Red solidarity with striking student-workers

In the last week of March, a Progressive Labor Party (PLP) club organized a group of workers and students to support a picket line of striking workers in its second week at Columbia University. Nearly 3,000 students joined in solidarity with Graduate Workers of Columbia Union after failed negotiations over a $4,00 increase to yearly stipends and hourly and salary increases to meet living wage standards, as well as better healthcare funding (Gothamist, 3/8/21).
 PLP’s solidarity provided a palpable lift to the striking graduate student-workers, and we received an enthusiastic response. The strikers were spirited and their chants of “down, down, down with the bosses, up, up, up with the workers” and “we are the workers, the mighty, mighty workers” resonated with class conscious militancy.
Several strikers, as well as community residents, took CHALLENGE. We also succeeded in making some contacts.
Our PLP club also attended a rally of graduate student-workers at New York University (NYU) who are pushing for a strike authorization vote. The activity at the private institutions of Columbia and NYU serves as an inspiration to those of us struggling to replicate similar activity within our organizing work in the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), which represents the City University of New York (CUNY).
At the NYU rally, one of us from CUNY called for the PSC membership to follow the lead of these workers and forsake the 'bogeyman' of the Taylor Law, the law that prohibits public sector workers from striking to push for militant action.
In the most recent update at Columbia, we learned that, to the dismay of many militant rank and file strikers, the UAW union leadership has called off the strike, and agreed to hand over the fate of the workers to a so-called neutral mediator.
Ending a strike in favor of mediation declaws the workers and stifles the potential for developing further class struggle. Unfortunately, this has been the road pushed by union misleaders and serves as a reminder of the limits of reform. Strikes clearly build workers unity and militancy, and provide a hope to win reforms, despite their shortcomings.
Strikes also serve as schools to understand the true nature of capitalism. The class struggle provides the potential crucible to create the communist leadership necessary to destroy this racist profit system that oppresses the working class, once and for all!
Long live the working class. Long live communism. Join PLP!

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But isn’t China communist?
“But isn’t China communist?” a reader asked, about the April 14 editorial, “U.S. & China will make world war; workers can make revolution.”
Well, no! China has been building capitalism for the past 50 years and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the state party in charge of capitalist development. During the 1960s Progressive Labor Party (PLP) was the fraternal party of the CCP. The CHALLENGE readership included many workers in China.
But in 1971, PLP published, “The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and the Reversal of Workers’ Power in China,'' broke ties with the CCP, and concluded that China turned away from communist revolution as early as 1959. The right-wing of the CCP (including Mao Zedong himself) defeated the leftwing. The tragedy of this reversal (as in the Soviet Union) showed PLP that socialism has led back to capitalism, not forward to communism.
The article examines the practice of 30-40 million Chinese leftists in the Cultural Revolution, published in writings like Whither China? (https://tinyurl.com/f5abbtpf).
If it was not clear in 1959 that China had left the road to revolution, then it was crystal clear in 1968 when Mao used the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to crush the Cultural Revolution; and there was no longer any doubt by 1978, when Deng Xiao-Ping’s “reform” saw the CCP turn 100 percent to building capitalism (“To get rich is glorious”).
The result we see today, a combined state and private capitalist system, challenging the U.S. imperialists  and headed to the full imperialist stage of its development.
“The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and the Reversal of Workers’ Power in China” is essential to understanding PLP’s position that capitalist China is the most powerful emerging imperialist world power, on a collision course with the U.S.’s declining racist empire. As the U.S. and China move closer to World War, we should prepare for a long political struggle with those who believe that China is still socialist, or that China is a lesser-evil capitalist, or that any enemy of the imperialist U.S. is our friend.
The Chinese Revolution and its defeat are among the most important historical events for revolutionaries to study and comprehend. China was once the center of world revolution, an inspiration to billions! Our communist comrades destroyed feudal society and abolished the entire landlord class. They expropriated private capital. In the great advances made by the left in the Party—from the war communism of the PLA, through the Great Leap Forward and the Rural People’s Communes, and up to the Cultural Revolution—millions of our Chinese comrades showed the world that rural and urban workers could take the reins of power and violently destroy capitalist exploitation and oppression.
This document is energizing to read, and we encourage everyone to join in this discussion. Once you get started, also try reading Dongping Han’s The Unknown Cultural Revolution, a first-hand account of the Cultural Revolution.
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Watch inspiring film against fascism
I recently watched the wonderful 1945 Italian film Rome, Open City.
It is set in Rome during the nine-month brutal occupation of that city by the Nazis. The protagonists are a communist leader of the resistance, Georgio Manfredi, his comrade Francesco, and Francesco's fiancée Pina. There is also a group of boys (kids) who have taken up the fight on their own, and a sympathetic Catholic priest, Don Pietro. They are supported by many other working-class people who hate the Mussolini/Nazi regime.
On the other side are a cruel Nazi investigator, his staff and the German army, and a couple of weak people who are corrupted by the Nazis.
The movie is one of the first and finest examples of neo-realism. Immediately after the Second World War a number of Italian filmmakers produced groundbreaking movies that focused on the lives of ordinary people.
Decades ago movies like this were of course much harder to see. Rome, Open City would appear every few years in one Manhattan "Art House". When it came around Milt Rosen, one of the Party founders and at the time chairperson of Progressive Labor Party, would organize family and friends to go see it. Milt had been a young soldier in the U.S. Army in World War II and had been part of some of the hardest fighting in Northern Italy. When the movie ended, Milt would stand up and say "These things happened. I was a 19-year-old in the U.S. Army there. If it had not been for the Partisans who constantly helped us we wouldn't have gotten anywhere!"
I always find it inspiring to see some of the movies that came out during or right after World War II when the experience of Nazism/Fascism was so recent and so many people had been involved in the struggle against it.
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Criticisms of Langston Hughes piece
I commend CHALLENGE for putting the spotlight on the great Langston Hughes, whose class-conscious poetry remains a source of inspiration for communists everywhere (see CHALLENGE, 03/3, 3/17, and 3/31).
However, I have a few comradely criticisms of the three-part feature on his life and work. While it’s true that Hughes was part of the crew of “Black and White” in 1932, the reason that this Soviet movie about race relations in the U.S. South got canceled was not that FDR saw “the Soviet Union in the film footage” (CHALLENGE, 3/3).
Rather, it was that Hugh L. Cooper, an American engineer overseeing the construction of a major dam in the Soviet Union, refused to complete the project unless “Black and White” was abandoned. At a time when the Soviet Union was struggling to industrialize, Cooper’s demand was especially nefarious.
CHALLENGE justly observes that Hughes remained a leftist well after the 1930s. But a good deal of his 1940s work displays a problematic mixture of left-wing populism and U.S. nationalism. Hughes’s contradictory move toward the center was likely due to the CPU.S. A’s lack of leadership on racial matters during its “win-the-war” period (1942-1945). At this time, the Communist Party was intent on defeating the fascist menace overseas, even if it meant downplaying the antiracist struggle at home. Thus, it is simply not true that – as the feature suggests – “Black workers and communists advanced the ‘Double V’ goal” (CHALLENGE, 3/3).
Finally, the CHALLENGE feature displays a somewhat undialectical stance toward the Harlem Renaissance. The Renaissance crystallized different visions of Black liberation throughout the 1920s. Part one  celebrates 1920s Harlem as a “dynamic center for culture and politics” (CHALLENGE, 3/3), while part two  implies that the Renaissance was an identity-based movement that called for Black pride (CHALLENGE, 3/17). Neither formulation captures the ideological complexity of the movement, which at times espoused pro-socialist ideas and at times promulgated culturalist and nationalist conceptions of politics and identity. Hughes’s 1920s poetry exhibits these contradictory tendencies.
All in all, however, the CHALLENGE feature was excellent; I look forward to reading more articles on communist culture.
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NEW YORK CITY, April 14—Whenever there is a crisis, it’s always the working class—especially Black, Latin, and women—that suffers. The story in the transit world is no different. To combat attacks against members of our class—worker, rider, and the most dispossessed—we need to unite under the slogan of, “same enemy same fight, workers of the world unite.”
The union began the monthly general meeting by berating its members for not “being involved enough.” There has been a lot of talk about the “need” for more cops on the platforms and in the stations in response to the rise of attacks on riders and workers. “Fifty-eight [workers were] physically attacked between the beginning of July through the end of 2020....Hundreds more were harassed or spat on” (New York Post, 1/16).
In response, this was a statement from a Progressive Labor Party member in transit work, in regards to the attacks against NYC Transit workers at the monthly union meeting:
The answer isn’t more cops. More cops will only intensify the turmoil that the riding public feel towards MTA, which MTA employees have been carrying the weight of those attacks.
Just last winter there was an uproar by the general public over the harassment and constant attacks by the cops to the majority black and Latin youth. There were signs spray painted “f*&% MTA.”
Transit workers always have to carry the burden of what this company does to the riding public, whether it be fare hikes or more cops.
We cannot continue this practice. When the next cop (that the MTA hires), assaults or kills the next unarmed black rider it will be our faces the public will see.
I witnessed a train conductor get assaulted. I say this so you know I’m not saying this lightly.
If we want to be serious about fixing the problem of the mentally ill and the unhoused poor then we must fight to get them the help they require. We must fight for reforms to get them homes and medical treatment. This city has made history as being the dumping ground for the mentally ill, the sick and unhoused. Cops are workers of violence. There are reports on cops killing those with mental illness every year. The only way we can protect the workers and riders is to help [our class] and stop supporting the cycle of racism and violence.
A coworker responded by saying “well said!" This was followed by the union misleaders abruptly ending the meeting.
There are many groups that claim to solve worker issues—homelessness, mental illness, and drug addiction—but as with many campaigns like the Home First Initiative, it is inadequate. Expecting workers who suffer from drug addiction to get clean on their own is a setup for failure.
Of course, reforms aren’t going to solve the problem, but first workers must be won to the idea that our fate is intertwined with the rest of our international working-class brothers and sisters.

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 20—There is no better way to spend the first day of spring than in solidarity with the international working class! Progressive Labor Party (PLP) called on workers to join in solidarity with the mainly Black Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama who were fighting (ultimately unsuccessfully) for union recognition.
Over 35 workers and students responded to PLP’s call with a militant picket line outside Whole Foods grocery store. Billionaire Jeff Bezos owns both Whole Foods and Amazon and fights tooth and nail to bust union organizing efforts at both places. The picket line was followed by a march to the Washington Post newspaper headquarters, a leading propaganda outlet for the capitalists, also owned by the disgusting Bezos.
PLP speakers declared that capitalists like Bezos always block efforts by workers to unionize and improve their lives. But pro-capitalist  politicians like President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders “support” unions, mainly because they can control the union misleaders and those misleaders do their best to control the workers. Ultimately these union misleaders want a few crumbs for the workers while they live well off their inflated salaries.
Yes, we want to join unions, turning them into antiracist, fighting organizations for the working class. But to get off the treadmill of reform, we must advance the goal of communist revolution – working-class power. Join us in the fight for communism, a permanent victory for the working class by joining and building the revolutionary communist Progressive Labor Party.
Unfortunately, Bezos and other Amazon bosses beat the union drive in a vote of 738 to 1,798. Why the 2-1 vote against joining the union? Amazon used lots of tricks to win and the union response was ineffective. And in this capitalist system, the government serves the interests of business and unions function within that system. So Amazon got the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which oversees union recognition elections, to expand the definition of the Bessemer warehouse bargaining unit to include office staff, part-time and occasional workers, swelling it to over 5,900 workers, instead of the 1,500 workers who actually work in the warehouse who were seeking recognition.
Amazon bosses connived with the U.S. Postal Service to set up a drop box for the mail balloting on company property, intimidating workers by spying on them as they voted. In their cleverest trick, they arranged with local government for the traffic lights to change to green whenever a worker left the warehouse, minimizing the time that union organizers had to chat with workers. Then they even paid incentives to workers fed up with Amazon to quit before the union election to reduce the pro-union vote. The union is now filing unfair labor practices complaints with the NLRB, but that will take many months before a decision is made and the outcome is uncertain. How weak is that?
For communists, life and death organizing requires going to the homes of workers to have conversations about union misleaders, about how to fight company exploitation and racism, and about the worldwide fightback of workers. It means talking about the coming world war and how that’s related to fighting for better conditions and pay at Amazon. Relying on movie stars and politicians (like Biden) to influence workers is similar to the losing strategy of trying to elect “progressive” politicians, who generally end up doing the bosses’ dirty work.
Historically, unions gain recognition by closing down production like they did in the famous Flint Sit-Down Strike of 1936 (see CHALLENGE, 12/22/18) . Those communist organizers won some gains for the working class in the 1930s but failed to organize for a communist revolution. So here we are in 2021 with unions horribly weak and we are still on that reform treadmill. As we fight reform battles such as unionization, let’s make them schools for communism, a system that workers run. Let’s get rid of capitalism where we must constantly battle for our survival. Until capitalism is destroyed with communist revolution, all workers, including union workers, will continue to be oppressed by racism and exploitation.

GREENBELT, MD, April 7—Over 50 parents, teachers, students, and residents rallied at Eleanor Roosevelt High School (ERHS) here to demand the reopened schools be made safe. Prince Georges’ County(PG) failed to do so, backtracking on its promises to have weekly coronavirus testing and upgrades to the air filtration systems before re-opening. The rally was sparked by teachers angered by the Board of Education and the County Council turning a deaf ear to their concerns.
A young teacher involved in a Progressive Labor Party (PLP) study group helped organize the rally by knocking on doors in the Spring Hill Lake apartment complex and struggling with fellow teachers to attend. Several PLP members came in solidarity, distributing over 30 copies of CHALLENGE as well as flyers linking the school battle to the upcoming communist-led May Day rally in Malcolm X Park in D.C.
The CHALLENGE article about the fight to remove School Resource Officers (regular armed cops) from the schools especially resonated with a few folks and started lively conversations. Attending May Day will be an important step forward, recognizing that the capitalist system is organized around profit, not good education or safe schools, so moving from attempting reforms to the school to organizing for communist revolution is a necessary next step.
The protesters marched to the Greenbelt City Hall with their safety demands including vaccinations for all employees before returning to the school building, teleworking as an option, and equity learning labs. Teachers worried that children could infect other children who in turn could infect family members.
The lead organizer of the rally, a teacher and mother of five, gave a rousing speech to end the rally including a shoutout to our Party, “PLP is in the house!” A PLP member caught up with her after the rally and invited her to join a study group. Several other participants including a grandmother who came with her grandson who goes to the high school expressed interest in the PLP’s activities.
Our broad goal is to meet more people in the community, invite teachers to our study groups, join with them to lead the struggles in the schools in this county, and create more communists.