CHICAGO, July 22– A multiracial, intergenerational group of around 30 Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members and friends gathered for a forum today as a means to educate and organize against capitalism’s worsening racist and sexist attacks on workers’ reproductive and family health. In the wake of the historically racist and sexist Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, building the Party and fighting for international communist revolution remains the only real path forward for liberation and optimal health for our class.
     As capitalism globally spirals deeper into crisis, the bosses’ need to resort to open fascism to salvage their profit system becomes more acute. Different factions of the capitalist ruling class seek to mobilize workers around the issue of abortion, but to follow their leadership guarantees only more misery, murder, and imperialist war.
     In a movement dominated by pro-capitalist ideals of individualism, voting, and “autonomy,” the international working class must instead choose collectivity and the power of a worker-run communist state as the solution. To be a part of PLP is to be the fighting alternative to build an antisexist and antiracist world!

Communist panel highlights real reproductive justice
The first half of the forum was a panel presentation from three PLP members. The first panelist, a veteran healthcare worker, gave a condensed history of centuries of racist and sexist attacks on workers’ health under capitalism in the U.S. She detailed how getting medical treatments such as abortion has always been determined by race and class, with Black, Latin, and Asian and white workers suffering from little to no access. She shared a heart-wrenching personal story as a young worker who witnessed an involuntary surgery on a Black woman, a consequence of racist medical violence.
     The second panelist gave an analysis of the political motives of the different wings of the U.S. ruling class regarding their approach to abortions and reproductive health. Of course the domestically-oriented, church-supported Small Fascist wing (see Glossary, page 6) of the U.S. bosses obviously deserve to be destroyed for their assault on workers’ health. But,  it is the openly-liberal, internationally-oriented, imperialist Big Fascist wing who in fact are more sinister and deadly. The panelist shredded these Big Fascists for not disregarding abortion rights over decades, but for their present and future plans to win our class over to imperialist war by offering some minor reforms.
     The final panelist concluded by pointing the communist way forward. She shared her own progression from chanting “My body, my choice” to her eventual conclusion that the individual “choices” that we make as workers cannot be separated from the overall political and socioeconomic structure of society. Since the capitalists dominate the economic and political landscape, their rotten influence infects all dimensions of our lives.
     She argued that we need to see ourselves as part of the entire working class and fight for collective solutions. She concluded that only a worker-run communist state could guarantee worker rights, safety, and health, such as when the Soviet Union became the first place on earth to legalize abortion in 1922.

“Fighting for communism is the best way I know to fight back”
After the conclusion of the panel, the forum transitioned to an engaging open discussion. Many comments and questions were made about the struggle between reform and revolution, individualism versus collectivism, and voting versus direct workers’ action.
One PLP member asked the panel about alternative actions for workers and the Party to take in the immediate sense, since voting has always been shown to be a dead end for our class. A panelist responded with the example of mostly women workers in Mexico in recent years, militantly squaring off and battling with riot police in different state capitols after the bosses there tried to roll back abortion rights. Because they organized in a mass way to confront the attack head on, the bosses were forced to retreat.
     Another forum participant stressed the importance of women workers educating others of the dangers of sexism and winning more people to be advocates on behalf of women’s wellbeing. One of the PLP panelists agreed, but advanced the argument further that as workers we need to be fighting to take state power away from the capitalist bosses. Similar to the points made during the presentation, only by fighting for working-class power everywhere can we create lasting solutions to our collective needs.
     Perhaps the most inspirational moment of the evening came from the veteran panelist when she shared what brought her back actively into the Party after some time away: “I just couldn’t keep away, based on what I know. Fighting for communism is the best way I know to fight back.”

Always fighting for communism
As we fight shoulder-to-shoulder alongside workers for expanded reproductive health access, childcare, and a thousand other reform struggles, we must never shy away from connecting these fights to capitalism. The working class continuously demonstrates an openness to communist politics when we advance them boldly and consistently. This forum was just one of the many ways to advance communist revolution in a mass way and motivate ourselves to fight back. Onward to more class struggle.