BX: connect Gaza to campus struggles 

Students and professors from two campuses in the Bronx took to the streets once more, this time to mourn the innocent victims of Gaza and call for continued fightback.  It was a somber demonstration on the two-year anniversary of the genocide. A little over a dozen students and faculty members stood outside of the campus, holding in their arms replicas of babies in white burial shrouds, baby coffins, as well as very real images of parents holding their dead and starving children -the very same images that our news media would have us ignore.

“CUNY is complicit in genocide”, our sign read, and we refuse to let this go unchecked. Bullhorn in hand, we reminded everyone that the fascism that is ever more present in Washington, DC is rampant in  our school system, as CUNY professors are being targeted and fired for supporting student protesters and speaking out against the genocide themselves (#reinstatethefiredfour). As the busy foot traffic of the Grand Concourse flowed by, we distributed 100 copies of CHALLENGE to students and other pedestrians. As they walked by, the brutal images of death we displayed caught everyone’s attention. The students going to and from classes were very receptive to our presence and began chanting with us as we marched down the block. They gave us high fives and fist pumps as we made the connection between the recent collapse of a building in the South Bronx and the war in Gaza. All the while campus security stood close by and kept a watchful eye on our group.

We stopped our mini march across the street on the steps of the old post office to engage Bronx commuters and workers. We read our statements again for those stepping on and off the MTA buses, even hopping on the buses ourselves and handing out CHALLENGE to the bus drivers! We wanted to communicate to the working people that the consequences of this genocide are not only being felt by the families of Gaza but also by families of the South Bronx. Monies that could be used to better the lives of Bronxites are being misdirected to murder innocent Palestinians. Congressman of the South Bronx, Richie Torres (Democrat), consistently defends Israel’s actions and agrees to sending billions of dollars and weapons to the illegal apartheid state, while accepting two million dollars in blood money from pro-Israel groups.

The demonstration was received well by students, workers and commuters alike. As we packed up and debriefed, we were excited to talk about all the students who were eager to join our group and fight for Gaza and against fascism and racism. We commented how a small but dedicated group of organizers could make a big difference. In only a week’s time our collective wrote a bilingual leaflet, had the photographs printed as posters, organized our group to wear white, created the coffins and shrouds, and got some faculty and students to stand with us. The main organizer closed our debrief by saying- “I feel very proud of how we always show up for each other.”
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Workers fight to find Abril 

On September 17 2025 Abril was seen for the last time. She was a teacher who lived her whole life in Michoacán. She gave classes in Acambaro Guanajuato kindergarten. We want to keep fighting all this sexism and impunity the best way we know how until we find the teacher Abril. She is a treasured valuable person in our village. She often helps adults learn to read and tutors students in grade school and much more. 

All we know so far is that we found her burned car, but there is no sign of her. The workers in the village have gone out to the streets to demand help from the government and to unite forces together to make an immediate search. The main class participating in this movement is the working class. Their jobs are mostly as teachers or day laborers. They stayed in front of the president of the municipality for almost two weeks.

The government initially helped with drones and dogs to search, but this help did not last long. The government forces left, and the workers are continuing the search on their own from Monday to Sunday in different communities. They are raising funds for gasoline and other costs.

The workers have already long felt that they cannot depend on the capitalist class’s state. We want to win them to consciousness for fighting as a working class against sexism. In the future we will try to win the workers to the idea of revolution instead of voting for more reformist candidates.

But also we have to keep looking at ourselves and demanding help from the right authorities until we arrive at a conclusion. Everything has a start and a beginning, and Abril is not an exception. 
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Starbucks workers brew fightback 

On the morning of October 1st, approximately 100 Starbucks workers and supporters from the Hotel Workers Union, retired teachers from the United Federation of Teachers, and Local 1010 of the Laborers Union– held a spirited picket line. The goal demonstrates their determination to get management back to the bargaining table for a better contract and benefits.

Picketers chanted “What do we want? A contract. If we don’t get it, shut it down.Who’s got the power? We got the power. If the contract isn’t nice, there will be no pumpkin spice.”

A couple of local assembly members gave speeches in their support, and a retired teacher addressed the crowd as well. Fight rising fascism was the theme of his remarks, letting the pickets know their fight was an inspiration to workers everywhere. Several CHALLENGEs were distributed to enthusiastic responses.

As the struggle accelerates, these sorts of actions are important, and Party members should get out to picketing workers, make contact and distribute CHALLENGE. Step by step we need to bring these militant workers the message of communism.
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U.S. vets fight against racist ICE 

The Guardian, 10/13–US military veterans increasingly face arrest and injury amid protests over Donald Trump’s deportation campaign and his push to deploy national guard members to an ever-widening number of American cities…eight instances where military veterans have been prosecuted or sought damages after being detained by federal agents…The latest incident occurred in Broadview, outside Chicago, where 70-year old air force veteran Dana Briggs was charged with felony assault on a federal officer…A widely shared video on social media shows a masked US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agent advance on and knock over the elderly veteran during a protest outside an Ice detention center. 

Italian workers strike a second time in support of Palestinian workers

Truthout, 10/11–It seemed impossible for Italy to strike for Palestine more successfully than it did the first time, yet it happened: 2 million people returned to the streets on October 3, blocking everything again…This landmark event marked the first time that all the leftist labor unions in the country decided to go on strike together…People were enraged by the Italian government as well. Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani, speaking about Israel’s illegal control of the international waters adjacent to Gaza, said that international law is important, “but does not always matter” 

Drone strikes now used in Haitian neighborhoods

Reuters, 10/2–The U.N. Human Rights chief said on Thursday that Haiti’s use of lethal force against gangs was disproportionate and likely unlawful, saying its actions, including drone strikes, accounted for more than half of this year’s killings and injuries…He said that police units had summarily executed 174 people for alleged gang affiliation this year, while government drone strikes against alleged gang members in the capital Port-au-Prince had killed at least 559 people to date, including 11 children…”Most of these drone strikes are likely unlawful under international human rights law,” Turk added…In a recent attack on an alleged gang leader’s birthday party, where he was handing out presents to local children, at least eight children were killed…

Millions of workers in Sahel region of Africa suffering 

Al Jazeera, 10/10–Around four million people are now displaced across Africa’s Sahel region, the United Nations has said, with violence and insecurity driving a growing number of people from their homes. Women and children represent 80 percent of forcibly displaced people in the Sahel, Gnon-Konde said, adding the number of people impacted by pervasive gender-based violence had “significantly increased” this year…“The insecurity across the region is exposing people to violence, forced recruitment, movement restrictions and arbitrary detention,” he said…Nearly 15,000 schools had closed in the region by mid-2025 as well as more than 900 health facilities.

War effectiveness in Ukraine being studied for future wars as workers suffer

Foreign Affairs, November/December–The Russian military will emerge from its invasion with extensive experience and a distinct vision of the future of combat, and it is sharing its experience with China, Iran, and North Korea. It has laid the groundwork for a more intense period of learning and reconstitution after the war ends. …the Russian military reorganized its command structure and modified its tactics and force posture…changed its logistics system to make it more survivable…introduced new technologies or new ways of using old technology to improve both its precision targeting and its electronic warfare capabilities…Because of these changes, Ukraine is likely to face even greater destruction in the months ahead. 

Floods in Pakistan threaten workers with long-term hunger

Arab News, 10/9–A hunger crisis is looming in Pakistan, as catastrophic floods have wiped out vast stretches of farmland in Punjab province, which produces around half of the country’s staple crops…floods, which began in June, have inundated about 1.8 million acres of agricultural land across Punjab, affecting up to 70 percent of the province, and are likely to disrupt at least two crop cycles, raising fears of severe food shortages…Nationwide, over 1,000 people have been killed and more than 4.5 million people affected since the monsoon season began on June 26. Many farmers in Punjab have lost all their crops, grain stocks and livestock… 

More than seven hundred days into Israel’s genocide of Palestinian families in Gaza, U.S.  Terrorist-in-Chief Donald Trump’s “peace deal” is in truth a green light for Israel to finish its campaign of mass murder and displacement. The 20-point proposal rewards racist slaughter and spells out the terms of victory for Zionist apartheid. Hamas is to surrender weapons and hostages while Israeli troops indefinitely occupy the “perimeter.”

There’s a vague nod to a possible Palestinian state “someday.”  

Trump’s move is a desperate stab at crisis management. A weakened and isolated U.S. empire has lost all credibility as it prepares for world war with its imperialist competition, China and Russia. Working-class rage across scores of countries has pressured bosses worldwide to take the once-unimaginable step of condemning Israel’s “conduct.” But even if Trump is able to force his deal down the Palestinians’ throats, it won’t undo the damage to U.S. power in the oil-rich Middle East. Nor will it solve the international crisis of capitalism, or stop the capitalist bosses’ drive toward open fascism and world war. 

As the bloodsoaked rulers wheel and deal, the working class remains the wild card. We have a genocidal profit system to destroy–and a new society to build. Communists, antiracists, and all workers who believe we deserve a better world have a long road ahead. Take the first step by joining the fightback with Progressive Labor Party! 

Horrors for our class

For the international working class, the systematic genocide and famine orchestrated by the diabolical Israeli regime is one of the great catastrophes of our time. The Israeli regime has decimated every aspect of life in Gaza:   

-Two million people were traumatized and displaced.

-66,055 confirmed murdered, including 440 killed to date by famine.

-168,346 confirmed wounded.

-Untold thousands still buried under the rubble.

-Basic infrastructure—hospitals, schools, water, sanitation—demolished, making Gaza uninhabitable for generations to come.

-Amid environmental degradation, farmlands, orchards, and greenhouses–workers’ means of subsistence–destroyed. 

-Virtually every square meter of Gaza is polluted with toxic dust and debris, and contaminated soil and water. 

Too little too late?

The Middle East is the great chessboard where the most powerful capitalist rulers—the United States, Russia, and now China—fight for power and future profits. Trump’s inability to rein in the merciless Zionists in Gaza has exposed U.S. weakness. It undermines the U.S. bosses’ legitimacy, both within and outside its borders.  At the recent meeting of the UN General Assembly, several important U.S. allies–including Britain, France, Canada, and Australia–defied the U.S. by formally recognizing a Palestinian state. Japan has announced plans to do the same.

Trump’s proposed deal could give pariah Israel a lifeline to win back these estranged U.S. allies and rebuild ties with surrounding Arab nations. The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia, and Pakistan all have roles in the proposal. Notably, China and Russia do not.

As the leading U.S. liberal mouthpiece admits, “The war needs to end for the sake of Israel and its security” (New York Times, 9/30). Translation: Israel’s perilous position is what drives the U.S. bosses’ erratic position on the genocide. The U.S. bosses face an existential crisis. They worry that allowing Israel to keep on killing will cost “ties with key regional partners and [a loss of] influence over the emerging regional order…[It] will also fuel a new wave of radicalism that will threaten U.S. interests, regional stability, and global security” (Foreign Affairs, 10/1). 

Who will rule Gaza?

As bosses make empty vows to recognize a ruined country that has yet to exist, it means little to the children, families, and workers displaced, discarded, and dehumanized in Gaza. The question remains as to who will rule there. Will Gaza be absorbed into the Israeli apartheid regime like the West Bank? The Palestinian territory to the west of the Jordan River has been occupied and ruled by Israel since the Six-Day War in 1967.

Raw terror is the order of the day there: mass killings, incarceration, and torture of Palestinians in concentration camps; rampant sexual violence; destruction of homes and farms to expel people from their lands; and a maze of barriers that block access to water, land, education, health, and jobs (The Tri Continental, 5/8).

Will  “international stabilization” troops occupy Gaza, much as the brutal MINUSTAH occupied the state of Haiti for 13 years? That UN “peacekeeping” force left a wretched legacy of 10,000 deaths from cholera, along with killings, rape, sexual abuse, and hundreds of children born to impoverished girls and young women (Al Jazeera, 10/6/2017). 

What’s clear is that Gaza has never seen working-class power, and never will–until the working class seizes state power and builds a workers’ state. 

International solidarity

The real opposition to genocide in Gaza won’t be found among the bosses’ figureheads now making their “principled” proclamations. The real anti-genocide movement has been born inside the international working class. In Italy, tens of thousands of protesters have blocked city streets in solidarity. Striking dockworkers shut down the port of Genoa to stop an Israeli-bound arms shipment. Defying Israel’s naval blockade, an international civilian fleet of 40 boats and 500 people are on their way to deliver food and medicine (The Times of Israel, 9/29).  

Across the U.S., in the first year of Israel’s assault alone, 12,400 pro-Palestine protests erupted (Harvard Kennedy School).  Beginning in April 2024, amid police raids and deportations, the student intifada has given mass leadership on what it means to fight back in the face of fascism. Consequently, support for Israel has “undergone a seismic reversal” (New York Times, 9/29). The majority of the U.S. population now opposes sending more weapons and money to Israel, a first since polling on this issue began in 1998.

The potential for revolution can be seen in these glimmers of fightback. Now we must build a mass communist movement committed to ripping out the roots of genocide: the profit system. For that, we will need a revolutionary international party. Progressive Labor Party strives to build this movement. The time to join the fight of a lifetime is now.

On the evening of Thursday, September 25th, members of Progressive Labor Party ( PLP), along with several other students, put up a counter-demonstration to a so-called vigil for Charlie Kirk being held at a University in Kentucky campus. The vigil, like many others around the country, was not really about mourning Charlie Kirk, but rather an opportunity for fascists to take advantage and push racist, sexist, nationalist crap on students and workers (see page 8). PLP members had a responsibility to use our voices and numbers to oppose these fascist sympathizers on our campus, as well as demonstrate to students that fascism can be defeated, not through political assassination, but through a well-organized and disciplined working-class party that fights for a communist revolution to end fascism at its root— capitalism.

Despite our large ambitions, our protest started out small. Through word of mouth we had invited several comrades and friends in our base to come, and in addition to that, we handed out literature to see how many students walking by might be sympathetic enough to join us. The response was good, as many people took our paper and some said they would join us once we marched towards the plaza on campus where the vigil was being held. When all the comrades we invited out and more showed up, we started marching with the chant “fascism means—we got to fight back!”

No free speech for racists!

As we approached the plaza, we were quickly stopped by KKKops and the Dean of Students, who told us to turn back, saying we couldn’t use our voices past this point. To this we responded that Powell Plaza, the area on campus where the vigil was being held, was a designated “free speech zone,” citing the bosses’ laws against them. The dean responded by saying we have a right to free speech as long as we’re not doing it where the vigil is at, to which we rightfully exposed that as meaning that we weren’t allowed to express dissenting opinions. 

Flustered, finally the university’s lackeys told us that the vigil was booked by the fascist Turning Point USA (TPUSA) on campus, and that for the duration that they reserved it, the “free speech zone” no longer applied. Using the information they gave us, we pushed them to let us march to the edge of the plaza, close enough for the fascists to hear us and for students walking by to see us and hear our message. When we marched closer, there was a line of KKKops and administrators standing side-by-side between us and the fascists to prevent us from going any further. 

From this point though, we knew our chants would be heard by the other side, and we ramped up the energy, sharpening our chants and handing out CHALLENGE to students coming in and out of the plaza. 

Workers refuse to back down against killer cops

Many bystanders were loving our chants, especially ones about ICE and Palestine. As a result, our numbers grew even more. We chanted for what seemed like forever. A couple times it seemed like the vigil was about to be over, or our voices were hoarse from chanting, and we considered leaving, but suddenly when one comrade had a medical episode we decided to stand our ground and not separate, especially since now the university KKKops had our path of retreat blocked with a vehicle, and in front of us was an ever-increasing group of spectators, some sympathetic, others from the vigil. We continued our chants even stronger than before, chanting “No Tears For Fascists!”

As people started leaving the plaza, some Kirk sympathizers formed a prayer circle in front of us, a display of pity to demoralize us. They even had the audacity to yell at us, “People are trying to worship here!” We weren’t fazed, and we responded by chanting thoughts and prayers serve as a way to prevent workers from organizing to solve their problems, but the fact that they were “praying” for us and not the thousands of Palestinian children being killed or immigrant workers being separated from their families just shows the hollow nature of their display. It also shows how, although many workers believe in religion, it is too often used as a tool by the bosses against communists and to divide workers. We must be patient with workers who still believe in religion so as not to alienate them from the movement, while also recognizing this fact. The trick used by the fascists at the vigil was the same age-old tactic of painting communists as “satanic.”

Opposing racism on campus is always right!

As the vigil ended, we stayed in the area to talk to students and made contacts to join our study group. Many were pleased and thanked us for coming out to oppose what was clearly a rallying-cry for the current fascist movement.

We have learned through our organizing that it is not enough to just table, advertise our party, and have educational events. Although those things are important, we also have to be actively involved in, and on the front lines of, struggles,whether it be a strike, an encampment, or an anti-fascist protest like this. This is how we truly expose to the masses the crimes of the ruling class—not just through words, but through action. Our demonstration showed the need to expose open fascist rhetoric anywhere and everywhere. Like in the past, the revisionists and liberals on campus discouraged any kind of action, embodying the same energy of sticking our heads in the sand and hoping that fascism goes away. PLP understands that in order to get students organized, we have to be willing to push ourselves and trust our friends and comrades to protect each other. In a world where individualism is pushed on us everywhere, and we’re constantly reminded to see each other as a potential threat, collective action bursts through that façade and shows that the real division is between us, the working-class, and those in power who own everything. Using this knowledge, we can go further: organize revolution to build a society where workers run things, and education is used to benefit society, not profit.