On the morning of June 7th, the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) Kentucky joined other local organizations for the 2025 festival of Richmond Pride,where we had many conversations, filling up an entire page of contacts within hours and managing to get out several stacks of CHALLENGE, while exceeding our fundraiser goal by double. It was for a second PLP Pantry, selling our collectively-made bracelets and painted tote bags. Our tote bags had a red hammer crossed with a rainbow color play on the sickle, the colors of which ranged from Palestine to trans in order to show the fight against oppression is the struggle against bosses and class society as the root of racist and sexist gender ideas and divisions. 

PL’ers in the tenant struggle and the movement for Palestine brought posters from past struggles to show interconnectedness. “Rednecks for Palestine” and “Smash Housing 4 Profit! PLP.” Club leaders had red “WV Mine Wars museum” bandanas around their necks signifying the coal wars as a multiracial working class uprising. Our club supplied free contraceptives, pregnancy tests, Plan B and Narcan and invited these new comrades to the next tenant’s meeting to get more involvement in mass struggle 

Some of us split from the tabling booth to drown out counter protesters with syncing bluetooth speakers. There was even a religious misleader who kept preaching on a mic with his own camera crew about how marginalized workers there needed to repent, clearly trying to sabotage pride. One portable speaker was no match, but just like the forces within our class, several combined together and our music overpowered this religious “scripture.” Comrades were blocking the cameras and playing the copyright music into them, using the Bosses’ own laws against them
There was a solidarity moment after we drove them out. PL’ers held up a Party banner and stood side by side with LGBTQ workers. The fight for an antiracist and antisexist world continues!

No kings, no bosses’ system

Dear CHALLENGE : In Raleigh, North Carolina, approximately 5,000 workers and students had a multiracial anti Trump  protest in conjunction  with national protests. There were people on both sides of Raleigh’s Highway 1. The sentiments  were antiracist  and people had signs calling Trump a fascist. The workers know what fascism is, and that’s  good. There were also U.S. and Mexican flags there, which was the downside. The international working class owes no  allegiance to U.S., nor Mexican bosses! As the PLP  gets larger, and more well known, nationalism can eventually  be challenged more sharply. On the  good side, 20 CHALLENGE papers were distributed.  The Party has much work to do. We must take advantage  of protests to get our communist line out because at some point, protesting will be illegal as fascism consolidates in America. It’s not just Trump, it’s the whole damn system,  capitalism,  which must be destroyed!
*****

Antiracists call out shipments for genocide

You’ve all seen those huge barges with shipping containers, many bearing the name Maersk, one of the world’s largest shipping companies. They transport a huge proportion of the weapons the U.S. sends to Israel, including all the wings for the F-35 fighter jets since 2022. On June 11, Jewish Voice for Peace and some members of the Palestinian Youth Movement occupied the lobby of their NYC office with a demonstration of about 200 people during the lunch hour. 

There were large banners condemning Maersk, t-shirts saying End the Siege and Stop Starving Gaza, and constant chants about genocide and Maersk’s crimes. About half the participants were arrested, while the other half took to the street outside and chanted for another hour. It was a militant and very well-planned action. What was lacking was a tie in with deportations, attacks on universities and science, and racist cutbacks in the U.S. - an understanding that capitalism is the problem that causes all these manifestations of fascism.
*****

Workers connect Bukele regime to Amerikkka

On Saturday, June 7, members of Progressive Labor Party attended a film screening on the fascist Bukele regime in El Salvador and its effects on working class families. The event was held at the Rutgers Labor Education Center and was sponsored by organizations fighting for immigrant justice such as Cosecha and Resistencia en Accion. Attendees ranged from workers passionate and ready to fight collectively to end the capitalist imperialist system to workers grieving their loved ones detained by ICE. It was heartbreaking to see workers both in El Salvador and the United States grieve over the violent breakup of their families and wonder aloud how their detained loved ones were being treated. Simultaneously, we witnessed workers’ inspirational desire from both countries to stand in solidarity with one another and fight back!

One worker brilliantly pointed out the limits of relying on the Amerikkkan judicial system for immigrant justice, calling for attendees to look to the power of the international working class as the way to solve the capitalist crisis of racist immigrant detainment; our battleground is not the Amerikkkan courtroom, but rather everywhere that capitalism exists. 
*****

DNA is not destiny

Dear CHALLENGE,

The May 9th issue contained a very good article on the racist killing of two high school students  on the streets of Brooklyn. The reports of students organizing and fighting back against the racist conditions in their neighborhood were truly inspiring. The reality of violence being endemic to capitalism was reinforced with the statement “Capitalism’s very DNA is the violent exploitation and oppression of the working class…” 
The idea that DNA, the molecule that carries genetic information, is somehow more essential and influential than environmental factors is a capitalist idea that seeks to blame individuals (and their genes) for all of the ills of our society. The underlying message behind this idea is that trying to get rid of capitalism is a waste of time, because all of these things are “natural” or “part of our DNA.” But this is not how biology works. Yes, DNA is important, but not more so than the environment that an organism experiences. Violent exploitation and oppression are indeed endemic to capitalism; it cannot exist without them. We can make this point without referencing DNA and its supposed centrality.
*****

Massacre at noon: nationalism kills revolution

I watched a movie about an event that is little known in the U.S. The movie was Massacre At Noon. Made in former Yugoslavia  in 1975, its plot is about Serbian communist partisans fighting the Nazi occupation army (Wehrmacht). In October, 1941, the German SS had over 100 Serbian workers and communist guerrillas executed in reprisals for the death of German soldiers. There are political lessons  to be learned from this movie. Marshal Tito was overall leader of the communist partisans, but they had a United Front with bourgeois groups like royalists forces that represented monarchy (Chetniks). Progressive Labor Party (PLP)  learned from working class struggles that in armed struggle, you don’t  make temporary unity with bosses. 

Nationalism means making concessions that end up being anti-working class. In the movie, the communists instead of singing the International, sing a nationalist song. Also, the Chetniks ended up selling  out communists to German fascists. While the communist partisans eventually defeated the Nazis, the issue of nationalism  was not fully resolved as a political contradiction. Eventually, Yugoslavian state capitalism  gave way to the breakup of Yugoslavia, and unleashed nationalism led to the Serbo-Croatian War. PLP rejects all nationalism, as it holds back communist  revolution. The only solution  is communist revolution and workers internationalism for a world without nations and borders.
*****

Haitian cops in battles with gangs

Anadolu Agency, 6/12–Police in Haiti killed more than 100 gang members during a 48-hour operation using unmanned aerial vehicles, according to local media reports on Wednesday. The drone strikes targeted gang-controlled areas across different parts of the capital Port-au-Prince. At least 100 gang members died and many others sustained injuries as a result of the operations. Authorities have not issued an official statement regarding the operation. However, the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights confirmed that the police action took place. Haiti faces a severe security crisis with armed gangs controlling large portions of territory. 

DR Congo looks to make a deal with the U.S. 

Financial Times, 5/25–Officials from the Democratic Republic of Congo are optimistic they can reach a deal with Washington next month to secure US investment in critical minerals alongside support to end a Rwandan-backed rebellion in the country’s east.  The scope of Kinshasa’s negotiations with Washington is hugely ambitious. It combines giving US companies access to lithium, cobalt and coltan deposits in return for investment in infrastructure and mines, with efforts to draw a line under 30 years of conflict in regions bordering Rwanda. Two people close to the negotiations said an investment deal with the US and a separate peace deal with Rwanda were possible “by the end of June”. But potential stumbling blocks remain substantial.

Peace Institute warns that the world’s bosses are nuking up

France24, 6/16–Most of the world's nuclear-armed states continued to modernise their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, researchers warned Monday. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said nuclear powers, including the United States and Russia – which account for around 90 percent of the world's stockpile – had spent time last year "upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions"..."What we see now, first of all, is that the number of operational nuclear warheads is beginning to increase," SIPRI Director Dan Smith told AFP…SIPRI counted a total of 12,241 warheads in January 2025, of which 9,614 were in stockpiles for potential use…

U.N. condemns Israeli atrocities in Gaza

Al Jazeera, 6/16–The United Nations rights chief has condemned Israel’s war conduct in the besieged Gaza Strip, where deadly Israeli attacks continue unabated with dozens more Palestinians killed trying to access aid, as the country exchanges missile attacks with regional foe Iran…Israel’s “means and methods of warfare are inflicting horrifying, unconscionable suffering on Palestinians in Gaza”, where more than 19 months of Israeli attacks have killed at least 55,362 people, including thousands of children, according to health officials…at least 48 Palestinians have been killed since dawn across Gaza on Monday, including 33 desperately seeking aid for their hungry families near distribution points, mostly in the Rafah area in the south. 

Afghan workers attacked by Pakistani and Iranian bosses

AP, 6/12–Sher Khan, a 42-year-old Afghan, had returned home from his job in a brick factory. He stared at the plainclothes policeman on the doorstep, his mind reeling…Born in Pakistan to parents who fled the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the ensuing war, Khan is one of hundreds of thousands of Afghans who have now been expelled. The nationwide crackdown, launched in October 2023, on foreigners Pakistan says are living in the country illegally has led to the departures of almost 1 million Afghans already. Pakistan says millions more remain. It wants them gone…Iran, too, has been expelling Afghans…

Student workers in Washington strike for union rights

Cascadia Daily News, 5/28–More than a thousand student employees at Western Washington University went on strike early Wednesday, May 28. Operational student employees, who include program support staff, recreation assistants, resident advisors and lifeguards, are seeking union recognition from Western and a contract. Since the group voted to join Western Academic Workers United in December 2023, university officials have said they will not recognize the union until legislation is passed to extend collective bargaining rights to student workers.

President Donald Trump’s attack on Harvard and other liberal-run universities reflects the deep split within the U.S. ruling class—but also the need for all U.S. bosses to move toward open fascism and direct control of their institutions, from their legal system to the media. Higher education in particular stands at a crossroads. Amid an international crisis of capitalism, the decline of U.S. imperialism is playing out on campuses across the country, especially at the elite institutions that help to shape the rulers’ policies and groom their future leaders.

Seizing on cultural backlash, the Trump administration is leveraging its immense financial influence to attempt to remake universities in unprecedented ways. The result is more than a crackdown on anti-Zionist protest, diversity programs, and international students. It’s a structural move to realign the purpose of higher education with the goals of the isolationist, America First, gutter racist wing of U.S. capitalism. Fronted by Trump, they’re the faction that makes most of their money from homegrown fossil fuels and other domestic sources. They’re also leading the charge to resegregation, white nationalism, and a predominantly white U.S. military.

Finance capital, notably the big banks and multinational oil and gas companies that control the Democratic Party, is on the defensive. At the same time, the liberal main wing bosses are using the Trump attacks to give cover to their own need to build racism and fascism on the road to World War Three. In this fight between two gangs of parasites and mass murderers, there are no lesser evils. Only communist revolution will stop fascism. Only communism can build a society where education will serve the needs of our class.

Universities, engines of empire

Universities have long functioned as engines of U.S. empire. Their research creates ever more deadly technologies for war; their economic gurus justify capitalist exploitation;  their elitism fosters individualism and division among workers; their graduates become state managers, bankers, lawyers, and media executives. For much of the 20th century, the university was an efficient tool for the bosses. But of late it’s become less useful. Masses of students have embraced liberal identity politics, which now runs counter to the bosses’ need for heightened nationalism and patriotism. Campus protests against Israeli apartheid and genocide are a flat rejection of imperialist values, with international repercussions.

The Trump administration’s strategy centers around one powerful truth: Most U.S. universities depend on nearly $60 billion in annual federal grants for research, infrastructure, and student financial aid. For many institutions, this funding represents up to 20 percent of their operating budgets (National Science Foundation, 2024). In an era of falling enrollments, tuition dependency, hypercompetition and the rising cost of student services, this money isn’t optional—it’s essential.

But the government cash was always conditional. It assumed that colleges would continue to align with the state’s core objectives: scientific innovation for the inter-imperialist arms race, cultural hegemony for empire, and workforce development to keep the capitalist gears in motion. 

Today, as Trump threatens to withhold federal grants from institutions that support “illegal” DEI programs or allow “anti-Semitic” protests, the State’s power to dictate university policy is fully exposed (New York Times, 4/18). It’s a chilling but clarifying moment. Federal funding was never about helping students. Its aim was to erode class consciousness and sustain the bosses’ system.

Liberal bosses: lying opportunists

Beneath the surface of partisan division in the U.S. Congress, the liberal main wing bosses see a huge opportunity in the assault on the university. There’s a reason that so many colleges—alongside top law firms and media companies—are caving to many of Trump’s demands. Though the bosses’ two factions have real strategic differences, they share a growing consensus that the likes of Harvard must be disciplined and restructured.

The response of college students to Israel’s atrocities has been nothing short of heroic. It has inspired millions around the world and sent a powerful message to workers in Gaza that they are not alone. But in a period where all capitalist bosses must condition workers and students to accept rising fascism, encampments and walkouts can no longer be tolerated. Peaceful protestors have been met with violent arrests, surveillance, and racist threats tied to immigration status. The repression began before Trump took office, when Joe Biden slammed the campus anti-genocide movement as “chaos” and “antisemitic” (AP, 5/2/24). Colleges across the country took his cue and established fascist bans meant to stomp out the growing demonstrations (NYT, 9/12). Liberal mayors in New York, Washington, and Los Angeles unleashed their vicious cops. The liberal trustees who run Harvard, Columbia, and Penn all pushed out their presidents pre-Trump, signaling a new willingness among elites to sacrifice institutional figureheads—to conform and capitulate.

The move to resegregation

In the 1960s and ‘70s, the bosses installed programs for “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) as a response to the rebellions led by Black workers and students. The rulers’ goal was to gain control and pacify the fight against racism. Once celebrated as progressive reform victories, these programs are now being purged at companies and universities alike. Dozens of colleges have seen billions of federal aid frozen, pending their agreement to halt diversity efforts in admissions, financial aid, and hiring (npr.com, 2/19). Based on mostly bogus charges of “antisemitism” by the nazi-loving Trump administration, Columbia was threatened with a federal consent decree. If put in force, it would hand the government direct control over curriculum and campus protest policies (ACLU, 4/24).

What’s important to note is that many university presidents and trustees have long desired more control over campus dissent. Their commitment to DEI was shallow from the start, often couched in sanitized language about “first-generation” or “low-income” students that skirted the issue of racism and the segregated reality of U.S. public education. Trump’s assault has simply given them permission to roll back policies they never much liked in the first place.

While today’s attacks on DEI are real and dangerous, they should not lure us into defending it uncritically. We must instead call for a revolutionary alternative—one that builds real solidarity among working-class students and staff, that leads with anti-imperialism and class struggle, and that refuses the lie that the university can be reformed to serve our liberation.

Forward to revolution!