WORKERS GO THE DISTANCE FOR FLORES AND THE FIGHTBACK

LOS ANGELES, April 1—As General Motors and General Electric bosses attempt to lead our class in the domestic war efforts to build all-class unity (aka fascism) under the guise of fighting Covid-19, the family of murdered-by-police Alex Flores continues to inspire some glimmers of working-class power.
There are constant calls from the bosses, appealing to our humanity, to donate blood to the Red Cross and give money to the numerous underfunded agencies that provide food and clothing to our class. Like World War II, the bosses aim to mobilize every aspect of society to move from donating blood and money to sacrificing “blood and treasure” in the name of U.S. imperialism and future World War III.
Our small fight alongside the Flores family offer not only a short-term solution but provides lessons on how we should be creatively fighting back in this period of pandemics, fascism, and future wars.
Workers collectively make a plan…
Around the same time that U.S. President Trump invoked the fascist Stafford Act, Progressive Labor Party and antiracist organizers were intending to meet with the Flores family for a BBQ and banner-making party.  After a brief discussion with the family, the BBQ turned into an emergency planning meeting to discuss the nature of our fightback should conditions make it more difficult to meet in large groups.
Many workers are understandably frightened by the current situation.  Nevertheless, the Flores family decided that day regardless of how the bosses try to restrict movement in the coming period, they wanted to find creative ways to continue the fight back!  
We had a rich discussion on operating under fascist conditions, importance of public health precautions like hand hygiene and social distancing. We still didn’t know at this point what the ruling class would implement in response to the virus, so we made three levels of plans based on how limiting the situation would become.  Not only did the family want to continue the weekly protests, they agreed on expanding the struggle to weekly petitioning at neighborhood grocery stores and of course, and finishing the banner we didn’t do that day!
And boldly carry it out
A couple of days later, the governor of California, Gavin Newsome, followed by Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti, announced the “Safer at Home” restrictions. This meant that you were only supposed to leave the house for “essential business,” maintain six feet of distance and not be in groups larger than ten. But based on our planning, we were ready!
Organize safety for workers’ fightback
For the next Flores Friday march, we had a handwashing station and made a large circle spaced out to maintain adequate distance.  We asked our veteran comrades of older age and/or with other underlying health conditions to stay home. We also had a bit more discipline at the march itself with one family member and one Party member discussing the plan with the larger group and leading the march.  
We carried a printout of the “Safer at Home” order with someone designated to interact with the police should they approach us.  We then marched in two lines staying six feet apart, seizing the southbound traffic, showing the community that we take their health seriously, but also that the fight against police terror and the larger system of capitalism cannot wait. Throughout it all, working-class support did not waver!  
Petition at grocery stores
Since, we have petitioned at two different grocery stores in the neighborhood.  We washed our hands and wore latex medical gloves and did our best to have brief but moving discussions with workers and asking them to sign a petition with demands for justice for Alex (getting the autopsy report and indicting racist KKKop Steven Ruiz) but also with broader demands calling for an end to racist police murders and attacks on our class.  
Even with the lesser foot traffic from the fear around Covid-19, shoppers, grocery store workers and their security engaged as well, collecting over 150 signatures in just two visits.  One grocery store worker shared with us that her brother was killed by the police in the city of Gardena in front of his son last year. We introduced her to the sister, brother and father of Alex Flores.  She signed our petition, but also asked to be contacted.  We are hoping to unite these two families and two struggles and hopefully strengthen our one fight against this whole racist capitalist system.  
Capitalism is the virus, communism is the cure
Whether it be the Covid-19 or police murder, workers know that capitalism is not here to serve our class. Every day this system exposes its true nature, killing people because of lack of ventilators in a hospital or by the hand of the killer cops. The Flores family’s urgency to fight this rotten system exists in every member of our class when cultivated through the ideas of PLP.
As the bosses ramp up fascism, we must continue to learn to push the limits they set while also operating in new ways. With the Covid-19 crisis nowhere near its end, we must be ready to adjust tactics if orders for more serious lockdowns are put in place.
We value the health and welfare of every single worker. We cannot be reckless and put workers lives at risk. But when this health crisis subsides, capitalism will still be killing members of our class, so we can’t go into hiding at this time either. No one is safe at home if bosses run the world! Workers need communism now more than ever! Join the fight!
As scientific communists, it’s evident that social distancing and quarantining as it relates to halting the spread of disease is important. However, we also understand that the bosses’ concerns for our collective health are only motivated by their own desire to make profit.
Not only that, we know that if we were running society, we would greatly reduce the possibility of pandemics we will arrange society completely different, with elimination of exploitation and profit.  But if a pandemic were to develop under communism, a quarantine would not consist of weaponized technology or militarized camps, but it would be carried out with international camaraderie and compassion for our class sisters and brothers impacted around the world.