European Union bosses adopt U.S.-style racism against migrant workers

The Brussels Times, 3/26– Migrants and asylum seekers will be deported from the EU with greater ease after a right-wing and far-right alliance in the European Parliament passed controversial new rules on Thursday. To speed up the removal of migrants from EU territory, a majority in the European Parliament voted on Thursday to facilitate the return of non-EU nationals staying irregularly in the EU with a common system. When the vote was approved, a round of applause broke out among right-wing MEPs…The proposal was passed despite loud protests from rights groups, who denounced it as an inhumane policy which denies the ability for EU countries to uphold migrants’ and asylum seekers’ fundamental rights.

Young Republicans flex their racist muscles - Even Ted Cruz is upset

Washington Post, 3/26–Twenty-three-year-old Alec Beaton has the résumé of a model GOP foot soldier…He’s also a self-described Holocaust “revisionist” who views praise for Adolf Hitler as a way to “mess with people.” “We don’t think Hitler is, like, the worst person ever,”…Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) warned that he has seen more prejudice against Jewish people “in the last 18 months on the right than at any point in my lifetime,”...In one group chat, Young Republican leaders from several states used racial slurs, casually referenced Hitler and described rape as “epic.” In another…participants called for grisly violence against Black people and discussed “Nazi heaven”...

Who knew? NYC lawyers argue that NYPD doesn’t exist to protect people

Gothamist, 3/25–The NYPD is not constitutionally required to help a person being attacked by an angry mob, lawyers for the city argued in a recent court filing. The argument came in response to a claim filed by Amanda Luci, who alleged NYPD officers failed to protect her from a mob of young men and boys who she said attacked her in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in 2025. In her lawsuit, Luci said she was surrounded, kicked and threatened by the large group of people, most of whom were wearing traditional Orthodox Jewish garb…

Trump’s gamble may be a breath of fresh air for Putin

New York Times, 3/25–At the start of the year, the Russian economy looked to be giving way. Under the strain of war and sanctions, revenues were falling, production was shrinking, and trade was running low…In late January, Russia was forced to sell oil to India at just $22 per barrel, about a third of the market rate…Then came the war in Iran. In one swoop, the conditions for conciliation were overturned. Amid buoyant oil prices, Western division and American overreach, the pressure on Mr. Putin to come to terms ebbed away. By a strange twist of history, the start of the war in Iran halted the prospect of ending the war in Ukraine…

U.N. continues to terrorize Haitian workers

CNN, 4/4– A United Nations report from February details four sexual abuse investigations, one involving a 12-year-old child, that implicate members of the Multinational Security Support (MSS) forces, a Kenyan-led and US-backed military mission to combat gang violence in Haiti…“All the allegations were found to be substantiated by investigations conducted by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.”
Three of the victims were children who were allegedly raped. A fourth victim, who allegedly suffered sexual violence, was 18-years-old…UN peacekeepers sent to Haiti in the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake fathered and abandoned dozens of children with Haitian women.

U.S. wraps up defeat of D.R. Congo and China with helpings of cobalt 

LeMonde, 4/4–Washington has finally prevailed in a contest with Beijing that lasted more than two years…US-based Virtus Minerals has just finalized the purchase of the assets of Congolese company Chemaf, including the Etoile and Mutoshi mines in Katanga, southern Democratic Republic of Congo…This deal is the culmination of a mining offensive unveiled on December 4, 2025, with the signing of the Washington Peace Agreement. Brokered by the Trump administration between the DRC and neighboring Rwanda…it grants US companies privileged access to the DRC’s vast mineral resources.

In our April 8th issue of CHALLENGE our back page article was published with an unfortunate typo and error. The article 61 Anniversary: long live Progressive Labor Party! is a reprint of an article we wrote for our 50th anniversary over a decade ago. The article carelessly published the fiftieth year date. The article has since been corrected on 04/01/2026.

As State Terrorist-in-Chief Donald Trump reportedly seeks an off-ramp from his disastrous war in Iran, the bombings continue and more U.S. soldiers are headed to the battlefield. Over three thousand workers and children have been murdered in the capitalist bosses’ latest clash over oil, and more than three million forced to flee their homes in Iran alone (aljazeera.com, 3/12). The genocidal Israeli bosses’ invasion of Lebanon has created another million refugees; the Zionist regime is starving workers in Gaza by closing cargo crossings yet again (New York Times, 3/23). Meanwhile, the corrupt Iranian bosses, fresh from killing thousands of protesting workers, have rocked global supply chains by shutting the Strait of Hormuz and driving the price of oil to over $100 per barrel. Whatever fantasy Trump had of a quick Iranian surrender has literally gone up in smoke. As Saudi Arabia’s bosses push the U.S. bosses to dig in to destroy Tehran’s fundamentalist regime (NYT, 3/24), and Israel goes rogue in attacking Iran’s energy infrastructure, U.S. imperialism seems to have no good options. If they make a deal that leaves Iran in control of the Strait, it will widely be seen as a defeat. If they persist in the current stalemate, the U.S. economy could be tipped into recession. If they escalate and send in ground troops, the situation could quickly spiral out of their control. 

Cutthroat competition between the bosses--the essence of capitalism--is driving the world to bigger and wider wars. Trump’s incompetence aside, the U.S. bosses’ conflict with Iran is driven by their desperation in the face of rising Chinese imperialism. But dying empires rarely go quietly, and the U.S. rulers are willing to take the world down with them. Electing Democrats or Democratic Socialists won’t change this. It’s more obvious than ever that capitalism has nothing good to offer the international working class. While most workers are rejecting Trump’s reckless war, we can’t afford to sit passively on the sidelines. The question before us is this: Will we continue to pay the price of the bosses’ failed system, or will we end the horrors of capitalism by building Progressive Labor Party and communist revolution?

U.S. decline points to war

Over the last twenty years, with the lost wars and debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan, the old U.S.- dominated world order has been steadily breaking down. Trump has accelerated the process. The old U.S.-dominated NATO has been weakened and divided by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The status quo of compliant Persian Gulf oil states, built on immigrant labor and defended by a deadly web of U.S. military bases, is teetering. As the working class suffers with rising prices and dies in the rulers’ dogfights, who’s the biggest winner in the war so far? It’s the Chinese ruling class, which relies on Iranian oil and is supplying the missile parts Iran needs to keep attacking Israel and the Gulf states (Wall Street Journal, 3/18) while bleeding the debt-ridden, politically isolated U.S. bosses. The Russian bosses are also benefiting, with the U.S. forced to remove sanctions on billions of dollars’ worth of Russian oil. In a true sign of desperation, the U.S. even lifted sanctions against Iranian oil. To test U.S. weakness, the Russians sent two tankers of oil to Cuba in the face of a U.S. blockade (AP, 3/19).

The U.S. inability to stop Russia in Ukraine has weakened it worldwide. Traditional U.S. allies see the discord and dysfunction in Washington and want no part of it. When Trump asked for help to open the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. allies in NATO and Asia all declined. Russia has built effective anti-NATO movements in most of the major European countries, notably the AFD in Germany and the National Front in France. China has deepened economic ties with the European Union, now its top trading partner.

U.S. bosses fight among themselves

The ruthless infighting among U.S. bosses, driven by their empire’s decay, is also accelerating it. In going to war with no coherent rationale or plan, no real allies and little popular support, Trump put his “America First” credentials at risk. The Big Fascist, finance capital bosses are using the Democratic Party to attack Trump not because they’re against regime change or mass slaughter, but because they know the U.S. isn’t ready for a fight to the finish—they’d rather kick the can down the road. The Small Fascist Fortress America bosses are attacking Trump because they don’t want to foot the bill for the war. While bombing Iran won’t save U.S. imperialism, neither faction has a better strategy to stem the decline of U.S. influence around the world. Both of them want to get workers to die for their side. None of them are any good for us.

Working class can have the final say

There have been a few protests against the war in the U.S. and in Europe. Even Israel, with its mass fascist support for the killing of muslim workers, is starting to see fightback by some very brave people. For the most part, however, the working class seems unaware of its power.

The bosses go to great lengths to convince us that the only power we have is to earn money and support our families. In reality, the working class is the largest, mightiest force in the world. There are no armies without us, no factories or steel mills or planes or bombs. The capitalists make no profits without the working class. When we act on our power by turning the bosses’ war into a class war for communist revolution, we will have the final say.

General, Your Tank is a Powerful Vehicle

It smashes down forests and crushes a hundred men.
 But it has one defect:
 It needs a driver.

 General, your bomber is powerful.
 It flies faster than a storm and carries more than an elephant.
 But it has one defect:
 It needs a mechanic.

 General, man is very useful.
 He can fly and he can kill.
 But he has one defect:
 He can think.

BRONX, NY, March 12—Members and friends of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) have been organizing on New York City university campuses in the Bronx, working with faculty, staff, and students in developing a militant fightback against ICE.  We came together on March 12 to hear firsthand reports about the general strike in Minneapolis, the recent anti-ICE protests in Chinatown, as well as the community work we are doing here in the Bronx. CHALLENGEs and Mayday invites were at every table and PLP members spoke clearly about the fascism  that we are seeing now, the need to fight back, and the need to fill the streets on May 2 in Brooklyn!

Over 60 people attended, coming from as far as New Jersey and Brooklyn, as well as all the Bronx campuses. We had some community members as well as a local high school teacher and a leader in one of the immigrants’ organizing networks. Even before the program started, we saw a glimpse of what a real communist society would look like- everyone pitched in, going to the office to carry cases of water, going across the street to pick up the food…everyone just helped to pull the event together.  It was a dreary rainy day, but the room was filled with excitement and a feeling of camaraderie. 

Over a dozen students, some of whom have never done public speaking before, and a few professors met for weeks planning and preparing for the teach-in. We tried to focus mainly on the politics and the ideas that we wanted to get over, but of course, we made sure the room was brightly decorated with fight back posters and that there was plenty of food. One community member brought sambusas, a Somali pastry that is an important part of Minneapolis history we would hear about. We also talked about “class work”—what workers and students could do next. We invited them to march on May Day, join a contingent in the upcoming No Kings March, and get involved in our union’s immigrant solidarity network.

Eyewitness Reports: “We are in a powerful moment”

The first speaker, a nurse from the Bronx, gave a riveting talk about what she saw and what was happening on the ground in Minneapolis. She was there the day that Alex Pretti was shot.  She described the collectivity and the caring that she saw, how people helped each other deal with the tear gas that was used on the people and the racist terror that was being unleashed and talked about how it felt to be in the middle of it all. Interestingly, because she was a trauma nurse, she was used to getting in the middle of difficult and scary situations.  She went on to describe how members of the Somali community welcomed her and others and insisted on giving them free food. “We are in a powerful moment,” she told us. She went on to describe how small businesses supported the protests- “no businesses would accept money. Money was useless. It was beautiful and wonderful.” She concluded by saying “we must look past electoral politics.” We also talked after about the need for general strikes and the need for workers to withhold their labor.

The second speaker participated in the Chinatown protest this past October and shared her experience becoming a community organizer in the immigrant rights movement. She shared resources about getting more involved, especially in the Bronx, in rapid response groups and community neighborhood walks, which some of us are already doing. When asked about how to deal with the fear that many are experiencing today, she answered “Fear is what they want us to feel. It’s their weapon. Courage is what we need.” Her talk was very inspirational and helped us all to frame the question of fear.

Boomerang Effect- One way imperialism harms U.S. workers 

The last speaker, a CUNY  professor, spoke about what has been called “the boomerang effect,” a term coined by Aime Cesaire, the author of Discourse on Colonialism. She talked about how the policies and practices of colonialism and imperialism, whether it’s Gaza or Venezuela, will also be used in the U.S. She concluded, “ In other words, the crimes America has been committing all over the world-it is now committing on its own soil and on workers in the U.S.” Although we ran out of time to talk about this more at the teach-in, we have talked in our meetings about the parallels between Gaza and Minnesota- how a doctor was prevented from aiding Renee Good when she was shot in Minnesota and how Israeli troops prevent doctors in Gaza from treating patients.

The takeaways- Keep organizing! Keep building PLP

The interest level was high at this event as students raised the question after the presentation- how can we keep organizing without our movement being smashed or defeated? We will continue to work with our student clubs. On two Bronx campuses we have regular People’s Pantry tables where we distribute snacks and literature. We meet many students who are food insecure but also hungry for a movement that will help explain what is happening in the world and how we can change the world. We are stepping up our CHALLENGE sales at our Bronx campuses and organizing study groups- Join us! We have a world to win!