Letters

I know that paper!
“I know that paper. You’re with Progressive Labor Party?! I used to sell that paper in Boston”, a young Black man and woman said. Even though I was the only one selling the paper on this particular night during an Alex  Flores fight back in LA, and I changed my location multiple times that evening, I happened to be in the right place at the right time to run into some former close friends (and hopefully future members) of the Party.
We exchanged numbers and they want to attend our next meeting. After we talked, they drove past the protest. The young woman shook one fist in the air, raising CHALLENGE up high with the other, as the driver fiercely honked.
There are so many things that had to line up perfectly for us to run into each other. Some would say that our meeting was “meant to be” or just call it serendipity. While chance definitely played a role, I am writing this letter to point out the necessity of being out there and doing the day to day work for these coincidental meet-ups to occur. Or as dialectical materialism would call it: change and necessity.
Comrades in Boston are on the ground every day organizing among the working class. This is why these young Black workers know about us in the first place. Comrades in Los Angeles are on the ground every day organizing among the working class. This is why these young Black workers hopefully will fight alongside us again. We are talking about an international movement here! The more we are engaged in spreading our vision for a communist world, the more these seemingly chance encounters will occur. What we do is necessary and it counts! Let’s fight every day to do it more and do it better!
*****
LA: Need collective tenant fightback
I have been camping out in Ynes Torres’ home for a few days now. In that time span, I have met with tenants, volunteers, unhoused workers, and organizers from Hawthorne, Santa Clarita, Long Beach and even Orange County. We have discussed strategies in how to fight back against racist gentrification and evictions.
One Black tenant discussed anti-Blackness in Hawthorne and the desperation in trying to set up a tenants’ union in a unit as well as fighting racist harassment from white supremacists littered all over the Beach Cities in LA County. Another tenant discussed mass evictions that happened last month in El Sereno, East LA. Dozens of families were booted out of these houses that fell into disrepair because the California Department of Transportation neglected them. The California Highway Patrol (CHP) cracked down on housing rights organizers and got them out one by one.
Hearing these stories reminds me of the time I spent at the Black Unity Encampment at City Hall in Downtown LA. Black Unity was a Black-led autonomous zone modeled in the spirit of the Seattle Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. The camp fought off the cops for five months before succumbing to a night raid right at midnight. To add insult to injury the cops sealed off the campsite to prevent any reclamation of the camp. It was very disheartening because the group spent such hard work trying to build a new community and provided a space for discussing issues such as decolonization and creating new societies. Black Unity was isolated in Downtown LA, so this made them easy targets for the state to pick off.
All is not lost though! The state may have crushed Black Unity, but seeing many communities coming out for this mother of six shows that we are not alone. Both of these struggles are inspiring and when we bring the Progressive Labor Party’s line to the forefront, they can also be powerful! We need to continue to stand together...neighbor to neighbor, neighborhood to neighborhood...and show that only communism can create free, safe housing for the masses without the need for monetary exchange.
*****
Every fight counts
I’ve lived in Stephen Crane Village in Newark, NJ for 25  years. It is a low-income public housing complex that consists of mostly Black and Latin residents with many elderly/disabled tenants. For years, we’ve been subjected to inhumane conditions due to management’s neglect—from frequent infestations of rodents, roaches and bedbugs to mold and water that reeks of chlorine and sewage that we have to bathe, cook and clean with. My mother’s health is dire, so we requested a move to a one level place so she can recover. She is currently hospitalized, yet management continues to stall the move.
Working with my comrades, I made demands for repairs which were met—small but important victories. Reading CHALLENGE’s article about the Oakland housing fightback inspired me to organize with my fellow tenants to fight for our housing rights and keep public housing public!
*****
The devastation of Hurricane Iota
The passage of Hurricane Iota has left death, flooding and desolation in its wake. In Central America and Colombia, on the island of San Andrés y Providencia and Sana Catalina, there was near total destruction. In the rest of the country, the rains have increased by 80%, driving landslides, floods, loss of crops, death of workers and animals. The destruction is not predicted to slow until the end of November.
It can seem as if workers have no way out. If we are not killed by some plague or poverty, we face natural catastrophes like this or the rainy season or the El Niño phenomenon. The capitalists have no plan to protect workers from any of these, as they try to make us believe that nature is inevitably cruel against us.
But the truth is that the racist capitalist system is the culprit, because all natural resources are turned into merchandise. They do not mind poisoning the water, as long as they convert the fields in a way that satisfies the greed of the market. Even as they throw workers in danger, the capitalist bosses deny global warming produced by the burning of fossil fuels. They do not compromise, and laugh at the most vulnerable.
In the absence of class consciousness and an understanding of dialectical materialism -- the international working class’s key tool for deep analysis for any situation --everything can seem unchanging and without a culprit. Progressive Labor Party must redouble its efforts to achieve clarity with our working class sisters and brothers of the roots of this destruction. Through mass growth of the Party we will make revolution for the construction of an egalitarian communist world that will put an end to the shame and death of capitalism.
*****