule,” Sam Marcy said of What happens next, is the danger over? rea, Cuba or Zimbabwe. See the call for the struggle against fascism. Blood & Oil 8 Biden’s extremely weak response is emergency response actions below. It will take the organization of the deeply problematic in terms of pushing There is still 0ver a weekdays before broad working class and the leadership Spies spy 11 back the fascists and what it means for the Jan. 20 inauguration. Just as we de- of its most oppressed, Black, Brown, the future. Rather than making a call for mand the jailing of killer cops, we must Latinx, Indigenous, Arab, Asian, wom- Trump big loser 12 disbanding the fascist thugs, the racist mobilize the movement to call for the en and LGBTQ2S people, to both develop mob or arresting Trump, Biden called immediate arrest of Trump and stop the a defense of its own class interests and Iran, Iraq 13 for unity. white supremacist mobs. place socialism on the agenda. ₪ Stop U.S. attacks on Iran. No war! End sanctions!

We call on the anti-war and anti-im- Since Election Day, the Trump ad- Nimitz and its strike group of guid- perialist movement, workers’ and com- ministration has escalated war threats ed-missile cruisers and destroyers en- On Facebook: munity organizations to be on alert for against Iran. On Nov. 27, Israel as- tered the Arab/Persian Gulf o¦ the coast the possibility of a U.S. military attack on sassinated Iranian scientist Mohsen of Iran. On Dec. 10, U.S. B-52 bombers EMERGENCY Iran. We urge the movement to join us in Fakrizadeh Mahabadi. Israel is a proxy based in Louisiana flew another run over Day-After Protests: calling for emergency day-after protests state completely dependent on Wash- the gulf o¦ the coast of Iran. Saudi, Bah- in cities around the country to demand ington. It could not have carried out such raini and Qatari warplanes — made in U.S. HANDS OFF “Hands O¦ Iran” in the event of a strike a provocative act without prior approval the USA — flew with them. On Dec. 21, by the Pentagon or its proxies. The U.S. from the U.S. government. the U.S. nuclear submarine Georgia, ac- may use Israel to initiate an attack. On Nov. 30, the U.S. aircraft carrier Continued on page 13 IRAN Page 2 Jan. 11, 2021 STRUGGLE H LA LUCHA

Before the attack on the U.S. Capitol: Trump’s Wisconsin coup attempt

By Stephen Millies rising were a series of Badger State Destroying jobs and filling prisons billionaires. The big Allen-Bradley plant on the After a fascist mob was allowed to Among them are Richard Uihlein city’s South Side refused for years to take over the U.S. Capitol, Trump’s and Elizabeth Uihlein, who togeth- hire Black or Latinx workers. That’s attempts to overturn the election er own the nonunion Uline business the reason super racist Lester Mad- can’t be dismissed as a clown show. supply outfit. They gave nearly $40 dox came to campaign there when he It should have been obvious weeks million to racist candidates in the ran for president in 1976. before. 2018 elections. Maddox had closed his Atlanta Wisconsin showed how serious Liz Uihlein claimed “the media is chicken shack so he wouldn’t have it was. Trump lost the state by just overblowing COVID-19” in a March to serve Black people. The fascist 20,682 votes, a little more than six- 13 email. Eight months later, both the handed out ax handles to his white tenths of a percentage point. It was Uihleins contracted the coronavirus. customers to attack Black people. still a significant victory against Then there’s the Kohler family’s The Bradleys sold their electrical racism. $8.3 billion toilet-making fortune. It controls company to Rockwell In- Trump’s campaign was nonstop took over 60 years for Kohler work- ternational in 1985. Much of the pro- racism. It spent millions on racist ers to get a union. ceeds went to the Lynde and Harry Facebook ads attacking the Black An 1897 strike was smashed. So Bradley Foundation, which now has Lives Matter movement. was the 1934 strike in the family’s over $800 million in assets. The ads targeted both Minneso- company town of Kohler — just west All of it is used to promote hate. ta and Wisconsin, where two of the of Sheboygan — where two workers Among its recipients is Charles Mur- biggest anti-racist rebellions took were killed. ray, co-author of “The Bell Curve,” place. Minneapolis exploded after Only after a strike starting in 1954 which claimed there were di¦er- the police torture murder of George and lasting more than six years was ences in intelligence between Blacks Floyd on May 25. Kohler forced to sign a union con- and whites. Demonstrations began in Kenosha, tract with Local 833 of the United This is Hitler stu¦ and Murray Protest in Kenosha, Wis., where Jacob Wis., after Jacob Blake had been shot Auto Workers. Two members of the got a $250,000 prize from the Brad- Blake was shot seven times by police- seven times by policeman Rusten Kohler strikebreaking family were man Rusten Sheskey on Aug. 23. ley Foundation for it in 2016. Harry Sheskey on Aug. 23. The unarmed Wisconsin governors. Bradley was a founding member of Black father was shot while getting Milwaukee was the last big man- the John Birch Society, whose head- capital of Madison.) into his own car. Some of Blake’s ufacturing city in the U.S. that the quarters are located in Appleton, Wis. More than three-quarters of the children were in the back seat. Great Migration of African Ameri- Between 1977 and 1992, 55,000 state’s Black population live in these Kenosha County District Attorney cans came to. By 1970, many of Mil- factory jobs were destroyed in Mil- two counties. Michael Graveley outrageously an- waukee’s factories were dependent waukee County according to the The deciding vote was cast by a nounced on Jan. 5 that no charges on Black labor. Census of Manufactures. Most of right-winger, Brian Hagedorn. He’s would be brought against Shesky, Among them was A.O. Smith, them were union jobs. such a bigot that he founded an who left Jacob Blake paralysed. which manufactured a quarter of the But there was an increase of 66,000 anti-LGBTQ2S private elementary Trump himself came to Kenosha. auto frames used by General Motors. manufacturing jobs in the rest of school, the Augustine Academy in He didn’t visit Blake’s family or of- The 360-acre facility was known as the state, which is overwhelmingly Waukesha. fer condolences. The White House “the plant” in the local Black com- white. Big capital wanted to get away Hagedorn wasn’t seeking redemp- klansman spewed hate at a racist munity because so many African from Black workers and unions. tion. The judge’s decision was on pep rally instead. Americans were employed there. Instead of Black workers getting behalf of the national ruling class, Trump’s supporters defended Capitalism’s need for Black work- jobs in the big plants, they were be- most of whom think it’s polit ically Kyle Rittenhouse, who killed two ers didn’t prevent Milwaukee from ing railroaded to big prisons. dangerous to throw out so many anti-racist activists in Kenosha. being the most segregated city in The 53206 ZIP code touches the votes. YouTube ads ran claiming “lawless the United States. Every year, Vel now-closed A.O. Smith plant where They feared millions of peo- criminals terrorize Kenosha.” Phillips, the first Black member and over 7,000 workers used to be em- ple taking to the streets as over 20 Trump lost Wisconsin, but he first woman member of Milwaukee’s ployed. Sixty-two percent of the million people did during the Black didn’t give up. The Trump campaign City Council, would introduce a fair Black adult men there are either in- Lives Matter demonstrations. spent $3 million on a recount only to housing ordinance. carcerated or have been in prison. That prospect didn’t prevent three see its margin of defeat increased. It would be voted down almost In 2010, slightly more than one in state Supreme Court justices from Despite this recount, Wisconsin’s unanimously. Father Jim Groppi led 25 Black people in Wisconsin were wanting to overturn the election state Supreme Court voted on Dec. nightly “open housing” marches in locked up. Billionaire families like results and declare that Black votes 14 by just a 4-3 margin to uphold the 1966 and 1967, some of which were the Uihleins and the Bradleys have don’t matter. election results. violently attacked by racists. increased the prison population by Three of the justices wanted to Racism and union busting The local fair housing law was eight times since the early 1960s. throw out hundreds of thousands of only passed after Milwaukee’s Black This is the viciousness that was Behind the three judges who were votes in Milwaukee and Dane coun- rebellion in 1967, in which four peo- rejected by poor and working people willing to risk another people’s up- ties. (Dane County includes the state ple were killed. in Wisconsin. ₪ Fascist violence and the form of the state

By Sam Marcy What is completely left out of con- extra-governmental violence of fas- as violence within the framework of sideration is that the spread of fas- cist organizations. the bourgeois legal (“democratic”) Below is an excerpt from an article cist organizations takes place in a The capitalist state is itself, of system. by Sam Marcy, a leading Marxist vastly di¦erent, if not wholly new, course, the main generator of force Such violence must be di¦erenti- thinker and fighter of the second social, political, and economic situ- and violence. In its role as an instru- ated from, and not be confused with, half of the 20th century. It was writ- ation. The entire social environment ment of capitalist domination over the extra-legal, extra-governmen- ten shortly after Ronald Reagan’s in which the spread of this evil dis- the working class and the oppressed, tal violence which is the essential inauguration in 1981 — that is, at ease takes place imparts to it a sig- it operates as an organ of suppres- characteristic of fascist organiza- the beginning of the long period of nificance which far surpasses the sion in order to maintain and secure tions of the type under discussion. reaction that is peaking today. numerical strength of these organi- its rule over the masses. It is, of course, absolutely true that Marcy argues for the importance zations. both legal and extra-legal violence Differentiate between government of Marxist clarity on the diƒerence It is this which adds a really new have coexisted along with the bour- and extra-legal violence between violence by the bourgeois- dimension to the perilous growth geois state since the very inception democratic state, however brutal, of this virulent disease. Fascist vio- Violence practiced upon the work- of the state itself. and that of fascist organizations, lence has been endemic to the main- ing class and the oppressed is there- In the U.S., legal and extra-legal vi- “particularly when they are armed tenance of the domination of the fore a concomitant element of the olence have existed side-by-side for and supported materially by right- ruling class in the U.S. for a number rule of the oppressing and exploiting longer than a century. Ku Klux Klan wing, disaƒected, but powerful elements of decades. It is, however, excep- bourgeoisie. Notwithstanding the violence is a principal example of how of the ruling capitalist establishment, tionally important to distinguish viciousness, ferociousness or mag- extra-legal violence visited upon the constitute a threatening parallel form between the violence which ema- nitude of the violence which the rul- oppressed masses coexists with the to the legal (bourgeois-democratic) nates directly and openly from the ing class visits upon the oppressed, capitalist state.” capitalist state, and the extra-legal, it must nevertheless be considered Continued on page 3 STRUGGLE H LA LUCHA jan. 11, 2021 Page 3

Wall Street’s New Year’s party: Dancing on the backs of poor workers

By Gary Wilson hunger or are near that edge. Stim- ulus money has mostly gone to big “Wall Street sets new highs to end corporations. Over 160,000 small 2020,” the Associated Press reported businesses have closed. on Jan. 1, 2021. “Wall Street closed out a tumultu- The rich got richer ous year for stocks with more record Meanwhile, the richest 500 people highs on Thursday, a fitting coda to on the planet added $1.8 trillion to the market’s stunning comeback their combined wealth in 2020, ac- from its historic plunge in the early cumulating a total net worth of $7.6 weeks of the coronavirus pandem- trillion, according to the Bloomberg ic,” AP reported. Billionaires Index. Look at the economy. Some 19.5 Walmart and Target reported re- million workers are oˆcially unem- cord sales. Amazon tripled its profits. ployed, four times as many as last Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook year at this time. At least another and Microsoft now make up 20% of 10 million are unemployed but not the stock market’s total worth. The included in the oˆcial count. Jobs tech industry has achieved an un- continue to be cut as rising corona- paralleled level of wealth and dom- virus infections keep many people inance. at home and state and local govern- So Wall Street is having a party. ments reimpose restrictions. With huge injections of credit by Soldiers from the U.S. Army 36th Infantry Division help distribute food items during Over one-third of the adult pop- the Federal Reserve Bank at inter- a Tarrant Area Food Bank mobile pantry event in Arlington, Texas, Nov. 20, 2020. ulation in the U.S. faces eviction or est rates near zero, and the massive home foreclosure in the next two government stimulus payments to ket speculators have bid up the pric- U.S. That was an inequality level not months according to new data from big business, the large corporations es of stocks. seen since — until now. Some call it a U.S. Census Bureau survey. South stockpiled the government-backed In the 1920s after the end of the the return of the Roaring Twenties. Dakota, South Carolina, Georgia and money, buying back their own shares “Spanish” flu epidemic — it actually Of course, the Roaring Twenties Oregon have more than a half of all or other financial assets. The stock first appeared in the U.S. — the stock ended with the Great Crash in the the households facing eviction or market rocketed to an all-time high. market shot up to new highs, much stock market of 1929-1930 and the en- foreclosure. like what is happening now. Profit suing Great Depression of the 1930s. In some states, food bank lines Wall Street bets on austerity, rises were even higher, as productiv- Inequality of wealth and income, stretch for miles. Even before the reduced wages ity substantially exceeded real wag- poverty, homelessness and hunger pandemic hit, 13.7 million house- Wall Street’s rise is betting that es. Wealth inequality soared to the rule the land while the stock market holds, or 10.5% of all U.S. households, the pandemic and mass unemploy- greatest level ever seen, with 0.01% booms. That’s the current Roaring experienced food insecurity at some ment, general poverty, hunger and owning 25% of the total wealth in the Twenties. ₪ point during 2019, according to data homelessness will force workers to from the U.S. Department of Agri- return to work at much lower wages. culture. Convert household num- This will raise the ratio of unpaid to bers to people numbers and you get paid labor, leading to a higher rate of Jeff Bezos says you 35 million who couldn’t get enough profit as business returns to normal. food. That number doubled during Then Wall Street expects that div- the last year, according to research- idends will rise and with it stock ers at Northwestern University. market prices. In anticipation of the don’t deserve $2,000 Tens of millions of working-class good times they see coming — for people have fallen into poverty and the capitalists, that is — stock mar- By Stephen Millies Sweatshop billionaire The attitude of Bezos’ mouthpiece Je¦ Bezos has a fortune of $194 shouldn’t surprise anyone. Mr. Am- Fascist violence billion. Just in the United States, over azon’s $194 billion treasure is based a third of a million people have died on working to the bone hundreds of Continued from page 2 bourgeois press as “excessive”). The two should not be confused even from the coronavirus. thousands of workers in the U.S. and legal forms of the capitalist state, and though the police may, and often do, The tragedy has been a gold mine other countries. how one promotes the other. collaborate with the Klan, neo-Nazis for the owner of Amazon. Bezos’ stash Amazon warehouse workers are Anti-labor violence employed on a and other fascist and neo-fascist or- gained another $79 billion in 2020. monitored and if they can’t keep huge scale for many decades by in- ganizations. Yet the richest man on earth up with the pace they’re fired. Fif- dividual employers and industries doesn’t think you deserve a $2,000 teen workers collapsed during a 2011 has been of an extra-legal charac- Fascist groups threaten stimulus check. His personally heat wave at an Amazon warehouse ter. Most particularly noteworthy are bourgeois-democratic state owned newspaper, the Washington in Breinigsville, Pa., 11 miles from strike-breaking organizations and Fascist organizations in their Post, came out against the proposed Allentown. the employment of underworld mob- embryonic form, particularly when $2,000 checks in a Dec. 29 editorial. The company knew of the health sters. “Right-to-work,” open-shop they are armed and supported ma- The Post calls this “a bad idea.” dangers but refused to reduce the states are frequently the very same terially by right-wing, disa¦ected, It attacked “the progressive left, line speed. Amazon instead parked states which have either clandestine- but powerful elements of the ruling spearheaded by Sen. Bernie Sand- ambulances outside the door. ly or openly supported the Klan. capitalist establishment, constitute ers,” for saying that the $2,000 Even before Bezos bought it, the The pogroms visited upon op- a threatening parallel form to the would go to desperate families. Washington Post was a company pressed nationalities in Czarst Rus- legal (bourgeois-democratic) capi- Bezos’ newspaper claimed that town newspaper, the “company” sia are another example of how talist state. “huge amounts [are] destined for being the CIA and the military-in- extra-legal forms of violence are While receiving encouragement perfectly comfortable families.” dustrial complex. Its real name carried out alongside with and en- and sustenance from the capitalist The same phony argument could be should be the Pentagon Post. couraged and promoted by the legal- state, embryonic fascist forms at the made against Social Security and The Post broke the 1976-1977 strike ly constituted government. Pogrom same time rival and stand in antag- Medicare. of its printing press operators. This violence in old Russia didn’t di¦er onism to the bourgeois democratic The Washington Post is furious defeat of labor whetted the appetite much from the massacres carried state. If historical conditions favor about the alleged $464 billion cost of other union busting capitalists. out by the Night Riders in the U.S. them, they have the propensity and but is silent about the twice as large Poor and working people — led by Every capitalist state tolerates and organic tendency to overpower the annual cost of the Pentagon and U.S. Black, Indigenous and Latinx voters occasionally promotes this sort of bourgeois-democratic form of the spy agencies. — defeated Trump by over 7 million extra-legal violence. The di¦erence, capitalist state. The real crime in the bill is cutting votes. But all the capitalists, land- however, between fascist violence Such a situation can only exist in federal supplemental unemploy- lords and cops have some Trump in and other forms of illegal violence periods of extraordinarily acute so- ment benefits from $600 per week to them. practiced by the government should cial crisis when the capitalist state just $300. Just in order to live, we have to be made clear. is so torn by accumulating inner The initial $600 weekly amount struggle. Union organizing drives at For example, police brutality is contradictions and weakened by its actually reduced the poverty rate. Amazon, Walmart and Target are no frequently as vicious and as violent inability to overcome its social cri- Seven million more people were more impossible than making Henry as that carried out by the fascists, sis that it inevitably gives way to thrown below the absurdly low fed- Ford sign a union contract in 1941. and on occasion goes beyond legal extra-parliamentary, extra-legal eral poverty level when the checks The new year will be a fightback limits (usually characterized by the forms of rule. ₪ expired at the end of July. against all the billionaires. ₪ Page 4 Jan. 11, 2021 STRUGGLE H LA LUCHA Dispatches from the housing war

By Greg Butterfield Under the measure, most evic- tions will be halted until May 1, 2021, Jan. 1 — Millions of renters and as long as tenants and homeowners homeowners received a last-min- sign a declaration stating that “they ute reprieve when President Donald have lost income or dealt with in- Trump finally signed the (pitiful, creased costs, or if moving would put inadequate) congressional stimulus them or a member of their household bill on Dec. 27 after several days’ de- at higher risk of COVID-19 due to an lay. The measure extended the Cen- underlying medical condition.” ters for Disease Control (CDC) evic- “An eviction moratorium is only a tion ban for another month, through temporary solution,” said Cea Weav- Jan. 31, 2021 — just in time to put o¦ a er of the Upstate-Downstate Housing spate of New Year’s evictions amidst Alliance. “Between now and May 1, the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. we have to come together as a move- A Census Bureau sur- ment, stronger than ever before, to vey released just before ensure that all back rent accrued the holidays found that an during the crisis is cleared. New incredible 35.3% of adults The Red House eviction blockade in Portland, Ore. York’s leaders need to fund social and in the U.S. are “living in supportive housing, and make a real households not current on in the gentrified North Portland plan to end homelessness.” Clianda Florence-Yarde rent or mortgage where neighborhood and evict the Kinney “Now we have to ORGANIZE, con- speaks at a rally after eviction or foreclosure in her family’s eviction in family. Their home, known as the tinue to build the #RentStrike, to the next two months is ei- Rochester, N.Y. Red House, is one of the few remain- #CancelRent by May Day so that no ther very likely or some- ing Black and Indigenous-owned one owes any rent and all cases are what likely.” fill the CDC require- homes in what was once a predom- permanently dismissed on May Day. “The survey found that ments. inantly Black neighborhood. We won this victory on the eviction residents of Washington, A quick survey of Activists supporting the Kinneys, ban by persistent struggle in our D.C., are the most likely to local news media who have camped out near the house buildings and the streets. We can and face eviction or foreclosure, with across the U.S. is enough to show that since September, managed to fight WILL cancel rent by May Day,” vowed 67.3% of adults living in households this is a deep, widespread, country- o¦ the cops. An “eviction block- the Crown Heights Tenant Union. where the prospect is at least some- wide crisis, not limited to the most ade” has been established around what likely,” Newsweek reported. expensive coastal cities. From Tam- the house, including barricades and Los Angeles: Families seize empty houses “States with a majority of adults also pa, Fla., to Youngstown, Ohio, the spikes on the street, with 24-hour A pitched battle between house- likely to lose their homes include story is the same: working-class people’s patrols to keep cops out. less families and the vicious Califor- South Dakota, South Carolina, Geor- families with few resources facing The defense of the Red House is be- nia Highway Patrol (CHP) on Nov. 25 gia and Oregon.” eviction, landlords hungrily pre- ing carried out in the militant spirit made national headlines. The fami- Desperate workers and families, paring for mass evictions as soon as of the Black Lives uprising that has lies and supporters were attempting faced with being thrown into winter restrictions are lifted, and already kept up a nightly presence in Port- to occupy 19 empty homes in the El streets, could finally take a breath overburdened tenants’ advocates land since late May. Sereno neighborhood of Los Angeles. when the stimulus bill was signed unable to meet the massive need for Bankers and developers have been The homes are owned by the Cal- — but only just. The CDC eviction legal and material support. attempting to steal the Kinney’s ifornia Department of Transporta- ban was extended for just another house — owned by the family since tion, which acquired them decades month, during which time high un- Not a new crisis 1955 — using Oregon’s policy of ago as part of a since abandoned plan employment and the ravages of dis- As the Lower Hudson news site re- “nonjudicial evictions” that allows to extend the 710 Freeway. In March ease are unlikely to improve. ported Dec. 21, “Before the pandem- for automatic foreclosures without 2020, the Reclaiming Our Homes And the measure still requires that ic, 48% of rental households in the the protections that would be pres- movement, led by homeless Black all back rent and mortgage payments nation were already ‘rent burdened,’ ent in a court case. The Kinneys and and Latinx women, seized 13 of these be paid to the landlords and banks — or paying more than 30% of their in- their supporters explain that this is long-vacant homes, inspired by the meaning the massive debt crisis fac- come towards rent, according to the just a modern version of Portland’s 2019 Moms 4 Housing takeover in ing workers is only getting worse. 2018 American Community Survey long history of segregation and theft Oakland, Calif. “The Federal stimulus bill extends data from the U.S. Census Bureau. of Indigenous lands. “During a press conference in the flimsy CDC ban on evictions (the “The majority of renter house- “Known white supremacists con- March 2020, reclaimer Ruby Gor- one that requires you to swear to pay holds below the poverty line spent tinue to illegally brandish arms dillo stood on the porch of the mod- your landlord everything you can) to at least half of their income toward without consequences,” the Kinney est bungalow she occupied with a the end of January,” noted the Crown rent in 2018, with one in four spend- family said in a statement. “We re- banner that read ‘shelter from the Heights Tenants Union. “All this ing over 70% of their income toward fuse to be characterized as a violent storm.’ She told a crowd of news moratorium does is require tenants housing costs, according to 2018 U.S. movement when our leadership is media that reclaimers were calling to beg judges not to evict them. Census Bureau data.” rooted in an Afro-Indigenous ethic on oˆcials to open the homes for “It did not, for example, stop the No wonder that the fight for hous- of land reclamation.” Angelenos experiencing houseless- ‘legal’ eviction of public school ing rights has been among the most For more information, visit Red- ness,” reported Bitch Magazine. teacher Clianda Florence-Yarde and widespread working-class strug- HouseOnMississippi.com. “With this health crisis and this her three children in Rochester, N.Y., gles in recent years, along with the housing crisis, we need every vacant on Friday night.” movement to defend Black lives from New Yorkers win stronger eviction ban house to be a home for those who Florence-Yarde, a Black woman, police violence. Because of wide- New York City is notorious for its don’t have a safe and stable place to was jailed, as were 15 housing activ- spread housing discrimination, rac- exorbitant rents. Workers and fam- sleep in,” Gordillo said. ists who attempted to block the fam- ist redlining by banks and attacks ilies are forced to double, triple or Taken o¦ guard by the bold action, ily’s forcible eviction on Dec. 18. Flor- on public housing residents by white quadruple up in cramped apart- the California Department of Trans- ence-Yarde had withheld payments supremacist politicians, these strug- ments, often owned by slumlords portation (Caltrans) and the Los because of awful conditions and nu- gles also overlap to a great extent. who refuse the most basic repairs for Angeles Housing Authority allowed merous code violations, which her Even before the current economic health and safety. According to the them to stay. But there are 200 va- landlord refused to correct. crisis, Black women were twice as Coalition for the Homeless, nearly cant houses in all. Now CHP storm- Diane Yentel, president of the Na- likely to be evicted as white people in 60,000 New Yorkers were homeless troopers patrol the area to prevent tional Low Income Housing Coa- at least 17 states, according to Sandra on any given night in October 2020 further attempts to house people in lition, told National Public Radio, Park, senior attorney at the Ameri- — many of them children. That’s need, like the one in November. “One of the flaws is that [the CDC can Civil Liberties Union Women’s twice as many as 10 years ago. A homeless census released in ban is] not automatic, and so renters Rights Project. Politicians in City Hall and the June 2020 counted more than 66,000 need to know that the protection ex- “Unfortunately, the fallout will be New York state Capitol in Albany, in- unhoused people in Los Angeles ists and they need to know what ac- borne most by women of color, who cluding Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. County, a 12.7% increase over 2019. tions to take in order to receive that have also had to bear so much of the Andrew Cuomo, are beholden to the But that’s only part of the story. protection.” fallout of the pandemic and eco- interests of big landlords and real Downtown Los Angeles has one of “The order is also being treat- nomic crisis overall,” Park told The estate developers. the country’s largest concentrations ed di¦erently by judges around the 19th News. So it was an important victory for of homeless people, while families in U.S.,” notes NPR, “so outcomes vary Here are a few current hotspots in fighters for housing justice and all the suburbs cram into garages rent- wildly depending on where people the housing struggle. New York state residents when the ed out as “apartments.” In July 2019, live or what court they end up in,” state legislature and Cuomo were the L.A. City Council cruelly reinsti- Portland: Red House defense citing the case of Ti¦any Robinson, forced to enact a strengthened ban tuted a ban on sleeping overnight in a Texas mother of three, who was In early December, police in Port- on evictions during a special session cars, criminalizing thousands for evicted despite doing her best to ful- land, Ore., attempted to raid a house Dec. 28. using their only shelter. ₪ STRUGGLE H LA LUCHA jan. 11, 2021 Page 5 Traveling to Cuba in the time of COVID-19

By Cheryl LaBash tine. The fine is not what keeps me in the apartment. Every day, I watch Of course, by the time this small the COVID-19 report. Eighty-six story is read, the conditions and new cases, most in Havana, many procedures giving rise to these ex- from visitors. Respect for the Cuban periences will likely have changed. medical system that has controlled We hope that one thing will the virus and avoided most deaths, change and be no more: COVID-19, without a vaccine, keeps me inside. now spreading silently where peo- Cuba, too, is testing vaccines — ple gather, especially inside, in en- four of them. But they didn’t wait to closed spaces, where people are in save lives. The Cubans know what close, extended contact. Airlines say they are doing. Then, on Friday, an- the air on planes is filtered. Passen- other nice doctor came by, but with a gers respected the marked-o¦, so- paper for me to sign that says to stay cially distanced seating at the gate, inside for 10 days! Friday is only day but, as Cuba travelers know, the U.S. two or three. And I am only here for economic, financial and commercial 14 days! blockade makes our travel experi- The Plaza de la Revolución in Havana. The person I am renting from is ence from the U.S. special. tive in her second test. She traveled small box with a number written on intersecting with the Consultorio Unable to travel to Cuba since through three airports and planes. the top. I was number 51. to explain the situation. Hopefully, March and with remittance trans- My traveling outfit included an The testing stations, each with I will get my second test on Monday fers via Western Union newly N95 mask donated by my scien- two seats, made short work of the — 5 days after arriving, then a day blocked by the U.S., my co-fliers had tist brother, a cloth mask over that line, opening the way for the next 10. or two for results, and it will be sev- plenty of luggage. Personal check- plus a face shield. The airline no- The little box had a vial for my test. A en or eight days not ten. in required. The airline is required tified us in advance that the center little swab in each nostril and I was The process for people staying in to ask, record and keep the cate- seats would not be reserved on this on my way to the familiar passport hotels — by the way, people from gory each passenger declares for flight, o¦ering to reschedule if we control. Then carry-on x-ray and the U.S. are forbidden to stay in Cu- the privilege of a general license to objected. I arrived at the airport at metal detectors. Collect bags with ban hotels by the U.S. government travel. A privilege only for travel- 8:30 a.m. My flight took o¦ at 1 p.m. nothing to declare and o¦ to the taxi — or people staying with their fam- ers from the U.S. and those under and landed about 50 minutes later. stand. Oh, I thought maybe I’d go ilies isn’t part of my experience U.S. jurisdiction. Cuban tourist visa? We were told to stay seated when the to an etecsa store [the government It is in the interest of all of us on General license category? Surcharge doors opened. telecommunications service pro- both sides of the Florida straits to for COVID-19 health screening? The first 12 rows were called to vider] and get a Cuban SIM card for #unblockCuba2021. Please sup- The line was long, slow and closely stand. In groups of 10, we deplaned my phone. Nope – directly to your port the Saving Lives Campaign (on packed although with proper face down the steps, walking a short place of accommodation and stay Facebook or at SavingLivesCam- coverings. way to the terminal. Usually, the re- there until your test result. paign.org) to get your union, city I drove from Detroit to Tampa, my ception area is a wide-open space Or so I thought. I arrived on Wed- council or state legislature to pass a direct flight to Havana departure with passport control booths at the nesday. On Thursday, a nice doc- resolution to speak out against this point. The 17 hours in my corona- other side. Not this day. A barrier tor came by to check on my health. 60-year injustice. virus safe car seemed to be a wise channeled us all to the left where She impressed on the person I am Nine U.S. cities and three labor decision to minimize airport time, our health certificate — with our renting from, who lives just down councils have done this since May 5. especially when I heard that a re- passport number added to it — was the hall, that there are sti¦ fines for Together we can make 2021 the year cent traveler to Cuba tested posi- collected by a nurse who gave me a both of us if I violate the quaran- to end the blockade of Cuba. ₪ Los Angeles car caravan says: ‘ End the blockade of Cuba. Medical collaboration to fight COVID-19’

By Cheryl LaBash exhausted medical teams and share collaboration that has proven to save their internationally recognized ex- lives. Not one Cuban medical pro- On Sunday, Dec. 27, COVID-strick- perience fighting epidemics and the fessional has died of COVID-19, nor en Californians filled Los Angeles aftermath of natural disasters. The have pregnant women or children. hospitals. In response, an 18-car U.S. attempt to strangle the Cuban For more information on how you caravan showed support for Cuban economy intensified, even during can help to open the door to medi- families caravaning in Miami and the pandemic, blocking fuel and cal and scientific collaboration with other cities. Decked out with signs COVID relief to the island. Yet Cuba’s Cuba to save lives, go to SavingLives. calling for an end to the U.S. eco- research and pharmaceutical in- US-CubaNormalization.org. nomic war against Cuba, the pro- dustries have developed not just one The caravan was initiated by the test also called for ending barriers vaccine, but four COVID-19 vaccine Los Angeles U.S. Hands O¦ Cuba to medical and scientific collabo- candidates now in trials. At least one Committee. Cars decorated with ration with Cuba. Spanish language Cuban vaccine can be administered signs and banners spread the mes- TV Telemundo reported the action: through nose drops, really giving sage as they drove from the West- “Instan al gobierno que acepte ayuda hope to the world that everyone can wood Federal Building across Los de enfermeras y médicos cubanos.” be protected from this virus. Angeles to Echo Park. In the fight against COVID-19, While Black, Brown and In- Organizers announced national- digenous U.S. communities suf- ly coordinated actions to take place Cuba’s Henry Reeve Brigade re- SLL PHOTO: SCOTT SCHEFFER sponded to the call from dozens of fer disproportionate deaths from on Jan. 20 that will further the same Los Angeles, Dec. 27. countries on all continents to relieve COVID-19, the U.S. blockade stymies demands. ₪

The Social Evolution BLACK JOIN US! SUPPORT US! of Humanity Socialist Unity Party West Coast office Marx and Engels were right! AUGUST Partido de Socialismo Unido 5278 W. Pico Blvd., Bob McCubbin 1619-2019 Los Angeles., CA 90019 Augments Frederick Engels’ ’Origin of commemorates Struggle-La-Lucha.org Phone: 323.306.6240 the Family, Private Property & the State,’ 400 years of Black Twitter: @StruggleLaLucha East Coast office focusing on social/sexual relations, in 2011 N. Charles St., freedom struggle. Facebook.com/strugglelalucha particular, the social status of women. Baltimore, MD 21218 Paperback or Kindle tinyurl.com/vwarcv7 tinyurl.com/vn3qvn5 email: [email protected] Phone: 443.221.3775 Page 6 Jan. 11, 2021 STRUGGLE H LA LUCHA The trials and tragedy of Duryea Green

By Lev Koufax ing a corrupt Baltimore police task force. The night before his scheduled In 2004 in the Baltimore neigh- testimony, Suiter was found shot by borhood of O’Donnell Heights, two his own service weapon in his pa- teenagers playing basketball were trol car. The police first locked down shot. To this day, it is unclear what the neighborhood where Suiter was exactly happened. found, Harlem Park. The narrative What is clear is that this was a pushed by the BPD was that someone frame-up and the wrong man is in the community murdered Suiter. still in prison for a crime he did not The brutal and racist lockdown last- commit. ed six days. Not long after the lock- Duryea Green was arrested and down ended, Lloyd concluded that charged, convicted and imprisoned Sean Suiter had committed suicide. for the attempted murder of the two To this day, many in Baltimore doubt teenagers. Two witnesses were pres- the veracity of this conclusion. It is sured by police to identify Duryea as commonly assumed by many that the shooter. Suiter was murdered to prevent his SLL: PHOTO The Green family was your typical Andre Powell of the Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly demands: testimony. Given Lloyd’s checkered Free Duryea Green! Baltimore family. Both parents, Van and violent history, it is even possi- and Duryea, worked full time, do- the Baltimore police. One day, James ter than the record of the lead detec- ble he killed Suiter. ing their best to raise two sons. Due Lloyd arrived again at the home; tive on Duryea’s case, James Lloyd. The criminal injustice system to racism, a corrupt police detective however, this time he forced his way and a thoroughly rotten Baltimore into the house. He was accompanied James Lloyd, a corrupt cop Sixteen years later, Duryea Green police department, their lives were by other patrol oˆcers. All of their in a corrupt department remains in prison as the COVID pan- turned upside down. guns were raised. The only people The corruption and racism mani- demic rages; furthermore, Green is In the weeks following the shoot- home at the time were Van and her fest in the Baltimore Police Depart- currently battling cancer and is thus ing, Van Green started to receive two sons. ment is well documented in main- vulnerable to the virus. The Balti- strange visits to her house from the Lloyd and his oˆcers physical- stream news. This heinous record more Peoples Power Assembly along Baltimore City Police Department. ly forced Van onto her couch, guns includes not only a long history of with this publication demand that There were three visits by the in- still raised. Her two young sons were racist murder, but also planting ev- he be released immediately. Frank- vestigating oˆcer, Detective James scared and confused. Lloyd berat- idence, beating suspects, and paying ly, if this article were to detail every Lloyd, who would eventually be pro- ed Van and her sons with questions. witnesses to provide false testimony. injustice committed against Duryea moted to sergeant. During Lloyd’s The family was eventually placed in James Lloyd is a poignant mani- by the police, the courts and his own first visit, he asked for an individual a police van, the same type used in festation of this corruption, demon- attorneys during this process, it named “Darrell Green.” the murder of Freddy Gray, and were strated by two particular incidents could easily fill a book. As this wasn’t Duryea’s name, Van taken to the Southeastern District during his career. The most telling In the United States, we are always told the police that she did not know station. They were held in a cell for example is that James Lloyd is cur- told that the police are here to pro- anyone named Darrell Green. A week over three hours, but not told why. rently being held without bail on tect and serve us. We are told that we later, Detective Lloyd returned and After three hours, Van started to charges of extortion and kidnapping. have the greatest court system in the asked for someone named “Derrick protest and demand to know why she According to court documents, Lloyd world. We are the land of the free and Green.” Again, Van didn’t know a and her children had been thrown in used threats of arrest and kidnap- the home of the brave. How is that Derrick Green. These two requests jail. Several hours after this, Lloyd ping to extort large payments from working for Duryea Green and his were particularly strange because appeared and presented an arrest several individuals. The charging family fighting tooth and nail to get the Green family had lived in the warrant. This warrant is supposed to documents assert that Lloyd had a him home? This case demonstrates same home for ten years. Duryea’s be for Duryea Green, yet the name on pattern of using his position in the what is truly at the heart of the po- name was on the records and known the warrant is “Derrick Green.” To police department to force cash pay- lice, courts and jails in this country. in the community. this day, the name “Derrick” appears ments. The prosecution provided It certainly isn’t justice. Those three The first two times the police vis- in the case file and court documents. such a wealth of evidence that the institutions are committed to the ited the Green home, Duryea was The miscarriage of justice based judge denied bail. It is extremely rare will of the wealthy and the powerful. at work. Eventually, Lloyd inter- on these facts alone is disgraceful. for police oˆcers to be indicted, let Consequently, they adhere to two viewed the couple in their living However, in many ways it is just the alone held without bail. tenets and two tenets alone: racism room. Duryea asserted he could not tip of the iceberg. The state violence As if this wasn’t enough, James and profit. have committed the crime as he was and racism against the Green fam- Lloyd is notorious in the area for Duryea Green deserves better. Op- working at the time. After a brief ily is a stirring example of a bigger being the assigned detective to the pressed communities deserve bet- conversation, Lloyd left. problem: an inherently racist and Sean Suiter case. Sean Suiter was a ter. Community control of the po- For approximately a month, the profit-motivated criminal justice Baltimore police oˆcer set to tes- lice now! Free Mumia! Free Duryea Greens didn’t hear anything from system. Nothing represents this bet- tify before a grand jury investigat- Green! Free them all! ₪ Stop killing prisoners with COVID-19!

By Stephen Millies dormitories. Their beds are not six Winter weather didn’t stop peo- feet apart. Both living arrangements ple from protesting the coronavirus provide ideal breeding grounds for plague that’s being allowed to sweep contracting COVID-19.” through U.S. prisons. Dozens gath- Governors procrastinate ered in front of New York City’s main as prisoners die post oˆce on 8th Avenue on Dec. 15. Other rallies were held in Philadel- Brother Shep —Sadiki Olugbala — phia and Pittsburgh. of the Universal Zulu Nation chaired Prisoners are some of those the rally. When he was 19 years old, most vulnerable to COVID-19. Over Shep joined the Black Panther Party. 200,000 of those locked up — one- Relatives of prisoners talked of out-of-ten inmates — have caught their imprisoned loved ones being the virus. In an outbreak at Califor- refused adequate medical care. A nia’s San Quentin prison, 3,200 in- granddaughter of Mutulu Shakur de- SLL PHOTOS: STEPHEN MILLIES Tarik James Haskins mates fell ill and 28 died. scribed how the 70-year-old political Brother Shep (Sadiki Olugbala) At the New York rally, former po- tacting COVID-19. prisoner has been diagnosed with health conditions that Tarik Haskins litical prisoner and Black Panther “In most prisons four or more cells bone cancer. Yet prison authorities described. Tarik James Haskins described the share the same vent shaft. When delayed giving him a cat scan. Following the rally, people march- dangerous prison conditions: a prisoner in one cell lights up a Baba Zayid Muhammad tore into ed through Manhattan’s Penn Sta- “I spent 17 years in various pris- smoke, all the other prisoners con- the governors of New York, New tion with signs. A final rally was held ons. Consequently, I know prison nected to his vent smell his smoke. Jersey and Pennsylvania. The three across from Macy’s biggest depart- superstructures provide highly fa- “Moreover, those prisoners not Democratic oˆcials have delayed ment store. ₪ vorable breeding grounds for con- housed in cell blocks are housed in freeing prisoners despite the dire STRUGGLE H LA LUCHA jan. 11, 2021 Page 7 What Biden’s cabinet picks show

Many organizations participated in the Dec. 12 — the equivalent of three an hour ing and frequent assassinations of International Human Rights Day: Uniting Beyond 2020 — in 2016. The council admitted that Black and Brown children “of mili- webinar, with speakers addressing the need for con- these numbers were low. Around tary age”? The extrajudicial killings tinued political struggle against policies of war and the same time, a report from mili- and bombings that occurred during the Obama administration occurred poverty promoted by both the Democratic and Repub- tary oˆcials admitted that twice as many civilians were killed as previ- largely in countries around East Af- lican parties in the U.S. and for international solidarity ously reported. rica, including Somalia and Yemen, with working and poor people around the world in their Austin is on the board of Raytheon, and there were mounting numbers struggle against imperialism. The event was organized one of the country’s most powerful of civilians killed on the African by Anakbayan LA, CISPES LA, Students for Justice in defense contractors. Last year, Ray- continent by U.S. terrorism. Again, if theon received more than $16 billion Rice couldn’t see the racial injustice Palestine/UCLA, the Palestinian Youth Movement, John Parker of U.S. imperialist war, why would Unión del Barrio, the African Peoples in federal government contracts, the fourth-most of any company. Rice see it in Black and Brown occu- Socialist Party, Bayan-SoCal, the Black chair of the Council of Eco- Imperialist war, however, is also a pied communities? Socialist Unity Party, the Student nomic Advisers (CEA). domestic war, and this may be why Regarding climate change, unfor- Labor Advocacy Group and others. The fact remains, however, that Susan Rice, former national securi- tunately it’s business as usual with Following is the talk given by John the capitalist state needs repression ty adviser under Obama, was chosen the appointment of John Kerry as the Parker, representing the Socialist Unity to maintain inequality and exploita- as Biden’s pick for White House Do- head of Biden’s climate change ef- fort. Kerry told National Public Radio Party, who spoke on Biden’s proposed tion of our class and, with regard to mestic Policy Council. The job is sup- economics, their goal is to main- posed to, among other things, help that he was relying on the market — cabinet and administration and its tain profits and the exploitation that fight racial injustice. However, Rice, the same market that failed miser- essentially pro-business, pro-war, keeps us in poverty for the sake of along with another Biden pick, John ably in supplying health and safety pro-cop, anti-worker character. their profits. Kerry, pushed Obama toward bomb- equipment during this pandemic. By John Parker Biden made that clear during a ing. And, as national security adviser The market is in search of profits, campaign event to rich donors in under Obama, Rice was an integral not the saving of humanity. And the Sometimes the ruling class will the summer of 2019, where he said part of Obama’s use of drones for as- two goals are often irreconcilable. use the real issue and need for repre- that “no one’s standard of living sassinations and admittedly pushed The ruling class is willing to run sentation of the oppressed in a cyn- will change, nothing would funda- Obama toward the war against and humanity over the cli¦ of nonexis- ical way to further more oppression mentally change.” At an event by the destruction of Libya. tence with its irrational allegiance to and exploitation against our class. Poor People’s Campaign that he at- According to an article in the capitalism and profit. This explains That’s what’s going on with regard tended, he said the opposite. Guardian, Obama increased drone Biden’s cabinet, which will be pre- to Biden’s new cabinet picks. With regard to war, Biden’s pick strikes by ten times from the pre- dominantly made up of the enablers Records are being broken in his for U.S. secretary of defense is re- ceding former President Bush. To of capitalism’s many diseases, along selection of the first Black woman as tired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, who attempt to justify this legally, they with war criminals who belong in vice president, Kamala Harris, who led the U.S. Central Command from categorized all males of military a jail and not in oˆce. Therefore, it is so pro-cop she’s against even the 2013 to 2016 under Obama. Austin age in these regions as combat- will take a unified movement of our most minimal demands to end po- would be the first African American ants, “making them fair game for working class to promote and fight lice repression. And then there are secretary of defense. remote-controlled killing.” for a society that puts the control of cabinet appointments, including Austin was in the U.S. military If Rice was part of and encouraged the resources and the land and fac- the first woman to run the Treasury when, as reported by the Council of this type of racial profiling with tories in the hands of the people, not Department, the first Black depu- Foreign Relations, the U.S. dropped the use of military weapons, why the profiteers. That’s why we must ty treasury secretary and the first an average of 72 bombs every day would Rice be opposed to the profil- fight for socialism. ₪ Trump’s racist revenge executions

By Stephen Millies out Black votes, Trump wants to ex- ecute as many Black, Indigenous and During his final days in the White Latinx people as he can. The only House, Trump is executing more reason Trump hasn’t executed any prisoners than any U.S. president has Latinx prisoners is because those on since the 1950s. Starting on Bastille federal death row haven’t exhausted Day (July 14) this year, 10 prisoners their appeals. have been put to death by the U.S. Trump has a special hatred for government. Indigenous people. He refuses to Five of those executed were Black pardon Leonard Peltier. The framed and one was Indigenous. The men- American Indian Movement leader tally disabled Black man Alfred has spent 44 years in federal prisons. Bourgeois was executed on Dec. 11, Trump lost Arizona by just 10,457 despite the opposition of Supreme votes. But he lost Arizona’s Apache Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. County — which is 77% Indigenous Two more Black men — Cory — by 11,854 votes. Johnson and Dustin John Higgs — Trump’s lust for revenge is shared are awaiting execution. by his Proud Boy supporters. The From left, Alfred Bourgeois, Cory Johnson, Dustin Higgs, Lisa Montgomery Trump also wants to kill Lisa fascists attacked two historic Black and Brandon Bernard. Montgomery, a white woman who churches in Washington, D.C., on GRAPHIC: FIGHTING WORDS su¦ered psychosis from childhood Dec. 12 and set Black Lives Matter Yemen were executed by Trump. Two the Democratic Party is for 125,000 rapes. Montgomery would be the first banners on fire. million Yemeni children su¦ering new state prison cells.” woman executed by the U.S. gov- from severe malnutrition are being Biden changed his position on the Many more executed by Trump ernment since Ethel Rosenberg was slowly executed by Trump. death penalty only because of the burned to death in the electric chair Those killed on federal death row Will Biden be any di¦erent? Black Lives Matter movement with for allegedly typing spy reports. are just a small percentage of those The president-elect says he’s now over 20 million people in the streets. Killing people by lethal injection executed by Trump. He bragged against the death penalty. So is Vice In 1988, George Bush-the-First doesn’t satisfy Trump. His Justice about ordering U.S. Marshals to exe- President-elect Kamala Harris. defeated the Democratic presidential Department changed the rules to al- cute anti-racist activist Michael Re- Biden was singing another tune candidate Michael Dukakis by 7 mil- low prisoners to be electrocuted or inoehl on Sept. 3 without a trial. when he was a U.S. senator. He voted lion votes. The elder Bush ran rac- Brother Shep (Sadiki Olugbala) shot by a firing squad. Crucifixions Trump also executed Iranian Maj. for the Antiterrorism and E¦ective ist ads about Willie Horton, a Black are still a no-no. Gen. Qassem Soleimani by a drone Death Penalty Act of 1996. Some of prisoner, and emphasized Dukakis’ The wave of executions is Trump’s strike in Baghdad on Jan. 3, 2020. The those executed by Trump were killed opposition to the death penalty. revenge for losing the election by 7 Iraqi government wasn’t consult- under its provisions. Thirty-two years later, Joe Biden, million votes. The billionaire pres- ed about assassinating the father of Biden declared that “the liberal running on an anti-death penalty ident blames Black, Indigenous and two children. wing of the Democratic Party is now platform, defeated Donald Trump Latinx voters for his defeat. Thousands of children and adults for 60 new death penalties. The lib- by 7 million votes. Biden’s 81 million While Rudy Giuliani and other killed by drones and bombs in Af- eral wing of the Democratic Party is Continued on page 11 Trump lawyers are trying to throw ghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia and for 100,000 cops. The liberal wing of Page 8 Jan. 11, 2021 STRUGGLE H LA LUCHA Blood and Oil and Trump and Biden Trump seeks war on Iran to save U.S.

By Bill Dores pany’s $8 billion debt. Chevron has wants to build an international alli- state. In return, the U.S. would open- now replaced ExxonMobil (XOM) as ance that outlasts his presidency. ly recognize Morocco’s annexation The Trump regime sees war with the largest U.S. oil monopoly. On Dec. 10, U.S. B-52 bombers of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Re- Iran as its salvation. They’re using On Oct. 20, the racist Israeli regime based in Louisiana flew another run public. The king, who has a person- his last legal weeks in oˆce to pro- and the United Arab Emirates signed over the Arab/Persian Gulf o¦ the al fortune of $2.1 billion, spent $3.5 voke one. The racist state of Isra- a deal to transport UAE oil to Europe coast of Iran. Saudi, Bahraini and billion of his people’s money on U.S. el is their advance guard and agent via occupied Palestine. The oil would Qatari warplanes — made in the USA arms this year. provocateur. Israeli Prime Minister travel through the Eilat-Ashkelon — flew with them. The ‘supermajors’ Benjamin Netanyahu is a partner in Pipeline, built to bring Iran’s U.S.- Murder in Iraq and Yemen the crime. owned oil to Europe in the Shah’s Powerful forces in the U.S. rul- It’s not about Iran’s peaceful nu- time. There is now talk of a direct The Trump regime has worked ing class are wary of Trump’s war clear energy program. Or Trump’s pipeline from Saudi-occupied Arabia desperately to provoke war with schemes in the Arab/Persian Gulf, ego and legal woes. It’s a last-ditch to the Mediterranean across stolen Iran. Last Jan. 3, 2020, Trump or- unless they can be assured of a quick e¦ort to bail out the fracking bil- Palestinian land. dered the assassination of Iranian victory and that they would reap the lionaires who own Trump and the Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad. benefits. U.S. & Israel: partners for war Republican Party, and prevent the Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi Al Mo- They worry about its impact on collapse of the U.S. fossil fuel indus- On Nov. 27, in a brazen terrorist handas was also murdered in the their European and Asian invest- try. attack, an Israeli death squad mur- U.S. drone strike. The two had led ments, the price of oil and the value Fracking — the hydraulic frac- dered Dr. Mohsen Fakrizadeh, di- the fight against ISIS and al-Qaida in of the U.S.’s No. 1 export: the dollar. turing of oil and gas from shale rock rector of Iran’s Center for Defensive Iraq and Syria. Bankers fear war would disrupt the — is the cornerstone of Trump’s Innovation and Research. They am- Gen. Soleimani was in Iraq to meet flow of petrodollars that the ruling fantasy of “U.S. energy dominance.” bushed him on his way to visit his Saudi representatives about reduc- families of the Arabian peninsula He tells his followers it’s a recipe for family. Dr. Fakrizadeh helped Iran ing tensions. On Sept. 22, Trump pour into their vaults. peace. But in fact the fracking indus- produce its own medical equipment, bragged about the assassinations in The four energy “supermajors” try needs endless war to survive. And including a COVID-19 test kit. Trump a hate filled rant to the United Na- — XOM, Chevron, British Petroleum the idea of “U.S. energy dominance” retweeted an Israeli post praising tions General Assembly. and Royal Dutch Shell — made huge is genocidal and insane. his murder. Following the assassinations, on profits o¦ the wars in Iraq, Libya and A week before Dr. Fakrizadeh’s Jan. 10, Iraq’s parliament voted that Syria. Now they share the crisis of Blood and fracking murder, Trump’s Secretary of State U.S. troops should leave the country. their industry. They have lost tens of The “shale revolution” that once Pompeo met Israeli Prime Minis- The Trump regime refused. billions of dollars this year. enchanted bankers and investors ter Netanyahu in Jerusalem. Bah- It has also escalated the war in Ye- In January, Chevron wrote o¦ $11 was a product of the energy-price rain’s Foreign Minister Abdullat- men. In March, U.S. Marines invaded billion in fracking investments. In boom caused by the 2003 Iraq War. if Al Zayani joined them there. As the Yemeni island of Socotra. They August, BP — registered in Britain It was an artificial bubble, sustained Pompeo arrived in occupied Pales- came to back up UAE forces in the but controlled by U.S. investors — for over a decade by bloody wars and tine, Israel’s made-in-the-USA air genocidal war against Yemen. Israeli reported a $17 billion second-quar- cruel sanctions. force attacked Damascus Interna- troops joined them there. ter loss. XOM, once the crown jewel It has now burst. Hundreds of tional Airport in Syria. Every 10 minutes, a Yemeni child of the Rockefeller empire, lost its billions of dollars have been lost. War criminal Elliot Abrams, dies from the brutal blockade that 92-year-old spot on S&P’s Dow Jones Mountains of debt cannot be repaid. Trump’s “special representative” on the U.S., Saudi Arabia and the UAE Industrial Average. On Dec. 1, the oil The Trump regime is trying desper- Iran and Venezuela, met Netanyahu have imposed on that impoverished giant wrote o¦ $20 billion in U.S. ately to reinflate it. on Nov. 9. Abrams, who served under land. domestic assets, the biggest down- The shale debacle turned many Ronald Reagan and both Bushes, has In 2019, Trump vetoed bills re- grade in its history. on Wall Street against Trump. But a long record of involvement with stricting U.S. involvement in that Their most important strength in he retains a base among those cap- covert operations and death squads. war and ending U.S. arms sales to the world market is their relation- italists whose fortunes depend on He was pardoned by George H.W. Saudi Arabia. ship with Saudi Aramco, which owns fracking. Bush for lying to Congress about U.S. On Dec. 11, Steve Mnuchin’s Trea- the biggest and cheapest oil reserves Those fortunes are collapsing with crimes in Central America. sury Department put sanctions on in the world. They once owned it the price of oil, and Trump’s politi- On Nov. 21, the U.S. Air Force dis- five Yemeni oˆcials. The White outright, when it was the Arabi- cal fortune with them. The fracking patched B-52 bombers to the Ara- House says it will add Yemen’s Ansa- an-American Oil Company. They still barons are desperate for subsidies, bian/Persian Gulf. They flew over rullah government — the “Houthis” control most of its exports. They also tax breaks and an end to environ- Israeli-occupied Palestine before — to the State Department terror list. operate in Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain and mental regulation. landing in Qatar. Pompeo was in Qa- Aid organizations say that that will the UAE. With those resources, they They are also desperate for an oil tar that day. make it harder to bring humanitar- dominate the Asian energy market. war. Not a war to “get oil” — con- On Nov. 23, Pompeo and Netanya- ian aid to the war-ravaged country. The Big Four have close ties to JP- trary to popular belief, the U.S. has hu were in Saudi-occupied Arabia for On Dec. 9, Iran sanctioned U.S. Morgan Chase and Citibank, which never, ever gone to war for that pur- a secret meeting with Crown Prince Ambassador to Yemen Christopher “manage” hundreds of billions of pose. Rather, a war to restrict supply Mohamed Bin Salman. As they met, Henzel for his role in the humani- Gulf State petrodollars. XOM owns and drive up prices, profits and rates Yemeni Resistance missiles hit a Sau- tarian catastrophe there. much of the Saudi petrochemical in- of return. That’s what Washington’s di ARAMCO oil storage site in Jeddah. dustry. Trump’s ‘peace deals’ are war moves 30-year war in the “Middle East” The Saudis deny this meeting hap- Those companies owned Iran’s (Western Asia and North Africa) is pened. Reports say the Saudi prince War with Iran is the object of oil when the U.S. puppet Shah was all about. is reluctant to risk war with Iran. Trump’s vaunted “Abraham Ac- in power. When the Iranian peo- Like the U.S. ruling class, the House cords.” That’s what he calls the ple overthrew the tyrant in 1979, Stealing Palestine’s gas of Saud is riven with factions. “peace deal” he “brokered” between they lost a gold mine. They dream of Also involved is the fate of Secre- On Nov. 30, the U.S. aircraft carrier Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates overthrowing the Islamic Republic tary of State Mike Pompeo’s pet East Nimitz and its strike group of guid- and the Israeli occupation regime in and making Iran a colony again. Mediterranean Pipeline Project, a ed-missile cruisers and destroyers Palestine. But a war that disrupts Arabi- U.S.-Israeli scheme to bring stolen entered the Arab/Persian Gulf o¦ the Bahrain is over 1,200 miles from an energy production or closes the Palestinian gas to Europe. Its inves- coast of Iran. Palestine. The UAE is more than Straits of Hormuz could make their tors dream of challenging Russia for On Dec. 1, Israeli media reported a 1,600 miles away. Neither state has bad situation worse. They don’t want the European energy market. drone attack on Iran’s Islamic Revo- ever been at war with Israel. Bah- to lose vital markets to Russia — The racist state of Israel has al- lutionary Guard Corps soldiers at the rain is, however, only 480 miles over which they see as their main com- ways been Washington’s hit man Iraq-Syria border. The IRGC is helping open water from Iran. The UAE is petitor — or lose out to their rivals in the region — a highly paid one. both countries fight U.S.- and Sau- just over 600 miles away. That’s 20 in the U.S. fracking industry. Trump Washington props Israel up with an di-funded terrorists. It also claimed and 30 minutes respectively as the helped his friends at Cheniere Ener- endless stream of arms and dollars. the assassination of an Iranian oˆ- F-35 stealth fighter flies. gy score liquefied natural gas (LNG) Within that relationship, the Repub- cial in oil-rich Ahwaz province. The U.S. has already gifted Israel supply contracts with China and lican Party and Netanyahu’s Likud On Dec. 2, Pompeo was back in Ri- two squadrons of F-35s. On Dec. 9, South Korea this year. Party have a special alliance. yadh, this time with Trump’s son- the U.S. Senate approved Trump’s $23 “Middle East Escalation Threatens Their ties grew stronger in 2010, in-law and adviser Jared Kushner billion arms sales to the UAE. Fifty Global Chemical Supply, Demand,” when Texas-based Noble Energy and a “team.” Kushner has built a F-35s are included in the sale. Lock- Business & Industry Connection began drilling for gas in the stolen real estate empire with Saudi and Is- heed Martin keeps a production line magazine warned after the Soleima- waters o¦ the coast of Palestine. No- raeli cash. running to supply F-35s to Bahrain. ni assassination. ble built close links with the Trump Kushner also went to Qatar to meet On Dec. 10, Trump announced Like the frackers, the supermajors campaign in 2016. In October 2020, Prince Hamid Khalifa and bring him that U.S.-backed King Mohammed want higher prices. But the prices oil giant Chevron acquired Noble for into the anti-Iran alliance. The rul- VI of Morocco would also “normal- $5 billion. It also assumed the com- ing-class faction behind Trump ize” relations with the Israeli settler Continued on page 9 STRUGGLE H LA LUCHA jan. 11, 2021 Page 9 fracking industry

Continued from page 8 unleash federal troops against Na- the frackers need would also boost tive water protectors blocking the the renewable energy and electric pipeline. Trump personally invested vehicle industries. In their fight for in ETP and Phillips 66, which owns the world market, the supermajors 25% of DAPL. need access to cheaper production. The Guardian also mentioned Trump donors Harold Hamm of ‘Game of Thrones’ in Washington: Continental Resources, Je¦ Hildeb- Persian Gulf vs. Permian Basin rand of Hilcorp, John Catsimatidis of Former XOM CEO Rex Tillerson United Refining Co., Syed Anwar of was Trump’s first secretary of state. Midland Energy, Robert Murray of He said it was in the “U.S. interest” to Murray Energy and Joe Craft of Al- stay in the Iran nuclear deal. Trump liance Resource Partners. Joe Craft is fired him in March 2018. Secretary married to Kelly Craft, Trump’s rep- Persian Gulf Star Co. oil processing plant in Bandar Abbas, Iran, in 2019. of Defense Jim Mattis agreed with resentative to the United Nations. Tillerson. He was gone by the end of She introduced his hate-Iran talk at for storage. It wasn’t just the COVID sands of Iraqi people died. Five mil- that year. the General Assembly in September pandemic. There was a price war be- lion children became orphans. Six Trump replaced Tillerson with CIA by bragging about U.S. intervention tween Russia and Saudi Arabia. million people became refugees. Director Mike Pompeo. In his time in Syria. “Bloodbath For America’s Oil In the U.S., skyrocketing fuel pric- on Capitol Hill, Pompeo was known Other big capitalists who’ve bet Frackers As Saudis Declare Price es forced poor families to choose as the “Congressman from Koch.” big on Trump and fracking in- War On Russia” was the headline of a between heating and eating. Lakota Koch Industries gets most of its rev- clude Blackstone Group’s Steven March 9 article in Forbes magazine. elders on the Pine Ridge reservation enue from North American energy Schwarzman, Ken Fisher of Fish- Here is how Forbes described the burned their clothes for fuel. Vene- operations. It also competes with er Investments, Texas banker Andy situation: “Oil companies are su¦er- zuela’s Bolivarian government led XOM in the petrochemical industry. Beal, John Paulson of Paulson & ing massive share price losses, with by Hugo Chávez donated heating oil For Koch, a devastating war in the Co., Jack Fusco of Cheniere Energy, ExxonMobil down 10%, Chevron 13% to help poor and oppressed commu- Arab/Persian Gulf would be a wind- Henry Kravis of KKR, Marc Rowan and BP 19%. Shares in Saudi Aramco nities in the United States. The U.S. fall. As it would be for all the frack- of Apollo Global Management, Paul also lost about 10%, sending the im- government didn’t care. ing barons and speculators behind Singer of Elliot Management, and plied market cap of the world’s big- For Big Oil and Wall Street, the war Trump. They don’t have access to the Hunts and the Wilks brothers. gest oil giant down to $1.6 trillion— was a bonanza. To these modern-day the oil and gas of West Asia, Afri- Oil-money heirs Timothy Mellon down 20% from its December high. plunderers, Iraq was what the silver ca and South America. The super- and Ross Perot Jr. also gave big to the “Those losses are modest. The mines of Potosí were to the 16th-cen- majors have locked them out. They Trump campaign. pain is much more acute among the tury Spanish conquistadores. Except don’t have interlocking directorates Schwarzman has since called for heavily indebted, high-cost shale in this case, the plunder came not with transnational banks and cor- Trump to accept the election results. frackers like Chesapeake Energy from enslavement and exploitation porations or their vast cash reserves. So has energy magnate Charles Koch, (–22%), EOG Resources (–30%), Oc- but from simple destruction. They want to follow in the footsteps who helped put the Manhattan real cidental Petroleum (–35%), Mara- of the Rockefellers, Pews and Mel- estate parasite in the White House. thon Oil (–40%) and Diamondback Accumulation by destruction lons: robber barons who became mo- No doubt promises have been made. Energy (–48%) so far today. In 2002, before U.S. invaders de- nopolists. They are a century too late. Trump’s biggest lie “At the beginning of 2020 oil pric- stroyed Iraq’s state-owned oil in- Their profits come from the es were just above $60 per barrel — dustry, the price of West Texas In- In the Oct. 22 presidential debate, Permian Basin in the southwestern even that was scarcely high enough termediate crude, a benchmark used Trump told a whopper even by his U.S. — a region stolen from Mexico for American drillers to break even. by the oil industry, hovered around standards. “We are energy indepen- and Indigenous peoples — not the Now all of a sudden we’ve nearly $20 a barrel. By April 2003, when dent for the first time,” he claimed. Persian Gulf. Yet they are no less revisited the lows of $26 last seen U.S. tanks rolled into Baghdad, WTI “We don’t need all of these coun- imperialist than their blue-chip during the price war of 2016.” crude was over $40 a barrel. By 2007, tries that we had to fight wars over cousins. They too must follow the The Financial Times of March 29 it hit $79 a barrel. XOM and Chevron because we needed their energy. We iron law of capital: expand or die. declared, “Wall Street calls time on saw their profits rise nearly 300%. are energy independent.” They too are in constant struggle the shale revolution.” Then, the 2007 subprime mort- But even Trump knows that Wash- with declining rates of profit. They What did Trump do? In words, he gage meltdown hit. Prices fell back ington’s 30-year war in the “Middle too must conserve the value of their tweeted, “Good for drivers, low gas to $30 a barrel. In January 2008, the East’’ is not about getting oil. He capital and find new outlets for its prices.” But in deeds, he ordered the U.S. Navy provoked a confrontation knows it’s a war for monopoly, to profitable investment. U.S. Strategic Reserve to buy oil and with Iran in the Straits of Hormuz. control the world’s energy reserves That law has driven every U.S. im- drive up prices. Then he gave the In March, the Bush regime imposed and revenues. Trump basically ad- perialist war since President Wil- Saudis an ultimatum: Stop the price new sanctions on Iran, Sudan, Syria mitted that a year ago when he or- liam McKinley invaded Cuba, Puerto war and cut production. If not, the and Venezuela. dered U.S. troops to seize Syria’s oil Rico and the Philippines in 1898. U.S. would end military support for By July, oil prices soared to $147 a fields. He o¦ered them to XOM. The billionaires who own Trump the genocide in Yemen. barrel. It was XOM’s most profitable Trump also knows that the U.S. year ever. The oil giant’s market cap Who are they? “Big oil remem- fracking industry cannot survive War in Iraq made fracking profitable hit $504 billion. It was $234 billion bers ‘friend’ Trump with millions in without endless war. The year 2020 has been the ener- in 2002, the year before the invasion campaign funds,” the British Guard- gy industry’s worst year since 1998. of Iraq. ian reported August 9. The headline Fracking barons need war That’s when the collapse of the Rus- Mass murder in Iraq made prof- Fracking is not only environmen- is misleading. sian ruble drove prices below $10 a itable the DAPL and Keystone XL The capitalists behind Trump are tally destructive. It is very expensive. barrel. That crash happened despite pipelines, the plunder of Canada’s It costs from $45 to $90 per barrel very rich indeed. But they are not the murderous sanctions on Iraq im- tar sands, and mountaintop remov- from among the shrinking club of gi- to extract a barrel of oil from North posed by the first Bush regime. Bill al projects in Appalachia. Or so it American shale. Pumping a barrel of ant multinationals that made up Big Clinton continued the Bush sanc- seemed. crude in Iran or Iraq costs less than Oil. They are “new money” oil drill- tions, hoping to induce U.S. oil firms Shelved projects like BP’s Ba- $10. A barrel of heavy crude from ers and speculators, corporate “out- to invest in the former USSR. ku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline from the Venezuela’s Orinoco Belt costs about siders.” Their fortunes multiplied in The year 1998 was also the year Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean $12 to pump. A barrel from Arabia’s the energy-price boom created by the that Texas wildcatter George W. and XOM’s Chad-Cameroon Pipeline giant Ghawar Field costs less than $3. Iraq War. The biggest banks flooded Mitchell patented the technology in West Africa became realities. XOM A barrel of bitumen oil from Can- them with cash. They are deep in debt that the fracking industry uses to- and Saudi Aramco built a huge refin- ada’s Athabascan tar sands costs $85 and fighting to survive. day. It took the 2003 invasion of Iraq ery in Tianjin, China. to produce. The Koch brothers made The Iraq War pushed them into to make it profitable. The slaughter unleashed a billions there after the Iraq War. the big leagues. Trump got them the The entire U.S. ruling class and 21st-century gold rush into the shale They abandoned their leases there White House. They don’t want to give political establishment united be- plays and tar sands of North Ameri- last year. it up. hind the Iraq War, and the invasion ca. Credit flowed like a river. “Non- Meanwhile, the onward march of The Guardian article describes a of Afghanistan before that. Sen. Joe performing” loans became “per- technology is making renewable en- fundraising gala for Trump at bil- Biden of Delaware was the cheer- forming” loans. “Nonproductive” lionaire Kelcy Warren’s “palatial ergy — wind, solar, fuel cells, etc. — leader from the Democratic side of assets became “productive” assets. Dallas, Texas, home.” Warren’s cheaper and more practical, threat- the aisle. Millionaires and billionaires became ening the future of fossil fuels. company, Energy Transfer Partners, multibillionaires. In April, the price of oil fell to -$40 Blood feast in Iraq is majority owner and operator of XOM and Chevron competed with the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). a barrel — that is, below the cost of The U.S. invasion of Iraq devastat- Trump’s first act in oˆce was to production. Oil companies had to pay ed that country. Hundreds of thou- Continued on page 10 Page 10 Jan. 11, 2021 STRUGGLE H LA LUCHA Trump seeks war on Iran to save U.S. fracking industry

Continued from page 8 downward. In February, the U.S.- ical conspiracy by certain countries “new money” wildcatters and spec- backed coup in Ukraine threatened against the interest of the region and ulators for fields once thought mar- Russian energy shipments to Europe. the Islamic world.” ginal. The biggest banks competed “Oil hovers near $108 as Ukrainian The U.S. fracking industry also to finance them all. crisis worsens,” CNN reported on took a beating, however. To the su- that he had planned to order the Shale oil, bitumen, o¦shore drill- April 14, 2014. Foreign A¦airs mag- permajors it was all good. They had murder of Syrian President Bashar ing, coal, even ethanol, all flour- azine, the organ of the Council on huge cash reserves, ties to the big- Assad. He said Secretary of Defense ished. Firms like General Electric Foreign Relations, devoted its spring gest banks, and cheap oil and gas James Mattis restrained him. and Berkshire Hathaway poured issue to the glorious future fracking from around the world. If the “inde- The exit of Tillerson and Mattis money into fracking. Four of the top would bring. pendent“ drillers went under, they marked the breaking of the alliance 10 companies on Fortune’s 500 list Russian gas kept flowing west, could buy up their assets and take that put Trump in the White House. for 2009 were energy companies. however. And east. In May 2014, their place in the next boom. The most desperate “new money” XOM was No. 1. In 2020, only XOM Russia and China agreed to build a “Exxon Could Be the Big Winner oil interests and speculators were remained, at No. 3. $55-billion gas pipeline, called Pow- of the Oil Crash,” wrote Bloomberg now in charge. They were less in- The flood of investment in North er of Siberia, from Yakutsk to China. News on Feb. 2, 2015. terested in invasion and occupation A second pipeline deal was signed than the quick profits of destruction. American shale paid o¦ big in Fracking barons revolt, bring in Israel that September. War with Iran was their priority. Obama’s second term. In 2013, the Then the Obama White House an- In July 2014, Russian President Everything the Trump regime has U.S. Energy Information Agency de- nounced progress on the Iran nu- Vladimir Putin toured Latin Amer- done in the last two years — from clared that the U.S. had replaced Rus- clear deal (JCPOA), which could lead ica, meeting Fidel Castro, Daniel troop redeployments to the court- sia and Saudi Arabia as the world’s to lifting sanctions. “Iran’s Nuclear Ortega, Nicolás Maduro and Bra- ing of Turkey’s President Recep Er- top petroleum producer. (Trump, of Deal Could Open Oil Flood,” Mur- zilian President Dilma Roussef. In doğan — should be seen in that con- course, claims it happened on his doch’s Wall Street Journal warned Havana, Putin announced that Cu- text. watch and that he made it possible.) (March 15, 2015). ba’s $32-billion debt to Russia was An example of the conflicts inside (Full disclosure: Rupert Murdoch Capitalist bubbles always burst canceled. Russia agreed to help Cuba the ruling class was Trump’s April sits on the board of New Jersey-based But the boom was not without develop newly discovered oil depos- 21, 2020, order to Chevron to stop Genie Energy, which had a contract downsides for the U.S. capitalist its in its waters, pledged more aid to drilling in Venezuela. It was good to explore for oil in the Israeli-occu- class as a whole. High oil prices hurt Venezuela and to help build a canal for Trump’s fracking bosses and bad pied Golan Heights. The project was such sectors as airlines, retail, auto across Nicaragua. for Venezuela. But it was also bad for found to be “not commercially via- sales, trucking and delivery compa- Washington responded with a ma- Chevron. ble” — prices weren’t high enough.) nies and online retailers dependent jor strategy shift, from doomed ef- The frackers rebelled. Their polit- The new regime on them (including Amazon). forts to restrict supply to “predato- ical servants in the Republican Party High prices helped oil-producing ry pricing.” Ida Tarbell popularized What will Joe Biden do? The same invited Israel’s Netanyahu to address countries free themselves from that term in the late 19th century to as every other U.S. president has a hate-Iran, hate-Obama rally in the the grip of U.S. finance capital. describe a tactic John D. Rockefel- done: What he’s told. Capitol on March 3, 2015. It was an They empowered the Venezuelan- ler’s Standard Oil trust used to crush Presidents, including Trump, are unprecedented action. led ALBA bloc in South and Cen- its competitors. The Reagan regime not decision makers. They are paid In June 2015, Trump threw his hat tral America and Libyan leader and Saudi Arabia used it in the 1980s actors hired by ruling class factions. into the ring. He made tearing up the Muammar Qadaˆ’s vision of an against the Soviet Union. There will be a fight over which rul- JCPOA a plank on his platform. He also African central bank and a gold- In June 2014, Secretary of State ing class faction does the telling. said Saudi Arabia should have nucle- backed pan-African currency. John Kerry met Saudi King Abdullah In monopoly capitalist states, fi- ar weapons. And he raved against The Chávez government in Vene- in Riyadh. According to Reuters, Ker- nance capital is the ultimate power. Obama’s alleged “war on coal.” zuela was able to build 500,000 units ry and Abdallah “briefly discussed oil But even the bankers are not their Price wars are easier to start than of rent-free housing and even help supplies.” In reality, the U.S. ordered own masters. The sands of the world to finish. Capitalist market forces poor and oppressed communities in its Saudi clients to ramp up produc- economy shift constantly beneath don’t advance or retreat on com- the U.S. It also strengthened Russia tion and flood the world oil markets. their feet. They are slaves to the mand. By 2016, even the superma- economically and militarily. A surge The two met again in September. ceaseless battle of capital against jors were hurting. In April, Standard of Russian direct overseas invest- On Nov. 27, at an OPEC minis- crisis and contraction, which de- & Poor’s stripped XOM of its AAA ment challenged Wall Street. ters’ meeting in Vienna, the Saudis fines the monopoly capitalist era. credit rating. It had held that rating But the biggest problem was capi- blocked production cuts. When the The Biden regime is also a co- since the Great Depression, when the talism itself. When prices and profits Saudis opened their taps, everyone alition. It faces the same contra- company was known as Standard Oil boom, capitalists will produce and else had to do the same. The price of dictions as Trump’s does. There is of New Jersey. invest more than “the market can oil plummeted. By January 2015, it the clash between the position of The Saudis and the UAE also chafed bear.” Collapse follows. Every cap- was back below $40 a barrel. U.S. monopoly capital in the world at Washington’s low price diktat. italist bubble bursts. Every boom The Saudis got paid o¦ in March economy and the need and right of They threatened to cut back on U.S. leads to a crash. 2015, with U.S. support for their war oppressed nations to develop their arms contracts. They funneled mon- In 2009, XOM spent $30 billion to against Yemen. own productive forces. There is a buy fracking giant XTO. The firm ey to the Trump campaign. constant battle for position between Another kind of war was No. 5 on Fortune’s list of “100 Trump’s rebellion of oil billionaires capitalist factions, which intensifies U.S. corporate media, which pre- in times of economic contraction. fastest-growing companies.” The Donald Trump’s campaign was tend the Saudi kingdom is an inde- It often appears as a fight over purchase made the biggest U.S. oil neither a Russian plot nor a popu- pendent country, played the price grand strategy, but usually comes company the biggest gas producer in list upsurge. It was a rebellion of the war as an attack on U.S. producers: down to who gets what. Both are ex- North America. fossil fuel industry against low pric- OPEC vs. Texas. “Oil prices keep pressions of the contradiction be- Financial analysts now say that es, environmental regulations and plummeting as OPEC starts a price tween the explosive growth of hu- the purchase was the worst decision the Obama administration’s retreat war with the U.S.,” Vox news report- man productivity and the fetters of the XOM ever made. On Dec. 1, 2020, from military confrontation with ed dutifully. But in fact, the “price capitalist ownership. That contradic- the giant wrote o¦ XTO as a $20 bil- Iran and Syria. war” was waged in collaboration tion leads inevitably to crisis and war. lion loss. In December 2016, the Obama with both Washington and the oil The real interests of work- White House ordered work stopped From restricting supply supermajors who export and market ing-class and oppressed people in on the DAPL pipeline. It was a part- to predatory pricing most Saudi oil. this country are opposed to those of ing shot against the frackers. Trump The Obama administration’s wars Rightwing military analyst Ralph monopoly capital. We have nothing lifted the stop-work order and un- inflated the bubble further. Peters (USA Lt. Col. ret.) called it to gain from U.S. banks and invest- leashed federal troops against In- The year 2011 was a bloody year. more honestly. “Saudi Arabia’s oil ment funds being at the center of the digenous water protectors. The U.S. and its NATO allies bombed war against Iran and Russia” was world economy. Imagine how much In January 2017, the Saudis made Libya and murdered Muammar Qa- how he described it in Rupert Mur- better o¦ we would be in a world of major production cuts and most of daˆ. It joined with the Saudis, the doch’s New York Post (Dec. 14, 2014). cooperation, not competition, de- OPEC followed. “Saudis cut oil out- UAE and Israel to arm and fund a “Did you know there’s an oil war? struction and plunder. put to lowest in 2 years, pledge fur- mercenary war in Syria. That war And the war has an objective: to Shut down the U.S. Central Com- ther reductions,” Reuters reported has raged for nine years and tak- destroy Russia,” Venezuelan Pres- mand! Bring home all the troops, (Jan. 12, 2107). en hundreds of thousands of lives. ident Nicolás Maduro said on Dec. ships, planes, spies and other weap- It has blocked construction of the 29, 2014. “It’s a strategically planned Trump wanted to assassinate ons and agents of destruction! End planned Friendship Pipeline, a proj- war ... also aimed at Venezuela, to try Syria’s president the sanctions! End all U.S. aid to the ect to bring natural gas from Iran and destroy our revolution and cause In April 2017, Trump did what racist state of Israel! and Iraq to the Mediterranean. an economic collapse.” Obama backed down from doing in Make the arms plants manufac- The U.S. also imposed new sanc- “The fall of the oil prices is not just September 2013. He ordered the first ture vaccines, ventilators, medical tions on Iran, Sudan and Venezuela. something ordinary and econom- direct U.S. attack on Syrian govern- equipment and PPE, not weapons of Oil prices stayed over $90 a barrel. ical, this is not due to only global ment forces: a missile strike on the destruction. Money for health care, Nonetheless, by January 2014, recession,” said Iran’s Prime Min- Syrian airbase at Al Shayrat. In Sep- housing, schools and the people, not overproduction was driving prices ister Hassan Rouhani. “It is a polit- tember 2020, Trump told Fox News endless war! ₪ STRUGGLE H LA LUCHA jan. 11, 2021 Page 11 Spies are going to spy. Five questions on the so-called Russian hack

By Gary Wilson around the world downloaded a software update for the SolarWinds 5. Was this an act of war? “Russian Hackers Broke Into Fed- Orion network management tools Cybersecurity and legal ex- eral Agencies, U.S. Oˆcials Suspect,” that contained a hidden software perts say that the hack would not was the Dec. 13 New York Times tool that opened a backdoor into be considered an act of war under headline on a report by David Sanger. any system running Orion. That was international law and most experts U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said the reported by SolarWinds on Dec. 14. consider it a routine act of espio- hack is “virtually a declaration of The SolarWinds Orion software nage. Espionage is internationally war.” U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio said that is used by nearly all Fortune 500 allowed in peacetime. “America must retaliate, and not just companies, all of the top 10 tele- soft could identify any source for the To qualify as an act of war, Unit- with sanctions.” A Reuters headline communications companies, all five “diˆcult-to-attribute” intrusion. ed Nations resolutions and other said, “Biden’s options for Russian branches of the U.S. military, and all Max Abrahms, an international sources of international law require hacking punishment: sanctions, cy- of the top five accounting firms. So- security professional and author of a the use of force or destruction. In ber retaliation.” larWinds software is used by more book on terrorism, said on Twitter: this case, there has been no loss of What’s really going on? than 300,000 companies and gov- “’The U.S. government did not pub- life or damage of any kind to the ernment agencies around the world. licly identify Russia as the culprit 1. What is the role of the media? infrastructure. The hack has been According to Microsoft President behind the hacks, first reported by for data collection only. The intru- The report on the hack in the New Brad Smith, of the 18,000 organi- Reuters, and said little about who sion has not reached any systems York Times said that Russia did it, zations that downloaded the back- might be responsible.’ on the specially protected “secret” even though none of the agencies doored app, only 0.02% were actu- “You know this story will be networks. reporting the hack cited Russia in ally accessed through the backdoor, retold as all 17 intel agencies 100% The hackers gained access to any way. that is, only 40 corporations or certain Putin is behind it.” the U.S. Treasury Department’s David Sanger’s report said the agencies. Most were in the U.S., but A second Tweet by Abrahms added: unclassi fied systems but really just oˆcial story is that Russia hacked not all. “American Media: saw what the system was doing, the into U.S. government networks. Of the 40 institutions accessed “1. Punish Russia applications running and that sort That became the story used by all through a follow-up hack, 44% of thing. “2. Possibly continue investigating the big media in the U.S. For exam- were tech companies and 18% were “At this point, we do not see any whether the Russian government ple, NBC followed with a report that government agencies. The rest were break-in into our classified sys- carried out the cyberattack the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infra- other kinds of private companies. tems,” Treasury Secretary Steve “3. Only report evidence corrob- structure Security Agency “has not Microsoft’s Smith says that this Mnuchin said on CNBC. “Our un- orating the media’s priors that said who it thinks is the ‘advanced kind of operation is typically done classified systems did have some Moscow was behind the attack persistent threat actor’ behind the by private cybersecurity companies. access. I will say the good is there’s ‘significant and ongoing’ campaign, Smith writes: “One illustrative “4. Find additional rationales to been no damage, nor have we seen but many experts are pointing to company in this new sector [pri- punish Russia.” any large amounts of information Russia.” vate cybersecurity companies] is displaced.” 4. What was the hack? Sanger has written multiple the NSO Group, based in Israel and Breaking into unclassified gov- pieces blaming Russia for hacking, now involved in U.S. litigation. NSO The hack was in some ways very ernment and corporate networks, much like what he and his col- created and sold to governments simple. The SolarWinds Orion soft- reading other people’s emails league, Judith Miller, did leading up an app called Pegasus, which could ware is used by companies and agen- — that’s spying. That’s the kind to the U.S. war on Iraq, insisting on be installed on a device simply by cies to centrally monitor IT systems. of cyber spying that the National the presence of weapons of mass calling the device via WhatsApp; the It provides information on the inter- Security Agency does 24 hours a day destruction — weapons that never device’s owner did not even have nal systems being run by the com- against Russia, China, Iran, Cuba, existed. to answer. According to WhatsApp, pany. It is a system used to monitor Venezuela and many more. Sanger was also an originator NSO used Pegasus to access more network and server performance. “Warfare implies violence, death and promoter of the false claim of than 1,400 mobile devices, including A SolarWinds adviser warned the and destruction,” said Duncan a Russian hack of the Democratic those belonging to journalists and company that it was an “incredibly Hollis, a professor of law at Temple National Committee and top of- human rights activists.” easy target to hack.” Ian Thorn- University specializing in cyber- ficials in the 2016 Hillary Clinton 3. Who did it? ton- Trump, who now works as the security. Hollis and other experts campaign. That accusation was used chief information security oˆcer said the attack appears to have been The actual security reports on the as a distraction after it was learned at Cyjax, told Bloomberg News that carried out to steal sensitive U.S. attack say no source for the hack can that WikiLeaks was about to publish he’d warned SolarWinds in 2017 of information, and should be viewed be identified. There is no evidence emails that showed how Clinton and its vulnerability. According to the as espionage. that Russia was involved. If there the DNC had intervened to block Bloomberg report, access to the “Simply stealing information, was, the media would have pre- Bernie Sanders. Orion software distribution server as much as we don’t like it, is not sented it instead of attributing the Too many still believe the Russia that delivers system updates used an act of war — it is espionage,” charge to anonymous sources. hacking and Trump campaign con- the password “solarwinds123,” said Benjamin Friedman, a policy The hack was discovered by the spiracy story. But, like the weapons of which was publicly visible until director at the think tank Defense network security company FireEye. mass destruction, it never happened. sometime in 2019. Priorities. “The highly evasive attacker” used The hacking software that was The U.S. is the primary purveyor 2. What happened? “diˆcult-to-attribute tools,” Fire- put on the SolarWinds Orion distri- of espionage in the world. As Edward About 18,000 organizations Eye said. Neither FireEye nor Micro- bution server was newly developed, Snowden revealed, the U.S. Defense according to FireEye. It was not built Department’s NSA is engaged in this using hacking tools that were de- kind of data collection on a global veloped by the U.S. Defense Depart- scale as well as in the U.S. Trump’s racist revenge executions ment’s National Security Agency There is a di¦erence between (NSA) that were leaked in 2017 and espionage and war. Continued from page 7 overthrow the Bolivarian Repub- have become the primary tools used Take it from Carl von Clause- votes were almost double the votes lic of Venezuela’s elected president, for spying operators outside the U.S. witz, the Prussian general and cast for Dukakis. Nicolás Maduro Moros. The capability to develop these military theorist whose “On War” Some Democratic Party leaders Why isn’t Trump awaiting ex- kinds of spy tools is held primari- is required reading at West Point. are claiming candidates can’t win ecution for murdering children? ly by the NSA, along with Britain’s Clausewitz wouldn’t consider this calling for community control of the Among his victims was 19-month- Government Communications “war” either, says Tom Mahnken, a police or defunding them. That’s the old Mariee Juárez. She died because Headquarters (GCHQ) and Israel. veteran of long service in the Navy same thing that was said about the of neglect and mistreatment in one China and Russia have some capa- and civilian Pentagon posts who death penalty. of Trump’s migrant concentration bility, but all recent reports indicate now heads the Center for Strategic camps. their spying is often done using the and Budgetary Assessments. Why isn’t Trump on death row? The death penalty, like deporta- tools leaked from the NSA or some- Clausewitz defined war as “an act If the death penalty is supposed- tions and police terror, is meant to thing based on those NSA tools. Mi- of force to compel our enemy to do ly reserved for the worst murderers, terrorize the working class. crosoft’s Brad Smith suggests that our will,” Mahnken noted. “What why isn’t Elliot Abrams on death There’s never been a millionaire it is likely a private cybersecurity remains essential to war is that it is row? The war criminal has the blood executed in the U.S. The death pen- company that is involved. meant to compel an adversary – to of thousands on his hands by or- alty is reserved for the poor. Despite the lack of evidence that achieve political objectives. That’s ganizing death squads throughout But it’s billionaires like Trump points to a specific actor, the U.S. not what this hack is about: It is Central America in the 1980s. who spread death and misery all media immediately blamed Russia a classic intelligence-gathering Abrams is now attempting to over the earth. ₪ for the spying attempt. operation.” ₪ Page 12 Jan. 11, 2021 STRUGGLE H LA LUCHA Mass voter opposition leaves rulers of the world’s largest economy in a struggle for stability

By Gary Wilson sending mail-in ballots and then United Methodist Church in Wash- The Nov. 23 New York Times re- voting in person, noncitizen im- ington, D.C., an action widely char- ported, “Concerned that President Donald Trump was the biggest migrants voting, ballots sent in the acterized as “reminiscent of cross Trump’s refusal to accept the elec- loser in the November election. name of dead people, and computer- burnings.” A similar attack took tion results is hurting the country, In a record turnout of the vot- ized voting machines programmed place at the nearby Metropolitan Af- more than 160 top American exec- ing-eligible population, 51.4% of the to flip a certain percentage of Trump rican Methodist Episcopal Church. utives asked the administration on vote went to Joe Biden and Kama- votes to Biden. In Olympia, Wash., at a pro-Trump Monday to immediately acknowl- la Harris. Donald Trump and Mike If Trump could block the votes in rally at the state Capitol, a counter- edge Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the pres- Pence got 46.9% of the vote. It was a few key cities — Detroit, Philadel- protester was shot; police reported- ident-elect and begin the transition the biggest voter turnout percent- phia and Atlanta were particularly ly removed a bomb found at the site to a new administration.” age-wise since 1908, with more than targeted — he could shift the Elec- that, had it detonated, “could have Signers of this letter “included 66% of those eligible voting. toral College vote enough to claim caused significant injury.” the chief executives of Mastercard, Trump had made racism the core victory, even though he still would Trump’s shakeup of the Penta- Visa, MetLife, Accenture, the Carlyle of his campaign, and the vote was have lost the popular vote badly. The gon leadership has certainly fueled Group, Condé Nast, McGraw-Hill, mostly seen as a rejection of Trump trick was to shift just 4 states so that speculation, and his attempt to re- WeWork and American International and racism. Trump would have 269 electoral move civil service protection from Group, among others. They included The U.S. consistently has nearly votes, causing an Electoral College most federal employees, making some of the most important play- the lowest voter turnout of all the in- tie that Congress likely would have them political appointees to be hired ers in the financial industry: David dustrialized countries in the world. decided in his favor. or removed at the will of the presi- M. Solomon, the chief executive of This is due, in part, to the extensive According to the Constitution, if dent, makes little sense for a presi- Goldman Sachs; Laurence D. Fink, voter suppression in the U.S. — in- no candidate gets a majority in the dent that will be leaving oˆce in less chief executive of the asset man- cluding poll taxes, registration fees Electoral College, then Congress than two months. agement giant BlackRock; Jon Gray, and “literacy tests” — and the many decides, using a unique formula for But if the U.S. capitalist ruling class, Blackstone’s president; and Henry R. undemocratic measures that prevent its decision. Each state’s delegation including the military brass, allows a Kravis, a prominent Republican do- participation in the elections, such gets one vote, so that a state with a Trump coup that way, they will lose nor who is the co-chief executive of as holding voting only on work days. majority of Democrats in the House the crucial legitimacy that 231 years KKR, a private equity firm.” In other There are also millions who are of Representatives will be expected of uninterrupted constitutional rule words, a representative group of the blocked from voting because they to vote for the Democratic candi- has given them. Would they do that ruling capitalist class. are immigrants or were formerly in- date, and likewise for majority Re- just to keep out Joe Biden? The ruling class carcerated. Also, the unoˆcial — but publican states. While a declaration of martial strictly enforced — rule that only a On that basis of one state, one vote law is unlikely to get support, it Since Trump’s 2016 presidential Democrat or Republican can be presi- in the current Congress, which has shouldn’t be completely discounted. victory, the ruling capitalist class dent discourages a great many voters. been heavily gerrymandered, the has been strongly divided on Don- Many capitalists prefer Trump This election year had unusual Republican candidate would win. ald Trump. Who are the people that complications because of COVID-19, So challenging the vote in just four As is always the case in U.S. pres- collectively make up the U.S. ruling which made voting at traditional states had the possibility of gaining idential contests, the big capitalists class? polling stations dangerous. As a re- an Electoral College victory or push- di¦er among themselves as to which The capitalist class is not just the sult, many voted by mail. Voting by ing it into a selection by Congress. Democrat or Republican candidate 358 billionaires on the Forbes 1,000 mail is not only safe, it is democrat- should be president. While many list of February 2020. Though that is A Trump coup? ic, removing some of the restrictions capitalists preferred Trump, others how it is sometimes seen, that’s not that prevent people from voting. Almost 90% of the Republicans in backed Biden. how Karl Marx defined it in his writ- Trump, therefore, has made a spe- Congress have refused to acknowl- The argument for Trump is that ings. The 1% percent or even 0.001% cial issue of opposing voting by mail. edge the winner of the popular vote. as a big capitalist and landowner, doesn’t really define it. Donald Trump encouraged his Top oˆcials in 18 states and more he is one of their own and under- The ruling capitalist class, as Karl supporters to vote in person, while than half of House Republicans sup- stands their interests. Over the last Marx defined it, consists of those the anti-Trump voters generally ported a lawsuit trying to reverse the four years, Trump has run the most people who live o¦ profit — bank- voted by mail. Since in-person votes result through the Supreme Court “pro-business” U.S. administration ing interest, stock market divi- were usually counted first, Trump and the Electoral College. The court in history. He won over to his side dends, business profits and landlord racked up huge initial leads in most turned down the challenge on Dec. 11. many originally skeptical capitalists. rent. The working class lives o¦ the of the swing states as returns were Getting an Electoral College vic- Trump first sabotaged the A¦ord- wages of labor. There is also an in- reported on the evening of Nov. 3. At tory was one of Trump’s strategies able Care Act, trying to drive tens of termediate class — the middle class that point, Trump declared victory. from the beginning of his campaign. millions of people o¦ health insur- — between the capitalist class and However, by the following day, He never tried to win the popular ance and reducing coverage for those the working class. In the Commu- as the mail-in votes were counted, vote. The Electoral College is de- who have it. Trump moved to dis- nist Manifesto, written by Marx and Trump’s large leads in those states signed to block democracy and pro- mantle public education with dev- Frederick Engels, they use the tra- disappeared. By Friday, Nov. 6, it was vides many avenues for special in- astating funding cuts to the Depart- ditional French name for the middle clear that Biden had won the Elector- terests to manipulate the outcome. ment of Education, starving public class — the petty bourgeoisie. al College as well as the popular vote. The Constitution allows states schools and pushing privatization As Marx elaborated, if you can live However, the Associated Press, to select their electors any way schemes. o¦ property income — profits, in- which unoˆcially declares the they want. They are not required to Trump gutted regulations de- terest and rent — at a level exceed- president-elect, held out for anoth- choose the winner of the state’s vote. signed to protect workers and the en- ing that of a skilled worker without er day. On Nov. 7, AP finally declared A state could decide to select its vironment. Along with the congres- having to hold a job, you are a mem- Joe Biden the president-elect of the electors based on what they declare sional Republicans, Trump pushed ber of the capitalist ruling class. United States. would best serve the national inter- through a massive tax cut for the rich In the U.S., there are some 20.2 mil- This unusual delay gave Trump est. Or a state legislature could step in 2017. He has consistently opposed lion millionaires, according to the and the Republicans a consider- in after an election and select the any policy to combat climate change Credit Suisse “Global Wealth Report able head start in their campaign to electors, claiming that the will of the and took the U.S. out of the Paris Cli- 2020.” steal the 2020 election. The archaic voters was unclear. (For more on the mate Agreement. Only part of the capitalist class are U.S. Constitution, written in 1787 — anti-democratic Electoral College, Then during the COVID-19 pan- actually business people, what Marx modeled on the slave-holding Ro- see Jesse Wegman’s book, “Let The demic, he pulled the U.S. out of the called “active capitalists.” These in- man Republic’s government, with its People Pick the President: The Case World Health Organization. Trump clude heads of banks and other fi- senate and single consul (president) for Abolishing the Electoral College.”) has also filled the federal judiciary nancial corporations as well as the with supreme command of the army Trump might be counting on cre- from the Supreme Court down and CEOs of industrial and commercial and the civil administration which ating constitutional and legal cha- the National Labor Relations Board enterprises. The active capitalists was chosen by something like the os, including large-scale violence with pro-business and anti-labor are those people who manage large Electoral College — provides many by Trump supporters in the streets, judges. and medium-sized businesses. ways to disregard the majority vote as a basis for declaring martial law. But even those capitalists who Small business people general- against Trump. During his first “debate” with Biden, hoped for “four more years” of this ly have net assets of less than $10 First, Trump demanded recounts Trump had told the fascist Proud may not now support the attempts of million, even if they hire and exploit and looked for evidence of voter Boys to “stand down and stand by.” Trump to go beyond the law and tra- wage workers. Having $10 million or fraud. By voter fraud, Trump does On Dec. 12, two days before the dition in order to cling to oˆce. That more in assets should be suˆcient not mean the suppression of the Electoral College vote, fascist Proud could do far more damage to their to have an upscale living standard Black, Brown and Indigenous vote. Boys wearing “MAGA” hats were class interests than will any slight without engaging in wage labor. Trump says there was ballot-box recorded on video burning a Black moderation of Trump’s “pro-busi- Without at least $10 million in as- stuˆng, with Democratic voters Lives Matter banner at the Asbury ness” policies by Biden. Continued on page 13 STRUGGLE H LA LUCHA jan. 11, 2021 Page 13

¡Alto a la guerra contra los vendedores ambulantes! Iran and Iraq demand

Continua de página 13 oría de la población, esto significa el Lower East Side de Manhattan, vender la capacidad de uno para re- Trump’s extradition hoy Loisaida. Las calles se llenaron alizar un trabajo. de carritos de mano operados por Karl Marx, el fundador del social- A year before his abortive coup at- lions turned out as his coˆn was personas pobres del este y sur de ismo científico, llamó a esta capaci- tempt in Washington, Donald Trump carried across Iraq and Iran to his Europa que intentaban sobrevivir. dad “fuerza de trabajo”. La mano de ordered the murder of Iran’s Gen. final resting place in his hometown La policía disparó 41 veces con- obra calificada está compuesta de Qassem Soleimani in cold blood. of Kerman. He was loved for leading tra Amadou Diallo el 4 de febrero de mano de obra más simple. Eight others died with the general the fight against ISIS, Al Qaeda and 1999, asesinando a este inmigrante Millones de agricultores en Esta- in the Jan. 3 drone strike at Baghdad other U.S.-backed terrorists in Syr- desarmado de Guinea. La partidaria dos Unidos, incluidos los aparceros, International Airport. Among them ia and Iraq and his role in driving de Trump, Heather Mac Donald, lla- han sido expulsados de la tierra des- was Majdi Abu Muhandas, deputy U.S.-Israeli forces out of Lebanon. mó a la víctima africana “un vende- de la Gran Depresión. Pero no todo el commander of Iraq’s Popular Mo- His murder was a “crime against dor ambulante de videos pirateados mundo pudo encontrar trabajo. bilization Units. Now both Iran and peace” under international law, y calcetines”. Eso incluye a activistas que fueron Iraq have filed requests for Trump’s an attempt to start a war. The U.S. ¿La venta de calcetines merece la incluidos en listas de “no contratar”. extradition. should honor Iraq and Iran’s just pena de muerte? Hilter solía atacar Martin Irons, líder de una huelga de General Soleimani’s funeral was requests and send Trump to face a los vendedores ambulantes judíos. ferrocarriles de 1886, se vio obliga- one of the largest in history. Mil - justice. ₪ Los propietarios quieren deshac- do a vender maní en las calles de St. erse de los vendedores ambulantes Louis para sobrevivir. El organiza- porque no les pueden cobran alq- dor comunista negro Hosea Hudson uiler. Lo mismo ocurre con los ban- tuvo que vender productos de afeit- cos donde están las hipotecas de los ado durante la caza de brujas anti- propietarios. comunista de la década de 1950. Es Amazon, no los vendedores Las decenas de millones que ven- ambulantes, lo que está arruinando den su fuerza de trabajo a los capi- miles de tiendas minoristas. Es el talistas y los millones de personas propietario Je¦ Bezos, con su fortu- que se ven obligadas a vender en las na de 194.000 millones de dólares, calles son aliados naturales. el responsable de vaciar los centros La defensa de los vendedores am- comerciales. bulantes va de la mano con la lucha contra el terror policial. Es parte de ¿Qué tiene para vender? la misma lucha como luchar por la En una sociedad capitalista como atención médica y detener los de- Estados Unidos, todo el mundo tiene salojos. ¡Manos Fuera de los vende- que vender algo. Para la gran may- dores informales! ₪ Iraqis take part in a protest at Tahrir Square to commemorate the one-year anniver- sary of the U.S. assassination of Iraqi military commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Iranian military commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani on January 3, 2021. Continued from page 12 sets, small business people can’t re- they hope to join as full members. tire from the active management of Some people unrealistically ex- their business and hire profession- pect to become capitalists in the fu- Stop U.S. attacks on Iran. al managers to run it. They must at ture and thus identify with the in- the very least perform the labor of terests of the class they will never supervising and managing and are in fact join. These range from people No war! End sanctions! therefore not full members of the doing tech startups to small busi- capitalist class, even if they exploit ness people who lack enough capital hired labor. to hire professional managers and Continued from page 1 cludes oil and gas bosses who prof- At the bottom are the smallest therefore must work hard in their ited from the fracking boom after companied by two other warships, business people, who cannot even businesses to enjoy a “decent” mid- the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. passed through the Strait of Hormuz. hire workers and must depend on dle-class lifestyle. Overproduction of oil on the global On Dec. 20, several Katyusha rock- their own labor and the labor of Another group identifying their market has sent their profits into a ets were fired at the Green Zone in their family members. This catego- interests with the interests of the downward spiral. They are eager for Baghdad, Iraq, which houses the ry of business owners — which in- capitalist class are the local, state and a war to disrupt the supply chain U.S. Embassy. One Iraqi civilian was cludes small family farmers — can federal police and prison guards — and boost their profits at any cost. killed and there was minor damage swing between the working class, the chief instruments of state power Trump may use a war with Iran to the perimeter of the U.S. Embassy hiring themselves out part time to to ensure capitalist class rule. These as part of his strategy to overturn complex. The U.S. Central Command avoid extreme poverty, to “success- are the men and some women who do the election and remain in oˆce. issued a statement claiming that the fully” moving into the capitalist the dirty work of the capitalist class. But even if Joe Biden takes oˆce on attack was “almost certainly conduct- ruling class. Virtually all the police “unions” in Jan. 20, there is no guarantee that ed by an Iranian-backed rogue mili- In large corporations, the CEOs the U.S. endorsed Donald Trump. he would end a war that Trump set tia group,” a charge disputed by Iraqi don’t usually own anything close Still another group in the middle in motion. One only needs to look at oˆcials. On Dec. 23, Trump tweeted: to a controlling interest in the cor- area that identifies their interests recent congressional bipartisan ac- “If one American is killed, I will hold poration. But if they have net assets with the interests of the capitalist tions — $696 billion for the U.S. war Iran responsible. Think it over.” exceeding $10 million, they can live class are the managers and super- machine and a mere $600 in “stim- The Trump administration’s quite well even if they lose their cor- visors. In “Capital,” Marx described ulus” for workers — to see the real baseless and illegal withdrawal porate positions. They are therefore how the division of labor requires a priorities of both the Republicans from the 2015 Iran nuclear agree- both active capitalists who repre- complex managerial hierarchy: “An and Democrats. ment was a pretext to escalate war sent the owners of the corporation industrial army of workers under the Thirty-one years ago, George H.W. preparations. Unilateral sanctions as well as being money capitalists in command of a capitalist requires, Bush and the Pentagon used the De- imposed on Iran by Washington and their own right through their own- like a real army, oˆcers (managers) cember holidays as a screen for the enforced against other countries ership of capital. and NCOs (foremen, overseers), who brutal, illegal invasion of Panama. have caused terrible economic harm The closest allies to the capitalist command during the labor process The rulers must be put on notice that as well as death, especially during class are the near-capitalists: the up- in the name of capital.” These are the they will be met with opposition in the COVID-19 pandemic. Sanctions per middle class. These are the people salaried workers with high incomes. the streets if they dare to attack the are another form of war. who have accumulated an amount of The working class, those who live people of Iran. Last January, Trump ordered capital enabling them to almost but o¦ the wages of labor, makes up the the assassination of Iranian Gen. Money for COVID relief for the not quite quit working altogether and vast majority in this country, but not Qassem Soleimani while he was on people, not for war! live o¦ profits, interest, or rents. 99%. Based on Marx’s definitions of a peace mission to Iraq. Soleimani U.S. troops out of Syria and Iraq! To maintain their upper- middle- the capitalist class, the middle class helped lead the resistance to imperi- class lifestyle, these people still have and the working class, the working End the sanctions! alist-funded forces seeking to over- to work either in high-salaried jobs class in the U.S. makes up 67% of the U.S. hands o Iran! throw the sovereign government of or as managers in their own busi- population, according to one estimate. Syria. On Dec. 24, Israel launched a Socialist Unity Party/Partido de nesses where they are not quite rich If there were real democracy in the missile attack in western Syria. Socialismo Unido and Struggle- enough to hire professional manag- U.S., the rich would have been voted The section of the U.S. capitalist La Lucha newspaper ers. These candidate members of the out of power years ago. But that’ll class that most favors Trump in- December 25, 2020 capitalist class identify with the class only come with socialism. ₪ Intento de golpe: ¿Se acabó el peligro?

Por Sharon Black

El asalto al Capitolio por suprem- acistas blancos incitados por Trump, que detuvo temporalmente el voto de certificación, tuvo que contar con la colusión de las agencias policia- les federales y locales. Es imposible que no hubiera preparación cuando estos mismos eventos habían sido telegrafiados durante meses por el vilizó a la Guardia Nacional antes de están cubriendo sus apuestas. Son una miseria más profunda. Los go- propio Trump. “Civil War 6 de en- la absolución. reacios a aplastarlos. biernos capitalistas no han podido ero de 2021” estaba impreso en las detener la pandemia de COVID y han sudaderas de MAGA; esto no era ¿Qué pasa después, se acabó el peligro? Peligro de guerra imperialista fracasado terriblemente en brindar ningún secreto. La única forma en La respuesta extremadamente y los próximos 14 días atención médica a la gran mayoría. que la mafia racista podría ocupar débil de Biden es profundamente Sería un grave error no declarar El desempleo amenaza no solo a los libremente el Capitolio es si la policía problemática en términos de hac- la amenaza obvia de una guerra trabajadores con salarios bajos sino tomó la decisión deliberada de de- er retroceder a los fascistas y lo que imperialista dirigida más inmedi- también a la clase media. Millones jarlos. significa para el futuro. En lugar de atamente a Irán, pero en última in- se enfrentan a desalojos, ejecuciones El mundo observó mientras fas- hacer un llamado para disolver a los stancia, independientemente de qué hipotecarias y cortes de servicios cistas armados que portaban ban- matones fascistas, la mafia racista administración esté en el cargo, di- públicos. deras confederadas y arietes metáli- o arrestar a Trump, Biden pidió la rigida a cualquier país que busque Es la clase media quien tradicio- cos violaron detectores de metales, unidad. trazar un curso independiente del nalmente, los dueños de pequeños tomaron como rehenes al Congreso, ¿Unidad con quién y para qué? imperialismo, ya sea Venezuela, negocios y otros como ellos que es- tomaron oficinas, rompieron venta- Esta fue una oportunidad para que China. , la RPDC o Cuba. Vea la con- tan aislados y en nas, llevaron escaleras abiertamente Biden y los demócratas asesten un vocatoria para acciones de respuesta Tradicionalmente es la clase me- para escalar el Capitolio, posaron golpe definitivo contra Trump y el a emergencias. dia, los propietarios de pequeñas para selfies con la policía y final- movimiento que ha generado. Pudo Todavía quedan 14 días antes de la empresas y otros como ellos que es- mente fueron escoltados fuera del haber pedido el arresto de Trump o inauguración del 20 de enero. tán aislados y desesperados, quienes edificio sin arresto. hacer un llamamiento a la gente para Así como exigimos el encar- son engañados por la ideología fas- Se confiscaron dos bombas caseras, que se movilice contra la amenaza celamiento de policías asesinos, cista. Es solo un movimiento de la armas y municiones y se informó que racista y reaccionaria. No lo hizo. debemos movilizar el movimiento clase trabajadora fuerte, unido, an- cuatro personas murieron. Se erigió En muchos aspectos fue una tra - para pedir el arresto inmediato de ticapitalista y antirracista lo que una soga inspirada en el KKK en el ición a los votantes negros, especial- Trump y detener a las turbas su- puede sacarlos de un callejón sin extremo oeste del Capitolio. mente en Georgia, quienes resist- premacistas blancas. salida tan destructivo. Esto recordó cómo las autoridades ieron valientemente las amenazas Trump no solo debería ser ar- “Tal situación solo puede existir de Alabama permitieron que el Klan racistas de votar contra el racismo y restado sino también extraditado en períodos de crisis social extraor- atacará a los jinetes de la libertad en la reacción. por crímenes de guerra. Trump aho- dinariamente aguda cuando el es- Anniston, Alabama, el 14 de mayo de La timidez de Biden y los demócra- ra es buscado en Irak por ordenar el tado capitalista está tan desgarrado 1961, casi matando a varias personas. tas no es sorprendente. asesinato del general iraní Qassim por la acumulación de contradic- La policía local no hizo nada durante Lo que subyace a estos desarrol- Soleimani y del comandante iraquí ciones internas y debilitado por su al menos 15 minutos. los y las vigas de la reacción fascis- Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis; Irán tam- incapacidad para superar su crisis El asalto al Capitolio fue consci- ta es la contracción de la economía bién ha emitido una orden de arresto social que inevitablemente da paso entemente en la tradición del derro- capitalista y la profunda decadencia a través de Interpol (Organización a formas de gobierno extraparlam- camiento anterior de los gobiernos y crisis del sistema. Aunque aparen- Internacional de Policía Criminal) entarias y extralegales. ”, Dijo Sam de Reconstrucción democrática- temente oculto, reemplaza la volun- por el mismo crimen. Marcy sobre la lucha contra el fas- mente elegidos y gobernados por tad de los políticos capitalistas que cismo. El antídoto contra el fascismo es la mayoría en Carolina del Sur, Missis- intentan representar a una sección u Se necesitará la organización de la solidaridad y el socialismo de los sippi, Louisiana y todo, que culminó otra de la clase dominante. clase trabajadora en general y el lid- trabajadores con el golpe y la masacre en Wilm- Es una lección importante. La clase erazgo de sus personas más oprim- ington, Carolina del Norte, en 1898. capitalista, independientemente de Mientras los multimillonari- idas, negras, morenas, latinas, in- Compare esto con Kenosha, Wis- sus divisiones, no tiene voluntad de os están obteniendo ganancias sin dígenas, árabes, asiáticas, mujeres consin. En anticipación a la ira de la arrojar a esta escoria racista al ba- precedentes, ganando mientras se y LGBTQ2S para desarrollar una comunidad por la negativa de acusar surero de la historia. Al igual que los acumulan las muertes de las vícti- defensa de sus propios intereses de a la policía por el asesinato de Jacob banqueros y las empresas que finan- mas de COVID, la gran mayoría de las clase y colocar el socialismo en la Blake, se cerraron las calles y se mo- ciaron a Hitler hasta la última bala, personas se encuentran viviendo en agenda. ¡Alto a la guerra contra los vendedores ambulantes!

Por Stephen Millies tos de trabajo en las fábricas es Los Ángeles mil millones de dólares otra razón. Muchos trabajadores en exenciones fiscales. Los hombres desempleados negros que solían tener trabajos vendieron manzanas durante la sindicales ahora se ven obliga- Odio de larga data Gran Depresión. Noventa años dos a convertirse en vendedores Donald Trump siempre odió a los después, muchas aceras de la ambulantes. Solo en la ciudad vendedores informales. Trató de ciudad están llenas de comerci- de Nueva York, los capitalistas expulsar a veteranos discapacitados antes informales que intentan destruyeron 900.000 puestos de que vendían cerca del Trump Tow- vender comida, ropa y equipo de trabajo de manufactura. er en la elegante Quinta Avenida de protección personal. Ninguno de estos trabajadores Manhattan. ¿Por qué estos hombres y mu- es delincuente, sin embargo, son Los soldados pueden ser saluda- jeres están dispuestos a estar de víctimas de la policía. El “gen- dos, exhibidos y enterrados después pie en todo tipo de clima durante eroso” Ayuntamiento de Los de que regresen de otra guerra por 10, 12 horas o más al día? Porque Ángeles votó a favor de prohibir las grandes petroleras. Pero cuando tienen que hacerlo. Vendedores ambulantes marchan a la venta ambulante sin licencia. intentan ganarse la vida, los policías Esa es la única forma en que los través del puente de Brooklyn para El mismo gobierno de la ciudad los arrestan. vendedores pueden comer y pagar protestar por el acoso policial y deman- otorgó a los desarrolladores inmo- No era diferente hace un siglo en el alquiler, no solo para ellos, sino dar ayuda para COVID en la ciudad de biliarios y propietarios de hoteles de Continua a página 13 también para sus hijos. Muchos Nueva York, el 12 de noviembre. comerciantes ambulantes envían dinero a sus familias en otras tier- larmente contra los indocumenta- ras, manteniéndolos así con vida. dos, impulsa a muchos inmigrantes Incluso durante los períodos de a vender en la calle. La actual pan- “prosperidad” capitalista, millones demia y crisis económica del coro- están desempleados. La discrimi- navirus ha aumentado su número. nación en la contratación, particu- La pérdida de millones de pues- Vol. 4, No. 1 Jan. 11, 2021 Vol. 4, Núm. 1 11 de enero de 2021