SACRAMENTO, CA, June 23—At the State Capitol today, the communist Progressive Labor Party physically whipped the local Nazi scum while bringing red leadership to a mass of anti-racists.
The white-supremacist Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP) and their arch-racist honcho, Matthew Heimbach (described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as “the new face of hate”), made the grave mistake of trying to rally by the Capitol building. In concert with dozens of anti-fascists, a PLP contingent ran toward the fascists to stop them in their tracks. The first clash left three anti-fascists with stab wounds but sent the cowardly racists running.
Based on our Party’s collective experience against similar cockroaches in Anaheim in February and in Charleston, South Carolina last summer, our comrades used wooden poles because we assumed the fascists might have knives. We were correct—and the poles punished the fascist scum. We pursued them down the street, beat them three more times and busted their car windows. The fascist TWP members were bloodied and defeated!
PLP understands that mass, organized revolutionary violence will be necessary for the working class to seize state power from the capitalist bosses. For now, we must treat opportunities to confront racist terrorists as training for the revolutionary period in the future.
Expose Racism, Long March to Communism
Before the planned TWP rally, a multiracial communist contingent of 18 PL comrades—students, workers, and retirees; women and men; Black, Latin, and white—marched onto the Capitol lawn, chanting, “Death, death, death to the Nazis! Power, power, power to the workers!” The presence of PLP was well-received by the many different anti-fascist groups along the sidewalk.
As the PL’ers distributed CHALLENGE and leaflets, an anti-fascist leader approached us and explained their main goal: to stop the fascists from leaving the parking garage and setting foot on the Capitol grounds.
The main goal for PLP was to defeat the fascists and build a movement for communist revolution to smash racism once and for all. We made speeches tying the kkkops, the Nazis, and the California State Legislature together as tools of the capitalist class. The role of the TWP is to win the white working class to attack their working-class sisters and brothers, scapegoating Black, Muslim and Latin workers for the spiraling crisis of capitalism. The role of the police is to protect the gutter racists on the street, the slick-talking racists in the government, and the suit-and-tie racists in the capitalist business world. The state’s Democratic Party, which has historically controlled California, led the way in racist mass incarceration, increasing the prison population by 572 percent between 1980 and 2010 (Washington Post, 5/18).
Our role as communists is to expose liberal racists like Hillary Clinton as the greater danger to the working class, as proven by her racist, sexist record against the working class as a U.S. senator and Secretary of State. If elected, Clinton will pave the way for inter-imperialist war by accelerating the rise of fascism in the rulers’ embattled profit system.
Red Discipline vs. Anarchy
After a scout reported that the fascists weren’t in the parking garage, we collectively decided to take the Capitol steps and make the scum come to us. They came wielding pepper spray. Anarchist forces successfully counter-attacked one fascist and then got into a skirmish with the police.
Instead of running around the Capitol lawn, the PLP contingent maintained discipline. Our friends played critical roles in the planning and execution of the strategy. Two young women helped lead chants throughout the day, and one young man was a part of the sub-contingent that slammed the racists. Their contribution was crucial to the quality of political leadership the Party was able to provide.
After witnessing our organization in action, a lefty leader told PLP to coordinate the crowd of 200 anti-fascists. A PL member gave a speech calling for a unified, organized march back to the Capitol steps to shut down the fascists. The crowd followed our leadership. Shortly thereafter, we advanced towards the fascists and bloodied them.
Coming after our successful action in Anaheim, this is the second battle the Party has waged against the fascist forces this year. Our comrades’ courage and boldness reflects PLP’s long history of beating, shutting down, and weakening the Ku Klux Klan, other racist organizations like ROAR, and racist bosses at our jobs and schools. Our power comes from our confidence in the working class’s ability to understand our ideas and fight for communist power.
She Joined the Reds
While anarchist fighters can be bold, they lack the revolutionary discipline and organization that comes only from communist leadership. For example, some militant fighters were injured because they thought they could defeat the fascists in isolated hand-to-hand combat.
Our battle in Sacramento showed one friend of the Party the necessity of organized collective action to defeat fascists. It showed another friend that “the Party provides the only clear path towards ending exploitation and building working-class power.” She has now joined PLP. Welcome the newest brave member of our Party, a woman whose leadership to and from the working class has just begun.
The TWP has announced that they will defend supporters Donald Trump, the openly racist U.S. presidential candidate, at the Republican Convention in Cleveland in July. Much as Brexit was promoted with virulent anti-Muslim racism (see page 2), the bosses use extreme racist groups like the TWP to divide and exploit the working class in the U.S. But with a small but rising communist PLP, the working class can oppose these fascist tendencies and unite as one class against capitalism.
PLP is organizing students, workers and soldiers into a red army that is capable of waging revolutionary war against the capitalist class and their state apparatus, from the police and military to the courts and mass media. PLP fights for a world where workers will control all aspects of society.
As communists, we understand that building a revolutionary movement for and by the working class requires organization, commitment to each other, and reliable leadership. We are building a mass party around the world—join the communists!
*************
I Joined the Party After Battling Fascists
During the planning meeting for the Sacramento Nazi rally, it was hard to comprehend what exactly it would mean to “shut down a fascist rally,” but I felt confident in the capacity and organization of the PL members sitting around the table. The older members showed a level of respect and confidence towards their younger comrades that I have never seen before during my time organizing in the mass movement.
The moment we began marching towards the state building it felt clear to me what we were doing and why it needed to be done. I felt strong knowing I was going into battle with PLP. As we marched on the sidewalk chanting, “death, death, death to the fascists! Power, power, power to the workers!” other anti-fascist groups appeared surprised by our brazen entrance.
My PL team’s role for the day was to lead chants on the megaphone, and to support the PLP team clashing with the Nazis in any way we could. It was an incredible feeling for me to get on the megaphone and scream out, “power to the workers!” and hear it echoed back hundred times louder.
The leadership of my group remained disciplined and focused during the most chaotic moments throughout the day, and they made decisions only after involving other group members in the process. It was this kind of Party discipline that kept us safe that day. No one was arrested.
The level of commitment, trust, and love for the working class that I’ve experienced throughout the last three months of working with PL members has made it clear that the Party is my only path towards fighting for a society free of exploitation and racism. I joined the Party after the rally and look forward to fighting for a communist world.
***************
I See Red Freedom Poles
This working-class poem, written by a fellow fighter with PLP, depicts the tumult and confusion preceding the clash of communists against the yellow-bellied fascist who were beaten with wooden poles.
The hot peppers
Caught in my throat.
Coughed out spices
Of warning.
Only to be
Mirrored by the reflections
Of my own
To protect.
Voices that came to gather
Soon forced
Bodies to separate,
To be gathered soon,
After
In different forces.
Black shadows
Against
Other black shadows.
Fist clashed
Against
Flesh.
Hard to depict.
Hard to understand.
Who is who?
What is What?
As confusion comes
I see
the RED freedom poles.