AUSTRALIA $1.50 · CANADA $1.50 · FRANCE 1.00 EURO · NEW ZEALAND $1.50 · UK £.50 · U.S. $1.00 INSIDE See revolutionary Cuba for yourself! Join May Day International Brigade — PAGE 9 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE Vol. 82/no. 4 January 29, 2018 ‘Militant’ wins Social disaster in mudslide Iran: Workers overturn of is result of capitalist rule discontent is Florida prison driven by war, ban — again economic crisis BY SETH GALINSKY BY TERRY EVANS The Florida prison system’s Litera- The working-class discontent fu- ture Review Committee says that the eling protests that swept Iran begin- impoundment of the Dec. 18 issue of ning Dec. 28 was driven by workers’ the Militant was a “mistake” and has response to growing economic hard- been reversed. Officials at the Florida ship, continuing restrictions on po- State Prison in Raiford banned the is- litical rights, widening class divisions sue because of the article “Join Fight and the toll on working people of Teh- to Overturn Ban Against ‘Militant’!” ran’s wars across the region. which reported on the Militant’s suc- Above, Radio Sancti Spíritus; inset, Andy Holzman/SCNG Iran’s counterrevolutionary clerical cessful efforts to stop censorship of Above, Sept. 2016, revolutionary government rulers have no intention of giving up the paper. mobilized workers in Yaguajay, Cuba, to prepare political power or the military interven- Officials at the Raiford prison for Hurricane Irma. Inset, Skylar Fahlman tries tions that have expanded their reach to protect her home by herself in Ventura, Calif., failed to inform the Militant of the im- surrounded by Thomas Fire. In revolutionary against capitalist rivals across the Mid- poundment, contrary to state prison Cuba, watchword was “no one is left alone.” dle East. Nor can they reverse the causes guidelines. The paper learned about Under capitalism, it’s everyone for themself. of the economic carnage devastating the it from letters received from subscrib- lives of workers and farmers at home, ers behind bars. Catastrophe in California Cuban Revolution: Example rooted in the worldwide capitalist crisis Inmates at both the Charlotte Cor- product of profit system for working people in U.S. of production, trade and profits. rectional Institution in Punta Gorda Having deployed the Revolutionary and at Santa Rosa Correctional In- BY SETH GALINSKY Hurricanes, mudslides, wildfires, Guard across the country and thrown stitution in Milton, Florida, sent the Like other government officials earthquakes, floods. Under capitalism thousands of young rebels into jail, in- Militant copies of impoundment no- and the big-business news media, all natural disasters turn into social cluding Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, tices they received. One said he had Rob Lewin, head of the Santa Bar- catastrophes for working people. the Iranian rulers have quelled large- appealed the decision. bara County’s Office of Emergency Buildings can be constructed to scale working-class-led protests, at It’s standard operating procedure Management, blamed residents of least for now. Both wings of the clerical Continued on page 3 Continued on page 4 regime — one led by Iran’s Supreme EDITORIAL Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the other by so-called reformers led by Pres- better withstand hurricanes and ident Hassan Rouhani — have joined in Both of the bosses’ parties have earthquakes. Working-class housing the crackdown. can be built on higher land, out of the Both have also moved to try to defuse reach of killer waves and flooding, workers’ anger. Khamenei acknowl- disdain for immigrant workers instead of on the cheapest, most vul- edged Jan. 9 that protest voices “should Continued on page 11 Continued on page 7 US rulers give high marks to Trump administration policies BY TERRY EVANS of federal regulations and red tape The economic uptick in the U.S. and on businesses and banks, and says he Washington’s moves to defend U.S. will cut the size of the Washington imperialist interests around the world bureaucracy. are consolidating support among the His administration is working to propertied rulers for the course of the secure a bipartisan agreement on Donald Trump White House. This has Continued on page 8 not stopped liberals and others in the middle-class left, who never recon- ciled themselves to Trump’s victory, AP Photo/ Mark Lennihan from intensifying their demands that Inside Ravi Ragbir, center, at March 2017 New York protest against deportations, was arrested Jan. 11. he be driven from office. Immigrant teen wins over gov’t BY JOHN STUDER dinated raids at 98 7-Eleven stores, The boss press is running articles move to deny right to abortion 6 AND SETH GALINSKY arresting 21 people and telling store of praise. “For Businesses, Donald NEW YORK — Over the past few owners they had to submit to immi- Trump’s First Year Is a Net Success,” Pro-independence parties months the Donald Trump admin- gration “audits.” the Wall Street Journal said Jan. 16. win Catalonia election 7 istration has carried out a series of The raids were a follow-up to Im- “What the critics don’t acknowl- moves that threaten the ability of a migration and Customs Enforcement edge is that Trump and his national San Juan paper under fire for number of immigrant workers to live raids under the Barack Obama admin- security team have actually scored promoting anti-Semitic article 8 and work here. They began phasing istration that ended up with charges some real foreign policy wins,” CNN out the Deferred Action for Childhood filed against a number of store own- said Dec. 27. –On the picket line, p. 5– Arrivals program for some 800,000 ers for employing workers without The bosses give Trump plaudits Russian auto union fights gov’t young people and announced the end- papers. for cutting taxes on the propertied move to shut it down ing of Temporary Protected Status Over the last few weeks ICE de- owners. Factory orders are increas- for more than 200,000 Salvadorans, tained three immigrants associated ing as bosses predict further capital- IG Metall workers strike in Haitians and Nicaraguans. On Jan. 10 with the sanctuary movement, includ- ist growth off the backs of working Germany, demand pay raise immigration agents carried out coor- Continued on page 6 people. He has slashed the number Vancouver, B.C.: Opioid deaths rise as capitalist crisis deepens BY JOE YOUNG times more likely to die of an overdose VANCOUVER, British Columbia than people of non-indigenous descent. — Over 1,100 people died from drug Some capitalist politicians say the overdoses in this province in 2017. answer is more criminalization of those More than 80 percent of the deaths involved in drug sales and use. Mike have been linked to fentanyl, a power- Farnworth, British Columbia minister ful synthetic opioid that is wreaking of public safety, is considering tougher havoc in areas hard hit by the effects penalties for fentanyl dealers, including of the capitalist economic and social charging them with manslaughter. crisis across North America. But the drug trade is just a business, In April 2016 Dr. Perry Kendall, Brit- like other capitalist businesses, with ish Columbia’s chief health officer, de- higher returns because of higher risks. clared a “public health emergency” over It doesn’t go away. Repression simply the high number of overdose deaths, but forces drug users underground, crimi- the capitalist rulers have done nothing to nalizing them, and makes getting treat- Mural by street artist Smokey D. in the Downtown East Side of Vancouver, British Columbia. address the underlying class realities re- ment more difficult. sponsible. The Vancouver Sun reported While social service agencies and paycheck to paycheck, unable to make thousands of union-scale jobs to build Sept. 27 that the British Columbia am- medical personnel call for increased ends meet. hospitals, schools, day care centers, bulance service had fielded 36,000 over- attention to this social crisis, none Housing costs and rents are sky high mental health clinics and other things dose calls in the previous 18 months. points to its roots in the dog-eat-dog in Vancouver and other major Canadian workers need. These conditions are the result of the capitalist system and the wars and so- cities. Many workers struggle to keep a We can build on this fight to chart a workings of today’s crisis of capitalist cial crises it breeds. roof over their heads and those of their course of independent working-class trade, production and employment. As The British Columbia government is families. The health service is deterio- political action to overthrow capital- members of the Communist League reopening Riverview psychiatric hospi- rating, and workers with job injuries or ist rule and put a workers and farmers knock on doors in working-class com- tal in Coquitlam, a Vancouver suburb, health challenges lack support. Facilities government in power. Through this munities to discuss the roots of this cri- as a mental health and addiction cen- are woefully inadequate for those strug- struggle, working people will transform sis, what we can do about it, and to build ter, but at the same time is closing the gling with mental illness. themselves, conquering the capacity to the League, we often hear how friends, Burnaby Centre for Mental Health and The Communist League calls on the run society ourselves to meet human co-workers and family members have Addiction. The net result will be the ad- labor movement to mobilize working needs, not for capitalist profits. been ravaged by the crisis. dition of only 11 beds. people in an ongoing social struggle Many workers use opioids because Hundreds of thousands of manufac- to demand a government-funded pub- Katy LeRougetel contributed to this ar- they face chronic pain as a result of a turing jobs have been eliminated in lic works program to provide tens of ticle.