The Red Texan Editor – Logan Nicks League of Young Communists
Issue 1
“Fight For $15” – A Marxist-Leninist Analysis Author – Logan Nicks
The abolition of every possibility of oppression and exploitationthat is our slogan!
As more and more Americans slip into poverty, there has been a renewal of campaigning for better conditions and pay. One movement in particular, the “fight for fifteen” movement advocating a fifteen dollar per hour minimum wage has swept across our schools, workplaces, and college campuses. Millions of Americans, predominantly young people, are a part of this movement. However, what is its usefulness? This article will first look at arguments for this rise in wages and then analyze whether or not this reform would be useful to the working class in the long term. The primary argument for the rise in the minimum wage is that inflation has made this country’s minimum wage pathetic. In fact, since 1970, every raise in the minimum wage has still resulted in a lower overall wage than existed at the time of the previous rise in wages due to inflation outpacing reform. The wage has consistently fallen when looked at in terms of real (inflation
adjusted) value while the GDP of America (wealth of the country overall) has more than doubled in this same period of time. If a fifteen dollar minimum wage were instituted, proponents argue, it would be the first time that we had a higher minimum wage than we had in 1970, and would accordingly be a true victory for workers. While I, of course, do not dispute the mathematical fact that a fifteen dollar minimum wage would be the first true raising of the minimum wage since 1970, I contend that it would not be a true victory for the working class. Imagine that a fifteen dollar minimum wage bill actually made it into the national congress. How long would such a bill take to be passed? How long would it take to be implemented after it was passed? How much less would fifteen dollars be worth by the time it was in effect? The capitalist system is capable of absorbing reforms such as these. If the minimum wage is raised, the capitalist class will simply raise the cost of
A Stance on the Israeli Situation Author – Evan Assael The Party of Communists USA backs the “two-state solution” proposed by the Soviet Union in 1949. We call for a return to the “Green Line” borders, with the establishment of a Palestinian State in the West Bank and Gaza and the capital in East Jerusalem. We call for an end to the blockade of Gaza, the dismantling of Israeli settlements
in Palestinian territory and the separation wall, the release of political prisoners held by the Israeli government, and cessation of military action against innocent civilians. We also demand full transparency from both sides on the issue of nuclear disarmament in the Middle East. (Cont. on back)
living. They control the cost of food, gasoline, and rent. They control how much of your wage you have to give back to them just to survive. That is why we see the situation of constantly rising cost of living. It is not because the system is broken, but because it works exactly as it is meant to: elevate the one percent while denying the 99. Trying to control a capitalist economy with governmental reform is like trying to hold a bull by a leash, perhaps you can slow the bull, but it will pull you, not the other way around. So, while this legislation could potentially bring a very brief relief to the working class, we recognize that no reform within the capitalist system is immune to absorption by that system and that such reforms, historically and today, serve primarily to pacify the screaming masses. Ultimately, the only societal change that capitalism cannot turn for its own advantage is its own outright abolition. .
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Israel (continued)
At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.
PCUSA stands with those who engage in popular struggles in the occupied territories. We stand with all other organizations around the world, Marxist or otherwise, who support an end to the imperialism and repeated attempts by the US to use the Israeli conflict to destabilize the region. The party
recognizes the PLO as the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian peoples, and supports any of its members currently fighting against the Israeli imperialism. However, while we stand against the dehumanizing doctrine of Zionism, we stand equally against any group in the region based on a doctrine of
anti-Semitism which aims to eliminate the Jewish population of Israel. In accordance with the MarxistLeninist policy of national liberation of oppressed minorities, our party recognizes the fundamental right to exist of both Israel and Palestine.
A Call to End JROTC Author – Sam Kirkpatrick
In 2008, Congress passed the Child Soldiers Prevention Act. The act stipulates, among a number of other requirements, that US diplomatic missions to foreign countries must include as part of their mission statement an explicit plan with the purpose of removing as part of all military or paramilitary groups in these countries the usage of children as members of their organizations. Furthermore, it requires that the federal government cease military aid to any country that has child soldiers. With such a firm foreign policy designed to eliminate child soldiers, one would expect there to be no children taking part in our armed services domestically. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The Junior Reserve Officer’s Training Corps, or JROTC as it is better known, exists for the express purpose of
training the nation’s young to be a part of the armed forces upon graduation from high school. This organization’s purpose becomes even more clear when one examines it’s expressed mission statement. With goals such as “developing citizenship and patriotism” as well as “developing responsiveness to all authority” and “increasing a respect for the United States Armed Forces in support of national objectives” it becomes clear what the real purpose of the JROTC; to indoctrinate teenagers into the unquestioning service of the nation and its military. And yet, in spite of a law that explicitly forbids the funding of military institutions that use child soldiers, the US government pours hundreds of millions of dollars a year into this program which takes children who are, for good reason, considered too
young to join the military, and convinces them of enlisting for service the moment that they reach eighteen. This is in direct violation of the spirit of the same laws against child soldiers that the US government trumpets as part of its “humane” foreign policy. Considering these facts, the necessity of immediate steps to eliminate the JROTC as a federal government institution is clear. We must not continue to allow our nation’s children to be brainwashed into nationalism. We must not continue to allow our children to be misled into their deaths in the service of the military. .
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