On August 2, the U.S. declared new economic sanctions against Russia. This move reflects a growing desperation among U.S. capitalist bosses, whose declining but still-lethal empire faces growing challenges from Russian and Chinese imperialists—especially after Russia’s successful military intervention in Syria.
Sanctions are a standard tactic in capitalist competition. In this latest economic attack, U.S. bosses will be freezing money and blocking business deals involving the Russian bosses. For the international working class, it’s only a matter of time before trade wars among major imperialists become a global shooting war—a war in which workers have no side.
The international communist Progressive Labor Party calls on workers, students, and soldiers to fight for their class, not their country! We fight for a world without money, racist borders, racism, or sexism—a world ruled by the working class. The capitalist class will never give up its rule or profits without a fight. It’s up to our class to turn the looming inter-imperialist war into a war for communist revolution.
What “Sanctions” Mean
Allegations of Russian election interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election are echoed constantly in the U.S. bosses’ media. While the charges may well be true, they also provide political cover for the U.S. to drive a wedge between Russia and the European Union. In reality, the sanctions have nothing to do with election meddling. For years, the U.S. bosses have been looking to curb the dependence of Europe, and particularly Germany, on Russian natural gas—the bulk of it piped through Russia’s western neighbor, Ukraine.
Since the formal collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, U.S. bosses have spent $5.1 billion on so-called “democracy building” in Ukraine (Politifact, 3/19/14). In February 2014, the pro-Russian Ukrainian president was removed from office following massive U.S.-backed demonstrations. Its current pro-U.S. president, Petro Poroshenko, has vowed to join the U.S.-led NATO military alliance, which could bring U.S. military forces to Russia’s border.
But the U.S. has been less successful in undermining Russia’s gas monopoly in Europe or its growing influence in the Middle East. The latest sanctions are a desperate attempt by U.S. bosses to regain some momentum.
Natural Gas Can Ignite War
Nord Stream is the world’s largest underwater natural gas pipeline. It connects Russia and Germany through the Baltic Sea, bypassing Ukraine completely. (A major expansion project, Nord Stream 2, is currently underway by Russia’s state-owned gas company, Gazprom.) The U.S. sanctions target more than 200 EU-based contractors and subcontractors providing steel and other materials for Nord Stream (Reuters, 8/3/17). Meanwhile, the U.S. hopes that its first delivery of liquified natural gas to Eastern Europe seduces European countries to dump Russia (Foreign Policy, 6/8/17).
In any case, the U.S. bosses can no longer dictate global politics as they once did. Economically, the sanctions are too little, too late: “[M]ost of the big contracts for steel, port logistics, and construction have already been concluded” (Reuters). Politically, the U.S. bosses’ desperation may be driving historical allies like Germany into the arms of Russian imperialism. The German bosses went so far as to say that the new sanctions “breach international law” (CNN, 8/2).
Following the vote of Britain, the most reliable U.S. ally, to exit the European Union, it’s unclear how much influence the U.S. has left in Europe. But it’s very clear that deadlier imperialist wars are on the horizon, and that workers around the world have no stake in them. The need to organize for communist revolution grows only more urgent. Join PLP!

From Nigeria, South Sudan, and Somalia to Yemen across the Red Sea, famines threaten the lives of tens of millions of workers. Mass starvation in Africa and the Middle East has been triggered by climate change (including more intense and longer-lasting droughts) and, even more significantly, by ever wider and more brutal wars. The root cause of this genocidal disaster is the sharpening rivalry between U.S. imperialism and capitalist bosses in China. As the U.S. rulers’ own mouthpiece, the New York Times, noted, “Each country facing famine is in war, or in the case of Somalia, recovering from decades of conflict” (NYT, 2/22).
Half of the 20 million threatened with starvation are children, including 1.4 million “at imminent risk of death” (NYT, 2/22). How did imperialism lead to this famine disaster? More important, how do we respond to it? The United Nations, controlled by the world’s dominant imperialist powers, can offer no real solution. While UN chiefs circle the planet begging for billions of dollars for food aid from the very imperialists causing the wars that created the famine, the institution itself has a murderous track record in similar disasters (NYT, 3/27).
Imperialist Roots of Famine
The famine in South Sudan is a case study in how imperialism and deadly proxy wars lead directly to mass misery for workers. China controls 75 percent of Sudan’s oil, and has invested billions of dollars in the country’s infrastructure (Sudan Tribune, 8/3/16). The Chinese bosses’ interests have been threatened by U.S. financing of rebel groups in the oil-rich south, which led to the creation in 2012 of South Sudan. The resulting civil war has conscripted tens of thousands of child soldiers, among other atrocities (TeleSur, 2/21/15). Meanwhile, China has maneuvered among South Sudan’s bosses to regain access to oil there (Huffington Post, 6/23/16), and even to instigate attacks against U.S. aid workers (Foreign Policy, 8/16/16).
As among all thieves, there is no honor among capitalists. The U.S. and China continue funding whatever proxy forces might benefit their interests, no matter the cost. More than 250,000 workers have been forced to abandon crops and flee for their lives. Famine is the inevitable result. As Stephen O’Brien, the UN’s chief of humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, noted,  “The famine in South Sudan is man-made. Parties to the conflict are parties to the famine—as are those not intervening to make the conflict stop” (Al Jazeera, 3/11). Predictably, O’Brien avoided any direct criticism of the two imperialist super-powers responsible for this catastrophe.
Dark Night Shall Have Its End
To build a mass anti-imperialist movement to smash this capitalist system, its racist borders, and imperialist wars and famines, the international working class must organize a revolutionary communist party. Communism means a world where workers unite to free us from hunger and material deprivation while sharing what we have in times of both abundance and scarcity. We need all workers, students, and soldiers—you!—to join Progressive Labor Party and fight to make communism a reality.

TRENTON, NJ—Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members joined a multiracial group of over thirty protesters who marched through the state’s capital chanting “No Cops—In Our Schools” to protest the racist A1114, “Police Respectability” Bill.
In response to police murders and subsequent protests, the bosse are fearful of working-class youth armed with class consciousness. They are trying to pass a bill aimed to fool workers into believing the police are on our side.
A1114 will force all schools—from elementary to high school—to create courses that teaches students how to “interact” with cops, essentially putting the responsibility of an arrest, shooting, or murder on the victim rather than the police force. According to the bill, the class will give students information on “the role and responsibilities of a law enforcement official in providing for public safety; and an individual’s responsibilities to comply with a directive from a law enforcement official” (NJLEG). This bill is fascist, as it aims to build all-class unity between class enemies—working-class kids and ruling-class forces.
To smash racism, we must smash capitalism. Only a revolutionary communist PLP can bury this racist system once and for all. Many protesters received CHALLENGE and responded warmly to discussions about capitalism and communism.
‘Respectability’ Politics Kill Youth
The politicians primarily sponsoring A1114 primary were all from Essex County (highest percentage of Black workers in New Jersey), including Sheila Oliver, the Black candidate for lieutenant governor running with Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy. It easily passed through the Assembly 76-0 seemlessly. This bill shows that relying on the Democratic Party to fight against the openly racist Trump administration is a dead-end for workers.
The racist bill going to clear the Senate until young antiracist fighters got word and responded with protests. Labeling the protest “Good Kids, Bad Cities,” the antiracists not only addressed the conditions of the cities, but they also challenged what students should be learning in schools.
Fascist Police Bill Exposes Capitalist Role of Schools
Since schools are factories for reproducing capitalist ideas, it is clear that students will not be taught the truth about the roles and responsibilities of cops. They will not be taught about the origins of the police from slave catchers, or the role that they played in attacking striking workers during the 19th and 20th century fightbacks against the bosses. “Slave patrols to hunt down escaped slaves were the original police in the South…They [police] were created to protect the new form of wage-labor capitalism that emerged in the mid to late 19th century from the threat posed by that system’s offspring, the working class” (LAWCHA, 12/29/14).
Our children must not pledge allegiance to the Ku Klux Klan in blue—yesterday’s Klan members are today’s cops (and judges, politicians, and bosses).
Aiming to Build an Obedient Workforce
By teaching students that they have “responsibilities to comply” with police, they are doing two things. First, this A1114 implies that most men and women murdered by the cops died because they didn’t comply. “If only they complied they would still be alive.” We know that this is the furthest thing from the truth. Philando Castile (Minnesota, 2016) is just one example of many who did everything he was “supposed to do.” He was murdered and the killer cop still walks free.
Second, this bill looks to create a more compliant working class—one of the main functions of education under capitalism. When workers fight back—whether against racism, sexism, or imperialism—the police suppress it. A compliant working-class youth taught to always obey cops is good for the bosses, as it lessens the chance of militant fightback, let alone revolution. Militant fightback led by Black and Latin youth is extremely threatening to the rulers (i.e., Ferguson and Baltimore).
A speaker at the NJ rally spoke about the need for cops under capitalism. He surveyed the crowd to see how many protesters were under the age of 30. More than a majority raised their hands. He then asked if they knew someone who is unemployed or underemployed. All of the protesters raised their hand. As inequality becomes more visible and revolutionary ideas spread through the population, the system itself is in trouble, and the ruling class is searching for ways to discpline the working class with police force.
Throughout history, we have seen the physical force that has ben used by the cops and military to suppress workers’ uprisings. While the ruling class will never hesitate to use this force to keep the workers in line, they prefer to control our ideas. It is a much easier way to maintain their capitalist system. That is why PLP joined these young fighters in protesting Bill A1114 and others like it. We have a lot to learn from the working class. We also have a lot to contribute to the movement. Possessing a communist analysis is key for our victory. We don’t just want to see this bill die; we want to see this capitalist system die.

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VIRGINIA, July 27—To thunderous applause from over 70 supporters in the room, the Fairfax County School Board (FCSB) voted 7-2 with two abstentions to change the name of J.E.B. Stuart High School, capping a campaign of over two years. The struggle was launched by a multiracial group of current Stuart students, the Students for Change, who declared in 2015 that having their school named for a Confederate general, with his image adorning some walls, was not acceptable.
The revolutionary communist Progressive Labor Party (PLP) salutes the brave antiracist student fighters of Fairfax County, Virginia! Workers and students throughout the nation are tearing down Confederate statues and renaming schools, and Fairfax County has joined this process! This struggle is an important victory that can add momentum to the antiracist struggles against Confederate monuments nationwide.
As in every struggle for reform under capitalism, there are limitations and challenges ahead, such as the opening left for the neo-Confederates. They have lost this round but are not out, as we shall see.
The U.S. Civil War
In 1861, southern U.S. states seceded and launched a war to create a purely slave-based nation. The U.S. government ultimately defeated the Confederacy after over 200,000 Black workers joined the Union Army, marching south with their white and immigrant comrades to liberate their sisters and brothers still enslaved.
J.E.B. Stuart, originally a U.S. Army officer, became a Confederate general to defend the slave system of Virginia and the rest of the South. He led raids into the North to capture Blacks in Pennsylvania and bring them back into slavery during the war. He was finally killed in the Battle of Yellow Tavern in 1864 by Union soldiers.
Naming the High School in 1958
Why would any school honor this racist slaver in the 20th Century? The Fairfax County School Board (FCSB) named the high school (originally designated “Munson Hill High School”) in his honor in 1958, during the period of massive resistance to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ordered the end of segregation in schools. The government of Virginia and FCSB members fought against the Brown ruling, refusing to allow Black children to attend formerly all-white schools.
In response to a racist citizens’ group objecting to the School Board even having a committee named “the Committee on Desegregation” in 1955, the Board quickly and unanimously changed the name to the Committee on Segregation. Robert Davis, School Board chair, said that the purpose of the committee was “…to equip ourselves with facts so that we can intelligently fight desegregation if we have to” (Washington Post, 9/21/1955). Despite successful lawsuits by Black parents, the School Board defiantly kept County schools almost entirely racially segregated until the mid-1960s, over ten years after the Brown decision.
Naming the school for a Confederate general was a logical action for a racist School Board, determined not to allow school integration. If putting a sign up blatantly saying “whites only” was now illegal, they had the next best thing with racist icon “J.E.B. Stuart” High School.
Two Years of Struggle
Today, the FCSB is made up of nine Democrats and 2 Republicans. Given the lip service that the Democratic Party pays to anti-racism, one might assume that the body would quickly agree to change the name of the school once students brought it to their attention. Students at the formerly all-white high school are today about 50 percent Latin, 24 percent white, 10 percent Black, 14 percent Asian, and 2 percent two or more races. The advocates for change had secured over 35,000 signatures on a petition to make the change. Even the Board’s very limited and biased poll of families in the area of the school showed that over 30 percent were offended by the name and wanted to see it changed.
But in the summer of 2016, after more than a year of struggle, the School Board member who supported the change was unable to get a majority in favor of the change. To buy some time, she secured agreement from the Board instead to form an “Ad Hoc Committee” of citizens to supposedly research the issue more fully and revisit the issue the following school year.
The Ad Hoc Committee was made up of those who favored the change. Those who opposed the change were called “Keepers” (also known as “racists”), and a few who initially were undecided. The high school students on the Ad Hoc Committee played a vital role in continuing the fight to change the name even in the face of some of the elite adults on the Committee (including the former Chief of Staff of the Republican Congressional Representative) who belittled them and spread lies about them as bullies in the school. The Ad Hoc Committee’s subcommittees ultimately submitted strong reports in favor of change, while the Keepers submitted their own reports opposing change.
Students Take The Lead
The Students for Change refused to back down. They continued to testify at School Board meetings (see CHALLENGE, 6/28) and organize other students to support the struggle. Meanwhile, parents and others who supported the students carried out media campaigns and lobbied school board members to take the right stand.
Finally, the night of July 27 arrived. Would the School Board reinforce the 1958 action and allow the racist name to stand?  Or would they vote to change it? Desperately trying to round up enough votes to pass the change, the school board member from the J.E.B. Stuart area agreed to a compromise that could prove fatal.
In addition to stating clearly that the name “J.E.B. Stuart” had to go, the resolution encouraged the community to adopt the name “Stuart” instead. No particular association with any historical figure was suggested. The stated purpose was to save money on changing sports uniforms since “Stuart” was already the only designation on them. On its face, this name would be absurd. Would each student decide which “Stuart” he/she liked? More dangerously, such a designation would preserve at some level the heritage of J.E.B. Stuart, and not represent a full rejection of racist Confederate values.
Our struggle continues today into a “community input” process for the new name. The Students for Change and their supporters insist that “Stuart” be completely eliminated, and that a more inspirational name be selected.
Students, PL’ers Fight Side By Side
A resolution to postpone the decision for many more months almost passed (5-6) before the motion to change the name came up for a vote, thanks to two school board Democrats, who then abstained on the main motion to change the school’s name! The Democrats were clearly worried about how their action might play out among their voters, while the two openly racist Republicans were happy to simply vote against the name change.
The working class cannot rely on such opportunistic politicians like the Democrats or open racist Republicans for any kind of leadership in the class struggle. It was only because of bold leadership  from students who refused to back down that the School Board finally agreed, however ambiguously, to change the name.
Our struggle continues. PLP members have been involved in this struggle for well over a year, working hard to win the name change while discussing with students to carry on the struggle against racism to communist revolution. Renaming a school from a known racist can be an important step to building working class consciousness and preparing for larger battles against capitalism, armed with communist ideas.
CHALLENGE is read by several students who are interested in our Party, and who want go beyond a name change for the school and change this entire racist capitalist system. We will continue sharpening this antiracist struggle and keep building a movement that can take our class all the way to communism!