MEXICO, November 20 —  Tens of thousands of workers and youth demonstrated in several cities across the country and around the world on the anniversary of the 1912 nationalist Mexican Revolution, in what has been called the Fourth Global Day of Action for Ayotzinapa. This was one in a series of protests demanding the return of the 43 student teachers disappeared on September 26 in that city. The local police with the complicity of the government, who then handed them over to the drug cartels.
The largest demonstration took place in Mexico City, where students, trade unionists, and mass organizations marched in three caravans led by the parents of the disappeared students. Members of Progressive Labor Party participated in this march, distributing 2,000 leaflets to Guerrero teachers, electricians and other workers marching in their mass organizations. Our assertion that communism is the only answer to capitalist terror was important in this protest because nationalism was the predominant ideology. The dismissal of president Peña Nieto and his cabinet is considered a solution.
For decades, rural teachers have earned the sympathy of the working class because of their commitment to their communities. For this reason, the bosses of Mexicanos Primero and the capitalist media like Televisa and TV Azteca have publicly accused rural schools of being guerrilla training places that must be eliminated. However, these accusations are really a cover to ensure the approval of the lucrative education reform, which will generate huge profits from turning education into even more of a commodity and will benefit the bosses who promote it.
Guerrero is one of the poorest states in the country with a long tradition of insurgent movements. The ruling class in this state has set up a sophisticated repressive apparatus involving the police, the military and drug lords. These groups, some of them trained and financed by the U.S., are responsible for the murder and disappearance of our youth.
According to the World Bank, 60 percent of youth in the world lack education and job opportunities; in Mexico that number is 70 percent. Conditions for the remaining youth are not much better: existing jobs are precarious, offering miserable salaries, with little or no benefits. They work long, exhausting hours, with some working 12-hour days, seven days a week. Mexico is one of the countries were the working class works the most hours per year.
Under these conditions, some youth end up involved in organized crime, or the use of drugs or alcohol. The ruling class has used this to criminalize them all and justify their police and military apparatus that in collaboration with organized crime has been terrorizing the working class.
Destroy the Capitalist System that Kills and Disappears Our Youth!
Ayotzinapa is not an isolated case of police terror. Thousands of unarmed Black and Latin youth are killed by the police in the U.S. Even in those instances when those crimes were videotaped, the police always argued they feared for their lives, and were sure they were threatened by “a drug-dealing, Black rapper youth,” a racist caricature. On the other side of the world, immigrants in many European countries are massacred by the police, as was the case of the Brazilian murdered by the racist British police, because he “looked like an Arab attempting to commit a terrorist act” in the city subway.
The murder and disappearance of our student-teachers is the product of a capitalist system that has nothing to offer our youth. The massive protests in Mexico and condemnation around the world show how painful crime is for the international working class.
The electoral political parties will not lead the working class to overthrow the capitalist system. Instead, they’d try to make us believe that only a few “corrupt” politicians are the only ones responsible, and that if we get rid of them and elect different politicians, all our problems would be solved and we’ll get justice. That’s a lie! Capitalism systematically kills and disappears our youth.
A system that has nothing to offer youth must be destroyed through a revolution led by a communist party. We workers must organize more workers and youth to be organized in our international communist PLP to lead a communist revolution to put an end to capitalist oppression and imperialist war. We are organizing additional Party members and friends to participate in the upcoming protests. We are also organizing meetings in our work areas to put this brutal crime in the context of imperialist war and the crisis of the capitalist system.

PARIS, March 6 — The fascist National Front (FN) is continuing its seemingly irresistible rise to power and now may very well be the biggest party in France as the March 22 first round of departmental elections approaches.
Bosses’ Racist Agenda
Unemployment and racism are two of the major factors the FN is using in attempting to influence workers to vote for the fascists. The FN claims immigrants “are responsible for unemployment” because they are supposedly “willing to work for lower wages,” hiding the fact that it is capitalism’s “boom-and-bust” system of depressions and recessions that actually throws workers on the streets.
There were 5,879,000 jobless workers in France in December 2014 in a labor force of 28.6 million — an official unemployment rate of 20.6 percent, including over two million unemployed youth. According to a November OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) report, unemployment will continue to increase here.
The FN’s racist anti-immigrant appeal to the working class says that “immigration is used by the plutocrats and the big bosses to lower wages and welfare rights for French workers.” It would cut “legal” immigration by 95 percent and outlaw “demonstrations by undocumented workers or those in support of undocumented workers.” It would force employers and jobs agencies to always favor French citizens in hiring. Unemployed “foreigners” would be deported and child welfare would be reserved for “French children” only.
In addition to its racist anti-immigrant, anti-worker stance, the FN’s program includes preparing French rulers for future imperialist wars. It wants France to leave the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which would enable France to freely jockey for position among its inter-imperialist rivals. It wants to boost military spending by 25 percent and increase the size of the armed forces by 500 percent. The FN also wants to roll back decentralization of government and reinforce the power of the central government while imposing a wage freeze on all government workers. It plans to hold a referendum on re-introducing the death penalty.
This is the “visible” part of the FN’s program. It gives an idea of all the measures the FN might take but is currently keeping secret.
In the March 22 elections for departmental counselors the FN is fielding candidates in 1909 of the 2054 cantons (election districts), more than any other party. The FN also leads in fielding candidates in all of the cantons of a department, giving the FN a much denser net over the whole of France.
IFOP (French Institute of Public Opinion) polls show the FN as the probable leading party, ahead of the right-wing UMP, the Socialists and the Left Front (which includes the phony “left” French “Communist” Party). Since fewer than half the registered voters are expected to vote, it would increase the proportion of the FN vote even more, because the fascist supporters are more motivated to go to the polls.
This means that in the second round of the elections, on March 29, there would be a run-off between the FN and either the Sarkozy-led right-wing UMP or the Socialists. No matter which party wins in elections, all serve the bosses. The Socialists present a greater threat to workers, for they aim to exploit workers’ aspirations for equality and use it to pacify workers into accepting crumbs. (“There is still racism but at least the socialists are in power.”) There is only one way to end racism once and for all: communism. Fascism cannot be defeated at the ballot box, but only through armed revolution by masses of workers.
The FN will likely become a powerful minority in practically all the departmental councils and may win outright control in some. These councils are responsible for the building, maintenance and equipping of junior high schools and managing the non-teaching staff. They’re also responsible for child protection, aid to families facing financial problems, aid to the handicapped, aid to the elderly and other welfare programs. They also run the libraries, museums and archives in the département.
The FN will use these elections as a springboard for the 2017 presidential elections. It will employ the power and patronage it gains to create an even more powerful fascist movement, either by winning the presidency outright or at least obtaining key ministerial positions in a coalition government with the right-wing UMP. Shades of Hitler’s rise to power in Nazi Germany!
French Socialists = Social Fascists
As CHALLENGE has reported, the Socialists have pursued the same racist anti-worker policies as the UMP, while the French “Communist” Party has degenerated into an electoral machine whose only purpose is to guarantee a job for its elected officials. An IFOP opinion poll shows 50 percent of blue-collar workers and 41 percent of white-collar workers intending to vote FN, far more than the figures for the Socialists and the UMP combined. Thus the working class — the only class that can block the FN fascists in their electoral bid for state power — is demobilized.
The FN’s rise resembles in many respects the seizure of power by Hitler’s Nazis in 1930s Germany. The last election in the Weimar Republic showed the Nazi Party leading with 40 percent of the vote and the rest divided between the Social Democrat and Communist parties. The president of the Republic then appointed Hitler as Chancellor. The Nazis immediately began instituting anti-worker laws, thus “legislating” fascism, followed by open fascist terror which established fascism outright.
The FN’s road to power appears to be following that scenario, using unemployment and racism much as the Nazis did. Only communists can smash fascism, as demonstrated by the then-red Soviet Union’s defeat of the Nazis. The absence of true communist leadership of the working class in France is the missing ingredient to combat the FN, the Socialists, and all other ruling-class parties. We call on CHALLENGE readers and friends of PLP in France and worldwide to guarantee that such leadership emerges.

PAKISTAN, March 11 — Pakistan has been a frontline of imperialist rivalry since the late 1970s, when U.S. and European bosses started to organize working people in the name of religion to fight against their imperialist rival, the Soviet Union, who at the time had an allied government in neighboring Afghanistan. The bosses in Pakistan began training and sending terrorist from all over the world into Afghanistan on the instructions and financing of the U.S., Saudi and Israeli bosses. Most of the terrorist mujahideen sent there were from religious schools where they received free religious education, shelter and food provided by the Pakistani bosses as “charity.”
Now, it is “blowing back,” and these terrorists are now unleashed in Pakistan. The Pakistani judicial system, which is used to suppress poor workers for the better interests of the capitalists, has failed. Now in increasing desperation, the bosses are hoping to contain the terror they created by amending the country’s constitution to allow military courts, where anyone considered an opponent, terrorist or not, can be tried.
Inter-imperialist rivalry exploits the opportunity to use these well-trained groups for its own benefit. These terrorists are spreading fear and horror among the working class so that this oppressed and exploited group won’t fight back. Innocent school children, women workers, low-sector workers and professionals are their targets. About 50,000 people have been killed in this bosses’ war.
These terrorist groups are here to protect the interest of bosses of one country or another. For example, U.S.-China rivalry over the markets and resources of the world is mirrored Pakistan. Pakistani bosses are trying to work with both U.S. and Chinese bosses, but these imperialist rivals have conflicting interests.
The terrorists are also used to eliminate political opponents. Different religious, nationalist and racist parties have their own militant groups to get extortion money, terrorize their political opponents and steal the so-called votes. We in PLP are striving to let workers know that “democracy” means voting for oppressors so they will exploit you more vigorously. We need a workers’ dictatorship which can make a world based on collectivity and fulfill our needs.
U.S.-China Bosses Fight Over Profits in Pakistan
Pakistani bosses, under the leadership of big capitalists, are trying to invest more in Pakistan so that they can exploit more people. They succeeded in convincing the capitalist class in China to invest 32 billion US$ in Pakistan. But U.S. bosses, embarrassed, managed to have two political parties they funded to stage a sit-in in the capital city of Islamabad to discourage the visit of the Chinese Premier and to block the investment. Afterwards, the Pakistani Premier rushed to Beijing to sign different agreements. In the end, U.S.-led efforts to keep the Chinese away from the Pakistani market resulted in the Chinese bosses increasing their investment from 32 to 42 billion US$.
The “Pak-China Economic Corridor” is a huge and long-term program for the Chinese bosses to make big money. It will help the Chinese bosses to get rail and road access to the Gwadar Port, which has strategic and economic importance for the Chinese bosses. It is situated in the Baluchistan province of Pakistan, which has vast minerals, natural gas, coal, gold and other resources. It shares its boundaries with the strategically important countries of Iran, Afghanistan, and through the Arabian Sea, India, United Arab Emirates, and Oman.
Connecting China’s northwestern autonomous region of Xinjiang with Gwadar Port in southern Pakistan via highways, railways and pipelines to transport oil and gas will serve as a primary gateway for trade between China and the Middle East and Africa. In particular, oil from the Middle East could be offloaded at Gwadar and transported to China. Such a link would vastly cut the 12,000-kilometer route that Middle East oil supplies must now take to reach Chinese ports.
Earlier, the contract had been given to a Singaporean company. But in February 2013, the control of Gwadar was transferred to China’s state-owned China Overseas Ports Holding. Gwadar Port will also be used by the growing Chinese navy (which some military observers believe will be the largest navy in the world after 2020) for their strategic interests as well. China is gaining control over the Pakistani market. Almost everywhere in Pakistan, different Chinese companies are busy  making profit. In the Baluchistan province, the site of Gwadar Port, many Chinese engineers and professionals were attacked by nationalist insurgents backed by U.S., India and other imperialist forces.
China Facing Terror Attacks
China has been facing terrible terrorist attacks within its borders as well such as in Kunming and Yunnan, with unrest in the primarily Muslim Xinjiang region. Tourists have been massacred in a mountainous region of Pakistan near the Chinese border. China asked Pakistan to take adequate actions to keep these terrorists from entering China; it is assumed that these terrorists got training in Pakistan by CIA-led jihadis. The bosses are are fighting over the “bone” and they will keep fighting everywhere, whether it is in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria or Haiti.
Saudi and Iranian bosses are also using their puppets in Pakistan to create instability and chaos by spreading sectarianism and fundamentalism. Sunni and Shia terrorists respectively are being supported by these bosses to protect their interests in Pakistan and to keep Pakistan dependent on them. These bosses are encouraging their puppets to slaughter each other on the streets and in the mosques.
India also desires to increase its influence in the region by supporting nationalist, racist and religious terrorist groups to maintain unrest in Pakistan. India is feeling the threat from rising Chinese capitalist bosses so the Dalai Lama (Tibetan Buddhist religious leader) is being supported by the Indian bosses as a strategic asset. Indian bosses are trying to contain Chinese bosses by taking markets in Afghanistan and Iran. The thirst to make more profits is sharpening contradictions among China, India and Pakistan, which threatens even bigger wars.
The working class has been brutalized, silenced, and exploited by capitalist terrorism in the region, which spreads fear and chaos. About 400 workers were burned alive in a garment factory in Baldiya Town, Karachi, just because the owner of factory refused to give 20 million in Pakistani rupees as extortion to a racist political party of Karachi.
No political party raised its voice against this inhuman and brutal act except PLP. It is only PLP which organized the families of victims and workers to hold a demonstration against this horrible act of terrorism amid threats from racists and extremists. PLP is striving for a better future for the working class through international communist revolution!

Ruth was born in 1935 and grew up in the South Bronx, one of four daughters of a furrier and a garment worker. Ruth was close with her three sisters, Millie, Florence and Dottie growing up. As a kid and teenager she was known as a ferocious handball player, often playing and beating older boys and young men.
Her parents, like many of the families she knew, were involved in the old communist movement. Ruth became politically active in her late teens and was particularly influenced by her oldest sister Millie and brother-in-law Leon who were active in the movement.
After high school Ruth worked several jobs, including in a plant that made circuit boards where she eventually was asked to become an organizer for the union. Around that time she became a member of the Young Communist League and then the Communist Party. She met her husband-to-be Bert at a YCL party.
Ruth and Bert stayed in the CP through the McCarthy years, often having FBI agents come to the house and harass them on the street. By 1960 they felt that the Soviet Union had lost its way and was no longer leading the movement towards a communist future.
When they heard about a meeting to discuss a new direction in the communist movement they went and eventually became part of the group that established the Progressive Labor Movement and then the Progressive Labor Party. She became active in this new communist movement, including helping to organize the trip in 1963 that broke the government’s travel ban to Cuba.
While doing this, Ruth had two children, worked and went to school in the evenings to get a teaching degree from Hunter College. As a teacher Ruth worked in an elementary school in the housing projects near her and Bert’s apartment on 106th street.
In 1968, the teachers’ union launched a racist walkout against parental control of schools. Ruth and other teachers in and around the PLP joined with Black and Latin parents to cross the racist picket lines, breaking into the schools and setting up freedom schools with anti-racist teachers and volunteers. This including sending her own kids across the lines in the face of the worst kinds of gutter racism.
Throughout her long teaching career Ruth was always an anti-racist fighter for those students the system didn’t want to teach. Working in the heavily tracked schools in her neighborhood and in Harlem, as part of a group of PL teachers in upper Manhattan, she always chose the classes the school deemed the bottom of their grade and fought like hell to have the school care about those kids.
She was removed from schools several times for standing up to the administration, including organizing a boycott of a racist competency test the Board of Education was giving that was increasing the dropout rate of Black and Latin students.
After retiring Ruth continued her political activity, helping produce CHALLENGE newspaper, organizing Kids against Racism to introduce her grandchildren and others elementary school kids to the ideas of PLP, and trying to bring communist ideas into the struggle against Israeli fascism.
Most of all, Ruth was a fighter for the working class who never lost confidence that even with all the ups and downs of the communist movement, victory will come.