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!
