Letters of June 15

Organize Anti-Sexist Struggle in Schools
I distributed CHALLENGE and anti-sexism buttons at Brooklyn Tech in support of the anti-sexist student struggle against dress codes (see page 1). Within 45 minutes, we had run out of all 150 newspapers and all 200 buttons! My comrade and I received many positive responses, and some students wanted to take extra buttons to give to their friends.
Sometimes it’s tough to get out of bed so early, but it’s always worth it because everywhere the Party goes, we get overwhelming support from fellow anti-sexist and anti-racist students and workers.
Getting out our politics in schools is important because it is where future workers are won to sexist, racist, and elitist capitalist ideologies. This is especially at Brooklyn Tech where students are groomed to be the next generation of doctors, scientists, and politicians. Capitalists try to win these students to work to support the system. They need to make students believe that they are not a part of the working class and that they don’t need to fight sexism or racism. It’s critical to win students to fight capitalism and to use their vast wealth of knowledge to serve the working class.
Whenever students take a stand against these divisive ideologies, the Party must be there to support the fight, sharpen the struggle, and fight for revolution. Students at Brooklyn Tech are eager to fight sexism and racism, and now it is our job to draw the communist connections.
To destroy sexism, we must do more than fight dress codes. We must fight for communist revolution. These students are already fighting back with courage and we must have confidence that the working class will understand and fight for communist ideas. Hundreds of students today just proved that. If you haven’t had a CHALLENGE sale in a while, grab a buddy and a bundle, and see what happens!
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Picketing Against Racism
The kkkop Edward Nero who murdered Freddie Gray was found not guilty on all charges. In response, fifteen communists gathered on our regular street corner in Brooklyn,NY to respond to this blatantly racist injustice. At first, we were just passing out CHALLENGEs and talking to workers about police terror and the racist capitalist system that creates it. Some of us were reluctant to do our chants and have a picket without a bullhorn. However, after some young comrades struggled for a picket, we all gathered and started chanting, “Racism means we got to fight back!”
Immediately, workers began to ask us questions and seek out the paper. I had been frustrated earlier because not many people were taking CHALLENGE. Much to my excitement, people who had refused the paper before we started chanting came back to me and asked for one. With persistence and boldness, we ended up getting out more than 400 CHALLENGEs. It reminded me that we should never be afraid to be bold and that even if we don’t have a bullhorn, we can still have our voices heard. When we are unapologetically antiracist, workers respond with raised fists.
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May Day Play: Cascarones at Politicians
We celebrated this year’s May Day in Texas with a barbecue. We invited comrades, family, and friends. We opened with a speech about the history of May Day and the struggles of the working-class all over the world, and PLP’s role in understanding the world today. Then moved into our play that described how both US parties; democrat and republican, are not answers to the caused by capitalism. We had caricatures of the presidential candidates Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. A pie chart showing the profits of other imperialist countries’ and how each candidate proposes to steal from different groups of workers and supports imperialist wars aboard.
It the end the ballot box turned into a tank driven by the three candidates. As this happen the audience members had an active role in throwing cascarones at the tank, symbolizing our fight back against capitalism.
It was a creative way to talk about the current elections. After the play, we closed with a speech about the Progressive Labor Party. Our celebration was a big success and a lot of fun.
May Day: Don’t Vote, Organize!
“Are you angry about racism? Sexism? War?” asked the keynote speaker at our annual May Day Dinner. The audience enthusiastically responded “Yeah!” Seventy-five people of all races and ages, (not including many adorable children running around) attended the Progressive Labor Party’s May Day Dinner in Chicago this year. Although it was a cold, rainy day, the atmosphere inside the dinner was warm and welcoming. There was delicious, home-cooked food, and inspiring posters hung on the wall. A professional sound system, donated and operated by a friend of PL, was set-up for the evening’s songs and speeches. In the outer room from the dining area, art supplies were set up for the kids to enjoy. Everyone was welcomed warmly and chatting happily while we ate.    
The program opened with a welcome and then singing “Bella Ciao.”  The theme of the dinner was “Don’t Vote! Organize for Communist Revolution!” and many of the talks discussed this idea. A Chicago Teacher’s Union (CTU) member discussed the difference between the union perspective and the communist analysis PLP provides. We watched a video of our comrades in California share the story of their recent battle with the KKK in Anaheim (see CHALLENGE, 3/10). We “passed the hat,” and everyone donated money for the Anaheim rebels’ court costs. We also did a “table talk,” where a question about experienced racism was posed to the audience and then we all discussed this at our tables with the people around us. We then shared what we discussed at the microphone.
Our main speech addressed why we need more people to join PLP. The speaker was a woman healthcare worker who cares for veterans. She addressed the ways that imperialist war has impacted their lives. Racism and poverty have also hurt these men and she made the connection between the wars they fought in with capitalism, imperialism, and racism. Addressing the question of why some people who agree with the Party politically may be reluctant to join, she emphasized the need for revolutionary violence over voting for a friendlier-faced liberal capitalist. The speaker also addressed the cynicism around the possibility of building a mass revolutionary working class movement through the examples of previous successful revolutions. The speaker concluded saying that learning from history and talking to your comrades are some ways to combat pessimism, but it’s even better to participate in class struggle and join PLP. Struggle builds our trust and confidence in the working class to change the world.
May Day is about celebrating working class fightback and we’ve had a lot of that in Chicago this past year!  Chicago PL’ers went to the BLM conference in Cleveland to put forth multi-racial unity instead of nationalism and segregation. We participated in events around the 43 missing students from Ayotzinapa when their caravan came to Chicago. We went to Ferguson to demonstrate on the one-year anniversary of the murder of Mike Brown with the courageous fighters there, and then we went to NYC and celebrated 50 years of our party! We marched in the streets when the video of Laquan McDonald’s murder was released. And a few days later we marched in the Black Friday protest, shutting down the Magnificent Mile with workers and students of all races. When Donald Trump came to have a rally at UIC, even though we know “It’s not just Trump, it’s capitalism,” we joined with thousands of students and workers to protest and kept him from speaking. We were part of the one-day Chicago Teacher’s strike—and we’ll be there when they go on strike again for our kids and our class!  When the police murdered 17-year-old Pierre Loury one month ago while he was fleeing, climbing a fence, we were there to protest with hundreds in his community. PLP was there because we know that being shoulder-to-shoulder with our brothers and sisters in the working class, engaged in struggle, is the only way we will build a party that can take on the capitalist class. And taking on the capitalist class in an armed revolution is the only way we can start to build a world that will truly serve the working class. The only solution is communist revolution!
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May Day Reflections
In the San Francisco Bay Area, we collectively planned our pre-May Day March activity to really reach out to everyone. We teamed up and went around a public plaza here, talking to people, distributing our on-point color PLP flyer and CHALLENGE-DESAFIO newspapers while asking for donations. There was the usual Sunday crowd of people shopping, coming to and from places on BART and people arriving for the rally and march. We sold about 75 CHALLENGES and distributed 500 flyers. We got some contacts
In the march, we lead very militant and classic PLP chants the entire way.
We waved awesome PLP flags and with other comrades held our banner with an image of a giant fist smashing a cop car. Our Chants and other banners addressed International Workers Unity and the Fight for Communism.
Finally, I took a try at leading chants and did my best. I need more practice figuring out the rhythms and especially practicing the Spanish chants. I tried to speak a little before a couple of the chants to explain our rhymes and talk to those around us in the march. Even though I have performed and rapped many times in front of all types of crowds, actually figuring out the dynamics of a moving political march will take some time. Perhaps we need more rallies to develop all our skills.
I think we represented well with a multi-racial group of men and women and all generations taking turns on the mic. We had people, especially the march security, smiling and chanting with us, each time we lead a chant.
Our crew had a well-deserved late lunch as we heard news that the Warriors had crushed the Portland Trail Blazers. Just as Golden State has proven their ability to play unselfishly and utilize the team, PLP is shaping up in the SF Bay Area to do the same, except not for capitalist owners but for all the workers. We have a way to go, but we continue to smash borders between age, gender, skin color, language, personal obligations, while committing to our obligations to the working class! Boom shakalaka! In yo face fascist chumps! “We go-in’ fo da win!!!
This year we planned a new approach to involving those who came with informal political discussions. We organized ahead to have “Table Talk” subjects and “break out reports.” The table talks about racism and fight back that people have seen this year really brought the tables to life and opened up conversations that may not have otherwise happened because people are either too shy or unsure of who’s who to say something. The fight against racism is a sure way to solidify our class and bring forward more workers.
The LA comrades shared their amazing story of fighting the Klan in Anaheim earlier this year and how they were abused by “the pigs” who meanwhile protected and were chummy with the KKK.
The talks, poetry, and music, as well as chants in between, really perked up the event. This should remind us that only reading and writing is not the only way to appeal to our class. All forms of culture must be taken back from the thieving capitalists. They have succeeded in making so much of our cultural outlets into commodities and our art just another way to profit. In my grandfather’s family (15 siblings) all knew how to sing and play music on some or several instruments—what has happened? We need to be sure not to underestimate the power of art as a tool to teach, share and inform—it is much older than the written word and still captivates workers. As a rapper in the 90’s once said: “Hiphop outsold crack.”
The after party was great, too, and a chance to have deeper conversations. I hope we will continue to have more dinners though the year. People came who I didn’t expect and some didn’t show up, and I’ll be sure to follow-up with asking those who did show up about why they decided to come.
Salutes to all the comrades, families, friends and all the support from each worker who contributed.
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My First May Day Dinner
This was my first visit to May Day Dinner. I liked hearing the history about what happened to workers in the past, how people suffered and how May Day came up. I liked hearing many individual life experiences. It was a warm and passionate event. The dinner was delicious. Robotic Rap was awesome.
Thank you guys!
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