The New York State Government’s legislation against hate crimes was included in this year’s state budget. This bill will include more illegal behaviors to be defined as “hate crimes”. This is good news. However, some racist institutions hold the banner of “anti-racism” to cover up and continue their racism and violence. For example, recently, the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) is holding a “Stop Asian Hate” film screening and discussion at the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) on May 4.

The so-called “non-profit organization” CPC has taken the lead in forcing home care workers into 24-hour workdays and stealing over $100 million wages from them. It recently moved its headquarters to a new 30-story luxury high-rise in the Lower East Side. The 24-hour workdays are inhumane. Most of the home attendants are Chinese and other women of color. They are forced to work 24 hours a day for a long time, which causes serious damage to their physical and mental health and family relationships. While CPC is committing this kind of violence against women of color, it’s asking the government for funding to fight anti-Asian violence! As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. MOCA sells out the community by taking the City’s $35 million to support its construction of a new jail in Chinatown. It has long been notorious and boycotted by the community for many years. How dare these institutions carry out activities in the name of “Stop Asian Hate”! Aren’t they the ones who should stop their own hatred against Asians?

CPC’s event also attracted some elected officials to participate. We call on these elected officials to keep their eyes open and stand with the community against racism by boycotting these blood-sucking institutions.

Vincent Cao
Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association

Home care workers and supporters went on a hunger strike for six days, demanding that City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams pass a bill to abolish the 24-hour workday. It drew huge attention in the society and raised everyone’s awareness from just caring about making money to caring about their own health and relationships with their families: Working long hours causes loss of health and family, and no amount of money can buy them back!

The May Day protest is approaching. In addition to demanding the abolition of the 24-hour workday, we should also further raise other demands to unite the working class. Nowadays, not only do home attendants become injured due to long hours of work, but the health of workers across industries and even young people is also affected by the deterioration of the working and living environment. However, the privatization of medical insurance in the United States allows insurance companies to make profits, resulting in most people having to buy expensive insurance in order not to pay exorbitant medical fees. Many workers are even forced to reduce their income and are exploited by unscrupulous bosses in order to receive Medicaid. Universal healthcare is a demand shared by workers from all walks of life and with different incomes. The U.S. government should set up a universal healthcare system instead of helping insurance companies and unscrupulous bosses suck our blood!

The U.S. government is deepening the exploitation and division of the working class internally, squeezing our labor to support wars and suppressing other countries externally, destroying their economies and homes, and creating a large number of refugees. These refugees lost their homes and came to the United States to work. However, the U.S. government treats them as criminals and forces them to work illegally and become underground labor. Just as the existence of the 24-hour workday has led to the society accepting long working hours, as long as we allow some workers to be treated as criminals, unscrupulous bosses will use them to bring down the working conditions for everyone.

Now, the New York City government is calling for fast tracking work permit approvals for asylum seekers. Not only does this not solve the fundamental problem of criminalizing immigrants, it also deepens the division between them and other immigrants. At the same time, the government is boosting its efforts to give money to undocumented immigrants while maintaining modern-day slavery systems like the 24-hour workdays. Is it to make unscrupulous bosses more emboldened to lower their wages and destroy their health? In New York City, in addition to asking the U.S. government to stop the war externally, we should also demand that it end its policy of criminalizing immigrants and let all workers have equal rights. This will be of great benefit to us in uniting workers of all identities to improve the working conditions.

This May Day protest, let us carry forward the glorious tradition of the American working class that united workers of all ethnicities and industries to fight for the eight-hour day. Mobilize and unite our communities and people from all walks of life, to demand that the New York City government stop violence and give back our health and lives!

Zishun Ning
Staff, CSWA