Englewood rally welcomed by working class
“White Cop Black Cop all the same, racist terror is the name of their game.” A multiracial, intergenerational group of 30 Progressive Labor Party (PLP)  members and friends chanted as they marched around an intersection on Chicago’s South Side. This was spurred on by seeing the cops roll up to some young men who had been appreciating our rally.
It turned out that the Black cops who had been talking to the young men were telling them that if they agreed with what those "White folks" were saying then they needed to go join them on the corner PLP was on. "These White folks aren't from here. They are trying to get you to act up."
The young man who had brought us an entire 24 pack of water bottles from the corner store just 15 minutes earlier said “I told them [the cops], ‘they’re [the marchers] not telling me what to do, I’m a grown man but, you [the cops] I know what you do” he said disgustedly, adding a vehement “F*ck the police.”    
During this 90-minute rally, we distributed 200 fliers about the racist murder of George Floyd and the need for communist revolution, as well as 250 CHALLENGEs. We distributed masks, gloves, and hand sanitizers to anyone in need. Hundreds of cars honked in appreciation.
While the largest protests happened downtown that day (and many of us participated in those too), we chose to go to the Southside of Chicago in the morning because of the racist over-policing of these neighborhoods. Just the week before, near the intersection of our rally, the cops beat and arrested young black youths for not physically distancing. This is also a neighborhood where we have comrades who teach in the high school slated for closure by the City.
The combination of school closing and racist police terror show what the City has planned for Englewood—more racist state terror. Racism and capitalism go hand in hand and we have to fight both with every ounce of our strength to defeat them.
We can’t let the bosses’ racist plans for Englewood and the rest of Chicago be carried out. We will continue to build with workers and students in these neighborhoods to fight back. Power to the working class!
*****
Oakland: antiracist rush hour
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) led the way with a powerful workers’ action that shut the West Coast ports down on Juneteenth to end systemic racism. Thousands joined in: rallies, a march, bike brigades, and car caravans.  The caravan was so long, we dubbed it the “antiracist rush hour.”  This certainly shows that the working class on the job can have an outsized impact on profits when they shut it down against systemic racism.
Thousands of young men and women marched in multiracial unity with the Port shutdown.  They expressed class-consciousness through chants like, “Ain’t no Power like the power of the workers ‘cause the power of the workers, don’t stop.”
One speaker, Boots Riley, explained “our power” is because “we create wealth.” He called on the thousands at the rally to organize where they work to shut it down. “We’ll stop the world and make them MFs, jump off.” Of course, the working class needs an organized international Party for that.
In the caravan, PLP’s car posters focused on multiracial, international working-class unity to smash capitalism and build a communist society. Marchers pumped their fists and took pictures of our cars. Some PL’ers distributed flyers and CHALLENGE. We joined in the just fury of the working class at this racist, fascist disregard of human life and are inspired by the rebellions of the past weeks. This can be the start of the strategic fighting force of workers joining with the demonstrations in the streets if the workers on the job go beyond the “legalisms” in union contracts and “shut it down” with political strikes or job actions.
At the same time, our leaflet addressed the limitations of reforms, which have not stopped the racist and sexist murders by the cops. We recognize that police murder is racist class terror. Capitalist profits need exploitation and a divided workforce; racism, anti-immigrant attacks and sexism are essential for that.
Replacing the present system with one where people not profits are valued and people can develop to their full potential requires a revolution for a communist political-economic system. PLP strives to be the party that builds that new system.
*****
Police terror is worldwide
I have been talking about racist police terror with a friend, who is a maintenance worker at the school where I teach, and a CHALLENGE reader who comes from Gambia. When I suggested that racist police terror was an international phenomenon under capitalism, he cried, “Oh yes, it’s true!”
Then he recounted a story his cousin told him about an incident that happened just last week.
His cousin knows a man who is a poor farmer living in a village. One day last week, after tending his crops, he was coming back home on his scooter. The police stopped him in the street and asked him for his registration. He said that he had all his papers, but they were at home, and offered to get them. As an act of good faith, he even offered to leave them his ID until he could return with the registration. The cops refused and demanded the keys to his scooter. “How can I go home then? It’s far.”
The cops didn’t care. They forcibly tried to take his keys from him and in the process, they broke his arm. A few minutes after telling me this story, my friend texted me a photo of the man with a broken arm.
“Why do you think they did that,” I asked my friend.
“They want money,” he replied.
They are corrupt. Of course, this is true. Cops around the world are known for taking bribes, working with drug dealers, shaking down small businesses for “protection.” But as we spoke about it, we went deeper. Who are the cops protecting? Who are they attacking? They protect the large landowners, the big businesses. They are protecting the profit system. And they are attacking the working class, terrorizing them into submitting to the brutal capitalist order and a life of poverty. The racist aspect of the situation becomes clear when one realizes the history of Gambia, whose workers have suffered under the yoke of British imperialism for several hundred years. Even now, 55 years after “independence,” they remain part of the British Commonwealth.
This worker has been an enthusiastic reader of CHALLENGE who regularly takes extra papers to give to coworkers, friends, and family. This international solidarity is crucial to building our movement to destroy capitalism forever.

*****

Working-class fightback empowers young PL’er

Participating in these current mass demonstrations has been a great learning opportunity in how to advance the fight against this deplorable system we live under. My experience at a recent march through Washington Heights and Harlem showed me areas in which I could grow to be a stronger member of PLP.

In giving a speech, I learned that although I might have a clear understanding of our politics, the ability to deliver and spread party politics to the working class also requires confidence and practice. I was disappointed by how my speech went, and reflecting on how to improve forced me to reflect on other areas of my life similarly affected.

The perverse, self-destructive nature of capitalism infects our experience of life, and the only hope for a life of dignity is by building unity with our comrades and other workers. Being a revolutionary is something that must be practiced in both mind and action every day in all aspects of our lives; it is not like a light switch that can simply be turned on when there is a task at hand.

All this discomfort has only increased my conviction in the Party’s ability to bring power to the workers. Before entering the march, one of our comrades laid out our plan and said something that resonated with me: “When we go into these things, we need to treat it like we are going into battle.”

For the sake of all we that we love, and against everything we hate, I think these words are a reminder of the discipline we all must practice and embrace throughout our daily lives.

*****

A multiracial protest at Pelham Bay Park

A militant and unified group of 300 Black, Latin, Asian, and white students marched through Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx. As a member of the Progressive Labor Party, and resident of this neighborhood for 20 years, I was thrilled to see the largest park in New York City become something more than just a place for exercise and festive gatherings.

This march, organized and lead by young students and workers, denounced the racist murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, while calling for an end to all racist cop terror.

“Defund the cops! Not our Schools!” and “No Justice! No Peace! No Racist Police!” echoed through the park as dozens of bystanders either cheered or joined the march en route to our rally destination. 

While some of the speeches were antiracist, anti-cop, and pro-student, some of the leadership called for us to take “responsibility” and “revolutionize the electoral process”. 

Thankfully, 150 PLP leaflets were distributed and I was able to speak with a number of protesters. Many were open to the idea of not relying on liberal politicians and their capitalist system. One Black leader cried out during his speech, “None of these politicians are gonna stop these cops killing black people on streets.”

He also called for multiracial unity. “We don’t see white people as allies. That’s not enough! We need you in the trenches fighting with us!”

One NYC teacher stated, “I have lived here for 30 years and never saw a demonstration or rally ever in this park.”

I plan to encourage our PL club to take advantage of this small but important opportunity and schedule some regular CHALLENGE sales at the local train station where many commuters, Pelham Bay residents, and MTA workers pass through every day.

Racism and racist oppression exist to support and enhance exploitation, or wage slavery, the political-economic foundation of capitalism. Anti-Black racism is the basis for the oppression of Black workers in all spheres of life and, in the U.S., along with the genocide of the indigenous population, it’s also the foundation for the racist oppression and exploitation of Latin and immigrant workers. And it is the source of AT LEAST $500 BILLION in “super-profits”: that is the difference between the household income of white and Black families.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 17 million Black households in the U.S. In 2019, the median income of those families was $41,361. The median household income of white families was $70,642. If the bosses were to pay those Black families the same as white families, they would have to fork over an additional $497 BILLION, reducing the bosses’ profits by that half TRILLION dollars. [$70,642 x 17 million families = $1,200,914,000,000; $41,361 x 17 million families = $703,137,000,000] [$70,642-$41,361=$29,281 income differential per family X 17 million families=$ billion extra profit for the capitalists]
This super-exploitation of Black workers is the combined legacy of 401 years of slavery, followed by Jim Crow/KKK/police violence; enforced racist discrimination in housing, education and healthcare; exclusion of Black veterans from the post-World War II GI Bill — to name only a few examples.
With all the hypocrisy from liberals, conservatives, Democrats and even some Republicans vowing to “do something about systemic racism,” about “reforming” the cops who’ve been enforcing that racism for centuries, and with all the media editorials and politicians’ op-ed pieces decrying this beastly oppression: there is not one solitary word mentioned about that half trillion super-profits reaped from racism.
Nor are there any crocodile tears shed about the use of that racism against Black workers to drive down the wages of the entire working class, including white workers. Major economic studies (documented in Racial Inequality by Michael Reich, 1981) demonstrate the greater the racist wage differentials between Black and white workers, the worse the living conditions, healthcare, education, welfare/ public services, and labor unionization rates are for white workers also. This is another untold source of still extra profit for the capitalist exploiters.
Racism hurts and divides Black, Latin, Asian, white and immigrant workers and prevents working class unity that would fight the bosses’ attacks on our entire class. We draw on history’s countless examples of multiracial working class fightback to smash racism at its source: capitalism.
The rulers will never surrender their capitalist profit system peacefully. It cannot be reformed. It must be overthrown. The working class that is taking to the streets by the tens of thousands to oppose racist police terror must be won to see that only communist revolution — wiping out the bosses and their profits — can destroy this racist system. That is the goal of the Progressive Labor Party!

BAY AREA, CA—Thousands of cars and bicyclists caravanned through Oakland on May 31 to protest George Floyd’s racist murder and those of many others by the kkkcops. Floyd was executed in a public lynching. His murderer, Derek Chauvin—the subject of 18 complaints and three previous shootings of suspects, one fatal—has been charged with murder.
The May 31 caravan involved many younger workers, Black, Latin, Asian and white. The mass rage against racism is thrilling.
Progressive Labor Party had 8 cars, 17 people in the caravan. We got our message out with posters and red flags. We distributed CHALLENGE and over 200 PLP leaflets condemning police murder and calling for revolution. Stuck in the massive multiracial "rush hour," we talked to people in cars alongside us. One immigrant worker from El Salvador reminded us that the U.S. military had armed and trained the Salvadoran military and criminal gangs to terrorize rebelling workers in El Salvador just as the police function in the U.S. Capitalism rules with racist terror all over the world.
The Oakland caravan was part of a multiracial uprising against racist police murder. The San Francisco Bay Area has seen demonstrations every day—in Oakland, San Jose, San Francisco, and elsewhere—of tens of thousands of Black, Latin, Asian, white and indigenous workers. These marches echo the response of millions of workers worldwide to this racism. The police responded violently to non-violent protests. 15,000 high school students, parents and teachers protested police murders in Oakland on June 1. Unprovoked, cops tear gassed them and shot rubber bullets—before the curfew of 8 PM. They did the same in San Jose on May 31.
 Psychologists and the legal system defend racist cops
The Department of Justice and District Attorneys have protected fascist police who kill us. In 2015, psychologist William Lewinski toured the U.S. training cops to kill and rely on him to take care of the legal end. In the last decade, he had testified or consulted in 200 legal cases defending police accused of murder. His company, Force Science Institute, has trained tens of thousands of police officers to shoot pre-emptively before they see a gun (New York Times, 8/2/2015). Fearing our class unity, the bosses call protestors looters. They plant rock-throwing window-busting provocateurs to discredit them.
Can we organize workers to overthrow capitalism and its state and create a communist society? Workers’ response to George Floyd’s racist murder by cops tells us, “YES.” Our job is to take our message to workers: capitalism needs racism, and racist police terror is part of what holds the capitalists in power. Only communism can end this.
Workers unite against racism
U.S. capitalism was built on racism: divide Black, white and indigenous workers and keep the rulers on top (see The Road not Taken by Lerone Bennett)
Black and Latin workers are exploited and oppressed far more than white workers, particularly white male workers; this creates millions of super-profits for the capitalist class (see page 4). All workers experience the horrors of life under capitalism: job insecurity, pandemics, wars, inadequate wages, bad medical care, false arrest, police murder and homelessness. Black, Latin, indigenous, Asian, and immigrant workers—especially women—have far worse conditions, but these horrors affect all workers.
We need to unite as comrades in the struggle against capitalism. When one group of workers is stratified, isolated and attacked to create a “low wage group of the reserved army of labor,” all workers suffer from lower wages and worse living conditions.
Loyal to our class rather than “race,” workers can overcome divisions. We need to see through this divisive strategy and unite to fight for the needs of all. This means a communist world, a world where we work to serve one another’s needs, not the bosses’ profits. As Marx said a century ago, “Labor cannot emancipate itself in the white skin, where in the black it is branded.”

Comrade Arnie Indenbaum died at 12:01 AM on May 2 at the age of 92, a minute after the close of May Day. Arnie had been one of the early members of the Progressive Labor Movement (PLM — predecessor of the Progressive Labor Party) —  and was at its founding conference in July 1962. One of his first responsibilities was to help organize a student trip to Cuba, breaking the travel ban instituted by President Kennedy. For this action he and other PLM members and supporters were subpoenaed to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), which was conducting an anti-communist witch-hunt to enforce the travel ban.
Fighting anti-communist intimidation
Arnie refused to cooperate with HUAC’s red-baiting. He charged the Committee with “attempting to prevent U.S. students from exercising their right to travel and from finding out the specific nature of the Cuban system.” He testified that “what the U.S. government and this Committee [HUAC] says about Cuba is an outrageous distortion and lie.”Arnie’s indictment of HUAC was part of a campaign which PLM —  and later the PLP —  launched to expose the Committee’s anti-communism, including mass demonstrations in Buffalo and Washington, leading to HUAC’s eventual dissolution.
PLM on the railroad
Arnie was a brakeman on the New York Central R.R. for ten years until being laid off in 1963. He participated in numerous actions opposing the company’s mass layoffs, including a slowdown which had its quick-witted side. Arnie was walking ever-so-slowly alongside an engine that was crawling up Manhattan’s east side tracks. The exasperated engineer finally called out to Arnie to “speed it up a little; you’re making me look bad.” Arnie had a great sense of humor.
Arnie loved music, especially early jazz, and enjoyed classical music, even opera. He always had a record on, playing the likes of Louis Armstrong, Ben Webster, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday and the occasional Pavarotti.
Many folks didn’t know Arnie was a serious scholar of Shakespeare. Over the course of decades, he read and studied Shakespeare, developing a keen and deep understanding of the playwright’s work from a class perspective.
Organizing in later years
Arnie worked as an electrician and a grip in the film industry for many years. For health reasons he left that work and ultimately came to own and operate AS-IS, a small antique book and record store in Manhattan’s West Village. The store — always with music playing in the background —  was a place where many people would stop by for coffee, political discourse and often a good laugh. Arnie always took a particular interest in the young people in his life. He mentored many.
Arnie’s last few years were marked by failing health. His contribution to the building of a communist future will be sorely missed but never forgotten.