Summer marks the anniversary of many multiracial rebellions against police terror, from Michael Brown Jr. in Ferguson (2014) to George Floyd (2020), and many more. These rebellions serve as inspiration for workers everywhere, but also begs the question: why do kkkops murder with impunity?
Anti-Black racism is at the foundation of the racist treatment and division of all workers. While racist violence hits Black workers hardest, it harms our entire class. State-sanctioned terror has propped up capitalism since the days of the slave trade. The super-exploitation of non-white workers nets the bosses super-profits and enables them to lower wages and living standards for all.
Capitalism holds no future for the working class, and especially for Black youth, except for imperialist war, unemployment, poverty, sexism and racist killings. Capitalists use the anti-scientific concept of “racial differences” to divide us and weaken our potential for fighting back. Only communism offers a solution to the hell of the profit system. Only a communist society can serve the needs of our class by eliminating the bosses who exploit us and reap profits from our labor. That communist-led workers’ society is what Progressive Labor Party (PLP) is fighting for.
State power rules
Police get away with racist murder because they are backed by the racist injustice system. Cops, courts, prosecutors, and juries—the whole state apparatus—are all controlled by the bosses. Consider:
In almost every case, murders by cops are completely legal. In Houston, grand juries haven’t indicted a cops since 2004; in Dallas, over a five-year period, grand juries looked at 81 cop shootings and returned one indictment (Daily Kos, 11/24/14).
Meanwhile, federal data shows that Black teenagers are six times more likely than white teenagers to be shot and killed by police ((Equal Justice Initiative, 12/2/20).
After so many rebellions over decades, how is it that less than two percent of kkkops are prosecuted (Vox, 4/2). The answer is state power — and who holds it.
Under capitalism, the “state”—including all levels of government, the so-called justice system, the police, the military, the schools—are instruments of ruling-class oppression and violence against the working class. As Frederick Engels pointed out in 1884, the state “is a product of society at a certain stage of development; it is the admission that this society has become entangled into irreconcilable antagonisms which it is powerless to dispel" (The Origin of Family, Private Property and State).  
Capitalism is a society based on exploitation, accumulation of profit, and private property. The modern state developed to protect the capitalists’ interests. Contrary to liberal misleaders like Joe Biden, the “democratic process” cannot possibly resolve the antagonisms within capitalist society. The state is no neutral player. While it appears to regulate conflicts from above the fray, its role is to ensure business as usual, regardless of how many workers’ lives are destroyed.  
During protests, every politician preaches non-violence and restraint, while preparing riot police who fire tear gas canisters, stun grenades, and beanbag munitions at protesters.
Under capitalism, “non-violence” means the working class accepts violence by the state and is not allowed to retaliate.   
From slave patrols to killer cops
Legalized killings and mass imprisonment are age-old capitalist tools to control the working class. The first modern police force in what is now the United States, beginning in South Carolina in 1704, was the slave patrol. These forces hunted down and punished runaway and “defiant” slaves; they were a form of organized terror to deter revolts that might threaten plantation profits.
The original Ku Klux Klan was formed in 1865, just after the end of the Civil War. As Eric Foner noted in Reconstruction, America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877, “In effect, the Klan was a military force serving the interests of the Democratic party, the planter class, and all those who desired restoration of white supremacy.”
In the mid-20th century, according to historian Diane McWhorter, the Klan formed alliances with governors’ administrations in states like Alabama and Mississippi. Throughout the South and Midwest, Klan members and local cops (often the same people) conspired to attack and murder civil rights activists.
So it’s not surprising that every year, media outlets “discover” links between rightwing groups and the police. “The Plain View Project, a database of public Facebook comments made by nearly 2,900 current and former police officers in eight cities, suggested that nearly one in five of the current officers identified in the study made public posts or comments that appear ‘to endorse violence, racism and bigotry…’” (Just Security, 6/1/20).
To this day, state-sanctioned racist terror against Black workers and youth is an indispensable weapon for the capitalist class.
In 1991 in Los Angeles, a gang of five cops beat Rodney King while other cops watched.
In 1997 in New York City, a cop assaulted Abner Louima by shoving a broken broomstick up his rectum.
In 2005 in New Orleans, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, a cop murdered Henry Glover before his fellow cops burned Glover’s body.
In 2012 and 2013 in Brooklyn, the cops killed Ramarley Graham, Shantel Davis and 16-year-old Kimani Gray, all without a single indictment.
In 2020, the cops murdered 1,021 people, including George Perry Floyd Jr. and Breonna Taylor.
According to the latest figures from Prison Policy, Black workers and youth account for 40 percent of the approximately 2.3 million people in U.S. prisons and jails, or about three times their percentage of the general population.
The problem with capitalist injustice isn’t about “a few bad cops'' or a few obviously racist prosecutors. The state apparatus is racist to its core, because racism is the lifeblood of capitalism. Bosses keep the working class divided by perpetuating racist ideology. Economic super-exploitation of immigrant workers pits them against Black and Latin workers, which in turn drives down the wages of all, including white workers.
As the sharpening global competition between U.S. and rival imperialists cuts into the bosses’ profit rates, racist attacks against workers are escalating. An economic crisis spells mass unemployment, budget cuts in education and healthcare, tuition hikes—and more killer cops. The capitalists need cutbacks to funnel their resources into the bigger wars to come. In their run-up to global combat, they are turning schools into jails with surveillance cameras and metal detectors. Their police are occupying Black and Latin working-class neighborhoods. They are spying on and detaining Muslim, Arab, Middle Eastern, and South Asian youth.
Why are they doing these things? To intimidate workers and discourage fightback. The bosses fear that workers are fed up and won’t take their oppression much longer.
Revolution is non-negotiable
We didn’t negotiate out of slavery and we won’t negotiate our way out of capitalism. From slave patrols to the hyper-militarized cops of today, the bosses’ state is the sworn enemy of the working class. The rebels during the anti-police-terror fightback rejected passivity and dead-end electoral distractions. The capitalist state cannot be reformed — it must be abolished with communist revolution. For that we need organized, revolutionary violence. Under the communist leadership of the Progressive Labor Party, the movement against police terror can be the beginning of an all-out fight toward revolution. From Afghanistan to the United States to Haiti—smash racism! Smash the capitalist state!

HYATTSVILLE, MARYLAND, August 11—Braving 99-degree heat, senior residents of Friendship Arms apartments held a spirited rally to demand that SHP Management Corporation (SHP) fix the roof, restore air conditioning and eradicate mice in the walls. Under capitalism safe housing is a dream for much of the working class particularly for some of the most vulnerable workers and super exploited sections of our class—disabled, retired, Black, Latin, Asian workers. Run down and unsafe housing is what the working class perpetually endures under a system where housing is a commodity to be bought and sold, and where landlords must provide as little maintenance as possible to maximize profits.
Criminal landlords rarely face consequences for subjecting workers to these tortuous living conditions. That’s because housing courts and government institutions like Housing and Urban Development (HUD) only exist to protect slumlords and to do their bidding. The Friendship Arms struggle further demonstrates that capitalism, not old age or disability, is the most debilitating force in the lives of all workers.
In October a fire damaged the roof of these apartments being overseen by HUD. For months the Tenants Organization has been demanding repairs through petitions and meetings with the management, but some displaced  residents are still living in hotels, while air conditioning of the common areas of the building remains broken. A Progressive Labor Party (PLP) member of Hyattsville Aging in Place (HAP) suggested taking the struggle to the next level and a friend from the building jumped on the idea and the rally was planned quickly. Never underestimate seniors!
Our PLP club mobilized in support of the rally, offered chants, creative posters, political leadership, and provided the bullhorn. But the residents led the event with chants such as “Ageism Means, We Have to Fight Back!” and a detailed speech about the failings of management to act on their demands. The Party would have preferred “Capitalism means we have to fight back!” Then the tenants went inside the building and continued chanting all around the first floor!
The rally was covered by the local press, Hyattsville Life and Times, and attended by representatives of the Prince George’s County Councilperson. We demanded that the Hyattsville City Council and the other politicians join in the demand to HUD and SHP to fix the problems immediately.
Capitalism lets workers free fall
Friendship Arms is owned and managed by SHP, a large landlord and HUD contractor. SHP has two properties in Maryland and both properties are in gross disrepair. The management contracting company has done a good job of ignoring the grievances of the buildings’ seniors and residents with disabilities. Nevertheless HUD is more culpable than SHP for these attacks. For decades the U.S. bosses strategy around the country has been to dismantle what little social safety net the working class counts on, and affordable subsidized and public housing has been high up on their hit list. While liberals blame the Donald Trump administration and his racist housing goon Ben Carson for destroying affordable housing, the latest assault on our housing follows former President Barack Obama era policies. Obama’s solution to fixing the nation’s aging housing stock was  privatization through the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program (The Nation, 6/9/2015).
The RAD program defers government responsibility to private developers and contractors. When developers and banks take over properties, rents will eventually be dictated by market values and not on subsidized income guidelines based on one’s ability to pay, putting seniors at risk for eviction.This fate which has already befallen public housing in New York City. The New York City Housing authority (NYCHA), the largest publically funded and state managed housing  in North America, will eventually grip senior and disabled housing if workers don’t fight back. By contrast, communism, a moneyless system organized according to human need, not markets, commodities, or ability to pay, can truly provide safe, accessible, dignified housing to all workers. Communism will not need to create silly rights and so-called protections for workers based on age, race, ability, or gender because all these oppressive distinctions will be abolished.
Party leadership is key to building class consciousness
The organizing of this event was only possible because communists in PLP discussed the problem in their club and urged our comrade to raise the issue with her friend who is familiar with our ideas. Our role in sharpening the struggle was evident. Self-critically we should also have had one of our club members speak at the rally to call out capitalism and link this struggle to other tenant fights in the county.
One exemplary case is the year-long rent strike and lawsuit against the Arbor Realty Trust, Inc that is continuing in nearby Langley Park, a predominantly immigrant Latin community. Arbor owns Bedford Station and Victoria Station, two buildings infamous for poor living conditions, whose residents are fed up! Together the Arbor Realty and Friendship Arms struggles underscore the sheer inability of capitalists to provide both safe and accessible housing for the most vulnerable sections of the working class. Unifying tenant struggles in the region and linking them to broader fightbacks for safe housing is an important next step in this struggle to demolish this rotten system and build the foundation for communism: a system that truly prioritizes and meets our needs.

CHICAGO, August 21—As the deadliest pandemic in history continues to wreak havoc on the international working class, U.S. food bosses seized the opportunity to capitalize on our classes’ despair, churning out sugary and salty goods, while raking record profits on the backs of overworked and underpaid workers.
 The latest example is the Nabisco factory workers strike. As many workers worldwide know from direct experience, racism, sexism and exploitation are baked right into this profit system. Just as dough needs yeast to rise, capitalism needs exploitation and racist divisions to function. Communists from the international Progressive Labor Party (PLP) brought revolutionary politics to striking workers outside the Nabisco factory on the city’s southwest side. We distributed CHALLENGE newspapers, held signs, made conversation, and brought food to the multiracial group of picketers.
Our message to the striking workers is that regardless of what temporary crumbs the union can wrest from the bosses filthy bargaining table, it’s not enough. In the end, exploitation and its attendant ills- racism, sexism, long hours and ill health- are necessary for the capitalists in their quest for maximum profits.
PLP is proud to stand with striking workers in Chicago and everywhere in order to reject the sell out unions, toxic nationalism, capitalist misleaders and pitiful reforms in favor of an international communist future.
Exploitation under capitalism is how the cookie crumbles
Here at the Chicago plant, 300 workers have refused to keep enduring the grinding, racist, and deadly exploitation of the capitalist bosses. They are joining with hundreds of other Nabisco workers in other U.S. cities such as Richmond, Virginia and Portland, Oregon who are fighting back against unpredictable and long shifts, increased health insurance costs, and dangerous understaffing.
The relentless competition of their system forces the bosses to squeeze us as much as possible, at the cost of immeasurable worker suffering. During a pandemic, the company recorded profits of over $3 billion as a number of plants closed, while at others workers were forced to put in 16-hour shifts (CBS News, 8/20). Many worked six to seven days a week for several months. Now, they are being forced to give up overtime pay and concede to a two-tier healthcare system, which will reduce benefits for new workers and cut overall wages.
A number of workers view cutting wages and benefits as a betrayal, but for the bosses, these are necessary decisions based on profit. Under capitalism, all wage work is theft (see letter, page 6). This wage slavery must be abolished.
Pandemic exposes racist horrors
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has further exposed the horrors of the capitalist system. On top of the millions of mainly Black and Latin workers who have already died from a mostly preventable illness, we have seen some of the world’s wealthiest capitalists and companies collectively add $1 trillion to their total net worth since the pandemic began (Washington Post, 1/21). This sickening calculus demonstrates that bosses wealth is made possible by racism and sexism.
Horror stories of inhumane working conditions have surfaced in media reports. They paint a picture of how workers are treated amid a traumatic pandemic: from an injured Nabisco worker falling off her chair and being forced to work with a broken ankle (The Grio, 8/21), to Frito Lay workers dying of heart attacks on the factory floor (Washington Post, 7/21).
The strikers that we met on the picket line today, many of whom were Latin, Black, and women workers, shared their own personal stories of racist and sexist attacks from the bosses. They also shared their strong commitment to maintaining the strike and fighting on.
Labor fakers bake a toxic recipe
The union that officially represents the Nabisco workers, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) has some of the most reactionary politics that have come to represent the boss-led unions. They could hardly be bothered to mobilize the rank and file as the bosses shuttered plants, eliminated pensions and laid off hundreds.
They waited until the workers were on the ropes to finally call for a strike (Common Dreams, 8/20).They are also spreading the poison that is nationalism by painting Nabisco workers in Mexico as rivals who “took jobs” from workers in the U.S. Pitting workers from different countries against one another for the problems the profit system creates is a completely racist ideology that only serves the ruling capitalist class. Workers have every interest in uniting across the bosses’ artificial borders in a global fight against capitalist exploitation.
BCTGM or any other union will never call for this internationalism because they all seek to work within the confines of the capitalist system. To advance the needs of our class everywhere, we need a clean break with bosses, misleaders, and reformists. We need a mass PLP, fighting for communism and workers’ power!
Fight like Stella D’Oro, join PLP
PLP has supported and given leadership to countless strikes in our history because we understand them to be potential schools for communism. It is in the act of refusing our exploitation - withholding our labor from the bosses - building working-class unity that we grasp our own power and the vision of a worker-run society. Strikes also reveal the need for a revolutionary communist Party. We urge Nabisco workers to join us to help build the Party into a mass fighting force capable of destroying this rotten, crumbling system once and for all.
Supporting the Nabisco workers in their fight against racist and sexist attacks brings back memories of another strike that the Party supported, that of Stella D’Oro bakery workers in New York between 2009-10.
Majority immigrant and women workers maintained a two-front fight for 11 months against both bosses who wanted to close the factory and the treachery of the same BCTGM union hacks.
We don’t know how long the Nabisco strike will last, but we do know the PLP will continue to fight alongside our class to advance our struggle for a communist world where workers run things, and never need to settle for the bosses’ crumbs.

NEW YORK CITY, August 25—CUNY students and faculty from three campuses are responding to the recent earthquake and hurricane in Haiti, and the four month-long coal miners’ strike in Brookwood, Alabama. Over the summer, members and friends of the revolutionary communist Progressive Labor Party (PLP) held weekly organizing meetings and political discussions with students and coworkers, in preparation for the fall semester. And our campuses are kicking the fall semester off with antiracist and anti-imperialist politics at the forefront of our organizing (see CUNY, page 5). These struggles are opportunities to build international working-class solidarity, which can build confidence in the working class to run society. We need to struggle with everyone involved in these fightbacks to commit to joining Progressive Labor Party.
Solidarity with students and workers in Haiti
Our local PLP club has been involved with the #SOSColombia movement against racist police terror in Colombia, with several members attending a rally in Washington, DC (see CHALLENGE, 6/10). We also followed the fightback in Haiti that began in 2018, sparked when the now-assassinated former President Moïse raised prices on fuel by 50 percent. To kick off the fall semester, we plan to hold a demonstration for international solidarity and connect the fightback in Colombia with the ongoing fightback in Haiti.
At Kingsborough Community College, our organizing has brought us into struggle alongside students from Yemen, Palestine and other Muslim-majority countries. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, this picked up again with the recent fascist Israeli bombardment of Gaza. Some Students fighting against Israeli terror expressed interest in supporting the workers in Haiti and Colombia. Haiti, Colombia and Palestine—the appearance may seem different in language and culture, but the essence is workers fighting against capitalist terror and exploitation.
“We are choking on nationalism”
Our club’s planning meetings for this solidarity demonstration have been spaces for sharp and enriching political discussion and debate by friends brand new to our Party. During one meeting, a veteran fighter in the struggle in Colombia and new to PLP noted how little they or many know of the history and struggle in Haiti. She noted, “We are choking on nationalism. So many groups only focus on Colombia and don’t want anything to do with internationalism. These borders are not real. Haiti was the first to resist colonization, and we need to make this connection.”
The connections between workers in Colombia, Palestine and Haiti run deep. The Israeli racists have been training the racist Colombian police and paramilitary forces since the 1980s (Al Jazeera, 6/5/03) and have been deploying and training the Haitian police fascists since 2010 (Jerusalem Post, 12/23/10).
The fact that workers are fighting back in all three areas is an opportunity for communists to build international working-class solidarity. Our club is growing with new friends and has moved into high gear since the earthquake and hurricane struck our sisters and brothers in Haiti. On September 4, join us in Brooklyn at Church Ave and Nostrand Ave at 12pm for an internationalist, anti-imperialist rally.
Solidarity with striking miners, Amazon workers
Our club is sending a delegation of students and faculty to Alabama to meet with striking miners of the Warrior Met Coal company. Since April, a multiracial group of 1,100 miners have been on strike for higher wages, benefits, and time off after the company broke off negotiations with their union, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). Striking miners have been attacked by scabs and company goons on the picket lines, right down the road from Amazon’s Bessemer warehouse, where 3,215 workers were recently intimidated out of voting for union representation.
One of Warrior Met Coal’s owners is BlackRock, a major investor in private, for-profit ICE detention centers along the U.S.-Mexico border. BlackRock’s CEO, Laurence Fink, is also a New York University trustee, and in 2019 was an honored guest at a CUNY-Hunter College event. Same enemy, same fight! Workers of the world unite!
After Contacting striking miners, we received an invitation to a rally in Alabama. We began reaching out to our base of CHALLENGE readers. We received very positive responses and pledges to help raise money and awareness about the strike, and connect our struggles at CUNY with the coal miners and Amazon workers. More in the next issue. Stay tuned!