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No More Homeless Lost Boys!

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SEATTLE, USA —“When we’re back in South Sudan, we hear that America is a rich country,” said Bishop David Kuol to Seattle Times reporter Sarah Stuteville. “And we didn’t know that there were actually people who would … be homeless.”
He and his interpreter Jok Nhial were visiting The Jungle, a homeless encampment that stretches for miles under the freeway from downtown to the southern end of the city.
“Those [Sudanese] under the bridge, most of them are ‘Lost Boys,’” said Nhial. He was referring to a generation of children who became refugees during the Sudanese Civil War in the 1980s through the early 2000s. He himself was once one of them.
“They couldn’t get a job, or if they could get a job, it was just minimum wage. And they were not able to afford to pay for an apartment and support their families back home,” he explained. “They ended up on the street, and there was no way to get help.”
A similar situation existed in Russia after the 1917 revolution. Thousands of children were orphaned by the devastation caused by invading imperialist armies. Fourteen capitalist governments tried to destroy the new socialist government — until the imperialists’ troops rebelled.
The revolution inspired many to organize based on a communist vision. The educator Anton Makarenko was one of them. He founded the Gorky colony.
The Gorky colony organized “street kids” to build collective housing, production and educational facilities. They didn’t have much, but with the help of sympathetic workers they built a model facility.
However, by the mid-1920s the New Economic Policy of concessions to capitalism had forced many revolutionary initiatives to be abandoned. Masses of workers, still working for wages and paying rent, were stuck in urban slums.
We must learn from the successes and errors of the communist movement that preceded us to fight for communism, nothing less
Changing Times
Stuteville began her report in the Seattle Times by describing how times have changed in the U.S.:
“When I first started traveling to poor countries as a young journalist, I was most shocked by the slums. Tarp cities and shantytowns in Asia, Africa and Latin America, often butted up against wealthy neighborhoods and sleek high-rises, stood out as symbols of the distance between the United States and the “Developing World.”
“But that distance has shrunk… [We] are not immune to extreme poverty, or outrageous disparity of wealth.”
 Communism must end all this. There can no longer be mansions and luxury condos for the few, while homeless camps stretch for miles. The housing you live in will not be determined by the money you have.
Indeed, there will be no money. Construction will no longer be based on making profits, but on the needs of our class.
Workers from anywhere will be welcomed everywhere. We’ll put the helping hands to good use.
We might not have much to begin with, but we’ll share what we have and the work to make more. The more hands that chip in the better.
Stuteville is right; the times have changed. Homelessness is an atrocity that spans the world. Now, more than ever, we have to build our party to prepare for communist revolution.

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