Street-vendor workers protest racist harassment
We were at a pro-street vendor coalition protest march. It was a reformist protest, demanding that the city increase the number of licenses for these workers. These workers are harassed daily and persecuted by the police, with numerous fines, which they have to pay. This makes life more difficult for these workers since most of them are undocumented and depend on what they can earn from their daily sales to be able to survive in a city where life is becoming more and more expensive and impossible for the working class. Life is more difficult especially for undocumented immigrants, who are victims of harassment and racism.

Two members of Progressive Labor Party, who are doing the work within a community organization of the coalition, gave leadership several times during the march, shouting our slogans, putting forth our Party’s line, and at one point in the march, we very quickly placed a large blanket with the demands in a government office. We also distributed several Challenges that were enthusiastically taken by people who already knew our paper. It was a day of militant struggle, but only communism will save our entire working class from the atrocities of capitalism.

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Two funerals and a revolution
On September 24th CHALLENGE ran an editorial on the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The article did an excellent job juxtaposing the pageantry that surrounded Elizbaeth’s state-sponsored funeral with the emiseration and destruction her family’s British Empire wrought during its peak years. But, Elizabeth’s death symbolizes something else for the workers of the world. Her death, coming long after the death of monarchy and feudalism, should remind us that there was a time peasants could not imagine the end of kings and queens. In fact, the English monarchy has existed (and actually ruled) for more than one thousand years. Elizabeth was, for her entire life, nothing but a figurehead, a nostalgic mascot paraded around by capitalists hundreds of years after they themselves violently ended the rule of kings and queens. Capitalism, as an economic system, is still far younger than feudalism was when capitalism overthrew it, and yet many will confidently assure workers that capitalism is the best system possible. They say that communism, an idea barely one hundred-and-fifty years old, has had its day in the sun.

In reality the Soviet Union, the Chinese Revolution, and history’s other worker victories are only the foreshadowing of a worker-run communist world. Whether in the next one hundred years or five hundred years, capitalism’s contradictions will lead to the truly productive class, the workers, taking control, just like the capitalists took control from Queen Elizabeth and her predecessors all those years ago. Elizabeth’s passing should remind us: there will be a day when workers see a headline commemorating the world’s last living capitalist succumbing to old age, and on that day we will shake our heads and say “good riddance.”
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Looking forward to sharing vision of communism
Edward Bellamy’s book, Looking Backward, could have been titled “Looking Forward”. The first Challenge review moved me to go to the library. I applauded Bellamy’s mandatory work for ages 21-45--inclusive of folks with physical or mental challenges. Equal credit cards are distributed for necessities and “luxuries.”

Later, on reading our second review, I appreciated pointing out Bellamy’s weaknesses: attaining such a society peaceably, omitting racial issues and viewing women in a limited way.

However, the book’s best-selling reception indicated he speaks to human needs: 1) Work is a necessity and can be created for those with “lesser” abilities to develop their full potential.  The threat of unemployment and cynicism of cutthroat competition is absent. 2) People realize the benefits of their labor when capitalist waste is eliminated: i.e., glut of oversupply and duplication of brand-name goods. I reveled when Bellamy eliminated the monstrous military budget, politicians, and the court system.

Many folks I approach today with our paper agree that capitalism is violent and can only be fought with violence. But questions I hear often are, “How will you motivate people to fight for these values? How can you have a society without money?

I must remind myself to engage people more around a vision of a communist future. In achieving popular status back in the day, Bellamy’s book addressed a universal hunger for these ideas. That said, building a society with productive work and people receiving the fruits of their labor is worth fighting for!
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CHALLENGE response:
Bellamy’s racist eugenics and his disgustingly anti-communist, fascist, and sexist ideas outweigh any of his positive anti-capitalist ideas. Building a communist society requires the fight to eradicate these ideas and practices.

With the capitalists’ liberal fascist democracies falling apart from Europe to Latin America to the U.S., the scum-of-the-earth Brothers of Italy Party and its far-right coalition have swept to power in Italy. Reviving the slogan of “God, homeland, family,” bashing immigrants and Muslims, the gutter-racist Giorgia Meloni is set to become the country’s first openly fascist prime minister since her mass-murdering, anti-Semitic hero, Benito Mussolini, was shot like a dog by a communist partisan in 1945.

As the rulers prove—yet again—that the profit system cannot solve the crises facing the international working class, from inflation to climate change to Covid-19, the world situation is highly volatile. With deep splits between capitalist camps in every country, and as longtime alliances seem up for grabs, inter-imperialist rivalry is boiling in Ukraine. World war is no longer a remote possibility. The liberal bosses’ elite media, from the New York Times to Foreign Affairs, are warning that it’s just around the corner. “Empires can end abruptly, and when they do, chaos and instability ensues” (Foreign Affairs, 10/4).

Meloni’s cynical climb comes on the heels of the far right’s rise to power or prominence in Sweden, France, Hungary, Poland, Turkey, India, the Philippines, Brazil, and the United States. Though many workers are courageously fighting back, billions have been misled into one capitalist faction or the other. Our class interests have been obscured by the dark night that fell after capitalism was restored in Russia and China. It is time for Progressive Labor Party to raise the red flag and build a mass communist revolutionary party to smash fascism wherever it shows its monstrous head, in whatever form it takes.

Capitalist crisis opens the door for Small Fascists
Meloni’s breakthrough is the result of decades of miserably failed liberal misleadership. As of 2020, nearly 10 percent of the population in Italy—more than five million workers—lived in absolute poverty (Reuters, 6/16/21). Due to European Union sanctions against Russia, energy prices have soared over 90 percent in the last two years (The Local, 9/30). As workers struggled, outgoing Prime Minister Mario Draghi, the former head of the European Central Bank, made his priorities clear. He served the interests of the Big Fascists, the liberal finance capitalists who run—at least for now—the European Union and the U.S.

With the liberals in free fall and in the absence of a strong communist movement, the Brothers of Italy built an opposition following among disgruntled workers. Meloni’s party is a direct descendant of the Italian Social Movement (MSI), the ultra-nationalist, fascist party formed by Mussolini’s supporters immediately after World War II. The U.S. and its allies turned a blind eye to these war criminals to keep a huge Italian Communist Party in check. They set the stage for the domestically oriented, “Eurosceptic” small fascists to come to power, even if that wasn’t the liberals’ plan.

Big Fascists losing ground
Among the imperialist world powers, Russia has the most to gain from the Small Fascists’ victory in Europe’s third-largest economy—and the U.S. the most to lose. Although Meloni opportunistically moved to “the center” in her campaign and backed Ukraine’s war effort, she has previously voiced her admiration for President Vladimir Putin. According to the Italian Institute for International Political Studies, “Given the current political climate, this is the best outcome the Kremlin could hope for today” (newsweek.com, 9/25).

Along with the racist pro-Russia regime in Hungary, and growing fascist movements in France and Spain, an unreliable Meloni government could disrupt the European Union and weaken the U.S.-led Big Fascists’ ability to build a multiracial military to go to war. The liberals’ disarray and lack of discipline were exposed in the aftermath of Italy’s elections. Although President Joe Biden raised concerns over Meloni’s triumph, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said he was “eager” to work with her (barrons.com, 9/26). Feminist icon and Big Fascist war criminal Hillary Clinton was quick to tweet out congratulations to the Brothers of Italy, which has limited legal abortions in every region it governs: “The election of the first woman prime minister in a country always represents a break with the past, and that is certainly a good thing” (Daily Beast, 9/28).

As the Big Fascists accelerate their war plans against China and Russia and strain to shore up their fraying alliances, they can’t afford to exclude open racists and sexists. As communists, we must lead our class to smash both outright Nazis like Meloni and the liberals who will try to use her as they’re forced to move toward their own brand of fascism.

Liberals pander to anti-immigrant terrorism
For decades, the European Union’s anti-immigration policies have terrorized millions of migrants. In 2018, Hillary Clinton called upon Europe’s leaders to show they are “not going to be able to continue to provide refuge and support….Europe needs to get a handle on migration because that is what lit the flame” of Small Fascist nationalism (theguardian.com, 11/22/18). Translation: To stop hemorrhaging voters to far-right parties, the EU liberals must be willing to let migrants starve.

As the bosses pander, workers suffer. On July 29, a disabled street vendor from Nigeria, Alika Ogorchukwu, was beaten to death with his own crutch by a white man in Italy after asking for spare change (theguardian.com, 7/30). In 2018, a far-right nationalist wrapped himself in the Italian flag, shouted “Viva L’Italia!” and shot six migrants from Africa in a drive-by attack. When he was arrested, the racist shouted that he “wanted to kill them all” (BBC.com, 8/15). It was one more horrific example of how nationalism, racism, and terror are cut from the same cloth.

Our history shows us the path
Winning workers to fight for communism and reject the bosses’ politicians is essential to the future of the international working class. Although Benito Mussolini has been dead and gone for 77 years, it’s not enough to eliminate fascist dictators. We need to destroy for all time the capitalist system that creates them.

As communists, we must learn from history, from both our advances and setbacks. As fascism sharpens, Progressive Labor Party must make it clear that workers have only two choices. Will they take the side of nationalism or internationalism? Fascism or communism? Death or life? It is the historical task of Progressive Labor Party to lead the working class to choose communist revolution and a world without racism, sexism, or imperialist war. Join us!

Communists smash fascist dictators
As Benito Mussolini’s fascist party outlawed strikes and any independent labor movement, one of its first orders of business was to jail and kill communists. “Blackshirt” thugs roamed the streets and terrorized workers with impunity. The fascist regime drew financial support from both U.S. corporations and the U.S. government, which saw Mussolini’s forces as “perhaps the most potent factor in the suppression of Bolshevism in Italy” (janataweekly.org, 4/10). Beginning in the late 1920s, backed by the imperialist Allies, Mussolini brutally crushed resistance to Italian colonial rule in Libya, ultimately killing one third of the population. Beginning in 1936, he directed the imperialist conquest of Ethiopia, Somalia (then called Italian Somaliland), and Eritrea – again unopposed by the Western imperialists. The New York Times’ Italian correspondent, Arnaldo Cortesi, was an open cheerleader for these racist slaughters.

From the start, the communists rejected the Mussolini government appointed by King Victor Emmanuel III in 1922. After World War II broke out in 1939, they intensified their guerrilla war against both German and Italian fascist troops. Each communist fighting unit had a political commissar who promoted communist consciousness among the volunteers. Many organized workers in the cities, while others fought in the countryside. Throughout World War II, the Italian Communist Party led the underground opposition to fascism. At the forefront were the communist “Garibaldi Brigades,” which suffered the greatest number of casualties in the anti-fascist war in Italy.

NEW YORK CITY, September 24—Raymond Chaluisant’s mother, Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members, and friends marched through the Bronx to demand justice for Raymond and an end to racist murder. Our chants of “Asian, Latin, Black and White, Same Enemy! Same Fight!…Workers of the World Unite!” and “Shut this racist system down!” could be heard across the Grand Concourse and Fordham Road. We distributed hundreds of copies of CHALLENGE and carried signs remembering Raymond and others who have been killed by kkkops and this capitalist system. PLP members rallied for a communist revolution in which workers no longer need to live in a police state and fear for their lives. So long as we live in a society that is built on racism and rewards kkkops for killing, we will never be free. STAND UP, FIGHT BACK!

Multiple participants gave  speeches or led chants for the first time. Some participants expressed a desire to get City University of New York (CUNY) students and high school students involved in this fightback.

The multiracial, multigenerational demonstration was our second protest in the neighborhood where Raymond lived. Murderer Dion Middleton, who works for the New York Department of Corrections (NYDOC), killed Raymond while the teenager was riding in a car with his friend for the “crime” of playing with a water gun. After he shot Raymond, Middleton fled the scene and left him to die without even reporting the incident.

Workers call out the injustice of capitalism
One young worker who talked with a PL’er during the protest pointed out that if it had been the family member of a cop that had been shot, the court system would be treating the case “totally different.” Meanwhile, Raymond’s family is forced to grieve not only his death but also the fact that his murderer is not being held accountable. Another worker who saw us marching became super pumped up, and was ready to let the whole of Grand Concourse in the Bronx know how rotten these police are. He insisted that “it’s not just one bad cop, it’s all of them!” Murderer Middleton’s actions were no mistake, nor can they be explained by “poor training;” he was carrying out his job as intended. In fact, Middleton even teaches firearm safety to other DOC employees. Black cop, white cop, all the same! Racist terror is the name of the game!

Dion Middleton’s next court date is November 16. Although Middleton has been indicted for his crimes, we cannot be lured into believing that any type of real justice will prevail through capitalist courts. The courts exist to uphold the same racist system that cops and correctional officers sign up to protect. There is no justice in a racist system.

Only through communism can we end these racist murders once and for all and win justice for workers around the world.

In the meantime, we plan to continue organizing and rallying our forces in support of Raymond’s family and fighting back against the system of capitalism that leads to such racist murders. Our upcoming protests are scheduled for Saturday, October 8 and October 22, at 1pm on Grand Concourse and E. Kingsbridge Rd (near the D Train) - join us!

End racist murder by fighting for communism!
Under capitalism, the bosses use racist murder to terrorize the lives of Black and Latin workers and to continue the exploitation of the entire working class. We must overthrow this capitalist system to create a society without racism, sexism, or any type of exploitation. Together, the working class can end racist murders and build a new world where no child needs to live in fear that what happened to Raymond could some day happen to them. Join PLP.

Correction: The previous article about Raymond (10/5) referred to murderer Dion Middleton as part of the NYPD. While he has been defended by the NYPD, he is actually part of the NY Department of Corrections (NYDOC). That being said, the agents or cops of both police departments and jails are the same. They are members of the bosses’ racist army who criminalize and brutalize workers every day. Carrying out racist violence that targets Black and Latin workers is their job.

From the 1970s to the current day, Progressive Labor Party has organized hundreds of attacks on the Ku Klux Klan and neo-nazis wherever they spread their racist garbage. Rejecting the pacifist mythology that these gutter racists would fade away if ignored, we have attacked them head-on—and confronted the capitalists’ cops who protect them. We have mounted these antiracist, multiracial actions in New York City, Baltimore, Washington, DC, Detroit and St. Louis. We’ve done the same in smaller communities like Tupelo, Mississippi; Scotland, Connecticut; Jamesburg and Morristown, New Jersey; and scores of cities and towns in California. We invaded the Nazis’ headquarters in Chicago. We beat a white supremacist leader in a Boston television interview. These militant anti-KKK/Nazi actions have involved an estimated 100,000 or more workers and youth.

The following is from an undergraduate college student who contacted the Progressive Labor Party for information about PLP and a PLP-led mass organization Committee Against Racism fighting the Ku Klux Klan in Oxnard, CA in 1978. He went on to write his dissertation, The Battle of Oxnard: How Oxnard’s Working Class Defeated the Klan, on this event. It has been lightly edited for subheadings and clarity.

In my paper The Battle of Oxnard, I wrote of how the Klan tried to organize in Oxnard, and how they were kicked out of the city. With a bold, militant, and well-organized protest led by the Progressive Labor Party, working-class Oxnarders and PLP organizers completely decimated any chance that the Klan could organize in Oxnard ever again.

The Klan was in a renaissance nationwide since the deindustrialization and other economic issues of the “stagflation” era was creating fertile ground for working class whites to be pitted against fellow workers. One of these new Klansmen was Tom Metzger, a John Birch Society chapter leader and native of the San Diego area who used the White Power network to lead a California organization of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (KKKK). Metzger began his efforts at Camp Pendleton in 1976. In California, Klansmen like Tom Metzger and David Duke tried to pit white workers against immigrant workers, forming a mostly performative (though it still caused fear for some people trying to cross) border patrol.

PLP organizes to smash Klan
On July 30, 1978, at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center (OPAC), the Klan was allowed, after facing performative protest at the city hall , to host a showing of The Birth of a Nation. Just days before the event, the PLP was hosting a convention for the Committee Against Racism organization in Los Angeles. When PLP and CAR members learned of the Klan’s event, scheduled conventional plans were scrapped and everyone worked on a plan to shut down the event. The PLP and CAR were met receptively, as Oxnard’s working class had a rebellious working-class culture from a generation of strikes, riots, the Chicano movement, and labor struggle that often led to fighting Sheriff's deputies. PLP and CAR members canvassed the neighborhood near the OPAC to rally workers. PLP and CAR members planned along military-like lines, with organizers waiting, divided into units waiting in the nearby park for the Klan’s truck to show up. The Klan planned this and tried to rush into the OPAC’s courtyard, where they were rushed by organizers with wooden sticks, newspaper-wrapped pipes and other weapons. They also fought cops stationed as guards. After janitors helped PLP members retreat from the courtyard, the main show began, with hundreds of protestors showing up, and a smaller NAACP-led march showing up as well.

Klan gets a beatdown at the hands of communists
PLP and CAR fighters, along with numerous community members, shattered windows with wood, bricks, and full soda cans, all while an effigy of a hanged Klansman was burned. The crowd of thousands fought police summoned from across the County to stop the demonstration, throwing bricks, sticks, pipes, and soda cans, with many running to garages to get baseball bats. At this point, the police negotiated with the Klan, who were told they could no longer show the movie, though Metzger claimed they “sat back” and watched the movie. The police then bull-rushed the crowd, with around a dozen organizers and protestors arrested, though many more were taken into the homes of sympathetic neighbors who hid them in garages and closets from the police, or even pretended they were at a high-school reunion in a backyard to avoid arrest. The Klansmen sped away from the OPAC, and with that the Klan has never tried to organize in Oxnard again, owing to the militancy of Oxnard’s community, led by the PLP into battle.

KKKops and Kourts go after antiracists
Many protestors and organizers faced years of jail time and lengthy trials, with some serving time. One PLP member, Stephen P. Bisson, faced the wrath of the L.A. County D.A. who introduced many pieces of evidence based on other marches, all on an anti-communist crusade explicitly designed to take down the PLP “fanatics.” In Oxnard, the PLP and CAR had a prime moment that wasn’t used to its potential. CAR had several recruits and started study groups with farm workers. CAR members were enthusiastically greeted by people on the streets because of how successful the militant protest was.

Unfortunately, this was not sustained long-term. This was mainly because of needing to travel between LA and Oxnard, but also overstepping. Many of the criticisms CHALLENGE lobbed against Cesar Chavez were correct but misplaced. It’s correct that Cesar Chavez’s stance on undocumented workers is chauvinistic and divisive, but to immediately lob criticisms at UFW locals when they had just arrived in Oxnard and had not yet led people in strikes was clearly overstepping the place as a new fraction in the union. Winning the trust of workers takes patience.

More positively though, the Oxnard protest emboldened CAR and PLP members to launch into anti-Klan and anti-Nazi protests across the state from 1978 and well into the 1980s with several successes.
One success is that because of these events, Oxnarders don’t fear the Klan in their streets.

CHALLENGE response: This struggle at Oxnard is a testament of the power of the working class and our need for multiracial unity. A few notes:

Cesar Chavez was a racist capitalist agent, and the PLP correctly attacked him for it.

Next, CAR grew into the International Committee Against Racism (InCAR) and  many workers saw—from Oxnard, CA to Tupelo, MS to Boston, MA— InCAR as the main mass organization that can lead workers in the fight against racism and the resurgence of  fascist groups like the Klan. InCAR was eventually disbanded when PLP’s strategy changed from creating organizations to joining mass organizations (unions, community groups, associations) and recruiting workers to directly fight for communist revolution. This grew out of the assertion that we have confidence in workers to understand and adopt the most advanced ideas as their own.

Militant antiracism is one of our pillars, and Oxnard was one example of that commitment. For more, go to www.plp.org to read, “PLP History: Anti-Racism At Forefront Of Communist Fightback.”