Wally, as he was known by all, was the last surviving founder of the revolutionary communist Progressive Labor Party (PLP). He died January 3, 2022, at the age of 91, his family and comrades at his side, after a lifetime of principled struggle on behalf of the international working class.
Although Wally missed being a “May Day baby” by a few hours, the international workers’ holiday would be a big part of his life. Wally attended his first May Day demonstration with his mother in 1942, at the height of the war against fascism. Later he would help to organize decades of May Day marches for PLP, a day that represented our Party’s commitment to raise the red flag high and advance the historical communist movement.
Wally dedicated his life to the interests of the working class. For many years he was a member of the Communist Party (CP) USA. In 1951, as a student at the City College of New York, he helped lead a walkout over racist admissions policies that excluded Black, Latin, and Jewish students.
 Later he helped to lead the CP’s industrial union work in the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks, including an epic strike that shut down the entire New York-New Jersey waterfront. Wally also began his long and prolific writing career on the sports pages of the Daily Worker, where he covered the New York Yankees and honed a lifelong devotion to baseball.
In 1962, recognizing that the Soviet Union and the CPUSA had abandoned communism in favor of state capitalism, Wally joined a group of comrades to establish something new: the Progressive Labor Movement, which led the first demonstration against the U.S. war in Vietnam. In 1965, Wally helped to organize the revolutionary communist Progressive Labor Party.
For many decades, Wally led PLP’s trade union section, where he recruited, developed, and inspired generations of organizers. He was proud of his leadership role in a number of PLP-affiliated organizations, including the International Committee Against Racism (INCAR), which fought the resurgence of the KKK and Nazis in the 1970s; the Workers Action Movement (WAM), which led a new era of militant class struggle in the 1970s and 1980s; and the Solidarity Organizing Committee (SOC), which spearheaded militant and politically advanced labor actions.
in the U.S. and internationally in the 1990s.Throughout, Wally served as an editor and contributor to CHALLENGE, and to Progressive Labor Party magazine and later The Communist magazine. His work on behalf of the Party led him to worldwide travels and correspondence in the monumental effort to build a mass international communist party. Wally’s enormous legacy consists of the hundreds of communist organizers he trained and influenced, many of whom would go on to devote their lives to the class struggle. Wally also had an indirect impact on thousands more who were inspired by the people he trained, and by the hundreds of thousands whose lives were changed by these collective efforts.
Wally was preceded in death by his first wife, and comrade Esther Chanzis. He is survived by his son Andrew Linder, his daughter Anita Caref (Doyle O’Connor), and his grandchildren Kevin Caref (Crystal Clark); Peter Caref; Elisa Caref (Pascal Abidor); and step-grandson Gavan O’Connor. Wally was also preceded in death by his second wife Toni Ades and is survived by his stepdaughter Andrea Ades Vasquez (Gerald Markowitz) and their daughter Isa Vasquez. Wally was additionally preceded in death by his long-time companion Vera Dumont.
Wally Linder will be remembered as a loyal and dedicated comrade for as long as there is a revolutionary workers’ struggle to change the world.

LOS ANGELES, CA January 8 – In response to the brutal murders of Valentina Orellana Peralta and Daniel Elena Lopez by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members and friends attended a march to protest this racist capitalist system. The march began outside the clothing store where LAPD opened fire on innocent workers and murdered Daniel and Valentina on December 23 after Daniel was in the midst of a mental health crisis and hit a customer with a bike lock. The LAPD KKKop, William Dorsey Jones, fatally shot Daniel and then Valentina who was shopping for a quinceanera dress. The protest culminated in front of the LAPD North Hollywood station. Party members sought to bring to light that killer cop Jones, a Black cop who championed the fallacy of “good policing” is the ultimate symbol of liberal Big Fascist (see Glossary, page 6) reforms.
This case is a stark reminder of the futility of “reforming” the police in a capitalist system where the ruling class holds power at the point of a gun. Only with a communist revolution will the working class be able to truly live our lives free of terror and violence.
A revolutionary party
Since its founding in 1965, PLP has boldly championed the fight against racist police terror and murder. We have been actively involved in countless campaigns for justice with the families of the victims of this terror, who are disproportionately Black, Latin, indigenous and immigrant workers. We have repeatedly pointed out the role of the police in a capitalist society — they serve the bosses and protect their property, money and power in the face of potential rebellion by the working class. We have said that nothing less than a violent overthrow of this racist, murderous system and the establishment of a communist, antiracist workers’ dictatorship can destroy the bosses’ armed forces and end capitalism’s reign of terror.
The march was organized by several reformist and nationalist groups. The organizers handed out signs and buttons with pictures of Valentina, but none with Daniel’s picture, playing into the mainstream media’s criminalization of a worker in need. The march took the street and continued for several miles. The chanting was loud and continuous. About 60 people participated in the march and rally, 23 of whom took copies of CHALLENGE. The speakers at the rally mouthed the need for “revolution,” but did not explain that the police cannot be reformed because their job is to keep the ruling class in power. Copying the racist liberal media and politicians, who believe that police terror is justified, the speakers said not one word about the murder of Daniel Elena Lopez.
Rulers’ phony solutions for racist murder
Politicians and other reformist mouthpieces for the bosses’ lies have proposed various “solutions” to the problem of racist police terror and murder over the years. Here are some of them, and how these recent murders again prove that reforms can never benefit the working class:  
More Black, Latin and women cops. Jones, the killer cop who murdered both Daniel and Valentina, is Black.
Better training, including “de-escalation.” One month before the murders, Jones and all of his fellow LAPD thugs were given training instructing them to “consider their surroundings when firing their guns” “to minimize the risk of hitting innocent bystanders.” As was reported in the January 19, 2022 issue of CHALLENGE, the LAPD first claimed a 911 call identified Daniel as having a gun. But, as soon as they arrived, the cops were told by a store employee that Daniel had no gun. There were zero attempts by the cops to “de-escalate” the situation. Killer KKKop Jones ran into the store and just kept running until he saw Daniel and immediately opened fire with his rifle (LA Daily News, 1/11).  
Community-oriented policing In the wake of the murder of George Floyd and many others, Jones created his own non-profit, called “Officers for Change.” Its logo is a police cap with a red heart in the middle. Jones identified himself as a proud Black man who had been a “victim of racism.” The nonprofit's mission is to win Black and Latin working-class children to view the police in a positive light (Orange County Reg, 12/30/21).
Elect district attorneys who promise to prosecute killer cops. Recenty elected “progressive” LA County District Attorney George Gascon is still “investigating” whether Jones will be charged or not. Of the over 600 murders of workers by killer cops in LA County between 2012 and when he was elected in 2020, Gascon has stated that he will reopen the investigation of exactly four of them. None of the cops have yet been prosecuted by Gascon’s office.
But, the reality is that the murder machine goes on and on and on. Valentina Orellana Peralta and Daniel Elena Lopez are but its latest victims in Los Angeles.
Smash racist KKKops
 The worldwide 2020 mass uprisings of tens of millions against racist police terror taught us that  mass antiracist anger can temporarily force the capitalists to take actions to make it appear that their “justice” system can benefit the working class. But despite that bold upsurge, the capitalist-controlled media and other institutions are now promoting the need for more cops. Los Angeles is just one example of this trend. The liberal racist LA City Council voted for a 3 percent increase in LAPD funding in 2021-22 and the LA Police Commission is proposing a further 12 percent increase for 2022-23 (LA Daily News, 11/23/21).More blood money for cops means more racist terror. In 2021, the LAPD killed almost as many workers as in 2019 and 2020 combined (LA Times, 12/27/21).
There is no justice or peace for workers under capitalism. Only a communist revolution and the elimination of racism from the face of the earth will ever bring the justice and peace that the world’s workers deserve. PLP is committed to lead that fight.

CHICAGO, January 14 – Hundreds of multi-racial, working-class youth took over the streets downtown to challenge a racist capitalist education system in crisis. Students across the U.S. staged walkouts from their campuses and students from across the city converged for a militant and spirited rally in front of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) headquarters.
This inspiring action was organized as negotiations between the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), the racist education bosses of CPS and Big Fascist Mayor Lori Lightfoot fell apart. Working-class youth took this militant action upon themselves, as the city bosses and union hacks have done nothing to stop Covid-19 infections and deaths.
Communists from the international Progressive Labor Party (PLP) proudly supported these bold youth in their fight. But the profit system offers no future for our youth other than unemployment, exploitation, or imperialist war. PLP offers the only real route out of this capitalist nightmare: that of an international communist revolution. Under communism, the initiative, creativity, and leadership of youth will help steer society forward, instead of being trivialized. The working-class youth that took the streets today are future generals in the Red Army that will bury capitalism forever!
Antiracist youth lead the future
As soon as we learned that CPS students were planning a walkout, enthusiasm grew among our local collective. In contrast to the closed door negotiations between CPS and CTU, this direct action represented a more militant and grassroots protest against racist education conditions.
We organized to support two high schools on the city’s south side where the Party has a presence. As the walkout started, the young people were met by PLP members distributing CHALLENGE, holding signs, and joining in on pro-student chants like, “When I say, ‘Youth voice,’ you say, ‘Youth voice matters!’” and “Get up, get down – We’ve got to tear this system down!” Many eagerly took copies of CHALLENGE.
The energy increased as students from many schools joined forces at the CPS headquarters. The front entrances were blocked, as the youth gave speeches and led more chants. Black and Latin students – those most viciously attacked under this racist capitalist system – delivered some of the most passionate speeches and militant leadership.
The protest closed with a short march to shut down traffic on nearby State Street. Despite a heavy presence of the kkkops, the young fighters were able to safely marshal the march in order to prevent any confrontations or arrests. Many students hung around to talk about communism and the Party with us, gave contact information, and even shared the link for our 1/17 forum on Revolutionary Violence on social media!
Liberal capitalists remain the principal danger
The working-class students leading this movement are demanding more social distancing measures, more testing, masks and therapy, as well as laptops for those in remote learning (Block Club Chicago, 1/14). But under the capitalist profit system even the most simple health and safety measures for workers are routinely denied. Under a communist society run by the working-class, basic health and safety measures will be routinely provided.
This social murder is being committed under the watchful eye of the dominant liberal capitalist bosses, particularly the racist Black misleader Lightfoot, who has been relentless in pushing working-class youth and education workers back into unsafe schools (see page 3). She’s following the lead of the Big Fascist wing (see Glossary, page 6) of the U.S. capitalist class. These Wall Street finance capitalists are currently fronted by Joe Biden. They are eager to return to their “normal” profiteering ways, while millions of workers get infected and thousands get sick and die.
And now these Big Fascists are promoting the idea that an ongoing pandemic will be normal for the foreseeable future. They want us to accept our deaths, and the deaths of our class brothers and sisters, as normal, as they live on and profit. As domestic Small Fascist rivals threaten them from within and imperialists in Russia and China threaten them abroad, they are desperate to control the youth they know will be needed to fight and die in their future wars for profit.
Class struggle is in session!
Workers and students must not accept this fate. Let’s keep this youth-led anti-racist fightback alive and connect it to our collective need to build the mass international PLP and a new communist world. Class struggle is in session! Join PLP!

Only weeks into the New York City (NYC) mayoral administration of Eric Adams, capitalism has revealed once again that Black politicians are on the front lines of fascist police terror and deadly living conditions for workers in NYC and around the world.  Police raids of Black youth in Brooklyn on January 4 followed by a massive fire killing at least 17 workers in the Bronx on January 9 prove the point.
 In Progressive Labor Party (PLP) we know that especially under the cover of a Black mayor, much like President Barack Obama as former president, our class must be more courageous than ever at our jobs and in our neighborhoods in calling out the atrocities committed by those with the same skin color and from the same “communities” that we come from.   
Eric Adams is no different. The capitalist warmongers running the Democratic Party need politicians like Adams in NYC and Ras Baraka in Newark, New Jersey, to play leading roles in keeping Black workers disciplined and submissive to the needs of an ever-more-volatile capitalist system.  
Politically-backed slumlords to blame for Bronx blaze
In the aftermath of the January 9 fire at Twin Parks North West Tower, Eric Adams invoked the age-old blame-the-victim mantra of “personal responsibility,” accomplishing  exactly what the flailing main imperialist wing of the U.S. ruling class needs right now.
Adams blamed the deaths of children as young as four or five not on his firetrap landlord buddy Rick Gropper (NY Mag, 1/13, cityandstateny.com 1/12) but on Black immigrant workers themselves running for their lives and neglecting to shut doors that would have closed on their own if Gropper had properly maintained them. A tenant interviewed after the blaze put it best:
They’re sending up just enough heat to say they’re sending up heat, but it’s not enough to keep you warm, and if you don’t use a space heater, then you use your oven (NYPost, 1/10).
This is capitalism in a nutshell: the landlord’s disregard for safety protocols led to needless
death– what Freidrich Engels called “social murder.’”
Police raids terrorize Black youth
Days before the deadly Bronx fire, on January 4, the Adams gang set the stage for this new wave of social murder forced onto workers by increasing the tempo and intensity of New York Police Department (NYPD) raids targeting Black and Latin youth. Plainclothes ‘anti-crime’ units that murdered Shantel Davis, Kimani Gray and Saheed Vassell in Brooklyn have been reinstated by his administration (NYT, 1/5).
The bosses were forced to disband these units during the anti-racist protests following the death of George Floyd, but they quickly restored their brutal policies of shoot to kill once the protests subsided. Only communism can accomplish the goal that all workers seeking justice are fighting for: a world without any racist cops empowered to defend capitalist inequality.  
Raids, like the one on January 4 where 17 Black youth were arrested by the cops, rely on weak “guilt-by-association” conspiracy laws that use social media and cyberspace collaborations with law enforcement to round up workers by the hundreds. The newly appointed Black female NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell gives us a sense of the Big Fascist (see glossary, page 6)direction that the desperate ruling-class is headed in: “There will be more cases like this one, not just here in Brooklyn but in every borough” (Brooklyn DA/YouTube, January 10).
Sewell received high-grade training in counterterrorism with the FBI Academy in Quantico, VA, so she is savvy enough to acknowledge the “lack of choice” Black youth face, but her actions speak louder than any words—for the youth aged 17-23 targeted in this raid (PIX 11, 1/4).
These Task Forces are responsible for a 20-year campaign of terror targeting Muslim communities with kidnap-style street arrests, summary deportation and targeted infiltration of community centers and houses of worship.
Whether it is Sewell’s compatriots persecuting Muslim workers or former NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s over-decade-long “stop-and-frisk,” workers have suffered from racist political repression at the hands of NYC mayoral administrations.
In promising “more cases” Sewell is building on a high bar the NYPD set for fascist, repressive terror. Bloomberg’s stop-and-friskpractices recovered a paltry number of weapons (The Atlantic, 7/24/13) but terrorized a generation of Black and Latin youth (NYT, 1/5). As with stop-and-frisk, the Big Fascists’ aim to target gang members under the guise of Black conservative leadership is not safety; it is terror.    
Angry youth must join PLP to fight racist policing
Long-term investigations prove that city governments are aware of exactly which young people are in deepest crisis. Educators have similar insight, yet schools remain sites of repression and neglect for uncounted thousands.  
While the bosses forced youth into unsafe educational conditions during the pandemic, PLP supported student anger and protest in NYC and beyond (see page 3). Students at Brooklyn Tech high school (see letter, page 6) led the way for protests from Chicago to Boston with students standing up to capitalist failure in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. All we can expect from the bosses is a steady dose of aggressive policing in our schools modeled in the image of the Sewell/Adams regime.
Young people are in crisis, a crisis so deep that, for some, gangs appear to be their best option. But students don’t need street gangs or the gang in blue; they need PLP!  
Calls for more Black leaders for capitalism only feed the illusion that there is a version of capitalism that can work for us, and this has proven true from NYC to Newark to the working-class communities in the Caribbean and Africa where politicians meet angry youth with guns and state repression. “Community engagement” with the likes of Adams and Sewell is the kiss of death. Identity politics blinds us to this truth and hence is poisonous. The future of our youth is an afterthought for the ruling class Sewell and Adams front for.
Black youth, from Minneapolis to Baltimore to Ferguson and beyond, have led uprisings recently that rocked the world. The racist U.S. ruling-class tremble in fear at the potential explosive force which rests in the heart of their crumbling imperialist world order. Their great nightmare is our great hope. The leadership of Black workers and youth remain a key force for communist revolution.