LOS ANGELES, September 7—The worldwide multiracial, antiracist upsurge in the wake of the police murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others was a positive development for the international working class. The mass rebellions and flurry of protests activated countless previously-passive antiracists, and became possibly the largest worldwide movement against racism in recent history. These mass actions gave revolutionary communists an enormous opportunity to expose how racism is endemic to the capitalist system, and that it can never be eliminated without the violent overthrow of the ruling class that profits from it (see front page).   
But, we must also be clear about who leads this movement—the main wing of the U.S. ruling class. The actions of the masses were quickly misled into electoral politics by groups loyal to the Big Fascists (see glossary, page 6).These Big Fascists are the dominant finance capitalist faction of the U.S. ruling class. They are also the imperialists who are trying to defend their worldwide empire against competition from Chinese and Russian imperialists.
We must attack the capitalist leadership, expose the limits of reform, and show the need for a communist revolution. In the mass movement against police violence, that means pointing out the fundamental role of the police under capitalism: to preserve the private property of the capitalist class, protect the profits they reap from the exploitation of the labor power of the working class, and terrorize workers from fighting back.
Liberal racist push pro-cop bills
In the aftermath of the rebellions, calls for “defunding (or dismantling) the police”, “reimagining policing”, and “investing in the community” emanated from the mouths of Democratic Party politicians, including some prominent leaders of liberal-faced fascism, congressperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) and Vice-President Kamala Harris, among others. These public statements were meant to quell the militancy of the movement and mislead honest antiracists into supporting now-President Joe Biden and the Democrats in the 2020 elections.
With the help of the capitalist media, an organ of class rule, the Democrats were largely successful in getting many people off the streets, and into the voting booths. CNN, MSNBC, and other liberal media had attacked the Small Fascist (see glossary, page 6) President Donald Trump and promoted Biden’s candidacy, and a few highly-publicized prosecutions of particularly grisly murders by cop terrorists.
Now, there is a competition between Republicans and Democrats over who is more pro-cop. This battle has included attacks on Republican Senators and Congresspeople for opposing president Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan (ARP), which restored funding that had been cut during the pandemic to hundreds of police departments all over the U.S., and brazen support for pro-cop Republican amendments to Biden’s $3.5 trillion federal budget plan.
When openly racist Senator Tommy Tuberville from Alabama proposed an amendment to the budget resolution requiring the “defunding” of any local government entity that has the audacity to vote to shift money from police budgets to social services, New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker got up on the Senate floor to hug Tuberville.
A “reach across the aisle” that boldly communicated Black and Latin working-class lives will never matter to ruling-class leadership. Booker thanked Tuberville for his “gift”, which he said would allow the Democratic Party to “put to bed this scurrilous accusation that” anybody in the Senate “would want to defund the police.” The Senate then voted 99-0 to adopt Tuberville’s amendment (Forbes, 8/11).   
When right-wing Missouri Senator Josh Hawley proposed a budget amendment to fund the hiring of 100,000 more cops by cities and counties, the Dems voted overwhelmingly (95-3) to adopt that one, too (Intelligencer at nymag.com, August 13). Not wanting there to be any confusion about the liberal bosses’ history of abject pro-cop advocacy, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin pointed out during debate that Hawley’s funding plan was merely an extension of a program established through 1994 legislation spearheaded by then-Senator Biden and signed into law under former President Bill Clinton (Forbes, 8/11).
Old ‘Jim Crow’ Biden
The Republican-Democratic unanimity in these votes harkened back to Biden’s love affair with two powerful segregationist Senators, Democrat James O. Eastland, and Republican Strom Thurmond. Biden’s sordid history of support for racist cop terror and mass incarceration goes back decades (NY Times, 6/5/19).
Starting in 1984, Biden, in concert with his two openly racist pals, engineered three major federal crime bills that both led to large increases in a disproportionately Black and Latin federal jail population, and encouraged states to tighten the police state in their own jurisdictions. These laws included the infamous “100 to one” disparity in the amount of powder compared to crack cocaine sufficient to trigger mandatory minimum sentences, which led to much longer federal jail sentences for predominately Black defendants. Other bills legalized “civil asset forfeiture,” allowing cop and prosecutor seizures of cash, cars, etc. before a criminal conviction, and increased federal penalties for drug possession (Vox, 6/20/19).
The liberal bosses’ disgusting racism on a national level has been mirrored in state and local legislative bodies. For example, in California, Democrats hold a supermajority of seats in both the State Senate and Assembly, allowing them to pass legislation without any Republican support, and have held the governorship for a decade. To buy off the hundreds of thousands in California who hit the streets after the murder of George Floyd, some “progressive” Democrats introduced “police reform” bills.
If they had passed, they would have at best played a minor role in reining in cop terror. Examples of changes: the bills would have authorized cutting back on tear gas and rubber bullets, allowing more access to police records, and “decertification” of brutal cops fired from one department who try to get hired as cops elsewhere. But, “under the pressure of intense lobbying by” police unions, Democratic legislators “publically sympathetic to the cause but privately circumspect” blocked any of the bills from being voted on (LA Times, 9/2/20). These changes do not change the fundamental oppressive relationship of the police to the working class.
In 2020, amid mass demonstrations against police murders in Los Angeles and a great deal of hoopla about “reimagining policing” by some Democratic council people here, the Council voted to transfer some funds from the LAPD to social services and mental health “initiatives.”
All that changed this year.
The Council ratified Mayor Eric Garcetti’s proposed three percent increase in LAPD funding, voting 15-0 to give part of LA’s pandemic-rescue-plan funds to the cops. (LA Times, 5/21) The unanimous vote included Councilperson Nithya Raman, a self-proclaimed “Democratic Socialist” (read: Fascist).
The liberal bosses are attempting to build back some legitimacy in their racist institutions. Posturing as friends of antiracists is part of their move as warmakers. The bosses are in desperate need of a population willing to fight in the coming war against their rivals China and Russia (see editorial, page 2).   
The capitalist class will never allow its front-line defenders to be defunded or abolished. A communist revolution will abolish the theft of wage slavery, a crime for which the capitalists will be found guilty as charged.

Hurricane Ida ripped through the U.S. and exposed once again the utter failure of capitalism to provide even the most basic necessities for millions of workers. The latest in a long and rapidly growing list of capitalist-created disasters, the system’s breakdown in the wake of Ida has killed nearly 100 people, many drowned in their homes, left over a million without power for more than a week, and hundreds of thousands more without drinking water. While the wealthy centers of New Orleans and New York were left relatively unscathed, the working-class areas where many Black, immigrant and poor white workers live took the brunt of the damage.
As the bosses fight in their tug of war for control, no outcome will serve the interests of our class. Only a communist society based on workers' power can put the needs of the masses front and center. The urgency in mobilizing our class to fight for communist revolution grows with each capitalist-created disaster, pandemic, war or financial crisis.
Hurricane Ida hit the U.S.in Louisiana and took out the majority of the state’s power system. In the Northeast, workers were left unwarned as flash floods hit. The ruling class has crowed that the levees built over the last 15 years kept New Orleans from completely flooding, but many workers were again left stranded. This time without electricity or drinking water. Over a week later, over a million are without electricity indefinitely (NY Times, 9/7).
New Orleans: bosses sacrifice the working class
As the crisis of capitalism deepens, the ruling class  is more openly sacrificing the working class. First, they leave millions to die from Covid-19. Now, with capitalist climate disasters and crumbling infrastructure, they allow workers to die from thirst, heat, and drowning.
In Louisiana the massive damage to the power grid and water system from Ida was preventable. The ruling class spent $14 billion dollars to insufficiently fortify the levee system around New Orleans and did nothing to strengthen the power grid or protect the drinking water system. The new levee system around New Orleans represents only part of what engineers determined was needed, is already eroding, and was breached at least once (Curbed, 9/2). The advice to New Orleans residents from “their” Mayor was “don’t come back” (NYT, 8/31).
Just outside of New Orleans in working-class areas, people were left at the mercy of the hurricane without upgraded levees. LaPlace, a mainly Black town adjacent to New Orleans, flooded more than ever. People there blamed the new system protecting New Orleans for the flooding that destroyed their homes (NPR, 8/31).
NYC: capitalism thrives on poverty housing
The New York City area was inundated with flash floods: thousands caught in their cars, subway system, and basement apartments (NYT, 9/3). Many of the 60, so far, people who have died in the New York City area drowned after being trapped in their apartments. Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands live in basement apartments due to exorbitant housing costs (NYT, 9/7).
New York’s economy depends on extremely high housing costs and low wage service workers. Instead of ensuring affordable, safe housing for the working class, the city’s bosses and officials look the other way as workers live in unofficial basement apartments that became death traps when flash floods hit the area and the city and state’s emergency notification system failed to warn people (NYT, 9/7).
Workers’ power replaces profit motive with working-class needs
The driving force behind the extreme weather, broken infrastructure and lack of emergency planning is the profit system. Capitalism is to blame. The world has the technology and knowledge to prepare for hurricanes and protect people from death. But capitalism, driven by the profit motive, ensnares people in a system that will always, at the end of the day, put the bosses’ profits first.
We need a society that prioritizes the needs of the working class, which is possible only when we eliminate profits and run society. Our class will be abandoned and sacrificed on a larger and larger scale as the capitalists navigate infrastructure disasters while preparing for world war. We can respond to their crisis by building a movement for communist revolution and a society based on workers’ power. You need to join PLP.

BROOKLYN, September 4—“Same enemy, same fight! Workers of the world, unite!” rang through the streets of Flatbush neighborhood. As the bosses’ racist attacks on workers in Haiti continue unabated, more than 30 members and friends of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) unfurled banners in solidarity with our working-class sisters and brothers in Haiti today. We expressed anti-imperialist and internationalist politics and brought a message of revolutionary hope. Not false hope through elections or fake leftist misleaders, but through confidence in the international working class to one day overthrow this vicious racist imperialist system. And build a communist world–without nations, borders, the ever-present threat of war, and profit-driven disasters.
Learning to fight collectively
A PLP club at the  City University of New York (CUNY), with little collective experience, planned a successful rally and  learned rich lessons. We began reaching out to students and staff from several CUNY campuses and friends made in the #SOSColombia movement (see CHALLENGE, 9/8). We also had several study groups that drew connections between U.S. imperialism and racism in Israel-Palestine, Colombia and Haiti, using CHALLENGE articles to anchor each discussion.
The use of a Colombian death squad to assassinate Haiti’s president illustrated yet another blatant example of the relationship between U.S. imperialism and fascism in Colombia and Haiti. Building international working-class solidarity has been a focal point of our discussions and actions, especially following the devastating earthquake and hurricane.
Days before the rally, two comrades posted 200 flyers along Flatbush Avenue and Church Avenue. Passersby gave enthusiastic support. We made new contacts, saw old friends, and sold CHALLENGE along the way.
Internationalism and food fuel our movement
Before the rally, we held a covid-safe  banner making party. We shared a delicious spread of pizza and home-cooked food including Haitian-style pasta and pikliz. This nourished a debate over elections, reform versus communist revolution, and the connections between workers in Colombia and Haiti.
While many disagreements remain, we were in agreement on the urgent need for smashing racism, and fighting for internationalism. This helped decide the slogans for our banners and we began painting to the music of Colombia’s Joe Arroyo and Haiti’s Emeline Michel. The banners read, “Smash Imperialism from: U.S. to China to Russia” and “Solidarity with Workers in Haiti—Smash Racism!”
Haiti means FIGHT BACK!
When we unfurled our banners in this working-class Caribbean neighborhood, some cars honked and workers raised their fists in support. We carried posters demanding COVID-19 vaccines and immediate aid sent to Haiti. Others carried signs connecting workers in Haiti’s fight with the striking Alabama miners, and with miners in Colombia and Haiti.
We distributed 500 CHALLENGEs. To conclude our rally, we marched on the sidewalks and finally took over a street lane with chants of “Asian, Latin, Black and white! Workers of the world unite!” and “Koupe tèt, boule kay!” (cut off their [bosses’] heads, burn down their houses in Kreyol).
Lessons learned
We are learning how to fight for solidarity and working class internationalism, while exposing our common enemy, imperialism. We’re learning how to build toward revolution through regular study groups, social events, and protests.
Most of all we learned that as U.S. imperialism declines and marches our class toward World War III, we need to be bolder in bringing our politics to the international working class. Workers are looking for answers. We are building communist revolution through practice, making mistakes, and growing.

NEW YORK CITY, September 8—As a new school year begins, working-class students and families are again faced with dangerous lose-lose conditions created by capitalism in crisis. Rising numbers of Covid-19 cases, crumbling school buildings, and a demand to return to business as usual threaten the lives of students, their families, and education workers. This is unfolding as the shortcomings of U.S. imperialism in Afghanistan, next door to their main rival China, are on full display to the world (See Editorial, page 2). This school year, let’s continue to build student-worker-parent solidarity and turn crises into opportunities to build a culture of fightback for communist ideas and culture.
A divided U.S. ruling class united in contempt for workers’ lives
Led by President Joe Biden, the finance capitalist Big Fascists are trying to create a more unified approach to schooling. The Small-Fascist Republicans are more domestically oriented and isolationist. In states like Florida and Tennessee the governors attacked smaller city governments that pushed for more vaccinations and use of masks in schools. In response the U.S. Department of Education launched civil rights investigations and lawsuits to block the attacks.
It’s a deadly mistake to think that Biden, the federal courts, or local Democratic politicians in cities like New York and Los Angeles, are motivated to protect the safety of the working class. As the dominant grouping since World War II, these Big Fascists were the architects of the liberal world order with the U.S. bosses on top. Their dominance rests on U.S. financial and military power and its strategic control of the Middle East and the flow of oil to Europe, Asia, and Africa. To maintain this dominance against their rivals, the Big Fascists need a future generation of workers, soldiers, and managers that are willing to fight and die for this unequal system.  
A “lost generation” disillusioned and unfit for this task will hinder their ability to wage such a war. Liberals’ phony, silver-tongued appeals to workers that “we are all in this together” and empty assurances that “we are ready” show that the liberal wing is the main danger to the working class.They are just as ready as ever to have workers die from both Covid-19 and World War III for their long-term profits.
The blatant disregard for workers’ lives shown by both wings of the U.S. ruling class is a hallmark of rising fascism. Capitalists of any stripe are workers’ enemies.
Fight to learn, learn to fight
Capitalist schooling trains us to treat the working class as expendable. We are taught to accept that some workers and youth will be homeless, unemployed, homeless, incarcerated, or killed. Education workers are habituated to accept some dropouts, suspensions, and failure as unavoidable. Capitalist schools also teach patriotism and build loyalty to U.S. imperialism. If millions of youth question capitalism, while the façade of stability crumbles, imperialists will have a harder time winning workers to fight a war against China. Thus as students and education workers fight to learn, they must also learn to fight a capitalist system that fails our class daily.
Even before the pandemic, capitalist schools were unsafe: suspensions, crumbling toxic-filled walls, unhealthy cafeteria food, racist police criminalizing Black and Latin students. The Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked additional havoc on student learning. Students have learned even less under these conditions and the bosses plans to catch students up will be plagued with cracks and holes for working-class students to fall through.
Communists and many antiracist education workers refuse to accept this fate. We know the working class is full of fighters, and that whether remote or in-person, education workers and students must use the sharp study of math, science, history and language to understand the racist poison of capitalism and the need for a new, communist society.
Education workers must fight back alongside their students and parents against the bosses’ system, which has set our class up to fail in what will certainly be a tough school year. Every rotten aspect of capitalist schools reinforces the same lesson for us: a system that can’t educate and care for its youth does not deserve to exist, and we must learn together what it will take to smash it.Join the fight with PLP!