NY: Capitalist rulers got to go
“How do you spell racist? I-C-E!” Millions of workers stood up against Trump’s fascist military parade by participating in over 2,100 “No Kings” rallies and protests across the United States. In New York City, about a group from the revolutionary communist Progressive Labor Party (PLP) joined tens of thousands who defied the rain to march. In our chants, we received applause and cheering from surrounding marchers with the more popular chants being against ICE and also “Stop racist deportations! Working people have no nation!” and “No kings, no bosses! Capitalism has got to go!”
When PL’ers chanted “the only solution is communist revolution,” many marchers surrounding us hesitated. At the same time, however, these same antiracists took over 1,100 PLP leaflets and several hundred CHALLENGE newspapers, cheered at our communist speeches explaining our revolutionary politics, marched alongside us, and some joined us on the bullhorn.
This reveals the contradictions, dangers, and opportunities of the current political period – and the potential for building a mass PLP to smash this racist, sexist, imperialist system with communist revolution!
No flag but the red flag
The liberal misleader-led groups are pushing U.S. nationalism as a way for workers to fight for “our freedoms,” with march organizers handing out thousands of miniature U.S. flags. It was therefore no surprise that many workers hesitated to cheer for communist revolution! As several PL’ers said in their speeches, reaching the hundreds marching around us, PLP rejects all bosses’ national flags. The U.S. flag, in particular, is the symbol of manifest destiny and holocaust, of dispossession and hypocrisy, of slavery and Jim Crow. It’s the flag of the Monroe Doctrine and the Carter Doctrine — of theft, plunder, and the smoking ruins of cities from Hiroshima and Nagasaki to Gaza. The international working class has no country, and no flag but the red flag.
In response to these politics, many people carrying U.S. flags around us expressed agreement and asked for our literature. One young person who took CHALLENGE said they agreed with every point but had never connected the dots of history this way and wondered if revolution was really possible. Another young person with a U.S. flag earned cheers when they spoke on the bullhorn, saying they agreed with us communists - and revealed they wore a Karl Marx t-shirt under their jacket!
Appearance and essence in winning masses
These were not isolated examples. The fact that hundreds of workers — thousands in total over the day—were waving the U.S. flag but also embracing internationalist chants reveals the material basis for international working class unity. It’s no coincidence that one of our most popular chants was “same enemy, same fight! Workers of the world, unite!”
Contradictions abound. Despite mass confusion around nationalism, reformism, and belief that elections and the U.S. slave owners’ Constitution will somehow stop fascism, the response to our presence showed the masses are also looking for answers. Wherever we can intensify the struggle for revolution over reform, our communist politics sharpen these contradictions in favor of it.
No war but class war — for communist revolution!
We call on PL’ers and friends to join antiracist mass struggles such as progressive union caucuses, workplace and community watch groups fighting ICE raids – and even political campaigns attracting masses of antiracists but still under illusions about capitalist state power. Struggling with our coworkers, classmates and friends we can introduce communist ideas while exposing the reality of the capitalist dictatorship. And by moving this political base into action, we can build a mass PLP that will overthrow this entire system from New York to Kinshasa and Shanghai.
Workers fight back with the best ideas and symbols they have available to them. The sharper their ideas and the more deeply they resonate, the greater the opportunities to link these interconnected fights and take them all the way. Communism – and our red flag - represents the ultimate needs and deepest aspirations of the international working class. Join us and fight to make that world a reality!
NJ: Not just Trump, it’s capitali$m
In the pouring rain over 200 workers and students attended the No Kings rally in Newark. The rally, which was called by the Democratic Party liberals, looked to direct the working class anger towards President Donald Trump. It was our job in Progressive Labor Party (PLP) to let workers know that there is an alternative to war and fascism – fighting for communism. Despite a small group of us at the rally, we reached over a hundred students and workers in distributing CHALLENGE and leading chants in the rain. Electoral politics still holds a lot of sway over the working class, but this rally has shown us that workers are looking for something more.
Workers need to steer clear of bosses fight
From organizations like Make the Road to politicians like Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Congresswoman LaMonica McIver, the liberal Big Fascists (see Glossary,page 6) ensured that the only analysis was that Trump must go. They spoke about the attacks on migrant workers but failed to mention the role of liberals like Joe Biden in deporting record numbers of migrant workers or McIver’s history of supporting landlords and finance capital.
PLP brings alternative - and workers responded
That is why PLP showed up that day. While the different speakers were singing the same tune about Trump - we distributed CHALLENGE and explained our line that it isn’t just Trump - It’s capitalism. The reception that we got from our conversations shows the potential of our class and the fight for communism. We distributed over 100 papers and got great feedback. One example from a worker: “I was kind of cynical about coming cause I knew it was just going to be the same Democratic Party BS - so I am glad I got this paper and I’m gonna check it out when I get home.”
After the speakers were done a short march began. The chant, led by Larry Hamm of People’s Organization for Progress, was predictably “Trump Must Go.” One self-criticism is that we should have had our bullhorn with us. Even without the bullhorn our small contingent lead chants like “Democrats and Republicans Are all the Same - Racist Terror Is the Name of the Game.” Others took up the chants for a while until the march leaders heard us and dropped back by our section to take back the chants.
What we do counts
It can be easy to dismiss these ruling class events. We know what the rulers and their mouthpieces are going to say. At the same time workers are organizing rapid response networks and putting their life on the line in fighting these racist anti-immigrant attacks. That is why it is so important to show up. Trump’s open racism is attracting new workers and students to the struggle.
After the rally we discussed the importance of being ready and prepared to give political leadership to the workers. While the liberal misleaders still have a lot of influence over the working class, there is a window for us to spread our ideas and win workers to a life of communism. Our next steps are to reach out to those we met at the rally and plan for future actions.
As the bosses try to limit the imagination of what workers can accomplish, our Party is winning workers to realize that we can run the world - and not rely on the bosses. No Kings was the chant of the bourgeoisie of the past - No Bosses is the chant of the workers’ future. Join Us!
KY: No borders, no nations, resist Deportations
On June 14th, Kentucky Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members attended a national “No Kings” day of action by the 50501 movement to protest the Donald Trump administration on the same day as a fascist military parade took place in Washington D.C. to celebrate Trump’s birthday. This protest was put together by a coalition of liberal groups including “We Show Up” and “Standing Up For Racial Justice (SURJ)” as a part of 50501’s movement to oppose fascism and protect “real American values” and “democracy.” The groups advised people to carry American flags and wear its colors to “take back the flag”, and paint themselves as even more patriotic than the pro Trump fascists. One liberal organizer brought up chanting “USA!” in order to “confuse” the other side.
We heard this and decided to show up waving a red PLP flag and make anti-nationalist signs reading: “No Borders, No Nations, Resist Deportations” or “No War But Class War, No War With Iran.” One comrade made a sign showing Joe Biden in a Nazi uniform saying, “It’s not fascism when we do it” to make a statement and remind people of the Biden administration’s fascist policies like funding genocide, cracking down on college campuses, beefing up border security, and the militarization of police. These workers, while misled by liberal identity politics, need a communist world and under the red flag will lead us in the battle to win it!
Rally leaders scared to call out anti-Palestinian racism
When we made it in front of Union Church, the pastor and movement leaders were on megaphones essentially singing kumbaya, with songs like “We Shall Overcome.” When we eventually caught up with someone we know from the local organization Berea4Palestine, the thought occurred to all of us to begin a pro-Palestine chant. A marcher then criticized us, claiming “that was a racist dog whistle” calling for the extermination of Jewish people. This is a line frequently used by Zionists to paint pro-Palestinian activists as antisemitic. We agree that this chant does show the limits of nationalist movements. We fight for a society in which the international working class is in power, not Palestinian instead of Israeli, not Ukrainian instead of Russian. Nationalism has been proven to be a tool of the bosses, whether those bosses are the Israeli government or Hamas. Both Hamas and the Israeli Defense Force operate on racist nationalist principles. Only a united international working class will be able to smash racism, antisemitism, and sexism.
The boss’s banner represents the conditions international workers are fleeing from!
We led other workers in chants: “Smash racist deportations, working people have no nation!” being received well by most of the attendees around us. However, an older white woman walked up after to say we were “putting out bad energy” and going to “manifest deportations” in a bizarre attempt to use spirituality to make us change our chants. The impending war with Iran didn’t seem important enough for them to bring up.
Liberals only care when Trump is in charge
As we continued leading chants, another older white woman, concerned about her produce, tried to get us to chant “who will pick my green beans.” We called this racist chant out for not focusing on how those workers are exploited, and placing their worth on what commodities they can produce. She then added, “I wouldn’t care if it was just the criminals [being deported].” Showing the type of attendees at these rallies– liberals who are fine with some deportations, as long as there is “due process.” As if “due process” is ever possible in a capitalist system.
Liberals in other states posted photos online holding signs that read, “If Kamala were president we’d be at brunch.” A self-report that all liberals wish for is a return to so-called “normalcy” where they can blissfully ignore genocide, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) round-ups, the constant expansion of the prison industrial complex, and the list goes on.
Young workers will lead this fightback!
On the positive side, we seized the moment, meeting some younger workers who are already eager to work with us! A handful of workers appreciated the accuracy of the fascist Biden poster and snapped a pic. We handed out ICE fliers, including to local students attending the rally. Political discussions were had and comrades explained how the emphasis on “king” is used to justify a pre-MAGA world of slaughter that is producing this fascism. Where every boss is a king who dictates every aspect of social life!
For revolutionary workers our outlook is always forward toward the goal, going backwards in this case would be reactionary. When the bosses are weak with crisis and lashing out at workers to offset it, there’s always room to win them to communist revolution! Dare to struggle, Dare to win!
Maryland
“No Cops, No KKK, No Fascist USA” rang out as 300 residents of Greenbelt, a small community in the Washington, D.C. suburbs, gathered at the city hall and marched to the footbridge over the Baltimore Washington Parkway. Members of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) and Greenbelt residents have been protesting the deportation of Kilmar Garcia and now are further incensed by the use of the military in Los Angeles to quell anti-ICE rallies. This was one of hundreds of NO KING rallies called around the U.S. to show opposition to Trump’s military parade and birthday celebration. One of our friends led the rally and was aided by another resident who provided militant chants. Later we met this resident, who described her frustration years ago with the communist party in Detroit that encouraged only reform struggles and pushed her into meaningless activities that were tedious and boring and “never improved anything anyway.” She was happy we wanted to photograph her poster “ICE is the new SS” and reflected on how we could advance the struggle.
Rally-goers did not initially advance revolutionary solutions to capitalism as part of their organizing so, despite the enthusiasm and large number of residents on the march and the bridge, we knew we had to bring our ideas to the fore. While cars honked in support of the banners and signs, we handed out our literature and generated discussions. We gave out leaflets of a new PLP flyer covering the events in Los Angeles and copies of CHALLENGE. Young marchers were particularly interested in our communist literature. We continued our campaign to urge Metro to remove recruiting ads for the Border Patrol with 50 fliers and 25 stamped postcards distributed to send to the transit system’s publicity department. When we spotted a sign that both supported opposition to genocide in Gaza with “Arms Embargo now” and support for immigrants with “Abolish ICE” we got another photo. Unfortunately this was one of the few signs that included the fight against war and genocide. It turned out that this signmaker was a former coworker whose family is friends with our comrades. We have to organize all the contacts and friends into the Party so that these marchers will march towards revolution and away from the Democratic Party dead end.
