BROOKLYN, February 20—Students at Park Slope Collegiate, an integrated school with a principled stance against racist inequalities, staged two sit-ins against the racist Department of Education, the capitalist news media, and a few DoE stooges among PSC staff members. These militant actions capped nearly a year of multiracial struggle by students, parents, and teachers against anti-communist attacks over the past year.
Students reject racism of bosses
Last August, after a five-month witch-hunt, the DoE’s Office of Special Investigations retreated and suspended its inquiry without imposing any penalties. Along the way, the OSI did its worst to intimidate the school community, sow internal distrust, and undermine PSC’s anti-racist mission. It brought charges of “communist organizing” against two administrators and three staff members, and abused eight PSC students (one as young as 13) by interrogating them without their parents’ knowledge. Even after the investigation closed, the DoE and its racist, anti-student accomplices at the United Federation of Teachers continued for months to harass the school’s anti-racist leaders.
The sit-ins were a direct response to this harassment. These students, with strong support from a multiracial group of parents, are refusing to accept their racist criminalization by the DoE, the UFT, and the media—and giving notice that they are ready and willing to fight back.
A force to be reckoned with
No less important, the PSC community has actively rejected the pseudo-science of race. Confounding the racists, a mass, multiracial group of youth and their families are choosing to fight racism in solidarity with communists. Many white parents now realize that fighting racism is in the interest of the whole working class.
Reform struggles, win or lose, can be schools for revolution. When communists in Progressive Labor Party both give and accept leadership in these fights, we gain confidence in our class’s ability to defeat the bosses and smash capitalism, the source of racism, sexism, and inequality. These small struggles can lead to profound changes in the individuals who join them. By revealing the contradictions of the profit system, exposing our class enemies, and building multiracial unity in the face of the rulers’ attempts to divide us, these struggles can be instrumental in building a revolutionary communist movement.
In this instance, at least for now, a reform struggle has been won. Here are some recent developments at PSC that remind us that the bosses are not invincible, and that a united working class is a force to be reckoned with:

• At two January meetings, more than 50 students, parents, and staff confronted DoE lackeys for Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is bought and paid for by gentrifying real estate interests, and his segregationist chancellor, Carmen Farina. After more than four years in office, their administration has done nothing beyond lip service to integrate one of the most segregated big-city school systems in the country. After a New York Daily News article demonized a group of mainly Black students, giving credence to the lie that a private group chat posed a physical threat to a racist PSC teacher, angry parents forced District Superintendent Michael Prayor to come to the school to meet with them. Prayor, a Farina henchman who collaborated in the abusive student interrogation last spring, tried to mollify the group with empty reassurances that the DoE was on the school’s side. But the group wasn’t fooled, and repeatedly called Prayer out for his complicity in a racist system. People demanded an explanation for why the DoE protects racists and attacks anti-racists, and a commitment to end the DoE’s harassment. A number of white parents were particularly outspoken in defense of the Black students defamed by the Daily News—an unusual and powerful demonstration of multiracial unity.
• Fed up with disruptive investigations by the UFT after spurious complaints by a racist teacher who’d served for years as the union’s chapter chair, the school’s faculty booted the teacher out of office in a recall vote. The tally was 43 to 10 against the racist—and in favor of the school’s anti-racist mission.  
• After working with an external mediator, a representative group of multiracial PSC staff members formed a committee to rebuild ties within the staff around the school’s mission.  
• Nearly a hundred parents and staff members joined together in a multiracial celebration of the school’s victory over the DoE’s disruptive campaign. This event had been delayed because of people’s desire to wait for a more clear-cut resolution and an official end to the DoE’s attacks. Then they went ahead anyway. They have learned that reform victories may be fleeting, but the class struggle never ends—and that’s something to celebrate.

Choosing anti-racism over anti-communism
Many times it seems like this racist monster of a system is too big and difficult to take on by ourselves, but we aren’t meant to do it alone. Communist confidence in the working class is infectious; at PSC, it is carrying the day. It’s also being reciprocated. Several community members have joined weekend CHALLENGE study groups.
Through this and other struggles at PSC over many years, dozens of parents—white, Latin, Asian, and Black—have been won over to defend Black and Latin youth.  Many now see that our young people deserve true equity—not only for education resources, but also in being heard as equal partners in the fight for integration. After centuries of building segregation, an essential feature of racism and capitalist exploitation and inequality, nothing scares the U.S. ruling class more than multiracial unity. The DoE’s persistent attack on the PSC community stems from the modest progress it is making in dismantling this crucial aspect of capitalist class rule.
The multiracial unity and courage of PSC students, parents, and teachers is rare and inspiring. Students have been emboldened to take on racist staff members. After the sit-ins, some said it was their duty to fight racism and teach younger students that they need to keep the fightback going. Communists in Progressive Labor Party are proud to be part of this crucial class struggle.

CHICAGO, February 20—A Progressive Labor Party study group about sexism led to a mass anti-sexist action of supporting nursing home workers on strike. Both study and action affirmed the line that Black women leadership is key to communist revolution.
To create a fighting communist Party, theory needs to lead to practice, and that practice needs to influence future theory. Comrades and friends here have been holding a study group about the roots of sexism and the history of struggle against it. Our goal is to win more workers to the truth that capitalism has no solution for sexism and exploitation. Only mass international communist revolution can abolish the inequality that class society creates between women and men.   
Anti-sexism study group
In the first study group, we focused on former Communist Party USA member Angela Davis. This proved to be a good decision; it gave some historical background on the struggle of the 1960s and 1970s. We analyzed how anti-capitalist messages and actions from radicals have over time been completely diluted as these same “militants” made more and more compromises with capitalism.
In the case of Angela Davis, study group participants noted how her speech at the last year’s Women’s March, Davis used the term “resistance” a dozen times, versus using the term “capitalism” only once. Angela Davis years ago accepted a position at University of California, Santa Cruz and Rutgers University and denounced herself from any commitment to communist politics and class consciousness. This one-time lefty demonstrated this when she endorsed Barack Obama for president. This was expected, as Davis had sold out to the liberal Democratic bosses long time ago.
We contrasted her methods of pandering to her liberal phony-left base with our own understanding that communists need to spread revolutionary ideas among the working class. Those ideas will clearly draw the connections between sexist ideology and inequality and the capitalist system’s need to divide workers everywhere for maximum profits.
Claudia Jones, Black women key

The bourgeoisie is fearful of the militancy of the [Black] woman, and for good reason. The capitalists know, far better than many progressives seem to know, that once Negro women begin to take action, the militancy of the whole [Black] people, and thus of the anti-imperialist coalition, is greatly enhanced. Viewed in this light, it is not accidental that the American bourgeoisie has intensified its oppression, not only of the [Black] people in general, but of [Black] women in particular.
—Claudia Jones

We also discussed Claudia Jones’ An End to the Neglect of the Problems of Negro Women (1949). This article detailed the super-exploitation of Black women, and called for more attention to be spent organizing them. Through the discussion we added Black and Latin immigrant women workers to the group of the most exploited in the U.S.
In this article Claudia Jones criticized the Communist Party USA for failing to understand and organize among Black women. She stated that in order for any revolution in the to occur, Black women must play a significant leadership role.
We discussed how our Party upholds this commitment and carries forward Jones’ analysis to this day in our emphasis in recruiting and taking leadership from Black and immigrant workers. Given their historical and current status as the most oppressed and exploited section of the international working class, their insights and hatred of capitalism is key to revolution. A movement without Black workers is a failed movement.
Theory leads to struggle
At the study group about Claudia Jones, comrades and friends were inspired to put the theory of organizing into practice. The very next day nursing home workers, 70 percent of whom were Black women, were going on a one-day strike against horrible work conditions (including stripping long-time workers of their seniority) and a fair contract. We chatted with workers and distributed CHALLENGE to strikers on the picket line. Our PLP contingent was made of almost entirely of people who had attended the anti-sexism study group. It was a freezing Chicago day, but we knew that staying home was not an option.
The workers may strike again soon if owner Israel Davis fails to cease his illegal labor practices and to bargain a fair contract.
Our second opportunity to put theory into practice came during this year’s Women’s March. This contingent too was primarily from the study group. We called out the Democratic Party for using sexism as a platform to build their ranks, and promoting the elections—not fightback—as a solution to sexist oppression. We were well received. Many workers, most of whom were women, took flyers and CHALLENGE. Our call to destroy capitalism with communist revolution was meet with applause.
Communists belong in the mass struggle
Sexism is a notorious tool used to divide and oppress working-class people. It is used by the bosses to exploit workers on all fronts—men, women, straight, gay, and transgender. And so, it must be fought on all fronts. Through practice we learn how to better fight it, and through theory we learn how to better understand it. Theory and practice are linked, and should never be separated. Understanding this helps us fight for the world workers deserve—a communist one. Join us in this fight.

Zheng Yongming, a recent university graduate working in Guangzhou, China, wrote an open letter after his arrest in November by Chinese police. He was locked up for organizing a Maoist reading group in a university classroom. Zheng’s letter, which keeps being taken down from various websites by the authorities, only to be reposted, states that “I will always be a son of the workers and peasants.”
He was one of four young people arrested. Hundreds of professors from some of China’s most prestigious colleges signed a letter protesting the arrests, which included graduates of the elite Peking University (Agence Presse-France).
A budding Left in China
This episode provides a glimpse into the situation facing would-be revolutionaries in China today. Western capitalist media frequently report on the difficulties of Chinese dissidents who want to see Western-style political reforms such as competing political parties or greater press freedom. But increasingly those being suppressed by the Chinese government are neo-Maoists and other anti-capitalists referred to as the “new Left” of China.
The ruling capitalists who call themselves the “Chinese Communist Party” (CPC) have waged a campaign for decades to make people forget the Chinese revolution’s original mission, building a communist country. Today there is nothing “communist” about the CPC except the title, which they own. Since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, the government propaganda praising capitalism and re-writing the history of the socialist period, 1949 to 1976, has become more and more direct. People now call those first years after the revolution the “Mao Era.”
The new Left is a mixture of political currents ranging from liberal social democrats to revolutionary-minded Marxist Leninists. Although there is wide agreement among these groups, known mainly through their websites, that China is capitalist, there are lots of opinions about how to achieve a more egalitarian society. Most are talking about socialism and envision it in terms of what China had before the death of Mao. There was at least one example of a group that declared themselves to be a new communist party dedicated to establishing socialism in China. The leading members were all arrested at their founding convention in 2015 (Financial Times, 1/11/2016).
Leftist websites are closely watched by authorities and anything that sounds like a serious challenge to the ruling CPC is taken down immediately by state monitors. In fact, in 2012 most of the leftist websites were banned, but others keep appearing.
One site that was still functioning in the period since the Guangzhou arrests is called Chuǎng (chuangcn.org). Its name is the Chinese character meaning “to break free” made up of elements of a horse breaking through a gate. According to them:

On November 15, 2017, police stormed into a student reading group at the Guangdong University of Technology and seized six young participants. Two of them, Zhang Yunfan and Ye Jianke, were held at the Panyu Detention Center for a month as suspects for the crime of ‘gathering crowds to disrupt social order,’ along with two other young people involved with the reading group who were later seized at their residences: Sun Tingting and Zheng Yongming. After prominent intellectuals circulated a petition for Zhang’s release, all four detainees have been released on bail but are still awaiting trial. Four other young leftists connected to the reading group are on a wanted list and still in hiding (chuangcn.org, accessed 1/29/18).

The Chuǎng  website posted letters the students wrote after their release. One wrote:

I’d rather follow the Mao that led workers and peasants towards self-emancipation, rather than the Mao printed on banknotes. … Officers from Xiaoguwei Police Station said I was the culprit – the ‘mastermind’ behind some sort of conspiracy! And indeed I was – promoting Maoism and working for the sake of the downtrodden were of course what I ‘premeditated,’ or even ‘plotted over an extended period of time.’ I was born to walk this ‘radical’ path, and I’d rather die than repent.

These young Maoists are part of a growing phenomenon in China. Young university graduates who encounter leftist organizations while students often go to work for non-profits, mostly in the “sun belt” in cities like Guangzhou and Shenzhen where the largest concentration of sweatshops is found.
Fascist crackdown of worker-student alliance
Study circles in which Marxist ideas are discussed by groups of workers and intellectuals appear to be occurring in many places, although such activity is watched closely by the government. Unified organizations between workers and intellectuals are particularly scrutinized. When people step over the line, like showing the solidarity of workers and students, they can expect to hear from the police and “security”. Idealistic college graduates involved in non-profits and attending book clubs about communist politics worry about when they will be “invited to have tea” with the police chief, the standard method of intimidating organizers. But the arrests in November were a new level of crackdown on the radical left.
Communists outside of China, including members of PLP, are encouraged by the dedication of these young organizers. The response of some Chinese workers to the arrest of these students will be reported in a follow-up article.
Development of a new pro-communist movement in a country that was the world’s leader in revolutionary activity in the recent past must be studied seriously by communists everywhere.

The current war in Yemen has created one of the worst capitalist crises the world has seen.  Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has been bombing and blockading Yemen into collapse and misery, using billions of dollars of U.S.-supplied weaponry. The U.S. military is also refueling Saudi bombers in flight, to complete their deadly missions.
According to the UN, in this country of 27 million people, more than 10,000 have been killed, more than 2 million have been displaced, about 7 million are on the brink of starvation and 14 million lack access to clean drinking water and sanitation.  
Over half a million people are infected with cholera, the largest outbreak in the world in 50 years, and 2,000 have died. Malnutrition has increased the threat of the disease, while massive bombings have targeted water and sanitation facilities, bridges, factories and hospitals. Over 30,000 health workers and many civil servants haven’t been paid for over a year.
Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East, borders Saudi Arabia and the Bab-el-Mandeb—the two-mile strait between Yemen and Africa through which millions of gallons of oil pass each day. In addition, Yemen could have undeveloped oil reserves, perhaps greater than Saudi Arabia.
The Yemeni Houthis of the North, seized power. They are supported by Iran. Saudi Arabia is attempting to prevent the spread of Iran’s influence in the region, especially on its border.  This war between two regional powers is a reflection of the decline of U.S. imperialism and the growing instability that has engulfed the Middle East, which has the potential for leading to another world war.
You could say, that war has already begun. If you pull the camera back for a larger view of the Middle East and Horn of Africa, you see the U.S., Russian and Chinese imperialists jockeying for power and position in the midst of growing war and a string of failed states. The net effect has been the worst refugee crisis since World War II, 65.6 million people, many from these countries.
Syria: More than 400,000 dead in a 6-year civil war, 11.3 million displaced. Recently, as many as 200 Russian soldiers were killed by U.S. forces, the first direct military contact between the two imperialists since the Vietnam War. All of the major imperialist and regional players are colliding here. The U.S. wants to transport oil from Qatar to Europe. Russia and Assad want to build a pipeline from Iran instead. Syria has been destroyed in the process. China is also increasing its involvement on the side of Assad, providing training to the Syrian military, opposing UN sanctions, and increasing investments in the country.
Iraq: As many as one million civilians have died since the U.S. invasion in 2003 to try to keep control of the world’s third largest supply of oil.
Afghanistan: 27,000 civilians dead, 1.3 million displaced. While not rich in oil, it is a prime pipeline route between the oil and gas rich Central Asian republics and Turkey, Europe, and Asia. After the U.S. invasion, Afghanistan was also found to have deposits of rare minerals necessary for cyber technology. Since the U.S. decreased the number of troops here, China has added troops and increased financing.
Somalia: Civil war, famine, a cholera epidemic and a tsunami have killed or displaced at least 3.5 million Somalis. Somalia also lies along the sea lanes that transport oil and may itself contain huge oil and natural gas deposits.
Sudan/South Sudan: 490,000 displaced; murder, sexual violence and repression are rampant. In the Sudanese civil war, China is supplying arms to the government in order to secure joint exploration and pipeline projects.
Libya: Another failed state, in chaos since Qaddafi was toppled by a NATO- led invasion in 2011.  Once the ninth-largest oil producer in the world, exporting mainly to Europe. Russia is now looking to re-open oilfields, build a base on the Mediterranean, or become an international mediator (Foreign Policy 9/14/17).
Gaza: Israel, armed with nuclear weapons and the world’s largest recipient of U.S. military aid, is allowed to continue its 50-year occupation of the West Bank and Gaza with mass terror. More than 3,500 Palestinians were killed in the last two sieges out of a population of 1.5 million. Currently this “outdoor prison” has become unlivable, with only two-four hours of electricity a day and 90 percent of its water undrinkable. Health services are broken down due to infrastructure damage and lack of supplies, over 700 schools are inoperable, and waterborne diseases are increasing due to lack of sewage treatment plants.
China, the world’s fastest-growing economy, is the number one gas and oil importer from Iran while also selling arms for oil to Saudi Arabia. China is also building oil and gas pipelines from Russia (Foreign Policy, 1/26).
The U.S., in a permanent state of war since 2001, has been either directly at war or arming and supporting regional and local players in all of these conflicts. Like a wounded beast, U.S. imperialism grows more desperate and more dangerous, transcending party politics. Trump’s anti-Muslim travel ban, in effect until the case is heard by the Supreme Court, has left Muslim families torn apart by the collapse of the region, with thousands stranded in refugee camps, unable to proceed to the U.S.  This anti-Muslim racism is vital to winning the population and soldiers to sacrifice for this new permanent state of war, while Muslims are targeted for government surveillance and victimized by hate crimes.
It wasn’t so long ago that the capitalists were celebrating the end of communism and the victory of the free market. These are the fruits of their catastrophic victory. Sooner rather than later, we will all be living in Yemen. The slow but steady rebuilding of the international communist Progressive Labor Party is the long-term solution. The building of international solidarity now can ultimately turn the next world war into the last.