Brooklyn, NY—Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of murder charges on a Friday and in the days leading up to that verdict I discussed the importance of this case with co-workers and my students.  State-sanctioned political assassination of antiracist leaders by right-wing vigilante elements was on trial, and is as old as U.S. racism and capitalism.  The decision to acquit came as a surprise to some, not to others, but groundwork for some sort of a response was laid.
In the coming days two more court cases that put racist killers on trial were decided.  It is widely acknowledged that the decision ruling against the killers of Ahmaud Aubrey only happened because damning video evidence surfaced.  The court ruling against the organizers of the 2017 Charlottesville fascist ‘Unite the Right’ rally where another protester, Heather Heyer, was killed is manifestation of a Big Fascist effort to drive its Small Fascist (see Glossary, see page 6) rivals out of political relevance.  Big Fascism is a push for the widest possible extension of social control in preparation for wider conflict with imperialist rivals China and Russia.
Liberal fascists turn their guns on antiracist fighters
Big Fascist Joe Biden’s response that our jury system works and that protest must not destroy property shows us that it is a dangerous illusion to see in liberalism any protection for dedicated antiracists. With his response to the Rittenhouse verdict, Biden has told us ‘if you want to fight racism and you get shot and killed you’re on your own.’  This was the same message liberal New York City  mayor Bill de Blasio voiced as he blamed protesters in the most cynical and craven terms possible when his mad dog cops rammed their trucks into crowds of protesters in the wake of the killing of George Floyd.  
Working class students leadwhere liberal politicians won’t
Monday, on the job, a multiracial group of young people went to visit our school’s Black Students Union to send the message that we embrace the spirit of multi-racial unity and solidarity against racism that Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber showed and paid for with their lives.  Spirited struggle between the strategy of multiracial unity and of ‘Black spaces’ in the fight against racism ensued among faculty and between students.  
A social gathering over Thanksgiving weekend expanded from a small dinner with neighbors to a larger event drawing together former students, current co-workers and family and was transformed into a part of our Progressive Labor Party response to the Rittenhouse verdict.  Our message and commitment to each other is simple—if you want to fight racism you are not, in fact, on your own.  The workers movement for an armed communist revolution is with you all the way.  This offensive strategy is our best defense.  Today’s racist killers and their liberal protectors will cower before the might of a new and antiracist state power.  
Kyle Rittenhouse is indeed a young man, little more than a boy who was led far astray by open racism and has now been protected by liberal fascism. He may well live to see communist state power.

For readers of CHALLENGE it is not uncommon to read reports of super exploitation and crisis in Haiti. Workers in Haiti have been faced with the daily violence of capitalism, mishandled natural disasters that keep them fighting for their lives, and mostly recently have been front page news as the latest target of racist border attacks. These reports, time and again, show a working class in Haiti and internationally amidst a continuous life-and-death struggle. Progressive Labor Party (PLP) is on the ground in Haiti and taking leadership from Black workers as we build class consciousness and a revolutionary spirit!
The government in Haiti is unable and unwilling to do anything to stop this current reign of terror. First,it is facing its own crisis: after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, political parties are in dissaray, vying for power and control. Second, and perhaps most important, this is how they’ve designed the system - one in which workers are  suppressed by a limited job market and skyrocketing price of living. Gasoline prices are off the charts, the pumps go dry from time to time, and truck drivers stage intermittent strikes in protest, effectively shutting everything down.
The primary goal of the capitalist system is to extract as much value as possible from the workers and the natural resources. Today, one of Haiti’s primary resources is its workers. They are forced to flee untenable conditions and become low-wage workers in surrounding countries in the Caribbean, or further afield in  Latin America, the U.S., Canada, and Europe. They become part of the migrant journey, perhaps the greatest migration of workers from the global south to the global north, fleeing war between capitalist rivals. They are fleeing unsustainable economies from the ravages of climate change and political instability, as various capitalist leaders exploit the migrants for their own political benefit.
Our Party in Haiti is immersing itself in the daily struggles of workers and students to try to make ends meet in an increasingly fragile situation.  As revolutionary communists we understand more and more that liberation from the ravages of capitalist exploitation demands an international working class army, in which Black worker leadership is key! Through our daily interactions, study groups and struggles, our comrades discuss with fellow workers  why these conditions exist, why there is such widespread inequality not only in Haiti, but in the region and the world as a whole, and the role of racism and sexism in keeping our class divided and disarmed.
We know that this disgusting system can be smashed!   That workers and students, under the leadership of PLP can change the world. Not for the few, but for the many. Our comrades always talk about building the masses’ confidence in the Party, and the Party’s confidence in the working class. This is not idle thought, but the basis of struggle and advancement in our strength as a class.
Our comrades’ commitment to struggle and building the Party is exemplary. Not that we do everything correctly all the time, but we are willing to analyze our situation as a “noyau” (core) of revolutionary organizing, evaluate the successes and mistakes, and always try to move forward. Workers’  lives in Haiti are as difficult as their neighbors but we are determined to fight and win. As comrades always say, “Join us!”

COLOMBIA—Buenaventura is a city on the shores of the Pacific Ocean with 400,000 inhabitants, of which 90% are Afro Colombians, 82% are in poverty (according to DANE data) and 42% in misery. It is the most important port in the country that generated in 2020, 14,356 million dollars of income. It is through this port that 70% of Colombia’s exports leave the country.
Before 1957, when this port belonged to the state, it had more than 10,000 dock workers, most of them Black workers. It is worth mentioning that in turn, in most of the coal mines on the Atlantic coast, in the salt mines throughout the country and in the sugar cane plantations, 100% of their workers are Black. After the privatization of the port, there are no more than 5,000 workers, despite the fact that the port terminals have been increased from one to thirteen. Through this port, all kinds of merchandise are imported and exported, from cocaine, arms, bananas and coffee, to trafficking displaced workers and children from different parts of the world.
Despite the fact that Buenaventura is irrigated by many rivers and is on the shore of the Pacific Ocean, more than 42% do not have drinking water. The paramilitary gangs and drug traffickers fight over the land, the landowners want to plant African palm and coca, and the owners of the ports say that “as long as the merchandise leaves and enters the port smoothly, the Black [workers] are worth nothing.” The mega cultivation of palm has become an alarming problem not only for Buenaventura but also for the rest of the Colombian territory. These mega-palm crops, apart from being cultivated by workers under terrible working conditions, imply the loss of tropical forests and their richness in biodiversity. They create large forest fires such as those generated in Indonesia in 1997. In addition, palm cultivation turns the territory into a “green desert”, drying up natural water tributaries and wetlands. Previous deforestation, together with the massive use of fertilizers and insecticides, cause serious pollution and a huge loss of biodiversity. Faced with this situation, workers in different cities have protested, denounced and boycotted companies that promote this criminal practice.
Capitalist try to strangle workers fightback with racist terror
Port workers had social benefits, health, pensions, study aid and vacations. Today they do not have any indefinite term contracts. They are paid for services, that is, they do not have any of the benefits they previously had. In Buenaventura, Black workers are deeply mistreated, murdered and disappeared, making this area one where displacement is daily. The workers have to go with their families to Cali, another nearby city where wealth is disputed between paramilitaries and arms and coca smugglers.
The dock workers have been an example of struggle and have inspired the rest of the social movement in the country. The last strikes that occurred in 2017, 2019, 2020 and the latter in 2021 (which was one of the longest and most massive) have been led by Black and indigenous workers. Despite more than 680 disappearances and the countless dismembered bodies that appear daily down the Cauca River, these workers continue to fight. Their enthusiasm will be lost if we do not organize them with the ideas of the Progressive Labor Party.
If we do not intertwine and understand the importance of Black workers in the working class and how they have been the basis for capitalist exploitation and oppression, we will continue to suffer these atrocities as we carry out struggles that will not offer us true liberation.
Black and indigenous workers are the ones who have suffered the consequences in the most stark and open way, since they are the ones who have the greatest disappearances and murders. Systematic racism is seen both in the United States and in Colombia and although mestizos also suffer the consequences of capitalism, it is Black workers who have fewer opportunities for study, work, and lower life rates compared to white Colombian workers.
We must fight to emphasize our political line by leading and bringing the CHALLENGE, organizing and offering the only possible hope for Black workers, indigenous, and the workers of the world. There may be a lot of struggle but as long as we do not organize with our line for the communist revolution, we will be delaying the struggle of the workers.

“No Pasarán.” They will not Pass.
These gripping words of the Spanish communist leader Dolores Ibarruri (“La Pasionaria”) captured the anti-fascist determination that brought thousands of working-class volunteers to the battlefields of Spain eighty-five years ago. Now fascism is rearing its racist head again – all over the world. The international working class must rise up again, but this time to smash fascism and its capitalist masters forever with communist revolution, where the working class rules.
The Spanish Civil War preceded World War II in Europe. The Spanish fascists, led by General Francisco Franco, fought to overthrow the liberal, capitalist Spanish government. These fascist “insurgents” were backed by most of the Spanish ruling class. They were armed and trained by the German Nazis and the Italian Fascists.
Only communism can destroy fascism
The Loyalists, fighting for the Spanish government, were a mixed bag of regular and irregular troops. They included communists, Trotskyists, and assorted liberals. They wanted a liberal, capitalist democracy in Spain. But capitalism turns to fascism in any crisis. Today capitalists are turning to fascism everywhere from China, Russia, the U.S. and everywhere in between. Only destroying capitalism with communist revolution can destroy fascism.
The Loyalists received arms and some training from the fledgling Soviet Union. Communists organized young men and women from all over the world into the International Brigade to fight alongside the Loyalists against fascism. These young workers fought well and bravely. They proved on battlefield after bloody battlefield that thousands of young workers would fight to the death against fascism. But the Loyalists lost the war. Franco's iron fist ruled Spain for the capitalists for nearly 40 years.
Eighty-five years ago, the communist movement did not understand that only communism could defeat fascism. Its strategy was to build an anti-fascist “Popular Front” that would pressure liberal capitalists such as U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to aid the Spanish government. But the “neutral” Roosevelt administration cut off support to the Loyalists, while GM, Texaco, and other U.S. companies funneled trucks and gasoline to the fascists. (The movie Blockade (1938) shows clearly the pro-fascist actions of the U.S. bosses). Worldwide, the fight to finally destroy fascism must be a fight for communism.
Who were the soldiers of the International Brigade?
In 1996, 500 members of the International Brigades were honored in Madrid. Here are some of their stories:
Sam Russell was preparing to finish his studies on Ancient Egypt, when he decided to fight in Spain. Why did he change his mind? “All governments were very permissive towards Hitler's and Mussolini's aggressions. Those of us who had certain values couldn't remain with our arms crossed against fascism.”
Trudel “Trudy” Van Reemst-de Vries, a Dutch Jewish woman, served as a nurse. After the war, she and her husband joined the anti-Nazi Resistance in Holland. Her only son was born while she was fighting in the Resistance. Van reesmst-de Vries was arrested and sent to a Nazi concentration camp and never saw her son. Still, she said: “I will do it again because I knew I was fighting for the future of my child and the children of all other mothers.”
Mikel Economides was a Cypriot volunteer. He says, “We are not the ones who deserve to be honored. It is the people of Spain who deserve … when fascism seemed unbeatable, they showed that common folks could fight fascism.”
The International Brigades were 40,000 strong coming from 52 countries Some 16,000 gave their lives fighting fascism. Communists were 60 percent of the volunteers and another 20 percent became communists during the civil war. Today as the imperialist powers prepare for world war once again, we must rebuild the communist movement to not only destroy fascism, but the worldwide capitalist system that breeds fascism.