Alabama winter project Ignite sparks of fightback and revolution

click image to read the letterTUSCALOOSA COUNTY, Alabama, December 21— A multiracial and multi-gender group of educators, students, cultural workers and members and friends of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP)  returned to Alabama to support the ongoing Warrior Met miners’ strike. 1,100 multiracial miners have been on strike since last April 1, against Warrior Met Coal and its largest shareholder, Wall Street investment firm BlackRock, and the bosses’ attacks are intensifying on every level. The miners’ militant picket lines and efforts to block the scabs have been banned by the capitalists’ courts since October 28 as the bosses attempt to starve out the strike and destroy morale. The strike has shown once again that the bosses will always try to take back what we have won in the past. Only a communist society won through revolution can liberate us from this daily struggle to survive under capitalism.
Even with the picket lines banned, we still put our line on the line this week and brought our communist ideas of internationalist working class collectivity and revolutionary antiracist multiracial unity to miners, their families, and the Women’s Auxiliary.
 The efforts of the Auxiliary have been integral in keeping the miners’ families fed and morale and solidarity high. In so many ways the miners and their families demonstrate why multiracial unity is such a mortal threat to capitalism, and why Black workers and industrial workers will lead our class to the ultimate victory of communist revolution!
Multiracial solidarity, comradely struggle
Following up on previous trips to Alabama throughout the fall, we were warmly invited to put our solidarity in action during this trip to help the UMWA Women's Auxiliary fill grocery bags with much-needed food for the miners’ families. We learned about the crucial importance of the donations to the UMWA Strike Pantry and how welcomed letters of support have been.
We also learned how proud the miners in this local District 20 are for being historically multiracial. Black and white miners and their families understood their rank-and-file multiracial unity has
been, and is, one of the greatest strengths of this strike. Throughout the week, sharp, comradely discussions were held ranging from communism to the strategy and tactics of the strike.
Miners dig in, teach us how it’s done
During meetings about the strike strategy and reform, struggle points and counterpoints were raised and heard throughout days of discussion. Disagreements remain, however, particularly over how to approach the passive “wait and see” legal strategy of union misleadership versus the seething desire for militancy among the rank-and-file.
As the miners and their families respected our efforts and our politics, we also gained deeper respect and admiration for their daily struggle to last “one day longer.” As one worker put it, “many of these guys are just getting used to the idea that neither [Donald] Trump nor [Joe] Biden is gonna save us. Until a few months ago they never met a communist or knew what one was. Now they talk about communism and capitalism. That’s a big deal. And y’all should remember this is a long-term process and a long-term fight.”
During our trip, miners and their families would ask us, “what is communism?” As one of our comrades answered, it’s a world where workers like us run the entire world for workers like us, without money or borders. It takes communist revolution to put our class in power.
Liberal bosses no friend of the working class
One of PLP’s important ideas, the dangers of liberal bosses, is playing out for all to see. With the miners fighting the bosses and the court injunctions, the International President of UMWA should be attacking West Virginia Democrat Senator Joe Manchin, notoriously in the pocket of the coal bosses.
Instead, the UMWA president is appealing to Manchin to join with the rest of the Big Fascists in the U.S. ruling class and to support Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan to rebuild U.S. imperialism. Our class cannot rely on the liberal bosses. We must fight to win what we can from the bosses in the short term while also preparing our entire class for a communist revolution by building an international PLP. We can't lose sight of either goal.
Communism now!
Winning the strike would be a victory against BlackRock and the U.S. capitalist class. Win or lose the strike, however, recruiting miners like those at Warrior Met and industrial workers to help lead PLP and the entire international working class to communist revolution will be a stunning victory for the international working class.
Through the strike and our Party’s participation in the struggle a new comrade has joined PLP and miners, families and friends are interested in a PL study group. There is a renewed determination and commitment from every comrade as we prepare for May Day 2022. JOIN US!