On April 17 Progressive Labor Party (PLP/PL) will celebrate its 59th year of fighting the cancerous system called capitalism, a system which destroys workers’ lives worldwide. PLP arose in the 1960s splitting from the reformist Communist Party of the United States. We began with barely two dozen members. In 2024 we are an international, fighting party organizing in five continents.
Workers all over the world are currently in a period of low class consciousness and struggle against the world’s capitalists. We call this period Dark Night. It is characterized by inter-imperialist rivalry between the U.S. imperialists and the alliance of Chinese-Russian imperialists. As this rivalry escalates, the imperialists are resorting to ever-increasing levels of war and fascism to divide, kill and control workers everywhere.The working class desperately needs a fighting, communist party to take us out of this Dark Night and into a victorious fight against the world’s capitalists.
Our line & our vision
Progressive Labor Party struggles for a communist world run by and for workers. Capitalism has caused world wars costing millions of workers’ lives and capitalists are preparing for WorldWar III. In a world run by the working class all goods and resources would be shared according to need. There would be no production for the profit of a few. There would be no need for profiteering wars. The working class need only realize its unlimited potential to fight and rule. PLP has and will continue to struggle alongside fellow workers to help us realize this potential.
To realize this potential, PL implements a strategy of practice and theory. We get involved in fighting the bosses (practice). We analyze our fightback and the struggles of workers worldwide. We analyze the world situation(theory). Then we implement what we learned in future struggles (practice) and apply it to our line (theory). These lessons and beliefs together make up Progressive Labor Party’s unique political line. Here are some elements of PL’s line gained from 59 years of practice and theory:
Society must be run by and for the working class. That’s communism.
The wage system and money itself must be abolished. Resources must be distributed based on need.
Workers can only gain power through armed struggle. The bosses will not give up peacefully.
We reject the concept of nations; no nationalism, and no borders. We are all workers and a worker in Israel is more like a worker in Gaza than like an Israeli capitalist.
Multiracial unity: Racism is a product and tool of the ruling capitalist class meant to divide and conquer the working class. A united, multiracial working class is unstoppable.
Antisexism: The systemic super-exploitation, oppression and objectification of women divides and weakens the working class.
We need to concentrate among industrial workers and soldiers, key to defeating the capitalists.
We struggle to inject these ideas into every struggle and will continue to do so until the working class runs the world. (For more see: Our Fight on page 2)
A legacy of struggle and theory
Ever since its birth in 1965 Progressive Labor Party has been fighting back against the bosses' attacks on workers. We have organized and supported auto workers and striking teachers in Mexico; striking miners in Hazard, Kentucky; fiber workers in India; bank workers in Colombia; sit-down strikers at Detroit’s Mack Avenue Chrysler plant; farm workers in California, and bakery workers at Stella D’Oro in the Bronx. We have stood with evicted workers in Palestine-Israel, earthquake victims in Pakistan, and hurricane victims in Haiti and New Orleans. More recently the Party has organized with tenants fighting abusive slumlords in Lennox, California, stood with students facing racist school policies in Prince George’s County, Maryland, and struggled alongside a family in Newark, New Jersey physically assaulted by racist police.
Fighting racism has always been a core tenet of PLP. We backed Black workers and youth in the 1964 Harlem Rebellion and fought off racist school segregationists in Boston in 1975. In 1976 we integrated Chicago’s Marquette Park, while smashing the Nazi headquarters there. We have led more than 100,000 protesters against the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis across the United States. We have mobilized against racist killer cops from Brooklyn, to Los Angeles, to Chicago, to Ferguson, Missouri.
PLP has led intense fightbacks against the bosses’ wars. In the 1960s, we were the first to organize mass demonstrations against the U.S. imperialist war Vietnam. We worked both within the military and on the streets to expose the U.S. rulers’ invasion of Iraq as a mass-murdering oil grab. More recently PL has participated in fightbacks against the bosses’ genocidal occupation of Palestine, saying that this attack on workers in Gaza is about profits and won’t be solved by fighting for a Palestinian state ruled by a new group of capitalists.
These ideas, struggles, and victories came directly out of our Party’s analysis of past class struggles and the achievements of millions of workers. PLP studied and continues to study the strengths and weaknesses of the communist movement throughout history. In 1917 this movement created a revolution in Russia; in 1949, a revolution in China, two of the largest countries in the world under the red banner of communism! But PL also acknowledges the weaknesses of the past movements. Nationalism, allowing wages and money to persist, and allowing elitism to form within party structures are some of the mistakes of the old movements that led to the rebirth of capitalism. We are committed to not repeating those mistakes.
Celebrate the Party on May Day
Next month is May Day, where every year the Party celebrates communism and the working class. We would be honored if you would join us in these celebrations and join our Party in this fight for a communist world. Let’s all chip in and build a united, multiracial working class capable of winning a communist world. Happy birthday PLP!
