Newark, NJ, April 13—A multiracial group of some 30 people rallied here today at the Federal Building to oppose the Trump budget cuts and demand increased funding in certain programs that are on the chopping block. Chants of “No cuts, no way; we’re fighting back today” and “The war-makers say cut back, we say fight back” echoed through the streets. Scores of cars and many New Jersey transit bus drivers honked their horns enthusiastically in solidarity with our cause. The rally was organized by the War Against Poverty Coalition (WAPC) and endorsed by a number of other Newark-based groups. PLP joined and showed the continual stream of such policies clearly indicates the need for millions of organized workers to overthrow this system and establish a worker-run communist system in its place.
Trump’s budget eliminates the Home Energy Assistance (HEA) programs. HEA checks keep low wage and unemployed workers’ heat on in the winter, and their air conditioning on in the summer. Many other so-called discretionary programs are being eliminated as well, such as the Legal Services Corporation, which funds lawyers and other legal workers who represent low income people in evictions, foreclosures, benefits denials, domestic violence, veterans’ issues, etc. Other programs are being severely cut, including money authorized through the Violence Against Women law, Community Development block grants, and Section 8 vouchers to help low-income workers pay for housing.
Since Black and Latin employed and unemployed workers, and particularly single women, will be hit the hardest, these cuts are racist and sexist. But white workers, including many who voted for Trump, will suffer too – as is true of all racist and sexist policies. The Trump budget is crystal clear that the $54 billion cuts from “discretionary” funds will go straight into the war budget, which soaks up more than half the federal budget and will increase under Trump. This issue looms large, as the U.S. bosses’ military just announced their use of “the mother of all bombs” against ISIS in Afghanistan that day; they just bombed a Syrian airfield; and a U.S. “armada” is steaming toward the Korean peninsula to threaten the North Korean bosses with obliteration.
One speaker at the rally asked if the capitalist system, which can’t provide basic necessities for women who live in homeless shelters and forces low wage workers to rely on Food Stamps, deserves to exist. Another pointed out that while the bosses spend tens of millions a day in their imperialist wars for profit, they freeze and starve our families at home. That speaker pointed out how the hypocritical liberal media suddenly began praising fascist Trump’s actions as “presidential” when he rejected his own campaign rhetoric and ordered the Navy to launch missiles on Syria. A third speaker talked about how her grandson had been profiled by the cops, as she linked police brutality, war, and poverty to the whole racist profit system.
The 1960s saw widespread rebellions and an upsurge in workers’ struggles. Funding for many of the programs being cut now was won from the U.S. bosses’ government in that era. But like other reforms, they were used by the capitalist system to blunt mass anger against racism, sexism, poverty, and imperialist war, and lend a false appearance of justice for all. Now, in a period of diminished fight-back, these reforms are being taken back. Today, the winds of war are blowing harder. Whatever Trump said to get elected, the rulers of U.S. imperialism are moving ever closer to a military confrontation with rival Russian and Chinese bosses. Increased oppression of the working class is the inevitable consequence of a growing war budget.
PLP fights for communist revolution to eliminate capitalism – the root cause of both imperialist conflict and the increasing impoverishment of the working class. Today’s rally showed that, slowly but surely, the passivity of our class is beginning to change. The first small shoots of the class understanding and revolutionary anger that it will take to overthrow this bloody, profit-driven system are beginning to sprout. As we move on to May Day, let’s heat up the struggle and speed up that revolutionary process!

NEW JERSEY, April 2—Our Progressive Labor Party (PLP) group had a recent social event to build for May Day and to support the Anaheim protesters arrested for fighting back against the Ku Klux Klan in California. Members and friends discussed many issues from raising revolution while fighting for a reform to the role of violence in the revolutionary struggle. One comrade was encouraged to invite everyone in her organization to come to May Day. Another comrade was motivated to contact several students, and one came with her boyfriend. She was inspired to reach out to even more students in the future.
Stop the Klan With Mass, Militant, Multi-racial Action!
The Anaheim struggle sparked an important discussion about the role of “violence” in building a multi-racial, international mass working-class movement against racism and capitalism, especially given Trump’s encouragement of racist violence. Debates over the use of “violence” are timely today as protests against Trump grow. Both the mainstream media and anti-Trump liberals praise “free speech” and “peaceful protest” and are vocally critical of “troublemaking” protestors for their use of  “violence.” So violence in the class struggle becomes a hot button issue for our members and friends. Students are particularly torn between wanting to stop racists but unsure about the ethics of using force. While communists oppose individualistic, terroristic violence, revolution is not a tea party. The ruling class has shown that they will murder millions to stay in power and keep their profits flowing. Mass revolutionary violence will be necessary to get rid of this capitalist scum.
Describing the Anaheim action, one comrade explained that the party organizes carefully and thoughtfully to stop racist groups. We are not anarchists. In the recent Anaheim case, a group of anarchists attacked the Klan without first organizing in the community. PLP members and friends who were there fought back when attacked by the Klan. When the police entered the fray, they attacked only the anti-racists. The kkkops did not arrest any Klan members, only three anti-racists. The lesson of Anaheim is clear: anti-racists cannot rely on the kkkops or the government. We must organize a mass, multiracial, anti-racist movement first to support the Anaheim 3, and eventually to get rid of this racist, sexist capitalist system, once and for all.
No Free Speech For Racists
Another anti-racist action further illustrated the political necessity of “using force” to build a mass anti-racist movement: Middlebury College students – led by a small but determined group of students of color – prevented racist academic Charles Murray (The Bell Curve) from speaking. Murray’s writings reflect ruling class efforts to revive “academic scientific racism,” not by promoting theories of “biological inferiority” but by arguing that the culture of poverty, unemployment, and crime resulting from decades of racism make people of color a threat to society (generating fear among “whites”). The militant students who shouted down Murray gave a signal to everyone that there should be no “free speech” for racists.
ICE and KKKops Off Campus; No Deportation!
After these discussions, a fairly new PLer, an immigrant, reported on her efforts to organize a Rapid Response Network (RRN) to fight against increased ICE deportations. The RRN began as an initiative of a new community organization in Newark that wanted to build an electoral response to Trump’s immigration policy. But the RRN organizers wanted a more direct action approach. To build anti-racist consciousness, the RRN proposed starting with a hotline open to non-citizens facing detainment by local police or ICE. Education/legal/political training would follow to address how all racism (anti-immigrant, anti-Black, anti-Muslim etc.) hurts the entire working class. The training would also expose the crucial role that the police, ICE, and even the military play in exploiting the working class. One Newark teacher suggested the RRN expand its base further by becoming part of the sanctuary movement being built by Newark teachers, who call for “police out of the schools” in Newark.
March on May Day
All these discussions lead us to May Day and the revolutionary communist struggle for a better world. One comrade said that EVERYTHING we demand in reform struggles is a compromise. We might win a few crumbs, but capitalist inequality, exploitation and imperialist wars continue. The working class needs an end to capitalism and a communist society in which workers make decisions and where all the resources go toward the needs of the people, not to profits. Let’s get the new RRN recruits to come to May Day and to share with them our larger goals: getting rid of capitalism and of establishing an anti-racist, anti-sexist communist society.
So comrades and friends, march on May Day. Get inspired for another year of struggle. Bring your friends so they can get inspired. From Haiti to Mexico, from Afghanistan to the United States, let’s give the working class a taste of communism!

Washington, DC, April 11—The management of the Metro transit system in the Washington, DC region, backed by the political leaders of the region, have launched a determined attack on transit workers and riders. It’s the biggest attack on the workers in over 30 years.
Workers are looking for leadership that is prepared to shut down the city until workers’ needs are met, but, unfortunately, the current union leadership is following a losing strategy to resist these attacks. Workers and riders who are serious about fighting back must develop an alternative, mass, communist, leadership that is willing to fight by any means necessary to defend our interests.
Many workers also understand that this attack is racist. The workforce is predominately African-American and many lines that Metro wants to cut affect primarily Black and Latin neighborhoods. The fight against racism is central to the fight for a good contract and against service cuts. In DC, there are protests almost every weekend against Trump’s policies, so workers at Metro feel the riding public will support us in a work action.
Union Misleaders
The bosses know that the weak union leadership has opened the way for them to attack the workers’ contract in the current negotiations. The bosses intend to prevail in their efforts to cut pension and health benefits, increase the firings and harassment of workers, and lay off hundreds of workers by eliminating routes and runs. If they don’t get these cuts through negotiations with the spineless leadership of the union, they will get them through the courts in arbitration.
The union has held several meetings about the contract to tell the membership what Metro is trying to do. Party members have spoken at these meetings to give the history of successful wildcat strike in 1978 that retained our cost-of-living escalator in the contract. They declared at these meetings that the rank-and-file must make the union strike ready, and were met with loud cheers and applause.
At one meeting, the union president tried to stop a Party member from speaking these militant words, but the workers in attendance chanted “Let him speak!” until the president had no choice but to let the party member finish his statement.
Workers support militant ideas. Consistent communist work at Metro has led to respect for those willing to fight.
The union’s strategy of half-baked plans for work actions have been met with a tepid response. The union president called on workers to stop working overtime to protest of Metro’s vicious attacks. She is just shadow boxing! Still, despite the lack of an organized plan for this work action, many workers at garages where party members worked did carry out the action.
The only thing standing between massive cuts in pension and health care benefits is the growth of Party membership at Metro. We need large numbers of workers—not just a handful—to understand the class nature of this struggle and the seriousness of the fight. Otherwise, Metro will succeed in manipulating and dividing us. As we fight these cuts, we must also prepare to eliminate the capitalist class altogether through revolution. The march on May Day points the way towards this communist revolution.

Los Angeles—A group of Progressive Labor Party communists, friends from the congregation, and I went to the Culver City Meets Venice CicLAvia bike route to collect signatures. They were petitioning to the Black District Attorney Jackie Lacey, demanding Lacey prosecute Clifford Proctor, the cop who shot un-housed young Black man Brendon Glenn in the back May 5, 2015.
Ever since, a multiracial group has been organizing marches to demand prosecution of Proctor. We marched on Venice Beach and Koreatown. We had also seized control of a town hall put by Lacey last year.
Mixed Response from Passersby
I was initially nervous about asking for signatures, but I was able to summon the courage to try. I was amazed to find that people of all hues and backgrounds signed, from a large Black family to an interracial couple. One Latin guy said, “[epithet] the police, where do I sign.” A Black woman who was with her young daughter was open to the idea of communism. We talked about identity politics; I told we can’t base unity on skin color, especially when dealing with business owners and politicians.
There were also naysayers. One guy told me that he would do research and call his congressman. A lawyer said that there needs to be evidence since an indictment is too extreme. There’s so much evidence that the police chief has called for Proctor to be prosecuted, which is virtually unheard of, and the City of Los Angeles settled a civil suit filed by Brendon’s mother and his child for $4 million. I was also amazed that plenty of white people signed the petition. I had my doubts, but my experience in PL and its analysis that racism also hurts white workers guided me to overcome my doubts and engage with white members of the working class more boldly.
Engaging in Nationalism vs. Communism Debate
One of my weaknesses when at public sales with CHALLENGE is getting stuck in a quicksand of conversations with people staunchly commitment to anti-communism, Black nationalism, or religious fundamentalism. At the CicLAvia, I had a long talk with a Black British woman who is a naturalized U.S. citizen.
She said police brutality is just as rampant in the more “liberal” city of London as it is in New York City. We discussed “white supremacy.” I told her that Brandon Glenn was killed by a Black cop. She responded that the cop’s actions were framed by white supremacy. I countered with the fact that South African cops and Kenyan cops are predominately black and they still terrorize and kill Black workers in a predominately Black environment. She responded that white supremacy and colonialism had “twisted their minds.” I added that Asian cops in the Philippines, Korea, and Hong Kong (which were occupied by Japan during its colonial heyday) brutalize workers whenever they engage in class struggle. She concluded that they are exceptions, not the rule.
Though we disagreed on the terms “white supremacy” versus “racist capitalism,” we both were against racism. She signed the petition. She told me she had recently joined Black Lives Matter, and suggested that I contact them to get involved in the Justice for Brendon Glenn campaign, since they are very popular and attract a lot of attention. I replied that due to their segregationist and reformist politics, they would probably not be a good fit.
When I recounted this conversation at a PL club meeting, my comrades said that although just about everything I had said was true, I was doing too much arguing and not enough questioning. Therefore, I was not learning about this particular woman’s contradictions. Instead of rejecting her suggestion about involving BLM, I could’ve engaged her: I could’ve suggested attending a chapter meeting with her. Her response might have revealed more politics and a possible friendship. It is important to find points of unity with people, and through working together and putting forth communist ideas in the struggle, both sides will be changed. We aim for people to be won over to and deepen the communist side.
Expose the State, Organize the Party
Why isn’t DA Lacey prosecuting killer cop Proctor? She was recently re-elected with support from virtually every police union and group in LA County and from dozens of liberal, Democratic, civil liberties, and Black groups. If she prosecutes, the cop groups will mobilize against her. If she announces that she won’t prosecute, she’ll lose the support of the other half of her political base. That’s the particular.
Killer cops almost always get away with murder, because globally, the capitalist class and its puppet politicians own and rule the police forces. The police serve the moneymakers and their property, and protect them from the working class. That’s the general.
Lacey hopes that if she stalls long enough, the murder of Brendon Glenn will fade away. We have been keeping Brendon’s memory alive for two years through marches, articles, talks, and petitioning. Within the campaign, we are exposing the capitalist system and inviting our friends to our local May Day celebration April 29 and to march with us on May 1.