From U.S. President Donald Trump’s impeachment to massive protests against austerity reforms in Chile and France, the international capitalist system is in crisis. Nowhere is this clearer than in India. Once paraded by the capitalist bosses as “the world’s largest democracy” and a shining example of economic growth, India continues to be plagued by racism, nationalism, and massive poverty and inequality.
Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi has responded to workers’ frustrations over economic stagnation by scapegoating Muslim workers and forcing through a wave of anti-immigrant laws. Hundreds of thousands of workers are pushing back against these racist crackdowns, flooding the streets of major cities and battling with police and government forces.
While these countrywide protests showcase some of the boldness and solidarity that will be needed to defeat capitalism, their narrow reform content is a trap for workers. Settling for anything less than communist revolution will only strengthen the bosses. The Progressive Labor Party (PLP) stands with the working class of India as it fights against fascist anti-Muslim policies. But ultimately, only international communist revolution led by a mass PLP will smash Modi and the racist profit system that puts him and other capitalist stooges in power.
Modi Operandi: Fascism grows in India
Since winning re-election and a majority in the Indian parliament last May, Modi and his Hindu hyper-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been emboldened to ramp up racist, anti-worker attacks across the country. In August 2019, in a brazen land grab, Modi’s government canceled the “autonomous” status of the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir. It flooded the region with troops, shut down the internet, and jailed opposition leaders.
Next the BJP established a National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the eastern state of Assam, forcing workers to prove that they’d arrived in India before the mid-1970s. Since most workers lack the required documentation, over two million people, mostly Muslims, have been stripped of their citizenship. They now face placement in detention centers or deportation to neighboring Bangladesh (Time, 12/20/19).
To ramp up anti-immigrant racism and further divide the working class, Modi and the BJP fascists moved to extend the NRC to all of India. To protect their majority Hindu power base, they drafted a Citizenship Amendment Bill for fast-tracked citizenship—except for Muslim workers, who were excluded (The Guardian, 12/19/19). These fascist measures have prompted mass protests of millions of workers.
India’s rulers are trying desperately to use racism to distract workers from an economic slump that has seen annual growth drop from nearly nine percent to less than five percent in 2019 (Times of India, 1/5). For decades, the Indian bosses diverted billions of dollars of foreign investment into the hands of a few finance capitalists. As a result, for the 12 million workers entering the job market each year, job prospects are slim and highly competitive (LiveMint, 11/19/19). To deflect attention from the profit system’s failures, the bosses are forced to resort to more intensive racist scapegoating, hand in glove with intense nationalism.
Caught between rival imperialists
Despite its worsening economic and political crisis, the importance of India on the world stage should not be understated. India’s geopolitical importance, massive workforce, and wealth of natural resources ensure that the world’s top imperialist powers will keep competing for a dominant influence in the country.
For decades, the U.S. ruling class has viewed India as a critical counterbalance to the growth of rival imperialist China in the Asia-Pacific region (Foreign Affairs, October 2019). To avoid alienating their ally, Trump and the U.S. bosses have turned a blind eye to the Modi government’s racist treatment of Muslim workers (Washington Post, 12/19/19).
Meanwhile, the Chinese imperialist bosses have maintained a strong if uneven relationship with the Indian ruling class. Chinese economic and political support for Pakistan, India’s top regional rival, certainly creates friction. Territorial disputes in Kashmir, partly governed by China, have strained the relationship, as have clashes near the Himalayan mountains. But striving to keep U.S. imperialism at bay, the Chinese bosses continue to engage the Indian rulers with  negotiations and summits (The Diplomat, 1/4).
Not to be overlooked are the Russian capitalist bosses, who are projecting political power in the region through big defense contracts with the Indian government, including a $5.4 billion deal for advanced missile systems (Business Standard, 9/4/19).
For now, the opportunistic Indian ruling class appears content to hedge its bets—at least until a global conflict breaks out, when they may be forced to choose a side.
Smash nationalism and fight for communism!
In response to the government’s racist bill and fascist crackdown, thousands of Hindu workers and students have stood side-by-side in solidarity with Muslim workers. Demonstrators have been killed and beaten, but the movement has not been deterred. Women have given strong and essential leadership to the protests.
While this working-class fightback is inspirational, it is being co-opted by liberal misleaders who are calling for the restoration of “secular democracy”—a meaningless term under the capitalist dictatorship of the bosses. In the southern state of Kerala, politicians like Pinarayi Vijayan are leading workers astray by exploiting the protests to gain support for himself and other opposition leaders (Aljazeera, 1/4).
Though it’s a promising glimpse of class struggle, the movement to repeal the Citizenship Amendment Bill won’t stop attacks on Muslim workers. It won’t stop capitalism from destroying our lives. With the capitalist system in crisis internationally, the bosses are using fascism to safeguard themselves with anti-Black racism and attacks on immigrants. From Europe’s anti-immigrant movements to the United States’ bipartisan assault on workers from Latin America, capitalism is showing its true colors. Only the struggle for communist revolution can liberate the working class by smashing the bosses and their nationalist borders once and for all. That struggle can’t wait. Join PLP and fight for communism!

Los Angeles, CA,—There is a deep hatred of the kkkops by the family and community of Alex Flores, who was murdered by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) on November 11th, 2019. The family, along with our small Progressive Labor Party (PLP) contingent and base have marched nearly every day for 30 days, taking a short break for the funeral services. This murder is becoming a mass issue in the neighborhood where Alex lived, and we are pushing to introduce communist ideas as we participate in the fightback. Together, we have taken to the streets, blocked intersections, and shut down the front entrance of the fascist “Shootin” Newton police station, all while leading Party chants and distributing CHALLENGE and PLP leaflets. We have received mass support from the community and passersby. Whenever a cop car came close or a cop approached us, the family countered the cops with militant chants like, “Alex Flores/racism means…We got to fight back!” or “Killer Cops, Killer Cops!” “How do you spell racist/murderer? L-A-P-D!”
Anti-sexist leadership in action   
The political leadership of these marches is largely led by the women of Alex’s family.   Often, they bring their children, some as young as two years old. On several instances, our marches were kicked off by a four year old girl (Alex’s niece) who led us in chants like “la policia, cochina, racista y asesina” (the police, pigs, racists and killers) for over 30 minutes inspiring the whole crowd.
During the smaller marches, many of the husbands would stay home and take care of the children while the women led the demonstrations, highlighting the role of women and a certain level of anti-sexism within their family.
The women leaders and family in general have largely led with our chants and have slowly been coming around to our message regarding Black workers killed by the cops.  In addition, we have been describing how racism is part and parcel to capitalism, and the family has taken up our chants like “When the working class is under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!” and “Capitalism means, we got to fight back!”
It’s not just LAPD, it’s capitalism
The largest demonstration happened on December 5th, the night before the funeral service, with more than 50 family and community members, accompanied by 10 to 15 cars. We shut the area down for nearly three hours. Their militant fight back, in the face of such vicious police terror, shows the power of the working class and our Party to shape the politics of a struggle.
When the group returned to the police station, a PLP comrade made a speech, connecting Alex’s murder to thousands more–particularly Black workers–murdered by the kkkops and the role of the police under a racist capitalist system that can’t provide decent jobs, schools or housing for workers.
From the police station, you can see the luxury housing, corporate offices and the towering U.S. Bank building, and our comrade pointed out how the cops are part of a viciously racist capitalist system that needs terror in order to keep the bankers and billionaires on top and the working class oppressed. Alex’s sister translated the speech and thanked us for our support. We also heard her explain to pedestrians asking about the rally that capitalism is the problem.
In addition, we have been struggling with the family to understand that the racist system that stole their beloved family member is the same racist system that attacks their fellow Black class sisters and brothers every day as well.
Now, whenever we call out the names in chants like, “Shantel Davis/Sandra Bland/Ezell Ford/Mike Brown means?” they reply loudly, “We got to fight back!”
Having said that, so far, nearly everyone that has come with the family to the march, with the exception of one Black worker, who was a friend of Alex, is Latin. That’s another key aspect of what we as PLP in Los Angeles have contributed, along with our base– our ability to integrate and build multi-racial unity in the fight back.
The long term fight for communist revolution
The family has now decided to shift to weekly marches, so we have shifted gears to building for “Flores Fridays” and continue to organize in our schools, clinics, churches, libraries and other mass organizations to broaden this struggle. At the end of the month we will be having a screening of a documentary on racist police violence at one of our members’ workspaces that the family will attend and speak at. We will continue to widen our base, sharpen the political struggle and deepen ties with the family with the aim of building for May Day and growing our Party. The struggle continues!
LAPD, city bosses, racist to the core
The family and community are not fooled by the reforms the LAPD has undertaken over the last 25 years. In fact, this so-called sanctuary city, run by liberal Democrats, often boasts about the LAPD’S “transformation.” It is considered one of the most ethnically diverse police institutions in the U.S. closely mirroring the demographics of Los Angeles.  Yet we know that these reforms can’t stop (and haven’t stopped) the inherent racist nature of the police state and the need of the capitalist class to control and terrorize Black and Latin working-class communities.
Indeed, in a recent LA Times Homicide Report, 33 workers were killed by these “ethnically diverse” kkkops during 2019, and despite this the vast majority of those murdered by killer cops were Black or Latin (LA Times, 12/2019). This was up from the 21 workers killed in the year 2015, in which the LAPD “killed more people than any other law enforcement agency in the United States” (www.scpr.org, 6/1/15).
Not one of these racist murderers has been charged, let alone prosecuted by the Black District Attorney, Jackie Lacey. In addition, we now know the cop who murdered Alex is a Latin kkkop named Steven Ruiz. As the chant goes, “White cop, Latin cop all the same, racist terror is the name of their game!”

NEW YORK – Transit Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 is set to aid the MTA’s racist fare-beating campaign targeting Black and Latin youth in a tentative contract agreement with the agency that started last month. Both “parties agree to meet and confer to work collaboratively,” in assisting the MTA’s fascist crackdown, according to the agreement’s memorandum.
What does this entail? The supposedly “broke” MTA is spending $249 million on 500 new kkkops to terrorize the working class. That’s a quarter of a billion dollars that could go towards major service improvements. Instead, workers will deal with continually crumbling infrastructure, breakdowns, and delayed trains (On top of these sanctioned killers in blue).
But that’s capitalism for you! Forcing workers to choose between paying higher fares or rising food and housing costs.
Both transit workers and the ridership they serve need to recognize these attacks and come together to fight for a communist world. Only then, will all workers get the living standards they deserve.
Union lies
The contract agreement–following the previous one expiring in May–is a slap in the face  of transit workers. Local 100 leaders are claiming multiple victories, such as“inflation beating wage increases,” no increases in healthcare contributions, and protection of overtime after eight hours per day. The reality, for starters, is that in New York City, these “increases” still won’t cover the average two-parent, two-child family household in the city, which needs a combined income of $124,129 annually just to live comfortably (Patch, 3/22/18).And those living costs are guaranteed to go up.
Workers give more for healthcare, less overtime
In a press release about the agreement, the MTA bragged about how much it will save off of workers’ backs. The union is saying it defeated the MTA bosses’ demands for increased healthcare contributions. Yet, they buried the fact that our emergency room co-pay will rise to $100 in an effort to “encourage greater use of primary and urgent care providers.”
The new contract would also alter our prescription drug coverage, costing workers $20 for brand name drugs and $40 for non-prescribed medicine. This would force more use of generic drugs. Transit bosses cheered the “$27 million in savings” these cuts will bring.
The agreement calls for a one-and-a-half day increase in “employee availability,” which is the number of days an employee is available and reporting for work. This includes as of yet unspecified “productivity increases”–all code words for exploiting our labor more efficiently. The MTA boasts this “commitment” will save them $17 million. Highlighted right after this information is a discussion of “recognition of overtime equalization,” with plans to enforce existing contract agreements to reduce overtime availability.
Third party cleaners
With subway stations becoming filthier, the union didn’t bother fighting for the 66 cleaner spots the MTA eliminated two years ago.
This is racist to the core, as most of those workers are Black and Latin and already earn far less than other transit workers. Instead, the agreement calls for outsourcing a one time, deep cleaning of 180 stations to a third party contractor. They wouldn’t even be cleaning half the stations in the entire system!
Attacks on bus operators
On a somewhat similar note, the agreement negotiates a joint labor management committee with the Department of Buses, which, among other things, calls for examining the use and deployment of autonomous vehicles.
Considering the MTA laid off over 300 bus operators in 2010, this is a covert effort by them to further undercut the position, leaving more workers jobless.
Sexism is also rampant within the union, as only now the contract proposal includes a committee to find stand aside jobs for pregnant workers—something that should’ve become a reality years ago! This just shows how little Local 100 head Tony Utano and his cronies care about women workers.
Bosses’ propaganda divides workers on contract
Already, the bosses’ media is painting this as a drain on taxpayers. The New York Post-a known enemy of MTA workers-is on the attack, claiming the contract’s pay increases will cost $310 million more by 2022, despite the fact that our salaries have nothing to do with the MTA’s rising deficits. This is another way the ruling class pits other workers against those who work in transit—and another reason both groups need to fight back in tandem.
Workers need communism for better working conditions
With union misleaders pressuring workers to vote “yes!” and workers divided by MTA bosses, workers may come to vote “yes.” Racist Utano has no problems giving his mostly Black and Latin members givebacks disguised as progress, thinking they don’t understand otherwise.
This proves that only communism can quench workers’ thirst for a world without profit driven exploitation, and sexist, racist borders. Comrades may be spread thin to win this fight but it will take time and building relationships to organize workers to demand what we’re worth, and not accept the bosses’ crumbs. The fight continues.

Queen & Slim, promoted as the “Blackest movie ever made,” falls short on making any real working-class advance against racism. We meet the protagonists, revealed to be Queen/Angela (Jodie Turner-Smith) and Slim/Earnest (Daniel Kaluuya) at the end of the movie, at a Black-owned diner for a Tinder date. That would’ve been the end of their relationship if it wasn’t for the drive home when they got pulled over by a racist white cop, accidently killed him in self-defense, and embarked their journey to freedom.  
No faith in the injustice system
The film showed promise. After the accidental shooting, Angela convinces Earnest that there are no good options. She holds credibility because she is an attorney. Thankfully, the audience was not given the option to debate the merits of the injustice system. Our leads were criminals in the eyes of the system, but to the audience, they were the characters we were to identify with and see the world through. But, it’s pretty much downhill from there.
Blackness is not revolutionary
We can’t separate art from its artists. To understand the film, we must look at its creators. Queen and Slim was written by Emmy winner Lena Waithe and directed by Melina Matsoukas, a creative brain trust of Beyoncé and others. Waithe says the film is a “meditation on blackness…but it was really like a hug I want to give black people” (NPR, 11/27/19). Born to parents who were in the Progressive Labor Party, Matsoukas was “raised to figure out how I was going to be an activist…I also wanted to showcase Black love and unity, not just romantic love. Black unity is our greatest power against oppression. What is represented on-screen is not just the love between those two characters, but the love that the community shows Queen and Slim” (The Atlantic, 12/2019).
Where Waithe and Matsoukas go wrong is equating Blackness with radicalism. Speaking of a Black experience in and of itself—as if it’s not shaped by class, as if Black workers and Black bosses & politicians are on the same side of the oppression line—is not radical. Celebration of Blackness, without an analysis, is an insufficient reaction to a racist system that devalues Black workers. While Waithe and Matsoukas are clearly in conversation with the racism of life inside and outside of the entertainment industry (the film was not even considered for the Golden Globes), Black unity is far from the “greatest power against oppression.” While unity based on race may sound affirming, all skin folk ain’t kin folk.
Unity with whom? Against whom?
Unity based on race (race is fake, but the racism is far too real) is dangerous for the working class, Black workers included. Black unity confuses enemies for friends. As the menu of politicians, CEOs, union leaders, and masters of war diversifies, Black nationalism will have lethal consequences for Black and all workers.
Queen & Slim did address the issue of unity. Spoiler alert: The couple does not complete their quest to freedom because a Black worker sells them out.  Matsoukas says, “We wanted it to be complicated…What the affects of racism do to our community…the Black man who sells them out, he’s a victim of capitalism” Oprah Magazine, 11/28/19). The lack of class-consciousness is a serious problem in this period of low class struggle. However, this is a criticism of lack of unity within the working-class, but leaves out attacking Black bosses and politicians (Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot, Baltimore mayor Bernard Young, senator Kamala Harris, etc).
Yet, there was one example of multiracial unity, however marred with a transactionalist instead of a principled stance. A white veteran, friend of Queen’s pimp uncle Earl, gives the couple refuge. He’s seen as repaying a favor, not as a man who acts out of solidarity with fugitive.  
Black cops are not our friends
The film portrays Black cops in a positive light. When Queen & Slim jumpstart a car, they are allowed to escape by a Black cop who was dealing with his racist comments from his white patrol partner. This Black cop’s name is Langston. Never mind that the writer Langston Hughes grew to be a communist who depicted both the brutal anti-Black racism as well as multiracial and international fightback.
“I [Masoukas] have a Langston Hughes quote on my arm that says ‘I, too, am America” (Oprah Magazine, 11/28/19).
This cop scene is troubling due to its implications of, to put it crudely, that more Black cops can make American worth being a part of. Why claim a country that was founded on the ownership and exploitation of your own?
A failed odyssey
Queen and Slim are brutally assassinated by a line of white police. Their odyssey remains unfinished, but their story becomes immortalized. The final destination of their quest for freedom was Cuba, where Assata Shakur also sought refuge after conviction of the murder of a state trooper (another allusion to Black power). She escaped from jail and got asylum in Cuba in 1984. Today, the workers in Cuba cannot escape from the profit system there or from the racism dividing tourist havens from the majority of workers.  
Beautifully misleading
Queen and Slim’s brutal assassination leaves the audience with a sense of loss.  
The film’s beauty and form do not make up for its misleading content. Ultimately, the film confuses enemies for friends and identity with revolution; it replaces multiracial unity with Black nationalism and a protracted class struggle with romanticism and martyrdom—in more ways than CHALLENGE has room to address. Readers, we welcome your thoughts!
The working class—Black, Latin, indigenous, Asian, and white—deserves a film that goes beyond identity politics and inspires our class to dismantle race and racism. Only a multiracial, international communist party with Black workers’ leadership has the chance of dismantling it.  
Still, Queen & Slim is a popular film rich with imagery and symbolism, an opportunity for communist analysis and discussion with friends, co-workers, and students. We invite you to send your evaluation to CHALLENGE!