These are letters submitted by participants from the New Jersey Summer Project (see article).
I was amazed that this existed
I learned about the Progressive Labor Party from a member who I met during a rally against the murder of George Floyd in Patterson, New Jersey. We first met in a signal chat that consisted of various organizers and activists so I did not know what organization this person was from, if any. I remember listening to the progressive politician Larry Hamm speak at the protest about how the police were out of control and there needed to be better relations between the community and police. I didn’t know Hamm too well but remarked to the person I came with that he seemed like a pretty good guy. They shrugged and responded that he was a politician and therefore trying to diffuse the anger in the community and push people toward using the electoral process as a solution for the police murdering black people in America. I was impressed and wasn’t expecting such an answer from someone whose politics I didn’t really know. I considered myself a communist already but didn’t really share that too much because I find it can be alienating, even in “leftist” circles. I was happy to find out this person was a communist too. It was during this discussion that I learned about PLP.
I have been organizing with the DSA for a few years t but I was curious about this local communist party and eventually reached out to PLP to see what it took to become a member. Soon a member reached out to me, surprisingly another person I had already met in organizer circles, and I learned about a reading group the PLP was holding in a Newark park. I went and it was a small group, but they were all communists and discussing the party’s political line. I was amazed that this kind of thing existed in Newark; I had no idea. It was there that I learned about the summer project the Newark PLP members were organizing. The reading group was interesting so I was enthusiastic to learn more about this group.
When I went to the summer project’s opening study group I was not disappointed. I met many more members of many ages, backgrounds, and professions. I learned about the party’s history which was far longer and more storied than I would have guessed. Long-time members spoke to the issues the country was facing from an anticapitalist framework, discussed revisionism, and recalled rallying against and fighting against Nazis, among many other topics. We ended with an impromptu Challenge sale at a basketball game in the park where the local community had gathered to watch. People like myself who were just checking PLP out were encouraged to get out and talk to people in the community and hand out communist literature on their very first meeting. This showed me what PLP was about.
The two-week summer project continued in this vein. I met more members, including some from New York City where the party originated. I helped distribute Challenge to workers outside a member’s workplace, participated in a motorcade where we blasted homemade communist chants over popular songs, and participated in several more study groups where I learned more about the party’s line. It was so energizing and reassuring to know that a principled group of communists that really combined theory with praxis was right in the city I lived in and had members who were so active. I met many amazing people, made new friends and comrades, and learned much about organizing and theory. I don’t necessarily agree with everything in the party’s line. For example I don’t necessarily accept that existing socialist countries were wrong to preserve the use of money and wages. I don’t feel qualified to weigh in on that issue, among many others. But I don’t have to agree with everything in PLP’s line to know that this is an organization I want to be a part of. I look forward to studying, struggling and organizing with the amazing comrades I met during the summer project. I hear that it was one of very few summer projects in the country. I hope that changes next year and many more chapters hold summer projects because it made me a proud member and I think more summer projects would get many other workers on board with the party too. And that’s what needs to happen if we are to eventually see a revolution against this inhumane capitalist empire. Props and solidarity to the Newark PLP chapter; thanks for organizing such a great summer project.
*****
Smash all borders!
During the New Jersey summer project, members of PLP hosted a study group about immigration. We read the document “Migration Crisis: A Window into the Oppressive Capitalist System” from PL Magazine. Although the article is two years old, the system has not changed for migrants. Capitalist will never stop using racism, nationalism, and artificial borders to divide the working class in order to super exploit migrants. They will continue to use agricultural imperialism, wars, and corruption to push people from their homes to countries were they are forced to work for long hours, receiving meager wages, in exchange for promised safety and prosperity that never arrives. Capitalism will never provide for the working class, only a dictatorship of the proletariat under Communism will protect workers.
The study group was a combination of online and in person participants and was held in both English and Spanish. Three PLP members worked together prior to the study group to come up with guiding questions that were used to keep the discussion focused. Another PLP member served as moderator of the discussion. The entire process was a collective work. During the discussion, several participants served as interpreters. Members of our party and our base shared their immigrant experiences. One young woman shared how the United States was sold as the land of opportunity. Her mother sold all their belongings to move to the U.S. fleeing from gangs and poverty and in search of new possibilities for her children. Once here, she was faced with the harsh realities of the capitalist, racist U.S. system where she works all day for minimum wage but can barely provide for her children. She questions whether she made a mistake but fears it is too late to return.
The multigenerational, multi-ethnic makeup of the group made for great conversation where non-English speakers participated as robustly as anyone else. This should be a given in any conversation, but we see time and time again how immigrants are exiled to the back of the room and made to feel like they don’t belong. Not in PLP.
However, we do have to make more progress in spreading the politics of no borders. Every member of PLP must be confident in saying that we don’t want the immigration reform of liberal bosses, we want to do away with racist borders.
*****
The workers inspired me
I joined the PLP members on the streets of Newark, where I handed out issues of Challenge with a headline about a nurses' strike. I was inspired by a few workers actually reading them in front of me. Several people were intrigued, thanking me for the information or asking questions about communism. This community engagement invigorated my perception of communism from academic philosophy to activist reality.
That day, I also attended an open study group focused on abolishing borders and nationalism. Every single word was translated, which communicated a sense of urgency to ensure everyone understood the information being discussed.
While I am too young to have been there in person, I have watched videos of the activist group called ACT UP, which mobilized workers to action against the spread of AIDS. My experience in the study group last week made me think of ACT UP in its diversity, unrelenting commitment to globalism, and the feeling of determination in the face of a deathly foe. I am excited to come back to PLP study groups and continue to promulgate the Challenger. Please continue with this important work.
*****
Healthcare worker fed up
I am a communist speaking out against the atrocity’s workers face under this capitalist health care regime. Workers know if they are not fully exploited by a corporation, they will not gain the perks of having insurance to treat an illness. That insurance or copayment from the wage slave savings though exploitation, is then used to care for a worker in a healthcare institution. The hospital where I work has a “We Care” motto. This facility says, “We care for 120 patients.” Each shift is supposed to have 9 nurses, 14 Certified nurse’s aides, 4 housekeepers, 6 dietary aides. On the contrary here, there is only 1 nurse taking care of new admissions and 30 patients at $21.96 per hour. There are also only 2 Certified nurse’s aides working a floor of 45 patients at a rate of $11.40 per hour. There is only 1 housekeeper on the floor to make 30 beds and only 3 dietary aides to serve food to all 120 patients for $9 per hour. THAT IS SUPER EXPLOITATION!!
Many experiences have destroyed my trust of the capitalist health care system. I did doubles and even triple shifts for pennies while being the only Certified Nurse’s Aide taking care of 45 patients. The orders that are given to me by the head nurse in charge “I don't care if the patients are soiled just make sure that they are alive and there are no falls on my shift.” This shows the workers how much the bosses care. All of this exploitation for a $20 gift card and $17 overtime. Another example is when we workers asked for more Hoyer lifts. These devices allow us to transfer patients from their beds and to wheelchairs without hurting our backs. Even though there are three lifts in the facility, only one is in working condition. The administration’s answer to our demand to fix the other two is that this single one works! This means we must suffer through back-breaking Olympics risk injuring patients with the antiquated sliding board. When we workers are injured, we are replaced, and the hospital fails to pay for sick leave.
This super exploitation of cheap labor oppresses the workers and allows the bosses to profit anywhere from $15,000 -$30,000 per patient per month. The bosses use allocation of resources to make sure the corporation stays afloat; by dipping into the savings accounts of the patients and by not paying the full amount on a check to workers. The union 1199 is the glue to keep the workers' mouths shut. The union handbook states, it's illegal to strike or interfere with the operation of the employer as a partner of the union!
Another capitalist lie for control is: you work at the bottom so you can reach the top through hard work, time management, and perseverance. This competitive attitude allows the bosses to profit. Racist, sexist ideology furthers individualist division. Bosses have always known that we the workers have power when we break down these capitalist barriers. They know that united we will win, separated we will lose! Whether it be anti-immigrant ideas or liberal lies from Obama or Biden, all bosses try to keep us separate.
Internationally the working class has been suffering police murder, poverty, lynching’s and disease. But many of our brothers and sisters believe that if we just get respect, then we might become the next CEO, administrator, or even a liberal politician. Then we believe we have the power to reform the capitalist system. But no matter which individuals are in power, the ruling class conquers us through nationalism, false barriers of race privilege and favoritism among workers. They want to keep us full of illusions, passivity and cynicism as class war rages in the streets. Meanwhile our brothers and sisters die in emergency rooms everywhere.
Attention Workers! If you want to end the oppression of this capitalist system it is time to stand up, organize together and join the Communist Progressive Labor Party! Unite in the Working Class fight back to overthrow the capitalist system internationally!
Our greatest weapon to combat capitalism is communist revolution for the working-class ultimate power. Our biggest lesson from working class history is that we can conquer the disease of capitalism with communist revolution! Only through communism will workers be able to experience the long and productive life we deserve.
Capitalism is the disease; only communism is the cure!
*****
My experience at the Summer Project
For the first time, Challenge Sales were distributed in Stephen Crane Village, a low-income housing complex where the residents are predominantly Black and Latino. Stephen Crane lies on the border of Belleville, NJ near the Clara Maass medical center. A few comrades stood in front of Pat’s Deli, where workers from the hospital often visited during their lunch hour, while other comrades went door to door with their papers, speaking with the residents, encouraging them to inquire further if they were interested.
I live in Stephen Crane village and I initially had been cynical about reaching out to residents due to me projecting my own individualist thinking onto them. But I was surprised that my neighbors turned out to be more receptive than I’d believed. My neighbors are affected by COVID and discriminatory housing practice just as I am, and those who are employed are most likely essential workers, so they feel angry and discouraged too. They listened to what we had to say and seemed interested in learning more. I myself reached out to them and told them that if they had any questions, they could contact me.
I would love for distribution to become a more regular thing in Stephen Crane, because the residents’ voices matter too. It’s a predominantly Black and Latino complex, but majority of these people are elderly, disabled, and rely on fixed income. Their needs, and concerns often go unheard of by the directors, who are selective about who needs help first. This is a cheaper and more accessible way for them to be informed.
I was a bit apprehensive about distributing by the hospital because Belleville is a town with a decent number of residents who support the police force. However, that was not the case and was pleased to know that those were receptive to our fellow comrade.
Motorcade & Protest
The Motorcade went well. I looked all around, passersby were honking their horns in solidarity, they were cheering us on, they took the newspapers and nodded their heads in agreement at our chants. I saw many people raising their fists in approval when we drove past. This was especially evident when we entered the Shop Rite parking lot. We handed out the Challenge paper to those on foot.
The protest in Kearny went well, the reception was largely warm, a few comrades passed out Challenge Papers to those driving past. I felt energized standing alongside my fellow comrades as we chanted and railed against the capitalist system, even as the police cars kept driving back and forth trying to intimidate us. The speeches that were given during the protest were heartfelt and compassionate, calling on people to fight back against the evils of capitalism; One comrade spoke about how capitalism prioritizes profit over workers and patients alike in hospitals which has been highlighted through this whole COVID pandemic. Despite a brief encounter with the police, it was a great experience.
Study Groups
The study groups were interesting because it bought together the seasoned comrades with the younger inexperienced comrades, we learned from one another. The media will have you believed that the older generation looks down on the younger generation, but I saw none of that. People of different ethnicities, sexualities, religions were engaging each other, and honestly, that is what solidarity looks like in that setting. I learned from the older comrades, and I hope that they learned something from the younger comrades. Out of the study groups I attended, I loved the What is Communism? and Sexism group discussions the most, because I got a lot of insight about how sexism isn’t gender exclusive, but capitalism would have us believe it is, because they exploit sexism (just like they do with racism) to maintain profit and power and keep workers from developing class consciousness. I went into the discussion thinking that men benefitted from sexism, but it hurts them just as much as it hurts women, only they don’t realize it. As for Communism group, I’m glad we had it, because I grew up with misconceptions about Communism and only had knowledge based on the heavily biased American news networks. All I knew about Communism was through Fidel Castro, and I was programmed to believe that Fidel Castro was a horrible person because he was a Communist. Being in this party, as well as having the discussion on Communism shattered my beliefs about the Communist movement, and I didn’t know that there were so many black people who were a part of a Communist movement.
We constantly critique capitalism and I never realized how deeply embedded it was in our belief systems and ideology, even through the art and music we consume. Which is why I opted to lead the discussion in ideology and culture myself. I never realized how capitalism shaped and molded my beliefs. I used to talk about wanting to be rich enough to support my family and use it to help people. I realize that while my intentions were good, it still wouldn’t be enough under a capitalist society, because there would still be inequality, poverty, and oppression. I meant well, but I couldn’t see how that was individualist in nature.
Overall, the Summer Camp Project was a great success, and I look forward to the next one.
****
CHALLENGE was my highlight
One highlight of the Newark Summer Project was the distribution of our Challenge newspaper. I estimated we got out a total of 1500. Additionally, it’s my practice to divide hundreds of papers so that we have separate English and Spanish. That makes every issue go twice as far!
Many new faces came out to distribute; we had a minimum of 5 and max of 10 people at every place we went. We went to large housing projects in Newark, Belleville and Kearny, a hospital, and the entire length of a motorcade through Newark and Kearny. We emphasized our workplaces, neighborhoods where several of us live and locations where we have distributed for decades and where we will continue to concentrate. At least two hours were spent at each location in the midst of the heat wave.
We found that at each place new to us, we encountered people from our jobs or who we had known in years past. One location in Kearny has several friends from our long-term activities in a large Latin organization.
A criticism I had was that the papers were distributed and not sold. It used to be a principle of mine to never “give out the paper for free”. But my understanding is that we will focus on neighborhoods in future years where the emphasis will be on deepening ties, and then the contributions as well as new members will come around.
*****
To defeat sexism, fight for communism
Can there be a communist revolution if we don’t fight sexism? Can we do away with sexism without a communist revolution?
Participants in the study group on sexism that was part of the New Jersey PLP 2020 Summer Project answered both questions with a resounding “No!”
Sexism—oppression and exploitation based upon gender—is everywhere around us. Demeaning representations of women in popular culture; domestic violence against women and children; women’s substantially lower pay; the trillions of dollars’ worth of unpaid labor (usually women’s) performed in the home; brutalization of sexually nonconforming people; the commonly shared belief that gender difference involves inequality: all these ways of seeing and being are so much a part of everyday experience that it is easy to detach them from capitalism and see them as just reflections of “human nature.” Yet, especially when conjoined with racism, sexist ideologies and practices are immensely destructive, dividing and disempowering the working class around the world.
Marxist class analysis enables us to root these beliefs, behaviors, and practices—sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly—in the political economy of capitalism. We asked everyone to consider: (1) What is sexism, and how have you experienced it? (2) How have your ideas about gender and sexuality been shaped by the broader culture? (3) Do the majority of men benefit from sexism? (4) What is the difference between oppression and exploitation? (5) How does sexism profit the capitalist class? (6) Is nonconforming sexual identity intrinsically radical? In preparation, people were invited to study the article about fighting sexism in the August 7, 2020 issue of Challenge-Desafio (/challenge/2020/8/7/working-class-women-organize-against-racist-cops.html); the PLP pamphlet on sexism (file:///C:/Users/BARBAR~1/AppData/Local/Temp/strugglevssexism.pdf); a video containing interviews with various Party members talking about fighting sexism (https://www.dropbox.com/s/7t461d8lhnnak6z/Winning%20the%20Fight%20Against%20Sexism.mp4?dl=0); videos featuring Queen Latifah ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8cHxydDb7o, Missy Elliot (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UvBX3REqSY, and Ru Paul https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD3-3FPNd0c; as well as excerpts from Friedrich Engels’s On the Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State and Lise Vogel’s Marxism and the Oppression of Women. We sought to link key concepts in Marxist theory with familiar pieces of popular culture.
Here are a few highlights from our discussion:
-- While there are biological differences between men and women, sexist differentials in class society are rooted in the rise of private property (see Engels). Sexism not a "natural" outcome of biology, but a historical consequence of relations of property ownership.
-- Sexist ideology both reflects and justifies a social division of labor that coerces women into unpaid work in the home, lowers their wages, and depresses the living standards of women and men alike. Sexism contributes enormously to the bosses’ ability to extract surplus value.
-- Dominant sexist ideologies and practices can warp male workers' notions of "gender-appropriate" behavior, leading them to embrace toxic hyper-masculine ideas and behaviors that greatly restrict the range of human emotions they allow themselves to experience—e.g., “Boys don’t cry.”
-- Women too can internalize sexist ideas—about beauty, about how women should act around men—that end up making them complicit in their own oppression.
--Identity politics and intersectionality—ideas having widespread influence these days—caricature class analysis as “class reductionism,” direct attention away from capitalism as the source of inequality, and foster division rather than unity among the world’s workers.
We came away from the study group on sexism with increased appreciation of the importance of linking our political practice—as communists and friends of communists—with a theoretical understanding grounded in key Marxist analytical concepts, such as historical materialism, exploitation, and ideology.
Sexism greatly impedes the working class’s struggle for self-emancipation. At a time when lies and mystification abound, and women and men, straight and nonconforming, need to unify around our common class interests, we must struggle to arm ourselves, in theory and practice, for current battles and battles to come.
NEW JERSEY, August 25—This year’s twin pandemic of Covid-19 and police terror shed a light on the decline of the U.S. ruling class and proved yet again that capitalism fails our class. It is in this context of rising fascism that Progressive Labor Party (PLP) organized the annual Summer Project. The purpose of the Summer Project was to educate newer members about communism, learn about organizing in their places of work, school, and neighborhoods, strengthen relationships, and further develop our budding young leaders. The fact that PLP was able to execute the Project exemplifies the young leaders’ commitment to building communist leaders.
In the span of two hot summer weeks, the red (communist) Project reached 50 multiracial and multigenerational women and men. Through the distribution of CHALLENGE, 1,500 people were exposed to communist literature. At its closing, four participants joined or recommitted to the Party, including Black and white students and teachers. Overall, a success in moving towards winning workers and students closer to a communist outlook! The Party has a bright future.
Learn to fight, fight to learn
The Summer Project, in Newark, NJ for the first time, consisted of a series of group discussions held physically distant and virtual, CHALLENGE distributions in Newark and nearby towns, and a few rallies.
Veteran PL’ers opened the Project with an introduction and history of PLP, an international party building an antiracist and antisexist movement for communism and advancing communist politics for 55 years.
In the wake of Covid-19, rising mass unemployment, along with the murders of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and countless others, it was important to analyze the ways the ruling class weaponizes identity politics to profit off the divisions of the working class. The study group discussions included the topics of capitalist ideology in media and hip-hop, communism, sexism, and immigration (see letters, page 6).
PLP aims to treat participants with the highest respect and encourage the highest commitment. We fight to learn and learn to fight. Everyone, regardless of experience was encouraged to advance the conversation with their unique perspectives.
During the discussion on communism, participants made the distinction between communism and socialism, the former being a society based on workers’ power and elimination of the basis of all inequity while the latter is a halfway system that still tolerates inequities and other capitalist practices.
Another discussion explored how liberal misleaders like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez learn to posture progressiveness on the road to build a nation ready for bigger wars. More importantly, how communism means that the exploiting class will be eliminated, which is the root of racist and sexist divisions. Workers would control all aspects of society.
CHALLENGE: door to door
Putting the theoretical into practice, PL’ers distributed CHALLENGE in Newark’s Ivy Hill neighborhood, Bloomfield Ave, and, for the first time, in Stephen Crane Village, a working-class housing complex where the residents are predominantly Black and Latin. For years, residents have been subjected to decrepit housing conditions, and mismanagement from corrupt and indifferent slumlords. Stephen Crane lies on the border of Belleville, NJ near the Clara Maass Medical Center. A few PL’ers stood in front of Pat’s Deli, where workers from the hospital often visited during their lunch hour, while others went door to door in the housing complex with CHALLENGE, speaking with the residents, encouraging them to inquire further if they were interested. PL’ers received a warm reception!
Caravan for communism: ‘it was fire’
A caravan against capitalism invigorated participants and residents alike. About twelve cars drove through the streets of Newark with signs such as “Capitalism is the disease, Communism is the Cure” taped on both sides. Every car sported a red flag. Chants alternated between Spanish and English over instrumentals.
We chanted, “Asian, Latin, Black and white—Workers of the world unite” to the beat of Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage.”
Such creativity and vigor was met with pedestrians raising their fist in solidarity and drivers honking in support.
The height of the caravan was the loud response at a supermarket parking lot; people cheered, clapped, and inquired. Some didn’t wait for CHALLENGE sellers to approach them; they took a copy themselves. As one PL’er described it, “it was fire.”
The caravan ended in Kearny, NJ, a town known for being notoriously racist but with a growing Latin population. PL’ers rallied in front of a small apartment complex, chanting for communist revolution in English and Spanish before giving speeches.
An essential worker spoke out against the deplorable conditions of the nursing home where they worked, speaking on the lack of protection, and the horrible treatment the patients experience.
Another comrade spoke out against capitalism, stating that reforms or electing a “progressive” politician won’t do any good when it is the system that needs to be destroyed.
The residents stayed, listened, and some took CHALLENGE. The local police kept driving up and down the street a few times, but we were not intimidated; we continued chanting.
The future is bright
The Summer Project closed with a barbecue and reflections. A healthcare worker opened the program by discussing his journey to joining the Party (see letter, page 6). Another young worker who organizes undocumented migrant workers gave a talk about the contradictions of reform and revolution. A PL’er discussed the role of elections and why the Party slogan is “don’t vote, organize!” Identity politics still remain a barrier to applying a class analysis to world events. Liberal misleaders are the main danger in the fight for a communist world, since they funnel working-class anger into allegiance to nationalism, fascism, and eventual war.
An undocumented student said, “I didn’t know what capitalism was” before her introduction to PLP. She talked with her teacher, researched it independently, and participated in study groups. In fighting to learn, she realized how important it was to understand what it means to live under capitalism. This student wants to keep learning and fighting with PLP.
With students like her, the future is bright and red.
- Information
Students, family, teachers expose liberal misleadership, demand safe schools
- Information
- 28 August 2020 508 hits
NEW YORK CITY, August 3—Hundreds of teachers, students, and parents protested the unsafe plans to reopen city schools. They demanded smaller class sizes and the removal of police from schools. High school youth led chants, showed a promising pro-student element of working-class solidarity in this protest that began outside the teachers’ union (UFT) headquarters and marched to City Hall. Progressive Labor Party (PLP) put forward communist ideas of building antiracist student-family-teacher unity with signs, a bullhorn, and CHALLENGE.
Multiracial fightback is growing
Some teachers opposed to reopening NYC schools have been motivated by an individualist, anti-student outlook that focuses strictly on their own safety. However, speakers at this protest overwhelmingly demonstrated concerns for students, families, and teachers alike.
Protesters rejected liberal misleaders like the NYC Mayor and Schools Chancellor with chants like, “Hey de Blasio/Carranza, what do you say? How many kids did you kill today?”
One speaker explicitly targeted Governor Andrew Cuomo, sold as competent and anti-Trump, who has a history of slashing healthcare budgets and closing hospitals.
This rally reflects the influence of the protests following the murder of George Floyd and other targets of racist police terror. Protesters welcomed chants that connected school reopenings to racism.
This shows that “safe schools” does not simply mean preventing the spread of Covid-19, but also the removal of police.
Notably, the rally began at UFT headquarters whose leadership is notorious for its historic racist and anti-communist collaboration with school bosses, going back to its inception.
Time and time again, the UFT has opposed antiracist initiatives by its members and by Black and Latin workers in the community. Their misleadership must be challenged.
In contrast with previous demonstrations organized by this caucus of the teachers’ union, MORE (Movement of Rank & File Educators), this rally was broader and more multiracial. That said, they remain mired in reformism. Calling for “no school until it’s safe” is not an “advanced” demand because capitalism will never create safe schools (see page 8).
To truly organize the working class, education workers must prioritize organizing students and their families against racism. This will create the unity necessary to defeat capitalism and create a communist world.
Mass budget cuts while bosses’ profits soar
Instead of the great investment of resources and workers required to combat a pandemic, the bosses are already slashing school budgets. Democrat-run New York City has cut $400 million from this year’s budget. Carranza admitted the net impact will be over a $1 billion loss (Staten Island Advance, 7/9) and also warned of a possible layoff of 9,000 teachers (Wall Street Journal, 8/20).
Yet, “Wall Street is enjoying a historic revival as the Federal Reserve and other central banks flooded the global economy with money” (NPR, 7/15). A study by the anti-poverty organization Oxfam found that “17 of the top 25 most profitable U.S. corporations, including Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, Facebook, Pfizer, and Visa, are expected to make almost $85 billion more in 2020 than in previous years.” U.S. billionaires also saw their wealth balloon by over $500 billion during the first three months of the pandemic.
Yet, the politicians cry, “there is no money” and still assure us that things are “safe” and “we are ready!” Reams of reports on schools’ infrastructure show innumerable violations and years of deferred maintenance in the over 1500 city school buildings, many of which are 100 years old. Schools have been dangerous places for years!
Build student-teacher-family solidarity
Capitalism is and always will be violent. Whichever way school resumes in the fall, capitalist schools will continue to be abject failures for students.
Education workers and students need to step up to train ourselves as leaders inside our schools: in our classrooms (virtual or otherwise), through various clubs, school committees, and study groups, and in the teachers’ union, uniting with parents. We will need to push for what’s in the best interest of students and put antiracism front and center.
With PLP’s leadership, we can strengthen unity among parents, teachers, and students—all while building solidarity with custodial, healthcare, and transit workers to protect one another. Organizing demonstrations, community forums, and work actions will show other workers the power of a united multiracial working class and build a communist movement.
The road to combat the devastation created by capitalism is long. But we have a tremendous opportunity now to expose capitalism’s utter disregard for the working class and its inability to run society. We truly have a world to win! Join PLP!
At the Democratic National Convention (DNC) the imperialist Big Fascists put on display the political coalition that they hope can defeat Donald Trump and the Small Fascists that he represents. The Big Fascists are going all out, calling on their fake progressives, various military leaders, and anti-Trump Republican Party leaders to fight off the Small Fascists.
The Progressive Labor Party (PLP) maintains that these liberal politicians, representing the Big Fascists, are the greater threat to the working class. They want to build multiracial support for reforms that will feed their drive towards war against imperialist rivals, China and Russia. PLP says that workers from different countries have no interest in killing each other. The whole damn capitalist system has to go. Workers should run the world–that’s communism.
Big Fascists vs Small Fascists
If it’s not just electoral politics between the Republicans and Democrats, then what’s going on? There’s a split between two capitalist factions: the Big Fascists and the Small Fascists.
The Small Fascists are mostly domestically oriented capitalists like the Koch brothers looking to cut taxes for immediate profit. They are unwilling to spend money fighting wars to defend the worldwide U.S. empire. This means a racist gutting of social services at home and a retreat of U.S. imperialism internationally. Their base is mainly organized through evangelical churches and white nationalist movements. At the Republican National Convention, the Republicans were openly appealing to racist police terror and Klan-type vigilantism. It’s not a party that can lead the U.S. in the world war that the Big Fascists are preparing for. Reject them all!
The Big Fascists, representing finance capital and the imperialist wing of the capitalist class, are looking to build a multiracial coalition to support U.S. imperialism. They need to win Black, Latin, Asian and white workers to sacrifice for finance capitalists like JP Morgan Chase and Exxon Mobil in a war with China, Russia or both. Reject them!
The party of the international working class is the Progressive Labor Party. Capitalism can never serve the needs of workers. It is a racist, sexist, decaying system. PLP says workers can run all aspects of society. That’s communism.
U.S. imperialist Big Fascists unite behind Biden
The Small Fascists have gained power through the Republican Party, now led by president Donald Trump. He has succeeded in marginalizing Big Fascist Republicans such as the Bush family, Colin Powell, Robert Mueller, etc. We saw this at the DNC.
The Big Fascists trotted out military leaders, many of them Republicans. Republican politicians like former Ohio Governor John Kasich, former NJ Governor Christine Todd Whitman, and 27 former members of Congress came out in support of Biden.
Additionally, military leaders who served U.S. Imperialism overseas also came out for Biden. Colin Powell oversaw the invasion of Panama and Iraq in the 1990s, then helped the U.S. invade Iraq again in the 2000s. He endorsed Biden with over 70 former national security officials. Directors of the FBI and CIA (again many Republicans) are supporting Biden and the Democrats (NYtimes, 8/20).
While unity is essential for the Big Fascists—and deadly for the working class— it may not be enough to defeat the Small Fascists.
Consolidating the phony progressives
Over the last 15 years the Small Fascists have been able to seize upon opportunities that culminated in a Trump presidency. The Big Fascists need to appear anti-racist, anti-sexist, and pro working class while continuing to serve finance capital and build patriotism and pass some possible reforms in order to prepare for world war. So they continue to pander to Black and Latin workers.
In 2016, 12 percent of Sanders supporters ended up voting for Trump (NPR, 8/24/17). The Big Fascists need to win back these workers in 2020. So they enlisted misleaders like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Michelle Obama to endorse Biden.
These Big Fascists know that they need to win Black workers to support Biden whose racist track record has become visible since announcing his candidacy. Biden worked with openly racist segregationists James Eastland and Strom Thurmond to pass racist anti-crime bills that led to the mass incarceration of mainly Black and Latin workers (NYTimes, 6/25/2019).
Racist and sexual predator Biden is not a point of strength for the Big Fascists. They installed a Black and South Asian woman Kamala Harris—a top prosecutor with a history of mass incarceration and a racist “lock em up” mentality—to attract a set of multiracial voters. They are riding on an identity politics ticket.
These Big Fascists view the November election as vital to the future of U.S. imperialism. The working class will lose either way. Our future lies with communism where workers run everything. As protests continue against racist police killings, the Big Fascist Democrats are trying to take protestors from the streets and into electoral politics. We need to organize in the streets against racism and against the entire capitalist system.
I regard the collective as the supremely important form of educational work.
-Anton Semyonovich Makarenko
A pandemic rages. There is no cure. Countless are infected; hundreds of thousands have died. The U.S. accounts for only four percent of the world population but over 25 percent of Covid-19 cases. Clearly the capitalists don’t care about us; their only goal is profit. So, we are being shoved into factories, offices, and stores to die for their profit system. To complete the misery, capital demands that children be returned to schools without guaranteeing safety. Such is the logical conclusion to the capitalist educational system.
But there is an alternative to the absolute failure of this miserable racist, sexist, anti-working-class capitalist system and its so-called “education”. And that is communist solidarity: production for need, mutual respect, and education for collective and individual development. A communist revolution is needed to transform society. Two great working-class revolutions have occurred within the last 100 years. The Bolshevik Revolution (1917) and the Chinese Revolution (1949). While both have been tragically reversed due to the seeds of capitalist practices, their early practices have yielded valuable lessons to be applied before and after our next successful revolution.
What can we learn from these revolutions now, especially in education? A good starting point is to examine some of the dramatic changes made in every sphere of life after The Russian Revolution.
From 1914 to 1921 Russia, an already impoverished country ruled by a vicious ruling class, was devastated financially and militarily first by its involvement in World War I and then by a civil war created by the U.S., English, French and Polish imperialists. Eighty percent of its industry and transportation system was destroyed and agriculture and food distribution almost ceased. The new Soviet state faced immense problems of hunger, disease, and homelessness. These are the leftovers of the old capitalist society that was dealt with.
All children have role to play in leadership
Yet, despite the vast problems, many in the Soviet Union were eager to create a new society, a new humankind, a new collective spirit and an entirely new type of education. Among them was an educator, Anton Makarenko.
Born into a working class family in 1888, Makarenko became a teacher when he was 17 years old. Already convinced of the need for revolution he began his career in the midst of the first (1905) revolution organizing meeting places for revolutionary workers. Makarenko continued teaching and supporting revolutionary activity. By 1920 he had successfully taught hundreds and supervised thousands of students. In addition, he had begun to formulate a new educational system based upon the Marxist classics, Lenin’s leadership and the Red Army’s experiences.
In 1920 he was asked by the Educational Commissariat to organize the Poltava Colony for Young Offenders. Due to the destruction caused by WWI and the capitalist Civil War, tens of thousands of starving, orphaned children roamed the countryside and the cities in search of food and shelter. Many turned to crime to survive. They were thoroughly demoralized, angry, and divided by ethnic hatreds.
Makarenko began with six adolescents who had a criminal history, a windowless, doorless, broken down building, some poor farmland, no tools, no books, little food, and two teachers. The goal: to create the foundation of a communist educational collective. Completely uninterested in their past records, believing no one is born with “good” or ‘bad” genetic characteristics Makarenko had a positive and optimistic outlook about each child’s development. He found that all children, including those with profound psychological problems, had a role to play in leadership.
This was a time when the U.S. led a Jim Crow segregated education system, spewed racist pseudo-scientific ideas, and promoted
individualism.
Utmost demand & utmost respect
The first months were rough. Untrusting, the children felt that this was just another prison. It took months before Makarenko gained their respect by forcefully demanding that they cut the firewood for the whole colony not just for themselves. It was a beginning. Based on his years of teaching and revolutionary activity Makarenko came to see that one must “place the utmost demands on a person and treat him with the utmost respect” in order to succeed.
He rejected physical punishment, which was a common measure in that period. Makarenko realized that just as the working class and peasantry had overcome great social and personal problems to win a revolution, all children would, given respect and collectivity, become productive comrades.
What the capitalist countries promote only in theory was already done in practice in the Soviet Union: emphasis on treating children with respect, providing a collective for children to learn, importance of adult models, learning as a social process, uniting manual and mental work as one, and more.
Amidst their poverty (and with some help from the central organizations), the children began to learn to raise their own food, repair their clothes, fix their dwelling and cobble together tools.
However, the main tasks Makarenko set before them was to collectively plan their communal needs. Many of the children were functionally illiterate. Yet despite their resistance to being in school, the demand was they learn the trades that kept the commune in repair. They began to work in teams gradually learning to think in wider collective needs not merely individualist needs. The children loved all this freedom and self-respect.
Over many years hundreds of children passed through the renamed “Gorky Colony.” With more teachers and agronomists, engineers and the USSR’s growing prosperity, the colony combined five hours of productive agricultural and industrial work and four hours political and conventional instruction. The intellectual labor and manual labor were united. Even within the first three years, the collective students were encouraged to become a partially self-governing commune. After seven years, Makarenko was asked to duplicate the success by founding a new collective of orphaned children, which became the Dzerzhinsky Commune.
‘The Road to Life’
Makarenko wrote many books and articles about education which outlined his conclusions distilled from years of experience while educating thousands of children. One of his outstanding works, The Road to Life, is a record of the transformative experience of the Gorky Colony. It is a book to inspire all those teachers (and in fact everyone) who yearn for a free, respectful, socially conscious life: a communist life.
