Some of us Kentucky comrades went to the Republican National Convention (RNC) to protest and immediately ran into fascist cops on old-school horses and bikes as well as boats in the water (when did the pigs learn circus tricks!). I used my scream-singing pitch for megaphone chants. It was a hit! It was cool to see other organizations we don't necessarily agree with coordinating chants and drums together. We also struggled with them by inserting our chants about class struggle as more and more of the crowd followed along. We took the road of "struggle with, struggle against!" We were able to distribute CHALLENGE widely including to many liberals, who were at least condemning genocide in Gaza. They were ready to criticize Small Fascist Republicans but not the Big Fascists (see glossary on page 6), so we included chants targeting both. One worker had a tattoo of our logo, the fist and star and didn't know the Party, so we gave him a CHALLENGE with the logo!
Next day, heading back to the RNC , we found out that the Ohio KKKops killed a homeless man in a Milwaukee encampment. That morning we also found out that a Black worker was murdered by hotel security and that family members of both murdered men were going to be there.
Despite just hearing about these murders that morning, the Party was on the go! We were all over the place this week, very flexible, jumping into action very quickly. It was intense and bold on a level that Appalachian comrades weren’t used to. My initial thought was that Ohio state cops murdering an already-displaced Samuel Sharpe outside their jurisdiction (when their one job was to be at the RNC) would be a bad look for them.
But the bosses and their cops know no borders! Neither should workers! We should resist letting them sweep workers away like we’re trash before their circus events! Cops claimed they saw Sharpe’s knife when they were 30 feet away. But the KKKops pulled guns out before confirming a weapon and ran up on him and murdered him. Using the justification of having a small knife, F___ that! That man was living in a tent and had nothing. His homie said they shot him on the sidewalk, moved the body to the grass then moved it back. "They got that yellow tape so they can investigate themselves and cover up their tracks!" he said.
The workers living in the encampment were militant towards the bosses’ media and solid with each other. They told us to “get on outta here” until we said we're not reporters. One said, "I got information but you ain't gonna get it without some money!" But they quickly opened up when we showed solidarity, and the same guy ended up asking us for a paper! They all took copies of CHALLENGE. We had conscious political conversations near the yellow tape where the KKKops could hear "F___ Tha Police!" blasting from their car. The encampment had a community garden. One man told us that "when you're living like that y'all gotta take care of and protect each other, collectively.” A man with a walker said, "And these are the people who supposed to protect us?" A comrade responded, "They protect the rich!" He laughed "right!" and dapped us up. A woman walking from across the street saw our numbers and must have known we were Org'd up. "Power to the people!, she yelled. I ran over there and gave her CHALLENGE before we dapped everybody up and headed back to the hotel in preparation for the dual-racist murder protests later that night. During the vigil we chalked the wall "racism means we got to fight back” with the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) logo.
I was also interviewed by Hot 91 and promoted the necessity of the working-class revolution.There were choppers and drones and a cop car sitting in the hotel parking lot specifically to spy on us. PL’ers were leading pro-worker chants and some of members from Party for Socialism Liberation (PSL) and other revisionist groups who were open to us joined in. I spoke to a couple of PSL members here and there. After overhearing one of them saying the Nazis are in Tennessee again, I asked him if he'd like a paper. "We're here internationally but I'm from Kentucky so that's just the kinda fascism we're dealing with" (and I'm from Brooklyn! a comrade behind me interjects). He declined the paper, then thought about it silently after I said that and was like, alright, and took a copy.
Meanwhile, comrades were breaking off from the march to the sidewalk to hand out CHALLENGE to the community, leaving them on porches and fences. I ran across the street to an apartment complex, their windows were open and people in every apartment were cheering for us. One raised up her CHALLENGE yelling, "I already got it!" LOL! Good work PLP!
Watered-down liberal misleaders hold back the working class, trying to shut down our chants as well as trying to shut down a distraught and grieving Black worker who witnessed the shooting. "He had his hands up! I've got it on my phone!” Our chants were louder than the liberal crowd and they had a bullhorn!
In Appalachia, we can win poor white workers to communist ideas with little resistance. Our main danger comes in the form of revisionist, liberal misleaders. The revisionist would've compared the socially conservative views of Appalachian workers to the ideas we heard today and say, "At least they're starting to become radical". We don't need merely "radical". The working class need state power! We need communism! Smash identity opportunism! We dealt with it at home so we know it when we see it. The liberals talked about "outsiders", how they're not willing to visit the encampments (but we did! They are our brothers and sisters!). Then they let one "outsider" speak while isolating the worker who lived there and witnessed the shooting trying to tell the crowd about the cover up! Under PLP leadership no worker is an outsider, we are all right there with our comrades in Gaza! Palestinian liberation is impossible without the international working class refusing to collectively make and ship the bombs to the Zionist fascists!
The working class is open to our revolutionary antiracist ideas and militancy, so let’s keep it up as we move on to the Democratic National Convention!
