Black workers lead fight vs. kkkop terror

I am a long-time member of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) Since March, I and other PLP members have been involved in a campaign to demand justice for a black worker, Bryan Bostic, who was murdered while in the custody of Inglewood, California cops.

Bryan’s family members, who are leading the campaign, have inspired us with their militancy and dedication to this antiracist struggle. They have withstood the lies and demeaning statements made by the Inglewood Mayor; an order from the City Attorney accusing them of “disruption” and banning them from attending City Council meetings for 120 days; and constant verbal harassment by the Mayor when family members speak at City Council meetings.

One of the events that took place during the Los Angeles PLP Summer Project was a rally and march through the neighborhood where Bryan was murdered to Inglewood City Hall. The march got tremendous support from people on the sidewalk as well as scores of people driving by honking their horns. Bryan’s family was very excited by this response.

Family members have been very receptive to CHALLENGE newspapers, which we give them at weekly rallies. One family member particularly liked the information presented in the CHALLENGE article about Juneteenth. These family members have confirmed the correctness of PLP’s dedication to the working class and our political line that black workers play a key role in the long road to international communist revolution. This campaign for Bryan Bostic has also inspired and energized both long-time comrades like myself and a number of our newer and younger comrades.
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India: limits of the youth ‘cockroach’ movement

India has recently seen a unique new-age protest by a section of the youth against a series of national examination fiascos. These youth have floated a quasi-fictional “political party” and named it the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP). It sounds like a parody of the BJP, the ruling Hindu party.

The CJP’s slogan, “voice of the lazy and unemployed,” though intended as satire, is politically problematic. It raises the question of who can afford the privilege of idleness and ultimately reflects the concerns of the urban middle class rather than the broader masses or the proletariat. It is, in many ways, like “counter-cultural” youth movements in other countries.

The protest grew from a legitimate wave of public anger against the arrogant behavior of a fascist government administrator. This rebellion is a positive development, but important questions remain. The struggle of workers, of oppressed women, and against gender discrimination are important struggles for hundreds of millions of exploited and oppressed. And the struggles of religious minorities, peasants, and Adivasi (rural tribal) communities who are resisting land dispossession – are they not essential to the struggle? And do they also include hundreds of millions of youth? A politics that separates these struggles from “youth issues” reproduces the fragmentation encouraged by the capitalist class. And it will ultimately fail, with some participants being absorbed into the middle-class lifestyle, some perhaps even embracing an elitist fascism disguised as “individualism”.  But many can move forward towards a class-based movement against capitalism!

The anger expressed through the CJP represents a real moment of political rupture. The central question is whether this energy can be connected to the struggles of those who have never been granted a place within the existing political framework. The mobilization has also demonstrated something significant: large numbers of people can be brought together in a remarkably short period of time. This organizational achievement deserves recognition and offers lessons for mass movements seeking to advance the struggle.

While conspiracy theories promoted by mainstream media about foreign funding should be rejected outright, legitimate questions remain about the state’s relationship to the movement. How might these protests function as a safety valve, allowing the ruling class to gauge popular discontent and the limits of opposition. These questions require thoughtful political investigation rather than either uncritical celebration or cynical dismissal.

The “cockroach” symbolism, a Gen‑Z reclamation of the pest that survives everything, captures the vulnerability of a generation treated as vermin. That defiant self‑identification can only become the basis for a genuinely emancipatory politics if it moves beyond ironic self-labeling to organizing those who are stepped on: the working class, the peasantry, the oppressed castes, and all who have nothing to lose but their chains.
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Virginia: challenging reformism at People’s Assembly

Two weeks ago, a large group of community organizations from different cities across the country gathered in Virginia, 20 minutes from Washington, D.C., at the invitation of Democracia Popular, to hold their third “People’s Assembly,” attended by more than 1,500 members, the vast majority of whom were grassroots leaders.

During the discussion at my table, I told my classmates that I didn’t agree with that kind of struggle, because in order to change the capitalist system, put power in the hands of the workers, and build a new society, it would have to be through a violent struggle—because the capitalists would never, but never—I repeat, never—give up power, much less their wealth, to the working class; and that when the masses take to the streets in fury to fight, as happened in Minneapolis,  we cannot fight racism and the forces of repression passively—we must fight with force and violence against those who repress us, who fire tear gas and pepper spray at us, and who throw us to the ground.

The second topic addressed the upcoming midterm elections in November of this year and how we should organize in our communities to ensure the Democrats win these elections and secure a majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives so they can pass laws that benefit the majority—a somewhat utopian goal—and how to build an army of volunteers across the country to campaign and go door-to-door in every neighborhood so that eligible eligible to vote would go out and vote and support Democratic candidates in those elections—who, if they win, would have the chance to impeach Donald Trump and remove him from office.

On the last day of the conference, we took buses to Washington, D.C., to hold a protest in front of the Supreme Court in support of the 14th Amendment, which, among other things, grants citizenship by birth to the children of undocumented couples born here. The ruling went against Trump, who wanted to prevent this from happening. In the end, we were unable to hold the march due to the heavy rain that fell that day. 

Representatives from a community organization—which operates in five states across the country, in three counties in New York City, and on Long Island—also held a meeting between its members and local and national leaders to discuss several issues, but one in particular—a campaign against Palantir, which is headquartered in our city—set to begin in August of this year. This company collects and shares data on our immigrant community with government agencies, especially the immigration department, in order to keep us under surveillance and facilitate future deportations of many of us, particularly our undocumented brothers and sisters.

It should be noted that most of the conferences and plenary sessions were led by Black workers and Latin workers, which reinforces our Progressive Labor Party (PLP) belief that the revolution to seize power for the working class and build a communist society must be led by the Black community, given its tradition of struggle from the days of slavery to the present, against a cruel capitalist society, where racism is an intrinsic part of the system.The day the working class seizes power, there will be no need for people’s assemblies, but rather for communist workers’ assemblies to analyze how we can best distribute collective labor throughout society for the benefit of all; those will indeed be great and powerful workers’ assemblies.
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DSA’s theatrics

Then: “In late 2024, weeks after he announced his campaign for city mayor, Mamdani said that the Israeli Prime Minister was not welcome in New York City, and that the city would arrest him.” (Time.com, 7/22).

Now: “It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this [ICC] warrant.” You just found out today, Zohran?

It is an example of DSA’s theatrical politics.

The whole thing is small potatoes – but DSA’s “socialist” program is equally theatrical. Talk lots of nice reforms; draw people into the electoral strategy. It will be smashed up later:

—The mighty German “socialists” voted for war credits for the Kaiser.

—In Chile, Allende won an election and assumed the capitalists would let him do his thing. Instead, they killed him and thousands more.
Whether by betrayal or in tragedy, democratic socialism is doomed. Can’t take capitalism? You gotta overthrow it. Then you can take the communist road.
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