The following article is a companion to Part I of our Boston ’75 series, published in the July 16th issue of CHALLENGE, which chronicled our struggle against the racist, fascist group Restore Our Alienated Rights (ROAR) in Boston during the summer of 1975.  In our previous supplement to Part I, we examined the virulent expansion of ROAR into the Bronx, New York City.  In this article, we examine expansion of racist groups like ROAR into the Rosedale section of Queens, where it sought to intimidate Black and Latin workers who dared to move into this segregated white neighborhood at the time—and how the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) fought back with Black and Brown workers to oppose and rout ROAR in Rosedale as well.

PLP has a long history of fighting racism in the Bronx and Queens, New York City. In 1975, racists in New York were inspired by the Boston-based group ROAR (“Restore Our Alienated Rights”), which opposed busing to end segregation in Boston’s public schools. This was a fascist, openly racist movement with a significant mass base. ROAR leaders sat on the Boston City Council. The letters “ROAR” were plastered on the windows of the Boston municipal building, and one of its organizers served on the Boston School Committee, leading the charge against school integration. Boston ROAR attempted to organize nationwide.

When Black workers are under attack, it is the duty of all workers and antiracists to stand up and fight back. Fifty years later, the fight against racist, state-sponsored violence is far from over. Like the Black workers in Cincinnati militantly organizing against Neo-Nazis, and multiracial groups of workers standing against ICE in L.A., Chicago, and Newark, we must smash racist attacks and any far-right movement. For that, we need the Progressive Labor Party (PLP)—a mass, internationalist communist party committed to militant fightback and revolution.

Beating racists in the streets

In 1973 and again in 1975 Progressive Labor Party (PLP) attacked the National Renaissance Party, an openly Nazi group, in Astoria, Queens.
In the “Battle of Steinway Street” on August 25, 1973, PLP members and friends broke up a rally by these Nazis. They had come three times before, and only the presence of cops prevented them from being driven off by local residents who were incensed by their obscene insults to Jews, Blacks, Puerto Ricans, and Catholics. The fourth time they were driven away, despite the cops.

About 40 members and friends of the PLP fought these Nazis because they understood the importance of fighting racism and anti-communism.
The action was well-planned and thought out. First, three picketers with anti-fascist signs appeared, drawing off some of the cops. Then we threw several eggs, drawing off most of the remainder of the cops. Finally the attack began and the Nazi loudspeaker system was demobilized. A multi-racial group of men and women charged. Nazi flags and signs were smashed. During a number of skirmishes the Nazis were scattered.

The only damage inflicted on our comrades and friends was caused by the cops who broke one comrade’s arm. Meanwhile a crowd of between 600 to 1000 people gathered. Many people said: “This is great. We should have done this six weeks ago.”
The cops detained one PL’er but released him when a crowd of workers chanted, “Let him go! Let him go!                                 

PLP opposes racists in Rosedale, Queens

At the same time in Rosedale, Queens, racist white residents, organized by ROAR, attacked a group of Black teenagers as they were riding their bikes during a “bike hike” through residential Rosedale. The racists waved an American flag, chanted “Civil Rights for Whites,” and threw rocks and hurled racist insults at the Black teens. On TV news one racist said that Black families had no right to move into Rosedale “because they’re black!”

Rosedale ROAR fire bombed a home that had been bought by a Black family. When the Spencers, another Black family, moved in,  a pipe bomb was thrown at their house. ROAR formed a “housing referral service” that harassed white residents who showed or sold their homes to Blacks. This “home referral service” showed houses for sale only to whites. ROAR members also tracked down former residents of Rosedale, went to their houses in their new neighborhoods, telling their neighbors not to allow non-whites to move to their new community.

ROAR did have a base, though most white Rosedale residents thought they were troublemakers and “nutjobs.” A Bill Moyers television special “Rosedale: How It Is” gave the impression that most white people in Rosedale were gutter racists. In reality, as the community group Elmont Excelsior said:

Many current and former Rosedale residents around at the time ... were very upset about how the media liked to play up the idea that the entire community was in support of ROAR’s actions (especially that Moyers documentary). This was far from the truth. Many residents tried to integrate Rosedale peacefully and were very welcoming to their new neighbors.

Rosedale residents who resisted ROAR formed the Rosedale Block Association and organized welcomes for the new residents. Nonetheless, the racists, who numbered several hundred, had to be confronted.

ROAR racists routed in Rosedale

PLP organized against a racist uprising in Queens. More than 200 members and friends of the PLP and the Committee Against Racism (CAR) marched to the house of Jerry Scala, the head of the local ROAR group. Carrying a banner which read “Multi-Racial Unity Will Smash Racism,” we picketed Scala’s home chanting antiracist slogans. Several speakers denounced ROAR and Scala, pointing out how the bosses and politicians love to see workers fighting each other instead of fighting unemployment and cutbacks and the many other attacks faced by all working people during the periodic crises of the bosses’ economy.

Several dozen cops protected Scala’s house, but very few residents of Rosedale came out to support him. News reports indicated that most residents of Rosedale were opposed to the fascists’ attacks against the Black families.

PLP played a key role in stopping the racists before they could consolidate a base. By the late ‘70s ROAR was finished in Morris Park and Rosedale, and by 1976 ROAR had ended in Boston. 

Sources –from CHALLENGE:

PLP Queensites Clobber Neo-Nazi Vermin, September 20, 1973, page 11; and “PLP Chases Nazis Again,” (Astoria, Queens), May 22, 1975, page 5.

“Dump R.O.A.R. in Rosedale, Queens,” September 11, 1975, page 5.

“Racist Boycott Flops,” September 18, 1975, page 3.

“Rip Rosedale Racists” September 18, 1975, page 6