PHILADELPHIA, July 25—“This was my first march with the Party and at first I felt nervous but after I got on the bullhorn and started chanting it just felt right,” said a young comrade during the Democratic National Convention (DNC). Over 60 members and friends of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) descended on the DNC here to show workers and students there is an alternative to the bosses’ politicians—communist revolution. Through our commitment to multiracial unity and our reliance on the working class, this summer project was a microcosm for the kind of world we are building towards.
Leadership from Baton Rouge
From the rallies to the study groups about elections and the history of PLP’s fightback in Philadelphia, it was clear how PL’s political line serves workers’ interests. However, it was a report from our friend in Baton Rouge that illuminated our Party’s purpose for fighting. The organizer, who became active after Alton Sterling’s murder by kkkops on July 5, joined our project after meeting PLP in Baton Rouge (see letter, page 6). The details of her interactions with the police and the working class’s resilience were a tremendous inspiration to the friends and comrades. The working-class bravery against the cops and military confirms our line that it is the working class, not the bosses’ politicians, that will smash capitalism.
As PLP marched in a mass demonstration towards the convention, many workers, including those wearing Bernie shirts, picked up our chant, “The Only Solution Is Communist Revolution.” Supporters of Bernie Sanders, who was inside the convention urging people to vote for Hillary Clinton, were very receptive to communism and some saw us as a real alternative to voting. Our experiences in distributing CHALLENGE and leading a contingent of workers and youth demonstrates the potential to win workers to communist politics. Many were open to our idea of not voting, and instead organizing class struggle where they live, work, and go to school.
Reliance Only On the Working Class
PLP has always believed that our Party will grow as long as we have confidence in the working class. The Baton Rouge fighter said the protests began when workers took the streets instead of waiting for the preachers and politicians. She said, “At first they announced a march for Sunday, but that was a whole week after Alton was shot, so a bunch of us decided to organize a march the next day instead.”  Even after the police arrested over 150, workers still fought back. When the cops threatened to arrest the protesters for walking in the street, a worker from the neighborhood invited the crowd onto her private property to avoid arrests. The kkkops, proving that laws under capitalism only serve the capitalist state, broke down the woman’s door, ruined her lawn, and made many arrests. Her willingness to side with the protestors shows that the working class will support you, and join you, if you are willing to fight.
Meanwhile, the politicians, particularly the Black mayor of Baton Rouge Kip Holden was nowhere to be seen. “We literally haven’t seen him for the past two weeks,” said the worker from Baton Rouge. His capitalist servant’s only contribution was to bring the “anti-police rhetoric…down to zero.”
“The ministers and activists who organize for everything are nowhere to be found. It’s just me and my friends, and who am I?” asked the worker. She is the reason why the Progressive Labor Party knows that we will win. It is the working class women and men who fight every day to survive under this system, and then respond to these racist murders with action, who lead our Party and will continue to lead it for as long as necessary. There will never be professional pacifiers like preachers and politicians leading PLP. The working-class instincts that many already have, accompanied with communist ideas, are dangerous to the bosses.
Working Class Got Your Back
Relying on the working class, whether on the streets of Baton Rouge or on the job in Philadelphia, will not only be key for communist revolution in the long term, but can save your life in the short term. A retired white hospital worker recalled how he began organizing for the Party and was immediately met resistance from a number of different groups within the hospital for decades, especially the local Black union leadership. The union leadership initially tried to spread rumors and keep other workers away from him. Witnessing his relationship and organizing among workers, they tried to physically attack him. The comrade said, “I didn’t realize that my friend on the job knew karate, but when the union thugs came after me, he jumped in and saved me.”
He also talked about how it was his co-workers and friends who made significant contributions to advancing the hospital work. After attending a social event that they organized, one of his friends didn’t look happy. When he asked him what was wrong, his friend said, “We are the only two white people here.” This caused him to go back to organize the white workers to join the other Black workers in these social events. Multiracial unity is important at the workplace, social events, and every aspect of building an impenetrable base among the working class.
Bosses Fear Multiracial Unity
The Summer Project also strengthened the Party’s convictions to fight for multiracial unity in our struggles. Whether it was the hospital worker organizing in the 1980s or the worker fighting back in Baton Rouge in 2016, the bosses ensure that racism keep workers divided, which makes our fight for multiracial unity even more important.
As our Party entered the mass demonstration at the DNC, we all recognized one thing immediately: unlike most of the other groups, we were truly a multiracial group. As one student who joined us at the protest observed, “we were definitely the most colorful group out there.”
One march down Broad St in Philadelphia may not seem significant. It is. Every opportunity we take to promote multiracial unity is another shot at the bosses’ racist system. The bosses understand this, and we have seen this play out in Baton Rouge.
But as the worker from Baton Rouge told the group, “they first went after the white protestors and put them in the car first.” This demonstrates how rulers lash out in fear when workers break out of the racist chains. When white workers put themselves on the line next to their working class sisters and brothers, there is no privilege. The ruling class will come after white workers just as sure as they brutalize and murder workers of other “races” in order to protect their system.
Our comrade in the hospital work talked about how it’s not only the police, but union leaders as well that make sure that workers don’t unite under communist leadership. The union leadership, who worked closely with the Nation of Islam, tried their best to keep the workers divided. Our comrade made it his commitment to organize Black and white workers. That meant starting with social events and outings. Eventually they turned into multiracial unity struggles on the job.
This first few days of the DNC Summer Project was possible because of the over 50 years of struggle of the Party. Our confidence in workers and commitment to building multiracial unity is what gave our comrade the strength to fight the bosses and union officials in the hospital. It was the same strength that sent us to Baton Rouge and fight along the courageous fighters there. It gave us the strength to stand among Sanders supporters and Jill Stein (the presidential candidate of the U.S. Green Party) supporters and to call for communist revolution. An overwhelming number of people took our leadership.
As the election comes closer, we should be bolder with our friends, coworkers, family, and fellow students about an alternative solution to the Democrats, Republicans, Greens, Libertarians and this whole bourgeois electoral system. There’s only one solution: communist revolution. See next issue for more struggles around the DNC summer project!