LA Workers Turn Up for Brendon Glenn

LOS ANGELES, January 16—While criminal charges are being recommended for the racist cop who killed Brendon Glenn, an unarmed, homeless Black worker last May, workers and members of the Progressive Labor Party fighting for justice are not holding their breath.
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck’s recommendation was made on January 11, and can only be carried out by a District Attorney or grand jury.
As of January 15, hypocrite Beck had not done what is within his power: initiate disciplinary proceedings against cop Clifford Proctor, who has been on paid leave since he killed Glenn.

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MLA Resolve to Fight Anti-Muslim Racism

NEW JERSEY, January 21—Members and friends of Progressive Labor Party recently won a victory against anti-Muslim racism. For years, we have been part of the Radical Caucus (RC) of the Modern Language Association (MLA), an organization of primarily language and literature professors, scholars, and graduate students. Through this caucus, members and friends of PLP worked together to pass an emergency resolution condemning anti-Muslim racism and supporting Muslim students and professors.

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Detroit: Students, Teachers Blast Wretched Conditions

CHICAGO, January 27— A mass student walkout and a sick-out by Detroit’s public school teachers reveals the racist core of the capitalist bosses’ schools and the need for communist organizing.
The teachers forced the bosses to shut down 69 of 100 segregated schools by calling in sick en masse. Teachers are fed up with the disgusting learning and teaching conditions and attacks on wages and benefits. Ninety-five percent of their students are Black or Latin; the under-funding of Detroit’s schools, under state control for 12 of the last 15 years, is clearly racist.

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March Through Harlem Smash Anti-Muslim Racism

HARLEM, NEW YORK, January 9— In a neighborhood of mostly Black and immigrant workers, the antiracist chants rang down 125th Street and Broadway:
Racism Means We Got To Fight Back!,
Deportations Mean We Got To Fight Back!
Bibi, Bratton, Donald Trump —
Throw Those Racist in the Dump!
Thirty multiracial workers and students, women and men, marched against anti-Muslim racism with homemade signs and posters emblazoned, “REFUGEES WELCOME HERE.”

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Kyam Struggle Forges Antisexist, Antiracist Fighters

BROOKLYN, December 21 — Many words can describe the 29 demonstrations, one a month for two and a half years, for justice for Kyam Livingston, a Black woman worker murdered by the capitalist bosses and their cops’ medical disregard. But the ones that give the most hope are, “If we don’t get it—shut it down!” These words are powerful. They can be heard at our rallies against police terror, anti-Muslim racism and racist deportations. They remind us that workers have the power to change and run the world—and that all of our struggles are connected

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On the Interfaith Menu: Anti-Imperialist Class Unity

NEW YORK CITY—In November, the news said that Muslim terrorists killed hundreds of people in Paris. For the next days and weeks, the bosses’ media sounding the same racist alarm. As a club of the revolutionary communist Progressive Labor Party, we have been organizing interfaith friendship dinners with the local Muslim community for 15 years, since 9/11, to fight racist anti-Muslim propaganda. This year’s interfaith dinner came one day after the Paris shootings, and we wondered how it would go. 
We carried out our usual work to ensure a successful dinner. Typically, about 70 workers attend this event. This year? Ninety! Normally, most of the attendees are our Muslim guests, with about a third of the workers coming from our congregation and other friendly groups. But this year, we saw an outpouring from our church. Workers responded to our ideas of building unity in the international working class against imperialism and racist terror.
At first, the atmosphere was a bit muted because of the shootings and the response of the racist capitalist media. But as soon as everyone started socializing, the room warmed up!

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While Bosses Terrorize Immigrants, PL’ers Build Internationalism

New York City, January 13—The New Year began with a round of sexist, racist home raids and deportations of undocumented immigrants, mainly mothers and children from Central America. The Obama administration has kept its promise of terrorizing Latin workers. Immigration Customs Enforcement has arrested hundreds of immigrants, all subject to deportation, mostly in North Carolina, Georgia, Texas and California, but also in New Jersey and New York.
Best Defense: Stay on the Offense Against Capitalism
Members of the immigrant rights organization in which Progressive Labor Party members are active, as well as large numbers of undocumented workers in this working-class neighborhood, are alarmed.

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Texas Mural’s Ideas Transform Into Education Struggle

TEXAS, January 13—A recent school and community art project has galvanized working-class struggle here. A widely viewed, student-created mural of a mass of students, parents and workers fighting back against the racist inequalities in our school district inspired teachers to organize and fight back.
Class Struggle Imitates Art
After weeks of conversation about the mural, teachers issued a collective statement that cited student concerns about district budget cuts and the school-to-prison pipeline. The teachers then made a plan to deliver the bold statement at the next local school board meeting. In a period of intensifying fascism and fear, this was no small feat.

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On the Job Report: Uber Workers’ Confidence Soars Through Struggle

I recently participated in my first job action, helping organize bike messengers for Uber RUSH, a delivery network the on-demand company started in New York City in April 2014.
Since I joined RUSH last year, Uber has constantly cut messenger rates. They justified these cuts by saying more customers would use RUSH because it is cheaper, meaning more money.
Uber’s drivers—largely African and Middle-Eastern men who left their cab jobs for Uber’s promise of higher wages in less hours—have experienced the same racist cuts under the same premise, and have to work much longer hours now to make ends meet.

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On the Job Report: Electrical Workers Call Out Sexist Bosses

I work for a private electrical contractor as a “helper.” I run wires, work on live circuits, break down walls and the like. I’ve been in this field for two years and nothing about it has been easy. I’m in a field with a group of international workers, from China to Ghana, who are all being screwed over by the boss. Despite our terrible wages, many of these workers still suffer from capitalist ideologies. One of those ideas is sexism.

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