Washington D.C., August 26–As Head Racist- in-Chief Donald Trump sends the National Guard to Washington, D.C. for a so-called crime “crackdown,” the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) is on hand to make it clear that fascism isn’t welcome here (or anywhere else, for that matter)! (Read our editorial on page 2). On a recent Wednesday at Columbia Heights, five comrades distributed 90 CHALLENGEs in 90 minutes.
We have shared 200 communist flyers that include the attacks in L.A., as well as D.C., and another that calls for the transit system to stop advertising for the Border Patrol.
On Saturday at a rally in the same neighborhood, 300 demonstrators loudly cheered when a Party member called for communism as the only solution to the fascist attacks being launched by the Trump Administration. As a result we got 10 contacts who were interested in the Party, as well as distributing over 100 CHALLENGEs. The fight for a workers’ run world is indeed heating up!
Fascism in real time
As U.S. bosses are losing their control on the working class among sharpening interimperialist rivalry with Russia and China, they are forced to lose the liberal masks of “diplomacy”and clamp down with more aggressive tactics. Ballot boxes and “democracy” are traded in for assault rifles and tanks. The bosses’ attacks are costing them four times as much daily as it would cost to house every homeless person in D.C. (Common Dreams, 8/22). Hence we have fascism, which is playing out in Washington’s streets.
Workers fight back!
These militarized forces are facing multiple organizations and residents who are fighting back. “Free DC” is on everyone’s lips. The attack is on Black youth and workers, as well as immigrant workers, in restaurants, day labor sites and checkpoints where vehicles are stopped and searched. But when Black workers in a neighborhood were being questioned, they chanted “Am I free to go?” until the fascists left.
At the subway stop in Columbia Heights the Homeland Security forces arrested a resident for fare evasion. Of course transportation should be free, as the only fair fare is free fare! Over a hundred residents confronted the group of cops and ICE agents, and they left with their tails between their legs. The checkpoints have become a target for rapid response networks to redirect traffic and warn drivers to change their route.
On the D.C. border one group of checkpoint fascists just gave up and went off, probably to another site. Meanwhile, daily rallies, GoGo music, Black Joy and many other events are popping up on multiple sites. Our Party has been active in all these activities and covered in some interviews.
The only crime is capitalism
Trump has claimed there is a crime crisis in D.C. to justify martial law and the National Guard. Other cities are on his radar with threats aimed at Chicago and Baltimore next. He has attacked the District of Columbia’s policy of “No Cash Bail”, and his prosecutor here wants to try youth as adults. Home detention for teenagers along with already existing curfews is another racist strategy. Stop and Frisk is back in force and targeting young Black residents as before. This is not a ”distraction” from the Epstein files, but one of many tools in the fascist playbook. Mayor Muriel Bowser has gone along with all of this with her police chief leading the way. Liberal politicians set the stage and cave under even the slightest threat.
Years of efforts to reform the criminal injustice system have disappeared. This opens the door to talking to residents about revolution and communism. Capitalism has pulled back the curtain of liberal democracy to reveal its vicious oppression of the working class with its racist mantra and terrorism towards all parts of the working class, including federal workers, professors, and students.
Keeping the momentum going
The Party’s task going forward is to share CHALLENGE with our neighbors in rapid response groups, reach out to National Guard members to resist attacks on residents, and prepare for the American Public Health Association meetings which will be in Washington, DC in November.
Above all we must talk to everyone we have contact with about how necessary it is to learn about Progressive Labor Party and seriously consider joining a study group or ongoing meeting with us in some form or fashion. This is a life and death struggle. A friend of the Party said to us in January, “This is your time!” Although she doesn’t want to be a communist, she knows PLP has to step up its game now or we will lose this opportunity to grow. The only future for the working class is to overthrow capitalism and organize for communism. PLP is the only group to do this. JOIN US!