Believe it or not, I am a communist

No, you’re not the c—word.

Isn’t the c—word the worst thing imaginable?

Aren’t communists responsible for millions of lost lives in Russia?

Then, didn’t millions loose their lives after the Chinese Revolution?

Don’t communists advocate for dictatorships?

Dictatorships that force people into poverty?

Dictatorships where freedom is prohibited?

Why would anyone in their right mind want that?

So, it might come as a surprise,

that for most of human history,

people lived in communal societies,

where humanity only knew the word “we” and never used the word “I.”

In those societies the interests of everyone were important.

These were the values that allowed indigenous people to survive.

Everything they had was shared.

Leaders worked to make sure everyone had the necessities.

Then, those communal societies

came in contact with people who had different values.

Those people used the word “I”,

and were obsessed with getting a glittering rock known as “gold.”

Yes, they would circle the globe,

endure unimaginable hardships,

and even go to war,

all so that they might have a chance to get a rock known as gold.

Sitting bull once said:

“the love of possession is a disease with them.

These people have made many rules

that the rich may break, but the poor may not.”

He went on to say:

“The white man knows

how to make everything,

but he does not know how to distribute it.”

Crazy Horse had this to say:

“One does not sell

the earth upon which

the people walk.”

Chief Joseph made the following argument:

“I do not think that the Great Spirit

gave one man the right

to tell another kind of man what they must do.”

Then, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels

wrote their Communist Manifesto.

They urged workers of the world to unite,

because we have nothing to loose but our chains.

But today many workers have

homes, cars, washing machines, and even tooth paste.

Did Marx and Engels want us to give up all of that,

so we might live in a more rational world?

No, they argued that there is a problem in capitalism

that humanity never experienced in our history.

This is the crisis of overproduction.

When there are more commodities on the market than people will buy, capitalists stop investing.

When capitalists don’t invest, they shut down enterprises.

When banks aren’t receiving interest payments,

they also close their doors.

When this happens, workers can loose everything.

When the Native Americans had a good year

and had more than they could use,

they celebrated with a party.

Capitalists deal with overproduction by eliminating jobs.

The workers

We toil at dirty, dangerous, and mind-deadening jobs.

We follow the orders of belligerent supervisors,

who routinely tell us that we need to do more,

so the most affluent people in the world can continue to live in opulence.

Capitalist institutions routinely discriminate

against women, Black people, Latinos,

Native Americans, and immigrants

in a constant drive to maximize profits on investments  

The bosses

They go all over the world,

looking for workers who will toil for starvation wages.   

Their system means that 29,000 children

die every day of preventable diseases.

Cuba

While hundreds of hospitals have closed in the United States

Cuba has three times more doctors, per capita, as this country.

Cuba sends its doctors all over the world,

to care for the poorest patients.

While hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans

demanded that Governor Rosselló resign,

Over one-million Cubans gave

enthusiastic support to their government on May Day.

The problems with the Russian and Chinese governments

are not because of communism,

but because those governments have

adopted to capitalist methods.

These methods have not only been

disastrous for the people of those countries,

That political course has given

the word communism a bad name.

So, yes I am a communist.

I believe that human needs are more important than profits.

I believe that working people have the capacity to transform the world,

and make this a place where there will be liberty and justice for all.

Immigration, an injury to one is an injury to all

I worked at two factory jobs

for twenty one years.

Those manufacturing jobs,

and millions of others were eliminated.

The work was hard, dirty, and dangerous.

The bosses were belligerent,

and routinely humiliated the workers.

Then, they demanded that we work faster.

We did the seemingly impossible.

We increased production,

and improved quality at the same time.

Then, the managers eliminated all those jobs.

In all, corporations eliminated

tens of millions manufacturing jobs in this country.

Many of those jobs went to nations

where wages are between one and ten dollars per day.

In order to survive on those wages

many of the things we take for granted

are unthinkable in those nations.

I’m talking about education, health care, and even food.

In order to enforce these conditions,

there are repressive governments,

and street gangs dedicated to making sure

there will be no challenges to this horrendous system.

Clearly, everyone would like

to have the basic necessities of life.

These include: a place to live, food, clothing,

healthcare, and education.

For those reasons millions of people have risked

their lives to come to nations where

they work at the jobs no one wants,

so they might have the basic necessities of life.

Then, there are politicians of

both political parties in the United States,

who say that this is illegal.

What are the facts?

Corporations feel they have no borders.

They profit from the labor of workers all over the world.

When there are nations that object to this,

governments respond with sanctions or even war.

No one can control where we are born.

So, the place where we are born

is a matter of luck, and not a personal decision.

The law punishes people for something they have no control over.

Then, there were the first inhabitants of this country.

They experienced genocide.

Entire nations are no more.

Schools taught Indian children to forget their heritage.

The government signed hundreds of treaties with Native Americans.

They violated all of those treaties.

Yet, the same government that violated all those treaties,

argues that there are people living in this country who are illegal. 

Most immigrants come from Mexico and Central America.

Most of their ancestors were Native American.

Yet today, the government

is building a wall aimed at keeping them out.

We are the workers of the world.

While governments are determined to divide us,

we will continue to find ways of coming together,

because this is who we are.

Today Cuba is sending its doctors all over the world.

They treat some of the poorest patients in the world.

They understand that they are workers in the world,

and an injury to one is an injury to all.

The world has learned an important lesson from the massive demonstrations in Puerto Rico

This past week the world watched as over 500,000 residents of Puerto Rico mobilized all over the island, demanding Governor Ricardo Rosselló resign. These demonstrations took place in temperatures exceeding 100 degrees. So, we might ask: Why were the Puerto Rican people so enraged that they came together in these massive demonstrations?

Clearly, there were tapes of the governor making insulting remarks about the residents on the island, as well as gross statements about women. However, there are politicians in the states who make these kinds of remarks, and there haven’t been those kinds of protests. So, how is the reality of Puerto Rico different from the reality on the mainland of the United States?

The War Against All Puerto Ricans

We can begin to answer this question by reading Nelson A. Denis’ book: The War Against All Puerto Ricans – Revolution and terror in America’s colony. This book was a best seller in Puerto Rico and Denis spoke at the demonstration demanding the resignation of the governor. You can read my review of this wonderful book at the link to this blog. The following facts are just a short summary of the history that Denis reported in his book.

The independence movement in Puerto Rico started when the island was controlled by Spain. General Nelson A. Miles headed the United States armed forces that invaded the island. Before invading Puerto Rico, Miles commanded the armed forces in the wars against Native Americans.

The first U.S. Governor of Puerto Rico amassed his wealth from the sugar trust that today we know as Domino Sugar. The Puerto Rican macheteros who cut the sugar cane that produced his wealth, worked under unimaginably horrendous conditions.

Pedro Albizu Campos became the leader of the independence movement. Campos had been educated at Harvard University and had a law degree. Campos was also the leader of the 1934 sugar cane workers strike that managed to force employers to significantly increase wages on the island.

One of the power brokers in Puerto Rico offered Campos $150,000 to betray the sugar workers strike. Campos refused and the U.S. officials then worked to prosecute Campos for conspiring to overthrow the government. He served a ten-year sentence in a federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia.

At the same time as Campos was on trial, there was a pro-independence demonstration in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The police murdered 17 of the unarmed demonstrators and lied arguing that they did this in self-defense. This lie was exposed by a film that documented the murder of the unarmed demonstrators.

Also during these years, the United States government allowed doctors to sterilize about 20,000 Puerto Rican women. When these women gave birth to their first child, the doctors cut their fallopian tubes during the procedure. They routinely carried out this illegal procedure without the consent of these women.

Upon his return to Puerto Rico, Pedro Albizu Campos experienced uninterrupted surveillance by the police. During these years, the United States invested billions of dollars in the island in what they called Operation Bootstrap.

Along with Operation Bootstrap, the government adopted Law 54. This law made it a crime to display a Puerto Rican flag, or to sing the Puerto Rican national anthem. Many of those who violated this law went to the prison known as La Princesa. The conditions in this prison were unimaginably horrendous.

Because it became impossible to legally organize, the independence movement on the island organized an armed insurrection. The government murdered most of those who took part in this insurrection.

Pedro Albizu Campos was convicted again of conspiring against the government. This time, the prison authorities exposed Campos to massive levels of radiation. When he was about to pass away he was released from prison.

We might also keep in mind that the Puerto Rican people have been successful in forcing the government to release several political prisoners after they served decades in the dungeons of this country. The list of those released include: Rafael Cancel Miranda, Lolita Lebrón, and Oscar López Rivera.  

We might also consider that popular vocalist Ricky Martin was featured in the recent demonstrations on the island. The Governor had ridiculed Martin because he is gay. So, we have seen that the power of these demonstrations have broken through many of the attitudes people might have had that were critical of gays.

Hurricane Maria and its Aftermath

We might think about the fact that the word Hurricane originates from the native people of Puerto Rico known as the Tainos. So, the people on the island have been dealing with hurricanes for centuries. However, when Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, the United States government organized the reconstruction. That effort became a genuine human disaster.

In September of 2017 the U.S. government reported that there were 64 deaths caused by Hurricane Maria. By June 4, 2018 The New England Journal of Medicine reported that there were 4,645 deaths due to the aftermath of the hurricane.

These facts demonstrate that the United States effort to recover from the hurricane were grossly inadequate. It took about one full year for water and electric supply to be fully restored to the island.

Yet, when President Trump visited Puerto Rico after the hurricane, he actually had the audacity to throw rolls of paper towels at the people. The president failed to explain how those paper towels might have prevented the deaths of 4,645 people on the island.

We also see how there are banks demanding that Puerto Rico pay $70 billion in outstanding loans. In order to pay these loans, they have instituted austerity plans.

Thinking about those loans, we might also think about the dozens of corporations that have extracted huge amounts of wealth from the labor of the Puerto Rican people. These corporations include: the sugar trusts, the drug companies, the tourist hotels, the airlines, the auto dealerships, and the airlines. Those corporations also include: banks, insurance companies, advertising agencies, and corporate law firms.

An observer might think that it is wrong to demand payment of loans from Puerto Rico, while all these corporations have reaped super-profits from the island. Massive profits have also been derived from Puerto Ricans who work on the mainland. However, this is an example of the natural functioning of the capitalist system.

Rebellions all over the world

When we look at this history, we can begin to understand why there were massive demonstrations in Puerto Rico demanding the resignation of Governor Ricardo Rosselló. There was mass discontent on the island before the people learned of Rosselló’s insulting remarks about the people who have endured this history. We can cite other moments in history where there was mass discontent, where a single event provoked a mass response.

In October of 1917, garment workers who happened to be women in St, Petersburg, Russia went on strike. This information is included in Leon Trotsky’s history of the Russian Revolution. He reported that the atmosphere was so charged at that time, a loud noise was all that was necessary to cause thousands of workers to go on strike.

In the year 1955, racists murdered fourteen-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi. People in Chicago, Illinois viewed Till’s mutilated body in an open casket. A few months after Till’s murder, Rosa Parks refused to sit in the back of a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Those events sparked the 385-day Montgomery Bus Boycott. 

In the year 2010, a police officer confiscated Mohamed Bouazizi’s vegetable cart in Tunisia. Bouazizi attempted to use legal means to rectify this problem, but the government responded with cold indifference. Bouazizi then committed suicide by setting himself on fire. Bouazizi’s horrendous death sparked a movement known as the Arab Spring where millions of people in the Arabic world mobilized in an effort to oust the government in their countries.

However, we can also say that rebellions only become revolutions when a political party sees the massive discontent, and makes a decision to organize to take power. This happened in both the Russian and Cuban Revolutions.  

The Cuban Reality

In May of this year I was a member of the Cuba May Day Brigade. We were 328 members of 21 nations who came to Cuba to learn and give solidarity to the Cuban revolutionary government.

On May 1, we witnessed over one-million people demonstrating their enthusiastic support of their government in Havana. We might consider that the Cuban people don’t have many of the conveniences of this country. However, the government is open about how resources are used.

The primary difference lies in the fact that in the United States massive corporate profits are the priority. In Cuba human needs are more important than corporate profits. So, in the United States hundreds of hospitals have closed down, and infant mortality rates have increased. Today Cuba has three times more doctors as the United States and infant mortality is lower than this country.

So, while Puerto Ricans mobilized hundreds of thousands to oust the government on the island, the Cuban people mobilized even more people to enthusiastically support their government.

My opinion is that the Puerto Rican people have demonstrated that there is a simmering discontent of workers and farmers all over the world. This means that events will unfold that will spark massive responses. Working people are not apathetic. The ruling powers have been driving down our standard of living for decades. Sooner or later the rage that has been building up with working people will explode as it did in Puerto Rico.

Women and the liberation of humanity

They played a crucial part in every

human advance in the history of the world.

Yet, the media routinely portrays them

as sexual objects, who need the protection of men.

They have given birth to every

human being in the history of the world,

Yet politicians argue that they should not

have the right to decide if and when to become a mother.

Their inner beauty has inspired

humanity all over the world.

Yet, advertisers invest billions of dollars

in an attempt to make women feel insecure about their appearance.

Yes, corporations are driven to take

trillions of dollars from women

who purchase jewelry, cosmetics, mascara,

and extravagantly expensive clothing.

For all their many contributions,

the emotional and physical abuse of women

is a continuing fact of life

in the world today.

So, while women only receive

70% of the wages of men,

the most affluent people living in the world,

have more money than they could use in 100 lifetimes.

Then, there are governments that argue

that we need to go to war

and destroy entire nations,

so they can pretend to defend democracy in the world.

Some of those who make these arguments

happen to be women.

Yes, there are affluent women in the government,

and on the boards of corporations.

So, now you might have an idea why there are many women

who don’t like this situation.

Now you might understand why   

there are women dedicated to changing this relationship.

There was Mother Jones

who organized the movement

to end child labor

for all time.

There was Ida Wells,

who organized to stop the murder

or lynching of people

who happened to have a dark skin color.

There was Celia Sanchez

who helped organize the Cuban Revolution,

so all the Cuban people will have their own government,

with the right to education and health care.

Yes, women represent a potentially

explosive force in the world today.

Sooner or later women will unleash that power,

and the world will learn the true value of half of the human race.