BROOKLYN, March  20 — As ICE raids continue to hit working-class communities, educators, students, and families at our school are continuing to organize. Our latest step was an after-school rally aimed at bringing more students into the struggle and strengthening our collective fightback.

ICE out of our schools!

This work has been building over time. The anti-ICE rapid response committee, which includes Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members and other staff, has been organizing to defend students and families from immigration enforcement. What’s changed recently is a growing willingness among more teachers to step forward and take action. People are less willing to sit back and hope things get better.

In our meetings, we’ve been talking about what it means to actually build power. There was growing agreement that we can’t rely on politicians, no matter how they present themselves, to protect our students. If anything, recent events have made it clearer that we have to rely on each other. That led to a shift, putting more emphasis on getting out into the streets and organizing openly.

Holding the rally after school made a difference. Students who couldn’t make the morning rallies were able to join. As dismissal ended, students stopped, watched, and many decided to stay. Some jumped into chants right away. Others hung back at first but got pulled in. It felt like something was starting to open up.

We continued chants like “ICE means we gotta fight back,” but also added “Oil war means we gotta fight back,” bringing out the connection between what’s happening here and U.S. wars abroad. These aren’t separate issues. The same system behind deportations is behind imperialist wars, and students are beginning to see that more clearly.

Keeping the antiracist momentum going 

Another thing that came out of our discussions was the need to be consistent. One rally isn’t enough. We’re planning to hold rallies on the first Friday of every month, building toward May Day. The goal is to make this kind of action a regular part of school life, not something occasional.
The situation our students are facing hasn’t changed–ICE raids are still happening, families are still under pressure, and the system continues to rely on fear and division. But more people are starting to respond differently.

Each action brings in new people. Students start to recognize each other, to feel less alone, to see that something collective is possible. 

That’s what we’re trying to build, something steady, something that grows.

There’s still a lot of work to do, but this was a step forward.

BROOKLYN, March 8 — Led by the Progressive Labor Party (PLP), more than 130 people packed into a community space in Brooklyn to celebrate International Working Women’s Day, bringing together a multiracial, multigenerational crowd of workers, students, families, and comrades. The room was full—of conversation, laughter, political struggle, and a shared sense that this fight is growing.

We noshed on Palestinian and Dominican food, reflecting the international character of our class. Eating together, connecting across generations. It wasn’t just a celebration—it was a space to build relationships and strengthen the political clarity needed for the fights ahead.

At the center of the event was a speech grounding the day in its revolutionary roots. “We are here for a communist celebration of March 8th,” the speaker said, “where we recognize the crucial role that women have played in the fight against capitalism.” The message was clear: this is not a symbolic holiday, but part of a long history of working-class struggle led by women.

Women’s leadership is central to the fight

The speech highlighted how women have always been at the forefront of revolutionary change—from literacy campaigns in post-revolutionary Cuba to struggles led by women of color within PLP. “It will be leadership from women, specifically Black and brown women, that will liberate ourselves from capitalism’s chains,” the speaker said, drawing a direct line between past struggles and the fights we are building today.

That line carried through the event. A new comrade spoke about why she joined the Party, describing how she came to see individual success under capitalism as a dead end, and that only collective struggle offers a real future. She challenged others in the room to take that same step—not just to agree, but to organize.

Two comrades fresh from their recent participation in the general strike in Minnesota, where workers took action against growing ICE terror connected the local to the national, showing that the working-class is ready to defend their class sisters and brothers.

Fighting sexism means fighting capitalism

Throughout the event, there was sharp clarity about the roots of women’s oppression. As the main speech laid out, sexism is not accidental—it is built into capitalism itself. Women’s unpaid domestic labor, wage gaps, and vulnerability to violence all serve a system that depends on exploitation and division.

PLP’s politics were central here: that the fight against sexism cannot be separated from the fight against capitalism. A communist society, as described in the speech, would eliminate the profit motive that drives inequality and create the conditions to collectively confront and eliminate gender-based oppression.

That understanding shaped the tone of the day. This wasn’t about representation or reform—it was about revolution. About building a movement where women are not just included, but leading.

An international struggle with deep roots

The event also emphasized that this struggle is global. From organizing against ICE raids in Brooklyn to women forming committees against sexual violence in Sudan, from the Darien Gap to the West Bank, the fight against sexism and capitalism crosses every border.
“Our revolutionary struggle must be as ignorant to borders as sexism and racism are,” the speaker said.
That internationalism was reflected not just in the words, but in the room itself—in the mix of cultures, languages, and experiences brought together in one place. It’s a reminder that the working class is one, even as the system tries to divide us.

Growing something stronger

By the end of the event, it was clear that this wasn’t just a celebration—it was part of something building. People stayed after, exchanging numbers, talking politics, making plans. The connections felt real.

One idea from the speech stuck with many: that while capitalism may try to cut movements down, “our roots are alive and well, deepening with each action.” Every rally, every conversation, every new person stepping forward strengthens those roots. This event was one of those moments.

As we look ahead to May Day and beyond, the task is clear. Keep organizing. Keep building. Keep developing the leadership of women across our class.

The roots are there. And they’re growing.

International Working Women’s Day was marked across Pakistan with rallies, marches, meetings, and cultural activities organized by comrades and friends of Progressive Labor Party (PLP), various women’s groups, trade unions, students, and working-class organizers. From major cities to smaller towns, thousands took to the streets to protest exploitation, rising poverty, and violence against women. These demonstrations showed both the growing militancy of working women and the urgent need to build an international revolutionary communist movement capable of confronting the capitalist system that produces this oppression.

Fight sexism at the root!

Participants raised demands against workplace exploitation, inflation, unemployment, and the brutal conditions faced by millions of women workers. Protesters condemned harassment and violence against women while exposing how these abuses are tied to the economic system that relies on cheap, insecure labor to generate profits for the ruling class.

In Islamabad, women organizers, political workers, and students attempted to gather  for a rally marking the day. Participants planned to march with banners and placards demanding an end to workplace harassment, domestic violence, and discriminatory labor practices. But the Pakistani state once again showed whose interests it serves. After a reactionary religious group threatened violence if progressive women were allowed to demonstrate, authorities imposed the restrictions under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Rather than protecting those exercising their “democratic” rights, the state sided with reactionary forces. Police blocked the rally and briefly detained several organizers and participants. This repression exposes the alliance between the capitalist state and reactionary religious forces that seek to keep women—and the entire working class—divided, intimidated, and powerless.

Despite these attempts at intimidation, organizers continued discussions and small protests to mark the day. Their determination reflects a growing understanding that real change will not come from the institutions of the capitalist state but from collective struggle by the working class.

Women workers show their power across Pakistan

In Lahore, larger demonstrations were held with the participation of students, trade union organizers, and working women. Comrades and friends associated with the PLP spoke about the need to link the fight against gender oppression with the broader struggle against capitalism and imperialism. Demonstrators carried placards demanding equal wages, protection from workplace harassment, and access to education and employment.

In Karachi, marches included large numbers of working-class women, laborers, fisherfolk, and community organizers. Many speakers focused on the crushing economic crisis facing workers, including soaring prices, unemployment, and the absence of basic labor protections. Women from coastal communities described how environmental destruction and land encroachment threaten their livelihoods.

Comrades made it clear that these conditions are not accidental. Pakistan’s capitalist ruling class—landlords, industrialists, and political elites—works closely with imperialist powers to maintain a system that enriches a tiny minority while condemning millions to poverty. Foreign investment projects backed by U.S. and Chinese capital are frequently promoted as “development,” but for working people they often mean land seizures, environmental destruction, and intensified exploitation.

Comrades and friends of the Progressive Labor Party, together with labor organizations and grassroots groups, played an important role in many of these events. Trade unions representing home-based workers, agricultural laborers, and fishermen have long organized working women around demands for better wages and legal protections.

Home-based women workers—who produce garments, handicrafts, and other goods from their homes—remain among the most exploited workers in Pakistan. Because they are pushed into the informal sector, they are often denied minimum wages, unionization, healthcare, and social security. Capitalists profit enormously from this arrangement, using women’s labor as a source of extremely cheap production.

Rural women and agricultural laborers face similar exploitation. Many have organized protests against land grabbing, displacement, and sexual harassment by landlords while demanding recognition as workers with equal rights. These struggles reveal the brutal class relations that continue to dominate Pakistan’s economy, where feudal landowners and capitalist elites maintain their power through economic control and political repression.

Comrades and friends of the PLP argued that International Working Class Women’s Day is rooted in the revolutionary struggles of working-class women who fought for dignity, equality, justice, and communism. The day emerged from militant labor organizing—not from symbolic celebrations or empty gestures by politicians.

Liberals and feminism will never stop sexism

Today, however, many March 8 events are increasingly shaped by liberal and NGO-based feminism that focuses on representation within the existing system. While calls for legal reforms or greater political representation may bring limited improvements, they do not challenge the capitalist system that produces inequality and exploitation.

Women’s oppression is inseparable from class exploitation under capitalism. Women workers are concentrated in the lowest-paid and most insecure jobs—garment factories, domestic work, agriculture, and informal employment. Employers rely on this inequality to maximize profits, paying women less and denying them stable working conditions.

PLP comrades also rejected the political approaches that portray men as the primary enemy of women. Such ideas divide the working class and weaken the struggle against the real enemy. The fundamental enemy of both male and female workers is the capitalist system that exploits their labor and concentrates wealth and power in the hands of a small ruling class.

The demonstrations held across Pakistan show that women are increasingly stepping forward to challenge injustice and exploitation. But these struggles must grow beyond protest and reform toward building an international revolutionary communist movement under the leadership of PLP capable of overthrowing the capitalist system. International Working Women’s Day should therefore be a day of working-class struggle and solidarity—not a symbolic celebration. The liberation of women cannot be separated from the liberation of the entire working class.

The path forward lies in building a mass international revolutionary movement under the red flag of the Progressive Labor Party.

I was recently asked to serve on a webinar panel attacking the U.S.-Israeli unjustifiable war on Iran and Lebanon. It was organized by the Scholars for Social Justice, a relatively new organization that includes many diverse young faculty members who want to organize against this vicious war launched by the U.S. ruling class on February 28. The webinar was organized on a “rapid response” basis —no useless academic bickering about anything! Let’s just get on with the struggle! Over 300 people attended the webinar out of the 400 who had registered, a powerful indicator of the growing revolutionary anger against the U.S. and Israeli bosses.

The panelists varied in their assessments, but all sharply opposed U.S.-Israeli attacks. I was happy to encourage people to get active in the fight against the war, while understanding the underlying role of inter-imperialist rivalry between the U.S.-Israeli capitalist bloc and the growing Chinese-led opposing imperialists. I argued that such rivalries had been central to World War I and II and dozens of subsequent wars, and that today we are in a pre-world-war period because the relative decline of U.S. imperialism and the rise of Chinese imperialism can only be resolved by war -- unless we succeed in revolutionary struggle. Iran is a close ally of China, and so the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran and its allies, while certainly over oil and trade routes in West Asia, is also an attack indirectly on Chinese. That emerging confrontation is driving the globe to world war. The choice before us? Fight for world communism, or face the barbarity of yet another world war.

I would encourage readers of CHALLENGE to help organize teach-ins, rallies, sit-in, and strikes against the war, and join PLP study groups to get a better understanding of the dire world situation we face — and how a revolutionary communist party can make all the difference in the world!

Intro

Grateful for this opportunity to share some thoughts and a call to action in response to the U.S.-Israeli imperialist wars against Iran and Lebanon. I hope that our words here will inspire you to organize teach-ins and actions against the U.S. and Israeli governments and the corporations and institutions that support their devastating aggression. Where possible, bring working class people into this movement both on our campuses and at work sites, especially key industries that have potential power to “close it down”. We also need to reach out to soldiers and sailors who come from the working class as well. Let’s build towards a strong, national action on May Day that honors the revolutionary spirit of the communists who launched May Day as an international opportunity for workers to review their troops in preparation for the coming battles!

I plan to make two broad points this evening. First I want to place this war within the framework of inter-imperialist conflict between rivals seeking to dominate the world economy for their respective enrichment. Second, I want to talk about providing solidarity to the working class of Iran, which has an impressive history of class struggle often under communist leadership, battling to overthrow the Shah and then to unseat and defeat the Islamic republic. Our focus politically, I think, should always be on advancing the interests of workers throughout the world, which can be met ultimately by a communist world of equality and collectivity.

Inter-imperialist rivalry

Let me begin by saying we are living in a pre-World War III period. Pretty scary, but that’s what it is.

For over two decades and perhaps even more, the U.S. capitalist-imperialist system has seen its position as the dominant imperialist power in the world decline relative to the rise of the Chinese capitalist-imperialist system.

U.S. imperialism became the global powerhouse after Bretton Woods and World War II. When the Soviet Union imploded, in the early 1990s, for a time the U.S. had no serious imperialist rivals. But imperialism is characterized by uneven development. China had set off on the capitalist road in earnest in 1979 with Deng Tsai Ping’s Four Modernizations, and over the next decades established a powerful state capitalist-imperialist system. Today, China is the relatively rising imperialist in the world, challenging U.S. imperialism across the globe.

How does this play out in the Middle East?

After World War II, the U.S. succeeded in thoroughly dominating the region, securing Israel as a loyal ally and, through a military coup in 1953, placing its puppet in power in Iran. Two cops for U.S. imperialism. And then came the Ayatollah in 1979, and the U.S. lost a cop. Things are different today.

In 2016, Iran and China established a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and reached a 25-year cooperation agreement that included China making a $400Bn infrastructure investment in Iran in exchange for oil exports. China and Iran also agreed to strengthen military and security cooperation, including exchanging military experience and conducting military exercises and jointly developing weapons and sharing intelligence.

Economic ties between China and Iran are deepening. China already purchases 1.3-1.6 million barrels per day (b/d) of oil at discounted prices (between 8% and 10% below Brent crude prices) from Iran, about 80% of Iran’s international sales (Reuters, 1/13/26). China dodges U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil by working with the IRGC and its extensive undercover trade network.

Politically, China leads both the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS group as capitalist blocs which it hopes, with Iran’s help, will strengthen global organized opposition to U.S. imperialism and its allies and favor that of China.

The attack on Iran by U.S. imperialism is not only about immediate economic gains and domination of the Middle East. It is another U.S. move to prepare for world war against a Chinese-led rival bloc. For imperialists in general, there is no space in the world for competitive rivals to co-exist. The world and its markets have been fully divided among the major imperialists since the early 20th century. Now any advance by one imperialist bloc comes at the expense of another. Such inter-imperialist rivalries were at the heart of both 20th century World Wars and dozens of smaller wars over the past 60 years, and will be at the heart of the next one.

The Working Class

Our hope for a better future relies on the global working class. The working class in Iran has fought the shah’s regime and the ayatollah’s regime. Battles since the 1979 revolution include the student rebellion of 1999, strong worker engagement in the Green Revolution of 2009, and the ever- intensifying rebellions of workers through strikes, often initially for immediate demands but then turning into calls for an end to the Islamic Republic. Two powerful rebellions happened in 2017 and 2019. The Woman Life Freedom battle in 2022 raised the ante further, (say her name, Jina Amini) and the recent December-January rebellion struck fear into the heart of the exploitative repressive leadership.

However, rebellions require communist leadership and organization to be successful in overthrowing the government and creating a communist workers society. Communists have tried. The Persian Communist Party was formed in 1920 and joined the Communist International, organized labor unions, and led a country-wide strike centered on oil workers in 1929. As a result, the British puppet Reza Shah banned the party and arrested many members, and the party was dispersed. Communists reconstituted themselves as the Tudeh Party in 1941 and grew substantially in numbers and influence and political positions. After the CIA-sponsored overthrow of Mossadegh and the installation of the Shah’s son as dictator in 1953, communists were attacked and worked underground for many years. In the 1970s they joined the national front dominated by the clergy led by Ayatollah Khomeini in overthrowing the government and functioned openly for a brief time. The alliance with the mullahs quickly ended in 1982-3 with the slaughter of the communists and increasing repression and exploitation of the working class, reminding us that uniting with nationalist, capitalist-minded clerics eager to exploit workers for themselves is a recipe for defeat.

Lesson learned, perhaps. In order to defeat imperialism, we need a mass movement that consciously fights racism, sexism, imperialism, nationalism, and other bourgeois divisive strategies and keeps our eye on the ball – fighting for a world of equality, collectivity, and the creation of a worker planned economy that abolishes the wage system and produces goods and services to meet people’s needs, not profits.
As we build a mass movement against the war, let’s keep in mind that this pre-world War III period will end either in communism, or barbarism and the devastation of world war. Let’s get busy. We have a world to win.