CHICAGO, June 24 – Working-class Latin immigrant mothers and their supporters continued their struggle against the racist Chicago Public Schools (CPS) today. In the face of tricks and obstacles, the mothers persisted on having a meeting with newly-appointed board president Miguel del Valle  regarding the application of magnet status for their children’s dual-language elementary school.
This struggle to re-designate the school as a magnet school is the latest in a long string of battles that these working-class parents have waged against the racist CPS for the district’s attacks on their school and majority-Latin community. Comrades from Progressive Labor Party (PLP) have been involved in many of these fights and continue to advocate for communist revolution as the only way to guarantee the best education for workers and their children worldwide.
Don’t back down
The meeting with del Valle today was set weeks ahead of time, confirmed through a series of emails exchanged with a PLP comrade and del Valle’s secretary. When we arrived at the president’s luxurious downtown office, however, the receptionist as well as a pair of CPS lackeys began to give us the runaround.
The lackeys first informed us that del Valle was not available, and that the plan was that on this day we would meet with other CPS representatives instead. After we showed these flunkies the email confirmations that we received that we had in fact scheduled the appointment with him specifically, the story changed into how his secretary had since sent cancellation emails to the comrade (which were unsurprisingly never found). It became obvious that CPS was really trying to get out of any obligation to meet with the mothers.
But we were not about to be moved. The mothers as well as the school principal were persistent and pushed back, continuing to show the emails until the CPS flunkies ushered us into a boardroom where del Valle and a handful of other executives magically appeared.
Capitalism fails the working class
Now that we had the CPS bosses’ attention, we were able to pressure them for answers about the status of the application to convert Whittier Elementary into the only dual-language magnet school on the city’s south side.
The school is situated in what is still a majority Latin immigrant working-class neighborhood but which is rapidly gentrifying.  Whittier is operating at a little more than half of its enrollment capacity, as more working-class families are displaced by rising rent prices.
By converting the school into a magnet school, by the parents and staff hope to draw in more working-class students who can benefit from the dual Spanish-English program, increase enrollment, and fight off the threat of the school closing in the not-too-distant future.
The application was submitted back in October of 2018, and the parents have faced a lot of racist and sexist indifference from CPS. The application was quickly denied by the district, without explanation. What’s more, the parents who have attended CPS board meetings to bring attention to the school have been made to wait for hours on end to speak. Practically all the mothers involved only speak Spanish, but were offered no translation services from CPS for one of these meetings in April in order to understand what was being discussed.
Today, the immigrant working-class mothers gave testimony on the strengths of the community-centered school and the benefits it has had for the students. One Latin mother, who was forced to move to another neighborhood to the southwest, spoke about how she still drives two of her children to attend Whittier each morning because of the positive impact it has had on their education and language skills.
The CPS bosses faked sincerity and promised to get back to us with updates and a decision in the upcoming weeks. Del Valle and Lori Lightfoot, the new mayor who appointed him, are painting themselves as progressives who are ready to defend education for working-class students. In fact, we need to see these liberals as the main danger to the working class.
Look back no further than past liberal mayor Rahm Emanuel, who championed progressive causes during his campaign and then closed fifty schools, the majority of which were in Black and Latin working-class neighborhoods. A number of his CPS appointees were charged with incompetence and corruption, including former CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett.
As long as capitalism treats education as a commodity and working-class students as criminals and future soldiers to be mobilized for war, we can expect more of the same. A communist education is the only one really worth fighting for, where education is not based on money or profits but is a collective, lifelong process grounded in the needs of our class.
Remember La Casita
As we were leaving the CPS office, a comrade told the bosses, “I’m not sure what your decision will be, but I’ve known these parents for many years, and I know that they’re fighters. If you cross them, you’ll have another La Casita on your hands.”
The comrade was referring to the struggle over a community center at Whittier Elementary, which immigrant workers occupied for over a month in 2010 when CPS threatened to demolish it. The bosses eventually succeeded, but many immigrant workers and PLP comrades fought and learned much in the process.
It’s those lessons and fighting spirit that we’ll maintain during the struggles ahead, part of the broader struggle to overcome all the capitalist bosses’ attacks by winning more workers to a communist future.

SANTA MONICA, CA, June 18– Nearly 100 hotel workers, community members, and clergy marched through the hotel district in Santa Monica, rallying in front of two hotels and City Hall. The focus of the struggle is to combat sexism in the workplace and improve conditions for the overworked, mostly female housekeeping staff. Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members work in a church that is part of a coalition called Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, which is currently supporting the efforts of local hotel workers to unionize and improve working conditions.
 Their most recent struggle has been focused on combating sexist conditions in the workplace, especially the sexual harassment and assault perpertrated by  management and hotel guests. The workers and the union are pushing the City Council to pass an ordinance that would mandate that panic buttons be placed in all guest rooms; provide for humane workloads and job retention rights when hotel ownership changes; and begin necessary training for supervisors and staff on preventing human trafficking, domestic and sexual violence, and labor abuse.
At the rallies, there were the usual talks from Council members, but the most inspiring speeches were from the workers themselves. The women talked about their experiences with sexism on the job and how they have stayed strong and kept fighting because of the support they’ve received from fellow workers and the community.Their campaign started last fall with informational forums, where workers shared their stories. As nearby jurisdictions started passing panic button ordinances, the workers and the union began to craft their own housekeeper’s bill of rights. Then they circulated a petition to gather community support. At our church, we’ve been gathering signatures after services and making announcements from the pulpit.
Santa Monica hotels are not alone in the sexist and racist mistreatment of their workers. In Los Angeles, workers are organizing a union at the trendy Freehand Hotel, owned by multi-millionaire real estate developer Andrew Zobler. Workers have faced “speed-up” — the number of beds and bathrooms they must clean has doubled. As a result, they have no time for breaks or even quick water breaks.When they began to organize a union, management threatened to report them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and made antigay remarks comments to some union delegates.
Since the owners of hotels and every other business want to maximize profits, they seek to cut labor costs whenever possible. How this affects the workers—damaging their health, and their family lives—is of no concern to the owners. We support the collective action of workers to improve their conditions and defeat racist and sexist treatment. We also bring to the struggle the understanding that capitalism will always use racism and sexism to oppress the working class and extract maximum profits, but that workers have the power to overthrow that system with a communist revolution that allows the international working class to run society for the benefit of all.

SPAIN, June 24—A small fascist party called Vox is taking hold here. The Vox party panders to the domestic-oriented bosses, along with the disaffected racist and sexist working-class people who make Vox’s base. These little fascists are secondary to the main danger—liberal fascism.
The current division we see worldwide is between the main finance capital wing of the ruling class who are committed to imperialist interests and more domestically focused capitalists who don’t want to pay the bill in higher taxes that it will take for a global war to maintain that control. Immigration is one of the fault lines of these divisions.
Gutter fascists grow out of crisis and splits
The crisis of capitalism has fostered the rise of fascist parties across the globe, as we’re seeing from Spain to India. In Europe, many fascist parties have been gaining ground, playing on the disappointments and suffering of workers who have been subjected to unemployment and government cutbacks in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis that continues to widen. From Italy to Hungary to the UK and beyond, parties have used anti-immigrant racism, “anti-corruption” promises and anti-communist rhetoric. Their Klan-type racism fueled violence against immigrants fleeing inter-imperialist war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, and Yemen. The use of nationalism and racism against immigrants and Muslims, and antigay and antisexist ideas are consistent features of fascism across the globe.
In Spain, the fascist virus has reared its ugly head in the form of  Vox (Latin for “voice”). Emerging in 2013 as a split from the traditional right-wing Partitdo Popular (People’s Party). Vox openly supports Israeli fascism and advocates war against Iran. Vox’s current boss, Santiago Abascal, launched the 2019 campaign in Covadonga, the site of the first victory of Christian Spain against Muslims who governed the Spanish peninsula for over 780 years. He is calling  for “making Spain great again” via mass deportation of Muslim workers. Abascal also wants to build a long wall on Spain’s southern border to stop migrants from Morocco and other parts of Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa who are fleeing war and environmental catastrophe. Vox unabashedly evokes the legacy of Franco, the Spanish dictator who ruled for over 40 years, and longs for a return to authoritarian rule under the banner of Spanish ultra-nationalism.
Vox is part of a broader fascist movement that has been building in Europe and worldwide. Steve Bannon, ex-strategist of the Donald Trump administration, founded an organization called “The Movement” to promote nationalist groups in Europe. Parties under this banner include the Belgian People’s Party, Italy’s Northern League, France’s National Front, Alternative for Germany, the Danish People’s Party and The Freedom Party of Austria.
What goes unmentioned in liberal analyses of Vox is that it’s the conditions caused by capitalism that provide the fertile ground upon which fascist parties can grow. These groups are a political response of one section of the capitalist class to the circumstances and obstacles of capitalism in crisis. This section of the ruling class is unwilling to make sacrifices for global imperialism. They are in conflict with the finance wing, which has been on the defensive from Europe to Asia to Latin America. The volatility of the capitalist world order is rapidly increasing.
Who will lead the fight?
We would be misleading ourselves if we think a movement absent of communist politics can steer a fight against fascism. Since December of 2018, the southern region of Andalucía has seen militant protests opposing attacks on immigrants and Vox. In cities like Granada, Sevilla, and Málaga, these groups have shut down streets and occupied central areas of the city with shouts of “We are not afraid” and “It’s fascism, not democracy,” and “Refugees welcome.” The main liberal wings of the bosses seek to control and steer this movement. What we need to keep in mind is that all liberal politicians are loyal servants of the main wing of their ruling class. Their job is to mislead and pacify angry workers, and to keep them on the dead-end road of capitalist electoral politics.
Just as it was in the period before World War II, the answer to a fascist international is a communist international, which makes the struggle against anti-immigrant racism, nationalism, and other oppressive and divisive ideas the key to building the unity necessary to defeat rising fascism. However, the old movement made a grave mistake in forming a united front against fascism—essentially failing to separate itself from the liberal bosses. PLP is trying to build a communist international movement that is independent from all bosses’ camps.
The capitalist bosses will always demonstrate significant tactical and strategic differences. However, they are united in the fundamental principle of attacking the working class at all costs and will achieve that through increased exploitation as well as racist and sexist attacks. However, it is our duty to continue to expose the liberals as the main threat to the international working class for their role in ensuring the survival of the profit system.

BRAZIL—In 206 cities, hundreds of thousands of students and teachers took to the streets in protests, outraged by President Jair Bolsonaro’s announcement to cut 30 percent of funding to public universities and high schools. Racist and sexist Bolsonaro is now under attack and rightly so. But voting so-called leftists back into power is not the answer. It’s not just Bolsonaro. It’s the whole damn capitalist system.  Various socialists or “leftists” today – from Bernie Sanders in the U.S. to Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva- just want to fix capitalism. That’s not possible.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of workers are striking, demonstrating and fighting the cops, demanding no cuts to their pensions and other safety net programs. This is working class power. It should not be wasted on an effort to replace Bolsonaro with some socialist hack. Let this be a school for communist revolution. We need workers and students in Brazil to join the communist Progressive Labor Party (PLP) and organize for an egalitarian society totally run by the working class. Bolsonaro won big because the fake leftist governments - led by the Worker’s Party (PT) which was in power for twenty years - dished out a few crumbs to the working class and then screwed them royally.
By the time of his October 2018 election victory, Brazil was in the deepest recession in its history, corruption was rampant among politicians, and homicides were at record levels (nytimes.com, Oct 28, 2018). It was Lula and his fake “leftist” Workers Party– in power for almost 20 years– that put Brazil in this crisis.
 The current cuts come on top of years of budget cuts by the previous governments led by the Workers Party. They are part of a policy of austerity measures aimed at shrinking government spending and privatizing the country’s resources. They target the humanities and social sciences as part of Bolsonaro’s far-right nationalist party’s ideological attack on the “left”, which he claims has turned the universities into “hotbeds of Marxist indoctrination” (Aljazeera).
Bolsonaro also aims to privatize 100 state-run companies in areas such as energy, ports, highways, and airports, a process that began over 20 years ago when the government began privatizing Petrobras, the state-owned oil company, and South America’s largest. Now, under Bolsonaro, that plan is being intensified with a vengeance. Some capitalists aligned with Bolsonaro will control businesses that were previously controlled by capitalists aligned with Lula.
This is also a defeat for Chinese imperialists who have made huge investments in Brazil – and especially in Petrobas - while the Workers Party was in power.  Bolsonaro’s fascist program is a full-fledged attack on the working class.  Since taking office, he has lowered the minimum wage, eliminated labor legislation protections, announced the dismantling of social security and the slashing of pension benefits, and attacked public education.  He is promoting racism to divide and weaken the working class.  He campaigned on the promise of seizing resource-rich indigenous lands that “are an obstacle to agri-business” (Campo Grande News, 4/22/15).
Bolsonaro promotes vicious racism against the indigenous tribes to divide the working class and justify this land grab.The massive demonstrations show students and workers acting in their own class interests.  Now, they need to reject the socialism of the Workers Party, which has produced little for the working class. Join the PLP and transform this anti-government movement into an armed revolution for a classless society-- communism. 
 Workers and students in Brazil have seen first-hand, over the last 20 years, how socialist reforms within a capitalist economy fail the working class.  Join the Progressive Labor Party and help us build a new international communist movement for real workers’ power.