NEWARK, NJ, April 12—For the first time in its 250-year history, a coalition of Rutgers workers— 9,000 graduate workers, adjuncts, and part-time lecturers (PTL)— called a strike on what would have been communist Paul Robeson’s 125th birthday.
On day one of the strike, members of the Progressive Labor Party were out in full force distributing CHALLENGE newspapers as picketers rallied and gave passionate speeches at the Newark campus. Together, workers and students shut down the $5 billion/year university across several campuses!
As the contradictions of capitalism bring the bosses’ global system closer to World War III, such strikes and other forms of class struggle will intensify. Strikes have the potential to be schools for communism, and leading the struggles with revolutionary ideas builds the confidence of workers in choosing our class over the bosses’ system forever.
Workers ready to fight, bosses & their misleaders cower
Workers’ rage and lack of confidence in liberal misleadership and electoral politics is key to producing and maintaining strikes in an environment of growing fascism and war. Thousands of ordinary workers at Rutgers University chose the power of our class over the deadly defeatism of the liberal union bosses and the empty promises of NJ Governor Phil Murphy to fight for our needs. Getting closer to the strike launch, union misleaders tried to fool workers that it was in our best interest to believe that the threat of a strike is more powerful than its actual realization. Their lack of confidence in the working class, opportunism and pacifism - which no union boss or elected official can avoid - had them trying to convince rank and file members that they weren’t “ready” to fight for each other. These misleaders were very wrong. When members were told that Murphy was requesting the union give him a short period of time to resolve the differences between Rutgers bosses and workers to avoid the strike, workers responded with a roaring no! PLP members worked with their union siblings to ensure the membership was ready, and that workers’ need for a strike won over liberal misleaders' doubt and fear.
Cutbacks, low wages part of war prep
As the inter-imperialist rivalry between the U.S., Russia, and China reaches new heights, the bosses are hoarding resources and superexploiting workers in preparation for recruiting us into their mounting wars. Universities play a complex role in this preparation. While their workers and facilities absorb the cutbacks that go hand-in-hand with resource hoarding, universities are also key sites for recruiting and training students to become a pacified workforce and the liberal misleaders of tomorrow.
The bosses need masses of people won to liberal ideas in college to reproduce the nationalism and helplessness that supports conditions of war. At Rutgers, diversity projects like the Honors Living and Learning College train students to believe in their individual exceptionalism, convincing them that a few Black students getting elite career opportunities will help liberate the entire Black working class. In the program, students get a minor in Social Justice, but only very few have participated in the strike effort, while even more have spent their time creating a Black Professionals Network.  But no amount of politicians of color can change the material conditions for the international working class; only communist revolution led by PLP will smash capitalism’s racist exploitation once and for all.
Bosses like Phil Murphy, Ras Baraka and Jonathan Holloway will show their true colors as liberal supporters of finance capital as they try to crush worker’s unions in the coming days or betray workers in years to come when they run for greater seats of power. Governor Murphy, a former hedge fund executive at Goldman Sachs— the second largest investment bank in the world— will demand sacrifice from workers and will use increasingly fascist tactics to end the strike.  Rutgers president Holloway will do whatever his real bosses–finance capital–dictate to keep pumping out obedient workers, generate profit for the state and pay Rutgers’ external debt, which totals more than $250 million, including about $140 million to construct athletic facilities (USA Today 1/19/2022).
As the Rutgers strike continues, it will be imperative for workers and students to use it as a school for communism. Only on the picket lines will they learn the important lessons for liberation, and the tools to refuse the bosses’ austerity without being won to liberal ideas that lead to imperialist war. With multiracial unity and an international Progressive Labor Party on the front lines, the Rutgers strike will help teach us all to have confidence in each other, and to embrace communism as our class’s only way to win the world.

**Future issues of CHALLENGE will contain further analysis and reports of our involvement in this strike.**

LOS ANGELES, March 23—“When students are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!” This chant rang out on busy Los Angeles streets as workers from two unions, Services Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 99 and United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA), parents, students, and members of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) marched in solidarity. Literally hundreds of cars driving by honked in support. For the better part of a week, workers all over LA got to witness the power of a united working class; a working class that must one day overthrow the capitalists and rule the world.
Members of SEIU Local 99, composed of cafeteria workers, bus drivers, custodians, and school support staff, called a three-day action to strike against unfair labor practices and retaliatory action by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) school bosses. UTLA took to the picket lines in solidarity. Both unions have been in contract negotiations for over a year. Meanwhile, Los Angeles public school students are suffering from the chronic, racist understaffing of Special Education Assistants and other positions.
The pouring rain, which continued for most of this three-day strike, did not dampen the strikers’ enthusiasm. At one school, PLP members were welcomed on the picket line and helped lead chants. We brought a back issue of CHALLENGE headlined “Strike” which got the attention of many passing drivers, creating a cacophony of noise. Picket lines of close to a hundred strikers from both unions in front of the school continued for hours in the morning before school workers traveled to downtown LA for afternoon mass rallies.
Money for schools, not for cops
While these education workers have been fighting for crumbs, the military and police always have funds. Biden, with full Congressional support, has dispersed more than $75 billion over the last year to the war in Ukraine. Even after a huge antiracist movement demanding to defund the police, the Democratic mayor and city council of LA increased LAPD’s budget by $87 million. Karen Bass, LA’s new mayor, has already promised to hire more KKKops and increase their funding. This is because capitalism is not designed to benefit workers, but rather funds only what will continue to keep the ruling class rich and powerful. The racist and sexist nature of capitalism is also very clear as working-class Black, Latin, and immigrant neighborhoods take the brunt of the cutbacks.
Thankfully, Local 99 workers have realized that their strength lies in withholding their labor power through striking. This comes on the heels of an uptick of workers striking internationally, most recently seen here in the six-week strike by the graduate students in the University of California system. Except for working-class revolution or mass rebellion, strikes, more than anything else, bring fear into the hearts of the bosses.
This is why we approached this opportunity with urgency. We joined picket lines at the schools we have connections to and attended the larger marches with our literature. A hundred PLP flyers analyzing the strike, and 70 copies of CHALLENGE were distributed. We talked with education workers about standing united and firm in this battle. This is one of the few ways we can force the bosses to give students, their families, and neighborhoods a fraction of the education they deserve. But more importantly, it will be vital for workers, teachers, students, and parents to ultimately learn that any reform or crumbs given can   be taken away, so long as capitalism and its drive for maximum profit remains. This conversation led to May Day invitations as well.
Liberal leaders and politicians: no friends to workers
Another common conversation we had with workers is how liberals are the main danger to our class. UTLA leadership has put its faith in so-called progressive candidates to bring about change. They backed Karen Bass and a whole host of city council people and school board members in the last election, most of whom have been silent while Local 99 and UTLA members battled with LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho over the School Board’s $5 billion surplus.
Karen Bass in particular ran on a platform spotlighting the issue of unhoused folks in LA. Yet, before the strike, she was silent as Local 99 workers’ average salary remained below the poverty line and they were constantly under threat of losing their housing. She only inserted herself into the negotiations after it became clear the schools would be shut down because of the strike, and only then to pose as a “friend of labor,” get credit for ending the strike, and preparing to mislead workers in the future. She will no doubt expect the union leadership to continue to support her going forward. We cannot rely on liberals and so-called progressives to save us! Capitalism will always exploit its workers, but we can choose to organize to overthrow this system and replace it with communism where workers run society.
While striking is a crucial step in fighting for reforms and it makes clear the power of a united working class, it will never be enough to end racist and sexist attacks such as those on low-paid education workers. For that, we need a communist organization like PLP which is fighting to get rid of capitalism, the system that relies on unemployment, low wages, and part-time labor to maximize profit. In LA, we will strengthen the ties that we made on the picket lines and fight for this uptick in class struggle to lead to growth in PLP.

As Emmanuel Macron, the president of France and a shameless stooge for finance capital, tries to ram through a plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, millions of workers are waging the largest mass fightback in that country in more than fifty years. Enraged by former investment banker Macron’s anti-worker reforms, garbage collectors, utility workers, train conductors, and museum workers have walked off their jobs in droves.
Worldwide capitalism--and the charade of liberal democracy that gloves its iron fist—is in crisis. As the global economy plunges into recession and inter-imperialist rivalries intensify, the ruling class has no choice but to claw back wages and benefits from workers—and to use state terror and their mad dog racist kkkops against the inevitable rebellions. Wherever we see workers willing to withhold their labor and militantly reject the rulers’ agenda for fascism and war, it’s a good sign for our class.  It points to our potential to build an international communist Progressive Labor Party, and to a future without bosses or exploitation.
Capitalist bosses protect banks, not workers
“The social state and the social safety net is disappearing,” said Francoise, a social worker (The Guardian, 03/23). Three months shy of retiring at 63, she has joined the fightback in Paris. Workers and students are taking to the streets to light garbage on fire and damage bus stops, newspaper kiosks, and traffic lights. They firebombed Macron’s favorite restaurant and stormed the Paris office of BlackRock, the multinational investment giant (Washington Post, 4/6).
For now, France’s trade unions are vowing to stay on strike until Macron withdraws the retirement reform (AP, 4/10). But we know how sell-out union leaders use working-class anger to get a few crumbs of temporary concessions from the bosses—and then to pacify their members and get them off the streets. In 2017, a number of French unions backed Macron for his first term as president, despite his pro-business platform, when he faced off against open racist Marine Le Pen (New York Times, 5/1/17). Many leading French liberals did the same. Liberals are the main danger! The only long-term win for workers is the revolutionary fight for a communist world run by and for the international working class. While this process will be violent, it must be led with discipline and strategy. Smashing property isn’t enough. Workers need to drive out the bosses and smash the whole capitalist system.
French rulers mobilizing for war
For the French bosses to get a seat at the table with the top imperialist powers, they must ramp up their attacks on workers. Even as Macron pushes to cut French workers’ pensions, France is increasing its military budget by more than one third by 2030, to 400 billion euros. As Macron told the French military, “We must be ready for more brutal and numerous wars” (Wall Street Journal, 1/20). In line with Macron’s pension reform, France plans to increase the age limit for army reservists to 70 and in some cases to 72 (msn.com, 4/4).
Amid the sharpening rivalry between the U.S. and China, France cannot be taken for granted. On a recent visit to China to meet with President Xi Jinping and seal a $15 billion trade deal, Macron made clear that the French ruling class won’t be in lockstep with the U.S. bosses. As the New York Times noted, Macron “staked out an independent European position, and both leaders repeatedly lauded a ‘multipolar world,’ thinly disguised code for one that is not American dominated” (4/8). History shows us that any alliance between bosses is temporary, and that they won’t hesitate to attack one another to protect their profits.
At his inauguration last June, Macron called for a “war economy” (Le Monde, 6/14/22). The bosses are telling us loud and clear that they are preparing for world war. It’s the job of the working class, with communist leadership, to turn inter-imperialist war into worldwide communist revolution.
Lesser evils rob workers of revolutionary power
Workers in France have a long history of mass militant fightback. In 1789, the French Revolution overthrew the parasitic monarchy and inspired rebellions against slavery in Haiti and other French colonies in the Caribbean and Africa. In 1871, the Paris Commune marked the first attempt by workers to put communist ideas into practice and provided lessons to future communists on how to win. In the 20th century, French communists and anti-fascists fought vigorously and contributed mightily to the defeat of the Nazis.
During World War Two, the French Communist Party (PCF) adopted the “Popular Front” line of the international communist movement. By calling for collaboration with “good capitalists” in the U.S., Britain, and France, this robbed the international working class of its revolutionary potential. Our class has suffered from “lesser evil” politics ever since. In 1968, when students and workers in France waged a violent struggle against the capitalist state, culminating in a wildcat general strike of 11 million workers, the PCF betrayed them. Just last year, these fake leftists showed their true colors when they backed the finance capitalist Macron for his second-term run-off against Le Pen.
Voting for liberal or fake-left misleaders--whether Macron in France, Biden in the U.S., AMLO in Mexico, Petro in Colombia, or Lula in Brazil--is a deadly trap. Our class deserves a world where older workers are treated with respect and gratitude for their decades of contributions to society. We deserve a world where imperialist war is ancient history, and where workers' needs come first. In short, we deserve a communist world. Let’s fight for it!

Newark, February 28––“I am a worker!” These words were echoed again and again throughout the Coalition of Rutgers Unions’ day long “Take Back the University” event at the college’s Newark Campus. The three-part day of protest, which marked the beginning of the faculty union’s strike authorization vote, included two teach-ins about solidarity and striking, as well as a rally aimed to disrupt the meeting of the university’s Board of Governors (BOG).

On the heels of the Take Back the University day of protest, and after months of fruitless negotiations with the bosses, the 8000 academic workers of Rutgers AAUP-AFT faculty union have officially authorized a strike. Many reforms are on the table, including pay equity, health care, maternity leave, and job security for adjunct professors and graduate students. Though these reforms would certainly benefit those who receive them, strikes are best measured by their ability to mobilize and raise the consciousness of the working class.

Despite freezing rain and fresh snowfall, and the university bosses’ last minute cancellation of in-person classes and the BOG meeting, nearly 200 people made it out. While union misleaders spoke in support of electoralism and the bosses’ capitalist system, Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members provided key political leadership by consistently pushing discussion and chants beyond the specific problems facing Rutgers’ faculty and graduate students, and toward communist ideas of class consciousness and multiracial unity.

Cowardly bosses are a no-show
The night before the Rutgers AAUP-AFT “Take Back the University” day of protest, Rutgers’ Board of Governors announced that it would be switching its only meeting set for the Newark campus this year to Zoom. The Newark administrators also took advantage of the light snow conditions and moved all classes that day from in-person to virtual. They claimed this was for the safety of students and workers, and yet janitors and dining hall staff still had to come into work despite the weather. This differential treatment by the bosses, meant to divide and isolate the members of the working class from each other, was the subject of the first teach-in of the day.

PLP members made clear connections between the shallow identity politics the university and unions advertise, and the neglect, displacement, and mistreatment of the Black and Latin working class in Newark. Our members explained about the university’s role as a capitalist institution, one that exploits Black and Latin maintenance workers while also conditioning students with the nationalist and identity-based ideas needed to recruit our class to fight in WWIII. Our comments were then quoted by other workers in their rally speeches. The bosses’ cowardice was not shared, and workers were present, receptive, and encouraged by this communist-led action.

Cult of personality on display
While unions offer workers an important tool for organizing our class against the bosses’ racist exploitation, they also contain contradictions that cannot be overlooked. Like all reformist organizations, they ultimately work to prolong the lifespan of capitalism.

By endorsing liberal politicians and negotiating “in good faith” with our exploiters, unions work to win our class to this terrible world order. This was clear at the Rutgers day of protest, where Association of Flight Attendants president Sarah Nelson lied on stage about receiving a phone call from liberal misleader Bernie Sanders, and falsely declared that “workers can control capitalism.” Amazon Labor Union president, Chris Smalls was also in attendance, and only repeated the same played out phrases about union work being a “marathon, not a sprint,” and arguing bureaucratic union density is our class’s most important fight.
Both Nelson and Smalls played on their own notoriety by taking selfies with fans and starting chants disparaging Jeff Bezos and other billionaires. They both advocated for the replacement of famous bosses but not their total defeat. These are opportunist lines for those looking to advance their political careers.
Members of PLP helped to shift the dialogue away from these misleaders’ talking points, moving the chants away from specific U.S. bosses and toward multiracial unity, at one point having everyone in attendance shouting, “Asian, Latin, Black and White, workers of the world unite!”

Our Party refuses to lean on the cult of personality and lie to workers this way, arguing that our class already runs the world, and that agreeing to the terms of our exploitation at the bargaining table only helps the ruling class keep us under their boots longer. The only solution is a communist revolution!

Strikes are schools for communism!
More than 50 Rutgers workers and supportive community members received copies of CHALLENGE at the union event, and our Party is committed to continuing to provide leadership to our class on the picket line if a strike is called. PLP views strikes as schools for communism. Striking is an important first step in understanding our power to fight back against the bosses’ exploitation, and the more workers–inside and outside academia–that come to understand their class position, and the power we have when we work together as a united, multiracial, and international communist party, then we can finally begin to come out of this dark night and one day win the world. Join us!