PL’s 50-Year Convention: ONWARD TO A LIFETIME OF REVOLUTION

I was one of thirty comrades who, in 1961, met and decided to break away from the old communist movement and eventually form a new party, the Progressive Labor Party. If any one of us had predicted that in fifty years our Party would be active in 27 countries, we would have thought that person was smoking something.  But here we are!

The words above are from a founding member of Progressive Labor Party at the convention dinner celebrating 50 years of fightback.
In the week leading up to convention this August, in the face of the storm clouds of imperialist war and the fascist attacks unleashed on workers worldwide, young PL’ers waged a week of spirited class struggle. Comrades from all over the world injected their international experiences into our Party’s fight against racist cop murders in New York City. More than 50 comrades with little or no writing background collectively produced our newspaper, CHALLENGE, from start to finish (see page 5).
Friday night’s welcoming address from our outgoing chair was moving in its rock-solid confidence that not only has capitalism outlived its time, but that a communist world can and will be won.  Our four incoming leaders are multi-racial, mainly women, international and inter-generational, and will divide the tasks of the chair and lead as a collective. Two of them spoke on Friday night, focusing on the state of the world and the potential power of workers to transform it.  
Our Saturday workshops saw more than 300 comrades focused on implementing the revolutionary-optimist strategy in our most recent guiding document, “Dark Night Shall Have its End” (see CHALLENGE 9/2).  At Saturday evening’s reunion dinner, we sang working-class songs from South Africa and heard a series of greetings from international comrades. Some had traveled to be with us; others were prevented from attending by racist visa restrictions and sent written greetings in their stead. The nearly 500 comrades cheered each message as it was read out loud. We felt their presence nonetheless!  
In the last two speeches from our new leadership, the comrades charged with international and U.S. work rocked the house with visions of a growing party worldwide and a review of the many, many fights that have made our party the vibrant force it remains today.  As each fight was recalled, comrade veterans of each struggle rose and were recognized with thunderous applause.  The evening was topped off by the singing of the Internationale in more than eight languages, led by workers and youth from five continents.
Sunday’s session was an open-mic discussion of five resolutions our Party will unify around in the coming period. It was a strong exercise in communist centralism, the political process that will lead the working class to power and to the final victory of a communist future. Lively discussion and disagreement was held around the most correct way to implement our anti-racist, anti-sexist, internationalist strategy to build the Party and wage armed struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat.  
Our Party has thrived for half a century as a vigorous fighting force because we have always understood the importance of entrusting leadership responsibilities with new generations of communist leaders.  Those original thirty comrades were nearly all white and mostly male.  Anti-racist struggle has played a key role through our Party’s fifty years, and seeing this new leadership group come into its own at the 2015 convention was a huge highlight for me.
We know that workers will develop to their full capacity as human beings only when the working class has wiped out capitalism and established communism. Capitalism wastes more than precious natural resources. Above all, it is wasteful of human potential.  Our convention was a small glimpse of how communism will tap into this great potential of the working class.
Our first 50 years gives us inspiration for the next 50 years and more. The Progressive Labor Party—as long as we wage both class struggle and an internal struggle against reformism/revisionism—will continue to lead workers and youth down the long and winding road to communist revolution.

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International  Greetings

Hello our fellow comrades in the U.S. and around the world.  It is our sincere hope that you are all working and fighting hard against the unfairness of the capitalist system existing among the world’s population. It was our plan to join your summer project against racism and capitalism in the US, particularly in Ferguson, but our plan failed because we were denied visas by the US Embassy here in East Africa. The Embassy wanted to harass us and pocket more than 160US dollars per visa. At the anniversary of Mike Brown’s murder, we saw (through the mass media) your unity and commitment to fight back regardless of the government’s attacks against you. We join your struggle here in East Africa by fighting against the government on the issues concerning the constitution and the general elections. Your fight is our fight, your success is our success.  Let us continue to fight against the capitalist system that creates racism, sexism, injustice and inequalities.  In doing so, we will create a classless world with a happy life.
— PLP in East Africa

PLP Comrades of Pakistan, El Salvador, Africa, France, Mexico, Colombia, China, the Dominican Republic, the U.S. — comrades from all around the world! Once again the capitalist-made borders are preventing us in Haiti from being physically present among you to share our experiences in organizing in the class struggle. One day, we will put an end to these divisions created by this system of inequality. In fact, in spite of the distance and different capitalist divisions of racism, nationalism, borders used prevent the unity of our class, we are more and more organized! We believe in communist revolution, and our international Party and our revolutionary line grows and strengthens day by day. Our presence in different struggles inspires the working class’s confidence in our communist leadership and our confidence in the working class and our future.
Our convention brings new blood to the building of our Party and strengthens each comrade. We have much to lose if we fail to win the working class to destroy capitalism. If we fail, the current system will lead humanity to another stage of barbarism. We must not allow this to happen!
Only communist revolution can put an end to the material conditions and ideology that lead to racism, sexism, terrorism, climate change: all the phenomena that can only lead the world to savagery. We building a fighting organization and the decisive struggles to change the world. This is the enormous task ahead faced by each comrade of our party: to organize millions of workers around the world under the red flag of Progressive Labor Party!Long live communist struggle! Long live our Party, the PLP!
— PLP in Haiti