The below piece is an excerpt from the late Wally Linder’s memoir A Life of Labor and Love. Wally was a founding member of Progressive Labor Party and passed away this year but the fight for communism continues, just as he would have wanted it to!
I remember the first issue of CHALLENGE
The first issue of CHALLENGE (Vol. 1, No 1) came out on June 15,1964. When we sold that first issue most of us had no idea how significant it was AND the role that CHALLENGE would soon play in the fight against capitalism. The headline on page one was prophetic: Police War on Harlem. Barely four weeks later, the Harlem Rebellion started after racist KKKop Thomas Gilligan of the New York Police Department (NYPD) shot and killed young James Powell who, with his friends, was trying to cool off from the July heat by spraying on themselves and a bystander who complained about it and eventually called the police. This killing was the last straw in a long series of racist oppression. The news media called the rebellion a "riot" but it was most definitely a rebellion! Most of the stores that were attacked were pawnshops that had been looting the residents of Harlem for decades!
The Progressive Labor Movement (PLM), which became the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) in April 1965, put out its most significant (and briefest!!) leaflet: Wanted for Murder - Gilligan the Cop. Rebels carried the leaflet all over Harlem. The PLM couldn't print enough of them! ALL of the so-called "Black leaders" had the same false message: Go home and pray...don't fight back! But the NYC bosses knew exactly who to attack; the Harlem rebels and the PLM. So-called "free speech" went out the window. In essence, martial law was declared.
On a personal note, I sold the first issue of CHALLENGE in three locations: The upper west side of Manhattan, the lower east side of Manhattan, and the garment district in Manhattan. PLM held weekly rallies in the garment district and CHALLENGE was a big help in getting our message out. We sold CHALLENGE on the street to the garment workers when the boss wasn’t around, we went inside the shops where we could talk more extensively to several workers simultaneously. Unfortunately, most of us (maybe ALL of us) didn’t understand anything about base building so we didn’t get workers’ names. That’s a key lesson for our newer members: ALWAYS get names so you can stay in touch and follow up with as many people as possible. That’s key to building the Party!
The police and sanitation departments harassed us while we sold CHALLENGE. They gave me quite a few tickets for supposedly “littering.” After my first ticket, the PLM got me a lawyer who taught me what to say at my trial. After my second ticket, I no longer needed a lawyer; I could defend myself and I did so!
CHALLENGE was the only newspaper, magazine, or TV and radio station that told the truth about the Harlem Rebellion, as well as the many other rebellions in Black ghettos throughout the U.S. The summer of 1964 made very clear who were the sellouts and who supported the working class. Every one of us should do their utmost to ensure that CHALLENGE continues to be a working class beacon that will help workers to understand the oppressive nature of capitalism AND the only solution to its miseries: COMMUNIST REVOLUTION!