The historic 2010 Convention of Progressive Labor Party brought to life the slogan ‘one flag, one world, one Party.’ Over 500 members and supporters from at least 17 countries gathered to reaffirm our commitment to communist revolution.

From the first speaker, a young black woman worker explaining in sharp detail the current stage of inter-imperialist rivalry and the irrevocable move towards world capitalist war, to the closing session in which the new International Steering Committee of the
Party was overwhelmingly affirmed by the entire convention, this event marked a significant new stage in the life of the Party.

The opening speech set the tone for the rest of the event:

The phony “leftist” leaders of Latin America, Castro, Chavez, Lula, and Correa, were revealed to be tools of Chinese and Russian imperialism.

 The imperialist powers were called out for the mass racist exploitation of Haitian workers that created the conditions for the 2010 earthquake disaster in which over 200,000 Haitians died.

The destruction of the social safety net in Europe was exposed.

The continuing humanitarian disaster in Africa that has resulted from 200 years of imperialism was linked to intensifying inter-imperialist rivalry.

 The mass racist attacks on immigrant workers all over the world were exposed.

As these facts were laid bare the audience of hundreds roared and stomped their feet shouting, “Smash racist deportation, working people have no nation!” and “Racism means… We got to fight back! Imperialism means… We got to fight back!”

Despite the bosses’ attacks on the working class all over the world the speaker showed that workers are willing to fight back.

Thousands of workers, teachers, students and farm workers took to the streets of Oaxaca, Mexico in the mass rebellion of 2006.

Over 6,000 immigrant workers went on strike for eight months against racist French bosses this year.

Tens of thousands of striking garment workers, led by women workers, in Bangladesh shut down over 700 factories.

Striking Stella D’Oro workers from the Bronx fought for eleven months resisting police attacks and the sexist attacks of Stella bosses who sought to divide the workers.

Workers were overwhelmed with emotion, passion and dedication to the fight for a communist world as we left the opening session and gathered in workshops. There, we engaged in discussion over the line of Progressive Labor Party, and how to carry it out (see Our Fight, page 2). Comradely, but intense, struggle characterized the workshops. We discussed every aspect of our line from the fight against sexism to Democratic Centralism and the need for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.

These discussions were anchored in
reports on the current practice of the Party and concluded with concrete plans for how to continue and improve the work as we move forward. Similarly, the Closing Plenary session, where resolutions were presented to affirm many aspects of our line, engendered additional sharp but comradely struggle.

This character of the Convention, in which we recognize that our unity about the need for communist revolution still contains within it differences about particular aspects of our line refutes the anti-communist myth that communists blindly obey their leaders. Only a communist party operating through democratic centralism could achieve this complex interplay of unity and disagreement.

These workshops were enormously enriched by the presence of comrades from around the world. Members from three African countries, throughout the Caribbean, South America, Central America, Mexico, Turkey, Greece, Arab and Jewish workers from Palestine and the U.S. were vocal participants in the workshops.

These comrades’ descriptions of the nightmarish conditions in which our working-class brothers and sisters are driven by the racist,
fascist needs of world imperialism sharpened the understanding of every member about the need to organize and build PLP.

Their descriptions of the struggles in which they are engaged and their progress in recruiting to the Party in all these
areas of the world made it clear that we have made a modest, but significant, leap forward in building a truly international Party.

In addition, leadership was embraced by a
collective of multi-racial young comrades — the next generation of Party leadership developing before our eyes at the convention. They worked for an entire year leading up to this momentous event. Collectively they organized every aspect of the convention from details like food and housing to pressing questions about our line.

Speaking in front of a large banner reading “Workers of the World Unite!” in twelve languages, one young Latino leader, a transit worker, gave a speech describing the history of communist struggle. “How have communists built and developed the communist movement?” he asked. “Through class struggle!” “What did the communists do when faced with the capitalists’ deadly attacks?”, he asked. They “toughened up.”

The lesson was clear, as the imperialist powers impose fascist repression on the working class while pulling each other closer and closer to World War III the Party has only one choice, to toughen up and struggle.

Another significant development was that the Party has achieved unity on the idea of working in mass
organizations. This was clearly reflected in the character of the work reported on and struggled over in the workshops. The convention reaffirmed the rich history of communist struggle by the millions of dedicated
comrades who have helped lead us to this historic point.

The final session ended with overwhelming agreement on the following three immediate plans for the Party:

International leadership for the international
Party of the working class organized into a unified body.

Multi-racial, international young leaders are the future and will continue to be developed, with the aid and experience of veteran comrades, in preparation for the transition of leadership to the next generation.

Conventions will be held every 5 years as the most collective method for assuring the growth of a principled communist Party organized under democratic centralism.

The Party convention reminded us that the dominance of imperialist capitalism means that the working class is in a period of “dark night” (see “Dark Night” at plp.org). The presence of so many people dedicated and ready to fight for communism means that this dark night will have its end. Yes, right now the capitalist class is strong and the Party is still small. But we will “toughen up” and we will advance our communist line in the class struggle and we will destroy this racist, imperialist capitalist system once and for all with communist revolution! Que viva, Que viva, Que viva communismo! 

A report from friends of the Party travelling in Haiti:

About 100 trade unionists and students
listened attentively to a Cuban diplomat speak about the Cuban Revolution. This political
forum was organized by the teachers’ union as part of a campaign to raise the political
consciousness of their constituency as well as the Haitian masses.

After the Cuban diplomat’s talk, members of the audience raised some interesting questions about how the world viewed the Cuban and Haitian revolutions and how the reversal of socialism impacted Cuban society. Then a university student asked the speaker if the Cuban government had publicly criticized Brazil for supplying MINUSTAH with the vast majority of their troops (MINUSTAH is the UN military force which occupies Haiti today). The student pointed out that since Cuba and Brazil have an alliance, Cuba’s criticism would carry a lot of weight in exposing MINUSHTAH’S role in advancing U.S. imperialism’s agenda for Haiti.

The diplomat’s response to the student drew an angry reaction from many in the audience. She said, while making it clear that this was the official position of the Cuban government, that Cuba would not criticize Brazil because this was “not Cuba’s business” and the “Haitian people have to work out their own problems.” Like any other slick liberal politician, she pretended to take the high moral ground, making it seem as though taking a stand in solidarity with Haitians was equivalent to appropriating their struggle.

The 20,000 MlNUSTAH troops that occupy Haiti today replaced the 22,OOO U.S troops that seized the Haitian airport the day after the earthquake. Their convoys ride through the teeming streets of Port-au-Prince in full riot gear with machine guns conspicuously displayed, conveying power and control. They are doing nothing to minimize the wretched misery of the 1.5 million Haitians made homeless by the earthquake.

MINUSTAH has shot into anti-government demonstrations, arrested and threatened radical students with their lives, and aided the Haitian police in murdering prisoners. Without MINUSTAH or other troops terrorizing the masses, the plans of the Haitian bourgeoisie and U.S. capitalists to reshape Haiti would be impossible to implement.

Cuba’s refusal to oppose this repression exposes more than its opportunism. It exposes the true failure of socialism. Since socialist Cuba maintains commodity production and must, therefore, compete in the world capitalist market, it has joined with Venezuela, Brazil, and Bolivia to form the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA). ALBA is an economic regional bloc that will strengthen their hands in competing with U.S. imperialism.

Progressive Labor Party, on the other hand, makes a complete break with this capitalist framework. We are building a new international communist movement that has learned from the reversal of the old one. One of the main lessons is that communists must make the politics of building egalitarianism primary over economic advancement or else we will lose it all, just like the USSR and China did. Cuba is rapidly moving down this same path. For the Cuban government today, economic alliances come before international working-class solidarity. This is an important lesson for all the Haitians, and others, who still look to Cuba as a model for social change. 

Melanie Gutermuth is a twenty-five-year-old veteran. She served in the Army for four years. Since the completion of her service, she has been greeted with twelve months of unemployment. Joseph Jacobo is an Iraq war veteran. At the end of his military service, only the streets welcomed him home. He has been homeless since his return. Melanie and Joseph are two among hundreds of thousands of unemployed and/or homeless veterans.

There is a lot of talk about “taking care” of veterans returning from war, but the realities of capitalism, the system of profit we live under, hit them just as hard as their fellow
civilian working-class brothers and sisters. The Department of Labor statistics report that the number of unemployed veterans has increased to more than 250,000 and the Veterans Affairs (VA) estimates that over 200,000 veterans are currently homeless. While some claim that widespread problems among veterans such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or substance abuse are to blame, a closer look at capitalism exposes the real root of the issues veterans are faced with.

Capitalism is an economic system based on profit. In order to remain competitive with other bosses around the globe, U.S. bosses must maximize profits by exploiting workers as much as possible. Under the best circumstances, some members of the working class are allowed to live comfortably. The profits earned through the super exploitation of most black and Latino workers have been sufficient to keep the U.S. bosses on top. In the current economic crisis though, this is no longer enough and mass lay-offs and unemployment become unavoidable.

Although this crisis began due to some major calculation errors on the part of the big banks, economic crises are inevitable under capitalism. The drive for maximum profit will always cause these crises. As long as we continue to allow this system to exist, the working class will suffer at the hand of the ruling class’ greed. In order to guarantee that veterans and all workers have a place to live and a means for survival, we must build a communist society which will be run in the interest of the working class. This means that society will be run by workers in order to meet the needs of the whole working class.

Soldiers, sailors and marines have the potential to be the most important workers in this struggle. We are in the unique position to have been given weapons and sent into the most unstable and strategically important areas of the world that the U.S. bosses want to control. Armed with the revolutionary understanding that capitalism has nothing to offer the working class besides misery, we have the power to turn the guns around and replace this profit system with communism. Join Progressive Labor Party in the struggle to turn the bosses’ “Army strong” into a revolutionary movement for communism. 

I work in a pharmaceutical plant in the Bronx. Approximately 200 workers are Latino and about 30 are black. When I told several co-workers I was writing an article for CHALLENGE I asked them what I should write about. They said, “the racism of the factory.” Guys, this one is for you.

When the manager does hire, he mostly hires black temporary workers, using them for the two months that the temp agency, not the factory, pays their wages. Then, when the company has to decide if they will hire them, the company fires most but keeps what they call the few “good workers,” or favorites that they think will produce the most profits for the company.

The night crew that I’m on has 60 workers,
almost half of whom are black. The morning crew outnumbers us 3 to 1, yet the bosses still have us compete with the morning crew for more production. The bosses even told us that if the morning shift finds a mistake from our work we have to find TWO mistakes from their shift. The night crew has always been pressured to work harder than the morning crew because of our small numbers.

Our boss tries to keep us divided from our morning-shift brothers and sisters, yet he fails to do so. We stay united on the same issues, like fighting for better air conditioning in the factory. Once it was so hot a worker almost passed out due to heat exhaustion. At a recent company meeting intended to be about how much we were slacking off and costing the company money, we spoke one after another turning it into a meeting about our concerns. We supported each other concerning the heat. We controlled that meeting.

This is why we need to organize to fight for communism; a society built upon workers’ needs, where the workers lead every aspect of society. Under communism our meetings wouldn’t be based upon the bosses profit but simply what we workers need to figure out to get it done. Bosses will be a thing of the past. We won’t need any bosses standing around getting rich off of our labor telling us how we need to make them more money.

Most of my co-workers I’ve talked to recognize the racism running the factory and dividing the workers. The bosses just made a new rule that divides workers more, giving us separate lunch schedules, and preventing us from socializing with one another. Some of the black workers on the job can see the racist ways of the company but blame it on their Latino brothers and sisters. I struggle with them not to fall for another “divide and conquer” tool of the bosses.

The bosses need racism, and not only to keep workers divided. When they want to increase their profits, they hire immigrant workers, pay them less and/or don’t give them any benefits, and tell us that they are stealing our jobs. In our case, the disproportionally black night-shift workers are
being worked harder to produce the same
extreme amount of profits as the morning crew.

Now I have four workers on my job that regularly receive CHALLENGE. They all really enjoy reading the paper. They love how it’s written by the workers for workers. They find it encouraging to read about all the other workers around the world experiencing the same racist exploiting cruelty by the bosses. We need to have these discussions on the job about what concerns us, continuing to struggle with each other. The only people we should be fighting are the bosses, just as we stood up to the district manager, for they don’t care about workers’ needs. Only a communist revolution can end the tyranny of these money-hungry bosses, and allow us to unite as one international multi-racial working class.