As the trial of killer cop Derek Chauvin wound to a close, the defense called its final and star witness: forensic pathologist Dr. David Fowler. The defense hoped that Fowler’s testimony would serve as a foil to the avalanche of medical and scientific evidence put forward by the prosecution. 

Fowler testified April 14 that George Floyd’s death should be classified as undetermined due to underlying health conditions. He claimed that Chauvin’s knee on Floyd’s neck “was not a significant factor in his death.”

Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, framed Fowler’s testimony carefully to shift the blame for Floyd’s death onto the victim’s heart disease and alleged drug use. Some commentators referred to this strategy as “everything but the knee on the neck.” 

There’s something particularly insidious about blaming a police murder on the victim of racist violence. 

Who is Dr. David Fowler? His main credential as an expert witness is his 19 years as Maryland’s chief medical examiner. There are several aspects of Fowler’s career that need to be brought into the spotlight and examined. 

Product of apartheid

A part of Fowler’s background that jumps out immediately is where he received his training to be a physician. 

In 1983, David Fowler graduated from the University of Cape Town and began his career in what was then racist apartheid South Africa. Fowler established himself as a forensic physician in a country where the 75% percent of the population, Black people, were denied the most basic human rights. 

In 1991, less than a year after apartheid rule started to crumble, Fowler moved to Baltimore to take a job in the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. He was promoted to deputy chief medical examiner in 1998 and then chief medical examiner in 2002. 

Fowler’s near-immediate departure from South Africa in the wake of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison and his relocation to a U.S. city with a significant Black community and history of racist police abuse paints a disturbing picture. 

This picture becomes even more disturbing when put in the context of his recent outrageously inaccurate and pro-police testimony in Derek Chauvin’s trial. 

During his 19-year career as the Maryland chief medical examiner, Fowler consistently rubber-stamped case theories promoted by the police and state’s attorney. Fowler also consistently absolved the cops of liability when it came to police murders of Black people. 

To this end, Fowler and his deputy, Pamela Southall, are subjects of an ACLU lawsuit that alleges that both physicians were willing participants in a coverup aimed at absolving the police for the murder of a 19-year-old Black teenager, Anton Black. 

Anton Black coverup

Black died in 2018 after being chased, assaulted and beaten by a group of six men that included a local chief of police, two off-duty police officers, a firefighter and two civilians wearing Confederate flag imagery.

This lynch mob used the full weight of their six bodies to pin Anton Black in a prone position on the ground, killing him. In many ways, Black’s death mirrors George Floyd’s. 

More than four months after Black’s death, Fowler finally released his autopsy report. Fowler declared the cause of death an “accident.” 

The justification given for his conclusion was very similar to Fowler’s testimony in Chauvin’s trial. He attributed Black’s death to a “sudden cardiac death” due to an underlying heart condition. 

Anything but the knee on the neck…

Fowler’s conclusions in both cases — attributing the deaths of Black men to anything but racist police violence — are so outrageous and against common sense that they can’t be called medical opinions. In reality, they are politicized conclusions that directly serve to protect the ability of the police to wage war on working class and oppressed communities. 

Who better to do that than a doctor educated and trained in apartheid South Africa? 

They were murdered

Neither George Floyd nor Anton Black died from underlying health conditions. They were murdered by a brutal and racist police system. Fowler and Chauvin’s defense team would ask the public to pull the wool over their own eyes and choose to accept racist police terror. 

Fowler’s testimony and Chauvin’s trial generally represent a battle between the narrative of the ruling class and the reality of racist oppression in the U.S. The wealthy and the powerful want people to continue to accept police brutality as necessary and beneficial to society. 

The deaths of George Floyd and Anton Black, and the efforts to prevent their killers from being brought to justice, make it clear what is at stake in this trial and in the struggles to come. It’s racist police terror or Black liberation. It’s ruling-class false narratives or working-class truth. 

Because the stakes are so high, racist liars like Fowler, passed off as “medical experts,” must be challenged at every turn. 

The people won’t have the wool pulled over their eyes this time. Justice for George Floyd! Justice for Anton Black! Community control of the police now!

Brooklyn Center, MN — As of April 15, there have been five days and nights of protests, vigils, press conferences, city council scrambling, firings and resignations – as well as outright battles between protesters and the law enforcement bodies from around the state that converged here after the killing of 20-year-old Daunte Wright.

The community actions by local grassroots movements have continued to pour out after the murder of Wright by former Brooklyn Center Police Department Officer Kim Potter, with some small victories.

On Sunday, April 11, Daunte Wright was pulled over by officer Kim Potter for an expired license plate. Daunte then called his mother asking for insurance information. Then the officer comes and orders Daunte to hang up the call and to get out of the car. Daunte asks, “For what?” and the officer responds “I’ll tell you when you get out of the car.” Officer Kim Potter, accompanied by two other officers, then attempted to handcuff him. Their reason was due to his hanging an air freshener in the rearview mirror of his car. Daunte understandably panics and tries to get back in the car. Potter then yells, “Taser, taser, taser!” and pulls out a handgun and shoots him dead.

This brutality sparked more protests, bringing hundreds of people from across the Twin Cities area to protest that night, the next four days, and into the foreseeable future.

While the people forced the Brooklyn Center police to stand down (the city of Brooklyn Center ordered them to not overtly fight the protesters) the state forces were poised to squelch the people’s rights to assembly and speech.

The so-called Operation Safety Net, put in place by the government to prepare against the people’s rage over the Floyd trial, was implemented early in the wake of Wright’s murder. On April 12, Governor Tim Walz declared a 7 p.m. curfew in the Twin Cities metro area. The city of Minneapolis declared their bought-and-paid-for groups of “Street Navigators” specifically exempt from the curfew; some of members of those groups actively disrupted speakers at protests. Also, hundreds of forces – ranging from the National Guard to Minnesota state patrol, Department of Natural Resources (DNR), county sheriffs, and on down to neighboring police departments – stood in formation against protesters. These authorities have been relentless in repressing the natural and righteous outrage of the protesters.

Despite the obstacles thrown by the Twin Cities’ governments towards the grassroots activists, such as imposing curfews and calling the Minnesota National Guard, there have already been some victories in pursuit of justice. On April 14, after pressure from multiple grassroots community activists and organizations, as well as from media coverage from across the world, officer Kim Potter was charged with second-degree manslaughter, although activists are calling for the charges to be increased.

In addition, the pressure has forced the dismissal of former Brooklyn Center City Manager Curt Boganey, and the resignation of former Chief of Police Tim Gannon.

At the legislative level, bills written and pushed by anti-police crimes groups under the umbrella Minnesota Justice Coalition were given hearings this week, after months of being denied.

This murder occurs in the wake of the first trial of officer Derek Chauvin, the cop who murdered George Floyd in June 2020. Local activists point out that the repeated offences from the multiple police departments across the Twin Cities area indicate a larger problem with the police departments themselves.

The Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar, or TCC4J, is one of the grassroots organizations which has been actively fighting for community control of police since the police murder of Jamar Clark in November 2015. They just launched a petition drive to change the Minneapolis city charter so the community can exert some control over choosing the chief of police and holding officers with cases of brutality accountable – a Civilian Police Accountability Commission, or CPAC for short.

Besides keeping up the fight for justice for Daunte Wright, the MN Justice Coalition and dozens of other groups will protest in downtown Minneapolis on April 19, 5 p.m. That is when closing arguments in the Derek Chauvin trial are expected to be over, and the case for the murder of George Floyd goes to the jury.

Source: FightBack! News

On March 22, 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken authorized sanctions against Wang Junzheng, the secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Committee of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), and Chen Mingguo, director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau (XPSB). These sanctions, Blinken said, have been put in place against Wang Junzheng and Chen Mingguo because they are accused of being party to “genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.” The U.S. Treasury Department followed suit with its own sanctions.

Both Wang Junzheng and Chen Mingguo responded by condemning these sanctions that were not only imposed by the U.S. but also by Canada, the UK and the EU. Wang Junzheng said that the sanctions “are a gross slander,” while Chen Mingguo said that he was “very proud of being sanctioned by these countries.”

The United States Pivots to Asia

In October 2011, then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had announced a “pivot to Asia,” with China at the center of the new alignment. While Clinton had said on numerous occasions—including in Hawaii in November 2011—that the administration of former U.S. President Barack Obama wanted to develop “a positive and cooperative relationship with China,” the U.S. military buildup along Asia’s coastline told a different story. The 2010 U.S. Quadrennial Defense Review noted “China’s growing presence and influence in regional and global economic and security affairs” and called it “one of the most consequential aspects of the evolving strategic landscape.” In 2016, U.S. Navy Admiral Harry Harris, head of the Pacific Command, had said that the United States was ready to “confront China,” a statement given strength by the U.S. military buildup around China.

The Trump and Biden administrations have largely followed the “pivot to Asia” policy, with a special emphasis on China. The United States has been struggling to keep up with China’s rapid scientific and technological advancements and has few intellectual or industrial tools in place to compete. This is the reason why it has tried to stall China’s advances using diplomatic and political power, and through information warfare; these elements comprise what is called a “hybrid war.”

Focus on Xinjiang: Information Warfare

Prior to a March 2019 event co-hosted by the U.S. Mission to International Organizations in Geneva, most people in countries like the United States were largely unaware of the existence of the Xinjiang region in China, let alone of the 13 million Uyghur people (one of China’s 55 recognized ethnic minorities). Given that the Uyghurs are the demographic majority in this westernmost province of China, the official name of the administrative unit is the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

The March 2019 event featured Adrian Zenz, a German researcher and a senior fellow in China studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, an organization founded in 1993 by the U.S. government to promote anti-communist views. In April 2020, this foundation—against all evidence—accused China of being responsible for the global deaths resulting due to the spread of COVID-19. Zenz is also associated with the conservative defense policy think tank the Jamestown Foundation, founded by William Geimer, who was close to the Reagan administration.

Zenz and Ethan Gutmann, another researcher at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, would continue to repeat their conclusions regarding the genocide in Xinjiang to the U.S. Congress and in a range of mainstream publications. Hosted by the BBC and Democracy Now, Zenz provided what appeared to be documentation of atrocities meted out by the “Chinese authorities” against the Uyghur population. Zenz and Gutmann would be joined by organizations funded by Western governments but which—as NGOs—pose as independent research and advocacy groups (such as the Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect and the Uyghur Human Rights Project; the former is funded by Western governments and the latter by the U.S. government’s National Endowment for Democracy).

In June 2020, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attacked the Chinese government, basing his statements on Xinjiang on the “German researcher Adrian Zenz’s shocking revelations.” Zenz, who is a U.S. government-funded researcher from the intelligence-connected Jamestown Foundation, provides a set of scientifically dubious and politically charged papers, which are then used as fact by the U.S. government in its information war against China. Anyone raising questions about Zenz’s claims is, meanwhile, marginalized as a conspiracy theorist.

Diplomatic and economic warfare

The U.S. government’s information warfare against China has produced the “fact” that there is genocide in Xinjiang. Once this has been established, it helps develop diplomatic and economic warfare.

On March 22, 2021, the same day as the U.S. sanctions, the Council of the European Union unilaterally imposed asset freezes and travel bans on four Chinese government officials, including Wang Junzheng and Chen Mingguo as well as Wang Mingshan and Zhu Hailun. The United Kingdom and Canada also joined in this venture that day. It appeared to be a coordinated diplomatic assault on China in order to portray China as a country violating human rights. This assault came soon after China had achieved a major human rights goal, lifting 850 million people from absolute poverty. The U.S. government and its media outlets tried to challenge this remarkable human rights achievement.

Trump had pushed a trade war with China as soon as he came into office in January 2017; his policy framework remains in place under Biden. To draw together the trade war and the Xinjiang information war, in mid-December 2020, Adrian Zenz and the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy (formerly the Center for Global Policy) released an intelligence brief on “coercive labor in Xinjiang.” The claims in this briefing—building on a 2019 Wall Street Journal article on the supply chains and Xinjiang—created a media firestorm in the West, amplified by Reuters and then picked up by many widely read outlets; it led to the U.S. government ban on Xinjiang cotton.

A third of the world’s textiles and clothing come from China, with the country accounting for $120 billion in exports of these products per year and $300 billion in exports of all merchandise annually. According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, 87 percent of China’s total cotton output comes from Xinjiang. Most of the high-quality Xinjiang cotton—and the textiles produced from it within China—go to Western apparel companies, such as H&M and Zara. In 2009, many of these companies created the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), which has—until last year—been upbeat about developments in Xinjiang (including co-ops of small farmers in Xinjiang). As recently as March 26, 2021, the BCI made a clear statement: “Since 2012, the Xinjiang project site has performed second-party credibility audits and third-party verifications over the years, and has never found a single case related to incidents of forced labor.”

Despite the BCI’s recent confident statement and its optimism, things are rapidly changing for Xinjiang cotton farmers as the BCI appears to get on board with the U.S.’s intensifying hybrid war on China. The BCI closed down its page on its work in China, accused China of “forced labor” and other human rights violations, and set up a Task Force on Forced Labor and Decent Work.

Officials from Xinjiang’s government contested these claims, saying that much of the field labor for cotton in Xinjiang has already been replaced by machines (many of them imported from the U.S. firm John Deere). A recent book edited by Hua Wang and Hafeezullah Memon — Cotton Science and Processing Technology—confirms this point, as do a range of media reports from before 2019. Facts like these don’t seem to stand a chance in the overwhelming information war. Xinjiang—two and a half times the size of France—is now at the epicenter of a cold war not of its own making.

This article was produced by Globetrotter.

Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter. He is the chief editor of LeftWord Books and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He is a senior non-resident fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China. He has written more than 20 books, including The Darker Nations and The Poorer Nations. His latest book is Washington Bullets, with an introduction by Evo Morales Ayma.

Jie Xiong is a Chinese technologist, translator and editor. He has participated in the digitization process of multiple leading enterprises in China. He is a founder of Shanghai Maku Cultural Communications Ltd., a company that introduces China to Global South readers. He is a senior researcher at the Sichuan Institute for High Quality Development. He has written and translated more than 10 books. His latest translation is Cybernetic Revolutionaries.

The workers’ movement owes a tremendous debt to the courage of the majority-Black workers in Bessemer, Ala., who stood up to global supply-chain giant Amazon. 

What they have accomplished may not be fully measurable at this point. But what’s certain is that their audacity and courage pushed workers’ issues at the sweatshop warehouses run by billionaire Jeff Bezos to center stage, along with workers’ right to a union.

Did Amazon rig the vote?

Let’s not mince words. There was nothing democratic or impartial in the vote. Why? 

Every worker can tell you that their boss holds tyrannical power over their lives inside the workplace (and in a larger sense, outside too). 

With the exception of discrimination, which in most instances is next to impossible to prove, they can fire you at a whim! They decide who is laid off, who is promoted and who is stuck with the worst jobs. 

This gives every capitalist boss incredible advantages.

The only curb on this dictatorial boss power is union representation. And even that depends on the strength of the union — and most importantly, how organized and united the workers are.

In National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) elections for union representation, companies like Amazon can hold “captive meetings.” 

What are “captive meetings”? The bosses can force workers into lengthy meetings while they are on the clock. These can only be described as indoctrination sessions. 

Union representatives are not allowed to be present to refute their lies and half-truths. 

Can you imagine the impact, fear and confusion this sews in the minds of workers who depend on their weekly wages to keep themselves and their families afloat?

More often than not, bosses spread rumors, make false promises and tell lies. They tell workers they’ll get medical coverage or a raise, or that there will not be layoffs, only to renege on their promises as soon as the workers vote against the union. 

Sometimes, bosses engage in even more nefarious tactics.

Amazon corrupts the process

As mail-in voting for union representation began, a mailbox suddenly appeared in front of the Amazon warehouse, inside a tent. Workers were alarmed. They described it as an unmarked unit with individually-locked compartments and a mail slot similar to those in some apartment buildings. 

The voting box did not have formal U.S. Postal Service markings. Workers were pushed to bring their ballots to work so that they could vote under the watchful eyes of management.

Documents obtained from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request show that Amazon, the biggest business client of the USPS, pushed for the box to be installed. Many details are redacted, but one passage alludes to “keys to the box.”

A dozen or so ballots trickled in daily. But on Feb. 12, 251 votes suddenly came in. Again on February 17, 350 votes came in. Almost all were “no” votes. It looked suspiciously like a ballot drop. 

A More Perfect Union media group describes much of this and outlines the possibility of outright ballot rigging. 

Is labor organizing illegal in U.S.?

You might say without exaggeration that getting a union in the U.S. is as close to illegal as you could possibly imagine. The 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, dubbed the “slave labor bill,” remains in place with few changes. 

It’s not the sole reason why the unionized section of the working class has shrunk. But it explains why, under present conditions, traditional unionizing efforts have been rocky at best, and why global sweatshops like Amazon and Walmart have been able to avoid unions.

It should be noted that Taft-Hartley was passed following World War II. The war had been used to dampen workers’ struggles, but when it ended the pent-up anger and resistance resulted in massive strike waves. 

U.S. imperialism emerged from that war triumphant. The world was redivided amongst the imperialist powers, with Wall Street the top dog. 

With the post-war strengthening of the U.S. capitalist economy, the drive towards eroding workers’ rights that had been won in the 1930s increased. This laid the basis for what was called the McCarthy period or Red Scare, which consisted of the brutal suppression of the socialist and communist movement that had led the industrial union organizing drives and working-class victories in the 1930s.

It’s important to note that Southern Dixiecrats (Democrats who championed Jim Crow racism) played a major role in passing Taft-Hartley. 

The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) labor federation had announced its intention to organize the South. The belief was that if unions succeeded there, it would set the stage for ending Jim Crow. In 1947, Black people in the South were still effectively denied the right to vote. 

The struggle for Black voting rights continues today. 

Fight for Black and Brown liberation

The struggle in Bessemer is taking place in the cradle of the civil-rights movement. It is led by Black workers, many of them women. 

The Bessemer Amazon workers’ struggle cannot be separated from the political struggle for Black and Brown freedom — including the recent Black Lives Matter uprising, and the fight, albeit in the electoral arena, to unseat Trump, who is roundly credited as a leader of the white supremacist movement.

It is in nearby Georgia that reactionaries were finally unseated by Black representatives, and at the same time, a counter-offensive by racist forces to smash voting rights has unfolded.

The impact of the massive uprising to demand an end to racist violence and police terror has resounded inside the workers’ movement. Before George Floyd’s murder, the cases of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and Breanna Taylor in Kentucky swept the country. 

It’s worth noting that a recent strike at 7 Up in Michigan was largely fought around the issue of eliminating a two-tier wage system that divided Black and white workers, with the most oppressed on the bottom rung. It was consciously recognized by the union as a fight against racism.

Clearly, fighting racism and white supremacy is a workers’ issue.

Bessemer struggle continues

This is not the time to rest!

The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), which seeks to represent the Bessemer Amazon workers, has filed unfair labor practice charges against Amazon and is insisting on a new election. 

Clearly, the battle will be uphill. It could take months, and reprisals and layoffs are a continuing threat. But whether they win, lose or draw, the battle continues!

There will be time to critique the tactics of the mainstream union movement, but right now it is most important to continue our support for the workers. 

Stand with the workers to demand: Bust racism, not unions! Demand no retaliation! 

• Join the upcoming “Workers School” called by the Southern Workers Assembly. Its aim is to build a rank-and-file-led Southern workers’ movement. It begins April 18. You can register here.
• The Support Amazon Workers network is calling on President Joe Biden to use his executive powers to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. It’s important that the Biden administration feels the heat. 
• The network is also calling for the issue of the Amazon workers to be front and center on May Day — International Workers’ Day. Build May Day! 

It’s not just the struggle at Amazon — the movement for workers’ rights is heating up everywhere. 

Over 1,000 coal miners in Alabama continue their strike. Teamsters at Marathon Petroleum in Minnesota continue to resist a lockout. And in Los Angeles, the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice, United Workers Assembly, Southern Christian Leadership Conference LA, and United Food and Commercial Workers have formed an alliance to fight Kroger’s planned closing of groceries in the heart of Black and Brown communities to thwart hero pay for essential workers. 

Sharon Black is a former Amazon worker who wrote the series “An Amazon Worker Tells All” for Struggle-La Lucha, now collected in pamphlet form. Black spearheaded a campaign to unionize food servers, was a General Motors assembly worker, and later worked for over a decade in a Baltimore food-processing plant. Black also served as an elected UFCW shop steward.

In tandem with racist attacks on Black voting rights like SB 202 in Georgia, the ultra-right is waging war on transgender youth in state legislatures across the country. Specifically, numerous bills have been introduced to deny young people’s rights to gender-affirming health care and to participate in public school sports programs. 

Like the attacks on voting rights, these measures target some of the most vulnerable members of our working class, and with the same goal: to divide and conquer.

At least 174 anti-LGBTQ2S bills are currently under consideration in state legislatures. “Of those, 95 directly target transgender people, and about half of those would bar transgender girls from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity. Many of the other anti-trans bills seek to ban gender-affirming care for minors,” the Advocate reports.

On April 6, Arkansas became the first state in the country to ban gender-affirming health care for trans youth after the state legislature overrode Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s veto. But Hutchinson is no friend of trans people; just days before, on March 26, he signed a law banning trans youth from sports teams, paving the way for the anti-health-care measure.

Mississippi banned trans youth from sports on March 11. Tennessee then enacted an anti-trans sports law, while South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem — a notorious COVID denialist who has especially waged war on Indigenous peoples’ health during the pandemic — signed two executive orders banning trans people from participating in public school and college sports programs.

The right-wing hopes to exploit backward ideas and prejudices about trans people to throw a wrench into the class struggle. The whole capitalist ruling class was panicked by the Black Lives Matter uprising following the police murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor last year. Black, white, Latinx, Asian, Arab and Indigneous people united in the streets in defense of Black lives and against officially sanctioned white supremacist terrorism. 

Now more than ever, sowing division is the top priority of the bosses and their political agents.

Build unity, defend the most oppressed

The job of all class-conscious workers, progressives, socialists and communists, on the other hand, is to counter the bosses’ divide-and-conquer plans by building unity. 

And unity starts with defending the most oppressed members of our class: Black people whose lives and voting rights are on the chopping block; prisoners and migrants in COVID-ridden cages; Asian communities facing violence; and trans youth who are being demeaned and scapegoated.

Just look at who is promoting the wave of anti-trans legislation. It’s the same politicians and anti-people forces that want to ban the right to protest for Black lives, who deny the need for public health measures against COVID-19, and supported Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election results. 

They are being aided by opportunist Republicans who opposed Trump’s coup attempt but are now desperate to get back in the ultra-right’s good graces before the next election cycle. And they are further helped by mainstream centrist and liberal Democratic politicians who give lip service to trans rights while trying to exploit the crisis for their own electoral gain.

Denying health care kills

Trans people have had to fight tooth and nail to have their identities acknowledged and to be treated respectfully by health-care institutions. Taking away the right of young trans people to be treated with respect, and to have the agency to seek hormone therapy, choose sex-reassignment and other affirming care, is a life and death matter. 

According to a 2020 study by the University of Pittsburgh, about 85% of trans adolescents reported “seriously considering suicide,” and over half had attempted suicide. A 2019 study by an crisis-prevention group found 1 in 3 transgender youth reported attempting suicide.

Institutionalized prejudice not only hurts — it kills.

Before the COVID pandemic, the U.S. was already awash in an epidemic of violent attacks and murders of trans people. Young trans women of color are the most frequent targets.

Thirteen murders of trans people have already been reported in 2021. Last year saw 44 murders of trans people, the highest number recorded since the Human Rights Campaign began tracking them in 2013. The true numbers are likely much higher, since police and media often misgender victims. 

Efforts to deny trans youth the right to affirm their identities through participation in sports programs fuels these acts of bigoted violence, just as Trump’s and Biden’s anti-China rhetoric fuels anti-Asian violence.

‘An attack on the humanity of trans people’

Champion soccer player Megan Rapinoe is known for her commitment to solidarity. An out lesbian, Rapinoe supported Colin Kappernick’s crusade for Black lives in professional sports and other anti-racist causes. 

Rapinoe wrote a powerful op-ed in the March 28 Washington Post, “Bills to ban transgender kids from sports try to solve a problem that doesn’t exist”:

“You may not know that a person in your life is trans — you may not be aware of the fullest self within your co-worker, friend, relative or even the child playing in your living room. Trans people contribute meaningfully to our society: our schools, neighborhoods, communities and families. Trans people deserve dignity, respect and opportunity. These bills are an attack on the humanity and belonging of trans people, and that’s why this issue is important to me as a member of the LGBTQ community.

“For some, discrimination is the point. But we can celebrate all girls and women in sports while ensuring trans people aren’t discriminated against. That is why all women must stand up and demand that exclusion is not done in our name.

“The value of participating in sports is well-documented. Transgender kids deserve the same chances to enjoy sports; to gain confidence, self-respect and leadership skills; and to learn what it means to be part of a team. When we tell transgender girls that they can’t play girls’ sports — or transgender boys that they can’t play boys’ sports — they miss out on these important experiences and opportunities. And we lose the right to say we care about children.”

Numerous legal challenges are being prepared to fight the anti-trans state legislation. That’s important and necessary, but it’s not enough. Workers’ and community organizations need to take up the struggle, and take it to the streets. 

Take it to the streets!

When the COVID health emergency subsides, the working class and its organizations need to take up the urgent need for a massive civil-rights mobilization like those that pushed forward lesbian, gay and bisexual rights in the 1980s and 1990s. These militant, proud manifestations helped to educate the whole working class and created a sea-change in support for gay rights.

Revolutionary socialist Leslie Feinberg, who used Marxism to understand the basis of transgender oppression, suffered serious and ultimately fatal health problems in part due to the lack of respectful and gender-affirming health care. 

In the pamphlet “Transgender Liberation: A Movement Whose Time Has Come,” Feinberg wrote:

“The institutionalized bigotry and oppression we face today have not always existed. They arose with the division of society into exploiter and exploited. Divide-and-conquer tactics have allowed the slave-owners, feudal landlords and corporate ruling classes to keep for themselves the lion’s share of wealth created by the laboring class.

“Like racism and all forms of prejudice, bigotry toward transgendered people is a deadly carcinogen. We are pitted against each other in order to keep us from seeing each other as allies.

“Genuine bonds of solidarity can be forged between people who respect each other’s differences and are willing to fight their enemy together. We are the class that does the work of the world, and can revolutionize it. We can win true liberation.”

In the spirit of Leslie Feinberg, we say: Defending trans youth is a fight for the whole working class!

Millones de personas en Texas perdieron la calefacción, las luces y el agua hace dos meses durante una tormenta de invierno.  Las empresas de servicios públicos del estado, ávidas de ganancias, no querían gastar dinero preparando bombas de gas natural y otros equipos para el invierno.  Más de 100 personas murieron a causa de la codicia capitalista.

La tragedia de Texas es solo el último ejemplo de que el capitalismo estadounidense no puede mantener su planta física, que se llama infraestructura.  Esto incluye servicios públicos, carreteras, ferrocarriles, aeropuertos, edificios escolares y, no menos importante, viviendas, instalaciones de salud y hospitales.

El presidente Biden y el vicepresidente Harris han propuesto un “Programa de empleo estadounidense” de 2,25 billones de dólares para solucionar algunos de estos problemas.  Se podrían crear millones de puestos de trabajo.  Eso suena como mucho dinero, pero los fondos se gastarán durante ocho o hasta diez años.

Eso es alrededor de $280 mil millones al año, o un poco más de un tercio del presupuesto oficial del Pentágono.  Es modesto en comparación con el costo de por vida de $1.6 billones de los aviones de combate F-35 de la Fuerza Aérea de EE. UU.

Sin embargo, la Cámara de Comercio de Estados Unidos atacó el plan de la Casa Blanca.  Al escribir en el reaccionario National Review, David Harsanyi afirma: “Nuestra infraestructura no se está desmoronando”.

Dígaselo a los niños de Flint, Michigan, que fueron envenenados con plomo por el agua que bebieron.  Trece personas murieron cuando el puente I-35W colapsó en Minneapolis en 2007. Más de 45,000 puentes se consideran estructuralmente deficientes en los Estados Unidos.

Ocho personas murieron en El Barrio (East Harlem) de la ciudad de Nueva York en 2014 debido a una explosión de gas natural.  Una tubería de gas cercana databa de 1887, pero la utilidad ConEd era demasiado barata para reemplazarla.

Este escritor trabajó como despachador de trenes en Amtrak.  Cada vez que el Portal Bridge de 111 años que cruza el río Hackensack en Nueva Jersey se abría al tráfico de botes, teníamos la esperanza de que volviera a cerrarse de manera segura.  Doscientos mil pasajeros lo utilizan diariamente para entrar y salir de la ciudad de Nueva York.

Se necesita más

Como señaló la representante Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, el verdadero problema con el plan de la Casa Blanca es que no es lo suficientemente grande.  Fue el Green New Deal defendido por AOC y otras congresistas de color en “The Squad” lo que allanó el camino para cualquier propuesta de infraestructura.

“Reconstruir mejor”, como lo llama Biden, tiene que incluir la lucha contra el racismo tóxico.  Las refinerías de petróleo y las plantas químicas a menudo se construyen junto a las comunidades pobres.  La planta de fertilizantes de fosfato abandonada cerca de Tampa, Florida, cuyo estanque amenazaba con una inundación catastrófica, es solo uno de los cientos de sitios peligrosamente contaminados.

La autopista Cross Bronx desplazó a miles de familias de Nueva York, mientras que la contaminación del aire de camiones y automóviles creó una epidemia de asma.  La autopista I-43 atravesó la comunidad negra de Milwaukee, destruyendo cientos de hogares.

El American Jobs Program propone gastar $85 mil millones en transporte público y $80 mil millones en ferrocarriles de pasajeros y carga.  Millones de trabajadores, estudiantes y personas mayores necesitan un mejor tránsito.

Big Oil, General Motors y Firestone conspiraron para deshacerse de los sistemas de tranvías de costa a costa.  Las vías del Key System que conectan San Francisco y Oakland, California, fueron arrancadas del Bay Bridge en 1958. El último servicio de pasajeros en Pacific Electric, que una vez tuvo 700 millas de vías que daban servicio al área de Los Ángeles, fue en 1961.  .

La China socialista construyó 23 nuevos sistemas de metro entre 2009 y 2019. La República Popular tiene más trenes de alta velocidad que el resto del mundo.

Los $165 mil millones propuestos para el tránsito y el ferrocarril en los EE. UU. durante ocho años es una fracción de lo que gasta China.  Solo en 2018, China invirtió $117 mil millones solo en ferrocarriles.

Eso no impide que los derechistas ataquen el plan Biden-Harris como extravagante.  Se sienten particularmente enojados por gastar $400 mil millones durante ocho años en atención domiciliaria y comunitaria para personas mayores y personas con discapacidades.

Esta es probablemente la parte más progresiva del Programa de Empleo Estadounidense.  Exige salarios y beneficios más altos para los trabajadores de atención domiciliaria mal pagados.

Los oponentes afirman que esto no es “infraestructura”.  Ayudar a millones de personas es tan importante cómo verter hormigón.

La WPA y el ejemplo socialista

Hay mucho mejor tránsito masivo y muchos más trenes de pasajeros en la Europa occidental capitalista y Japón.  Mientras tanto, en los Estados Unidos, el gasto en infraestructura como porcentaje de la economía total se ha reducido a la mitad desde la década de 1960.

¿Por qué esto es asi?  La clase multimillonaria de Estados Unidos no ve ningún beneficio individual en tal inversión.  Wall Street, así como los bancos británicos, dependen en cambio de una transfusión de sangre inversa de las ganancias robadas de África, Asia y América Latina.

Las empresas de servicios públicos se negaron incluso a actualizar la red eléctrica, que es absolutamente necesaria para la producción capitalista.  El estado capitalista, a través del programa de estímulo del presidente Obama, tuvo que gastar miles de millones en él.  Más miles de millones están programados bajo el plan Biden-Harris.

Lenin, el líder de la revolución bolchevique de 1917, llamó a esto el “parasitismo y decadencia del capitalismo” en su folleto de 1916, “El imperialismo, la etapa más alta del capitalismo”.  Los monopolios son como los propietarios en su falta de voluntad para gastar dinero en mejorar su propiedad.

¿Para qué gastarán, los propietarios de los barrios marginales, dinero en arreglar condiciones peligrosas o deshacerse de las ratas mientras puedan seguir cobrando rentas elevadas?  La ciudad de Nueva York tuvo que aprobar las leyes locales 10/80 y 11/98 para obligar a los propietarios a arreglar sus fachadas después de que Grace Gold muriera por la caída de escombros en 1979.

La gente todavía usa y disfruta de cientos de puentes bien construidos y atractivos parques construidos bajo la Administración de Progreso de Obras durante la década de 1930.  La WPA empleó a millones de trabajadores durante la Gran Depresión.

La administración de Roosevelt se vio obligada a establecer la WPA debido a la lucha de la clase trabajadora.  El Partido Comunista organizó consejos de desempleo y luchó contra los desalojos.  Millones de trabajadores se unieron a sindicatos y crearon el Congreso de Organizaciones Industriales, el poderoso CIO.

Otro factor importante fue el ejemplo de los planes económicos socialistas quinquenales en la Unión Soviética.  Estos planes abolieron el desempleo y permitieron a la Unión Soviética derrotar a Hitler.

Es el movimiento Black Lives Matter, con más de 20 millones de personas que exigen justicia para George Floyd y todas las demás víctimas de asesinatos policiales, lo que está impulsando cualquier cambio social en los Estados Unidos.  También lo son las campañas para brindar salarios, beneficios y protección sindicales a los empleados de Amazon y a millones de otros trabajadores.

El ejemplo de la China socialista que duplicó su economía desde 2008 durante la mayor crisis económica capitalista desde la década de 1930 también puso la infraestructura en la agenda política.  El presidente Biden señaló el éxito de China como un argumento para aprobar el plan de su administración.

Necesitamos un programa de empleo masivo que construya lo que necesitamos.  No mezcle eso con ataques venenosos contra los asiáticos y la campaña de guerra contra la República Popular China.

China tiene lo que necesitamos: una revolución socialista que abolirá el terror policial y la pobreza.

Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro’s last address to the Cuban people was in May 2016, during the 7th Congress of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC). “Leading a country in times of crisis requires a superhuman effort,” he said.

Before nearly 1,000 PCC members, Fidel foresaw that it would be “the last time I speak in this room.” “Representing the people must be the greatest honor a militant could ever receive in life, besides the privilege of being a revolutionary, which is a result of our own conscience,” he added.

In 2016, Cuba was moving forward in the economic and social reform process that would allow the island to shake off the crisis caused by Washington’s half-century-long blockade. “The course is set. We will proceed at a steady pace, without haste, but without pause,” then-President Raul Castro said on that occasion.

The 7th Congress coincided with the onset of the reestablishment of the diplomatic relations between Cuba and the U.S., the opening of embassies in both capitals, and the arrival of cruise ships and thousands of tourists eager to get closer to the Cuban culture and reality. The construction of prosperous, sustainable, and irreversible socialism seemed a little simpler on the island after the apparent cessation of hostilities that marked the neighboring country’s successive administrations.

However, the event also coincided with the start of the presidential campaigns in the U.S., where it was uncertain what would happen after the November 3, 2016 elections. Republican candidate Donald Trump won the presidency against all odds. His anti-communist diatribes and the contempt he professed towards the Cubans on the island and their government increased his popularity in South Florida, the cradle of Cuban emigration and the place from where innumerable attacks against the island have been organized and financed.

The following five years were very difficult for Cuba’s economic development. Trump imposed 242 new sanctions, reversed the few steps forward promoted by Barack Obama’s administration, tightened the blockade, and pursued more viciously those countries that dared trade with Cuba.

Despite these setbacks, Cuba undertook the unstoppable march about which Fidel and Raul spoke so much during the 7th Congress, “perfecting all that we must improve, with meridian loyalty, and united strength, as the main leaders of the independence battles did back in the 1860s.”

Today, Cubans are on the doorstep of a new PCC Congress with an economy battered by the aftermath of the Trump regime and the impact of the pandemic.

In Cuba, over 400 people have died from the disease. The numbers could have been much higher if the government had not managed to daily circumvent the obstacles of the blockade and prioritize scientific development.

“We will attend the 8th Party Congress in the midst of the pandemic, with very favorable results compared to other much more developed countries, and with five domestic vaccines in clinical trials, and with the highest rate of recovered patients in Latin America,” President Miguel Diaz-Canel said.

This will be an exceptional Congress, not only because it will take place amid an unprecedented global health crisis. For the first time in 62 years, a member of the historic generation will not be heading the main political organization of the Revolution.

The important meeting, which will take place from April 16 to 19 in Havana, will happen exactly 60 years after the Giron Beach invasion. The Bay of Pigs (as the invasion is known in the US) was a historic failure for the US government´s military efforts to take over the island.

As of this Friday, Cuba will live another milestone. A new generation of Party members will assume leadership from the Revolution´s historic generation. Although no abrupt changes in policy are expected, the new leadership will ratify the continuity and unity of the revolutionary process in Cuba.

The decision taken in the previous Party Congress to place an age limit on membership in the PCC Central Committee (60) and on leadership positions (70) will be keenly felt this Congress.  The passing of the torch to a new generation of Party members will stimulate the systematic rejuvenation of its entire militancy.

“Minute by minute, time is inexorably ticking away and shortening our lives. With these changes, we are repairing our Revolution’s great leader of today, tomorrow, and always: our Communist Party,” Raul Castro said in May 2016.

Fidel agreed. “Death will come for all of us, but the ideas of Cuban communists will remain as proof that, if we work with fervor and dignity, we can produce the material and cultural goods that human beings need. We must transmit to our Latin American and worldwide brothers and sisters that the Cuban people will win.” Those were his last words in the Congress.

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English

April 14, 2021, 6:01 p.m. — We have learned that Mumia Abu-Jamal, the world renowned veteran Black Panther, political prisoner and radio journalist, had heart pain over the weekend. He was rushed to the hospital, and is expected to undergo heart surgery tomorrow, April 15, 2021.

We demand that:

1. Before surgery, Mumia be allowed to call his wife, Wadiya Jamal; his longtime supporter Pam Africa; his chosen doctor, Dr. Ricardo Alvarez; and his spiritual advisor, Mark Taylor;
2. Mumia not be shackled to his hospital bed, as is the rule in Pennsylvania and across the United States; 
3. Immediate release of this innocent man from prison.

We need not look far to see the mortal danger that the shackling of a patient represents: our dear ancestor, political prisoner Romaine “Chip” Fitzgerald, was chained and shackled to his hospital bed in his last days —while he was hardly conscious— and before making his final transition, just over two weeks ago on March 28, after 52 years in prison.

According to Dr. Ricardo Alvarez, Mumia’s chosen doctor, “Any evidence of shackling will be seen as a deliberate harm to Mumia and a perpetuation of the court-documented trauma he has already suffered.” Loud and clear are the echoes of slavery, which —as Eric Williams shows in “Capitalism and Slavery” — for the first time in human history produced the global distribution and mass use of handcuffs, shackles and fetters to bring enslaved Africans to heel.

Dr. Alvarez continues: “There is significant evidence, both legal and medical, that Mumia has suffered severe harm because medical, legal, law enforcement and judicial professionals have not met proper standards. Mumia has been recently hospitalized for COVID and congestive heart failure and he already suffers from hypertension as well as liver cirrhosis and diabetes, both induced by court-documented medical neglect. Freedom is the only treatment.” 

Please call the following offices to make these demands: that Mumia be immediately allowed to call his wife, Pam Africa, his doctor and spiritual advisor; that he not be shackled to his hospital bed; and that he be immediately released.

John Wetzel, head of Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
717-728-2573

Christopher Oppman, deputy secretary for administration who oversees healthcare for Pennsylvania DOC
717-728-4122 or 717-728-2573 ext. 5

SCI Mahanoy Superintendent
570-773-2058

Tom Wolf, governor of Pennsylvania
717-787-2500 ext. 3

APRIL 20 AT 12:01 AM EDT – MAY 4 AT 12 AM EDT
Emergency Response to Derrick Chauvin Verdict!
2011 N Charles St, Baltimore

There will be an emergency response to the Derrick Chauvin verdict regardless, of the out come of the verdict.

If the verdict is announced before noon, people should gather at the parking lot across from 2011 N. Charles Street at 5PM and If the verdict is announced late in the evening we will gather the next day at 12 noon. We know that some people will want to come out right after the announcement if it is in the evening and we will be gather in solidarity the entire day. We will be practicing social distancing and providing PPE for anyone that needs it.

There will be an opportunity to car caravan for those who would prefer to be in cars.

The Socialist Unity Party, Struggle-La Lucha newspaper and the San Diego Coalition to Free Mumia join in the “Bring Mumia Home” campaign initiated by International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal (ICFFMAJ).

Saturday, April 24, 2021, is political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal’s 67th birthday. He has spent 39 of those years unjustly behind bars and faces life-threatening health problems. 

ICFFMAJ is calling on people in all cities and towns throughout the United States to gather in public spaces to demand that Mumia be released immediately! In the Northeast, people are encouraged to travel to Mumia’s hometown of Philadelphia to join protests, if they are able.

Gather at federal buildings, community centers, libraries, train and trolley stations, or anywhere to send the message to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner that Mumia must be released NOW!

No gathering is too small. Hold up a poster, a handmade flyer or message, wear a T-shirt or a button expressing support for Mumia’s release and full, proper medical care. Post photos on social media.

There are many ways to show our love, support and solidarity with the movement to free Mumia and all political prisoners. Put up stickers or flyers in your neighborhood. Write a letter or email to local media. Share information with friends, family and co-workers. Join the social media blast leading up to April 24, Mumia’s 67th birthday; visit Jamal Journal for details.

You can also show support by sending revolutionary birthday greetings to Mumia. Write to Mumia individually or have everyone in your group sign a card collectively and mail it to:

Mumia Abu-Jamal
Smart Communications/PADOC
Mumia Abu-Jamal AM 8335
SCI Mahanoy
PO Box 33028St. Petersburg, FL 33733

(Mumia is imprisoned in Pennsylvania, but the prison’s mail is processed in Florida.)

The overall goal of the movement is for the permanent release of Mumia Abu-Jamal and all prisoners, especially those over 50 years old, who have tested positive for COVID-19 or have been exposed to COVID-19, with pre-existing medical conditions that place them at high risk of dying if infected.

Free them all!