NEW YORK CITY, November 9 - Today thousands of working class immigrants, women, men and children, largely Latin, marched boldly against racist attacks and mass deportations. In the wake of U.S. workers-won to extreme racism-choosing the small fascist Donald Trump (see glossary on page 6) for another presidential term, the fight for communism will need these antiracist warriors to lead the way!

Defending our class from fascist attacks

A well organized march led by Make the Road and various immigrant groups, in coalition with sizable groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, chanted, “We’re here to stay! Listen up, we’re fighting back! From north to south, east to west, we’re in this fight, whatever the cost!” Another chant said “No nations, no borders, no deportations!” A comrade said to a young Asian woman with a lively marching son, “We’re here for him.” “That’s why I’m here,” said his mom. Another comrade said, “The march gave workers the opportunity to learn how to move forward and a sense of the power of belonging to groups of workers able to fight back.” The workers aim to confront the fascist attack on immigrants and Trump’s plan to deport millions, build concentration camps while  scapegoating immigrants. Much work needs to be done to protect immigrants, unite the working class and “Stand up, fight back,” as the chant goes. Members of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) distributed hundreds of CHALLENGE newspapers to friendly marchers and observers.  Comrades have been very active in Make the Road for decades and have been building with antiracist workers, many of them migrants, with the goal of winning them to see the limits of fighting for reforms and bringing them closer to the fight for communism. 

As comrades in PLP immerse ourselves in these organizations we have opportunities to lead, fight for our communist ideas and build PLP. The anti-fascist movement must include all migrant workers, particularly Black migrants. For example, the fight against racist attacks on Haitian migrant workers must be a big part of the struggle. It was mentioned at the march, but not emphasized. Also the genocide, slaughter and displacement of Palestinian workers in Gaza and the West Bank must be at the core of our organizing since organizers made no mention of this connection. Comrades in working class organizations like unions and student groups as well as soldiers are key to the fight. Our class needs internationalism, not nationalism. 

What is to be done?

PL’ers must lead, build mass bases and rely on the working class on the road to communist revolution. In the 1930s and 1940s communists defeated the fascists in spite of their terrible line of uniting with “lesser evil” imperialists, one error that led to the collapse of the international communist movement. PLP has a long struggle to rebuild an international, communist movement that fights to understand and correct errors and advances of the past movement. We have to persevere. Remembering the gut wrenching separation of children from their families from the U.S. to Gaza and Africa, it’s our fight now in the U.S. to never see children left alone when their families have been sent to concentration camps and jails awaiting deportation. It is an outrage to see the capitalists and imperialists purposefully kill the children of the working class around the globe. We in PLP with a growing base must make communism take root and grow. There is no other solution!

New York, NY, November 9 — “This is the first organization I’ve been involved in that not only fights for revolution, but also directly organizes the working class to fight for it.” This was one of the concluding observations of a Progressive Labor Party (PLP) student comrade from California, after more than 40 students, faculty and workers gathered in Manhattan for PLP’s 2024 Student Conference. Student and youth PL’ers stepped up and gave leadership organizing every aspect of this conference where multiracial working class unity was on full display. 

Billions of workers today live in a dark night of sharpening fascist attacks, especially against migrant workers, Black workers, Muslim workers and women, and widening imperialist wars leading to all-out World War 3. However, with an attendance of mostly young, Black and immigrant workers and students and future communist international working class leaders, the future of class war for communist revolution is bright, and the theme of the conference is the reason: building the student-worker alliance.

History is a science: learning from the past

With an agenda discussed, planned and set by a new generation of PLP college student leaders, the political tone of the conference – “No war but class war: Students and workers unite!” — was set with a concise, punchy keynote speech from a graduate student based outside the U.S. This worker’s internationalist speech underlined how liberal misleaders have now appropriated the term “fascism,” and that Trump’s election does not change PLP’s task of defeating every variety of fascism with communist revolution, in every part of the world. Despite Trump’s openly fascist rhetoric, liberal misleaders continue proving to be the main danger in diverting the fightback of the international working class into the arms of a different set of capitalists. 

Defeating fascism means the PLP must organize and fight back on the campus and within basic industries for the mass leadership of the working class. To illustrate this point, next, a transit worker in New York City’s MTA gave a work report. Inspired by the progress of our transit comrades in building a base over years of work and making contacts with dozens of workers, attendees greeted the news that upcoming meetings and plans are in motion with applause. 

Participants then met in breakout groups with student facilitators, and focused the main discussion on a past CHALLENGE article (7/19/24) summarizing lessons from PLP’s fightback since the Vietnam War. The article’s three main points were the necessities of: a) multiracial working class unity, b) building a base, and c) building the Party, PLP, because eradicating capitalism requires discipline, organization, and commitment. Each group saw vibrant and sharp discussions. During the report-back to the larger group concluding the morning session, several students gave examples on how learning from past struggles put their current struggles into context, and shared experiences, lessons, and questions.

‘Class’ struggle: Build the student-worker alliance, build PLP

Our afternoon reading and discussions connected the morning discussion to the rising fascism on college campuses, using a CHALLENGE article about mask bans led by liberal Democrat-led states (10/4/24) and a research article by Indigo Olivier connecting campuses to the U.S. imperialist war machine. Many prestigious colleges invite weapons manufacturers like Lockheed Martin to fund and collaborate with their science and math programs. This, in turn, allows them to recruit promising working class students by enticing them with Lockheed-funded research projects. Community college students, meanwhile, face aggressive, wall-to-wall military recruitment to cover the U.S. Army’s worst recruiting crisis since the end of forced conscription – the “draft” - for the Vietnam War, in 1975.

Alongside another handout listing (just some) of the protest restrictions now placed on campuses from coast to coast, students discussed this student-to-imperialism pipeline amid the crackdowns against the pro-Palestine movement. With the rabid dog Israeli fascists serving as U.S. imperialism’s most vital proxy to maintaining U.S. imperialist supremacy over the global oil trade, it’s no wonder the U.S. ruling class is united in smashing solidarity with Palestine. 

At the same time, this also reveals the inherent limits of the “Boycott, Divest, and Sanction” reform demands from groups like Students for Justice in Palestine. Several Black student leaders also commented on the reality of “transactional solidarity” between the identity politics-driven leadership of these various mostly segregated campus groups, as opposed to a real, working class-driven solidarity. 

Discussions then focused on building a mass student-worker alliance on every campus and industry, and how through fightback and leading by example we can sharpen the anti-imperialist aspects of this struggle with the struggle against sharpening anti-Black fascist police terror. CHALLENGE is our most powerful organizing tool, weapon in the struggle, and spotlight exposing capitalist-led liberal misleadership. Only a mass PLP can lead the working class from the swamp of identity politics, liberalism, nationalism, and religion!

Students, workers, and soldiers UNITE

Year after year, generations of students around the world have shown tremendous courage fighting back in solidarity with their class sisters and brothers from Palestine, Sudan, and the DRC to immigrant workers to Black workers attacked by racist police terror. Today, masses of students yearn for “escalation,” to sharpen the struggle against racism, sexism and imperialist genocide, and can sense the current crop of reformists, revisionists, and nationalist misleaders don’t have a plan. 

PLP fights to unite the student movement while rebuilding the international communist-led working class movement in basic industries, transit, and communications and shut the imperialist system down - and escalate with armed revolution for communism. A key task for communists includes organizing and recruiting in the bosses’ military to “turn the guns around,” and this discussion led to sharp questions we will continue on our campuses and in our areas of work. We ended the conference with new members joining and commitments from each area to write regularly for CHALLENGE. We have a world to win! And to all students, workers and soldiers: JOIN US!

MINNEAPOLIS—Progressive Labor Party has spent decades fighting racist ideas in health and raising class consciousness within the American Public Health Association (APHA). This year was no different. PLP members with members of the Palestine Health Justice Working Group (PHJWG/a committee within APHA) worked on policy statements about the apartheid, occupation, and genocide in Gaza. We posted comments about the need to fight racism and imperialism. We submitted abstracts and gave presentations at the conference. 

The APHA is a 25,000-member organization of public health professionals. There is an annual conference attended by at least 10,000 members every year and this year it was in Minneapolis. Last year at the same conference, the APHA became the first and one of only a few professional organizations to pass a statement about a ceasefire in Gaza, return of the hostages, and allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza. This statement passed because 120, mostly young, public health workers attended the APHA Governing Council debate where the issue was voted on (See CHALLENGE, 12/13/23). Ninety percent of the Governing Council voted in favor of the statement, which allowed it to remain the official position of the APHA for one year. 

Our experience shows how important it is to have a fighting Party like PLP in the organizing of young workers to confront the APHA leadership. At this year’s annual conference there was a walkout and demonstration on the opening day that PLP and other APHA members organized. There was also a march within the exhibit hall on the third day of the conference led by a young PL comrade and a militant Palestinian worker from the PHJWP. We also distributed 900 “APHA CHALLENGEs” to conference and rally goers–a beautiful four-page leaflet with our analysis and contact information.  

Liberals welcome fascist repression within APHA 

This year, another draft of the statement on Gaza was due so that the Association would be able to debate and adopt it as a permanent policy. Despite the authors (one of whom is in PLP) following all the rules for policy statements, the APHA Executive Board decided to prohibit discussion of the ongoing genocide in Gaza at this year’s meeting. The authors submitted a second statement about the genocide and the Israeli attacks on Lebanon as a late-breaker policy statement and this was also not allowed for debate by the membership.  

Throughout the year, APHA leadership also opened multiple investigations for “code of conduct” violations into members who are against the racist genocide and said so on public platforms or responded professionally to Zionist trolls in the organization. The APHA leadership’s intimidation tactics involved never telling the accused what the supposed violation was, and not allowing any transparency when they decided to punish members for “unprofessional” actions. Both the refusal to allow discussion of a racist genocide and the weaponizing of the code of conduct process, show the fascist face of the liberals who run the APHA.  

It’s crucial that we are clear about the fact that liberals are the main danger because they oversee the most ruthless empire in recent history. A few people we were organizing with thought that the leadership personally agreed with us but were caught in the middle, or were constrained by the rules, or some other pitiful excuse to be on the wrong side. This is a serious underestimation of our enemies and we need to be clear about that–APHA has ties to large healthcare corporations, the Democratic party, and the U.S. military. On the positive side, there were many whom we were organizing and sharing ideas with who completely agreed that the liberal misleadership of APHA was not to be trusted and that we had to challenge them.

Antiracist actions met with enthusiasm by workers

The walkout and rally on the first day of the conference that was organized by PLP, Healthcare Workers for Palestine—Twin Cities (HCWP-TC), and the PHJWG was a wonderful success. There were 120 workers from the conference and the city who came to the demonstration just outside the convention center.  Speakers denounced the repression and censorship of APHA, the links between racist state violence here and in Palestine/Israel, and the importance of fighting back against fascist mask bans aimed at protestors and that put all workers (but especially immunocompromised ones) at risk of illness. 

A PLP speaker gave one of the closing speeches that persuasively described how U.S. support for Israel was over control of the Middle East trade routes and oil reserves. Naming and explaining the inter-imperialist rivalry between the U.S. and Chinese ruling classes with facts, stats and clarity had many in attendance nodding in agreement. And later conversations with our base showed that they agreed with that analysis. The collaboration with the HCWP-TC group was also exciting to see: the working class showing up for each other. The HCWP-TC comrades scouted locations around the conference center, recruited speakers and attended multiple planning meetings. They provided the sound system and a great banner, and helped publicize on social media. Their work against the genocide in Gaza locally for the past year meant that they were ready and experienced in helping plan actions. This demonstration would not have been nearly as good without their collaboration. 

The PHJWG pushed to get APHA members to the Governing Council to watch whether they voted to discuss a short statement about the genocide in Gaza. When that motion was not allowed by the APHA Governing Council, we led an initially silent protest in the gallery of spectators by holding up hands with red gloves on them symbolizing the blood of Palestinian workers. When that protest became more vocal, the gallery was cleared and we led a march of over 35 workers through the exhibit hall chanting: “APHA you can’t hide, Stand against Genocide!” With signs from the earlier rally, this group marched through the exhibit hall and the lunch area.

People left their booths to clap and cheer, and a dozen joined the march. A PLP member who has been attending APHA for 40 years and has done multiple marches over the years in the exhibit hall said it was the best reception from those watching that they had ever seen.  
Another notable event at the conference happened when a young Black public health student and friend of ours ditched his speech on asthma and instead decided to spend his allotted time giving a short talk about Gaza and then scrolling a list of the Palestinian workers who have been murdered since last October. After about three minutes of this, he was told to stop and members of the audience protested in support of his action. He walked out of the session with ten other attendees following him. The conversation about how to organize within public health continued outside.  

The bold and brave actions of public health workers at the conference this year shows that workers are disgusted by the racist genocide of Palestinian workers and children and the unending material support for it from the U.S. ruling class. We left the conference with many new contacts and a renewed confidence in communist leadership to oppose racism and imperialism in every setting.

September 28 - The Radical Caucus of the Modern Languages Association (MLA) held an online conference, “Keywords: Complicity,” to examine how U.S. university administrations are now in full complicity with the Israeli-U.S. war machine, repressing pro-Palestinian campus protests. But it is not just now. Universities have always done the bidding of U.S. imperialism. They do war research, they host ROTC military officer training programs and they promote the so-called wonders of U.S. foreign policy. This is no accident as their Boards of Trustees are controlled by rich capitalists and powerful politicians. These ruling class controlled universities are systematically attacking radical faculty on a scale not seen since the anti-communist purges of the Cold War McCarthyism of the 1950s.

The conference started with the image of a tent in Gaza, with the words, “Thank You Columbia Students,” painted on the side, an image of international solidarity honoring the student protests. As more and more wars involving the world’s imperialist powers lead ever closer to world war, this kind of international solidarity is an important step in getting rid of capitalism once and for all with working class power. That’s communism.

Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members have been organizers in the Radical Caucus for many years and new members have joined PLP through this work. Many organizers joined the Caucus at the January MLA convention, where we successfully passed an anti-Zionist resolution. With another group, we are bringing a resolution on BDS (the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign) at the next MLA convention in January. 

Campus bosses back genocide

University bosses became accomplices in Israeli/U.S. genocide by attacking anti-war protests. Pro-Zionist organizations like the Academic Engagement Network (academicengagement.org) are often leading the national repression with plans that include new codes of conduct based on regulating the “time, place and manner” of campus protests. Federal, state, and local politicians push campus administrators to punish protesters with the lie that anti-Zionism equals antisemitism. Administrators are also under pressure from big donors and boards of trustees.
The rulers are demanding that their universities fall in line behind the imperialist genocide, while students and faculty are waging class war against capitalist control of our teaching, learning and action. As protests have grown university administrations have responded with more repression. Their liberal mask is slipping off, revealing the fascism needed to silence protest and wage wider wars.  

Worker-Student Alliance Is key

The first speaker, a historian, showed how McCarthyism set a precedent for the current attacks on pro-Palestinian protest, and told how at Yeshiva University this year the dean put pressure on the entire faculty to sign on to the Academic Engagement Network statement against BDS. Protesters have dubbed California State University “Boeing University” because of its severe repression and close ties to the warmaker aerospace corporation. The speaker told of their efforts to link up students and faculty with union workers in the Labor for Palestine coalition. The next panelist said that Indiana University was punishing faculty, including himself, so that the Board of Trustees could turn out “workers, not thinkers.” 

A colleague from New York University described his campus as a national leader in repression, with 150 student arrests, tighter campus “security” and working with the Academic Engagement Network.  At the University of Michigan a “farcical” policy banned poster images, the word “Palestine,” and even the name of the panelist on flyers announcing her lecture! 

No war but class war!

A National Day of Action is planned on April 17, with 100 campuses already organizing for it, and everyone will join the Caucus push for a BDS resolution at the next MLA convention. A prominent Marxist scholar called for a worker-student alliance to take on the campus repressive apparatus.

The universities pose as havens of free expression and higher learning. Actually they are part of U.S. capitalism with a higher dose of brainwashing. As the imperialist powers (U.S., China, Russia) head closer to world war, the universities cast aside their “neutrality” and become more open agents of U.S. imperialism. PLP fights for the working class to take power from the bosses with communist revolution. In all our work, we must raise that goal and build the Party. No war but class war!