PAKISTAN, July 3—Pakistan is in deep trouble! Political instability, economic destruction, religious sectarianism, skyrocketing inflation, poverty, nationalism, racism and chaos are pushing the country on the brink of destruction thanks to capitalism, a system spiraling further into crisis, and escalating inter-imperialist competition. A former ruling party (PTI) was removed from the government through a vote of no confidence which resulted in tightened surveillance, state oppression, police torture and disappearances. Amid this political instability, PLP is trying to organize for communism.
Dangers of compromising with the bosses
Capitalist bosses are using various tactics to continue the exploitation of the working class. They use their puppets to scare the masses from even thinking about making a revolution. In the 1960s when the masses were angry with the capitalist system and trying to organize into a party (Communist Party of Pakistan) to overthrow capitalism, the soil was not ripe for a revolution and the party was very tiny.
So the bosses used their puppets to convince the party leaders that ‘it is good time to overthrow the government and make a revolution,’ which resulted in a failed attempt. Quickly all the leadership and dedicated members were arrested and blamed for conspiracy against the state.
Many of them were sentenced for life time imprisonment, some were killed and some left the country to find a safe place.
Again in the mid-seventies when the masses were fed up with the system, they started to join a newly formed phony Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), to bring change and get rid of exploitation. Progressive student leaders, union leaders, intellectuals and workers joined the PPP with the hope that these so-called progressive leaders will help them out of poverty, illiteracy and exploitation, promising land to the landless.
They were not revolutionaries; they just used the name of the working class and exploited the sentiments of oppressed people to take power but did not take any steps to ease the life of the working class.
The workers’ dreams of a prosperous and poverty-free Pakistan were dashed.
Today, as Progressive Labor Party (PLP) continues to spread communist ideas here, and continues to blossom, we are hopeful that one day we can destroy this rotten system once and for all, and replace it with a system where all workers are safe and can flourish.
Capitalist crisis and chaos
There is ongoing political infighting and crisis in Pakistan. Recently, when the political and economic conditions of Pakistan were calling on the poor working class to build a strong anti-capitalist movement, it was another bosses’ trap. The bosses galvanized Imran Khan and his followers to attack military installations, martyrs’ monuments, military and police vehicles and personnel.
This resulted in a strong retaliation from the state, attacking both the ruling class and the working class. The government banned internet services for several weeks and started to monitor every conversation over the phone or internet. Many innocent people were arrested because they had a telephone conversation with the people involved in attacking the military installations.
Imran Khan (IK) and his goons thought that attacking the military installations they could oust the military leadership, and they would get another chance to rule and bleed the working class dry. Firstly IK blamed the U.S. for “regime change” to get the sympathies of common people, but when he realized that U.S. bosses were angered by his blame game, he changed his tune, and begged them again for help.
A few days ago it was exposed by the defense minister in a TV interview that a rebellion against new military leadership and the newly formed government, was unsuccessful. Many military officers involved in this conspiracy are held by security forces. Now almost all the senior leadership of PTI left the party.
Amid the chaos of the Khan faction versus Pakistan’s military establishment standoff, the PLP is striving for international communist revolution. We are preparing the soil to ripen into an international communist revolution by organizing workers, peasants and students in our rank and file. We believe that only the working class and their party, PLP, can get rid of exploitation, poverty, inequality, slavery and injustice by forging an international struggle against capitalism. Long live international communist revolution!
We invite you to participate in Progressive Labor Party’s (PLP) international convention on July 14 to July 16. From a meeting of barely two dozen members of the old U.S. communist movement in 1964, PLP has grown into an international party now organizing in five continents. Even as our class faces a dark night and growing inter-imperialist rivalry and fascism, we continue our fightback because this is just the beginning of a worthy struggle towards an international communist revolution.
Over its first first years, PLP has propelled the march to communism—first by leading antiracist, working-class struggle, and then through that struggle advancing communist ideas. This two-pronged strategy—practice and theory—is the basis for winning masses of workers to fight for communism.
Why communism? In our vision, the working class will determine society’s future. It will destroy the capitalist world and its brutal exploitation. It will smash a system that drives us into constant unemployment and poverty. It will stop the racism that drags down all workers. It will terminate the racist cops who break our strikes and kill workers, especially our Black, Latin, Asian and immigrant sisters and brothers. And it will end for all time the imperialist wars that send our youth to kill their class brothers and sisters worldwide, all for the bosses’ profits.
A communist world
Here is our vision for a communist world:
A society run by workers and for workers. After all, the working class produces everything of value and should rightfully receive the benefits of our labor. Collectively, we can determine how to share what we produce, according to need.
Abolition of the exploitative wage system and the money that runs it. We have no need for the parasitic bosses who steal most of the value of our labor through wage slavery.
Multiracial unity and death to the racism that divides the working class. Racism is rooted in capitalism; the bosses rely on it to steal trillions in super-profits worldwide. Fighting racism is part of the lifeblood of PLP.
The destruction of sexism and the systemic exploitation, oppression, and cultural degradation of women workers. Sexism is a pillar of class society, and capitalism has only furthered this lethal weapon against our class. Women and men must unite to smash sexist ideas and practices. PLP emphasizes working-class women’s leadership in making revolution, particularly Black women’s leadership.
Eliminating all borders, artificial lines the bosses draw to make even more profits from workers they call “foreigners.” Nationalism is an anti-worker ideology that enables the imperialist rulers to exploit natural resources and cheap labor. Communists are internationalists because the working class is one international class, with a common class interest, under one red flag.
This is the world the PLP has fought for from the start. We will continue to fight until our class prevails. We invite all workers to join this struggle—for ourselves, our children and grandchildren, and all the world’s children.
Struggle and theory
From our earliest beginnings in the 1960s, PLP has fought tooth and nail against attacks by the ruling class. We have organized and supported Ford workers and striking teachers in Mexico; wildcatting miners in Hazard, Kentucky; longshore workers in New York City; jute (fiber) workers in India; miners in Britain; garment workers in Los Angeles; bank workers in Colombia; transit workers in Washington, DC; Chrysler sit-down strikers at Detroit’s Mack Avenue plant; farm workers in California, and bakery workers at Stella D’Oro in the Bronx. We have stood with evicted workers in Palestine-Israel, earthquake victims in Pakistan, and hurricane victims in Haiti and New Orleans.
Antiracism is a hallmark of PLP. We backed Black workers and youth in the 1964 Harlem Rebellion, and fought off racist school segregationists in Boston in 1975. In 1976 we integrated Chicago’s Marquette Park while smashing the Nazi headquarters there, and have led more than a hundred thousand protesters against the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis across the United States. We have mobilized against racist killer cops from Brooklyn, New York, to Los Angeles, to Chicago, to Ferguson, Missouri.
PLP has led fierce fightbacks opposing the bosses’ wars. In the 1960s, we were the first to organize mass demonstrations for the U.S. to “Get Out of Vietnam!” We formed the Worker-Student Alliance in the anti-war Students for a Democratic Society. PLP broke the U.S. travel ban to Cuba and undermined the rulers’ House Un-American Activities Committee to the point of collapse. More recently, working both within the military and on the streets, we exposed the U.S. rulers’ invasions of Iraq as a murderous oil grab.
None of these developments came out of thin air. They grew out of our Party’s analysis of past class struggles and the achievements of millions of workers. PLP studied the strengths and weaknesses of the communist movement led by—among many others—Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin and Mao Zedong. In 1917, this movement created a revolution in Russia; in 1949, a revolution in China. It defeated the Nazis in Europe and fascists in Japan in World War II. It reached its highest point in China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, which attempted to push back a growing elitism in the Communist Party leadership and put the masses in charge of society.
PLP is the only group on the left to point out what went wrong in the Soviet Union and China. We are the only organization to analyze how socialism in those countries led back to the unvarnished profit system, where all workers are now mired.
A communist society will have no bosses or profits. It will be led by the working class through its Progressive Labor Party.
Marxism: An evolving idea
The history of the Progressive Labor Party began in 1962. A small group of communists left the Communist Party USA and organized the Progressive Labor Movement. They rejected the CPUSA’s capitulation to capitalism and its abandonment of the open advocacy of communist revolution. The old communist movement proposed that the bosses would peacefully relinquish control of society and allow what the CPUSA called “socialism” to be “voted into existence.” The communists who formed PLM refused to mislead workers and broke away from the old guard.
In the course of PLP’s history, we have rejected some traditional Marxist concepts and advanced a number of new ones, all based on our practice and our examination of world events and the decay of the old communist movement. These new principles are expressed in a series of documents, including Road to Revolution I, II, III and IV; Revolution Not Reform; and “Dark Night Shall Have Its End.” (These are all available on PL’s website or in pamphlet form.)
Above all, Progressive Labor Party stands for the principle that the working class must fight directly for communism rather than moving first through a transitional phase of socialism. We reject this two-stage theory, a central premise of classical Marxism, because events have shown that socialism inevitably leads back to full-blown capitalism. In both Russia and China, socialism preserved capitalist features like money and the wage system, leading to inequalities that divided the working class. In both of these countries, the communist party became a new ruling class where privileges were attained through party membership. We believe the working class can be won before the revolution to fight directly for communism—to abolish the wage system, the cult of the individual and other capitalist relics.
Core principles
PLP’s main principles are:
Internationalism, under the slogan “Smash All Borders,” where workers’ class unity is represented by a single mass, international Party;
The fight against racism, a strategic necessity in the struggle to overthrow capitalism;
The fight against the special oppression of women, another critical component in uniting the working class, a prerequisite for revolution;
A concentration among industrial workers, who produce the capitalists’ profits and the weapons for the bosses’ imperialist wars;Workers’ power through armed struggle, since the rulers will use their armed state power to violently suppress the working class.
Organizing in the military
Throughout its existence, PLP has fought for these principles in unceasing class struggle. We have learned that building the Party is the first order of business for communists. Capitalism cannot be reformed. Whatever gains workers make in reform struggles are limited and temporary; sooner or later, the bosses always use their state power to take them back. Communists strive to turn reform struggles into schools for communism and building the Party. Winning workers to PLP is the one and only victory the ruling class can never take back. We therefore urge all workers and youth to join us in the next half-century in this historic task: to organize a communist revolution.
If you would like to attend the convention, contact your local PL’er or email
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Justice for William: Combat the bosses’ state terrorism
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- 06 July 2023 661 hits
Prince George’s County, Maryland, July 5—Since 1977, Progressive Labor Party here has joined and led workers to fight against government-sponsored terrorism by police, prosecutors, judges, and jails. Today was no different!
Antiracists, PLP, and the family are demanding justice for William Green and conviction of killer kop Michael Owen. William deserves nothing short of a communist revolution, for all reforms are a dead-end plan for the working class.
Who was William?
On January 27, 2020, William had been in a car accident. He was searched, handcuffed behind his back, and put in the front seat of the police cruiser. None of the bosses’ typical racist excuses for killing applied—William was not resisting, he was not armed, and there was no warrant for him. Yet, kkkop Michael Owen entered the police cruiser and almost immediately fired seven shots, killing William, who was only 47 and a father.
Killer cop Owen was charged with second degree murder and other offenses related to the killing and has been in prison for three years, but he is still on the Prince George's County Police Force on administrative leave!
Slow-walking the murder case
The prosecutors and the cop’s attorneys seem to be determined to drag out the case against Cop Owen, hoping people will forget this racist murder or get tired of protesting. The family, however, as a result of the efforts of Nikki Owens (William’s cousin and family spokesperson), has doggedly stayed on the case. No advocate from the States Attorney’s office was assigned to the family as is usually the case, so Nikki kept checking the PG County Case Search to keep abreast of changes to the case. When she noticed changes in the trial dates, she demanded more information about the change from the prosecutors.
After multiple emails and notifying the press, her diligence forced the prosecutors to reach out to the family just two weeks before the start of his trial to schedule a meeting. At the meeting, one week before the trial, they told the family that they offered Owen a plea deal and he accepted.
That was unacceptable to Nikki! She made “NO PLEA DEAL" for this killer cop the theme of a hastily-called rally on the court day. A week of press conferences and interviews with Nikki, other local fighters, and non-profit groups all had the same demand to prosecute the killer cop fully. Ironically, the plea deal was so bad that the judge declined the deal and set a trial date of November 27, 2023.
State-sponsored terror
PLP describes police brutality as a key part of state-sponsored terrorism because police act as agents of the capitalist class and their state apparatus. Their role in capitalist society is to oppress and terrorize the working class, especially Black workers.
The rulers fear that Black workers, super exploited and oppressed by capitalism, will fight back militantly as they have in the past. Police are to protect capitalism, property over people and attack all working-class people who oppose them with strikes, rallies, protests, and rebellions.
Broadening the fight
PL’ers have joined Nikki’s family at hearings on procedural motions leading up to the trial. Recent efforts by the cop’s lawyer to move the trial to a more conservative location in Maryland failed, as family and supporters filled the courtroom.
Baltimore PLP comrades and friends active in the West Wednesdays (a struggle to seek justice for Tyrone West who was killed by police in 2013) joined local supporters in the courtroom. One is a young leader who is quickly learning about the court system! Nikki’s family and other community members welcomed the West Wednesday brothers and sisters to this fight for justice.
On September 28, 2023 at 9 am, there will be another hearing. The cop’s lawyer is trying to have evidence against Cop Owen ruled inadmissible. This type of lying lawyering led to Zimmerman's acquittal in the Trayvon Martin murder case. PLP will continue to mobilize more people to attend all hearings leading up to trial and the trial itself on November 27.
The antics of prosecutors and defense attorneys in cases that involve victims of police violence should themselves be considered criminal. Families are experiencing repeated trauma by court systems that allow trial delays for frivolous reasons, toy with the time of the court and families with unnecessary motions, and have families sit in court as defense attorneys criminalize victims in hopes of getting reduced sentences or charges dropped. And most families endure years of this government-sanctioned treatment as they fight for some resemblance of justice for their loved ones.
Reformism a dead-end
Reform groups that PLP members participate in fought in the state legislature to establish county-based Police Accountability Boards (PAB). Predictably, no county in Maryland gave their Board investigatory or subpoena powers, so such toothless organizations will, like civilian review boards across the country, rubber stamp police reports.
These groups keep focusing on who to elect and then pressure them to push a police accountability agenda. They organize many trips to Annapolis, Maryland’s state capital, to testify on bills and meet with state legislators. Canvassing to bring out workers to vote is crucial to them. This is an example of how reform misleaders dull the fightback and steer workers away from revolution.
PL members involved in all of these efforts constantly point out how these strategies are dead-ends in the struggle and that militant, revolutionary struggle for communism is the only strategy that makes sense. Some fighters are tuning in!J
The Progressive Labor Party in Haiti takes this opportunity to greet our comrades on the occasion of the PLP convention this month. We would like to be there with you, discussing the way we can build our Party into a fighting force for communist revolution, and building the PLP’s influence in the working class and among students and soldiers around the world. However, the phony borders erected by the capitalists around the world have prevented us from sending representatives to our Party’s gathering. We know that one day, those borders will be smashed, and workers will be able to move freely around the world, based on the needs of our class and our Party.
It’s been awhile, but we had our first Wine Tasting fundraiser since April 2019. We raised money for the Progressive Labor Party’s 2023 Summer Project and it was a rousing success! Over 50 comrades and friends showed up and it was quite a collective effort as many people stepped up and contributed to its success. As capitalism ravages the workers of the world more and more, it was inspiring to see a multiracial crowd of women and men committed to a better world for the working class. It was a little bit of the working class that under communism will run the world.
These Wine Tasting socials have always been fun events with a strong political component. They have helped to strengthen ties with friends that want a better world and with friends that are in struggles against racism and sexism and are also interested in that better world, communism. This year was a little different as we struggled with a short organizing timeline and also threatening weather. But the working class again came through as many people stepped up to help out. A friend collected money; she was friendly but efficient, making an important task easy. Another longtime friend took care of an auction that was meant to raise a little money. Wandering through the crowd, joking and cajoling, he raised a lot more. The food was not only plentiful, but fantastic. And people committed to taking part in the Party Summer Project.
Fight racism - organize for communism
But, most important was who came and who spoke and what was said. Many old friends showed up, but also new comrades and friends came from recent struggles. And it was clear that capitalism cannot be reformed. Whether it’s racist harassment of students in Brooklyn or the horrible, intentional racism of migrants drowning in the Mediterranean, the whole damn capitalist system has to go!
At one high school where teachers and students fought to have a memorial for a Black student who was killed (see CHALLENGE, 4/12), the struggle goes on. The same principal who took down memorial posters is the same principal refusing to provide mandated services for English language learners. On the same campus, union misleaders are pushing a racist contract proposal and attacking teachers for merely asking questions (see CHALLENGE, 7/5). Some of these teachers came to the fundraiser. One of the teachers compared how the capitalist media is so concerned about some billionaires who died in a ridiculously lavish underwater excursion, while hundreds of migrants on a sinking boat (seeking refuge from the perils of imperialism) are allowed to die in the Mediterranean Sea with no effort to save them.
Meanwhile some students and faculty from Kingsborough Community College attended. They spoke about the continuing harassment of students at their college by an administration led by liberals including a Black woman president (see CHALLENGE, 1/18). These liberals are pursuing a baseless investigation of two faculty who defended a student who was tackled and arrested at the college for trying to stop a fight. They have forced students to drop out of school and they constantly harass students in the school cafeteria. The fightback has been active and ongoing with many students attending various actions and Party events.
At this fundraiser two students spoke about how this struggle has helped them see the power of the working class when we unite and fight back. They have both joined the Party.
Join the 2023 Summer Project
This fundraiser was a small step toward a successful Summer Project 2023. We will rededicate ourselves to building a revolutionary communist movement, train new young leaders and welcome many more leaders into the PLP as we fight for an egalitarian, communist world.
