CHICAGO, May 20 — Thousands entered the streets here today to protest the meeting of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). NATO was formed after World War II to contain and undermine the first workers’ state, the Soviet Union. The western bosses feared that the example of the communist-led USSR, which had just defeated the German Nazis, the world’s most powerful military, would inspire workers worldwide to fight for a workers’ state.
NATO has rained terror on workers from Kosovo to Afghanistan to Libya and all points in between. This is the military wing of the U.S.-ruling class, to protect the financial interest of western bosses. One needn’t be a communist to know that NATO bosses use extreme racism to justify their imperialist wars and the super-exploitation of black, Latino, immigrant, and Muslim workers. One does need to be a communist to understand that the way to defeat this genocide is not through reform battles or siding with “lesser-evil” capitalist politicians. The working class must fight for, and take, state power through communist revolution.
Today we saw all manner of well-meaning people misdirected by liberal reformist leadership. They prevented us from getting no closer than half a mile from the conference. A red beacon of light in this conglomerate of mis-leadership was about 20 PL’ers. We distributed 500 CHALLENGEs, led revolutionary chants and made militant communist speeches, explaining the true nature of capitalism and the communist solution for its horrors heaped on the working class. Many workers approached us after each speech, telling us how much they liked what we said. Many interested workers gave us their contact information, which we will pursue.
As communists we know that our struggle is long and hard. But, when we experience the working class’s eagerness for change and the receptiveness of those same workers to our ideas, they can be won to join PLP. We know then there will come a day when this ruling class will be overthrown and a communist world will be born.