Lucha de clases en China 12

Workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite! workers.org Vol. 62, No. 51 Dec. 17, 2020 $1

‘Red House on Mississippi Ave.’ Portland activists block eviction By Johnnie Lewis House.” Portland, Ore. Police broke down the front door and assaulted the owner Michael Kinney and Dec. 14—The​ Kinney family—​owners others asleep in the house. Deputy sher- of the now internationally famous “Red iffs arrested them and charged them with House on Mississippi”—​is the last Black- trespass in their own house. Their guests Indigenous family in their neighborhood. were also arrested. They have been fighting foreclosure, and The defenders were unable to stop the now eviction, since 2018. initial assault on the house and the arrest The house, purchased in 1955, is in the of Michael Kinney and the others inside. Albina district—​a collection of neigh- But very quickly the hundreds of defend- borhoods in the only sections of Portland ers regrouped and prevented the depu- where Black people were allowed to own ties, who were backed by the cops, from property for most of the 20th century. The taking possession of the property and district, home to the majority of the city’s house and removing its contents. Black population, has long been under The organizer recounted how defenders attack by developers and gentrifiers and armed with wooden banner and placard targeted for so-called urban renewal—​ poles, broom handles, tree limbs, baseball actually, removal. This once vibrant Black bats, trash can lids and other homemade community has been destroyed. defensive weapons, in an organized and In its place, the banks—​historical red- Joined by supporters, the Kinney family resists eviction from their home. military fashion, “pushed the cops down liners—and​ wealthy real estate developers, the street and out of the neighborhood.” aided and abetted by the city’s white pol- Popular Mobilization and other Black A Black leader-organizer, asking to Another activist told WW: “Twelve of iticians, have built an interstate highway, youth, people of color, white, queer revo- remain anonymous, told WW: “Early on our people were grabbed by the cops, but a sports arena, a hospital expansion, along lutionaries have established a Red House the morning of Dec. 8, at least 50 police for lack of evidence, most were released with thousands of new, high-priced houses, Autonomous Zone similar to Seattle’s vehicles, sirens going off, blue lights flash- uncharged. The Portland cops announced condos and apartments. For the most part, Capitol Hill Autonomous the same day that they would people of color, poor and working people Zone. It involves a com- The house, purchased in 1955, is in arrest no more until those have been priced out of Albina, where the pound of about six square the Albina district, a collection of arrested were actually charged median price of a house is now $649,000. blocks around the house that with something.” The Kinneys say they paid their mort- includes a kitchen serving neighborhoods in the only sections It was clear that the activists gage on time but got caught up in a preda- free meals and a coffee shop of Portland where Black people were were serious about defending tory loan scheme to take their home. Urban supporting the movement the Kinney family. While in Housing Development LLC purchased the with free coffee. On Dec. 8, allowed to own property for most of the the compound, this reporter property in 2018, but the family remained the compound was attacked 20th century. The district, home to the was told by young activists: in the house while pursuing lawsuits in by Portland police. “We’re here to stop the evic- state and federal court to keep the home. On Dec. 10, this reporter majority of the city’s Black population, tion. We’re waiting for our After a years-long court battle over the entered the compound, now has long been under attack by developers marching orders.” Just then foreclosure, a judge ordered the Kinneys behind 10-foot-high barri- a platoon of maybe 30 peo- evicted in September 2020. The attempt cades, to learn more about and gentrifiers, and targeted for so-called ple marched by, chanting in to evict the family led to a mobilization of the police assault. I was urban renewal — actually, removal. cadence, carrying poles and militant support. warmly greeted by defenders, shields. As a former U.S. Army offered free food but asked to soldier and an organizer for the ‘Red House Autonomous Zone’ not take photos. It helped that I brought a ing, blocked off street intersections all American Servicemen’s Union (1968-69), In an effort to defend the Kinney fam- Workers World newspaper with the head- around here. At least 100 Portland cops this reporter knows a military formation ily from eviction, hundreds of Black line: “Evo Morales returns, Bolivians eject and Multnomah County sheriffs—​look- when they see one. Lives Matter, antifa, black bloc, Occupy, coup regime.” ing like Robocops—​attacked the Red Continued on page 3

Fight for Mumia’s freedom 2, 4

Defend incarcerated workers! NYC cops & landlords, hand in hand 3 Free Alabama Movement: Boston solidarity with ‘A fight from inside out’ workers, farmers in India 3 Prison work & the outside world Buffalo anti-racists face down fascists 4 Ramsey Unit: Texas terror 6-8 Michigan: Confronting white supremacy 5 Justice for Casey Goodson! 5 Editorial Attack on anti-ICE marchers 5 Centi-billionaire profiteers 10 Indigenous land defense in Arizona 9

Venezuela election 9 Palestine’s incendiary kites 10 Morocco/U.S. deal 11 Page 2 Dec. 17, 2020 workers.org Release Mumia now! By Betsey Piette this week Philadelphia ◆ In the U.S. The Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police has Portland activists block eviction ...... 1 done everything possible to silence Mumia Abu- Release Mumia now! ...... 2 Jamal and bury his fight for justice. In February Boston rallies for workers, farmers in India . . .3 their obstruction even included filing a “King’s Bench” petition—which sidesteps and pre- ‘Solidarity with the people, not the state’ . . . . 3 empts all other judicial or appeal procedures—to NYC: Cops and landlords go hand in hand . . . 3 attempt a change in venue for his appeals hearing. Time to ‘accelerate our efforts’ to free Mumia . .4 But Abu-Jamal’s global supporters, insisting Buffalo opposes ‘Watchmen’ hate group . . . . 4 on his innocence and demanding his immediate Car hits anti-ICE march ...... 5 release, have other ideas. Mich. representative confronts white supremacy .5 Twice recently, a broad coalition of U.S. and international groups and individuals has suc- Columbus: Justice for Casey Goodson! . . . . .5 ceeded in gaining major media coverage for the Defend incarcerated workers! ...... 6 former Black Panther and journalist, who is Swift Justice: ‘A fight from the inside out’ . . . .6 Pennsylvania’s best-known political prisoner. WW PHOTO: JOE PIETTE Kempis Songster: ‘Working people in prison’’ . .7 On Nov. 16, former football star and Black Lives Pam Africa speaking at Dec. 9 press conference to ‘Free Mumia now!’ Ramsey Prison Unit: The terror of Texas . . . . 8 Matter activist Colin Kaepernick issued a state- ment in support of Abu-Jamal. This aired during ◆ Around the world a virtual press conference that included prison abolitionist Mobilization4Mumia, Campaign to Bring Mumia Home, Venezuela’s National Assembly election . . . . 9 leader Dr. Angela Davis, and other luminaries. Mainstream International Concerned Friends & Family of Mumia Abu- media, including CNN, have continued to raise Abu- Jamal, and MOVE. Defend Chich’il Bildagoteel! ...... 9 Jamal’s case as a result. Speakers included Pam Africa, Minister of Confrontation Palestine: Nature under settler colonialism . . . . .10 On Dec. 9, on the 39th anniversary of Abu-Jamal’s unjust for International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Behind Morocco’s recognition of Israel . . . . 11 incarceration, supporters again caught the attention of the Abu-Jamal; Mumia’s spouse, Wadiya Jamal; Noelle media with a live press conference in West Philadelphia Hanrahan with Prison Radio; Yahné Ndgo from Black ◆ Editorial near Malcolm X Park. There, less than two months earlier, Alliance for Peace; Ted Kelly with the Prisoners Solidarity The pandemic of capitalist profiteers . . . . . 10 anti-police brutality protesters clashed with Philadelphia Committee of Workers World Party; Razakhan Wali of police following the cop shooting of Walter Wallace, Jr. Nation TIME Judicial Research; Gabriel Bryant with the ◆ Noticias en Español The anniversary gathering also included a free food give- Black Philly Radical Collective, and others. Lucha de clases en China ...... 12 away and the launch of Abu-Jamal’s newest book, “Murder Pam Africa unveiled a local campaign to rename a Incorporated Vol. 3: Perfecting Tyranny.” Those attending Philadelphia street “Mumia Abu-Jamal Way.” Freed were treated to free donuts and coffee as several news out- MOVE 9 members Janet and Janine Africa spoke and lets and independent journalists covered the event, despite denounced the Philadelphia City Council’s recent apology the bitterly cold and windy weather. (More information for the city having imprisoned them for 41 years, calling it available at prisonradiostore.com.) a “public relations stunt.” Marking the day that Abu-Jamal was shot and wrongly Janine Africa stated: “An apology with no action behind arrested for the murder of a Philadelphia police offi- it is meaningless. Show us a symbol of your sincerity by cer, the event was organized by a coalition that included releasing Mumia Abu-Jamal.” ☐

Workers World 147 W. 24th St., 2nd Fl. Join us in the fight New York, NY 10011 Phone: 212.627.2994 for socialism! E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.workers.org Workers World Party is a revolutionary Marxist-Leninist and trans people are gunned down by cops and bigots on Vol. 62, No. 51 • Dec. 17, 2020 party inside the belly of the imperialist beast. We are a mul- a regular basis. Closing date: Dec. 16, 2020 tinational, multigenerational and multigendered organiza- The ruthless ruling class today seeks to wipe out Editors: John Catalinotto, Martha Grevatt, Deirdre tion that not only aims to abolish capitalism, but to build a decades of gains and benefits won by hard-fought strug- Griswold, Monica Moorehead, Betsey Piette, Minnie socialist society because it’s the only way forward! gles by people’s movements. The super-rich and their Bruce Pratt Capitalism and imperialism threaten the peoples of the political representatives have intensified their attacks on world and the planet itself in the neverending quest for the multinational, multigender and multigenerational Web Editors: ABear, Harvey Markowitz, Janet Mayes ever-greater profits. working class. It is time to point the blame at—​and chal- Prisoners Page Editors: Mirinda Crissman, Ted Kelly Capitalism means war and austerity, racism and repres- lenge—the​ capitalist system. Production & Design Editors: Gery Armsby, Mirinda sion, attacks on im/migrants, misogyny, LGBTQ2S+ WWP fights for socialism because the working class Crissman, Sasha Mazumder, Scott Williams oppression and mistreatment of people with disabili- produces all wealth in society, and this wealth should ties. It means joblessness, increasing homelessness and remain in their hands, not be stolen in the form of capi- Copyediting and Proofreading: Paddy Colligan, impoverishment and lack of hope for the future. No social talist profits. The wealth workers create should be socially S. Hedgecoke problems can be solved under capitalism. owned and its distribution planned to satisfy and guaran- Contributing Editors: LeiLani Dowell, G. Dunkel, The U.S. is the richest country in the world, yet no one tee basic human needs. K. Durkin, Sara Flounders, Teresa Gutierrez, Joshua has a guaranteed right to shelter, food, water, health care, Since 1959, Workers World Party has been out in the Hanks, Makasi Motema, Gloria Rubac education or anything else—​unless they can pay for it. streets defending the workers and oppressed here and Mundo Obero: Teresa Gutierrez, Carlos Vargas Wages are lower than ever, and youth are saddled with worldwide. If you’re interested in Marxism, socialism seemingly insurmountable student debt, if they even and fighting for a socialist future, please contact a WWP Copyright © 2020 Workers World. Verbatim copying make it to college. Black, Brown and Indigenous youth branch near you. ☐ and distribution of articles is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved. If you are interested in joining Workers World Party contact: 212.627.2994 Workers World (ISSN-1070-4205) is published monthly by WW Publishers, 147 W. 24th St. 2nd Fl., National Office Boston Dallas Portland, Ore. New York, NY 10011. Phone: 212.627.2994. Subscrip- 147 W. 24th St., 2nd floor 284 Amory St. [email protected] [email protected] tions: One year: $36; institutions: $50. Letters to the New York, NY 10011 Boston, MA 02130 Durham, N.C. Salt Lake City editor may be condensed and edited. Articles can be 212.627.2994 617.522.6626 804 Old Fayetteville St. 801.750.0248 freely reprinted, with credit to Workers World, 147 [email protected] [email protected] Durham, NC 27701 [email protected] W. 24th St. 2nd Fl., New York, NY 10011. Back issues Atlanta Buffalo, N.Y. 919.322.9 970 and individual articles are available on microfilm and/ San Antonio PO Box 18123 335 Richmond Ave. [email protected] or photocopy from NA Publishing, Inc, P.O. Box 998, [email protected] Atlanta, GA 30316 Buffalo, NY 14222 Houston Ann Arbor, MI 48106-0998. 404.627.0185 716.883.2534 West Virginia P.O. Box 3454 A searchable archive is available on the Web at [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Houston, TX 77253-3454 www.workers.org. Austin Central Gulf Coast 713.503.2633 A headline digest is available via e-mail subscription. [email protected] (Alabama, Florida, Mississippi) [email protected] Subscription information is at workers.org. [email protected] Bay Area Philadelphia Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y. P.O. Box 22947 Cleveland P.O. Box 34249 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to 216.738.0320 Philadelphia, PA 19101 Oakland, CA 94609 Workers World, 147 W. 24th St. 2nd Fl. 510.394.2207 [email protected] 610.931.2615 New York, N.Y. 10011. [email protected] [email protected] workers.org Dec. 17, 2020 Page 3 ‘Solidarity with the people, not the state’

By Maureen Skehan

Skehan delivered the Workers World Party solidarity message at the Dec. 12 action called by the Boston South Asian Coalition in support of farmers and workers in India who are leading historic strikes.

As we come together on a rainy Saturday, there is much cause for revolutionary optimism as we lift up and learn from the mighty workers’ struggle in India today. WW PHOTO: MAUREEN SKEEHAN On Dec. 15 of last year, the courageous women-led Ed Childs, UNITE HERE Local 26, with Bishop Felipe Teixeira, uprising in Shaheen Bagh, Delhi, was born in direct in solidarity with Indian workers and farmers on Dec. 12. response to India’s state-sponsored violence and repres- sion against Muslim students, workers, their families Boston rallies for striking and migrants. With women in the lead, this movement quickly spread across India and electrified the world, workers, farmers in India inspiring women workers and our class everywhere. The breadth and strength of the Shaheen Bagh move- By Steve Gillis ment caused the Modi government and its imperialist Boston backers in the U.S. and Britain to tremble with fear, GRAPHIC: BOSTON SOUTH ASIAN COALITION seeing the organized determination of the workers and Hundreds of millions of Indian workers and farm- most oppressed in society fighting back. Well, they’re Today, we must prepare to “Fight or die!” as the tri- ers staged the world’s largest strike on Nov. 26 and still trembling today after two world historic strikes have ple threat of Covid deaths, systemic racist terror and are continuing to shut down areas of the economy. On shook the Indian state and global capitalist system in capitalist decay accelerates, causing misery for workers Dec. 12, the anniversary of the racist and discriminatory just a year’s time! everywhere! Citizenship Amendment Act of India’s fascist-minded Workers World Party salutes and applauds the latest We call for the U.S. government to immediately with- Modi government, the Boston South Asian Coalition massive Nov. 26 strike of 250 million plus workers and draw all aid and support for the repressive Modi govern- brought international solidarity with these laborers to farmers that shut down India. This massive outpouring of ment. We demand a repeal of its discriminatory Citizenship an organizing center of the world-imperialist project: militant, organized labor is exactly what is needed here in Amendment Act. We call for the Boston City Council and Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass. the U.S. It is also why there is almost zero coverage in the cities across the U.S. to pass resolutions condemning dis- Nearly 100 people came out in the pouring rain to U.S. corporate-controlled media of this historic workers’ criminatory and racist laws in India, supported by U.S. denounce the U.S. and Indian governments’ violent mobilization against austerity and repression. imperialism. We see a direct parallel between the CAA and police-state and austerity attacks against India’s multi- The U.S. ruling class fears what the working class is U.S. laws written to terrorize Black, Brown, Indigenous, national working class. capable of when it gets inspired, organized and unified immigrant and poor workers, including caging children Speakers from a broad range of progressive organi- in demanding social, economic and political justice, and families and executing oppressed and disabled people zations applauded the occupation of New Delhi by hun- along with reparations for centuries of crimes against incarcerated on death row. dreds of thousands of farmers, who have been brought Indigenous and Black and Brown peoples. This latest strike of over a quarter billion people in India to starvation by neoliberal laws slashing compensation The farmers who grow the food to feed the people is an earthquake of resistance and the aftershocks can be for their produce. must be defended and their rights and just compensa- felt from Wall Street to Fleet Street—by​ all of finance capi- Speakers representing the Free Saibaba Coalition, tion restored! To hell with the new anti-farmer bills and tal. The Modi government and imperial powers have effec- Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia, Indian labor codes that will reap megaprofits for the greedy tively been “served notice.” Their time is up! American Muslim Council, Workers World Party, Party agribusinesses and bosses while stifling workers rights This organized resistance by the workers in India is for Socialism and Liberation, and UNITE HERE Local and wages! what we need here at home to fight hunger, evictions, 26 were among the many inspiring voices livestreamed The images of farmers breaking through blockades to unemployment, racist police murders, the tortuous, for- with coordinated international actions. march on Parliament and workers holding sit-ins and profit prison system, oppression of migrants and capi- Workers World Party’s solidarity statement, given by mass rallies, blocking train tracks and burning effigies of talism’s destruction of the planet. Maureen Skehan, called “for the U.S. to immediately Modi—​all of these would bring much holiday cheer to We dream of a sea of U.S. workers marching in their withdraw all aid and support to the repressive Modi U.S. workers under attack, if they could see and feel the own class interest, and waving red flags, a symbol of the government.” Skehan added: “To hell with the new strength of this massive, coordinated fightback. workers’ strength and unity against capitalism—​as we anti-worker farm bills and labor codes that will reap Workers here want to study and learn from the orga- have seen in India, and in China, Cuba, Venezuela and megaprofits for greedy Wall Street agribusinesses like nizing methods and tactics of workers in India, and the Vietnam where socialism is advancing. Bayer-Monsanto, and stifle workers’ rights and wages!” unions, and socialist and communist organizations—on​ Together let’s globalize workers solidarity and build For more information, go to facebook.com/ how they reach the masses and mobilize them into an workers power! Long live the fighting spirit of the TheBostonCoalition/. ☐ organized strike force. Shaheen Baghs! Long live Revolutionary Socialism! ☐

‘Red House on Mississippi Ave.’ New York City Portland activists Cops and landlords go hand in hand With the looming Jan. 31 expiration of the federal ban block eviction on evictions—​and landlords already evicting tenants—​pro- Continued from page 1 developer who bought the Red House is tests, stoop defense and militant willing to sell it back to the Kinneys at housing actions are spreading. Since the arrests, more and more cost. As of Dec. 11, a GoFundMe cam- In Brooklyn, a Dec. 11 down- fighters have gathered behind the paign had raised over $280,000—​ town protest that began at hous- 10-foot-high barricades surrounding the enough for the Kinneys to buy back their ing court made the just demand house, where many live round the clock. home under such a deal. The developer to stop all evictions during the People have brought in boxes of food and seems to be responding to public pres- twin pandemics of COVID and crates of bottled water, firewood, sleep- sure—but​ has not yet directly contacted joblessness. Ralliers were met ing bags, tents, canvas sheets and more. the family. by violence and arrests by the The nice smell of food cooked, along with According to a Dec. 14 statement by NYPD. The crowd of about 50 the biting but pleasant aroma of smoke the Kinney family, Portland’s Mayor people faced dozens of police, from cedar wood fires, wafted over the Ted Wheeler has had to back down on two helicopters and at least ten compound. his threat to use cops to evict the family police vans. Cops put 20 people Barricades were strengthened in antic- by force. The family has demanded and in jail, one of them an 80-year- ipation of more police attacks. Groups of received a public apology from Wheeler old woman. a dozen or so stood watch around wood for harm caused to the family and for Dozens of people mobilized fires near entrances, armed for self-de- “the emotional violence caused by evic- jail support and cheered pro- fense. Oregon is an “open carry” state, tions against Black and Indigenous testers when they were released meaning that most people are allowed to families.” from jail later that night. Their carry firearms openly without a permit. The statement conveys firmly that, arrests and detention also as the family has not yet secured their Resistance wins exposed them to COVID. A home, supporters would still be present, video of the police attacking the The determination to defend the last defending them and the house. anti-eviction protesters went Black family in the Albina appears to viral. have paid off. Lyn Neeley contributed to this article. — Photo and report KGW News reported Dec. 10 that the by Tony Murphy Page 4 Dec. 17, 2020 workers.org Now’s the time to ‘accelerate our efforts’ to free Mumia By Angela Davis ,of the killing of Daniel Faulkner although the prosecutor was aware of the fact that Freeman had been identified as Professor Angela Davis, herself once a political pris- the shooter by four witnesses. And [on May 13th, 1985] the oner, is a founding member of Critical Resistance, a same night of the MOVE bombing, Kenneth Freeman was national organization dedicated to dismantling the found dead in a parking lot, gagged and handcuffed. prison industrial complex. On Nov. 16, Davis delivered We know that there were clear violations in relation to the following remarks during the virtual press confer- the selection of the jury. Eleven out of the prosecution’s 14 ence “Freedom & Abolition: A critical moment in the peremptory challenges were used to eliminate Black jurors. fight to free Mumia Abu-Jamal.” Of course, this in itself, as it’s already been pointed out, supports the call for a new trial. The Supreme Court has Mumia Abu-Jamal has played such a pivotal role in ruled that the elimination of jurors on the basis of race is a the processes of popular education that have led us to major violation. And as Johanna and others have pointed this critical juncture and what one might call the century- out, newly discovered file boxes in the DA’s office, which and-a-half-year-old effort to acknowledge the structural were there for 37 years or so, contained a list of potential and systemic character of racism and to take seriously jurors highlighting their race. the demands for abolition. Abolition of the death penalty, And perhaps even more egregious are the instructional of prisons, of the police. And so it is right and just that tapes that were produced by Assistant District Attorney we should accelerate our efforts, on this new terrain, to Jack McMahon, who pointed out that educated Black finally free our brother-comrade. people should not be selected to serve on the jury. But WW PHOTO: JOE PIETTE Much attention has been focused on Philadelphia Angela Davis speaking at press also, as he said, “Blacks from the low-income area are conference for Mumia, Nov. 16. recently from the elections, to the police killing of Walter less likely to convict” and, as a result, “I don't want these Wallace because he was experiencing a mental health people on your jury.” As he said: “It may appear that crisis, to the arrest by federal agents of the teacher and heard about Russell Maroon Shoatz’s condition. And you're being racist or whatnot but again you're just being community activist Anthony Smith—​and we know that we’ve heard [Yale professor and global health activist] realistic. You're just trying to win the case.” barely a week before his arrest, Philadelphia Magazine Gregg Gonsalves emphasize the need for compassionate So finally, the framing of Mumia and his incarceration had applauded Anthony Smith’s community service and decarceration, an abolitionist strategy. are part of a larger story of structural racism and repres- his exceptional leadership. And all around the world we Thanks to international organizing efforts, Mumia is per- sion linked to global capitalism, linked to racial capital- have followed the work of Anthony Smith’s organization, haps the most well-known political prisoner in the world. ism. Racism drives incarceration and infects policing all the Black Philadelphia Radical Collective, and many of us And these international efforts saved his life when he came over the world, from Rio de Janeiro to Johannesburg, to passionately support the 13 demands they have submitted. dangerously close to execution in 1995. Mumia’s case London, to Paris. Here in the U.S., mass incarceration We know also that the City Council in Philadelphia exemplifies the length to which the state will go to silence especially affects Indigenous people and Black and Latinx recently offered an apology, an official apology, for the those who speak truth to power. And this communities. 1985 bombing which killed 11 MOVE members, includ- is why the Fraternal Order of Police has The framing of Mumia and And I think we need to ing five children, and completely destroyed 61 homes. been unrelenting in its attempt to silence his incarceration are part of emphasize the fact that the very So I’ve been asked to briefly describe Mumia’s case in him and his supporters. same forces that have driven the the context of the long history of political repression in But now that structures of policing a larger story of structural creation of the prison industrial this country and in the context of the utilization of the have finally been exposed for their sys- racism and repression complex are responsible for the criminal legal system to produce pretexts for incarcerat- temic racism, and as we call for justice linked to global capitalism, fact that many people in other ing people who have chosen to develop radical resistance in the names of Breonna Taylor, and countries, in countries of the strategies in relation to racist state violence. George Floyd, and Walter Wallace, and linked to racial capitalism. Global South, have seen their Mumia is a relatively younger member of a generation so many others, and now that the city whole economies destroyed by of Black radical activists and intellectuals who have chal- of Philadelphia has issued an official apology to MOVE, capitalist incursions. They have no other choice than to lenged the structural and systemic character of racism now is the time to accelerate our campaign to bring Mumia flee. Thus, the borders and the walls and immigrant deten- long before this recognition helped to accelerate efforts home. Let’s not forget that Mumia's identification with tion facilities are integrally linked to racist policing and the to reimagine some of our society’s fundamental institu- MOVE and his empathetic reporting on the city’s repres- prison industrial complex. tions. Because of our radical stances we were targeted sion of MOVE rendered him a major target of the Rizzo I should point out that abolitionist strategies empha- by the state. In many instances the state demonized and administration. size the connections of all of these institutions. At a time railroaded countless numbers of Black radicals, some of when structural critiques of racism are gaining traction, us who were freed, but many of whom have been impris- Mumia’s case and the abolition movement and specifically its centrality to policing, we gather here oned for as many as five or six decades. As you’ve heard from Johanna [Fernandez] and others—​ to demand the release of Mumia Abu-Jamal and other Mumia was targeted by the Philadelphia police and Linn Washington for example—​his case is riddled with political prisoners whose trials and sentences were irrep- COINTELPRO, beginning with his membership in the violations. Especially the concealing of exculpatory evi- arably influenced by their political beliefs and by their Black Panther Party. His declassified 500-page FBI file dence and the presence of Kenneth Freeman at the scene challenges to this very system. ☐ shows that the Philadelphia police, in consultation with COINTELPRO, for many years had tried to peg a crime on Mumia. We also know that at least one-third of the police involved in his case were jailed after it was discovered that Buffalo, N.Y. they had systematically tampered with evidence in large Anti-racists oppose numbers of cases across the city of Philadelphia. COINTELPRO’s role in Mumia’s frameup ‘Watchmen’ hate group I think that few people know that the investigation of the killing of Daniel Faulkner, the policeman whom By Workers World Buffalo bureau demanding better protections for workers facing the Mumia is accused of killing, that this investigation was brunt of the COVID‑19 pandemic. conducted not by the homicide unit of the Philadelphia A group of antifascists and community members The Rolling Patriots often participate in anti-mask, police department but by its “Civil Defense Unit,” which assembled Dec. 5 across the street from a park next to anti-shutdown events, catering to the interests of busi- was the local police arm of [former FBI Director] J. Edgar a low-income housing project in an industrial area in ness owners who want to remain open despite all-time- Hoover's COINTELPRO. north Buffalo, N.Y. They came to oppose a parade orga- high COVID‑19 infection rates in Erie County. They In 1981, Mumia was sentenced to death. And from nized by the Rolling Patriots, a white supremacist group. endanger the health and well-being of frontline workers death row [he] produced brilliant critiques of the prison The anti-racist demonstrators held signs condemn- and the general public. industrial complex, mass incarceration, capital punish- ing the presence of extreme right-wing groups and The Patriots use anti-mask and anti-shutdown rhet- ment, and other institutional consequences of racial cap- oric to lure people in and recruit many for more violent italism. Many of us are aware of the fact that his widely white supremacist groups. circulated writings have helped to humanize people in Their parade was attended by members of the prison and people on death row. Watchmen, a local hate group that also has connections Like many others of my age, I’ve been an active sup- with other far-right extremist groups like the Proud Boys porter of Mumia for many decades. And I’ve had the and the Aryan Renaissance Society. honor of speaking on his behalf at United Nations con- As the Patriots’ caravan left the parking lot to start ferences and other international venues where Mumia, their parade, Watchmen and Proud Boys approached for example, was declared an honorary citizen of Paris. the anti-racist demonstrators, armed with heavy flash- (The last person before him to receive that distinction lights and stun guns. A short scuffle broke out, but no was Pablo Picasso [in 1971].) I participated in that cere- serious injuries occurred. mony in Paris as his surrogate. The anti-racist demonstrators held strong against the Leonard Peltier, Mutulu Shakur, Russell Maroon fascist threats and attacks, while Tonawanda police, Erie Shoatz, Ed Poindexter, Veronza Bowers, Romaine County Sheriffs and New York State Troopers looked on, “Chip” Fitzgerald, David Gilbert, and my former co-de- making no arrests. fendant Ruchell Magee are just a few of the U.S. politi- The message from the community was clear: the peo- cal prisoners who have spent the vast majority of their ple of Western New York oppose racism and fascism—​ lives behind bars and as we know are currently the most whether it manifests itself openly, or hides behind vulnerable with respect to COVID‑19. We've already Buffalo, Dec. 5. WW PHOTO anti-mask propaganda. ☐ workers.org Dec. 17, 2020 Page 5

Car hits anti-ICE march New York City By G. Dunkel The driver was Kathleen Casillo, a New York City 52-year-old white woman from the New York City borough of Queens. The police Since the beginning of the Black Lives went easy on her. She received a desk Matter movement in 2014, there have appearance ticket for “reckless endanger- been at least 100 car attacks on protest- ment” after she told the cops that the pro- ers in the U.S. testers “frightened” her. In most cases, a Most recently, in Manhattan near desk appearance implies a misdemeanor 39th St. and Third Ave., a car plowed at charge, given for a relatively minor act. high speed through a group of protesters In contrast, the cops ticketed one on Dec. 12. They had been marching in protester Nicole Besuden, for “obstruc- solidarity with a hunger strike by peo- tion of governmental administra- ple incarcerated at the ICE detention tion” and “disorderly conduct” simply center in Bergen County, N.J. The jail because she was helping a friend is just across the Hudson River from who had been hit by the car when Manhattan. an EMT driver arrived to pick up the Protesters regroup after a car drives into their anti-ICE march in Manhattan. The marchers were chanting “Free injured person. them! Free them all!” immediately before Some protesters claimed on Twitter video feeds show cops forcing protesters social media. A chilling video clip on the car struck. Six people were hospital- that the police, who flooded the area with into unmarked cars. Twitter of the car accelerating through the ized, with injuries ranging from minor to bicycle cops after the car strike, arrested Coverage of this violent incident crowd has been viewed tens of thousands serious. a number of protesters. Some Twitter was widely picked up on international of times. ☐

Detroit State representative confronts white supremacy By Martha Grevatt In a video posted on Johnson clarified that by “soldiers” of Detroit. (Workers World, Sept. 3, 2015) social media, Johnson she meant “soldiers for Christ, soldiers Unlike the Democratic establishment, Trump attorney Rudy defied the bigots. “This against racism, soldiers against domes- Detroit community organizations have Giuliani took his road is just a warning to you tic violence, soldiers against domestic denounced the attacks on Rep. Johnson. show—aimed at disen- Trumpers: Be careful. terrorism.” However, rather than rush- Michigan United issued a statement of franchising Black vot- Walk lightly. We ain't play- ing to her defense, Democratic Party offi- support, saying, “Rather than continue ers—to the Michigan ing with you. Enough of the cials, including Michigan’s Gov. Gretchen this futile effort to silence Black voices, State Legislature’s House shenanigans. Enough is Whitmer, have taken a wishy-washy lawmakers should instead unite to con- Oversight Committee on enough,” she said. “And for position—denouncing both the threats front our common enemy, the virus.” Dec. 2. At that hearing an Michigan State Rep. Cynthia those of you who are sol- against Johnson and her response to Detroit Action stated: “The call for African-American mem- A. Johnson of Detroit calls out diers, you know how to do them. This draws an equal sign between civility from the Michigan Democratic Rudy Giuliani, Dec. 2. ber of the committee, it. Do it right. Be in order. racism and opposition to racism. Party is woefully insufficient as it fails to Rep. Cynthia A. Johnson Make them pay.” The exception is the Michigan Legislative adequately support Rep. Johnson, fails of Detroit, raised a point of order asking Johnson’s righteous response drew Black Caucus, which issued a statement to address how Rep. Johnson’s treatment why the chair was “allowing people to come the ire of Michigan House Speaker Lee demanding Speaker Chatfield “apologize is steeped in misogynoir, and fails to in and lie.” Rather than address Johnson’s Chatfield, who removed her from all and reinstate Representative Cynthia A. address the actual pain that representa- courageous challenge, Republican Chair committee assignments, including the Johnson to her committee assignments tives of color are dealing with when faced Matt Hall ruled her out of order. Oversight Committee and Families, immediately.” Now even Gov.Whitmer is with actual death threats.” Rep. Johnson is a Detroit community Children and Seniors Committee. saying Chatfield went too far in removing The Moratorium Now! Coalition is activist first elected to the State House Chatfield said he was “looking into further Johnson from her committees. holding an “All out—Support Cynthia last year. She says that since the hear- disciplinary action as the proper authori- Johnson” demonstration outside Rep. ing she has received “thousands” of calls ties conduct their own investigations.” In Community rallies behind Johnson Johnson’s home on Dec. 16. that include death threats and despica- a Dec. 9 statement he said, “We have been Johnson’s activism did not begin with Racist attacks on legislators of color, ble slurs. Speaking on CNN, she com- consistent in our position on this—vio- her election to office. In 2015, for exam- along with racist voter suppression, serve pared the racist and misogynistic abuse lence and intimidation is never appropri- ple, she organized “Light Walks.” Held to bolster national oppression, settler to domestic violence, but said she is not ate in politics.” at night, the weekly walks continued for colonialism and capitalist exploitation. afraid of the “cowards” who sent anony- In response to that outrageous alle- months until finally the city installed work- These attacks must be challenged at every mous messages. gation of “violence and intimidation,” ing street lights in the Dexter/Waverly area turn. ☐

Columbus, Ohio Justice for Casey Goodson! By Martha Grevatt Ohio and the Central Ohio expenses of Casey Goodson Freedom Fund. Speakers Jr.; the firing of Columbus Franklin County Sheriff’s included Goodson’s sib- Police Chief Thomas Quinlan Deputy Michael Jason lings, uncle and mother, for negligence in failing to Meade killed Casey “Tank” who all spoke lovingly of contact the Ohio Bureau Goodson Jr. in his family’s “Tank.” Goodson’s sixth- of Criminal Investigation Columbus, Ohio, home on grade teacher, with whom in a timely manner; com- Dec. 4. According to family Casey Goodson he reconnected as an adult, mitment from Franklin eyewitnesses, Goodson “lit- gave remarks, along with County Commissioners to erally walked across the yard, walked into Pastor Mike Young and speakers for spon- divest from Franklin County the back fence to get to the side door, had soring groups. The family attorney, Sean Sheriff’s Department; and his Subway [sandwich] and mask in one Walton Jr., spoke on many issues raised by commitment from the Nighttime rally for Casey Goodson, Dec. 11, Columbus. hand [and] keys in the other, unlocked the case, including the right of Black people Columbus City Council to and opened the door and stepped in the to bear arms. divest from Columbus Police Department. police brutality. These views, voiced in a house”—​and then was shot. The family There had also been a rally the previ- (BQIC facebook) 2018 sermon and in his interview for his dispute claims by the sheriff’s department ous evening called by Black Liberation According to BQIC, “the investigation current job the same year, apparently did that Goodson pointed a gun at Meade. Movement Central Ohio and Deescalate has been terrible from the beginning, with not raise any red flags with the sheriff’s (Black Queer Intersectional Collective of Ohio Now! Heartbeat Movement. Columbus Police intentionally not calling office. Ohio facebook) in the correct people to process a police Columbus police are known for exces- Goodson’s gun was licensed and he had No charges in homicide brutality incident.” The state Bureau of sive use of force, including against demon- a concealed carry weapon permit. He was Goodson’s family has made eight Criminal Investigation then declined to strators protesting the lynching of George legally armed when Meade killed him. He demands: the immediate termination, take the case. The investigation is now Floyd. The rally crowd held up the names had no criminal record and was not even arrest and indictment of Michael Jason in the hands of the FBI and the U.S. of Henry Green, Julius Tate Jr., Tyree the person sheriff’s deputies were look- Meade for the murder of Casey Goodson Department of Justice. King, and others killed in recent years by ing for. The murder of the 23-year-old Jr; revocation of Jason Meade’s pension; The Franklin County coroner ruled the Columbus police and around the state. Goodson has sparked mass anger. transparency in the investigation and cause of death as homicide. There were At the protest, people chanted “Lock Hundreds attended a rally on Dec. 12 release of all video and audio recordings; “multiple gunshot wounds to the torso.” up Jason Meade!” and “Justice for Casey co-sponsored by Black Queer Intersectional immediate release of evidence to Casey’s Since the shooting, it has come to light Goodson!” A march followed the rally. Collective (BQIC) of Ohio, People’s Justice mother, Tamala Payne; Franklin County that Meade is a right-wing pastor who Solidarity demonstrations were held in Project, Black Abolitionist Collective of Sheriff’s Department cover the funeral manages to find Biblical “justification” for other cities. ☐ Page 6 Dec. 17, 2020 workers.org Defend incarcerated workers! By Monica Moorehead puts profits before people’s needs; where Prisoners suffer an even greater the multiple trauma of modern-day slav- millions of people are disenfranchised social stigma of demonization—​that is, ery conditions behind these walls, espe- These comments were given at the because of their nationality, gender iden- being labeled as dangerous, expendable. cially as the U.S. Justice Department is Dec. 10 webinar of the Prisoners Solidarity tity, gender expression, disabilities, age Therefore, millions are locked away, suing the Alabama prison system for vio- Committee of Workers World Party. and/or their social status. unseen and unheard, for years, for life—​ lating the human rights of prisoners. And this is especially true of incarcer- and even executed—​whether they com- We will be hearing about this import- The theme of tonight’s webinar is ated workers, who are super-exploited mitted “crimes” or not. ant struggle on the inside and also how “Build class solidarity with incarcerated as slave labor and are super-repressed if Just look at all the federal executions our movement on the outside can show workers: No walls in the workers’ strug- they are people of color, women, gender that have occurred recently with rapid solidarity as a movement with them. gle.” The PSC wanted to sponsor this non-conforming, disabled and/or elderly. speed under Trump. Another one took We will also be getting an update on webinar on International Human place today and four more are the almost four-decades-long struggle to Rights Day—​the day in 1948 that the scheduled for January. free political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, United Nations General Assembly But the incarcerated are part of who was falsely arrested 39 years ago, on adopted the Universal Declaration of our class, the working class, who Dec. 9, 1981, and convicted of killing a Human Rights. The UDHR is a doc- are resisting terrible conditions police officer in July of 1982. Mumia was ument that supposedly proclaims intensified by the COVID‑19 crisis, sentenced to death row—​until he was “the inalienable rights which every- including unemployment, hunger, released into general population in 2011 one is entitled to as a human being—​ and evictions. Yes, incarcerated due to a worldwide movement to save his regardless of race, color, religion, sex, workers, be they in jails, prisons life. But the struggle continues to free him language, political or other opinion, or detention centers, are also orga- from a Pennsylvania dungeon—​and now national or social origin, property, nizing and resisting decades of Colin Kaepernick has joined this fight. birth or other status.” intolerable conditions, including So as we prepare to usher in a new year But as revolutionary activists, we COVID—​especially incarcerated of struggle and fightback, as we prepare know that these words ring hollow for workers in Alabama, who are orga- to commemorate the 50th anniversary those living in the belly of the beast, nizing a month-long work stoppage of the heroic Attica prison rebellion, we the U.S.—a​ country built on the leg- starting Jan. 1. say, “Tear down the prison walls and free acy of stolen Indigenous lands, slav- As someone who was born in them all!” ☐ ery, colonialism and wage slavery. Alabama, under the trauma known We live under a capitalist system that as segregation, I can only imagine

Swift Justice ‘A fight from the inside out’ These slightly edited comments are Here in Alabama, we have seen over we already know Biden’s history. Nobody have put these legacies in. And it’s look- from a Dec. 10 webinar organized by and over, and all throughout the years, that is calling themselves a prison ing good; it’s really looking good right the Prisoners Solidarity Committee of overcrowding. Overcrowding is one of reformer, a prison abolitionist, a slavery now. Bernie Sanders has been pushing. Workers World Party. Swift Justice the leading factors why we have issues abolitionist, is ignorant to the fact that And, being that Bernie Sanders is actually is currently incarcerated within the inside the prison such as violence and Biden wrote the 1994 crime bill—​which sponsoring the bill to remove the excep- Alabama Department of Corrections sys- the unjustified deaths by overdoses and was a huge contributor to the overcrowd- tion clause out of the 13th Amendment, it tem. For more on prison stoppage by the by natural causes as well. When you have ing all over the U.S. speaks volumes [to Free Alabama Movement, see Workers overcrowding, you are heightening dis- in the federal pris- As we’ve always said, this what the movement World, Dec. 4. eases, you’re heightening the issues of ons and adopted in has done] because mental health—​and you’re heightening the states. has been a fight from the you got to remem- every aspect of any Our focus is, inside out, not just an ber, Bernie Sanders prison reform that we’re just going also voted for the people are fighting to keep moving outside fight. We are not 1994 crime bill. against today. forward. There’s Finally, this is It’s really inde- nothing that’s going to sit back! We know all nothing but fuel scribable here. Guys gonna stop us from as freedom fighters that to the fire. I mean, live in filthy areas; doing what we’re this should give they live in areas doing. We are deal- nobody is going to be the spark to anybody that are just inches ing with the 13th who is in prison. As away from another Amendment itself “knight in shining armor.” we’ve always said, man. And with this [allowing slave We cannot depend on any this has been a fight coronavirus epi- labor in prisons] in from the inside out, demic, it is even a joint resolution elected official to do that. not just an outside Co-moderator Devin C.: What is worse—​the denial of mental health and that’s being pro- fight. We are not the Free Alabama Movement? Some have denial of medical treatment. cessed through the Congress very soon, going to sit back! We know as freedom deemed the Alabama prisons as the most You would not have this [outside] in and the Department of Justice is suing fighters that nobody is going to be the inhumane in the U.S. Can you shed some what we call “the free world.” So why the Alabama Department of Corrections. “knight in shining armor.” We cannot light on some of the conditions there? would you have us sitting like this, but Joe Biden, if anything, he’ll be the one depend on any elected official to do that. Why is it important for people on the out- you call it rehabilitation? who vetoes any changes. And he will not We know that we’re going to have to side to show solidarity with these impris- Devin C.: This month of economic make any changes personally; the presi- fight for ourselves. In order to save us, we oned workers’ January month-long work blackout and strike will cut right through dential powers don’t exist to that point. have to save us. ☐ stoppage and economic blackout? a very important moment. On Jan. 20, So we have to rely on those people that we Swift Justice: I personally wouldn’t we will see a transition of sit there and try to gauge how inhumane U.S. power from Donald one prison is over another prison in the Trump to Joe Biden. United States. Any prison that has any Neither of them is com- human rights violations is inhumane; mitted to prison aboli- it’s all equal in our eyes. The issue here tion. Now that Biden has in Alabama is that for so long society in won under the guise that Alabama—they​ just cherish the fact that he is a progressive alter- individuals come to prison and are basi- native to Trump, how cally tortured and treated like animals. will the Free Alabama The main frame of the “free society” Movement move forward is that “you should have thought about to appeal to people to that before you did the crime, so you do embrace prison abolition the time.” The thing about that is every and not reform? prison system that exists that has any Swift Justice: I don’t kind of human rights violations, treating think our focus is on us as animals instead of human beings, Biden, as much as it is on is deplorable, just deplorable, and it’s an society for real. Because injustice. one thing about Biden, workers.org Dec. 17, 2020 Page 7

Kempis Ghani Songster ‘The struggle of working people in the prison system’ These slightly edited comments are from the as persons, but as producers according to the quality of of scabs. That’s what I also experienced in Pennsylvania. Dec. 10 webinar organized by the Prisoners Solidarity their products. It was through that lens that I started to We weren’t able to organize on a mass level, like we see Committee of Workers World Party. analyze exactly what the situation was with incarcerated going on in Alabama. workers. Family generosity allows such men, who resist by not Co-moderator Monica Moorehead: We’re very working, to hold out for a while, but eventually they excited to welcome to the panel Kempis Ghani Songster. The value of work to someone inside desist, and they break down and get a job. Everybody He is the Healing Justice Organizer for the Amistad Law Because we were in a situation where we were already does. Well, not everybody—some​ people are implacable, Project and the host of the new monthly podcast show, devalued as human beings, we were already squeezed like some of our political prisoners. “Move It Forward.” He is also co-founder of Ubuntu out of a workforce that was increasingly automated and This has been what I’ve observed as the struggle of Philadelphia. Our earlier panelist, Swift Justice, was cybernated. We were the people that were no longer working people in the prison system, where we have 2.5 speaking from an Alabama prison. What similar condi- needed in the workforce. And so this society’s answer to million people [in the U.S.] who are now held hostage. tions did you experience in Pennsylvania prisons? Why this growing army of people who were no longer needed Not in the interest of “justice” or “public safety,” but in should the issue of mass incarceration concern all work- in the workforce was to round them up and warehouse the interests of a handful of elite sociopathic hustlers, ers? How does the struggle of people on the inside affect them. hell-bent on using force to squeeze and suck the last all of us? And in the situation that we found ourselves, as we drops of use value from the bodies of Black, Brown and Kempis Ghani Songster: Thank you for having entered the prison gates, we were strip-searched and poor white people who have no longer any use value to me. As Swift Justice was talking, and I was hearing the told to strip down and put on this new prison uniform. the “free” world. sounds coming through his phone receiver, it brought As we walked through our day-to-day life in prison, we This has been our struggle in Pennsylvania, fighting back some visceral memories from me, some cellular began to see that, not only are we judged as nonpersons, against life without parole, which basically guarantees memories for me, because December 28 will mark my but we’re also judged as not-producers anymore. We’re that [the state will] have an increasing number of per- third year back in the wide open world after 30 years of just consuming items identified by a number. manently held people, so that they can squeeze, forever, incarceration. Too few of the people that I knew would look at their every last drop of labor power they can from these indi- That began in 1987, at the age of 15, for me. I was new predicament with that kind of political depth, at viduals—​from us. sentenced to life without parole at the age of 15 in least initially, but unless you were the walking dead, Pennsylvania. And in Pennsylvania, life without parole is you felt the sting of being slapped by an invisible hand Prison work and the outside world not like life in a lot of other states, where you might serve entering that dreary place where everyone’s status says Now moving forward, I’m seeing what the relevance 20 years or 25 years or any number of years, and then to them loud and clear—​you have no value, you ain’t of our prison struggle has to do with folks on the out- you’re eligible to see the parole board. In Pennsylvania, worth shit to society anymore if you ever did at all. To side. The most problematic layer of the conditions that life means natural life—​you’re sent to prison effectively to die. Which is why we increasingly know “life” now as “death by incarceration by the state.” Because anything so final as death shouldn’t be called life. We call it what it is—death​ by incarceration. The only reason why I’m on this call with you today is because the U.S. Supreme Court made some rulings, starting on June 25, 2012, with Mila vs. Alabama, saying that it’s unconstitutional to sentence children, or people under 18 years of age, to mandatory life without parole. And because it applied to me, I was eventually resen- tenced. But I’m still on lifetime parole—​I’m on parole for the rest of my life. So I’m not entirely free, I’m still chained to the plantation.

The ‘we’ of incarcerated people When I speak about incarcerated people, I’m going to use the term “we.” I’m not going to say “them,” because I still feel I’m talking about me, because at any given time, I could be sent back to serve out the rest of my sentence. I really appreciate being here, with you. That’s not some trite cliché thing to say. I really appreciate it, because I know that I’m not supposed to be here. In Pennsylvania and in my prison experience, the strug- gle is a lot like what Swift Justice was talking about. My analysis of the situation of incarcerated workers Kempis Ghani Songster co-produces the podcast "Move It Forward" which can be listened to at comes from my observation, as well as analysis that was transom.org/2020/move-it-forward/ groomed by people like Karl Marx and James Boggs and C.L.R. James and Hannah Arendt. have your labor valued even at 19 cents an hour can seem motivated the emergence of the movement in Alabama Hannah Arendt talked about a society where exchange like a saving grace. Just as having a good job in free soci- is the level to which the prison-based economy has been of products has become the chief public activity, where ety can do wonders for a person’s self-esteem, having a assimilated into the culture of society at large. even the laborers—​because they’re confronted with job or work assignment in prison can go a long way with Everybody out in society has somehow been benefiting commodity owners—​become owners of their own helping a person preserve or regain a modicum of dignity from prison labor. labor in a manufacturing society that judges men not and self-worth. And not only has everyone in prison been participat- ing in their own exploitation and oppression through Resistance and prison work prison labor themselves, but they’ve been enabling this But some men behind the walls, like at the prison that country’s prosecution of endless wars—​a genocide of I left from, we had never worked in the free world, we war campaigns on other human beings and other parts had been in a prison since we were children—​like me of the world. Weapon manufacturers such as General incarcerated since the age of 15. So work offered people Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, like me a sense of being grown-up and responsible, even Boeing—​just to name a few—​all depend on prison if the wages paid were less than the allowance that our labor. parents had given us. We still felt grown-up. Thus, imprisoned people, if they organize properly, A person’s very humanity is inextricably tied to jail- can very well have a significant impact on this country’s house work. And lack of family support or lack of fam- ability to destroy more lands and more people. ily—because​ I knew people that didn’t have any family But as the weapons industry pays politicians to stoke anymore—compels​ some people to work. the flames of more and more war in order to create, Some people at some time avoid prison jobs for as maintain and grow markets for their weapons—​so also long as they can for personal or political reasons. They they’re going to force prison labor to increase and accel- don’t want to participate in their own enslavement and erate. Because warehoused human beings are simply exploitation. It’s their personal protest or resistance too valuable to release—even​ and especially after they that always has the potential of reclaiming some propri- educate, rebuild, rehabilitate themselves, transform etorship of prison labor power. These kinds of men and ourselves. their stance are rendered insignificant by a population ART BY LAUREN WALKER FOR TRUTHOUT Continued on page 8 Page 8 Dec. 17, 2020 workers.org

Ramsey Prison Unit The terror of Texas By Nanon M. Williams Rubac wrote an article in Workers World institution to investigate itself and come held and to justify money needed for newspaper dated Nov. 19. “And what?” is out with results against itself. That pro- security measures never used. Nanon Williams was arrested in 1992 at now the question being asked. cess was not only a sham, but a warning In other words, a paper trail is cre- age 17 for capital murder and spent years The message is being sent that if to prison administrators to simply be ated so budgets are increased, which at on death row. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme inmates in Texas prisons dare to write smarter as they prepare for gigs. the same time proves that prisoners are a Court ruled people under 18 could not be about the brutality, vio- threat to society. sentenced to death. His sentence, along lence, abuse, terror and We see front-page stories railing about with 70 others, was commuted to life and rising death toll within crimes committed by prisoners being he is still fighting to prove his innocence. its plantation-like slave released, but this pales in comparison to He has earned two associate degrees, a camps, prisoners will be the horrific crimes and brutal abuse the bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree; punished. public never sees, the crimes that aren’t he was about to finish his second master’s, Guards are asking on the front page. For prisoners like us to when the prison declared no one could questions about who dare to challenge the nature of our incar- earn two masters. contributed to the arti- ceration, who have the courage to chal- For decades Williams has published a cle; statements are lenge a system hell-bent on destroying us, newsletter, “The Williams Report,” with being made, and phone prisoners like Mumia Abu-Jamal, Shaka the help of his comrades in California. calls are currently being Sankofa and so many others, we end up He began writing poems after going reviewed. Why? For being killed or end up rotting in prisons to death row—​published in a 2000 what purpose? Do we not for decades. book:“The Ties That Bind Us”—​and has have freedom of speech, If we are to change as a people or as continued to write essays as well as sev- the right to assemble, to a country, we must first look inside our eral other books. With his autobiography file a grievance or call prisons to support those considered to be “Still Surviving,” his words began to be our loved one to address the least of us. We must look at the poor, heard across the country, and he became what takes place, or con- working-class communities whose youth a leader against the Texas death row. tact the media to help are destined to be warehoused in these Later Williams published “The Darkest us without fear of being modern day concentration camps, where Hour: Stories and Interviews from persecuted? Are our people are being executed, outright killed, Death Row” exposing the inhumane and constitutional rights so Nanon Williams with his mother, Lee Bolton, when she visited tortured and abused in ways that destroy brutal conditions others have faced. blatantly disregarded him on death row in 1998. who they are. In a personal communication, he that we still face solitary If the government treats people as less wrote, “For three decades they have confinement, risk being shipped count- In fact at this very moment, security than human, what can we expect? If the stripped me of my freedom, of love, of less miles away from our loved ones and audits are taking place, as well as a PREA system persecutes us for speaking out and having children, or even the simple act then arrive at a new prison with the label (Prison Rape Elimination Act) audit. organizing against racist injustice and of attending a funeral. I now have grey that we are a threat? Disciplinary cases have skyrocketed abuse, then everyone’s rights are threat- hair, yet I am still young. I have survived Only a couple of years ago, Donsha within this prison, especially with the new ened anywhere! hundreds of executions—abuse​ at a level Crump and I exposed the quota system administration. The same practice is tak- The Internet has made the world a small the mind can’t fathom—​and these peo- for disciplinary charges here in Texas ing place along with the same measures place, and we can connect with each other ple think I won’t challenge them on the prisons. We made it public when a writ- and means of threatening us to keep the globally—​so let’s use that to create a better BS they are doing here? Please.” ten order was found that illustrated in hell quiet. world. We can only do that by challenging In a cover letter sent with this article, writing that it is a common practice in the power structures that still see us as dol- Williams expressed gratitude to Workers Texas prisons to give cases for a “gig.” What is a gig? lar signs, people who can produce profits, World newspaper for being a voice for This was exposed by various activists What is a gig? It is a paperwork hustle people who can be exploited. For a system the voiceless. — ​By Gloria Rubac as well as Workers World newspaper and to rob taxpayers of money, justify reasons to see us as mothers and fathers, or sons eventually mainstream press. Pressure to keep prisoners incarcerated by writ- or daughters, or simply as human beings, “Find out who made the calls, who wrote mounted. The prison system had to inves- ing bogus disciplinary cases and justify change must come. letters and made complaints, and. …” These tigate and looked at various departments the funding needed for prisons to obtain We must make fundamental change. are the cries of the Ramsey Unit adminis- within all 100 or so prisons. paper trails, falsify bogus reports for We must make a systematic change! We tration in Rosharon, Texas, after Gloria However, we know we can’t expect an hours of disciplinary hearings supposedly can do it! Yes, we will! ☐

Kempis Ghani Songster ‘The struggle of working people in the prison system’ Continued from page 7 interrogating the language that we use, right? We’re talking on this Day of International Human Rights. We have to So the prison population continues to increase. Even use language in our movement that confers humanity onto as crime rates drop, the prison population still goes up, people. because people are receiving longer sentences—​life with- out parole, death by incarceration—in​ order to hold them COVID‑19 and prison in prison and milk their labor power until they die. So in this human warehousing, it’s crucial that we address This is why building solidarity with incarcerated work- the issue of the pandemic. Because COVID‑19 behind the ers is so important, because there is no separation between walls is killing people en masse. Pennsylvania prisons have ART BY ROGER PEET FOR JUSTSEEDS.ORG what goes on “outside” in society and what happens to turned into volcanoes of the virus; they’re epicenters of incarcerated workers behind the walls. In fact, mass incar- the virus. People are dying; guards are coming in and just ceration is this society’s response to the increased rejection infecting people left and right. of people of color and poor people from the workforce. And we’re screaming out at the top of our lungs, on our Mass incarceration—​I’m not a fan of the term “mass rooftops: “Release the vulnerable! Release the vulnerable!” incarceration.” To me, the word is “human warehousing.” And they won’t, they won’t release people. It’s not mass incarceration. These are not faceless masses Even though the U.N. has issued a call for countries of people; these are human beings. They had births; their all around the world to decarcerate—​especially urging parents had dreams for them; they got families that are America to begin to decarcerate. Countries like Turkey have doing the time with them. They have faces; they have sto- already released over 100,000 of their prison population. ries; they have souls, and they have spirits. This is not mass Iran has released over 100,000 people. Countries all over incarceration. are way ahead of the game. This is human warehousing and the beginning of the The U.S. is using punitive measures to address a public movement. One of the first steps in this movement is to health crisis. And this is very, very important for the rest of interrogate our own consciousness, our own perception us in this society, because it’s an egregious and glaring con- of the issues that we’re fighting against. And that means tinuing crisis of human rights abuse. ☐ workers.org Dec. 17, 2020 Page 9 A look at Venezuela’s National Assembly election By John Catalinotto relies on its oil exports. When the price of oil dropped, the country lost income. Venezuela’s December 6 National Assembly (AN) He pointed to the efforts of Vietnam to find ways of elections overcame the prior pro-imperialist majority bringing capital into the country to develop domestic in that body and catapulted the ruling United Socialist industry: “No country wants to socialize poverty.” Party (PSUV) into an overwhelming majority. President In a message to activists in the imperialist countries, Nicolás Maduro, also of the PSUV, won big. Prashad urged that they tell their government to cool it The imperialist politicians and corporate media, espe- and end the hybrid war. cially in the U.S., Canada and Europe, will attempt to minimize the defeat of their puppet Juan Guaidó and Dobson and the critical left disparage the legitimacy of the election. Flowers pointed out that Dobson was a leftist working Elected from a small constituency to the last AN and Voting is smooth and fair in Venezuela. within Venezuela, and he would discuss internal, domes- appointed acting president from his party, in January tic problems and contradictions. Besides being active in 2019 Guaidó declared himself interim president of the While there was a landslide victory for the PSUV, the Venezuela Analysis, Dobson is an active supporter of the country. U.S. and European imperialist governments strength of this victory is diminished by the relatively Popular Revolutionary Alternative (APR), a new bloc of quickly backed Guaidó and his fraudulent claim. They low level of participation, which was 31% of the eligible left-wing groups formed in July whose major element is tried to mobilize all anti-revolutionary Venezuelan par- voters. the PCV and which takes a clear anti-imperialist stance ties behind him. on all international issues. These parties had supported In an attempt to unseat Maduro, Guaidó and his sup- Venezuela Analysis podcast the PSUV in confrontations with the rightists in past porters mounted three serious maneuvers during 2019, For a more detailed analysis of the election in English, elections. including a barely disguised invasion over the border Workers World recommends its readers listen to a podcast Dobson said the main question was the turnout, low with Colombia. The Venezuelan armed forces backed the moderated by Margaret Flowers of Popular Resistance for Venezuela standards. He blamed some of it on disil- Maduro government, as did the popular mobilization; that features her introduction and presentations by Vijay lusionment with political leaders and argued that most together they crushed these coup attempts despite U.S. Prashad of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research Venezuelans at this time are looking for solutions to the backing for Guaidó. and Paul Dobson of Venezuelanalysis. (For podcast, go severe economic problems. He also pointed out that The coup failures further split the already divided to venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/15073.) there has been migration out of the country of 4-5 mil- Venezuelan rightists into two major factions, both rep- Flowers made it clear she believed the main duty of lion voters, about 20% of the voters on the books. resenting the oligarchy. The seditious pro-coup forces anti-imperialists working within the imperialist countries Venezuela has held 26 elections since Hugo Chávez backing Guaidó were opposed by was to expose the lies and anti-Mad- was elected president in 1998, Dobson noted. Without more moderate rightists wanting uro, anti-revolutionary propaganda of any evidence, the U.S., the European Union and the to work within the electoral sys- While there was a the corporate media and to fight to get Organization of American States—a​ tool of U.S. imperi- tem. They have even asked the world imperialism off the backs of the alism—refuse​ to recognize the legitimacy of the election U.S. to recognize the Venezuelan landslide victory Venezuelans. and call it a fraud. government, lift the economic for the PSUV, the Prashad discussed the full-court Dobson discussed changes in the grassroots in sanctions and begin normal press attack by U.S. imperialism on Venezuela regarding government programs, saying: trade and investment. strength of this Bolivarian Venezuela over the last “We’re in the seventh year of recession;” and “The gov- Three of the four major oppo- two decades, which he called “hybrid ernment is looking to resolve some of the problems in sition—​pro-oligarchy—​parties victory is diminished warfare.” War is not just the physical favor of large capital.” By this he meant that some of the took part in the Dec. 6 elections. attack,” he explained, but there is infor- sectors of the economy are being opened to privatization, Guaidó refused to participate by the relatively low mation war, diplomatic war, an attempt without addressing the problem of low wages that are not and called on everyone to boycott level of participation. to isolate the enemy, economic war and enough to feed people adequately. the election. Not everyone did. war on the country’s currency. All of this Dobson also explained that because the pro-Guaidó Some 107 parties, including 97 has been waged against Venezuela. grouping called a boycott, it meant the PSUV would win in opposition to the government—​most of them small The U.S. has realized, Prashad said, that while it can in a landslide—​as happened. That meant the parties in bourgeois parties—​ran over 14,000 candidates for 277 bomb the hell out of a country, it can’t subdue the pop- the APR could run independently without jeopardizing seats in the AN. Seats are distributed through a combi- ulation, thus “it can’t really win.” It tries to delegitimize the Bolivarian government. So the APR groups withdrew nation of direct votes for candidates and proportional the government and wage economic, commercial and their support from the government in power and publicly representation for parties, with large voting percentages financial war, creating a major currency problem, mak- objected to the domestic policies of the PSUV. leading to overrepresentation. ing it impossible for Venezuela to recover. “It has really There are 13 different groups on the left that make up Regarding the electoral blocs whose political impact screwed up the political sovereignty of the country.” the Popular Revolutionary Alternative (APR). The PSUV we are discussing, here are the results: PSUV bloc 69.3% It appears as though the imperialists are doing noth- put many obstacles up to their participation. They were (253 seats), the rightist Democratic Alliance 17.7% ing to intervene, he added, but they are really heavy on not allowed to participate in the national debates, and (18 seats), Communist Party (PCV) 2.7% (1 seat) and intervention. “It bleeds the country slowly and is much they had to run on the PCV ticket in the elections. Homeland for All (PPT) 1.4% (0 seats). more devastating than direct bombardment.” The APR bloc proposed a significant increase in wages, The latter two are considered to the left of the PSUV. Prashad explained the low turnout not only by demor- especially minimum wages, and the tying of future Many other parties got between 0.5% and 4.6%, but have alization of the population brought out by the effects of increases to the prices of a package of goods. They also insignificant independent political weight. the hybrid war, but also directly by the pandemic, which pushed for government-planned construction of new The PCV has petitioned for seven seats instead of one. makes people want to stay home, and by calamitous fuel factories to produce necessary goods. Dobson said they Despite the precautions for COVID-19, the vote ran shortages in the midst of an election, which limit trans- were pleased with the 170,000 votes that showed a rev- smoothly, and the observers—including​ those from pro- portation to voting sites. olutionary presence among the population. gressive organizations in the U.S.—declared​ it was con- There’s a problem for all socialist experiments that ducted fairly and votes were fairly counted. rely on commodity prices, said Prashad. Venezuela still For more on sanctions, see sanctionskill.org.

Defend Chich’il Bildagoteel! By Minnie Bruce Pratt station KJZZ on Dec. 1 that the Trump administration is cutting corners: “They would have the deal cut [before Apache clans and over 300 Indigenous nations are the Biden inauguration], and it would be very difficult organizing to protect Chich’il Bildagoteel, the Oak Flat for us to undo after it’s done.” Rep. Grijalva and Senator site in southeastern Arizona, from devastating copper Bernie Sanders have introduced legislation to repeal the mining extraction. land transfer. The mining was given a federal go-ahead by pas- Chich’il Bildagoteel holds petroglyphs, precolonial sage of the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and history and burial grounds of at least eight Apache clans “Conservation” Act, included in the 2015 National and two Western Apache bands. Home to medicinal Defense Authorization Act signed by President Barack plants and water sources rising from the Apache Leap Obama. Subject to “environmental review,” the act gave Tuff aquifer, Oak Flat is on the National Register of land sacred to the Apache to the Resolution Copper Historic Places. PHOTO: SANDRA RAMBLER/CENSORED NEWS Mine, a joint venture by the notorious Rio Tinto and The San Carlos Apache, neighboring Indigenous Apache clan members and supporters rally to defend BHP Billiton. The act was a land swap so private com- nations and environmental groups have mobilized to Chich'il Bildagoteel (Oak Flat) in December 2019. panies could exploit federal Tonto National Forest land, prevent destruction of the area, revered by the Apache. including Oak Flat, in exchange for deeding other “pri- In a November statement, Dr. Wendsler Nosie Sr., “For more than a decade, people all over the world vate land” to the U.S. former chair of the San Carlos Apache, said: “In the days have had eyes on Oak Flat. And on the ground, countless While the U.S. Forest Service had set a late 2021 dead- ahead, Chich’il Bildagoteel needs us. We have been given people have been in solidarity with the Apache people line for the final environmental impact statement, the strong indication that the Forest Service will be making as they fight to protect Oak Flat. Oak Flat needs all of us Trump administration recently moved the deadline to their decision on the Oak Flat land exchange. This will now to come together.” this December. (tinyurl.com/y2s2b7zk) immediately begin the process of handing over a sacred Arizona Congressperson Raul Grijalva told radio site to one of the largest mining companies in the world. To take action, go to apache-stronghold.com. Page 10 Dec. 17, 2020 workers.org

editorial The pandemic of capitalist profiteers

There is a new term to describe the super-rich: “cen- earn it. After all, the mega-profits of these super billion- countries. He could give everyone in Amazon’s 1.2 mil- ti-billionaires.” They are individuals whose net worth aires come from exploiting the labor of their workers, lion full- and part-time global workforce a $75,000 comes to over $100 billion. not from their own sweat and blood. bonus and still be as wealthy as he was before COVID‑19. Having added $67.2 billion to his net worth in 2020, Over a third of U.S. adults—​around 83 million—​are But such a “bonus” would only begin to cover the Amazon owner Jeff Bezos tops the list of global centi-bil- having problems paying for basic needs, including food, wealth Bezos has stolen from Amazon workers by not lionaires: $182.2 billion as of Dec. 13, according to the medical bills and rent/mortgage. The gains alone of these paying them the full value of their labor, especially since Forbes website. Next in line, Tesla founder Elon Musk’s few hundred multi-billionaires since March 2020 could mid-March, when Amazon’s business skyrocketed due net worth of $147 billion rep- feed all the hungry, house all to the COVID‑19 lockdowns. resents an increase of over $100 Over a third of U.S. adults – the homeless and cover all In 2011 the Occupy Wall Street movement emerged billion to his wealth since 2019. the medical needs related to to focus attention on the growing wealth gap between Both Microsoft founder Bill around 83 million – are having the vaccine. the wealthiest 1 percent versus the 99 percent of the Gates—​net worth of $118.3 problems paying for basic needs If the U.S. Congress fails to population struggling to get by. At that time, Bezos’ net billion—​and Facebook’s Mark pass a new relief bill, 12 mil- worth was “only” $18.1 billion. In the U.S. 1,210 people Zuckerberg—net​ worth of $101.8 including food, medical bills lion people will lose unem- had a total net worth of $4.5 trillion—roughly​ two times billion—​saw income gains of and rent/mortgage. The gains ployment benefits on Dec. 26. the number of people who are worth that today. (www. over $10 billion each in 2020. Frank Clemente, Americans forbes.com, Mar. 9, 2011) Meanwhile, the 651 richest alone taken in since March for Tax Fairness Executive That just confirms that, under capitalism, wealth con- billionaires in the U.S. enjoyed 2020 by the few hundred multi- Director, calculated: “Their tinues to be concentrated at the top and in fewer and a total net increase of over $1 pandemic profits [$1 tril- fewer hands. While the COVID‑19 crisis is a contribut- trillion since the pandemic hit billionaires could feed all the lion] are so immense that ing factor, the extreme wealth disparities and the rise in mid-March, according to hungry, house all the homeless America’s billionaires could of the centi-billionaires in the U.S. were also fueled by an analysis of Forbes finan- pay for a major COVID relief four decades of flat wages for workers, and centuries of cial data by Americans for Tax and cover all the medical bill and still not lose a dime of discrimination based on race, sex, gender, sexuality, dis- Fairness and the Institute for needs related to the vaccine. their pre-virus riches.” (truth- ability and more. Policy Studies. Their current out.com, Dec. 11) The vast wealth of the capitalists could be used to combined net worth was over According to Clemente, make the COVID vaccines free and accessible to every- $4 trillion, as of Dec. 11. (tinyurl.com/y3qceb8e) the wealth growth of these 651 billionaires could pro- one—​and particularly to the most vulnerable workers With tens of millions out of work, and an end to vide a $3,000 stimulus payment to every person in the and oppressed people—​in the shortest possible time extended unemployment insurance looming on the U.S.—​and the affluent would still be richer than they frame. But while a vaccine to prevent COVID‑19 is wel- horizon, it is hard to fathom just what it means to have were before the pandemic. come, what is long overdue is a revolution to end the this much wealth—and​ to have done next to nothing to Jeff Bezos’ net worth is bigger than the GDP of most pandemic of capitalist profiteers. ☐

Palestine Nature under settler colonialism By Rana Baker us with practical and discursive tools oriented toward liberation. It is not a liberatory discourse. This slightly edited presentation was given by Rana Baker, a Palestinian Ph.D. Acts of creative disruption student at Columbia University, during Second, the possibilities of resistance are the online Palestine Writes Festival, imposed. The colonized do not get to choose their Dec. 5. Baker’s research focuses on infra- means of resistance. The colonized are forced to structure and environmental resources be creative given the colonizer’s tendency to elim- as micro-sites of political struggle in inate all possibilities of resistance. Gazans have colonial and anti-colonial contexts. been confined and isolated since 2007. They do not have the option of throwing stones at the It’s a real honor to be part of this his- Israelis or disrupting railway and transporta- toric festival and to be among many tion infrastructure. Gazans and Israelis are sep- friends and allies. I’d like to thank PHOTO: IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA arated by a massive physical space. Anyone who Susan Abulhawa and all the organizers PHOTO: IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA A Palestinian flag and an approaches the fence gets shot. Palestinian resister prepares incendiary kite to cross for their tireless work and for bringing incendiary kite fly in southern Home-made incendiary kites and balloons the border from Gaza into Israeli-held land. us together in the best of ways despite Gaza on April 27, 2018. must therefore be understood as acts of creative this pandemic. disruption. They are effective precisely because My brief presentation will address environmental pol- legal and political discourse dismissed these kites alto- they cause damage to Israel’s agricultural economy and itics and the possibilities of resistance in Palestine—​my gether and insisted on highlighting the peacefulness of pit Israeli settlers against their government. They are primary focus is Gaza. the Great March. also effective because Israel’s military machine is incapa- Over the past years, the environment became an It was as if the Great March acquired its legitimacy ble of neutralizing them. Israeli warplanes cannot bomb important component of liberal discourse. Scientists are from its peacefulness rather the very conditions which a kite since bombing them would necessarily cause dam- no longer the only spokespeople for the environment. gave rise to the March in the first place. By conditions, I age to Israeli agricultural communities. Environmental politics is now a matter that concerns obviously mean the over seven decades of Israeli violence These acts of creative disruption must receive our full public opinion as well. As a self-purported liberal democ- and colonial dispossession. There are a few points I’d like endorsement in public and private. If Palestinian resis- racy, Israeli hasbara [public-relations] has expanded to to make on this. tance causes environmental damage, it is because there incorporate environmental issues and to use these issues First, while the liberal humanitarian discourse of inter- is an Israel to resist. to affirm Israel’s status as a progressive state. national law can be tactically useful, I believe it is long It is crucial to recognize the material nature of colo- Of course, this idea of Israel as an environmentally overdue that we scholars, lawyers and activists go on the nialism. Israel relies on a vast military and civilian infra- conscious liberal democracy plays into Zionism’s early offensive. International law hardly distinguishes between structure without which the very settler colonial integrity Orientalist narrative of Palestine as an arid land which a homemade incendiary kite and a bomb dropped from of the state cannot survive. was never cultivated by its native inhabitants until an Israeli warplane. Its legal principles—​such as the Sabotaging and disrupting this infrastructure lie at the European Zionist settlers established their moshavot, or principle of proportionality—​are elusive enough to jus- heart of every liberation movement from North Dakota agricultural settlements. This is all well-known. tify settler colonial violence as self-defense or, at best, to Palestine. These are acts conducive to liberation, and provide some inconsequential condemnation. we should not shy away from supporting them. ☐ Liberal environmentalism International law has never and will never provide What is relatively new is the way Israel has turned the discourse of liberal environmentalism against the Palestinians who resist its colonial violence. Gaza’s Marxism, Reparations & the Black Freedom Struggle incendiary kites, which emerged during Gaza’s Great An anthology of writings from Workers World newspaper. March of Return [in 2018-19], are an important exam- Edited by Monica Moorehead. ple. Incendiary kites or balloons were basically Molotov cocktails attached to kites and balloons, then sent over Racism, National Oppression & Self-Determination ◆ Black Labor from Chattel Slavery to the Israeli side, where they eventually fell and set fire to Wage Slavery ◆ Black Youth: Repression & Resistance ◆ The Struggle for Socialism Is to Israeli agricultural crops. Key ◆ Domestic Workers United Demand Passage of a Bill of Rights ◆ Black & Brown Israeli Zionist and many liberal voices accused Unity: A Pillar of Struggle for Human Rights & Global Justice! ◆ Harriet Tubman, Palestinians of “environmental savagery.” Israelis called Woman Warrior ◆ Racism & Poverty in the Delta ◆ Haiti Needs Reparations, Not them “terror kites.” In and of itself, Israel’s reduction Sanctions ◆ Alabama’s Black Belt: Legacy of Slavery, Sharecropping & Segregation ◆ of Palestinian resistance to terror is not new. What was Are Conditions Ripe Again Today? Anniversary of the 1965 Watts Rebellion COVER GRAPHIC: SAHU BARRON SAHU GRAPHIC: COVER more curious in my view was that the pro-Palestinian Available at major online booksellers. workers.org Dec. 17, 2020 Page 11 Behind Morocco’s recognition of Israel By G. Dunkel their connections to the Zionist state. According to Axios (Dec. 10), Jared It was a deal, pure—​but not so simple. Kushner and special envoy Avi Berkowitz The U.S. recognized the Western Sahara—​ have tried enticing Morocco for over two the last remaining colony in Africa years to recognize Israel in return for U.S. according to the United Nations—as​ part recognition of Morocco’s control of the of Morocco, while Morocco upgraded its Western Sahara. Since one-third of the substantial economic relations with Israel Israeli Jews were born in Morocco and to full diplomatic relations. many have deep economic and cultural The Western Sahara was controlled by ties to that country, there is much support Spain until 1975. When Spain withdrew, in Israel for full relations with Morocco. Mauritania, the country lying to its south, But prominent Trump supporter claimed some of its southern part; and Senator Jim Inhofe is a firm supporter Morocco claimed about two-thirds of the of Polisario and has traveled a number northern part of the Western Sahara. The of times to Algeria for meetings with Saharawi Indigenous movement, called Polisario leaders. When Trump and Polisario, demanded independence. Then Inhofe fell out over the National Defense followed 16 intricate years of fighting, until Authorization Act, a bill Inhofe is respon- A February demonstration was held in Rabat, Morocco’s capital, in support of Palestine. the U.N. established a 1991 “peacekeeping” sible for passing in the Senate, Trump saw operation. he could do more than issue a few nasty powers and can make decisions of state, front of the parliament building in Rabat, tweets. He could break Israel’s isolation a such as recognizing the state of Israel. Morocco’s capital. (tinyurl.com/ybt93e8e) Trump’s Abraham Accords process bit more, tie Morocco more closely to the With a big win—getting​ the major world Polisario resumed fighting in The peace agreement between the U.S. and let his ally, Israeli Prime Minister imperialist power to recognize Morocco’s November, asserting Morocco had broken United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Israel, Netanyahu, claim another success. hold over the Western Sahara, a goal since the 1991 cease-fire agreement. “Trump’s signed at the White House in September, 1975—​he can clamp down on protests, decision changes nothing in legal terms is termed an Abraham Accord. It lays out Popular response in Morocco either in the streets or in parliament. over the question of Sahrawi, because a process of normalization between some While there is a form of bourgeois However, there were strong prior pro- the international community does not politically conservative feudal Arab states democracy in Morocco—​it has a prime tests against recognizing Israel when the recognise Moroccan sovereignty over and the Zionists who want to end their iso- minister, parliament, elections, judges possibility the Moroccan government would Western Sahara,” the Polisario Front said lation. Beyond diplomatic consequences, and courts of law—​the king, currently make this decision became clear. A good in a statement to Agence France Presse. it let Trump and the Trumpites solidify Mohammed VI, has extensive executive example was the Nov. 27 demonstration in (France 24, Dec. 11) ☐ Lucha de clases en China ¿cómo lidiar con los multimillonarios?

Continúa de la página 12 El primer paso fue una campaña del que los propietarios capitalistas pueden desarrollo moderno en China desde 1979. 2013 contra la corrupción y el gasto gene- estar haciendo. Lo más importante es que Sin embargo, precisamente porque parte del riesgo crediticio. roso de los funcionarios del partido. se está creando a través de la Federación de China mantuvo una economía planifi- En resumen, Jack Ma estaba poniendo El siguiente fue lidiar con los capitalis- Industria y Comercio de China. Esta es una cada y la propiedad estatal de las indus- $2 para hacer negocios por valor de $100, tas chinos que estaban invirtiendo miles poderosa organización no gubernamental trias centrales, ha podido evitar las crisis utilizando bancos estatales para financiar de millones en inversiones extranjeras de industriales y empresarios chinos bajo el económicas que golpean a todas las eco- los otros $98. Este reempaquetado de la que los reguladores estatales considera- liderazgo del Frente Unido de Trabajo del nomías capitalistas cada siete a diez años. deuda se denomina titulización. Es la con- ron maniobras apenas disfrazadas para Partido Comunista Chino (PCCh). La verdadera fuerza impulsora de la versión de un activo, especialmente un desviar capital fuera de China. Estas no La federación se estableció en 1953, una rápida modernización de China y el salto préstamo, en valores negociables, gene- fueron inversiones que de alguna manera época muy diferente. Aquellos fueron los de la pobreza extrema, el analfabetismo, ralmente con el propósito de recaudar ayudaron al desarrollo de China. primeros días de la reorganización de la las hambrunas y la dominación imperia- efectivo vendiéndolos a otros inversores. Se ordenaron revertir compras como el industria y la construcción de una base lista es la Revolución China, dirigida por Claramente, tales esquemas capitalistas parque de atracciones SeaWorld, clubes socialista. La federación se describe a sí el Partido Comunista Chino. no tienen nada que ver con modernizar de fútbol europeos y grandes participa- misma como un organismo para aumen- El cambio dramático que comenzó con China, aumentar su capacidad produc- ciones en Hilton Worldwide Holdings. tar la comunicación entre el gobierno la apertura de China en 1979 se debió tiva o mejorar la vida de los trabajadores. Wu Xiaohui, presidente de Anbang y la economía privada, y para ayudar al a un acuerdo del gobierno, bajo Deng Ahora, el nuevo borrador de las regula- Insurance, compró el hotel Waldorf gobierno en la gestión de la economía Xiaoping, para permitir la inversión capi- ciones destinadas a los microcréditos Astoria en Manhattan. En el 2018, Wu privada y lograr el desarrollo sosteni- talista occidental en China en condiciones en línea obligaría a las empresas de tec- terminó con una sentencia de prisión de ble. Tiene varios escaños en el Congreso controladas. El objetivo era lograr un cre- nología financiera como Ant a financiar 18 años por delitos financieros, y Anbang Nacional del Pueblo. cimiento económico más rápido mediante cerca de un tercio de sus préstamos. Esto fue nacionalizada. En el pasado, su objetivo había sido la introducción activa de capital y tecno- podría reducir el valor de la empresa a la Ren Zhiqiang, un miembro de alto construir relaciones más estrechas con logía extranjeros, manteniendo al mismo mitad, a $150 mil millones. rango del Partido Comunista y un mag- entidades comerciales e industriales tiempo su compromiso con el socialismo. Las regulaciones antimonopolio tam- nate de la vivienda que dirigía una extranjeras y ayudar a los miembros chi- Era un riesgo, especialmente porque el bién tienen como objetivo evitar que pla- empresa inmobiliaria estatal, fue senten- nos a viajar al extranjero en busca de imperialismo lo veía como un camino de taformas digitales como Alibaba utilicen ciado a 18 años de prisión en septiembre oportunidades comerciales que ayudarían regreso a China. su dominio para intimidar a los vendedo- del 2020 por soborno y malversación. a impulsar las reformas económicas de La apertura de China a la inversión en res con contratos de exclusividad. La represión ha puesto fin abrupta- China. Este organismo ha pedido ahora 1979 estuvo condicionada a que el occi- mente al auge del gasto mundial de las a los grupos privados que establezcan dente levantara sus sanciones económicas Lucha contra los capitalistas chinos empresas chinas. Mientras que en el 2016 departamentos de recursos humanos diri- completas, que desde la Revolución de La lucha contra los capitalistas chinos se las fusiones y adquisiciones en el extran- gidos por el partido y unidades de control 1949 habían buscado estrangular a China prolonga. Tanto el poder como la riqueza jero ascendieron a $200 mil millones de que le permitan al partido auditar a los y prohibir toda tecnología, equipo indus- de los capitalistas han crecido de manera dólares, en el 2019 se redujeron a menos gerentes de las empresas tanto en corpo- trial, inversión y comercio. explosiva. Pero también lo ha hecho la de una quinta parte. raciones privadas como estatales. Durante 30 años, desde la Revolución creciente coordinación de la planifica- Elevar estándares estrictos para los Se espera que los comités de super- China de 1949 hasta 1979, los esfuerzos ción socialista. Durante más de 70 años, préstamos en línea, limitar la cantidad visión de los partidos jueguen un papel de China por el crecimiento y la moderni- las condiciones de vida de millones de disponible para pedir prestado y cam- más importante en las firmas tecnológi- zación se vieron dificultados por las san- personas han mejorado constantemente. biar el entorno regulatorio financiero son cas gigantes. Una serie de nuevas regula- ciones impuestas por Estados Unidos. The Economist, un semanario de nego- todos esfuerzos para recuperar el control. ciones también impedirá a los inversores Sin embargo, en estas tres décadas China cios británico, describió esta tensión extranjeros tomar participaciones direc- reorganizó una sociedad subdesarrollada, Supervisión de los trabajadores creciente, que es de gran preocupación tas en la banca china. caótica y devastada por la guerra, cons- para la clase capitalista en su conjunto. Cómo proteger la propiedad estatal de truyendo la tecnología y la infraestructura (“China apunta a sus empresarios”, 14 de funcionarios corruptos y detener acuerdos Base socialista y educando a la clase trabajadora. Esto es noviembre) secretos con poderosos capitalistas chinos Desde 1979, China ha cultivado la polí- lo que hizo posible el siguiente paso. A En los últimos años, varias campañas que están vinculados a las finanzas inter- tica de abrirse a Occidente y permitir medida que crece la hostilidad del impe- han tratado de frenar a los grandes capi- nacionales es un desafío mucho mayor. que los capitalistas chinos crezcan y acu- rialismo estadounidense hacia China, talistas chinos y la corrupción y la deuda Requiere la participación y vigilancia de mulen una gran riqueza. Se suponía que amenaza con cerco militar y se intensifi- resultante que traen, con el fin de man- los trabajadores en cada industria. debían actuar como intermediarios con el can las guerras comerciales y las sancio- tener la estabilidad social y financiera Se está estableciendo una nueva estruc- Occidente. nes, los líderes pueden estar examinando de China. Esto ha sido especialmente tura política para empoderar a los traba- El capitalismo, tanto chino como occi- más de cerca los peligros que las fuerzas cierto desde el 2013 y la presidencia de jadores a hablar y alentar a los cuadros dental, suele recibir todo el crédito por capitalistas internas traen al desarrollo Xi Jinping. comunistas a nivel local a monitorear lo el salto en la capacidad productiva y el socialista estable del país. ☐ Correspondencia sobre artículos en Workers World/Mundo Obrero pueden ser enviadas a: [email protected]

En la pandemia en Colombia, empleados de la ¡Proletarios y oprimidos de todos los paises unios! workers.org Vol. 62 Núm. 51 17 de diciembre 2020 $1 salud han protestado por la falta de elementos de seguridad para atender pacientes. Lucha de clases en China ¿cómo lidiar con los multimillonarios?

Por Sara Flounders billones de dólares en China durante el Securities (Far East) Ltd., Morgan Stanley crecientes amenazas estadounidenses de año pasado. Asia Ltd. y Hong Kong Securities Ltd. son sabotear deliberadamente el crecimiento “El aprendiz del brujo” es una vieja his- Al igual que otros gigantes tecnológi- los patrocinadores conjuntos. de China. toria que se repite en muchas variacio- cos chinos, Ant Group tiene datos valio- Según los informes, Credit Suisse Group nes, desde mitos griegos hasta un famoso sos sobre los clientes y controla un canal AG estaba trabajando como coordinador Trampa de la deuda poema alemán de Goethe en 1797 y hasta digital a través del cual se prestan y gastan global conjunto. Dos bancos de propiedad El Diario del Pueblo, periódico oficial una película de Alfred Hitchcock y varias cientos de miles de millones de dólares. estatal, China International Capital Corp. del Comité Central del Partido Comunista versiones de Disney. Todas las variaciones Tener tal poder en manos privadas es y China Securities Co., formaron parte de de China, publicó un artículo el 28 de octu- tratan de invocar o desatar fuerzas abru- una fuente de tensión entre los plani- una cotización en la Junta de Innovación bre, una semana antes de que se suspen- madoras que no se pueden controlar. ficadores socialistas y los empresarios de Ciencia y Tecnología de la Bolsa de diera la OPI de Ant, titulado “Mantener En “El Manifiesto Comunista”, Karl capitalistas. Ant Group comenzó como Valores de Shanghai, denominada STAR la seguridad financiera como máxima Marx y Friedrich Engels compararon la un servicio de pago para la gigante pla- Market. prioridad”. El artículo advirtió: “China ha sobreproducción salvaje e imprudente taforma de comercio electrónico de pro- Está claro que los bancos imperialistas, establecido un enorme sistema bancario, del capitalismo moderno que conduce a piedad privada Alibaba, también fundada que son completamente hostiles a la cons- bursátil y de bonos. Sin embargo, esto ha choques incontrolables con “el hechicero por Jack Ma. trucción socialista, han tenido un papel dado lugar a nuevos riesgos y desafíos que ya no es capaz de controlar los pode- Alibaba posee un tercio de Ant Group. importante en este banco chino de propie- normativo”. El artículo llamaba a las ins- res del mundo inferior al que ha invocado La valoración combinada proyectada de dad privada. Se esperaba que la cotización tituciones financieras a “fortalecer el lide- con sus hechizos.” Alibaba y Ant es de más de $1 billón. Para generara 400 millones de dólares solo en razgo del Partido”. Esa es la preocupación de China hoy: quienes apoyan la Revolución China, la comisiones para los bancos de inversión El Grupo Ant y otras empresas de tecno- cómo tratar con el multimillonario Jack pregunta es si esta abrupta decisión del globales. logía financiera promovieron préstamos Ma y su Grupo Ant, la empresa de tecno- gobierno de detener la venta de acciones “La OPI habría fijado el valor de Ant fáciles a clientes jóvenes y conocedores logía financiera más grande del mundo y es una opción esencial o simplemente una en unos asombrosos $359 mil millones de Internet pero que no tienen acceso un aprendiz de brujo de hoy en día. decisión de mano dura de los reguladores de dólares, más que el banco más grande a una tarjeta de crédito. Su reclamo era bancarios. del mundo, JP Morgan, y más grande que estar sirviendo a clientes excluidos finan- ¿Son estas nuevas entidades finan- el Banco Industrial y Comercial de China cieramente, previamente desatendidos, cieras disruptivas para la planificación (ICBC), respaldado por el estado”, escri- con suscripción instantánea y recepción socialista de China? ¿O son una forma bió Yahoo! News en el 7 de noviembre. de fondos. creativa, de vanguardia, de dar a millones “China temía que la empresa privada, El crédito fácil con un toque de telé- de trabajadores un fácil acceso a fondos y que estaba a punto de atraer a más inver- fono para productos de consumo, viajes y productos? sores extranjeros a su estructura de capi- la creación de pequeñas empresas puede Ant se había fijado para vender accio- Un informe compilado por el estado tal, se hubiera vuelto demasiado grande conducir rápidamente a trampas de deuda nes por un valor récord de $34,4 mil examina la forma en que los microcré- para quebrar”. para millones que no tienen experiencia millones, pero el 3 de noviembre, solo ditos de Ant Group y otras empresas de en endeudarse. Riesgo para la planificación socialista dos días antes de que la compañía reali- tecnología financiera alientan a los pobres En los Estados Unidos de hoy, casi zara la oferta pública inicial, (OPI), más y a los jóvenes a acumular deudas, a cua- La revista, The Economist, del 14 de todos los trabajadores viven endeudados. grande del mundo, el gobierno chino y los tro veces la tasa de interés regular. Este noviembre calificó la acción como un tiro Alrededor del 41 por ciento tiene deudas principales bancos estatales de repente se crédito fácil ha provocado un aumento a la proa del grupo de tecnología finan- médicas. Millones de personas están abru- movieron para suspender la venta. Esta de las deudas incobrables, especialmente ciera más grande de China. madas por préstamos para estudiantes y acción sin precedentes fue el ejemplo más para los trabajadores jóvenes sin expe- La suspensión del 5 de noviembre préstamos para automóviles. La pérdida dramático hasta la fecha de un esfuerzo riencia. La deuda de las tarjetas de cré- por parte de los reguladores de la oferta de un trabajo puede conducir rápida- continuo para frenar a los capitalistas chi- dito aumenta un 30 por ciento al año y ha pública inicial de $37 mil millones de Ant mente a la falta de vivienda. Durante tres nos y restringir algunos de sus esquemas alcanzado 10 veces el nivel del 2010. con menos de 48 horas de anticipación generaciones, desde la revolución comu- más peligrosos. ¿Cómo afectará el hecho de que cientos se interpretó al principio simplemente nista de 1949, la deuda entre trabajado- Jack Ma es un firme defensor de una de millones de personas ahora enfrentan como una advertencia para su fundador, res y campesinos era casi desconocida en economía abierta e impulsada por el mer- una deuda creciente en el plan amplia- Jack Ma, quien anteriormente había cri- China. Antes de la revolución, millones de cado. Su opinión a menudo expresada es mente publicitado de China para poner ticado a los bancos estatales de China. personas habían nacido endeudadas, car- que la regulación gubernamental sofoca fin a la pobreza en el 2020? ¿Pueden los Pero el 10 de noviembre, la publicación gando con la deuda de sus familias, y se la innovación. También es miembro del bancos estatales chinos capear una cri- de un extenso borrador de nuevas reglas vieron obligadas a venderse a sí mismas Partido Comunista Chino desde hace sis como lo hicieron los bancos capita- para todos los grupos de tecnología dejó y a sus hijos a los propietarios para pagar mucho tiempo. Permitir que los capita- listas globales en el 2008? Para rescatar en claro que Ant no era el único objetivo. las deudas. listas chinos ingresen al partido comenzó a los bancos, los gobiernos capitalistas Las nuevas regulaciones involucran a toda como un esfuerzo por asegurar la lealtad impusieron una austeridad despiadada. la industria tecnológica de China. Nuevas regulaciones de estos capitalistas emergentes a la cons- Millones de personas perdieron sus hoga- Claramente, también hay una creciente Los crecientes volúmenes de deuda de trucción socialista y tener algún medio de res, mientras que los programas sociales comprensión por parte de los capita- tarjetas de crédito están abrumando a control sobre ellos. Sin embargo, es cla- se redujeron hasta los huesos. listas internacionales de que el Partido algunos bancos. Si se produce un incum- ramente una contradicción porque usan Comunista Chino todavía juega un papel plimiento masivo, Ant Group se queda Los bancos globales entran en acción su influencia y posiciones partidistas para dominante y está decidido a mantener con el dinero mientras que los bancos promover su propia riqueza. La decisión de los reguladores finan- la planificación socialista. Esto significa estatales asumen el riesgo. cieros chinos y el liderazgo del Partido negarse a permitir que los poderosos ¿Cómo es esto posible? Alto interés, alta deuda Comunista Chino de suspender al Grupo capitalistas chinos pongan en riesgo la La política de Ant Group ha sido uti- Ant Group se creó como una empresa de Tecnología Ant ha sido cubierta economía planificada. También está claro lizar el mismo juego de manos de Wall técnica, para sortear las regulaciones chi- ampliamente en publicaciones financieras por el tamaño de esta venta propuesta que Street que llevó al colapso capitalista glo- nas más estrictas sobre los bancos. Pero y comerciales en el Occidente capitalista. los capitalistas chinos como Jack Ma son bal de 2008. Esto no es nada nuevo ni Ant Group en realidad es un banco, sin Esta cobertura expresa conmoción enormemente poderosos y están conec- innovador. Las empresas de tecnología una sucursal, pero que otorga millones de y preocupación. Restringir el mercado tados internacionalmente. Su tamaño e financiera han estado reempaquetando y microcréditos y otorga crédito con solo capitalista en China, incluso a riesgo de influencia ha crecido. vendiendo millones de préstamos de alto tocar una aplicación telefónica. las críticas internacionales, es algo nuevo. ¿Representan realmente un riesgo para riesgo. Solo el 2 por ciento de los présta- Debido a que Ant Group está registrado La venta anticipada de acciones de Ant en la estabilidad del estado? mos que Ant había facilitado a fines de como una empresa técnica, cobró intere- las bolsas de valores de Shanghai y Hong Los medios de comunicación en China junio estaban en su balance en octubre, ses a los consumidores a una tasa cuatro Kong se había descrito en términos elo- han prestado mucha atención a explicar según su prospecto de OPI. veces superior a la que pueden cobrar los giosos. Había miles de millones en juego e los riesgos involucrados. Esquemas espe- Ant Group se asocia con los bancos bancos. implicaban un alto apalancamiento finan- culativos similares que involucran apalan- estatales de China. El grupo recoge las Ant dirige Alipay, cuyos mil millones de ciero e inversores ansiosos que compra- camiento financiero llevaron al colapso tarifas y los pagos iniciales y luego vuelve usuarios activos lo convierten en el prin- ban con margen. capitalista global del 2008 y otros anterio- a empaquetar millones de microcréditos y cipal sistema de pago en línea de China, El Grupo Ant de China contrató a res. Con tantos bancos imperialistas invo- los vende a los bancos estatales. Ahora el superando al efectivo, los cheques y las Goldman Sachs como director princi- lucrados en Ant Group y su arriesgada 98 por ciento de la deuda de Ant Group es tarjetas de crédito. A través de sus pla- pal conjunto en la OPI, mientras que configuración apalancada, China podría propiedad de bancos estatales. Esto deja a taformas de pago y préstamos, Alipay ha Citigroup Global Markets Asia Ltd., estar especialmente vulnerable en una cri- los bancos estatales asumiendo la mayor procesado transacciones por valor de 17 JPMorgan Chase & Co., JP Morgan sis capitalista, especialmente cuando hay Continúa en la página 11