“I think I want to join the Progressive Labor Party.”

That was how a teacher introduced herself to me after a workshop at last week’s anti-UFT union conference. The workshop was about how to build a union chapter in schools. A veteran comrade spoke about being in PLP and about the need to fight the bosses every opportunity we get. He said that we should all consider ourselves lucky to be able to dedicate our lives to fighting back.

I said I was a member of PLP and described some of the struggles we had been involved in to fight the racist bosses and their UFT lackeys. I mentioned the union’s delegate meeting where I helped unfurl a banner that attacked the union leadership for not fighting the racist budget cuts. We were kicked out of that meeting by the union’s security and then called terrorists by Randi Weingarten, the leader of the UFT at that time. Hundreds of delegates booed her and forced her to apologize. 

That was a positive action, mainly because we forced the bosses to show their true colors. The lesson I took from this conference is that we have to be bold about telling people that we are members of the communist PLP. If we don’t, we will miss countless opportunities to meet workers ready to join our movement!

Red teacher