Washington, DC, August 24 — Today’s March on Washington, 50 years after the historic march that helped lead to the Civil Rights Act, was a timely reminder that reformist politics cannot fundamentally change the racist inequalities of capitalism.
Back in 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. and other mainstream civil rights leaders argued that working within the system — by allying with liberal President John F. Kennedy — would win the fight against racism in the United States through federal action. Others, like Malcolm X and Jim Forman of SNCC, engaged in a more militant struggle against racism. The Progressive Labor Party went a step further by calling for revolutionary action to smash capitalism, the source of systemic racism in the United States.
The same political debate raged at the anniversary event. PLP called on marchers to join the fight for revolution, while the leaders of the march stressed the importance of working through the courts and elections to bring about change.
In reality, the advances made against racism decades ago grew out of grassroots militancy and rebellions in black communities throughout the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s. Since then, those gains have eroded as a reformist, electoral strategy came to dominate the struggle. PLP asked the marchers: Why embrace the losing strategy that has cost us so much? Instead, let’s build a revolutionary party to smash the racist capitalist system and replace it with communism, a system of workers’ power based on equality and collectivity.
Spread Anti-Racist Grassroots Struggle
PLP members joined the People’s Coalition of Prince George’s County, Maryland, and the Shantel Davis Committee at a major subway stop to spread this message and to assist with the goal of strengthening anti-racist grassroots struggles. These include battles against the police murders of two young black people, Archie Elliott 3rd in Prince George’s County and Shantel Davis in New York City.  PL’ers also joined with Metro transit workers and residents of Stoddert Terrace, a local public housing site, to fight against the new Jim Crow in the Washington, D.C. transit system. New management policies ban for life anyone with a criminal record. This excludes thousands of black youth from even being considered for a job in public transit (see page 3).
Many marchers cheered on the rally and scores signed our petitions. At noon, participants marched to join the main rally on the national mall, where they brought our message of anti-racism and revolution to thousands more