Chicago                                                 

CHICAGO, October 18—A contingent of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members and an equal number of friends marched today with 275,000 fellow workers angry with the rise of fascism in the United States. This march was part of the national “No Kings” Day organized and sponsored by the Democratic Party. The national “No Kings” mobilizations represent a massive effort by the liberal Big Fascist section of the U.S. ruling class to win the working class to build more U.S.  patriotism. As such, there was a huge increase in the number of U.S. flags at this rally, and an effort to dampen the growing anger, militancy, and hatred workers around the country are expressing toward the destructive crises of capitalism.

The “No Kings” movement is an attempt to win our class to nationalism, patriotism, and back into the Big Fascist camp. We exposed these contradictions by calling for the destruction of all borders so racist forces like ICE can’t exist. We called for multiracial internationalism to connect the struggles in Gaza to the struggles in Sudan and elsewhere around the world. We called for wokers power to show that we don’t need the bosses’ political parties (Democrats or Republicans) to “save” us. One friend said, “Y’all are the only ones who call out racism.” Another friend said, “Y’all are the only ones who talk about workers actually running things.” Our friends who marched with us are clearly seeing the differences between PLP and the other groups at these rallies.

We were able to rapidly distribute 1000 leaflets, hundreds of copies of CHALLENGE, and get numerous contacts of workers who want to learn more about the Party and how to build a society where no human being is illegal, a society based on working-class need and equality – communism. 

We need communist leadership and worker power, not liberal racists

For the past month Chicago has been under siege by the ICE Gestapo and other fascist federal troops, but many of the workers who have been leading the valiant battles against these fascists weren’t a part of the carnival-like “No Kings” parade. The rally and march were visibly lacking the very sections of the working class who are being targeted and leading the resistance to brutal attacks. 

The Democratic Party is aimlessly trying to position itself as the alternative to Donald Trump’s brand of fascism, but Black and Latin workers in Chicago have lived under the Democrats’ brand of fascism our entire lives, including poverty wages, homelessness, and racist police terror. The Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor of Illinois,  JB Pritzker, have publicly talked tough against Trump and the raids, while deploying their own police departments to protect ICE agents as they kidnap and terrorize our class siblings. 

When Governor Pritzker marched past our contingent, a comrade quickly made a speech exposing his hypocrisy and collusion with the growing fascist movement. Unfortunately, a sizable number of workers at the ‘No Kings’ rallies didn’t yet see the Democrats for the wolves that they are and tried to shut our comrade down, but some workers, particularly younger workers, cheered on the speaker. 

Another comrade led a chant saying, “If we don’t get it, shut it down” and a worker responded, “Why would we want that? They already shut the government down!” Our comrade responded, “The bosses have shut the government down on their terms to hurt our class. They shut down jobs, hospitals, food, and schools to hurt us. What we are talking about is shutting down the stuff the bosses care about (profits) so that we can make sure our class gets the food, education, and health care WE deserve!” The crowd erupted and we all started chanting, “IF WE DON’T GET IT, SHUT IT DOWN!”

Not just “No Kings,” no capitalists at all!
While the overall politics of the No Kings marches are weak, their massive turnouts show that workers are disgusted by the profit system’s slide into wider fascism. It’s on us in PLP to unite with millions of other workers in the context of class struggle. Through fighting back together, we can win our class to the truth that the chaos we’re witnessing is not just limited to Trump and his goons but is a result of capitalism’s unstable nature and need for racism, exploitation and war.

Not just “No Kings” but no capitalists! The system can’t be reformed to meet the needs of billions of working-class people on the planet! Join the PLP and help build for communist revolution and a world where workers run society for our collective needs.

NEW JERSEY

Newark, October 18th—Antiracist working class fighters showed out at the ‘No Kings’ rallies, ready to stand against fascism (see glossary on page 8) under U.S. President Donald Trump’s MAGA regime. Members of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) prepared to take the demand to ‘Dump Trump’ a step further by calling for workers to dump capitalism altogether. Our Party utilized a banner that displayed the words ‘TWO HEADS OF THE SAME FASCIST MONSTER”with drawings of liberal fascists, representing Columbia University, the United Nations, the AFL-CIO Union on the left and far-right nationalists like ICE, IOF, Proud Boys, and Trump on the right. The bottom of the banner read, ‘WORKERS WILL WIN THE WORLD.’ We see the millions of workers who are fed up with racist deportations, the high cost of living, and genocidal wars, with a potential to do far greater than rallying against one capitalist ruler. An organized working class has the potential to stop all these capitalist rulers and run the world. 

With this confidence, our NJ section of PLP decided to split up between three areas of New Jersey—Trenton, where a friend in the organization leading “No Kings,” 50501 invited PLers to speak, Newark, our organizing base for 40 years, and Maplewood, where brave fighters actively protest the genocide in Gaza. We used CHALLENGE newspapers as a tool to spread communist ideas, selling more than 200 copies. Even as crowds of people waved the American flag and sang the racist nation’s anthem, workers looked our way to learn more about communism.

Dare to struggle, dare to win

PL’ers have consistently attended protests and deportations at Delaney Hall, the  ICE Detention Center in Newark, and continued the fightback with collective study groups in the park. One friend who has both actively marched and studied with us shared after one study group the idea for PLP to speak at the “No Kings” rally in Trenton. Following his leadership allowed several Party members to give both direct and more subtle speeches about the need for a working-class communist movement and to tell hundreds of workers, directly, not to pin their hopes for defeating global war and fascism on voting for the Democrats. 

One 20-year-old trans person took the mic and said, “I’m not the problem; I’m being made to feel terrified for just existing. I need a country to feel protected in.” We responded within our speeches that politicians can’t save us when we’re facing an avalanche of crises. Politicians representing the ‘Democratic Party’ will swing towards fascism, or extreme repression against workers, if it means saving the rotten capitalist structure. The current NJ Democratic Party nominee, Mikie Sherrill, was boosted by the main speakers, while workers on the side shared that they had visited her office for two years, pleading that she close detention centers and stop supporting Israel’s bombing of Gaza. Despite promises to not support any more detention centers, Sherrill swiftly signed off on them anyway. Voting for Democrats and reforms may gain us the potential of legislation in support of abortion, public schools and gender affirming healthcare, but the trade off will still be more pillaging of the international working class.

Misleaders will get workers killed

History teaches us that while some material gains are made, the capitalist class will swiftly take them away to maintain their profits. To expose these lies we cannot let our work stop at protests. We need to build friendships with the working class, think through these ideas together, and struggle with one another to demand more. Looking for solutions on the ballot is the wrong place to look, and we need to be building something else with one another. We need to reach out to friends who are feeling conflicted and provide political direction on how to not only survive but how to win something long term for the workers. PLP offers concrete direction and greater engagement beyond just voting.

Workers are being made to feel more directly responsible for the impact of our decisions during this time, and we are. But whether we vote or not, we need solutions that cannot be cut by the bosses electoral system. Approaching the rallies with deliberate planning and political decisiveness made us bold enough to tell workers to join PLP, to fight alongside other workers for a communist future. Only by being committed and bold can we inspire each other to fight for revolution and run the whole world. As one PLer’s speech reminded us “we workers cannot allow ourselves to be herded like sheep. Don’t fight for politicians or reforms alone, fight for communism. Read CHALLENGE! Join Progressive Labor Party!”