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Page 2    Dec. 16, 2021    workers.orgJustice for FantaFreedom for Hasein and AJBy Marie KellyDelaware County, Pennsylvaniatrumped-up charges leveled on the two youths involved ina separate incident by Delaware County District AttorneyJack Stollsteimer. None of the officers involved who shotA march for Fanta Bility, the 8-year-old girl murdered and killed Fanta have been identified or charged.Under a Black Lives Matter banner, the marchers tookby Sharon Hill police in Delaware County, Pennsylvania,this summer and for teenagers, Hasein Strand and Angelo to the streets and walked from the high school to the police“AJ” Ford, falsely charged in her murder, brought 100 station. Speakers called for DA Stollsteimer and the policecommunity activists and family members of Fanta Bility to take action to allow the close-knit Philadelphia suburbancommunity to heal.and Hasein Strand togetherActivists spoke of growing upDec. 11.in Sharon Hill and never expeThe Bility family has preriencing the lack of respect andviously stated that justice fordecency from law enforcementFanta will come when theand elected officials that theypolice involved are identifiedare witnessing since the murand held accountable. Theder. The marchers proceededBility family and the familiesto a main thoroughfare in Delcoof the falsely accused teenagand shut down traffic to holidayers have taken a united standshoppers.on this.Many drivers honked carThe march began athorns in support. HaseinAcademy Park High School,Strand’s family wore “Standwhere in August police shotwith Strand” sweatshirts. Familyinto a crowd leaving the footmembers, young and old, passedball stadium after a game.around a cell phone when HaseinPolice fired into a vehiclecalled during the march. Histhey mistakenly suspectedmother said the call where heof being involved in anothercould hear the crowd chantingincident, killing Fanta andwould be a major lift for her son.wounding three others.She is confident that the commuCommunity outrage hasnity pressure will go a long waycentered on the lack ofWW PHOTO: MARIE KELLYto winning his freedom. police accountability and the Sign carried by Strand family member at rally Dec. 11.this week In the U.S.Victory for Starbucks Workers United! . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Freedom for Hasein and AJ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Hawaii’s poisoned wells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352nd National Day of Mourning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4NYC opens first safe consumption sites . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Kellogg’s workers vote to stay on str-r-r-ike! . . . . . . . 5 Portland demands: Dump DeJoy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5On the picket line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5‘No such thing as prison reform’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Keep Mumia’s voice alive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Film: ‘Attica’ explores heroic prison uprising . . . . . . . 7Activists ‘march’ to abolish death penalty . . . . . . . . . . 7For 40 years, a global demand: Free Mumia Now! . . 8Sabo’s donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Tornadoes wreak havoc, Amazon makes it worse . . 10 Around the worldWhy Cuba has no anti-vaccine movement . . . . . . . . . 3Brutal lynching of Priyantha Kumara in Pakistan . . . 9Ethiopia: U.S. sanctions create misery, division . . . . 9 EditorialKeep your filthy SCOTUS hands off our bodies!!! . . . 1 Noticias en EspañolIndígenas y afrodescendientes en Nicaragua . . . .12To a socialist future — Build Workers WorldWorkers World newspaper’s articles and editorials analyze majorglobal and U.S. developments,always with an anti-capitalist,anti-imperialist perspective. Ourpages report on people’s movementshere and abroad, to not only informour readers but to promote thosestruggles and show solidarity withthem. And,WW aims to advance thestruggle for socialism.The WW Supporter Program waslaunched 44 years ago to help buildthis unique socialist newspaper.Since the early 1990s, the programhas also supported workers.org, thewebsite where new WW articles areposted daily, and each week’s fullissue is displayed in a PDF document.The newspaper is printed and mailedout monthly.For annual donations of 60, 120 or 300, members receive ayear’s subscription, letters abouttimely issues and gift subscriptions.Supporters can receive the book,“What road to socialism?” (Notify us.)Or read it at workers.org/books.Write and mail monthly or annualchecks to Workers World, 147 W.24th St., 2nd Floor, New York, NY10011. (Include your name andaddress.) Or donate at workers.org.Join us in the fight for socialism!Workers World Party is a revolutionary MarxistLeninist party inside the belly of the imperialistbeast. We are a multinational, multigenerational andmultigendered organization that not only aims to abolishcapitalism, but to build a socialist society because it’s theonly way forward!Capitalism and imperialism threaten the peoples of theworld and the planet itself in the neverending quest forever-greater profits.Capitalism means war and austerity, racism andrepression, attacks on im/migrants, misogyny,LGBTQ2S oppression and mistreatment of people withdisabilities. It means joblessness, increasing homelessness and impoverishment and lack of hope for the future.No social problems can be solved under capitalism.The U.S. is the richest country in the world, yet no onehas a guaranteed right to shelter, food, water, health care,education or anything else — unless they can pay for it.Wages are lower than ever, and youth are saddled withseemingly insurmountable student debt, if they evenmake it to college. Black, Brown and Indigenous youthand trans people are gunned down by cops and bigots ona regular basis.The ruthless ruling class today seeks to wipe outdecades of gains and benefits won by hard-fought struggles by people’s movements. The super-rich and theirpolitical representatives have intensified their attackson the multinational, multigender and multigenerationalworking class. It is time to point the blame at — a nd challenge — the capitalist system.WWP fights for socialism because the working classproduces all wealth in society, and this wealth shouldremain in their hands, not be stolen in the form ofcapitalist profits. The wealth workers create should besocially owned and its distribution planned to satisfy andguarantee basic human needs.Since 1959, Workers World Party has been out in thestreets defending the workers and oppressed here andworldwide. If you’re interested in Marxism, socialismand fighting for a socialist future, please contact a WWPbranch near you. Workers World147 W. 24th St., 2nd Fl.New York, NY 10011Phone: 212.627.2994E-mail: ww@workers.orgWeb: www.workers.orgVol. 63, No. 50 Dec. 16, 2021Closing date: December 15, 2021Editors: John Catalinotto, Martha Grevatt, DeirdreGriswold, Monica Moorehead, Betsey Piette,Minnie Bruce PrattWeb Editors: ABear, Harvey Markowitz, Janet MayesIf you are interested in joining WorkersWorld Party contact: 212.627.2994Prisoners Page Editors: Mirinda Crissman, Ted KellyNational Office147 W. 24th St., 2nd floorNew York, NY 10011212.627.2994wwp@workers.orgCopyediting and Proofreading: Paddy Colligan,S. HedgecokeAtlantaPO Box 18123Atlanta, GA orkers.orgBay AreaP.O. Box 22947Oakland, CA 94609510.394.2207bayarea@workers.orgBoston284 Amory St.Boston, MA 02130617.522.6626boston@workers.orgBuffalo, N.Y.335 Richmond Ave.Buffalo, NY 14222716.883.2534buffalo@workers.orgCentral Gulf Coast(Alabama, Florida, leveland@workers.orgDurham, N.C.919.322.9970durham@workers.orgHoustonP.O. 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workers.org    Dec. 16, 2021    Page 3Capitalism, imperialism poisonHawaiians’ drinking waterBy Ted KellyBy land and by sea, Hawaiians areunder attack by the U.S. empire. In justone week, two major scandals show howcorporations and the military are waging atwo-front ecological war to poison drinking water and farmland. On this Pacificarchipelago, occupied by the U.S. military for over a century, the monstrosityof white-supremacist capitalism is on fulldisplay.U.S. Navy officials at Pearl Harbor havebeen storing millions of gallons of jetfuel directly over a major aquifer (a natural body of permeable rock that holdsgroundwater), in this case the majorsource of Oahu’s drinking water. For thepast decade, fuel leaks have contaminatedthe source of the local drinking water. InMay, the U.S. Navy admitted that 1,600gallons of jet fuel had been dumped inthe Red Hill well on the island of Oahu.This week petroleum contamination wasdetected in the Halawa Shaft, which is thelargest water source for the entire islandof Oahu and particularly vulnerable tocontamination leaching from the Navy’sRed Hill facility.The U.S. military has a long history ofpoisoning the lands that it colonizes. Sinceseizing control of the island of Okinawa in1945, the U.S. has constructed 31 militarybases there. It has twice deployed nucleardevices on the island — fi rst in 1959 — a ndagain in 1965, apparently by accident. In1969, there was a notorious outbreak ofthe deadly nerve agent sarin there. Andin 2020 it was revealed that the U.S. Navyhad contaminated the drinking waterof over 450,000 Japanese people onOkinawa with toxic petrochemicals.The U.S. military used the island ofVieques as a military testing ground forover 60 years, causing cancer rates toskyrocket among the population at a ratehigher than all other municipalities inPuerto Rico. An estimated 16.5 million tonsof experimental munitions were deployedon the island, which has a population offewer than 10,000, and cleanup operationsare expected to last until at least 2025. Ifnot for the militant protests by PuertoRican liberation fighters that forced the closure of the base, the U.S. Navy would stillbe polluting the island to this day.An admission of guiltChief Engineer of the Honolulu Boardof Water Supply Ernie Lau announced ina Dec. 3 press conference that the island’sHalawa and Aiea wells would be indefinitely shut down, to protect southernOahu’s drinking water from further contamination. He explained that the precious water it contained was now toxic, asa result of the U.S. Navy’s decision to store“180 million gallons of diesel and jet fuela hundred feet above our drinking-wateraquifer.”“It is time for action now,” he said,straining with emotion. “We cannotwait any longer. The water resourceis precious; it’s irreplaceable; it’spure. There is no substitute for purewater. And our lives depend upon it.”(youtu.be/O 2nXR3D8Eg)The U.S. Navy quietly shut down theRed Hill shaft Nov. 28 and has sinceconfirmed the leaks have displaced atleast 700 people, though this figure onlyaccounts for the civilians and military personnel who accepted the Pentagon’s offerto put them up in hotel rooms.In a statement, the Navyadmitted, “the Red Hill sampleshowed petroleum hydrocarbonsroughly 4 to 10 times below theHawaii Department of HealthEnvironmental Action Level(EAL). The Navy had a separate test that confirmed vapors,which is another indication Polluted waters on island of Oahuof petroleum hydro c arbons.”Tom Vilsack, that during his previous(tinyurl.com/yckwdh9a)Deputy Commander of the Pacific Fleet tenure as FDA head, Vilsack “removedRear Admiral Blake Converse expressed genetically modified organism labeling“concern” about the number of Hawaiians standards and expedited the process forwho have reported nausea, rashes, head- approving GMO products developed byaches, vomiting and diarrhea — b ut chemical corporations like Monsanto. Inrefused to say what that number was. 2019, Monsanto was ordered to pay 80Petrochemical exposure has been linked million in damages to California resito birth defects, miscarriages, leukemia dents who have developed cancer fromexposure to glyphosate-based herbicidesand asthma.While the U.S. military wages biochem- in the company’s Roundup weed spray.”ical warfare on colonized people, agribusi- (tinyurl.com/2p8w2yed)A report by Public Citizen shows that inness engages in these highly destructivepractices to maximize what it can extract less than one year, the Biden administrafrom stolen land and make more profit, tion has sold more oil drilling contractswithout any concern for the health of the on federal lands than his predecessor,humans and other living creatures on Donald J. Trump, approved in the firstthree years of his tenure. The Bureau ofthose lands.Just days after the shutdown of Oahu’s Land Management is now approving anHalawa well, the agricultural industry average of 333 drilling leases a month ongiant Monsanto pleaded guilty to violating federally protected land. Like the Lakota30 federal environmental laws. Inspectors struggle at Standing Rock, the opposifound that Monsanto had been illegally tion to a new cross-border pipeline fromdeploying banned ammonia-based pesti- Alberta, Canada, to Superior, Wisconsin,cides on cornfields on Maui and storing is now being led by the Anishinaabethe banned pesticides on Moloka’i and people.Military violence and occupation;Maui. (tinyurl.com/2p8v6kb3)President Joe Biden’s Department of exploitation and destruction of stolenJustice has ordered the corporation to land for profit; the targeted displacepay a paltry 12 million in fines. WW ment, poisoning and murder of oppressedreported in March, upon the confirma- nations — these are all monstrous headstion of Biden’s agriculture secretary on the hydra of imperialism. Why Cuba has no anti-vaccine movementBy Marc Vandepitte and Toon DanhieuxIn the imperialist countries, honestskepticism about government handlingof the COVID-19 crisis and the profit-driven decisions of pharmaceuticalcompanies have allowed rightist andultrarightist groups to mobilize sectionsof the population behind unscientifictheories that harm public health. Thisarticle, published in dewereldmorgen.bein early December, lightly edited andupdated Dec. 13, examines this phenomenon by comparing the experienceof Belgium — p art of the imperialistworld — with that of socialist Cuba, bothcountries with about 11 million population. Translation: John Catalinotto.Larger and larger sections of theEuropean population have been openlyexpressing their distrust of their governments’ handling of the coronavirus crisis.In response, the mainstream politicalestablishment has panicked and reactedin a paternalistic and repressive mannerby imposing vaccinations on everyonethere were none in stock, due to a lack ofadequate management. Then, suddenly,masks became mandatory.In September 2021, as the numbers ofinfected grew, Belgium relaxed restrictions. At the same moment, with fewercases, the Netherlands tightened therules. Go figure.In Belgium, when something needschanging, seven health ministers haveMistrust of the governmentto agree on it. Governors and mayorsMany unvaccinated people doubt — simultaneously adopted stricter or moreand with reason — the competence and/ lenient rules, while party presidentsor good faith of governments that now polished their image at the expense ofwant to vaccinate them as quickly as pos- public health. One day the Flemish minissible. We can understand these doubts. ter-president asks for more flexible rulesSince March 2020, European countries for choirs and music groups. The next dayand even individual regions in Belgium he calls for stricter rules.When this mistrust finds its way to thehave been improvising their response toCOVID-19. Their approach to the pan- streets and social media, it hands the fardemic suffers from a lack of consistency right a slam dunk, allowing the rightistand logic. Countries, even those with sim- movement to show empathy with peopleilar infection rates, have taken very differ- whose discontent is legitimate to succeedin drawing them into its wake.ent measures.The extreme right’s goal, of course, isThe Belgian government won the goldmedal of improvisation, waiting until not to demand more democracy for themid-March 2020 before taking action — voiceless. History teaches us that the farsix weeks too late. Had they acted ear- right seeks only to hasten the emergencelier, the rate of COVID-19 spread would of an authoritarian regime that will leavehave been much slower, and thousands of these people completely out in the cold. Itwill protect the dominance of the richestdeaths could have been avoided.They still haven’t learned from their mis- 1% people and take their exploitation oftakes. With each new wave of the coronavi- everything and everyone to the extreme.In any case, the approach to the coronarus, the response remains too slow.Although experts have been sounding virus crisis in Belgium was and still is a hotthe alarm for years, the Belgian govern- mess. But in fact, the popular distrust runsment was unprepared for a pandemic. At much deeper than that. During the lastfirst they said masks were useless, because major crisis, the banking crisis of 2008, itand limiting freedom of movement. Thisapproach has failed to convince skepticsto accept the government’s arguments.To win acceptance would require atleast listening to the fears and concernsof the unvaccinated. But there are otherfactors at play as well. A comparisonwith Cuba’s experience illustrates theproblems.was also the ordinary people who suffered.The banks that speculated with thepeople’s money were not prosecuted.They were even rescued when faced withcollapse. And it was ordinary people whopaid the bill. No more is needed to raisesuspicions about the government’s management of the COVID-19 crisis.And Cuba?Starting January 2020, almost twomonths before the Belgian governmentfinally woke up, the Cuban governmentwas rolling out a national plan to fight thecoronavirus. The government launchedmassive, popular information campaigns in neighborhoods and on television. Cuban authorities issued consistentdirectives with no contradictions; therewas no need to get seven health ministersto agree, no debates about the obligationto wear a mask.The government took responsibilityand did everything possible to nip thevirus in the bud. Instead of making facilepromises about so-called sacrosanct freedoms, instead of relaxing measures tooquickly for electoral reasons or becauseof a lack of political courage, it took energetic initiatives.Some examples: Tourism, the mainsource of income, but also of contamination, was immediately put on hold. Theobligation to wear a mask applied to children from the age of six. When it becameclear that schools were also major sourcesof contamination, home schooling wasContinued on page 11

Page 4    Dec. 16, 2021    workers.org52nd National Day of MourningBy K. James‘United AmericanIndians of NewEngland and oursupporters gatheredare gathered on this hillto observe a NationalDay of Mourningfor the Indigenouspeople murdered bysettler colonialism andimperialism worldwide.’On Nov. 25, 1,300 Indigenous people and theirsupporters gathered on Cole’s Hill in Plymouth,Massachusetts, to observe the 52nd annual NationalDay of Mourning.Kisha James (Aquinnah Wampanoag and OglalaLakota), youth leader of United American Indiansof New England (UAINE), opened the rally: “Onceagain on the fourth Thursday in November, UnitedAmerican Indians of New England and our supporters are gathered on this hill to observe a NationalDay of Mourning for the Indigenous people murdered by settler colonialism and imperialism worldwide. Today marks the 52nd time we have gatheredhere to mourn our ancestors, confront settlermythologies and speak truth to power.”James proceeded to deconstruct the Thanksgivingmyth, pointing out that the first official day ofthanksgiving was proclaimed in 1637 to celebratethe massacre of hundreds of Pequots at the handsof the settlers. James concluded by saying: “We willnot stop until the oppression of our Two-Spirit siblings is a thing of the past. When children are no longer taken from their parents and locked in cages. Whenthe Palestinians reclaim the homeland and the autonomy Israel has denied them for the past 70 years. Whenno person goes hungry or is left to die because they havelittle or no access to quality health care. When insulinis free. When union busting is a thing of the past. Untilthen, the struggle will continue.”Melissa Harding-Ferretti, chair of the Herring PondWampanoag Tribe, offered a prayer in Wampanoag andwelcomed the crowd to the tribe’s territory in Plymouth.Mahtowin Munro (Oglala Lakota), co-leader ofUAINE, spoke about the devastation caused by residential schools and Indian boarding schools: “I hear a lot ofpeople talk about reconciliation. Reconciliation is whenyou try to repair an existing relationship. I don’t feellike we have ever had enough of a good relationship withsettlers to think that something that has been so ugly canbe reconciled or repaired. For example, can the damagedone by residential schools ever actually be repaired?”Munro continued, “Hundreds of these schools wererun for decades by governments and missionaries thatmade it their mission to ‘kill the Indian to save the child,’all too often abusing or killing the child in the process.Thousands of the children died at these institutions. InCanada, some of the school grounds have been searchedthis year, and the remains of more than 7,000 childrenWW PHOTO: SUMMER TACCETTANational Day of Mourning observed Nov. 25, Plymouth, Massachusetts.have been found. More than 7,000 children buried inunmarked graves! How can that be reconciled?“Here in the U.S., the Interior Department has nowsaid that they are going to try to find out how many children lie in graves at the boarding schools. Every childthey find, and every child whose remains have alreadybeen found, needs to be brought home to their familiesand tribal communities. We cannot rest until this happens. Bring the children home!”Rosalba Solis (Mexica) and Jennifer Bencosme(Arawak) brought a message from the Council of MayanElders. Chali ’Inaru Dones (Taino) read a brief introduction to long-standing political prisoner Leonard Peltier’scase, written by Thalia Cashimuel. Herbert WatersIV (Wampanoag) read the annual National Day ofMourning statement from Leonard Peltier, an AmericanIndian Movement leader who has been imprisoned since1976. (whoisleonardpeltier.info)Peltier’s remarks were in part: “When we startedto emerge from the darkness of residential schools, itbecame clear that we had to go back to try and reclaimwhat they robbed from us. And what they robbed us ofwas the very heart of who we were — our language, ourways and our connections back home. They wanted us,leaving those ‘schools,’ thinking like little non-Indians,who would just go along with the program and not rockthe boat.“Even with all the terrible damage they did to so manyof us, many of us did survive them. I am so deeply saddened in hearing the stories of all the children’s gravesthey are finding at residential schools. I guess I was oneof the lucky ones who made it home. But the death ofthose children is so sad and outrageous, and I am gladthe world is finding out at last.”Ina Metztli Inaru’nikia (Taino) emphasized the importance of unity in her speech.The crowd marched through the streets of Plymouthbefore gatheri

Dec 16, 2021 · Victory for Starbucks Workers United! By Arjae Red Buffalo, N.Y. Starbucks workers made history here Dec. 9 by winning the first union election at a corporate-owned Starbucks store in the United States. Starbucks Workers United gained a sweeping victory at the Elmwood Starbucks st