FIST endorses March 4 National Day of Action

March 4 National Day of Action to Defend Education

As people throughout the country struggle under the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, public education from pre-K to higher and adult education is threatened by budget cuts, layoffs, privatization, tuition and fee increases, and other attacks. Budget cuts degrade the quality of public education by decreasing student services and increasing class size, while tuition hikes and layoffs force the cost of the recession onto students and teachers and off of the financial institutions that caused the recession in the first place. Non-unionized charter schools threaten to divide, weaken and privatize the public school system and damage teachers’ unions, which are needed now more than ever. More and more students are going deep into debt to finance their education, while high unemployment forces many students and youth to join the military to receive a higher education. And all of the attacks described above have hit working people and people of color the hardest.

In California, students, teachers, workers, parents, and faculty have taken action against these attacks. They took to the streets in a one-day strike on September 24th, organized strikes and actions across the state during the University of California Board of Regents meeting from November 18th to 20th, and have called for a state-wide day of action on March 4th.

Cuba’s legacy in fighting terrorism

By Larry Hales

NYC FIST

On Dec. 1 a statement began to be circulated entitled “A Declaration of African-American Support for the Civil Rights Struggle in Cuba.” The statement has 60 signatories—well-respected Black intellectuals, cultural performers and political activists, many of whom were leaders during the Civil Rights era and continue to be today.

The statement alleges not only racism in Cuban society but systemic racism. It insinuates that racism is a policy of the Cuban government, not merely a lasting vestige of the neo-colonial government before the 1959 socialist revolution.

To anyone who has ever been to Cuba or is in the movement to defend the Cuban Revolution, such a statement seems odd. It seems rather ironic coming from the U.S., despite the existence of the first Black president.

This statement signed by prominent figures is extremely dangerous for the Cuban Revolution and its admirers, defenders and those who look upon it as an example of what is not only necessary but possible when working and oppressed people confront their oppressor.

Such a statement comes at a time when the U.S. is trying to fix its image around the world. While the election of President Barack Obama is progressive—meaning that the consciousness of white workers was advanced enough to see beyond racism and even reject not only the racism of Hillary Clinton’s campaign but also that of McCain/Palin’s—the Obama administration has not meant much materially for the oppressed in the U.S.

Hondurans boycott fraudulent election

By LeiLani Dowell

NYC FIST

The Honduran Congress, after maneuvering for weeks to avoid holding a vote to reinstate President Manuel Zelaya, voted on Dec. 3 not to restore him to office.

The vote came just four days after a fraudulent election was held in an attempt to legitimize a right-wing coup that kidnapped President Zelaya five months ago and put him on a plane to Costa Rica. Zelaya had incurred the anger of Honduras’s elite class when he raised the minimum wage and rejected privatization, among other progressive moves.

The vote further exposes the sham Honduran elections that took place Nov. 29 in a country that has been heavily militarized and all opposition repressed since the first day of the coup, when a fierce resistance movement coalesced to demand Zelaya’s return and the formation of a National Constitutional Assembly.

The voice of the people of Honduras was heard in its absence at the polls. While corporate media outlets repeat “official” government figures of 61.86 percent participation, the resistance movement says that 65 percent to 70 percent of the population boycotted the fraudulent elections, with many polling stations almost empty. This is confirmed by Lisa Sullivan, Latin America coordinator of School of the Americas Watch, who says, “Our delegation visited dozens of polling stations, finding them almost empty, in most places counting more electoral monitors and caretakers than voters.” (soaw.org, Dec. 2)

The roots of women’s & LGBT oppression

The following excerpted talk was given by Fight Imperialism, Stand Together organizer LeiLani Dowell, at the WWP National Conference, Nov. 14.

It is not an overstatement to say that in every struggle against oppression in the U.S. in the past 50 years, the Party has been there. This is undoubtedly true with regards to our history in the struggle for liberation of women and lesbian, gay, bi and trans people.

In 1970, the women of Youth Against War and Fascism—the Party’s youth wing—formed a Women’s Caucus. This caucus organized the first major demonstration of the women’s liberation movement in New York, which marched to the Women’s House of Detention.

In 1971, WWP marched in the second-ever LGBT Pride march. And we haven’t stopped marching. In fact, each year Comrade Marsha makes a new placard—this year it was “WWP marching with Pride for 38 years.”

We’ve also made big contributions to the theoretical understanding of these oppressions. In 1971, Workers World Party co-founder Dorothy Ballan wrote “Feminism and Marxism.” Ballan answered the position that the oppression of women has been an eternal struggle. Ballan explained that such teachings about the “innate nature” of social conditions only help a ruling class that would like to maintain those conditions.

Ballan raised the findings of Frederick Engels, who used anthropological findings to prove that the oppression of women only arose with the development of surplus wealth and class society. The earliest recorded societies were actually matriarchal, with a division of labor but without the sexism that exists today.