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 Progressive Labor Party on Race & Racism

OUR FIGHT

 

Progressive Labor Party (PLP) fights to destroy capitalism and the dictatorship of the capitalist class. We organize workers, soldiers and youth into a revolutionary movement for communism.

Only the dictatorship of the working class — communism — can provide a lasting solution to the disaster that is today’s world for billions of people. This cannot be done through electoral politics, but requires a revolutionary movement and a mass Red Army led by PLP.

Worldwide capitalism, in its relentless drive for profit, inevitably leads to war, fascism, poverty, disease, starvation and environmental destruction. The capitalist class, through its state power — governments, armies, police, schools and culture —  maintains a dictatorship over the world’s workers. The capitalist dictatorship supports, and is supported by, the anti-working-class ideologies of racism, sexism, nationalism, individualism and religion.

While the bosses and their mouthpieces claim “communism is dead,” capitalism is the real failure for billions worldwide. Capitalism returned to Russia and China because socialism retained many aspects of the profit system, like wages and privileges. Russia and China did not establish communism.

Communism means working collectively to build a worker-run society. We will abolish work for wages, money and profits. Everyone will share in society’s benefits and burdens. 

Communism means abolishing racism and the concept of “race.” Capitalism uses racism to super-exploit black, Latino, Asian and indigenous workers, and to divide the entire working class.

Communism means abolishing the special oppression of women — sexism — and divisive gender roles created by the class society.

Communism means abolishing nations and nationalism. One international working class, one world, one Party.

Communism means that the minds of millions of workers must become free from religion’s false promises, unscientific thinking and poisonous ideology. Communism will triumph when the masses of workers can use the science of dialectical materialism to understand, analyze and change the world to meet their needs and aspirations.

  Communism means the Party leads every aspect of society. For this to work, millions of workers — eventually everyone — must become communist organizers. Join Us!

 

 

 

 

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Entries by Challenge_Desafío (2267)

Saturday
Dec042010

Parents, Students, Teachers Unite: Confront Bosses’ Racist School Plan

BROOKLYN, NY, November 18 — “No matter how much you want to pretty this up, you can’t fool us; it’s racist!” shouted an angry parent towards one of several cronies the Department of Education (DoE) sent to pacify angry students, parents and teachers at a meeting of parents from two of the building’s schools.
As reported in CHALLENGE (10/28), our school campus, which now houses four schools, is slated to house a 5th one next September. This new school is in response to a mostly wealthy, predominantly white neighborhood’s desire for a school within the immediate area. The students currently attending all the schools are black, Latino and Asian working-class youth from surrounding neighborhoods.
The new school will only accept students who received the highest marks, 3s and 4s, on their eighth grade exams; require a writing sample; will not have special education students or English Language Learners; and will receive millions of dollars in start-up costs.
At a school leadership team meeting, a DoE representative said the new school will replicate a pre-existing screened high school, a highly sought-after school with a mostly white population. If this new school is as popular as the first one, it’s expected our school’s current population will be forced out to accommodate such growth and the wealthy white people will get what they’ve always wanted — black and brown students out of their neighborhood.

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Saturday
Dec042010

Boston Students Fight Racist Police Brutality

Boston, November 3 — The spontaneous march on October 29th against the vicious police beating of a 16-year-old black youth at Roxbury Community College (RCC) (see
CHALLENGE 11/3/10) brought together students and faculty who were committed to advance the struggle against police brutality.  Since then, a core group of activists has  organized a mass response. A student petition condemning the police attack was circulated throughout the college community, and a letter condemning the college administration’s silence was distributed among faculty and staff. A mass meeting was called for November 2 to mobilize a bigger march two days later.
Although the meeting was held on Election Day at an election site (the college), voting was completely ignored. It’s no wonder that 60% of eligible voters regularly stay away from the polls. Working-class issues like police brutality, unemployment, foreclosures and cutbacks don’t get voted on. Direct action is the only meaningful way for workers to assert our power.

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Saturday
Dec042010

Expose Imperialism’s Rape of Haiti at Church Forum

BROOKLYN, NY, November 6 —  “While demonstrating for education for all Haitians outside the Ministry of Education in Port-Au-Prince, a teacher was killed by the Haitian militia.”  There was a gasp from the audience as the details of the assassination were described.
As the speaker made clear, even though it was a cop’s bullet that ended the life of Louis Jean Filbert on October 9, 200 years of racist imperialism are as much to blame. Haitians have never been forgiven by the rapacious capitalists of the world for freeing themselves from the yoke of slavery. As the speaker finished, it was clear that viewing the current catastrophe as simply the result of a geologic event was seriously one-sided.
This speaker and others were part of a forum called “Haitians Abandoned,” attended by 80 people, which was held in the chapel of our congregation. Communist ideas are present in this church through our social justice group, which organize activities such as the forum.
There was an air of expectancy at the beginning of the event. The forum had been collectively organized between the Haitian community and the church community. The event was a success in that there was a great response from the Haitian community. In fact, they outnumbered the church community, clearly pointing out that we have to organize better in our church.

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Saturday
Dec042010

Workers can never be illegal Marchers Unite for Jobs, vs. Anti-Immigrant Racists

STATEN ISLAND, NY, November 13 — “Wherever we live no one is illegal because people can never be illegal!” These words echoed across Staten Island, a place that has seen the ugly face of capitalist racism. In response to more than 17 violent attacks against immigrants in the area over the past year, a multi-racial, multi-generational group of church members and peace activists had come together.
In the march, PLP’s vision for the future was clearly present: a society where all labels that are assigned to us by the racist, capitalist system will be eliminated. All of these categories: “Black or white,” “citizen or immigrant,” “legal or illegal,” “employed or unemployed.” will disappear in a society where borders are abolished, racism is outlawed and everyone will contribute to society in some form.
At the first rally a worker from Colombia spoke about the racist media that portrays Colombians as drug pushers and criminals. She said what many workers know to be true: that immigrants are looking for a job, a place to live, and peace. She stood as a figure of strength, not bowed down by the problems she faces.
The next speaker was the daughter of a worker from Mexico who had been severely beaten in a racial attack. She stood with her child in her arms to speak out against the brutality towards her father and to thank everyone present for standing up and speaking out. She said that all they ever wanted was to work and to live.

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Saturday
Dec042010

PL’ers Challenge Anti-Immigrant Racism at Public Health Association

DENVER, CO, November 10 — Over 10,000 members of the American Public Health Association (APHA) met this year around the theme of “Social Justice.” Members and friends of PLP, with support from various groups in APHA, challenged the organization to live up to its theme. Our proposed APHA policy statement, “Opposing the Exclusion of Undocumented Immigrants from Health Reform,” hit a raw nerve and triggered a small struggle in the association.
The liberals who run the APHA don’t want to take any public position critical of the Obama administration. But rank-and-file members, most of whom work with underserved populations day in and day out, have less interest in currying favor with politicians and more gut-level commitment to justice for the communities they serve. APHA bureaucrats used their control over a key committee to block our anti-racist resolution.
Anticipating resistance from the association full-timers, the APHA members who wrote the resolution (“the troublemakers”) started circulating drafts in the weeks leading up to the annual meeting to all APHA sections (Epidemiology, Medical Care, Maternal and Child Health, etc.) The Black Caucus was specifically targeted through the friends we have made there fighting against racism in previous years. They gave their support as soon as they read it.

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Wednesday
Nov172010

Mexico: CHALLENGE’s Exposure of Flood Risk Draws Rulers’ Wrath

MEXICO — Around 120 families in the 12 districts to the east of Valle de Mexico are at risk of flooding. The area where we live sinks about half a meter a year, because of the extraction of water from the subsoil through the fourteen wells installed in the area since the 1980s. The ground has sunk 15 meters from its original level and by 2020 may sink up to 19 meters. 

The politicians did not want us inhabitants to know about the problem, so they tried to sabotage meetings and to discredit CHALLENGE when it informed us about the risk. They sent agitators to break up the neighbors’ meetings. They paid for advertisements on buses warning the population about “an organization that is trying to deceive them and manipulate them.” They weren’t successful, since it was clear that CHALLENGE serves the interests of the workers.

Because of the constant attack from the bosses against our class, we have to be organized in a party that is not electoral, a party that unites and leads millions of workers to a communist revolution. Electoral parties only look to benefit the bosses that sponsor them and the politicians that lead them. Elections are a fraud for all workers and will never lead us to a change that will benefit us.

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Wednesday
Nov172010

Obama Asia Trip Flops; Imperialist, Domestic Rivals Add to Trade, Fiscal Woes

Huge deficits in foreign trade and the federal budget are hampering U.S. imperialists’ ability to pay for the widening wars they need. The trade gap sucks $44 billion out of the U.S. every month, as the U.S. imports more than it exports. The federal budget deficit jumped from $960 billion in 2008 to $1.42 trillion in 2009. The growing division among U.S. capitalists, evidenced by the Tea Party phenomenon and its proclaimed “anti-tax” and “anti-big government” advocacy, makes it more difficult for the rulers Obama represents to tackle the federal deficit in the U.S.. Meanwhile, the total cost of U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan (and now Yemen and Pakistan) has topped $3 trillion.

Obama’s recent Asia trip, intended to address the trade problem, was a failure. “Confidence in U.S. global economic leadership continues to wane,” was how the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), U.S. imperialism’s top think-tank, summed up the G20 summit. (CFR website, 11/12)

Seoul G20 Meeting Showed 
Imperialist Rivalry Driving Force in World

Open conflict prevailed in Seoul. Chinese and U.S. bosses charged each other with devaluing their currency to boost exports. “A 7.5 percent drop in the dollar over the past four months is making American goods cheaper overseas as demand in emerging economies propels sales for companies like General Electric Co.” (Bloomberg, 11/11/10).

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Wednesday
Nov172010

Shades of Old Jim Crow Pickets Hit Racist School Bosses’ ‘Separate and Unequal’ Scheme

BROOKLYN, NY, Oct, 28 — “The parents united will never be defeated!” This chant greeted parents as they entered school for parent-teacher conferences. About thirty students and teachers picketed at the entrance and passed out flyers inviting parents and neighbors to an upcoming meeting to discuss the Department of Education’s (DoE) plans for racist attacks against our schools. PLP members and friends helped organize this event as part of a growing campaign to build multi-racial unity against the destructive plans of the local education bosses.

Our building houses several schools, which were created as part of an earlier reform program. Education officials broke up large comprehensive high schools around the city and created smaller schools which they hoped would be easier to control. In our case, the building is physically located in a mainly white, middle-class neighborhood. However, the students who attend all the schools are black, Latino and Asian working-class youth from surrounding neighborhoods. While teachers have struggled to help these students learn, graduate and go on to college, the DoE has placed every obstacle they can in the students’ path. Budgets in the schools have been cut every year, the 100-year-old building has not been renovated and students are scanned through metal detectors every day as if they were criminals.

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Wednesday
Nov172010

PL’ers Lead Anti-Sexist Battle Chicago Moms’ 43-day Sit-in Beats Bosses

CHICAGO, November 15 — The mothers of the Whittier elementary school here have given workers of the world another glimpse of our ability to establish a society of, for and by the workers. When Ron Huberman, the racist CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, threatened to raze the Whittier field house to build a soccer field for the nearby private school, the mothers collectively occupied the building for 43 days. “La casita”, as the field house came to be known, will remain as a community center and be under the control of a non-profit led by the mothers.

The struggle for “La casita” (our “little Stella d’Oro”) was within the confines of the bosses’ reform struggle, but by participating in the occupation, bringing food, spending the night at the field house, doing the “grunt” work necessary, we gained the confidence of the community and were able to raise communist ideas.

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Wednesday
Nov172010

Work Stoppage Rips Racist Slur:Mass Rank-and-File Action Needed vs. Racist Transit Bosses 

NEW YORK CITY, November 15 — The recent annual mass meeting of TWU (Transport Workers Union) Local 100, representing most, but not all,  MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority) workers, painted a grim future for the union. However, angry rank-and-file workers who want mass confrontation against MTA bosses over racism, unemployment, pay, service and fares have the potential to spark a bright beacon of mass anti-racist class struggle for the entire international working class.

Transit workers move New York and they can stop New York in fighting the racist MTA bosses, who focus cuts on mainly black, Latino and immigrant riders and workers. Bus Operators in an MTA Queens Village depot, represented by ATU (Amalgamated Transit Union) Local 1056, demonstrated some of this power on November 12 when they refused to take assignments from a racist dispatcher who called a Bus Operator a n-----. Their protest halted more than 20 buses for two hours and defied New York’s Taylor Law that bans job actions by government workers.

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