The shot we saw coming

Small pockets of Bronx residents have been trying to warn the community for months about the impending ICE terror encroaching in our neighborhoods. On October 8, 2026, ICE attempted to murder Oscar Belgal and his five-year-old son while Oscar was driving their family vehicle in the Marble Hill section of the Bronx, NYC. It was midafternoon as children were coming out of school. ICE is generally more active during rush hour.

Minutes after Oscar was shot in the neck by ICE Nazis, the word of his attempted murder spread quickly. Not knowing what they would walk into, a couple of Progressive Labor Party members arrived with the few CHALLENGEs they could grab and began to engage with onlookers. The neighborhood was in a state of shock, and they were scared and unsure of how to react. The crowd was mostly silent as they watched ICE agents and NYPD mingle and meander back and forth. It is a fact that fascism thrives when the working class experiences these emotions. Then we started chanting, asking the crowd, “How do you spell RACIST?” “NYPD!”, “How do you spell FASCIST?” “ICE!”. People began chanting along! It was clear at that point that the people were looking for leadership, and the PLP was ready to step in. As the chanting continued, the suppressed anger that onlookers were feeling was given an outlet. The crowd became stronger and more empowered. Their feelings of fear were transferred to the ICE thugs and they began to flee to their vehicles to escape the wrath of the working class. 

As the sun set, the DSA arrived. There was a palatable disconnect as they overwhelmed the scene. They did not come to the scene and engage with the neighborhood. They simply set up their speakers, handed out their DSA signs and began talking AT the crowd. Elected officials set up a makeshift podium and offered their useless thoughts and prayers and lectured on the “importance of voting”, effectively de-escalating the crowd’s righteous anger and taking away their power. Democratic leadership, including Mayor Mamdani and Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson, boldly acknowledged that they were aware of the ongoing ICE activity at the 225th street Target located a block away from the shooting. However, with this acknowledgment they were also admitting that they have not done all they should or could be doing to keep our communities safe from ICE terror. The truth, no matter what the politicians say, is that they are incapable and uninterested in protecting anything outside of their own interests.
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From France: we’re backed into a corner

When youth, students and workers demand accountability, the bourgeois state, French employers, and the bosses’ media fly into a rage.
The French working class and its youth are backed into a corner.

For nearly a month, students and teachers have been blocking their educational institutions, demanding not only the refurbishment of their schools and better working conditions for staff, but also the abolition of the 

‘Parcoursup ‘ (a convoluted system for university admissions that penalizes working class students from accessing  “better” higher education).
French state authorities have remained silent in the face of these demands, leading up to the events of October 17, when anger erupted throughout France (and has since spread beyond). The General Confederation of Labour (CGT) was forced to call for demonstrations against the high cost of living and to demand wage increases.

Meanwhile, the state’s inaction regarding the students’ demands, compounded by the violence inflicted upon them during the blockades, allowed the situation to fester. Their anger and class hatred ultimately erupted into unimaginable scenes of violence, mainly by the police/government response. The bosses’ media calls it looting. We call retrieval of goods stolen from workers’ labor by the bosses themselves. This climate further fuels the rise of fascism and the far right.

The announcement by the CGT of another demonstration, set for November 5, has sparked panic, not only within the capitalist system but also among a significant portion of the general population. Employers are pressuring the French state, which has become so panicked that it is now considering banning the demonstration in certain parts of the country.

The French state has done, and continues to do, absolutely nothing to address the issues underlying the demands of students and workers. Rather, it chooses to play the victim, displaying significant contempt for the lives and livelihoods of students and workers, and refuses to confront the real problems that have driven people to take to the streets. The bosses, their media, their bourgeois state and their far-right racist cohorts—all the class enemies—cynically choose to portray the justified anger of the demonstrators as merely criminal behavior as it works overtime to influence public opinion against this struggle.

This gang-up of the class enemy tries desperately to create diversions by using immigrants as scapegoats, rather than addressing the problems faced by various social groups. Yet, they never denounce the institutional violence imposed upon the workers in France for the benefit of employers.

Workers and students in France, and beyond, need to regroup under the banners of revolutionary communism to be able to crush the bosses’ onslaught. We need to build one communist party—the Progressive Labor Party—and rid ourselves of this corrupt, racist anti-working class system once and for all. Our class creates all wealth, and we need to decide how to use it in our own interests.

Workers of all countries: join forces to fight against a common enemy, until the final victory is achieved. Fight for communism!  All power to the working class!
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Rehired after flyering on the factory floor

I recently moved back to Chicago, and I had a hard time finding work. I spent a lot of time volunteering  to patrol with the ICE rapid response team of Pilsen and Little Village. I was there on several occasions right after ICE arrived. ICE has a violent smash and grab mentality. You can feel the escalating social crisis and fascism expressed by their increasing violence. In one instance ICE deliberately crashed into a car they were chasing on the I-55 highway. On another they raided the McCook Assemblers Inc. factory just outside of Chicago off of the same I-55 highway. According to anonymous Univision interviews, the managers of the factory accidentally opened the door for ICE but intended to demand a warrant. ICE entered the factory with pistols drawn, and arrested six workers, including one they dragged out of the bathroom. The video was morally shocking and appalling. When I arrived with other rapid responders, the recruiters from the temp agency were on the scene, supposedly to help. I decided that it was an opportunity to ask for a job. The goal was to develop the Party’s industrial work, to learn about what conditions are like for immigrant workers in the area, and of course to make money that I need to survive. 

I was hired for a different company than the one ICE raided, but I feel that building a base in the industrial working class here will help strengthen the fight against ICE. I was hired with three other temps, and the supervisors implied they expected us to compete for one permanent job. The industrial work environment is stressful, and there are many hazards to health. If you lose focus you can hurt yourself or others. The last thing you want to worry about is ICE bursting in and shooting you for failing to correctly show submission to their aggression. I made great efforts to talk to as many workers as possible and to try to get along with the other workers I was supposed to be competing with. After two weeks I was told that Friday is my last day. Thursday I called the human resources manager and they confirmed. I decided to write a flyer explaining that I wanted to work there, how I had come to work there through my work with the ICE rapid response teams, how we shouldn’t be forced to compete for one job, and supporting internationalism. I distributed the flyer on the factory floor. This was very much inspired by past Progressive Labor Party (PLP) fightbacks I had read about. It has been three weeks, and I am still working there and so is one other temp hired with me. So never think the boss’s word is the last word. If you build a base in the working class you can protect yourself from retribution. The following is an excerpt from the flyer.

The workers say it is a good company to work for because there is job security, there are Christmas and New Years bonuses, there are raises, and there is health insurance. Yet the workers still suffer hardships. Some workers say they work with cats because they have scratches all up and down their arms from working. Other workers have a long and difficult commute. Compared to the workers who produce the steel and iron pipes in India, China, and Vietnam we have a high wage, but our cost of living is high as well. Most workers believe other workers make more money. Almost everyone is earning 18-23 dollars per hour at most. I would be surprised if the supervisors make more than that. The company owners made a calculation of how much profit they make from each worker. The company can hire us both! They want us to compete because they fear working class unity.

We also have a physically demanding job. Many workers say it is necessary to lift weights, exercise, and stretch after work to keep their bodies healthy. Illinois Border Patrol officer Luis Uribe received paid time off to go exercise, and he used it to kidnap women to extort and rape. Why do rapist ICE thugs get paid to exercise, but the real workers must stretch and exercise to stay physically fit on their own time? This is just one way the workers could come together to improve their lives. If the workers unite, they know what issues affect them. Workers should shape their work environment. 
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Editorial response: Germany’s crisis fuels fascism

I wanted to add two points to your analysis of the AfD’s rise. First, Germany’s export-led economy is under mounting pressure, and workers are being made to pay for the crisis. Second, as the far-right gains ground across Europe, German rearmament strengthens a state whose history shows how readily ruling classes use state power to defend their interests.

Germany’s rulers built their position on exports, cheap energy, and wage restraint. That model now faces Chinese competition, high energy costs, and years of weak domestic investment. Inflation reached 3.3 percent in September, further eroding workers’ purchasing power. The bosses call wage restraint “competitiveness.” Workers experience it as another way to make them absorb the costs of capital’s crisis (NLR Sidecar, 2026; Financial Times, 2026).

Germany’s ruling class is responding to their domestic crisis with a military buildup, justified as defense against Russia. But rearmament also strengthens the state and arms industry amid intensifying competition between capitalist powers. The European Union has benefited Germany since its inception. Should conditions change, we should not be surprised if the Germans renegotiate with force. The danger is already visible: the AfD’s leader in Saxony-Anhalt said arms production could support the party’s mass deportation drive (Reuters, September 2026).

These trends towards fascism run deep. West Germany’s history makes this danger clear. Cold War priorities weakened denazification. 

Thousands of perpetrators escaped justice, and the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial did not even begin until 1963. Former Nazi Party member Kurt Georg Kiesinger became chancellor, while former Wehrmacht officer Adolf Heusinger later chaired NATO’s Military Committee. Anti-communism helped bring former Nazis into West German institutions.

German unification also shows how workers bore the costs of capitalist restructuring. In 1990, the GDR acceded to the Federal Republic. The rapid privatization of East German firms contributed to mass job losses and lasting inequality. Workers lost control while private owners gained assets. Those inequalities help explain the AfD’s strength in the East, though they are not the only cause.

This crisis reaches beyond Germany. The AfD leads national polls, with its support strongest in the East. In France, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally leads first-round polling and is projected to reach the 2027 runoff. These parties redirect anger toward migrants instead of capital, austerity, and competition among ruling classes (Reuters, October 2026).

We need mass communist organization to resist the pull of rising fascism: fight deportations and austerity, organize across racial and national lines, and confront capital through an international party. The AfD feeds on the instability generated by a system in decline. Only a working-class movement can reach across borders to root out the deep rot of fascism in Europe.
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