The following excerpted speech was given at graduation in a Black working-class school where a former student Claude* was killed in the streets of Brooklyn capitalism. For a year, students have been fighting to keep his memory alive in the face of multiple memorial tear-downs by the school administration (see CHALLENGE . This speech was originally adapted from a comrade’s 2020 speech. While it’s a different school with a  different scenario, the essence of the message is the same. 

…You started out as tiny boxes on a zoom…You grew from little pixels to full humans…You have endured so much to get here, to survive here, but the struggle is just getting started…And I want to leave you with some words to live by... 

Never forget—you are the light, the glimmer, the fire. Nothing exemplifies your character more than how the class of 2024 responded to Claude’s death… 

You proved what we’ve known to be true all along—that Claude’s life matters, that no kid is expendable, that when young people unite, their voices will be heard. That the very system that kills kids in the streets is the same system that kills kids overseas.

Looking at where our society is today—I’m sorry we haven’t done enough to make this a world that deserves you. 

The society you are inheriting is one of crisis and war. It's like a sunken place that tries to consume you in its darkness and lies. We live in a world where it’s “normal” to commit genocide, but it’s “unreasonable” to remember the dead. Too often, we are too quiet, too cold, too cool. This world tries to bury us. 

Bury us with passivity.

Bury us with deportations. 

Bury us with racism and sexism. 

But there’s one thing that can never be buried—your light. 

In all of us, there are always two competing forces, and you'll need to choose which side will win out for you. Class of 2024, choose life because you are the fire of the world.

So, when you get to college and they tell you that class is too difficult for you, or no one did that before, or you are going to fail, prove them wrong—take that class, get that A, show them you’re the glimmer! Blaze that trail! 

So, when you go to the military or your job and you witness injustice but they tell you to just shut up and take it, shut that idea down, show them you are the glimmer. 

When they tell the victim-blame the latest target of street or racist violence and tell you to go on like it’s business as usual-REJECT that. Disrupt the flow, go to the rally, START the march, show them you’re the glimmer! 

When they tell you to look out only for yourself, REJECT that. Take time to connect with someone who feels isolated in our society, show them you’re the light! 

When they tell you, “Oh you are too much or not enough,” hun, you are just right. Life is too short to play it safe, too precious to get swallowed up in anxiety or frozen up in shame. Take that leap...Say what you mean. Mean what you say. Live your life. Light the way!

When they tell you it’s natural to live in a segregated society—black here, white there—break the mold.  Live an integrated life, fight for an integrated college, an integrated workspace, and an integrated circle of family and friends, show them you’re the light!

When they try to tell you who it’s okay/not okay to love or be with, show them you’re the light!

When they try to tell you who belongs on this stolen land, shut that down.  Show them you’re the light! 

When they tell you to stay in a woman’s place or man up because men don’t cry, shut that down! Show them you’re the fire!

When they try to underestimate your power, your intelligence, your heart—show them you’re the light! You are braver than you believe, you are stronger than you know. Don’t let anyone steal your glow.

Now, if you do this by yourself—you will get burned out. Alone, you are one flickering flame. Together, we spread like wildfire. 

Class of 2024—never forget—you have a part to play because you are the light of the world. More than ever, this world needs you. Go on and be fire! 

Many family members, students, and staff approached me after the speech with the same sentiment: “you spoke the truth” and “thank you for saying that.” A handful of staff joined me in wearing “We will remember [Claude]” stickers on our chest. Remembering Claude has been an ongoing political campaign of sorts in this school building, and saying goodbye to the senior class on this antiracist note felt like the correct thing to do. It sets us up to continue building relationships on a political basis. In fact, a few graduates reached out the next day and asked to be invited to future political events. One took copies of CHALLENGE. 

**The pseudonym Claude is inspired by the Black communist fighter-writer, Claude Mckay.

Biden is bringing World War III

A few words on the debate. Surprise! Trump told some lies. One was his false, racist claim that immigrants getting benefits is what’s threatening the future solvency of Social Security.

The truth is that immigrants pay significantly more in taxes than they receive in benefits. Undocumented immigrants, in particular, pay an estimated $11.6 billion a year in taxes, but are not eligible for most benefit programs.

On the other hand, Trump told the truth when he said that Biden is bringing World War III much closer. However, Trump distorted the reason for this. He said it’s because world powers in competition with the U.S. — like China and Russia - don’t respect or fear Biden. That’s not the point.
The real reason Biden is bringing WWIII closer is that Biden upholds the needs of the wealthiest and most powerful finance capitalists, like JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup. Those imperialists have investments all around the world, profiting hugely from cheap labor, expropriating natural resources, and controlling markets.

Those top U.S. capitalists will do anything to try maintaining domination globally. They’re willing to sacrifice our lives - and the lives of our sisters and brothers in the working class around the world — in a desperate effort, including nuclear war, to preserve their empire and global dominance.
The conclusion: neither Trump nor Biden - nor any politician who may replace Biden at the Democratic Convention - is worthy of our support. They all serve the capitalist system. That system has to go!
*****

Don’t forget Trump is dangerous

The Capitalist Class and its stewardship threatens the working class. Unfortunately we are allowing CHALLENGE to focus on the liberal wing of the ruling class, Biden and the Democratic Party. 

But there are two or more wings of the ruling class and a critique of the Trump plan to reshape the United States poses an immediate threat as well which not all members of the working class understand if we go by the increasing numbers of unemployed and employed workers, white, Latin and Black who are considering voting for him.

The situation is complex, but in my opinion, short term the greatest threat to the working class is the Trump populism that is proposing to jail the left and refashion the machinery of government in the image of the mafia (proposing to change Civil Service rules etc.).

The Party should provide a long term blueprint of transforming our current social and economic system at the same time, it must not fail to tackle our immediate tasks.

CHALLENGE RESPONDS

It would be a dishonor to our history to have an “attack Trump now and deal with Biden later” approach. The Old Communist Movement, in their rightful anger against rising fascism, mistakenly formed a United Front with liberal bosses against the Nazis, which resulted in only fortifying the bosses’ system. Once the Red Army defeated the Nazis, those same liberal bosses turned on the communist movement.

Knowing what we know today, we can’t ideologically disarm our class like that. We need to have confidence in the working class to be able to fight for the most advanced position—now and later.  

So yes, fascist Donald Trump is and continues to be a danger. All the U.S. liberal media will agree. Despite how he seems at the debate, Jim Crow Biden is no toothless animal. This wolf in sleepy sheep’s clothing has the most powerful of U.S. billionaires of finance capital backing him. He is also overseeing the genocidal slaughter of over 35,000 Palestinians, and greenlighting billons in weapons for the Israeli fascist state. It’s the liberal fascist Biden administration who is unleashing its fascist police dogs and using their judicial system to attack workers who oppose it.

In addition to winning people over to the fact that the problem isn’t just Trump or Biden, that it’s capitalism, the most immediate task is to fight attacks on our class (from all sides) and build PLP. We have Summer Projects organized around the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention to fight against both the Small and Big Fascists.
*****

Juneteenth is beginning of Jim Crow

I have a suggestion regarding the Juneteenth holiday.  The ruling class has co-opted Juneteenth,  calling it “a celebration of the end of slavery.” However,  I think it should be called the end of chattel slavery and  the beginning of Jim Crow slavery.  Similarly,  the Civil Rights movement was the end of Jim Crow slavery and the beginning of identity politics slavery.  Even the New York Times has printed multiple articles documenting how health care,  wages,  public education,  and so much more are so much worse for Black and brown people.  The only thing the NYT leaves out is that capitalism is the root cause of these conditions AND that only communism will abolish this shameful history.

We need to highlight another shameful event in capitalist history that happened 71 years ago on Juneteenth . On June 19, 1953 the U.S. rulers murdered communist heroes Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. The Rosenbergs were accused of giving the Soviet Union the supposed “KEY” to the atomic bomb.  According to the accusation, the Soviets were “too stupid and incapable” of figuring out how to construct a nuclear weapon. In fact,  just 4 years later,  the “stupid and incapable” Soviets launched the first artificial satellite (Sputnik) and 4 years after that the “stupid and incapable” Soviets launched the first astronaut (Yuri Gargarin) and brought him safely back to Earth. 

Creating a nuclear weapon is VERY complicated.  The Rosenbergs had no knowledge of non-nuclear physics and most certainly no knowledge of nuclear physics.  There is no way that they could have understood any of the complicated equations and descriptions of the bomb design process.  Moreover,  the one piece of so-called “evidence” that was produced at the trial was a FLAWED diagram of one component of the bomb that the Rosenbergs were accused of giving to the Soviets.

The U.S. government was sure that the Rosenbergs would confess in return for life imprisonment rather than death.  But the Rosenbergs refused the government’s phony “offer,”  instead proclaiming their innocence.  The Rosenbergs were working class heroes who should be remembered for their refusal to go along with the Cold War motivated accusation that they were Soviet spies. That is why on Juneteenth we should also honor the sacrifices of these communists along with those of Black enslaved workers who sacrificed their lives fighting this racist system built on slavery.
*****

Fight for East Africa heating up

Al Jazeera, 6/30–Paramilitary forces battling Sudan’s army for more than a year say they have captured a key state capital in the war-torn country’s southeast. “We have liberated the 17th Infantry Division from Singa [the capital of Sennar state],” the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced on X on Saturday. Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan…said the RSF is gaining control of an increasing number of territories across Sudan, especially in eastern and western parts of the country’s south. “They already control a large portion of the Darfur region, with the exception of el-Fasher, which is the only remaining city under the army’s and allied groups’ control,” she said.

Sudan has been gripped by war since April 2023, when fighting erupted between forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. The conflict in the country of 48 million has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

The latest RSF breakthrough means they are closing in on Port Sudan on the Red Sea, where the army, government and the United Nations agencies are now based. 

U.S. ally Ruto cracks down on Kenyan workers

Foreign Affairs, 6/28– Tuesday was one of the deadliest days in Kenya’s recent history. An estimated two dozen people were slain—some in front of the Kenyan parliament and others in Nairobi’s slums. They were killed by the country’s security forces for exercising their human rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. It was the culmination of a week’s violence, during which young protesters opposing new taxes and the government’s excesses were abducted, arrested, beaten, shot, and tear-gassed.    

Kenyan President William Ruto threatened to intensify the repression. He denounced the protests as “treasonous,” smeared its participants as “criminals,” and ominously directed the security forces to “deploy all measures.” Police moved from using tear gas to live ammunition.
The spark for the latest protests was the introduction of a new finance bill that would levy punishing taxes on everyday essentials, including sugar, bread, and cooking oil—a policy that would hit poor Kenyans particularly hard. The same bill set aside vast sums for the renovation of the president’s residence and other extravagant expendituresBBC, 6/26–Haiti's interim Prime Minister Garry Conille has vowed to end lawlessness with the help of a Kenyan-led international force deployed to the Caribbean nation…400 Kenyan police officers, in the first tranche of an international force, was a "unique opportunity" to restore order, Mr Conille said…

But there is fierce opposition in Kenya to the deployment - not least because police are accused of brutality in their own country, the latest example being the fatal shooting of protesters in the capital, Nairobi, on Tuesday…

Working with Haitian police, and headquartered at a US-built base, the Kenyan officers will aim to take back key sites that have fallen under the control of gangs, including the nearby airport and sea ports. Although Kenya has a history of taking part in peacekeeping missions, its police force has never set foot outside Africa.

Bosses continue fight for resource-rich DR Congo

The Guardian, 6/29–Rwandan-backed M23 rebels have seized a strategic town in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s volatile east, a local official said. “Kanyabayonga has been in the hands of the M23 since Friday evening,” the administrative official said, under condition of anonymity. Kanyabayonga lies on the northern front of the conflict in North Kivu province, which has been rocked by violence since 2021 when the M23 (March 23 Movement) resumed its armed campaign in the region. The town is considered a pathway to the major commercial centres of Butembo and Beni in the north.

Clashes “are causing displacement of civilians,” the UN Joint Human Rights Office said in its monthly report on Friday. “Humanitarian organizations providing support to the displaced have suspended their operations for security reasons,” it said.

As open fascists win elections throughout Europe by targeting migrant workers, the liberal racist bosses—from France and Britain to the U.S.—are leading their own virulent attacks. With the collapse of the old liberal world order, the rapid rise of China, and the accelerating decline of the U.S., the rulers’ ranks are split and unstable. As inter-imperialist rivalry escalates and capitalism plunges into crisis, immigrants are in the capitalist rulers’ crosshairs. In places with aging populations, including the U.S. and Europe, the bosses absolutely need migrant labor to keep their economies afloat. At the same time, however, they need anti-immigrant racism to divide and exploit workers—and to super-exploit Black, Latin, women, and immigrant workers. And they need scapegoats, a hallmark of rising fascism, to take the blame for their failing system.

The global “migrant crisis”—more than one hundred million displaced workers—is a creation of the bosses and their national borders, the artificial lines that serve to parcel out the capitalists’ profits. The solution to the crisis is communist revolution—to create a borderless world that serves the needs of the entire international working class.

Biden’s racist treachery

On June 5, U.S. President Joe Biden exposed the liberal bosses’ treachery with an executive order that effectively stops migrant workers from claiming asylum in the U.S. Four years after promising to reverse Donald Trump’s brutal migration policies, Biden used Trump’s go-to statute: the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, a racist law that excludes “any class of aliens” if their entry “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States” (Al Jazeera, 6/5). This was nothing new for Genocide Joe. Last fall, breaking another 2020 campaign pledge, his administration confirmed it would build 20 miles of border wall in Texas with funds set aside by Trump. In May, Biden backed a proposed law to block asylum claims and add another 1,500 nazi border patrol agents (New York Times, 6/16). After Trump’s puppets in Congress torpedoed the bill, the widely despised Biden took matters into his own bloodstained hands. In a desperate effort to beat Trump again this fall and keep his finance capital masters in charge, he’s joined the global chorus of anti-immigrant fascists. He is scapegoating migrants for U.S. decline and the incurable sickness of capitalism.  

The collateral damage of Biden’s liberal racism are the workers and children fleeing the dire effects of U.S. imperialism, from capitalist climate change and war to joblessness, hunger, torture, and death. Thousands of migrants are trapped in squalid tent camps in Mexico, many of them run by cartel gangsters (American Sociological Association, summer 2023). Others are forced to risk their lives on remote routes into the U.S. through the California desert (Reuters, 6/11). 

Biden’s latest assault on migrants is more than a ploy to win votes from misguided workers. The main wing capitalist rulers—the big banks and multinational oil companies—are fending off a challenge by the Trump-fronted, isolationist bosses. At the same time, they need to condition workers to fight in the next world war against China or Russia or both. Vicious attacks on the most vulnerable workers are designed to acclimate our class to rising fascism. The bosses’ tools are uber-nationalism, intensified racism, the suspension of fake legal “freedoms,” and wholesale terror by the state. While the rulers’ liberal media outlets will urge us to vote for Biden as the “lesser of two evils,” make no mistake: Liberal misleaders are the main danger! We cannot vote our way out of fascism and inter-imperialist war. To smash the bosses’ borders, we must abolish capitalism. Only communist revolution can truly liberate our class!

Europe: bosses on both sides build a base for fascism

The echoes of French imperialism still ring strongly across North Africa, compelling millions of workers to migrate north toward Europe in search of stable lives. With capitalism in decay and the French economy stalled, these migrants are met with anti-Muslim racism from French politicians and misled workers alike. Four days after Biden’s racist crackdown, the gutter racist, anti-immigrant National Rally swept to a shocking win in the European Parliament elections with 31 percent of the vote, up from 23 percent in 2019—and more than double the total for President Emmanual Macron’s Renaissance party (New York Times, 6/10). Macron, who’s even less popular than Biden, called for snap elections to the French parliament this summer. It’s a risky move that could usher the first openly fascist party into power in France since World War Two. 

Elsewhere, Germany’s Hitler-loving Alternative for Germany party finished second in the EU elections with 16 percent, up from 11 percent in 2019, with much of its new support coming from young workers (Reuters, 6/9). In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s proudly fascist Brothers of Italy quadrupled its share to 29 percent. In the Netherlands, the Party for Freedom led by Geert Wilders, who refers to Moroccan immigrants as “scums,” won six seats in the European parliament, up from one (AP, 6/10).

Like Biden, Europe’s main wing capitalist leaders are responding to the open fascists’ threat with revved-up racism of their own. In January, Macron joined forces with the National Rally’s Marine Le Pen and signed a new law that cuts off social benefits for migrants and eases deportations—an “ideological victory,” Le Pen bragged (Le Monde, 1/27). In France, “Islam and its practitioners are more than ever perceived and treated as needing control, surveillance, change, and if not, suppression” (Bridge Initiative, 1/24). In Britain, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has launched his Tory Party “manifesto” to cut legal migration by half each year, to put severe caps on work and family visas, and to force migrants to pass a health check before entering the country—and then to buy insurance if they are “likely to be a burden” (Independent, 6/11). Sunak’s disgusting slander echoes Trump’s racist rant about migrants “poisoning the blood of our country” (nbcnews.com, 12/17/23). Whatever their deep divisions, all bosses are sworn enemies of the workers of the world.

Stop migrant genocide with communist revolution

On June 8, the Israeli “Defense” Forces retrieved four Israeli captives—and slaughtered at least 274 Palestinians, including dozens of children, in a refugee camp in Nuseirat, in central Gaza. Already overwhelmed hospitals were thrown into chaos (Al Jazeera, 6/11). More than 37,000 Palestinians have been murdered to date by Israel’s Zionist regime and made-in-U.S. bombs—nearly all of them migrants from the mass expulsions of 1948 or 1967 or the descendants of those refugees. As Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign continues apace, the migrant workers of Gaza are trapped in a stranglehold of national borders, with Israel on one side and Egypt on the other. Their homes have been destroyed and they have no place to go. One of the fascist members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s racist cabinet has called for their “voluntary migration” out of Gaza—to clear the way for Israel’s bosses to grab some highly valuable real estate and the vast reserves of offshore oil and gas.

Most of all, like workers in the U.S. and Europe, the migrants of Gaza are trapped by anti-working-class ideas—by the nationalism of Hamas and other misleaders who want a share of the profit pie. Their one way out of this nightmare is to unite with the international working class under the red flag of communist revolution. The fight for communism is inseparable from the fight to liberate workers in Palestine and forced migrants everywhere. Progressive Labor Party is building a mass organization of workers that transcends the bosses' borders. We are dedicated to ending racism, sexism, nationalism, and imperialism for all time. Join us in the fight for worker liberation!