MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, June 1—Wherever workers are unmasking the failure of capitalism, communists will be there. Ten members of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) from Chicago and Los Angeles touched down in Minneapolis to join the rebels fighting racist kkkops and the capitalist system that murdered George Floyd. These rebels set the world on fire. PLP is present to follow their leadership and spread communist politics.
For days following the viral video of George Floyd’s pleas of “I can’t breathe” and calling out for his mother, Minneapolis workers brought the City’s bosses to their knees. The rebels marched to the third precinct of the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) and as night fell, the might of the workers caused the cops to flee. Workers then set the symbol of racism, sexism and oppression on fire. The message to workers everywhere—we have the power.
The rebels blazed a trail of protests worldwide—from London to Dakar to Bangkok to Kingston to Rio de Janeiro—proving once again that Black workers are key to revolution (see page 8). This uprising was not only about George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, or Alex Flores. It was also about workers rebelling against a system that relies on racism to make profits and keep us divided (see page 5). Even if this kkkop Derek Chauvin is convicted, the police will continue to have open season in our class. Even if the police are “defunded,” the role of police (protect the bosses, terrorize the workers) will remain. They may just be cops by a different name or in a different suit.
To abolish police murder and racism, we need nothing short of a system based on need and collectivity instead of profit (see page 2).
“Oh so you’re communist communist?”
When PLP landed, we met with friends and protesters who had been taking part in the fearless uprising. Many said how empowered workers felt in Minneapolis and how they were dedicated to real change. They and many others PL met were thankful that people had come from other cities to support and fight alongside them (see box, page 3). PL’ers salute the rebels for the leadership they gave to the international working class.
Collectively we discussed what labor and life under communism would look like. We discussed the need for the rebellion to evolve into a communist revolution. Everyone agreed that attacking the bosses’ source of power (banks, police stations, media stations) was good. Now, we must fight to build a communist world on the ashes of capitalism. When the protests ebb, workers must continue and build a party to sustain the fightback. One day, PLP and workers will lead the revolution for an egalitarian world.
Bank burned & converted to bathroom
PL’ers and local friends rallied with 500 workers and witnessed the solidarity first hand. Black, white, Asian, Latin, and Muslim workers were sharing water, facemasks, and food. Wells Fargo Bank was burned down and converted into a makeshift bathroom for protesters. What an inspiration it was to see yet another symbol capitalist exploitation burned. This is the kind of leadership our class needs and deserves.
In front of the remains of Wells Fargo, PL’ers unfurled two banners. One called for justice for Alex Flores, 34-year-old Latin worker murdered by Los Angeles Police Department, effectively connecting one struggle to another. The other banner called for workers to join PLP to fight racist murder, calling out the killer Chicago Police Department (CPD). PL’ers and friends distributed 200 CHALLENGEs and 200 leaflets titled “Minneapolis Leads the Way—Burn This System Down.” PL’ers made speeches on the bullhorn about why we were there and our line against capitalism, racism and sexism (see twitter @PLPchallenge).
Eighty workers gathered to hear about communism. They cried out in agreement. Many asked about PLP. Everyone took a copy of CHALLENGE. It’s clear that communist politics belong to the working class and our class is eager to hear it, own it, and be involved in fighting for a better world.
Break curfew, give leadership
At 8 PM, phones went off to warn us that the curfew had begun. So we started marching.
PL’ers were close to the front of the large march, leading in chants like “Racism means—we got to fight back!” The fighters loved the chants and embraced our call for working-class unity under one revolutionary communist party, PLP.
As the march was passing through an empty intersection on the way to downtown, cops drove right into the middle of the march. PL’ers were in front of the cops, who immediately shot tear gas canisters, rubber bullets, and stun grenades into the protest. Some fighters retreated. It was clear however that the march must go on.
The PL’ers were not from Minneapolis and didn’t know the literal lay of the land. Yet, the workers looked at the PL’ers for political leadership. Clearly, communist politics had won the confidence of the workers. PLP led the march for three miles through downtown Minneapolis.
When PLP walked the distance back to their cars, they saw the military vehicles driving up the closed expressway. This militarized police presence is proof of the fear that a militant and organized working class instills in the bosses. The bosses’ state was ready to throw all their might on us to protect their system. Rebellions, especially when multiracial and led by Black youth , put terror in the hearts of the exploiters. As it should.
Workers need communism
The experience in Minneapolis was inspiring and confirmed the necessity for communist politics. Rebellions in and of themselves will not lead to a revolution without the organization of the working class. The workers need to be armed with communist ideas. When communists are willing to lead, workers will take up the call—in the streets, on the job, in the churches, or in a study group.
PLP will build with the working class everywhere we are. It’s a lifetime of fighting, but we have fire in our bellies to fight for communism! To smash racism, join PLP!
When Black workers and youth rebel against the capitalist system, it puts the rest of the working class on notice to join. In response to the rebellion in Minneapolis, over 50 countries have protested in solidarity. It’s clearer than ever that Black workers’ leadership is key to communist revolution.
Brazil: Thousands connected the police murders in the U.S. to the anti-Black racism here. The protest also connected George Flyod with the local police murder of João Pedro Pinto, a 14-year-old Black teen shot in the back.
Syria: Workers in this imperialist war-ravaged country have made a glorious mural in the rubble of Idlib province decrying Floyd’s murder and sharply depicting U.S. kkkops wearing the hood of the Klan. U.S. racism has turned with lightning speed into just one more thing to hate about U.S. imperialism. It remains the Achilles’ heel of U.S. capitalism.
UK: In a furious display of anti-racist working class internationalism protesters here tore down a statue of slave trader Edward Colson that had stood since 1895 and pushed it to the water’s edge dumping and dumped it in Bristol Harbor.
Senegal: Students at Cheikh Anta Diop University protested to condemn and call to end racism worldwide.
Spain: Marchers broke a ban containing their protest to the vicinity of the U.S. embassy and took to Puerta del Sol, one of the city’s busiest districts (CNN.com, 6/8).
Cities/countries where sizable protests happened include Nigeria, Argentina, Lithuania, South Africa, Ireland,
Brazil, Mexico, Italy, Austria, Japan, South Korea, Poland, Norway, India, Tunisia, Pakistan, South Africa, Sweden, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and more. Many of these protests were directed at U.S. embassies (al-Jazeera, 6/7).
When Black workers in the U.S. rise up, the world takes notice. Protest has become a regular feature of life in U.S. cities, large and small. In U.S. cities with larger Black populations the multiracial, and militant character of the protests have caught the ruling classes off guard. Across the globe, workers have taken notice and followed suit, risking their health to gather in large crowds in solidarity with the fight against racism. Multiracial, integrated, and antiracist protest is essential.
Of all that is rotten and wrong with the reign of U.S. imperialism’s liberal world order from climate catastrophe to endless war for oil, it is U.S. racism that has enraged the workers of the world to a degree unseen in decades. We are experiencing the strongest global mass movement since the one that arose in response to U.S. imperialism’s genocidal and ultimately failed effort to subdue the heroic workers and peasants of Vietnam, women and men led by the remnants of a once-revolutionary international communist movement. Black workers in uniformed rebellion were key in making the U.S. ruling class campaign of mass murder in Vietnam untenable.
Black workers remain key in sparking movements where the limits of ruling class power are made plain. As one veteran of the fighting in Minneapolis put it in a PLP forum when speaking about his enemy, the police: “At the end of the day, they are in this for the paycheck. They will never be willing to go as far as us.”
Such wisdom and truth revealed to a new generation can only leave ruling classes quaking in their boots. It leaves communists with increased confidence that we will win, and that Black workers will be key to this victory. We are experiencing just a taste of a world where the struggle of the working class vs. the ruling class, and not between imperialist ruling classes, is the main thing driving events. Inter-imperialist rivalry no doubt still remains the main contradiction in the world; Iran, Russia, and China are already jumping to use the Floyd protests to attack the U.S. 's standing.
Only communism can meet the latent, inextinguishable and now powerful aspiration of the billions who yearn for a world free from the scourge of racism. Anti-racist ideas have gripped the masses and become a material force. We see more clearly how communism can win. This historical-world-historical shift PLP is dedicated to bringing about. Join us!
Newark, May 30—The Progressive Labor Party (PLP) and friends fought to share working class communist politics at two demonstrations and a march. The Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, spoke under the guise of protesting against police brutality in the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, MN. He tried seducing masses away from revolutionary ideas of workers power and communist revolution. “We want to march to change the systemic issues...We want good officers to stand up. In Newark, we are fighting right now with the Supreme Court to have the strongest civilian complaint review board.”
However, there is no possible way for “good” cops to stand up because the role of the police under capitalism won’t allow it. Racism and sexism are the viruses of the profit system; it is the foundation of capitalism.
From Covid-19 to George Floyd
Kkkops murdered George Floyd for allegedly using a fake $20 bill. Working class rebellions in response to many murders like his are not unrelated to the way the ruling class has managed the crisis of Covid-19. Worldwide, bosses used their governments to attempt to build class unity between themselves and workers by promoting: “we’re all in this together”. Instead, class hatred of bosses’ disregard for the lives of workers has intensified, while multiracial fightback and anti-racism has grown among workers. Ruling-class imposed lockdowns have resulted in massive attacks on the international working class.
In Newark, the bosses keeping Baraka in charge were incapable of protecting every worker. Instead, Baraka intensified police intimidation in the most exploited and working-class neighborhoods. Thousands of undocumented families had no work or food. Bosses at Newark Beth Israel Hospital suspended a nurse for bringing in protective gear. Incarcerated workers were left to get sick. Many students received failing grades, with total disregard for growing hardships.
How many of us could have benefited from another $20, fake or not, in this time?
Liberal fascist Baraka disarms workers
Whenever the bosses can choose between using ideology or violence to weaken the working class, they will choose to use ideas to brainwash workers and develop misleaders. Now, capitalist ideas of reform and electoral politics have been rejected by workers across the U.S. The use of riot gear, tear gas, rubber bullets, sabotage and brutal physical violence against working class rebellions exposes the true nature of “liberal” misleaders. headOnly an armed revolution led by millions of communist workers committed to anti-racism, anti-sexism and internationalism can stop this racist terror.
Fake “radical” politician Baraka is supported by New Jersey’s corporate elite. His job is to hold down the militancy of workers in this mainly Black and Latin city. Rather than organize workers to fight capitalism and the capitalist class that forced workers to be poisoned with lead for years, Baraka and other liberal politicians advocate for passivity. Next year, Newark Public Schools, the state’s largest district will lose $36.4 million. According to an nj.com article, when Baraka started as Mayor he had 900 police officers. His goal - 1700 cops - nearly doubled since he took office (12/16/17). After centuries of racist terror, the working class in Newark, (and elsewhere,) know all too well that an increase in KKKiller cops is not to serve the community.
Workers hungry for communist leadership
5,000 multiracial, and multigenerational workers were ready and looking for a way to fight back. More than a 1,000 took copies of CHALLENGE. The headline of the latest CHALLENGE – “Communism Will End Racist Police Terror” – put our line right up front.
With a bullhorn, electrifying politics and chants, PLP energized about 500 workers. Many went off against capitalism:
“They are not only killing my brother and everyone else that has been killed by the police. You are killing a family. You killed our lack of trust in this system. We tried to get justice. What did they do in return? They promoted the cop stating it was robbery homicide...This is for my generation when I was growing up I didn't see no justice and nobody gave a damn. He was just another fallen statistic and it happened in our streets in Newark, New Jersey.”
“People are living better with unemployment then going to work...I’m tired of seeing my little nieces and nephews go to school and not learn a damn thing...I’m tired of going to the hospital and having to pay big ass bills for something small. How the hell can we afford to live...How the hell are we living under constant injustice and oppression but they expect us to keep calm. We are not going to keep calm. Another one is dead. So that means all of us are rising up.”
These rallies showed us two things. First, youth and workers are looking for revolutionary ideas. Second, the local ruling class in Newark, led by Mayor Ras Baraka, has maintained the anger of the working class by claiming to reform the cops so that they can work for them. Kkkops won't exist in a communist world because there wouldn't be a ruling class system of bosses and profits to protect. Workers internationally will provide for one another as a community making use of materials as needed. Capitalism is the disease and communism is the cure.
As workers take to the streets both protesting racist killer kkkops and being sent back to work as cities begin to reopen amidst the deadly Covid-19 pandemic, the bosses’ liberal misleaders continue to be the biggest threats to our working-class lives. Wolves in sheeps clothing, these murderous liars are the Big Fascist’s mouthpieces as they seek to pacify the masses. Progressive Labor Party rejects all of the bosses’ servants—regardless of their race, gender, or sexuality. We will not be fooled into following a multicultural dictatorship of the bosses. The following are a few ways these misleaders try to co-opt the movement or buy back allegiance to this system.
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual … It's very rare.
— Maria van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist.
On Tuesday, Van Kerkhove had to “clear up” “misunderstandings” about her statements claiming “very few studies” had even attempted following asymptomatic cases.
NEW YORK
If those protestors had just gotten out of the way we wouldn’t be talking about this situation...Any protester that tries to take the humanity away from a police officer and devalue them just because they are a public servant is no better than the racists who devalue people of color and particularly black men in America.
— NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio
I believe the mayor underestimates the scope of the problem. I believe he underestimates the duration of the problem, and I don’t think they’ve used enough police to address the situation…
— Governor Andrew Cuomo
WASHINGTON D.C.
I don't think the slogan [DEFUND THE POLICE] represents what a lot of people are calling for. I think a lot of people are calling for reform. I think ‘reform police’ may have been a better slogan, and I think that there are probably a lot of departments across this country that need that focus.
— Mayor Muriel BowserCALIFORNIA
The black community is not responsible for what’s happening in this country — we are. People have lost patience for a reason
— Governor Gavin Newsom,
the same day he activated 4,500 National Guard members to “respond to protests if needed.
We have to figure out a way to humanize both sides of the barricades right now...First and foremost, to humanize black people in this country who have disproportionately been dehumanized. But it can’t ever be a one-way street to dehumanize a person who wears a badge. We need them to hear us, but we need to hear them or else we’re going to isolate them into islands that results in the sort of policing we don’t want to see.
— Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti
NATIONWIDE
Anybody who does not want cops, then do not ask for them; send them my way … Send them to Philadelphia, Wilmington, Trenton, the area I live in. And my daughter will be safer, my wife will be safer, my mother will be safer, and I will be safer. And I will be happy.
— Democratic Presidential Candidate,
Joe Biden
OAXACA, MX, June 8—Militant revolutionary greetings from the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) collective in Oaxaca. We offer our solidarity and support during your exemplary fight against the racist and fascist police forces who killed George Floyd. You are an example to the world.This racism is engendered by the capitalist system and carried out by the ruling class in the United States through its fascist police, who commit crimes against the working class on the streets, in the factories, stores, schools and especially against Black and Latin workers.
Racism is promoted by the capitalist class to divide and super exploit the working class. It is a political and ideological strategy the bosses use to boost their profits and preserve their criminal exploitation. Today, the anger and fed up feelings reached their limits, as many major cities in the U.S. saw workers hit the streets rebelling against the racist police.
Racism is running rampant throughout the world, promoted by the capitalist ruling classes. On June 4, Giovanni López Ramírez, a construction worker, was beaten to death by police in Ixtlahuacán de los Membrillos, Jalisco, México. The police say he had no face mask, (a measure against Covid-19) dictated by the governor of the state, Enrique Alfaro, member of the Partido Movimiento Ciudadano (MC), an arm of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), one of the main political parties in Mexico.
Workers took to the streets defying the zero-tolerance campaign in the state. The ruling class, as usual, responded with repression, using their criminal police, injuring and arresting dozens of rebels.Because of the problems caused by the criminal capitalist system, the fight against racism is key in our fight toward a communist world.
Fight on comrades, the communist future is ours!
