BROOKLYN—A multiracial, multigender gathering of 150 members and friends of all ages of the Progressive Labor Party gathered to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, and kick off organizing for this year’s May Day celebration. Organized and led by younger comrades, the event was set up where there was nteraction between participants.
The speakers got things started by describing some of the tremendous accomplishments made by the communists in the Soviet Union from wiping out illiteracy to wiping out the Nazis during World War II. One young transit worker was inspiring, describing how buying chicken for your fellow workers enables a deeper discussion of revolution (see letter, page 6).
There was plenty of discussion in various groups in the audience. Rather than listen to lectures, the event was intended for people to interact and talk with each other.
The two questions were posed for small group discussion: Why did the Bolsheviks need a party, and why do we need an international party today?
Reflections from Participants
Afterwards, a speaker from each group summarized the ideas of the discussion. One woman said we need an international party because we are all workers and we are all suffering at the hands of the capitalist bosses.Another woman said we need a party to help organize the working class to fight against the bosses.
An EMT worker said that we need a party because this system does not care about working class lives. She mentioned her encounter with other working class people who refused medical treatment because of fear of having to pay out-of-pocket because they lacked health insurance.  This is a crime against the working class that would be illegal under communism, but we need a party to organize the fightback and lead the way to revolution.
One young man pointed out that the party keeps us disciplined in our fight. He pointed out that unlike anarchists, we believe the leadership of the working class is necessary to lead us toward a better society where all of us have our needs met. He also said the Bolsheviks needed a party to make sure the working class was organized and following the line of the party.
The reason we need an international working class party today is because we know from studying the history of the world communist movement, especially the Bolsheviks, that nationalism was one of the causes of the reversal of workers’ power.
There was bilingual translation (English/ Spanish) at certain tables, but for the most part the whole event was a bilingual event. We are truly an international party. Money was raised. We had a table of some Party literature and Soviety posters decorated the walls. There was also a silent auction where members and friends bid on framed posters of the Revolution.
The celebration ended with everyone singing Bella Ciao and The International in both English and Spanish.
A final political strength of this event was that comrades inexperienced in planning mass events organized it. Evaluating how we organized for this event is vital, because as a communist Party we understand that collectivity and democratic centralism are needed to ensure our success—from organizing locally, to running a society under workers’ power.
Learning these lessons is a part of realizing and gaining confidence in the strength of the international working class.
With that confidence, the same confidence the Bolsheviks demonstrated one century ago, we can advance and build our international Party and beat the bosses everywhere as they try to run and hide. On to May Day (April 28) and communist revolution!

NEW YORK CITY—The contract for the professors and staff at the City University of New York (CUNY) expired on Thursday, November 30. The differemce in he response of a small group of CUNY employees in the Bronx versus the leadership of the union (the Professional Staff Congress, PSC) that represents them serves as a lesson for all workers. While small, the Bronx event was organized to happen on the day the contract expired and was militant and pro-worker. It provided a glimpse at the potential that our class possesses.
The union leadership, on the other hand, planned an event for December 4, and though much larger, was poorly organized and much less militant. Union leadership, no matter how progressive it may seem and no matter how big a crowd they can turn out, is leading us to disaster. They are leading us to passivity and to accepting, rather than fighting, the terrible conditions that we face. Working-class actions organized and led by the communist ideas of Progressive Labor Party, on the other hand, can help equip us for bigger and more militant fights ahead.
Antiracist Rally on Campus
The union chapter at the Bronx campus had been organizing for the rally since the previous semester. Our fallen comrade Lenny Dick and other PL members and friends on campus advocated for the rally on the day the contract expired as a throwback to historical periods when working without a contract did not happen. Unfortunately, the working class is in a dark period of history where working without a contract has become the rule, rather than the exception and we wanted to honor our militant, communist-led past. We also planned our rally to happen on campus, where not only our fellow union members, but also students could see and hear the rally.
The campus, and CUNY as a whole, is predominantly Black and Latin and the attack on workers is also a racist attack on students. This message was made by many of the speakers at the rally and we got support from many students, including one who stopped and helped pass out literature. Other speakers highlighted the terrible working conditions faced by many PSC members, including some who have not gotten contractually obligated raises. Not only do we have to fight for a new contract but we have to fight even just to get what we’re entitled to! A speaker also asked about the chant “No contract, no peace,” and whether we as workers are prepared to carry it out. “Are we ready to strike?”, “Are we ready to truly disturb the peace?” he asked. We finished the rally with a march around campus, where shouts of “The Workers United, Will Never Be Defeated!” echoed off the buildings.
Passive Union Misleadership
Meanwhile, the leadership of the PSC betrayed its intentions from the very beginning. Instead of organizing for a rally on the day of the contract expiration, they waited until the following Monday. Previously, when union leadership was more heavily influenced by communists and socialists, even working beyond the contract expiration would be unthinkable, much less waiting to have a demonstration. Secondly, they marched the many hundreds of PSC members who did show up to a CUNY Board of Trustees meeting. Instead of appealing to the workers of New York, they kowtow to the lackeys and servants of the ruling class. And at the same time, they build illusions among union members that the CUNY Board gives a damn about us. The march and rally were poorly organized and did not take advantage of our numbers. There was no picket in front of the board meeting. Instead, marchers were gathered into pens and stood around, listening to droning speeches from union leadership.
What militancy was present came from the crowd and perhaps the best moments were when the chant “7K or Strike!” repeatedly drowned out the leaders’ speeches. The chant refers to the contract demand that adjunct professors, the most poorly paid and highly exploited faculty members – who are also disproportionately Black and Latin – get paid a minimum of $7,000 per course (the current average is around $3,200 per course). As they proved in the previous contract fight, the PSC leadership is afraid of this militancy and very noticeably did not take up the chant themselves.  Instead, they offered the weak and pleading, “7K, No Delay.”
The contrast between these two events could not be clearer. One was small, but reflected the type of fight that we need to make: a timely demonstration, appealing directly to other workers and students and linking together the ways that capitalism affects us all. The other was larger and louder, four days too late and characterized by dead-end politics and passivity.
Plants Seeds of Revolution
Ultimately, as workers we have two choices: one choice is to go along with the union bosses and the smooth-talking politicians, the celebrities and religious figures. The big crowds, the media coverage, and the fancy signs can seduce us. We can believe them when they promise a better life.
But underneath the glitz and the glamour is just capitalism, with its racism, exploitation and imperialist war. The big crowds are made up of workers, with righteous anger at the terrible conditions that we face around the world, but the leaders on stage are capitalists of one stripe or another, who never call for an end to this murderous system. Instead, they are always about trying to make capitalism a little better for a few workers. This can never lead to liberation for our class and is a deadly trap for all workers.
The other option is to be in these struggles, but with our eyes open to the limits of what union leadership can bring us. We need to be in struggles like the bigger one, led by the PSC leadership, in order to make them like the smaller one, led by rank-and-file members with a communist and revolutionary ideas present.
Ultimately, we need to turn these union protests into places where the bankruptcy of the bosses’ system is made sharp, where union members can clearly see the limits of union leadership that asks its members to do nothing but beg politicians and CEOs for what we should be militantly demanding. We need to make these protests places where the communist ideas of the PLP can take root and grow in the minds of workers.

CHICAGO—Twenty people held a solidarity dinner for workers in Mexico after the earthquakes. We had great food and music. Family and friends who could not come to the dinner made some of the food. After our meal, a Progressive Labor Party member introduced herself as a communist and welcomed everyone to this PLP fundraising event. If the last “natural disasters” have shown us anything, it is that under capitalism, we as the international working class have to rely on each other—not on the capitalists or their politicians.
Two segments on YouTube of the recent earthquakes showed workers and youth coming to each other’s aid. As one young woman said, there were no police to be found. The Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto wanted to bulldoze the areas even when the cries of victims could be heard underneath the rubble.  Another young woman spoke about a family member’s attempts to take needed items to Mexico but was prevented by the police, who wanted money. This is a regular occurrence when workers try to bring aid to Mexico.
 Another young woman at the event brought her parents. She played the guitar and sang some songs of struggle. One woman spoke about being involved in raising money for an indigenous community of fifty families in Oaxaca. These families, which include 20 children, live in tents and have absolutely no economic help from anyone in the U.S. or elsewhere. She is hosting another fundraising activity. Some of the PLP members will be going to that event. CHALLENGE newspapers were circulated to our guests before they left. Overall, we had a wonderful night and raised a modest sum. More donations are coming in from friends that could not make it.
This is the beginning of many fundraising activities for our working-class sisters and brothers. Our friends and families showed that our Party is trusted to deliver this aid directly into the hands of the working class. This is solidarity, not charity. Long live communism and the international working class of the world!

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, aka MBS, has been praised by pro-Trump and anti-Trump forces for implementing sweeping liberal reforms. Both sides believe the prince’s reforms can advance the interests of U.S. imperialism. And the main wing of the U.S. ruling class surely wishes it could follow the Saudis’ lead and bring factions of their own class to heel.
MBS designed his reforms to whip up support among the working class in Saudi Arabia for war against Iran and Iran-backed groups such as Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels in Yemen. But rather than drink the billionaire prince’s nationalist poison, workers need to unite throughout the Middle East and the world and fight for communism.
Both Arsonists and Firefighters
In the oil-rich Middle East, Saudi Arabia has been the main U.S. ally since World War II, when U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt vowed to protect the kingdom in exchange for U.S. access to its petroleum reserves. Internally, the Saudi ruling class shored up its power and profits by cutting a deal with the Wahhabi mullahs. For decades, the Wahhabis have imposed an ultra-sexist religious order at home while exporting their fundamentalist Islam throughout the region. In the 1980s, they trained the mujahideen in Afghanistan in their war against the Soviet Union, a struggle that led to the creation of Al Qaeda. Throughout the region they supply free textbooks that spout their murderous rhetoric.
In the realm of extremist Islam, the Saudis are ‘both the arsonists and the firefighters,’ said William McCants, a Brookings Institution scholar. ‘They promote a very toxic form of Islam that draws sharp lines between a small number of true believers and everyone else, Muslim and non-Muslim,’ he said, providing ideological fodder for violent jihadists (New York Times, 8/26/16).
But now the Saudi rulers need their religious leaders to publicly denounce ISIS and fall in line with the new liberal agenda. MBS is disciplining Saudi capitalists with his so-called anti-corruption drive. He has imprisoned two hundred top officials and businessmen in the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton until they agree to pay back to the government some of the loot they’ve skimmed over the years. He is sending a clear message: The Saudi ruling class must put aside short-term, individual greed for the long-term interests of their class, which includes a buildup to war with Iran. As New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote in an over-the-top love letter to MBS:, “Unlike the other Arab Springs — all of which emerged bottom up and failed miserably, except in Tunisia — this one is led from the top down... and, if it succeeds, it will not only change the character of Saudi Arabia but the tone and tenor of Islam across the globe. Only a fool would predict its success — but only a fool would not root for it” (NYT 11/23).
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch has denounced the Saudis’ new counterterrorism bill, which targets anyone who speaks out against the government. Insulting MBS or his father, King Salman, is punishable by 10 years in jail. Other acts of “terrorism” carry the death penalty, including “‘disturbing public order’, ‘shaking the security of the community’, and…’suspending the basic laws of governance’, all of which are vague and have been used by Saudi authorities to punish peaceful dissidents and activists” (Al Jazeera, 11/23).
These crackdowns against dissident government officials and capitalists are a hallmark of rising fascism in a period of capitalist crisis and sharpening inter-imperialist rivalry. The purpose is to consolidate the rulers’ power by disciplining their own ranks. Then the Saudi bosses will be better positioned to attack the working class and move toward war.
U.S. Jealous of Saudi Crackdown
To date, the main wing of the U.S. ruling class—represented by the big banks and multinational oil companies like ExxonMobil—has been less successful in its own efforts to prepare war and fascism. For the rulers, the Trump administration is proving to be a disaster. Despite a Republican Party majority in both houses of Congress, all Trump has to show for a year in office is a make-the-rich-richer tax bill. His fomenting of white nationalism has further divided the working class when the ruling class needs workers united around patriotism. The Saudis’ initiatives to get their house in order foreshadows the type of fascism the working class can expect in the U.S., sooner than later.
Iran and Saudi Arabia, Two Sides of Imperialism
Saudi Arabia and Iran have been rivals in the Middle East for decades, vying for ultimate control over oil and gas exports in the region. Where the Saudi rulers have allied with U.S. imperialists, Iran has tied its future to Russian and Chinese imperialists.
In 1979, both the Saudi and Iranians rulers turned to fundamentalist Islam as their answer for disciplining their ruling classes and their workers. Now Saudi Arabia is taking a different approach. According to Thomas Friedman, “This reform push is giving the youth here a new pride in their country, almost a new identity, which many of them clearly relish” (NYT 11/23). What MBS hasn’t yet figured out is how to counter without funding destabilizing political movements like ISIS.
As the Saudi rulers move to relax the religious stranglehold on their society, Iran is pushing its own brand of nationalism by uniting its workers against the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. “In short, it appears that Mr. Trump and the Saudis have helped the [Iranian] government achieve what years of repression could never accomplish: widespread public support for the hardline view that the United States and Riyadh cannot be trusted and that Iran is now a strong and capable state capable of staring down its enemies (NYT 11/26).”
As the Saudi ruling class uses secular liberalism to build discipline among their ranks, workers must see it for what it is—a drive to be prepared for war. No matter what reform crumbs capitalists throw us, we must look at their underlying motive: to mislead a working class into fighting and dying for the bosses’ profits. We must organize ourselves to smash all imperialists in a revolutionary war for communism and workers’ power.

*****

War on Workers in Yemen

The war against the working class in Yemen has been raging for two and a half years, killing more than 10,000 and destroying hospitals and sewage treatment plants. The resulting outbreak of cholera, one of the largest in half a century, has infected than a million workers. Blockades have prevented aid from reaching Yemeni workers, creating famine conditions. The U.S. has placed Yemen on its anti-Muslim travel ban list, effectively sentencing workers to death.
The United Nations Human Rights Council is sending observers to Yemen to investigate war crimes allegations. What the UN will never admit is that all imperialist wars are crimes against the international working class.
Backed by Iran, Houthi rebels have been battling a Saudi- and U.S.-backed coalition for control over the country.  Yemen has untapped oil and natural gas reserves and is located on an important oil shipping waterway. It sits directly across the narrow Mandeb Strait from Djibouti, where the U.S. has established a new military base overlooking oil routes from West Africa to the Middle East and beyond.