HARLEM, April 2—Some powerful images of the rally following the Progressive Labor Party’s College Conference are worth sharing for readers of CHALLENGE. Picture militant chants and speeches from a multiracial, multigenerational picket line. Black workers leaving stores to come out and watch and at turns solemnly and enthusiastically raising their fists—and six of them joining the rally.
On the outskirts of the picket, CHALLENGE sellers struggling to keep up the demand for the newspaper, while engaged in excited debates about smashing Trump and communist revolution, and balancing pens to take down contact information from interested workers.
The rally energized the more than 35 members and friends of PLP, including some who travelled from the nearby states and had never sold CHALLENGE before. How was this militant advance for communist ideas possible? After a day of learning rich theory, history and discussion at the PLP College Conference!
Communist Internationalism Opens Conference
“What are we learning in school today?” This was the question posed in a tone-setting opening speech to the conference, as we dedicated our precious day off as students and professors in the bosses’ universities to the international working class (see speech, page 6). Even our attendance was a glimpse at what education might be like in a communist society. In a “classroom” that was multiracial and multi-generational, immigrant and native born, we heard an opening speech that described how the bosses’ attacks on students and workers span the globe and unite us. We learned that the fight between U.S. and rival imperialists like Russia and China is sapping money from education and will eagerly sap the lives from workers who will be sent to fight their wars. And we learned that even as the bosses mount their racist and sexist attacks on education, students fight back. From Haiti and South Africa to Mexico and Missouri, students are battling the onslaught of cutbacks. Most importantly, we discussed how PLP can transform these battles into revolutionary war for communism.
Workshops Combine History, Theory, Practice
After the opening speech we met in small groups to continue the discussion. We first learned a bit of history about racism in the United States. In the early to mid 1600s, plantation owners observed that Africans who had been brought over were forming deep ties with the poor whites who had come to the U.S. as indentured servants. These ties were formed on the basis of common exploitation by the plantation owners and led to instances of multiracial fightback, culminating in Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676, where an integrated group of workers rose up against the government of Virginia. This scared the owners who began formulating a system of racial divisions and instituted laws specifically designed to segregate the workers. (The material for this discussion was taken from Lerone Bennet Jr.’s book, “The Shaping of Black America,” specifically the chapter “The Road Not Taken.”)
The second workshop made it clear that, just as colonial Virginia bosses were able to enforce their racist system, the Bolsheviks were able to bring racism and other aspects of capitalism crumbling down when they took power in the Soviet Union. We learned about the incredibly difficult task of organizing a revolution in Tsarist Russia – building friendships and trust among the workers, organizing study groups, training hundreds of thousands of leaders, etc. The fruit of this hard work was visible as we read inspiring words from Langston Hughes as he traveled throughout the Soviet Union. We learn about Langston Hughes in the bosses’ schools, but we never learn he was a strong supporter of the Soviet Union.
Conference Rallies Against Racist Gentrification
Unlike the bosses’ schools, where we learn to accept the world basically as it is, today we learned that when the working class overcomes the racist, nationalist and sexist divisions that the bosses jam down our throats, revolutionary change is possible. The primary lesson we get from the bosses day-to-day is to be passive and try to do the best we can for ourselves or our families. The militant rally in Harlem was the antidote for passivity. Here and across New York City, developers have seen fit to close a relatively affordable grocery store where the poor residents were able to shop and are opening a much more expensive grocery store, which is completely unaffordable for most workers in Harlem. This racist attack was one of the many highlighted in chants and speeches by the group.
Dare To Learn, Fight
So what did we learn today? We learned that, as the opening speech made clear, the bosses’ racism, sexism, nationalism and oppression have an expiration date. We learned that workers can unite across these boundaries that the bosses invented to keep us separate. To get there, every one of the conference participants battled their own individualism and desire to enjoy their day off. Every one of the participants fought to learn, so they can return to their campuses, organize and learn how to fight like communists in the class struggle.
The conference raised the bar for every one present and intensifies our struggle for May Day. Our most intense discussions were over how to put the struggle for revolution primary in our lives, while being immersed with our fellow students and campus workers in our struggles and mass organizations. Organizing for May Day on April 30, and winning our friends and coworkers to recognize it as our international class’ holiday is part of that struggle. Winning our friends and coworkers means organizing and coordinating campus actions in advance of May Day.
Above all, the conference—run primarily by new, young comrades, eager to provide leadership to the working class—taught us that all learning isn’t done in the classroom, but from class struggle among the working class. Our growing fighters for communist revolution will open the door to a whole new way of learning and doing. Dare to struggle, dare to win!