CHICAGO, October 9—On a sunny fall morning, among the Saturday bustle in a south side neighborhood, communists from the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) proudly chanted “No Borders! No Nations! No Racist Deportations!” Our purpose today was a multiracial rally in solidarity with workers from Haiti and all over the world who are facing horrifically racist deportations and violence across the bosses’ artificial national borders.
PL’ers distributed hundreds of copies of CHALLENGE newspaper to workers passing by on foot and stopped in their vehicles. We spoke to many workers from Haiti who expressed support for  our actions of communist solidarity. We took over four corners of a busy intersection and were joined by a spirited Black worker who took the bullhorn to speak and stop traffic.
As communists, it is our duty to respond militantly whenever the capitalist bosses attack our class, whether that attack is down the street from where we live or on the other side of the planet. Ardent internationalism and antiracism are some of the strongest weapons in our arsenal to ensure the growth of a mass PLP that will one day crush capitalism and the bosses for good.
Antiracist rally resonates with workers
After close to two weeks of collective planning and organizing, we were able to bring out over a dozen PL’ers and friends to the solidarity rally. While there, we alternated responsibilities: one Party member would lead us in chants on the bullhorn while others distributed CHALLENGE.  Other comrades held signs on the street in both Spanish and English spreading revolutionary messages like “Smash Racist Borders,” “Free Them All” “Honk for Haitian Workers,” and “Building a Better World: Fight for Communism—Join Progressive Labor Party.”
Local workers eagerly looked on, curiously taking newspapers from PL’ers, and drivers enthusiastically honked in support as they drove by. At one point, a worker who stopped to watch expressed his support, saying he wanted to invite friends and family and asking how to get involved.
Some of the most passionate speeches on the bullhorn were given by three newer members of the Party, including one comrade who gave their first official communist speech! Stressing our internationalism, these speeches were given in both English and Spanish.
Highlighted was the ongoing struggle of Mohawk Johnson, an antiracist fighter arrested over 400 days ago at an anti-kkkop protest last summer. He has been on house arrest ever since (See CHALLENGE, 10/22/20). The #FreeMohawk campaign is directly tied to the struggle of other workers against these racist courts worldwide. The bosses’ goal, through their kkkops at their borders or on the streets, is to keep us exploited and contained.
Collectively, our words highlighted the need to stand in solidarity with workers from Haiti, the need to fight against anti-Black racism, capitalism, and the parasitic bosses throughout the globe who force and rely on our collective compliance, silence, and fear to continue exploiting our labor. The only way to crush racism and capitalism, and achieve justice and liberation is to smash all borders, and unite the international working class.
As the rally drew to a close, our collective struggled over the idea of whether or not to take over the intersection and block traffic. While we debated, a veteran PLP member put it bluntly: if we can’t take this intersection now, how do we expect to eventually take state power? Another PL’er agreed, stating that we can’t be apologetic or timid while the bosses are literally murdering us. The intersection was then taken, a satisfactory conclusion to our action.
Stoke the fire of communist revolution
As satisfying as our rally was, it only represented one half of our planned activities for the day. Later that evening, PL’ers and friends could be found sparking literal fires for the occasion of our annual October Revolution Celebration. For years, we have marked the momentous event of the communist Bolsheviks leading the working class to take state power over a century ago.
This year, keeping in mind the ongoing pandemic, we held our celebration outdoors with a bonfire, socializing, singing, plus apple cider and donuts at the edge of Lake Michigan. A speech from a PLP member who works in education connected the advance of history from revolutionaries who overthrew colonialism in Haiti, to the Bolsheviks, to PLP’s present role in growing the flames of revolution:
“Look at our history—genocide, enslavement, world wars, fascism—and we still keep going. Everything that has been good for humanity has been the accomplishment of the working class.  We’ve done the impossible. The Haitian Revolution, the slave rebellions here and the Russian Revolution we're celebrating today aren't our only examples. The bravery of the workers—the resistance, the rebellion, the genius—that's the best of humanity and that's what we're fighting to save.”
Through our collective efforts, we will keep the revolutionary fires going during this difficult and dangerous period for the international working class. Our fight will never be extinguished!