The increasing threat of war between the U.S. and Chinese bosses is putting tremendous pressure on the U.S. ruling class to move rapidly towards fascism in the U.S (see Editorial, page 2). The use of federal police to attack protesters in Portland has brought the rise of fascism to the fore. Many people are hoping that electing presidential candidate Joe Biden and putting the liberal politicians at the helm of the Democratic Party back in control of the White House will stave off fascism. But the liberal bosses backing the Democrats are the biggest and most desperate section of a divided U.S. ruling class and will, themselves, move towards fascism as they become more desperate in the face of an increasingly volatile world situation. Electing Biden or the Democrats will not spare the working class. The only path forward as capitalism sinks deeper into crisis is the fight for communist revolution.
Fascism is the future of U.S. capitalism
Fascism arises as the crisis between the imperialists is driving the capitalists to prepare for war by forcing discipline onto their own ranks and the working class. The Big Fascist U.S. bosses are no longer the dominant power they have been and can no longer rule in the old way. The Big Fascists are the main wing of the ruling class centered within finance capital. They include big banks like JP Morgan Chase and major industries like Exxon Mobil with massive international interests. They are being challenged around the globe and losing.
To try to hold onto their position, the bosses use fascism to try to gain control of internal struggle between factions of the ruling class, to discipline members of their own class, and force the working class to accept and unite with the bosses around economic and political preparations for war.  Under these pressures the capitalist class resorts to the tools of fascism, mainly crushing dissent within their own ranks and among the working class to achieve their needs, while still trying to ensure some degree of popular support from workers to fight and die in massive imperialist war.
The Big Fascists are likely to crush the Small Fascists
The Small Fascists, represented by the Koch, De Vos and Mercer families among others, acquired their wealth through domestically centered industries including domestic energy interests in oil and natural gas. They’re style of fascism relies on a predominantly white racist base and is less concerned with the anger and division it generates with masses of workers. Their approach is to rely on a smaller, whiter military while defending a shrinking empire. They rely on old style KKK racism to build a movement to overthrow the Big Fascists. Trump and his Small Fascist backers are and will brutally attack the working class should they stay in control of the White House, but they are most likely going to lose to the Big bosses who are building their own kind of fascism.
The Big Fascists are trying to create conditions that will allow them to build a large multi-racial military that will fight and die in a war with China and/or other big imperialists. The Big Fascist liberals are willing to crush dissent among the working class. From the day of George Floyd’s murder in May the mass uprising of multi-racial protesters was met by overwhelming police assault under the direction of liberal mayors from Minneapolis to Atlanta to Chicago, New York and Portland. These liberals pay minor lip service to police reforms, while backing the cops who attack  protesters. But they also realize that they need Black and Latin workers to go along with a military draft and accept large numbers of casualties without rebelling.
The Big Fascists are having enormous trouble disciplining members within their own wing of capitalists to build that kind of fascist society. Many of the capitalists are absorbed in accumulating personal wealth and not in the broader needs of the ruling class. To get ready for war the Big Fascists need to make major societal changes. They have to get the healthcare industry to give up much of its profits to get better at keeping the working class minimally healthy. The real estate bosses must try to limit their greed and undo some of the racist segregation in neighborhoods and schools that drive up property values.
Likewise, the Tech industry must go along with the war needs of the Big Fascists to control the internet and stop taking money from the Small Fascists and the Chinese and Russian bosses. Once the Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in the 2018 election, they launched an offensive to reign in these undisciplined capitalists. The four tech giants Jeff Bezos of Amazon, the richest man in the world worth $181 billion, Tim Cook of Apple, worth $625 million, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook worth $86 billion and Sundar Pichai of Google worth $1.2 billion appeared at a House hearing (NYT 7/31). They were  being investigated under anti-trust laws as monopolies that could be broken into smaller companies but the real goal is to bring them into the Big Fascists’ control.
Big Fascists are the greater danger
The Big Fascists understand that they need to win the widest possible base of support within the working class. The creation of an enormous military requires the participation of Black, Latin and Immigrant as well as white men and women workers. Currently over 60  percent  of the military is white and at higher ranks the number increases to 80 percent  (CFR, 7/13). Extensively integrating the military is a strategic necessity of the Big Fascists in order to win popular support for war.
Hence we see the recent move by the Department of Defense, in direct opposition to Donald Trump and the Little Fascists, to ban the Confederate flag from all military bases; the decision to rename all military bases currently named after Confederate generals with names of loyal generals; and the apology by Commander of the Joints Chief of Staff General Mark Milley and Department of Defense head Mark Esper for their part in the call up of military forces to Washington, DC in June (WP, 6/11). Their message is clear – the U.S. military will not be used to advance the cause of the Small Fascists as they have larger needs for the blood and toil of our class.
The bosses build for war, we must build for communist revolution
Capitalism in crisis is trying to scare and coerce our class to fight for one side or the other. The only way we can fight for our interests as the working class is by building an international, revolutionary, communist movement to overthrow capitalism and build a society that serves the needs of the workers of the world. Progressive Labor Party is building that movement.

LOS ANGELES, August 4—It has been over eight months since Progressive Labor Party (PLP) joined the weekly fightback of the Flores family after their loved one and our class brother, Alex Flores, was gunned down by the racist Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) on November 19, 2019.  It has been over three months since Daniel Hernandez was murdered on April 22, 2020, by the same LAPD division that racist assassin, LAPD cop Toni McBride, proudly calls “Shootin’ Newton”.  It was in fact these consistent weekly fights that led the Flores family and PLP to meet the Hernandez family who happened to be driving by our Friday protest.  Since the murder of George Floyd and the national uprisings, these two families are beginning to forge a tighter bond, joining the larger mass demonstrations, and meeting more families who have lost loved ones to killer cops.
The family members, in particular the mothers, are getting to know each other and find comfort in their shared pain, but also in their shared commitment to a lifelong fight against racist police terror.  The sister of Alex Flores has developed into a mass leader.  She is now attending protests looking to distribute CHALLENGE, along with a flyer about her brother.  In her speeches she condemns capitalism and calls for communism.
  In a recent speech to hundreds of protestors she connected the murder of her brother to the murder of Vanessa Guillen, the soldier killed at Fort Hood. Vanessa’s life was deemed meaningless by the racist and sexist U.S. military, just like soldiers deployed overseas as cannon fodder.  She is organizing social gatherings of mothers whose loved ones were killed by the police and planning joint actions in support of them as well.
Similarly, the partner of Daniel Hernandez is also bridging ties with the Flores family and other families as well.  She and two other young women, with the Hernandez family, are orchestrating chants, delivering militant speeches, and giving leadership in our joint planning meetings.  We are currently planning a forum to be held in front of the Newton police station and then a car caravan six miles to the Southeast police station that killed David Flores on April 22, 2019.

Fight racism and sexism! Embrace communism!
The Party’s commitment, consistency, and leadership have won the respect of many. One comrade-leader in particular, a young mother of three and also a high school teacher, is deepening her ties with these young women fighters and is leading a Party study group they are now attending.  We have discussed the PLP pamphlet, “Why We Fight for Communism” and now we are on to “Political Economy.”  These study groups are multiracial, involve other friends and are discussed in English and Spanish.
The discussions are providing the ideological understanding that racist police terror is inherent to a capitalist system based on racist, sexist exploitation and cannot be reformed away.  
We need to organize for communist revolution to end capitalism once and for all.
As the U.S. bosses grapple with reopening the largely underfunded and segregated public schools, it is the teachers, more than 75 percent women workers, that this racist, sexist system relies on to bail them out. Also, three out of four mothers of school-age children are working mothers, and so with schools likely being taught virtually, many families are looking into neighborhood in-home schools, which are almost entirely run by women, particularly Black, Latin, Asian, and Iimmigrant women workers.  The bosses continually exploit and endanger half of our class with sexism. But these attacks will continue to result in more working class, women organizers who are becoming the gravediggers of this racist, sexist, capitalist system!
Across this country we are seeing the powerful role of women workers leading this anti-racist fightback.  Beginning in Portland, Oregon, and  spreading across the U.S., the Wall of Moms is another visible example of mothers putting their bodies and lives on the line for our class.  As one mother-fighter put it, “The power of being a mother, whether you have lost a child or not, is that because you are a mother, you’re able to absorb another mother’s pain.  That becomes a very powerful chain of resistance. It can’t be penetrated.”  Imagine the potential when this becomes a revolutionary communist force!  The Flores and Hernandez women fighters exemplify this potential and inspire our Party to continue to fight and learn alongside them, shoulder-to-shoulder.  Our class and our Party could not be in better hands.

INDIANA, July 23—In a show of antiracist defiance against a pro-cop parade, a multiracial group of working-class fighters along with Progressive Labor Party held a mock funeral procession followed by a “die-in” and a rally against police terror.
The pro-cop parade had been planned in response to the growing movement against racist capitalist violence. The organizer told the press that he wanted to support cops since they were “under stress” from being challenged by the antiracist movement.
Through endless indoctrination—from neighborhood cop events to cop TV shows and more—the capitalist bosses have convinced many workers that cops are our protectors. In fact, the police of today descend from slave patrols and strikebreakers, and they continue to serve the role of armed enforcers for the bosses to terrorize and stifle the revolutionary potential of Black workers. Through doing so, they keep the entire working class intimidated and divided.
After years of workers struggling to reform them, cops in the U.S. still kill over a thousand people each year. Only a communist revolution, organized  and led by the international working class through PLP, can crush capitalism and abolish police terror once and for all.
Raining on cops racist parade
PLP members  joined the action with local groups to push back against kkkop propaganda. Dozens of cars lined the street, displaying Black Lives Matter flags and signs with the names of Black workers killed by cops. We drove past the cop parade, honking our horns, facing both hecklers and a few supporters. Our procession, a bold demonstration of antiracist solidarity, ended at the police station. A die-in was held for eight minutes and 46 seconds to symbolize the length of time that a killer cop held his knee on George Floyd’s neck, while a list of names of those killed by police was read aloud.
PL’ers and friends gave speeches at the rally. One speaker in a local antiracist organization spoke about their experience organizing a march in her small town, explaining that she knew it was not easy. Her group was threatened by local racists who posted online that they would run them over with their cars.
One PL’er took the mic, speaking for her mass organization and spoke about how antiracist rallies happen in this area more often than people think they do. She said some people needed to see the video of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis cops to get out and fight, but some have been fighting for a long time. She told the crowd, “If you weren’t here before, I am glad you are here now.”
She named Rashad Cunningham, Melvin Bouler and others who were murdered by local cops. She spoke about how Black cops terrorize and kill Black workers the same way white cops do. That’s why in PLP we often lead with the chant, “White cop, Black cop, all the same – Racist murder is the name of the game!”
Linking the fights against capitalism
One PL’er spoke for her mass organization, whose focus has been protesting deportations out of a local airport. She described visiting a migrant shelter and encountering many Black immigrants who would go on to be profiled in the U.S. She explained that the struggles against police terror and deportations are connected, and that members in her organization had fought to expand their group’s focus to systemic racism.
Another PL’er spoke about her experience fighting alongside workers in Minneapolis and being attacked by the klan-in-blue. She spoke about how capitalism needs racism, sexism and ableism to keep the working class divided so that we do not join in our strength to fight the ruling class. The crowd cheered as she said, “I am talking about communist revolution.”
After her speech, every person at the rally took a copy of CHALLENGE and some asked how they could get involved with the Party.
Committed to communist revolution
The working class, whether in big cities or small towns, is excited to hear PLP’s communist politics against racism and capitalism. Our work in local organizations helps spread our politics. At this event, several speakers were Party comrades and every one spoke about the need to destroy this capitalist system and replace it with a worker-run communist society.
As we saw protests spread across the world following the murder of George Floyd, northwest Indiana had dozens of protests. PLP was there and we made connections and established relationships with antiracist workers with whom we continue to build. When workers see us show up time and again and see us fight against this racist capitalist system, they want to join our fight. The only way we can end police terror and the terrorization of the working class is through communist revolution. Join PLP today!

BROOKLYN, NY, July 21 — On the seventh anniversary of the murder of Kyam Livingston, a militant, multiracial, antiracist car caravan rolled down the streets of the Flatbush and East Flatbush neighborhoods of Brooklyn, chanting and indicting this entire racist capitalist system. This system rains murder disproportionately on young Black and Latin women and men like Kyam at the hands of kkkops year after year, and the call to fight back for justice was greeted with cheers and support throughout the route.
 The revolutionary communist Progressive Labor Party (PLP) joined the caravan saying that the working class must overthrow this entire capitalist system, and replace it with a communist system that outlaws racism, sexism, imperialism, nationalism, fascism and all the “-isms” that keep  capitalism afloat!
Black women lead the fight for justice
The route of the caravan was planned in honor of the memory of Kyam, and also to continue to link her death to two other victims of racist police murder, Shantel Davis and Kimani “Kiki” Gray, who lived nearby. Hundreds of leaflets linking the anniversary of Kyam’s murder to the recent antiracist rebellions against the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others were distributed, as well as 150 CHALLENGE newspapers.
Members of the Livingston and Davis families, a mom and a sister, both strong women, helped lead today’s action. They gave leadership side by side with PL'ers who have been strong supporters of these families ever since the racist murders of their loved ones.
Seven years of antiracist struggle
It has been seven years fighting for justice for Kyam. On July 21, 2013, 37 year-old Kyam Livingston was being held in a cell in the kkkops’ Brooklyn Central Booking. As she called out in pain for medical attention, the kkkops ignored her and the others in the cell who began calling out to help her as well. Kyam was murdered by the racist kkkops who ignored her pleas for help, by the racist NYPD who covered it up and suppressed evidence, and by capitalism’s utter indifference for working class lives, especially Black working class women.
Masses of workers in the U.S. and around the world, Black and white, already know “liberty and justice for all” is a sick racist joke. The Black women leaders in this car caravan indicted both the killer kkkops and this racist capitalist system – and they show us a glimpse of the key role of Black women workers’ leadership in taking the fight for justice all the way: for armed communist revolution.
Smash racist police terror with multiracial unity
Capitalism is utterly dependent on racism both politically, to divide and conquer the entire working class, and also economically: to reap untold billions of dollars in racist super-profits. In 1866, militant abolitionist Frederick Douglass wrote a scathing open letter attacking the racist U.S. government: “the hostility between the poor whites and blacks…was incited on both sides by the cunning of the slave masters. Those masters secured their ascendancy over both. They divided both to conquer each.” Racism hurts all workers, and racist oppression exists to support and enhance this racist super-exploitation – and one of the principal means of oppression is racist police terror.
Modern U.S. police were formed out of slave patrols post-Civil War, and today they murder us at a rate of 1,000 workers per year. While, kkkops murder more white workers every year, Black and Latin workers are killed at a disproportionately higher rate. Black workers are murdered more than double the rate of white workers, as well as indigenous workers, given their relatively smaller population following centuries of capitalist genocide.
 Racist police terror keeps the entire working class terrorized and intimidated from uniting and rebelling. The fight against racist police terror and the fight for justice for Kyam, like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, is the fight of ALL workers Black, Asian, Latin and white. The capitalist bosses holding the leashes of their vicious kkkop attack dogs while planning deadlier imperialist wars fear communist-led multiracial working class unity the most, and that is precisely what PLP is fighting to build internationally.
Fight for justice for Kyam and revolution!
The fight for justice for Kyam and for revolution grows with every mass action like this car caravan and by bringing CHALLENGE to more and more workers each issue. The seven-year struggle for justice is far from over because the future of the international working class is bright: workers along our caravan route raised their fists and cheered on our efforts; drivers honked their horns and waved as we passed. Neighborhoods, job sites and schools we passed that have been sites of PL's struggles over the years are today’s fertile ground where we yield recruits, fighters and supporters in our fight for communist revolution!