I am a public health student and currently finishing up a pre-med program outside of Los Angeles.  I am also an Iraq-war veteran and have seen first hand the level of racism and destruction of imperialist war.  Over the last six years I have become close friends with a Progressive Labor Party (PLP) member and his family and have supported communist actions and events including events of families who have lost their loved ones to racist police violence.
As a Black man growing up in Detroit, serving in the military, working as a Metro worker and as a student, I have long hated racism and police terror and this was once again reinforced when I became a victim of such terror on my return home from campus.  
No explanation, then a racist interrogation
It was around 6 PM, and I just left my school campus on the Omnitrans train. It was a normal evening until I noticed that the train came to an abrupt stop.  We hadn’t moved for about 25 minutes. I went downstairs to the first level and asked another passenger what was going on.  She mentioned that the train was stopped by the police.  
Suddenly, a voice came over the loudspeaker that directed all passengers to exit from the rear of the train in single file.  As I found the door to exit, I walked toward a sheriff and voiced my concern regarding why we were stopped. The sheriff requested to see my ID. After showing them my ID, I was instructed to wait in the parking lot with the rest of the passengers until further instructions.
 After waiting in the parking lot for another 30 minutes or so it began to get cool outside.  At that time about 15 sheriffs were walking in my direction and towards me.  I was then asked again to show my ID.  I questioned them, why.  I had already shown them my ID.   The sergeant said that they got a call that there was “a killer” aboard the train that was about 5’ 10, 240 pounds, 40 yrs. old, wearing a gray sweatshirt.  
They then started a terrorizing interrogation process, with multiple sheriffs shooting questions at me at the same time.  This whole process was frightening and I was already cold, nervous and agitated and the whole time another sheriff had a loaded shotgun pointed toward my head! These KKKops then had the nerve to command me to calm down.  
Not only was I afraid for my life, but I kept thinking to myself “how the hell do you calm down being terrorized like this” on top you accusing me of “fitting the description” of a purported killer on the train!
 Capitalism means daily racist terror
It wasn’t until later that night that I learned about the mass shooter incident in Brooklyn in which Frank James, for unclear reasons, opened fire on a train, injuring 10 workers. Without a doubt, the daily racist bombardment of capitalism on workers’ lives is creating untold mental health crises in our class.  This is not to condone the actions of Frank James, but to point out that it’s a byproduct of this racist capitalist system.  
Who knows how many Black workers were terrorized on trains across the country because they “fit the description?”
 For nearly two years I have been a supporter of the family of Alex Flores and others who have been killed by KKKops in LA.  This experience has also taught me what our sisters and brothers must go through especially when they’re terrified or in a mental health crisis when the police roll up on them!  
I am grateful for the support, camaraderie as well as the ideas and fightback of Progressive Labor Party in helping me grapple with this experience as well as understanding how capitalism impacts us on a daily basis.

Haiti, May 1—Progressive Labor Party (PLP) celebrated May Day with students, professors and others from a university in a small provincial town in Haiti. We organized a day of activity around the theme “May Day: capitalism questioned.” Several comrades from Port-au-Prince joined us, committed to being with us on this historic day, despite the presence of gangs and kidnappers controlling much of the road leading to our town.
First there was a conference and then a class conscious musical performance by a worker who sang about our  struggle and the exploitation, which pushes us to act against the capitalist system. The participants heard and understood the words as their own, couched in a language of suffering and strength.
The main speaker’s presentation on “the labor movements and the class struggle in Haiti” was like an downpour after a lot of dry weather. It made clear some concepts and historical examples of class struggle from Haiti and around the world. Many people participated freely in the discussion; it was similar to the small schools (tilekòl) that we are used to doing in Haiti.
A student from our solidarity club said that it was a real pleasure to live and participate in the activity: “I thought it [May Day] was the celebration of agriculture, but this day taught me a lot of things about labor movements”(see letter, CHALLENGE issue, 5/25).
As the student noted, the rulers in Haiti have made May 1 a “celebration” of agriculture and work. But their day flouts the essence of workers’ struggles since it is a day of recreational activities and a disgusting display of food so that the bourgeois can gorge themselves while workers and their children are suffering acute hunger.
Our May Day event was a rewarding deconstruction of the bourgeois meaning of May Day. On this day we discuss our working class history of struggles, to see where we are today, to see what we must do to continue the struggle, and above all to allow many more people to learn about workers’ struggles. Indeed, our class is the one that suffers all forms of exploitation, and without it capitalist society cannot continue to function. Our consciousness-building work must continue not only to allow people to have information but also to win them to join the fight. Because our life conditions can change only through struggle!
Another student said he thinks conferences help people understand how and why capitalism destroys our lives, that we don’t need the bosses, that inequality is not natural, and that we have to fight against this system.
Today in Haiti the socio-political situation is at its worst. People, mostly young people, see their future is uncertain and they wonder who is responsible. They want to understand why they are in misery. And above all, they want to know how to get out of this situation—how to fight back. Conferences like today’s are opening the doors to larger discussions with our friends to allow them to understand the essence of the struggle of workers and students. How are these struggles connected; what is our vision for the future? We want a world without profiteering, imperialist wars of conquest, without racism and sexism, a truly egalitarian world.

MEXICO, May 1—On May Day we marched as a contingent of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) in Mexico City and Oaxaca. Like every May Day, we organized our members and friends to join the march of the unions and social organizations that are fighting for reforms of capitalism that will improve the lives of workers. These organizations have thousands of workers and students who oppose the liberal bosses represented by the Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) government and are trying to build a more militant reform movement.
We distributed around 2,000 flyers with our communist line and invited all the workers to organize with us and join PLP. Our flier talked about imperialist war and the countries that lead it like Russia, the United States and China for the benefit of their ruling class. The flier attacked the impact of bosses’ war on the workers of the whole world. We called for turning the imperialist war into communist revolution. Likewise, we denounced the mega projects like the Mayan Train and Interoceanic Corridor. These two projects are displacing many thousands of workers and will only benefit the capitalist class in Mexico. Our call was to build a communist society that stands up to the bosses and build a Party that organizes to seize power for the benefit of the working class.
Our contingent chanted and was well received by people in the march and in the crowd watching. Our leaflets and got PLP’s message of confidence in the working class and the fight for communism out to the thousands of people at the march.
Our flier started with the following paragraph:
“A Revolutionary Communist May Day: Turn Imperialist War into Communist Revolution
The conflict in Ukraine seems to be a step without return to the development of a Third World War led by the imperialists of the U.S., China and Russia, to dominate the world for the benefit of their ruling capitalist classes. All imperialists are enemies of all workers, we must not support any imperialist side, our loyalty is only with the working class of the world.”

PAKISTAN—The Progressive Labor Party (PLP) organized some May Day celebrations with the assistance of our friends and comrades working in different labor, student and professional organizations. We also organized a demonstration with torches in our hands at night which attracted many passersby. Our slogans were, “one world, one flag, one fight, workers of the world unite” and “down with capitalism—long live communism!”
Our comrades talked about the necessity of a united struggle against capitalist oppression, fundamentalism, fascism, racism and nationalism which is dividing the working class. We explained that all divisions and bad ideas are promoted by the bosses to misdirect the anger of the working class and weaken our unity. We also talked about the history of the workers' struggle in Pakistan and concluded that we have to win workers to build a fight outside of the ruling-class puppets’ misleadership. Our comrades explained in detail that we need an international communist revolution under the red banner of the PLP!
Misleaders of the working class
This May Day occurred against the backdrop of the bosses’ current attempt to divide and use our class for their own dirty capitalist interests. Bosses are using religion, nationalism, racism and gender differences to weaken the working-class movement and, regrettably, they succeeded in their tactics by pacifying  many of us, which was very strong in the past. Different union misleaders— on the payroll of bosses—pit workers against each other, fighting over nothing but personality cults.
The bought-out unions never struggled against the contract system, which binds workers to not even talk with each other while at work. Workers did not even get the day off for May Day.  That’s one of the reasons why the participation of the working class was minimal. The other reason is the International Labour Organization, which is giving support to the misleaders and they are using all that financial support for themselves. These leaders are passing their lives in a lavish style which discourages workers from participating in demonstrations organized by them.
PLP is trying to unite the working class in the reform struggles for basic necessities, like no harassment at workplaces, security, job guarantee, gratuity, sufficient increase in their wages and to get the right to unionize. In this struggle, we must fight for commnist ideas to win out. Join PLP!