In the struggle for Gaza, it’s clear—liberal fascism is the danger.

Since October 7, when Hamas killed 1,000 Israelis and the Zionists began bombing Gaza murdering more than 32,000 Palestinians so far, comrades in the community and organization we participate in have been active against genocide and starvation in Gaza. In mid-October Progressive Labor Party (PLP)  members distributed hundreds of leaflets titled Hamas/Israel War Means: International Working Class Fight Back; Join Progressive Labor Party. Comrades spoke at meetings and led a well-attended forum at the organization. We continued distributing leaflets and CHALLENGE in the community. We attended mass protests in the city helping distribute thousands of CHALLENGEs.               
Recently PLP members have begun to work with a group of the organization’s staff, mostly young members of a UAW local, who are angry at the lack of response by the directors to the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The group wrote a letter to the directors with five demands, notably a call for a permanent ceasefire, support for the boycott, divestment, a sanctions movement against Israel, and support for the uncommitted movement of voters. PLPers helped the group get 20 signatures from worker members while staff got 40 signatures from other staff.

The letter included staff and worker statements like, “We mustn’t let Biden off the hook by fear of a Trump presidency.” “Stop the genocide now. No concessions!”  Staff said that while Netanyahu and the Israeli government prepare to bomb Rafah, Biden, and U.S. imperialists give Israel billions of dollars for armaments! Citibank is in Israel and the war and gives money to the community organization. The directors revealed their loyalty to imperialism and the Democratic Party saying, “We can take money from Citibank even if we don’t agree with their investments.” To a member's call for no concessions, the directors said, “We understand the outrage about Gaza, but it’s a problem. We need to win the election for Biden and the Democratic Party.”
                                
Their problem is that many young people and workers see the connections between the liberal fascist so-called lesser evil and the capitalist system. The opportunities for a revolutionary communist party, PLP, are growing! One new comrade has stepped up to take more leadership and we have a new member of our club. We will continue to be involved in the community organization with our new friends and seize every opportunity to put forward our Party’s ideas. Now it’s time for PLP members to build a base and invite new friends to our study group and PLP’s May Day on May 4. We got this!

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How I ended up joining PLP

From February 17-19 2024, Progressive Labor Party’s West Coast collective gathered for a meeting in Southern California. I got to be a part of this gathering, and the experience led me to join Progressive Labor Party. We discussed current events- the ongoing imperialist war in Gaza perpetrated by fascists around the globe, current political leaders, and each of the struggles our class has been facing in our day-to-day lives. Everyone’s diverse background and individual struggle somehow led us all here, as we pursue the same ultimate goal of working-class revolution communism. Our stories were validating and uplifting, knowing so many of us fight the same cause across all of California and in different divisions of work and education. A comrade/student at California State University has been fighting relentlessly against the administration’s efforts to silence her, as she and other students fight against a tuition increase while the CSU administration hoards billions of dollars. Their retaliation against her protesting voice goes to show that her efforts are not in vain- the bosses have been rattled.

I never cared to learn/teach myself history before joining PLP’s study groups, which opened my horizons to learning global history through a non-capitalist and anti-imperialist perspective. For the first time in my life, I could see patterns throughout human civilization and gained a better understanding of why the condition of the globe is as fucked up as it is today, in all senses of the word! Environmentally, economically, socially, etc… With that understanding, I gained hope on how we can move forward toward a better society. I love to learn history now and do my best to talk about it and teach it to others who are without a background in history. After these engaging discussions, and meeting other members of PLP across California, I joined.
*****

Our bonds motivates us to learn and fight

The most important and lasting part of the cadre school to me was the bonds and camaraderie that we built, for it will surely help us further develop and strengthen our future struggles. Seeing the entirety of the Los Angeles group together with those from Northern California was inspiring due to us being able to organize such an event, share stories, and build lasting friendships. To me, strong relationships and understanding that you can rely on a comrade is the most important part of maintaining the struggle. Although everyone has their reasons and motivations for joining the Party and starting in the struggle, it is the day-to-day check-ins with comrades that keep us accountable to not forget our commitment to the fight. And it was during the cadre school retreat, we exchanged contacts along with planning and organizing to keep in touch regularly.

Furthermore, it was making these bonds that made learning about our comrade’s struggles more important and inspiring for us. From the Bay down to LA, there were current, but also older stories that inspired us. Being able to learn from members who experienced many more years of struggle than us proved most encouraging since their lessons provided us with hope but also paths for self-criticism. One cool conversation that got me thinking was about religion and how communists grapple with the institution of religion and their own beliefs. Moreover, how religious institutions provide a model of why community, solidarity, and organizing are so vital to human nature. Lastly, our youth in the movement committed to struggles on college campuses across California proved most inspiring since it will be their initial experiences in their respective struggles, and the lessons they will learn will prove fruitful.

*****

Black-Red series evokes memory of women’s prison protest

The current CHALLENGE series, revisited from 2017, on the Civil Rights Movement is very much appreciated by workers, such as those in our discussion group. Not all comrades had the experiences these articles discuss. Younger readers thirst for the stories to apply the messages they carry to current struggles.

One anecdote recalled from the 1960s is pertinent now because of Women’s History Month.  I came out of a subway to find a demonstration organized by the Civil Rights Movement at the Women’s Prison in Greenwich Village. There were all sorts of protests and marches all over the city at the time, much like today. I was moved to join this one, whose aim was to “shut it down”. That was eventually accomplished due to the abuse at the jail, everything from rats to sexual predation by the staff.  Our wonderful Black southern spirituals adapted with protest lyrics, such as the song Turn Me Round, could be heard from afar.

The idea that a women’s prison protest, with meaning for the women’s movement, could be part of the struggle against racism, was a direct result of the strength of a momentous Civil Rights Movement, which could include other reform struggles rather than focusing on racism alone.

Unfortunately, despite the Civil Rights Movement’s strength and breadth, it was unable to defeat all the sell-outs, anti-communist reformists, and other swine such as Joseph McCarthy.  It was the Progressive Labor Party that turned the tables on his House Un-American Activities Committee when it tried to prosecute us after a Cuba trip to break the travel ban.

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NATO troops in Ukraine? One step closer to World War!

Newsweek, 3/20–French troops are ready for "the toughest engagements," the commander of the country's ground forces has said, as President Emmanuel Macron mulls an official military deployment to Ukraine despite repeated Russian threats of retaliation… Macron is at the forefront of a nascent proposal by a handful of NATO nations to discuss sending allied forces into Ukraine in training and advisory roles, though not as combat troops…France could engage a division of 20,000 troops within 30 days to operate as part of an allied coalition. Paris…would be able to command a force of around 60,000 soldiers made up of French and other allied troops. …Macron first suggested that NATO soldiers could deploy to Ukraine in February during a meeting of European leaders in Paris. The president said there was "no consensus" on the proposal, though added that "nothing was excluded."

Tik Tok ban is an example of inter-imperialist rivalry

Jewish Review of Books, 3/13–The House of Representatives just passed a bill...to ban TikTok in the United States unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, divests itself of the social media app… If the legislation musters sixty votes in the Democratic-led senate, then the social media app used by nearly half of Americans may disappear from their phones by the end of the year. Protecting Americans from TikTok’s political influence would be a gain to Israel’s standing with its most important ally…Researchers at Rutgers and the Network Contagion Research Institute compared TikTok and Instagram (which has a similar demographic) and found that although Instagram has only twice the number of politically themed posts generally, it had six times more pro-Israel and anti-Hamas posts than TikTok.
But the fact that TikTok is under the influence of America’s main adversary, the Chinese Communist Party, suggests the problem is more than just a wartime burst of digital anti-Zionism…a third of eighteen- to twenty-nine-year-old users regularly get news from the platform.

Even the U.N. chief is frustrated by the starvation of Palestinians

Al Jazeera, 3/23–The line of blocked aid trucks stuck on Egypt’s side of the border with the Gaza Strip while Palestinians face starvation on the other side is a “moral outrage”, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on a visit to the Rafah crossing. “I have come to Rafah to shine a spotlight on the pain of Palestinians in Gaza,” the UN chief said on Saturday, addressing a news conference in El Arish, in Egypt’s northern Sinai, where much of the international relief for Gaza is stockpiled as Israel continues to block aid from entering…A long line of blocked relief trucks on one side of the gates, the long shadow of starvation on the other,” he said. “That is more than tragic. It is a moral outrage. Any further onslaught will make things even worse – worse for Palestinian civilians, worse for hostages, and worse for all people in the region.”“You cannot see so many people being killed, you cannot see so much suffering without feeling hugely frustrated,” Guterres said while taking questions from reporters.

Trump or Biden, inter-imperialist world war awaits

Foreign Affairs, 3/22–Among Republicans, there are fewer and fewer Atlanticists left. Within the party, the idea that the United States should not be responsible for Europe’s security has become mainstream. The threats that emerge from Trump’s behavior will haunt Europe even if Trump does not win in November…Among the most consequential acts of Trump’s presidency was the lethal military assistance he provided to Ukraine…Aiding Ukraine with lethal weapons was something President Barack Obama had refused to do…In 2017, Trump greenlighted lethal military aid including Javelin antitank missiles to Ukraine, an act he believed would be good for the U.S. defense industry…In the first few weeks after Russia’s 2022 invasion, those Javelin antitank systems would play a crucial role in Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against Russia’s advance.

The latest response to the state terror in Gaza from Genocide Joe Biden and Top KKKop Kamala Harris is a classic case of appearance and essence (see box). Between Biden’s announcement of “aid” drops and Harris’ phony call for a ceasefire, the main wing of the U.S. ruling class wants it to appear that they care about the mass slaughter and starvation in Palestine. But the essence is that the liberal rulers are terrified of international fightback and of isolationist Donald Trump recapturing the White House.

Despite the desperate efforts of the capitalist media to mislead and confuse us, more and more workers are seeing the Democrats’ true colors. In a period of nine days, hundreds of thousands of workers—including 19 percent of the total vote in Minnesota and 13 percent in Michigan and North Carolina—slapped Biden by voting “uncommitted” or “no preference” in the presidential primaries. Once-loyal liberal voters are disgusted and appalled by the Democrats’ complicity in arming Israel and enabling the racist mass murder in Gaza. On the international stage, a declining U.S. has little influence over events in the Middle East, or even over Israel, increasing the risk of a wider war in the region. 

Global fightback against genocide and starvation

The Zionists’ brutal ethnic cleansing has captured the attention of the international working class. On March 2, more than one hundred cities around the world staged "Shut it Down for Palestine" protests (ENN, 3/2). Over the last five months, millions of workers have said no to genocide and imperialist war. Though the politics in this struggle are mostly nationalist and reformist, this multiracial movement, led mainly by youth and women, has inspired our class. The Progressive Labor Party can do more to root itself in the mass organizations driving this international fightback. Our political line—that the only solution to nationalist genocide is a communist revolution--has never been truer. But we still need to win masses of workers to see the need for a communist party as the only way out of this capitalist hell.

Famines don’t happen overnight. Prior to the Israel invasion last October, malnutrition was essentially nonexistent in Gaza. Today, according to humanitarian organizations, it has the highest proportion of people living in food deprivation in the world (Guardian, 3/6). At the highest risk are children, who make up half of Gaza’s population. Thanks to the Zionists’ blockades, as World Food Programme Executive Director Cindy McCain noted, “People in Gaza risk dying of hunger just miles from trucks filled with food” (World Health Organization, 1/15). With more than half a million people in Gaza one step away from famine (U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), the 38,000 meals recently dropped by the U.S. are pathetically inadequate (AP News, 3/2). 

After months of inaction and obscene indifference, it's no coincidence that Harris's call for a limited ceasefire or Biden’s celebration of the airdrops occurred within days of the Democratic primary humiliations (Reuters, 3/7). Regardless of whether Biden or fellow criminal Trump win in November, electoral politics can never change the capitalist system. An end to exploitation, racism, sexism, and war will never be on the ballot. Only a mass revolutionary communist party has the potential to turn the guns around and transform imperialist war into communist revolution. 

Ceasefire call driven by bosses’ cynicism

In her hypocritical speech to a crowd commemorating the famous antiracist civil rights fightback in Selma, Alabama, Harris called for an “immediate ceasefire” five months into the U.S.-funded slaughter of workers in Palestine. The Democratic Party is hemorrhaging Black, Latin, and Muslim workers from their ranks. These are the same workers that the liberal finance capitalist bosses need to recruit into their inevitable wars with Iran, Russia, and China over Middle Eastern trade routes and control over the region’s oil. Harris’ speech was nothing more than a cynical attempt to win these workers back into the Democrats’ fold.

From the loss of Iran in 1979 to the U.S. military debacles in Iraq and Syria to weakened relations with petroleum kingpin Saudi Arabia, the U.S. has little clout left in the region. As its imperialist rivals keep making political and economic inroads, the U.S. ruling class is forced to stand by Israel, even if doing so risks a wider war the U.S. isn’t ready to wage. At the same time, the U.S. bosses have little leverage over hardline Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Though Harris made a show of meeting with Benny Gantz, Netanyahu’s main political rival, the fact is that both Gantz and Netanyahu are on the Israeli War Cabinet. Both have signed off on the genocide of workers and children in Palestine. If the U.S. still wielded the global power it had fifty years ago, Biden wouldn’t have to resort to building a temporary port off the Mediterranean to bypass Israeli blockades of aid into Gaza (Associated Press, 3/7) And Netanyahu wouldn’t be pursuing an invasion of Rafah in violation of Biden’s toothless “red line” (Politico 3/10)

The only solution is communist revolution

While most workers aren’t falling for the Democrats’ charade, they are a long way from committing to the fight for a communist revolution. While the essence of the main wing's agenda is visible to many, the working class still struggles to see the potential of our class to run the world and serve workers’ needs. But while the revolutionary beacons in Russia and China have been lost in the dark night of the current period, Progressive Labor Party's flame is small but bright! For our class sisters and brothers to be moved to join us, we must expand our potential by working in mass organizations and raising antiwar struggles everywhere we are. There is no day like today to fight back against imperialist war and end these capitalist horrors for good. Join us!

Understanding Apperance and Essence

Dialectical materialism is the Marxist theory that historical events result from the conflict of opposing social forces—from a series of contradictions and their solutions. “Appearance and essence” is one category of dialectical materialism. The essence is the truth of something at its core, something that’s often hard to see it because it lies so deep within the thing. Appearance is what is readily visible about the thing. Because there is a tendency to avoid digging deep to discover a thing’s essence, misleading appearances tend to become conventional wisdoms. For example, the U.S. Democratic Party leaders might appear to be more compassionate and pro-worker than the Republicans because they pretend to care about racism, poverty, and reproductive health. In essence, however, they are controlled by the billionaires of finance capital. These misleaders will resort to lies and deceit to try to gain workers’ allegiance to their agenda for fascism and world war. 

TEANECK, NJ, March 10—Upwards of 500 angry workers and youth gathered outside of the Teaneck National Guard Armory on Sunday to protest the U.S. military’s active support and local New Jersey Zionists participation in the genocide in Palestine. An Israeli real estate company, My Home in Israel, is one of many companies around the world where Zionists are clamoring to purchase lands where workers in Palestine have been violently displaced (NYT- 3/11). As mass starvation and famine sets in due to the imperialist genocide of workers in Palestine, workers around the world are intensifying their rage which manifested at the protest of this property showcase.

The U.S. bosses revealed  again their  role in the genocide by calling out local Teaneck police to insure that the showcase took place, About half a dozen members of Progressive Labor Party (PLP)  attended and hundreds of CHALLENGEs were distributed, as well as a letter of anti-racist solidarity connecting workers from Gaza to workers facing eviction and gentrification in New Jersey.PLP demonstrated once again that in spite of the limited, nationalist leadership of the anti-occupation movement, our class supports the internationalist vision of workers’ power and that our ideas are indeed mass ideas.

Workers militantly confront zionism—open to communist politics 

While the Zionest counter protesters were to be expected, what was not expected was the militant reaction of protesters. A group of young and courageous protesters broke ranks during the rally in front of the Teaneck armory, setting a militant tone for the rest of the day. Meanwhile the bosses quickly showed that their lackey police were there only to serve and protect the Zionists and not the rights of our protest. When one lone Zionist showed up across the street from the rally at the armory, dozens of courageous youth crossed the street and encircled him with chants and flags.

As members of PLP, we met before the rally, developed our own strategy for security, and ensured that we were supportive but not spontaneously driven to a fight that our class was not prepared for. The anger and desperation that workers feel can only be resolved by waging internationalist class war against phony capitalist democracy and its inevitable path to inter-imperialist war and fascism.

Later on during the demonstration we drew on that anger and militancy against another group of Zionist counter protesters by leading dozens in a chant calling them the Nazi fascists that they are. Many were invigorated at the identification of Zionism with the historical fact of fascism during World War II. Our goal was to offer a counter-narrative to the lie that anti-Zionism is anti-semitism, and workers appreciated that. 
While the protest leaders energetically led the crowd for hours, they failed politically to make the  connections between the Teaneck armory and the property sales of stolen land.  In other words, none of the leaders gave a speech about how U.S. imperialist strategy for the past 75 years has entailed naked support for Zionist Israel as an anchor site for their profiteering domination in the oil-rich Middle East. Even more,  U.S. bosses' imperialist dogfights in the Middle East–anywhere from Yemen to Iran–were not addressed at all. Thousands of New Jersey National Guard soldiers were deployed to unknown parts of the Middle East in the past few weeks (News 12 NJ, 1/16).

The so-called “aid” efforts of the U.S., such as a proposal for a temporary port on the Gaza coast, will more than likely become launching pads for future U.S. operations. The leaders of the protest avoided these larger geopolitical concerns and simply declared that one ethno-nationalist Palestinian state was the solution.

We were there to fill in the gaps and offer a counter-analysis and solution through our bullhorns, papers and one-on-one conversations. We led dozens in a chant screaming “Arab, Jewish, Black and white, same enemy, same fight, workers of the world unite!” And as we left, many of the protesters thanked us for our contribution to the internationalist militancy of the event. 

Communism  internationalism smashing racist borders

The highlight was perhaps when we got dozens of protesters at the rally to take letters of support for a Morristown-based PLP comrade who stands to face eviction after denouncing  the brutal, racist housing authority in their remodeling scheme of her complex. Utilizing PLP’s slogan that “U.S. Israel Hand in Hand, Racist Displacement is the Bosses Plan,” we spread this message at the rally while actively encouraging protesters to send their letters to the Morristown courts in defense of our comrade. While we could have more courageously disrupted the rally in front of the armory, we maintained our politics and made efforts to bring our line to the fore any chance we got. Many were left with these words to ponder on, written by a Morristown PL’er and communist politics.

Poem to inspire workers power
  “It Happens Here and There”

Waiting on a response from the powers that Be
To be the powers that see or not to see
What capitalism is doing to our communities
Still waiting and contemplating on the next
Chess move that maybe the best move
To take down the upside down frown of the
The people who take the beating with a smile
Still being whipped in such a clever way
Because today the scars are not visible
They use the Willy Lynch tool to break
Down the mental in hopes that we never
See or understand that the power is in
Our hands if we take a stand and fight together!