On the evening of Thursday, September 25th, members of Progressive Labor Party ( PLP), along with several other students, put up a counter-demonstration to a so-called vigil for Charlie Kirk being held at a University in Kentucky campus. The vigil, like many others around the country, was not really about mourning Charlie Kirk, but rather an opportunity for fascists to take advantage and push racist, sexist, nationalist crap on students and workers (see page 8). PLP members had a responsibility to use our voices and numbers to oppose these fascist sympathizers on our campus, as well as demonstrate to students that fascism can be defeated, not through political assassination, but through a well-organized and disciplined working-class party that fights for a communist revolution to end fascism at its root— capitalism.
Despite our large ambitions, our protest started out small. Through word of mouth we had invited several comrades and friends in our base to come, and in addition to that, we handed out literature to see how many students walking by might be sympathetic enough to join us. The response was good, as many people took our paper and some said they would join us once we marched towards the plaza on campus where the vigil was being held. When all the comrades we invited out and more showed up, we started marching with the chant “fascism means—we got to fight back!”
No free speech for racists!
As we approached the plaza, we were quickly stopped by KKKops and the Dean of Students, who told us to turn back, saying we couldn’t use our voices past this point. To this we responded that Powell Plaza, the area on campus where the vigil was being held, was a designated “free speech zone,” citing the bosses’ laws against them. The dean responded by saying we have a right to free speech as long as we’re not doing it where the vigil is at, to which we rightfully exposed that as meaning that we weren’t allowed to express dissenting opinions.
Flustered, finally the university’s lackeys told us that the vigil was booked by the fascist Turning Point USA (TPUSA) on campus, and that for the duration that they reserved it, the “free speech zone” no longer applied. Using the information they gave us, we pushed them to let us march to the edge of the plaza, close enough for the fascists to hear us and for students walking by to see us and hear our message. When we marched closer, there was a line of KKKops and administrators standing side-by-side between us and the fascists to prevent us from going any further.
From this point though, we knew our chants would be heard by the other side, and we ramped up the energy, sharpening our chants and handing out CHALLENGE to students coming in and out of the plaza.
Workers refuse to back down against killer cops
Many bystanders were loving our chants, especially ones about ICE and Palestine. As a result, our numbers grew even more. We chanted for what seemed like forever. A couple times it seemed like the vigil was about to be over, or our voices were hoarse from chanting, and we considered leaving, but suddenly when one comrade had a medical episode we decided to stand our ground and not separate, especially since now the university KKKops had our path of retreat blocked with a vehicle, and in front of us was an ever-increasing group of spectators, some sympathetic, others from the vigil. We continued our chants even stronger than before, chanting “No Tears For Fascists!”
As people started leaving the plaza, some Kirk sympathizers formed a prayer circle in front of us, a display of pity to demoralize us. They even had the audacity to yell at us, “People are trying to worship here!” We weren’t fazed, and we responded by chanting thoughts and prayers serve as a way to prevent workers from organizing to solve their problems, but the fact that they were “praying” for us and not the thousands of Palestinian children being killed or immigrant workers being separated from their families just shows the hollow nature of their display. It also shows how, although many workers believe in religion, it is too often used as a tool by the bosses against communists and to divide workers. We must be patient with workers who still believe in religion so as not to alienate them from the movement, while also recognizing this fact. The trick used by the fascists at the vigil was the same age-old tactic of painting communists as “satanic.”
Opposing racism on campus is always right!
As the vigil ended, we stayed in the area to talk to students and made contacts to join our study group. Many were pleased and thanked us for coming out to oppose what was clearly a rallying-cry for the current fascist movement.
We have learned through our organizing that it is not enough to just table, advertise our party, and have educational events. Although those things are important, we also have to be actively involved in, and on the front lines of, struggles,whether it be a strike, an encampment, or an anti-fascist protest like this. This is how we truly expose to the masses the crimes of the ruling class—not just through words, but through action. Our demonstration showed the need to expose open fascist rhetoric anywhere and everywhere. Like in the past, the revisionists and liberals on campus discouraged any kind of action, embodying the same energy of sticking our heads in the sand and hoping that fascism goes away. PLP understands that in order to get students organized, we have to be willing to push ourselves and trust our friends and comrades to protect each other. In a world where individualism is pushed on us everywhere, and we’re constantly reminded to see each other as a potential threat, collective action bursts through that façade and shows that the real division is between us, the working-class, and those in power who own everything. Using this knowledge, we can go further: organize revolution to build a society where workers run things, and education is used to benefit society, not profit.
On September 10, at Utah Valley University, Charlie Kirk, the gutter racist and sexist MAGA media personality who divided workers with vicious hate speech, was gunned down at a public debate. This champion of rising fascism and vigilante gun rights was killed in the midst of a back-and-forth about mass shootings in the U.S. Kirk’s murder reflects deep instability within the U.S. capitalist ruling class, and also a growing trend of reactionary, anti-revolutionary political violence.
While Klansman-in-Chief Donald Trump and his flunkies have used Kirk’s assassination to advance their fascist attacks on workers, liberal politicians and pundits are busy whitewashing the dead man’s despicable legacy. The New York Times’ Ezra Klein mourned and celebrated Kirk “for practicing politics in exactly the right way.” California Governor Gavin Newsom called for people to “honor” Kirk’s memory by sustaining his work. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, another potential Democratic presidential candidate, ordered the state’s flags flown at half-staff “as a mark of respect.” All hands rose to defend “freedom of speech,” a dangerous myth under the bosses’ dictatorship. These are the same liberal hypocrites who attacked any workers and students who dared protest the U.S.-backed genocide of Palestinians. Many of them pushed for thuggish kkkops to break up peaceful college encampments.
Kirk rose to prominence by building Turning Point USA, an organization funded by right-wing billionaires to combat “left biases” and “wokeness” on college campuses. Despite his self-proclaimed status as a free speech advocate, Kirk set up an online “watchlist” to harass and intimidate antiracist professors. His debating points were a stale rehash of scientifically debunked racist and sexist rhetoric. He railed against “Jewish donors” who were “anti-white” and “quasi-Marxist,” the Islamic “threat to America,” Haitian workers he said were “infested with demonic voodoo,” and prominent Black women who lacked “brain processing power.” He claimed that abortions were “worse than the Holocaust.” Kirk was a Christian nationalist, a nazi through and through.
While we understand workers’ rage and frustration, Progressive Labor Party does not support or condone vigilante violence. As long as capitalism exists, racism and sexism will be peddled by the ruling class to divide and exploit workers. The only way to smash these murderous ideas is with mass revolutionary violence by an organized, communist-led, international working class.
No free speech for racists!
In 1978, in Washington, DC, PLP confronted the infamous Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson at a conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Wilson’s Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, proposed that some human behaviors were biological. He warmly supported such open racists as New York Times science writer Nicholas Wade, whose book, A Troublesome Inheritance, “argues that Black people may be, on average, more impulsive and less hardworking than white or East Asian people, and that basic differences in human society—why Haiti is poor, for example, and European countries wealthy—are attributable to genetic differences among groups” (Popular Science, 2/21/22). In the early 20th century, similar ideas spurred the U.S.-born eugenics movement, which used them to justify racist inequality and the sterilization of less “desirable” groups. Like Charlie Kirk, the U.S. eugenicists were funded by rich philanthropists, including the Carnegie Institution, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Harriman railroad fortune. “Race science” was embraced by “some of America’s most respected scientists…from Stanford, Yale, Harvard, and Princeton” (historynewsnetwork.org, September 2003). In the 1930s, along with Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh, these U.S. eugenicists were a major influence on Adolph Hitler.
As Wilson began to speak at the AAAS conference, PLP and our affiliated International Committee Against Racism (InCar) stormed the stage and doused him with water. Protesters chanted, “Racist Wilson, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide!” As open racism becomes even more normalized in rotten capitalist society, we must match this boldness in challenging the rulers’ vile mouthpieces. Lone wolf violence will not defeat racism. The only solution is communist revolution. Join us!
- Information
From the Philippines to the U.S.: Strike fascist terror
- Information
- 02 October 2025 986 hits
Washington D.C., September 14 & 21—As the U.S. government continues its crackdown on immigrant workers, Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members continue to organize against this racist, fascist terror campaign. Recently in Baltimore, MD and Washington, DC, workers fought back against attacks on seafarers who are mainly from the Philippines.
Members of PLP have been organizing with members of the Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, particularly the University of Maryland chapter (terpCHRP). We were invited to their fundraising gala for “a just and lasting peace in the Philippines” which showcased music, class struggle, political speeches, and dynamic banners. Unfortunately, they fell short of calling for communism, which we in PLP know is the only way for lasting peace for the workers of the world.
Racist deportations bring terror to workers in the Philippines
Earlier on the same day, forty miles away, another PLP member joined a bold protest at the Port of Baltimore. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) kidnapped four workers; three from the Philippines and one Indonesian seafarer from a Carnival cruise ship in Baltimore Harbor on September 7. The seafarers were detained, interrogated, falsely accused of heinous crimes, forced to confess under duress, and deported to the Philippines later that same day. Just since April, over 100 seafarers from the Philippines working for Carnival have been deported, using the same underhanded tactics. As with all of the workers that have been kidnapped by ICE, they were not afforded any due process or recourse.
Approximately 30 percent of seafarers worldwide are from the Philippines. They experience isolation, dangerous work conditions, poor mental health, and exploitation by their employers through legal loopholes. In general, widespread poverty, corruption, and foreign plunder leave tens of millions of Philippine workers unemployed and underemployed, desperate for work. The Philippine bosses’ government does nothing to protect workers who migrated to the U.S., which has led organizers to engage in several sharp struggles in the U.S. to protest the deportations. The formation of Tanggol Migrante is well underway, and it is joining with other anti-ICE groups around the country.
Loyalty to no flag, except the red one!
The rally at the Port of Baltimore was a great start, but it prominently featured the Philippine flag, and participants - giving otherwise excellent speeches - focused on holding the government accountable for protecting overseas workers. However, we in PLP need to bring the perspective that nationalism is a losing strategy. Over and over again, reliance on nationalism and national liberation has led to the downfall of leftist movements. Under capitalism, every country’s government is a dictatorship of the ruling class, the big business owners. Their class uses the government and the state (military, police, courts, and jails) to rule. They profit from exploiting workers. They don’t care about the protection of seafarers or any other workers. Workers’ loyalty should not be to any country, capitalist government, or national flag. Instead, our loyalty should be to all our siblings in the international working class!
Striking back against fascist bosses
Another important struggle has seen a campaign launched in the Philippines against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and other “Nepo-babies” (children of the rich capitalists) who have been stealing money designated for flood control and flaunting it on TikTok. This is a serious problem. It’s criminal that none of the money is being applied toward controlling the devastating flooding. Along with the 52nd anniversary of martial law initiated by Marcos, Sr. the theft of flood-relief funds sparked a militant fight-back at the president’s mansion on September 21. Arrests, injuries and at least one protester’s death show that de facto martial law still rules in the Philippines. However, it now has a nice name – NAP-UPD (National Action Plan for Unity, Peace, and Development) – in an attempt to prettify the ugly reality of ruling class violence. Coinciding with this struggle in the Philippines, a local rally was held at Dupont Circle in DC on September 21, followed by a march to the Philippine embassy.
An excellent video shared by one of the students, entitled “Where Taxes Go “, can help us get up to speed with our friends. PLP, however, advocates that to defeat imperialism we need a widespread fight for communist revolution. We need to be clear that replacing Marcos and Rodrigo Duterte, without forcibly defeating the capitalist system, would simply lead to another round of exploitation, with a different face at the top.
We are staying in contact with our friends, helping with their opposition to U.S. imperialism on campus and beyond, and inviting them to PLP events. The struggle continues.
Washington, D.C., September 23—Thirty angry protesters rallied against racist killer KKKops in front of the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS), demanding an end to qualified immunity (QI) for these bosses’ stooges in blue. SCOTUS has ruled that government officials are immune to prosecution from civil lawsuits with certain rare exceptions. QI shields cops and other government flunkies from even fake accountability in their frequent attacks on the working class. We said no more! We chanted loudly against these black-clad fascists, including “No good cops in a racist system!” and “No Justice, No Peace, No Racist Police!” While this fight is useful in helping teach workers about what role police play in class society, it is ultimately a reform that will do nothing to smash the state. With President Donald Trump ramping up fascist military and cop invasions in D.C., juxtaposed against declining U.S. hegemony here and across the world, much more work is needed.
That’s why Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members joined in this action, stressing the need for communist revolution against capitalism and its racist structures to bring liberation of our class from the violence of the ruling class.
Workers speak out against racist cops
Survivors of police murders of their sons and family came from near and far to protest. LaToya Benton, the mother of 18-year-old Xzavier Hill (murdered by state troopers in Virginia in 2021) led the protesters through the case, and the group marched around the building to file the complaint against QI, calling for “justice in this town.” LaToya has a hard-hitting podcast on “Life after the Impact” and can be found on Facebook.
Members of PLP joined with many of our friends who have been fighting for justice for years in Prince George’s County, Maryland (PG), including Dorothy Elliott (32 years) and Marion Hopkins (26 years). More recent PG cases involved the murders of Leonard Shand and William Green (CHALLENGE, 6/26/23 and 1/23/24). Tawanda Jones and several members of the West Wednesday Coalition in Baltimore (CHALLENGE 4/10/24) were there as well, amplifying their calls for justice for Tyrone West. Another grieving mother drove 6 ½ hours from Ohio to stand in front of the Supreme Court.
Building a multiracial party to smash the ruling class
Qualified Immunity – just another tool of the racist capitalists in their quest to terrorize the working class, deepen racist super-exploitation, and thereby maximize profits. All branches of government work for these rapacious capitalists with no accountability to the working class, leaving only the choice of mass revolution to overthrow their system as the solution to these atrocities. From these struggles, let us build a revolutionary party together.
New York, October 4—Uptown Manhattan is mobilizing our forces on Saturday October 4th against the wave of racist terror that is engulfing the US. Not only has Uptown been facing routine Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)raids and heightened fear among workers, but sidewalk vendors too (overwhelmingly immigrant workers) have been enduring increasing attacks from the KKKops and the Sanitation Dept., who routinely confiscate all their wares and saddle them with large fines they cannot afford. Progressive Labor Party (PLP) continues to be at the heart of the struggle, offering both ideological, strategic, and logistical support at every level, and putting forward our revolutionary line that workers need to organize to take state power!
We are navigating political divisions inside our coalition between those who, like us, want to broaden and deepen the struggle, and those who want to limit it to “safe” demands. For example, there are coalition members who want us to avoid “left-sounding” terminology like “workers of the world” or “workers take power.” One went so far as to say we can’t compare—in this largely Dominican neighborhood—conditions in the Dominican Republic to Uptown Manhattan because there are forces inside the coalition who don’t support Haitian workers. We cannot support such racist, reactionary positions!
The five-fingered fist of A UNITED WORKING CLASS is our ultimate and only weapon against the bosses’ rising fascism and the racist exploitation of capitalism. History teaches us that anything less is suicide for the working class.
MARCH WITH US—UNITE THE HEIGHTS!
Saturday, October 4: meet at 193rd Street and St. Nicholas, 2 pm. March to 167th Street. (Mitchell Sq).
UNITE, FIGHT BACK! Workers’ struggles have no racist borders!
Avenge the racist detention of Dylan!
BREAKING: Dylan López-Contreras, believed to be the first NYC student detained by ICE in this latest surge of racist terror, was just denied asylum by the kangaroo bosses’ KKKourts. We must continue to mobilize our forces and fight back! Ultimately, only a communist revolution, led by a revolutionary communist party, can put an end to the capitalists’ 500-year-old reign of terror.
(Stay tuned for the follow-up article next issue.)
