Chicago, October 4—Our Progressive Labor Party (PLP) collective here organized a “Smash All Borders” rally in a working-class neighborhood on the southwest side of the city, an area facing intensified immigration raids. We got out hundreds of copies of CHALLENGE with some friends of the Party joining us.
A newer member and their partner designed signs for passing traffic that read “Honk if you hate racism” and “Honk if you hate ICE,” both of which were hits. Other comrades gave fiery antiracist speeches in both Spanish and English on the bullhorn. Shortly after our rally ended, we got a message from a rapid response group we’re active in to go a few blocks west to another neighborhood where ICE had shot a woman worker in her car for trying to block them from carrying out their abductions of workers.
Workers showed up en masse to the intersection, creating a stand-off while hurling insults at the racist ICE thugs. Seeing that their situation was compromised, ICE was forced to fire off tear canisters to clear an escape route (Block Club Chicago, 10/5). Along with dozens of other workers we were forced to retreat at the time, but it was inspiring to witness the dedication and fightback of our class in action.
Fascists attack but workers strike back
Since Klansman-in-Chief Donald Trump’s declaration of war and terror on immigrant workers in major urban “sanctuary” cities, Chicago has not gone unscathed. However, “Midway Blitz,” the fascist operation Trump and company are carrying out here has been met with the same fightback, resistance and courage from the working class seen in other major targeted cities.
The Gestapo-like attacks are coming from nearly all sides, including ICE, FBI, DHS, local police and state troopers, and the more recent attempt to deploy the National Guard. The Trump administration has enlisted several forces of the capitalist state to attack and terrorize the working class.
The liberal bosses running Illinois and Chicago, far from providing any real leadership to fight back, are showing their ineffective and complicit character when it comes to capitalism needing to divide and attack the working class for profit. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed a toothless bill recently, establishing “ICE-free zones” in the city, a performance theater that has done nothing to stop their fascist rampage (Office of The Mayor, 10/6).
Masked ICE nazis have kidnapped people off the streets all over the city and suburbs - documented and undocumented workers alike, taking them to Broadview, a suburb right outside of Chicago. Broadview was initially set up as a processing center for those abducted. Now it has become a detention center with horrible conditions.
Protesters have shown up here daily, only to be tear-gassed and shot with pepper bullets. Dozens of protesters have been arrested with a range of charges that include aggravated battery on a police officer to mob action. At one of the protests, the fascist Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, paraded out of the Broadview facility with ICE agents in a military tank with guns pointed at protesters while drones hovered overhead.
The Party has attended these protests and gotten CHALLENGE out to protesters that are open to our ideas. We have invited some to our PLP study group and will continue to do so. We also hope to work with some of these younger protesters who want training on building a base and how to escalate tactics in a collective and disciplined way in these chaotic situations.
Many of us have also joined rapid response groups in our communities which are limited to the politics of people “knowing their rights.” Our participation in these groups is to struggle with our friends and coworkers that we have no rights that the capitalist class must honor under fascism. We must make the connections that the ruling class are in an economic crisis, and are preparing for war, and that is what is happening in these cities in real time. War is being waged on the working class, and there is no time to waste to build our own fighting force: a Red Army to achieve international communist revolution.
Communism is the change workers need
Exactly a week after the struggle on October 4th, two PLP members went to the apartment complex where ICE conducted a raid with storm troopers and Blackhawk helicopters in the middle of the night. Black and Latin workers and their families were dragged out of their homes (see editorial on page 2). We went door to door in the building that looked like a war zone. We were able to find workers in the building and in the community that were interested in reading CHALLENGE after what they experienced.
One worker explained to us: “A reporter just wanted to interview me. I told her I don’t need to be interviewed. We need a change and if you can’t do that I don’t want to be interviewed.” We made contacts and will be going back to offer workers that change. A communist society is the change we all desire, and a communist revolution is the only way we will fight fascism and win.
