Eighty years ago this May 8 (May 9 in the Soviet Union), the degenerate thug army that waged World War II for the Nazi German government was forced to surrender unconditionally to the Soviet Union, the United States, and Britain. The war in Europe was over. The war in Asia would be over within a year. The fascist attempt to dominate the world was crushed.

As usual, when anniversaries important to the working class occur, we will be subjected to a barrage of lies aimed at standing history on its head. 

Why? Because the truth is dangerous.

Because it was communists who were responsible for the victory over fascism. 

Because this victory was the greatest achievement of the international communist movement after the Russian Revolution. It won the overwhelming majority of the world’s working people to the communist cause.

That is the true history.

The ruling class is eager for us to dishonor our heroic and martyred comrades, and to forgive their torturers and murderers, because the ruling class has inherited the murderers’ legacy.

What we must remember

But what should we remember? We must never forget our hatred of the capitalist class that produced fascism, that coddled fascism, that embraced fascism, and that profited from fascism. So we must remember how fascism arose, what it stood for, how it won a mass base, and the horrors it inflicted. 
But this is only one part, and not the main part.

The fascist aggressors were an alliance of scum. They were led by Nazi Germany and included the ruling bosses of Italy, Japan, Hungary, Finland, “Vichy” France, and Romania, along with Spain and Portugal. They started the war in 1939 to seize control of world capitalism and enslave all whom they could conquer. 

What happens to a Russian, to a Czech does not interest me in the slightest. What the nations can offer in the way of good blood of our type, we will take, if necessary by kidnapping their children and raising them here with us. Whether nations live in prosperity or starve to death interests me only insofar as we need them as slaves for our Kultur; otherwise, it is of no interest to me. Whether 10,000 Russian females fall down from exhaustion while digging an anti-tank ditch interests me only insofar as the anti-tank ditch for Germany is finished.” – Heinrich  Himmler, speech at Posen October 4, 1943.

Fascism dictated the aggressive war these monsters fought and the terrible peace they brought. “Eradicate all who oppose us,” ordered Adolph Hitler, their leader. Theirs was a war of atrocity and unimaginable terror, their peace a living hell for the conquered. 

The imperialists whom the Nazis sought to replace were split. One faction was pro-fascist. Another wanted to make a live-and-let-live deal with the fascists. A third, too wedded to their empires to concede anything, eventually decided to fight the Germans. · 

For a time, the appeasers carried the day. But the fascists ruined things for them. They would not be appeased. No deals were possible. In the end, when all else had failed, Britain and the U.S. were forced to fight Hitler to preserve their empires and global markets. But they couldn’t stand against the fascists without Soviet help.

Only communists could beat the Nazis

Every time the British took on the main force of German troops, the Germans whipped them. Only after the Soviets had wiped out these troops could the British cope with what was left of the Nazi Army. In Asia, the British lost every campaign they fought.

Nor was the U.S. military record any better. In their attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese sank the entire U.S. combat fleet. Then the Japanese Army kicked the U.S. Army from every one of its bases. 

Neither the U.S. nor the British played a significant role in the European war until the very end, the mop-up. Nor was the famous U.S. island-hopping campaign in the South Pacific of any great significance in winning the Asian war against Japan. That war was strategically settled by the Chinese resistance organized by the Chinese Communist Party, and by the Soviet move against Japan after V-E Day. The U.S. bosses dropped the A-bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki not to defeat Japan–it was already defeated–but to warn the Soviets not to try to share the occupation of Japan. 

Immediately after V-E Day, Winston Churchill planned “Operation Unthinkable” to rearm the Nazi army and attack the Soviet Union. The plan was abandoned because the working class in Europe would never have accepted it. Stalin and the USSR were their heroes.

Anti-fascism isn’t enough

This brings us to the second, and most important, of the things we must remember. What did our comrades—and the masses of those terrorized, enslaved and butchered people who rose up and crushed the “master race”—fight for? Where did their courage come from? Where can ours come from today?

Hitler’s fascism was so systematically evil that anti-fascism seemed an absolute good unto itself. But this wasn’t so. Not then, not now. Anti-fascism by itself led not to the future, but to the past, the past that allowed the Nazis to rise. 

For proof, look to the postwar history of Greece. The country’s partisan army was defeated in a civil war by a British-U.S. intervention allied with Greek reactionaries. As a result, the Greek working class endured years of agony, culminating in a fascist military dictatorship.

The German Nazis were not the only brand of fascism. In fact, Hitler’s fascism was so atrocious it gave fascism a bad name. There was fascism before the Nazis, there was fascism after Hitler’s coalition was defeated, there is fascism today. U.S. foreign policy is based on sponsoring fascism throughout Asia, Africa, and Latin America. 

History shows that you can’t defeat fascism with anti-fascism. Nor can you prevent it from rising again with anti-fascism, because fascism is built into capitalism. Fascism can also develop from socialism, because socialism contains many of the capitalist tools of exploitation, including money, wages, and wage differentials. That is why our party fights for communism and the immediate abolition of wages and money.
The most tragic confirmation of the weakness of anti-fascism is the experience of the communist movement itself. 

Before the war, the Soviet communist leaders invented one diplomatic scheme after the next to ally with non-fascist capitalist states to “contain” fascism. But these capitalist ruling classes feared communist revolution more than fascism, and they refused the Soviet overtures. Anxious to please the non-fascist capitalist rulers, even as these rulers were appeasing the fascists, the Soviet leaders pressured the international communist movement to abandon organizing for revolution in favor of organizing against fascism. But it was no use. Still no deals.

Finally, faced with Germany on the march, and with no allies (and of course no revolutions) to weaken the enemy camp, the Soviet leaders felt compelled to make their own deal with the Nazis, and signed a nonaggression pact. This confused and demoralized many communist militants worldwide. It produced no lasting security for the Soviets, since the Nazis invaded the moment they felt ready.

The soviets won by defending the revolution 

As it turned out, it was the class enemy who forced the communists back to the revolution. The Nazis invaded with the slogan, “An End to Bolshevism.” Then they inflicted such a reign of terror and murder as to force any survivor to identify life itself with Bolshevism. 

How were the Soviets able to resist? Only by mobilizing the Party members and the masses of workers to defend the revolution. When the Red Army troops charged into battle, it was with Stalin’s name on their lips as a war cry. To the masses, Stalin symbolized the communist revolution, the struggle for equality.

“I would like to drink to the health of people who have little status or title. To people who are considered "cogs" in the great state mechanism, but without whom all of us -- marshals and commanders of fronts and armies, to put it bluntly -- are worthless.” – Joseph Stalin’s toast to the masses, July 25, 1945.

The Soviet people taught the world how to resist oppression by simply defending their revolution. And lo and behold, four months of this revolutionary war forced Britain and the U.S. to ally with the Soviets—something eight years of diplomacy had failed to achieve.

Only communism can arm the working class

In occupied Europe, it was the same. The communists organized the partisan armies with the promise of revolution after victory. There was no other way to mobilize the people. The risks and fear were too great without the communist ideal. 

Though the partisans’ professed slogan was “anti-fascist patriotism,” they, too, went into battle shouting Stalin’s name. But what was the reality? The reality was the international unity of workers in the worldwide communist movement.

Revolution mobilized our comrades. Revolution was what the masses willingly sacrificed and died for. Revolution gave them courage. That is what we must remember. That is the true history. 

After their great victory, the communists forgot how they’d won. They remembered “anti-fascist patriotism.” That was the triumph of false consciousness.

After victory, the communists organized anti-fascist coalitions with whatever capitalist forces would join them and took power wherever they could. They knew it wasn’t revolution. They called it “liberation.” They were liberated from the Nazis. But they were not liberated from capitalism. There were no revolutions in Europe after World War II. 

In the Soviet Union, the pre-war pattern of capitalist production relations went undisturbed. Since the communists in power never organized a communist revolution, never transformed production relations, the working class had no way to exercise power. 

Inevitably, a new form of fascism emerged. When a socialist state turns away from the struggle for workers’ power and egalitarianism, it must eventually decay into a fascist state. Both the USSR and China have done just that.

These are the real lessons of the true history of World War II. If we are to be loyal to the legacy of our comrades, to the courageous workers who fought for us, we must never forget to fight for communist revolution.

Roslindale, MA, March 15, 2025—Progressive Labor Party comrades took the lead in organizing a local rally against the racist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). About 65 workers and young people came and filled Adam’s Park in the central square of Roslindale holding signs saying, “Smash Racist Deportations,” and “ICE OUT.” To prepare for the rally, we leafletted and distributed CHALLENGE from barbershops, laundromats, corner stores, and restaurants that line the main street in Roslindale. With President Donald Trump using ICE as his fascist wrecking ball against brown workers, in times of decreasing U.S. stability worldwide and rising imperial powers in China and Russia, all workers need to come together to smash capitalism for good with communist revolution.

Striking down racism

Organizing for the rally helped energize our base, friends of the Party, and study group members towards taking action and fighting back. One comrade used this as an opportunity to call in all her relationships developed with neighbors over the years to motivate and focus efforts on a shared goal of ending deportations

The rally was popular among people passing by on foot and in cars. We got many honks and cheers – some people stopped to join us and others shared their contact information with party members to keep in touch with us. 

A comrade gave a speech over the bullhorn sharing our analysis of what’s happening and how liberals and Democrats are not going to save us, as some workers in Roslindale believe: “These fascist attacks are happening for a reason. They are happening because our society, and in fact our whole world, is run according to profit instead of what is best for people. And that profit system, capitalism, is falling apart before our very eyes. And the capitalists know the system is failing and they are trying to scare us, pit us against each other, and control us so they can squeeze every last penny of profit out of their dying system. Inflation. The housing crisis. Climate change. Global pandemics. War. The capitalists who run this country cannot fix these problems.”

This led to many local people in the neighborhood hearing about communism and learning some of our political lines on the root cause of deportations, capitalism in crisis and fascism, for the first time. 

Advancing the struggle

Following the rally some folks asked, “What’s next?” and expressed feeling energized by the rally. We told attendees about our plan to do the May Day march this year in Roslindale and invited them to join us. Some workers contacted party members in the following days to tell them about ICE sightings in the neighborhood. Some started to organize a group of us to meet to discuss strategy for how to confront ICE when they’re here. The JP/Roslindale club and the New England party in general intend to keep this work going for the long term. We are brainstorming some ideas for a follow-up meeting to the rally, including potentially doing a salon for those who are new on what communism means. We will continue visiting local businesses to pass out challenges and invite workers to our events. We plan to set up a regular time to table and sell challenges in the square. We will continue to spread the need for eliminating capitalism now more than ever and the need communist revolution.

Israel's Zionist monsters, wholly enabled by the U.S., are now attempting the final annihilation of all Gazans. Since ending the ceasefire six weeks ago, nearly 1700 more Gazans, largely women and children, have been killed by U.S. made bombs, more hospitals obliterated, and all food, water and medicine denied entry. Those that are not killed by bombings are dying of untreated wounds, thirst, malnutrition and diseases without remedies. 

While the world's rulers do nothing, hundreds of thousands of workers around the globe are protesting this genocide. In the U.S., comrades and friends of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) are organizing with many in various ways. Some of us belong to Jewish Voice for Peace and other Jewish anti-Zionist groups. Last week hundreds held a liberation Passover seder on the street in front of ICE headquarters in downtown New York City. Some of us belong to HealthCareWorkers4Palestine in various cities, who frequently demonstrate and act to protect those targeted for protesting Zionism. Many health worker comrades are active in the American Public Health Association, where we campaign along with the Palestine Caucus to force the organization to officially reject genocide. Many students, teachers and professors are organizing to defend those threatened with job loss or deportation for defending Palestinians.

Our struggles are the same

The weaknesses in the pro-Palestine movement are several. There continues to be a separation between the movement to defend Gaza and that to defend immigrant workers, fired workers, and cutbacks in government services in the U.S. This is as much the fault of trade union and Democratic Party hacks as anyone else, but all the major protests, from the Hands Off marches of April 5 to the planned May 1 demonstrations in NYC have kept these issues entirely separate. It is imperative that we recognize that capitalism, rapidly devolving to fascism in the U.S. as well as in the Middle East and Europe, is to blame for all these disasters. United together, and with bolder tactics like strikes and walkouts, our movement would be much stronger.

Much of the Palestine movement also suffers from nationalism. The rhetoric is all for self-determination, when virtually all national liberation struggles of the past century have simply led to continued capitalist exploitation, only with oppressors of the same ethnicity as the workers. What Palestinian workers need is a communist society in which their interests are united with all workers, including Israeli workers, in a society they lead for themselves in their own interests. 

Other conflicts that are killing thousands of civilians, as in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, are receiving much less pushback. This may reflect the fact that the U.S. is less overtly involved and that fewer U.S. residents have ties to these countries than to Israel and Palestine, but doubtless anti-Black racism is also a major factor. But in both areas in Africa, U.S. capitalists are interested in obtaining more mineral wealth for themselves, just as they back Israel to keep their hold on Mideast oil and gas.

As communists in PLP, our role is to oppose and expose nationalism, racism and capitalist greed and build an international multiracial working class struggle to overthrow capitalism and imperialism around the globe. NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR!

What follows is a day-by-day account of how dozens of students and workers spent the week—some during our Spring Break—dedicating their time to revolutionary work. In preparation for Progressive Labor Party’s powerful May Day celebration on May 3rd, we came together to learn, build, and organize side by side.

Day one: banner making

We kicked off our project with a celebration of communist art! Comrades and friends of all ages gathered to paint two banners for our upcoming May Day march. After sharing pizza, we discussed the history and significance of May Day—International Workers’ Day. Though we didn’t quite finish both banners, we experienced firsthand the joy and power of collectivity: people working not for profit, but for shared purpose. Without a boss over us, our labor was joyful, creative, and free—showing a glimpse of the communist world we are fighting for.

Day two: Film screening – Blood Cobalt

A multiracial, multigenerational group of 25–30 PL’ers and friends came together to watch Blood Cobalt, a harrowing documentary on imperialist exploitation in the Congo. The film exposes the so-called “green revolution” as capitalist greed fueled by racist violence, with Chinese and Congolese bosses profiting from mass suffering. The documentary sparked deep discussions on the international nature of our fight and the urgent need for working-class solidarity across borders. (see article on page 5). 

Day Three: Game Day

Tuesday featured a political game day led by two newer educators who designed activities to build connection and camaraderie. Using familiar formats like the NYTimes’s Connections and Family Feud, games introduced us to PLP history and politics. A missed opportunity was not acknowledging a student and educator who helped lead the successful defense of a teacher targeted for anti-genocide organizing. Their efforts reflect the long tradition of communists standing up against fascist attacks—something we’ll celebrate fully on May Day.

Day four: Study Group on Internationalism

We held a study group focused on the dangers of nationalism and the importance of internationalism. Nationalism divides the working class, pushing workers to identify with their rulers instead of each other. One comrade shared powerful insights from a struggle abroad, reminding us that workers’ battles are deeply connected around the world. True solidarity means seeing every fight—from Gaza to the Bronx—as our fight.

Day five: College Club Meeting

Fifteen students and educators gathered to explore how to build a broader political base and root current campus fights in CUNY’s radical history. We watched The Five Demands, a documentary about the 1969 City College occupation led by Black and Puerto Rican students fighting for access. This history inspired conversations about increasing our militancy today—including a recent fight for a cafeteria, where students disrupted a senate meeting to confront administrative lies. We have a long way to go to consider occupying the campus, but that’s the vision that the attendees came away with.

We also discussed the critical importance of community support. Unlike in 1969, the recent Gaza encampment at City College lacked this key ingredient, which made it much easier for the liberal bosses’ attack dogs of the NYPD to attack and defeat the encampment. 
We ended the meeting with an invitation for everyone to attend our upcoming May Day march, to see a slice of communism in action and to consider the need for communist revolution to not only end racist austerity on our campuses, but to create a world where the true education of the working class is primary. 

Day six: Uptown March

On Saturday, we marched 33 blocks through Washington Heights protesting the fascist deportation of immigrants. Our chants—“Los obreros unidos jamás serán vencidos!” and “Luchamos contra el racismo!”—drew workers into our ranks, with some joining us on the spot. We also distributed over 400 CHALLENGES and 1,000 leaflets. This showed that despite capitalist propaganda, the working class can unite and fight back. The march energized us for our upcoming May Day march and reminded us of our power when we hit the streets together.
Join us on May 3rd as we take to Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn to celebrate May Day—International Workers’ Day. Every marcher is another nail in the bosses’ coffin. Let’s hit the streets and show the power of the working class!