Taiwan has a timeline for China’s invasion

TribuneIndia, 3/22— Taiwan's annual military drills have now indicated 2027 as a possible year for a Chinese invasion, marking the first time a specific date has been mentioned for the anticipated attack…this year's exercise will include joint operations between the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps, featuring live-fire drills, amphibious landings, and simulated missile strikes…Taiwan's Defence Minister, Wellington Koo, stated at a press conference on Wednesday that the Han Kuang exercise is designed to simulate scenarios that could unfold in the next one to two years.

Israeli bombs rain down on Palestinian families

Al Jazeera, 3/21–Israel’s military assault on the Gaza Strip has continued for a fourth day as its ground forces expand their operations in northern and southern Gaza and the Israeli defence minister threatens to seize land in the coastal enclave. Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Friday that Israeli forces would “intensify” the military campaign against Hamas…The ground operations come after Israel shattered a nearly two-month ceasefire in Gaza on Tuesday with a relentless wave of bombardments after imposing a renewed blockade on the Palestinian territory. More than 590 people, including about 200 children, have been killed in the renewed attacks, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

Israeli police attack antiwar protesters 

Jerusalem Post, 3/19–Israel Police violently dispersed a group of protesters demonstrating in Jerusalem against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to resume the war in Gaza on Tuesday night. The protesters clashed with security forces and plan to continue demonstrations nationwide, showing their rejection of the new "Strength and Sword" operation in Gaza. In videos posted to social media, police can be seen forcibly dragging away both male and female protesters who were sitting on the ground, as well as violently kicking, hitting, and stomping on them. In a highly-circulated video, police officers can be seen punching a man in the groin area.

Europeans struggle with a U.S. military pullback 

Newsmax, 3/16–Frightened by the prospect of US security disengagement and three years of Moscow's war against Ukraine, European countries are debating reinstating compulsory military service to boost their defences in the face of Russian aggression…"The Russian military today is larger and better than on February 24, 2022…According to a YouGov poll, most people in France (68 percent) and Germany (58 percent) support mandatory military service for young people. Italian and British people are divided, while a majority of Spaniards (53 percent) are against it…"The American sea is receding, and many European countries are saying to themselves that yes, in the end, they are a little bit exposed."

Australia buys missiles to sink Chinese ships

Reuters, 3/13–Australia is scrambling to deploy new long-range missiles as the recent arrival of powerful Chinese warships off the Australian coast delivers a sharp reminder of Beijing’s growing naval muscle…Canberra plans to arm Australian soldiers with anti-ship missiles and advanced targeting radars to protect the country’s vast maritime approaches…Two new types of advanced anti-ship missiles for the army fired from mobile launchers are under evaluation with a decision expected by the end of the year, the government has said…New missiles…could…be deployed to support allied forces defending strategically important islands in the Asia-Pacific region in the event of conflict, military experts told Reuters.

Workers in Brooklyn protest against racist end to TPS

DocumentedNY, 3/19–Outside St. Jerome Church in the Little Haiti neighborhood of Flatbush, Brooklyn, dozens of Haitian immigrants, elected officials, and allies gathered to show solidarity for the tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants in New York and across the United States who are at risk of losing their Temporary Protected Status. In February, the Trump administration rescinded TPS for Haitians, a decision that threatens to uproot more than 50,000 families who have called the U.S. home for years. They held signs reading “Keep Haitian Families Together” and “Haitians Deserve Safety, Not Deportation,” chanting, “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here.”

In his latest episode of imperialist reality TV, Donald Trump scolded Ukraine President Zelensky, then shut off U.S. arms and intelligence to Ukraine in its war with Russia, then restored them–for now. Trump announced across-the-board tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, walked some of them back, then declared a new global tariff on steel and aluminum–revenue he needs to cover his planned tax cuts for the rich (reuters.com, 1/22).  Canada and Europe, long the closest of U.S. allies, fought back with tariffs of their own. With Trump igniting trade wars and admitting the potential for recession, Wall Street markets took a nosedive (BBC, 3/10). 

In the current period, as the rulers sow death and chaos and everything seems up for grabs,  a communist analysis is essential. Beneath the daily drama lies a global crisis of capitalism and sharpening tension between a U.S. in decline and rising Chinese and Russian imperialism. At the same time, boiling disagreements have split the U.S. ruling class over how to plunge the working class into fascism and war. 

Recent worker-driven struggles have brought terms like “fascism” into everyday conversation. But simply calling Trump a fascist paints an incomplete picture. Our ultimate enemy is the capitalists’ dictatorship, whether it’s under the guise of liberal democracy or the more open state terror that ushers in full-blown fascism. As Vladimir Lenin, a leader of the Russian communist revolution, warned over one century ago, trade wars are the gateway to shooting wars. The bosses will use workers as cannon fodder, no matter which party wins the next U.S. election or who is the president. 

The revolutionary communist Progressive Labor Party fights to turn the guns around on this entire racist, sexist, imperialist system, from Port-au-Prince to China’s Pearl River Delta. Our task is to win millions to fight for communist revolution and a society run by and for the working class.

Ukraine war reveals U.S. bosses’ conflicts

The March 2 Trump-Zelensky showdown exposed deep divisions among the U.S. rulers. The Small Fascist, Fortress America bosses who’ve hijacked the Republican Party have no interest in paying for a costly ground war between the U.S. and China or Russia. A rival group, the finance capital main wing led by the multinational banks and energy companies, is fronted by the Democratic Party. With trillions of dollars in worldwide assets defended by over 800 U.S. military bases, these Big Fascist imperialists see Ukraine as a linchpin of their anti-Russia containment strategy. Trump challenged this strategy in his 2019 phone call to Zelensky, when he attempted to barter U.S. military aid for dirt on Genocide Joe Biden, the main threat to Trump’s re-election in 2020. The Democrats responded by impeaching Trump. 

Trump’s openly racist, crudely transactional approach lacks the Democrats’ phony gloss of “freedom” and “democracy” or their cynical pandering to Black, Latin and immigrant workers. The Big Fascist finance capital bosses use these deceptions to mislead honest anti-racist workers into supporting liberal Democrats–even though the Democrats, if and when they regain power, will lead the drive to war and open fascism. Faced with the escalating crisis of capitalism, they will have no other choice. 

In truth, neither faction of the U.S. ruling class cares about the more than one million working class Russian and Ukrainian soldiers dead or wounded. There are no good bosses! All capitalists–and their politician stooges–serve only the brutal profit system. Communists serve only the international, multiracial working class. That means uniting to smash ALL bosses and their racist, sexist, nationalist ideas.

The rise and fall of U.S. imperialism

Since World War II, U.S. imperialism has mostly dictated the global political and economic order through the supremacy of the U.S. dollar. The dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency was the foundation for the United Nations, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, and the NATO military alliance. For decades, the U.S. bosses and their European junior partners carved up much of the world’s markets, labor, and resources.  When workers’ power in the once-revolutionary Soviet Union and China was reversed, U.S. imperialism became even more dominant. But now, with renewed imperialist rivalry, the U.S. is no longer an unchallenged global superpower. Its “unipolar moment” is done (polsci.institute, 4/9/24).

One marker of this fall is the fracturing of the U.S.-European alliance (Atlantic Council, 2/24). Three others: the economic and military rise of China, the de-dollarization of the BRICS alliance, and Russia’s defiance of NATO in Ukraine. Grand strategies aside, the Ukraine war has been a disaster for U.S. imperialism. It has depleted U.S. military stockpiles while bringing Russia and China closer together and expanding markets for Russian fossil fuels in China and India. Meanwhile, nationalist bosses from Brazil to Burkina Faso, long subjected to U.S. imperialist coercion, are realigning with Russia and China. In Africa’s Sahel, local capitalists are swapping French troops for Russia’s Wagner Group mercenaries (Deutsche Welle, 10/27/24). They’re also signing more profitable trade agreements with Chinese mining companies to extract gold, lithium and uranium (Le Monde, 1/5). 

Lenin was right. The imperialists’ unquenchable thirst for profits drives them to redivide the world’s spoils, over and over again. When imperialist diplomacy inevitably fails, imperialist war inevitably follows — and the global imperialist order is reset. It’s worth noting, however, that the two biggest imperialist wars - World Wars I and II - ended with millions of communist-led workers smashing the rulers’ war machines and uniting the working class under the red flag. And they will again!

The only solution to fascism: communist revolution

Within the U.S. and Europe, inflation and price gouging, mass racist and sexist terror, and sickening wealth inequality have created fertile ground for fascism – and for PLP. Just as the capitalist bosses use imperialist war to resolve their differences with bosses in other countries, they use fascism to resolve crises within the countries they rule. They develop extreme racist, sexist, and nationalist ideas to their fullest, most deadly expression. Their aim is to reorganize the social, political and economic life of a country around their necessity for imperialist war.

It’s not just Trump and the nazi-loving Elon Musk and J.D. Vance. The European Union’s liberal president announced that Europe is in “an era of rearmament” and must transition to war preparation (Reuters, 3/4). Meanwhile, the bosses of Europe’s largest economy, Germany, have “reawakened” and pledged to reorganize their economy for war (Financial Times, 3/5.) Their alarm went off after the openly fascist Alternative fur Deutschland doubled its share of the vote to 20 percent and finished second in the recent federal elections.  Building a mass international PLP will remind the German bosses of the last time they “reawakened,” and the Soviet Red Army obliterated Nazi fascism from Stalingrad to Berlin.

Workers today are bravely resisting in isolated struggles, from fighting genocide in Gaza to resisting racist police terror and deportations. But only a united international working class, led by a mass revolutionary Progressive Labor Party, can smash capitalism for all time. The growing international crisis presents both dangers and opportunities. As the capitalists dismantle reforms won by previous generations, it’s a dead end to try to fight fascism through alliances with sell-out liberal capitalists.  The only solution is a communist revolution! Join PLP!

On a Saturday afternoon, a multiracial, multi-generational group of 40 participants gathered in Lennox, California, for a powerful forum on the history of immigration. Organized by the Progressive Labor Party, the event spanned three crucial sections that explored the current state of immigration, the historical roots of displacement, and the ongoing fightback led by the working class. The forum reminded attendees that borders are a tool of capitalist oppression and only serve to divide and exploit our class. Leaders called for a revolutionary approach to addressing the crisis— emphasizing that the only solution to the ongoing deportation machine is communist revolution.

It is important to note that all participants in attendance were connected to us through the various aspects of mass work we have engaged in over the last decade. Whether it be the schools, the anti-police brutality work, the healthcare work, or the tenant’s work, the time and commitment to these areas yielded results for this event. Our commitment to organizing in mass organizations has led to modest growth in our area and we are continuing to reap those benefits.

Data, displacement, and the reality of immigration

The forum began with a thought-provoking presentation that provided data and statistics on immigration over the past 12 years. Graphs depicting the rise in immigration detention, deportations, and family separations set the tone for the discussion, showing that both Democratic and Republican administrations have largely followed similar policies. Despite their political differences, both parties have upheld and even expanded the immigration machine that deports families and denies basic human rights.

Participants were invited to reflect on how displacement is not limited to people crossing borders. The discussion highlighted how gentrification forces working-class families, particularly in neighborhoods like Inglewood, to leave their homes and move to poorer areas. Whether it is Latin American migrants seeking to escape imperialist-made disasters or working-class people being pushed out of their homes by profit-driven “urban renewal,” the root cause of displacement is the same: capitalism’s relentless drive for profit at the expense of human lives. The “Aha” moment came when a Party member pointed out that bosses have no borders when on the hunt for profits. For the ruling class, the borders are porous. They are only used to control movement of the working class. 

The session left many participants with a clearer understanding of the economic and political forces behind the immigration crisis. As one participant put it, “The immigration issue isn’t just about borders—it's about people who are displaced by a system that sees us as commodities, not as human beings.”

The history of immigration and the role of NAFTA

The second section of the forum took a historical approach, examining how immigration issues have been shaped by international policies, including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). NAFTA, which came into effect in 1994, is directly linked to the rise in migration from Mexico and other Latin American countries. The agreement displaced millions of workers by allowing multinational corporations to exploit cheap labor and destroy local economies. It also made it easier for U.S. companies to ship jobs abroad, while impoverishing communities in the process.

The presenters emphasized that the history of immigration is one of capitalist exploitation, with immigration policies often serving the interests of big corporations that benefit from cheap labor. This historical context is crucial to understanding why immigration policies have remained so harsh and discriminatory, no matter which party is in power.

The fightback – Organizing for change

The final section of the forum focused on the growing resistance and fightback against the immigration system. From individual actions to mass protests, community-led initiatives have been increasingly successful in interrupting immigration enforcement operations. The presentation highlighted grassroots efforts to block deportations, organize school walkouts, and disrupt ICE raids. It was clear that the struggle for immigrant rights is a vital part of the larger working-class struggle.

A particularly moving part of the discussion came from two young Black students, leaders of the school walkout on February 3, which saw hundreds of students protesting the threat of deportations (see CHALLENGE 3/12/25). These students shared their experience and the urgency they felt in pushing back against a system that criminalizes their families and communities. These students fought to strengthen the politics of the entire walkout by reminding the student body that immigration issues don’t just impact the Mexican community. “The bosses benefit from keeping us divided,” one of the students said. “This is why we felt it was so important to bring the message of working class unity to our peers.”

The forum concluded with a call to action: participants were urged to join in regular neighborhood rallies leading up to the May Day event, where the working class will take to the streets in solidarity. The rallying cry was clear: "The working class has no borders."

A communist solution: No borders, no deportations

Throughout the event, the underlying message was that the current system of immigration enforcement is not just a product of bad policies, but a direct result of capitalism. The capitalist class benefits from the exploitation of immigrant labor, and both the Democrats and Republicans have contributed to creating the deportation machine that has been expanded under Trump’s administration. As one participant pointed out, “The Democrats laid the groundwork for Trump’s deportation machine with policies like ‘Secure Communities’ and the expansion of ICE. In this system—it doesn’t matter who’s in power. What matters is dismantling the system that oppresses us all.” Additionally, policies like NAFTA, the criminalization of undocumented migrant workers, and the militarization of the border are tactics of U.S. imperialism. The growing inter-imperialist rivalry will continue to drive displacements until we overthrow this rotten profit-driven system.

The forum closed with a powerful reminder that communism is the only real solution to the issue of deportation. The working class has no borders—workers from all corners of the world share the same struggles. Only through collective action, solidarity, and the overthrow of the capitalist system can we truly dismantle the forces that exploit and oppress working people, including through deportations.

As the forum concluded, participants left with renewed conviction and a sense of purpose. The battle against deportations and displacement is far from over, but it’s a fight that will continue to grow in strength—until borders are abolished and the working class is united as one under the red flag.

Our recent May Day Brunch was a resounding success.  A vibrant intergenerational showing of comrades and friends exceeded our seating capacity.  The power of collective struggle in the fight against capitalism and sexism was on full display. Over a dozen students came to their first Progressive Labor Party (PLP) event to celebrate International Women’s Day!  They joined workers from health care, transit and education sectors as well as retirees to engage in critical discussions on women’s resistance across the globe, and explored strategies for building communism.

One organizing highlight - a young woman brought five of her friends from different schools across the city. This act of organizing highlights the exponential nature of our movement—when one person’s consciousness is raised, it spreads, inspiring others to join the fight. Revolutionary ideas continue to resonate with and galvanize the next generation.

Throughout the brunch, participants recreated revolutionary art and studied the history of past struggles while confronting the limitations of movements that lacked or lost their revolutionary communist horizon. Engaging discussions examined both successful strategies and historical pitfalls, pointing a way forward that equips us with tools to carry future struggles forward to final victory. 

From sharing an umbrella to joining the Party

A particularly stirring moment came when one comrade delivered a powerful speech, tracing her journey to the Party from a Palestine rally where a Party member offered her an umbrella.  Self-critically, NYC comrades have at times allowed inclement weather to derail plans for outdoor agitation.  Through steady rain that day a year ago we shared in the internationalist rage that brought thousands out to demonstrate.  We learned to chant, just a bit, in Arabic that day.  Energy ran high in our intergenerational group and the simple act of solidarity of a comrade sharing an umbrella led her to find a political home in the Party, and now, the rest is history. She is building a multiracial fightback against ICE, connecting students and workers across struggles.  New comrades are reaching toward a new communist horizon. Her story deeply resonated with an audience full of people searching for a way to serve the working class.  All comrades were reminded - WHAT YOU DO COUNTS!

With the energy from this event, we are now preparing for the May Day march with even greater momentum. About a hundred blank lists of twenty with organizing check marks were distributed and time was given for comrades and friends to fill them out. Club meetings and study groups have clear marching orders: 56 days left until May Day!  The brunch made it clear—our movement is growing, our youth are engaged, and our commitment to smashing capitalism remains unwavering. The fight continues, and with every new face in the struggle, we move closer to a world free of exploitation and oppression. We move closer to communism. Onward to May Day!