CHICAGO, August 11— A multiracial force of roughly 200 workers – including a collective from the communist Progressive Labor Party (PLP)— marched through Chicago’s Marquette Park neighborhood, braving heavy rain while loudly chanting, “Same enemy, same fight: workers of the world unite!” and “From the river to the sea, the working class will set us free!” Today a mass event was organized called “The Fierce Urgency of Now,” commemorating the 60th anniversary when Martin Luther King Jr and thousands of others marched into the park to protest the racist violence of capitalism.
Despite the presence of liberal politicians and misleaders pushing electoral politics, workers showed a strong openness to communist ideas, eagerly accepting CHALLENGE newspapers and sharing contact information with Party members. Many workers traveled from outside Chicago, particularly from the South, where workers faced an intensified racist attack from the Trump-led neo-Confederate regime. The march’s music, dancing, and collective chanting helped build a sense of unity and enthusiasm, with participants remaining energized despite the downpour. Conversations after the march showed that many were receptive to PLP’s politics and willing to engage with revolutionary ideas.
Antiracist lessons from Marquette Park
In 1966, King came to Chicago to challenge housing segregation and racist violence. When marchers entered Marquette Park, they were met by angry white mobs throwing rocks, bottles, and other objects while shouting racist slurs. King later remarked that he had never encountered such intense racist hostility—not even in the Deep South. The atmosphere became so emboldened that the Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan established Marquette Park as a center for organizing, using terror and intimidation against Black families, Latin workers, and anyone who stood for racial equality.
The violence in neighborhoods like Marquette Park did not emerge on its own. It was reinforced by decades of racist policies that served the interests of banks, real estate companies, and politicians. Through redlining, Black families were systematically denied mortgages, insurance, and investment while white neighborhoods received government-backed support. This created the deeply racist and segregated communities we still see in Chicago today.
Although redlining was outlawed in 1968, its effects remain visible today. Many neighborhoods continue to face capitalist exploitation and disinvestment, underfunded schools, inadequate healthcare, and deplorable housing conditions. These conditions are often blamed on the Black workers who live there instead of the racist economic system called capitalism that created them.
Progressive Labor Party smashes the fascists
PLP refused to allow fascists to claim Marquette Park as their territory. Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, Party members and supporters organized tirelessly throughout the Southwest Side. We sold CHALLENGE on street corners, knocked on doors, and held thousands of conversations with Black, Latin, Asian, and white workers about the need to reject racism and unite around their shared class interests.
This revolutionary outlook laid the foundation for historic demonstrations that shattered the Nazis’ claim over Marquette Park. Hundreds of workers and students marched together through streets that fascist groups had declared off limits to multiracial organizing. Our greatest strength was not superior numbers or police protection—it was the unity and courage of ordinary working people who refused to surrender their communities to racist terror. This organizing led to the Party storming the Nazi headquarters located in Marquette Park and running them out of the neighborhood. We ambushed the truck at their setup location and used the opportunity to get inside and wreak havoc on their office. We were bold, and some members faced serious charges for the attack. They would beat those charges, however, through multiracial court support initiatives organized by the International Committee Against Racism and PLP.
Keep up the struggle to win
The forms of racism have changed, but the purpose remains the same. Today, politicians, media outlets, and wealthy interests continue promoting fear and division by blaming immigrants, Black communities, refugees, and other sections of the working class for problems created by capitalism itself.
Our personal struggles are political – fight for communism
For one member of the Chicago collective, Marquette Park carries a deep personal history. As a teenager, he would play basketball in the park, often dropped off by his grandmother, who on one of those trips explained to him that Black people had not always been welcome there. Even years later, she still carried the anxiety of entering a place where racist mobs had once violently enforced segregation. In 1966, she bravely marched through Marquette Park as part of the struggle against racist segregation and was attacked for doing so. Her experience connects the neighborhood’s history to the struggles workers continue to face today. While the 1966 marches challenged the racist system, it was the militant actions and organizing of the Party that helped drive the Nazis and their racist allies out of Marquette Park once and for all, demonstrating the power of communist leadership.
The victories won in Marquette Park were not inevitable—they were organized. They were won by ordinary workers who refused to accept racism as a permanent feature of society. That same spirit is needed today.
Fight racism. Build multiracial unity. Organize your workplace and your community. Join PLP and help build a communist movement capable of ending exploitation once and for all.
