The U.S. presidential election—still undecided as we go to press—is exposing the chaos, decay, and decline of the U.S. ruling class for all the world to see. As arch-racists Donald Trump and Joe Biden jockey for power on behalf of the capitalist bosses’ two warring camps, and vigilante “poll watchers” storm the counting center in Detroit, the end game isn’t likely to be pretty. The world has changed since 2000, when the Democrats gave up on Al Gore and both parties still played for the same team. The stakes are much higher. The future of U.S. capitalism, the legitimacy of its democracy, the fate of the liberal world order—all may hang in the balance.
The U.S. empire is in free fall. As the pandemic rages unchecked in the U.S. and much of Europe, imperialist rival China, already the world’s largest economy, is gaining ground by the day. The isolationist domestic energy bosses—led by the Koch and Mercer families, with Trump as their pathological front man—have hijacked the Republican Party and its base of white racists and nationalist thugs. The liberal finance capital globalists—the blood-stained bosses who have ruled the roost since World War II—are on the ropes. Which makes them even more dangerous than before.
But while we can’t predict the final outcome of the capitalists’ election charade, there is much we do know:
We know that capitalism breeds alienation. Despite a record-breaking election turnout, roughly one of three eligible voters—about 80 million workers—decided not to vote  (USA Today, 11/3). Millions more went to the polls holding their noses, out of fear and loathing of Trump. They see Biden for the criminal he is: friend of gutter segregationists and killer cops, architect of racist mass incarceration, Middle East warmonger, and loyal wingman to Deporter in Chief Barack Obama.
We know that no matter who wins the election, the needs of capitalism will propel the U.S. to fascism and inter-imperialist war. After the bosses get their own house in order, and one wing smashes the other, they will escalate their murderous attacks on our class.
We know that the profit system, no matter who becomes president, can’t protect workers’ health and lives. For decades, Democrats and Republicans alike have shut down hospitals and gutted resources for public health. It’s the same story worldwide, which is why hundreds of thousands are dying of Covid-19 in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe.
Most of all, we know that it’s more vital than ever to join and build Progressive Labor Party (PLP), to organize the international working class into a fighting force to destroy capitalism for all time.
Evil yes, lesser no
Leading up to the election, the liberal bosses drowned us in a message of lesser-evil politics. Though Biden wasn’t perfect, they admitted, all that mattered was getting  rid of the outrageously racist, sexist, and incompetent Trump. But in the current period, when the bosses can no longer govern in the old way, the job of the U.S. president—regardless of party or personality—is to manage the deepening contradictions of their system. For the bosses, fascism isn’t a matter of choice; it’s a necessity of capitalism in crisis.  The difference between the rulers’ two camps is strategic. The forces behind Trump, focused on short-term profits, are using open racism to mislead white workers, divide our class, and build a defensive, predominantly white, “Fortress America” armed forces. Biden’s backers, the finance capitalists, seek to defend their embattled empire with a multicultural, patriotic movement and military that might prevail in a war with China.
The presidential election circus has exposed the fierce fight between these factions. The events of recent weeks reveal a U.S. ruling class in shambles: Trump’s refusal to agree to the bosses’ sacred “peaceful transition of power”; the Republicans’ naked hypocrisy as they ramrodded anti-abortion zealot Amy Coney Barrett onto the Supreme Court; the fake moralizing from both sides about the other’s corruption. The upshot is a loss of legitimacy: “[T]he very concept of public trust in an established set of facts necessary for the operation of a democratic society has eroded during [Trump’s] tenure with potentially long-term ramifications” (New York Times, 11/1).  
The liberal finance capitalists know that this lack of confidence by workers will doom their chances to defeat their imperialist rivals. They see this election as an opportunity to restore their power and save their system. They’ve used Jim Crow Joe Biden and Top Cop Kamala Harris to try to convince workers of the lie that capitalist reforms can eliminate racist police terror, economic ruin, imperialist war, and climate catastrophe.
The working class fights back
History tells us that positive change for workers is generated by class struggle and militant mass movements, not by voting. Slavery and Jim Crow, sexist employment and abortion laws, unlimited work weeks and legalized child labor—all were defeated through class struggle. Workers didn’t vote in the advances of the civil rights movement. They didn’t vote to annihilate the Nazis—or to defeat the U.S. war machine in Vietnam. In every case, masses of courageous workers fought their way to victory, often under the leadership of communists. Unfortunately, none of these historic battles struck at the heart of capitalism. As a result, nearly all of their gains have been reversed. PLP urges all workers to fight back—on the job, in the streets, in the schools. But we also need to transform reform struggles into an attack on the whole capitalist system.
In place of capitalism, we will build a communist society designed to serve workers’ needs, not the bosses and their profit system. Workers are the ones who create all value! We’re the ones who run the machines, fly the planes, care for the sick, teach our young. We can run society better than the bosses because we’ve been doing the real work all along.  In a communist society, profit and money will be abolished. Everyone will be decently housed, fed, and clothed. In a worker-led society, racism and sexism—the capitalists’ essential tools to divide and exploit us—will be outlawed. Our communities will be integrated and freed of borders. While individuals will be developed to their full potential, collectivity will be primary. As workers gain the time to explore and harness new skills, instead of being worked to death for the bosses’ profits, creativity will flourish. Science will be used to create a healthy  environment and advance all society.
The past six months prove that the working class has lost none of its fighting spirit. We’re still fighting for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Walter Wallace Jr., Marcellis Stinnette, and so many more. We’re fighting against all the racist inequalities ingrained in this rotten capitalist system. Whether or not you decided to vote, you have a more important decision in front of you: to fight back on your job, at your school, in your neighborhood. And the most important decision of all is to join the PLP, to help create a world where the Trumps and Bidens and their masters will never have power again.

PHILADELPHIA, October 31—When the kkkops fired 14 shots and murdered our class brother Walter Wallace Jr., over a dozen workers answered the Progressive Labor Party’s call to bring solidarity to the masses of protesters here. This action reaffirmed the necessity of multiracial unity and international communist politics as a pivotal force for smashing racist terror. In PLP, we fight to win ourselves and the working class to build class consciousness through the lessons learned from participating in antiracist working class uprisings.
While the bosses’ media agressively promotes voting, politics based on identity, and racist divisions workers in Philly fought back against the racist murder-by-kkkop of  27-year-old Walter. Suffering from a mental episode, he needed medical workers, not the Klan-in-Blue. . This, along with the  intensifying racist conditions in Philadelphia, sparked a rebellion ending in the destruction of the bosses’ property.
Days before the election, presidential candidate Jim Crow Joe Biden turned his back on the masses in Philly when asked about his thoughts on looting at the nearby Walmart (NPR, 10/28).
Communists say workers’ actions are a reaction to the looting or violence” that the ruling class inflicts on the international working class every day. Rightfully so, during the fiercest nights of the uprisings workers ripped down Biden signs making the connection that capitalist democracy cannot challenge police terror.
From Nigeria to Philadelphia, Black workers around the world are  leading the fight of  the international working class to make the link between racist police terror and capitalism. This revolutionary working class impulse will be attacked by one set of bosses against another unless this fight to smash the bosses’ imperialist, militarized policing is transformed into an international working class fight for communism.
Mass appeal of revolutionary communist CHALLENGE
An #EndSARS protest of more than 100 workers in Newark on October 17 boosted the confidence of NJ PL’ers planning our gathering in Philadelphia. The terror that Walter Wallace Jr.’s family and community is facing mirrors the state-funded repression families battle within Nigeria. In Nigeria the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) has kidnapped, raped, beaten and held hundreds of workers for ransom and killed them and their families if they failed to meet their extortionary demands.
 In Philadelphia, Cathy Wallace had called an ambulance to help with her son who was having a mental health crisis and the parasitic capitalist system’s response was armed police. The furious uprising that resulted was met with hovering helicopters, and the Democrat Mayor Jim Kenney imposing a curfew on the city twice and bringing in the National Guard.
PLP’s main contribution at both protests was to share CHALLENGE newspaper and communist ideas promoting revolutionary, class-based multiracial unity. A PL’er told a worker, “You and I, as Nigerian and Mexican workers, have more in common with each other than we do with the rich in either country. Whenever any of us are attacked, all of the international working class has to rise up. That’s what this paper is about.”
The worker from Nigeria encouraged this message to be repeated on the mic in front of the crowd. In Philly, 100 copies of CHALLENGE were distributed among a multiracial group of 1,000 workers. Our chants “From Philly to Nigeria, Racist KKKops Have Got To Go” and “Asian, Latin, Black, and White—To Smash Racism, We must Unite'' emboldened other angry workers around us to fire up their voices.
Black and Latin working class families responded with cheers from porches and sidewalks in response to the antiracist chants and newspapers.
Multiracial unity is how we win
After the protest, an article from a previous issue of CHALLENGE was used to spark conversation around identity politics. Black, white and Latin workers conducted a study group, offering questions around Black leadership and a collective analysis of identity politics.
We struggled over whether politics with a class analysis should be primary. Identity-based leaders will only cycle workers into electoral politics and nationalism. New Jersey’s Ras Baraka, Chicago’s Lori Lightfoot, Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Jim Crow Joe Biden and Top KKKop Kamala Harris are no friends of our class. They only serve to win us over to nationalism and convince us to support U.S. bosses’ in wars against their inter-imperialist rivals.
Communist politics mean nothing without base building
Regardless of who did or did not submit their vote for the lesser of two evils, the capitalist system will continue to hold workers’s consciousness captive. Many workers—from Philly to Newark to Nigeria—are temporarily invested in liberal politricks and believe that those who fight to smash this system are naive. So base building in our communities for a long term struggle towards communist revolution is key. We must struggle and share communist ideas more frequently, not just react to the boss’s most intense attacks. Rise together and revolt. Join PLP today!

Los Angeles, October 17—Dozens of workers militantly took to the streets to protest the racist police murder of David Flores by kkkiller kops Andrew Do and Bryan Tahuite of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). In a magnificent show of solidarity, four other families of workers who have been murdered by these killers, came out to speak and support following the strong leadership of working-class women.
In the two days before our rally and march, the LAPD and the LA Sheriff’s Department each killed two more workers. Despite massive multi-racial marches against racist cop terror in the LA area all summer, these ruling class-serving thugs continue to brutalize our class. Mass anti-racist actions are inspiring and essential. But, without a revolutionary communist outlook and plan for taking down and smashing the capitalist system itself, we will never achieve true justice for our class. The Progressive Labor Party (PLP) aspires to do just that!
Families, workers, PL’ers fight for Flores to build antiracist movement
David Flores was the first person in his family to graduate high school and go on to college. He worked two construction jobs to support his two sons. Like many other workers, David’s children were his inspiration and the reason he struggled so hard to make ends meet. His mother, Teresa, has taken up the fight for justice for her son.
Our protest began at the corner near where kkkops murdered David back on April 22, 2019. Workers warmly received us in this mostly Black and Latin neighborhood. As we rallied, passing cars slowed down to listen to our speeches, honked, and took copies of our flyer and CHALLENGE.
After our rally, about 30 of us began our march and caravan to the Southeast Station. As we approached, three kkkops approached us and tried to shut us down. However, a swarm of enraged and loud family members, PLPers, and protestors quickly surrounded the kkkops. Within minutes, they made a tactical retreat behind the automatic gate of their parking lot.
As we blocked the gate with our numbers, the cops frequently warned us in English and Spanish to leave or face arrest. We stood our ground. Three young workers who lived across the street began vigorously chanting “Black Lives Matter”. We called out the contemptuous kkkops, who smirked at our chants. Meanwhile, we distributed literature and talked with workers who lived near the station. Several filmed  our action. They were unanimous in their support.
 Family members from each of the other four victims’ families spoke on the bullhorn. The horrendous stories of their losses are heartbreaking, but, working-class anger predominated in response to their impassioned calls for justice. After two hours of rallying and shutting down the parking lot exit, we accomplished our goals for the day. We pledged to continue the battle to smash racism and, before leaving, warned  the Southeast Station cops that they had not seen the last of us.
KKKops and kkkourts: partners in racist terror
Three days later, the weekly meeting of the Los Angeles Police Commission (LAPC) was scheduled to discuss the November 19, 2019 murder of Alex Flores. The LAPC basically rubber stamps police murders. They discuss the cases in “closed session.” It is exceedingly rare for a killer cop to be disciplined when they murder one of our class.The LA City Attorney no doubt advises the LAPC to avoid findings that would in any way aid families filing civil rights lawsuits against the cops and the City.
Alex’s family was determined to tell their story to the LAPC, PLPers and others joined them online. We witnessed a racist travesty. The LAPC said the day before that it would allot the family a total of 10  minutes to speak. But they were cut off after only six by the Commissioners sitting in their posh offices because we hadn’t supplied them with the names of the family speakers the prior day. We notified them in advance that translation was needed for Alex’s mother and father. Of course there was a “technical problem” and they didn’t have translation services available. A substituted board secretary mangled what Alex’s parents said, her translation deliberately leaving out statements like “all cops are racist”.
Many other speakers supported the Flores family’s struggles and sharply attacked the LAPC for persistently condoning the cops murders. But the klan-in-blue also organized themselves and their friends to speak. They attacked Alex and his family as “gang members”, among other disgusting slanders. These are the same racist LAPD cops whose fellow officers have recently been exposed as fraudulently adding thousands of mainly Black and Latin youth to the “CalGang'' statewide database, subjecting targeted youth to enhanced charges.
PLP must continue to help lead the battle for justice for the family of Alex Flores and many others. The mainly women workers who lead these campaigns defy the sexist gender roles that capitalism imposes on our class. They are strong, smart and dedicated organizers of working-class fightback against racism. Through this work, more people understand the true role of the police in a capitalist society and see PLP as leading the fight against their murders. Communist ideas will become more widespread and the Party will grow. Only a communist society can eliminate the bosses’ armed goons who protect private property and preserve the rule of the capitalists.

COLOMBIA, November 1—In recent days, the working class has marched and protested once again. This is in response to the racist murders of over 150 social leaders this year and the recurrent police terror. While the rulers offer our class identity politics, we need nothing short of workers’ power.
Militant fighters and friends of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) participated to win workers to reject these bosses' attacks and the entire capitalist system. We distributed  more than 300 copies of our party newspaper, DESAFIO,  and organized with them to build ongoing struggles, strengthening our identity as workers and as an international revolutionary class.
In recent months, there have been 66 massacres, which led to demonstrations against the police. This response has left 15 dead and 300 injured,  100 of which were police. The mass injuries are a result of police shootings against the protesters whose only weapons are stones, sticks and banners.
As the working class takes to the streets to defend ourselves, the ruling mafias and the ruling class continue to divert more economic resources towards beefing up and arming their fascist police forces. They have also added 2,000 more to their task forces to oppress the new protests.
Limits of the reform struggle
This mass struggle is led by strike committees, women's groups, indigenous movements, peasant cooperatives, worker unions, student and artist associations, sports clubs, supportive neighbors, and political parties. The workers continue to fight in the reform struggles to demand that the bosses address their most immediate demands and the most basic of human needs. What we need is a united working-class movement under a communist leadership.
The current government of President Ivan Duqueand the fake leftists want to silence the growing workers’ struggle using national identity politics. In this way, they take advantage of the divisions between the workers, calling on us to join them in defending the bosses’ democracy. Furthermore, they want us to blame the protesters and characterize them as “destabilizing forces, guerrilla infiltrators and misfit bandits” who must be defeated with jails and bullets.
This is why we fight
The current climate is dark for our class. Under the yoke of the capitalist dictatorship, we will always receive repression and death. But our potential to build our Party and  put an end to exploitation with the demolition of capitalism and build the dictatorship of the proletariat under the ideas of PLP and its communist line is strong.
That is why in Haiti, Mexico, India, the United States, Colombia and in other areas around  the world , our Party fights  to build a  communist mass movement. We cannot rely on reforms or spontaneous uprisings alone.
That is why we must continue to work in many organizations, winning workers to break with the rotten leadership of reformists, liberals, warmongers, racists, sexists, and nationalists.
That is why, everything you do counts. Fight for communism. Join PLP.