BROOKLYN, June 6 – “Pay back the money you owe!” “Whose streets? Our streets!” Chants in Spanish and English filled the air as more than 30 workers from a community immigrant organization confronted a wage-stealing boss this week: a small-time capitalist who makes his fortune ripping other workers off by exploiting their unscientific belief in Tarot Cards. It was a militant protest that reflects years of Progressive Labor Party efforts to organize fightback among immigrant workers!
The workers carefully planned this protest in the days before, bringing signs made by young workers drawn with Tarot hands and crystal balls, with messages like “Thief Tarot Reading”, and “Your Future: Jail”, both in English and Spanish. This petty boss, filled with rage, screamed and called the cops on the workers! While the protestors entered the store with chants demanding the stolen wage money, the petty boss yelled and tried intimidating the workers to leave his store. After kicking them out of the store he also demanded they leave the sidewalk, because according to him, it was private property.
There was a great feedback from the passersby of the neighborhood, who not only took our leaflets describing why we were there, but also had discussions with us asking what was going on and even stayed at the rally to simply watch the action with surprise and admiration.
A petty boss and a gutter racist
Towards the end of the rally, the petty boss was just so furious at the bravery and actions of the workers that he began to say even more disgusting racist insults and at one point he even said how he was so happy what Trump has been doing to Latin workers with mass deportations.
At that point a young comrade of the party, who was one of the leaders of this action, lost his control and began to curse out the petty boss and even reminded the petty racist boss that he was also an immigrant. A few other protestors also joined in the match of insults, but eventually we had to retreat when the cops came.
The petty boss even lied to the police that the protestors had wrecked his store, but there was no evidence of that, and our lawyer told the police that not only was that a lie, but that the community organization is a peaceful entity and that we were within our rights and were not breaking the law in any way. After the rally, all of the protestors went to have pizza and soda for dinner to cool off after this intense event.
Building for struggle and revolution
Planning for this demonstration began at a weekly meeting of a liberal community organization two days before, where members of the communist Progressive Labor Party have been working for many years. Over the past year, workers and PL members have demanded side by side to the leaders of this community organization to support direct actions and confront wage-stealing bosses, as it was done in the past for workers who came to the organization asking for help against wage theft.
The community organization has recently transitioned to younger leadership, who have re-started this campaign of direct action and have even allowed one of our young comrade leaders of PLP to take more charge of this campaign, while under the liberal community organization’s direction. This week, the workers scored a victory: the organization’s leadership would support direct action to confront the thieving bosses!
Following the meeting, a dedicated workshop took place where the members of the organization brainstormed on how to proceed, including making signs. The petty boss had already been disrespectful to the lawyers of the organization when requests were made on the phone. At the end of the workshop, it was decided that the lawyers of the community organization, along with 30 members, would go to the work site with a letter of demands followed by the protest.
Criticism, self-criticism, and the science of struggle
At the next weekly meeting of the community organization, the protest was evaluated and analyzed by the workers. While the workers supported the action, some of the leaders of the organization weren’t too happy about the screaming insults that had been exchanged with the petty boss. According to their reasoning, they fear the possible arrests of our mainly undocumented members.
Then the young comrade of the party took the stand and spoke at the meeting and made a self-criticism. He indicated to the workers that he was not going to just stand there while the petty boss made these horrible racist remarks and wasn’t going to tolerate the bosses attempt to intimidate the workers. Even though the young comrade apologized about possibly putting our undocumented sisters and brothers in danger, he also took full responsibility if he got arrested, since he himself is documented and fully aware of his rights. He felt he was within his right to yell at the boss as long as he didn’t touch him.
The young comrade also took this opportunity to compare and criticize the liberal mass organization’s many previous staged arrests that are planned ahead of time, as opposed to unplanned spontaneous arrests, which are considered real fight backs. We must continue to lift the class consciousness of the workers in the fight back against the bosses, including making direct actions and confrontations against the exploiters. When the time comes, the working class will be ready to take control of the means of production with communist revolution!