Paul Robeson, world-famous actor, singer, and fighter against racism and for communism, was born 125 years ago today, in Princeton, New Jersey.

Many are celebrating Robeson's birthday. But very few of them mention that Roberson was a communist. Only the anticommunists say it (e.g. the Washington Post, February 19, 2019).

In fact, Robeson was a "Stalinist" -- an admirer of Joseph Stalin as the leader of the worldwide communist movement and of the Soviet Union, where racism was outlawed.

Stalin was the last Soviet leader who insisted that socialism (as it was then understood) must steadily advance towards communism. He was working towards that goal after World War II. The Soviet advance towards communism was ended under Stalin's dishonest successor, Nikita Khrushchev, and Khrushchev's successors. The last of these successors, Mikhail Gorbachev, paved the war for the restoration of full-blown capitalism in 1991.

Immediately after Stalin died, on March 5, 1953, Robeson wrote this tribute to him. These last lines, quoted from another author, make it clear that Robeson looked forward to communism:

To you Beloved Comrade, we make this solemn vow
The fight will go on - the fight will still go on.
Sleep well, Beloved Comrade, our work will just begin.
The fight will go on - till we win - until we win.
* * * * *
To You Beloved Comrade
by Paul Robeson

There is no richer store of human experience than the folk tales, folk poems and songs of a people. In many, the heroes are always fully recognizable humans - only larger and more embracing in dimension. So it is with Russian, Chinese, and African folk-lore.

In 1937, a highly expectant audience of Moscow citizens - workers, artists, youth, farmers from surrounding towns - crowded the Bolshoi Theater. They awaited a performance by the Uzbek National Theater, headed by the highly gifted Tamara Khanum. The orchestra was a large one with instruments, ancient and modern. How exciting would be the blending of the music of the rich culture of Moussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Khrennikov, Gliere - with that of the beautiful music of the Uzbeks, stemming from an old and proud civilization.

Suddenly everyone stood - began to applaud - to cheer - and to smile. The children waved.

In a box to the right - smiling and applauding the audience - as well as the artists on the stage - stood the great Stalin.

I remember the tears began to quietly flow. and I too smiled and waved. Here was clearly a man who seemed to embrace all. So kindly - I can never forget that warm feeling of kindliness and also a feeling of sureness. Here was one who was wise and good - the world and especially the socialist world was fortunate indeed to have his daily guidance. I lifted high my son Pauli to wave to this world leader, and his leader. For Paul, Jr. had entered school in Moscow, in the land of the Soviets.

The wonderful performance began, unfolding new delights at every turn - ensemble and individual, vocal and orchestral, classic and folk-dancing of amazing originality. Could it be possible that a few years before in 1900 - in 1915 - these people had been semi-serfs - their cultural expression forbidden, their rich heritage almost lost under tsarist oppression's heel?

So here one witnessed in the field of the arts - a culture national in form, socialist in content. Here was a people quite comparable to some of the tribal folk of Asia - quite comparable to the proud Yoruba or Basuto of West and East Africa, but now their lives flowering anew within the socialist way of life twenty years matured under the guidance of Lenin and Stalin. And in this whole area of development of national minorities - of their relation to the Great Russians - Stalin had played and was playing a most decisive role.

I was later to travel - to see with my own eyes what could happen to so-called backward peoples. In the West (in England, in Belgium, France, Portugal, Holland) - the Africans, the Indians (East and West), many of the Asian peoples were considered so backward that centuries, perhaps, would have to pass before these so-called "colonials" could become a part of modern society.

But in the Soviet Union, Yakuts, Nenetses, Kirgiz, Tadzhiks - had respect and were helped to advance with unbelievable rapidity in this socialist land. No empty promises, such as colored folk continuously hear in the United States, but deeds. For example, the transforming of the desert in Uzbekistan into blooming acres of cotton. And an old friend of mine, Mr. Golden, trained under Carver at Tuskegee, played a prominent role in cotton production. In 1949, I saw his daughter, now grown and in the university - a proud Soviet citizen.

Today in Korea - in Southeast Asia - in Latin America and the West Indies, in the Middle East - in Africa, one sees tens of millions of long oppressed colonial peoples surging toward freedom. What courage - what sacrifice - what determination never to rest until victory!

And arrayed against them, the combined powers of the so-called Free West, headed by the greedy, profit-hungry, war-minded industrialists and financial barons of our America. The illusion of an "American Century" blinds them for the immediate present to the clear fact that civilization has passed them by - that we now live in a people's century - that the star shines brightly in the East of Europe and of the world. Colonial peoples today look to the Soviet Socialist Republics. They see how under the great Stalin millions like themselves have found a new life. They see that aided and guided by the example of the Soviet Union, led by their Mao Tse-tung, a new China adds its mighty power to the true and expanding socialist way of life. They see formerly semi-colonial Eastern European nations building new People's Democracies, based upon the people's power with the people shaping their own destinies. So much of this progress stems from the magnificent leadership, theoretical and practical, given by their friend Joseph Stalin.

They have sung - sing now and will sing his praise - in song and story. Slava - slava - slava - Stalin, Glory to Stalin. Forever will his name be honored and beloved in all lands.

In all spheres of modern life the influence of Stalin reaches wide and deep. From his last simply written but vastly discerning and comprehensive document, back through the years, his contributions to the science of our world society remain invaluable. One reverently speaks of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin - the shapers of humanity's richest present and future.

Yes, through his deep humanity, by his wise understanding, he leaves us a rich and monumental heritage. Most importantly - he has charted the direction of our present and future struggles. He has pointed the way to peace - to friendly co-existence - to the exchange of mutual scientific and cultural contributions - to the end of war and destruction. How consistently, how patiently, he labored for peace and ever increasing abundance, with what deep kindliness and wisdom. He leaves tens of millions all over the earth bowed in heart-aching grief.

But, as he well knew, the struggle continues. So, inspired by his noble example, let us lift our heads slowly but proudly high and march forward in the fight for peace - for a rich and rewarding life for all.

In the inspired words of Lewis Allan, our progressive lyricist -

To you Beloved Comrade, we make this solemn vow
The fight will go on - the fight will still go on.
Sleep well, Beloved Comrade, our work will just begin.
The fight will go on - till we win - until we win.

BROOKLYN, NY, April 12—After a 17-year-old former student Claude* was killed in the streets, it forced the working class—students and teachers—of a small school to choose: fightback or passivity. While the final verdict is still out, the struggle has become a test for pro-communist ideas in the face of liberal fascism.
School, union, city: all gangsters for capitalism
The racist Black principal has been able to get away with blood on her hands (see boxed letter). When Progressive Labor Party says liberal fascism is the greater danger for the working class, this is what we mean. This principal—in a liberal city run by a Black ​​mayor Eric Adams—has successfully created an environment where students and education workers feel pressured to “lay low” and accept the expendability of Black youth as “normal.” This is one way the school stays one of “America's Best High Schools” in the U.S. News and World Report. To stay on top, the Black leadership throws out Black students like they’re trash.
But, it’s not just her.  The UFT District Representative—the educator workers’ union that prides itself on putting the needs of students on the back burner—was silent when one teacher had said, “The union needs to make a fight against these racist pushouts.”
This is the same district rep who spent what felt like hours detailing his diligence in keeping his teacher file up to date.
While this seems small, it’s a reflection of the limits of unions. The UFT leadership cynically puts electoral politics and teacher salaries over students’ learning conditions. This was no surprise considering the racist strike of 1968, when the UFT walked out as a response to the efforts of Black parents to exert community control over schools in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Ocean Hill-Brownsville. A union that sacrifices Black and Brown students is a racist one.
One tenet of fascism (an old capitalist system in crisis headed for world war) is the idea of accepting expendability.
As the future of capitalism becomes more uncertain (see editorial, page 2), the bosses need a tighter control of their class and the working class. Capitalist schools train us to treat our class as disposable—to accept that some youth will just be homeless, unemployed, jailed, killed in war, erased. The ones who can make this fascist argument most convincingly are the ones who present themselves as pro-worker. This is the same type of idea that threw workers into gas chambers.
We will always remember him
How do you respond when a Black principal makes it taboo to discuss and honor a victim of capitalism and pressures a mainly-white-teacher force and a mainly-Black-student force to simmer down?
Several teachers have stepped up in the reform struggle—one organized a card and funds for the family, another made photos of Claude, another printed the poem “Kids who Die,” and yet another helped blow up balloons for the third memorial wall. Every teacher also received a la​​minated tag, “we will always re​​member [Claude].”
Several have now made a small memorial with all these items inside their classrooms. Some have also folded Claude into their lesson plans.
Some teachers and students wore a button on their shirts or bags. It was made using printed text, clear packing tape, and a safety pin.
However, through one-on-one conversations, approved personal days, bending of some dress codes for “good kids,” and awarding field trips to previously banned students, the administration has pacified many staff and students.
One described the niceness as “the calm before the storm.”
The working class is not dumb. We understand the administration was threatened by the show of worker-student unity. And it will be our unity that the administration will come after. They will pit “good” students against struggling students, new teachers against tenured teachers.
This divide-and-conquer strategy will be no match for a politically conscious working class. That’s why linking this fight to capitalism and war is key. CHALLENGE readership has grown tremendously compared to its meager distribution before Claude, and building relationships with co-workers and students is needed more than ever. We need to win the masses to see the fight for communism as the only answer deserving of Claude’s memory. Communism means we serve ALL kids. No child is expendable.
Kids over capitalism
If Claude weren’t pushed out, would he have been alive to walk on graduation day in three months? An administration that cares more about data and awards than a Black child has got to go. Claude’s killing has exposed a criminal policy that we need to fight.
Claude was not a number. He was a member of the working class, and he deserved better. A system that treats certain students as expendable DOES NOT deserve to exist. For our students, shut this racist system down.
*The pseudonym Claude is inspired by the communist fighter and writer, Claude Mckay.
*****

Letter: Fight to stop student pushout!

The following letter is written by a new teacher who became involved in the fight for Claude and against pushout.
As a person new to teaching and new to Brooklyn, the treatment of the legacy of a former student who was fatally shot near the school where I teach opened my eyes to not only how the school to prison pipeline functions, but to how treatment of working class students in a capitalist system kills.
When Claude was killed, the school that I work for not only did nothing to memorialize their former student, but fought hard against students and teachers who wanted to memorialize him themselves. Students created a memorial for Claude that was hung in the hallway. It was taken down by administrators the next day. When they hung it back up it was taken down almost immediately. Students overheard their principal admonishing Claude to other students and teachers, using racist rhetoric and accusing him of being in a gang in order to justify erasing his memory from the school after his death. The principal even antagonized teachers who took a personal day to attend their former student’s funeral.
This strange response can be explained by the fact that Claude was pushed out of our school. Our school boasts a 95 percent graduation rate which is very rare for our district, and one way that they achieve this is by pushing out students who threaten this misleading statistic. Student pushout is incredibly common in New York City, and this event has opened my eyes to how it unfolds in real time. Students are suspended with little reason, harassed by administrators, and working class parents are consistently asked to leave their jobs to attend disciplinary meetings at the school. Since forcing students to leave is illegal, employees of the Department of Education instead harass and bully children and parents until they decide that it is best to leave. Often administrators will convince parents that their students' needs would simply “be better met at another school.”
But this is not the truth.
Suspensions and push outs follow students, making it difficult to keep up with classwork, maintain good grades, and apply to college. It is already widely understood that suspensions, which is a critical aspect of the pushout process, are damaging to students and greatly increase their likelihood of being incarcerated. In a racist school system these practices disproportionately affect Black and brown students. So why do schools continue this practice?
Capitalism forces schools to compete with each other for scarce funding, resources, and even for students. Graduation rates and test scores are important to school bosses, and one way to keep high scores with limited resources is to get rid of students who threaten their scores. Instead of viewing students as fully formed humans, they are viewed as pawns to be traded, bargained for, and cast off. But schools don’t have to be this way!
Teachers should understand that this system not only harms students, but harms us as well. When we treat students like numbers, like problems, and pawns, we create a hostile environment that affects our lives too. We watch students that we care for be harassed, excluded from our classrooms, and disappeared from our schools without our consent. Teachers need to understand that this is a problem that is worth fighting about. Together, with parents and students we can fight for schools that care for all students, not just students who are willing to follow the status quo.
Parents, teachers, and students unite to end this violent, racist practice. Unite to end capitalism!

As Emmanuel Macron, the president of France and a shameless stooge for finance capital, tries to ram through a plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, millions of workers are waging the largest mass fightback in that country in more than fifty years. Enraged by former investment banker Macron’s anti-worker reforms, garbage collectors, utility workers, train conductors, and museum workers have walked off their jobs in droves.
Worldwide capitalism--and the charade of liberal democracy that gloves its iron fist—is in crisis. As the global economy plunges into recession and inter-imperialist rivalries intensify, the ruling class has no choice but to claw back wages and benefits from workers—and to use state terror and their mad dog racist kkkops against the inevitable rebellions. Wherever we see workers willing to withhold their labor and militantly reject the rulers’ agenda for fascism and war, it’s a good sign for our class.  It points to our potential to build an international communist Progressive Labor Party, and to a future without bosses or exploitation.
Capitalist bosses protect banks, not workers
“The social state and the social safety net is disappearing,” said Francoise, a social worker (The Guardian, 03/23). Three months shy of retiring at 63, she has joined the fightback in Paris. Workers and students are taking to the streets to light garbage on fire and damage bus stops, newspaper kiosks, and traffic lights. They firebombed Macron’s favorite restaurant and stormed the Paris office of BlackRock, the multinational investment giant (Washington Post, 4/6).
For now, France’s trade unions are vowing to stay on strike until Macron withdraws the retirement reform (AP, 4/10). But we know how sell-out union leaders use working-class anger to get a few crumbs of temporary concessions from the bosses—and then to pacify their members and get them off the streets. In 2017, a number of French unions backed Macron for his first term as president, despite his pro-business platform, when he faced off against open racist Marine Le Pen (New York Times, 5/1/17). Many leading French liberals did the same. Liberals are the main danger! The only long-term win for workers is the revolutionary fight for a communist world run by and for the international working class. While this process will be violent, it must be led with discipline and strategy. Smashing property isn’t enough. Workers need to drive out the bosses and smash the whole capitalist system.
French rulers mobilizing for war
For the French bosses to get a seat at the table with the top imperialist powers, they must ramp up their attacks on workers. Even as Macron pushes to cut French workers’ pensions, France is increasing its military budget by more than one third by 2030, to 400 billion euros. As Macron told the French military, “We must be ready for more brutal and numerous wars” (Wall Street Journal, 1/20). In line with Macron’s pension reform, France plans to increase the age limit for army reservists to 70 and in some cases to 72 (msn.com, 4/4).
Amid the sharpening rivalry between the U.S. and China, France cannot be taken for granted. On a recent visit to China to meet with President Xi Jinping and seal a $15 billion trade deal, Macron made clear that the French ruling class won’t be in lockstep with the U.S. bosses. As the New York Times noted, Macron “staked out an independent European position, and both leaders repeatedly lauded a ‘multipolar world,’ thinly disguised code for one that is not American dominated” (4/8). History shows us that any alliance between bosses is temporary, and that they won’t hesitate to attack one another to protect their profits.
At his inauguration last June, Macron called for a “war economy” (Le Monde, 6/14/22). The bosses are telling us loud and clear that they are preparing for world war. It’s the job of the working class, with communist leadership, to turn inter-imperialist war into worldwide communist revolution.
Lesser evils rob workers of revolutionary power
Workers in France have a long history of mass militant fightback. In 1789, the French Revolution overthrew the parasitic monarchy and inspired rebellions against slavery in Haiti and other French colonies in the Caribbean and Africa. In 1871, the Paris Commune marked the first attempt by workers to put communist ideas into practice and provided lessons to future communists on how to win. In the 20th century, French communists and anti-fascists fought vigorously and contributed mightily to the defeat of the Nazis.
During World War Two, the French Communist Party (PCF) adopted the “Popular Front” line of the international communist movement. By calling for collaboration with “good capitalists” in the U.S., Britain, and France, this robbed the international working class of its revolutionary potential. Our class has suffered from “lesser evil” politics ever since. In 1968, when students and workers in France waged a violent struggle against the capitalist state, culminating in a wildcat general strike of 11 million workers, the PCF betrayed them. Just last year, these fake leftists showed their true colors when they backed the finance capitalist Macron for his second-term run-off against Le Pen.
Voting for liberal or fake-left misleaders--whether Macron in France, Biden in the U.S., AMLO in Mexico, Petro in Colombia, or Lula in Brazil--is a deadly trap. Our class deserves a world where older workers are treated with respect and gratitude for their decades of contributions to society. We deserve a world where imperialist war is ancient history, and where workers' needs come first. In short, we deserve a communist world. Let’s fight for it!

NEW YORK, NY, April 10–For several days, Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members and friends in New York City and Newark, New Jersey held events to prepare for May Day and build our confidence in the working class. We united students, workers, and retirees in anticipation of the most important day on the international working class’s calendar: May Day! Several newer members gave leadership to the spring break project, which included a film screening, a fundraising dinner, banner/sign making, and discussions—all to build our communist movement.
In part because of these events, one student rekindled their connection to PLP and joined, and two workers are considering joining. Ours is a movement that is dedicated to smashing capitalism along with the racist terror and imperialist war the system creates.
Fighting Racism from the Screen to the Streets
One of our first events of the week was a film screening that sparked discussion about our internationalist and antiracist political line. It was chosen by a newer member who also led the post-movie discussion. The film, La Haine, was about a group of French working class youth who were tired of the rotten system that had failed them and the racist police who brutalize them. While the young men in the film are full of contradictions (such as the racist, sexist, and reformist ideas they’ve been taught), their lived experiences as part of the working class eventually turns them all against the racist police.
In our discussion afterward, several people pointed out that a Black youth in the film advocated nonviolence and passivity but this ultimately led to his friend being killed by police. On the other hand, another youth argued for individualist violence that, as his friends pointed out, wouldn’t change the nature of society by ending police terror for everyone. We took yet another stance: We need revolutionary violence, not individual adventurism, in order to change the situation. One friend of PLP asked  “How do we get everyone on the same page?” We must put revolutionary ideas and practice at the forefront of class struggle while exposing the many types of misleaders that capitalism produces. Only by fighting for communism can we finally end police terror.
The following day, we had a May Day organizing meeting, CHALLENGE newspaper sale, and fundraising dinner.  At the meeting, a new member led the discussion, and she encouraged all friends and members to contribute based upon their commitment. Newer comrades prepared speeches about fighting back against racist attacks and experiences that led them to join PLP.
Dinner and Door-to-Door Organizing Bring PLP Ideas to Workers
The fundraising dinner that night was definitely a highlight of the May Day preparations. Over 70 new and veteran comrades met to bolster enthusiasm for our big day. The responsibility for hosting was shared in a collective way. We sang songs dedicated to the international working class and our fight for communism. Workers of all ages contributed food, decorations, words, activities (to be auctioned), and funds to ensure our march on May Day would be a success. One comrade spoke about the history of May Day going back to the 1886 Haymarket “Riot” when workers fought for the 8-hour workday - noting that we carry on that struggle today.
The next day, we went door-to-door in Newark housing projects to do our third Challenge sale of the spring break project. Our ongoing involvement in struggles against the racist police, landlords, and politicians in New Jersey and around the world were at the forefront of our conversations with workers about why they should march with us on May Day. Between this event and two sales we had along our May Day march route in Brooklyn, we distributed around 400 papers as part of the spring break project.  
After the sale, we held a banner-making event that highlighted the intergenerational character of our organization (see photo). Comrades took time to paint the banner and signs, share a meal, and take turns in childcare.
Wrapping Up with an Eye on Fascism
On the final day of our pre-May Day events we held a study group on fascism, or a stage of capitalism when the bosses struggle to maintain their power under the facade of liberal democracy. During our discussion, we deepened our understanding of what fascism is and how we can build our communist movement as it develops. One comrade shared their recent experiences in a high school, where a principal has used scare tactics and bribery to pacify students from fighting back against the administration’s racist response to the murder of a former student after he was pushed out of the school. We discussed the idea of having a citywide campaign to reject school push-outs and to fight the bosses’ lie that students are expendable.
Afterwards we took time to write submissions for our newspaper CHALLENGE - since it is a paper that is written collectively by members and friends of the PLP (see letters on page 6). Throughout the project, we socialized and connected based on our shared goal on the long road to a communist future.
In a period of increasing imperialist conflict between the U.S., Russia, and China, our hard work towards building a revolutionary communist movement is more important than ever. While the bosses have nothing to offer our class but death and destruction, we stand prepared to build a society determined to meet the needs of all members of the working class around the world. Join us and march with us on May Day!