Richmond, KY—Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members at a local University held a series of events before and during the first week of classes. On the Saturday before classes started, PLP members and other local comrades held a sign-making party in the public plaza of the university. We invited our base members to join us, and we also gained visibility by making our signs publicly. Many students walking by joined in when they saw us. Some students couldn’t join but were interested in what we were doing when they saw our anti-ICE, anti-Zionist signs. We explained the protest to them and identified ourselves as the PLP. Almost all of the students who joined us in making signs came to our protest the next day. Almost all of them said this was their first protest! They asked us what protests on campus were like. We told them that actually protests have not been very common here, but we hope to change that with the leadership of the PLP. In fact, one former EKU student walking through the plaza stopped to talk to us because he said when he went here no groups were organizing, and it was great to see a group of people coming together!
Bringing left politics to Kentucky workers!
The next day, Sunday, August 17, we had a protest. We organized the protest alongside another local group, RichmondKY4Palestine. The local United Campus Workers also participated. We had students, faculty members, and Richmond locals come out. We started out with about 20, but later more students joined us as they walked by. We started by practicing chants, handing out CHALLENGE, and promoting our planned cadre school. We marched to the same plaza while chanting, “15,000 child lives, this ain’t war, it’s genocide!”, “ICE out of Kentucky now!”, as well as classic PLP chants like “Asian, Latin, Black, and White, Workers of the World Unite!”
We then started with speeches. Several attendees gave their own speeches alongside organizers. One attendee, from a small town in eastern KY, gave a speech detailing how his political positions have changed over time due to seeing mass unemployment, poverty, and a rising wealth gap. “I used to only listen to what my parents said–I would call people ‘pinko commies,’ but now I realize, I’m one of them.”
Why everything is connected
PLP members gave speeches explaining why the issues of Palestine and ICE are tied together, and why revolution is the only solution to both of these issues. We identified communism as the only viable path. One member’s speech read: “From Palestinian refugees, to immigrants here in the U.S., everywhere, refugees are fleeing the consequences of imperialism, war, famine, sanctions, as in, the consequences of capitalism. The migrant crisis in both the U.S.A. and western Europe is a result of capitalist imperialist policies… join the revolutionary Progressive Labor Party and fight for all workers around the world!”
As we were handing out CHALLENGE to some students, one saw “Worcester, MA” on the front cover and said “This is my hometown!” We told him how our Party actually protested there over the summer. This is why it is so important that the newspaper showcases fightback in areas all over the country and the world. Party members are encouraged to pay attention to and even participate in things that are happening not only in their local region, but nationally and internationally. This helps us make personal connections like this one!
Organizing and educating
That Saturday, August 23rd, we held an educational event in the campus library on the topics of imperialism, nationalism, and why class war is the only solution. We watched videos, read PLP documents, and went over a series of questions on each topic. At the end, we handed out a pamphlet explaining what it means to join the PLP and to be a communist. Two new comrades joined the Party and more hope to fight back with us in the future. We will continue organizing students and training the new generation of communists to overthrow this racist, sexist, capitalist system!
