Letters of March 23

Cultivating Communist Middle School Students
We recently held our fourth middle school study group session, which is led by a multiracial group of women. The study group is made up of three PLP parents of middle schoolers and five 11- and 12-year-olds. There are also another four to five students who have been to at least one of the study groups.
So far we have discussed metal detectors in schools, the Islamic State and the Paris attacks, racism and white privilege, and sexism. Six of these youth also recently attended our east coast Cadre School (see previous issue of CHALLENGE). At the discussions, we always have lots of good snacks and plenty of silliness, but I’m always impressed at the ability of these young people to analyze the world.
The following is the way one of the 11-year olds summed up our discussion on sexism: “Sexism is just a tool the upper class uses a lot to make the lower class feel ‘suckish’ and bad. Lots of people don’t really understand what is happening [when they act in sexist ways] but they need to, because when they do, it will be a step towards beating the upper class”
We then made plans for how to fundraise and make banners for May Day. All of these young people always help to remind me that our future in building a communist revolutionary movement is bright!
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Comrades Struggle, Learn Together
This past president’s day weekend PLP had a very successful communist school. Nearly 20 comrades and friends from Los Angeles and the Bay Area came together to discuss leadership, criticism and self-criticism, and our political work. Over the course of three days and serious (and at times intense) discussion, we made several advances.
Saturday morning began with a welcoming breakfast followed by a reading and discussion of leadership. Afterwards we broke out into groups and discussed the nature of leadership in the world and in the Party. We concluded that while some comrades might be asked to be leaders, in fact leadership is an active process. The comrade leaders must “step up” to the leadership role. We discussed the role of the leader in a Party club (which is the initial organizing body in the Party) and discussed how a club leader must struggle to understand and help encourage each club member’s work.
That afternoon, we transitioned to a discussion of our work and working in the mass movement. Many of us have not fully embraced working in mass organizations like unions, churches, and community groups. As we discussed the need to fully engage ourselves in our mass organization, some comrades realized that we had treated this work in a mechanical way. Just going to meetings and participating in activities is not the same as being actively engaged in the life and struggles of a mass organization. We need to entrench ourselves in our mass organization in order to successfully wage political struggle. Our main self-criticisms were that anti-communism and individualism were holding us back.
The next day, we discussed a work report from a recent PLP publication. We discussed how to emulate the work of this comrade, who really made his base his family and immersed himself in the struggle over decades. While taking great inspiration from the work report, it was pointed out that there was little discussion of the role of the PL club in the work report comrade’s struggles. Having healthy clubs to struggle with comrades and strive towards objectivity help all of us to succeed.
That afternoon, we discussed criticism and self-criticism, which is a way the members evaluate and learn from their struggles and mistakes. This was an undertone of many discussions. We discussed whether criticism and self-criticism sessions were rare or whether they should be more regular. Some comrades argued that we cannot limit criticism and self-criticism to formal events when leadership is changing or when things go poorly. We should see each club meeting as a time for criticism and self-criticism. We should discuss work, the world and internal party matters and discuss them from the perspective of criticism and self-criticism. Self-reflection, honesty and openness should be the goal in every party struggle.
Struggles inside the Party are necessary for the health and growth of our organization and our readiness to lead the masses.
Monday morning we concluded by discussing our May Day plans and ensured all the actions required to build for our May Day celebrations. In the end we all seemed to leave more motivated to build for a successful communist May Day!
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Don’t Fall for Bosses’ Racist ‘Model Minority’ Trap
I normally distribute CHALLENGE every week at a mostly Black college or outside a train station in a West Indian neighborhood. Whenever people hear me say, “Fight back against racism!” they eagerly take the paper with a “thank you!” or fish through their pockets for any money they can muster to donate.
Today was different. Because of the explosion of antiracist fightback at Brooklyn Tech, I distributed the paper with the front-page article about this school’s fightback. Stocked with 350 CHALLENGEs, three comrades and I stood by the train station that many students use to get to the school. Whereas papers normally fly out of my hands, I was lucky to get even one person out of twenty to take it. Some of the mostly Asian and white students even rolled their eyes when I said, “Fight back against racism in our schools!” as though I was wasting their time or exaggerating the racism that Black and Latin students experience every day.
I was enraged by their indifference for their fellow students. It reminded me of a conversation I had with my Asian friend at Yale University, where there was a recent eruption of antiracist fightback. I asked her what she thought about everything going on, and she said:
“I was struggling between my sympathy and desire to stand with all the people of color who were protesting their treatment, and the fact that I’ve been brought up to stay out of any such issue. My parents always said to keep my head down, and many other Asians come from similar backgrounds. The weird concept of the “model minority” makes it feel unnatural to step out of line and protest racism, since the racism we experience is covert.”
This conversation with my friend and today’s CHALLENGE sale both reminded me of the way the bosses divide Black and Latin workers from Asian and white workers. They make some white and Asian working class believe that racism doesn’t affect them, or that their struggles are in contradiction with those of Black and Latin workers. They are fed lies that if they keep quiet and don’t fightback, they can get their own piece of the capitalist pie. The bosses push this bogus concept of the “model minority”—the stereotype that Asians, specifically East Asians, are the docile “good” workers that don’t fight back but only work hard and “do well”. The model minority myth is used to further anti-Black racism and divide the working class. It also silences the very real racism Asian workers face in the U.S.
In reality, Asian and white workers are exploited and oppressed worldwide, just like Black and Latin workers. Moreover, as long as we maintain racist divisions, every worker sees lower pay and fewer benefits. Our fight is not against other workers, but against the bosses who impoverish us. There is no doubt that Black workers are the most oppressed and exploited workers around the world, but we all suffer under capitalism. Asian, Latin, Black, and white, workers of the world unite!
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Challenge Shouldn’t Use Slang
The recent language used in CHALLENGE articles has caught my attention and it should be changed. I believe that as left-wing militant, scientific, communist members of PLP we should be as professional as we can be. So we should limit the use of slang in the newspaper as much as possible.
“Turnt up” and other slang should be limited or not used at all. It sets the wrong kind of image. While slang is very popular among working-class youth, some people don’t even know what it is saying. I am not saying let’s be all academic so please don’t take it that way. I am just saying we should be careful about slang and limit our use of it.  
Editorial response: The problem of audience and language in CHALLENGE is primarily not about professionalism vs. colloquialism. CHALLENGE has the most heterogeneous readership in the world; we try to reach nuclear physicists and the kid who was pushed out of school at age 13.  In Talks At The Yenan Forum On Literature And Art(1942), Mao Zedong explains the main problem in the literature/art/cultural front is one of being one with the masses. How well do we know the working class? How well does our literature clearly reflect the language of the masses?
Under capitalism, the language and discourse of the ruling class is considered proper and normal, while what the working class speaks is considered bad. If using “Turnt Up” sets the “wrong” image, i.e. the image of Black and Latin working-class youth, we need to reevaluate what kind of language we value.
We strive to be a mass paper, one that truly reflects the rich, lively language of the masses. To solve this problem, we need more people—from academics to nine-year-olds writing for, distributing, and reading the paper. Our main task is to be entrenched in the masses, and the paper’s content and style will follow. For real.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The Anti-Racist Friendship of Boxers Joe and Max
There is an interesting historical sidelight of a point in the excellent review of Black communist writer Richard Wright’s work (CHALLENGE, 2/24). It mentions Wright’s take on the reaction of Harlem workers to Black heavyweight champion boxer Joe Louis’s 1938 victory over Nazi Germany’s Max Schmeling, who had two years earlier defeated Louis when he (Schmeling) was heavyweight boxing champion.
It turns out that Schmeling was not only a reluctant representative sent by Hitler to defeat a Black boxer (Louis), but, apparently unbeknownst to them, he was a political opponent of the Nazis. He and his wife had helped hide some Jewish children from the Nazi mass murderers in Germany, at great risk to his life and hers. Furthermore, he and Joe Louis subsequently became fast friends for life, an unusual interracial friendship in those days, at least outside of the Communist Party USA.
Their story is told, as well as any story is ever told in a US production, in a 2002 TV movie titled “Joe and Max,” which I thought was worth seeing.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★