Letters of July 1

30 Years of Fighting for Students and Communism
I have just finished a long run as a delegate to the delegate assembly of the NYC teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers. I am retiring, and the way the union works, only the leadership’s friends will be retiree delegates. As a PL member in that assembly, I have never been a friend of the leadership.
Over the years as a delegate, I’ve helped put forward resolutions against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I’ve called for support for striking workers; raised resolutions against the killing of Trayvon Martin, (the misleaders considered okay to oppose) and the NYPD’s killing of Ramarley Graham (not okay to attack their our “brothers” in the NYPD at that point) and endorsed PLP May Day marches.
The goals have always been, at the very least, to put class and racism up front, to broaden our “so-called union issues” into broader anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist issues, and win the mass of delegates to see their class interests. The work has often been difficult — the union is controlled by the leadership’s caucus ironically called “Unity” and most members of the assembly are in that caucus and are sworn to vote with the leadership. But we’ve always believed that in the long run, class interest will win workers to see that communist revolution is the answer, not reliance on union misleaders and their politician buddies.
Like many, I’ve often struggled with my own internal anti-communism. Most times, I didn’t openly call for revolution within my speeches. In the last few years, that changed. I began to work with younger comrades, and felt I had to step up my game. And, frankly, my anger at this system began to increase. When we had a resolution last year calling for support for Social Security, I rose to attack the system that keeps us all in poverty, especially as we age, and explained that my anger at that was why I am a communist.
Tonight was my last night. I spent the first half of the meeting wondering why I was there. I texted my husband, “not sure why I’m here, boring, and nothing is happening.” By the time he responded, I had to admit that things were hopping, and I’d been wrong.
A teacher raised a resolution describing the racist conditions that deny team sports for many students, mostly Black and Latin in small schools. He called on the union to make it a mass campaign. The leadership substituted its own resolution — weak and dishonest, implying that if we support the struggle to get sports to Black and Latin students, the city and state would take money from other schools.
The last resolution called for the State Legislature to support rent stabilization, which keeps rents more manageable for working people. I rose to amend the resolution, changing “middle-class working families” to “working-class families.” I then explained that I supported the resolution, but that I hated a system which required that we pay for our basic needs of food, housing and clothing. A system that makes us worry that we can’t fight racism and segregation without losing funding in some schools isn’t one I could support. I explained that I hated this system, and that in my final speech to the assembly, I wanted to make clear that we need a communist revolution.
The amendment passed along with the amended resolution. After the meeting, a delegate told me, “I agree with a lot of what you said and I don’t like capitalism—do you have meetings?” I replied we do, and we exchanged contacts.
Other delegates also thanked me, saying that while they didn’t always agree with a lot that I said but that I always contributed to the assembly. A delegate in the opposition caucus we work in congratulated me, another high-fived me. And, a delegate I’ve known for years, and who doesn’t agree with our politics, told me he voted for the amendment because, if this was my last assembly, that was his gift to me.
I have a feeling that’s why the amendment passed. It was a gift from hundreds of people to a communist they don’t always agree with, but who they respected.
★ ★ ★ ★
Bosses to Movie-Goers:Don’t Be Dinosaur Food
I went to see Jurassic World with my family, and one scene stood out in my mind because it illustrated one of the contradictions of capitalism. It’s when they discover that the genetically manipulated dinosaur, Indominus Rex, escaped. The viewer sees the contrast between the hero, Owen Grady, and a member of the security staff. Grady is lean, muscular and alert. The staff member is overweight and slouches as he stuffs himself with junk food. When they leave the control room to inspect the enclosure, the dinosaur attacks. Grady dives under a car while the staff member ineffectually cowers next to a second car, unable to fit under it. Of course, the dinosaur eats him.
This is a classic example of Social Darwinism — the survival of the fittest, with the bosses supposedly being the fittest people in society. But beyond that, it’s an example of blaming the victim; the viewer is led to believe that it’s the staff member’s fault for being overweight.
But obesity is a social disease. In the U.S. for example, the proportion of obese people increased from 13 percent of the population in 1963 to 27.6 percent in 2013. The problem isn’t that the proportion of gluttonous people in society has increased — it’s that capitalists make super-profits by selling junk food.
And here’s the contradiction: to fight the wars that are looming, the capitalists need soldiers who are lean, muscular and alert. Jurassic World does its part in a fitness drive by getting young people to want to be like Owen Grady and like the film’s heroine, Claire Dearing. Whether this will be enough to solve the capitalists’ contradiction is another matter. What’s important for our class is for us to be aware of the many subtle ways that the bosses’ media try to manipulate us into adopting the bosses’ world view.
★ ★ ★ ★
Black Nationalism Rises Amid Anti-Racist Rebellions
In response to non-indictments of police in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner murders — not to mention ever-increasing fascism against Black youth in the U.S. —some have reissued the idea of black capitalism, or “buying black,” to fight back.
This was the idea behind the last Fall’s #BlackoutBlackFriday campaign that sprung up after Brown’s murder, imploring participants to spend their dollars in black-owned businesses, as opposed to giant corporate retailers, on Black Friday. Proponents argue that because Black people’s spending power is $1.1 trillion dollars, buying in “our communities” is the best way to improve black socioeconomic conditions in the U.S.
The suggestion is nothing new. The Black ruling class such as Booker T. Washington and Robert Reed Church (the latter of founded the U.S.’s first Black-owned bank) touted it during the 20th century. But make no mistake, comrades. Black capitalism will do absolutely nothing to stop racist oppression of Black youth and workers. The idea itself is an offshoot of the Talented Tenth theory, the elitist, sexist idea that only male, ruling-class Black intellectuals could repair material conditions for Black workers.
No surprise the term originated among Northern white liberals, many of whom were financially backed by arch-imperialist John D. Rockefeller.
“Buying black” says that Black people in the U.S. can rebuke racist capitalist practices such as redlining and housing covenants by...wait for it...starting their own capitalism. Rather than fighting to destroy this system, black capitalism co-opts it in an attempt to assimilate Black workers into something never meant to include them.
Such practices as “keeping it in the community” will retain a super-exploited underclass working to produce profits for business owners. The only difference here is that all the bosses will share the same skin color as their workers.
We cannot defeat capitalism by creating a more race-based, isolated form of it. Only a communist revolution can and will do that.
★ ★ ★ ★

Letters of June 17

The following two letters are written by high school students in Baltimore who led walkouts following the
racist police murder of Freddie Gray.
The First Walkout
The first high school walkout was on Friday, April 24.  It was liberating to take a stand with many other like-minded students, leaving school to protest and march for all the lives unjustly and brutally snuffed out by the racist cops. Some students and I met in the basement of the school to discuss what we would do and how we would do it. I told them that we had to be quiet and disciplined when exiting the building. We discussed the importance of walking out against racism. Anyone who just wanted to avoid going to class was dismissed.
 We all walked out of the front entrance of the building. Many began chanting and marching around our school’s campus and holding up CHALLENGE newspaper.
Along with other students, I helped lead the chants. We made two stops so that everyone could talk and say how they felt. At each stop, I gave a speech about racism, sexism, corruption and hate crimes that are bred by the capitalist system. At the last stop, a student led everyone in a prayer to finish off the protest. Before they went back in the building, I told everyone what PLP was about and invited them to May Day!
The expansion of the Progressive Labor Party will continue, and this unjust system will crack!
The Second Walkout
The following week, I heard students were planning to protest the PAARC exam, which is part of national Common Core standards.
I felt it was my responsibility as an elected student leader at our school to support my fellow classmates in a fight against an unfair school system. The test was postponed after a number of students refused to take it. An administrator lied, claiming the test was being postponed for “technical reasons.” It was the bold refusals that were the real spark.
The next day, Friday May 1, students walked out again for Freddie Gray, and also against injustices in Baltimore City Public Schools. Before walking out, we chanted boldly while marching through all four floors of our school’s main building. 
On our minds was the thought of “productive protesting.” Once outside, after we stopped the first time, we told the students that we needed to take our protests to the next level. I reminded students that the administration knows we can take the power out of their hands and into ours! But they don’t stop us because they think we don’t have the ability to articulate our demands.
I reminded us that even if the school system refuses to teach us those skills, there are other places and organizations where we could go to learn how to fight! At the end of the protest, the group of about 40 decided to make demands — in addition to our solidarity struggle for justice for Freddie Gray — that related to educational, emotional, and productive issues. Now, we move forward to write-ups, petitions, conferences, and much more. On the initiative of two young Black male students, a club named Students Taking Action was born out of the march.
The events in Baltimore during the earlier citywide uprising have sparked the beginnings of an unstoppable long-term rebellion. It was not a “riot,” as the capitalist media, politicians, and some clergy have falsely characterized it. We will continue to fight back!
★ ★ ★ ★
Struggle and Learn
At the meeting of my retirees union chapter this month, a labor leader from the AFL-CIO came in to give us the general picture of labor and politics. His position was that politically the labor movement was in terrible trouble and that we have to ensure that the next time that democrats were voted completely in — but Democrats who completely support the positions of labor. In other words, same old, same old. But in laying out his position and talking about all the problems in  the country for working people, it became a dirge that upset many of the members. During the question time for him, the questions clearly illustrated their concerns and what could be done. In each case it came down to getting out the vote.
In the “Good and Welfare” part of the meeting, I put together a picket line chant to start a song I wanted to sing. I chanted the chant “The bosses can’t profit when the workers unite. Shut it down. Shut it tight,” and then sang “The men and women on the line”.  I normally get a good response from the 200 or so members who attend these meetings. But this time the applause was thunderous, and I was surrounded by people who wanted to talk to me. There was a line of them. I was given some telephone numbers and I gave the song sheet to someone and was asked to send a song sheet to someone else.  I was a little overwhelmed. People sitting in the seats around me pointed to their CHALLENGE and told me they had it.
After the event, when I was walking with one of my retiree friends, I tried to think through, and talk through, what had happened. I have been an activist in the union for 29 years and have been involved with struggles on the union floor during meetings and in my workplaces.  I often brought members from my workplaces to the meetings and I usually get out 100 or so CHALLENGEs at all of the meetings. I have had limited success at winning people into the PLP from amongst the workers. I have often had raw anticommunist comments thrown at me and I have been threatened on numerous occasions, but I have always carried on. Especially at May Day or at the month of May, I would make a special project of insuring that May Day (the workers’ holiday) was well understood.
Between the discussion and thinking over what had happened, it became clear to me that this was a perfect storm. I had done consistent work for 29 years. I have been singing at the retirees’ meetings for almost 3 years now, while raising issues of the working class – among them racism and sexism. The world in the last 29 years has been changing dramatically for the working class. Things are getting a lot worse, and workers have become somewhat confused. But over the last two or three years, the different struggles against racism and inequality have been growing in people’s minds. Then a well-known labor leader made a speech telling people that all we can do is vote and organize other people to vote while the politicians fritter away the lives of the working class, things begin to happen.
In our pamphlet, “Build a Base in the Working Class” there is a point in the early pages where we are told that we should constantly raise the line and struggle with people. It may seem like we’re not getting anywhere, but we can never tell.  In fact, we are getting somewhere.  The consistency of raising the ideas and getting to know people and the changing world situation (Ferguson, Baltimore, unemployment, wage disparities, the fight to raise the minimum wage) will make people more ready to listen. The lines to the song I sang at the end say, “This song is for the workers of the world. Their banners come unfurled. Sisters, brothers break your chains — let the fight begin. We have the whole wide world to win”.  Some of the working class are beginning to see light in the dark night. The battle is long, but the end is clear. We have a communist world to win!
★ ★ ★ ★
CHALLENGE Error
There’s an error in the picture caption “May Day in France” (CHALLENGE, page 6, 5/20). According to the caption, “‘The Time of the Cherries” refers to a revolutionary song about the Paris Commune of 1871. The “Time of Cherries” was referred to as a metaphor for what life will be like under a communist society, but the story is more complex.
“The Time of the Cherries” was originally a popular love song written in 1866. In the original lyrics, a broken-hearted man warns young men to avoid beautiful women, if they fear the cruel pain of breaking up. He adds that he will always cherish cherry-picking time because it reminds him of the memory he stores in his heart, which is like an unhealed wound. Several years later, after the author participated in armed revolution, new verses were added.
In 1871, workers in Paris staged the first working-class revolution and established the first dictatorship of the proletariat: the Paris Commune. The song’s author, Jean-Baptiste Clément, fought for the Commune against the combined armies of the French and German bosses.
During the final stage of the bosses’ victory over the world’s first proletarian government, during the “bloody week” of May 21-28, 1871, the bosses murdered 20,000 to 30,000 members of the Commune after they had surrendered. In particular, they slaughtered the nurses, who were supposedly recognized under capitalist law as “noncombatants” by the bosses. Then as now, when threatened with revolution, the bosses broke their own law. Killing noncombatants was explicitly forbidden by the bosses’ first Geneva Convention of 1864, which the French bosses had signed, and established the Red Cross. On May 28, the very last day of the Commune, a young woman and ambulance nurse serving with Clément’s group somehow became separated from them, never to be seen again.
In 1882, Clément published a book of his songs and dedicated “The time of the cherries” to this young ambulance nurse. He wrote: “All we knew was that she was named Louise and that she was a working class woman. … What became of her? Was she shot down, with so many others, by [the bosses]? Wasn’t it to this obscure heroine that I had to dedicate the most popular of all the songs that are in this book?”
Ever since then, the working class in France has associated “The Time of the Cherries” with the Paris Commune. It is less about “what life will be like under a communist society” than it is about unforgettable sorrow and anger at the bosses’ crimes against the working class. Crimes that the international working class will one day avenge.
★ ★ ★ ★

Letters of June 3

May Day Reflections

The following letters are reflections of students and workers from a community college in the Bronx, NY who attended May Day on May 2.

“Same struggle, same fight. Workers of the world unite!” was one of the many slogans chanted throughout Flatbush, Brooklyn at the May Day march. This was the first time I have ever been a part of something like this. It was the first time I had ever been in a march at all. As we made our way through the streets, making our presence known and our voices heard, the way the community reacted to us was a very moving experience. People came out from the shops to see what was happening. Those already outside stopped what they were doing. Those inside their apartments sat at their windows looking at us.
It was a beautiful thing to see. While they might have not been marching with us physically, for that moment that we passed by them, there was no denying they were in solidarity with us. People started chanting.  There were also people who joined us along the way. The community’s reaction made me realize that this was one of the reasons why people marched.  It was a way of letting people know that they are not alone in their struggle; we are all part of the same working class. And if we come together, our voices grow louder.   
★ ★ ★ ★
I was very impressed that the organizers of the march appeared to be almost all young people. In our society, we are taught that youth cannot be relied on, that they’re selfish and egotistical. It was refreshing to see a very good example of how this capitalist idea is wrong. I have confidence not only that young people can organize and lead a march, but also they can organize and lead the entire working class in the fight against capitalism.
★ ★ ★ ★
As a college student, I admired the fact that the march was so organized. The previous marches that I have been to were part of a spur-of-the-moment type of action. This march had a chance to gather more of a crowd. The march was official and it stood for everything I believe in. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I plan on going to more functions.
★ ★ ★ ★
I am a college student from the Bronx and I felt that this march was very inspirational. Also, this was my first march so things were rather new to me. I liked that people who were not in the march took the time to listen to us. Some chanted along with us and some even joined. That just shows that we are inspiring and can move people. If I weren’t a part of the march, I would have wanted to join and would have asked many questions. This was a fun and educational experience and it would be nice to be a part of more to come.
★ ★ ★ ★
I am not a communist but I still attended a march organized by the Progressive Labor Party. While I did keep my mouth shut for chants praising communism, there were plenty of chants that I raised my voice for. I screamed for calls against the police, war, and the politicians. Even though I want a different form of government, I respect the values of the PLP. This Party fights for the working class, racial and gender equality, and many more liberal causes. I definitely have no problem turning up with the PLP.
★ ★ ★ ★
 I was on the march on Saturday and I was surprised to see how organized it was. It was my first march so I didn’t know what to expect. It was good to see how there were people of different ethnicities, genders, and ages. Everybody united for the purpose of ending racism, police brutality, sexism, and other things. Even though the issues were serious, the atmosphere was welcoming. I really enjoyed it and would definitely do it again.
★ ★ ★ ★
I especially enjoyed May Day this year because of the historical continuity of the march. Going to different parts of Brooklyn and hearing about different cases of police brutality was a great move and should be done more often.

Letters of May 20

Communism, Not Black Capitalism
At the invitation of a young Black resident friendly to PLP,  members and friends of PLP from Chicago and Indiana traveled to Ferguson on April 18. We were a multi-racial group of  women and men — white, Latin, and Black workers. We arrived at a Community Center for Ferguson youth, formerly a school. The Ferguson workers were a multi-racial group, including white workers. Workers are still angry over the outrageous institutional racism that led to the death of Mike Brown at the hands of racist cop Darren Wilson. At the Center, Party members got into a discussion with a Black entrepreneur advocating the worn-out idea of  “Black capitalism” as the key to Black workers’ freedom. This guy exposed himself to be an agent of the ruling class.
We were invited by our Ferguson host to attend a demonstration in nearby Jennings at the police station. Jennings Police Department was the former employer of killer cop Wilson. It has a reputation for racist terror. Several hours before we arrived, another young Black worker named Thaddeus had been killed by police in Jennings under dubious circumstances. The demonstration was for Thaddeus.
Our protest was multi-racial with many white workers from the local St. Louis metro area participating, including church members. There were Black and white motorists honking their horns in solidarity. We got out 95 CHALLENGES, plus Party leaflets publicizing our communist politics. We got on the bullhorn and  called for communist revolution and armed struggle to abolish racist capitalism and its hired thugs, the cops. The Jennings cops, led by a Black sergeant, were so upset by the sight of multi-racial workers and communists openly calling for revolution, that they came out of their station five times to harass us. The last time they emerged was as the PL members were getting ready to leave. A Black woman protestor told us, “look! There’s a lot of pigs all coming out the station doors! They are up to something!”
The Party stayed to support our fellow workers. If the cops’ plan was to intimidate us, it failed! No protestor backed down and left! Our friends stayed in front of police station all night. PLP will be making more trips to Missouri this summer!
★ ★ ★ ★
May Day Celebration
PLP members in a Midwestern city had a May Day dinner for members of the Unitarian Church celebrating the workers’ international holiday on April 25. Our gathering was multiracial. We had good food and lots of discussions before our program began. We had three main speakers, including PL comrade recently in Ferguson who gave a report on PLP organizing there.
The second report was on “Communist Organizing in the Age of President Obama,” and the final report was on the all-out fight for a communist revolution to establish an anti-racist, egalitarian and classless society. We opened up the floor for open discussion of the reports. Some agreed with us, others didn’t. Special  mention was made that capitalism not only is destroying the international working class from Ferguson to the Middle East, but also destroying the environment with climate change.
Either we get rid of capitalism, or capitalism will ultimately get rid of us all. CHALLENGES and leaflets were distributed. We concluded with the singing of the Internationale. We will keep fighting to win the international working class to see the necessity of communist revolution as the way forward out of the hell of capitalist imperialism!
★ ★ ★ ★
Workers Gear Up for Strike, Union Leaders for Sellout
“We are facing real challenges. There is a world economy.” That’s how UAW President Dennis Williams tried to temper workers’ anger and expectations as he addressed the two-day Special Bargaining Convention (SBC) here in Detroit, Michigan. More than 2,000 delegates took part in the gathering before negotiations start on the Ford, GM and Chrysler contracts
At the UAW convention last June, delegates voted for a dues increase that would go entirely into the strike fund. International leaders warned that the 2015 talks were going to be a war, and with 60 percent of our membership now in Right-to-Work states, we could expect a big campaign by the Right-to-Work movement to get workers to quit the union when these contracts expire. But this was not a War Council.
Detroit Mayor Duggan laid out his plan to clear the area around Detroit City Airport for a 12-year tax-free zone to build 10 new factories. This is after tens of thousands of Black families have been evicted or foreclosed on for owing back taxes!
UAW Financial Secretary/Treasurer Gary Casteel said, “The sun is shining as we enter the 2015 contract talks,” referring to the billions in profits made by the auto bosses since the Obama-UAW-Wall St. bailout in 2009. That bailout cut starting wages in half, eliminated pensions for new hires, and created a second tier of health care. The bailout also exempted GM from billions in damages from the companies past defective cars.
Each International VP reported on how great things are going. The Ford report took center stage. The Chicago Ford Assembly plant now has over 2,300 workers, an increase of 60 percent since the 2009 economic collapse. Two-thirds of these workers are at entry level wages, making under $15/hr. with a cap of $19/hr. First-tier workers make about $28/hr. Work is coming back to U.S. Ford factories due to high productivity and cheap wages throughout the U.S. .
Unlike GM and Chrysler, Ford did not declare bankruptcy in 2009, and will likely be the target company in the 2015 negotiations. Ford has gone from 36,000 workers in 2011 to 54,000 today, surpassing GM. Seventeen thousand Ford workers are second tier. Huge profits allowed Ford to invest over $8 billion in plant improvements since 2011, to create even higher productivity from a growing low-wage workforce. And this doesn’t include the parts-supplier plants, also on two-tier, a 70 percent of assembly plant wages.
Many of the delegates are angry and the loudest cheers came at any mention of a strike. Senior workers haven’t had a wage increase in almost 10 years, and young workers are tired of making half-pay. One young worker said, “90% of the workers in my plant are second-tier. Our plant just got a new contract, and new hires get no pensions. We are exposed to dangerous chemicals [which she rattled off] and health and safety violations. We all need equal pay and healthcare.”
The spirit of Ferguson was also in Cobo Hall. One delegate said, “My local and our Sister locals marched against the failures of Grand Juries to indict the killers of Mike Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in NYC. The fight against racism on and off the job must be at the heart of who we are.” Delegates cheered. Earlier that morning, the local news released video tape of a racist beating of Floyd Dent, a Black Ford worker with 37-years seniority, by the Inkster police (a Ferguson-style suburb of Detroit).
We work in the unions to fight for the political leadership of the workers, to break them away from the dead-end treadmill of reformism and the Democratic Party. We have been at it for a long time in the UAW, and even though progress is slow, the workers continue to encourage us.
★ ★ ★ ★

Letters of May 6

When Auto Workers Fought Racist Police Terror
On April 17, 2015, the New York Times ran a front-page story on the racist police murder of 10-year-old Clifford Glover in Queens, NY. Clifford was walking to work with his Dad on a Sunday morning. His Dad had just been paid the day before and had a lot of cash in his pocket. An unmarked police car pulled over and a plainclothes cop got out and told them to stop. Fearing they were being robbed, they ran and cop Thomas Shea shot Clifford in the back, saying the five-foot tall, 100-pound 10-year-old fit the description of a robbery suspect. He also said Clifford turned toward Shea and pointed a gun at him. Clifford never turned, never had a gun and was shot in the back. This was in 1973. Sound familiar?
At the time, I was working at the Ford Assembly Plant in Mahwah, NJ. Our small PLP club had a regular CHALLENGE readership among our co-workers and 1973 was a contract year. We were trying to organize for more militant action against Ford and the UAW union leadership since Ford had us working tons of overtime in order to build up a huge stockpile of cars so they could sit out any possible strike. There was a Black caucus in the plant, loosely tied to DRUM (Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement) and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers in Detroit. They were trying to address racism in the UAW, hoping to elect more Black union officers (there was only one at the time).
Then the NYPD murdered Clifford Glover. We brought that issue to the factory floor. We distributed a flier about the racist murder and circulated a petition, demanding that our UAW local union take a public stand against the police and in support of the family, and demanding that Shea be indicted for murder. The workers’ response was electric. It far surpassed their response to all the contract and “bread-and-butter” issues we’d been organizing around.
We literally circulated the petition on the Ford assembly line. We placed the petition in the frame of the car and as it went down the line, workers would take off their work gloves, sign the petition, and send it to the next person. We did this in a few departments. Even among those workers who didn’t sign, no one ratted us out to the bosses. (Or if they did, it was after the fact.) In a couple of hours we’d collected over 350 signatures. The mood of the workers and our relationship to them had made a qualitative change for the good.
The May union meeting had an overflow crowd as the union leadership, the Black caucus and PLP mobilized our respective bases to attend, each group either advancing or sabotaging the fight against racist police terror. The union leadership was outnumbered but had more of a plan and maneuvered to successfully adjourn the meeting with no action taken. We had no Plan B to take over the meeting after it was adjourned, to plan action with the workers who were there. But rather than being dejected and cynical, the workers were even angrier.
The struggle in the plant accelerated. PLP members were targeted. I was suspended for three days for having CHALLENGE and PLP literature in my locker. But by early June, when the temperatures exceeded 100 degrees in the plant, we were able to lead a wildcat strike that shut down Ford for a week. This was big news, and it helped our comrades in Detroit to organize the Mack Ave sit-down strike against Chrysler just two months later. Workers seized the plant, the first such auto strike in nearly 40 years.
There’s a lot to be learned from these struggles, positive and not so positive, but mainly that we have to take the fight against racist police terror to our shop floors and inside our unions. The fight over the racist murder of Clifford Glover helped workers to see things more clearly. Many of them knew it could have been them and their children. And that raised political consciousness, making them more willing to take bold action against Ford and the union misleadership.
Bringing the fight against racism and police terror to our jobs and unions will help steel us, help build a mass PLP and make us a Party worthy of leading the working class to power.
★ ★ ★ ★
Ayotzinapa: Your Struggle is Our Struggle
On March 25, Lili, a new member of our PLP club here in Chicago, received a text that a caravan from Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, Mexico would be here April 3—6. Very little to none was mentioned in the Latin and English media. Two other caravans were already hitting the Pacific and East coasts the earlier part of March. These three caravans, representing students friends and family members of the 43 Normalistas (students attending the teachers college) who were attacked and disappeared on September 26—27, were coming to cities throughout the U.S. and ending in Washington, DC.
The purpose of the Caravana 43 was to expose the lies of the Mexican government and to seek political support from workers in the U.S. and finally from president Obama himself. Obama is no friend of these families. Only the international working class can show solidarity with workers in Mexico.
The 43 young men attended college in Ayotzinapa to become teachers with the sole purpose of going back to teach the kids in the towns they came from. The students were on their way to the town of Iguala, Guerrero to raise funds for their college when armed military local, state and federal cops stopped their bus. Six students were killed and some injured — two of whom are still in a coma. One student had his face cut off!
The story is that the 43 students were handed over to a drug gang in Guerrero, Mexico. There are still rumors that the 43 disappeared students were killed and their bodies burned, or that the students are still alive and are being used to pick crops somewhere in the mountain region.
The Caravana 43 committee, made up of several lefty community organizations and four Roman Catholic Churches in the Spanish-speaking communities, organized the activities here. The first one began with a folk dance until the visitors’ arrival at the plaza. A student visitor Beto spoke. He survived the attacks back in September. He and the two other visitors, Esperanza and Lolo, were taken to a nearby restaurant to be interviewed by a local TV station. Esperanza is the mother of one of the 43 disappeared students. Lolo is a teacher and uncle of one of the 43 students.
On Saturday, April 4, a rally was held in front of one church. It was here that I gave a DESAFIO, CHALLENGE’s Spanish counterpart, to the three visitors. We then marched through the Pilsen neighborhood in Chicago.
We chanted, “Alive you took them. Alive we want them back.” A comrade and I took turns distributing 120 CHALLENGEs and holding two posters (see photo). The posters (the Spanish versions) read “Brothers/Sisters — your sadness is our sadness, your anger is our anger, your struggle is 100 percent our struggle. Fight for Communism” and “From May Day to Ferguson, MO. to Ayotzinapa: Fight to Destroy Capitalism.” Esperanza, Lolo, and Beto marched with a contingent of nearly 100.
At the community forum, Esperanza spoke first. She and her family are poor farm workers, as are the rest of the Ayotzinapa families. She spoke of watching a TV soap opera at the time her son and others were attacked. “Never in my wildest imagination would I have thought of such a horrific thing happening to my son. And me, [I was] watching a soap opera. Can you imagine that?!”
The mothers are no longer watching soap operas. They are in the thick of the struggle giving leadership to find their loved ones. One of the slogans of the Ayotzinapa struggle is, “They took everything from us. They even took away our fear.”
More residents participated at the evening forum. Because of their struggle to get the disappeared students back, 600 more families joined the fight. Beto spoke. He felt that before trying to change the “macro” (the system), the “micro” had to be changed. He identified the “micro” as the children that aspire to be either drug-traffickers or soap opera stars when they grow up.  Since 2006, the racist U.S.–fueled drug war in Mexico has led to the disappearance of more than 30,000 people. From 2007 to 2012, there were officially over 121,000 homicides, with over 50,000 under the current government under president Enrique Peña Nieto.
Terrorism, disappearances, and murder of youth are an everyday occurrence for working-class families throughout the world. In the U.S. alone, 1.5 million Black men (this includes only ages 25 to 54) are missing due to death or jail. On top of unemployment, sexist and racist working conditions, this is what capitalism means for billions of workers!
A press conference at the Workers United Hall on April 6 concluded with a protest in front of the Mexican Consulate down the street. Esperanza and Lolo spoke. As the Chicago police moved in to defend the front doors of the consulate, Esperanza and Lolo were whisked off. I found out later that Beto had received threats and didn’t make it to Monday’s protest. I circulated about another 45 CHALLENGEs to the protesters and those going in and out of the Consulate.
I spoke briefly with Esperanza, Lolo and Beto at the weekend events. Self-critically, I should have been much bolder in getting to know them. Lili has family members in Mexico who are involved in the struggle to bring justice to the disappeared students. Our club has been in contact with them.
The committee organizers weren’t able to get as many residents out as I expected. Most of those involved that weekend were young political organizers, several of whom I had known when we were involved together in the La Casita sit-in about three years ago. (Working mothers occupied La Casita, an elementary school field house, for 43 days to protest its demolition.) I had also seen three women friends who used to be in PLP, one who participated in the Boston Summer Project along with her (now deceased) 17-year-old sister and me in 1975! I will make it a point to renew our friendship.
The struggle in Ayotzinapa is an international one. It is up to PLP to link the mass terrorization and disappearances of youth in Mexico to youth in the U.S. and worldwide as part of this destructive capitalist system.
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