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Hot Commie Summer of ‘75 Multiracial unity beats rosedale racists
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- 17 August 2025 1091 hits
The following article is a companion to Part I of our Boston ’75 series, published in the July 16th issue of CHALLENGE, which chronicled our struggle against the racist, fascist group Restore Our Alienated Rights (ROAR) in Boston during the summer of 1975. In our previous supplement to Part I, we examined the virulent expansion of ROAR into the Bronx, New York City. In this article, we examine expansion of racist groups like ROAR into the Rosedale section of Queens, where it sought to intimidate Black and Latin workers who dared to move into this segregated white neighborhood at the time—and how the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) fought back with Black and Brown workers to oppose and rout ROAR in Rosedale as well.
PLP has a long history of fighting racism in the Bronx and Queens, New York City. In 1975, racists in New York were inspired by the Boston-based group ROAR (“Restore Our Alienated Rights”), which opposed busing to end segregation in Boston’s public schools. This was a fascist, openly racist movement with a significant mass base. ROAR leaders sat on the Boston City Council. The letters “ROAR” were plastered on the windows of the Boston municipal building, and one of its organizers served on the Boston School Committee, leading the charge against school integration. Boston ROAR attempted to organize nationwide.
When Black workers are under attack, it is the duty of all workers and antiracists to stand up and fight back. Fifty years later, the fight against racist, state-sponsored violence is far from over. Like the Black workers in Cincinnati militantly organizing against Neo-Nazis, and multiracial groups of workers standing against ICE in L.A., Chicago, and Newark, we must smash racist attacks and any far-right movement. For that, we need the Progressive Labor Party (PLP)—a mass, internationalist communist party committed to militant fightback and revolution.
Beating racists in the streets
In 1973 and again in 1975 Progressive Labor Party (PLP) attacked the National Renaissance Party, an openly Nazi group, in Astoria, Queens.
In the “Battle of Steinway Street” on August 25, 1973, PLP members and friends broke up a rally by these Nazis. They had come three times before, and only the presence of cops prevented them from being driven off by local residents who were incensed by their obscene insults to Jews, Blacks, Puerto Ricans, and Catholics. The fourth time they were driven away, despite the cops.
About 40 members and friends of the PLP fought these Nazis because they understood the importance of fighting racism and anti-communism.
The action was well-planned and thought out. First, three picketers with anti-fascist signs appeared, drawing off some of the cops. Then we threw several eggs, drawing off most of the remainder of the cops. Finally the attack began and the Nazi loudspeaker system was demobilized. A multi-racial group of men and women charged. Nazi flags and signs were smashed. During a number of skirmishes the Nazis were scattered.
The only damage inflicted on our comrades and friends was caused by the cops who broke one comrade’s arm. Meanwhile a crowd of between 600 to 1000 people gathered. Many people said: “This is great. We should have done this six weeks ago.”
The cops detained one PL’er but released him when a crowd of workers chanted, “Let him go! Let him go!
PLP opposes racists in Rosedale, Queens
At the same time in Rosedale, Queens, racist white residents, organized by ROAR, attacked a group of Black teenagers as they were riding their bikes during a “bike hike” through residential Rosedale. The racists waved an American flag, chanted “Civil Rights for Whites,” and threw rocks and hurled racist insults at the Black teens. On TV news one racist said that Black families had no right to move into Rosedale “because they’re black!”
Rosedale ROAR fire bombed a home that had been bought by a Black family. When the Spencers, another Black family, moved in, a pipe bomb was thrown at their house. ROAR formed a “housing referral service” that harassed white residents who showed or sold their homes to Blacks. This “home referral service” showed houses for sale only to whites. ROAR members also tracked down former residents of Rosedale, went to their houses in their new neighborhoods, telling their neighbors not to allow non-whites to move to their new community.
ROAR did have a base, though most white Rosedale residents thought they were troublemakers and “nutjobs.” A Bill Moyers television special “Rosedale: How It Is” gave the impression that most white people in Rosedale were gutter racists. In reality, as the community group Elmont Excelsior said:
Many current and former Rosedale residents around at the time ... were very upset about how the media liked to play up the idea that the entire community was in support of ROAR’s actions (especially that Moyers documentary). This was far from the truth. Many residents tried to integrate Rosedale peacefully and were very welcoming to their new neighbors.
Rosedale residents who resisted ROAR formed the Rosedale Block Association and organized welcomes for the new residents. Nonetheless, the racists, who numbered several hundred, had to be confronted.
ROAR racists routed in Rosedale
PLP organized against a racist uprising in Queens. More than 200 members and friends of the PLP and the Committee Against Racism (CAR) marched to the house of Jerry Scala, the head of the local ROAR group. Carrying a banner which read “Multi-Racial Unity Will Smash Racism,” we picketed Scala’s home chanting antiracist slogans. Several speakers denounced ROAR and Scala, pointing out how the bosses and politicians love to see workers fighting each other instead of fighting unemployment and cutbacks and the many other attacks faced by all working people during the periodic crises of the bosses’ economy.
Several dozen cops protected Scala’s house, but very few residents of Rosedale came out to support him. News reports indicated that most residents of Rosedale were opposed to the fascists’ attacks against the Black families.
PLP played a key role in stopping the racists before they could consolidate a base. By the late ‘70s ROAR was finished in Morris Park and Rosedale, and by 1976 ROAR had ended in Boston.
Sources –from CHALLENGE:
PLP Queensites Clobber Neo-Nazi Vermin, September 20, 1973, page 11; and “PLP Chases Nazis Again,” (Astoria, Queens), May 22, 1975, page 5.
“Dump R.O.A.R. in Rosedale, Queens,” September 11, 1975, page 5.
“Racist Boycott Flops,” September 18, 1975, page 3.
“Rip Rosedale Racists” September 18, 1975, page 6
CHICAGO, August 2 – “Hitler rose, Hitler fell – Fascist scum, go to hell!” With this bold antifascist chant, a comrade kicked off a rally at a busy west side intersection today. Local members of the international communist Progressive Labor Party (PLP) organized this CHALLENGE distribution/rally as a direct response to disgusting fascist graffiti that was found on the office door of a non-profit group as well as on a Palestine solidarity mural in the neighborhood. In the span of little over an hour, we distributed close to 200 copies of CHALLENGE, made new contacts, and received small donations.
As capitalism spirals worldwide into a deeper economic and political crisis, the bosses are going to be forced to resort to more open fascist attacks to discipline not only the working class but also other factions of bosses. This is not mainly a voluntary “choice” made by specific politicians such as Donald Trump, but is a necessary stage of capitalism when international competition between countries becomes so severe that the bosses of different regions are forced to tighten the noose to prepare for wider war.
Building the mass international PLP and fighting for communist revolution is the only way to stop fascism and imperialist war dead in their tracks. In the inevitable struggles and revolutions to come, the international working class will again defeat fascism and finally destroy the deadly capitalist system it grows out of. What we do today plants the seeds for a future worker-run society free of racism, exploitation, and war.
Fascism more than an individual – it’s capitalism in crisis
Many workers across Chicago were enraged to wake up on July 20 to learn of the fascist graffiti spray painted on the buildings (Block Club Chicago, 7/20). The racist filth was especially jarring considering the higher concentrations of Black and Latin workers who live and work around this neighborhood. As if dealing with threats of state violence in the form of ICE raids or kkkop terror weren’t enough, it’s unacceptable to have to deal with such sickening imagery put on by local gutter racists.
The pathetic racist goon who was responsible for the vandalism was eventually arrested about a week later and charged with felonies, but as communists and antiracist fighters, we were hardly satisfied with that outcome. Emboldened by our experiences in the recent PLP summer project in Boston as well as PLP members and friends in the state of Kentucky recently beating down the fascist Proud Boys (see CHALLENGE, 7/30), we knew we needed a militant response in the face of this attack.
During today’s rally, speeches were given in both Spanish and English denouncing the growing fascist attacks against workers and calling on our class to fight back with multiracial unity. A comrade on the bullhorn explained how fascist ideas and violence are rearing their ugly heads not just in the attitudes and actions of individuals but more broadly how fascism reflects the needs of the capitalist profit system and its rulers to terrorize and subdue our class as we fight back against our worsening living and work conditions.
The comrade pointed out that although liberal bosses (like those who have run Chicago for decades) on their surface pay lip service to “tolerance” and inclusivity, they have proven more willing and better prepared to unleash fascism on our class than Trump and his white nationalist allies. For proof, we need to look no further than the deportation records of both Barack Obama and Joe Biden, whose numbers Trump still has yet to match (Washington Post, 7/18). Their ability to mislead and deceive genuine antiracist workers while raining misery on us is why the Party identifies liberals as the main danger to our class.
Many workers walked up to us to directly thank us for being out and sharing our messages, while more drove past honking their horns and raising their fists out the window in support. Our antiracist revolutionary messaging was registering loud and clear!
Up with communist revolution!
An essential takeaway from today’s action was the importance of being bold and confronting racism and fascism head on. The international working class is the only force that is capable of radically transforming society for the better, and we can never rely on the bosses or their laws to defeat or even slow down fascism, especially as the same bosses are using fascism to try and save their profit system.
Actions like today, even when small, show the way the working class and its mass PLP advance towards the egalitarian world we need and deserve. We are ready to build this fight with our working-class siblings in Chicago and everywhere else! Down with fascism, up with communist revolution!
WORCESTER, MA July 17 – This summer, members of the Boston area Progressive Labor Party (PLP) chapters hosted a commemoration of the Boston’75 Summer Project. In the summer of 1975, PLP organized over 150 volunteers to join the successful Freedom Ride to Boston in the spirit of building multiracial working-class unity. People came from across the country to oppose the racist policies of the Boston City Council and the violent segregationist movement.
In the spirit of that solidarity, the Worcester PLP club, along with our Boston comrades from near and far, had a militant anti-ICE demonstration on July 17. Just before our demonstration, a silent vigil in for Congressman John Lewis was held, and we invited those attendees to join us in our fight. We rallied against the racist deportations of our working class brothers and sisters in Worcester, and against the ongoing genocide in Gaza by the Israeli fascists and U.S. imperialists.
Militant antiracism in full force!
On the steps of City Hall, we gathered about 25 PLP members from Kentucky, New York, Los Angeles, and beyond. Our contingent of young people added their militant voices to the rally and march. Our chants of “Asian, Latin, Black, and White, Workers of the World Unite!” were well received, as well as our most popular rallying cry: ” ICE Out of Worcester Now!” The bilingual chants in Spanish, led by new PLP members, were met with cheers from people driving by. Some of our signs in Spanish said: “Fuera ICE!”, and “Alto a las Deportaciones! Unidad entre Trabajadores!”
PLP members gave speeches in front of both City Hall and the Federal Courthouse about topics ranging from the role of the KKKops in supporting state-sanctioned violence against workers, to the inability of the Democratic Party to bring about radical change, including their role in channeling anti-fascist action against ICE and the Trump administration into support for liberal fascism. As we marched to the park behind City Hall, led by our anti-ICE banner, cars honked their horns in support.
Sharing experiences
After our rallies and march, we wanted space for PLP members to reflect on their experiences during the summer project, and to further build unity among members from across the country. Some workers who saw us marching came by and spoke with us about how happy they were to see us here. We shared our pizza with them, discussed their experiences organizing in the city, and distributed our flyer and issues of CHALLENGE to them. We took their names and plan to contact them in order to mobilize more of the community against ICE’s fascist terror.
The Boston Summer Project involved a lot of effort and time in planning the demonstration, marches, food, and literature distribution. It was a real collective effort across both the Boston and Worcester PLP chapters. Of course, none of this would have ever been successful without the enthusiastic participation of the PLP members who flew in from around the country to advance the banner of communist revolution.
50 years after the Boston ‘75 summer project, the struggle continues!
On the last night of the Summer Project the participants watched Lily’s Education, a play set in 2018 during Trump’s first term. Most of the actors were recruited from Chelsea HS where a comrade teaches and it was performed in Chelsea too, an immigrant community that’s been at the brunt of ICE’s terror.
Lily’s Education tells the story of a recent HS graduate who wants to go to college. When she applies for financial aid, she discovers she’s undocumented. This sets the plot in motion. Lily’s mother, Lupe, fled El Salvador with her infant daughter when she herself was a teenager. The stress Lupe experiences as a single mom keeps her laser focused on saving money to buy a house, which gives her hope in life. Lily, too, is determined to have a meaningful life. Her job at a supermarket teaches her about class and exploitation and solidarity—how to rely on fellow workers. When ICE raids their workplace, she learns that workers can unite and defend themselves.
Through Lily and her mother, the audience experiences the terror of Trump’s attacks on undocumented workers. Mother and daughter figure out how to work together despite their colliding goals. Lily's ability to transcend obstacles presents an empowering vision that can counter the fear and powerlessness that so many workers are struggling with today. The play shows what happens to a working class immigrant family when the cards are stacked against them and they are overextended with not enough support. It shows the destructive impact of the government’s racist anti-immigrant policies and how government policies, like DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), are politically motivated to keep immigrants oppressed, and divide the “good immigrants” (the young ones who can build the U.S. economy) from the “bad immigrants” (who have a harder time assimilating).
Culture reflects reality. Under capitalism, it’s presented through the eyes of our exploiters, to promote cynicism, individualism, and escapism. Our movement needs to produce more of our own working class culture to build unity, solidarity and the spirit of resistance. We hope to stage the play again, at Chelsea HS and other parts of the community where we have a political base. We invite others to use the play and modify it as needed to fit their local circumstances. Our party should develop its use of culture and other creative means to engage others in political discussion. If you’d like a copy of the script or a video of the recording, contact
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Letter: From suffering alone to struggling together
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- 17 August 2025 604 hits
I was lucky enough to make it to this year's PLP Summer Project and had a great time. I was only recently introduced to the Party, so this was diving into the deep end for me, but the entire time I felt very welcome. It was incredibly inspiring to see an intergenerational struggle that is this well organized.
Speaking to the comrades who attended the 1975 project was one of the first times I’ve been exposed to leftist organizing in such a pragmatic manner rather than an exercise in theory. Hearing their stories of standing together in the face of violent racism gave me a framework of how we can push back against the transgressions we see mounting daily as ICE careens down a path of hostile militancy.
More than anything else, the biggest takeaway of this experience for me is simply that there is hope. Suffering is inevitable when alone, but struggle is possible when we unite- and with enough struggle we may finally find ourselves free of our chains. Until now, I had mistaken my suffering to be equivalent to struggle. Hearing and seeing what it takes to unite, fight, and win opened my eyes to this difference. As I move forward conducting myself in this struggle, I know this experience will help guide me.
