BROOKLYN, NY, May 21—What do we do when our students are under attack? We stand up, fight back! Against censorship and suppression, the fight to memorialize 15-year-old Harry* killed by street violence has finally resulted in a school memorial and balloon release. This was possible only because Harry’s mother, friends, students, and educators organized. 

To be a communist means to fight racism and smash the system that kills our kids. A system that breeds violence cannot be a part of the solution. No amount of reforms can bring justice to Harry or any student. Only a communist society—one built on needs and unity, not numbers and dollars can provide that. 

It wasn’t the first time

After dismissal, education workers held their first meeting about how to create a sanctuary for our migrant students against immigration raids. The discussion was, “in the face of deportations, what does it mean to protect students?” (see future issue for more). Little did five of those teachers know they were about to be tested. Less than a mile away, their student Harry was taking his last breath. 

Upon notice, teachers rushed to the street of the shooting and then to the hospital. There, they found a devastated family. Harry’s mother hugged the teachers and asked, “What is the school doing? Are you going to do a moment of silence on the loudspeaker?” 

The teachers went home with their marching order—memorializing our student. 

Sadly, this school tragedy is not the first. Less than two years ago, 17-year-old student Claude* was killed in the same neighborhood. Despite attacks from administration, education workers and students had fought to memorialize Claude.  Some teachers hoped it would be different this time.

Sure enough, the day before school, the principal wrote in a staff email that while “there is access to grief counseling,” “school business must go on as usual…classes must occur as they would normally do” and that “we must be careful as to what messages we convey to the students.” 

In response, a communist teacher replied all and asked for a collective response: “If we go about our day as if nothing has happened, we risk sending a harmful message—that [Harry’s] life and death are things to be processed in private, rather than something we, as a school community hold space for. The message should be clear: we lost a member of our community, and his life mattered...We struggled with this…last time [a student was killed], and it left students feeling unseen. We have a chance to do better now.” 

This exchange ignited what has been a month-long fight for student voice. 

Doing it all for him

Here’s a chronological recap of the main actions taken by students and education workers. 

• The next morning, so many sobbing students filled the hallways. Some students turned their grief into action by making posters and using their lunchtime to collect messages.
• Students also created and distributed stickers for several days. Some are still stuck on doors, floors, and walls to this day.
• Some teachers refused business as usual and used their classes as spaces to process and collect ideas. 
• The Student Council wrote and distributed a statement regarding their concern over how administration is giving leadership to this collective tragedy.
• The administration was pressured into calling an open meeting after school to organize a memorial. Over 15 students attended.
• Students and education workers wrote messages to the family on large handmade cards.
• Education workers collected funds and assembled a care basket for the family. 
• In solidarity with students, a multiracial group of education workers attended the vigil with balloons. They presented the care basket. Two spoke. 
• The communist teacher also distributed a leaflet printed on Harry’s favorite color orange. (See below for a snippet of the leaflet.)
• At the funeral, we all wore red ribbons with the  message “we will always remember.” Students, though shy, still stood together on stage when teachers gave speeches. 
• At the student-centered school memorial, we made sure to give mom the chance to be present. We made bracelets, shared memories, and then released balloons. It was a display of student-worker-parent unity. 

Throughout it all, we met so many students and former students who loved and grieved for Harry. We also deepened our ties and made new connections with other education workers and students. Certain classrooms became spaces for students to gather, grieve, and organize throughout this time. It’s evident to students who they can rely on to be pro-student. 

Bosses’ tools: censorship and fear

Minimizing and hiding our pain is the bosses’ tool. The institutions we are part of would rather contain, censor, and move on from this. Which is why they prevented students from using bulletin boards to display memorial posters in the hallways. Which is why they didn’t say Harry’s name over the loudspeaker that first week. Which is why they reprimanded an advisor of the Student Council with a disciplinary meeting resulting in an official letter in their file. Which is why they demanded teachers put away the “shrines” (classroom memorials) for Harry. Which is why they have yet to hold a schoolwide town hall. 

Fighting back against this systemic violence is how we keep Harry alive. When we refuse to accept this as normal, when we demand a better world for our young people, we carry Harry with us. We realize we aren’t alone—and that we have so much more power than we think.

Moving forward, we need to fight for the promise of planning a basketball tournament in Harry’s memory since he loved basketball. We need to fight against suspensions that continue to perpetuate systemic racist violence against our youth. And we need to commit ourselves for a lifetime of serving the working class. That includes showing communist alternatives to this unsafe world. 

You deserve better

Students deserve a world where safety—real safety, no guns, not policing, not surveillance—is the priority. A world where our students’ lives are valued and protected—communism. Progressive Labor Party fights for that world.  

*The pseudonyms Harry  and Claude are inspired by the 20th century Black communist leaders Harry Haywood and Claude McKay

Violence is endemic to capitalism

This system does not care about our kids. It never has. Systemic racism and systemic violence have locked our kids in—making it harder for them to dream, take risks, be creative, speak their truth, walk the streets, have fun, and even breathe without fear. 

Individual violence in the streets is the byproduct of the toxicity that capitalism creates. Capitalism’s very DNA is the violent exploitation and oppression of the working class by the big gangsters: the rich and their government. 

We live in a systemically violent world. By that, it means these big forces that harm people by preventing them from meeting their basic basic needs or rights. The conditions in which working-class students are forced to grow up are violent—failing schools, dirty waters, slumlord housing, rent hikes, food deserts, sickening hospitals, healthcare cuts, killer kkkops, rising homelessness, unsafe transit, inflated grocery prices. So many suspensions but not enough teachers/staff are violent. Lack of jobs and afterschool programs are violent. 

All these attacks create a culture of hopelessness and alienation—which the Covid-19 pandemic only made worse—and makes our class more vulnerable to individualism and violence.

Washington, DC, May 1—Members of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) joined more than 50 students and workers at an intense May Day protest at the Embassy of the Philippines. The three-hour protest started with demands for Ambassador Romualdez to protect Filipinos who have been detained by ICE:  “Do your Job – Or Step Down!”  After 30 minutes, an embassy worker came out to the gate to accept the letter with specific demands. 

Fascism: a global capitalist cancer

The rally picked up steam as more students and workers joined the May Day rally for all migrants and for workers power. Organizers  spoke of fascism and martial law in the Philippines. They hailed the four-day strike of the Nexperia chip makers that had stood up to the Marcos regime this year and demanded a 1,200-peso minimum wage. Calling out the Balikatan (so called “shoulder-to-shoulder” war games) along with purchases by the Philippines  of F-16 fighters, speakers chanted “U.S. out of the Philippines.” The last speaker demanded an end to U.S. imperialism and war ending with the resounding chant: “Workers of the World, Unite!”. 

PLP members spoke with a militant protester from American University about fighting for communism—going beyond the strategy for national liberation. We shared May Day invites to our dinner and distributed CHALLENGE newspapers to fellow demonstrators and friends in the student organization from the University of Maryland. The working class struggle is global!

Progressive Labor Party (PLP)  members joined comrades, family, friends, coworkers and neighbors to celebrate May Day, International Workers’ Day in the San Francisco Bay Area.  We attended marches in SF and Oakland, May 1st and had an exciting May Day dinner, May 3rd.  We have an ongoing study group about capitalism, dialectics & the struggle for a communist world which expanded the limits of our May Day celebrations. Here are some of the highlights:

The May Day marches

The mass marches were  attended by thousands and presented an opportunity to spread our ideas  across generations of workers.  The political character of the marches ranged from from anti-Trump to a more generalized anti-capitalism. Additionally, the Oakland March started with an indigenous group dancing and many youth groups led chants. There were also delegations from the ILWU, Teachers’ Unions, National Nurses, Day Laborers, and Labor for Palestine.

The tide is turning:

More and more working people are uniting with immigrant workers and are struggling against US Imperialism’s war budget and Israeli capitalists’ genocide in in Gaza.  In Oakland, there was a text message that Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) trucks were at the end of the march. Marchers were ready to confront ICE but no one showed up.  We led a chant: *Kick ICE in the Ass, Power to the Working Class.” 
Our red flags flew high above the march:

We distributed our May Day flyer about the potential for a communist world and lessons learned from previous communist revolutions in the USSR and China. We led chants on the class nature of current struggles:  *Workers’ Struggles have no Borders! ¡Las Luchas Obreras, No Tienen Fronteras!                                                                                                                                                                  

Our May Day Dinner was a collective effort:

PLP members & friends cooked, developed the agenda with table talk questions, brought literature, and developed the cultural expression of communism in poetry & music.  One comrade narrated a history of PLP’s years of celebrating May Day; our example of Communist International Workers’ Unity.  There was art about international class struggle, class consciousness, and communism.  In table talk, we discussed personal experiences that help us to grow in these times.  Recognizing the importance of culture, we announced the formation of a movie group to socialize around a communist critique of popular movies or tv shows.  Everyone helped with set up and clean up duties.

Presentations about the struggle for communism                                                                                                        

A PL’er opened with the international nature of May Day..  He talked about his own personal/family connection to the struggle in Congo and how most people immigrate to the US because of US wars, imperialist competition for natural resources and labor, and capitalist destruction of life where they came from.  One report from table talk discussed the history of communal relations in a small town in El Salvador in the 60s-70s in spite of a capitalist system of individual wages and the ruling capitalists’ moves to corporatize local agriculture.

A teacher PL’er  spoke about ongoing the struggles at all level of education to teach about the Zionist attack on student learning about US Imperialism, Israeli fascist genocide/mass murder, and the erasure of Palestinian workers struggles.    In response in many schools and colleges, teachers, students and parents united against school administrations which try to limit the growth of international class-consciousness among students

A  transit worker PL’er  addressed the struggle to fight capitalist ideology among coworkers.  He said that having a collective was helpful.  While encountering coworkers who “just want to make it” & accept capitalism as necessary, he has found unity and sympathy with many passengers. 

He said “times are changing”,  “what you do counts”.  Many coworkers are now coming back to him saying “you are right” when he explains why this system can’t work for us.  We ended with an enthusiastic, loud singing of “The International” in English and Spanish.

After the dinner, comrades discussed strengths such as bringing our friends and expanding our circle of influence. We also examined areas that need improvement such as focusing more on why we need a communist party in this period of capitalism.

Pakistan, May 1—This May Day, cities across Pakistan echoed with the thunder of marching feet, raised fists, and chants for justice. From Lahore’s historic streets to Quetta’s rugged terrain, thousands of workers, students, peasants, and public service employees poured into the streets. Their message was clear: the struggle for liberation continues.

Red flags soared as processions denounced deepening inequality, political repression, and the erosion of labor rights. Amid economic crisis, authoritarian rule, and rising fascism, International Workers’ Day became both a solemn remembrance and a call to revolutionary action.

Progressive Labor Party (PLP) played a pivotal leadership role, aligning with independent unions, dissident worker groups, and grassroots alliances. Chanting against unemployment, inflation, and imperialist interference, PLP members in Pakistan reaffirmed their commitment to communism and revolutionary change.

Workers anger at capitalism reverberates through the streets

Speeches across cities captured the shared anger—and hope—of an awakened working class. A textile worker in Faisalabad declared: “The mills run on our blood and sweat—but we remain disposable. Today, we say: no more. We demand dignity, protection, and power!”

A PL’er said: “Fascism is rising. The ruling class fan the flames of division—sectarianism, nationalism, misogyny—to keep us weak. But today, we marched as one class. We will not be silenced.”

In Karachi, gig workers, home-based women workers, students, clerks, trade unionists, and app-based drivers rallied against liberal imperialist exploitation: “We are treated like data points, not human beings. The system is rigged for profit—not people. We’re here to change that.”
From Sindh’s cotton fields to Sialkot’s factories, workers are trapped in a system that thrives on insecurity and weakens collective bargaining. “This is by design,” shouted a speaker in Islamabad. “Capitalism doesn’t fear elections—it fears worker unity.”

Traditional trade unions faced sharp criticism for compromising rather than confronting. State-aligned entities were accused of settling token deals while suppressing grassroots movements. “They negotiate crumbs while we starve,” said a union dissident in Lahore.

Identity politics is poison for the working class

Religious extremism and state-sponsored nationalism were also condemned for fragmenting the working class. Another PL’er exposed how elites weaponize identity—through issues like Kashmir and blasphemy—to divide and distract. “The coal miner in Baluchistan and the factory worker in Punjab fight the same system,” said a peasant leader in Sindh. “Our solidarity must rise above borders and national identities.”

Anti-imperialist slogans rang out. China’s CPEC projects and U.S. militarization were both condemned as faces of global capitalism. Speakers stressed that imperialism and class struggle are inseparable. “From Palestine to the Philippines, Sudan to Venezuela—we stand in global solidarity,” chanted students in Kashmir.

At the heart of May Day 2025 was PLP’s focus on political education, unity, and class consciousness. Study circles and campaigns are organizing landless peasants in Sindh, students in Kashmir, and gig workers in Lahore. “Revolution starts with clarity,” said a student organizer. “And clarity comes from study, struggle, and solidarity.”

As the processions ended with chants of “One world, one party, one fight: Workers of the World, Unite!” One thing was clear: Pakistan’s working class is rising—not just in resistance, but with revolutionary vision. “This is a historic moment,” that’s when a PL’er  said. “Faced with imminent climate collapse and AI-driven exploitation, we stand at a crossroads. We either remain crushed—or we rise, united, to build a new world.”
The struggle continues. Long live the international revolutionary communist PLP!