Baltimore, OCTOBER 10—Baltimore’s workers will never forget the savage murder of our working class brother Tyrone West  at the hands of  more than a dozen KKops five years ago. Since then workers joined by members of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) have been faithfully rallying every Wednesday to remind the city’s capitalist administration, of their crimes against black workers.
Today marks the 272 rally, and communist politics were at the forefront, and have become an expected and respected part of West Wednesday. These rallies demand accountability – for the police murder of Tyrone West, and for all victims of police terror. Despite this workers attending these rallies understand that racist police terror is an indivisible part of capitalism, and cannot be reformed.This week had a special focus, demanding an end to the gag orders that accompany almost every settlement, when victims of police terror in Baltimore are awarded a financial payment from the city
Bosses can’t gag the fightback
In this way, with gag orders, victims and their family members – probably hundreds of people – have been prevented from speaking out about what happened. It’s an effort – by capitalist politicians and top city lawyers, including City Solicitor, Andre Davis – to hold back the potential power of the movement against racist police violence. Furthermore, because talking about what happened is an important part of dealing with severe emotional trauma, the gag orders also make healing virtually impossible, after being brutalized or, worse yet after losing a loved one to street executions by police.
The slogan for this new campaign against gag orders is, “Forced Silence Condones Police Violence.” Two local organizations, also concerned with this issue, stepped in to help build support for this week’s West Wednesday activities.  The local branch of the American Civil Liberties Union and Not Without Black Women participated in the rally outside City Hall, in the march to central police headquarters and, right afterward, in a special panel discussion about fighting the gag orders, at which Challenge newspaper was distributed to just about everyone in attendance.Even more important – in terms of strengthening our understanding about the strategy we need for victory against racism and capitalism – a monthly Challenge readers’ group is scheduled to start soon. So far, seven of the West Wednesday activists have said yes, they will probably participate.
 Distributing Challenge is a important tool to raise workers understanding, that the only solution to eradicating police brutality is communism. To win this bright future we so badly need, our understanding of communism has to grow, and Progressive Labor Party must grow too! Dare to struggle! Dare to win, for a communist future!

One hundred and one years ago, November 7, 1917, marked the beginning of the single most important event of the 20th century, the Bolshevik revolution, which directly inspired the Chinese revolution and anti-imperialist struggles around the world from Vietnam to Africa to Latin America.
Russia’s working class, headed by the revolutionary communists of the Bolshevik Party and its leader, Vladimir Lenin, freed one-sixth of the world’s surface from capitalism. They proved once and for all that it was possible to strive for a world without exploitation, where those who produce all value, the working class, can enjoy the fruits of their labor and not have it stolen by a few parasitical bosses and their lackeys.
The Russian Revolution was the first serious attempt by workers and peasants to seize, hold and consolidate state power. Even though capitalism has returned to the former Soviet Union, workers will not forget that the Soviet working class defeated capitalism in 1917; smashed the imperialist armies of 17 countries (including Japan, the U.S., Britain, France, among others) which invaded Russia in 1918 to try to crush the revolution; freed the masses, especially women, from the yoke of capitalist, feudal and religious oppression; and then in 1945 defeated the mightiest and most barbaric army the capitalists had ever organized: the Nazi Wehrmacht.
The revolution frightened the world’s bosses, who immediately sent armies from 17 countries to try — in Churchill’s words — to “strangle it in the cradle.” From 1918 to 1923, millions of workers led by the Red Army defeated the imperialists’ counter-revolution. Nearly five million died in that battle, many of whom were the most committed workers the revolution had produced.
The masses showed great courage and determination in defending and building their revolution, under the leadership of their revolutionary party. They proved that the revolutionary violence on the part of the working class and peasantry were vital to the seizure of state power.
Achievements of the Revolution
The Bolshevik Revolution brought Russia to heights of productive development that capitalism, given a similar time period and circumstances, could never have dreamed of. Bringing the working class to power, the Revolution coordinated their social-economic efforts for the production and exchange of the necessities, the comforts and even some luxuries of life, making them available to all. The Soviet system of production was for use, not for profit. This can only be accomplished by abolishing capitalist profits and the private ownership of property, with its exploitation, poverty, unemployment, racism, fascism and imperialist wars.
In the 1930s, when the entire capitalist world sank into depression, and tens of millions worldwide were left jobless and starving (much like today), the Soviet Union was forging ahead building a new society without unemployment and hunger. They created some measure of a decent life for workers in an incredibly short time, transforming a 90% illiteracy rate into one in which nearly everyone was literate.
Around 1938, without any official declaration, the USSR had achieved the era of free bread. One could enter a cafeteria, order little or nothing, and receive all the bread one wanted. You needed, you received — at least to that extent. Even during a drive for heavy industry, living standards rose strikingly when the rest of the world was mired in the Great Depression.The Soviet Union not only freed workers but also fought against racism and sexism. The battle against racism was particularly significant. As pro-communist Paul Robeson said about his trips to the Soviet Union, he said :
“I felt like a human being for the first time since I grew up. Here I am not a Negro but a human being. Before I came I could hardly believe that such a thing could be….
Here, for the first time in my life, I walk in full human dignity.”
Heroic fight against the nazis
In 1941, the bosses again tried to destroy the revolution. Hitler, using all of Europe’s resources and the largest military machine ever assembled, invaded the Soviet Union with four million troops. They discovered the Soviets were no pushover as occurred in Western Europe. Hitler’s prediction — endorsed by western military “experts” — of capturing Moscow in six weeks went up in smoke.
Nazi troops found total destruction and desolation in every captured city or town — the “scorched earth” policy. Soviet defenders burned everything to the ground that they could not take with them and then organized armed resistance behind enemy lines: the Partisans.
Over 6,000 factories were dismantled and moved east of the Ural Mountains, re-assembled to produce weapons again, a feat requiring total unity and support of Soviet workers, unmatched by any country, before or since. Soviet soldiers and workers fought for Stalingrad block-by-block, house-by-house and room-by-room to halt the “unbeatable” Nazi invaders. Workers in arms factories produced weapons 24 hours a day for the Red Army, working 12-hour shifts. When Nazi troops captured factories, heroic Soviet workers and soldiers would re-take them.
The entire German Sixth Army and 24 of Hitler’s generals were surrounded and killed or captured in the battle of Stalingrad. Never again would the Nazis mount a successful offensive against the Red Army. Stalingrad was truly the turning point of the Second World War. Not until the Nazis were on the run following their defeats at Stalingrad and in the Battle of the Kursk — the biggest armored battle in world history, involving millions of soldiers and 6,000 tanks — did the U.S.-U.K. forces invade Western Europe. It was the communist-led Soviet Union that smashed the Nazis, the largest and most powerful army ever mounted by a capitalist power.
All this was accomplished under the leadership of Josef Stalin. No wonder he is reviled to this day by world capitalism.
Lessons to be learned
Unfortunately, the Bolsheviks suffered from many political weaknesses which led to the return of capitalism to the USSR. From the beginning they believed that to achieve communism, first socialism had to be established, a belief Karl Marx had advanced. We have learned from that experience that socialism retained capitalism’s wage system and therefore failed to wipe out many aspects of the profit system. Socialism put forward material incentives to the working class rather than political ones as the way to win workers to communism. We must win masses of workers to abolish capitalism’s wage system and its division of labor and fight directly for communism.
Today no country is led by revolutionary communists, but this is a temporary historical setback. While this era of widening imperialist wars, fascist attacks on the working class, mass unemployment, diseases like AIDS killing millions in Africa and other areas, is upon us, every dark night has its end.
PLP is a product of both the old International Communist Movement and the struggle against its revisionism. Pseudo-leftist groups have not learned history’s lessons and continue to fight for nationalist “sharing of power” with capitalists, a la Venezuela’s Chavez, not for the working-class seizure of power and the dictatorship of the proletariat.Our movement is daily fighting to learn from the Soviet Union’s great battles and achievements as well as its deadly errors that led to its collapse, mainly that reformism, racism, nationalism and all forms of concessions to capitalism only lead workers to defeat. Give the ruling class an inch and they’ll grab a mile.
We honor the bold fight by the workers of the Bolshevik Revolution against capitalism and for a working-class communist world. Today, we must organize workers, students and soldiers to build a mass worldwide working class Party that will turn this era of imperialist wars into a new, international communist revolution.

CHICAGO, October 20­­—Tonight we celebrated the victory and legacy of the communist October Revolution with comrades and close members of our base. About 60 of us gathered at a local hall to talk about the history of the how the Bolsheviks and theRussian working class won state power over 100 years ago, and how we in Progressive Labor Party are carrying on the tradition of international fight back, particularly with an emphasis on Black workers and youth being the key to revolution.
Table talks challenge bosses’reforms & racist cops
    We kicked off the event with an open mic and table talks in order to make the event more engaging for those in attendance. We led discussions around issues of conditions in working-class schools for students and teachers, the confirmation of the newest U.S. Supreme Court arch-sexist, Brett Kavanaugh, efforts of the working class organizing fight back efforts in the area, and the difference between reform and revolution.
A major part of our table conversations was the recent conviction of racist cop Jason Van Dyke for the murder of Black teenager Laquan McDonald. However, the conversation wasn’t a celebratory tone. It was a realistic tone in terms of the illusions that the ruling class feed members of the working class. Their version of justice never substantially works for members of the working class, particularly for Black, Latin, and women workers.
Even the “conviction” of Van Dyke shows that the state terror against working-class people by these killer kkkops isn’t regarded as a crime at all. This is shown by the fact that although Van Dyke was convicted of second-degree murder and 16 charges of aggravated battery with a firearm, he was found not guilty of “professional misconduct.” Meaning, viciously murdering a Black youth who was walking away from him wasn’t contrary to his duties, and it speaks volumes about the murderously racist character of the police under capitalism.
Revolutionary speeches, strengthening youth base
After the table talks, a comrade gave a passionate speech about rebuilding the mass international movement and the need to take state power once again through armed revolution. She blasted the capitalist bosses’ efforts to pacify us through their bogus “democracy” and elections, and reminded all of us that true political power “comes through the barrel of a gun.” She provoked all of us to imagine what could be if the caravan of migrant workers making their way through Central America was met at the U.S.-Mexico border with arms and communist leadership.
Following the comrade, a family member of Steven Rosenthal, a 15-year-old Black youth recently murdered by the Chicago Police Department (CPD), made a heartfelt speech about the realities of police repression in our neighborhoods. He talked about the life and personality of Steven and his relationships with his friends, and the type of lies that CPD have told about him since his murder. The teens in attendance noticeably gave him their attention, and the effect it had on them was visible.
These teenagers were present as a result of our growing work in local schools, and the conversations they had after the event were inspiring. It is vital that we continue to work with youth because they bear the brunt of the abuses of capitalism. A few of these young people voiced an understanding of how racism affects them, and of what awaits them if we don’t fight back and smash it.
The reality is that it could be any of them or any of us if we’re not successful in building a wide base among the working class as well as a massive Red Army to fight back with revolutionary violence against the fascism that’s heaped on us constantly.
Onward to state power
We ended the celebration with music and dancing, the way that working-class revolutions should be commemorated. It was yet another step forward in building our communist culture among the working class, a culture that is egalitarian, multi-racial, multi-gender, and multi-generational.
Over a century ago, the Bolsheviks and the Russian workers, peasants, soldiers, and sailors gave us one of history’s best lessons on what can be accomplished when our class is armed and organized with communist politics. It is on their shoulders that we stand as we continue to build our Party for that inevitable day when the working class wins power once again.

The massacre of October 2nd, 1968 in Mexico City was the culminating point of the state repression of the mass movement composed mainly of students, which had great support from the working class. Hundreds of thousands in schools and neighborhoods participated in that struggle. As background and inspiration of that movement, years before, doctors, teachers and railroad workers held massive strikes and protests in defense of their labor rights and against the repressive system.
The movement occurred in the context of a growing economy of 6 percent on average in the last two decades and a significant increase in the urban population compared to the rural one. In the political sphere, there was an acute class struggle and similar student mobilizations worldwide. In that period, the polarization of the countries either under the influence of the old communist movement or of the capitalist bloc was in  force.
The former was led by a clique that had abandoned the principles of communism, but which counterbalanced the capitalist bloc under the leadership of the United States. Capitalism had to be present itself as the best alternative, so it promoted struggles for individual liberties, for feminism, environmentalism and democracy, the advances in these demands are the product of those struggles worldwide. After 1968, some groups of young people became radicalized and became part of the armed movement for national liberation, but the roots of the armed struggle were actually mainly in the terrible oppression and misery in which the peasants lived in rural communities and the workers in the misery belts of the big cities.
Another sector of young people who participated in the movement remained had a more moderate line, which only sought greater freedom and the democratization of society.
A small group of members, friends, and supporters of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) recently attended a march of tens of thousands to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the mass movements of 1968 in Mexico and the massacre of October 2nd.  We distributed hundreds of leaflets (see article in Challenge about Ayotzinapa) to education students, students from National Autonomus University of Mexico (UNAM), Autonomus University of Mexico City (UACM) and other social organizations.
We carried a banner in which we highlighted the struggle of communists and students against fascism and imperialism.We also participated on September 26 in a march that took place to demand the appearance of the 43 education students who disappeared four years ago, who were attacked by the Iguala, Guerrero police when they went to that city to ask for economic support from the population and take buses to Mexico City and participate in the demonstration on October 2, 2014.
 Our leaflet and the banner were well received by those attending the demonstration. The presence of our party is vital to keep our class alert to the false hope that has awakened in millions of workers with the arrival of the new fake-left government of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Communists in the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) honor the memory of those who have fought against the injustices of the capitalist system; we support the workers who continue that struggle today. We believe that capitalism is a system that cannot work for the working class (for all those who need to work to survive), so we call on them to change it for a communist system of social equality, for this we must organize ourselves in a non-electoral party like PLP, to unify internationally and maintain the interests of our class above any individual or group interest. Join us!