NEWARK June 1- One year after the racist kkkop attack on the Rodwell-Spivey family, Progressive Labor Party (PLP) and the family joined to hold a spirited rally in front of their house, where the attack took place. The year before, undercover officers in Newark targeted and attacked two of the Rodwell-Spivey brothers as they looked at clothes in a van on the dead-end street. The killer kkkops claim they were searching for another Black man wearing a white t-shirt with dreads, but nothing under this capitalist system is coincidental or a mistake when Black workers worldwide are super-exploited and jailed on a mass scale. The phony reform to end cash bail reform in New Jersey is not working in New Jersey. Justin Rodwell, one of the brothers that came to defend their younger ones from police, is still being detained as he awaits trial in Essex County Jail.
On the outside, the family is constantly surveilled and harassed by the police. Even more insidious, this is occurring under the watchful eye of liberal Black Mayor Ras Baraka, son of the famous poet Amiri Baraka. Baraka uses his father’s legacy, Black nationalism, and art-for-profit partnerships as a tool to sway one section of workers in Newark to fight for the finance capitalists, while Black and Latin workers are displaced or shoved into the prison system.
Black politicians the Big Fascist trojan horse
It’s not just Baraka. The family has been alienated by the liberal misleaders whose claim to fame is fighting within the system against racial injustice. Since the worldwide, antiracist Ferguson uprising under former liberal Big Fascist (see glossary page 6) U.S. President Barack Obama, and the George Floyd uprisings, under the gutter racist presidency of Donald Trump, the liberal Big Fascist wing of the ruling class has ushered in Black municipal leadership to squelch working-class rebellion. They feed workers phony radical faces in high places as a win, and dupe many into believing a sliver of the decaying American pie is the best our class can do for survival. PLP cautions workers that the rising volatility between imperialist bosses in China, Russia and U.S, will continue to fester and explode into world war, and Black and Latin youth will be missile food forced to die for the bosses profits. The only hope the working class is to build a class conscious multiracial movement to smash capitalism and fight for communism, freeing the world from starvation, exploitation, racist politicians and their kkkops.
Fight racist kkkops with communism!
To learn how to turn these racist wars in the streets into a class war, we turn struggle into communism by building with anti-racist fighters and exposing the sharpest line possible. At the one year-anniversary rally, the mother of the Rodwell-Spivey brothers, Monique Rodwell, spoke out against Baraka sending kkkops to the block to ticket cars while ignoring the piles of neglected garbage bags. Other organizations like the New Afrikan Black Panther Party tried to deflect the attention from Baraka by blaming the “state and federal governments.” The reformist People’s Organization for Progress (POP) and the NAACP didn’t even show up to the rally but instead co-opted the idea by holding their own press conference, without even notifying the family. Each time we took the mic, PL’ers exposed the role of capitalism, explaining how suave Black political figures like Baraka and Obama are instrumental in winning workers to stay passive against attacks on the working class –from education to housing to police terror.
Liberal reforms trap our class in cycle of violence
Body cameras and training were proposed under Obama in 2014, and in 2022 Mayor Baraka and POP reformists are pushing for a Civilian Review Board and reparations. Yet, we see with the Rodwell-Spivey family, Amir Locke and Patrick Lyoya, reforms could never extinguish racism. One teacher connected struggles against racist police terror to attacks against educators, students, and parents in Newark's predominantly Black and Latin schools. Even before the pandemic, Newark struggled to hire and retain teachers and is now exploiting substitute teachers, academic specialists, and administrators to fill the gap of managing  classrooms of multilingual students (Chalkbeat, 4/22).
A teacher connected how school administrators in one of the most crumbling schools in the city, citing one disciplinary letter as a reason for letting him go, is the same as a prosecutor potentially manipulating body camera footage against the brothers in court. The same way this teacher made the humanistic decision to allow students in from the cold during the winter months before security arrived, is similar to the human decision the brothers made to not quietly comply with a police attack. Under a capitalist-driven system, the bosses will always wield any tool in their power to discipline the working class whenever we break their rules. This capitalist state is racist to the core, and we should not expect these institutions to work for us - even when we make a human choice, with the lives of workers at the forefront of our minds.
After the rally, we were all thrilled to see photos from a PLer in Canada working with the Unist’ot’en clan of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation in Canada, which is fighting racist displacement by the Canadian police and oil companies. The photo is with Unist’ot’en matriarchs who were all raided and arrested last year and continue to fight racist police harassment while defending a river from the capitalist oil pipeline. As we continue to build with the Rodwell-Spivey family and workers in Newark, our main goal is to win workers to have a long term outlook of fighting for a communist world. A better world  is possible where workers use multiracial unity and collective decisions to resolve our conflicts. Relying on profit-driven systems under capitalism to fight for and save us will only divide us into racist, nationalist factions and kill many of us.
Our next steps are to build strong connections with workers in the neighborhood where the Rodwell-Spivey family lives, and connect the struggles of this anti-racist family to families fighting police terror based in L.A., Brooklyn and beyond through this year’s summer project. From Newark to British Columbia, the international working class can only smash racist, sexist terror when we fight racist kkkops and politicians with multiracial unity and communism! Onward we march!

NEW YORK CITY, MAY 14— A contingent of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members and friends led chants of “No justice in a capitalist system” and “these sexist courts–shut it down!” at the march against the U.S. Supreme Court leaked draft to criminalize abortion. As the U.S. capitalist healthcare system continues to crumble, leaving millions of workers dead from Covid-19, and countless others ill and uncared for, the U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to hand down another unjust decision that will attack millions of women workers. In response, thousands of antisexist workers took to the streets of NYC, DC, LA, Chicago. Over 100 CHALLENGEs were distributed, many of them to those around us who appreciated our militant chants. PLP recognizes that no ruling made under a capitalist system will ever have workers' best interest in mind and this latest sexist attack on our class is just another example of why we need to fight for communism.
How do we do that? We can start by exposing how the liberal bosses are enemies, not friends, of the working class and antisexists everywhere. The march was led by a slew of capitalist, liberal Big Fascist (see glossary, page 6) politicians including Mayor Eric Adams, Senators Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Letitia James, the state attorney general. These hypocritical Democratic Party politicians who cloak themselves as an alternative and cry for separation of “church and state” are worse than their opponents, the bible thumping Small Fascist base. KKKop Adams once led a sexist smear campaign against former KKKop herself, Lizette Lebron (NY Magazine, 10/18/21). Gillibrand’s brand of feminism has often had “little resonance beyond Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg's white professional female devotees” (The Week,7/8/19). We call them Fascists. These liberal fascists are not antisexists and they are certainly not pro-worker; they are defenders of a failing capitalist system at any cost necessary.
Liberal feminism traps women workers in sexist capitalism
Indeed, the largely white march did not reflect the multiracial working class of New York City. No wonder the liberal mouthpiece NY Times, desperate to appear as an alternative against the gutter racist/sexist bosses, chose a picture of the multiracial PLP contingent led by Black and South Asian women for their website’s coverage of the march. Feminism, a ruling-class movement, historically excluded Black, Latin, Asian, women workers. Now, the liberal ruling class tries to package feminism as a tool of liberation for our class when in reality, it divides our class because it hides the fact that super exploitation is the main source of women’s oppression. Any movement that claims to liberate women but lacks the leadership of Black women, who historically face the dual oppression of racist and sexist super-exploitation under this system, is a dead end for the working class (see Black Workers Leadership, Key To Revolution, plp.org).
Feminism is the freedom for ruling-class women to be as good of an exploiter as their male counterpart. PLP says sexism hurts male workers just as racism hurts white workers. Liberation for women workers can only come from a class conscious movement– that counts on the leadership of the most oppressed sections of our class– to smash this sexist system that thrives on the free labor and commodification of women workers. All workers must fight against this sexism in the workplace if we are to unite our class for revolution. Most importantly, communists – men and women alike – must lead struggles on the job where women workers are constantly under attack.
While the bosses may seek to divide us, many protestors had a deeper understanding of the unity needed to address the problems the working class faces. Some marchers held signs and chanted slogans such as “Support Black Women '' (in a nod to the racist consequences of the Supreme Court decision).The PLP contigent provided a much-needed analysis with our newspaper (CHALLENGE), chants and speeches. One comrade spoke on the bullhorn about the racist origin of the Supreme Court (birthed in slavery) including how the state is a tool of the ruling class. “If you want to end sexism and racism, the world you are looking for is communism.” This speech was well received, as were our chants that targeted capitalism as the main enemy.
Communist revolution is the health care women workers need
The friends of PLP who joined us for the march took leadership on the bullhorn, distributing newspapers, and maintaining chants for a march that lasted hours. It can feel like a race to the bottom for workers as the Big Fascists and Small Fascists (see glossary, page 6) of the U.S. ruling class duke it out in places like the Supreme Court. It cannot be stated enough— neither faction of the ruling class cares about the working class, or our health or our bodies. That is why another PL’er turned the chant “abortion is healthcare” to “revolution is healthcare!”
But the small steps towards building a bigger,  international communist PLP, dedicated to fighting for the entire working class, is our ray of hope in this Dark Night of growing fascism and war. Every time workers and students protest in the streets, organize on the job, take action in the schools, or engage in any form of class struggle, that is an opportunity to build class consciousness and mobilize our class one step closer to a communist world. We need a system driven by workers’ power and workers’ laws. Let’s keep fighting and growing!
(For further analysis on sexism within the U.S. healthcare system and a history of PLP’s fight against sexism visit PLP.org to read our Magazine Articles).

The below piece is an excerpt from the late Wally Linder’s memoir A Life of Labor and Love. Wally was a founding member of Progressive Labor Party and passed away this year but the fight for communism continues, just as he would have wanted it to!  

I remember the first issue of CHALLENGE
The first issue of CHALLENGE (Vol. 1, No 1) came out on June 15,1964. When we sold that first issue  most of us had no idea how significant it was AND the role that CHALLENGE would soon play in the fight against capitalism. The headline on page one was prophetic: Police War on Harlem. Barely four weeks later, the Harlem Rebellion started after racist KKKop Thomas Gilligan of the New York Police Department (NYPD) shot and killed young James Powell who, with his friends, was trying to cool off from the July heat by spraying on themselves and a bystander who complained about it and eventually called the police. This killing was the last straw in a long series of racist oppression. The news media called the rebellion a "riot" but it was most definitely a rebellion! Most of the stores that were attacked were pawnshops that had been looting the residents of Harlem for decades!
The Progressive Labor Movement (PLM), which became the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) in April 1965, put out its most significant (and briefest!!) leaflet: Wanted for Murder - Gilligan the Cop. Rebels carried the leaflet all over Harlem. The PLM couldn't print enough of them! ALL of the so-called "Black leaders" had the same false message: Go home and pray...don't fight back! But the NYC bosses knew exactly who to attack; the Harlem rebels and the PLM. So-called "free speech" went out the window. In essence, martial law was declared.
On a personal note, I sold the first issue of CHALLENGE in three locations: The upper west side of Manhattan, the lower east side of Manhattan, and the garment district in Manhattan.  PLM held weekly rallies in the garment district and CHALLENGE was a big help in getting our message out. We sold CHALLENGE on the street to the garment workers when the boss wasn’t around, we went inside the shops where we could talk more extensively to several workers simultaneously. Unfortunately, most of us (maybe ALL of us) didn’t understand anything about base building so we didn’t get workers’ names. That’s a key lesson for our newer members:  ALWAYS get names so you can stay in touch and follow up with as many people as possible. That’s key to building the Party!
The police and sanitation departments harassed us while we sold CHALLENGE. They gave me quite a few tickets for supposedly “littering.” After my first ticket, the PLM got me a lawyer who taught me what to say at my trial. After my second ticket, I no longer needed a lawyer; I could defend myself and I did so!
CHALLENGE was the only newspaper, magazine, or TV and radio station that told the truth about the Harlem Rebellion, as well as the many other rebellions in Black ghettos throughout the U.S. The summer of 1964 made very clear who were the sellouts and who supported the working class. Every one of us should do their utmost to ensure that CHALLENGE continues to be a working class beacon that will help workers to understand the oppressive nature of capitalism AND the only solution to its miseries: COMMUNIST REVOLUTION!

BROOKLYN and QUEENS, NY––As Progressive Labor Party (PLP) led hundreds of members and friends on Flatbush Avenue this May Day, our multiracial Brooklyn and Queens City University of New York (CUNY) club had our highest turnout ever that resulted in new members joining  PLP! The success we had is a direct result of struggling to be bold  in organizing to fight racism and rebuilding PLP’s presence among a completely new cohort of students.
By the numbers, in addition to new recruits we have: a total regular hand-to-hand CHALLENGE distribution of 25; more than 70 staff and faculty contacts we plan to give the paper to; three upcoming student-planned and led Party events; and new CHALLENGE sales coming at nearby CUNY campuses and transit depots to support our transit work. With organizing for upcoming events underway before the Summer Project, we have a long, hot summer ahead of class struggle and raising hell for the racist kkkops and bosses!
What we do counts
As previously reported in CHALLENGE, three factors central to our Brooklyn campus’ buildup for May Day were boldness in spreading antiracist fightback through fiercely sharing our New Jersey comrades’ Rodwell-Spivey struggle (see page 1), boldness with CHALLENGE sales, and consistency in being a weekly campus presence from week one until finals.
We were bold in antiracist fightback by setting up a laptop and playing the video of the racist arrest of Justin Rodwell — at full volume and on repeat as students passed through a heavily trafficked area. Crowds of mainly Black, Latin and immigrant students formed to watch the video with outrage, connecting Newark’s racist kkkops to the NYPD.
A student PL’er helping organize the local campus club’s anti-racist organizing was present with copies of CHALLENGE. The PL’er ensured that every student, faculty and staff member who gathered around our table received at least one copy, and often, more. In this way, hundreds of CHALLENGEs reached students, dozens of students signed up, and over two dozen students and staff regularly received the paper.
Another strength was our mass CHALLENGE distribution, where we observed an interrelationship between quantity and quality. For example, we found that leaving stacks of CHALLENGEs in public spaces created familiarity and name recognition among students, which led to increased interest when eventually shown a copy.
Our consistency this semester was the third factor in building for May Day. Self critically, once contacts were made, while our initial follow-up was strong, it was the students who pushed us to hold meetings and plan campus actions. We generally “tailed the masses” and received pointed criticisms from several students. They felt that our May Day numbers could have been higher had we been better prepared to advance politically with meetings and plans.
May Day builds PLP
For the young Black and Latin students who attended May Day from our campus, May Day was their first PLP event. We received  enthusiastic feedback about the mix of speakers who ranged from rank-and-file workers to the veteran Party speaker at the end. They commented positively about our commitment to holding a bilingual event with multilingual chant sheets.
Following the march and picnic, we held a planned afterparty dinner. Celebration, debate and socializing continued into the evening over pizza and food from Haiti. One of our students decided to sharpen their commitment and join PLP, bringing a wealth of fighting and organizing experience from the student movement in Haiti. The other students drew closer and committed to helping follow up with our contacts and organize turnout to three club events we’re planning to prepare for the Summer Project.
With three of our club’s newest comrades planning to take courses at other Brooklyn CUNY campuses, this fall, PLP will have a presence at almost every CUNY campus in NYC’s most populated borough! CUNY is aggressively recruiting for summer classes to recoup their Covid-19-related enrollment losses, and we are planning to begin CHALLENGE sales at each campus this summer. This way, our club can know the territory of each campus and get into the groove by the start of the fall semester.
Multigenerational PLP inspires youth
One of our new comrades in Queens said that it was a completely new experience to link up with a revolutionary Party. She enjoyed seeing so many young people as well as veteran comrades. It was encouraging for her to continue with the struggle for a different world when seeing veterans who’ve given their whole lives for the fight for communism.
Another participant said that he was very curious about the Party, enthusiastic to join the march and to meet other Party members. After socializing at the afterparty at the end  of the night, he thanked us for introducing him  to our comrades, and shared that he hopes  to meet again.
Lastly, a coworker of one of our comrades who attended was, one year ago, very reluctant to use words like “communism,” “political organizing”, and “Party.” He listened to the speeches and met Party members from the country where he was born and said that we needed to speak more about the situation going on there. Immigrant workers often yearn for what they had to leave back home, and often look to reproduce their culture and history in their new environment. It can be a struggle to help them open to an internationalist outlook like PLP, and to find among the international working class their new sense of home.
Dark night will end!
We believe our efforts demonstrate that despite being in a period of dark night of rising fascism and imperialist war, and external setbacks like Covid-19, boldness in fighting racism and boldness in selling  CHALLENGE can still mean Party growth in a difficult period. PLP’s line on smashing racism, sexism, imperialist wars, racist borders, and money with communist revolution resonates with the Black, Latin, immigrant and white working class youth around us who will lead our Party’s next generation and take communist revolution all the way. JOIN US!