PERIODICO EN ESPA Ñ OL ADENTRO CHALLENGE THE REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNIST NEWSPAPER OF PROGRESSIVE LABOR PARTY Volume 51 No. 15 July 24, 2019 suggested donation $1 Fight racist borders like a communist!

CARRIZO SPRINGS, TX, July 3—“Smash means of steering working-class anger into passiv- path of voting our way into a better world. But we racist deportation, working people have no na- ity—telling people to hold out for hope that things know better, and in an effort to spread PLP’s line tion!” This international chant resounded as mul- will change, rather than calling upon them to join around building a united international working tiracial and multigenerational contingent of Pro- in multiracial unity to defeat and destroy capital- class, members took to protest against a new chil- gressive Labor party (PLP) members marched in ism. PL’ers were immediately critical when these dren’s detention center in Carrizo Springs, Texas. firm formation towards a newly opened concen- pacifist song-sheets were distributed, and when The squalor in these concentration camps is a tration camp for children, a site only 12 miles away the leadership of the rally moved to sing them holdover from the Obama era but the media focus from the Crystal City concentration camp that someone in the crowd yelled out, “WHY? NO!” from outlets controlled by main wing finance capi- held Japanese, German, and Italian families dur- As the liberals stumbled to answer, members tal is new, as they seek to build mass movements to ing World War II. They joined liberal organizers of PLP sang “The Internationale,” the communist attack Trump, the number one threat to their dec- the protest, who kicked the protest off in a pacifist working-class anthem, while distributing CHAL- ades-old blood-soaked world empire.There were fashion: mini banners, carrying gifts of bookmarks LENGE and communist leaflets. PLP won the approximately 100 people in attendance, includ- and teddy bears, all while urging protesters to dec- crowd over with our anthem, our chants, and our ing PL’ers from New York, Chicago and New Jersey. orate a fence a hundred yards from the entrance to speeches, exposing the politricks of both Republi- this Carrizo Springs child detention facility. can and Liberal bosses and politicians to use rac- Part of communist training Liberal pacifism vs. ism to divide the working class and super-exploit This trip to the detention facility at Carrizo migrant workers crossing the border, for their po- communist militancy Springs was a part of a week-long summer project litical and financial gain. in Texas (see page 8). It was clear that there was tension between We called upon everyone to unite and fight We greeted the Toyota Factory workers with liberals, identity centered organizations and PLP back against capitalist bosses. The capitalist me- communist literature, protested racist deporta- when sing-along sheets with “This Little Light of dia has been supposedly uncovering the injustices tions again at the border crossing of Laredo and Mine” and “De Colores” were passed out. We knew at the US-Mexico border, but the end game is basi- volunteered in migrant that singing “This Little Light of Mine” was just a cally to push workers in the U.S. into the dead-end Continued on page 3

HEDITORIAl G20 Summit highlights HCollege CUNY struggle builds stu- HCommunist history Zina U.S splits and decay...p 2 dent worker solidarity...p4 Portnova, teenage communist hero...p7 H Wayfair workers lead; reject H H first hand reports from BOSTON Summer project ‘19 Texas lETTERS liberal bosses trap...p5 youth buiding solidarity...p3 project fights borders, builds communists...p8 page 2 • CHALLENGE • July 24, 2019 Editorial OUR FIGHT

PProgressive Labor Party (PLP) fights to destroy capitalism and the dictatorship of the capitalist class. We organize workers, soldiers G20 Summit highlights and youth into a revolutionary movement for communism.

PThe dictatorship of the working class — communism—can provide a lasting solution to U.S. split & decay the disaster that is today’s world for billions of people. This cannot be done through electoral The recent G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, high- Key Terms politics, but requires a revolutionary movement lighted the escalating battle between two packs of U.S. Main wing finance capitalists are committed and a mass Red Army led by PLP. bosses. The main wing U.S. finance capitalists were hit by both the domestic U.S. bosses, fronted by Presi- to a global land war to keep U.S. dominance over PWorldwide capitalism, in its relentless drive dent Donald Trump, and by Russian capitalists led by the world’s oil and other resources. This wing built for profit, inevitably leads to war, fascism, President Vladimir Putin. In response, the big U.S. im- what they call “the liberal world order,” aka the U.S. poverty, disease, starvation and environmental imperialist empire. ExxonMobil, the Rockefellers, destruction. The capitalist class, through its perialists are trying to rally what’s left of their alliance in the European ruling class to counter expansionist and JP Morgan Chase spearhead the main-wing state power — governments, armies, police, bosses. This dominant wing are the Big Fascists. schools and culture — maintains a dictator- moves by Russian and Chinese rulers. ship over the world’s workers. The capitalist The volatile dynamic between these U.S. factions Domestically oriented capitalists in the U.S. dictatorship supports, and is supported by, the is accelerating a worldwide drive toward fascism. The don’t want to make the sacrifices (e.g., higher tax- anti-working-class ideologies of racism, sexism, desperate U.S. main wing (the Big Fascists) sees its es) that such a war will require. Spearheaded by the nationalism, individualism and religion. empire slipping away. But they won’t give it up without Koch and Mercer families, they are contesting the main wing’s control. This subordinate group are P a fight. With the bosses heading toward World War III, While the bosses and their mouthpieces the Little Fascists. claim “communism is dead,” capitalism is the Progressive Labor Party calls on the working class to real failure for billions worldwide. Capitalism battle for our own class interests. PLP is building an returned to Russia and China because socialism international communist movement to fight for a rev- retained many aspects of the profit system, like olutionary communist society. It’s our only alternative Liberal environmentalism is on the rise. The Sun- wages and privileges. Russia and China did not to the bosses’ rising fascism, chaos, and destruction. rise Movement and its Green New Deal, championed establish communism. by phony leftist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, was Putin attacks liberal world order incubated at the Sierra Club (E&E News, 12/3/18), PCommunism means working collectively to build a worker-run society. We will abol- In an interview on the first day of the summit, the where the agenda is driven by main wing billionaire ish work for wages, money and profits. While blood-soaked Putin openly challenged the U.S. main donors like Michael Bloomberg and finance capi- capitalism needs unemployment, wing. He declared that “the world’s liberal political or- tal nonprofits like Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors communism needs everyone to contribute and der had outlived its purpose” (New York Times, 6/28). (opensecrets.org). share in society’s benefits and burdens. In attacking the liberal world order led by the U.S. From its start, the environmental movement was P main wing ruling class since World War II, Putin sig- designed to force smaller domestic capitalists to fall Communism means abolishing racism and naled that Europe is up for grabs. the concept of “race.” Capitalism uses racism to in line. In 1970, the main wing Ford Foundation be- super-exploit Black, Latin, Asian and indig- Trump, who is backed by the isolationist, domesti- gan funding the Natural Resources Defense Council, enous workers, and to divide the entire working cally oriented wing of U.S. capitalists, joined the Rus- the Environmental Defense Fund, the Sierra Club Le- class. sian president in jokes at the U.S. liberal bosses’ ex- gal Defense Fund, and the Southern California Center pense (BBC News, 6/28). Trump also staged a sit-down for Law in the Public Interest. “In the ensuing years, P Communism means abolishing the special with Mohammed bin Salman, the ruthless crown [these groups]…advocated …for environmental pro- oppression of women— sexism—and divisive prince of Saudi Arabia, despite a United Nations re- tection on virtually every public policy issue at the fed- gender roles created by the class society. port confirming that bin Salman was responsible for eral, state, and local level” (Duke Center for Strategic PCommunism means abolishing nations and the savage killing of Washington Post reporter Jamal Philanthropy and Civil Society). Environmentalism is nationalism. One international working class, Khashoggi, a main wing voice at the Washington Post a partisan issue because “any attempt to regulate pol- one world, one Party. (The Guardian, 6/19). lution is an attempt…to regulate the economy” (me- dium.com 1/26/17)—and because regulations hit the PCommunism means that the minds of mil- Finance rulers call small capitalists much harder than the big ones. lions of workers must become free from reli- gion’s false promises, unscientific thinking and for war in Europe But the environmental movement isn’t just about poisonous ideology. Communism will triumph In the face of expanding influence by Russian and the economy. Back in 2002, after the Sierra Club when the masses of workers can use the science Chinese bosses in Europe, the main wing U.S. capital- backed the U.S. invasion of Iraq over phantom “weap- of dialectical materialism to understand, ana- ists are rallying their allies in Europe’s finance capitals. ons of mass destruction,” the organization threatened lyze and change the world to meet their needs The ruling French and German finance bosses used to dissolve its southern Utah chapter for “speaking out and aspirations. their tenuous victory in May’s European Parliament against the Bush administration’s push toward war” (Huffington Post 5/25/2011). To protect their control PCommunism means the Party leads every elections to install pro-main wing bureaucrats at the over Middle East oil, the finance capitalists were will- aspect of society. For this to work, millions of head of the European Union. ing to sacrifice the lives of more than a million workers workers — eventually everyone — must become German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen, communist organizers. Join Us! and children in Iraq. Now their targets are the Chinese an Angela Merkel protégé who backs a strong Euro- and Russian rulers, plus the “Fortress America” U.S. pean military, was appointed president of the EU’s bosses who are against committing taxes and treasure executive body. Christine Lagarde, chief of the U.S.- to an expensive global conflict. If history is a guide, the dominated International Monetary Fund, was nomi- environmental movement will help sound the main CONTACT US nated as the next head of the European Central Bank. wing’s battle cry. Email Though splits inside the bosses’ camp are significant, [email protected] the finance capitalists are consolidating their power A fight between monsters Mail and doing their best to bolster their old NATO alliance. Box 808 GPO, Brooklyn, NY 11202 The rulers’ cynicism knows no limits. The mis- Internet As the Council on Foreign Relations, U.S. finance capi- leaders now beating the drum on the environment tal’s leading think tank, points out, the stakes are high: www.plp.org represent the same profit-mad bosses who built their challengenewspaper.wordpress.com The more internally divided Europe is, the more fortunes by ruining our air, water, and food. They are it will find itself at the mercy of … great powers Twitter: @PLPchallenge the same animals who poisoned the children of Flint, [Russia and China]. This is a recipe for a Eu- Michigan. They are the same monsters who drowned Facebook: Challenge Desafio rope once again roiled by nationalism, an EU the Ninth Ward of New Orleans to protect their French that is irrelevant, and a transatlantic alliance Quarter investments—and then exploited the tragedy WHO WRITES in which Europe has little influence and the to gentrify other formerly Black working-class neigh- FOR CHALLENGE? United States lacks a strong partner…The only borhoods. CHALLENGE is for the working class, pro- prudent way to avoid this nightmare scenario When (and if) they prevail over their capitalist ri- duced by the working class. The fact that CHAL- is for Europe to … develop the ability to better vals, the main wing will use fascism to attack the work- LENGE/PLP articles are not signed grows from defend itself … pursue common European in- ing class. It was finance capital that funded Hitler and PLP’s criticism of the cult of the individual in the terests … [and] do more to secure neighboring gave him the poison gas used in the Nazi death camps. former socialist Soviet Union and China. We do regions (Foreign Affairs, July/August 2019). not want to encourage the possibility of building It was finance capital that dropped Agent Orange and up a “following” around any particular individ- Big Fascists use climate movement napalm on the children of Vietnam. It’s not just mis- ual. to enlist the working class guided to trust the liberal bosses. It is suicidal! While an article may be written by one per- Are Trump and his Koch brother benefactors a son, the final version is based on collective dis- In 2017, the isolationist U.S. bosses, who have sig- gang of racist murderers? Without a doubt. They are cussion and criticism. Many times this collective nificant holdings in heavy-polluting domestic fossil enemies of our class and must be fought to the end. discussion even precedes an individual’s writing fuels, pushed Trump to pull out of the Paris climate But we cannot allow fear of these Little Fascists to of an article. agreement negotiated by predecessor Barack Obama, drive us into the deadly embrace of finance capital, a reliable stooge for the main wing. Now finance capi- into the camp of Nancy Pelosi or Joe Biden or Eliza- tal is back on the offensive. Emmanuel Macron, the beth Warren. The Big Fascists have a long and ugly his- CHALLENGE/DESAFIO (ISSN 0009- French president and former Rothschild investment 1049) published bi-weekly by Challenge Peri- tory of slaughtering masses of workers, all in the name odicals. 1 issue $1. One Year: $20. Six months: banker, threatened “not to sign any joint statement of liberal democracy.Our fight must be for our class. It $15. Send address changes to CHALLENGE from the Group of 20 summit … unless it deals with must be against our oppressors. Most of all, it must be Periodicals, GPO Box 808 Brooklyn, NY 11202, the [climate] issue, which he called a ‘red line’” (New for communism!J July 24, 2019•Volume 51 No. 15 York Times, 6/26).

[email protected] www.plp.org PO Box 808, Brooklyn, NY 11202 July 24, 2019 • CHALLENGE • page 3 Fight racist borders like a communist!

shelters nearby. with Blue Lives Matter patches on their sleeves nists, workers and youth lean further left. Several to squad cars cruising up and down the dirt road, dozen hand-held American flags the rally organ- Continued from page 1 whirring police sirens and ordering us to clear the izers planned to distribute went un-used, as the Three leaflets were written and translated in already cleared pathway. political tone we established made it clear that US one day for use through the week.Study groups They cruised slowly up and down the main nationalism and patriotism would not be well re- and forums helped a new generation of young dusty road in front of the center in large black ceived by the crowd. leaders achieve greater unity and understanding SUVs, inches away from protesters. They periodi- Workers won to these ideas will carry out mass of how inter-imperialist rivalry is driving divisions cally interrupted the speakers with sirens and ad- murder overseas and, in the end, endorse a bor- in ruling classes worldwide and the danger that monishments to “clear the road” and operated a der regime of biometric fascism that will make liberal misleaders backed by main-wing finance drone over the crowd to identify demonstrators. Trump’s border wall look like child’s play as long as capitalists planning World War III present the Although we abided, police still called tow trucks it adheres to the liberal fantasy of the “rule of law.” gravest danger to the international working class. without warning and ordered more officers to the Due to our ability to boldly inject a communist al- Thugs in blue try to intimidate ground, blocking both ends of the road in military ternative to the liberal misleadership on display, fashion. At the close of the protest, three people working class internationalism achieved a small In addition to the contradictions of the lib- were arrested and two cars were towed. but important symbolic victory over nationalism erals, the police, true to fascist form, broke their and patriotism, as the U.S. flag remained on the promises to work with the rally organizers and Leave the flags where they ground, where it belongs, like the flags of all boss- proved that they were there to serve the bosses. belong...in the gutter es’ nations.New forces committed to raising the From the jump, there was a heavy police presence. red flag of the revolutionary international working From kkkops standing among us in the crowd When the contradictions of liberals are point- ed out and acknowledged, especially by commu- class were forged over the past week!J Firsthand reports from youth building solidarity

The following letters are from young partici- Castro, Sanders) are giving out recycled slogans, pants of the Texas Summer Project (see page 1 and promising migrants and their families to keep 8). More letters next issue. them together and trying to get liberal votes for We went to a church shelter for migrant work- 2020. What we have to do as communists is to help ers in Texas to volunteer and engage politically workers dump the liberal bosses and help them with other volunteers and migrant workers. Many join their documented and undocumented broth- migrant workers were single parents with chil- ers and sisters to smash borders and build com- dren, mostly from the Congo, Haiti and Central munism. America. The church hosts them for the night be- HHHHH fore they go to the homes of family members or I traveled to Texas for the summer project and friends, or other places to await their deportation the experience was jarring. I am an 18-year-old trials. High School graduate who lives in New York City. We set up cots, distributed blankets and What I saw was unacceptable: kids held in immi- clothes, and organized the supply closet. The cot gration camps, families separated, afraid, and lost system had people pushed up against each other without knowing how to get help. What I saw is the with little to no personal space. We pointed this exact opposite of the so-called “American Dream.” out, engaged in a bit of struggle with the church Immigrant workers are merely tools for the leaders with the help of several other volunteers, U.S. economy, paid minimally with terrible work- and finally convinced them to set a few cots to the ing conditions. Women are forced to drink from side and give a little more room. This was just one toilets. Children are held in concentration camps example of how we can help a little with people’s worse than jails. As a working class, we must stick immediate situation, and also engage in strug- together and fight back against the oppressive gle that can develop over time into a struggle for government that hides the reality through Propa- class-consciousness. ganda. Many volunteers wanted to help migrant On the first day in Texas, I went to a shelter/ workers but did not see themselves as part of resource center for migrants. I got there early one united working class. We all wanted to help enough to see that families were sleeping on the the migrant workers, of course, but when you see floor in an overcrowded room. I also saw each im- America. The U.S. invaded nine Latin American them as your working class brothers and sisters migrant lining up to use the sink in a dirty janito- and Caribbean countries and controlled them you fight just that much harder for them to be rial closet. They were each given minimal amount for 36 years to protect the profits for food barons treated with respect, just as you would want your of food, enough to barely survive. On the plate like Chiquita and Dole. They also funded dicta- own family members to be treated. The other vol- they were served a bottle of water one egg, one tors, cronies, and death squads before, during, unteers appreciated this and we were able to get sausage, one piece of bread, and a quarter of an and after the Cold War. Currently, Guatemala and their contact info. orange. As we showed the migrant workers to the Honduras have staunchly pro-U.S. pro-corporate presidents, which has fueled the drug dealers and There was this father and son who managed rooms and distributed supplies, we also tried to to travel from Honduras. They spoke Spanish. I ask them about the situations in their home coun- gangs terrorizing the workers in Central America and forcing them to flee to the United States. My learned they left their family behind for a bet- tries and relate their struggles to other struggles of ter life. The son was 15 and he loved learning. He the international working class. Many arrived with take away from the discussion is that liberals are FATAL to the working class. In Guatemala the showed us he learned to make a bracelet and gave very few possessions, stories about terrible situa- it to my friend as a way for her to remember him. tions in their home countries, and only a fam- Communist Party relied on liberal non-commu- nist president Jacobo Arbenz to redistribute land The family was one of the nicest people I have ever ily member’s number to call when they got here. met and it’s wrong that they have barely any food, Whenever possible, we tried to discuss the line of for workers and peasants. He was overthrown in 1954 by Eisenhower’s CIA gang, the Dulles Broth- no money, and no shelter. I wasn’t aware the hard- the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) as well. We dis- ships immigrants are faced with, until I saw it. cussed how decades of U.S. imperialism in Latin ers, resulting in a 36 year civil war and the deaths America and around the world have led to this of 200,000 indigenous Mayan workers. The com- The summer project with Progressive Labor forced migration for millions of people and how munists trusted “Socialist” reformer President Sal- Party (PLP) was educational. It taught me that the we should fight for a better system for the world’s vador Allende, who refused to arm workers which bosses control capitalism. They exploit the work- workers. We wrote down contact info for migrant led to the 1973 coup by Pinochet and his goon ing class as each country works to benefit their workers who will be going to cities with a PLP squad resulting in 30,000 lives gone. economy. When the U.S. needed workers they al- presence so that they can connect with comrades For me, seeing these tragedies reminded me lowed immigrants to work for the economy. The there. We hope that this helps to grow the Party of the Obama Administration. The fake leftists re- bosses use and abuse workers as they see fit. Fur- and change this horrible system to a system that lied on the Democrats to punish Wall Street and thermore, capitalism has problems that only com- treats all workers with respect, communism. give amnesty for undocumented workers. Instead, munism can fix. There wouldn’t be racism, starva- tion, and sexism. Many problems would be solved HHHHH he deported more immigrants, slashed wages, started five wars in the Middle East and Africa, as communism focuses on everyone working to- At a study group we had a presentation on and made Americans more cynical paving the way gether. U.S. imperialism’s 100+ year invasion of Central for Trump. Right now all of the Democrats (Beto, HHHHH

[email protected] www.plp.org PO Box 808, Brooklyn, NY 11202 page 4 • CHALLENGE • July 24, 2019 CUNY struggle builds student worker solidarity

“7K or strike” was the chant heard outside in gle the CUNY budget, and that’s with the racist the hallway after a group of CUNY (City Univer- $200 tuition increase. Yet the PSC leadership asks sity of New York) faculty walked out together after its members to continue the same failing strate- a heated union meeting on Thursday night . Nu- gies over and over - beg and plead with politicians, merous militant speakers rose to talk against tui- travel to Albany, testify at hearings. At multiple un- tion hikes, for improved wages for adjuncts(part ion meetings across the university system activists timers), and for a strike. Part timers, who receive have implored the PSC leadership to develop an poverty wages and are the majority of the teach- alternate plan – a strike plan. Yet at tonight’s meet- ing staff tried to get a resolution passed that would ing, even the most mild resolution – to delay any delay the contract vote until the fall. While unsur- vote on a potential contract until after the summer prisingly, the union leadership of the Professional break, giving the rank-and-file a chance to collec- Staff Congress (PSC) was able to squash that reso- tively discuss it – was attacked by the leadership lution, they got a taste of what an organized fight- and soundly defeated. They have systematically back looks like. PLP members and friends are part weakened any kind of union militancy and then of this 7K or Strike Campaign and have organized have the nerve to declare that the contract timing our students to sign solidarity statements with the is “fragile” and that we should not fight back. adjuncts. is the students. Their so-called “rational” tuition The fight for $7K and the fight against tui- What CUNY and the union leadership would plan has seen tuition increase every semester tion increases are critical, but history teaches us like is for us to meekly accept continued starva- since 2011. Yet, knowing full-well the statistics an unflinching truth: Reforms made under capi- tion wages for part-time faculty and racist tuition cited above about student food insecurity and talism are fleeting - and replacing a president, a increases for students. They would like for us to homelessness, and knowing that most CUNY stu- congressional representative, a governor, mayor channel our furious anger at the crumbling in- dents have to watch every penny, they just voted or union president will never create a world where frastructure and decreasing services into point- to raise tuition by $200. all workers can live with dignity in their jobs and less lobbying trips to Albany. They would like us Good capitalists that they are, the CUNY Board at home. The U.S. ruling class faces an intractable to view the fact that, according to a recent survey, has also invented the myth that the tuition in- need to discipline the working class and prepare 48 percent of CUNY students are food insecure, 55 crease is necessary to pay for “future labor costs.” for greater global conflict. percent are housing insecure and 14 percent are The CUNY annual budget is around $3.5 billion This need has not arisen because Trump is homeless, as unavoidable parts of a capitalist sys- dollars. The notion that the small percentage in- president or Republicans control the Senate or tem that we are powerless to change.(NYT 5/2 Tui- crease needed for labor contracts must come from Cuomo is governor or Bill Thompson is Chair of tion or Dinner?)) student tuition is idiotic. It’s a purely political tac- the CUNY Board and certainly not because Bar- But workers and students, not just in CUNY tic, precisely designed to weaken student-faculty bara Bowen is PSC President. No, this need arises but around the world continue to put the fight- solidarity. Meanwhile, the silence coming from from the laws of imperialism and inter-imperial- back on display, illustrating the enormous poten- the PSC is deafening. Fearful that it will jeopardize ist rivalry. And it is this need that filters down to tial of the working-class. With communist leader- whatever awful contract is offered by CUNY, they our working conditions and our students’ learn- ship and discipline, we have the ability not just to have sold out students in the most brazen way by ing conditions. It is this need that drives Cuomo change capitalism, but to smash it altogether. That refusing to condemn the tuition increase. Here and DeBlasio to strangle the CUNY budget and to is the message that members and friends of PL are also, the $7K or Strike campaign has revealed the raise tuition. None of these characters is relieved bringing to CUNY students and workers. collaborationist nature of the PSC leadership,by of their responsibility in heaping racist misery on boldly calling out the tuition increase as racist. CUNY Board of Trustees: workers to a greater or lesser degree. But replacing PSC leadership sows disilusion them is not the answer. We must replace the capi- racist goons talist system that feeds and is fed by them. And Beyond selling out the students, the PSC con- that requires a communist revolution.J For all the hardship experienced by the faculty tinues its campaign to disarm and disillusion its and staff at CUNY, the group that the racist CUNY members. The writing is on the wall: the CUNY Board of Trustees have targeted most viciously Trustees and Albany politicians continue to stran- Letter: Student and teachers fight back to end racist random searches

The school board of the Los Angeles Unified nity members and developed a long-term plan er themselves to be on our side. School District (LAUSD) just voted to end the that consisted of educating ourselves about these racist “random search” policy that has been de- issues by developing student curriculum, organ- Don’t fall for the humanizing our youth since 1993. For 26 years, izing forums, passing out flyers, and pushing for bosses’ reform game working class students of color were pulled out the union to fight to end random searches. This The bosses attempted to reform their racist of class every day and faced intrusive searches committee took direct action in the form of rallies, policies by suggesting safe school programs such that subjected them to the culture of criminaliza- marches, and packing school board meetings. as comprehensive restorative justice, psycholo- tion that capitalism creates. Basic items would be There was a lot of resistance from educators gists, therapists and counselors, and the Safe Pas- confiscated such as markers, highlighters, white worried about “safety,”and many also had racist sage program. However, through strength and out and/or body spray. However, the LAUSD did ideas about Black and Latin students. There were determination, our committee pushed for the not end this policy because of the annoyances it also some problems that developed within the LAUSD to end this policy entirely. brought upon these students every day. They end- committee itself. For example, after Trump was Although a great victory for our students, it’s ed it because of pressure from anti-racist students, elected, there was a serious debate over whether important to understand that reforms, no matter teachers, parents, and community members who or not the fight against racism is also a fight that how progressive, will never eradicate the racist na- fought against it for many years. benefits white workers. ture of this system. As long as capitalism remains, To fight the bosses is educate The ideology of “white privilege” was brought the need to criminalize and oppress working class our youth forward to contradict the communist view that youth will continue. In fact the bosses always the white working class’s interests would be served seem to give us an inch to later cut off a mile, such As a teacher and member of Progressive La- by fighting racism, as it would break down the fab- that the next safe school policy they come up with bor Party (PLP), this struggle for me started about ricated barriers that stop all of the working class may be more racist and fascist. five years ago when a resolution was put forward from fighting together. The education system itself is set up to teach in the teachers’ union. This resolution proposed Some members agreed with us and have since youth to accept the bosses’ control or face dire taking a stand against racist police brutality and it been interested in reading Challenge. Small consequences. However, this fight will not end un- passed. As a result, the union’s Racial Justice Com- issues such as lack of commitment and attacks til we take down the capitalist system and replace mittee was formed. Instead of this newly formed from the administration slowed us down, but we it with a better system for working people, a com- committee being a group that simply talked continued to fight together and develop unity. The munist system that teaches the working class our about racism, there was a struggle to take direct struggle continues with the skeptical teachers, history and science, and truly educates our youth, action against racist policies in schools, such as but the few committee members who read Chal- so that they can help build a better world for all. the aforementioned random search policy. We lenge agree with us on many points and consid- The struggle continues!J joined together with other students and commu-

[email protected] www.plp.org PO Box 808, Brooklyn, NY 11202 July 24, 2019 • CHALLENGE • page 5 Wayfair workers lead the way; reject liberal fascist bosses’ trap!

BOSTON, MA—Hundreds of workers at Way- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, both eral fascists built these cages! And, they just voted fair Inc. walked out against their company’s sale Democratic Socialist congressional representa- to fund even more camps and more cages. More of beds for an immigrant detention center that tives, supported the action with AOC tweeting: “[t] children will die. The liberal fascists don’t push housed children at Carrizo Springs, Texas (the his is what solidarity looks like — a reminder that Trump’s border wall. They push an even more same detention center where the PLP held a sum- everyday people have real power, as long as we’re dangerous option: biometric screenings, drone mer project protest, page 1).Strikes and protests brave enough to use it.” surveillance and better technology at the border. by workers against fascist detention centers can Through this struggle, many Wayfair workers This means more death as desperate immigrant help build the movement to destroy capitalism. have begun seeing through the so-called apoliti- workers will take riskier routes through deserts to This fightback is a good example of what workers cal nature of big business. Some of them said, “If avoid these traps. should do and we as a class must be wary of politi- this is how the free market works, I don’t like it.” These big liberal fascists push the ideas of re- cal misleadership that will not lead us to the only They also saw how workers make the system forming capitalism. They try to convince workers solution to destroying fascism: communist revo- run: if we withhold our labor, the fascist machine that this despicable and inhumane system can be lution. can’t function. These insights are powerful when made to function for us. That as U.S. imperialism Workers organize; bosses co-opt taken to their final conclusion: workers can run ravages the world with bombs, hunger and chaos, society in our interests without the need of the it can be taught to respect human rights! That we When the workers realized that Wayfair was can have “just” borders. selling beds to BCFS, a contractor who supplied bosses’ capitalist system! Then and only then will the immigrant concentration camps, about 550 of there be no borders and no children dying in con- This is why the Progressive Labor Party warns them signed a letter of protest. They made several centration camps. the working class: the big Liberal Fascist wing of demands: no more business with BCFS, donate Liberal bosses the main danger the ruling class and the parties they control are profits to help reunite immigrant families and our biggest threat. They will try and mobilize us Instead, the Democratic Socialists and the big institute a code of ethics so this wouldn’t happen to support their brand of fascism as they mobilize liberal fascists they have tied their movement to again. The billionaire CEO Niraj Shah, a son of im- our young people in their multi-cultural, multi- offer misleadership. They mainly criticize Trump’s migrants, rejected the demands and the workers gendered Armed Forces for the upcoming wars overt and gutter style of fascism. They don’t point decided, in the end, to have the walkout. against their ascendant and resurgent rivals: Chi- out that Barack Obama, the deporter in chief, built na and Russia.J One of the walkout leaders was Maddie How- these concentration camps and imprisoned entire ard, a Democratic Socialist. No surprise then that families including women and children. The lib- Left forum Build a mass multiracial party for communism

BROOKLYN, June 30—“What’s your strategy Trump can’t deliver that. Following the liberal to organize the left in the United States?” asked politicians disarms our class, the working class, a young man who was a part of the Yellow Vest and allows capitalism to build all-class unity (a movement in Paris as he approached our Progres- characteristic of fascism). Instead, we must rely sive Labor Party table this weekend at the Left Fo- on only our class for leadership. rum. (The Left Forum is a NYC-based event that Everyone left the panel with CHALLENGE seeks to “bring progressive people together to and a copy of the latest PL Magazine, which con- share radical ideas for social change.”) Our inter- tains the article: “Black Workers Leadership Key national strategy is to build a base in the working to Communist Revolution” (see www.plp.org for class and focus on organizing a mass party with your copy!). Self-critically, we could have done a workers, students, and soldiers. Only a revolu- better job at promoting the PLP panel. tionary communist party of millions can turn the coming imperialist world war into a war for com- Fight fascism today munism, a society totally run by the working class. PL’ers attended other panels to raise our po- So organizing a revolution for communism litical ideas. In the panel on national teacher will take tens of millions of workers, students, and strikes, PLP spoke about the historic, racist role soldiers worldwide. And that will take a worldwide the leadership of the United Federation of Teach- party of millions. Not an easy task. “Organizing ers has played, our experiences in various reform the left” certainly won’t do it. But it was useful to struggles, and most importantly why, even if we reach out; you never know when you might meet win strikes, we must turn these battles into battles someone who will join the fight for communism. against capitalism. Our comments were warmly received and CHALLENGE was distributed. Black workers’ leadership key Some PL’ers also attended a panel on the Abra- to communist revolution years after Europe’s colonial powers first invaded ham Lincoln Brigade and the Spanish Civil War. PLP participated in this three-day conference, the Americas, racism exists for one reason: the di- We learned about how the communist movement attending various panels as well as organizing our vision and oppression generates billions upon bil- fought against fascism during the Second World own, Black Workers Key to Communist Revolu- lions in profit for the capitalists. If our class is to War. Many people who were friends and relatives tion. Young Black and South Asian comrades led seize and hold state power throughout the world, of those who volunteered in Spain to fight fascism the panel. They explained how fighting anti-Black Black workers and their leadership are fundamen- attended the workshop. At the end of the discus- racism and uniting the entire working class, led tal to destroy racism. sion, a daughter of one of the Brigadistas said, “It’s by Black workers was key to organizing a commu- No matter where you are in the world, fight- all fine and good to talk about how our families nist revolution for working class power. Black and ing anti-Black racism and recruiting the most op- fought fascism then, but the glaring question is white, women and men, PLP and others, everyone pressed part of the working class to the highest what are we doing today?” A PLP member brought participated. level of leadership must be part and parcel to our up the Texas Summer Project and our fight at the Black workers have an especially urgent case fight against capitalism. border (see front page). Applause and thank yous to revolt and smash the bosses’ state. Throughout broke out from the audience. Rainbow fascism U.S. history, from the time they were kidnapped Raise the flag of communism from Africa as a pool of no-wage labor, they have Contrast communist Black leadership with the served at the forefront of every working-class bosses’ call for liberal leadership. Many agreed We must take advantage of any and all oppor- movement: the war against slavery, the struggle that the liberal bosses were the main danger. One tunities. We have to fight for our line everywhere. for civil rights, the mass strikes against the indus- young Black worker did not like our criticism of So while we spent the weekend meeting and talk- trial bosses, the fights for jobs and housing and the Democratic Socialists, particularly Alexan- ing to people who believe in everything from sup- decent schools. Wherever workers have confront- dria Ocasio Cortez (AOC). This was a discussion porting the right “socialist” candidate to identity ed the profit system and its parasites, Black work- of how these “socialists” may get a few crumbs for politics, our presence is important. PLP met quite ers have stood at the front lines. Wherever Black the working class, but they support the capital- a few people who are former members, who spoke workers gave leadership, our entire class stood to ist system and they especially always support the very highly of their experiences, and were very benefit and gain class-consciousness as a result. capitalists’ imperialist wars. Because AOC is do- glad to see us. Overall, we distributed 200 CHAL- LENGEs and other literature. Anti-Black racism is deeply rooted. It is the ing the bidding of the U.S. imperialists, she has an very foundation of the U.S. Empire. More than 500 interest in building a multicultural patriotic army At the next Left Forum, PLP will again raise the willing to die for this empire. red flag of communist revolution!J [email protected] www.plp.org PO Box 808, Brooklyn, NY 11202 page 6 • CHALLENGE • July 24, 2019

We encourage all CHALLENGE readers to send in letters and articles LETTER about their experiences fighting the bosses worldwide.

discussion of organization and the need for a party a mon creativity. Join PLP and make this long march PLP fights for communism at the topic of more serious discussion. Many graduate stu- out of racism, fascism, and war, to abolish capitalism. Marxist Literary Group conference dents attending MLG know that as new PhDs they HHHHH Against a backdrop of capitalist crisis with rising will compete for scarce full-time tenure-track college racism and fascism and risk of world war, Progres- jobs and may well face a lifetime of adjuncting or sive Labor Party (PLP) members joined more than leaving the profession, their dreams of producing new 100 scholars at the 2019 conference of the 50-year- knowledge shattered. CHALLENGE has had many old Marxist Literary Group (MLG). As communists, articles on this university crisis, highlighting the strug- we were there to face these challenges together with gles of both students fighting racism, debt, and rising our fellow-workers, also encouraging them to join us tuition, as well as those of low-paid adjunct lectur- in the long-term revolutionary struggle to fight for an ers. These adjuncts do the bulk of university teach- egalitarian communist world. ing, earning around $20,000 per year for a full course load, often without benefits. During the six-day conference, we heard 70 pa- pers, presented the Party views, and took part in six For intellectuals the future lies only in a revolu- reading groups. We signed up seven friends to work tionary alliance with the working class. We must through our unions on solidarity with migrating learn from the power of the insurgent global working workers, gave more than a dozen copies of CHAL- class as we point the way to a communist future. A LENGE to friends, and formed new friendships. million workers and students protesting in Khartoum, two million in Hong Kong, the biggest general strike PLP professors and graduate students have in history in India, a new revolutionary party in South worked at the MLG for more than two decades, Africa based on the largest union on the continent, 80 earned people’s respect, and learned that many Marx- million refugees worldwide fighting like hell just to ist thinkers believe that communism is a good idea. stay alive. Let’s build toward a communist world in The need to join a revolutionary party to fight for which workers will learn to become intellectuals and communism, however, has been a further reach for intellectuals will learn to become workers, until no many. Still, in recent years, the intensifying capitalist such division of labor remains to hold back our com- crisis, including within the university, has made the Zina Portnova, teenage communist hero

Capitalist history textbooks rarely tell us real working-class history. They especially don’t teach us about the countless working-class heroes. One such hero is Zinaida Portnova, or “Zina” for short, a Soviet teenager, Soviet partisan, and hero of the Soviet Union under leader Joseph Stalin. She was known for killing over 100 Nazis by poison. She is said to have shot the Nazi detective who captured her. Zina was born on February 20, 1926 in the city of Leningrad in a working-class Belarusian family. Her father Martyn worked at the huge Kirov factory. She graduated from sev- enth grade in 1941, then left for her grandmother’s home in in the countryside. Nazis invade USSR, Zina becomes a red At the beginning of June 1941, she arrived for school holidays in the village of Zui, near the Obol station of the Shumilino district of the Vitebsk re- gion. When the Nazis invaded the USSR on June 22, 1941, Zina found herself in Nazi-occupied ter- ritory. She was forced to watch as soldiers beat her grandmother for their cattle. In 1942, she became a member of the local un- derground resistance “Young Avengers” headed by Yefrosinya Zenkova (who was a leader of the Komosol, the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union). Zina committed herself to communism. Soviet painting depicting Zina reaching for the Nazi interrogaters’ pistol before She began by distributing Soviet propaganda shooting him with it. leaflets in German-occupied Belorussia, collect- ing and hiding weapons for Soviet soldiers, and re- porting on German troop movements. After learn- Zina was later transferred to the fighting partisan shot a guard in the corridor, then another in the ing how to use weapons and explosives, Portnova detachment.From August 1943, she was a mem- courtyard. After the pistol misfired when Portnova participated in sabotage actions at a pump, local ber of the Kliment Voroshilov scout partisan de- attempted to shoot a guard blocking her access to power plant, and brick factory. tachment. In December 1943, returning from an the street, she was captured. After that the Nazis Zina poisons a 100 Nazis assignment to discover the reasons for the failure tortured her for more than a month, trying to get of the Young Avengers organization, she was cap- information about the partisans. On the morn- She got herself a job working in the kitchens tured in the village of Mostysche. ing of January 10, 1944, she was shot, either in of a nearby Nazi garrison. On the instructions of the prison of the city of Polotsk or in the village of the underground she poisoned the soup, which Reports of her escape vary. One version is that, Goryany. resulted in the deaths of many high-ranking offi- during Gestapo interrogation in the village of Go- cials. Soviet sources say more than 100 Nazi scum riany, she took the investigator’s pistol off the ta- Remember Zina died. ble, then shot and killed him. When two Nazi sol- diers entered after hearing the gunshots, she shot Today there are two monuments standing for The Nazis began a search for intruders. Zina them as well. She then attempted to escape the her, a bust in Minsk near where she was born and claimed that she was innocent and ate some of compound and ran into the woods, where she was an obelisk in Obol where she was killed. the food in front of the Nazis to prove it was not caught near the banks of a river. Zina’s story is one of working-class bravery. poisoned. When she did not fall ill immediately, Another version is that the Gestapo interroga- Trained by communists, she clearly had a deep they released her. She managed to survive this af- hatred for the Nazis and a deeper love for the ter being treated with grass broth antidote at her tor, in a fit of rage, threw his pistol to the table after threatening to shoot her. Taking the pistol, Port- working class. Her story shows that young people grandmothers house. However, after this it was can be thinkers and fighters for a better world. J too dangerous for her to remain in the village, and nova shot him. Escaping through the door, she

[email protected] www.plp.org PO Box 808, Brooklyn, NY 11202 July 24, 2019 • CHALLENGE • page 7 Book review Beat back the white supremacists

In Bring the War Home, Kathleen Belew expos- trol, declaring their goal of eventually seizing the groups, many led by PLP. Throughout the 1970s es the broad, coordinated nature of the U.S. gutter government for themselves. They began to coun- until today, among many confrontations, PLP racist and fascist “white power” movement and its terfeit and steal money and encouraged attacks has invaded the Nazi headquarters in Chicago, responsibility for many killings by so-called “lone on infrastructure and the assassination of federal disrupted racist radio broadcasts in Kansas City wolves.” The white supremacist movement itself is agents and judges. Tactically, they developed a ter- and KKK demonstrations in Texas. We smashed a loose collection of many racist, nationalist and rorist model of small leaderless cells of one to five the Klan in Boston, stood up against armed Klans- anti-communist groups from the Ku Klux Klan persons, with communications through print me- men in Mississippi, and infiltrated and attacked (KKK) to neo-Nazis to militias and is a part of how dia and the internet. the racists in downtown New York City and Mor- U.S. capitalism maintains control over the work- When the increasingly militarized U.S. police ristown, New Jersey, among a proud and militant ing class through racism. of the 90s attacked two white supremacist cent- history of other actions. Klan leader Bill Wilkerson Federal agencies in the U.S. have long known ers with tactics previously limited to poor Black even declared in the 1980s that PLP was the main of the white supremacist movement’s mass base, communities, and killed women and children, the barrier they faced in building their movement but they have not responded proportionately. racists had another surge in membership. One re- Yet if law enforcement is present at white su- Although Belew sees violent fascism as a conse- cruit was a terrorist named Timothy McVeigh, who premacist events, those injured or arrested are quence of a violent U.S. foreign policy, she does blew up the Murrah Federal Building in Oklaho- more likely to be antiracists than racists. This was not consider that the growth of extreme racism is ma, killing 168 people. Belew fails to consider that the case in 2016, when PLP demonstrators were useful to the ruling class or contrast their under- extreme racism has a value in this nation birthed injured and arrested in Anaheim, California while sized response with the aggressive targeting of in slavery and still home to massive racial discrim- knife-wielding racists went free. In 2017, a mas- foreign-inspired terrorism and antiracists. ination. sive group of racists was met by an even larger She also does not discuss anti-racist opposi- The U.S. depends on racism to keep workers group of protestors in Charlottesville, and the tion to white supremacists, much of which has divided and save trillions on lower wages and so- police did little. One racist was convicted later for been led by the communist Progressive Labor cial spending in non-white communities, which killing a white woman anti-racist, an act too des- Party (PLP) for decades all over the country. Com- in turn lowers standards for all workers. Not only picable to be ignored. munists fight to unite the entire working class to do these extremists help keep racist ideas and The ruling class needs racists smash this racist, sexist, imperialist system and practices alive, but they allow the more liberal build a communist world, run by the international politicians to be mildly critical and so appear less Although the fascist right accounts for 73 per- working class. This proudly makes the communist racist themselves. And, while the history present- cent of extremist murders, they are rarely labeled PLP the sworn enemy of racists everywhere! ed by Belew is important, the author fails to con- hate crimes or terrorism; unlike how the racist trast this picture of a growing white supremacist capitalist media regularly portrays Muslim work- History of white supremacists movement only occasionally facing police opposi- ers. Trump has rescinded grants to organizations While gutter racist mass movements have been tion with the intense police efforts to infiltrate and countering white supremacy, and the Department nurtured by the U.S. ruling class since the 1860s control antiracist and leftist organizing. of Homeland Security has disbanded its analyst group on domestic terrorism. U.S. Civil War, the latest surge in racist activism In 1967, the FBI Counterintelligence Program began after the 1960s Vietnam War. Some veterans began COINTELPRO–BLACK HATE, which fo- Now that the U.S. is closer to fascism, the resented racial integration in the army and bought cused on Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Chris- President can openly embrace racist thugs. Even if the U.S. government lies about fighting commu- tian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and many liberal Democrats win the presidency in 2020, the nism. The post-Vietnam racists built paramilitary antiracist groups with Black workers. The FBI’s history of all politicians, even Black ones, should camps in nine states and launched many attacks, Ghetto Informant Program disrupted or discred- not give us hope that violent racists will be made while suffering few arrests or convictions. In 1979, ited similar antiracist organizations, and similar to account. Only by building multiracial relation- they killed five leftist anti-KKK demonstrators in programs still exist today. ships and struggles ourselves and vigorously op- Greensboro, North Carolina, while the cops did posing the ideas and actions of white supremacy nothing. Belew attributes this only to poor com- What of the antiracist and nationalism can we defeat racist divisions and mand and miscommunications. opposition? violence. Only by making a communist revolution can we guarantee that racism will be eliminated By 1993, white supremacist groups unified and There have been many instances of success- once and for all!J started getting out of the U.S. government’s con- ful antiracist actions against white supremacist N RED EYE ON THE NEWS . . .

Below are excerpts from the capitalist press chemical to sterilize medical equipment….A com- legal guardian….The Obama administration held that may be of use for our readers. munity group also formed in St. John to protest several thousand immigrant children at Fort Sill in NYT=New York Times the air pollution in 2016. But there, where 90 per- 2014. Ms. Ina protested then, too…. GW= Guardian Weekly cent of residents were African-American and per …The facilities…are operating well past capital income is just over $17,000 a year, those their capacities….In the 19th century, the Army Chemical pollution: another racist killer protests have largely fallen on deaf ears…. held hundreds of Chiricahua Apache warriors for 50 years The third biggest contributor to the elevated [there]….Geronimo was one of them and is buried NYT, 6/30 — St. John the Baptist is a rectangle cancer risk nationwide, formaldehyde,….is used at the base... Ms. Ina and others at the protest… of modest homes [near New Orleans] bounded by in building materials, glue and fabrics, and has shouted “No more concentration camps!...” the Mississippi River on one side and a large facto- been linked to cancers….The Trump appointee “There are many similarities that resonate ry on the other. For years, the people living there… who now oversees the EPA’s IRIS division,…used through our own experiences,” Ms. Ina said...We suffered a disproportionate share of health prob- to represent formaldehyde manufacturers on a had family separation and indefinite detention. lems, including immune disorders, respiratory panel of the American Chemistry Council, as the We suffered long-term health problems and men- distress, headaches, heart troubles and cancers…. director of policy and regulatory affairs for Koch tal health problems long afterward.” Industries….just another example of a govern- A [2015] report from the Environmental Pro- ment working to profit this industry. But for some Racist mistreatment of Black patients tection Agency showed…St. John had by far the in St. John, the failure to act is a matter of life and highest risk of cancer from air pollution in the na- pervades U.S. history death…. NYT, 6/30 — [Black people] have suffered from tion. Nationwide the risk of cancer from chemi- health care disparities over the whole history of cals emitted by industrial facilities was about 30 Protest Obama-Trump migrant concentra- [the U.S.], usually in the form of lack of access or for every million people. In this small neighbor- tion camps undertreatment. A 2017 study found that in New hood, it was more than 800. NYT, 6/23 — Fort Sill, Okla. — For Satuki Ina,… York City, African-Americans were significantly A vast majority…was coming from a colorless born in a Japanese-American internment camp underrepresented in the best hospitals, even after gas called chloroprene that the nearby synthetic during World Wear II,…that the United States controlling for insurance coverage. rubber factory has been emitting since 1969…. would detain undocumented migrant children at African-Americans, including children, are this Army base…felt like a wallop from the past…. Three chemicals cause a large majority of the more often undertreated for pain compared with elevated cancer risk from air pollution around the The base…once held 700 Japanese-Americans their white counterparts. While 74 percent of country: chloroprene, ethylene oxide and formal- who lived in tents in desert-like heat, surrounded white patients with bone fractures in an Atlanta dehyde…. by barbed wire and guards…among the more than emergency room received pain medications, 57 …In the absence of federal action (which pre- 100,000…of Japanese ancestry…rounded up by percent of African-Americans did. African-Amer- dates the current administration)…affected resi- the government…in…camps around the country. ican children with appendicitis were one-fifth as dents…take on local polluters. In Willowbrook, Ms. Ina and more than 200 demonstrators likely to receive opioid medications for pain, a ILL, a well-to-do white suburb of Chicago….after arrived at Fort Sill…to protest the government’s cornerstone of care, as white children. Such in- residents protested, their state environmental latest plan…to house 1,400 undocumented chil- equities, the manifestations of implicit bias and agency closed the factory, which had used the dren…in the United States without a parent or institutional racism, are only the tip of the iceberg. [email protected] www.plp.org PO Box 808, Brooklyn, NY 11202 page 8 • CHALLENGE • July 24, 2019 TEXAS PROJECT FIGHTS BORDERS, BUILDS COMMUNISTS

and our communities. We ended the week with a real Texas barbecue celebration, sharing our impressions and lessons learned from the week. Rising fascism and liberals are main danger to workers While liberal politicians may cry “keep fami- lies together” to appear concerned with the hu- manity of migrant workers and families seeking refuge, merely keeping families together in a de- tention center is a complete sham. They use the suffering of the migrant workers for their own cynical purposes. Just like president Donald Trump and his conservative cronies, U.S. liberal bosses have high stakes in exploiting the work- ing class—they just use smoke and mirrors to do so. They want workers to forget that it was Ba- rack Obama who deported more migrants than any other president. Obama authorized the construction of detention camps for children at the border. Obama created DACA to target Latin youth for military recruitment. Thus, we cannot ignore that it is Obama’s racist legacy that Trump’s anti-immigrant ad- ministration is built upon. While Trump’s ad- ministration uses open racism to mobilize its political base and fuel anti-immigrant senti- ment, we must acknowledge that intensified racism, nationalism, and use of “law and order” to terrorize workers are strategies employed by TEXAS, July 7—The Progressive Labor Party America, the Congo, and Haiti. As many as 300 a number of Democratic presidents—Obama, organized 50 workers and youth against capitalist arrived every night. We served meals, played with Clinton, Carter—and are a hallmark of rising fas- borders during a summer project here. The focus children, and listened to many migrants share cism. of our fight was a call to unite against racist bor- their experiences (see letters, page 3). We helped Worldwide, bosses are sliding towards wider ders and anti-immigrant racism. We strengthened some make travel arrangements, for their jour- war and the various national bosses are moving our commitment to multiracial unity of the work- neys are far from over. Many are going to meet towards more fascism amid growing volatility. But, ing class and the struggle for communist revolu- family already here—some are going to cities and liberal fascists continue to insidiously mislead tion to destroy capitalism. states they never heard of. workers into believing they have our best interests Every year, PLP and friends join to fight col- Still, many are going to cities where they will at heart when they are agents of a violent system. lectively in an area of focus—to connect strug- face more racism, poverty, and exploitation. We They seek not to alleviate the exploitation of the gles, grow our organization, and develop young ached for them, as they come to the U.S. with im- working class, but to subdue workers with mean- leaders. Throughout the week, we demonstrated, mense hope in having a chance at a new life. Ul- ingless reforms. They seek not to unite workers in volunteered, distributed CHALLENGE and leaf- timately, we learned from our fellow brothers and multiracial unity, but instead keep workers divid- lets, engaged in workshops and discussions and sisters, as their very presence once again shows ed through identity politics. Time and time again, strengthened our relationships with each other. the power workers hold in demonstrating their liberals screw workers over for power, profit and ability to defend themselves even in the harshest control. The working class shouldn’t be fooled! Internationalism on July 4 of conditions. After the protest against the new concentra- Communism means tion camp in Carrizo Springs (see front page), we A week of learning no racist borders took the fightback to the Texas-Mexico border. PLP also took to the streets in Texas, distrib- Our work in Texas this week reflected what July fourth in the United States is a day of hyper uting CHALLENGE and leaflets to Toyota factory communism means—workers’ power, no racist nationalism and morid hypocrisy. PLP comrades workers, passersby, shoppers, and shelter volun- borders, and no workers forced from their homes countered the bosses fake holiday by staging a teers. We focused on spreading our sphere of influ- and families to find work. Our work this week re- militant anti-July fourth demonstration, and dis- ence and developing young leaders. Throughout flected our dedication to building and strength- tributing communist literature to workers and the week, we engaged in discussions and work- ening PLP—and our fight to smash capitalism for shop owners around the international pedestrian shops to increase and strengthen our understand- good. We must unite and fight the increasing mass bridge. ing of intensifying inter-imperialist rivalry, its de- arrests of undocumented workers, ICE police Many stopped to read CHALLENGE right then pendence on racism and nationalism to divide the raids on homes, jobs, military bases, bus stations and there. Several joined in on our march through working class with borders, and to prove further, and highways, mass detentions and deportations. the heightening danger of fascist liberalism. the streets and at the corners where we stopped Same enemy, same fight, workers of the world to chant and hear speeches prepared by our com- We fortified our understanding with direct unite! ¡El mismo enemigo, la misma lucha, los tra- rades—a call to unite all workers and smash all experience to take back to our schools, our jobs bajadores del mundo se unen!J borders! Again, PLP’s commitment to inter- national solidarity was proven by ral- lying directly at the border—connect- ing with workers who cross back and SUBSCRIBE or RENEW! All the communist politics, news, and struggle forth between the two countries on a from around the world! daily basis. We urged them to take our one-year subscription: $20 individual $45 for institution message back to their families both here and in Mexico and beyond. Name______Solidarity with migrant Address______families at the shelter City______State______Zip______Throughout the week, PLP volun- Make check or money order to: teered at a local shelter that housed Challenge Periodicals, migrant families who made the hell- PO Box 808, Brooklyn, NY 11202 ish journey from Mexico, Central PROGRESSIVE LABOR PARTY • WWW.PLP.ORG