SOUTH INDIA, June 21— A community organizer who shares Progressive Labor Party’s (PLP) anti-racist outlook united Hindu and Muslim workers, countering India’s ruling-class arch bent towards fascism.
This struggle ensued when a follower of the Hindu religion placed a stone in the middle of a public street as a symbol of religious devotion. This was seen as provocative and Muslim workers were angered by this and were planning actions against it. This is during the Muslim religious month of Ramadan, where Muslims fast all day every day to commemorate the first revelation of their religious text, the Quran. Some Hindu workers were also beginning to mobilize. Tensions were high.
The community organizer immediately met with both the Hindu and Muslim workers. After some serious debate and struggle, they were able to resolve the conflict. This built more trust among the working class’s ability to solve problems without buying into the divisive bait of religious strife.
This set an example for others in this city to follow and for members and friends of PLP worldwide to follow as we continue to work to oppose racist exploitation and build unity against the different kinds of racism all over the world.
Using Religion to Divide Workers
The serious work of this fighter helped prevent a dangerous situation that could further feed the drive towards fascism. The right wing, nationalist government of prime minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is building fascism (all-class unity during a capitalism system in crisis) by breeding conflict and violence against the Muslim working class.
The capitalist system uses religious conflict, like they use other kinds of racism, as a way to exploit the working class and divide us. As the system moves closer to fascism, this conflict gets more intense. In India, the Modi government is taking this to new extremes, using people’s religious feelings to build fascism. Modi is well known for his anti-Muslim racism. When he was chief minister of the state of Gujarat, his security forces stood by as over a 1,000 Muslims were slaughtered in 2002. The evidence was so strong that he ordered his security forces to allow this massacre, which the United States denied him an entry visa in 2005.
His anti-Muslim racism also didn’t hamper him from becoming prime minister of the country. His racism is no isolated incident. In fact, Modi’s BJP is the political wing of the extreme right-wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), an organization founded in 1925 and openly modeled on Mussolini’s National Fascist Party.
No Small Act
The actions of our friend might seem like a small act, but in many parts of India, violent conflict has broken out against Muslims and this is a part of the racist strategy to control not only the Muslim working class, but also the Hindu working class.
Sincere members of the working class can get tricked into fighting against our working-class sisters and brothers. As Karl Marx wrote in Das Kapital: “Labor in the white skin can never free itself as long as labor in the black skin is branded.” Multiracial unity is fundamental to defeating capitalism.
Real communists today understand that no member of the working class can ever be free as long as there is any exploitation or oppression of workers from any group. That is why we try to win workers to a scientific understanding of the world, rather than a theological one. There are no real differences between Muslim and Hindu workers—our history and earthly fate are tied to each other and our level of class struggle.
Workers in India, and all over the world, must join with the Progressive Labor Party and build a worldwide movement for communism! You can get started by reading and distributing our local CHALLENGE!

Chicago, June 25—A passionate crowd of 30 PL’ers and anti-racist friends boldly rallied at the home of Jason Van Dyke, the kkkop who brutally murdered Black teenager LaQuan McDonald in October 2014. Organized mainly through women leadership and under the slogan “No Refuge for Racist Murderers,” the anti-racist fighters marched directly to Van Dyke’s house in the Archer Heights neighborhood, to drive home the message that a killer cop will not live in comfort while working people continue to live in terror by the capitalist state.
The rally began at noon, with bold anti-racist chants and a picket line meeting curious onlookers at an intersection not far from the house. As more participants filtered in, the multi-racial, multi-generational group began its march through the working class neighborhood towards his residence. There were some jeers and insults sent our way, but overall, the response we received, especially from the younger workers, was positive. Many on the block took videos with phones, and a number of them came up directly to us to take fliers and newspapers and learn more about the demonstration.
For the majority of the action, it was clear that we had caught the kkkops with their guard down. In fact, those of us towards the front of the march saw Van Dyke scurry into the house from where he was watering his front yard when he saw us approaching! However, as we continued our march back to our cars, the cops began their harassment tactics. A number of squad cars pulled up, with officers trying to intimidate the comrades with the bullhorns, saying we were “breaking the law.” We met their bulls*** tricks by chanting louder and refusing to allow the racist pigs to separate the marchers. They issued one of our comrades a citation, but all those present left the demonstration safe and empowered by our collective action.
No Safe Spaces for Killer Racists
The march culminated with us arriving at Van Dyke’s house, and driving a sign with the heading “Guilty of Racist Murder,” complete with the pig’s mugshot, in his front lawn. We continued to picket in front of his house as PL’ers on the bullhorn explained the connections between racist killer cops and capitalism. As PLP has consistently pointed out, the degradation and poverty that are inevitable under capitalism make it essential for the ruling class to unleash their attack dogs on workers when they eventually rise up to resist the system’s miserable conditions. Police murders are not the actions of “a few bad apples;” they are a necessary part of the ruling class’ strategy to control the working class through fear and violence. We see this especially in Chicago where, within the last five years alone, kkkops have killed 70 people, the majority of whom are Black and Latin.
No justice will ever come from a system that desperately needs police murder and other forms of violence against workers to maintain itself. Yes, Van Dyke was formally charged with murder but if he is convicted (unlikely), he’ll be characterized as an isolated bad apple, and state terror will go on as business as usual. If he’s acquitted, it will only lend more power to the idea that Chicago cops can kill young Black and Latin workers with impunity. Either way, the bosses’ racist apparatus will continue unchecked. The only way to forever get rid of police murders is to organize a mass international communist revolution that overthrows capitalism and establishes a worker-run society based on commitment and need.
Collective Struggle Leads to Bolder Action
The planning for this demonstration actually began a few months ago, when a comrade was made aware of Van Dyke’s home address. It was quickly decided that a militant, anti-racist action was essential for Party work in the area, and the event slowly but surely began to take form. Over this period, we met numerous times in meetings large and small as we struggled with our ourselves and our base members over the best ways to organize the action.  

We had to challenge reluctance expressed in liberal ideas about “justice” under capitalism to the rational fear involved in marching directly on a kkkop’s house. We also had to sharpen our arguments as to why the event was a necessary step forward for not just us as communists, but for all anti-racist workers in the area in the struggle against racist police brutality and the capitalist system that requires it. We needed to promote the event to a broad audience, while never allowing our communist line to be watered down or the participants’ security to be compromised.

The march was a success by all of those involved. In the fight for communism, struggling with ourselves and with our base members is important for sharpening contradictions and building a stronger collective. Our action is a testament to this fact. To build off of the momentum, we’re already planning a follow-up social, the PL summer projects, and an even larger demonstration at the city’s Fraternal Order of Police Headquarters. We will fight to make these follow-up events successful because the world needs to know that there’s a better system out there for all—communism. Under communism there will be no refuge for racist murders! Dare to struggle, dare to win!

BROOKLYN, June 14—Today marked four years since the day that the NYPD brutally shot down Shantel Davis. A multi-racial group of about 30 PLP members and friends and some other community organizers congregated with Shantel’s family on the street corner where she was killed to commemorate her life and our four years of fightback. With heavy faces and tear-stained eyes, our collective stood with a myriad of white balloons. In the wake of four years of fighting back against tragedy, one theme remained present throughout the night: Justice for Shantel and all victims of police brutality means nothing short of communist revolution.
The rally began with bullhorn speeches by PL members, the Davis family, and the families of other members of the working class who have been murdered by the kkkops, such as Ramarley Graham, Mohamed Bah, and Anthony Baez. Speeches were bolstered by chants from the crowd of “Racism means we got to fight back!” and “We will never forget Shantel! We will always fight for Shantel!” in between. We then blocked traffic in all four directions of the intersection as we formed a huge circle in the center. As traffic piled up, drivers were told why we were there and they stood in support. More remarks were made over the bullhorn as members of the neighborhood looked on and recorded the spectacle of a multiracial group of protesters on their phones.  
Shantel’s sister delivered a particularly heartbreaking speech. She thanked PL and all in attendance for their extended support in the fightback against this grave tragedy. Her sister had been callously killed on false pretenses, shot in the chest while begging for her life, and her family hadn’t even been afforded the opportunity to properly grieve. Their first task had been to reverse the smear campaign set out by the bosses’ media, which was set in motion immediately after her death, describing Shantel as a criminal monster. Anything to try to convince the community that it was a necessary and justified killing! The reality is that it is the NYPD acting as the neighborhood thugs, violently instilling fear in the working class. In fact, the detective who killed Shantel is particularly known as a menace in the neighborhood—“Bad Boy” Atkins.
Shantel’s sister ended her speech choking past tears, with the words, “I just don’t know what to do anymore…” This speaks volumes about what capitalist “justice” means—there is none! Over the past four years, she has become an incredible, strong leader in the fightback movement against police brutality, but this is what a fight for reform, for a “fix” to the justice system, does to working class morale. Only communism smashes the racism that built this system, and so only the long-term fight for that world can keep us feeling that we can win. PLP knows what to do—and the families of kkkop victims are being won to that idea.
In the months immediately following Shantel’s murder, a group of misleaders tried to convince Shantel’s family that in order to get justice for their sister, they shouldn’t be too militant, as it would make it harder to win within the legal system. These anticommunists “cautioned” Shantel’s family that we in PLP were there for “our own reasons” and we “didn’t really care about Shantel.” 4 years later, the politicians have disappeared and it has become obvious that winning within the legal system is a myth. While the misleaders preached a “behind-the-scenes” approach, we fought for and won Shantel’s sisters to the strategy of organizing a justice committee, along with some of their close friends, to fight back militantly.
The struggle to move our marches from the sidewalks to the streets came out of a bigger political struggle to see that the biggest wins could only come from showing our strength as a multi-racial group fighting back in the streets, to see the courts and politicians as part of the same system as the cops—and to see their fight as part of a bigger working class fight, even if they never see capitalist “justice” for their family member.
This evening ended on a note of hope. We released our white balloons decorated with notes: ‘Justice for Shantel’, ‘We will always fight for Shantel; ‘Fight for Communist Revolution’. One comrade made this poetic observation as the balloons floated into the sky: “They’ve gone so far, and they’re still sticking together.” Let us take this metaphor as a reminder of how we must fight daily to strengthen our force of multi-racial working class unity, build PLP and work towards revolution, so one day we may all receive justice.

U.S. imperialist terrorist-in-chief Obama’s current Middle East strategy prioritizes military action against ISIS. However, as Russia continues to challenge U.S. imperialist ambitions in oil-rich Syria and the Middle East as a whole, top U.S. State Department officials are calling for more aggressive military strategies to counter Russia’s increasing influence. As this rivalry intensifies the threat of even wider imperialist wars loom on the horizon.
Key U.S. Policy Planners Reject Obama’s Current Course
The State Department officials’ message, entitled “Dissent Channel: Syria Policy,” advocates making regime change in Syria the highest priority. They want to remove Russia’s imperialist-backed Syrian president Bashar al-Assad from power. The officials call for precision air strikes against Assad’s regime, cynically posing as concern for workers in Syria. The officials state “Assad’s systematic violations against the Syrian people are the root cause of the instability that continues to grip Syria and the broader region.”
 If these policies are implemented, they will dramatically increase the danger of a military confrontation between Russia and U.S.-led NATO forces. Russia has been providing military support against the threat ISIS and anti-Assad fighters pose to Assad, including massive air strikes by Russian warplanes. The Obama administration and the Pentagon also claim defeating ISIS their top priority. Both of these imperialist powers are really after strategic control of global oil supplies, and neither one can afford to concede any part of the Middle East to the other.
Importantly, Russia’s ally Iran, itself a regional imperialist power, is a key supporter of Assad. A more aggressive U.S. imperialist strategy in the Middle East threatens the temporary cooperation Iran’s bosses have offered to the U.S., in exchange for money.
Iranian, Russian Bosses Have Temporary Upper Hand
With such risks to U.S. imperialism, why is there such support among the U.S. policymaking establishment to explicitly provoke their Russian rivals? Part of the answer involves the fascist bosses of two key, but embattled U.S. imperialist allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Both allies are currently fighting Iran-backed militia forces, and U.S. policymakers fear that despite the Iran bosses’ appearances of cooperating with the U.S., they continue to secretly fund militias to further destabilize U.S. control.
In neighboring Lebanon, the Israeli bosses fear the Iran-backed Shiite militias of Hezbollah more than any other immediate threat. The rise of ISIS in Syria has temporarily distracted Hezbollah, which fights on the side of Assad in Syria.  In addition, Yemen, on Saudi Arabia’s southern border, is torn apart by civil war between Iran-backed Houthi rebels and the local pro-Saudi regime. In response, Saudi Arabia has conducted indiscriminate air strikes across Yemen, killing thousands of workers.
U.S. Policymakers Want Reality-Based Imperialism
The U.S. bosses knew that the recent agreements allowing Iran access to billions of dollars frozen in U.S. bank accounts was a calculated risk. The current disagreement is an acknowledgment that Iran has not stopped its regional imperialist aspirations. These aspirations only benefit Iran’s bosses and, ultimately Russia’s imperialism. The “Dissent Channel” faction of policymakers acknowledges the reality that the U.S. military isn’t in Syria to fight ISIS, but rather to stop Russia’s influence.
The current Obama policy is a very simple divide-and-conquer strategy. It seeks to prevent any possible contender from achieving Middle East dominance (R. Kaplan, “Warming to Iran”; Foreign Policy, Jan.-Feb. 2015.). In particular, the Iran-led Shiite forces, with support from Russia and Iraq on one side, are pitted on the other side against the extremely wealthy Saudi and Gulf Cooperation Council dictatorships more closely allied with the U.S.
The State Department officials’ dissenting strategy, influenced by the critical Israeli and Saudi interests, reorients the strategy directly against Russia. This strategy is based on the knowledge that the U.S. and NATO allies have missiles in position to strike Russia as needed. (See “U.S. activating missiles in Europe despite Russian warning”; PressTV, May 11.) These are the lengths the U.S. imperialists are willing to go to defend their declining, but lethal empire. The Russian bosses, smelling blood, have shown they are equally willing to spill workers’ blood to prevent the U.S. from reestablishing dominance over the Middle East.
PLP Fights To Smash Imperialism With Communism
Workers internationally are not served by a U.S.-ruled or Russia-ruled Middle East. We have nothing to gain by following the lead of any of the imperialists, royalists, theocrats or other reactionaries. Neither do workers in any of the imperialist countries of the U.S., Iran, or Russia. In these countries, workers are facing an onslaught of fascist cuts to living standards in order to finance the bosses’ imperialist adventures. The bosses in all countries have intensified anti-immigrant racism, especially against the millions of refugees forced from the imperialist devastation in Syria.
The bosses cannot fight wars with soldiers who would rather turn the guns around on their officers and fight for communism. The Black worker-led rebellions in Ferguson and Baltimore showed that not only are many Black workers and youth more willing to fight the U.S. bosses than enlist in the U.S. Army, but also that millions of white, Asian, Latin, Muslim and Jewish workers were inspired by Black resistance to racist police terror.
PLP is organizing a mass Party to “fight like Ferguson” against the capitalist bosses of all countries for communist revolution. We have a world to win, but it can only be won with communist leadership. Building an international communist movement led by PLP is the solution.