Progressive Labor Party (PLP) had a fantastic International Workers Day Dinner one week before May Day. There were about 65 people from many areas of Northern California. Multi-generations, Asian Latin, Black and white, men, women and many other of our class siblings in the struggle were there. There were long-time comrades and new friends looking for a path away from capitalism to a world of community, not yet identified as communism.
We had a great program of speakers and cultural presentations. The facilitator stressed that PLP is growing and learning from strengths and weaknesses of our fight for communism. We learn from the past and evaluate the present. Speakers in transit and education addressed how we in PLP are united around class solidarity and building community to destroy capitalism and build a share-and-share alike communist world.
From transit to education
The bus driver discussed a long history of creating community and how this helps to overcome the divisions between riders and drivers. The educator reported on the recent fight for ethnic studies in the curriculum and the recent strike of certificated and classified staff a couple of months ago which had some victories of their common good demands. One of the aspects of the strike and a major victory was the unity of lower-paid paraprofessionals, mostly women of color, with the certificated educators.
On the cultural side, it was great that younger and newer people to PLP joined the singing and helped plan and present some of the poetry. Our unity and power were illustrated when everyone sang “Bella Ciao” and “The Internationale.”
A few comments: one friend commented that the spirit of the dinner was good and suggested that we have an open mic to encourage contribution from attendees. Our new comrades from the north coast who designed the new PLP “break the chains logo” brought a few dozen t-shirts, polos and hoodies adorned with the new logo as a fund-raiser. The shirts were donated by a second-hand store in their area at little to no cost so all the funds went to support Party activities. Furthermore, everyone was able to contribute according to their abilities!
The future is bright as two people joined PLP at the end of the dinner. One remarked, “It was a lovely event; everyone was so thoughtful and welcoming. We need to go beyond “socialism” to real “communism.”. A long-time friend of a PLP member said, “The Dinner was inspirational/affirming/heart-felt, validating. It felt good to be around other comrades who believe in and care about equality and the working class.”
A long-term friend who has been a member joined the day after the dinner when one speaker said to him, “You are not in the Party unless you are in a collective.” So, he agreed to join a Bay Area club! We’re in the process of solidifying these new members.
All-in-all, it was a fantastic event celebrating our working-class holiday, our best in a very long time!!! Onward, comrades!!!
