Sharing your fightback story matters

I just want to put in a plug for folks to write more about their struggles. The last issue was great for our work in Maryland. The lead article about protesting police during their NIGHT OUT event fit right into our new fight for justice for Tawfiq Bernard who was killed by the Prince George’s County police – another shooting into a car. We were at a press conference with 200 other residents and were able to share CHALLENGE with several folks who were interested in the idea of mobilizing rather than relying on lawyers. The Quantum article was timely as I leafleted with a student  group at the University of Maryland to protest Quantum’s career fair and next week there is a national symposium at UMD that we will protest. And our article on our fight about ICE getting a permit for a neighborhood building was used at our rally this week and, while our analysis could have been sharper, the conversations were at a higher  political level.  One of our friends was delighted to see the article and came to one of our gatherings. The series on Haiti has also been useful in our basebuilding. Showing our work around the country and linking it to our local struggles builds respect for the Party and improves our distribution.
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Bryan and our class deserves communism

On Sunday Sept 13th Progressive Labor Party members, community members, family members of victims of police brutality, and others joined the Bostic family as they marched to commemorate the sixth month anniversary murder of Byran Bostic by the Inglewood Police Department. The march began at Hillcrest and E Nutwood St where Bryan was detained by Inglewood Police on the night of March 10, 2026. The march began at 10am and by 10:30am dozens of workers were in attendance carrying posters stating; “Justice for Bryan Bostic”, “A traffic stop should not result in death”, “Honk for justice”. 

Some of the chants by community members included “What does democracy look like? This is what democracy looks like.” But I kept asking myself how does the wrongful killing of another member of our community look like democracy? I am sure she was referring to all those of us in attendance marching but the question still stands. How is marching on these streets chanting the names of those murdered by police democracy?

I think she meant to say that this is what communism looks like. Communism looks like the multiracial, multi-generational, mass mobilization of workers fighting back against fascist attacks of brutality that capitalism offers us. These sentiments were echoed in a speech given at Inglewood city hall by one of our Party members. 

He stated that the death of our comrades is not only felt by their families alone but by the whole community. Alex Flores, killed by Newton Police station in 2019, was a kind man who would walk neighborhood kids home. Our goal is not to elect another mayor in hopes that he will offer us another solution. Like our comrade stated, “The system is working exactly as intended” 

A young man there said “His story hits me because that could’ve been me. That could’ve been anyone, one of us.” It reminded me why I fight for communism everyday - so that workers no longer have to live with the daily fear of when or how capitalism will take them out. I will continue to fight until we see the world that our class deserves: communism.
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Club discusses Haiti

The leaders of our Spanish-speaking Progressive Labor Party club and study group meet monthly to discuss our work and the state of the world. 

The following letter was written as part of a collective discussion. We wanted to clarify our position on the history of Haiti and the key leadership of Black workers, and to make sure we always fight racism and the racist divisions of our class, building unity among our friends in our immediate base and in the broader working class.

For centuries, the working class in Haiti has suffered colonization, invasion, and plunder at the hands of imperialist rulers. France never forgave Haiti for making a revolution and becoming the first country with an independent state governed by Black people, one that later helped many countries in the Americas, including the United States, by sending fighters to help win their independence. In 1825, France forced Haiti to pay for winning its independence, and the related debts were not fully paid off until 1947. Some economists estimate the true financial cost amounts to tens of billions of dollars. This was compounded by a cruel dictatorship led by the Duvaliers, father and son, who massacred and terrorized Haitian workers for 29 years, until it fell thanks to the militancy and fightback of our class siblings in Haiti. That decades-long struggle cost tens of thousands of lives.

Haiti also endured repeated U.S. invasions, including a 19-year military occupation from 1915 to 1934. For generations, Haiti’s forests and timber were depleted for foreign profit, leaving the country deforested and devastated and turning it into the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. 

Haiti has also had to endure the presence of United Nations peacekeeping troops, who repressed the population. The peacekeepers have been implicated in sexual abuse, and they infected Haitians with cholera, which set off an epidemic that killed many people because Haiti’s public health and water systems had been left in ruins. Then came the earthquake, which Haitian officials say killed more than 300,000 people, destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes, and left millions adrift.

These catastrophes, the cruel racism against Haiti’s people, which is inherent to the capitalist system, the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, and the criminal gangs now ravaging the country have forced many Haitians to flee. Many went to Cuba, where they have found solidarity; to the Dominican Republic, where racism and persecution against them run deep in society and where they are deported en masse; and to the United States, where they had obtained Temporary Protected Status (TPS). This summer, after a court fight, the racist and fascist Trump administration ended TPS for Haiti, putting more than 300,000 people at risk of losing their jobs and being deported. Now many Haitian workers have lost their jobs and live in terror and fear, hunted and deported. After being deported back to Haiti, many are robbed and murdered by criminal gangs.

Our Party has always stood in solidarity with Haitian workers, and we have a club in a city in Haiti. Despite extremely difficult conditions, this club has carried out its work of organizing, helping, and advancing the Party’s line. In spite of the situation, we continue to support the Haitian people, especially its working class.

That is why we firmly oppose and condemn any racism toward Haitian workers. We will not tolerate a racist attack on our class siblings under any circumstances. Every May Day, we march in Flatbush, where there is a large presence of Haitian workers, in solidarity with them. We distribute hundreds of copies of CHALLENGE, which are well received in this neighborhood. Our Party’s line is, and always will be, that Black workers are called to be the leaders of the communist revolution, wherever they are from, because for many centuries they fought, and still fight, against the horrific slavery they were subjected to and the racism that still persists.

COMRADES, LET’S BE AWARE THAT RACIST, CRUEL CAPITALISM TRIES TO DIVIDE OUR WORKING CLASS IN EVERY WAY POSSIBLE. 

LET’S NOT FALL INTO ITS GAME AND ITS RACIST PROPAGANDA.

WE WILL BE MUCH STRONGER THE MORE UNITED WE ARE AND THE MORE WE GROW THE RANKS OF OUR PARTY, UNTIL IT BECOMES A MASS PARTY THAT LEADS THE COMMUNIST REVOLUTION AND THE SEIZURE OF POWER FOR THE WORKING CLASS.
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