Last summer I joined the Progressive Labor Party (PLP). I attended the Party’s school for CHALLENGE called the Summer Project, which we host in a different location around the world every year. We study, we rally, and we exchange lessons with our comrades about fighting this racist capitalist system. Learning how the Party puts their, anti sexist, multiracial, internationalist political line into practice during the Project ultimately won me to taking the leap and joining the fight, so here are three key takeaways from that experience.
The first key reason I joined the Party is the opportunity to build class consciousness amongst the masses with communist ideas. In Boston during the week long school for communism, we had comrades from Colombia, Kentucky, Baltimore, LA, Newark, and NYC come together to learn about the antiracist organizing done by our PLP comrades in 1975. Fifty years ago communists from Progressive Labor Party fought against the racist agenda of the Boston ruling class, which sought to continue segregation between Black and white students in Boston public schools.
Our comrades organized Freedom Schools during the summer to offer children the education, resources, and care that the racist capitalist bosses in Boston denied them.
Learning about the Party’s history of fight back and mutual aid taught me that we must both break bread with people and take that collectivity to a higher level by showing people why we deserve more than just bandaids to our collective wounds caused by this racist capitalist system in crisis. Mutual aid is necessary during these trying times, but only communism : an international economic system where workers run society in a way that serves our class and the planet can guarantee us what we need.
That is building class consciousness and that is the first key reason I joined the Party. The second reason I joined the Party is to agitate the masses with communist ideas. In Boston during the school for CHALLENGE we do every summer in different locations, we sold CHALLENGE, our newspaper, in various working class neighborhoods. We started rallies in areas full of workers quietly struggling their way through the various crises we face in this for-profit system.
What I learned from rallying and selling CHALLENGE during the Summer project is that if we do not agitate the masses with communist ideas like multiracial unity, awareness of imperialist war and genocide; if we stay silent about the need for a revolutionary organization to end this system and build a new one, then some workers will never get the opportunity to join this fight to change the world, to wake up from their capitalist-induced pacifism.. I was surprised by how receptive people were to the paper, which taught me that we should not be afraid to tell the truth and stand up for what is right. .
The third reason I joined the Party is to organize on an internationalist line. The Party showed me many examples of what this looks like in practice. During the summer project I learned about the militant fightback our comrades in Kentucky took up against the Proud Boys, knocking neo-nazi to the ground when they tried to intimidate workers during a protest. One of our LA comrades worked together with her fellow workers and students to rip a racist banner at her school in half and put it in front of her principal’s office. One of our comrades delivered an empowering speech about capitalism in decay in Creole when we were rallying in a Haitian neighborhood in Massachusetts to bridge the gap between English and Creole speaking workers. The real-life application of the Party’s line showed me that this is what workers taking ownership of their lives and the world looks like: It means standing up for one another against neonazis, collectively defying a racist school culture, and pushing our fightback to transcend the limits of language and borders.
Hearing our Party’s line in action ultimately inspired me to join. Learning how my comrades took ownership of their languages, workplaces, and environments along with their fellow workers inspired me to want to do the same. Now that I’ve joined the Party we are working to build a tenant union, hosting gatherings to bring our neighbors together who come from all parts of the world, some who speak Spanish and are afraid of ICE, and some who are older and are isolated in their homes. We are building a foundation with these workers through social events to eventually challenge the neglect of the slumlords owning our homes.
It is only when we come together by the tens, thousands, and millions that we can destroy capitalism and win the world to communism. I know y’all have some fight in you, so Join us! No seriously. I want you to ask the person who brought you how you can learn more and join the Progressive Labor Party!
