------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Oct. 3, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
CRISIS IN BUFFALO, N.Y., CALLS FOR WORKER UNITY By Bev Hiestand Conditions of life are very difficult for workers and oppressed communities in Western New York. Like other former centers of industry and transportation, we have been very affected by the dismantling of heavy industry, downsizing and layoffs. What solution does the capitalist class offer? High tech! Reindustrialization was supposed to create an economic turnaround in this increasingly impoverished region. But the greatly hailed scientific high-tech revolution of the 1970s and 1980s has been so different than the scientific-technological revolution of a century or more ago. Those big leaps in the means of production led to the expansion of capitalism, but with it came an overall improvement in the living standard of the working class. Today reindustrialization has brought more layoffs and been an excuse for a greater offensive against the working class. And while the imperialist war drive will bring death and destruction, poverty and misery to the people of Iraq, it will also deepen economic and social suffering here. The capitalist state, instead of providing resources on an emergency basis, is in deficit because of the economic crisis and because the social surplus created by our collective labor is being funneled to Wall Street and the Pentagon while the infrastructure is left to rot. War will not bring about jobs and prosperity. The Gulf War in 1991 ended in an economic downturn severe enough that Bush Senior didn't get re-elected. When people are losing their jobs, the budget deficit is expanding and benefits are being cut while corporations are raking in billions, it's natural to awaken to the need to fight back. Now that impulse is being drowned in a frenzy of hoopla about "terrorist cells" in Buffalo. The highly publicized arrests of six Yemeni American young men has taken place at the very moment that the Pentagon has quietly deployed hundreds of Special Operations troops to a military base in East Africa and has positioned an assault ship facing Yemen. It's part of the campaign to push this country in a direction of war. It's orchestrated to create the impression among the population that they are at war with the Arab world. It prepares the population to get ready for war abroad, not war at home. In recent months we've seen tens of thousands demonstrate to stop budget cuts from gutting Buffalo public school education. In March, more than 20,000 protested the plan of the Kaleida health conglomerate to shut down Children's Hospital of Buffalo. And a protest quickly drew together in May when Kaleida tried to shut down a health clinic in a poor community. The working class is made up of workers from so many countries and nationalities, so many women, so many lesbian and gay, bi and trans people and disabled workers that the potential is there for a more left-wing leadership among the laboring class. The anti-war forces in Buffalo have an important role to play in helping workers get past this difficult period by demanding no U.S. war and stop the round-ups of Arab, South Asian and Muslim people. It's up to the radicals to give encouragement to beat back this racist assault. Through our coalition work we have helped keep the anti-war movement from being derailed, and keep the anti-imperialist focus. And we are already ordering a second bus for the Oct. 26 demonstration in Washington. The struggle ahead is not going to be easy. That's why they call it the struggle! But we are ready, willing and able as a party to take on the challenges we're up against. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
