FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
	International Communist Workers Party
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SEATTLE, Sept. 16, “People hate the U.S. military and rightfully so,” commented a friend from Boeing.  “Now these heads of state and ‘humanitarian groups’ are asking for U.S. troops.”

“You better beware of what you ask for. You might get it!” replied another.

And now Obama has announced sending 3,000 troops!

We’ve had scores of discussions in factories, schools and even hair salons as we build for our upcoming Party forum on the Ebola outbreak in western Africa. Many have commented on the sad state of capitalist health care.

We also emailed copies of the Red Flag articles on this topic to health care workers around the country. Some will be writing their suggestions about how we can mobilize the masses for communist health care.

September 2--Nurses strike at John F. Kennedy Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia

One Boeing friend noted the irony of Liberian president Sirleaf’s request for U.S. troops. Already Obama plans to send the military to open a 25-person clinic for health-care worker victims of Ebola. Everybody knows that’s a mere drop in the bucket.

The Gates Foundation is offering $50 million “to stop the epidemic.” Despite the foundation’s assurances that the allocation of funds would be “flexible,” most dollars are going to develop a vaccine: at this point a sure moneymaker.

Those on the ground have already raised their voices in protest. They really need more health care workers protected from infection by known methods. The potential for profits in this strategy is not nearly as great.

Most attempts to create vaccines fail. Eliminating the poverty that allows these epidemics to spread is the near term, but less profitable, solution. This practical strategy is beyond the capability of capitalism.

The nurses in biggest hospitals in Sierra Leone and Liberia have struck for more help and basic protective gear. They haven’t been paid for a month, making survival that much more difficult. Hundreds of health workers have died as the health systems collapse.

The truth is that capitalist health care can never protect us. It’s profit-driven and elitist.

Capitalist vs. Communist Health Care

These brave nurse strikers rightfully blame the government. What else could you expect from the capitalist government? Their strike has political overtones.

Imagine if they made their strike an overt political strike to build for communist healthcare. That message would reverberate around the world!

The 120,000 West Point residents that were cordoned off by U.S.-armed troops at the end of August are the very people that could end this epidemic. This kind of ghetto quarantine is the opposite of the “bare-foot doctor” approach communist health care would use.

“I agree with this bare-foot doctor approach,” said one medical tech, “but is 3-6 months of training enough given all the diseases capitalism has created?”

“What if the basics of health care were taught to every child as they worked in clinics as soon as they were able?” suggested another worker. “Then we wouldn’t be starting the training from ground zero.”

We’ve invited a nurse to the forum who will give a short presentation on stopping blood-borne infections. We all need to know this stuff to fight for the health of our class.

Many more questions like these need to be discussed in the pages of Red Flag. Our forum has already recruited members and friends to write such letters and articles.

Next on the agenda: showing how the fight for communist health care is an essential part of mobilizing masses for communism.

The Ebola epidemic is spreading very rapidly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Like malaria, the epidemic is caused by increasing the impoverishment of the working class, the product of racist capitalism in crisis.

US and China Struggle Over Africa

This epidemic is taking place amidst the sharpening inter-imperialist rivalry over control of Africa, West Africa in particular. The Chinese imperialists surpassed the US and Europe as Africa’s number one trading partner and investor in 2009.  In Liberia, traditionally a US neo-colony, the Chinese are challenging this domination. They have built roads and improved existing ones, to help make their investments more profitable, like the Bong mines which plan to ship ten million tons of iron ore by 2016.

Africa is a key source of oil. China imports 30% of its crude oil from Africa. West Africa provides about 12% of US crude oil imports. The US National Intelligence Council predicts that this share will rise to 25% by 2015. (Egypt Oil and Gas website, 5/14). This struggle will lead to war.

Beware of “Humanitarian” Aid

 “China is taking the lead among countries offering assistance, which fully demonstrates that they are a good friend,” said Liberian President Sirleaf.

The Chinese are vying with the US to lead the “humanitarian “ aid, designed to gain influence and control, not to help stop the disease and end poverty. So far, China has sent $37 million in aid to West Africa.

On Sept. 16, Obama announced that the US will set up an AFRICOM (US Defense Department’s Africa Command) headquarters in Liberia. It will “to provide command and control to support the U.S. military activities and…coordination with the U.S. government and international relief efforts,” an administration official said.(Wall Street Journal, 9/15)

US AFRICOM has spent years engaged in “humanitarian” projects in Africa meant to enhance the US’ military presence. US aid is designed to influence foreign governments and civilian populations to “facilitate military operations and achieve U.S. objectives.”  According to the Pentagon, humanitarian efforts are engineered to improve “U.S. visibility, access, and influence with foreign military and civilian counterparts.” Development projects are designed to “promote the security and foreign policy interests of the United States.”(Nick Turse, The Investigative Fund)

With this aid the US wants to project an anti-racist image. But the US bosses’ racism oozes out of their pores. Some US television commentators said that the crisis reflected a “cultural problem,” because the families of the Ebola victims touch them before and after death. This is racist. The real culprit is the inhuman conditions created by the crushing poverty of capitalism.

This aid will not provide what is needed: masses of people equipped to guarantee that the victims of Ebola are treated with fluids, electrolytes, and other medicine. Also necessary is protective gear for health care workers and famiies who treat patients to stop the spread of the disease.

It also requires decent housing, nutritious food, clean streets, a sewage system and clean drinking water. In fact, those who clean hospitals and cities, those who drive garbage trucks and dispose of waste  are more important than doctors in preventing the spread of disease.

Capitalism, based on profits squeezed from the exploitation of workers, will never do this. Only communism is capable of educating and mobilizing the masses of workers so that collectively they plan and fight for the well-being of our class.

Chinese Imperialists Not Lesser Evil—We Need Communism

The Chinese bosses built their wealth by super-exploiting the Chinese workers. Now, they are expanding their wealth by super-exploiting Africa’s workers and resources. For example, Liberian workers at the Bong mines protested in 2013 against their $5-a-day pay with no pay for over time, their terrible living conditions and lack of medical care.

During the Cultural Revolution in China in the 1960’s, the Chinese Communists massively trained “barefoot doctors” to treat people and mobilize them to wipe out diseases like malaria. But with the defeat of the Cultural Revolution, China abandoned those principles and instituted capitalist health care.

The urgent need is to mobilize masses of workers in Africa and worldwide for communism. Then the masses will put an end to poverty and exploitation, and discover cures for and treat all the diseases that capitalism has produced.

Nurses and other workers should organize communist solidarity with the nurses who struck  in Liberia for protective gear.  But most important, we call on all workers to spread Red Flag and the fight for a communist world.

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