BAY AREA MAY DAY DINNER

BAY AREA—This year’s May Day dinner in the Bay Area was multiracial, multi-generational, and inspired working class unity. Over 70 comrades and friends participated. Some travelled from far distances to continue their tradition of celebrating International Worker’s Day with Progressive Labor Party (PLP). The room was filled with posters, banners, and flags that celebrated the power and revolutionary history of communist workers around world. We had two comrades emcee the event, and they did an amazing job setting the tone by telling the history of May Day, leading us in chants, and guiding our “table talk” discussion.

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Why I Joined PLP Speech

“Why I Joined PLP” Speech given at a May Day Dinner:

Today, I will be sharing with you all my journey in becoming a communist.  The people that have been part of this journey are my partner, who introduced me to Marx and helped me rethink nationalism, and my friends who brought the party to me. But mostly I thank my mother, who is not here today.
When I was seven years old, my father abandoned us. As a result, my mother was left with the full responsibility of supporting our family. Unfortunately, as an undocumented immigrant, my mother faced job insecurity and we regularly had to move from apartment to apartment. Mom worked as hard as she could – we would always find her asleep with her work clothes still on. As the oldest of three children, I tried my best to help care for my siblings at home, but I felt inadequate. So at thirteen, I decided to find a job to help contribute financially.

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LOS ANGELES MAY DAY

LOS ANGELES—Tens of thousands of workers took to the streets as part of the Resist LA May Day march. It was the most multiracial, multigenerational march the country has seen in a long time. More Black workers came out than they did for the Women’s March in January or the March for Science on April 22.
PLP had a small but lively contingent that led some militant chants like, “the workers united will never be defeated” and “La migra, la policia, la misma porqueria”

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The Imperialist Hydra of Terror in Syria

After Syrian President Bashar al-Assad attacked civilians with chemical weapons, Donald Trump bombed a government airbase in Syria with 59 Tomahawk missiles. The U.S. imperialist rulers struck in the name of “humanitarianism,” but their real cause is something else again: a desperate push to maintain U.S. dominance over the Middle East and its vast oil reserves.
Humanitarian Imperialism
In what world does it make sense to bomb the very people you are claiming to defend? The U.S. air strike killed nine civilians, including four children, and will result only in more war, more refugees, more death. The real outrage is that the capitalist bosses have free rein to kill us, the working class, in their wars over profits and power. There are already 11 million Syrian refugees, half the country’s former population. More are created every day. The criminal Trump has the nerve to profess compassion for Syrian workers while doing all he can to ban desperate Syrian refugees from entering the U.S.

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Workers Fight to Halt Deportations at Airport

Protesters at local airport try to stop the deportation of immigrant workersCHICAGO, IL April 5—Two buses transporting undocumented workers pulled up at the airport, and the crowd grew restless. A strong multiracial crowd of 50 from  community groups protested the racist deportations taking place at a local airport.
Stop the Bus, Stop the Planes
Clergy, attempting to pray away our problems, initially dominated the rally. While some protest leaders tried to distract us with speeches, a group of workers made their way into the street to block the buses. The buses then dashed toward another entrance of the airport.

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Newark Rally Slams Trump & Budget Cuts

Newark, NJ, April 13—A multiracial group of some 30 people rallied here today at the Federal Building to oppose the Trump budget cuts and demand increased funding in certain programs that are on the chopping block. Chants of “No cuts, no way; we’re fighting back today” and “The war-makers say cut back, we say fight back” echoed through the streets. Scores of cars and many New Jersey transit bus drivers honked their horns enthusiastically in solidarity with our cause. The rally was organized by the War Against Poverty Coalition (WAPC) and endorsed by a number of other Newark-based groups. PLP joined and showed the continual stream of such policies clearly indicates the need for millions of organized workers to overthrow this system and establish a worker-run communist system in its place.

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Oppose Klan, Deportations— March on May Day

NEW JERSEY, April 2—Our Progressive Labor Party (PLP) group had a recent social event to build for May Day and to support the Anaheim protesters arrested for fighting back against the Ku Klux Klan in California. Members and friends discussed many issues from raising revolution while fighting for a reform to the role of violence in the revolutionary struggle. One comrade was encouraged to invite everyone in her organization to come to May Day. Another comrade was motivated to contact several students, and one came with her boyfriend. She was inspired to reach out to even more students in the future.

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Mass Red Leadership Needed at DC Metro

Washington, DC, April 11—The management of the Metro transit system in the Washington, DC region, backed by the political leaders of the region, have launched a determined attack on transit workers and riders. It’s the biggest attack on the workers in over 30 years.
Workers are looking for leadership that is prepared to shut down the city until workers’ needs are met, but, unfortunately, the current union leadership is following a losing strategy to resist these attacks. Workers and riders who are serious about fighting back must develop an alternative, mass, communist, leadership that is willing to fight by any means necessary to defend our interests.

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LA: Campaign Demands Prosecution of KKKop Clifford Proctor for Murder

Los Angeles—A group of Progressive Labor Party communists, friends from the congregation, and I went to the Culver City Meets Venice CicLAvia bike route to collect signatures. They were petitioning to the Black District Attorney Jackie Lacey, demanding Lacey prosecute Clifford Proctor, the cop who shot un-housed young Black man Brendon Glenn in the back May 5, 2015.
Ever since, a multiracial group has been organizing marches to demand prosecution of Proctor. We marched on Venice Beach and Koreatown. We had also seized control of a town hall put by Lacey last year.

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Russia-U.S. Imperialist Conflict Points Toward War

Today’s U.S.-Russia relations are “worse” than they were after World War I, at the “lowest possible point in history,” a Russian official says (ABC News, 4/2). But as this inter-imperialist rivalry continues to escalate, and global war looms ever closer, the U.S. ruling class is in disarray.

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