Los Angeles, CA, March 28– For nearly three years the fightback and solidarity with the Flores family has deepened, which has given life to Progressive Labor Party in Los Angeles. With consistent protests over several years, the family has grown to see that this fight is bigger than any individual KKKop or reform policy. They are now actively organizing with other families to target the liberal fascist and George Soros-funded District Attorney, George Gascon. Gascon has a liberal cover, but he has a long cop career, from going along with racist “stop and frisk” policies to refusing to prosecute killer cops.

This has been controversial because Black Lives Matter (BLM) and other organizations have championed Gascon and given him a platform with impacted families where he’s made promises to prosecute cops.  Some families have illusions that targeting Gascon will hurt their court cases, so it is significant that other families have chosen to continue the fight.  The Rodriguez family, who just won a $12.6 million settlement (read CHALLENGE, 2/15) is re-engaged in the struggle and specifically wants to go after Gascon. They have asked the Party, together with the Flores family and three other impacted families, to organize with them and start up this collective.

Democratic Party liberals support killer cops
We are planning our first action in a couple of weeks and at our first meeting, we talked about the politics surrounding Gascon and the reform struggle in general.  We discussed that despite the election of a so-called progressive D.A. and passage of state legislation like the California Act to Save Lives on the use of deadly force, which took effect in 2020, none of it has led to any prosecutions of any KKKops.  When we drafted up our first flier, we criticized not only the local liberals but also Democratic Party misleaders across the country who continue to expand their already bloated police budgets.  We called out former “Top Cop” VP Kamala Harris, for having the nerve to show her face and let alone speak at the funeral of Tyree Nichols, who was beaten to death by Black Memphis KKKops.  When it was shared among the families, the aunt of a young Latin worker who was also beaten to death in Orange County said, “I wouldn’t change one word!”

Gascon has long been connected to the liberal ruling class in California. First, he spent three decades rising through the ranks of one the most murderous police departments in the world, the Los Angeles Police Department.  He went from LAPD recruiter to Assistant Chief and was once called “the right arm” of racist “stop and frisk” Bill Bratton.   Then under the auspices of then-Mayor Gavin Newson, who has political and family ties with the billionaire Getty family that was built on violent extraction of oil in the Middle East. He was appointed Chief of Police of San Francisco in 2009.   In just two years, without any legal experience, Newsom then appointed him to Los Angeles District Attorney, following the footsteps of now VP “Top Cop” Kamala Harris.

His liberal fascism was exposed when his rhetoric was countered by his practice of refusing to prosecute killer cops in San Francisco which even inspired Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players to take a knee in response.  It also inspired impacted families and activists to protest against him at his home and run him out of the Bay area, only to be championed by BLM-LA and others.

It’s a long haul, but only communism means real justice
While all of these families recognize that the whole system is racist and guilty of murder, we still have a way to go to win them away from reformism and liberal-led organizations. Real justice can only come from the dismantling of capitalism and the capitalist state through communist revolution and joining Progressive Labor Party.  However, many families understand that it has been our Party and our leadership that has always been honest and upfront with our politics and consistent in the protests in the streets. We know this is a lifelong struggle, and they have confidence that we will be with them for the long haul.  One of the Flores siblings is in a Party club and considers herself a communist. She is bold and has pushed families to begin targeting Gascon and has won her younger sister to join our collective!  With her leadership, the future of the working class is bright!

BROOKLYN, NY, March 11–As part of our monthly series preparing for May Day 2023, a multiracial group of over 30 students, parents, teachers, and workers engaged in a sampling of historic May Day events led by Progressive Labor Party (PLP) since our party resurrected the holiday in the U.S. in 1971.
The common threads of revolutionary communist boldness, creativity, militant class struggle, confidence in the working class, and our ever-evolving line of dictatorship of the proletariat and fighting directly for communism, and our uncompromising antiracism and multiracial workers’ unity, was all in full display over a series of events we studied.

See-Think-Wonder about May Day!
After an icebreaker, we took a gallery walk in groups around the room, looking at images over several decades of May Day marches and demonstrations, each person commenting on what they “see, think, and wonder” on chart paper (see photo). Here are some initial reactions of participants:
     “Seems very militant and organized,”
    “I love the bold/ambitious vision: building a worldwide movement,”
    “They are brave!”
    “What is martial law?”
    “Workers on the streets waving their fists in support,”
    “They must have been so disciplined and organized in the days before cell phones,”
    “How did they plan this?”
    “We need this in every city!”

May Day through the decades
Then, each group sat down to investigate one of the May Day events depicted in the photos—as one comrade observed—reflecting larger struggles PLP had been involved in for quite some time.

1974 – PLP organized a nationwide motorcade (including workers from Canada) that originated in almost a dozen cities, traveling to over a dozen more, organizing scores of rallies and demonstrations around factories, universities, and communities where the Party was actively organizing, and converging in Washington, D.C. for a grand May Day march. Marchers represented 30 U.S. cities and almost 30 different countries.

1975 – As part of a long campaign to smash a rising fascist group called ROAR (Restore Our Alienated Rights) in Boston, PLP mounted a valiant and victorious defense of our May Day march against a physical attack by racist ROAR thugs, backing up our revolutionary communist ideas with disciplined and organized physical force en route to destroying ROAR as an organization forever.

1979 – PLP went on the offensive to rout Nazis from Marquette Park in Chicago, which had outlawed Black/non-white workers from as far back as anyone could remember. Following a military-style antiracist/communist-led raid on Nazi headquarters just a month before, PLP’s bold contingent led hundreds of multiracial workers to actively integrate the park once and for all, breaking the back of Nazi organizing efforts.

1992–Amidst open antiracist rebellion by Black, Latin, and white workers in response to the sham Rodney King verdict (a Black man brutalized by a gang of racist LAPD thugs), the rulers declared martial law in Los Angeles, banning all demonstrations. But PLP didn’t let that stop us from boldly carrying out a May Day caravan through Los Angeles, defying the law, outwitting cops, and engaging hundreds of workers, youth, and National Guard soldiers with communism and militant antiracism.

2002–In the wake of the 9/11 attacks and Patriot Act crackdowns on protests and in the throes of rising fascism and imperialist war in Afghanistan, PLP boldly and creatively planned spirited May Day marches and dinners in multiple locations to confidently put forward our communist line and allow workers to participate in our international holiday.

Group participants actively debated our line and our practice to more deeply understand each event, its time period, and lessons for building the communist movement today.

In our share-out, commenting on the prominent multiracial character of our demonstrations and vital Black and Latin leadership throughout our Party’s history, one young participant made the point that these events obliterate the ruling class’s racist anti-communist lie that the communist movement is “white” or that communism is for “whites only.” One of the large banners highlighted in one of the marches punctuated the point by proclaiming “Racism Hurts All Workers.”

The presence of some high school students with their parents reflected PLP’s dedication to building a student-parent-teacher alliance in the schools.

Confidence in our class
These historic events on the whole also showed the development of PLP’s line through the years, advancing from advocating for “Socialism” in the ‘60s, ’70s, and ‘80s to fighting directly for communism over the last 35 years. Our long experience leading class struggle proved to us that workers are open to communist ideas.

In fact, studying these events, one can see how when we have confidence in the working class—that they would defend their homes from the fascists, that they would take the offensive against racist and sexist divisions, that they would travel across the country for communism, defy the bosses’ laws, even defend our party’s line with revolutionary violence when necessary—we grew as an organization capable of leading the working class to victory.

Indeed, the only way to guarantee the dictatorship of the proletariat (working class) in the long run is to fight directly for communism now.

BIG, BOLD COMMUNIST MAY DAY 2023!
After our share-out, participants shared their ideas for a May Day theme for this year’s NYC march. Some of our ideas included “Capitalism Divides Workers—Fight Back with Revolutionary Communist Optimism!” “Resilient Rebels on the Road to Revolution,” “Getting Ready for Revolt/Revolution,” and “Fight Capitalist Divisions with Communist Internationalism.”

People left the forum inspired! Now we must use our newfound understanding to inspire our friends to learn and participate in this proud communist, anti-racist, working-class heritage, for we—all of us—are making history, and EVERYTHING we do counts.

One year ago, the simmering conflict between Russia and the U.S.-backed regime in Ukraine became an inter-imperialist shooting war. At the time, CHALLENGE wrote, “It’s impossible to know how this war will ultimately play out, but we do know that small wars can lead to larger wars, particularly in volatile times.” As tensions among the top imperialist powers escalate, with their economies in crisis and World War III looming, that prediction looks even more likely today.

Progressive Labor Party (PLP) has long warned that the capitalist profit system breeds ruthless and never-ending imperialist competition, battles waged with workers’ blood. At the same time, violent shifts in the old world order create an opening for communist revolution, just as they did during World War I and after World War II.

The war in Ukraine has massacred hundreds of thousands of workers and displaced 14 million (PBS, 11/22/22). With supply chains for wheat exports disrupted, many millions more are going hungry, with Africa bearing the brunt (Reuters, 3/9).

As in all imperialist wars, workers have no side in this conflict. We have no class interest in fighting and dying for the capitalist rulers who sit and count their profits.  For the international working class, victory will come only when we turn the guns around, smash all bosses, and build a communist world to serve workers’ needs.

Wavering alliances
Despite demands by the U.S. that its allies fall in line, it no longer rules the roost. From India and Pakistan to Turkey, South Africa,  and Brazil, regional capitalist powers are resisting Western calls to isolate and end critical trade with Russia.

India has openly defied U.S. calls to reduce Russian oil imports. When Russia’s foreign minister spoke at an International Conference in India and attacked the U.S. and NATO for their wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he was warmly applauded (Guardian, 3/4). China and Turkey have actually increased their imports of Russian oil, rendering U.S. sanctions mostly useless. More broadly, China has emerged as Russia’s most important trading partner. The U.S. bosses now fear that China may tip the balance in Ukraine by supplying Russia with advanced weapons (BBC, 2/4).

While the U.S. media makes it sound like Ukraine has thwarted Russia militarily at every turn, Russia has in fact seized at least 116,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory, the equivalent of Bulgaria (CNN, 9/30/22). As the war drags on, the U.S. has justified concerns that even its closest friends may lack the appetite to continue. In Berlin, the capital of the U.S. bosses’ most important ally, more than 10,000 marked the war’s anniversary by marching against delivering more weapons to Ukraine (Reuters, 2/25). Wolfgang Ischinger, a senior German diplomat, called for the “immediate” initiation of  “a peace process for Ukraine” (RT.com, 3/13).

The U.S. bosses rightly fear that an ascending China is using the conflict in Ukraine to keep chipping away at the old world order that the U.S. had dominated since 1945. China’s latest initiative was to broker the reestablishment of diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the most important powers in the oil-rich Middle East, a deal that left the U.S. on the outside looking in (NYT, 3/11).

U.S. rulers are further weakened by the division and instability in their own ranks. The bosses’ finance capital main wing, fronted by Democrats from Joe Biden to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are committed to protecting the profits of ExxonMobil, JPMorgan Chase, and other powerful multinational companies–at any cost. A contending faction, led by the likes of the Koch family, Rupert Murdoch, and a growing “America First” contingent of the Republican Party, is pushing to suspend all aid to Ukraine. One of Russia’s big advantages is that its bosses are far more unified. Like China, it’s gotten a headstart on the U.S. in moving toward full-blown fascism. 

War-hungry U.S. media
Unlike the minimal U.S. media attention to recent wars in Yemen or Africa, where thousands of Black and Brown children have been murdered, the war in Ukraine and its blond, blue-eyed victims are splattered all over the front pages. This racist coverage also is designed to prepare U.S. workers to sacrifice in the next world war.

The bosses’ media justify their round-the-clock focus on Ukraine  by claiming that Russia’s invasion was an unprovoked attack on an independent country’s sovereignty. They never mention the eight NATO “battle groups” already stationed in Eastern Europe (NATO.int, 12/22), or that the U.S. helped to trigger the invasion by suggesting that Ukraine might be considered for inclusion in NATO, a longstanding “red line” that  Russia would not allow to be crossed (Reuters, 12/21). Or that the U.S. itself has invaded 84 of the 193 countries recognized by the United Nations. So much for sovereignty!

The media is obsessed with Ukraine not because it represents a sovereign “democracy” standing up to tyranny, but because the U.S. bosses need to divide the international working class as they drive toward war and fascism. They know that their biggest threat is an organized, militant, international army of workers fighting to smash capitalism.

Fight back against imperialist warmakers!
As Russia and China continue to strengthen their alliance, a U.S. general recently predicted that the U.S. would be at war with China by 2025 (Time.com, 1/31). China’s leader, Xi Jinping, recently targeted what he called a U.S.-led campaign of “encirclement and suppression.” His new foreign minister said China had no choice but to fight back against U.S. sanctions (NYT, 3/9).

The current period contains both great danger and huge opportunity for the working class. The war in Ukraine  demonstrates once again that wherever workers are attacked, it hurts our class brothers and sisters internationally. Whether it’s boots-on-the-ground carnage, disrupted food supplies and medical care, or economic devastation, it’s our class that has the most to lose under capitalism.  

Only with communist revolution can we turn imperialist world war into class war against the capitalist parasites who put profits over human life. Only then can we build a world where wars, racism, and sexism will be eliminated for all time. Only communism can smash our chains, once and for all!

Song of Spain By Langston Hughes

A bombing plane’s
The song of Spain.
Bullets like rain’s
The song of Spain.
Poison gas is Spain.
A knife in the back
And its terror and pain is Spain.
…
The people are Spain
The people beneath that bombing plane….
Workers, make no bombs again!
Workers, mine no gold again!
Workers, lift no hand again
To build up profits for the rape of Spain!
Workers, see yourselves as Spain!
…
I must drive the bombers out of Spain!
I must drive the bombers out of the world!
I must take the world for my own again—
    A workers’ world
    Is the song of Spain.

The last issue of CHALLENGE (3/15/23) revisited  Langston Hughes work in the 1920s and 1930s, the period when Hughes became inspired by the growing multiracial, anti-capitalist fightback, gravitating to communist politics. In this piece we dive into Hughes political and literary contributions to the anti-fascist movement during the Spanish Civil War.

Langston Hughes, a major 20th-century literary figure, moved significantly to the left in the mid-1930s—as a poet, playwright, and journalist. At a time when imperialist fascism in Italy and Germany brought on the invasion of Ethiopia (1935-37) the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), and eventually World War II (1939-1945), Hughes became one of the world’s leading communist and antiracist voices.

Poems and plays: fighting racism with multiracial unity
In 1933, after more than a year in the Soviet Union, Hughes returned to California and probably his favorite subject: the working class of the U.S. He joined a group of writers and artists active in the local Communist Party (CP)-affiliated John Reed Club, named after the communist journalist and activist who covered the Bolsheviks’ October Revolution in 1917.  Still involved in protests to free the Scottsboro Eight, he composed “One More ‘S’ in the USA,” a song for a CP fundraiser for the Scottsboro victims of the capitalists’ criminal injustice system. He also co-wrote a play, never produced, called “Blood on the Fields,” about a strike by agricultural workers in the San Joaquin Valley.

Beyond his local activities, Hughes joined national organizations to foster multiracial unity by bringing leading Black writers and intellectuals into dialogue and actions with communists.  He became president of the League of Struggle for Negro Rights, which evolved into the National Negro Congress and involved such famous cultural figures as Richard Wright, Paul Robeson, and Elizabeth Catlett. Though Hughes always worked collectively, he was singled out for racist criticism and red-baiting, not to mention surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Fighting fascism with communist internationalism
In the mid-1930s, Hughes wrote and produced plays about Black working-class life and the importance of multiracial unity, such as When the Jack Hollers. But the invasion of Ethiopia by Mussolini in 1935—a pure act of racist aggression—turned the attention of Black workers to worldwide racism and fascism, the phase of capitalism when the bosses discard their charade of liberal democracy (see Glossary, p. 6).  Black newspapers like the Amsterdam News reported weekly on Ethiopia.  

Then, in 1936, came the Spanish Civil War, when General Francisco Franco and his armies rebelled against the leftist Popular Front government, supported by communists, socialists, and anarchists.  Nazi Germany and fascist Italy sent arms and planes to Franco.   The Spanish “Republican” government appealed to the U.S., France, and Great Britain for aid.  But not surprisingly, the capitalist bosses wanted nothing to do with it.  By contrast, the Soviet Union sent aid and established International Brigades for workers of all nations to join.  Thousands of workers from the U.S., Black and white, many of them communists, enlisted in the famous Abraham Lincoln Brigade.  Within the U.S., communists raised funds for the war effort against the fascists. Hughes helped organize the American Writers and Artists Ambulance Corps, which bought an ambulance for the bloody campaign.  

The International Workers Order, another communist-organized organization, sent Hughes on a 12-city tour to raise more aid for the anti-fascists in Spain.  The IWO published a A New Song, a booklet of 17 political poems by Hughes, including “Let America Be America Again,” “Justice,” “Chant for Tom Mooney,” “Chant for May Day,” “Ballads of Lenin,” and “Open Letter to the South.” In “Song of Spain,” Hughes moves from images of bullfights and flamenco guitarists to the grim realities of wary.

Hughes subsequently went to Spain himself to send back wartime dispatches to the Baltimore Afro-American and other Black news agencies. En route he stopped in Paris to deliver a rousing speech, “Too Much of Race,” to the International Writers Congress.  It included these communist ideas: “We represent the end of race.  And the Fascists know that when there is no more race, there will be no more capitalism, and no more war, and no more money for the munition makers, because the workers of the world will have triumphed” (Brian Dolinar, The Black Cultural Front: Black Writers and Artists of the Depression Generation, p. 90).  Hughes understood that capitalism absolutely requires racism to exploit and divide the working class.

In July 1937, Hughes crossed over the French Pryenees into northern Spain and then to Barcelona and Valencia.  By August he was in Madrid, where he joined Communist Party USA members in the Lincoln Brigade and interviewed Black volunteers for his dispatches.  When he traveled outside the city, communists helped arrange his tours.  During his four months in Madrid, Hughes circulated among other writers hunkered down in the besieged city, including Ernest Hemingway, Malcolm Cowley, and Lillian Hellman.  The great singer Paul Robeson also came to give concerts for the anti-fascist cause.  

Hughes red lit torch: fight for communism –workers’ power
As historian Brian Dolinar has observed, “Hughes explained to Black readers how the fight against fascism was connected to the fight against racism at home” (Dolinar, p. 87).  His essays “Laughter in Madrid,” (published in The Nation, January 29, 1938), voiced admiration for workers’ courage and their resistance to fascist rule:  “Yes, people still laugh in Madrid.  In this astonishing city of bravery and death, where the houses run right up to the trenches and some of the street-car lines stop only at the barricades, people still laugh, children play in the streets...Madrid, dressed in bravery and laughter; knowing death and the sound of guns day and night, but resolved to live, not die!”  Back in the U.S., Hughes advocated for the Double V campaign,  the connected struggles against racism in the U.S. and fascism in Europe.  

In his journalism, poetry, plays, and essays, Hughes brilliantly conveyed the experiences of ordinary workers who strived to unite as a force for history.  Progressive Labor Party can carry on Hughes’ legacy when we lead the way toward multiracial unity and revolution.

[Biographical information is drawn from Arnold Rampersad, The Life of Langston Hughes, 2 vols. 2nd edition, New York: Oxford, 2002; and Brian Dolinar, The Black Cultural Front:  Black Writers and Artists of the Depression Generation, Jackson, MS:  University Press of Mississippi, 2012.]