Letters of April 26

‘When bosses cut back, we say fight back!’

On April 11, although New York City Mayor Adams and his friends, the leaders of the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC), finalized their agreement to privatize retiree health coverage, retired city workers continue to fight back. On March 31st and again on April 11th demonstrations were held in front of City Hall. Hundreds rallied on March 31 and over a thousand rallied today. A loud chorus responded to a speaker's call, “Bosses say cut back, we say fight back”.  In the midst of this struggle we are getting out CHALLENGEnewspaper to our friends and inviting them to our Progressive Labor Party study group. We are learning from these older workers that you can’t retire from the class struggle and in turn are teaching them how this racist capitalist system works.

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To be a communist is to fight for our class

The history of the communist movement is fighting for the working class. The communist movement was born out of the struggle for a better world. It was born out of the fight by the working class to resist their exploitation and demand equality. As the communist movement grew the capitalist ruling class quickly realized the existential threat posed by a conscious working class.
As long as the working class has fought for a better world the ruling class has attacked the movement. It’s hard to be attacked. The bosses attack us to scare us and our class and stop us from fighting back. Their goal is to demoralize the working class so it doesn’t see its own power as a class to get rid of capitalism.
We have learned that the best way to respond to attacks by the bosses is to fight back. In Progressive Labor Party’s (PLP) history there have been many struggles, many attacks, often firings and sometimes harsher consequences. All these battles are part of the struggle for the working class to gain confidence in itself, to see its power and learn that we don’t need the bosses or capitalism.

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Editorial: Latest crisis of capitalism: Blood sucking banks

The collapse of Silicon Valley and Signature banks exposed the worst financial crisis to hit world capitalism since 2008. Even as the U.S. bosses rushed to protect the millionaires’ and billionaires’ deposits, and Europe’s financial bosses did the same for the giant Credit Suisse, a broader disaster is brewing. The instability in the world banking system is the direct result of the larger crisis of capitalism. It is driven by the decline of U.S. finance capitalism and the rise of the Chinese capitalist bosses. As worldwide recession looms, the working class is shouldering the pain. The bosses’ troubles can only get worse. Our liberation has one path: communist revolution. Blood-soaked banks

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CAPITALISM KILLS STUDENT: FIGHT BACK AGAINST PUSH-OUTS

BROOKLYN, NY, March 29—When a neighborhood shooting took the life of a former student, a small school had two very different responses. The administration killed 17-year-old Claude* twice—once by pushing him out, and again by blaming him for his own death—while the students and education workers memorialized him again and again. In doing so, the Department of Education exposed themselves as a racist child-hating system while the working class in this school of mainly untenured teachers is learning how to be pro-student. As his teacher and communist, I am learning how to win people to fight back and connect Claude to the violent nature of capitalism. A system that kills kids has got to go.

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Claude died because of a racist education system

For a child who liked learning, he was not treated like one. Claude was pushed out because he wasn’t the type of kid who put his head down. No, he had a beautiful mind of his own: •When asked to describe himself in a personal narrative unit, he wrote, “I’m funny, fast, and smart. I like to laugh and joke around a lot. I am passionate about living, and who I am today.” •When taught to use figurative language, he wrote his best friend was “as brave as a shark.” He also loved music and word play.

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Capitalism is a toxic, violent system

Claude was set to graduate and enlist in the army at a time when the U.S., Russia, and China are in a collusion course towards world war. The U.S. war budget in 2021 reached $801 billion (Watson Institute at Brown University) but there are currently over 70,000 young people without jobs in New York City. WHY are there so few options for working-class students? To kill or be killed in imperialist war. To be killed in the streets. Yes, the shooter pulled the trigger but capitalism planted the gun.

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Kids Who Die by Langston Hughes

This is for the kids who die, Black and white, For kids will die certainly. The old and rich will live on awhile, As always, Eating blood and gold, Letting kids die. Kids will die in the swamps of Mississippi Organizing sharecroppers Kids will die in the streets of Chicago Organizing workers

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Students protest vs hate speech on campus

CHICAGO, March 9 – A multiracial crowd of dozens of students and workers rallied and marched across the campus of the University of Illinois in Chicago (UIC) to protest the administration’s decision to allow fascist scum Candace Owens and Charlie Kirk space to spread their brand of gutter racism and sexism. Members of the communist Progressive Labor Party (PLP) and our friends joined the action to support the fight and spread communist revolution as the only alternative to fascism, capitalism’s response to a crisis in their system. Owens and Kirk are right wing organizers and talk show hosts.

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From Bronx to Brooklyn: Smash Racism at CUNY!

BRONX, NY, February 16–“If you love CUNY so much, why don’t you take a pay cut?” City University of New York (CUNY) students militantly challenged University Provost Wendy Hensel at her administration’s “Listening Tour,” a liberal sham of an event with the intent of squelching the rebellion of antiracist, working class youth. Along with students, CUNY professors and staff members are fighting back against tuition increases and racist austerity in the higher education system. One young comrade led chants for the first time, ensuring the administrators could hear us from outside.

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Rutgers: strike is a school for communism

Newark, February 28––“I am a worker!” These words were echoed again and again throughout the Coalition of Rutgers Unions’ day long “Take Back the University” event at the college’s Newark Campus. The three-part day of protest, which marked the beginning of the faculty union’s strike authorization vote, included two teach-ins about solidarity and striking, as well as a rally aimed to disrupt the meeting of the university’s Board of Governors (BOG). On the heels of the Take Back the University day of protest, and after months of fruitless negotiations with the bosses, the 8000 academic workers of Rutgers AAUP-AFT faculty union have officially authorized a strike.

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