PAKISTAN, August 6—A wave of coercion from the judiciary, military, and inter-service intelligence agencies has rigged the general elections in favor of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and its leader Imran Khan. The PTI has 174 seats in the parliament, effectively forming an absolute majority. The bosses’ infighting is played out on the backs of the working class here. Pakistan, a nuclear power and the world’s sixth most populous country, is positioned at the crosshairs of a U.S. and China rivalry (see editorial, page 2). The country’s outcome has ramifications for the international working class.
Progressive Labor Party is putting our revolutionary line of “don’t vote—revolt” before the masses. The working class needs organize under our red flag to get rid of this barbaric capitalist system by fighting for an international communist revolution.
Terror against working class
Different groups are executing terrorist attacks. Two hundred innocent people have been killed in just the first 15 days of July. It is not uncommon for the losing party to accuse the winning party of rigging the election and to foment violent protests in the streets.
These murders have provided the military grounds to deploy 371,000 troops in order to ensure a “fair and free” election.
“The army was hell-bent upon securing Khan’s victory and even encouraged political parties with overt ties to terrorist groups to field several hundred candidates, alongside some 1,500 candidates tied to Pakistan’s right-wing Islamist parties” (Foreign Affairs, 7/27).
The military has arrested and threatened political rivals, including the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), in the months leading up to the elections. They have also worked to disqualify PML-N candidates from running. The PTI represents the capitalists, feudalists, religious clerks, and retired officials supported by the state.  Left with few options, the army cultivated Khan and his PTI party.
No good capitalist party
Capitalist bosses try to spread the illusion that “capitalism is good but the ruling party is bad so people need to bring a new party to rule them.” But we in Progressive Labor Party are exposing the bosses’ intentions to keep the capitalist system intact by blaming one or other ruling party.
There was censorship of the newspapers, social media and TV channels. The level of interference and political engineering is unprecedented,” said the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan official. The National Accountability Bureau has been described as being used by the state to bring politicians in line by threatening to bring corruption cases against them.
The PML-N’s campaign material was allegedly ripped apart by authorities while leaving PTI campaign materials untouched. There have been suggestions that candidates belonging to PML-N have been coerced to switch parties.
Punjab is the most populous province and remained key to elections. On the last day of scrutiny of nomination papers, seven PML-N candidates from Southern Punjab returned their tickets leaving no option for PML-N to field replacement candidates. This move prevented them the opportunity to win those seats. There have also been reports of election engineering in all provinces. This is nothing new; it happens in every election because capitalists always manipulate elections and manage their parties according to their interests.
Capitalism makes everyone in the ruling class rotten. The system only produces exploitation, poverty, inequality and injustice. Only communist revolution is a way out of this hell and PLP is striving to win the masses to the idea that elections are not a solution for our problems.
Courts protect ruling-class terrorism
The courts and the intelligence agency have been working with the military to elect Khan. In 2017, a corruption investigation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was launched. In response to this, the Supreme Court ousted Sharif disqualified him from holding office under Article 62 of the constitution.
The authorities have also launched an anti-terrorism investigation against PML-N leaders and opened criminal cases against nearly 17,000 party members.
The PTI recently gave 300 million rupees to Madrassa e Haqqaniya, a religious school which is a factory of terrorists. It produced all the terrorists who fought against the USSR and now it is producing “good terrorists” to kill the progressive and working-class people. Terrorism is of course supported by the state. Three terrorist political parties are expected to side with Imran Khan.
Don’t vote—revolt!
Comrades are explaining that the Pakistani state is under the control of brutal capitalist bosses. That’s why nobody can talk against the narrative of terrorist organizations; nobody can raise a question about the internal and external security issues; and nobody is allowed to talk against the false ideology of Islamist organizations. Workers have no right to discuss communism or to criticize capitalism or to talk secularism. But fundamentalists have the right to kill anybody, anywhere and at any time. There is no security for the working class—they are being killed by extremists to spread terror across the country.
We are speaking against the elections with the slogan “Don’t vote—Revolt” in order to convince the masses to forge a struggle for an international communist revolution under the red flag of PLP.
Capitalist bosses are confusing the working class by giving them an opportunity to vote to change their masters. No boss has an agenda to bring prosperity, equality and justice in the lives of workers. Comrades are bringing the working class closer to our line by exposing the reality of elections and the necessity of revolution. Long live international communist revolution and PLP!

BROOKLYN, July 21—On a crowded hot Saturday, sixty antiracists took over the corner of Church and East 18th Street in commemoration of the five-year fightback for justice for Kyam Livingston.
In what was a powerful message against this racist system, three families of victims of police murder, along with antiracists, united to indict the New York Police Department. The working class needs more examples of Black women leadership like these. Progressive Labor Party fights for the ultimate justice for our class: communism.
This is what solidarity looks like
Students, teachers, local families, workers, youth and elders—Black and white—rallied together. We distributed flyers and CHALLENGEs. The loudspeaker was in constant use by people speaking about Kyam’s life, Kyam’s death, and the horrors of racism and capitalism. Anita Neal, Kyam’s mother, as usual, brought tears to people’s eyes when she spoke of how her daughter died in that filthy police holding cell.
Among the speakers was the sister of Shantel Davis, a 23-year-old woman murdered in 2012 by Black kkkop Phillip Atkins, known by the neighborhood as “Bad Boy Atkins” for his infamous brutal treatment of residents. The father of Saheed Vassell was also present. Saheed, 34 and mentally ill,  was murdered by the police just this past April.
This level of long-term solidarity is a threat to the ruling class. When the racist thugs in blue murder our sisters and brothers, they are also unwittingly connecting a constellation of families ready to fight back and expose this system. When the next killing happens, that family will have a growing network of Black women-led fightback to turn to.
A speaker talked about how the system is unequal, particularly for Black and Latin workers.  Some of the speakers connected gross injustices here in the U.S. to those in Israel-Palestine, Syria, Turkey, and South Africa. These inequities are caused by the drive for profit, while racism and sexism divide workers to maximize it.
Passersby stopped to listen, thank the crowd for fighting back, take literature, and even join the rally, including one person who felt particularly upset by his arrest and abuse at the hands of the police.
Take the streets for Kyam
The rally went on for about two hours and then we engaged in direct action in the form of chanting, “If we don’t get it – shut it down!” We went out into the middle of the intersection and stopped the traffic while continuing to chant. Anita said she misses her daughter and thinks of her every day. We then released balloons into the wind.
They drifted up first against the buildings and then up and up into the sky. There were a few
coppers across the street. They didn’t dare to stop our rally or our takeover of the intersection. Why? Support for the continuing struggle against racist police murders in this neighborhood allows us to push the limits of what the police will allow.
It was a hot day. Still,  the angry crowd gathered to remember Kyam and to call for justice for her and for all those who suffer under the system of police violence in U.S. capitalism.
This is just one struggle in the battle to end racism, sexism, and capitalism. Only a communist system, that needs all workers involved in building a world for each other instead of separating workers to maximize capitalist profits, can really end these oppressions.

*****

Killed by racism

Kyam Livingston was a 37-year-old Black woman who was killed in a crowded cell at the Central Bookings jail on July 21, 2013. She had been arrested after a family dispute and became gravely ill as she was waiting to be arraigned.
Kyam, and the other women in the cell with her, cried for medical attention for 7 hours only to be disregarded and told to shut the f*** up. The arrested people were threatened, “Shut up before we lose your paper work and you won’t be seen by a judge.”  
She was killed by racist medical neglect and cruelty inherent in this “land of freedom” for the rich. The NYPD robbed the family of a loved one. Kyam’s then-21-year-old son Alex will not know justice under this system. He said, “It’s not right for somebody to beg and plead for hours to get help. Who knows how much pain she was going through.”
This was the fifth anniversary of her death. Kyam’s mother Anita Neal and antiracists in the committee held rallies on the 21st day of each month for the four years after Kyam’s murder.
To date, Anita has set up a small scholarship fund in her daughter’s name to fight for social justice at a local junior high school.
We are also calling for a sign in Kyam’s name to be put up on the corner of Church Avenue and E. 18th Street to honor this woman who became another victim of the racist violence inherent in capitalism.

WASHINGTON, DC, July 15—Two thousand DC Metro transit workers overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike today. Speech after speech, workers called for the end of privatization and the bosses’ strict disciplinary policies. Members of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) pointed out the racist nature of the bosses’ attacks. As the transit bosses attack the predominantly Black workers, they are attacking all workers, including the workers who ride the busses and trains. A strike authorization vote is symbolic and sharper fightback is necessary, such as job actions and a strike. We need to flex our working class muscles because eventually we need a revolution, the abolition of capitalism, and a communist world—workers’ power!
The contract expired on June 30, 2016. After nearly a year of negotiations, the union held a series of mass meetings. The overwhelming sentiment from the workers was to continue negotiations, insist that our demands be met, and avoid arbitration which generally works against workers’ interests. PL’ers are fighting to make the union strike ready in order to increase our strength for the coming struggle.
In September 2017, despite the objections of the membership, the union leadership invoked arbitration to resolve the contract dispute. In the arbitration hearing, Metro bosses called for eliminating the defined benefit pension system for new employees, increasing the cost of health insurance and a three-year wage freeze. As of today there has been no outcome of the arbitration process.
Today’s strike vote did not address the stalled arbitration process, but rather centered on violations of the current collective bargaining agreement. The response of the press and the local politicians to the strike vote went from calling for congressional action to dissolving the union to reducing the local governments’ financial contributions to Metro. One politician did express vague support for the workers but not for the strike. As usual, the press and politicians support the bosses.
More fight ahead
There is a lot of work to do before a strike can be successful. There are over 8,000 members of the local and they need to be organized around the demands. Since a strike against the transit authority is illegal, the membership must be prepared for attacks from the courts. An illegal strike is no simple matter!
PLP is working hard to prepare for the fight ahead. A successful strike at Metro could strengthen the entire labor movement. Metro is key to the functioning of the country’s capital. The last time the local went on a wildcat strike in 1978, the federal courts called it a national emergency. (Wildcat strike is when the workers go on strike without the approval of their union bosses.) Its effect this time would be even greater, and would lead to government and management reprisals.
The main task before us is to build the Party club at Metro and also strengthen the emerging rank and file leadership. This is particularly important because of the growing weakness of U.S. imperialism. The bosses do not want any serious challenges from the labor movement as they build racism and prepare for war. Stay tuned for further developments as we seek to grow the revolutionary movement even as we fight  to improve the workers’ day-to-day situation through intensified class struggle.

The year is 2018. There is no red beacon of hope in either Russia or China. Hundreds of millions of workers are not debating and organizing for communism. Yet, capitalists today still fear communism!
They have good reason. Only communist revolution offers freedom from exploitation, oppression, poverty, fascism, and terror for the working class of the world.
Communist parties are illegal in Estonia, Indonesia, Iran, Latvia, Lithuania, Myanmar, Poland, Romania, South Korea, Ukraine, Georgia, Hungary, and in the U.S.
Today communist parties are banned:
In countries traditionally in the American ‘sphere of influence” – that have been dominated politically and economically by U.S. imperialism. In Latin America communists and militant workers are still repressed, arrested, murdered. But, as U.S. influence as weakened somewhat, legal restrictions on communist parties have been lifted.
In Indonesia, after the bloody coup d’etat of 1965-66, during which between 500,000 and two million leaders, activists, and rank-and-file supporters of the Indonesian Communist Party were murdered, along with supporters of the ousted President Sukarno, all with the help of the U.S. CIA. This disaster was caused by the communists trying to exist legally, unprepared for fascist repression and the line of “uniting with the anti-colonial bourgeoisie” (Sukarno). PLP condemned this phony Marxist line and practice then, and we still do!
In Islamist Iran, after the events of 1983, when almost all the leadership and activists in the Tudeh Party (successors to the Communist Party of Iran), plus others, were arrested and killed – as many as 30,000 persons. The Tudeh Party supported the so-called “Islamist revolution” of 1979 – which was really carried out by the “mujaheddin”, left militants—in hope of joining the government and gaining power by the revisionist “peaceful” road. Instead they were murdered. In 1979 PLP issued a pamphlet, translated into Farsi, urging Iranian communists, workers, and activists NOT to trust the Islamists.
In South Korea, a U.S. imperialist creation, dominated by fascists who collaborated with the Japanese imperialists and murdered anyone even suspected of being a protestor.
In countries where all political parties are forbidden: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the Emirates. All of these are in the U.S. economic and political “sphere of influence.”
In Thailand, “communist activity” is forbidden.
In Turkey, all “communist agitation” has been forbidden for decades.
The same was true in South Africa, after the fall of the racist, fascist, apartheid white supremacist government, which the U.S. had always supported.
In Pakistan, communist activity was outlawed during the Cold War, for 40 years, from 1954 to 1994.
The U.S. also officially banned communist organization and action under the Communist Control Act, signed into law by president Dwight Eisenhower in 1954.  
Anti-communism is making a comeback. As the U.S. rulers gear up for war with its rivals Russia and China (former socialist countries), they will use their tool of anti-communism to fool workers and build patriotism.