We don’t need permission to defend the working class!

Today, one hundred students, professors and professional staff rallied and marched on the campus of Queens College (QC), part of the City University of New York. We were protesting a violation of the QC president’s regulations! According to the president,  any group wishing to hold a demonstration must submit a request at least three days before the event. This and other tight restrictions  are part of a nationwide blitzkrieg on the part of university administrators to curb college protests, especially protests against the Israel/U.S. genocide in Gaza.

There is a clock tower on campus named after three murdered civil rights workers: Andrew Goodman (who attended QC), James Chaney and Michael Schwerner. One of the speakers at today’s protest remarked, “The administration never tires of extolling Andrew Goodman. But do you think Andrew Goodman would have asked for permission to protest injustice on campus?” The large crowd responded loudly, “NO!!”

We marched around campus, stopping at buildings that had been the site of past anti-war protests and protests against tuition increases, with people holding large placards with photos of those events. The rally and march was organized by the chapter of the Professional Staff Congress, which last week had an online teach-in and collected 565 faculty and student signatures on a petition opposing the new policy. We marched into the administration building to deliver the petition — violating the new “no inside demonstrations” rule!

The PSC has also organized an Immigrant Solidarity Working Group, in which PLP comrades are participating. Today, a speaker asked, “If ICE shows up on our campus, do you think we’ll ask for permission to confront them and protect our students from being thrown into a detention center and deported?” The answer again was a vigorous “NO!!”

Years before he co-authored the Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx wrote a series of articles arguing that peasants collecting dead wood in the forests of the big landlords should not be beaten and in some cases killed for “property theft.” Marx argued that the fallen tree branches were no longer the property of the landed aristocracy and could be collected by the peasants to warm their homes. He and Engels consistently defended the right of the exploited to organize, to demonstrate and speak out, to publish radical pamphlets, and to strike. In a period of rising fascist repression, the battle to protect freedom of assembly and speech of students, faculty and staff is a necessary part of a larger struggle for social justice and for communism.
*****

Our Black students matter

During my morning prep, a comrade in my club sent a flier for the memorial for a student who was murdered.  Her principal had refused to have any memorial of him in the building, even going so far as to say that teachers weren’t even legally allowed to say his name.  I mentioned this to several teachers who were prepping with me.

One of the teachers pointed out that a similar event had happened at her school and that the administration had wanted to keep it business as usual.  I pointed out that this was racism, as in predominantly Black schools, the students who are murdered due to capitalism’s wanton violence are considered a norm.  The bosses want the death of these students to be seen as an everyday occurrence and not as a horrible tragedy.  Their administrators carry out this racist idea that this violence is just the scenery in a Black school. 

The teacher, who was both Black and a woman, told us teachers how hard it was to lose students and then be told to tell the survivors to “get it together” and excel in class.  She ended up having to leave that historically Black school and was happy to hear that our comrade had fought so hard for Black youth to be seen as valuable and their death is a tragedy that should be felt.  This moment helped me to remember that we should be bringing up the victories our comrades are having due to good practice in their work.  These are the little things that count.
*****

Class society is not human nature; fightback is

Over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, Progressive Labor Party hosted a West Coast retreat which brought together workers and students to discuss the world situation and how the Party’s line can be put forth to workers in our base and mass organizations. The retreat focused on three specific areas: (1) Bosses can’t rule in the old way, (2) Workers can’t live in the old way and (3) Why we need a Party. We also had one person join the Party who has since been meeting with the education club in Southern California. 

One of the most impressive parts of the retreat was the collectivity everyone put forth. When we arrived someone made a chart that had a space for each person’s name under either set up or clean up for meals and other various jobs. Every person wrote their name in one of the spaces which meant that we each only had one small job to do. Whereas under capitalist society a small group of bosses sit back doing nothing while the masses of workers are exploited and super exploited this weekend showed we do have the ability to live collectively and from each according to their ability to each according to their need.

One of the main highlights of the weekend was a presentation about the progression of human nature. The presenters showed how human beings had existed for tens of thousands of years under primitive communism and showed the progression and development of class society. Often workers are made to believe that class society has always existed and humans don’t have the capacity to live collectively. But, our presenters proved that to be inaccurate and we were able to see through practice that we can and should live collectively under a classless society with communist principles guiding us.
*****

Enjoying experience at the DC march

Upon entering  a Progressive Labor Party member’s home the morning of the People’s march in D.C.,  I noticed many PL’ers already within the first floor. I turned to my left to enter the dining room where I spoke to two comrades about the Russia-Iran Nuclear Treaty. After the conversation, I had some breakfast and familiarized myself with one comrade I met at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. 

Not long after, PL’ers in charge of organizing our contingent gathered everybody in the living room. They discussed the plans for how we were going to march on Freedom Plaza. I offered to hold a bag of CHALLENGE copies before we left the house. Once it was time to go, the leadership requested us to line up with a partner. We made our way down to the bus stop and got on once we were ready. 

Once we got off, we traveled down the street to a corner near the Plaza. We stopped there to form a picket line to get our message across. I was distributing CHALLENGE to passersby. Unfortunately, I was only able to sell two copies before we started marching to our destination. This is where it started to get rejuvenating. During our march, we held up posters and yelled out chants. My favorite one being ‘Arab, Jewish, Black, and White. Workers of the world unite!’ Overall, I had an enjoyable time marching with PLP and I wouldn’t mind going to another one of their protests.
*****

Fighting modern-day nazis

I have been sending the above document to my base, and to progressive bookstores that take CHALLENGE newspapers that I send them. This document  is on how to refuse cooperating with ICE as it looks for undocumented workers. I didn’t  write it, but it’s an antiracist attempt to help resist. The arbitrary arrest of undocumented immigrants by ICE (the ‘Gestapo’ of this era ) is dangerous, and represents  fascism. True to racist form, ICE is not only targeting immigrant workers from Latin America, especially Black workers from Haiti, but also  Muslim workers. Racism hurts all workers. Trump is one of the most blatant open racists since Woodrow Wilson. The international working class must stop this fascist. Workers, students, and soldiers must resist. The working class under Progressive Labor Party leadership, must stop these attempts to create a Nazi 4th Reich. At the same time we must organize for  communist revolution, where workers run the world collectively
*****

Black workers crush police-protected Nazi rally 

WKRC 12, 2/7–A group of neo-Nazis was seen on Friday hanging a banner and flags off the overpass between Evendale and Lincoln Heights. With Lincoln Heights being a historically Black community, their demonstration drew counter-protests. Lincoln Heights residents yelled for them to leave and set fire to one of their flags. They took a stand against white supremacists…"They jumped into U-Haul [and] we pulled up on the bridge and grabbed a flag. As the people here, we burned the flag right over there," said Howard…He also wants to talk to the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office and Evendale Police for not breaking up the neo-Nazis' protest…

Historical parallels between South Africa and Israel just won’t go away

France24, 2/8–South Africa on Saturday condemned a "campaign of misinformation" after US President Donald Trump issued an order freezing aid to the country over a law he alleges allows land to be seized from white farmers. Land ownership is a contentious issue in South Africa, with most farmland still owned by white people three decades after the end of apartheid…The allegation came in an executive order, which also noted foreign policy clashes between the United States and South Africa over the war in Gaza, particularly Pretoria's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice…"

Ukraine is running out of people

Der Spiegel, 1/24–The Russian invasion has now turned the demographic crisis into a catastrophe. Almost 7 million people…have fled abroad since…the day of the invasion. At least 5 million Ukrainians are now living under Russian occupation, cut off from the rest of the country by trenches and minefields…In the early 1990s…Ukraine had a population of 51.5 million. Today, only an estimated 29 million people live in Ukrainian areas…The populations of industrialized countries begin shrinking when the birthrate falls below 2.1 children per woman, and in the EU, the rate is 1.5. In Ukraine, though, the birth rate has fallen below one…The country is running out of people.

Workers rally, march and make plans to fight fascism

The Guardian, 2/9–Thousands took to the streets on Wednesday and Saturday last week following a series of dramatic raids by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement throughout Denver as protesters expressed solidarity with the undocumented…last week heavily armed Swat teams began storming apartment complexes around Denver and Aurora in the early hours of the morning …though with 30 arrests in all, only one gang member has been confirmed to be in custody…The protester and artist Starks, along with many others, has been attending weekly gatherings at a local Methodist church on how to best serve the legal needs of immigrants. 

Analysis of Trump’s foreign policy plan

Foreign Affairs, 1/30–Pax Americana is gone. Born with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the U.S.-led international rules-based order died with the second inauguration of Donald J. Trump…“The postwar global order is not just obsolete,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared…Trump’s skepticism about U.S. support for Ukraine and Taiwan, his eagerness to impose tariffs, and his threats to retake the Panama Canal, absorb Canada, and acquire Greenland make it clear that he envisions a return to nineteenth-century power politics and spheres of interest…humiliating wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the 2008–9 financial crisis shattered faith in the U.S…

Mark one for China versus U.S. in battle of imperialists

Al Jazeera, 2/10–Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown is visiting Beijing this week to sign a strategic partnership agreement with the world’s second-largest economy in the latest sign of China’s expanding influence in the Pacific Islands region. But the proposed pact has shaken decades-old ties between the Cook Islands and New Zealand…the United States and its allies in the region, including Australia and New Zealand, have been wary of China’s growing influence in the Pacific ever since Beijing signed a security agreement with the Solomon Islands in 2022.

Refugee, indigenous, or legalized—no one is safe from the crisis of capitalism. In just the first week since Klansman Donald Trump’s second inauguration, over 4,500 people have been arrested (Washington Times, 1/28). Amid a barrage of racist and sexist attacks—banning diversity programs—Trump issued more than twenty executive orders for mass deportations. But while Trump gives off Hitler vibes, it’s the worldwide crisis and decay of capitalist liberal democracy that set the stage for more open fascism. 

The next four years will further expose the rot of U.S. imperialism, intensify fascism in the U.S. and Europe, and propel the world closer to a global bloodbath.. But instead of sinking into fear or despair or cynicism, the international working class must fight back! Take inspiration from the San Jose students walking out against deportations or from Los Angeles workers organizing on the job . Join Progressive Labor Party in building an international, multiracial movement to smash all borders and build a communist society. 

Reign of fascist terror

As liberal democracy crumbles, both Democrats and Republicans are unleashing a ghastly wave of racist terror on migrant workers and youth. Wasting no time in expanding the Obama-Biden legacy of mass deportation and family separation, Trump vowed to “launch the largest deportation operation” in U.S. history.  Just two days after the inauguration, 46 House Democrats joined Republicans to pass the Laken Riley Act, which allows the kkkops to jail and deport–with no “due process”--any undocumented migrant accused of shoplifting or other minor crimes. But the most violent criminals–the capitalist ruling class–remainremains at large to slaughter our class in endless wars (see box).  

Following in the footsteps of Joe Biden, Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) thugs, the modern slave patrol, are busy disappearing our class sisters and brothers. Shockingly, 40 percent of those swept up for deportation are workers with legal work and residency documents (NY Times, 1/24). Birthright citizenship, which secured the children of enslaved parents as part of the 14th amendment in 1868, is also under siege. As always, the rulers’ assaults on Black workers are a blueprint for their plans to terrorize the rest of our class. 

Trump also axed the glitchy CBP One mobile app, which migrant workers had tried to use to schedule appointments with border patrol agents. Places long deemed safe havens, including schools, hospitals, and churches, are now unprotected from ICE raids. And where Biden had deployed 2,500 soldiers to militarize the border with Mexico, Trump just added 1,500 more (BBC, 1/27).

Liberals built it, Trump expanded it

Fast-rising fascism under Trump rests on the lethal foundation built by liberal rulers for decades.  Thomas Homan, his pick as the gestapo “border czar,” got his start terrorizing migrants under Deporter-in-Chief Barack Obama, whose administration built the freezing, squalid cages later used by Trump. In Trump’s first term, Homan was the architect of the “zero-tolerance” family separation policy that traumatized thousands of children. Now Trump has defunded efforts to reunite those children with their parents. The bosses’ cruelty knows no bounds!

By late last year, as Biden escalated brutal ICE policing and effectively ended asylum, border crossings fell below the levels in Trump’s first term.

Biden wound up deporting four million migrant workers and children, more than double Trump’s total (NYT, 1/22). In last fall’s election, in a cynical bid to hold on to power, Kamala Harris and the Democrats matched the Republicans’ racism in their campaign for “border security.” 

Fascism needs scapegoats

Like the domestic capitalists behind Trump, the main wing of the U.S. ruling class–finance capital–is scapegoating migrants for capitalism’s failures, a hallmark of rising fascism. Fascism emerges as capitalism decays and forces the bosses to rule through a more open class dictatorship. It relies on more virulent and violent racism, nationalism, and sexism to control both the working class and the bosses’ own ranks. 

Finance capital, the liberal imperialist bosses who direct the Democratic Party, tried to use identity politics  to blunt class consciousness and counter communist influence.  But as they see Trump outflanking them, they’re now echoing the president’s Make America White Again movement in scapegoating migrants for capitalism’s failures, a hallmark of fascism. While gutter racists like Trump spread open terror, liberal bosses remain the greater danger because they pacify workers and undermine fightback. These main wing rulers need anti-Trump workers to cling to the myth that the liberals are a “lesser evil.” But we see these racist, sexist warmongers for who they are–just evil.  

Refugee families are the canaries in capitalism’s coal mine; the bosses’ attacks on these vulnerable workers and children foreshadow what’s coming for the rest of the working class. As the U.S. moves more swiftly toward open fascism, the tools used to track migrants today–including nearly $8 billion of ICE surveillance tech left for Trump by Biden (NY Times, 1/24)--will target communists, antiracists, and antisexists tomorrow. First they come for the migrants, then they co​​me for everyone who resists. But the working class always fights back! Workers are already organizing their defenses against the latest Trump attacks.

No borders, no bosses

The capitalists’ laws protect capitalism, not workers. The bosses carve up the world to control labor and resources while keeping us divided.  But we are one world and one class. Workers have no stake in the rulers’ racist national boundaries. We must unite under one flag, the red flag of communist revolution!Let’s form collectives in schools, neighborhoods, and workplaces to stop these racist deportations. The politicians are paving the road to fascism—they won’t save us.  Only a united working class can fight back to keep us safe. Together we will build a new underground railroad to protect migrant workers. Together we will build a world that protects all of us. Join Progressive Labor Party and fight for the world we deserve. Smash racist deportations—working people have no nations!

Capitalism will never cease fire

After 15 months of phony condemnations, the U.S. ruling class has convinced Nazi Netanyahu and Hamas misleaders to accept a so-called “ceasefire”.

But under capitalism, there are no ceasefires. The bosses never stop competing with each other or terrorizing and murdering our class in the crossfire. In the days just before the Middle East deal went into effect, the Israel Defense Forces killed at least 200 workers and children in Gaza and wounded more than 264. Now the racist Zionist regime has shifted its wrath to the West Bank, where IDF raids have killed at least 10 people and wounded 40 more. Since the deal, more Palestinians have been arrested than those released (Aljazeera, 1/24). Both Trump and Biden have already greenlit Israel’s next mass-murdering attacks on Gaza. 

To date, at least 46,000 people in Gaza have been slaughtered by U.S.-funded bombs. More than 2.3 million have been displaced (BBC, 1/16). Those returning are coming home to 40 million tons of toxic rubble and 245,000 destroyed houses, schools, and hospitals. Under the terms of Israel’s blockade, it could take 350 years to rebuild Gaza (AP News, 10/22/24). 

Our class deserves better. The courageous workers and students of Palestine and the world will keep fighting back until the day we smash the capitalist profit system for all time.

Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES, CA, FEBRUARY 1 —“We will hide you. In our school, in our homes— we will do what’s necessary to protect you. We are a community and we will take care of you.” As undocumented students shared their fears during the Advisory about the changes to immigration policies with the inauguration of President Donald Trump, teachers let them know we all belong here and we will defend you. This sentiment was widespread among the staff in part due to the long standing work of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) fighting for the culture of the school to be rooted in ideas of antiracism, internationalism, and student-teacher solidarity. As Trump attempts to evoke terror in immigrant communities and promote them as the scapegoat for the inherent failures of capitalism, our school is united in demanding the working class have no borders.

Liberal bosses no solution to open fascism

The liberal bosses and their flunkies will try and use the issue of immigration to galvanize the working class behind them as their saviors. School districts across the country have sent out a flurry of calls, texts, and emails about Know Your Rights cards and are even prepared to deny school entry to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) without a proper warrant. And while it may feel at the moment that the Democrats have our back, a short look back at history reminds us that former President Barack Obama proudly earned his title as deporter-in-chief. Lenin reminds us “we must distinguish between the programmes of the bourgeois parties, between the banquet and parliamentary speeches of the liberal careerists and their actual participation in the real struggle of the people.” Anyone serious about fighting for migrant workers rights must be in the fight to smash capitalism. As long as capitalism exists, the system that created and profits from borders, immigrant workers will never be safe.

The illusion of choice

While some school districts have taken a seemingly strong stance against Trump’s policies, others won’t even call a spade a spade. One school district where the Party does work put out an Advisory lesson asking students to identify an emotion they were feeling after the inauguration. The list of choices included words like “elated” and “refreshed.” An additional slide asked students what hopes they had for Trump and the next four years. 

The Party member at the school said, “Hell no” and organized other staff members to do the same. In a team meeting one teacher responded to the “hope” slide by saying they hope Trump is assassinated before the end of his term. Another teacher in the base of the Party shared she hoped all this would lead to revolution. By the end of the day numerous teachers, particularly those new to the school, came up to the Party member to thank them for speaking out and wanted to engage in further conversation about how to fight back. We also created an alternative Advisory deck that empowers students with information on how to fight back instead of normalizing support for an open fascist and racist.

This Advisory deck created by the school district again exposes the problems with liberal ideology. The district has self-proclaimed their commitment to antiracism, yet to appease Trump voters and to honor the results of democracy, the district validated support of the president who refers to immigrants as “animals” and “stone cold killers.” Their message is everyone’s opinions and feelings are valid and welcome here. In contrast, the Party has always proudly shouted “no free speech for racists.”

The real fight begins!

The coming period will continue to demonstrate the fight has never been about liberal versus conservative. The real fight is fascism versus communism. Workers will eventually have to choose. What we do as a party will determine the level of impact we have on that choice. As communists, we must fight to ensure workers don’t follow the liberals into the arms of fascism.

There will be countless opportunities over the next four years and beyond to convince workers that communism is the only choice. In our schools it starts with communists fighting for an antiracist, antisexist school culturel. Sharing our line will open the doors to workers and students joining us. The culture of the school then determines the level of fight back that we will be able to inspire in  the school community. What we do has always counted, but it counts even more in the continuing buildup to fascism. The struggles we lead will reveal that the only solution is communist revolution.

Brooklyn

BROOKLYN NY, FEBRUARY 1—Almost 20 teachers and staff answered a call to make plans for potential Immigration  and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids at school. Every person who was invited to this first meeting agreed to participate. Many of them receive CHALLENGE regularly. The meeting started with a discussion about the need to organize to protect our students from the promise to deport millions that Racist in Chief Donald Trump is making. On January 21, the Trump administration rescinded a federal policy that made schools, hospitals, and other sensitive locations off-limits to ICE, attacking the most vulnerable members of the working class, our immigrant families (both documented and undocumented). 

Organizing workers against anti-immigrant racism

An important discussion ensued about the importance of organizing in the face of rising fascism. Here were some of the main points raised:

• One of the hallmarks of fascism is the government openly attacking a group of workers labeled as “unwelcomed.”
• Trump is building on the work of past U.S. presidents such as deporter-in-chief Barack Obama, who oversaw more deportations than any other U.S. president in history (Independent.co.uk, 11/19/24)
• We can’t rely on politicians or the Department of Education (DOE) to protect our students because when the bosses need to overturn or break their own laws, they do!
• We must build a movement where we, the working class, keep each other safe. 
• Helping to protect our students and their families from ICE raids is similar to participating in the Underground Railroad during slavery.

Despite recognizing the risks involved in protecting our students, everyone present agreed that we wanted to take part. One teacher shared what she had learned from reading about the Syrian resistance movement and made suggestions for how to apply them at our school. A self criticism was raised by a long-standing Progressive Labor Party (PLP) member and teacher at the school about the error of not having organized a meeting like this in response to the genocide in Gaza due to fear and how we need to organize more meetings like this one. 

Building an army against fascism

Besides plans for resistance we also discussed broadening our organizing to more staff and students with a “Know Your Rights” assembly. This assembly’s main purpose would be to make students at the school aware that many staff members care about them, want to keep them and their families safe, and are willing to help if they are in trouble. This provides us an opportunity to discuss the dangers of growing fascism and helps us also see even in scary times, we can organize! 

We have agreed to meet regularly to work on turning these ideas into reality. After the meeting a few of us stayed to talk, including a teacher who is newer to the school and very pro-student. They described the difficulty of keeping up morale in the face of all of the attacks worldwide the working class faces. This was the perfect opportunity to explain how being part of a revolutionary communist party, PLP, is what helps sustain our morale for the continued fightback that is needed. They were offered a CHALLENGE newspaper and gladly took it! Lots of work remains to be done…More updates to follow!

Newark

NEWARK, NEW  JERSEY, FEBRUARY 1 –  A week has passed since liberal politicians and reformist organizations began urging workers to rely on the weakening U.S. capitalists’ constitution, laws, and liberal leaders as the primary means of responding to newly elected President Donald Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and the broader rise of racist terror.

No safety for workers in fake liberal theatrics

The dominant message pushed by liberal misleaders is for workers to loudly denounce the violation of immigrant workers’ rights—but in ways that are hollow and leave us disorganized against these attacks. Simultaneously, these misleaders stoke fear, discouraging any real resistance. When state-backed fascists like ICE invade our communities, catch and cage our working-class brothers and sisters, and hurl them across borders like garbage, we are told to merely witness and report—not to interfere. ALL workers are reminded constantly that any attempt to interfere risks fascist repercussions.

The response of liberal bosses and their politicians will never go beyond performative outrage against fascist mobilizations. They refuse to confront the deeper realities revealed by immigrant raids: we need to smash the racist distinction between citizen and undocumented workers, and the oppressive existence of borders and nations as the division that weakens the international working class.
Racist divisions only benefit ruling class

These divisions allow competing bosses within nations across the globe to grind workers into the ground while scapegoating portions of our class with racist attacks. By prioritizing some workers over others—dehumanizing and super-exploiting the rest—they ensure that the working class remains fractured. Workers are left to passively endure the ruinous cycle of exploitation and displacement, shuffled from one nation to another, as the capitalist system deepens its crisis and its reliance on racist division to maintain control.

In contrast, a growing number of workers are gravitating toward a stronger, organized base within the working class, built on the communist principle that masses of workers must use our direct organized force to fight and defend each other to defeat this and every attack under growing fascism and global war. Workers are also demonstrating a growing urgency to struggle against the profit-driven system that fuels these assaults and more and more are embracing the necessity of its complete overthrow.

In that spirit, today three of us tenants went door to door canvassing in our building complex to grow the tenants’ union we are involved in. Through this outreach, we met six different neighbors who expressed a similar sentiment.  Each knock at their door aroused a feeling of fear ICE was starting their raid in the apartment building.  We did our best to reassure them, reminding them that we are neighbors wanting to build networks of protection for everyone to fight this vile system of capitalism that feeds from these racist attacks.  From the decrepit jail like conditions of the building, to the terrorising fascist means of deportation.  

Once the doors opened there were signs of relief.  Even though many neighbors did not speak English, with some translation efforts it didn’t take long for camaraderie. For one Haitian Creole speaking couple, they had the incredible patience to allow us to stumble through more than five different ways to try to translate for them!  Another Spanish-speaking neighbor expressed “No matter the color, the race of the person in the seat of the presidency of the U.S. the raids would still happen. We need to make this group as big as possible to defend each other.” Almost every neighbor asked, what was the plan? When we shared that we are knocking on doors every Saturday for the next month to build energy for an antiracist defend your neighbor training and a rapid response network they agreed to help knock on doors to get more people on board. One day these seeds of multiracial and antiracist mobilized unity will germinate and choke this whole racist system and overrun it with a life run by workers for workers: communism.