“Racist cops, you can’t hide. We charge you with Genocide!”
“Black cop, White cop, all the same. Racist terror is the name of the game.”
As PLP marched through Flatbush, Brooklyn, these chants filled the air. They expressed opinions held by many in this working-class, black neighborhood, which is not new to police murder. But every police murder leaves a fresh wound on the community, and these wounds never heal. The murder of Shantel Davis had roused the community. The recent murder of Kimani Gray pushed some into open rebellion. PLP was there on both occasions to give direction to the anger.
Our march was among the many marches we’ve had in Flatbush over the past eight months. But this march was about more than ending police brutality. It was about smashing this racist system. It was about creating a new world, a world where young people aren’t shot down in the streets, a world worth fighting for.
We kicked off May Day with a rally for communism. Old friends and new faces filled the crowd as we raised our red flags and began chanting. True to our creed, there were many black, Latino, Asian, and whites in the crowd. Children and parents, students and teachers, workers and soldiers — all marching for one movement. This march offered us a glimpse of both the kind of organization and world we are fighting for.
Heads turned as we marched down Flatbush, over 500 strong, with our banners unfurled. Our signs depicted our fights — to turn imperialist war into class war; to end police murder and racist deportations; to end school closings, hospital cutbacks, and factory fires. We fight against all these attacks against the working class.
CHALLENGEs were being distributed left and right, taken by shopkeepers, barbers, cashiers, school kids, grandmothers and whoever else was present. Challenges were in peoples cars, apartment buildings, trucks, storefronts and bakeries. Every car honked to show us solidarity.
“Koupe Tet, Boule Kay”
As an internationalist organization, CHALLENGE is printed in English and Spanish, as well as, to name a few, in Creole, Arabic, Hebrew, and Dari in local areas. We chanted “Koupe Tet, Boule Kay!” This Creole chant dates back to the days of the Haitian Revolution; “Boule Kaye” has been a rallying cry at our demonstrations. It originated with a command by revolutionary leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines, when he and his slave army fought to liberate the nation — to “cut off heads and burn houses” of slave owners. Today, this chant embodies the fury of the exploited. We are in solidarity from Haiti to New York. A struggle in Haiti is our struggle, just as a struggle in Bangladesh or El Salvador is our struggle, because it is our class — the working class — under attack. Such an international morale was alive this May Day.
We concluded with another rally and assembled into our program hall, beautifully decorated, filled with communist artwork, red banners and photographs from May Days past.
The “State of the World” speech reminded us of the many attacks on workers worldwide, of the daunting force of U.S. Imperialism. But it also reminded us of our successes in building PLP and movement in Mexico, Palestine, Colombia, Haiti, and elsewhere.
There were performances by mainly young students. The classic “Clifford Glover” song (about a ten-year-old boy killed by the cops in 1973) was updated with a rap to follow the new struggles against racist police murder. A group of high school students recited “Good Morning, Revolution” by Langston Hughes. After that, they put on a skit produced, directed, and cast by students about the NYC Bus Strike. These performances open the door to a new world of working-class culture.
Onward to a New Year of Fightbacks
The “Why I Joined” speech was given by two comrades this year, both with moving accounts detailing their personal connection to communism and the PLP. A female comrade told us of how she went from being a soft-spoken girl in the classroom to a march leader, chanting “Death to the Bosses” at full volume. After having dealt with patriarchy and religious sexism, she was awed by the female leadership in PLP. Our newest comrade detailed how he grew up with a single mother who worked day in and day out to provide for her family, only to find that it was a dead-end for workers under capitalism. These comrades helped renew our commitment to PLP and communism.
Everyone stood up for a multi-lingual rendition of the “Internationale.”  The march and performances remind us why we joined PLP in the first place. Seeing comrades and friends, old and new, vigorously fighting against racism, sexism, and fascism makes this comrade want to fight as well. Happy May Day and cheers to an even more vigorous year filled with struggle! It is important not lose sight of our vision, and continue the fight for communism!

PLP members and friends joined the May Day Immigrant Rights March of 500-600 people.  We struggled to bring class consciousness that unites both immigrants and citizens to reject all divisions.
A friend said, “PLP stood out due to its organization, the chants, the amazing banner and red flags. Our contingent energized the march.”
As we rallied, the banner helped us to distribute our flyers and CHALLENGEs. We chanted in English and Spanish for the whole march and sang “Bella Ciao” and the “Internationale.” We chanted for all workers’ power, not just immigrant power. We shared the sound system and chanted together with others.
We connected the racist murders of black youth and the mass deportations of immigrants:
“OPD, KKK: how many kids did you shoot today?”
“Working people have no nation, smash racist deportations!”
The march circled though the Mi Pueblo lot, the site of on-going struggle in Oakland. Its formerly “illegal” Mexican owner decorates his store with the colors of the Mexican flag. Recently he volunteered for I-9 Audits (a fascist program conducted by the Immigration Customs and Enforcements that checks the immigration status of all workers) and fired immigrant workers. A new comrade said it was powerful to have a specific target as we chanted and marched for revolution in the future. 
As the march ended, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan showed up in a red dress, looking for a photo op. A comrade spotted her while another announced on the bullhorn: “There’s Jean Quan.  She sent OPD to attack Occupy Oakland.” Someone near her booed, and the crowd took it up. The boos changed to the chant  “Jean Quan go home.” A young black man asked to use our bullhorn and marched towards her announcing: “Jean Quan supports S-Comm!” (Secure communities, a police program.) She left! 
After the march, we ate and toasted revolution and communism. From a friend: “It was sooo good to celebrate May Day with my red friends. The food was yummy and the conversation is always rich and lively.”  The future is bright!
Workers worldwide continue to fight for a better life. However, if we see ourselves only as immigrants, we lose. If we see ourselves only as citizens, we lose. We belong to only one class — we are the producers of the entire world’s riches — the working class.  When we unite as one class, which dismantles the rulers’ emphasis on borders, ethnicity, gender, “race,” nationality or heritage, WE WIN.

The Obama administration has rationalized its threat to punish Syria for using chemical weapons on “humanitarian” grounds (see page 2). Yet the “humanitarian” U.S. bosses — Walmart, Sears, J.C. Penney, GAP, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, among others — have reaped billions in profits from the super-exploitation and killing of garment workers in Bangladesh. The latest atrocity is the sexist, racist murder of over 800 mainly-women workers (and counting) in Dhaka in a building collapse in which threatening cracks had been discovered the day before — follows two fires which killed hundreds more when the bosses blocked exits. And it’s one and the same with the attack on workers that killed ten residents of West, Texas, where a hazard-prone fertilizer factory fire virtually destroyed the entire town.
Thousands of garment workers took to the streets in Dhaka, smashing vehicles with bamboo poles, and setting fire to at least two factories. The protests ricocheted among the city’s industrial sections as workers vented their fury, damaging more than 150 vehicles, demanding the death penalty for the owner of the Rana Plaza building, Sohel Rana, who is involved in the country’s ruling party, the Awami League.
Before the building collapsed, workers had “notified the police, government officials and a powerful garment industry group about cracks in the walls” (New York Times, 4/26) but the building was not padlocked. Supervisors beat workers back into the factory, with threats of firing. A local journalist at the scene said “local police…did not appear concerned and instead warned him not to run a story….A police supervisor…said an engineer had inspected the cracks and had found no problems.”
In a nearby industrial district protesters smashed five garment factories and clashed with the cops, as well as blocked traffic on a major highway.
Bangladesh has the lowest wages in the world. The 3.2 million garment workers earn as little as $37 a month, mostly women slaving away in 5,000 factories. For making a Nike shirt retailing for $28, workers are paid 0.08 cents. Even if wages were tripled, workers would still get less than one cent per shirt produced.
Over 3,000 workers were in the building when it collapsed. The lower floors were evacuated (including a bank branch) but those on the upper floors — which it turned out were illegally constructed — were ordered to keep working.
A workplace monitor from the University of California at Berkeley told the Times (4/26) that the prices Western companies pay “are so low that they are at the root of why these factories are cutting corners on fire safety and building safety.”
“I wouldn’t call it an accident,” said one minister. “I would say it’s murder.”
These murders will continue as long as capitalism exists, based on its constant need to expand globally to rake in maximum profits among the lowest-wage workers it can exploit. The killings in Syria and Bangladesh are the product of this bosses’ international fight. Join us Wednesday, May 15 at 5 PM as we rally in front of the Bangladeshi Consulate in New york City near Grand Central.

Nearly 160,000 workers protested the bosses’ austerity attacks in 286 May Day marches and rallies in cities across France. They also marched against the ANI — a national agreement giving the bosses extended rights to fix workers’ wages, hours, and work locations.
The main demonstrations were organized by the “class struggle” trade union confederations which which oppose the ANI. They continually steer workers into the arms of the “lesser-evil” Socialist Party. They repeatedly call for supposedly neutral government mediation in the Peugeot strike.
In Paris, Peugeot factory workers who are beginning their 16th week on strike formed one of the most militant contingents, chanting “Workers’ strength is in striking!”
Many workers in the Paris May Day march attacked the Socialist Party. Jean-Michel, 44, noted that Socialist president “Hollande said [during the presidential election campaign] ‘I want to be the enemy of finance’ but he has given the bosses 20 billion euros [in tax breaks].”
Ten thousand workers marched in Marseilles, many chanting “no, no to austerity!”
In Bordeaux, (6,000) and in Toulouse (5,700) workers blasted Hollande’s austerity attacks. In Lyons, 4,000 marched despite a heavy shower with signs reading “We won’t pay for capitalism’s crisis,” and in Rouen, 2,000 workers, led by oil workers from the bankrupt Petroplus refinery, chanted “death to austerity!”