MADISON, KY, December 5- At the December monthly meeting of the leadership of the Madison County Tenants Union (MCTU, see CHALLENGE, 6/8/2024), an unidentified fascist in a white pickup threw an explosive at the shared office space of the MCTU and the UP Initiative (a partnering non-profit serving the unhoused). The bomb blew up in the driveway. Displaced workers, members of MCTU, as well as children were outside within 15 feet of the blast that shook the building. Fortunately, no physical injuries were sustained. This wasn’t the first attack.
Earlier, the MCTU had hosted a bonfire fundraiser at the same location that was harassed by police because a well-known racist biker gang told them we were camping illegally. Since the MCTU informs the public about the new law criminalizing public camping, this swatting and the recent bombing are part of a sustained fascist attack on workers.
Attacks on homeless workers intensify
These potentially deadly events reflect the growing trend towards fascism, which is demonstrated even more strongly by Kentucky’s recent approval of HB5, a three strikes law that criminalizes homelessness and empowers vigilante property owners by giving them immunity for attacking “trespassers” and “illegal campers.” Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members continued our solidarity with MCTU by attending the follow-up meeting, sharing CHALLENGE with our friends and explaining how the newspaper serves as a tool for different movements to share strategy and tactics. We expressed how proud we were to have inspired the nearby Lennox-Inglewood Tenant Union through our demonstrations in Kentucky against the criminalization of homelessness and corrupt, racist landlords.
Security concerns were paramount at the meeting after the bombing. We argued that amidst rising fascism, our best security lies with the masses and we should work to embed ourselves with them, especially by deepening our relationships with neighbors who were shocked by the explosion and had worried about possible casualties.
Rising fascism in Kentucky
HB5, the reactionary three strikes law, was passed by the Kentucky legislature which mostly voted along party lines with Republicans in favor and Democrats against. Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, vetoed the bill after mass pressure. Beshear said if the bill had allocated money for the increased incarceration that would have resulted from the law, he would have signed it. The legislature overrode his veto, as expected. Beshear is no friend of the working class despite his performative phony veto. He is a huge supporter of Kentucky State Police and even visited the campus of Eastern Kentucky University to celebrate the building of a huge KKKop training center, similar to the ones in Atlanta and other cities throughout the U.S.
Fascism is not limited to legislation and police repression. Kentucky landlords collaborate and conspire together to keep rents unaffordable, even though there are 94 vacant properties in this state for every single person experiencing displacement at any given point.
Capitalism, in a period of decline, intensifies racism, displacement, fascism, and death. Whether it be the lynching of displaced worker Jordan Neely on a New York City subway car, or local attacks on the displaced and multiracial working-class groups in Kentucky, fascism is manifesting itself before our eyes. Imagine—on September 27, Louisville KKKops were captured on body cam underneath an overpass, citing a pregnant woman who was going into labor with "unauthorized street camping!” Anti-camping laws coincide with an international crackdown on campuses where student encampments have protested Palestinians losing their homes and their lives, while far-right political parties are in ascendance across Europe.
Ruling class will never have solution for workers
Bosses won’t help solve the crises our class faces. They just want to make us "disappear.” They proclaim that if we aren't making profits for them, we belong behind bars or dead. Laws favor the bosses’ profit interests in contracted-out prison labor for pennies on the hour. In a privatized world, we've seen that public spaces have been under attack. Bosses and politicians nationwide have worked in tandem to erect barriers to our class by blocking shelters, shutting down food services, building “hostile” architecture, and passing laws to outright criminalize bedding down or asking for money in public. Most often, they claim that greater charity could lead to crime, a degradation in property values, or just an overall lower quality of life. "Not in my backyard" is an idea/anxiety bred by capitalist profit incentives, divorced from and eroding any real human relationships. The same justification is used by local governments to dismantle "charity-based support." It will take a sustained, revolutionary communist struggle to topple these bosses. Defending our class from racist, fascist attacks and going on the offensive against them is the path we must take on the road to revolution.
