PLP History: The summer of smashing racists

The Progressive Labor Party (PLP) has a long history of fighting racism in the Bronx, Queens, and New Jersey. When Black workers are under racist attack, all workers have to stand up and fight back.
On June 21, 2020, and again on July 5, 2020, the New York Times ran a story with a short video about an attack in the summer of 1975 by some racist white residents on a group of Black teenagers as they  were riding their bikes through residential Rosedale, Queens (New York City). The racists waved an American flag, chanted “Civil Rights for Whites,” and threw rocks and hurled racist insults at the Black teens that happened to be passing by. One racist was  even seen on the news video saying they wanted the teens out “because they’re Black!” Much like today, this was a time when the main wing of the U.S. ruling class was trying to distance themselves from gutter racism that had served them well in previous eras.
In 1975, PLP organized quickly against this racist upsurge. We marched, demonstrated, leafletted the area, confronted, and smashed the racist group that had been formed in the New York City-Rosedale area. We still have to do more – to build our Party, to win workers and others to PL’s anti-racist, anti-sexist, internationalist line so that racist attacks by kkkiller kops and racist vigilantes can be stomped out by workers united around the world for good.
Racist ROAR
In 1975, racists in New York and New Jersey were inspired by the racist group ROAR in Boston. ROAR, which stood for “Restore Our Alienated Rights,” opposed busing to end segregation in Boston’s public schools. The letters “R.O.A.R.” were pasted on the windows of the Boston municipal building. Another ROAR leader was on the Boston School Commission, leading the fight against integrating the public schools. With ROAR leaders on the Boston City Council and a mass base following them, this strategic, gutter racist attack on Black workers was a rapid fascist movement that needed to be smashed by communist fightback.
In May 1975, ROAR held a racist convention in the large Hines auditorium in Boston. PLP members signed up and infiltrated it. We heard ROAR workshop leaders tell us “Blacks have no history.” At day’s end, we held a press conference and denounced ROAR and racism in front of TV cameras and newspaper reporters. Knowing that ROAR goons would attack as soon as they heard about it, we ended the conference after 20 minutes.
Ten minutes later, the ROAR goons arrived but found no one and nothing there.
They were stopped in the Bronx
After their convention, ROAR expanded into New York and New Jersey. The “Morris Park Association” paid for a racist ad in the Bronx Home News. It opposed busing and said that Black workers  were getting favored treatment over white workers.
We in PLP organized a march of over a thousand in the Morris Park section of the Bronx. Hundreds of residents lined the streets to watch our march – there hadn’t been any communist marches in the Bronx for decades. We handed out antiracist flyers, sold CHALLENGE, and talked to many residents.
On September 8, the opening day of school, the racists tried to organize a boycott by white students of Columbus High School, where non-white students were being bussed. A multiracial PLP committee welcomed the bused students and the racist boycott flopped.
Stopped in Rosedale
That summer of ‘75, a small but noisy mob of white residents attacked the Black teens in Rosedale, Queens’ segregated area in response to a few Black families moving in. ROAR had inspired at least one bombing as well. Our response? We in PLP organized a march. We picketed the home of Jerry Scala, leader of the new ROAR chapter and few racists showed up.
Stopped in Montclair, New Jersey
ROAR expanded to a small suburb in Northern NJ and founded a small group. Montclair had started busing for school integration in the 1940s – one of the first towns in the country to do so. Still, a ROAR member ran for the school board. Northern NJ PLP leafletted against her and gutter racism. Her campaign went nowhere.
PLP played a key role in plucking racists' base building from the root before they could even grow throughout New York and New Jersey. By 1976, ROAR was on the decline in Boston too.  
Today when Black workers are still being attacked by gutter racists, these historical examples remind us what antiracist fightback under PLP’s leadership looks like. Racists have to be confronted and shut down, lest their toxic ideas are able to take root. Racism, like capitalism which spawned it, thrives on exploitation and division.To smash racism, we have to fight for communism! Join a PLP chapter near you and continue  the fight today.