John and Ellyn Boelter were well known and respected comrades in Chicago for their selfless support of workers in Chicago and their contributions to the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) and InCAR (International Committee Against Racism) for decades. Ellyn passed away earlier this year. John passed in 2018.  

Their generous contributions of their time and energy to InCAR and the Party will be remembered for many years to come. John came to Chicago by way of Wisconsin and Indiana and started teaching chemistry at Waller High School. As a teacher, he helped his students understand both scientific principles that describe the world and the political principles needed to change it. In 1968, as a member of the Chicago Teachers Union, he took part in the teachers’ strike of 1968. It was the beginning of John’s strong solidarity with workers’ movements and led to his joining the PLP in the early 1970s.  

As a thank you from the Chicago Public Schools for his support of students, he was fired and blacklisted. This did not stop John from moving on and getting another job in the lab at Cook County Hospital and supporting his fellow workers there. He refused to cross the picket lines when the nurses went on strike in the mid-1970s. For his support, Cook County fired him, and unfortunately the nurse’s union did not support his reinstatement. 

He built the PLP wherever he went. John soon returned to teaching at Bloom Trail High School in a mostly working-class suburb of Chicago. While there, John was able to involve many students, families and staff in Party activities. During this time, he was raising two young children: Aaron and Adrienne with his first wife, Terry.  

In the mid-1970s John and Terry (first wife) divorced. In the late 1970s, John was introduced to Ellyn Hershman, an attorney and InCAR member who had just moved to the Chicago area from California. They married in 1977. He and Ellyn moved to the south side of Chicago soon thereafter and in short order gave active leadership in mass antiracist struggle in the community. 

In 1986, PLP organized an attack on the nazi party, which had planned to march through Chicago’s Marquette Park. The neighborhood was well known for its racism and several antiracist marches had taken place there (including our May Day March in 1979). PLP had previously raided the offices of the nazis and beat the hell out of the fascists on multiple occasions. 

This time, our plan was to stop the Nazis from getting to Marquette Park at all. We ambushed the truck at their set-up location with John leading the way. He later beat charges of attempted murder brought by the racists in the city government.

John later went on to teach at Daley College and then at Chicago State University to help build the presence of PLP there, recruiting more antiracist students and staff to the Party. 

In the 1980s John and Ellyn became parents of two children, Suzy and Brenda. Ellyn helped the Party with fundraising and gave important legal advice. John steadfastly put forward the Party’s line and would always raise concerns in a comradely way. He and Ellyn were always generous with their time, use of their car and monetarily.  John was part of the PLP contingent that went to support the protesters in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 after the racist murder by police of Michael Brown.

The Boelter home was, for many years, often the center of Party or InCAR activities. There, it was known, you could replenish your supply of CHALLENGE newspapers and hear a kind word from John or Ellyn. John and Ellyn can be described as true communists through and through with their generosity and organizing of the PLP for many years. Their door was always open. They were loving grandparents to several grandchildren. While they are no longer physically here, their spirit lives on in the lives of the many people they touched in their many years in the struggle in and around the PLP.

Now I know I’m a communist

At first when I saw your table I thought this was a student club just about Palestine, which I wanted to get involved with. But then as we spoke I discovered it was about more than Palestine, it was also about racism and capitalism. Before I moved to this country, I hadn’t thought about these questions very much, but in the last year, this changed after the genocide in Gaza. And now I know I am a communist. I don’t have fancy words for the ideologies and I don’t feel comfortable yet making an argument - English is my fourth language and I still have so much to learn! But I want to learn more and what I know so far is that this party is fighting for the right things, which are equality and a better world. Capitalism is the cause of it and we need communism. 

When I think about my home country, you would not believe the divide between rich and poor. The capital city is where the rich people live, and all the people from my district do all the labor. It’s exactly like the book The Hunger Games. The people who work in the districts live completely different lives and never enjoy what the rich in the capital have.

There is more to life than being born, living and working like a dog just to afford life’s necessities. I want to join and come to the next meetings. A very good friend of mine is also a student and is interested, and I will talk with him about coming too. 
*****

Students in solidarity with Springfield

“An injustice to one is an injustice to all” is our school’s motto. We developed this motto because of our history of facing inequity on our campus over the years. As a mainly Black and Latin school in a mainly white neighborhood, we have faced struggles against cops who force students to leave immediately after school, school safety agents who attack and arrest students, DOE policies that give whiter schools more resources and support. We have learned that unity - students, teachers and parents – is the only way forward.

When students learned about the racist attacks that students and workers currently face in Springfield, Ohio, they naturally wanted to show their solidarity. The two students, a part of Student Government, who crafted the solidarity letter to Haitian workers in Springfield both expressed their disgust with what was happening and also with world-wide racism. One student, who is from Haiti, talked about how angry she was that people were saying these things. Another student, when asked why she volunteered to craft the letter, expressed that these attacks happening to workers worldwide needed to be stopped. 

The letter was spread to other teachers in the school who were asked to get their students to sign on. In one history class, dozens of students signed on when the statement of solidarity was read to them. “We the students of… stand in solidarity with the students and workers from Haiti in Springfield, Ohio who are under racist attack. In our school, we believe an injustice to one is an injustice to all, every person has a purpose and can contribute to improving our society, and that NO human beings are illegal. We condemn the racists who are putting you in harm’s way and commit to doing our part in fighting racism and its impact around the world.”  

Many students were happy to know that the solidarity statement, along with their signatures, would be sent to workers from Haiti living in Springfield, Ohio. As one student said “Even taking a small stand against racism is an important thing to do! She grasped our motto in the Party which is that what we do counts! I urge PL’ers to start a petition showing their solidarity with workers in Springfield at their schools or jobs.
*****

Bringing PL ideas to labor reform

A coalition of community groups, with the support of the TEAMSTERS union, held a press conference at the mayor’s march. The goal was to talk about a bill called the “Safe Jobs Act.” Its main content seeks to prevent any non-unionized worker from being thrown out of their job without justification.

At this conference, we introduced some members of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP). We work within one of the community organizations present. Through our newspaper, CHALLENGE, our slogans, and in the meetings and events where we participate, we constantly organize to build for a communist world, a world run by the working class.

After the conference, a group went into the offices to lobby the council members. Their goal was to gain majority support when the bill goes to a vote. For the time being, we must engage in this struggle for reforms within community organizations, churches, workplaces, etc. Our goal is to achieve the unity of the entire working class, led by a mass PLP, to make the revolution and build a communist society.

After crushing capitalism, imperialism, and its entire profit system forever, our class will no longer have to fight for crumbs, for it will have everything.
*****

Proposal divides workers; need housing for all! 

Recently, a friend of mine found a flyer posted on his front door. It was circulated by a “community member” calling for the community to come out and oppose plans for a future shelter in the neighborhood. According to this flyer, the neighborhood is already riddled with problems like gang shootings and crime; families are not able to walk the streets especially at night and their property will be devalued, etc. 

This community meeting was to take place the following day. The proposal was that a vacant factory in the neighborhood would be used to house 120 men. I notified my friend that I could make the meeting and invited another friend. My friend wanted to attend to oppose the divisions that the bosses create among workers without homes and those with. The only plan I had was to distribute CHALLENGE newspapers and maybe speak like I’ve done at previous community meetings. But I didn’t have a back-up plan.

Workers and property owners started trickling in, by twos and threes until the seats were filled. The meeting began and the presenters gave information on the role they were each playing in this future endeavor. But they didn’t finish.

People in the back seats started shouting, not giving the presenters the chance to finish. There didn’t seem to be a leader of the opposition as several people were shouting down one of the main presenters at the same time. Then the alderman comes walking in, apologizing in English and Spanish for being late. The opposition community members didn’t stop their shouting even for the alderman.

Long story short: The alderman asked the opposition to go outside to talk. They all went out and we stayed inside with the remaining community members. Some were either in favor or opposed to the new shelter. My friends and I spoke of the need for people to have, not only a roof over their heads and basic needs met, but also to be trained for jobs; that the city and nonprofits needed to be more transparent with the community; that affordable rents are not so “affordable” and any one of us could potentially be thrown out into the streets like the thousands already homeless. A young woman, who worked in a nursing facility across from Cook County jail, said that so much money was taken out of her paycheck in taxes already and assumed that more money would be taken out if a new shelter was built there. She was sincere, not hostile.

I didn’t get her name or give her a CHALLENGE before leaving the building. That was a big mistake. As we left, we saw the group standing outside with the alderman. Neither of us stayed. Another big mistake! We might not have been able to distribute CHALLENGE to the outside group but I could have given one to the young woman inside.

It’s been more than a year since I was directly involved in working with migrant refugees in a shelter close by me. I need to become involved again and build a base in the working class to better understand what it takes to strengthen myself as a revolutionary communist in Progressive Labor Party and not a reformist for capitalism like the alderman, the panelists and non-profits. In the long run, capitalism can’t be reformed.
*****

U.S. bosses recognize need to scale back social welfare to pay for war

New York Times, 9/23–The first sentence of the report — released over the summer by a bipartisan, congressionally appointed commission — was blunt: “The threats the United States faces are the most serious and most challenging the nation has encountered since 1945 and include the potential for near-term major war.” The threats begin with China… Russia started the first major war in almost 80 years… Iran finances a network of extremist groups… these countries work together, too, sometimes with North Korea… If the U.S. doesn’t do more to deter aggression, living standards in this country could suffer… the warning signs today were similar to those in the run-up to both Pearl Harbor and 9/11 … The report recommended increasing military spending, partly by making changes to Medicare and Social Security… and partly by increasing taxes…

Further election gains for Nazis in Europe

Al Jazeera, 9/29–Austria’s Freedom Party (FPO) is projected to finish first in the country’s general election, ahead of the governing conservatives, underlining rising backing for hard-right parties in Europe… Kickl, a former interior minister who has led the FPO since 2021, seeks to become Austria’s new chancellor on the back of the first far-right national election win in the country since World War II… many people in Austria believe the FPO is controversial due to its Nazi origins. “Their founder was an SS officer and a Nazi minister,” she said, adding that some in Austria do not believe that the party has detached itself completely from its Nazi roots. “Herbert Kickl calls himself the ‘people’s chancellor’, which is a term Adolf Hitler used to describe himself,”  An FPO victory would make Austria the latest European Union country to register surging far-right support after gains in countries including the Netherlands, France and Germany.

Plans for use of nuclear weapons in Europe inch forward

France24, 9/29– The Kremlin said on Sunday that amendments to Russia's nuclear doctrine had been prepared and were about to be formalized, meaning the relevant documents setting out the circumstances in which nuclear arms can be used by Moscow will be updated. President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Wednesday that under proposed changes to the doctrine Russia could use nuclear arms if it was struck with conventional missiles and would consider any assault on it supported by a nuclear power to be a joint attack. In other words, Moscow will consider responding with nuclear weapons if the West allows Ukraine to strike inside Russia with long-range Western missiles… Peskov cited the international situation, escalating tensions near Russia's borders and the growing proximity of NATO infrastructure to them, and what he called the deeper involvement of Western nuclear powers in the Ukraine war on Kyiv's side, as the backdrop for the changes to the doctrine.

U.S. special ops prepping for start of WWIII with China 

Financial Times, 9/13/24—Seal team 6, the clandestine US Navy commando that killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011, has been training for missions to help Taiwan if it is invaded by China, according to people familiar with the preparations. The elite Navy special forces team ... has been planning and training for a Taiwan conflict for more than a year at Dam Neck, its headquarters at Virginia Beach. The Secret training underlines ...  (US) preparations for such an  event. The preparations have grown since 2021, when Phil Davidson, the US Indo-Pacific commander at the time, warned that China could attack Taiwan within six years...As the threat from terror groups has receded, special operations forces have joined the rest of the US military and the intelligence community in intensifying their focus on China. CIA Director Bill Burns told the Financial Times last week that 20 percent of his budget was devoted to China, a 200 percent increase over three years. The Chinese embassy in Washington said that Taiwan was "the very core of China's core interests and the first red line that must not be crossed in the China-US  relationship."

In a Venezuelan election fiasco driven by the world’s biggest imperialists, the U.S.-backed challenger to the country’s fake-leftist leadership has fled the country for political asylum in Spain (Aljazeera, 9/8). After President Nicholas Maduro declared himself the winner, the right-wing camp behind candidate Edmundo Gonzalez claimed the election had been rigged. Gonzales went into hiding to escape arrest. The U.S. government, hell-bent on regime change in Venezuela, called out the alleged fraud, slapped sanctions on Maduro’s allies, and organized 28 countries to refuse to recognize the results.

Gonzalez is just a stand-in for the pro-U.S. Maria Machado, who was banned from holding office. Their “Unitary Coalition” calls for harsh attacks against the working class: privatization of industry, massive cutbacks in social services. The Machado camp has gone so far as to advocate for tougher U.S. sanctions against their country, hoping that even more poverty in Venezuela will hurt Maduro and open the door to U.S. control (El Pais, 10/1/23). 

Maduro is using fascist terror to crack down on protestors, union officials, and any organization that steps out of line. Twenty-four people have been killed and more than 2,400 arrested (Human Rights Watch, 9/4). But don’t be fooled by the howls of outrage by the likes of Joe Biden. The U.S. bosses have no problem collaborating with less-than-democratic rulers, from Saudi Arabia to Haiti, as long as they serve U.S. imperialism and its profits. The Central Intelligence Agency has been used to subvert and overthrow elected leaders in Indonesia, Chile, Guatemala, and the Congo, while orchestrating the slaughter of communists and reformists alike. 

Workers have no stake in the rulers’ electoral farces. Under capitalism, elections are used to conceal the capitalists’ dictatorship under the veil of liberal democracy. In reality, all elections are rigged for the bosses, whether or not they count all the votes—including the contest between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump (see back page). The meltdown in Venezuela is another flashpoint in the rivalry between the U.S. and arch-rivals China and Russia as they head toward World War Three. As the international crisis of capitalism intensifies, inter-imperialist rivalry is driving instability worldwide. We can’t predict the winner of this dogfight, but one thing is sure in Venezuela. Regardless of which set of bosses prevail, workers will lose. 

False promises and poverty

Despite his grand promises, Venezuela’s previous president, Hugo Chavez, never brought the working class to power with his “Bolivarian Revolution.” Instead, the new government and its capitalist backers seized control of the country’s vast oil reserves and bought off workers with a handful of anti-poverty social programs. Despite bitter complaints by U.S. capitalists, Chavez also kept investments flowing from outside capital, including the U.S., and continued selling oil to U.S. firms (Washington Post, 1/29/19). 

Instead of building communism, a dictatorship of the working class, Chavez consolidated a petrostate that relied on the global oil exchange, which accounted for nearly two thirds of state revenue (Reuters, 12/5/22). Not long after Maduro succeeded Chavez in 2013, global oil prices plummeted. This triggered a long and severe recession that U.S. sanctions made worse. It soon became obvious that Venezuela produced almost nothing of its own. Even today, Venezuela imports 60 percent of its food supply, much of it from the U.S. (USDA, 10/3/22).

With loyal backing from Russia and China, Maduro has presided over a catastrophic collapse of the Venezuelan economy. Between 2014 and 2021, the country’s GDP fell by 75 percent while inflation has risen as high as 130,000 percent (Council of Foreign Relations, 7/31). The result is unspeakable misery for the working class. More than 90 percent of the population live in poverty. There are deadly shortages of essentials, and millions suffer from malnutrition. Children die of starvation while their families scavenge in dumpsters for food (Bread for the World, 2/8/19).

Soaring prices have forced workers to the black market to survive. Three days of work buys just two pounds of rice, for which workers must stand in line all day. Hospitals have less than 5 percent of the medications they need (Reuters, 10/10/22).

As a result, 7.7 million people, or one quarter of Venezuela’s population, have made the heartbreaking decision to flee their country and migrate to Peru or Chile or Colombia, where they are greeted by racist discrimination (aljazeera.com, 8/14/19). More than half a million have risked their lives to make their way to the U.S. (BBC, 8/5), where they are welcomed by violent border guards and slandered by gutter racists like Trump.

Imperialists vie for control

Instead of relying on the might and ingenuity of workers to build a decent society, Chavez and then Maduro turned to Russia and China, who were eager to penetrate the U.S. strategic “backyard.”  Russia’s military alliances with Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela involve training and weapon sales (Institute for National Strategic Studies, 12/2022). China has sunk $60 billion in the Venezuelan economy and is the largest importer of Venezuelan oil. These profit-seeking deals have done nothing to alleviate the suffering of the impoverished masses. But they have won Maduro Chinese backing for his dubious election victory (VOA, 8/3).

The betrayal of workers by the fake left in Venezuela stands in sharp contrast to the historic advance made by revolutionary communists in the Soviet Union in the early 20th century. They built an economy of and for the working class that could stand on its own feet and meet workers’ needs. Soviet leaders were so successful that the USSR proved immune to the plague of the Great Depression, which devastated capitalist countries in the 1930s. (See PLP.org for how the Soviet revolution was reversed).

Don’t vote, revolt!

There are no shortcuts to an egalitarian world. The Bolivarian “Revolution” was doomed from the start because it failed to organize workers to smash capitalism and to build communism. Like the rest of the “Pink Tide” across Latin America, it won only limited and short-term reforms while replacing the old group of bosses with a new one. 

With the collapse of the old liberal world order, as China and Russia exploit the decline of U.S. imperialism, the international working class is caught in the middle. If we line up behind one candidate or another, or one imperialist superpower or the other, we’ll be signing our own death warrants. We must reject capitalist misleaders like Nicolas Maduro, Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum, Brazil’s Lula da Silva, or Top Cop Kamala Harris in the U.S. They will lead our class into the hell of nationalism, racism, and imperialist war. They have no choice in the matter; their profit system has decayed to the point where it can’t survive without war and fascism.

Progressive Labor Party is building the only force that can solve the crisis of capitalism: an international communist movement. We must begin this work by banding together, building solidarity with migrants, and organizing multiracial fightback wherever we are. We must attack rotten capitalist ideas on campus, on the job, in the military. These day-to-day reform struggles will build workers’ confidence in our class’s ability to create a world with enough housing, jobs, healthcare, and education for all. But we can’t get there by voting. The bosses won’t let us vote away their money and power. We must destroy capitalism, root and branch—with communist revolution. Join us!