As the capitalist bosses behind President Donald Trump push to shut off the spigot of arms to Ukraine in its war with Russia, an 80-year-old partnership between U.S. imperialism and Europe is fraying to the breaking point. Trump’s threat to make a Russia-friendly deal with Vladimir Putin (and/or extort Ukraine’s mineral wealth), his plan to pull 20,000 U.S. troops out of Europe (Stars and Stripes, 1/24), his open hostility toward NATO—all are signs of the deep split in a decaying U.S. ruling class. On one side are the Small Fascists backing Trump, the Fortress America wing that hijacked the Republican Party and has no interest in paying for a massive worldwide military footprint—much less a distant ground war with U.S. troops. On the other side are the Big Fascists of U.S. finance capital, the multinational banks and oil companies that seek to hang on to their failing empire as long as they can, at any and all costs to the international working class.

One side wants to protect and strengthen a U.S. sphere of influence, from Greenland to the Panama Canal; the other looks to contain the global rise of their inter-imperialist rivals, China and Russia. One side is led by open racists who scapegoat immigrants and Black and Latin workers for the failings of the profit system; the other by liberal racists who use identity politics and DEI initiatives to weaken class struggle. But make no mistake: No matter how Ukraine plays out, the international crisis of capitalism will keep sparking blood-soaked conflicts and rising fascist movements the world over. No matter which U.S. bosses ultimately prevail, or which maneuvers they choose, they’ll be forced to turn to full-blown fascism. They’ll need fascism to discipline their own class, put down workers’ rebellions, and prepare for World War Three. There are no good bosses! In this period of frightening instability and grave danger, the workers of the world have only one solution: communist revolution, led by the international Progressive Labor Party (PLP).  

Why Ukraine matters

According to U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, Ukraine is a “gold mine” with $12 trillion worth of critical minerals, which the West “can’t afford to lose” (“Face the Nation,” CBS, 6/10/24). There is plenty of oil and wheat in Ukraine, too, plus a broad industrial base and coveted warm-weather ports. Perhaps most important, since the two countries share a 1200-mile border, a NATO-aligned Ukraine poses a security threat to Russia. 
How did the current war start? To understand the history of this area of the world, we must go back to the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, and a stated U.S. commitment to exclude the former Soviet republics from NATO. But there’s no honor among imperialist thieves, and ten former Warsaw Pact nations were brought into NATO, effectively encircling Russia. In 2002, further heightening tensions, the U.S. withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Imperialist Russia pushed back by intervening in the Transnistria War in Moldova in the early 1990s and in a civil war in Georgia in 2008. In Ukraine, tensions escalated In 2014, when the U.S. bosses organized a coup to install a pro-U.S. president.
The so-called Euromaidan movement relied on anti-Russia propaganda propagated by NATO, which promoted Ukraine’s tilt toward Western Europe and its application to join the European Union. The U.S. imperialists funded homegrown Ukrainian fascists as well as NGOs and CIA front groups like the National Endowment for Democracy. Russia countered by courting workers in Ukraine with cheaper gas prices and more open borders with Russia. The Russian bosses bribed their way into control of the contested Donbas region, which broke away from Ukraine in 2014. 

That set the stage for Russia’s support of an eastern Ukraine “resistance,” the 2014 seizure of Crimea, and today’s three-year-old Russian invasion and Ukraine’s U.S.-funded military response under ex-president Joe Biden, which has badly faltered. Despite a terrible toll in Russian military casualties, the Big Fascists’ attempt to weaken Russia by grinding them down in Ukraine has been a stunning failure. The U.S. has become more isolated while Russia and China have drawn closer. The BRICS coalition led by the two U.S. rivals has grown stronger. The bosses’ old liberal world order is in tatters in both the U.S. and Europe, where openly fascist parties are flourishing. While all capitalist rulers are in crisis, the U.S. is facing a steeper relative decline.

Turn the guns around!

Under capitalism, ever deadlier wars are the grim future for the working class. But workers have no stake in these fights. Communists know better than to support either side in any imperialist conflicts, which at bottom are cynical competitions to exploit the working class. PLP says:  No war but class war! 

Only an international communist movement can end imperialist slaughter for all time. We must build a Party to lead this fight and help the working class build a better future, free of war, racism, sexism, and exploitation. Join us! We have a world to win!

London, KY, January 25— Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members from Kentucky attended a march to demand justice for Doug Harless, a retired white worker who the killer kkkops murdered in his home in search of a weed-eater that was stolen from a relative of the County Judge Executive. In the same state where the racist kkkops murdered Black woman worker Breonna Taylor, this incident shows how white workers don’t benefit from anti-Black racism and sexism, contrary to what liberal bosses’ tell us. The rulers say the cause of racism is white privilege identity politics, but racism is the lifeblood of capitalism and the rulers can’t get rich making superprofits without it. A multiracial communist revolution will benefit the whole working class! 

We came to the march prepared to bring our political message by going out and distributing CHALLENGE and explaining that this incident of police terror is not an isolated incident, but a result of the police’s purpose under capitalism, which is to enforce capitalist relations and keep the working-class under the thumb of the rich. We also helped get this message across by leading chants such as “Killer cops mean – We got to fight back!” and “No justice no peace, no crooked police!” During the march, close relatives to Doug inspired us with the chants “[London Police Department], lower your weapons!” and “LPD you’ve got blood on your hands!” 

KKKops lie after killing

Police mistakenly showed up at Doug’s home at night to serve a search warrant for an address different from the one where Doug was sleeping. Upon arrival, the cops from the London Police Department went up to the door of Doug’s house and banged loudly, and shortly after announcing themselves, forced their way into his home and shot him five times. Despite the fact that it would have been wrong to have killed Doug even if he did have the weed-eater, the cops knew that they could not easily cover up their fatal “mistake.” So instead of immediately dispatching that shots had been fired, surveillance footage from one of Doug’s neighbors shows the cops regrouping outside the home and eventually dispatching that shots had just been fired, and then giving a different address from the one which they were at. The address that they reported shots had been fired at, had been abandoned for some time. It is no coincidence that Doug was killed over a weed-eater that belonged to a relative of David Westerfield, the County Judge Executive. 

Local bosses, kkkops justify shooting

The purpose of the police is to protect property, not people, and the power imbalance is rooted in the fact that the capitalists own all the property, while workers only own their labor to be sold in exchange for a wage. This has been further demonstrated by the fact that an investigation is being launched by the police to supposedly find out the cause of the incident, but we know what happens when the police investigate themselves. The mayor of London, who was pressed by local workers during a town hall meeting that was arranged to get answers as to what happened, has offered nothing but excuses. He even released a statement condemning those who have been organizing protests and marches for “making this political.”  All violence against the working-class is political violence, but to say that this is not political is especially absurd when it was a local politician whose name is directly tied to this murder!

History of racism

This incident in London is not the first clear example of police violence against the working class. Appalachia historically has been the battleground between militant union miners and volunteer armies made up of local deputies and sheriffs who were employed by coal bosses. As early as the 1920s in the events leading up to the battle of Blair Mountain, local sheriffs used everything from revolvers to machine guns to put down strikes, evict miners from their homes, and attack encampments made-up of displaced striking miners and their families. Similar events happened in the Harlan County Coal Wars, a bloody 10-year long struggle between the miners in Harlan and the coal bosses who owned the camps that they lived and worked in. Today, this history has been suppressed in order to make Appalachian workers unaware of their radical history, instead slandering them as “rednecks” a term which originally referred to members of the union who wore red bandanas, signifying their solidarity with the international working-class struggle. 

These rednecks represented the most radical section of the Appalachian working-class, as they were the most willing to unite with Black and immigrant workers against the coal bosses who constantly used racism as a tool to divide and prevent them from working together. To the bosses, the term “redneck” was twisted in liberal media and used as a derogatory term to refer to someone as lazy and inbred. Today, this meaning is used to justify the intense poverty that continues to exist as a result of over a century of capitalist exploitation. 

Lack of consciousness and efforts by the police to embed themselves in the community and make themselves seem as if they’re there to “protect and serve” has created an illusion amongst many Appalachian workers that the police are not bad. But recent events have exposed that it’s not a few bad apples, it’s the whole damn apple tree.

We WILL be back!

As of right now there are plans for another march to happen in February where we will again stand in solidarity and demand justice for Doug, and hopefully bring greater class-consciousness to the movement.

Today, thirteen workers attended our Progressive Labor Party (PLP) study group, including those who came with us to Springfield, OH, where Trump and Vance launched a racist attack against Haitian workers. There was a lively discussion on the theme, “an attack on any group of workers is an attack on all workers,” with many good questions and comments, as well as a delicious meal that was a collective effort in the communist spirit. 

The meeting doubled as a fundraiser for a project to house immigrant families and a larger event coming next month. The main speaker was a recently retired Black Ford worker who we met on the picket lines during the 2023 UAW strike. He is also the pastor of a small congregation, and his church housed a family from Central America for nine months last year. Now, in the face of increased racist terror and ICE raids, he is getting ready to house more families and he can use our help. We are raising funds. He spoke about the necessity to support and build bridges to all working people who are under attack by any oppressive government, especially migrant workers attempting to stay safe from Trump’s racist attacks. Detroit’s Mayor Duggan has said he will cooperate with ICE, but the scapegoating of immigrant workers will not relieve the suffering of

Black workers and youth whether on the assembly line, the unemployment line, or trapped in these crumbling schools. 
A PLP comrade also spoke, saying that yes, building these bridges is essential, and that it is our job to ensure that these bridges put us on the road to communist revolution so we can put an end to this sick racist system. Today was a good starting point for the larger event we are planning in March, which can involve more members of the church and some Ford workers. We are fighting to expand the base for PLP and looking forward to May Day.

INGLEWOOD, CA, February 3—Hundreds of drivers laid on their horns and city residents streamed out of houses and small businesses to throw their fists in the air as one hundred high school students walked out of school in support of the nationwide day of action for immigrants’ rights. 

Since January 20th, racist President Donald Trump has used the liberal fascist Democrats’ immigration machine to maximize terror in working class neighborhoods. While the liberal politicians call for a friendlier deportation system, Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members and teachers in Los Angeles are planting the seeds for a brighter future, providing communist politics to unleash the power of our class, reminding them that we must smash all borders. "This bold pro-student-worker action follows an advisory lesson, led by a PL’er, on fighting deportations and resisting Trump’s racist agenda (CHALLENGE 2/12). It is part of PLP’s ongoing effort to build a culture of resistance in the schools where we work, rooted in communist principles of antiracism, internationalism, and solidarity."

Young workers lead the way!

A nationwide call went out through social media to make February 3rd a “Day Without Immigrants.” Students at one high school in Inglewood jumped into action to plan their participation in this fight back. The social justice club at the school had members who played an instrumental role in strengthening the politics and organization of the action. They reminded other students that although the school is majority students whose families are originally from Mexico, it is critical to broaden the scope to an international perspective as workers across the globe are impacted by the attacks on immigrants. This was messaged through conversations and the chant sheet created. Social justice club members also were able to struggle for a plan that included collaborating with other schools. 

Within a day, the plan was set. Students would either stay home and then come to school at the first break of the day or attend school, but walk out at the same time that the first group arrived. Administrators got word of potential walk outs or sit outs and sent messages to families and students that although they understand how the community feels, the goal was still to have 95 percent attendance or better. This did not deter students from their plan. If anything, it enraged them further because it became clear that the school leadership didn’t really care about their well-being as they claim.

The first period classes that morning were about half full. The impact was stark. Many teachers allowed the students who were there to use the first period of the day to make signs, write speeches, practice chants, and continue to organize others to walk out. At the first break, one hundred students streamed out of the front door of the building with eight teachers joining them in support. A second wave of students joined shortly after. 

By the middle of the day, only 50 of the 600 student population remained in the building.

March heats up

Initially students planned to march a short way to the stadium nearby. Adrenaline took over though and they snaked through neighborhoods for hours on end, stopping at schools and major intersections across three different cities. At the school stops that were made, students chanted, “Walk out, walk out”. Dozens of additional students at two different schools headed that call and joined the protest, growing to double its size. Additionally, cars started following the march, supporting with honking, music, and sharing water. This eventually grew to a caravan of 15 vehicles stretching the length of the march. When all was said and done, we marched for nearly six hours totaling eleven miles. Students clearly felt empowered and immense pride in the action they took. The next day in the hallways, there were glances, smiles, and nods of approval shared amongst all those who participated.

This walkout was the first student-led response in L.A. county to Trump’s attacks on immigrants. For two weeks following this day, walkouts continued to be held at schools around the county. It was clear the live streaming of this event had a broad impact on our local area. 

Struggle is just beginning

Members of the social justice club met immediately after to plan next steps and continue to build on the momentum developed. Students are shooting for a forum on the history of immigration in March and another action uniting the three schools on May 1st. They reflected  on struggle, noting the positives and areas where we need growth.  The bravery of the students was celebrated, but we also recognized the need for sharper politics through the use of planned speeches. This will be something they will include in future actions.

The school district has cracked down on student actions and teacher support since the walk out. They tried to pacify the students by offering “safe spaces” to voice their concerns during lunch, while also threatening anyone who continued to organize future actions. It was clear to students that administrators and those who run the district will not have their back in this fight. To highlight and honor the students’ bold action, a Party member created an advisory lesson that the entire school presented recognizing student organizing with pictures and video of the event and a chance for students to learn about tactics used in historical examples of student-led struggles (Soweto uprisings, San Francisco State student strike, and more).

The social justice club has grown as a result of the walk out and more students are getting CHALLENGE. Also, members have been invited to a Party forum on immigration coming up in a few weeks. Students from both schools where Party members work will present about their role in organizing the walkout at this event as well. The sustained Party work in the schools here over the last decade strengthened this inspiring event.

Continuing the work here will lead to recruitment of the future gravediggers of capitalism - the system that thrives on using borders to divide and exploit workers. While there is a long road ahead of us, it is the day to day struggle that leads to larger fightbacks, which then lays the groundwork for future revolution to bring about the only world good enough for the working class - communism. With working class youth learning their power and place in that fight, the future is bright!