China: pro-worker students arrested—a young Left takes root

Zheng Yongming, a recent university graduate working in Guangzhou, China, wrote an open letter after his arrest in November by Chinese police. He was locked up for organizing a Maoist reading group in a university classroom. Zheng’s letter, which keeps being taken down from various websites by the authorities, only to be reposted, states that “I will always be a son of the workers and peasants.”
He was one of four young people arrested. Hundreds of professors from some of China’s most prestigious colleges signed a letter protesting the arrests, which included graduates of the elite Peking University (Agence Presse-France).

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Yemen & Middle East wars mean mass terror for workers

The current war in Yemen has created one of the worst capitalist crises the world has seen.  Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has been bombing and blockading Yemen into collapse and misery, using billions of dollars of U.S.-supplied weaponry. The U.S. military is also refueling Saudi bombers in flight, to complete their deadly missions.
According to the UN, in this country of 27 million people, more than 10,000 have been killed, more than 2 million have been displaced, about 7 million are on the brink of starvation and 14 million lack access to clean drinking water and sanitation.  

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It’s not just predator Nassar; sexism integral to Olympics

Sexual predator Larry Nassar abused at least 256 women while he was the medical doctor for USA Gymnastics (USAG) and the Michigan State University Athletic Department. He will spend the rest of his life in prison as Judge Rosemarie Aquilina proclaimed that she was glad to “sign his death warrant.” But it’s not just Nassar and the many other sexual abusers that are being exposed. The whole damn capitalist system has to go!

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170th Anniversary: Lessons from The Communist Manifesto

In late 1847, a secret European propaganda society, the Communist League, requested Karl Marx and Frederick Engels to write up a statement of purpose for the organization. In February 1848, the document appeared. It was called the Communist Manifesto (click here for a copy, available in 80 languages).
This work outlines the new world conception, consistent materialism, which also embraces the realm of social life, dialectics, as the most comprehensive and profound doctrine of development, the theory of the class struggle and of the world-historic revolutionary role of the proletariat—the creator of a new, communist society.
— V.I. Lenin, Karl Marx (1913)
In time, the Manifesto became the most revered document among revolutionaries everywhere. After 170 years, we in the Progressive Labor Party still take these words seriously:
“The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains.”

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Fight racist immigration reform—Workers' struggle has no borders

In his racist, divisive State of the Union address, President Donald Trump did his best to scapegoat immigrants for the deepening crisis of U.S. capitalism amid sharpening inter-imperialist rivalry. To convince the U.S. working class to go to war over Middle East oil and other ruling-class interests, the bosses must increase racism against workers in other countries. Just as Hitler blamed the depression in Germany in the 1930s on Jews, Trump is trying to blame violent crime and job loss on immigrants fleeing U.S.-supported terror regimes and the economic instability of capitalism.
But workers cannot be fooled. The international working class has no borders. “Immigrants” are simply super-exploited workers who are forced by the profit system’s failures to move beyond the rulers’ arbitrary boundary lines. In the face of these attacks by Trump and the bosses he serves, we must build a revolutionary communist party to smash all walls and fences that serve the money-sucking capitalists. We must create a new world that honors workers’ labor and serves workers’ needs.

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Ban BANNON—no free speech for fascists

Chicago, February 2—More than 70 anti-racist students and community members converged on the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in opposition to the school’s speaking invitation to white supremacist Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s former chief strategist.
Progressive Labor Party comrades were there to point out Bannon’s role in the context of rising fascism, and to offer revolutionary communist struggle as the only way to crush the capitalist system that creates racist scum like Bannon and his old boss.

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75th Anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad

The bosses need to be afraid of the truth about the glorious achievements of the working class, particularly those achieved under communist leadership. One such achievement, which became the turning point of World War II, was the crushing defeat of the fascist German armies by the communist-led Soviet Red Army at Stalingrad on February 2, 1943.
As the 75th anniversary of this titanic battle – in which the Soviet Red Army, under communist leadership, smashed the supposedly “invincible” Nazi Wehrmacht (army), we can expect the capitalist media either to ignore this victory, or to slander and lie about it, to try to diminish its significance.

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DC transit workers protest racist working conditions

WASHINGTON, DC, January 23—For two hours a multiracial group of 50 Metro transit workers and supporters, including members of Progressive Labor Party, held a picket line in front of Northern Bus Garage in Washington, DC.   With chants of “Workers united will never be defeated!” and “If we don’t get it, Shut It Down!,” Amalgamated Transit Union 689 workers upped the ante in their contract struggle. Capitalism leaves workers no choice but to strike, even to keep gains that we had already won in the past, let alone to win new improvements. Only a communist system run by the working class would remove that necessity by ridding the world of bosses who profit from our labor.

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High school students energize West Wednesday rally

BALTIMORE, January 10—Activists and the family of Tyrone West continue to see through the bosses’ attempted bribes as they held the 233rd West Wednesday rally. Held once a week without fail, ever since the police execution of Tyrone in July 2013, this week’s rally got an infusion of enthusiasm and energy from five dynamic members of a high school club.
Tonight’s protest was held right outside Northeast District – the police station at which Tyrone’s killers worked. One member of the student club kicked off the rally with a powerful mix of singing and spoken word. Later, after a strong speech by Tyrone’s sister, Tawanda Jones, two other members of the club gave their own heartfelt speeches. And just after the rally, club members did a high-energy, impromptu freestyle rap, condemning injustice and upholding Tyrone’s name.

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National security law exposes capitalist dictatorship

MEXICO—The approval of the national security law by both chambers of the legislature will enshrine the military’s role in law enforcement. This law, which was promoted by President Peña Nieto along with the consent of the Supreme Court, establishes the ability of the military to take over civilian law enforcement and exposes the power the capitalists have. It clearly shows we live in a dictatorship lead by oppressive billionaires who use democracy or fascism to guarantee the existence of their system of exploitation and profit.

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