The PLP-led ‘78 wildcat strike 

At the D.C. transit rally, I discussed the 1978 Progressive Labor Party (PLP)-led wildcat strike with several operators. They wanted to know what the strike had been about. Operators in PLP struggled with their fellow workers over two years to prepare for battle. The primary issue was whether they would actually get the cost of living raise that was guaranteed in  the contract, but the contract had expired. The law required that the provisions of the contract stay in place–the cost of living raise had to be given. But WMATA refused to provide the raise. This flagrant violation of labor law outraged all of WMATA’s workers. At the union meeting, the president refused to allow a discussion of a strike, “adjourned” the meeting, and left the building. A PLP transit worker jumped up on stage and declared that the meeting was back in session. The workers voted unanimously to strike – illegally!! The 5-6 day strike paralyzed the city until the bosses surrendered, and provided the cost of living raise. The power of the workers can’t be beat!
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Campaign workers encounter communism

From June 11th to 18th, two of our club members joined an array of Democratic and Republican campaign workers at several preliminary election sites in Baltimore City. As revolutionary communists, we stood firmly in our place against the capitalist ruling class and fighting for workers’ power. We held our signs, and we talked to campaign workers and the workers coming in to cast their votes. Workers encountered vague slogans like “Leadership You Can Trust,” “Focus On The Progress,” and “Values Matter.” Political signs with dolled up faces and campaign workers with flyers were trying to entice voters on their way to the election shrine. Each jurisdiction enforces a strict boundary line known as a “No Electioneering Zone,” meant to protect voters’ privacy and restrict the campaign workers from doing all the legwork of their bosses. Thousands of dollars are spent by the ruling class to please their gangster bosses and swindle the working class. Democrats occupy most offices in Baltimore City Hall, the Maryland State Assembly, and local districts, who—once in office—make their political careers out of them. With hardly any opposition from Small Fascist Republicans, the liberal Big Fascists control the cityscape.

Walking into a place where patriotism and nationalism are the norm and disturbing it with communist internationalism sparks interesting discussions. The campaign workers we talked with wondered how communism, the “evil” ideology claimed by the ruling class, would work and if it ever functioned anywhere in the world. We responded that we will not achieve communism until we get rid of the capitalist system and rebuild from the bottom up with the power of the working class. We referenced the Paris commune, the Bolshevik revolution, and the workers’/peasants’ revolution in China. Explaining our nuanced opposition to the bosses’ electoral system soon turned out to be such an enormous task that some of the campaign workers turned down anything we said. Some made references to our “ancestors” that fought hard for what we have but failed to explain what those specific gains were. A candidate running for a state district approached one of our comrades, claiming that our refusal to participate in this capitalist system was the main reason that Trump was elected to office. She also talked about how Black workers are finally liberated and doing well, but that white workers are not happy and are trying to take that freedom from them. This is typical rhetoric of a puppet politician, telling the working class that white and Black workers are each other’s enemy. Progressive Labor Party’s slogan “Asian, Latin, Black and white, workers of the world unite!” boldly disputes that. And so does the history of workers’ struggle against the ruling class (read “Juneteenth: Smash racism with multiracial unity” CHALLENGE 6/17 issue). Another example of the ruling class and their puppet politicians fighting to keep their power away from the workers is religion. Some of the campaign workers were convinced that God Almighty is in charge for all the good and evil of this world and that he is the one who chooses the leaders. This idea ignores the various factions on the left, both parties and individuals, who continue to betray the working class by helping to elect the next capitalist crony.

All that said, our discussions were very productive with a majority of the campaign workers. Decades of systematic anti-communist attacks by capitalist bosses demands that our Party educate workers internationally about the history of the workers’ labor movement against slavery, racism, and the oppression of women. Communists are not for reforming capitalism or just trying to help one particular group. Communists understand that the whole capitalist system must be destroyed, and that a classless society based on “from each according to commitment, to each according to need” must be put in its place. That’s what we fight for: communism!
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It was my first time

There was a first time CHALLENGE distribution  near a Food Lion Supermarket located next door to a Latino Community Outreach Center in Durham, North Carolina.  This action was in response to the recent ICE raid at Burton Elementary School, which was three miles away from Food Lion. Two Honduran students, a brother and sister, respectively 1st grade (age six), and 5th grade (age 11) were detained and subsequently deported  by ICE Nazis along with their parents back to Honduras. Personally, this was very upsetting as I’m a retired educator who had a former undocumented 5th grade student whose family fled Honduras after his father was murdered there.

The  event was for thirty minutes. I explained to workers passing by that the PLP is against all forms of racism including fascist ICE. Self critically, more time must be spent outside near Food Lion to talk to workers. The area is very multiracial as Black and white workers took CHALLENGE newspapers. As the bosses fascism attacks more workers, no one will be safe. White workers will be caught up too--just look at the fascist ICE murders of two workers, Alex Pretti and Renee Good. In the short term, we in the PLP must lead  protests and resistance.  In the long term, we must win the international working class to communist revolution to end this capitalist hell.
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Mermaids make waves for water aerobics

Our senior water aerobics class has been in existence for over ten years. Every summer like clockwork, we exercise on the south side in Washington Park’s beautiful outdoor pool to get our bodies moving, lose weight, fight isolation, lower blood pressure, depression and build relationships that extend until the next time we meet again.

However, for the last two years (and what would have been this year had we not moved into action), the Chicago Park District (CPD) did not budget for our aerobics class. Meanwhile, they had no shame in announcing a pilot program to install 100 Parisian-style chairs around Buckingham Fountain located downtown near the lakefront for $500 a chair! The parks district bosses have no problem spending money when it’s in a wealthy area, but rarely if it’s contributing to Black and Latin workers’ wellbeing.

Despite the failure of the park district, we were able to get a certified water aerobics instructor to step in and instruct us for FREE until the Park District stopped him from helping us because of insurance and liability reasons. Well, the fighting “Washington Park Mermaids” were having none of this. We appeared at the CPD board meeting and demanded that they reinstate our classes this summer with a budgeted instructor. However, they only provided us with a three-day week instead of five.

Many of us have stepped forward in this fight starting with organizing ourselves, then taking our fight to the Alderwoman, then to the Park District. We will not stop. Chicago has the largest life disparity in the country from city zip codes on the south and west sides to downtown Chicago, as much as 30 years difference. The lack of funding for healthy recreation, like in our neighborhood, helps explain why.

My friends in the class recognize me as a fighter and have looked to me for leadership in this struggle. My goal now is to share CHALLENGE with my friends, keep fighting, and spread communist politics and PLP as the way to win a healthy existence for ALL workers.
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The crisis and potential in Cuba

I was born in Cuba, a member of the Progressive Labor Party, and I watch with great concern the situation my country is going through. Cuba is currently enduring the worst crisis in its history, caused by the oil blockade imposed by the fascist and terrorist government of the United States. 

More than four months ago, it prohibited Venezuela from selling oil to Cuba following the kidnapping of Maduro, bringing everything to a standstill once again: massive blackouts, severe shortages of food and medicine, hospitals forced to cancel hundreds of surgeries, and many people cooking whatever little they can find over charcoal or firewood. There have been protests in several cities across the country, including Havana, driven by popular discontent. There have also been large marches and mass gatherings at the anti-imperialist plaza in front of the U.S. Embassy.

To this is added the threat of an imminent attack and invasion to kidnap the oldest leader of the Revolution, Raúl Castro, recently indicted in Miami  for the shooting down of two small planes that violated Cuban airspace 30 years ago. Miami is where the center of the terrorist Cuban mafia operates, extremist and racist, whose members are largely from the Republican Party and the MAGA movement. Now the fascist Trump government revives this action to win the votes of that community ahead of the November midterm elections and to distract from the unpopularity of the most corrupt, racist, and fascist government in the entire history of a decaying empire.

Cuba is living through a very dangerous situation: on one hand, the economic crisis, and on the other, the threat of an imminent invasion with the arrival of an aircraft carrier in the Caribbean. I don’t know what will actually happen, but if there is an attack, some workers and the armed forces are prepared to fight and apply the doctrine of the War of All the People, implemented in 1985 and reinforced after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. If that attack on the island takes place, despite the bloodbath that will follow and the possible occupation of the territory, there will be no surrender, because from the mountains the fighting would continue as guerrilla warfare, as in Vietnam, and the war could last many years.

Cuba has the solidarity of the working class in many countries around the world, including the United States, which is already taking to the streets in protest marches against an attack on Cuba, considered a bastion of resistance and struggle.

As a communist and internationalist, I wish to go to Cuba to fight alongside the workers in any capacity, including as a nurse, to care for the wounded and save lives. For now the most important thing I can do is continue growing and building PLP to make a communist world a reality.
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