The Worker, Vol. 37, Number 1
Contents:
I. Don't Let the Rich Drown Out Our Voice!
II. New York Nurses Struggle for Safe Staffing Levels
III. Cuba and Washington's Blacklists
Don't Let the Rich Drown Out Our Voice!
Even though the capitalist class spends billions of dollars trying to force its ideas down the peoples' throats and to present the Democrats and Republicans as the only legitimate political forces, every day more people are expressing both their rejection of the two party monopoly of the Democrats and Republicans and their growing desire to find solutions to the collective problems facing them. And while people are rejecting capitalist politics, they are also expressing recognition of the need for building the real alternative - the need for building the independent political movement of the working class.
But the independent movement will not arise spontaneously or by magic. It can only be built by developing the consciousness, organization and independence of the workers. The starting point of this work is popularizing the independent class aims and program of the workers.
The capitalist class, as part of its struggle to maintain its system of exploitation and its monopoly over the political power, wages a nonstop ideological campaign designed to negate the role of human beings. People are told that they are either "too stupid" or "too apathetic" to rule the society; the workers are told that while they may have muscles, the capitalists have all the brains. Over and over again, the capitalists chant that the people are "incapable of uniting" and that it is "impossible" to create a new social system which abolishes the exploitation of human beings and in which the working class and broad masses of people actually make the decisions and constitute the political power.
Two main threads can be found in this whirlwind: 1) the alleged backwardness of the working people is to blame for the problems and 2) no matter what happens, the profits of the capitalists must be protected.
But reality and history refutes all the propaganda which would condemn the workers and people to an eternity of exploitation and oppression. All social progress is the result of the struggle of the masses of people.
Recognizing the role of the human factor means taking part in the kinds of activity through which the working class and people equip themselves with the consciousness and organization necessary to advance their independent political movement. Consciousness and organization are the two great things human beings have learned to create for transforming both the natural and social environment. Over millennia, human beings through social labor and social activity have improved understanding and created science in order to develop the capacity to reflect the natural laws of the universe and to utilize these laws for the benefit of human beings. Furthermore, through centuries of the class struggle, human beings have even learned to grasp the laws of social development and have been able to created the science of Marxism-Leninism for the purpose of guiding the struggle of the working class to transform society and gain emancipation.
The Workers Party is involved in the day-to-day work of uniting people on the basis of the independent program of economic rights, democratic renewal, a democratic foreign policy and socialism.
We recognize this program as an exciting path that opens the way for more fabulous ideas and starry hopes for the future. But this is not all! We also recognize with full conviction that the human factor is brought into full play when the people themselves, conscious of the cause of their oppression and conscious of how to change society in order to gain their emancipation, come to the center of political life to express such a program that opens the path for the progress of society – a program for winning ironclad guarantees for all their inalienable economic and political rights and claiming their rightful place as the decision-makers of the society.
But the independent movement will not arise spontaneously or by magic. It can only be built by developing the consciousness, organization and independence of the workers. The starting point of this work is popularizing the independent class aims and program of the workers.
The capitalist class, as part of its struggle to maintain its system of exploitation and its monopoly over the political power, wages a nonstop ideological campaign designed to negate the role of human beings. People are told that they are either "too stupid" or "too apathetic" to rule the society; the workers are told that while they may have muscles, the capitalists have all the brains. Over and over again, the capitalists chant that the people are "incapable of uniting" and that it is "impossible" to create a new social system which abolishes the exploitation of human beings and in which the working class and broad masses of people actually make the decisions and constitute the political power.
Two main threads can be found in this whirlwind: 1) the alleged backwardness of the working people is to blame for the problems and 2) no matter what happens, the profits of the capitalists must be protected.
But reality and history refutes all the propaganda which would condemn the workers and people to an eternity of exploitation and oppression. All social progress is the result of the struggle of the masses of people.
Recognizing the role of the human factor means taking part in the kinds of activity through which the working class and people equip themselves with the consciousness and organization necessary to advance their independent political movement. Consciousness and organization are the two great things human beings have learned to create for transforming both the natural and social environment. Over millennia, human beings through social labor and social activity have improved understanding and created science in order to develop the capacity to reflect the natural laws of the universe and to utilize these laws for the benefit of human beings. Furthermore, through centuries of the class struggle, human beings have even learned to grasp the laws of social development and have been able to created the science of Marxism-Leninism for the purpose of guiding the struggle of the working class to transform society and gain emancipation.
The Workers Party is involved in the day-to-day work of uniting people on the basis of the independent program of economic rights, democratic renewal, a democratic foreign policy and socialism.
We recognize this program as an exciting path that opens the way for more fabulous ideas and starry hopes for the future. But this is not all! We also recognize with full conviction that the human factor is brought into full play when the people themselves, conscious of the cause of their oppression and conscious of how to change society in order to gain their emancipation, come to the center of political life to express such a program that opens the path for the progress of society – a program for winning ironclad guarantees for all their inalienable economic and political rights and claiming their rightful place as the decision-makers of the society.
New York Nurses Struggle for Safe Staffing Levels
Nurse's unions in New York are in contract negotiations. Efforts to reach a new collective bargaining agreement have been hampered by management's arbitrary commitment to its proposed concessions, and refusal to meet the reasonable demands of the nurses. 12,000-16,000 nurses at BronxCare, Montefiore, Mount Sinai Hospital, and several other private-sector hospitals are preparing a ten day strike, triggered primarily by the issue of understaffing.
The nurses are struggling to win conditions for the application of adequate safety standards in patient care by demanding contractual guarantees for acceptable limits on nurse-patient ratios, against "floating" of nurses into areas where they have little experience, and for improved wages and pensions.
The problems confronting nurses, and other health care workers, are not due to lack of resources. Understaffing and speedups are being organized by hospitals in order to increasing their profit margins by increasing the rate of exploitation of nurses and other health care workers. The tactics used by the hospitals are not only to try to keep wages down but also to continually increase the workload, forcing nurses to take care of too many patients and to work in conditions that are unsafe for themselves and the patient population.
The problems confronting these nurses in New York are not only inextricably entwined with the rights of patients that receive their care. They are also inextricably entwined with the conditions of other health care workers and patients all across the country. The conditions imposed on these nurses are the result of the nation-wide restructuring of the health care industry to put the profit motive in command. So too, as long as health care workers are denied the same rights and standards as other sections of the country's workforce, the capitalists are not only able to super-exploit them but also use them to drive down the wages and standards of the whole working class.
Everyone who cherishes the rights of the workers and broad masses of the people should join in supporting the struggle of the nurses and other health care workers for better working conditions. As nurses collectively succeed in making important gains such as winning contracts which eliminate or limit forced overtime, which improve nurse/patient ratios and which raise wages, they are succeeding in protecting the health and well-being of the people and improving the quality of patient care. They are also pushing one of the most fundamental issues at the root of America's economic crisis into the forefront: Should the professional healthcare industry of our country be organized on the basis of maximizing profits extracted from the labor of the health care workers, or with the sole aim of guarantying the rights and well-being of the people?
The nurses are struggling to win conditions for the application of adequate safety standards in patient care by demanding contractual guarantees for acceptable limits on nurse-patient ratios, against "floating" of nurses into areas where they have little experience, and for improved wages and pensions.
The problems confronting nurses, and other health care workers, are not due to lack of resources. Understaffing and speedups are being organized by hospitals in order to increasing their profit margins by increasing the rate of exploitation of nurses and other health care workers. The tactics used by the hospitals are not only to try to keep wages down but also to continually increase the workload, forcing nurses to take care of too many patients and to work in conditions that are unsafe for themselves and the patient population.
The problems confronting these nurses in New York are not only inextricably entwined with the rights of patients that receive their care. They are also inextricably entwined with the conditions of other health care workers and patients all across the country. The conditions imposed on these nurses are the result of the nation-wide restructuring of the health care industry to put the profit motive in command. So too, as long as health care workers are denied the same rights and standards as other sections of the country's workforce, the capitalists are not only able to super-exploit them but also use them to drive down the wages and standards of the whole working class.
Everyone who cherishes the rights of the workers and broad masses of the people should join in supporting the struggle of the nurses and other health care workers for better working conditions. As nurses collectively succeed in making important gains such as winning contracts which eliminate or limit forced overtime, which improve nurse/patient ratios and which raise wages, they are succeeding in protecting the health and well-being of the people and improving the quality of patient care. They are also pushing one of the most fundamental issues at the root of America's economic crisis into the forefront: Should the professional healthcare industry of our country be organized on the basis of maximizing profits extracted from the labor of the health care workers, or with the sole aim of guarantying the rights and well-being of the people?
Cuba and Washington's Blacklists
The following article by Raúl Antonio Capote is reprinted from the digital edition of Granma. December 8, 2022.
As if the punishment imposed on the island by successive U.S. administrations were not enough, the government of Joe Biden has just added Cuba to another of its spurious lists.
In a decision that surpasses the most perverse imagination, Washington included Cuba in the blacklist of violators of religious freedom, together with Nicaragua and the Russian Wagner group, U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken confirmed on Friday.
The current administration bases its decision on the fact that, according to them, Cuba "has committed or tolerated particularly serious violations of religious freedom", explained the Secretary of State in a statement.
From his Twitter account, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla immediately repudiated the designation of our country in another arbitrary list. "The U.S. government needs to resort to dishonest accusations to maintain the unsustainable policy of abuse against the Cuban people", he said.
Nothing could be more foolish, but truth, sanity and reason have little to do with Washington's policy toward the island.
If a country in the world enjoys religious freedom, that country is Cuba, something that is known by all who visit us and that has been evaluated by various international organizations.
It is appropriate to clarify that the incorporation of Havana in these lists created by the White House is not symbolic; each inclusion means sanction measures against the country's economy.
Insertion on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, for example, has had a serious impact on the country's finances, which is reflected in the daily lives of Cubans.
But none of this is casual or constitutes an individual mechanism of repression; it is part of the unconventional war against the Cuban Revolution.
Including Cuba on blacklists of all kinds, in addition to the immediate effect on economic relations with the world, is aimed at destroying the reputation of the island, depriving it of international solidarity, isolating it from the world, so that no one will act against its aggressors should they decide to use force.
The character assassination of a nation is a premeditated and sustained process that seeks to destroy credibility, delegitimize the government and justify any punitive measure.
It is part of the methods used by the US special services to destroy the adversaries of the capitalist system, the enemies of the Empire.
As if the punishment imposed on the island by successive U.S. administrations were not enough, the government of Joe Biden has just added Cuba to another of its spurious lists.
In a decision that surpasses the most perverse imagination, Washington included Cuba in the blacklist of violators of religious freedom, together with Nicaragua and the Russian Wagner group, U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken confirmed on Friday.
The current administration bases its decision on the fact that, according to them, Cuba "has committed or tolerated particularly serious violations of religious freedom", explained the Secretary of State in a statement.
From his Twitter account, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla immediately repudiated the designation of our country in another arbitrary list. "The U.S. government needs to resort to dishonest accusations to maintain the unsustainable policy of abuse against the Cuban people", he said.
Nothing could be more foolish, but truth, sanity and reason have little to do with Washington's policy toward the island.
If a country in the world enjoys religious freedom, that country is Cuba, something that is known by all who visit us and that has been evaluated by various international organizations.
It is appropriate to clarify that the incorporation of Havana in these lists created by the White House is not symbolic; each inclusion means sanction measures against the country's economy.
Insertion on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, for example, has had a serious impact on the country's finances, which is reflected in the daily lives of Cubans.
But none of this is casual or constitutes an individual mechanism of repression; it is part of the unconventional war against the Cuban Revolution.
Including Cuba on blacklists of all kinds, in addition to the immediate effect on economic relations with the world, is aimed at destroying the reputation of the island, depriving it of international solidarity, isolating it from the world, so that no one will act against its aggressors should they decide to use force.
The character assassination of a nation is a premeditated and sustained process that seeks to destroy credibility, delegitimize the government and justify any punitive measure.
It is part of the methods used by the US special services to destroy the adversaries of the capitalist system, the enemies of the Empire.