The electoral farce in Colombia has concluded, naming far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella as president. Once again, as is characteristic of capitalist democracy, this election was marked by slander, threats, vote-buying, and sabotage of the campaign of the opposition candidate, Iván Cepeda, who sought to continue Gustavo Petro’s program of government and his social reforms.Throughout this entire electoral juncture we took part in pickets, forums, rallies, and cultural events, sharing our literature and denouncing that the lesser-evil theory, imperialist war, and the fascism of the bosses cannot be defeated through the ballot, and that only through organizing around our party can we tear them down through the revolutionary mass struggle championed by the dictatorship and proletarian internationalism. 

Bosses expanding fascist tentacles 

President Donald Trump, who drove the creation of the Shield of the Americas, celebrated De la Espriella’s victory as a new partner and member of the coalition made up of heads of state from at least twelve countries in the Americas that support the initiative to form a world-spanning police force, using the war on drug trafficking and anti-immigrant policies as a pretext, and imposing fascism and economic control on the countries hypocritically labeled as “beneficiaries” of this intervention.

This plan is already being carried out in countries such as Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Panama, and Paraguay, among others. Among all the forms of repression championed by this plan, one stands out: the United States, or the Zionists of Israel, may be able to brand anyone who protests as a terrorist or drug trafficker simply by requesting it, whether through extradition or assassination.

For these fascist plans, Trump has secured henchmen of the caliber of Milei, De la Espriella, Noboa, Keiko Fujimori, Nayib Bukele, Santiago Peña, and other presidents who, in exchange for support for their governments, guarantee the conditions for the plunder and exploitation of their natural resources, their labor force, and the strategic domination of the region, sustaining the ongoing wars and systematic genocides against our class.

Don’t vote…revolt!

The working class must not take part in the struggle for the interests of the bosses, nor form alliances with “the lesser-evil bosses,” because, as in the case of Gustavo Petro, his minor reforms — which did not truly benefit the proletariat — will be erased by capitalism’s puppets and faithful henchmen of imperialism.

This is why our constant call was not to vote, but to organize around the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) and its communist line, fighting alongside our class brothers and sisters for the need to destroy this warmongering system, responsible for the deception, wage slavery, unemployment, poor health, environmental crisis, and sexist and racist violence we suffer every day.

The following are letters submitted by participants,attending the 2026 PLP summer project held in Los Angeles from July 23-26:

This summer project felt so impactful since it was technically my one year anniversary of being in the Party. Not only did I come back with skills from organizing with groups in college but also just taking the time day by day to enhance my engagement skills with the community.

This project allowed me to come out of my shell and become more of a leader especially at rallies. Not only from this, but also my speech from leading May Day in Santa Cruz got amazing reception during a CHALLENGE sale and protest.

Something else I felt really strongly about was our study group on dialectical materialism. Although the concepts were really abstract, we figured it out as a collective through the use of concrete examples, which allowed so many more people to understand the topics we were discussing.
I look forward to next year’s summer project!
*

LA’s 2026 summer project showed the Party’s fight back, creativity, and growth. We started off with some good bonding and study groups. The next days, the fighting spirit and creativity of the Party’s next generation really came through.

Watching newer members of the Party make it out to our usual CHALLENGE sale spots and reaching out to the working class in the community was inspiring.

We had a great CHALLENGE article about fighting back against ICE and racist killer cops, which resonated with the community. Also, our fights back alongside Bryan Bostic’s family proved really inspiring as we marched through the community along with the family through the summer heat. The future of spreading communism throughout LA is very bright.
*

I am a young Party member who participated in the 2026 LA summer project. Throughout the project, I participated in various study groups, rallies, and CHALLENGE sales.

I think the highlight for me was getting on the bullhorn and giving my first speech. As someone who usually keeps to themselves, I was nervous to speak, however, I realized that I was speaking up for what I believe in. I was able to speak confidently and go up multiple times.

Another highlight was interactions on the streets during CHALLENGE sales. Many young people seemed interested and open-minded to communism. I had very good conversations, encouraging them to get involved with PLP.

This summer project taught me a lot about communism, the Party, and the minds of our fellow working class people. I look forward to the summer project and seeing our comrades from other cities.
*

During this summer project, I enjoyed conversations with comrades about imperialism, dialectical materialism, and how they apply to current events. It was great to strengthen relationships with other comrades, and seeing newer comrades give speeches and lead chants.

Many people were receptive to our message when we went into the neighborhoods, whether it was by taking some literature or honking in support of our rallies. From this summer project, I will take away the strength I found in working together with my comrades and the community.
*

The summer project in my experience was fun. I enjoyed working with my comrades. All of the activities were meaningful. It gives me an outlet to express and shine light on issues that would most often go overlooked.

I hope more summer projects come in the future, and I hope I am able to bring more people to our cause. I am looking forward to the next one. Thank you PLP!
*

With this being my first summer project, I am left with nothing but a stronger relationship with PLP and dialectical materialism. From our talk in the car on the way to demonstrations to listening to our study group’s podcast, I can say this has been nothing less than educational.

We built a strong base within our community and all across the greater LA area. There was a great response to our confident speakers on the bullhorn from the working class. Selling CHALLENGE was a great way to talk to people on an individual basis.

In my experience this summer, I got to have a great conversation with an elder who organized the Black Panther Party in the past. He gave me advice on moving forward and sharing his past experience with having worked in a communist party himself.

This summer has been a teaching and learning moment, and I am happy to be both a teacher and a student till the end!
*

As I looked around the room during one of our study groups on imperialism at the LA summer project, I couldn’t help but become emotional as to how our Party has grown in the area. Just 11 short years ago, the Party in LA was one club composed of people who had been in the Party for a long time. The impact of the split of our organization here still lingered and it was hard to find inspiration.

Fast forward just over a decade, and I’m sitting in a room filled with 30 motivated and dedicated multiracial young people who are bursting at the seams to learn as much as they can and then get into the streets to put it into practice. They are all in love with communism and can’t wait to share it with anyone who will listen.

In the fall, we hope to expand from our current three clubs into five clubs. We will continue our young leaders study sessions and expand our city committee. And that is how our quantitative developments will turn into a qualitative leap for the future strength of our organization in Southern California. 
*

My experience with this year’s summer project has been really fun. I feel like I grew as a communist and as a person. 

I have a fear of speaking in front of people, but I overcame that and did my first speech on the bullhorn this year. I feel like I reached a lot of people with my voice and that I was able to become a leading voice in the fight against the bosses.

I also learned more about the issues going on around me and how I can make a difference not only with people that I know but also people that I see on the street.

Black workers lead fight vs. kkkop terror

I am a long-time member of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) Since March, I and other PLP members have been involved in a campaign to demand justice for a black worker, Bryan Bostic, who was murdered while in the custody of Inglewood, California cops.

Bryan’s family members, who are leading the campaign, have inspired us with their militancy and dedication to this antiracist struggle. They have withstood the lies and demeaning statements made by the Inglewood Mayor; an order from the City Attorney accusing them of “disruption” and banning them from attending City Council meetings for 120 days; and constant verbal harassment by the Mayor when family members speak at City Council meetings.

One of the events that took place during the Los Angeles PLP Summer Project was a rally and march through the neighborhood where Bryan was murdered to Inglewood City Hall. The march got tremendous support from people on the sidewalk as well as scores of people driving by honking their horns. Bryan’s family was very excited by this response.

Family members have been very receptive to CHALLENGE newspapers, which we give them at weekly rallies. One family member particularly liked the information presented in the CHALLENGE article about Juneteenth. These family members have confirmed the correctness of PLP’s dedication to the working class and our political line that black workers play a key role in the long road to international communist revolution. This campaign for Bryan Bostic has also inspired and energized both long-time comrades like myself and a number of our newer and younger comrades.
*****

India: limits of the youth ‘cockroach’ movement

India has recently seen a unique new-age protest by a section of the youth against a series of national examination fiascos. These youth have floated a quasi-fictional “political party” and named it the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP). It sounds like a parody of the BJP, the ruling Hindu party.

The CJP’s slogan, “voice of the lazy and unemployed,” though intended as satire, is politically problematic. It raises the question of who can afford the privilege of idleness and ultimately reflects the concerns of the urban middle class rather than the broader masses or the proletariat. It is, in many ways, like “counter-cultural” youth movements in other countries.

The protest grew from a legitimate wave of public anger against the arrogant behavior of a fascist government administrator. This rebellion is a positive development, but important questions remain. The struggle of workers, of oppressed women, and against gender discrimination are important struggles for hundreds of millions of exploited and oppressed. And the struggles of religious minorities, peasants, and Adivasi (rural tribal) communities who are resisting land dispossession – are they not essential to the struggle? And do they also include hundreds of millions of youth? A politics that separates these struggles from “youth issues” reproduces the fragmentation encouraged by the capitalist class. And it will ultimately fail, with some participants being absorbed into the middle-class lifestyle, some perhaps even embracing an elitist fascism disguised as “individualism”.  But many can move forward towards a class-based movement against capitalism!

The anger expressed through the CJP represents a real moment of political rupture. The central question is whether this energy can be connected to the struggles of those who have never been granted a place within the existing political framework. The mobilization has also demonstrated something significant: large numbers of people can be brought together in a remarkably short period of time. This organizational achievement deserves recognition and offers lessons for mass movements seeking to advance the struggle.

While conspiracy theories promoted by mainstream media about foreign funding should be rejected outright, legitimate questions remain about the state’s relationship to the movement. How might these protests function as a safety valve, allowing the ruling class to gauge popular discontent and the limits of opposition. These questions require thoughtful political investigation rather than either uncritical celebration or cynical dismissal.

The “cockroach” symbolism, a Gen‑Z reclamation of the pest that survives everything, captures the vulnerability of a generation treated as vermin. That defiant self‑identification can only become the basis for a genuinely emancipatory politics if it moves beyond ironic self-labeling to organizing those who are stepped on: the working class, the peasantry, the oppressed castes, and all who have nothing to lose but their chains.
*****

Virginia: challenging reformism at People’s Assembly

Two weeks ago, a large group of community organizations from different cities across the country gathered in Virginia, 20 minutes from Washington, D.C., at the invitation of Democracia Popular, to hold their third “People’s Assembly,” attended by more than 1,500 members, the vast majority of whom were grassroots leaders.

During the discussion at my table, I told my classmates that I didn’t agree with that kind of struggle, because in order to change the capitalist system, put power in the hands of the workers, and build a new society, it would have to be through a violent struggle—because the capitalists would never, but never—I repeat, never—give up power, much less their wealth, to the working class; and that when the masses take to the streets in fury to fight, as happened in Minneapolis,  we cannot fight racism and the forces of repression passively—we must fight with force and violence against those who repress us, who fire tear gas and pepper spray at us, and who throw us to the ground.

The second topic addressed the upcoming midterm elections in November of this year and how we should organize in our communities to ensure the Democrats win these elections and secure a majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives so they can pass laws that benefit the majority—a somewhat utopian goal—and how to build an army of volunteers across the country to campaign and go door-to-door in every neighborhood so that eligible eligible to vote would go out and vote and support Democratic candidates in those elections—who, if they win, would have the chance to impeach Donald Trump and remove him from office.

On the last day of the conference, we took buses to Washington, D.C., to hold a protest in front of the Supreme Court in support of the 14th Amendment, which, among other things, grants citizenship by birth to the children of undocumented couples born here. The ruling went against Trump, who wanted to prevent this from happening. In the end, we were unable to hold the march due to the heavy rain that fell that day. 

Representatives from a community organization—which operates in five states across the country, in three counties in New York City, and on Long Island—also held a meeting between its members and local and national leaders to discuss several issues, but one in particular—a campaign against Palantir, which is headquartered in our city—set to begin in August of this year. This company collects and shares data on our immigrant community with government agencies, especially the immigration department, in order to keep us under surveillance and facilitate future deportations of many of us, particularly our undocumented brothers and sisters.

It should be noted that most of the conferences and plenary sessions were led by Black workers and Latin workers, which reinforces our Progressive Labor Party (PLP) belief that the revolution to seize power for the working class and build a communist society must be led by the Black community, given its tradition of struggle from the days of slavery to the present, against a cruel capitalist society, where racism is an intrinsic part of the system.The day the working class seizes power, there will be no need for people’s assemblies, but rather for communist workers’ assemblies to analyze how we can best distribute collective labor throughout society for the benefit of all; those will indeed be great and powerful workers’ assemblies.
*****

DSA’s theatrics

Then: “In late 2024, weeks after he announced his campaign for city mayor, Mamdani said that the Israeli Prime Minister was not welcome in New York City, and that the city would arrest him.” (Time.com, 7/22).

Now: “It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this [ICC] warrant.” You just found out today, Zohran?

It is an example of DSA’s theatrical politics.

The whole thing is small potatoes – but DSA’s “socialist” program is equally theatrical. Talk lots of nice reforms; draw people into the electoral strategy. It will be smashed up later:

—The mighty German “socialists” voted for war credits for the Kaiser.

—In Chile, Allende won an election and assumed the capitalists would let him do his thing. Instead, they killed him and thousands more.
Whether by betrayal or in tragedy, democratic socialism is doomed. Can’t take capitalism? You gotta overthrow it. Then you can take the communist road.
*****

War in Iran tests limits of U.S. power

Foreign Affairs, 7/22–The seeming invincibility of American power heralded by the Gulf War had immediate consequences in Europe…The United States no longer enjoys the sort of military advantage it possessed in 1991. Thanks to globalization, the systems necessary to conduct precision warfare are no longer the preserve of a handful of great powers: they are accessible to a range of actors who are now able to stand up to much stronger states…A new era beckons…The United States is not capable of bending others to its will through the exercise of force at low cost…What has happened in the Strait of Hormuz may occur at an even larger scale in East Asia…

Transit workers on strike in Jackson, Mississippi

Mississippi Free Press, 7/20–Workers for JTRAN, the public transit system in Jackson, Mississippi, went on strike on July 13…following a breakdown in negotiations with the JTRAN contractor MV Transportation. The Amalgamated Transit Union Local-1208 is calling for higher pay, an end to mandatory overtime and increased sick leave protections. MV Transportation has maintained it wants to increase worker pay, but needs to modify the current route schedule to afford the raises…Although some outside bus drivers were brought in to replace Jackson’s striking union drivers, only three fixed bus routes were listed as active.  

Israeli settlers attack mosques in occupied West Bank

Al Jazeera, 7/26–Palestinian officials say Israeli settlers set fire to two mosques in the occupied West Bank overnight. Abdel Azim Wadi, mayor of the town of Qusra, south of the city of Nablus, said settlers torched a mosque under construction in the southern part of the town. “The fire destroyed the mosque’s entrance and even damaged its stonework,” he said. Attackers spray-painted Hebrew graffiti on the mosque’s walls, including the word “revenge”, he added. Israeli settlers also set fire to a mosque in the village of Kour, near Tulkarem, and sprayed racist slogans on its walls, according to the Palestinian Religious Affairs Ministry. 

College-aged students in India demand less corruption

UPI, 7/25– India’s education minister resigned Saturday amid a scandal that led hundreds of thousands of young people and students to the streets in one of the country’s largest protests. Demonstrations began in New Delhi in early June, after it came to light that answers to one of the country’s most prestigious college-entrance exams, taken by millions of students, had been leaked…The protests, organized by the youth-led Cockroach Janata Party, swelled to hundreds of thousands of people across the nation early this week, forcing the hand of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

Think-tank advice on wresting control of Africa’s riches

Brookings, 7/16–As the global economy reorients itself to meet the needs of the fourth industrial revolution, its dependence on particular resources has become apparent. The components of today’s energy and digital infrastructure—including fiber optic cables, solar panels, batteries, microchips, and magnets—all require critical minerals…ensuring a reliable supply of these minerals is a strategic priority for the world’s great powers…African countries…hold 30 percent of global critical mineral reserves…China in particular has leveraged a multi-decade strategy to become the dominant player in the market, controlling the majority of processing for minerals like lithium (71 percent), cobalt (80 percent), rare earth elements (92 percent), and graphite (96 percent)...

Iran’s bosses lash out Kuwait where it hurts- water in the desert

France24, 7/23–Concerns are mounting over Kuwait’s water supply after Iran once again struck power stations and desalination plants on Monday, sparking fires in a fourth consecutive day of attacks. In response, authorities have asked the public to reduce their electricity consumption – particularly the use of energy-hungry air conditioning – to ensure an uninterrupted power supply. Bahrain and Kuwait already saw Iranian strikes against their desalination plants back in March. But by striking these plants in the middle of summer, Iran has dealt a particularly painful blow to Kuwait. Kuwait has virtually no freshwater resources and 90 percent of its drinking water is generated by seawater desalination plants.