The weekend of August 7th, Progressive Labor Party (PLP) comrades from Kentucky spent the Party’s annual summer project in Chicago. For some, this was their third summer project, and for others, their second.
While this was a shorter summer project than last year’s, it was full of valuable experiences.
We brought a contingent of us up from Kentucky, and there was a lot of interest among our base and other Party members in our area, but in the end there were 4 of us who were able to make it. We were joined by other comrades from outside of Chicago like the DMV, Tennessee, and Texas. At the potluck dinner to start off the project, we had conversations with veteran comrades, and comrades were able to share their own art and music with each other.
One thing we have noticed when fighting back together with the Party in Chicago is how it has effectively built a base in the most exploited areas of the city. Most of the time we spent in the city was in the South and West sides and majority-Latin areas like Little Village. We also noticed how the Party has built connections with workers which made the summer project possible, such as a bus driver who drove us around for the Party’s antiracist history tour.
One of the first actions we did was handing out flyers to mostly healthcare workers in the Illinois Medical District, laying out capitalist gutting of healthcare, and connecting this to racism and sexism. We went to this event with renewed confidence because we did CHALLENGE delivery and speech-giving workshops right before.
The next day, we did another distribution at the Bud Billiken parade. Bud Billiken is the largest Black parade in the country, and is a huge cultural event on the South Side of Chicago to celebrate back to school. We gave out another flyer which detailed the nature of the racist attacks on public education in Chicago, especially affecting the South Side. It also talked about the attacks on so-called “teen takeovers,” the attacks which have been being used against mostly Black young people to justify increased police repression. While we were there, we saw this first hand. There were politicians campaigning on being tough on crime, including regarding “teen takeovers.”
The parade was one comrade’s favorite part of the summer project. We handed out hundreds of CHALLENGEs and antiracist, revolutionary flyers, and the response was terrific. Black workers in Chicago dealing with the worst of this capitalist system were receptive to our multiracial group and message. It was a massive event with great energy, so we were really glad the Party organized it. Later that evening, we got to see the film I Love Boosters, which was the first time seeing it for many of us.
The film was followed by a sharp political discussion. Another comrade’s favorite part was the antiracist history tour about how the Party kicked Nazis out of Chicago. The militant content of this tour made it as strong as a march. Those of us from Kentucky got to end the tour by giving our own stories from fighting the Proud Boys here in our state.
Our group did some things on our own as well, such as seeing the Haymarket Memorial for the first time and going to the National Public Housing Museum. To top it all off, the new comrade who was rooming with us ended up joining the Party!
This summer project demonstrated the power of multiracial revolutionary fightback in practice. It reminded us all that the fight is far from over, as we looked back on former fightback against the KKK and bosses in Chicago, and connected this to the modern day. We look forward to our next summer project with the PLP, and hopefully with even more Kentucky comrades to bring along!