The Worker, Vol. 35, Number 3
Biden Steps Up U.S. War Effort
Blaming insurgents for deliberately causing incidents to provoke renewed airstrikes, the Biden administration made the strategic gesture of escalating bombings of Iraq immediately after taking office on January 20. In one particularly widely reported U.S. planned and executed bombing campaign, an area near the foot of the Zagros Mountains bore the brunt of the air assaults on January 27, bringing to light an immediate body count of almost a dozen casualties.
There will be no close of U.S. military operations until the U.S. is forced out of Iraq lock, stock, and barrel by the armed struggle of the Iraqi people.
The object of the war is to turn Iraq into a market for U.S. goods, to grab raw materials, to utilize cheap disorganized labor, and use the Iraqi people as cannon fodder.
There will be no close of U.S. military operations until the U.S. is forced out of Iraq lock, stock, and barrel by the armed struggle of the Iraqi people.
The object of the war is to turn Iraq into a market for U.S. goods, to grab raw materials, to utilize cheap disorganized labor, and use the Iraqi people as cannon fodder.
Health Care Is A Right!
Our society has created advanced medical technology and science. What is the point of these advances if not to secure the health and well-being of every member of society? Since every individual member of society lives only in and through society, is it not society's responsibility to ensure, to the best of its ability, the longevity and health of its members?
As a right, good health and access to medical care must be available to all members of society equally, simply by virtue of being members of society. This right cannot be made dependent on social position or wealth but must be provided free of charge to everyone.
It is the capitalist system which is responsible for the inhuman situation in which medical facilities are available yet health care is withheld from the people.
Capitalists enter the health care field with one and only one motive – to maximize their profits. And indeed, the health care industry has become one of the most profitable in the country.
Because the health care crisis is so acute, the capitalists themselves have begun talking about the issue. But none of the various proposals being offered by the Republicans or Democrats are about resolving the problem precisely because the "solutions" are all based on protecting the system of health care for profit.
The bottom line of the capitalist "solutions" are to increase taxes on the working people while continuing to guarantee the huge profit margins of the health care industry.
The working class has a different approach to the problem. In the first place, workers all over the country have been waging stern strike struggles to protect their health benefits as well as the benefits of retired workers. Rank and file union members are insisting on an end to the concessions and give-backs, especially when their health and the health of their family is at stake.
In the communities, struggles are being launched to prevent the closing of hospitals and to demand medical care for those who cannot afford to pay. We must do what it takes to bar the capitalists' efforts to liquidate these struggles.
At the same time, it is necessary to build up the independent political movement which fights for comprehensive health care for everyone, paid for by the rich. We cannot let the profit-driven capitalists succeed in undermining partial guarantees for health care such as Medicare, Medicaid, public hospitals, etc., or in any way deny health care to ourselves and our loved ones. Free and comprehensive medical care is a right and a vital need which demands an immediate solution.
As a right, good health and access to medical care must be available to all members of society equally, simply by virtue of being members of society. This right cannot be made dependent on social position or wealth but must be provided free of charge to everyone.
It is the capitalist system which is responsible for the inhuman situation in which medical facilities are available yet health care is withheld from the people.
Capitalists enter the health care field with one and only one motive – to maximize their profits. And indeed, the health care industry has become one of the most profitable in the country.
Because the health care crisis is so acute, the capitalists themselves have begun talking about the issue. But none of the various proposals being offered by the Republicans or Democrats are about resolving the problem precisely because the "solutions" are all based on protecting the system of health care for profit.
The bottom line of the capitalist "solutions" are to increase taxes on the working people while continuing to guarantee the huge profit margins of the health care industry.
The working class has a different approach to the problem. In the first place, workers all over the country have been waging stern strike struggles to protect their health benefits as well as the benefits of retired workers. Rank and file union members are insisting on an end to the concessions and give-backs, especially when their health and the health of their family is at stake.
In the communities, struggles are being launched to prevent the closing of hospitals and to demand medical care for those who cannot afford to pay. We must do what it takes to bar the capitalists' efforts to liquidate these struggles.
At the same time, it is necessary to build up the independent political movement which fights for comprehensive health care for everyone, paid for by the rich. We cannot let the profit-driven capitalists succeed in undermining partial guarantees for health care such as Medicare, Medicaid, public hospitals, etc., or in any way deny health care to ourselves and our loved ones. Free and comprehensive medical care is a right and a vital need which demands an immediate solution.
Build the Workers' Press
The need to publish The Worker on a regular and frequent basis and to distribute it as widely as possible arises from the sharpening class struggle in the U.S.
All over the country, on countless fronts, the working class and the broad masses of the people are struggling against the bipartisan capitalist program of war, robbery, racism and repression.
But the capitalist media never tells the truth about the conditions and struggles of the masses. The workers' press is urgently needed to break the blockade of silence against the workers' movement, to sum up the experience of the popular struggles and to offer a clear-cut perspective and guidelines for advancing these struggles.
This is the task to which The Worker devotes itself.
Our work on the journalistic front is so successful because we have not stood on the sidelines, lecturing the masses or repeating empty phrases. We do not write articles in order to balance out a page of advertisements or merely to fill up space or to claim that we have a position on x number of questions. Rather, we have developed our revolutionary journalism under the guideline of using our newspaper to change the world.
When we have taken up issues and struggles, we have persisted in them, trying to provide the agitational, theoretical and historical materials needed to advance the actual struggles of the masses, helping to change the ratio of forces in favor of the working class and its organized section.
In order to build The Worker as an organ to change the world, it requires the efforts of all the members and friends of the Workers Party and of hundreds and thousands of class conscious workers and political activists.
We call upon all the Marxist-Leninists and class conscious workers, on all progressive people to assist in investigating and clarifying the burning questions facing the working class movement so that the line of our paper is able to unite, on the basis of principle, all that is healthy and alive in our society by enunciating the stand and interests, the aspirations and demands of the working class.
All over the country, on countless fronts, the working class and the broad masses of the people are struggling against the bipartisan capitalist program of war, robbery, racism and repression.
But the capitalist media never tells the truth about the conditions and struggles of the masses. The workers' press is urgently needed to break the blockade of silence against the workers' movement, to sum up the experience of the popular struggles and to offer a clear-cut perspective and guidelines for advancing these struggles.
This is the task to which The Worker devotes itself.
Our work on the journalistic front is so successful because we have not stood on the sidelines, lecturing the masses or repeating empty phrases. We do not write articles in order to balance out a page of advertisements or merely to fill up space or to claim that we have a position on x number of questions. Rather, we have developed our revolutionary journalism under the guideline of using our newspaper to change the world.
When we have taken up issues and struggles, we have persisted in them, trying to provide the agitational, theoretical and historical materials needed to advance the actual struggles of the masses, helping to change the ratio of forces in favor of the working class and its organized section.
In order to build The Worker as an organ to change the world, it requires the efforts of all the members and friends of the Workers Party and of hundreds and thousands of class conscious workers and political activists.
We call upon all the Marxist-Leninists and class conscious workers, on all progressive people to assist in investigating and clarifying the burning questions facing the working class movement so that the line of our paper is able to unite, on the basis of principle, all that is healthy and alive in our society by enunciating the stand and interests, the aspirations and demands of the working class.